2019, May 20th, Monday.

The end of spring and the start of summer.

During this period, the day and night temperature in Jiangnan District fluctuated drastically. During the day, one would sweat buckets in thin clothing, but during the night, one would tremble under even a thick blanket.

Jiangnan College Town.

At 2:30 pm in the afternoon, students should attend classes, and yet Song Shuhang was alone in the dormitory with his laptop set on the desk next to him, allowing him to watch movies while in bed.

Song Shuhang wasn’t someone fond of skipping lessons. The weather yesterday during the first half of the night was extremely hot and stuffy, resulting in him executing a ‘Dragon Roaring Kick’ and making the quilt fly away; in the latter half of the night, the temperature dropped sharply, and Shuhang who only had small underpants on him had suffered. During his sleep, both his hands were strenuously groping about in search for his blanket, but alas, he was unable to find it, shrinking like a shrimp and trembling under the tyrannical cold night wind.

When the sun rose, he had already become a member of the seasonal flu army. His roommate had helped him apply for leave for the day’s lessons; afterwards, he took some cold medicine before sleeping until now.

Although his fever had subsided, his body still felt weak and he was not in a proper state to attend lessons. Therefore, he could only stay in the dormitory alone and watch movies.

On the screen, the movie slowly played on, but Song Shuhang could not focus well on its contents.

“Hasn’t the medicine’s effect faded yet? I’m tired…” he yawned and felt his eyelids getting heavier.

“Beep Beep Beep~” Just then, the chat software on tray on his laptop screen came alive.

This sound was a notification that someone added him as friend or invited him to a group chat.

“Who added me?” Song Shuhang muttered while reaching out and touching the lower right corner of his screen gently. Immediately after, a message prompt popped out.

[True Monarch Yellow Mountain (*****) sends you a friend request.] Additional message: None.

True Monarch Yellow Mountain? Who used such a strange nickname?

‘A classmate I guess?’ Song Shuhang quietly thought and couldn’t help but recall a few of his classmates that were obviously already in university, but seemed to still be in their youth fantasy period. Guessing from their behavior, they would definitely be capable of coming up with such strange nicknames.

After reasoning with himself, he then pressed “Accept”.

Shortly after, another notification popped out.

[True Monarch Yellow Mountain has invited you to join the group ‘Nine Provinces Number One Group, do you accept?]

Song Shuhang accepted once more.

‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books has agreed to join the ‘Nine Provinces Number One Group’.

[You have joined the group chat, do say hello to the other group members! ?] A smiley face was even attached by the system.

Nowadays, chat software was definitely getting more and more human-like.

After a series of notifications, Song Shuhang decided to turn off the notifications and the group chat window— with a sudden surge of drowsiness washing over him, where would he have the strength to care about the chat group he was invited to?

In any case, his default group settings had been set up as [Don’t display notifications, only show group chat message number]. This meant that there would not be any notification prompts disturbing him and only the number of unread messages would be displayed beside the chat.

When he was more clear-headed, he could scroll the chat history to find out what type of chat group he was invited to. Also, the chat history of the members in the group would not disappear.

He felt his eyelids getting heavier…

Despite the movie streaming continuously, Song Shuhang’s consciousness was getting more and more fuzzy.



Noticing a new member has been added to the Nine Provinces Number One Group, the lurking members emerged.

Northern River’s Loose Cultivator: “Did True Monarch Yellow Mountain invite a new fellow friend? Hasn’t it been a year since a new member joined us?”

Another member with the ID of ‘Su Clan’s Seven’ quickly replied, “There’s a new fellow daoist? Is he from Mt Hua? Where’s the immortal cave he’s cultivating in? What’s his dao name? Which stage of cultivation is he at?”

Why did this series of questions sound fishy?

Simultaneously, a user with the ID ‘Thrice Reckless Mad Saber wrote’, “What’s the gender of our new fellow daoist? Are you a fairy? If so, please announce your three sizes and upload a photo!”

Looking at Su Clan’s Seven and Thrice Reckless Mad Saber’s messages, many of the lurking members within the group felt their mouths twitch.

“Brother Thrice Reckless, do you belong to a goldfish species or something?” Northern River’s Loose Cultivator sighed. “What if True Monarch Yellow Mountain had invited another senior? You may bring disaster upon yourself once again!”

Thrice Reckless… this fella was good in every aspect, being a loyal person and eager to help others, thus his relations with others were pretty good—it was just that his uncouth tongue would pack him into life and death situations.

