The blood-red sky was shattering, piece by piece.
The massive corpse of the Heaven-Devouring Frost Flame Wolf lay silently on the ground, its Ice and Fire Domain having already dissipated.
At a signal from Lin Qingfeng, the other disciples began a new round of "praise."
"Little Junior Sister! At the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, you fought a Core Formation great demon to a standstill! Who would believe it if they heard?"
"Youâve only been working for a few days, and you can already take on a Core Formation great demon!"
"If you cultivate the Sword Refining Skill and achieve Foundation Establishment, wonât you be able to thrash Nascent Soul experts and stomp on Divinity Transformation masters? Youâll be able to work at lightning speed!"
"Any smart person would know weâre right!"
"And since youâre a smart person, Little Junior Sister, you must think so too, right?"
Su Lingâer stood inside the suit of armor, her pretty face pale beneath the visor.
âPraise me for what?â
âFor being swung around like a marionette with such "artistic flair"?â
âOr for my heart-rending screams?â
âDoesnât your conscience bother you at all, forcing out such awkward praise?â
âDonât you know perfectly well how I defeated that Core Formation great demon?â
âAnd that "any smart person would know youâre right" nonsense... youâre just trying to force me to agree, to force me to practice that Sword Refining Skill, arenât you?!â
âForget it. Let the world burn.â
She wanted to argue, but she was so exhausted she could barely speak.
To shut up the crowd in front of her and their forced, awkward praise, she could only nod slightly at them from behind her visor.
"Th-thank you... Senior Brothers..."
Her lips were still twitching, not yet fully recovered from the high-speed movements and constant screaming, and her words came out haltingly:
"This... this battle... was all thanks to Senior Brotherâs excellent command. I... I merely borrowed the divine might of Senior Brother and the sect..."
Meanwhile, a series of game-like notifications flooded the sect channel.
[DING! The Golden Autumn Harvest Festival boss event, âTen Thousand Beasts Ascending to Heaven: Ancient Beast Invasion,â is complete!]
[Calculating contribution points...]
[Collaboration Rewards:
Lin Qingfeng, awarded 40,000 contribution points.
Su Lingâer, awarded 10,000 contribution points.
Lu Wu... ...]
[Characters will be rewarded with random base attribute points based on contribution kill ranking.]
[Reward: one Heaven-Devouring Frost Flame Wolf (Core Formation Realm) corpse.]
[Participation +1000, Spirit Stones +1000]
[Building Blueprint Unlocked: Prison Hall]
[Unlocked Prison Hall: Wolf Totem â Heaven-Devouring Frost Flame Wolf]
[First Kill Reward: Final blow delivered by Su Lingâer. Awarded 50,000 bonus contribution points!]
Looking at the information before him, the Senior Brother couldnât help but feel a wave of smug satisfaction.
âOne hundred thousand contribution points!â
âLittle Junior Sister took sixty percent of it, a full sixty thousand!â
âAdding the forty-thousand-plus from killing the red-named mobs and the points from various other tasks, her total contribution has already broken one hundred thousand!â
âWeâre another big step closer to the five-hundred-thousand goal!â
âItâs all thanks to my brilliant guidance as Senior Brother. I boosted the progress by more than one-fifth in one go! As expected of me!â
Meanwhile, it was time for the part players always loved: looting the corpse.
A group of disciples expertly swarmed the giant wolfâs corpse. They skinned it, dismantled its bones, and extracted its Inner Core, their movements as smooth as flowing water.
Lin Qingfeng collected the purple crystal, jade coffin, and soul banner that had dropped.
[Purple Crystal: Wolfâs Peeping]
[Crystal Talent: Peeping]
A lone wolf howls at the moon, a millennium of silence; its purple pupils reflect illusion and truth.
Its mortal ties now turned to dust, its heart remains to light anotherâs soul.
Legend has it that there was once a lone wolf that lived for a thousand years.
It never hunted, appearing only at night to bathe in the light of the moon and stars.
Over time, its eyes turned into purple crystals, seemingly able to see through all the worldâs illusions and peer directly into the inner worlds of living beings.
When its life was about to end, it lay down on a mountain peak and let the wind and snow bury it.
