◎Keep heading east, keep going, and you'll reach the Ziyang Sect.◎
Not asking was impossible. “Who are they? Why did they hurt us?”
Her gaze was unwavering. Yu Xiufen’s expression grew complicated, and she let out a sigh. “Girl, stop asking. What good will knowing do you?”
Nangong Yu: “…”
The good news was that this NPC knew.
The bad news was that she refused to say.
How infuriating! But Nangong Yu was already used to this. She clenched her fists. “I’m going to avenge them!”
She changed her approach, putting on a fierce expression, and it immediately worked.
Yu Xiufen shuddered all over, her eyes instantly filling with tears. “Oh, girl…”
She dropped the broom and rushed forward, pulling Nangong Yu into her arms.
Her tears fell into Nangong Yu’s hair, and her rough palm pressed against the back of her head. “Oh, girl, Auntie knows you’ve had a hard life, but, girl, forget it. That’s not something people like us can afford to think about.”
“This is our fate.”
“This is our fate!”
How could mortals fight immortals?
Before her family fell into ruin, Yu Xiufen had studied as well. Her knowledge and experience were beyond those of an ordinary farming household. She knew they were not true immortals.
There were no immortals in this world, only cultivators. Cultivators grew old and died, just like mortals. They too were divided by rank, status, and strength.
But even the lowest and weakest cultivator was still the heavens above the heads of mortals!
“Girl, forget your hatred.” Yu Xiufen murmured as she stroked Nangong Yu’s hair over and over. “Come home with us and live a good life. Later, find yourself a good husband and have a few children. Life… is still long!”
What a poor child. Her entire family was dead!
If there had been anyone left at home who was still breathing, how could she have abandoned the household and come here to say such foolish things?
But a mortal’s life was no life at all!
Nangong Yu: “…”
Not only was she refusing to tell her, she was also throwing out a confusing set of choices.
“No! I’m going to avenge them!” She suddenly shoved Yu Xiufen away and shouted with all her strength.
Just then, an old, hoarse voice came from behind her.
“The Ziyang Sect.”
What?
Nangong Yu’s eyes lit up, and she turned to look.
At some point, several figures had appeared outside Yu Xiufen’s fence. Mud mixed with blood stained their silent faces.
Some leaned on crutches. Some had broken arms bound with strips of cloth. Others carried dead children in their arms.
More and more people came over. Their eyes—some furious, some repressed, some filled with hatred, some with pain—turned toward Nangong Yu.
They crowded together densely. The red light of the setting sun shone from behind them, making them look like ghosts standing amid flames.
…And they still said this wasn’t a dungeon?
“The Ziyang Sect?” Nangong Yu asked.
“That’s right.” The old man with white hair and beard slowly nodded. “They’re disciples of the Ziyang Sect.”
“Village Chief,” Yu Xiufen said respectfully.
This was the village chief of Xiaoyan Village, whom Nangong Yu had seen before. When she had been looking for clues in the village, the old man had been waving his cane and crying out toward the heavens.
Now, his voice was exhausted and hoarse. “The nearest sect to this place is the Ziyang Sect. Their sect robes are white and purple.”
The two figures that had flashed across the sky earlier, appearing for no more than an instant, had been wearing robes of those very colors.
Outside the fence, nearly all the surviving villagers of Xiaoyan Village stood in silence.
Every ten or twenty years, disciples of the Ziyang Sect came to recruit new disciples. They had all seen them before.
“How do I get to the Ziyang Sect?” Nangong Yu continued asking.
“The Ziyang Sect is thousands upon thousands of li from here.” The village chief did not answer directly. Instead, he said, “You may never make it there in your lifetime. Along the way, you could be kidnapped and sold, carried off by wolves, eaten by wild beasts, or die of illness or exhaustion on the road.”
“Girl, are you really going?”
“Yes!” Nangong Yu nodded forcefully.
Those damn disciples of the Ziyang Sect! They had destroyed an entire box of her precious self-heating hot pot. Could they even afford to pay her back?
The village chief’s deeply furrowed face began to tremble. Murky tears welled in his eyes. With shaking hands, he took a cloth bundle from inside his robes. It gave off the clinking sound of metal striking metal.
“You’re a child with courage.” The village chief held out the bundle. “No matter how far you make it, child, you must stay alive.”
As his words faded, it was as though some command had been unlocked. The villagers, who had remained silent all this time, raised their hands in unison.
Some held gleaming cleavers. Some carried vegetable cakes. One offered a bloodstained set of clothes, while another held out some shriveled fruit.
Even Yu Xiufen took out two coarse multigrain steamed buns and stuffed them into Nangong Yu’s hands.
“Your journey lies to the east.” The village chief began giving her directions. He raised one hand toward the east, his face turned in the same direction.
Every villager in Xiaoyan Village looked east as well, listening as the village chief said, “Keep heading east, keep going, and you'll reach the Ziyang Sect.”
He did not say what the Ziyang Sect looked like.
Nor did he know exactly where it was. Was it on a mountain? Out at sea? Or in a celestial palace in the sky?
He did not know, and he did not believe Nangong Yu could make it there.
But if she kept heading east, and if she possessed the great fortune to travel millions of li, then she would see it—and learn the answers for herself.
Nangong Yu had not expected there to be items, too.
“All right.” She nodded and accepted each object the villagers offered her.
Yu Xiufen was particularly helpful. She found a piece of cloth and helped bundle everything together.
Everything except the cleaver.
The village chief told her to tuck it into her waistband. “It’ll scare off petty thugs.”
Then he looked at her face. “Leave it like that. Don’t wash your face.”