Unfortunately, this fella was so unlucky that it made one have goosebumps. The timing didn’t matter—whenever he was reckless, he had always offended big seniors. These seniors who were all lacking in entertainment would naturally be happy to kill some time by torturing Thrice Reckless Mad Saber who sent himself right to their doorstep.

“I beg you, do not to mention the word ‘big senior’… it is a traumatic experience that still haunts me,” Thrice Reckless Mad Saber sent a row of ???.

Four years ago, he had offended a beautiful ‘big senior’ with his stupid mouth and got tortured really badly… that senior had tormented him non-stop for one year and four months. Yes, that’s right, a total of one year and four months! Thinking back to his extremely inhumane years, his eyes started to tear up.

Just when Thrice Reckless finished talking, the group members all sent a ? one by one—not at all concealing, but instead openly rejoicing at his misfortune.

There were eight members whose status was ‘online’ within the chat, and six of them had sent a sent a row of smiley faces.

“You bunch of schadenfreude as*holes, this lord has remembered every one of you. Don’t even let me meet you, or else I shall let you to have a taste of my Seventy-Two Swift Saber Strikes!” Thrice Reckless Mad Saber grudgingly replied. He was confident in his swift saber and the six fellas who were laughing weren’t his opponents in a one-on-one fight.

Just when Thrice Reckless Mad Saber finished talking, another ? appeared within the group. It was Su Clan’s Seven who sent it.

Shortly after, Su Clan’s Seven excitedly said, “When are we having the duel?”

Evidently, Su Clan’s Seven hadn’t actually wanted to rejoice at his misfortune—he’d just wanted an opponent for a fight.

“…” Thrice Reckless Mad Saber instantly lost his spirit.

Why? Because he couldn’t win against Seven!

He had a profound cultivation base, having reached the late stage of Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor Realm, just two steps away from becoming a Sixth Stage True Monarch. However, he was unable to defeat Seven.

Despite having his fast and fierce Seventy-Two Swift Saber Strikes, along with a lightning fast footwork , he was still unable to win against him.

He was called mad saber, and even he himself was afraid of his angry self. But even then, he was really no match for Seven!

After seeing Thrice Reckless losing his momentum, the members within the group sent another wave of ???

“…” This time, Thrice Reckless Mad Saber could only depressingly send an ellipsis.

The group was puzzled—despite them making a din for half a day, the newcomer had yet to appear.

“Our new dao friend isn’t speaking?” Northern River Loose Cultivator asked.

Unfortunately, due to the medicine’s effect, Song Shuhang had once again entered a state of being half-sleep .

Just then, Su Clan’s Seven happily sent a message. “I just took a look, our new dao friend is named ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’. Has anyone heard of an expert with this dao name? His name seems as if he’s a member of the scholarly faction? It sure makes me look forward to it! After all, the location of that sect is hidden quite well. It has been a few hundred years since I’ve last had a fight with them! Thinking back, fighting them is more pleasurable than dueling buddhist monks. Not only do they have a glib tongue, their punches are powerful too! When they are in the mood, they would also heroically start reciting poems to liven things up, making it multiple times more fun! I love fighting with them the most.”

“Seven, are your expectations towards new dao friends only limited to having fun fighting with them?” Reckless Mad Saber sent a ?. This was basically an evil tyrant’s way of doing things!

“Erm.” Su Clan seven was slightly embarrassed.

Northern River’s Loose Cultivator said, “Could it be another ‘big senior’ that is unacquainted with such chat software??”

Having said that, apparently several people found this scene familiar?

That’s right, about four years ago there was another senior that came out after hundreds years of closed-door cultivation and only managed to open the messaging application with great difficulty. Then, she was invited by True Monarch Yellow Mountain into the group. However, she did not send any messages as she didn’t know how to type.

Afterwards, a fella named Thrice Reckless Mad Saber happily teased this big senior and requested for her three sizes, photos, voice chat, and such.

Subsequently.. a few days later, Thrice Reckless Mad Saber personally met this senior. She was very beautiful, as dazzling as the bright moon in the night sky.

Then, this alluring senior had tortured Thrice Reckless Mad Saber for one year and four months before she was perfectly satisfied and left.

Thrice Reckless Mad Saber was instantly overwhelmed and fell silent.

“Yellow Mountain?” Just then, someone with the ID ‘Medicine Master’ sent a message.

