Chapter 23 - 19: Instead of Improving Yourself, It’s Better to Drag Others Down

Chapter 23: Chapter 19: Instead of Improving Yourself, It’s Better to Drag Others Down

As Lu Chen finished off the Gale Scythe Weasel, the points on his wristwatch jumped from zero to eight. While looking down at his changing points, he checked the current rankings.

As expected, during the hour he had spent slacking off and playing his game, many students had already broken the ten-point mark. A few exceptional individuals had even surpassed twenty points.

This was only the first hour of the exam.

To accumulate over ten points in such a short time proved that Luocheng First High School had quite a few experts hidden among its students. But what did that matter to him when he only wanted to scrape by? He had no intention of fighting for the top ten anyway; a passable score was all he needed.

Muttering, "It’s about time I get moving," he decided to take action after his hour of gaming.

After all, the first phase of the exam not only required a minimum of thirty points but also demanded that students reach the Core Area of Five Springs Mountain within the time limit. According to the map on his wristwatch, even if a normal student traveled unhindered, it would still take them three days to reach the depths of Five Springs Mountain. Factoring in battles along the way, the journey would undoubtedly take much longer.

Lu Chen suspected this exam would not be that simple. Earning thirty points posed no real challenge for the vast majority of the students, and furthermore, students were forbidden from attacking one another. There had to be other hidden difficulties in this first phase. Otherwise, the teachers wouldn’t have allocated ten full days for the assessment—no matter how he looked at it, that was simply too much time.

Lu Chen looked up at the dark clouds gathering on the horizon, seemingly realizing something. He thought, "I need to speed up. The road ahead won’t be easy."

With that in mind, Lu Chen quickened his pace. Yet, even while traveling, his hands never stopped tapping away on his phone. He looked exactly like an incurable internet addict.

However, times had changed. The teachers watching from the outside now had a great deal of tolerance for him. So what if he played games? Given the power Lu Tongxue had displayed, forget playing games during the mock exam—he could play them during the college entrance examination for all they cared!

***

The fifth day of the mock exam brought heavy rain.

Unlike the clear skies on the first day, a sudden downpour now drenched the Five Springs Mountain Secret Realm. This storm would not only muddy the ground and slow the students’ progress, but the deafening roar of the rain would also mask the movements of the Demon Fiends, making them much harder to detect. Moreover, the harsh weather would rapidly drain the candidates’ stamina, deterring them from rashly engaging unknown Demon Fiends in combat.

This situation undoubtedly drastically increased the exam’s difficulty, forcing many students to rest at night and travel only during the day.

Inside a cave about half a day’s journey from the Core Area of Five Springs Mountain, Lu Chen warmed himself by a fire while playing on his phone. He looked so relaxed that one might think he was on vacation rather than taking an exam.

To others, five days might seem brief, but for Lu Chen, it was more than enough time to accomplish a great deal. After all, time in the game flowed a full ten times faster than in reality. Using this time, Lu Chen had managed to figure out his two most pressing concerns regarding the game.

The first issue was the timeline gap between the Cyan Cloud Sect and the Ancient Cultivator’s Tomb Dungeon. The current young generation of disciples in the Cyan Cloud Sect was precisely the sixty-fifth generation. They were only five generations apart from the seventieth-generation True Disciple Ye Chenglin, which amounted to roughly five hundred years. However, considering that the catastrophic changes in the Cyan Cloud Sect likely occurred well before Ye Chenglin’s time, the actual window Lu Chen had to prepare might be much shorter.

This naturally heightened his anxiety about his situation in the game and fueled his urgency to increase his power. He definitely did not want to go down with the Cyan Cloud Sect.

The second issue Lu Chen had resolved was figuring out how to become an Outer Disciple of the Cyan Cloud Sect. To advance to Outer Sect status, one needed to reach the Qi Cultivation Fourth Level and pass the Sect’s assessment. The content of this assessment varied depending on which peak one wished to join.

The Cyan Cloud Sect comprised five peaks: Danyang Peak, which represented Alchemy; Ten Thousand Talisman Peak, for Talismans; Sword Concealment Peak, for Sword Cultivators; Gangding Peak, for Body Cultivators; and Cyan Cloud Peak, representing Daoist Cultivators.

Lu Chen’s ultimate choice was Danyang Peak, simply because he wanted to become an Alchemy Master.

