Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Being a Sect Master is not easy ah.
Chapter 1: Being a Sect Master is not easy ah.
"Hmm? This game is quite interesting."
Lin Fan clicked his tongue in amazement: "At the start, a declining sect, with its old members barely holding it together. The disciples are all money-losing goods, with mediocre talents and short lifespans. The sect's foundation is almost depleted, and it's on the verge of extinction."
"The player takes on the role of the new Sect Master, saving the sect from its crisis."
"Moreover, even if you deliberately underperform, there's a minor 'exam' every year and a major 'exam' every decade? The assessment could be an external enemy invasion, a rival sect's revenge, a calamity from beyond the realm, or even a falling meteor or demonic deity. Those who fail to pass will..."
After reading the game's introduction and understanding the general gameplay, Lin Fan found it increasingly interesting.
"This kind of game, with a little promotion, should logically have no players, right? Why has it been online for a year, and all the data is zero?"
"Could it be that they went bankrupt without money for advertisements?"
"Then let me be the one to try this new game. If it's not bad, I'll arrange for you to play it."
Lin Fan is a game streamer.
He's played over 8,000 games, completed over 3,000, and his humorous video style has gained him over 3 million followers. He's doing quite well in this field.
The only drawback is that this guy once publicly and pompously declared that he would never promote anything.
Now, he somewhat regrets it...
Other streamers with hundreds of thousands of followers are living in luxury with mansions and sports cars, while his income barely reaches a modest level.
Ding.
Download and installation complete.
Lin Fan opens the game, and the next second, everything goes black.
"Holy shit! This game is poisonous!!!"
"My browsing history and learning materials haven't been deleted yet!!!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Sect Master, Sect Master?"
"..."
Swoosh!
Lin Fan rolls over and stands up, cursing: "You old fart... Hmm?!"
He's stunned.
"What is this?"
Everything around him is too unfamiliar.
And this old man standing by my bed, with white hair and beard but a flushed face, what the hell is he?
Suddenly, his head hurts like it's splitting.
Memories flood into his mind.
Lin Fan is stunned.
"Holy shit!"
He curses.
He seems to have... time-traveled!
Here is the Moon Grasp Sect, once a top-tier sect in the southwest region of the Immortal Martial Continent. But in recent years, with its decline and lack of successors, it has now fallen to a third-rate power.
During its peak, it had over ten million disciples and over ten thousand Spirit Mountains. How vibrant and promising was it?!
It even once rivaled a Sacred Ground, though it was almost instantly defeated by them...
But it was once resilient!
But now, only one mountain remains, and its former territories are all gone, taken by others.
Even just this, is still because these few old guys have some skills. Otherwise, they couldn't even protect this last foundation, let alone calling it a third-rate sect. It's likely that even the Dao Lineage will be destroyed!
The unlucky guy he time-traveled into is also named Lin Fan. He just took over as the Moon Grasp Sect's Sect Master yesterday.
His cultivation and talents are not that impressive.
The reason he could become the Sect Master is entirely because these old guys didn't want to take on this burden.
In Lin Fan's eavesdropped words: "The Moon Grasp Sect's demise is already a certainty, and it's almost impossible to change. If I take on the position of Sect Master, and the Moon Grasp Sect is destroyed in my hands, how can I face the Sect's ancestors when I descend to the Yellow Springs?"
"Therefore, even if the Moon Grasp Sect's Dao Lineage is destroyed, it cannot be destroyed in my hands..."
The Five Elders, these five old guys, are all 4th Realm 'Cavern Heaven' Realm Cultivators. Their cultivation is not weak, and it's still considered decent in a third-rate sect. But their ideas are unanimously aligned.
This also makes Lin Fan's mouth twitch crazily.
The Immortal Martial Continent Cultivators' realms are divided into: Opening the Mystic, Condensing Essence, Mystic Essence, Cavern Heaven, Finger Mystic, Knowing Fate, Unifying the Dao, Shattering the Void, and Ascending to Immortality.
