Chapter 1: Starting with a Broken Sect

Chapter 1: Starting with a Broken Sect

[The massive holographic virtual game "Starting with a Broken Sect" is about to launch its first non-deletion beta test! Slots for the first phase are limited to 50 people. Deadline is in two days—first come, first served!]

[Recruitment link for the "Starting with a Broken Sect" non-deletion beta test: www.……]

"What kind of trash game is this? It's not even the year 4012 and they dare to advertise holographic virtual reality?"

"Anyone who believes such a game exists is definitely part of the main demographic for health supplements in their old age."

Late at night, an advertisement for a new game quietly appeared on a large gaming forum. Only a few bored night owls glanced at it, immediately suspected it was a scam, and clicked the 'X' without hesitation.

***

"God, please, let someone come forward!"

Song Jiulai pressed her hands together toward the sky, murmuring a prayer that her recruitment drive for the beta test would be filled.

System: "I didn't expect you to be quite clever, Host. Given how much your planet's players love finding loopholes, our sect won't lack people in the future."

Song Jiulai: "Can you help me pick players with high talent? Ideally, the kind where they reach Foundation Establishment in ten days, Golden Core in a hundred, Nascent Soul in a year, and Ascension in ten..."

System: "How about I just turn your Longevity Sect into the number one sect of the Yunzhou Continent right now?"

Song Jiulai: "That works too."

System: "Works my ass! Do you think I don't want to?"

"..."

Song Jiulai had transmigrated to the Yunzhou Continent one month ago.

Before this, she was just an ordinary corporate drone who died after being hit by a drunk driver while trying to save a cat on the road.

A miraculous thing happened: the System appeared at that exact moment.

It claimed it appeared just as it was about to choose a host, citing her "kindness" and whatnot. It was all nonsense—a load of hot air used to bring Song Jiulai to this cultivation realm called the Yunzhou Continent, along with a fake identity.

She was the next successor of a small local sect called the Longevity Sect.

Even the name carried the beautiful and simple wishes of the previous Sect Master. Because the previous master was only at the Foundation Establishment stage and failed to break through to the Golden Core stage for a hundred years, he had eventually passed away.

A month ago, the System had tinkered with the Longevity Sect, leaving behind a prophecy stating that a "Child of Destiny" would soon arrive to save the Longevity Sect and become the next Sect Master, and so on.

Aside from the deceased Sect Master, the entire sect consisted of only a single herb-gathering boy. They were so poor they didn't even have a cafeteria lady, so what was the point of leaving a prophecy?!

Moreover, damn it all, she had transmigrated with her physical body!

She had no cultivation or talent; the System had forcibly opened her spiritual roots. She had even had to beg for basic Qi Refining manuals from the neighboring Weapon Refining Sect. Fortunately, the brothers and sisters there were straightforward...

Beyond that, the System's requirement was for Song Jiulai to turn the Longevity Sect into the number one sect in Yunzhou, as this was its main quest.

First, it specified that the sect population had to reach 50 people to unlock the next mission.

And that was it.

Yes, it couldn't even produce a single low-grade spirit stone.

Song Jiulai looked at her bleak future.

She said sincerely to the System, "How about I just jump off a cliff to restart my life?"

This was a cultivation continent!

There were cultivators here!

This was a true world of the strong devouring the weak!

Someone at her level couldn't even go out for a casual stroll. How did the System dare?

And it wanted her to recruit 50 people.

My god, the last Sect Master of the Longevity Sect was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, and they couldn't even recruit anyone besides a herb-gathering boy.

This world relied on talent. People with spiritual roots capable of cultivation were already rare, and in a place like this, sects were as numerous as cow hairs. Anyone with even a bit of talent would rather work as a handyman in a larger sect than join a sect so poor they couldn't even pay wages in spirit stones.

Song Jiulai closed her eyes and gave up: "Anyway, I only have this one life. Just erase me."

"..."

Perhaps startled by Song Jiulai's attitude of giving up, the System offered another way.

"I can open a channel to briefly link with other worlds, but I need energy provided by you, the Host. Your current energy is insufficient; at most, I can pull a person's soul and consciousness over. To open a full channel, you must become stronger. Therefore, you need to provide a vessel, and it must be voluntary."

"But you cannot reveal my existence or your mission requirements. The difficulty is too high—who would willingly hand their soul and consciousness over to the controller of your world?"

Little did it know, after the System said this, Song Jiulai's eyes suddenly lit up.

Why wouldn't she?

There was a way that was one hundred percent viable!

This was the reason why "Starting with a Broken Sect" appeared on the Blue Star forums.

The only difficulty was that Song Jiulai needed to find a way to provide players with vessels—essentially, "physical bodies" for them to use when coming to this world.

Humans definitely wouldn't work, but there were puppets!

The morality and ethics of the cultivation world were different from other worlds. Some cultivators made puppets that were identical to real humans, and powerful cultivators could even split off their consciousness to possess a puppet—it was essentially a mandatory safety measure for high-level cultivators.

For low-level cultivators, the puppets they molded were merely decorations, though one couldn't rule out them using puppets for other things...

The cultivators of the Weapon Refining Sect knew how to mold puppets.

Full of enthusiasm, Song Jiulai headed straight for the neighboring "Feique Sect," which specialized in weapon refining.

However, the moment she asked for the price of puppets, her world collapsed.

"The lowest grade puppets are made from first-tier spiritual herb powder; one costs ten low-grade spirit stones. If you need ones with better materials, they are even more expensive."

The person speaking to Song Jiulai was a senior sister from the Feique Sect named Su Huanli. She asked in confusion, "Puppets aren't that precious. You should be able to mold them yourself, and the cost would be even lower."

Song Jiulai: "I... this... for now... no time..."

*I don't know how!*

*Senior Sister!!*

*I've only been here for a month! I've been struggling just to understand the basic Qi Refining mental methods, how could I possibly know how to do this!*

Fortunately, Su Huanli didn't ask further. "How many do you need?"

Song Jiulai's lips trembled, her heart feeling as if it were bleeding. "Fifty..."

Su Huanli froze. "Why are you buying so many puppets?"

Song Jiulai: "To conduct some experiments."

Every cultivator in the Yunzhou Continent had their own eccentricities, so Su Huanli didn't press further. "Fine. Pay a deposit first, and I can deliver fifty puppets to you tomorrow."

In the Yunzhou Continent, spirit stones were the hard currency, equivalent to money.

One hundred low-grade spirit stones equaled one mid-grade spirit stone; one hundred mid-grade spirit stones equaled one high-grade spirit stone.

Fifty puppets would cost five mid-grade spirit stones, and the deposit required was one mid-grade spirit stone.

The entire estate left behind by the previous Sect Master of the Longevity Sect was only ten mid-grade spirit stones.

Ten!

That was only enough to buy things like this.

Anything else related to the materials cultivators needed started at dozens or hundreds of spirit stones.

Song Jiulai was so poor that even if she cried at night, she couldn't afford to replenish the water she lost.

Even back when she was a corporate drone, Song Jiulai had never been this poor. She still had to save one mid-grade stone to pay the wages of the sect's only herb-gathering boy.

The sect's only source of income was these herbs, but they didn't sell for much money.

Fortunately, after the puppets were ordered, the System gave her good news.

"Someone has started filling out their information."