What Qin Jingzhou established was an intermediate cultivation school disguised as a black technology game. Graduation was permitted at the Golden Core stage, while making it to the Nascent Soul stage meant becoming an honor student. Even in the Spiritual Realm where he had lived, reaching the Golden Core or Nascent Soul stage was far from guaranteed for most people.
Since this was a legitimate cultivation school, students had to enroll under their real identities. So the ten summoned players all appeared with their actual names, and their faces were just as they looked in reality.
First on the list of those who fought the interstellar pirates to their dying breath was An Qi: currently just a young woman in her early twenties. She was the first to recognize her own older brother, An Jin.
Qin Jingzhou, currently working under the alias of Xiao Jingzhou, waited as the ten players finished reading the system introduction he had written: to summarize, they had arrived in Lord Xuan Qing’s territory, where they could work to earn points. Points could be exchanged in the Store for cultivation techniques, equipment, potions, and most other cultivation resources.
Their very first available task was to collect wood.
The players’ expressions shifted from confusion to excitement. Pointing at the primeval forest behind them and then at the massive toolbox behind himself, Qin Jingzhou sounded utterly uninterested as he said, “Good luck, workers.”
With those words, he and his son, Xuan Qing, vanished on the spot.
Immediately, the players’ eyes gleamed: was this the legendary teleportation spell? They were thrilled!
The male player using the name "Xun Qiushui" stepped forward first. “Shall we discuss our plan?”
At this point, the players all realized they were using their real names and real bodies—scars from childhood, even the vaccination marks, were all there. This gave everyone at least some mutual trust.
They each tried to recall what they’d been doing before falling asleep, but found no clues. At the same time, they quickly agreed: this black technology game was definitely strange, and whoever had forcefully summoned them must have their own intentions.
Then, the male player labeled "Yan Tongwei" spoke up. “My ancestors knew some mysterious arts... whether you believe it or not, I just have a feeling this is a huge opportunity.”
An Jin and An Qi, as siblings, weren’t so optimistic, but they figured: since they were already here, why not try completing the task? What harm was there in chopping some wood?
So the group gathered before the supposed toolbox, which looked like a gigantic equipment case but had a “Toolbox” label stuck in the upper left corner of its door. Before they could figure out how to open it, the toolbox instantly popped out ten drawers, inside of which...
The players all fell silent, staring at the contents.
After a moment, Xun Qiushui pushed up his glasses. “That looks exactly like a mantis... tibia. But the tibia is the fourth segment of an insect’s foreleg... if it's half as tall as a human, just how big was that bug?”
Yan Tongwei stepped forward and lightly prodded the sharp spine on the tibia. Blood immediately trickled down his finger.
He pressed the wound and laughed. “This thing really can cut wood. Field tested, works.”
Qin Jingzhou returned to his son’s little manor and stroked his beloved son’s big head while watching the players flounder through the ever-present surveillance: Xun Qiushui was a doctor, even a surgeon, and under these circumstances with no medicine, he could only apply correct first aid procedures. Yan Tongwei, however, still bled profusely... The spines on the mantis tibia, previously given to the players as saws, contained Zerg secretions that made wounds difficult to heal.
Xuan Qing squinted his blue eyes, the silver lashes at the corners twitching. “Dad, this group of players doesn’t seem very bright...”
To be honest, the tibiae and spines were black, and the spines’ edges shone green in the sunlight. It was obvious they were dangerous, so who would touch them barehanded?
Qin Jingzhou tapped his son’s forehead lightly. “These are already the ten most disciplined and talented ones out there. But their soul strength still isn’t quite enough, so I set up a Spirit Gathering Formation in the woods. While they chop wood, they’ll absorb more spiritual energy and quickly boost their souls.”
In other words, as soon as the players picked up the tibiae and charged into the forest, with spiritual energy nourishing them, Yan Tongwei’s wounds would not only stop bleeding quickly but even begin to heal.
Xuan Qing grinned. “Dad, to be exact, they’re cultivation illiterates.”
That was true. He would have to be a little more patient and offer more guidance. Qin Jingzhou made up a task hint on the spot: injuries would heal faster within the forest.
The players received the prompt at the same time and exchanged looks for less than three seconds, then each grabbed the rounded, easy-to-hold end of a tibia and charged into the woods together.
Once inside, Yan Tongwei could feel the difference most clearly, with An Jin next after him.
Yan Tongwei thought for a moment and decided to tell his current companions, since they were all in this together. “The environment in this forest isn’t like outside.” He let his finger bleed, picked up the tibia one-handed, and swung it at a tree in front of him. The tibia embedded itself a finger-length deep into the trunk. “I didn’t even use force, haha.”
Other players: ...
What were they waiting for? Get to chopping, everyone! Points were earned based on the weight of wood collected!
Yan Tongwei and his companions worked together to fell a tree more than ten meters in diameter. When it crashed down, cheers erupted, and the wound on his finger had already stopped bleeding.
