Chapter 110| Chapter 111| Chapter 112
Chapter 110: Wedding Ceremony
Shen San was on the absolute brink of losing his mind!
Of all the impossible situations to be thrown into, why did it have to be this one? His life in this game was becoming an endless, uphill battle.
On one side was his master, who had granted him profound favors and guided his progression; on the other side was a server-wide campaign boasting astronomical rewards. But the moment he pictured the frail old matriarch back at the Jin Mansion who had finally regained her health, he didn’t hesitate for a single second. He chose to protect his master.
The real dilemma, however, was figuring out how to explain the situation to her. What was he supposed to say? ‘By the way, Master, you’re actually an NPC in a virtual reality game, and the player base has launched a massive global event to lay siege to your faction. A literal army is marching here right now to ruin your wedding and tear down the alliance between the Misty Rain Palace and the Desert Gate.’
Lu Yunxi watched him spiral into a state of sheer panic. When he suddenly began ripping at his own hair and pacing wildly across the floor, she seriously began to question the validity of her master-level medical skills.
Did I somehow brew the wrong formulation earlier?
Just as she stepped forward to re-examine his pulse, a sharp knock rattled the wooden door.
Lu Yunxi pulled it open, a trace of surprise flickering across her face. “Junior Sister? Why aren’t you the one delivering the meals today?”
A chubby-faced young disciple scratched his head sheepishly, holding out a multi-layered lacquer food box. “Senior Sister has a terrible case of diarrhea and is currently glued to the latrines! She begged me to deliver this to you in her stead.”
Lu Yunxi offered a warm smile, thanking the boy before taking the box and stepping back inside.
By this point, Shen San’s manic episode had subsided, replaced by a wave of profound, existential misery. If the game featured visual effects for moods, one would have easily spotted dark, torrential storm clouds swirling directly over his head.
Lu Yunxi was about to ask if he wanted to share the meal, but decided it was best to eat first and check on his psychological state once her stomach was full.
However, the moment she lifted the lid of the food box, a horrific stench blasted straight into her face. It smelled remarkably like a rancid dumpster layered over socks that hadn’t seen a washing machine in three months.
With her senses highly refined by her master-tier cultivation, the sheer potency of the odor nearly knocked her unconscious on the spot.
Shen San caught the foul scent a fraction of a second later. Gasping for air, he scrambled backward, violently pinching his nose shut.
The two of them rushed to the large window in unison, hanging their heads out into the open courtyard to desperately suck down the fresh lake air. It took a long time for the atmosphere inside to clear before Lu Yunxi, still tightly covering her nose, cautiously approached the table again.
Shen San watched her from a distance, his eyes filled with a mixture of horror and profound respect.
She carefully inspected the contents of the dishes, zeroing in on a charred, black mass that seemed to be the primary source of the biological hazard. Reassured that the odor was just an extreme culinary disaster, she quickly slammed a lid over the offending dish. Seeing that the remaining portions looked relatively normal, she began to eat with total peace of mind.
“Master… how about I just go to the kitchen and whip something up for you?” Shen San offered, genuinely terrified that his master was about to accidentally poison herself to death.
“Don’t worry so much! It’s perfectly normal for the kitchen staff to accidentally burn a dish every now and then.” It was a well-known fact that their sect specialized in martial arts and stealth, not domestic arts; almost no one in the lower ranks knew how to cook. As long as it was technically cooked through, it was edible.
She finished the meal with a completely deadpan expression, washed her hands, and sat back down in her chair to resume their conversation.
However, before she could utter a single syllable, an overwhelming, unnatural wave of exhaustion crashed over her. Her eyelids grew impossibly heavy. Fighting with every ounce of her spiritual energy to keep her eyes open for just a second longer, she managed to force out a final, raspy warning: “There’s… something wrong with the food. Don’t let them… throw away the box!”
The words had barely left her lips when her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed entirely onto the floorboards.
Shen San stood frozen in absolute shock. It took his brain several agonizing seconds to process the scene before he lunged forward, lifted her limp form, and carefully laid her out onto the bed.
He stared at the lacquer food box, his mind spinning in a vortex of pure panic.
The food was spiked. But with what?
He possessed absolutely zero medical training in his sub-professions. With his master unconscious, he didn’t even know which NPC elder he could trust to treat her. If someone within the inner palace had orchestrated this poisoning, did that mean there was a traitor among the ranks? Was it a hostile native faction? A highly coordinated player group executing a sabotage mission? Or was there a completely hidden mastermind pulling the strings from the shadows?
His thoughts were a tangled, chaotic mess. To make matters worse, Lu Yunxi had never gotten around to telling him which specific members of the Misty Rain Palace hierarchy were safe allies.
For the hundredth time since logging in, Shen San bitterly regretted ever setting foot inside this sect. And yet, he remained completely oblivious to the fact that his nightmare was only just beginning.
