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Restaurants surrounded the vicinity of the Mysterious Virtual Path. Here, people ate their meals and rested while waiting for their friends or disciples who were still within the path. This was also one of the most popular areas in the Chen Xiao Sect.
Guo Shier followed Moni-er into a restaurant where she ordered a bunch of Rune Food. By this time, Guo Shier was already starving. He had not eaten for three days. He was so weak and soft all over.
Guo Shier buried his face into the food. He did not care that his Master and his wife were bickering in front of him.
Moni-er adored Guo Shier. From time to time, she would stop arguing with Ku Mu and hand Guo Shier more Rune Food. She decided to treat Guo Shier like her own son. Unknown to herself, the more she saw Guo Shier becoming satiated, the less she argued.
Ku Mu was rather annoyed at the gentleness of Moni-er towards Guo Shier. During the time Ku Mu and Moni-er were together, Ku Mu never felt this kind of treatment from Moni-er.
After eating a lot of food, Guo Shier asked, “Master, how often can I enter the Mysterious Virtual Path?”
“Once you enter the third circle, you can only enter it once a year,” Ku Mu answered. “When you enter the fourth circle, you can only enter once every three years. Since you’ve entered the third circle, you have to wait a year before entering again.”
“There is a quota for all the circles,” Moni-er added. “Those who can only go as far as the first circle can go in every 10 days. Those who reach the second circle can enter once every two months.”
“But why do you have to wait so long?” Guo Shier complained.
Moni-er shook her head. “Don’t think like that, my dear baby. You received a lot of benefits entering the Mysterious Virtual Path. It will take a lot of time for you to fully digest and absorb all the Runes. You still have to practice and exercise in order for you to master the knowledge that you have gained. There’s nothing to be gained from rushing to enter again.”
“Because we have entered the fifth lap, we can only go back after 10 to 20 years,” she continued. “It would be useless for us to do it more often.”
Guo Shier suddenly remembered the Altar. It was very similar to how the Mysterious Virtual Path worked.
Although not as comprehensive as this Mysterious Virtual Path, the Altar he found was also powerful. He certainly benefited from it.
Guo Shier can now also see the enormous influence of the Mysterious Virtual Path on this advanced Artificer World.
“How many Grandmaster level disciple does the Chen Xiao Sect have?” he asked.
Moni-er replied. “Oh, grandmaster level? If you are talking about the combined number of both the Artificers and Marked Warriors, there would be thousands of them in the Chen Xiao Sect. But in your age group, you’re the only Grandmaster. Hehehe! Your future is very promising!”
“He’s just a child,” Ku Mu interrupted. “Don’t let this go into his head.”
“What’s the matter with that?” Moni-er said angrily. “Oh, you think you can do better? Where were you when you were 10 years old huh?”
Ku Mu said, “I was advanced for a ten-year-old in the Chen Xiao Sect. I was already an early stage Artificer Master.”
Moni-er just laughed at Ku Mu’s face, “Well, Guo Shier is a peak stage Artificer Grandmaster at the age of 10. He’s so much better than you. What’s so great about you?”
Guo Shier intervened before it got out of hand, “Master, why did the Headmaster summon us?”
“I don’t know,” Ku Mu replied rather blandly. “We can ask about it when we get there.”
Guo Shier had more questions. “Master, you talked about the other Mysterious Virtual Path for Marked Warriors. What is it called?”
Moni-er hugged Guo Shier and said, “My precious baby, it is called the Marked Warrior Mysterious Virtual Path. You can also enter it and have the ability of a Marked Warrior.”
“This is also possible?” Guo Shier asked in astonishment.
Ku Mu said, “Of course. I already reached the fourth circle and gained the strength of an early stage Marked Warrior Unbound Master. Unfortunately, I can’t go any further; otherwise, I would gain an enormous advantage in actual combat.”
Guo Shier pressed on. “Master, Ying Mo who came with me—can we let him go in to the Marked Warrior Mysterious Virtual Path?”
“Not this year,” Ku Mu said. “I already reached my quota for this year. We can’t let him use the quota for next year, either.”
Guo Shier was flustered, “Master, is there a way for us to secure a spot for him?”
“There is no way to get in right away,” Ku Mu said definitively. “If you want to enter the Mysterious Virtual Path, it is necessary for us to register and line up. Not to mention you must have accumulated some Sect points.”
As Guo Shier started to frown and think about the situation, he saw Ku Mu slowly form a crooked shape with his mouth. It was funny seeing him with any sort of expression. Guo Shier had to pretend to cough to hold his laughter in.
Guo Shier now understood what he had to do. He immediately hugged Moni-er’s arm and said, “Master’s Wife, do you have any available spot?”
He felt cold sweat running down his back as he did this. He had goose bumps all over his body. He couldn’t believe he was actually trying to act cute to get what he needed.
Moni-er was so delighted—she couldn’t help but spoil this child. Her heart just melted. “Don’t worry, my baby—I’ll give you a spot to use.”
“Thank you, Master’s Wife. You’re so good to me!”
Ku Mu just accepted what was happening in front of him and kept a straight face.
Moni-er continued to give more Rune food to Guo Shier and said, “Okay, stop thinking about this alright. Master’s Wife will sure to get you two spots!”
“Two! I can go in too?” Guo Shier asked in surprise.
Moni-er said, “Of course! Getting two spots would be no problem.”