After a pause, he glanced to the side. “Go fetch a pair of scissors.”
What else was there?
Nangong Yu was very interested. The item given last had to be especially unusual.
Soon, a woman came over carrying a pair of scissors.
“What are you doing?” Nangong Yu abruptly backed away.
The woman froze at her wary reaction, then said, “I’m going to cut your hair. You’d better disguise yourself as a boy.”
Nangong Yu’s hair had been snagged and tangled by branches and shrubs on the way here. Once brushed smooth, it reached her chest.
In an endless-flow survival scenario, she had no time or energy to care for long hair. This was the shortest length she could accept.
“No.” She refused decisively, then held out her hand. “Give them to me. I’ll cut it myself when it grows out.”
The woman hesitated, then looked toward the village chief before handing the scissors to her.
Nangong Yu took them and swiftly stuffed them into her bundle.
At some point, the villagers had cleared a path in front of the fence gate.
A cleaver was tucked into Nangong Yu’s waistband, and she carried a bundle that was not particularly large, but was big enough to cover her entire back.
“Wait!” Yu Xiufen’s voice rang out behind her.
She came running over with a pair of shoes in her hands. “Girl, put these on.”
Nangong Yu looked down and saw a pair of blue cloth shoes embroidered with flowers. They looked brand-new, as though no one had ever worn them.
This NPC might be long-winded, but she was so nice! She had actually given her two items!
“Thank you, Auntie.” Nangong Yu did not dare show too much excitement. After all, she was on her way to seek revenge.
After thinking for a moment, she rummaged around in her pocket. “Auntie, have something to eat.”
It was a small handful of bird eggs.
Nangong Yu had collected them by climbing a tree on the way here. Who could pass by a bird’s nest without climbing up to take a look?
“Here!” Nangong Yu shoved it into his hands. “I’m leaving!”
The girl’s hair was a tangled mess. She carried a shabby pack, went barefoot, and her only weapon for self-defense was a kitchen cleaver stained with the meager hatred of mortals.
She wasn’t very tall, and her slight figure looked almost frail from behind. Yet every villager in Xiaoyan Village watched that frail figure disappear into the distance.
“If you make it to the Ziyang Sect,” an aged voice called from behind her, “ask them why they slaughtered the mortals of Xiaoyan Village. What, exactly, did we do wrong?”
Nangong didn’t look back. She merely waved a hand. “I will!”
“Old X’s girl… What a poor thing.”
“But she’s got guts!”
“Wait, whose girl?”
“Uh… I didn’t recognize her. Her face was smeared with so much grime.”
The villagers stood on the pitted road and went around in circles trying to figure out the girl’s identity, but got nowhere.
“Perhaps she’s a mountain spirit who received our kindness!” the old village chief declared, putting an end to their speculation. He waved his hand, sending everyone home.
Groans rose from the silence, coming from every direction.
How many of those still breathing now would survive the night?
The setting sun sank below the horizon, and a chill crept into the air. As the villagers made their way home, they kept glancing back from time to time, looking toward the direction in which the girl had vanished.
Would she find the Ziyang Sect? Would she get an answer?
Nangong Yu walked back to the spaceship, which was two kilometers away.
The spaceship was still in stealth mode.
She opened the hatch and climbed inside. First, she washed her feet, then put on the blue cloth shoes embroidered with flowers that the NPC auntie had given her.
She stood up and walked a few steps.
A white-grade item. No enhancements whatsoever.
She drew the cleaver and swung it through the air a few times. Its weight and the sound of the wind both confirmed that it was an ordinary mortal weapon.
Nangong Yu checked everything in her backpack one item at a time. Without exception, they were all white-grade items, including the pair of scissors that had made its final appearance. None of them had any special effects.
Nangong Yu wasn’t disappointed. Sometimes even an old handkerchief could make a final boss lose its defenses.
She put all the items the NPCs had given her into her storage space, leaving out only the two steamed buns Yu Xiufen had given her. They were still soft to the touch, so she stuffed them into her mouth.
They tasted pretty good.
Nangong Yu sat in the pilot’s seat and tapped away at the control panel.
Earlier, while it was still light, she had been able to make out the direction. Now that night had fallen, she let the spaceship fly itself.
She switched on autopilot and locked the course to the east.
So it was the Ziyang Sect, huh? They were going to pay for her little hot pot!
In stealth mode, the spaceship cut through the night without leaving the slightest trace in the sky.
After finishing the buns, Nangong Yu lay down.
As her eyes closed, the lighting inside the spaceship automatically adjusted to sleep mode, and white noise began to play.
Nangong Yu quickly fell asleep. In a hazy daze, a thought surfaced in her mind.
In the low-level dungeons and counter-element dungeons she had entered before, the items players obtained would be sealed in order to maintain the game’s difficulty.
But now, all her items had been unsealed.
A chill crept up Nangong Yu’s back. She jolted awake and opened the system interface.
All 99,999 slots were lit up. Not a single one was grayed out.
A fine, icy mist rose from the crown of her head.
“Fuck you, developers!”
This was a high-risk dungeon!
Weren’t they supposed to let her clear the game? So why had they thrown her into a high-risk dungeon? And the promised reward of immortality—was it actually just permanent health lock?
That key really was just a key, wasn’t it? You want immortality? The door’s open. Go fight your way through it yourself!
“Fight your way through your developers’ asses!”
Nangong Yu cursed furiously.
That damn system had definitely set its sights on her 99,999 inventory slots. Nangong Yu remembered it clearly: when she had first entered the Infinite-Flow Game, an entire dungeon had produced only three to five items.
The system definitely wanted her to die here so it could inherit her estate.
