Global Game: I Can Choose Instance Rewards

Because he clearly understood that his most important goal was still to clear this dungeon. Currently, with the Demon Venerable around Celestial Essence City temporarily cleaned up, and other Demon Generals and demons left for the broader cultivators to handle, it was a precious time for him to rest and consolidate his strength. Once he anticipates more powerful Demon Venerables arriving in the Calamity Realm, he wouldn’t have this leisure time.

As for recruiting disciples for the Martial Venerable Hall, he chose to let destiny decide everything. Even if someone wanted to take advantage of his inattention to do something sneaky, he didn’t mind. After all, he is destined to leave this world, and making long-term plans here is unrealistic; it’s better to act according to circumstances and let fate decide which lucky person will receive his favor.

His gaze shifted, and his attention returned to the bustling streets of Celestial Essence City.

A young man from Xia Country, who had just parted ways with other players not long ago, was wandering aimlessly down a busy street, collecting any useful information he could find, all while wearing sunglasses.

In the crowd behind him, a young white woman with a face full of freckles silently followed him, like a strange ghost. She was gnawing on a children’s lollipop without saying a word, making it difficult for people to understand exactly what she was thinking.

"Why does this strange woman keep following me? Could it be that she’s attracted to my personal charm? But she has too many freckles on her face, it’s a no from me."

The Xia Country player had long noticed the tag-along behind him, but he didn’t pay her much attention.

The real reason was that he had a rather poor impression of this foreign female player from earlier in the private room. From start to finish, she maintained an eerie silence while eating her lollipop, not even exchanging a word or a glance with the other five players, who had already assumed this strange woman was as good as invisible, mutually ignoring each other.

Now she had silently followed him, yet she didn’t come any closer when the Xia Country player intentionally stopped, maintaining a certain distance. Hence, the Xia Country player assumed she was still in that uncommunicative and bizarre state, giving up his attempt to interact.

Anyway, the penalty mechanism for this dungeon was massively enhanced, so he believed that as long as the strange woman didn’t want to die in the penalty zone, she wouldn’t do anything detrimental to him.

Before long, the trail of the two players crossed a long street, passing by numerous pedestrians and shops, and arrived at a corner where hundreds had gathered.

A large group of NPCs congregating often meant triggering a certain storyline or mission, so the Xia Country player immediately heightened his attention, slipping into the crowd like a slippery eel to investigate what was going on.

Soon, he discovered that the hundreds of people were gathered around something similar to a public notice board, with meticulously arranged white papers glued onto a large wooden board. The locals were discussing the notices fervently, most notably about a faction named "Martial Venerable Hall" recruiting disciples.

"Have you all heard? The owner of this Martial Venerable Hall is the very Martial Cultivator who yesterday was personally conferred the title of Martial Venerable by a Confucian sect scholar. It is said that this Daoist came from a lower realm of Dao to develop and expand our Calamity Realm’s martial arts..."

"Martial Venerable?! The scholar himself bestowing such a prestigious title! It seems this Martial Venerable is surely a martial arts expert beyond the Innate level, giving us Martial Artists hope for a future!"

"Heh, they’re only recruiting those under sixteen, what are you getting excited about? Plus, the notice mentions there’s a special test for recruitment; even if you were twenty years younger, you still might not make it..."

"I don’t think so; martial arts are ultimately a small path compared to other great paths. This Martial Venerable Hall might not attract many elite disciples. Those with talent surely already have methods of cultivation, who’s going to abandon their path to focus on martial arts?"

"That’s what you say, but actually, there are not a few cultivating martial arts in the world; plenty practice it concurrently, and there are also many who primarily focus on it, but there’s only this one sect for martial arts beyond Innate!

I can ascertain that many martial arts clans will soon bring their children to pledge allegiance to the Martial Venerable Hall. Although the three paths have great prospects, they require exceptional talent, and those without such talent in the three paths might achieve great distances on the path of martial arts..."

...

These NPCs were hotly discussing, with some skeptical about Martial Venerable Hall’s future and others believing it would expand its influence. These dialogues gave the young Xia Country player some ideas after a short while.

"Heh heh... So this dungeon’s enemies were terrifyingly strong because there’s such a hidden benefit! With the foundation of a high-level player like me, joining this Martial Venerable Hall should be a breeze, right? I bet that Martial Venerable will break the age rule to recruit a peerless genius like me! No wait, why should I have to join this Martial Venerable Hall? Isn’t cultivating immortality more promising than practicing martial arts? Let me see if there’s any immortality sect recruiting..."

At once, this young Xia Country player considered joining the Martial Venerable Hall to learn some skills and improve his strength. But as a native of Xia Country, he naturally felt martial arts were inferior to immortal cultivation, so he thought joining this Martial Venerable Hall might not be the best option; finding a sect that cultivates immortals would be optimal.

Yet, after looking at the notice for a while, he found no other high-end factions recruiting disciples, so, unwilling to give up, he took the opportunity to inquire with some of the gathered NPCs about relevant intel, ultimately realizing from their words that it wasn’t going to be that easy.

"Young man, to be frank, I am a Daoist myself, and at your age, you’ve already missed the best period to enter Dao. High courts like Zhenxu Hall, Qingyang Palace, and Huayang Palace surely won’t accept you. If you’re truly eager to cultivate Dao, why not become my disciple? I’ll only charge you three hundred silver, and promise you’ll draw Qi into your body within a month..."

"Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism have always been recruiting disciples, but they’re looking for prodigies, brother! How old are you? Stop daydreaming! Even if it’s the newly opened Martial Venerable Hall, you can’t get in either..."

"This city only has Daoist sects recruiting disciples, and with your age, they definitely wouldn’t want to start teaching from scratch. However, if you’ve already reached the Innate Realm, you might have a slim chance, but only slim..."

After finishing the dialogue with the NPCs, this player quickly left, heading straight to the location of the Martial Venerable Hall he had discovered.

It’s not that he was resolute about joining Martial Venerable Hall, but rather he wanted to get in contact with the high-end NPCs of this world, perhaps forming some connections, which would greatly benefit him in clearing the dungeon.

As he went, he noticed that the freckled white female player was still ghostly following behind, but he still didn’t pay her much attention, having grown accustomed to ignoring her due to her eccentricity.

Thus, after some time had passed, when the Xia Country player arrived at the central area of Celestial Essence City and found the now bustling entrance of the Martial Venerable Hall, he realized there truly were many people drawn to this place.

Most were indigenous youths or even children accompanied by elders, while a smaller portion was like him, older than the standard, likely coming to watch the excitement.

"Everyone! Those wishing to enter the Martial Venerable Hall must first have apt bone structure! Come here to test your bones!"

Following the voice, the Xia Country player saw a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy standing at the entrance of the Martial Venerable Hall. Dressed as a little Daoist, he was responsible for guiding those gathered outside, having them line up to enter the main hall for bone examination by a middle-aged Daoist with a goatee—a preliminary screening checkpoint.

Of course, age was also a consideration, but it was an implicit requirement; those too young or too old would be directly blocked by the guards outside the hall.

These scenarios were all expected by the Xia Country player. As he contemplated whether to use some tricks to disguise himself as a youth and join in, he suddenly noticed a familiar young man inside the hall, silently observing the scene outside.

"Isn’t that the lone-wolf player who provided information earlier? Why is he in the Martial Venerable Hall? Did he get accepted exceptionally?"

The Xia Country player immediately sensed something was up, preparing to seek some guidance from the player he had only seen yesterday.