As Hao Yun asked the question, the world suddenly fell silent. The birds stopped their song, the butterfly landed, and the flowers around Hao Yun and Zhang Zhenking seemed to lose their luster, as if something was draining their very essence.
Zhang Zhenking then saw the true face of the Devil Child. His blue eyes were piercing, and his shadow morphed into a thousand tiny tentacles, wiggling, trying to find anything to strangle. Zhang Zhenking was in the later stage of the Black Sun realm. While his cultivation was not the highest among the Twelve Elders, he was one of the most talented. But even for him, the aura of this kid who was only at Sun Refining was still spine-chilling. If he didn't have full control of his body, a single bead of sweat would have formed on his back.
Calming his mind, he answered the question with full conviction. "My loyalty lies with the sect. If there's someone inside this Purple Moon Sect trying to destroy it from the inside, then I would destroy them."
"Good." Hao Yun nodded; the chilling aura around him vanished, and he smiled childishly. "You're so cool! When I grow up, I want to be like you!"
Zhang Zhenking inwardly sighed in relief. "Then, what is your second question?"
"Ah, it's not too important. I'm just wondering what would happen if one or several outer disciples met our enemy. After all, they would roam around in the eastern section of our continent."
That question was also something he could answer easily. "Truthfully, there's nothing they can do besides die."
One of his concerns was actually about the most exceptional outer sect disciples being targeted by this mysterious enemy or other great sects. But he couldn't confine the most talented disciples while others tried to gather treasures. After all, this race was one of the opportunities where someone could hone their skills.
Of course, he didn't ignore this problem entirely. After all, while the main goal of this race was to get as many treasures as possible to prepare for the war that would happen—either with the mysterious enemy or with other great sects—there was also a goal to gather as much information as possible. If talented disciple students stumbled upon something deemed a threat to the sect, his subordinates, who mingled with outer disciples, would help them. But he had limited subordinates, and he reckoned there would probably be many disciples who would die in this race.
"That's unfortunate," Hao Yun put his hands behind his head. "Hopefully, the most interesting ones will live. Alright then, Elder Zhang Zhenking, see you later."
As Hao Yun left, Zhang Zhenking wondered about Hao Yun's last words. He said the most interesting ones, not the most talented ones. This meant that Hao Yun had his eyes on someone.
Zhang Zhenking started to walk again. He prayed that whoever interested Hao Yun was a person who deserved to die painfully.
***
Liu Xing was sitting on top of the roof of a high tower. From his position, he could see the entirety of Mystic Moon City. This city was so large, there were man-made buildings as far as he could see.
This view reminded him of the skyline from his balcony on Earth. But where his old home had been surrounded by bland skyscrapers and cookie-cutter apartment blocks, Mystic Moon City was a feast for the eyes. Pagoda-style towers with sweeping, tiled roofs punctuated the skyline. Elegant bridges arched over canals, connecting neighborhoods of whitewashed houses with intricately carved wooden balconies. Even the simplest dwellings sported colorful paper lanterns and potted bonsai trees, a far cry from the utilitarian structures of his past life.
As he scanned his surroundings, Liu Xing thought about what he would do. This Mystic Moon City was only a day away from the sect—although that was at his full speed using Lightning Cloak.
Sooner or later, the disciples from Purple Moon Sect would come to this city and try to find treasures here, but tonight, Liu Xing was pretty sure he was the only one in this city. Before, he thought that he would pass treasures near the sect, but as he contemplated here, he thought that it would be a waste. Hence, why he sat on the roof of the highest building with a dilemma: stick to his original plan, or alter it a little.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Holding the token, Liu Xing checked the leaderboard. This leaderboard was still empty, but Liu Xing knew that soon, there would be disciples on this list.
"Calm yourself," Liu Xing muttered.
If he wanted to win this race, then he needed to be patient. He needed to ignore the leaderboard and focus on his efforts.
