Three’s Company

Sect master Liang Tian of the Profound Sword sect went to the theater realm, and immediately purchased 'The Duel'. The trailer on the light screen had gained his attention, so its wasn't surprising that this was his first choice was to watch this movie. The lighting in the virtual realm dimmed, and two hours later Liang Tian sat pondering what he just witnessed.

"This is strange", Liang Tian reflected, "I'm obviously stronger tha Long Jiu and Ye Gucheng, but if I was in the same realm as them, I would have lost."

After watching the film, he could only admit that the two swordsmen in the film had a better foundation in the Dao of swords than he did. A thought occurred to him, so he entered Fairy and Sword and went to the training hall of the sect in the game. The training hall had been changed recently, and a new feature allowed players to fight against an opponent of their choice from any realm.

Liang Tian walked into the training arena with a familiar figure waiting, Long Jiu.

"I want to fight him on the same level", Liang Tian said as he pulled out his sword.

An uncomfortable feeling came over him as something came over him restricting his Qi, body, and mind until he was once again a late Foundation Establishment realm cultivator. It was such as strange feeling that knowledge he had acquired over his life was being restricted as well.

Inside the arena, Liang Tian heard music start playing and even though he recognized the instruments being played, he still was in shock. The tempo and melodies were very different than any other song he had heard previously, and it caused his blood to race and mind to focus.

"The sect master of the Profound Sword sect, Liang Tian", an announcer's voice could be heard over the music, surprising Liang Tian before it continued, "and his opponent, the man known as Dragon nine, Long Jiu…the fighters are ready, and Fight!"

Liang Tian wasn't sure what was going on, but he quickly sensed Long Jiu sprint towards him. He quickly raised his guard, and used the momentum of the strike to gain distance. Finally gaining his bearings over the situation, Liang Tian shifted into an attack stance and engaged in battle against the man he watched in the recording earlier.

Unfortunately for the sect master, even though he was able to battle for nearly half an hour, his earlier suspicions were true, the two men in the recording had a higher level of mastery than himself despite the lower realm.

Liang Tian was also impressed with the changes to the solo battle arena. In his battle with Long Jiu, he did not suffer an overwhelming loss. As he fought against his opponent, he scored several hits against Long Jiu, and the depletion of Qi, and stamina were as it should have been.

Feeling somewhat unconvinced, Liang Tian said, "I wonder how much of a gap there would be if Long Jiu was my realm."

To his shock, a woman that staffed the fighter's waiting room turned to him, "Sect master Liang, Do you wish to fight on equal terms with Long Jiu?"

Liang Tian didn't respond at first, he had ignored the men and women inside the game assuming their were part of the background.

But he quickly recovered, "Yes."

"Please wait a moment", the woman smiled, and Liang Tian felt his cultivation level return to it's original level, "Report to the arena when you're ready."

Liang Tian immediately headed to the exit that led to the arena, and as he approached the arena entrance, he heard the music and the announcements once again. When Long Jiu came into view, Liang Tian felt an oppression he hadn't felt in a long time. As a Nascent Soul, he had long been used to his sword intent overpowering others. Today, he felt like he could be cut at any moment, but he grit his teeth and attacked when the announcer signaled the start of the match. In half the time as the first match, he found himself in the ready room again. Liang Tian's confidence wasn't shattered, but his defeat had chipped the image he had of himself in his mind.

"Sect master Liang?", the same woman said as he sat in a chair deliberating.

"Yes?", he reflectively answered.

"According to the information on your jade slip, you haven't taken the advice given according to your scan", the woman replied, "Have you thought about participating in a mirror match?"

"I would fight against myself?", Liang Tian asked.

"Yes", she responded, "There are many ways you can set up your opponent to assist your cultivation journey."

"Can you give me an example?", he inquired.

"Of course", the woman answered, "The first is the original mirror mode, in which your opponent will fight you only using all the methods, techniques, spells, tactics, and items that you carry, use, or know. Next is the advanced mirror mode. This fight will use all your knowledge, items, and skills, but can fight using tactics or a combination of skills that you might not have previously considered. Finally, there is the optimum mirror mode, in which you will face a version of yourself that is completely optimized according to the senior's changes."

"I'll try the original mode first", he said before heading back to the door connecting to the arena.

An hour later, he was sitting back in the chair, but this time it wasn't because his opponent had defeated him. The match had been declared a tie after an hour, but he felt defeated in his heart. It was true that he faced himself without any additional variations, but he also felt like he had faced a perfect match. The clone moved like him, but the timing was better. The tactics were his own, but the execution of it was better. He knew that if he were fight a life and death battle with his doppelgänger, he would have died, and his opponent would have lived with some serious injuries. He fought the other two mirror modes next to some surprising results. The advanced clone won in over 20 minutes, and the optimum clone won in 10 minutes.