A few hours later.
“Palace Master, how is she…?” Shen San asked frantically, stepping forward the moment the leader of the Misty Rain Palace and the Grand Elders rose from the bedside.
“Alas, she was administered a massive, highly concentrated dose of a specialized colorless and odorless slumber agent. It is entirely understandable that a young cultivator of her standing failed to detect it,” the Palace Master explained, offering a brief word of comfort to the anxious disciple before turning a grim gaze toward the elders behind him. “The grand wedding ceremony is scheduled to commence at dawn tomorrow. With our primary representative incapacitated, how do we proceed?”
Shen San let out a breath of relief knowing his master wasn’t in mortal danger, but a heavy wave of intense guilt immediately followed.
While waiting for the elders to arrive, he had been frantically refreshing the world boards. The truth was plain as day.
It was the player base. The vanguard players had successfully executed a covert operation to poison the bride’s quarters!
The only saving grace was that high-grade, colorless and odorless agents were astronomically expensive on the player market, which prevented the raiding parties from spiking the sect’s central wells. They had only possessed enough funds to poison a few select, premium dishes intended for high-profile targets. If they had possessed a larger supply, the entire Misty Rain Palace would have been put to sleep, and the campaign would already be over.
“Let me take her place,” Shen San suddenly declared, raising his hand high.
The elders, who had been locked in a fierce, chaotic argument over which female disciple should substitute for Lu Yunxi, froze instantly. They turned in unison, staring at him in utter bewilderment.
The following morning, the atmosphere within the Misty Rain Palace exploded into a vibrant, chaotic frenzy.
Guests and delegates moved through the corridors in a continuous stream, every face bright with festive smiles. The entire architectural layout had been overhauled for the occasion, draped in rich, sweeping banners of auspicious crimson silk.
Deep within the bride’s quarters, Shen San sat perfectly motionless before the ornate dressing table, draped in a magnificent, heavy bridal gown. In reality, his eyelids were tracking at a crawl; he could barely keep himself awake from pure, unadulterated exhaustion.
The only silver lining to this absolute disaster was that he didn’t require the hours of meticulous cosmetics and hairstyling a traditional bride endured, which had allowed him to sleep in for an extra hour.
“Come, Master Shen, force down a few bites to line your stomach. You have an incredibly grueling schedule ahead of you today,” the junior sister who usually managed Lu Yunxi’s meals urged gently, setting down a small plate. Having finally recovered from her severe bout of diarrhea, she had been immediately reassigned to act as Shen San’s personal attendant.
To ensure absolute operational security, she, the Palace Master, and the Grand Elders were the only individuals within the entire faction who knew about the bride substitution.
As the morning sun climbed higher, the precise hour for the procession finally arrived.
The junior sister stepped forward, carefully draping a thick, opaque red silk veil over Shen San’s head, completely obscuring his vision.
“Master Shen, a personal maid will guide your steps by the elbow. Just follow her lead and maintain your composure. There is absolutely no need to panic.” As long as that heavy veil remained securely in place, not a soul in the audience would ever suspect a grown man was hidden beneath the silk layers. At worst, onlookers would simply assume the Misty Rain Palace’s elite disciple was exceptionally tall and robustly built.
Shen San offered a stiff nod. The moment his movement caused the heavy red silk to sway, his stomach did a violent flip, and he immediately froze back into a rigid posture.
A beaming elder matriarch stepped into the room, gently placing the end of a long, braided red silk ribbon into his palm. Guiding him by the arm, she led him down the steps and directly into the waiting bridal sedan chair.
And at the exact moment the heavy wooden shafts of Shen San’s sedan were lifted by the bearers…
Back in the quiet rear chambers, Lu Yunxi’s eyelids slowly fluttered open.
“Where… am I?” She rubbed her pounding temples, a sharp ache radiating through her skull as the fragmented memories of the previous afternoon rushed back into her mind.
Dammit! She better hope she never unmasked whoever spiked her food box. To actually resort to underhanded chemical warfare within the sect grounds!
“Senior Sister! You’re finally awake!” The junior sister entered the room, her eyes widening in absolute shock as she saw Lu Yunxi sitting upright on the mattress.
“Junior Sister, has your stomach ailment subsided?” Lu Yunxi asked, glancing out the window to gauge the position of the sun. “Thank goodness I managed to shake off the grogginess in time, otherwise I would have completely missed the morning vows.”
“…” The junior sister froze, her voice dropping to a panicked whisper. “Senior Sister… you’ve been entirely comatose for a night and a day. The grand procession has already concluded, and the vows are starting right now… Your apprentice, Master Shen, stepped up to take your place at the altar!”
“What?!”
Lu Yunxi’s jaw dropped.
Throwing off the blankets, she bolted out of the chamber, channeling her spiritual energy to sprint toward the central ancestral hall at a terrifying velocity. An intense, inexplicable knot of pure dread tightened in her chest.