An unfathomable short message.

Luckily, everyone in the chat had long become accustomed to Medicine Master sending short messages—he was asking where True Monarch Yellow Mountain was.

The reason Medicine Master sent short messages wasn’t due to his lofty personality, but because he used only two fingers and handwriting pad to type, therefore his speed was extremely slow. Also, there was a higher chance of making typos in a long text, plus deleting and writing anew was simply painful. Therefore, Medicine Master had a habit of only sending short messages. Over time, Medicinal Master was then labeled as someone whose words were as rare as gold when he communicated with the rest.

“He went offline immediately after sending the invitation. Apparently, his darling monster dog had angrily ran away from his house again and True Monarch Yellow Mountain went to chase him. Taking care of that precious monster dog and coming online to add him to the group sure isn’t an easy task for True Monarch, he’s definitely super busy right now,” Northern River’s Loose Cultivator replied.

Medicine Master: ”…”

“We can only wait for the new dao friend to learn to use the chat software,” Su Clan’s seven sighed . They were all biased, thinking the new member was one of them.

The few members online weren’t entertained looking at how unresponsive the new dao friend was and went offline one after another.



Around an hour later, Song Shuhang gradually woke up.

“I think someone had invited me to a group earlier on, the chat room’s name was… Nine Provinces Group?” He muttered quietly while opening the chat software; a window containing the chat room of Nine Provinces group popped up.

What exactly was this group?

Quickly, the chat history from an hour ago appeared before him.

Song Shuhang briefly skimmed through the messages.

Dao friend? Cave dwelling? Which stage of cultivation is he at?

There’s also seniors, True Monarch, this lord? Chasing after huge monster dog?

Different kinds of vocabulary coming out straight from Xianxia novels were used.

The way they spoke was also interesting—half ancient half modern, half plain and half serpentine. It gave the feeling of modern people attempting to converse using ancient dialects but their fundamentals in old language falling short, making it awkward while communicating.

“Pu~~” Song Shuhang laughed.

Looks like this was a group created for Xianxia enthusiasts?

Oh wait, this was absolutely not a normal Xianxia fan group!

Everyone within the group had picked a dao name for themselves and their dwelling was called a cultivation cave, while the administrator’s missing house pet had to be described as a huge monster dog that ran away from home. Not only that, some even professed to have not fought a member of scholarly faction for more than a century. In other words, those people were claiming that they’ve lived several hundred years or so?

Just by looking at this chat log brought about a feeling of shame and embarrassment.

‘This degree of infatuation has already reached the degree of suffering from chuunibyou . Ah, right, they’re a group specific to traditional Chinese xianxia,’ Song Shuhang secretly concluded.

It seemed that it was probably a gathering of chuunibyou fellas.

This was the first impression he had of the members in ‘Nine Provinces Number One Group’.

However, why would he be invited by them?

Song Shuhang was certain that True Monarch Yellow Mountain was not a classmate he knew and neither did he recognize him after looking at his profile.

Was he added by mistake?

There’s a saying—if one doesn’t enjoy being delusional once, they would’ve lived their youth in vain.

Everyone would have more or less experienced that phase. It was simply that some had openly displayed it while others hid it deep within their hearts. This was also the difference between being an extrovert and an introvert.

As Song Shuhang was lacking in youthful vigor, that period came rapidly and left even more quickly for him.

Therefore, during their second grade of junior high school, the boys surrounding him were all stuck within their wuxia, superhero, and celestial immortal dreams and executing their eighteen subduing dragon palm or superhero transformations. However, Song Shuhang had long lost interest in these and neither did he hold any hopes for such.

The laws of physics in this world were so very accurate. It was basically an impossible task for humans to think of jumping three stories high, launching a golden dragon out of their hands, or being able to fly while wearing their underpants outside!

However, he still loved Xianxia novels, superhero movies, and such. Perhaps deep within his heart, he was still craving for a superhero, an alien, or an immortal to appear before him one day?

Despite knowing it was impossible, he was still somewhat looking forward to it. Perhaps this was a gift that humans had?

Song Shuhang laughed while closing the chat window. Nonetheless, he did not leave the group.

He felt that the members of Nine Provinces Group were all interesting, with the chat logs that would make one feel embarrassed if exposed. From the perspective of a spectator, it was surprisingly interesting—therefore, before the admin had removed him, he decided to lurk around and look at various amusing chat logs to pass some time.

