We're Going to Be the Demon Sect

Overnight, the Lingxiao Sect became the talk of the cultivation world.

All four of its direct disciples had obtained opportunities bestowed by the Heavenly Dao in Palworld.

Ever since Lu Ze had risen to prominence, rumors had circulated throughout the cultivation world that the Lingxiao Sect had already become the foremost of the Five Great Sects.

After this incident in the illusion, no one doubted the truth of those rumors anymore.

In fact, quite a few people felt that the Lingxiao Sect had already surpassed the Five Great Sects and become an existence on an entirely different level.

The hottest topic on the forums was, without a doubt, the opportunities hidden within Palworld.

Whoever obtained one was practically equivalent to getting two five-star characters in a single ten-pull back in their previous life. The comments below were filled with prayers and people trying to bask in their good fortune.

It made sense when one thought about it.

In an era that revered technology above all else, people had still been obsessed with superstition. Even when pulling for characters, they had to calculate the most auspicious day and choose a special location.

In the cultivation world, where mysticism was even more deeply ingrained, this went without saying.

Superstition was the way.

At that moment, the three most popular theories regarding opportunities on the forums were as follows:

“First: Do not explore the illusion with the goal of obtaining an opportunity. A flower deliberately planted may never bloom, while a willow planted by accident may grow into a shady tree. Immerse yourself in the experience, and the opportunity will reveal itself naturally.”

“Second: Although opportunities only appear when one is alone, the more people there are in the illusion, the more opportunities will appear.”

“Third: Choose the Pal you are most afraid to challenge and fight it one-on-one. Do not be afraid of dying.”

The cultivators had complete faith in these three theories.

For one thing, all three basically matched up with the experiences of those who had encountered opportunities.

For another, the person who had come up with them was the famous Palworld expert, “Bai Mu.”

Every day, Lu Ze watched new players come to the forums and post messages like “Thank you for your guidance, Master Bai Mu,” and secretly reveled in it.

Translated into plain language, the three theories meant:

Play the game properly, and stop obsessing over your precious opportunities.

Bring more friends along to play.

Die more often and send me demonic points.

Unfortunately, the cultivators really did believe all of this.

There was nothing he could do about it. Li Moran was living proof that it worked.

For a time, the demonic points being supplied to Lu Ze by Palworld reached a brand-new peak…

…

…

Zhong Yi’s Palworld.

“Hahaha! Where’s Old Zhou? Get online already!”

Zhong Yi’s figure appeared at the second base, which was specially used to study Pal breeding.

The moment he finished speaking, Mu Yawen and Zhou Yue appeared in front of him one after the other.

“It’s been a while since we came to Palworld… I wonder if the Pals at the base are doing all right!”

Zhou Yue closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the fresh air.

Over the past few days, the three of them had obtained opportunities bestowed by the Heavenly Dao one after another, and had temporarily returned to reality to refine them.

They had only found time to return to the illusion today.

“Don’t worry. While we were in seclusion refining our opportunities, Junior Sister Qiaoling was at the ba—uh…”

Zhong Yi swallowed nervously halfway through his sentence.

Have Zhou Qiaoling manage the base alone?

That was the kind of terrifying jobmaster who made even Pals line up for their turn to soak in the hot springs!

“Then again… just because none of us are here doesn’t necessarily mean she’d be willing to log on.”

Zhou Yue spread his hands, and the three of them teleported together to the main base located on the mountaintop.

“Oh no. I have a feeling that whether Junior Sister Qiaoling is here or not, every Pal at the base is going to be seriously injured…”

Zhong Yi frowned and muttered to himself.

The opportunity had arrived so suddenly that he had not had time to stock the base with enough food before leaving the illusion. The Pals had probably starved to death by now.

“As expected… there isn’t a single Pal! And there are so many members of the poaching groups here. Did the base get invaded? Strange, the entrance gate hasn’t been damaged…”

Zhong Yi was puzzled, but he soon realized something was wrong.

The poaching-group members filling the base were apparently not there to destroy it. They were working inside it.

Three members of the poaching groups had been assigned to every piece of equipment on the various production lines, all of them serving as laborers.

And it was not only poaching-group members. The village chief of some small village, the black-market merchant from outside the desert city-state, vicious wanted criminals…

They had all appeared in the work roster in the upper-right corner!

“What happened to the place while we were gone? Was there some kind of human disaster?”

Zhou Yue was completely stunned. He quickly understood what had happened, however, and shouted through the team’s communication channel, grinding his teeth:

“Zhou! Qiao! Ling! What did you do this time? Why is the whole place full of people?!”

“Huh? You’re back, Big Brother?”