Just as she was tearing across the final courtyard, the grand bridal sedan carrying Shen San came to a structured halt before the temple steps.
According to traditional custom, the groom stepped forward, executing a firm kick against the sedan door to break the threshold before reaching in to take the bride’s hand and guide her out.
The moment the two figures stood side by side on the stone pavilion, a prominent detail became glaringly obvious. They were virtually identical in height. In fact, if one looked closely through the sweeping drapes of the bridal gown, it was evident that the “bride” was visibly broader and more muscular than the groom himself.
The surrounding crowd of guests blinked, their expressions turning incredibly forced.
“Haha! What a remarkably balanced match! Even their statures are perfectly aligned!” a senior disciple from the Misty Rain Palace shouted out, desperately attempting to break the awkward silence with a jovial laugh.
“Indeed! The Young Master of the Desert Gate is truly blessed. With a bride of such robust constitution, their future lineage will undoubtedly grow up tall and formidable!”
“…” The visiting guests let out a series of incredibly dry, strained chuckles, quickly changing the subject to avoid further scrutiny.
To the rhythm of ceremonial drums, the couple advanced up the central aisle, finally coming to a halt before the main altar of the grand hall. At the head of the room, the Palace Master of the Misty Rain Palace and the Sect Master of the Desert Gate sat enthroned in places of honor, with the senior elders flanked along the sides in strict hierarchical order.
“First bow to Heaven and Earth—!”
The master of ceremonies let out a loud, melodic chant. The two figures in brilliant crimson wedding silks began to bend their torsos forward to execute the ritual vow.
BOOM—!!!
Without a shred of warning, a colossal, fiery explosion ripped through the foundation of the grand hall. A massive, concussive heatwave blasted inward, scattering debris like rolling magma as a deafening roar tore through the sanctuary.
The two sect leaders at the head of the room frowned heavily, their spiritual auras flaring as they sat up perfectly straight. Yet, despite their status as peerless masters of the continent, they found themselves completely paralyzed by the sheer absurdity of the scene unfolding before them.
The entire venue had degenerated into absolute, unmitigated chaos!
Immediately following the detonation, a massive, endless horde of players erupted from every corridor, window, and roof tile surrounding the hall. Though their individual combat levels were laughably low to the high-ranking NPCs, their sheer numbers were overwhelming—swarming into the sanctuary like an unstoppable plague of cockroaches.
Frontline combat players rushed the altar with weapons drawn, desperately attempting to assassinate the newlyweds to trigger the campaign objective. Ranged classes clustered at the rear entrances, unleashing a relentless storm of arrows and spells to completely disrupt the faction lines. Meanwhile, a significant faction of casual players took absolute advantage of the madness, frantically shoving ceremonial food, decorative tables, and valuable mahogany chairs straight into their system inventory bags…
“Cease this madness! Who dares desecrate the sacred halls of our ancestors?! All forces, eliminate the intruders!”
The grand elders lunged into the fray, but the sheer scale of the disruption left them thoroughly disorganized. There were exponentially more player rioters than actual wedding guests. Every time an elder successfully obliterated a squad of players, three more squads materialized to dismantle another section of the room.
Lu Yunxi finally crossed the threshold of the courtyard, skidding to a halt just in time to witness the utter devastation of her sect’s grandest hall.
She stood frozen in place, her mouth hanging wide open in sheer disbelief as she processed the apocalyptic riot. It took a long, stunned moment for her consciousness to snap back into alignment. Clutching her fists, she prepared to leap directly into the madness.
Chapter 111: A Mess
Lu Yunxi stood frozen, completely stunned by the apocalyptic chaos unfolding inside the sanctuary.
When her consciousness finally snapped back into alignment, she tensed her muscles, preparing to leap into the fray to help contain the rioters. But before she could take a single step forward, a figure wearing a wide bamboo hat suddenly breached the main gates, bursting through the crowd and intercepting her path.
“Who goes there?!” the intruder bellowed.
The roar was absolutely deafening, carrying a concussive shockwave that left a metallic, bloody taste in the throats of everyone who heard it.
Aside from the peerless masters—the Grand Elders, the Palace Master, and the Desert Sect Leader—the vast majority of the audience simply couldn’t withstand the raw spiritual pressure. Dozens of low-level guests spit out blood on the spot.
It was one thing for the invading players to be forced into a blood-vomiting animation, but the guest sections were packed with junior disciples from various smaller, allied sects. Caught in the blast radius of the roar, these low-level NPCs not only spit up blood but lost consciousness entirely, collapsing like dominoes across the floorboards.
The proctors and sect representatives in charge of the delegations instantly lost their composure. They scrambled forward, desperately wanting to lift their fallen disciples, yet terrified that moving them haphazardly would worsen their internal injuries. For a long moment, the entire grand hall plunged into absolute panic.