For ordinary people, becoming an Alchemy Master was no easy feat; it required sufficient Talent in the Alchemy Skill. Although the path of Alchemy also took a Cultivator’s general aptitude into account, the peak placed far more emphasis on specific Alchemy Talent. This Talent manifested both in Comprehension and in whether the Cultivator possessed a special Divine Fire.

Setting aside the mysterious nature of Comprehension, Lu Chen already held a significant advantage regarding the Divine Fire. As his Purple Mist Health Cultivation Technique reached the Breaking Realm stage, his original Purple Mist Divine Light had evolved into the Purple Mist Divine Fire—a genuine Divine Fire.

With the Purple Mist Divine Fire, Lu Chen found refining medicinal ingredients much easier than an ordinary person would, allowing him to learn Alchemy with half the effort. Moreover, he had Experience Points, which he could use to further shorten the learning process.

Other people had to continuously attempt refining and expend massive resources just to achieve minor success in improving their Alchemy Skill. But he was different. He only needed to successfully refine a single Elixir to reach the Entry Level. After that, he could rely entirely on Experience Points to simplify the rest of the process. This would rapidly elevate his Alchemy techniques while saving him a tremendous amount of resources.

Once he officially became an Alchemy Master, he would reap an endless stream of benefits in both the game and reality. In reality, not only would he achieve self-sufficiency in Elixirs, but he could also sell any surplus to gain a certain degree of financial freedom. The same held true in the game.

Furthermore, while Cultivators from other peaks had to periodically descend the mountain to complete dangerous experiential missions, the Alchemy Masters of Danyang Peak did not. After all, no Sect Leader would be foolish enough to send their Alchemy Masters out on missions. They were the treasures of the Sect. If they ever truly needed to leave, they would be escorted by a small army of the Sect’s Cultivators!

What was this? This was the ultimate sense of security! And Lu Chen craved that security, both in the game and in reality.

He thought, "As long as I peacefully gather Experience Points, I can grow stronger. There’s absolutely no need for me to go out and take risks.

"Once I become an Alchemy Master, I will undoubtedly become a protected asset of the Sect in the game. In the short term, no one will be able to harm me.

"Meanwhile, my reality self can also profit by trading Elixirs for Cultivation resources, further increasing my Cultivation speed.

"No matter how I look at it, becoming an Alchemy Master is my best option.

"It’s just that this Alchemy... why is it so damn hard?!"

Watching his in-game avatar fail at Alchemy yet again, Lu Chen felt his blood pressure spike. He barely resisted the urge to smash his phone against the ground to vent his frustration.

Unlike other Techniques that could reach Entry Level with just a basic understanding, the difficulty of acquiring the Alchemy Skill was on a hellish level. It actually required him to successfully refine an Elixir first. For Lu Chen, who had never refined an Elixir before, this was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

Five days in reality meant fifty days in the game. Lu Chen had tried a full fifty times, yet he hadn’t succeeded once. His failure rate was one hundred percent!

Not only did this waste a significant amount of his Cultivation time, but it also nearly depleted the Spirit Stones he had worked so hard to save. Because he had to spend his own money to buy the medicinal ingredients for refining! He had to admit, practicing Alchemy was simply far too expensive.

He thought, "Just wait. I refuse to believe I can’t refine a single qualified furnace of Qi Gathering Pills.

"As long as I reach the Entry Level, the subsequent Cultivation will be simple."

Just as Lu Chen was preparing to make another attempt at Alchemy, he suddenly looked up toward a specific direction outside the cave.

Before long, two boys and a girl, completely drenched and looking utterly miserable from the storm, dashed out of the woods and unceremoniously barged into his cave.

The moment she entered, the female student said in a sweet, coquettish voice, "Thank goodness there’s a cave here to hide from the rain. Otherwise, we really would have been soaked all night.

"You don’t mind us barging in like this, do you, classmate?"

Looking at the female student—who somehow still wore light makeup even during an exam—and the two candidates beside her, Lu Chen replied calmly, "Suit yourself."

Seeing that Lu Chen had no objections, the three immediately exchanged glances. Strangely, after stepping into the cave, the trio subtly occupied the area near the exit, blocking Lu Chen’s escape route.

Lu Chen noticed their little maneuver and quietly put his phone away.

True, candidates were not allowed to attack each other during the first phase of the exam, but that didn’t mean they were forced to cooperate. After all, every student eliminated early meant everyone else’s ranking would rise. Rather than working hard to improve oneself, it was much easier to drag others down.

If someone else’s score worsened, didn’t that mean the others’ scores... naturally got better?