Centuries later, the ice and snow melted. The wolf had long turned to dust, but its purple eyes remained, transformed into two crystals standing upon a rock. They were found by one of its own kind, a master of fire and ice Divine Techniques.
This crystal possesses no power for slaughter. Instead, whoever holds it can see the world within anotherâs eyes, a world unknown to outsiders.
[Function: It can resonate with a targetâs spiritual frequency, projecting their subjective sensory perceptions as illusions of light and shadow. Can be used to probe Heart Demons, perceive character filters, etc. It seems to hold other special uses as well?]
Some of the wolfâs flesh and blood was given to the disciples skilled in the culinary arts to take back to the Dining Pavilion and research new dishes;
The Demon Core was given to Lu Wu for Alchemy;
The wolfâs hide and bones went to the Artifact Refining Pavilion to be used as materials for new Magical Artifacts;
And a portion of its blood and essence was given to Wang Xian of the Beast Taming House in the Spirit Beast Garden to try and cultivate new spirit beasts.
From beginning to end, not a single person asked for Su Lingâerâs opinion.
Aside from all the praise, she was treated like an insignificant tool.
It was to be expected.
After all, the one who had truly killed the great demon was her Senior Brother. She was merely a puppet in his hands.
âSenior Brotherâs black robes remained spotless the entire time, yet through the "Thousand Threads Puppet Show," he could make me execute such a Sword Technique...â
âAnd Mr. Qian, who can use the Law of Heaven and Earth... could he be controlled by means even more sophisticated than Senior Brotherâs?â
âAnd I... I seem to be slowly taking the first step toward becoming one of those mindless puppets myself.â
Facing the might of the Core Formation great demon head-on had left her mentally and physically drained. She didnât even have the energy to care about the many senior brothers and sisters around her who had suddenly achieved breakthroughs.
And while that spiritual cultivation technique kept her mind clear, preventing her from fainting, it only made her consciously feel every ounce of her exhaustion.
âSo tired...â
The disciples acting as hype men were still chattering in her ear, urging her to quickly cultivate the Sword Refining Skill and reach Foundation Establishment so she could "work better" in the future.
Their voices grew more and more distant. She just wanted to escape.
âWhile Iâm still conscious, before I become a walking corpse like Mr. Qian...â
âTonight. Iâll leave tonight!â
Lin Qingfeng saw that his Little Junior Sister wasnât reacting and was a little confused.
âYou just killed a Core Formation great demon, how can you not have any reaction at all!â
"Whatâs wrong, Junior Sister?
You killed a Core Formation great demon, why arenât you happy?
Did your senior brothers and sisters not praise you hard enough?
I can have them change their lines!"
Those words instantly pulled Su Lingâer back from her despairing thoughts to reality.
âEnough...â
âPlease, Iâm begging you, stop with the awkward praise...â
To make them shut up as quickly as possible, she could only pretend to be full of energy, pumping a fist.
"Senior Brothers! Iâm fine now!
I feel like my whole body is overflowing with power!
I feel like I could take on ten guys!"
Seeing her act this way, Lin Qingfeng nodded in satisfaction and began reciting his own prepared lines:
"The merit of this battle lies not in the slaughter, but in... blah, blah, blah..."
âWhy is Senior Brother starting up again...â
Su Lingâerâs head was buzzing; she had absolutely no desire to understand...
She could only agree, "Yes, Senior Brother is right!"
Just then, the giant Dharma Body that dwarfed the heavens and the earth appeared once more.
"The ancient scourge has been vanquished. You all should remember this battle and strive to move forward."
"The Golden Autumn Harvest Festival will continue."
As the voice faded, the Dharma Body dissolved into motes of light, and the blood-red world crumbled away with it.
After a familiar feeling of weightlessness, Su Lingâer found herself back in the main square of the Guixi Sect, as if everything that had just happened was nothing more than an illusion.
Immediately after, her Senior Brother dragged her along to complete several more event quests, right up until the bell rang, signaling the end of the festival.
The players came as quickly as they went.
Once the event was over, the once-bustling square suddenly felt somewhat deserted.
Shi Gandang also took back the suit of armor.
Then, Lin Qingfeng clapped her on the shoulder.
"Little Junior Sister, go back and reflect on this. You donât have much time left."
???