Up on the raised dais, the leaders of the Misty Rain Palace and the Desert Gate looked utterly displeased.
Their grand, sacred wedding ceremony had degenerated into a complete, unmitigated farce. At this rate, how could the ritual possibly continue?!
Right then, the individual who had instigated the concussive roar reached up and aggressively tore off her bamboo hat.
The disciples of the Misty Rain Palace gasped in collective shock.
It was their Eldest Senior Sister! She was supposed to be trapped in an incurable, comatose state… yet here she was, fully awake and standing right before them!
Ignoring the chaos around her, the Senior Sister marched directly toward the altar, her eyes locked onto the groom with a fierce, suffocating intensity.
The groom stared back at her, his expression shifting from sheer bewilderment to a wave of pure, unadulterated joy.
The two of them locked eyes in total silence, the rest of the world seemingly fading away around them, as if they had stepped into a private pocket of reality where no one else could interfere.
“You…” The groom parted his lips, desperate to speak, but the Senior Sister slammed her palm directly over his mouth, cutting him off.
“You are getting married!” she whispered, her eyes swimming with unshed tears. Her tone was eerily calm, yet dripping with venomous sarcasm. “But the bride standing at your side isn’t me… Is this woman truly that exceptional? Do you cherish her that much? Do you love her so deeply that you couldn’t even wait for me to open my eyes before dragging her to the altar?”
The surrounding guests had no idea how to process the unfolding melodrama, staring at the altar in utter amazement.
Below the stage, Lu Yunxi’s heart skipped a terrifying beat.
Oh, this is an absolute disaster! The Senior Sister had only just woken from her coma; no one had been able to brief her on the situation, so she had no clue this entire wedding was a purely political performance!
Lu Yunxi moved forward, desperate to intervene and defuse the misunderstanding, but the Senior Sister moved faster. Reaching out with a sharp, aggressive jerk, she violently yanked the heavy red silk veil completely off the bride’s head.
“Let me see this—”
The Senior Sister’s voice died in her throat. She froze mid-sentence, her jaw dropping as she stared at Shen San.
She wasn’t the only one who turned into a statue.
The groom stood entirely paralyzed, his brain short-circuiting on the spot.
Aside from a handful of Grand Elders from the Misty Rain Palace who were privy to the operational backup plan, every single guest, delegate, and invading player in the hall froze in absolute, jaw-dropping shock.
Everyone stared blankly at Shen San’s rugged, unmistakably masculine face. Their eyes practically bugged out of their heads with an insatiable hunger for gossip, but their vocal cords refused to emit a single sound.
It was as though the entire universe had suddenly pressed a collective pause button.
Silence. A suffocating, eternal silence rippled across the grand sanctuary.
Ultimately, it was Shen San himself who broke the spell. Realizing his face was fully exposed, he hurriedly snatched the red silk veil back and slapped it over his head, clearing his throat before muttering to the groom, “Let’s… just get on with the vows!”
Lu Yunxi: “…”
The entire server population: “…”
Up on the dais, the Palace Master of the Misty Rain Palace and the Sect Master of the Desert Gate exchanged a series of frantic, panicked whispers before hurriedly stepping forward to clear the room. “Ahem! Due to an unexpected, highly anomalous disruption, the proceedings shall be temporarily adjourned. The wedding is officially on hold! We shall resume the ceremony in a few days’ time.”
With that abrupt announcement, the utterly bizarre farce finally ground to a halt.
In the aftermath of the disaster, the senior leadership of the Misty Rain Palace pulled the Senior Sister and Shen San into a private chamber to clarify the true sequence of events.
The reality of the situation was relatively straightforward.
The Eldest Brother of the Desert Gate and the Eldest Senior Sister of the Misty Rain Palace had been childhood sweethearts, their romantic bond stretching back for years. Recently, a severe political crisis had struck the Misty Rain Palace, necessitating an immediate, ironclad marital alliance to secure mutual defense lines between the two factions. The Eldest Brother of the Desert Gate had immediately volunteered for the assignment, having long intended to formally request his master’s permission to wed his beloved.
Naturally, the Sect Master of the Desert Gate had been highly reluctant at first. The eldest disciples represented the core foundation and future lineage of their respective sects. If his top disciple became overly entangled with an outside faction, there was a high probability their defensive secrets would leak, potentially leading to the total destruction of their order.
But after enduring months of relentless pestering and emotional wear-and-tear from his disciple, the Sect Master had finally given his grudging approval.
Unfortunately, right before the formal arrangements could be finalized, the Eldest Senior Sister of the Misty Rain Palace suffered catastrophic injuries on a mission, slipping into a deep coma. Obviously, a comatose bride couldn’t stand at an altar.
