"Right, it's already night, and Tang Xin is still at my house!"
Zhen quickly thought of the girl.
"Hey Tang Xin, go home quickly!" he immediately said to her.
"Go home? Why should I? It's not that late yet," Tang Xin replied instantly, making Zhen open his mouth in disbelief.
She was actually planning to stay until morning.
"Wait, there must be a misunderstanding. I thought you'd only stay until the evening. You can't stay overnight here. I don't want your parents showing up and ransacking my house," he said.
"Oh come on, that won't happen, I swear. They never look for me when I stay at a school friend's house. Besides, they're playing this game too. They just came online..."
Zhen was a bit surprised to hear that Tang Xin's parents were also playing this game.
That meant this game was not so simple after all, but that had nothing to do with Tang Xin being in his house.
"You still have to go back to your home," he said.
"NO, I want to stay at your house!" The girl suddenly shouted so loudly in response that Zhen almost jumped in surprise.
He instinctively touched his ears, unconsciously checking if they were okay, even though the voice couldn't actually hurt his ears since this was virtual communication and his body was only a virtual avatar.
What puzzled him was how Tang Xin screamed like that—it clearly showed anger because she really didn't want to leave.
It wasn't the first time he had seen her angry, but back then she wasn't angry at him.
When she was angry, she could be like a lioness, ready to attack the one who triggered her.
"I'll stay here until morning. If you ask me to leave again, I'll buy your house." Her voice echoed again, but this time it was softer.
Zhen scratched his head at that, wondering why his life was being made difficult by a young girl.
He chose not to say anything else and stood up.
Nighttime in this world felt so beautiful, and he couldn't help but be curious to go out and look around.
After stretching, he opened the door, only to find the door next to his also opening.
A cultivator stepped out with a satisfied expression.
He looked about 19 years old, with a lively, handsome face. When Zhen saw him, he was slightly surprised.
The man was also surprised to see him.
"Mr. Xia," he said.
Even though their hair had grown longer in the game, they could still recognize each other by their nearly identical faces.
"Yan Zhu," Zhen replied.
This young man was one of his students, and they were fairly familiar with each other.
"Haha, Mr. Xia, I didn't expect you to be playing Sacred Beast Mountain too. I thought you wouldn't be interested since it's just a game, so I hesitated to tell you. But it seems that, as a cultivation enthusiast and researcher, you couldn't resist its pull," the man said jokingly.
"A friend forced me to play, and it turns out it suits me," Zhen answered.
"So, have you been playing since the beginning?"
"Yeah, I've been playing since the game launched and haven't logged out since."
"So that's why you didn't attend class today?" Zhen asked.
"Uhhmm!" Yan Zhu cleared his throat with an embarrassed expression.
"I lost track of time. It's just too exciting," he said.
"You need to take care of your body. It's not healthy to play nonstop," Zhen replied.
In his head, he thought, playing since launch until now, and you're only at the Third Stage? You'd cry if you knew my cultivation!
Zhen could sense Yan Zhu's cultivation because a bit of his aura was leaking. He had apparently just broken through to the Third Stage.
However, Yan Zhu couldn't sense his cultivation because Zhen's aura was completely stable, and besides, he was three stages above him.
Those with lower cultivation levels generally had difficulty sensing those far above them—unless the latter released their full aura.
"Don't worry, Mr. Xia. Every six hours, I log out for a bit to eat," Yan Zhu said.
"But you're still asleep for too long," Zhen replied.
"Yeah, you're right. I just wanted to get stronger quickly in the beginning so it'd be easier later on. You know, it's always uncomfortable to feel like I'm falling behind."
You're already way behind me, Zhen thought to himself.
"Anyway, Mr. Xia, it seems like you just finished cultivating. Have you reached the First Stage yet? Do you want to go beast hunting? I can help you if you want. You need to collect System Points to buy comprehension. The higher your comprehension, the easier it'll be to cultivate," Yan Zhu continued.
"No, thank you," Zhen replied directly.
If they hunted together, he feared he'd be the one helping Yan Zhu, not the other way around.
"Ohh, Mr. Xia, it seems like you prefer to play casually, but that'll be difficult," Yan Zhu said.
"Maybe not," Zhen replied.
"Alright then, I'll be going!" Yan Zhu said, walking off first.
Yan Zhu could only stare at him in confusion.
Zhen left the inn and found crowds everywhere.
He saw more players and more cultivators among the NPCs—though the NPCs didn't look like NPCs.
One crowd caught his interest because it was made up entirely of cultivators.
They wore white robes with a cloud emblem on the back.
Even though most of them were young, people around them looked respectful.
From the conversations around him, he learned that they were inner disciples of the Sacred Cloud Sect.
Inner disciples were official sect members who had been fully accepted and had a mentor from within the sect.
They were more talented and usually stronger.
Their cultivation levels ranged from the Fifth to the Sixth Stage, and one of them was at the Seventh Stage—a large bald man carrying a long golden spear on his back.
What caught Zhen's attention was that they were distributing a technique to the people.
It was a technique for flying using a sword—called the Flying Sword Technique.