Chapter 124: Collective Timed Quest

Please wait a moment, my lord; the prefect is currently discussing matters with someone, and will summon you inside once he's done.

After the servant finished reporting, he bowed and walked out, speaking softly.

Understood.

Chen Shicheng tiptoed and peered inside; in the study, the prefect was smiling as he spoke with two men in Daoist robes, but the distance was too great for him to hear what they were saying.

Moreover, his mind was wholly occupied with how to get the prefect to agree to let him use the teleportation array; he had no interest in hearing what they were saying inside.

However, those two men in Daoist robes struck him as odd.

To deal with the zombie cannibal incident, the prefect should have gathered all the cultivators of Huanglong Jun together, yet these two were not among them—perhaps they had just arrived last night? Chen Shicheng instinctively used the Eye of Bai Ze to check the information of those two inside.

【Lv. ？？， Essence：？？， Qi：？？， Spirit：？？， Skill：？？？.】

【Lv. ？？， Essence：？？， Qi：？？， Spirit：？？， Skill：？？？.】

Wow, what a pair—where did these two Golden Core big shots come from?

Seeing the string of question marks from the appraisal, Chen Shicheng felt somewhat surprised.

These are disciples of the Great Teaching who rushed here from the heart of Zhongyuan early this morning; supposedly acting on the orders of the sect head, they came to set up array nodes. This group originally had five people, with three going to scout locations—oh, it's them, they've returned.

The servant was halfway through his explanation when he suddenly looked up, gazing toward the courtyard entrance, and said.

Chen Shicheng followed his gaze and indeed saw three men in identical Daoist robes walk in, whereupon he casually threw an appraisal at them.

Who!

Among the three Daoists who entered, one suddenly stopped, glaring in Chen Shicheng's direction and shouted sternly, "Randomly probing others—how did your sect elders teach you!"

????

Chen Shicheng blankly glanced at the Eye of Bai Ze on his finger, wondering what the hell was going on.

This is an ancient relic; its appraisals never fail, yet no one has ever detected it—so not only did it yield no information this time, but someone even noticed it?

Senior brother, don't scare the little friend.

One of the Daoists patted the speaker's shoulder and, with a pleasant expression, said, "I am Yu Xuan, a disciple of the Mount Taihua Yunxiao Sect; my senior brother's tone was just a bit harsh—I apologize to you on his behalf."

"You actually don't know the Yunxiao Sect?" the man who had initially spoken harshly frowned, looked at Chen Shicheng, and asked, "Could you be a Returnee?"

Chen Shicheng blinked; he'd never heard of that sect—how should he continue the conversation?

"Ah, yes, I'm a player—I don't know your sect."

Chen Shicheng felt a bit embarrassed and wanted to explain, but before he could finish, the Daoist who had just been amiable scowled, saying, "The prefect's mansion is a place of importance—how could we allow a Returnee, this heretical path, to enter? Senior brother, just kill him outright."

Having said that, he directly formed a hand seal; a phantom mirror appeared, a flash of white light swept over, and shot straight at Chen Shicheng.

"Holy crap, he attacked before I even finished speaking?"

Chen Shicheng's eyelid twitched; he immediately leapt back, dodging that white light that made his skin crawl.

But before he could catch his breath, the other two also moved simultaneously, forming hand seals; three phantom mirrors materialized, blocking all his escape routes.

Although I don't know what the player did to provoke these three jerks into attacking at the drop of a hat, I certainly felt their hostility. Moreover, if nothing unexpected happens, these three should be Golden Core cultivators like the two in the study; against a single opponent, I could still manage to take him down with some effort.

However, if surrounded by five people, even if he summoned Hui Siye, he still couldn't overcome them.

Flee—no, that's a strategic retreat!

In an instant he communicated with Hui Siye in his mind; five-colored light flashed, he vanished from the spot, and when he reappeared, he was back in the inn's room.

Though he was safe now, he felt suffocated—he hadn't provoked them, so resorting to violence seemed unwarranted; did they not know that offending the Yunxiao Sect was courting death? "No, this anger must be vented!"

Chen Shicheng rolled up his sleeves, preparing to sneak back and give them a nasty surprise—but then the game panel suddenly popped up.

【Timed Main Quest: Destroy the Four-Element Exorcism Array!】

【Quest Target: All players.】

【Quest Duration: 30 days.】

【Quest Description: Initiated by the Great Cloud Temple, with various orthodox sects responding to the call to construct it, the core of the Four-Element Exorcism Array located in Dayu Capital City is set to be completed in a month; the array will envelop the entirety of Dayu, players will be identified by the array and marked as enemies, and every five minutes a bolt of Four-Element Divine Thunder equivalent to the player's cultivation level will strike down.】

【Quest Objective: Within one month, rush to the capital and destroy the Four-Element Exorcism Array currently under construction.】

【Quest Rewards: Upon successfully destroying the array, all players receive official status in the Dayu Imperial Dynasty; players who participated in its destruction gain extra rewards, and the ultimate victor who breaks the array receives a special reward.】

【Failure Penalty: One month later, once the Four-Element Exorcism Array is successfully installed and integrated into the dynasty's fortune, all players will incessantly face Four-Element Divine Thunder attacks until death.】

【Failure Punishment: One month later, the Four-Element Exorcism Array is successfully deployed, integrated into the imperial dynasty's qi fortune, thereafter all players will incessantly face the Four-Element Divine Lightning attacks until death.】

After reading the quest description, Chen Shicheng was shocked.

No wonder those three Daoists went for the kill as soon as they learned I was a player—it turns out the higher-ups are corrupt, and the entire player base is their target.

Thus, besides myself, other players are the same—encountering these orthodox sect disciples will get them hunted down to death.

These are still minor issues; the hardest to accept is that, if a month from now that array enveloping all of Dayu truly completes, not only will we be hunted, but the game might become unplayable altogether.

These are still minor problems; what is hardest to accept is that, if after one month the formation covering the entire Great Yu is truly completed, let alone being hunted down, afterwards the game might not even be able to log in.

Chen Shicheng hurriedly logged off and opened the game forum.

As expected, the game forum at that moment was filled with wailing, everyone ranting about the game designers.

"Does anyone know the specifics of this timed quest?"

"Same question—why does logging in immediately tell me I have a quest when I just want to grind monsters and level up!"

"I was just killed by nearby sect cultivators, now I dare not go online—please send help!"

"What's your situation? I'm far worse—I wasn't just killed, I was also camped at the respawn point and slain, losing over ten years of lifespan."

"This damn thing is trying to kill us—did the game designers get drunk?"

Just as expected, players are now arguing fiercely—some logging off to seek help, others relying on their own strength to fight head-on.

Unfortunately, this batch of large-scale closed-beta players has only just entered the game; their levels and strength are low, basically they're the ones getting abused.

Unfortunately, this batch of large-scale Closed Beta players have just entered the game; their level and strength are not high, basically they are the side being abused.

(End of Chapter)