The Eldest Brother had rushed back to his master, begging to postpone the alliance, but the governing councils of both sects rejected the delay; the geopolitical crisis was too urgent. Forced into a corner, the Eldest Brother suggested a compromise: they could substitute a different pair of disciples to fulfill the contract. In response, the Desert Sect Master threw down a strict ultimatum—if the bride was replaced, the Eldest Brother would be permanently barred from ever marrying into the Misty Rain Palace in the future.
Left with no other choice, the elders had drafted Lu Yunxi to stand in as a dummy bride for the public ritual. The contract would technically bear her name to satisfy the legalities, but the intent was always for the Eldest Brother to remain faithful to his comatose lover.
Who could have anticipated that Lu Yunxi would be covertly drugged during her evening meal? With the ceremony hours away and the alliance on the line, Shen San had been frantically pushed onto the stage as a secondary substitute.
And that was how the morning’s chaotic theater had come to pass.
As for the horde of intruders who had detonated the sanctuary… Lu Yunxi knew with absolute certainty that they were players. After all, only players possessed that specific brand of unhinged, kamikaze madness. The senior NPCs of the sect had formed their own hypotheses, assuming the attackers were rogue elements sent by rival factions desperate to shatter the alliance before the ink could dry on the treaty.
Following a joint council meeting, the leaders of the Misty Rain Palace and the Desert Gate made an executive decision: they would launch a comprehensive purge to drive out the remaining saboteurs, after which they would immediately host a proper, official wedding ceremony for their actual eldest disciples.
The directive was passed down to every corner of the estate, and the inner disciples began a meticulous, room-by-room sweep of the sect grounds.
However, the progress of the internal investigation was exponentially slower than the elders had anticipated.
The invading players were highly adaptable; over the past week, many had managed to raise their affinity scores with low-level NPC servants, who were now actively helping to hide them in the supply closets and barracks. Furthermore, aside from the native disciples who wore uniform robes, the visiting guests all dressed in standard, open-market civilian attire. Combined with the fact that the rioters from the grand hall had worn masks to hide their features, the sect’s internal security forces found themselves completely stuck.
How were they supposed to unmask the culprits in a crowd of thousands?
Early the next morning, before the sun had fully cleared the horizon, the air carried a sharp, biting chill.
Lu Yunxi had just concluded a thorough sweep of the outer parameters. Shivering slightly against the morning dampness, she began walking back toward her private quarters, her mind buried deep in thought.
Although she hadn’t officially broken through to the legendary Grandmaster realm yet, her critical contributions in saving the sect from diplomatic ruin had prompted the Palace Master to promote her to the rank of Elder ahead of schedule.
Deep down, she still harbored a faint trace of regret. She had somehow managed to miss every single inner-sect martial arts tournament since joining, and now that she held an Elder’s seat, she was permanently barred from competing against her peers.
Then again, the structural perks of her new position were undeniable. For instance, her residential quarters had been completely overhauled. She now lived entirely alone within a sprawling, magnificent courtyard compound, complete with elegant pavilions, winding covered walkways, arched stone bridges, and manicured ornamental streams. Every single corner of the estate offered a picture-perfect view.
Lu Yunxi was absolutely obsessed with her new home.
However, as she navigated a remote pathway halfway through the courtyard, the low murmur of whispered voices caught her attention.
Hearing voices within the sect wasn’t unusual, even in a secluded alleyway, but the sudden mention of the word “players” made her stop dead in her tracks.
Her expression turned incredibly subtle. Slipping soundlessly into the deep shadows of an overhanging pavilion, she perked up her ears to track the conversation.
“Sigh, is this campaign mission even winnable? We literally blew up the entire wedding altar, so why hasn’t the server completion bar ticked up at all?”
“I know, right? I assumed once we successfully sabotaged the vows, the phase-two siege on the Misty Rain Palace would automatically unlock. Why is the quest line still stuck…?”
A small cluster of players stood huddled in a circle, muttering anxiously among themselves, their faces full of stress.
Right at that moment, Shen San happened to be walking down the intersecting path, and his figure caught their attention.
“Hey! Total coincidence, buddy! I recognize you—I saw you passing through the local trade hub a few days ago,” one of the players called out, waving his hand enthusiastically. “Are you also locked onto the ‘Sabotage the Wedding’ campaign? How’s your progression looking?”
Shen San’s brows knit together. “The system broadcasted the quest to every eligible account on the continent, didn’t it? Everyone’s regional progress bar should be identical.”
“No, what we’re asking is if you’ve discovered any hidden sub-quests to blitz through the phase requirements. The Misty Rain Palace NPCs have gone completely feral, patrolling every corridor. If any of our squads get caught, we’re going to get wiped and sent back to the respawn gates!”
“Yeah, exactly! Don’t hold out on us if you’ve mapped out a solid route. If you have a strategy, spill it so we can form a raid party and clear this zone together!”
