Chapter 8 Blood Drawn

- Cloud Peak, Lower Asphodel -

As Xuan began making his way back to the Sky Cloud Sect, he was left in a state of frustration. The announcement earlier really shook him up. Such a thing had never been present in the game when he played, not to mention a whole bounty system on other players' heads using the System shop's valuable currency? Simply ridiculous.

At least they didn't use his real name Xuan, but at the same time, this was troublesome in its own way. After all, every past player of the game would recognize the alias of Zero. Since no two players could have the same name, it was very clear who this 'Player Zero' was.

No doubt, people were already starting to look for him—not to mention NPCs as well. Normally, they wouldn't be able to interact with game elements like this, but since they gained player functions in the last hotfix, it would be safe to assume they also heard the announcement. That included Xuan's various wives and friends, but it also included his countless enemies, many of which he failed to cut off at the root.

'…' Xuan let out a sigh, shaking these thoughts from his head. There was nothing he could do about it as he was right now—he could only hide his identity as best as he can, and get stronger as fast as possible so he could meet the threats coming his way if his guise was ever exposed.

On that topic, he decided to take a look at the Director screen just to see what he needed to do to progress to the Core Formation stage. Since he had some free time while walking back, why not use every minute to its full potential?

Opening his System with a swipe of his hand in the air, Xuan navigated to the <Director> tab. There, the screen was split into two columns—the left side was filled with the list of available quests, while the right was a single massive box to display the quest's contents upon selection.

"Now, let's take a look…"

The first quest displayed was under the <Breakthrough Quests> category, and contained the quest one received at the end of every major stage to break their bottleneck and ascend to the next realm. After Xuan tapped on it to view the details, the right-side box immediately filled up with information, and he turned his gaze there.

This content upload first at

<Trial: Core Formation>

<Defeat 10 wild beasts OR 5 Magic Beasts and absorb their Beast Cores to help form your own Dantian.>

Rewards:

- 10,000 Credits

- Core Condensing Pills x10

- Leather Armor Set x1

- Morning Wood x1

"What in the…"

An appropriate reaction. 10,000 Credits, normal. Core Condensing Pills to help with the breakthrough itself, perfect. Leather Armor Set to fend off dangers, great.

But what in Asphodel's ass was 'Morning Wood'?!

Xuan was dumbfounded for the second time tonight, and it wasn't a good sign. So much had changed since he last played the game—it was almost as if the brief few hours he spent outside had been equivalent to hundreds of years in-game. At the very least, he knew for a fact that 'Morning Wood' was not an original reward of breaking through to the Core Formation stage. A name as peculiar as that would stick, even through thousands of years of cultivation.

Upon clicking on the item name, however, an image popped up, revealing that the object was, in fact, a morning star—a spiked ball attached to a flail. However, this one was made of wood… thus giving birth to the name 'Morning Wood'.

"…"

Xuan was speechless. Which was good, because just then, he heard a scream in the distance that made him forget about the slew of 'stupid' and all its synonyms he was telepathically communicating to the shitty company known as Nirvana Incorporated.

In caution, he closed his System and glanced around. The scream sounded like it came from outside the sect grounds—just loud enough for those still awake to hear, but also faint enough so that people who were already asleep would never hear it no matter how light of a sleeper they were.

'A prank?'

That was the first thing that came to Xuan's mind. After all, there were many kids and teenagers here, and they've all just been transferred over to a new world. Given their lack of self-control, it's only natural they'll want to cause some drama. But the eerie thing about it… was that the noise abruptly cut off—as if the person producing the sound had been brutally murdered mid-scream.

"… Hm."

Interesting. This was no prank. This was real. Picking up speed, he made his way through the forest, past looming trees and sinister-looking shadows that were in reality nothing more than a trick of the light. The wind brushed past his face harshly like tiny but sharp stone pellets, as the sound of his footsteps were masked by the dense dirt on the ground.

With purpose in his eyes, he raced across the woodlands, following the descending path down the mountain that the Sky Cloud Sect stood at the peak of. The scream hadn't sounded too distant—its source couldn't be far.

Sure enough, after some running, Xuan found the origin point of the shriek. It was right before the mountainous path rounded the corner to begin the spiral downwards to the base of the alp, so the trees here were thinner and the moon could be seen a lot clearer.

Quickly, he came to a stop behind some trees and hid behind it a safe distance away, crouching down and gazing upon the patch of ground up ahead where the shadows of the trees all around failed to cover.

There, illuminated ominously by the moonlight, lay two human bodies, mutilated and lifeless. The corpses of three black wolves surrounded them, one with an arrow through its head and the other two each with a gaping, bleeding hole on a vital organ. Their blood mixed with the humans, creating a foul, copper stench that could only last so long before flies and other insects began being attracted over here.

Xuan's eyes narrowed at the gruesome sight, and he immediately recognized the beasts. '… Direwolves.'

A near-extinct normal animal species, these canines had thick black fur and dangerous yellow eyes imbued with night vision. Despite not being Magic Beasts, to those who have yet to step onto the path of cultivation, these canines could actually be quite dangerous. They liked to travel in small groups, making them troublesome targets to pick off, and were an extremely careful and perhaps cowardly race.

Normally, they would only hunt smaller animals, and would absolutely not pick any fights they weren't absolutely certain they could win. But since these two idiots weren't even at the Body Tempering Stage yet… well, they were practically free food asking to be eaten.

The real question Xuan had in mind was…

'If the beasts killed the two humans, who killed the beasts?'

No doubt, it was the handiwork of an experienced hunter. The arrow had been shot precisely and without hesitation, while each of the wounds on the other two beasts had also been perfectly angled and placed as well. Whoever did this, they'd done similar things many times in the past. But as for the murder of the two humans… Xuan couldn't be sure.

'But there's also the possibility… did the mysterious person accidentally save the two humans, then killed them to silence the witness, or were they already dead to the wolves by the time the person came to hunt the beasts?' Xuan pondered. 'The latter seems more probable, but if that's the case, then…'

It was a riddle indeed. Finishing the thought in his own mind, he decided to get closer and take a look to investigate the matter further. With any luck, he might even be able to obtain a few Beast Cores for his own cultivation…

… That is, if the person before him hadn't already taken them first.