Opening the flesh's Profound Gate, condensing heaven and earth's origin energy, transforming it into Mystic Essence Qi, and gathering it within the Profound Gate; then opening the five organs' Cavern Heaven, and advancing further, is to enlighten the Dao's principles, gathering all wonders onto the fingertips, which is the Finger Mystic.
Subsequently, knowing fate, unifying the Great Dao, shattering the void, and finally ascending to the immortal realm.
Each realm is further divided into nine minor realms, commonly referred to as the Xth Heaven, and some also like to call it the Xth Mystic Gate, Xth Cavern Heaven, etc.
As memories continue to flood in, Lin Fan becomes increasingly speechless.
He's merely a small fry in the Condensing Essence Realm, and he's just entered the Condensing Essence Realm.
These Cavern Heaven Realm old guys could kill him with just one finger, and they're all 'Patriarch' generation!
As a result, they don't want to be the Sect Master, so they let me do it?
What the fuck!
Even more fucked is... I'm actually the contemporary, no, I should say, the best-talented among the disciples of the last three generations!
A 20-year-old handsome young man, in the Condensing Essence Realm, with talents that are not that 'spicy', but it's still within the norms. Is this already surpassing the last three generations???
Oh, okay, the previous two generations did have better talents than me, but they're all gone.
Lin Fan: "..."
The contemporary disciples, well, only seven are left, besides himself, seem to be... all complete trash, thoroughly trash, living a life that's unclear and unintelligible.
Wanting them to be the Sect Master does indeed seem difficult for them.
It's only at this moment that Lin Fan finally realizes how thorough this so-called 'decline' is.
Just finding a random mediocre sect, its disciples are more numerous and stronger than the Moon Grasp Sect's!
Lin Fan's thoughts wander.
But in Great Elder Su Xinghai's view, he's just spacing out, and he can't help but remind: "Sect Master, it's already past noon. Why don't you quickly get up and think of a way to widely recruit disciples, to spread our Moon Grasp Sect's fame and restore its former glory?"
"You can't slack off with the youth!"
Lin Fan's heart suddenly has ten thousand alpacas galloping through, but in the end, he sighs in resignation: "Okay, Great Elder, you go down first, and I'll think of a way."
"Time is not on my side, Sect Master. We all believe in you!"
"You will definitely be able to lead us to restore our former glory!"
"At that time, our Moon Grasp Sect will have countless disciples, ten thousand Spirit Mountains, and you, Sect Master, will be an eminent figure on the Immortal Martial Continent. Who wouldn't respect you immensely upon seeing you?
All the fairies and deities, if the Sect Master sets his eyes on you, who dares to disobey?"
The Grand Elder left, but his face was filled with a 'dry daddy' expression.
Lin Fan rolled his eyes at him.
He's just painting a picture!!!
And he's using my CPU!
The worst part is, he's so damn unprofessional!
Su Xinghai left.
Lin Fan rubbed his forehead, feeling overwhelmed.
"Transcending realms, and it's exactly like the game's introduction. Is this a game issue that forcibly transported me here, or did I get electrocuted and become a vegetable? Is all of this just my dream and fantasy?"
He tried pinching his thigh, and it hurt.
"..."
"Sigh, no matter what the situation is, I'll just treat it as a real-life transcendence. Otherwise, it'll be hard to deal with."
Lin Fan sighed deeply.
What if this is real? If I give up, wouldn't I be truly screwed?
He still remembered the game's introduction, with at least one minor crisis every year, a major crisis every decade, and supposedly a catastrophic crisis every century. After a millennium...the text was replaced by ellipses, but even an ass could guess that it's stronger than the century's crisis.
"Who the hell wants to transcend to this kind of place? I could just become an influencer, even if I don't, with my current wealth, I can still save a poor, scantily-clad young lady every day until she's eighty years old, and never repeat an outfit!"
"Coming to this ghost place, it's like starting in hell...really..."
"Sigh, the only benefit is probably that the maximum lifespan has increased?"
In the immortal cultivation continent, spiritual energy was abundant, and even ordinary people had maximum lifespans exceeding two hundred years. For those in the Essence Condensation Realm, it was around five hundred years.
