- Cloud Peak, Lower Asphodel -

As Xuan began making his way back to the Sky Cloud Sect, all he felt was frustration. The announcement earlier really shook him up, and for good reason. 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 the new, sentient NPCs as well. Normally, NPCs shouldn't be able to interact with game elements like this. But that was before the final update—before humanity entered Xianxia Online. Now, it would only be natural to assume that they, too, were all now aware of Zero's return. While that included Xuan’s various wives and friends, 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 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 bigger, empty box to display the quest’s contents upon selection.

“Now, let’s take a look…”

The first quest displayed was under the category, and contained the quest one received at the end of every major stage to break their bottleneck and ascend to the next realm. Xuan tapped on it to view the details, and turned his attention to the now-filled right-side box.

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.

Cautiously, 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 that people who were already asleep would not.

‘A prank?’

That was the first thing that came to Xuan’s mind. After all, there were many kids and teenagers in this world now, and they’d 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 was abruptly cut off—as if the person producing the sound had been brutally silenced 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 cut his skin with tiny but sharp stone pellets, and the sound of his footsteps were masked by the dense dirt on the ground.

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—it couldn’t have come from very far.

Sure enough, after some running, Xuan found the source 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 their bodies, one with an arrow through its head and the other two each with a gaping, bleeding hole above a vital organ. Their blood mixed with that of the humans, creating a foul, coppery stench that could only last so long before flies and other insects started to get attracted.

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 oftentimes cowardly race.

Normally, they would only hunt smaller animals, and would 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, and each of the wounds on the other two beasts had been expertly inflicted as well. Whoever killed these animals, they’d evidently done similar things in the past. But as for the murder of the two humans… Xuan couldn’t be sure.

‘But there's also the possibility...’ Xuan thought for a second. ‘Did this 'Hunter' kill these wolves first, and silenced the witnesses after? Or were they already dead when the 'Hunter' got here..?’

It was quite the puzzle. He decided to get closer and 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.