On the computer screen, the movie was still playing. It seemed like a horror film, with all kinds of scenarios constantly appearing. This movie was the greatest work of the genius thriller film director and hearsay was that many middle-aged men were all scared till they cried. There were many people who revealed that they were so scared that they couldn’t head to the washroom alone after watching it.

Unfortunately, Song Shuhang ultimately did not feel frightened and instead rewinded the progress bar to the start before he had yawned again and his sitting posture slowly transitioned to a reclined posture as he felt his eyelids getting heavier…

If that genius thriller director knew his movie only had such effect on him, he would probably cry?

Muddle-headed, Song Shuhang had a dream.

It was an extremely pleasurable and beautiful dream. With celestials, superheroes, and all kinds of mystical lands.

Having free and unfettered long life, the ability to transform nature, relying on a sword while traversing the world. Since ancient times, how many people had such dreams? Merely due to the increase of one’s age, the reality had shattered dreams and people could only hide their dreams deep within their hearts and not think about them.

A dream would ultimately only be a dream.

❄️❄️❄️

Next day, May 21st, Tuesday, 1 AM.

Within the group chat, the admin True Monarch Yellow Mountain had finally appeared online.

The moment he came, Northern River’s Loose Cultivator emerged and questioned, “True Monarch, who is that ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’ you’d added yesterday? Which sect does he come from?”

“The newcomer yesterday? Haven’t you communicated with her? She’s the daughter of an old friend of mine, born in this era. It seems as if her aptitude is excellent, she’s in Third Stage Acquired Realm and will be advancing to Fourth Stage Innate Realm soon. At such a young age, she’s really outstanding!” True Monarch Yellow Mountain replied while laughing out loud.

Born this era… shouldn’t she be below forty years old? Being in Third Stage Acquired Realm at this age would indeed be the sign of a genius. Northern River’s Loose Cultivator silently nodded. However, the counterpart’s dao name is strange, Stressed by a Mountain of Books doesn’t seem like a dao name.

While Northern River’s Loose Cultivator was still thinking, True Monarch Yellow Mountain suddenly said, “Eh? My old friend’s daughter dao name isn’t called Stressed by a Mountain of Books! Wait, what the heck is this Stressed by a Mountain of Books?”

“…” True Monarch Yellow Mountain was embarrassed.

It wasn’t a random guy, it was probably the person True Monarch Yellow Mountain invited yesterday.

He tried inquiring, “True Monarch, could it be that you’ve added the wrong person?”

“Let me check it out.”

A moment later.

True Monarch Yellow Mountain send a string of ? within the group. “To think that I’ve really added a wrong person. There’s only a slight difference between their account numbers—I had accidentally keyed in 9 instead of 8… to think I would make such a big mistake.”

Northern River’s Loose Cultivator chucked. “I thought so too, regardless of how well one integrated into the modern times, no one would use ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’ as their dao name.”

True Monarch Yellow Mountain continuously sent a bunch of ?.

Afterwards, he hastily added his good friend’s daughter to the group.

Group Notification: ‘Spirit Butterfly Island’s Soft Feather’ has been added to Nine Provinces Number One Group

The name just now was conforming to the image of Nine Provinces One Group, with rich Xianxia aura assaulting one’s senses. The dao name ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’ was definitely something strange in comparison to it.

Upon an addition of a newcomer, Thrice Reckless Mad Saber immediately appeared. “Oh! The new friend is a fairy? Show us your photo and announce your three sizes! If you’re pretty, should we date?

Thrice Reckless Mad Saber had long been lurking—although he was no better than a goldfish species, ultimately his memories had lasted more than 3 seconds. After being reminded yesterday, in order to prevent offending a big senior, he was carefully lurking around while observing the situation today.

Seeing how True Monarch Yellow Mountain mentioned the newcomer was the daughter of his good friend and her cultivation was in Third Stage Acquired Realm, Thrice Reckless Mad Saber relaxed. It wasn’t a ‘senior’ level figure, so he could tease her until he was satisfied.

Rarely would they have newcomers in this group, so he has been restraining himself for quite a long time.

Once Thrice Reckless had opened his mouth, True Monarch Yellow Mountain’s face instantly blackened.

