Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Now that he had a hypothesis, Wang Ling needed to validate it.
Despite being who he was, he had to admit that his omnipotence was only reflected in his ability to use all kinds of skills, large and small. In terms of experience, however, he was in the end still too young.
Cultivation encyclopedias, thousand-year-old cultivation epics, unsolved ten thousand-year-old cultivation mysteries and other literary works like these in the library… to supplement his lack of experience, Wang Ling had already memorized all of them at a very young age.
However, most of these works had been passed down orally before they were finally compiled for posterity, so he couldn’t be sure whether many of these historical facts were authentic or not. When he encountered any difficulties, he would visit the cultivation discussion forum to look for guidance from the veteran seniors there.
At the age of six, he had been looking for a way to suppress his strength, so he had signed up for a cultivation forum account. There were many talented people in the forum and every day all kinds of cultivation gossip would be shared.
But Wang Ling seldom went online and most of the time he was a lurker. The online ID of the owner of the cultivation forum was “Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal,” a rather mysterious rogue cultivator who frequently traveled around the world. Wang Ling felt a lot of resentment toward this “Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal” because back then, it was this guy who had conned him into joining the Seven Stars Cultivation Special Forces as a consultant!
Recently, in order to consolidate some old forum users’ contacts and connections, Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal had specially set up a chat group in order to organize offline activities. And somehow, Wang Ling had been forcibly added to the owner’s cultivation chat group…
He had initially just wanted to sneak into the forum and then anonymously create a post asking about the stone ghost mask. Who knew as soon as he went online, a chat window automatically popped up on the screen like those on porn websites —”User: Ling Zhenren 1 is now online.”
Wang Ling knew it was already too late for him to log out — the chat group quickly exploded in pandemonium.
“Bloody hell?! Ling Zhenren? I didn’t misread, right?! Isn’t this the Ten Thousand Year King of Lurking?!”
“You didn’t misread… it really is Ling Zhenren! The legendary grandmaster has finally come online! I’m so emotional!”
“Hahahaha! The online reminder function set by the owner is really awesome! Even the Ten Thousand Year King of Lurking Ling Zhenren fell into his trap!”
“…” Wang Ling looked at the IDs of these people; some were familiar to him and some not, but among them were many who had been involved in rescue operations during the demon rampage six years ago. And the female cultivator “Cailian Zhenren,” who had squeezed Wang Ling to her ample bosom back then, was now the manager of this chat group.
However, Cailian Zhenren had utterly no idea of Wang Ling’s real identity; in this group, the only person who had actually seen him was the owner Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal. Even then, what the latter knew about him was roughly the same as Old Li.
They all felt that Wang Ling was a thousand-year-old monster who just looked very young and who had disguised himself as a high school student in order to experience an incognito lifestyle…
Wang Ling was silent for a while, then finally typed four words. “Is forum owner here?”
Immortal Toya: “Ling Zhenren, it’s better for you to call him group owner, that’s what we’re doing now. You haven’t come online in such a long time, so you probably don’t know how the forum operates now.”
This Immortal Toya was also a senior in the group and was an alchemist. He would usually share gossip about refining pills in the forum and sometimes video the pill refinement process. Each time his furnace exploded, plenty of people would give him virtual gifts for it.
Cailian Zhenren sent a shrug emoji. “Then, let me explain it simply.”
Wang Ling sent a question mark. “?”
It had indeed been a long time since he had logged onto the cultivation forum, but it hadn’t slowed down to any sort of extent. So why did all these people seem so miserable?
Cailian Zhenren sent a string of sighing emojis. “It’s not that the forum currently isn’t doing well — in fact, it’s very well-known… but once its reputation took off, those ignorant junior cultivators started to frequently put up flame posts. In a nutshell, the atmosphere isn’t very harmonious.”
“That’s right!”
Immortal Toya also said, “Not long ago, a public flame post was put up in the forum by someone with the ID Xiao Clan Xiao Dingtian, requesting to break off an engagement with Nalan Xian. Scattering money in the tens of thousands, creating water armies 2 , filling the forum with scandal… what a foul atmosphere! Actually openly speaking about such a disgraceful matter, I’m understanding the youth nowadays less and less…”
When Wang Ling saw this, he basically understood the situation. The cultivation forum was not more than fifteen years old and had started to make its mark in the last few years, relying on its wealth of excellent cultivation content to attract large numbers of users. The problem with large numbers, however, was the spotty quality of users, causing the forum to become less harmonious than it used to be.
“It’s just like Immortal Toya said. So we asked the owner to set up a chat group to bring together old forum users. The forum will deal with its own business over there and we’ll do our own thing here. If you want to sum it up in one sentence: close the forum, protect intelligence!” Cailian Zhenren typed this string of words with righteous indignation.
“So from now on, if Ling Zhenren needs something, you can just direct it to this group, we are all on the same team here,” someone with the ID Nine Times in One Night said.
Wang Ling didn’t know this person; actually, there were many people that he didn’t know. The total number of old users in this cultivation group chat was one hundred and eight and he really only knew a tenth of them.
Seeing no response from Wang Ling, Nine Times in One Night sent a fist salute emoji. “Nice to meet you, Senior Ling Zhenren! You can call me Nine Times Man! I’ve heard so much about senior. I joined the forum three years after you did, and in the seven years I’ve been here, I’ve learned a lot! I’ve always hoped for the opportunity to ask you for advice!”
“Nine Times Man, don’t try to be funny. Senior Ling Zhenren is an existence that even the group owner has acknowledged is stronger than his. Even if you want to make jokes, there has to be a limit!” Bulang Blade Immortal laughed.
“I’m serious! What’s so funny about the Sunflower Manual I’m cultivating from?” Nine Times Man sent an electrocuted emoji.
Wang Ling: “…”
Just then, someone with the ID Lightning Dharmaraja couldn’t help but lecture Nine Times Man. “Nine Times Man, how many times have I told you, the martial arts of the Sunflower Manual were lost a long time ago — this book which you bought online is definitely a fake. If you cultivate fake arts and want to fight a duel with Ling Zhenren, he can just pluck one of his nose hairs and stab you to death with it!”
Wang Ling: “…”
Hearing the Sunflower Manual which he had purchased called into question, Nine Times Man was unconvinced. “What makes you say mine is fake?”
Lightning Dharmaraja sent a ” hehe ” emoji. “Do you dare read out the first line of its martial arts heart sutra?”
Bulang Blade Immortal: “I heard that the first line of the real Sunflower Manualis that if you want to practise this art, you must first castrate yourself… Nine Times Man, don’t tell me you really…”
“Is that so? The first line of my Sunflower Manual is…”
Nine Times Man’s eyes were already wet. “…Little Mother Sunflower’s class has begun!”
Wang Ling, Cailian, Bulang Blade Immortal, Immortal Toya and Lightning Dharmaraja: “…” MDZZ 3 !
