After the Elder explained the rules, he dove into a sea of light, disappearing from view. The rest of the players were pulled in one by one.
Rei Lin closed his eyes as the light enveloped him. When he opened them again, he found himself standing in the middle of a vast city — the name echoing inside his mind like a system notification:
"Eastern Continent."
"So I was sent to the Eastern one..." he mumbled as he recalled reading about the Cultivation Online map layout — the world was split into four major regions: North, South, East, and West, with a mysterious fifth one hovering above them all.
"But where exactly am I?" he asked aloud.
Another soft message pinged in his mind:
[You have discovered Divine Phoenix City]
"Divine Phoenix City," he repeated, nodding slowly.
"I must be the first player here," he mumbled as he looked around.
His avatar — now fully loaded — was wearing simple white cultivation robes, standard for new players. He looked like an ordinary outer sect disciple… but in truth, he was anything but ordinary.
"Okay… system, are you here?" he asked.
When he spoke, a small, fairy-like figure appeared in front of him, glowing faintly like a spirit from the children book.
"At your service~!" she chirped.
Rei Lin blinked, surprised. "Whoa… who are you?" he asked, remembering he had not read about fairies in Cultivation Online.
"Tch, can't you tell? I'm your system," she huffed. "Just while you're in here, I've chosen to have my own avatar as well." She twirled in the air with a proud grin.
"I see… So can I still use my system panel?" he asked.
He concentrated, and the familiar golden screen popped up in front of him.
"By the way, can anyone else see this?" he asked, glancing around.
"No, no one but you. Not even the creators of this Player System can see or hear me," she said confidently, puffing out her tiny chest.
Rei Lin nodded and began walking.
"By the way… I sense I no longer have a cultivation," he said, stopping beside a stone pillar on the side of the road.
"I mean… does that mean I have to cultivate here and in the original world seperately?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"No. Thanks to your unique situation, a new feature has been activated. Would you like to see it?" she asked with a smirk, as he nodded.
A screen appeared in front of him:
[New System Feature: 1% Law]
[Effect: 1% of the Host's in-game cultivation will automatically reflect in the real body.]
"Just 1%? Isn't that almost nothing?" he asked, pausing with a raised brow.
She rolled her eyes.
"You can increase this percentage by completing certain missions that the system may assign later," she explained as he nodded thoughtfully.
"Anyway," he said, glancing at her. "Let me give you a name. It's weird calling you 'System' all the time."
She tilted her head and looked at him expectantly, eyes shimmering slightly.
Rei Lin scratched the back of his neck. "Well… I'm bad at names, so I'll just call you Queen."
Her eyes lit up with joy.
"Queen?! Hahaha! What a perfect name — suits me wonderfully!" she laughed, floating around gleefully, clearly pleased with his choice.
Rei Lin smiled, seeing that she liked the name.
"Now… since 1% of my cultivation will reflect in my real body, let's go and cultivate," he mumbled as he began looking around, hoping to find the best place. Eventually, he found one — Cultivation Haven.
He stepped inside.
"Hello, how may I help you?" a neatly dressed receptionist greeted him with a smile.
"I'd like to book a room to cultivate," he said.
"Which suite would you prefer? Lower, middle, or upper?" she asked politely.
Rei Lin raised a brow, prompting her to explain.
"The lower grade has normal Qi, the middle grade has twice the amount of Qi, and the upper grade has five times the density of Qi," she said.
"I'll go with the upper grade," he replied. She nodded and motioned him forward.
"Of course. It will cost 1,000 gold coins per hour. How much time would you like?" she asked.
Rei Lin scratched his cheek."I'm sorry… I don't have gold coins," he admitted.
Just as her face started to fall and she was about to turn him away, he quickly added, "Can I use spirit stones?"
She blinked. "What?"
"I mean… spirit stones," he repeated, pulling one from his pouch.
"Ohhh, you meant Spirit Crystals," she laughed."Yes! That's what I meant," Rei Lin said, smiling as he thought, So, here they're called Spirit Crystals, not Spirit Stones.
From legacy Shi Yun had left for him, spirit stones were like garbage, he has an hill of them in his system inventory, which have endless space.
"A single Spirit Crystal is equal to 1,000 gold coins, so yes, we accept them. How much time would you like to stay?" she asked.
"I'll stay for one week," he replied.
She pressed a few buttons and then stood, politely guiding him.
"Please pay," she said, and after he transferred the crystals, she led him to a small, elegant room. As he walked in, she glanced at him again — quietly amazed that such a young man had such a big fortune.
Rei Lin sat cross-legged in the room. It was very silent and soundproof, just like the system had promised — perfect for cultivation. He could feel the waves of Qi softly flowing around the space as he closed his eyes. At that moment, Queen appeared again, floating beside him.
"since you are just going to cultuvate, I will just sleep" saying so she vanished.
Rei Lin began to recall the Primordial Elephant Hell Suppressing Art.
"Its main focus is to awaken and cultivate all 840 million cells in one's body."
The technique was divided into different stages. First was the Hell Element, which converted all cells into Hell Elephant. Then came the Divine Elephant, followed by the Ancient Elephant, and finally the Primordial Element.
"And this entire art contains a total of 30 Powerful tecniques. Getting the first five is relatively easy as long as one converts the right number of cells."
At two awakened cells, one gains the Hell Spear.
At four cells, one manifests the Devil Wings.
At six cells, one obtains the Devil's Veil.
At eight cells, the user unlocks the Hell Cauldron.
Finally, at ten cells, the Devil Seal is formed.
After that, he don't know when he can get other 25 Techniques.