Chapter 6: Jiepaiguan Pass

“Qingxi White Peony, I curse your entire family!”
“Qingxi White Peony, you have no shame, stealing bosses and clearing the field…”
“Qingxi White Peony, if you have the guts, come out and meet me on the Life and Death Stage…”
...
No sooner had Wang Liang stepped out of his residence than he heard such shouts echoing across the grand square. Startled, he looked up to find the same words blazing across the sky, spelled out with fireworks. Every hundred paces or so stood a person, banging a gong and drum, repeating these very phrases at the top of their lungs.

Wang Liang pulled aside a passerby and asked, “Brother, what’s going on here?”

“You haven’t heard? Lately, some guy named Qingxi White Peony appeared out of nowhere. He’s a real troublemaker—doesn’t care about any order in the game, just does as he pleases: stealing bosses, looting gear, ruining quests, anything for his own amusement. The worst part is, no one even knows what level he is. Several top players over level one hundred teamed up to take him down, but he killed them all. There was even a level 110 expert whom he hounded for seven whole days, killing him over ten times. Now that guy doesn’t even dare log in anymore.

No one knows where this calamity came from. Just recently, the Tongtian River Bandit Gang spent seven years preparing to take down a boss. Qingxi White Peony swooped in and snatched the boss right out from under them. Not only that, he wiped out the entire bandit gang as well. Unable to find him, they can only vent their rage by cursing him in the safe zone’s public chat, making sure everyone knows what a villain Qingxi White Peony is.”

But so what if everyone knows? Wang Liang shook his head. Even if the world knows Qingxi White Peony is a scoundrel, what harm does it do him? Rather than wasting time complaining, wouldn’t it be better to focus on growing stronger and take back the boss themselves?

Because of all this commotion, Wang Liang forgot to ask what “public chat cursing” really meant, or how those spectacular light and sound effects in the sky were achieved.

After watching for a while, Wang Liang lost interest. He hadn’t forgotten his real purpose here.

This game was addictive—after just one session, it was hard to quit. Had it not been for failing his level check last time and stalling at the Golden Core stage, Wang Liang might never have left, choosing instead to explore new worlds within the game.

Now that he had formed his Golden Core, he was determined to study the game more deeply, to see what he could gain from it.

Following the path he’d read about in a book, Wang Liang walked to the edge of the grand square. Observing closely, he spotted some floor tiles that looked different from the rest.

“How did I miss this before?” he muttered to himself as he stepped onto the special tile. Instantly, four or five different options appeared before him.

It turned out this grand square wasn’t the only neutral city in the game. It was simply the safest, set outside the Eight Views Palace of Mount Daluo, so players treated it as the main city. Here, portals connected to other faction capitals.

These main cities included the open ground beneath the Jade Void Palace bell tower, the sandy shores of Golden Turtle Island, the clearing behind Firecloud Cavern, and even the Sun Palace, now devoid of any flames.

Except for Jade Void Palace and Golden Turtle Island, which had faction requirements, all the other cities could be freely traveled between via the square’s teleportation arrays. Some smaller cities could only be reached by transferring through these main hubs.

Wang Liang was heading to one of these new main cities. The grand square here had no portals to fixed worlds, except for the occasional neutral world. Given his current situation, he should travel to one of the three small cities specifically designed for level 20 players. These cities had many worlds nearby dedicated to those at level 20.

He could return to the grand square when he needed to trade or buy things.

“Let me see… here they are: three level 20 cities—East Sea Shore, Boundary Pass, and North Sea Camp. That’s right, these three. Let’s check the descriptions. East Sea Shore’s main city is Chentang Pass, focusing mainly on sea-based missions, suitable for levels 20–30.

Sea missions? Forget it, I’ll pass.

Next, Boundary Pass, a stronghold guarding a key route, mainly dealing with bandits, beasts, and monsters in the forests outside the pass. The game worlds here are mostly land battles and monster hunts. This one’s worth considering.

Finally, North Sea Camp, the military base for campaigns against the Ghost Barbarians. The focus here is on fighting external enemies, seventy-two rebel armies, and North Sea monsters. It features both land and sea battles, but mostly icy and snowy environments. I’ll give this one a miss for now.”

After reviewing the three level 20 cities, Wang Liang made up his mind. He would not go to East Sea Shore, and North Sea Camp could wait until later.

With a thought, Wang Liang activated the teleportation array and sent himself to Boundary Pass.

The moment the array activated, his vision blurred and the scenery changed. He had been standing in a vast square with no boundaries in sight, but now he found himself before a mountain pass wedged between two peaks.

The pass towered nearly thirty yards high, its three massive gates thrown wide open for all to enter and exit.

To the west of the pass stretched a strange flatland—strange because it was obvious at a glance that the land had been cleared by someone of great power. The surrounding mountains looked as though they’d been uprooted and tossed aside, piled up haphazardly.

Yet the travelers passing through seemed utterly accustomed to this sight. Even the wild animals in the mountains were unfazed, darting through the toppled forests as if nothing had changed.

Wang Liang did not know that Boundary Pass was actually quite famous. The vast open space before the pass existed because the Grandmaster of the Truncation Sect, Lord Tongtian himself, had chosen it as the site to lay down the Immortal-Slaying Formation.

Because of this, high-level sword cultivators would occasionally come here, hoping to encounter some stroke of fortune.

Unaware of all this, Wang Liang did not linger on the open ground but followed the gates into Boundary Pass.

He hadn’t even had time to take in the interior when his eyes fell upon a massive furnace, as tall as a small hill. Hundreds of men shouted in unison as they worked the bellows on either side. Many strong laborers were pulling red-hot ingots from the furnace and hammering them relentlessly.

Wang Liang understood why a pass would have a forge for weapons, but to have it set right at the city gate—that he found puzzling.

He was about to step forward and ask someone when a voice called out from behind, “Fellow Daoist, please wait!”