Compared to his fights with Long Jiu, this meant his advanced clone could beat Long Jiu or Ye Gucheng if they were both lower realms of cultivation strength. The optimum clone should be able to beat either of the two from 'The Duel', no matter what cultivation level they were.

Liang Tian was at a crossroads, should he continue to stick with what he was doing, or should he take the risk and follow the recommendations.

Yun Qian, Sect master of the Azure River sect, was having her own fun as Sect master Liang Tian was ruminating over his decision. She had also watched 'The Duel', but had went to 'Sentinel' next instead. Her original plan had been to play 'Fairy and Sword' first as she really enjoyed how that realm looked aesthetically. Her mind changed when she saw the trailers because she was simply interested in the new worlds.

After entering the 'Sentinel' realm, Yun Qian found herself on a stationary flying ship above a major city. When she looked down, she saw that her robes weren't the same as the ones she was wearing before. She was somewhat displeased because although the robes she was wearing weren't bad, they lack the charm of the robes she was wearing for real. She ignored it for now, and began reading all the information that had appeared in front of her on a light screen. As a Nascent Soul, she had the option of limiting her cultivation to fight in lower ranked missions or she could stay at her realm and take different mission. These higher ranked missions would have her monitoring other teams performing their duties, and either rescuing them if you could afford too or battling against spiritual beasts at the ancestral realm. As players successfully completed missions or defending against the beast tide, they earned merits to access better robes, artifacts, or items to battle the invading forces.

"Daoist Yun Qian reporting for duty", she said as she approached the ship's captain.

"Daoist Yun, your arrival is timely", the captain, also a Nascent Soul, replied, "I have received reports of a Heavenly treasure making an appearance causing several High ranked spiritual beasts to move in pursuit of it. This has caused a great disturbance in the mountains, forcing many lower level spiritual beasts to flee the danger. Our city is in the path of their retreat, so you must oversee the forces and protect them from high level threats. Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes", Yun Qian replied, and the captain began shouting orders to a small crew.

The flying ship rose higher in the air before formations activated, and the ship surged forth at an incredible speed. Yun Qian's sense of time suddenly felt strange as the ship suddenly reached the area set up to intercept the enemy.

"Did I just experience the laws of time?", she quietly asked herself as the captain shouted out orders.

Soon, Yun Qian, and a small army of cultivators were on the ground preparing for the upcoming battle. A few array formations were set up, talismans were handed out to the cultivators, and Yun Qian was receiving updates from one of the golden cores assigned to her when she spotted the incoming horde of beasts.

"Sound the alarms", she said to the commander who was briefing her.

Loud horns blared as Yun Qian took her position, and she started handing out orders to all the teams of defending troops. As she looked at the approaching mobs, Yun Qian saw a wide variety of spiritual beasts that resembled insects. She used her divine sense to gauge the strength of the bugs, and she felt some relief when they hadn't even reached the Qi Gathering realm yet. Yun Qian relayed her findings to the commanders, and they went to the teams to inform them.

As the frontline of the insect invasion arrived, the lowest level cultivators met them head on and engaged in battle. To Yun Qian, the battle capabilities of both sides weren't worth watching, but she kept an eye just in case someone needed rescued. Small conflicts exploded into madness as the waves crashed into the defense lines. Yun Qian, her commanders, and the team leaders did their best to save cultivators when they could. Eventually, as the collective strength of the spiritual beasts rose, resulting in 'deaths' of some lower level defenders. When Yun Qian witnessed this, she was surprised when the 'corpse' didn't bleed but instead melted away.

Unfortunately for Yun Qian, the battles only increased in intensity as later waves included Qi Gathering, Foundation Establishment, and Goldrn core level beasts. After 30 minutes, the first Nascent Soul level insect appeared and she could no longer pay attention to her fellow cultivators as she fought what appeared to be a dragonfly.

Yun Qian was able to defeat her first opponent, but it was very difficult and she was disheveled and noticeably injured. She did her best to drink elixirs and eat pills to recover, but soon two wasp at the Nascent Soul level appeared. The pair worked together causing Yun Qian to use all resources in an all out attack. This resulted in catastrophic damage to both allies and enemies before she found herself perfectly safe in city where she first received the defense mission. A light screen projection with [Mission Failed…we will get them next time] was floating in front of her causing her to furrow her brows in frustration. A highlighted arrow on the bottom of the screen had small writing underneath it (Having trouble completing the mission? Follow the arrow for advice and tips.)

She selected the arrow and another light screen projection appeared:

1. Get scanned to find out if your cultivation method truly matches your spiritual roots.

2. Visit the Solo Battle Arena and fight yourself in a mirror match to discover your weaknesses.

3. Visit the Sentinel information section in 'Sanctum', other users have added information about the various enemies and training advice for newer players.