Opening the list of treasures all disciples needed to get, Liu Xing scanned the items. As he scrolled through it, Liu Xing chose one item randomly and read its full description.
Name: Flute of Serenity
Location: This item's whereabouts are near Mystic Moon City.
Description: This item was originally created by a master instrument maker as a gift to his nephew in the Purple Moon Sect. He was killed by a group of bandits, and the flute was stolen. This item can slightly increase cultivation speed.
"Interesting."
The description wasn't too helpful. This flute apparently could increase cultivation speed, but it didn't say how fast or how to use the item. Instead, the description focused on the background of the item.
Checking other items, he realized there was a similar pattern. Thunderstrike Gauntlets' location was also near this city, created by a blacksmith from the north. This blacksmith was affiliated with Purple Moon Sect but was killed by Ethereal Wing Sect, which apparently was affiliated with Verdant Mountains Sect, one of the five great sects. The Red Lotus Staff was stolen from a member of the Purple Moon sect, and then lent to a loose cultivator, and so on.
As he browsed, he realized that most of the items he checked were near this city. But Liu Xing didn't sort it out. Hell, there was no indication that he could sort by location. Which meant one thing.
"The interface knows my location and is prioritizing treasures near me!"
He tried to scroll to the bottom of the list, and indeed, the last item was located in a country he had never heard of, but the top items in the list were all in this city or near it. He counted at least ten items nearby.
This revelation was slightly changing his mind. He thought that in this race, while he got basic info, he needed to get the detailed info by gathering information himself. But this list made everything convenient. With this list, he would know what items were nearby.
"Let's see if there's another hidden feature in this interface."
He remembered Joni from his last life. That guy was crazy rich, but also talented in many things. One topic that he remembered till now was when he delved into web and app development. That guy learned an entire JavaScript language in merely a month and started contributing to large projects from Meta by the name of React.
In this period of time before he got bored and returned to binge-watching anime again, Joni said that most developers actually cared about user experience and usually designed user interfaces that could be used by almost everyone, including blind people, whether fully blind or just color blind, people who couldn't use their hands to interact with a mouse and keyboard—including people with suddenly broken keyboards or mice—and many other types of disabilities. He told him that sometimes, there were hidden features that would never be used by normal people but used by a small percentage of users who didn't interact with the web in the normal way.
The takeaway was, most developers cared about users and usually obsessively designed features that would not be used by many people. He joked that the only thing stopping them from polishing every little feature was the company they worked for.
After that, every time William found a web app, he would tinker with it a bit. Sometimes, he would discover that the app had many keyboard shortcuts, and other times he would find weird color schemes designed to accommodate color-blind users.
Now, this interface was probably not a website, but it could still be classified as an app. Which meant what Joni said probably could be applied to this interface.
This interface was as convenient as a modern app, and if his hunch was correct, then perhaps there were hidden features here that could make him abandon his original plan.
He came back to the page of Flute of Serenity and tried to tinker with it. He rotated the interface, used voice commands, and even tried to tap it with his index finger. When all of them resulted in nothing, Liu Xing decided to send qi toward the token, and change indeed happened!
Below the description, there was a little down arrow. And when Liu Xing focused his attention there, new different items showed up.
Additional information: This item is suspected to be in the hands of a cultivator named Qian Biaou, a member of the Qian clan.
When seeing this additional information, Liu Xing stood up and shouted, "Hell yeah!"
Sitting cross-legged again, he suspected there was another feature, so he focused on the name of the Qian clan and added more qi to his token. Suddenly, there was an underline below the name of Qian Clan.
Excited, Liu Xing focused his attention on those underlined words, and the page suddenly changed.
Name: Qian Clan
Location: North of Mystic Moon Town
Description: A small clan that specializes in making pills.
As he saw this new page, Liu Xing's eyes widened. So it was true. The interface had many hidden features, and they could be activated probably by giving more qi to the token while willing the hidden feature to show up.