Chapter 10 : Leveling Up Through Pills
Yun Qingyue stayed with the little white tiger on the spirit boat for ten days. During this time, the little tiger used every trick of cuteness and coquetry imaginable, emptying her stock of nurturing essence pills. For her, nurturing essence pills were nothing special—having reached Golden Core long ago, she didn't even have interest in taking the sweet pills herself. The only reason a bottle remained in her storage ring was because the immortal cranes at her sect enjoyed them.
Although she never had the chance to feed them to the cranes, she had kept them anyway, and now they had finally found a use.
Past noon, the little white tiger came seeking food again according to its three-meals-a-day schedule. She walked directly to where Yun Qingyue sat cross-legged, skillfully tilting her body and falling directly into Yun Qingyue's lap.
Yun Qingyue quickly opened her eyes, looking helplessly at the little tiger cub in her lap. Her jade-white fingertips hovered near the tiger's fluffy ears, as if afraid to touch them: "Your coquetry is useless with me. The nurturing essence pills are gone; I showed you the empty bottle yesterday."
Jiang Mo naturally knew this and had no intention of demanding more. But that didn't prevent her from getting close to the beauty. So she gave a milky "aowu" sound, her fluffy little head actively nuzzling against Yun Qingyue's hand, maintaining her affection.
This was originally quite a lovely scene, until the system suddenly spoke: "Host, are you taking advantage of your caretaker?"
The little white tiger suddenly stiffened, then glared fiercely at the swaying system light orb: "Aren't you supposed to be a newborn system baby? When did your mind get filled with such trash? Can't you see I'm clinging to a powerful backer? Even if she doesn't have nurturing essence pills now, after we leave this place, won't she be able to afford more?"
The system felt the host was saying one thing but meaning another, as her current emotion was clearly embarrassed anger. However, as an assistant system, it chose not to expose the host, so it just swayed without saying more.
Yun Qingyue naturally couldn't see the system. In this cultivation world with different systems, nobody could detect the system's existence. So all she saw was the little white tiger suddenly making a few sounds, looking embarrassingly angry for some reason, but also adorably milk-voiced, making one's hands itch to pet it.
But before Yun Qingyue could react, the communication jade pendant at her waist suddenly lit up, followed by a panicked cry: "Senior Sister, help!"
Yun Qingyue naturally recognized that the plea came from a disciple in training, but she couldn't imagine what danger in this small secret realm could make someone call for her help. Her thin lips pressed tightly together as she used one hand to move the little white tiger from her lap, and the other to grasp the frost-blue sword at her side: "Wait for me here, do not leave the spirit boat."
Before her words had fallen, she had already transformed into a streak of light, departing on her sword.
Jiang Mo stood dumbfounded on the deck, not having reacted yet. Was Yun Qingyue's departure really so fast? So fast that not only had her mind not caught up, but her eyes hadn't either—the person had vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Of course it's fast. Your caretaker has Golden Core Perfect cultivation, which translates to level 40 in game terms. How could she not be fast?" The system's voice rang out at the right moment, as Jiang Mo had inadvertently spoken her thoughts aloud.
This time Jiang Mo wasn't annoyed; her tiger eyes gleamed with spirit as she looked at the system: "Level 40 is already that powerful?" Without waiting for the system to answer, she continued: "By the way, I've never asked you, what's the maximum level in this game system? And about leveling up, you said earlier there were no targets for daily quests, but what about now? Can they be issued now?"
Since being picked up by Yun Qingyue and starting to take pills, the host had stopped caring about leveling up. Fortunately, the system was ultimately a mechanical product without a complete emotional system; otherwise, it might have been too lazy to engage with her now.
At this moment, seeing her take the initiative to ask, the system was forthcoming: "Host, actually level 40 is just mid-to-low tier. The game system's current maximum level is 100, with every 10 levels corresponding to the cultivation system from Mortal, Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Void Crossing, Spirit Division, Fusion, Grand Achievement, to Tribulation Crossing—a total of ten realms. Within each, every 3 levels correspond to early, middle, and late sub-realms, with level 10 being Perfect. If the host needs, the character level viewing function can be activated in the future... but it requires 100 points."