Ku Mu laughed. Getting two spots would not be an easy thing to do. The popularity of the Marked Warrior Mysterious Virtual Path is many times higher that of the Artificer one.
The Marked Warrior Class has always been bigger than the Artificer Class. For every one Artificer, there would be six Marked Warriors. They all relied on the Marked Warrior Mysterious Virtual Path to improve their strength.
The number of spots would be very limited.
Moni-er stared at Ku Mu. “Shier is your apprentice. You have to…never mind.”
She then looked at the baby-faced Guo Shier.
“I’m doing this for Shier.”
The truth is that it was not hard for Ku Mu to acquire two slots. With his strength and status, he had a very high standing in the Chen Xiao Sect. The problem was his communication skills. Ku Mu had never been good at dealing with people. He would rather talk with his fist and use his Rune spells to solve his problems. Moni-er was a hundred times better than him in this respect.
After dinner, Ku Mu said, “Let’s go and see the headmaster.”
Guo Shier whispered, “Master’s Wife, what is the name of the headmaster? What is his class?”
“The headmaster’s name is Mo Tian, and he’s an Artificer Saint,” Moni-er answered.
Ku Mu coldly added, “He’s Moni-er’s father!”
Moni-er cried out, “What about my father? With your temper you wouldn’t be so free now if it weren’t for him.”
Ku Mu was visibly annoyed at Moni-er’s words. “Tsk,” he muttered.
Guo Shier couldn’t help but snicker at his Master’s wordless comment.
Ku Mu took Guo Shier and flew towards their destination. Moni-er followed behind them. It took them half an hour to reach the Chen Xiao Sect lobby in the middle of a mountain. Upon arriving, they landed and started to walk.
“We’ll walk. No one is allowed to fly starting here,” said Ku Mu.
The three started walking from the foot of the mountain until they reached the middle, where an imposing building stood.
If one looked carefully, it was actually a normal looking stone building. The passage ways were also very narrow. Guo Shier couldn’t believe that it was actually the Sect’s main hall.
“Master, is this really the Sect’s main hall?” he had to ask.
Ku Mu replied seriously, “This is the core of the Chen Xiao Sect. Important members of the Sect live here. The restricted area is where the Grand Saints live. This is also the gathering place for the elders.”
While listening to Ku Mu while they walked the narrow streets, Guo Shier saw a couple of people wearing fuchsia-colored robes. They were all Saint-level practitioners. To them, killing a low-leveled Marked Beast Variant was like killing a chicken.
The Saint level practitioners looked like ordinary people walking along the narrow paths. Guo Shier couldn’t see anything special about them.
The three of them continued to walk along the narrow streets with a few rows of houses until they reached a more spacious path.
This road was completely paved with bluestone. It was very quiet and very clean. It was almost deserted with just an occasional harried Inner Gate disciple passing by.
“It’s so quiet here,” Guo Shier remarked.
“Most people are forbidden from entering this place,” Moni-er explained. “The Inner Gate Disciples are only here because of an errand.”
“Is master qualified to live here?” Guo Shier wondered out loud.
“I don’t want to live here,” Ku Mu said.
Moni-er ignored Ku Mu and continued to explain. “As long as one has reached Saint level, they can start living here. I don’t want to live here, either—although I can. It’s just too cold here—not to mention it’s also boring.”
They soon arrived at the Sect central building. It was a humble looking two-storey stone house. When Guo Shier saw it, he thought that the buildings in North Rune Sect were better.
There were two middle-aged Inner Gate Disciples in silver and white robes sitting by the door.
Moni-er was very familiar with this place and knew the two people.
“Hey, Xiao Tong, Xiao Mao! Are you guys the one on duty today? Is my dad here?”
Xiao Tong quickly got up and said, “Missy, the headmaster is in.”
Xiao Tong’s eyes curiously looked at Guo Shier. The child was wearing the same uniform as them. The silver robes signify that the Inner Gate Disciples were already at the Grandmaster level. Xiao Tong was surprised that this young kid was at the same level as him.
Ku Mu coughed to get Xiao Tong’s attention. Xiao Tong immediately looked at him and respectfully said, “Martial Uncle, please come in.”
Moni-er took Guo Shier’s hand and went in. They walked into the hall through the side door. They continued towards the backyard with a small pond and an old ancient three with a full crown of leaves.
A paved walkway made of bluestone made its way towards a couple of stone tables and chairs under the three. Five elderly people wearing fuchsia robes were sitting on some of the stone benches.
Seeing the group of old men, Guo Shier had to hold in his laugher. The Chen Xiao Sect can be too creative sometimes. That color on old men was not attractive at all. It was so ugly.
Moni-er pulled Guo Shier in front of an old man—her father, Mo Tian. She said, “Hey, Dad. This is Guo Shier, my baby!”
The old man looked majestic but he was unsmiling. He said, “Your baby? I don’t remember you having a baby! You guys were never able to make children.”
Guo Shier was speechless. This old man was ruthless even to his own daughter.
Moni-er was slowly simmering in anger.
When Mo Tian finally couldn’t hold it in any longer, he started to laugh.
“Hahaha!”
Ku Mu just stared at him blank-faced and thought to himself, “What a waste of time.”
Guo Shier revealed his innocent and naïve smile. He said, “It’s good to meet you, Grandpa Mo.”
Mo Tian smiled and said, “What a very clever child. Is he the one I’m hearing about in the Mysterious Virtual Path? Your performance was amazing.”
Translator: Glasses TangGu
Editor: M
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Jade Slip 