Lu Yunxi stood perfectly motionless within the darkness, watching the exchange unfold. As the words echoed through the alley, the temperature around her seemed to plummet, her countenance growing increasingly grim.
Shen San… is my own apprentice actively participating in a campaign to tear down my sect?
She remained anchored to the shadows, her gaze turning entirely vacant as a cold numbness washed over her.
She waited until the players had concluded their tactical briefing and turned to leave the alleyway to execute their next sabotage run.
Stepping out from the darkness, Lu Yunxi blocked the sole exit of the narrow stone corridor, her silent, imposing silhouette framed against the morning light as she stared down the group.
“Holy crap! It’s a high-level NPC!” a player shrieked, his face instantly turning a horrific shade of pale.
“Did she overhear our dialogue? Kill her, quick! Don’t let her run back to alert the guard patrols!” another player roared, a ruthless glint flashing across his features as he drew a glowing blade from his sheath.
Shen San, however, didn’t register his companions’ battle cries at all.
The only thing his eyes could lock onto was his master’s terrifyingly expressionless face. The utter vacancy in her gaze chilled him to the bone; she was looking at the players as if they were already nothing more than corpses.
In practically the blink of an eye, a sharp blur of movement cut through the alley. The surrounding players didn’t even have time to register an attack before their health bars instantly vanished, their bodies dissolving into bursts of white light as they were forcefully logged out to the respawn points.
Within the narrow corridor, only Shen San and Lu Yunxi remained.
She looked down at her apprentice, her expression entirely unreadable, her mind locked away behind a wall of pure ice.
A wave of primal terror and sheer panic surged through Shen San’s veins, before a heavy, fatalistic calm slowly overrode his senses.
Lu Yunxi’s lips parted slightly, but in the end, she didn’t utter a single word.
Closing her eyes, she unleashed a devastating, blinding arc with her blade.
A cold, lethal light flashed through the stone alley.
Shen San’s reflexes kicked in, and he executed a desperate, frame-perfect dodge. But when it came to a raw test of mechanical metrics, his statistics were laughably inferior to Lu Yunxi’s master-tier values.
After managing to parry her follow-up strikes for a mere few seconds, his defensive posture shattered completely under the overwhelming weight of her assault.
Right before his avatar’s health bar bottomed out and his consciousness began to dissolve into the standard white respawn light, he let out a final, desperate roar that echoed through the courtyard:
“Master, please, just listen to my explanation—!”
Chapter 112: Mantra Pill
Lu Yunxi watched her disciple dissolve into a burst of white light and completely vanish from her sight, yet the icy frost in her eyes lingered for a long time.
I see!
So that was it!
She had never explicitly told her apprentice that she was an elite disciple of the Misty Rain Palace! So why had Shen San suddenly appeared here? He had clearly claimed there was an urgent family matter he needed to attend to… but the family excuse was a blatant lie. The real reason he had rushed off was to rally with the other player factions and participate in the campaign to siege her sect!
So, the true purpose of Shen San infiltrating her home was to coordinate with the invading players to tear everything down?!
She raised a cold, sharp eyebrow, a chilling, mocking smile playing at the corners of her lips.
Whether he was acting out of pure greed, or whether he was just hopelessly clumsy in his execution… such things were somewhat forgivable.
“The only thing that is absolutely intolerable is betrayal.”
She curled her lips into a frigid sneer, spun on her heel, and walked away.
“What’s intolerable?”
Wen Liyun, who happened to be walking down the intersecting corridor, paused. A subtle, complicated expression crossed his face. A flash of surprise and deep confusion swirled in his light brown eyes before finally settling into visible displeasure. “Senior Sister, you deceived me so thoroughly!”
“I genuinely believed you were going to sacrifice your own happiness for the sake of the sect and marry into the Desert Gate! Who knew the entire wedding ceremony was just a political fake-out!” Wen Liyun raised an eyebrow, his tone laced with a heavy, dramatic sigh. “I was absolutely sick with worry over you these past few days! Why didn’t you tell me the truth earlier?”
Lu Yunxi stopped, briefly stunned. She certainly hadn’t expected to run into the junior brother who had accompanied her on the diplomatic mission to the Desert Gate right now. “Junior Brother, I was just as surprised as you! I had absolutely no idea at first… I only found out about the substitution later on.”
She let out a dry, awkward laugh, quickly pivoting the conversation to safer ground. “By the way, what are you doing out here so early?”
“My master ordered me out to gather some specific herbs,” he explained, flipping through a stack of detailed botanical sketches and holding them up for her to see.
Lu Yunxi glanced at the drawings casually, not putting much thought into it. “Oh? It seems your master is quite the strict taskmaster. Sending you out to harvest herbs at this hour!”