“…” Spirit Butterfly Island’s Soft Feather entered a string of full stops. Then, a serene answer followed, “As the time is late, this old man’s daughter has started her meditation according to schedule. Her account is currently used by this old man while waiting for fellow daoist Yellow Mountain to add me into the group… cough… I’ve long heard of Nine Provinces Number One Group’s distinguished and accomplished, with the gift of gab, fellow daoist Thrice Reckless. Nothing beats knowing you personally compared to the rumors. Fellow Daoist Thrice Reckless, this old man admires you and wishes to invite you for a drink sometime soon.”

Thrice Reckless Mad Saber instantly felt very awkward. Meeting the girl’s father while teasing the girl—there was nothing more embarrassing in this world. He was totally wishing to find a hole and squeeze inside it.

Luckily, this senior seemingly had an amiable personality while brushing it off with a few words.

Subsequently, this senior greeted other currently online members within the group while requesting them to take good care of his daughter in near future. After that, he went offline.

Seeing the departure of the senior, Thrice Reckless Mad Saber released a sigh of relief while happily typing, “Luckily, this senior seem like someone who can take a joke. Perhaps, when the opportunity arises, I will even be able to chat with Soft Feather personally.”

True Monarch Yellow Mountain: “…”

Northern River’s Loose Cultivator: “…”

The hard-to-come-by Medicine Master whose words were as rare as gold and who rarely spoke had once again emerged. This time, he had even typed out four words, “Pray for your fortune.”

“?” Thrice Reckless was puzzled

Clearly, Medicine Master whose words were as rare as gold would not explain any further.

“Look at the prefix of the new member’s dao name,” Northern River’s Loose Cultivator hinted. One wouldn’t die without being reckless, why was Brother Thrice Reckless unable to understand this?

“Prefix? Spirit Butterfly Island?” Thrice Reckless Mad Saber seemed to have yet to come around.

“Yes! Spirit Butterfly Island! Additionally, he is a senior, haven’t you managed to think of anyone yet?” Northern River’s Loose Cultivator hinted once more.

After a long time, Thrice Reckless Mad Saber suddenly came to realization and sent a whole chunk of ? within the group. “It’s that Venerable Spirit Butterfly that fusses over every single detail?”

Venerable Spirit Butterfly was a formidable senior. He was good in every aspect, being upright and righteous… it was just that he liked to fuss over every trivial matter and could be considered to have reached great heights on the dao of being fussy. Others were just finicky but he was the extreme type that fussed over every small detail!

Northern River’s Loose Cultivator was so angry that his mouth twitched. “That wasn’t what I had reminded you about!”

True Monarch Yellow Mountain sighed as he couldn’t continue looking at it. “Thrice Reckless, my old friend had only minimized the chat, he hasn’t gone offline.”

That is to say… the chat logs might have been seen.

No, would definitely be seen!

True Monarch Yellow Mountain couldn’t continue watching how Thrice Reckless continued to be reckless, after all, he was the junior of his chat group.

“Oh damn, I’m dead,” Thrice Reckless Mad Saber seemed to have seen his near future whereby Spirit Butterfly Venerable came to pay him a visit, and the oppressive scene that would befall him. The rims of his eyes moistened, it seemed as if he had offended an even more troublesome big senior than usual this time?

Thrice Reckless suddenly released a miserable shriek. “True Monarch, please help me plea for leniency!”

True Monarch Yellow Mountain gave him a ?in reply.

No one in the group would continue paying attention to Thrice Reckless’s dog-like wailing and they unperturbedly diverted the discussion to a new topic.

Northern River’s Loose Cultivator asked within the group. “True Monarch, what about Stressed by a Mountain of Books?

Su Clan’s Seven questioned, “Are we going to kick him? After all, he’s just an ordinary person and isn’t really suited to participate in our conversations.

“Sigh, since it’s a mistake on my part, it can be counted as an affinity between us. Let esteemed me do a divination to see how I should handle this,” True Monarch Yellow Mountain replied—it was him who suddenly added the other party into the group; wouldn’t it make him lose face to suddenly kick that guy out?

He should at least do a divination as a front while using it as an excuse to kick him out.

Firstly, it would make him seem magnanimous.

Secondly, he was suddenly interested in learning divination since a while ago and his hands were itchy to try it out after learning for a few months. Regardless of what he did, he would make a divination beforehand.

After speaking, he used a Tang Poetry book as reference and used his hands to turn it over while executing a secret method of divination. An unfathomable energy extracted a verse out while forming a trigram.