Zhou Qiaoling answered with a giggle.

“Aww, none of you were around, and there was no one to talk to me. I was so bored… So I caught a few little minions who looked pleasing to me and brought them over to keep me company~~”

“Are you even human? Why did you catch so many…”

Zhou Yue complained helplessly.

“Besides, their work levels aren’t even that high. Isn’t catching them just a waste of time?”

Pal Spheres could capture every human other than players.

In the original game, humans that had been captured had neither Partner Skills nor unique abilities. Even their work levels were extremely low.

However, when Lu Ze had adapted the game, he had made a slight modification. The work levels of humans had been raised somewhat.

“Oh, that? No problem! I upgraded them all to four stars!”

Zhou Qiaoling answered openly.

“???”

Zhong Yi’s eyes widened. He thought he had misheard her.

He hurried over to the Pal terminal and checked the poaching-group members working at the base.

Just as Zhou Qiaoling had said, most of them had been upgraded to four stars.

Raising a character from zero stars to four stars required feeding it forty-eight copies of the same character.

“Putting aside how utterly unorthodox it is to feed humans copies of their own kind to raise their star ranks… where did you find the time to catch so many humans?!”

Zhou Yue could not help complaining.

“Hehe, I was bored~ Besides, I even fed them Work Skill Manuals. The village chief’s Handiwork level is maxed out!”

Zhou Qiaoling began boasting with undisguised pride.

“The village chief? Come to think of it, why haven’t I seen him?”

Zhong Yi looked around curiously, then suddenly frowned in confusion.

“Strange… I don’t see any Electric Pals here either. How are the production lines running without electricity?”

He muttered to himself as he searched. He soon found the answer downstairs.

Row after row of two-meter-tall wooden wheels had been placed side by side in a corner.

The elderly village chief was running furiously inside one of them, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

As he continued pedaling the wheel beneath his feet, the stored electricity slowly increased bit by bit.

“…”

Zhong Yi’s breathing caught as he stared at the scene.

He did not understand why running inside a wheel would generate electricity.

But the sight before him was simply too inhumane…

He even began considering whether he should turn off the livestream, lest word got out and people started saying that the Lingxiao Sect looked like a demonic sect.

“As expected, Junior Brother Lu was right. People never get tired when they’re doing something bad…”

The corner of Zhou Yue’s mouth twitched.

From childhood until now, he had never seen Zhou Qiaoling cultivate with such enthusiasm.

One had to know that the chance of capturing a human was far lower than that of capturing a Pal.

Not only had Zhou Qiaoling caught enough humans to fill an entire base, she had even upgraded many of them to four stars.

It was simply insane.

“By the way, what are you doing? Why haven’t you come back to the base?”

“Me? Of course I’m fighting Frostallion!”

“Oh? You’re actually working hard to level up? But you’re progressing way too slowly. Do you need me to help…”

Curious, Zhou Yue and Zhong Yi used an anchor point to teleport to Frostallion’s territory.

At that moment, Zhou Qiaoling was leading an old man with a salt-and-pepper beard around in circles as they dealt with the Wintercaller Beast.

“He’s already that old. Just let him go…”

Zhou Yue shook his head, laughing helplessly.

“No matter what, fighting is still more dignified than watching as a black slave.”

That was Zhong Yi’s assessment.

The instant he finished speaking, a flickering light began to glow from the old man’s body. The sight looked strangely familiar to Zhong Yi.

The flashes came faster and faster. Then the old man charged straight toward the Wintercaller Beast.

“Holy crap, that’s amazing! Junior Sister Qiaoling put the Bomb Bird’s self-destruct skill on the old man…”

“Quick, shut down the livestream! At this rate, our Lingxiao Sect is really going to become a demonic sect!”

…

…

At the Beast Taming Sect’s Beast God Hall.

“Sect Leader He, it’s time to close the net.”

Lu Ze stretched lazily as he calculated the players’ progress in his mind.

It had already been a week since Palworld went live.

The earliest players had already reached the area near the Land of the Heavenly Fall and were about to enter the late game.

Once they reached the late game, the players would no longer be obsessed with squeezing every last bit of value out of their Pals.

At that point, their new goals became maximizing the base’s production capacity and making the base look better.

Some even began pursuing rather twisted hobbies, such as the all-human team Zhou Qiaoling was working on…

The Pals would no longer go hungry or sleep in the cold. On the contrary, the players would prepare special food for their work, and they would never allow the Pals to fall ill.

After all, sickness and hunger would both reduce the base’s productivity.

In other words, from this point onward, the resentment of the evil soul within the illusion would no longer intensify.

“We can put up the seal and purify the evil soul now.”