Yun Qian had also been prompted by the pods at the Azure River sect to be scanned to receive an optimal cultivation method, but her pride had stopped her from doing so. She quickly selected the second option, and was transported to a preparation room. An hour later, she was in the training room scanning cultivation methods into her library readying herself for an optimization evaluation.

Rui Xiansheng had also decided to watch 'The Duel' first, and once it finished, he blood was boiling for a fight. After thinking about what to play first, he remembered the trailer for 'Legends of the empire', and selected it. Beautiful landscapes gave way to scenes of heroic men and beautiful women as they charged into battle. Rui Xiansheng read the information displayed after the opening cinematic sequence, and understood the overall situation.

Player could enter as themselves, and participate in grand battles as each nation tried to secure the most land. There was another option that has caught the attention of many of the guests, you could choose to play as other people. This was accomplished by the guests feeling as if they had received memories of an ancient cultivator. It was done this way so that no one would suffer deviation from controlling someone who practiced techniques that the customers couldn't normally use.

Rui Xiansheng entered the game, and decided to create a private match to try things out. He keep all the settings at the default, and had all the other players controlled by 'spirits' before starting. Since he didn't pick a side, Rui Xiansheng noticed he had been assigned to the Shi army when he saw the robes he was wearing. The other thing that became painfully apparent was the massive drop in his cultivation realm, but he remembered that this would happened from the informal scroll he read. At the beginning of each match whether you played as yourself or picked an avatar, you always started at the Body Perfecting realm. Based on your achievements, you would gain strength after each match finished but only with that character. To ensure that waiting times would stay low, more experienced players could enter battles with those of lower level by restricting their own level for the match.

Since this was his first match, Rui Xiansheng found himself outside a fortress with others as a common soldier. His clothes and weapons were not very good, much to his disapproval but before he could do anything, a message appeared before his eyes.

[ Poverty, famine, and corruption have run rampant through the Han Dynasty causing a large scale peasant uprising. You and your fellow soldiers will quell this rebellion who follow the leadership Zhang Jue, a cultivator who leads the mortals against their leaders.]

The projection disappeared after he finished reading, so he looked around to see that the target they were about to attack was downhill from the fortress he was currently stationed at. A man sitting on a horse was in front of the formation, from Rui Xiansheng's point of view he was briefing the army on their mission, and raising the troops morale. As the man spoke, the infantry would raise their swords or spears and shout while the cavalry also displayed their weapons. When the army commander finished, he shouted and charged, with the cavalry following. The infantry moved afterwards, and Rui Xiansheng was glad to stop standing around.

The unit he was assigned with finally reached the enemy line, and chaos began as Rui Xiansheng and the others started their attack. Once the fighting started, he to feel to lose some confidence. Even though the Body Perfecting realm was above normal mortals, it wasn't invincible. Not only did he have to avoid being injured when facing several mortals together, but he also has to face against peasants who had also reached the Body Perfecting realm. To top it off, several times he received injuries, it was from the weapons of his allies.

After an hour of battle, Rui Xiansheng had survived while killing a significant number of enemies, and he had worked with others to defeat several of the rebel leaders as well. Even though he felt tired and hurt, Rui Xiansheng was still enjoying himself so far. Even though he oversaw a merchant family, he still had dreams of grand battles growing up and this brought back those memories. Loud shouts interrupted his nostalgic daydreaming, and he realized that the rebellion leader, Zhang Jue was trying to escape the encirclement.

Rui Xiansheng gripped his sword and turned towards the noise. Killing the rebellion leader was a huge achievement, and he knew he could ascend many ranks in one step if he could take this opportunity. He quickly heard horse hooves and readied himself, but soon recognized that Zhang Jun was casting a fire spell to create an opening to escape. A fiery dart was launched towards him and several troops around him, but Rui Xiansheng used a movement technique to move out of the way. Unfortunately for him, two problems occurred: the first was that he couldn't execute the movement technique as a Body Perfecting realm cultivator, and the second was that he was boxed into his position because of the other soldiers around him. The fire dart found its target as a burning spike hit him in his face, and soon Rui Xiansheng's vision went dark. He found himself back in the lobby as a new projection appeared fore him detailing his successes and failures during the match. He felt a pure and warm feeling as Qi entered his body, but to his surprise, it wasn't a lot. Instead, the small amount that he received seem to seep into his body, healing old injuries and strengthening his foundation. His avatar on screen also advanced, and Rui Xiansheng felt that the amount of power he could use had increased slightly.

The sect leaders and Rui Xiansheng alongside their family and allies enjoyed themselves for most of the day. By that evening, the whole group had reconvened together in a private room in the restaurant with Fang Shi.

"Owner Fang", Yun Qian, "We need to talk."