The divination this time was super smooth. Ever since True Monarch Yellow Mountain had self-learnt the divination skills, it was the first time he had ever felt like that!

He looked at the divinatory results happily.

Afterwards…

True Monarch Yellow Mountain’s face became tranquil.

Then, his face turned ugly.

For now, let’s look at the results: In heaven as two birds flying together, On earth as two trees with branches interlocked forever.

If he recalled correctly, this verse was written by Bai Juyi, a Tang dynasty poet. This verse was a true classic and was subsequently used to describe love?

Suddenly, True Monarch Yellow Mountain did not feel good.

Two birds flying together my a*ss, two trees with branches interlocked forever my a*ss! To still be willing to be like two trees that grow together as one, this lord would rather hang himself!

Unless he, as the majestic True Monarch Yellow Mountain, had to act out an earth-shattering love of life and death with the male ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’? This unconsciously made him think of homosexuals during the China Warring States period—he instantly felt like he had swallowed a cockroach and was extremely disgusted.

‘This must be due to this lord’s divination skills being lacking. After all, I had only studied for a month… therefore, I should try again! Yes, it must be due to this!’ True Monarch Yellow Mountain once again executed a secret method of divination and the unfathomable power once again flipped the Tang Poetry book.

Another verse was extracted.

The divination execution was extremely smooth and had boosted True Monarch Yellow Mountain morale. It will definitely be right this time!

He then looked at the divinatory results.

Afterwards…

True Monarch Yellow Mountain paled.

The result of the divination: If love between both sides can last for aye,Why need they stay together night and day?

Night your grandfather! This lord doesn’t believe in it! True Monarch Yellow Mountain once again started another divination.

The feeling this time was even better and even True Monarch Yellow Mountain felt that his own divination skills has reached great heights at this moment!

It will definitely hit the mark!

He lowered his head to look at the divinatory results. Turning back suddenly to find that your fated person has always been standing there, by the waning lights.

“…”

“Deep breaths, deep breaths.” True Monarch Yellow Mountain calmly and collectedly closed the Tang Poetry book and dejectedly looked towards the sky at a 45-degree angle—it really felt melancholic!

Afterwards, he calmly tore the hardcover version of Tang Poetry while nodding his head, “This lord does not have talent for divination and naturally isn’t suited to be a divination master. Therefore, the divinatory results calculated by me must definitely be erroneous!”

He threw the shredded Tang Poetry on one side and secretly vowed within his heart to never attempt divination again!

After throwing the pieces of shredded hardcover Tang Poetry book, True Monarch Yellow Mountain typed into the group chat. “We shall leave Stressed by a Mountain of Books be for now… this lord has done a divination earlier on and found that he has affinity with me and adding him into the group wasn’t by chance, but was inevitable instead! Whatever happens in the future shall depend on his own luck.”

True Monarch muddled through using some divination vocabulary; regarding the divinatory results, he would definitely not reveal anything even if he was beaten to death!

Motherf*cker, even if there’s fate, it must definitely be an ill-fated relationship!

“Then let’s leave it for now, I reckon that he would probably leave the group in the near future. Speaking about it, True Monarch, what were the divinatory results?” Northern River’s Loose Cultivator heard that True Monarch was learning divination, therefore he was curious what this senior had calculated.

“…”

True Monarch Yellow Mountain: “Oh right, I have something urgent so I’ll leave first, you guys continue chatting.”

After saying that, he rapidly went offline, leaving a puzzled Northern River’s Loose Cultivator without an answer.

The sun rose up in the sky, representing noontime.

Song Shuhang’s roommates knew that he had yet to recover from his cold, therefore they told him to rest and had already helped him apply for another day’s leave.

‘Why is my illness getting more serious? Is it due to the lack of training recently so my physical fitness is getting worse?’ Song Shuhang pondered.

There was a serving of century egg porridge his roommate had gotten for him in the afternoon on his side.

‘Such a nice person!’ Shuhang gave his roommate a nice guy card without hesitation.

Not knowing how long he had slept, he was famished and finished the porridge in a few mouthfuls. Afterwards, he switched on his computer.

He opened the chat software out of habit and saw the number of unread notifications beside the Nine Provinces Number One Group chat group.

Song Shuhang curiously opened the chat to see what his deeply infected chuunibyou friends had been chatting about during the night.

The chat log from morning appeared before him.