The useless little tiger immediately rolled her eyes upon hearing this, stomping her paws on the deck impatiently: "You want me to level up but ask me for points? What about daily quests? Don't tell me there's no way to gain experience and points besides killing monsters?"
The system seemed to hesitate before finally responding: "Ding, daily quests will automatically unlock when the host reaches level 10."
With the system's precise answer, Jiang Mo didn't press for more, understanding that many games don't have daily quests available from the beginning. The difference was that those games leveled up quickly, while her real-life version was much slower. With this thought, she casually opened her character panel to see how far she was from level 10—
[Host: Jiang Mo
Race: White Tiger
Profession: Divine Beast
Level: 6
Combat Power: 160
Experience: 107/160
Points: 0
Potential: ∞
Skills: Blood Inheritance (Not Activated)]
Leveling up through pills was indeed fast. In just a few days, Jiang Mo had emptied Yun Qingyue's supply of nurturing essence pills and successfully reached level 6. However, the combat power gained through pill-leveling seemed hollow, still showing only base values.
Nevertheless, looking at that combat power of 160, then thinking back to her initial combat power of 5, Jiang Mo momentarily had the illusion that she had become quite formidable.
But her pride lasted only seconds. Thinking of Yun Qingyue's level 40, the little useless tiger who had just started to float was immediately slapped back into a deep pit by reality. She raised her tiger paw to wipe her face, then directly asked the system: "Four more levels to go. How much experience do I need?"
The system knew she wanted to know how many more sweet pills she needed to take, so it calculated for her: "Host, the experience required for each level doubles, so currently, to reach level 10, the host needs 4,853 more experience points. Calculating at 5 experience points per nurturing essence pill, the host needs to take 970.6 pills... roughly the size of a basketball."
Jiang Mo had been quite happy leveling up by taking pills, firmly deciding to cling to a powerful backer to advance. But now, seeing the data calculated by the system, even if they really were sweet pills, consuming over a thousand in a short time made her teeth ache just thinking about it.
The little white tiger couldn't help mumbling: "Won't I get cavities after eating so many?"
The system solemnly responded: "No, actually nurturing essence pills aren't sweet and don't contain sugar."
Jiang Mo felt the system was making a dry joke. She looked away, no longer paying attention to it. In her idle time, she mentally calculated how many pills she would need to level from 10 to 11. After reaching the conclusion of over a thousand pills, she suddenly felt the pressure... not pressure on her benefactor's purse, but pressure on her own teeth.
She wondered if, besides nurturing essence pills, her powerful backer might have some higher-level experience pills.
While she was lost in these random thoughts, Yun Qingyue, who had just left, returned on her sword. At the same time, she was holding two people, one in each hand. Both were covered in injuries and blood, looking extremely miserable.
Jiang Mo was startled, but the ice-cold Yun Qingyue was not one to pity the wounded. She casually tossed them onto the spirit boat's deck. The two people, originally unconscious, were jolted awake by the fall. Groggily opening their eyes and seeing they had returned to the spirit boat, they first felt relief, then grew nervous upon seeing the blue hem of her robe.
After a while, the two finally gathered their courage to take out medicine from their storage bags. After recovering somewhat, they hurriedly apologized to Yun Qingyue: "It was our recklessness. Thank you, Senior Sister, for your rescue. Please punish us as you see fit."
Yun Qingyue glanced at the two but didn't say much, only coldly remarking: "Life and death are predetermined; what does it have to do with me?"
After saying this, she turned and left, scooping up the little white tiger into her arms as she passed by. The two disciples barely had time to see clearly before the legendary white tiger divine beast passed them by.
Over the next two days, disciples who had entered the secret realm for training gradually returned, and the little tiger's interrupted supply of sweet pills was soon restored.
"Ding, congratulations host, experience points +5..."
"Ding, congratulations host..."
"Ding..."
"System, can you turn off the notification sound?!"