"The prerequisite is that I can live that long, with a crisis every year."
Lin Fan's eyebrows furrowed as he began to consider how to break free from this situation.
As the saying goes, life is like being forced to do something, and if you can't resist, you might as well try to enjoy it.
"So, I have only one goal, to survive."
"And the prerequisite for survival is to make the sect stronger and also make myself stronger."
"System?!"
Lin Fan tried to summon a cheat, but to no avail. After messing around for half a day, nothing happened.
"But I remember from the game's introduction, as long as I develop the sect, I can become stronger. Especially when accepting disciples, those with talent evaluations of A-rank and above, I can share their talent and strength..."
"So, I'm not sure if I really transcended to this place or not, but I can use this to judge. I'll accept a disciple with A-rank talent or above, and see my own talent and strength. If it's..."
"What a rip-off!"
After finally sorting out his thoughts, Lin Fan couldn't help but complain, "Without the system, how do I know who has A-rank talent or above?"
He rubbed his head, almost pulling out all his hair.
Time passed, and more time passed.
Finally, Lin Fan calmed down, analyzed the situation, and relied on his professional knowledge and the countless xuanhuan novels he read in middle school to deduce a certain pattern...
"Since this is a world of immortals and profound cultivation, with countless cultivators, there must be a Heaven-Ordained Son or a Protagonist Archetype, right?"
"I can't distinguish their talent levels, but I refuse to believe that someone with the Protagonist Archetype or the destiny of the Heaven-Ordained Son would have inferior talent!"
"So, I'll filter them from this angle."
Lin Fan fetched paper and pen and wrote vigorously.
"I remember, three days from now is the day for accepting disciples at the Moon Grasp Sect—no, the Sect Master's cultivation and residence.
It was evening.
Lin Fan stepped out of the Moon Grasp Palace.
Looking at the small sect before him, Lin Fan's face darkened.
The scene before him was vastly different from what he had imagined a cultivation sect to be.
The dilapidated mountain peak, old and small with only a few buildings, and the cold, deserted sect square...
At that moment, the Five Elders approached.
Lin Fan followed the sound and his gaze paused on the Second Elder, Wu Xingyun, a bit longer than the others.
The Five Elders consisted of three men and two women. The male elders were all old, while the female elders looked young and beautiful, mature beauties, especially the Second Elder, Wu Xingyun, who was not only beautiful but also wise beyond her years.
"Sect Master."
"Have you thought of a way to prosper our Moon Grasp Sect?"
Su Xinghai asked, fists clenched in respect.
Looking at his sincere expression, Lin Fan's mouth twitched.
He wanted to curse!
If you don't want to be the Sect Master, fine, but don't keep pushing me!
"Ahem."
He coughed, "Our Moon Grasp Sect's decline and worsening situation are largely due to problems with our systems and rules."
"In three days, it's the day for accepting disciples. I've drafted a new set of rules, take a look."
Lin Fan's hand moved, and a densely written 'New Rules' floated before the Five Elders.
They looked at each other, then all focused their spiritual senses on it.
---
Strict Rules for Accepting Disciples:
1. Those with the surnames Xiao, Ye, Shi, or Lin will be given priority.
2. Those who talk to themselves, muttering about rings and other objects, will be given priority.
3. Those who have survived great calamities three times or more, and whose fiancee has a mysterious background, will be given priority.
4. Those who were abandoned by their fiancees, fallen geniuses, and whose parents mysteriously disappeared, will be given priority.
5. Those who have just arrived at the mountain gate and faced difficulties or were treated unfairly, will be given priority.
6. Those who often wear a mysterious smile on their lips, and whose enemies like to laugh maniacally, will be directly accepted as direct disciples.
7. Those who have had their bones extracted or were at the brink of death, will be directly accepted as direct disciples.
8. Those who are as timid as mice, extremely cautious, and constantly shouting about their impending death, will be directly accepted as direct disciples.
9. Those whose personalities change frequently, even changing genders, will be directly accepted as direct disciples.
10. ...
(End of Chapter)
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