Questions about the newcomer by Northern River’s Loose Cultivator, Thrice Reckless Mad Saber seeking death, and the interesting Spirit Butterfly Island’s senior. There was also a guy who claimed that he had calculated his affinity with Shuhang, True Monarch Yellow Mountain.

Looking at the chat logs, a few human silhouettes formed in his mind.

‘So they had actually added me by mistake! See, I have already guessed so. I don’t even know this True Monarch Yellow Mountain guy.’

Reading the chat logs, it doesn’t seem like everyone can join, huh? One must also have a recommendation to enter.

Also, the age of the seniors in this group didn’t seem to be small, one even had a daughter.

Furthermore, his daughter didn’t seem to be young, judging by his tone. If that was the case, they would most probably be around 40-50 years old. His daughter seemed to be quite pitiful seeing how her father still had chuunibyou at his age.

Scrolling through the chat, Song Shuhang maintained the state of a lurker and definitely would not reply.

Looking at the members’ chuunibyou symptoms act up was an interesting scene. However, he wasn’t even a chuunibyou himself, so if he had joined in, what would that make him be?

Therefore, he decided to stay hidden and look at the chat logs purely for daily entertainment purposes.

He was going to wait for the day when he lost interest in this group—he would then exit from Nine Provinces Number One Group.

That had been his intention from the very start.

❄️❄️❄️

Unknowingly, ten days had passed.

June 1st, Saturday, Children’s Day.

Song Shuhang’s roommates were all staying part-time at the dormitory. That is to say, they would stay in the dorm from Monday to Friday and return home during the weekends. Therefore, he was left alone in the dorm whenever weekends arrived.

His cold had long recovered, just that he still had the symptoms—blocked nose and coughing. As the latter was a cold cough, it was more troublesome since it would even take up to months of coughing to recover if not taken good care of.

Resting on Saturday, Song Shuhang had slept till 8 am before he got up while going to the dining hall to grab some light food.

As he had nothing on, he went back to the dorm.

After turning his computer on, he habitually opened the chat log of Nine Provinces Number One Group group. This became one of his favorite ways to pass time everyday.

He hadn’t even noticed as ten days passed since his joining the group.

Lurking for more than ten days, the majority of the members was discussing about their adventures in the secret territory and their harvest, or where did the evil spirits and demons appear at, and how they would subdue and kill them while speaking as if it was all real. Song Shuhang thought that if he were to make a copy of these contents, he could send it online as a Xianxia novel to earn money as an author after slightly amending the contents.

Within ten days, Song Shuhang had gotten to know several figures within the group.

For example, True Monarch Yellow Mountain—the admin—who rarely appeared, or the two managers, Daluo Sect’s True Monarch Rain Moon and Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue, that had never appeared since he had joined the group.

The ones usually online were ‘information-gathering’ Northern River’s Loose Cultivator, the expert in seeking death Thrice Reckless Mad Saber, Su Clan’s Seven who only spoke about fighting whenever he opened his mouth, and Medicine Master whose words were as precious as gold.

There was another lurker named Wandering Monk Profound Principle inside the group. Even if he were to appear, he would only send some emojis or punctuation marks. It was said that this senior monk was in a silent meditation. Not only was he unable to talk, neither could he type any words and the most he could do was to send an expression.

Lastly, inside this chuunibyou group, there was a female named Spirit Butterfly Island’s Soft Feather who seemed normal, judging from her messages. As there was just a single digit difference between hers and Song Shuhang’s ID number, he had been accidentally added into this group.

He had obtained this knowledge when the enthusiastic Northern River’s Loose Cultivator introduced the other members to Spirit Butterfly Island’s Soft Feather.

❄️❄️❄️

Opening Nine Provinces Number One Group chat’s window, the first thing he saw was Medicine Master’s message.

“Improved a foundation liquid recipe.” It was a rare thing for Medicine Master to speak.

This was a sentence of five words and a full stop. Ever since Song Shuhang had joined the group, he had never seen Medicine Master send such a long message, therefore he continued reading curiously.

His message was sent during wee hours.

“Simplified Body Tempering liquid recipe: Ginseng 150g, Wolfberry 215g, Morning Dew Mysterious Grass 50g, Rising Sun Stone 150g, Maiden’s Fragrance 65g, Fresh Overlord Branch 50g, sliced Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo 200g…”

A series of forty-five different ingredients—with the familiar ones such as ginseng, wolfberry, and such, and also uncommon ones like Rising Sun Stone along with a few ingredients that were totally unheard of such as Morning Dew Mysterious Grass, Fresh Overlord Branch, Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo, and more.