Wen Liyun’s trajectory mirrored her own. They had both been dispatched to the Desert Gate to secure the alliance. Though his cultivation level was currently lower than hers, he had managed to secure an early promotion into the inner sect and had been accepted as a direct disciple by a highly respected master who specialized in medicinal alchemy.
Usually, disciples didn’t even begin their morning martial arts drills this early. With such a grueling work ethic, Lu Yunxi figured her junior brother would undoubtedly ascend to the rank of a Master Alchemist in record time.
“What are you talking about?” Wen Liyun looked utterly bewildered. “Of course we wouldn’t normally be operating on this schedule. But aren’t we all desperately trying to track down the saboteurs who ruined the wedding?”
“Oh?” Her interest was immediately piqued. “Are you saying these specific herbs can be brewed into a tracking potion to hunt down the rioters?”
Was such a thing even possible within the game’s mechanics? It sounded far too fantastical… she highly doubted the system would allow a potion to act as a GPS tracker.
“Of course not,” Wen Liyun clarified. “My master is currently referencing several ancient medicinal texts to see if he can synthesize a specialized pill similar to the legendary Manifestation Pill.”
Lu Yunxi’s eyes glinted with intrigue. Intrigued by the prospect, she tagged along to help him gather the required herbs before returning with him to observe his master’s process.
After several grueling hours of intense research, trial, and error, Lu Yunxi and the sect elders finally succeeded in synthesizing a brand-new consumable: the True Word Pill.
Of course, the actual efficacy and potential side effects of this newly minted pill were completely unknown… She immediately requested a small batch of the prototype pills, intending to hunt down a few of the infiltrated players she had discovered earlier to use as live test subjects.
Originally, she had intended to leave those scattered players alive as bait, hoping to lure out the entire hidden player network and crush them all in one fell swoop.
But…
Lu Yunxi opened the world forum, scrolling through the latest trending posts, and let out a soft sigh.
[Warning]: A raid party was holding a tactical briefing inside a remote alley within the Misty Rain Palace, and they were completely wiped out by a single NPC! Attention all players: from this moment forward, if you need to coordinate, use the in-game mail system or post encrypted threads on the forum! If you’re coordinating with actual friends, use direct voice-comms. Do NOT gather in physical groups inside the hostile zone!
[Scouting Report]: Within the Misty Rain Palace hierarchy, NPCs wearing purple robes are the lowest-tier menial disciples. Any player who has unlocked their advanced class can easily defeat them. You can silently assassinate a purple-robed NPC, loot their uniform, and impersonate them to bypass patrols… However, the NPCs wearing orange or red robes are absolute monsters. Their stats are terrifying. If you spot one, log off immediately to break aggro. Do not attempt to zerg rush them… A thirty-man squad of our highest-leveled players tried to gank a single orange-robed elder, and the entire raid was one-shot before we could even break their shield.
Lu Yunxi let out a cold, sharp snort. Opening her spatial inventory, she swiftly swapped her high-tier elder garments for a standard purple menial uniform, then used her advanced movement skills to blink directly to a localized coordinate where she knew a player was currently hiding.
In truth, she had deliberately allowed three specific players to remain alive within the palace grounds. Aside from wanting to use them as bait to lure out the main strike force, she had spared them because they hadn’t actually killed any of the sect’s native NPCs during their infiltration.
Arriving at the target building, she casually pushed the door open, stepped inside, and firmly shut it behind her. She used to assume that digital locks within the game were impenetrable… but that was only because her raw strength stat hadn’t been high enough to shatter the locking mechanisms back then.
“Who are you…?” The player, currently wearing a stolen purple sect uniform, tensed up immediately, his eyes locking onto her. The words died in his throat halfway through his sentence.
His mind raced with frantic suspicion.
This NPC is wearing purple. Is she friendly? Hostile? Does she personally know the NPC whose clothes I stole?!
His facial expression shifted rapidly like an overturned painter’s palette—three parts sheer panic, three parts existential dread, and four parts desperately forced composure.
“…Is there something I can help you with?” he asked, attempting to calm his racing heart and adopting a cold, detached persona.
Lu Yunxi’s eyes flashed with amusement, a thoroughly malicious idea suddenly blooming in her mind. “Oh, my dear brother, didn’t you constantly confess your undying love for me just last week? Why are you acting so terribly cold to me today?”
A cold sweat instantly broke out across the player’s forehead. “Ah… this… I’m just not feeling particularly well today. I apologize.”
To sell the lie, he forced a series of violent, hacking coughs, straining so hard his face turned bright red. He pushed himself so far that a literal system debuff suddenly materialized above his head:
[Sore Throat: You have caused minor damage to your vocal cords via aggressive coughing. Debuff will persist for six hours. Note: Even if you need to clear your throat to maintain a cover, please do not overdo it!]
Lu Yunxi nearly died of laughter on the spot. She bit the inside of her cheek to maintain a straight face, forcing a look of deep, exaggerated concern. “Oh my goodness, so that’s why! You really must take better care of yourself!”