“Following the ratios in the recipe, add the ingredients one by one into the furnace, simmer for five minutes; add the new medicinal ingredients, and continue to simmer for around five minutes. Do pay attention to fire’s temperature! Repeat this cycle until the medicinal liquid becomes a paste. After that, the completed product should be black, transparent, and exude a strong smell.”

That was easy to understand!

Out of the over forty ingredients’ names, Shuhang only knew a few so he curiously checked up the rest on the net.

Within the recipe, more than thirty were all common traditional chinese medicine, the type used for replenishing qi and blood.

There were fifteen other ingredients such as Morning Dew Mysterious Grass, Overlord Branch, Scarlet Flame Bamboo and so on that were totally unheard of. Could it be that these were figments of the ‘Medicinal Master’ and the group?

‘These few fellas have been manifesting hardcore delusional behavior, for them to even come up with a recipe… would there actually be someone who follows the recipe and consumes the medicinal paste afterwards?’ Song Shuhang thought.

He was quite worried because food can be randomly eaten, but medicine cannot be randomly taken!

Furthermore, randomly consuming medicine would most probably cause death. Should he try to dissuade the chuunibyou-disease members of the chat? After all, he had been watching on the sidelines for more than ten days.

He couldn’t bear for someone in the group to die due to randomly consuming medicine.

While he continued reading the chat, sure enough, someone had already followed the recipe to refine the medicine!

Unexpectedly, the person who did it was the most normal Spirit Butterfly Island’s Soft Feather lady, at around 2 a.m.

Spirit Butterfly Island’s Soft Feather: “Compared to the older version of body tempering liquid, several rare ingredients were removed and the concocting process has been simplified drastically. Senior Medicine Master, to what degree should the heat be controlled? I have just attempted it earlier on but failed during the process. Also, what’s the difference in efficacy between the old and new versions?

“Effect 2:1,” Medicine Master replied.

The medicinal effect was only half of the one before, after all many precious ingredients were removed. However, with such common and mass-orientated ingredients being sufficient to concoct a body tempering liquid, it was already worthwhile.

“Heat control and specific timing have to be grasped by oneself and can’t be explained,” once again, Medicine Master had sent another long text. It was only when questions regarding pills appeared that he would type more. “Also, if your heat control is lacking, it’s recommended to use fire control treasures.”

“Thank you, Senior, I shall try it again.” Butterfly Feather sent a ? and went offline.

The last message sent by Spirit Butterfly Island’s Soft Feather was at 2:30 am. If she had gone to concoct the pill, wouldn’t she have already concocted several furnaces worth of pills after this much time passed?

Wouldn’t this cause death? Originally, this group of chuunibyous was already super ignorant—if they were to randomly consume medicine, wouldn’t they become extremely ignorant? Previously, they could still be rescued, but now, after eating the wrong medicine, they were basically incurable alright!

Finally, his conscience couldn’t bear it and he started typing, “Medicine cannot be recklessly consumed!”

Just when he was about to press [send] and post his first message within the group, the chat window vibrated.

A ? popped up within the chat window.

This was from an administrator of the group—named Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue—that had yet to appear since Song Shuhang had entered the group. “This recipe is pretty good. I have consecutively tried out seven furnaces and successfully concocted it without much trouble, the success rate is also on the high side. Although the medicinal effect is roughly 50% of that of the old recipe, its difficulty has decreased by more than ten times. Despite this being the lowest-grade body tempering liquid, precious ingredients are getting scarcer and scarcer due to the thinning of world’s spiritual qi and to us, this is a good thing. Medicine Master, continue to work hard. If you could simplify a recipe of third grade and above, it would really be a virtuous achievement.

P.S. “Most importantly, the concocting method’s difficulty was greatly reduced, such that it can even be passed to trainees to concoct.”

Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue was a renowned big senior within the group and his strength was a tier above True Monarch Yellow Mountain’s. Furthermore, he had extremely deep attainments in concocting pills, therefore it could be said that he was an authority with regards to pill refining. Thus, his praise would naturally encourage a junior like Medicine Master.

“Thank you Senior, I shall work hard!” Medicinal Master excitedly typed a sentence of more than six words, furthermore with a fast speed.

The corners of Song Shuhang’s mouth started to twitch. To think someone had already concocted and consumed that ‘body tempering liquid’!