The player’s face flushed a deep, bruised purple as he offered a strained, agonizing smile.
Lu Yunxi suddenly tilted her head, glancing suspiciously around the room. “How strange! I could have sworn I just heard a muffled noise! It sounded exactly like someone was trying to scream through a gag!”
The player’s heart nearly blasted straight out of his ribcage!
“N-no, no, you must have misheard!” he stammered, his voice cracking.
His eyes darkened with desperate resolve. He subtly shifted his hand toward his inventory, preparing to draw a weapon and knock this purple-robed woman unconscious before she blew his cover.
“Perhaps it was just the sound of mice?” Lu Yunxi continued, utterly unfazed. “Brother, you really need to clean this room properly! If there are this many rats scurrying about, I definitely won’t be coming to visit you next time!”
The player’s racing heart instantly settled back into his chest. “Yes, yes, my deepest apologies. I will pay much closer attention to the cleanliness.” It seems I’ll have to set a few more mousetraps before the next patrol!
Lu Yunxi casually let her gaze sweep over the actual Misty Rain Palace disciple—who was currently bound, gagged, and shoved completely under the bed, staring up at her with wide, terrified eyes. She maintained a slight, unbothered smile on her lips.
Seeing the player physically sag with relief, she suddenly leaned in close, her eyes widening as if she had just discovered a fascinating new continent. “By the way, your face seems incredibly swollen today? You look completely different from usual!”
The player froze solid, a sheet of icy sweat instantly drenching his entire back.
He was a fraction of a second away from drawing his blade.
“Honestly, brother, you really need to start going to bed earlier,” she suddenly sighed, shaking her head in profound disappointment. “Did you sneak out to take on extra night shifts again? I specifically told you not to work yourself to the bone just to buy me things! Look at you, your face is completely bloated from exhaustion in just a few short days!”
The player aggressively wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, exhaling a massive, trembling breath of relief. “Yes, yes, you’re absolutely right! I will definitely go to bed earlier from now on!”
The smile on Lu Yunxi’s lips deepened significantly.
“My dear brother, didn’t you promise me earlier?” she asked, batting her eyelashes. “You said you were going to give me a grand gift? Today is my birthday! I’ve been standing here for ages, yet I still haven’t seen this amazing surprise you promised me!” She suddenly began pacing around the room, pretending to search. “You swore it was something incredible… Don’t you dare try to fool me!”
Terrified that she would wander too close to the bed and spot the bound NPC hidden beneath the frame, the player frantically jumped up and physically herded her back toward the center table.
“Here, this… yes, I have it prepared right here!” he stammered, wiping the cascading sweat from his face. Wearing a look of absolute physical pain, he desperately rummaged through his high-level inventory bag, pulling out several premium consumable items he had farmed earlier. “Here, take a look at this. Do you like it?”
Seeing her pout, as if she wasn’t particularly impressed with his initial offering, he gritted his teeth and began frantically pulling out the rarest items in his backpack one by one.
Lu Yunxi maintained a look of haughty dissatisfaction on the surface, but internally, she was incredibly fascinated.
While the actual gear and equipment players managed to loot were generally of abysmal quality compared to native sect gear, the bizarre, system-generated novelty items they hoarded were endlessly entertaining.
For instance, he pulled out a ‘Magical Truth Candy,’ a consumable that forced the consumer to speak nothing but the absolute truth for a strict five-minute window. Since he pulled out an entire handful of them, it seemed to be a relatively common drop for the player base. He also produced a ‘Frog Fruit,’ which, upon consumption, altered the user’s vocal cords to produce nothing but loud croaking noises for a full hour…
She chuckled inwardly, happily sweeping all the bizarre consumables into her own spatial storage, though she adamantly refused to touch any of his actual combat equipment.
The highest-tier armor in this player’s inventory couldn’t even match the base stats of the standard menial uniforms worn by the Misty Rain Palace!
Lu Yunxi shook her head slightly. She shouldn’t be too cruel; stripping a player of their only viable combat gear was simply bad manners.
However, she hadn’t forgotten her primary objective for this little visit: she needed to run clinical trials for the newly synthesized True Word Pill.
To avoid the risk of permanently crippling any of her fellow sect members with unforeseen, catastrophic side effects, she naturally couldn’t use NPCs as test subjects. Players, with their immortal respawn mechanics, were the perfect guinea pigs.
Sure, the players had ‘Magical Truth Candies’… but her sect lacked the magical coding to synthesize such items. The native NPCs could only rely on alchemically brewed True Word Pills!
Thinking of this, she suddenly offered the terrified player sitting across from her a stunning, breathtaking smile.
Then, moving with the blinding speed of a master-tier martial artist, she pinched his jaw open and flicked a True Word Pill directly down his throat.