Watching this through the surveillance feed, Qin Jingzhou smiled. “They actually work pretty well together.”
Xuan Qing butted his father’s hand with his head. “Dad, we can’t let them carry the wood back so easily.”
Qin Jingzhou patted his son’s head. “I’ll leave it all to you.”
In his previous life, his son had been something like a Discipline Director. In this life, he was even more adept in battle and led an entire fleet—he was a general with plenty of experience training both soldiers and students.
Xuan Qing narrowed his eyes and pressed his big paw onto a suddenly appearing translucent screen. In no more than five seconds, ten giant wolves, each about two meters long minus their tails, appeared on the surveillance feed.
These weren’t real wolves, but specialized security robots shaped as giant wolves, with built-in training functions.
Because this group of players’ souls had arrived via formation as projection souls and their bodies were recyclable, Xuan Qing didn’t enable the security robots’ “protection” mode.
With full confidence, Xuan Qing declared, “They need to experience the dangers of life.”
Qin Jingzhou was quite pleased. “Well said, Xiao Qing.”
Cultivation was not child’s play. Sooner or later these students would have to battle Zerg in this world and interstellar pirates back home. As a responsible principal, he wanted them to experience the grueling hardships of the cultivation path early and crush any luck-seeking mentality as soon as possible.
It should be mentioned that as soon as a world started its spiritual energy revival, being discovered and invaded by a high-level civilization in the same universe was inevitable. Most high-level civilizations were at least presentable when they did so, but what interstellar pirates did in the story couldn’t even be called predatory—it was outright cannibalistic.
Xuan Qing nudged his father’s hand again, then started “smacking” the screen all over with his big paw.
With new commands issued, the giant wolves charged forward at full speed. The first wolf pounced and pinned Yan Tongwei to the ground, while the other nine each picked a target and chased them down.
Two legs could never outrun four, but these players truly deserved to be called indomitable. Even knowing they couldn’t fight back, they chose to resist... and then they all revived at the Resurrection Point Qin Jingzhou had set up.
The Resurrection Point was a somewhat complex nested formation. Its effect was to recognize the soul returning, immediately forge a new body, and let the soul re-enter.
Half a minute later, the players stood together atop the formation, exchanging looks.
Yan Tongwei thumped his chest and muttered, “We can resurrect. Just as expected—a different world with a game shell.”
The An siblings checked the task prompt. It was still instructing them to chop wood.
Xun Qiushui pushed up his glasses again. “Why don’t we just chop trees at the edge? Without points, we can’t buy equipment anyway.”
The option to quit the game was now grayed out—they couldn’t log out. After a quick discussion, they struck out again, now finding the toolbox stocked with new, bizarre-looking “axes.”
Even while baffled by the extraordinary nature of this “game,” the players intended to use this chance to explore.
If they didn’t get greedy, they could just chop a few trees the size of bowls at the edge, and set two people on lookout. Sure enough, they made some headway.
After two rounds, the “axes” showed no wear, and they had cut over a hundred saplings. Dividing the spoils, each player received twelve points.
Ten points was exactly enough to buy the lowest-tier cultivation technique from the Store, the "Clearing Heart Sutra."
They had thought about pooling their points for one person to buy it and then teach the rest, but the system prompted that while equipment was tradable, cultivation techniques were for personal use only and any violation would result in account erasure.
So the players each purchased the "Clearing Heart Sutra" and immediately sat in meditation according to its requirements.
They didn’t know how much time had passed, just that the entire world seemed different now.
Qin Jingzhou was very pleased and praised the system. “Not bad at all. You have great taste.” The ten players achieved qi induction on the very first attempt spinning the Clearing Heart Sutra.
Even though the Sutra was tailor-made by him for Blue Star’s residents, to have all ten enter the gateway at once testified to their talent and temperament.
That’s right, the "Clearing Heart Sutra" lived up to its name. To make progress one had to confront their inner self to a certain extent. For someone like the Fate’s Son or a “traitorous villain,” cultivating the "Clearing Heart Sutra" would not only fail to advance them, but risk a regression in rank and an early arrival of heart tribulation.
So he looked forward to the players bringing the "Clearing Heart Sutra" home and spreading it far and wide.
However, each player was cautious. Unless they confirmed the effect of the Sutra themselves, none would reveal it lightly.
Just as they prepared to discuss their pleasant surprise, Qin Jingzhou directly kicked them back to their original world: the players had spent sixteen hours here nearly without rest, and it was time to let them clock off—after all, he wasn’t a vampire.
When An Qi opened her eyes, her own bedroom ceiling came into view... She sat up with a start. The contents of the "Clearing Heart Sutra" were crystal clear in her mind, and the unique sensation after entering the gateway lingered vividly.
She ignored the fact that it was just past five in the morning, grabbed her phone, and dialed Xun Qiushui. “Cousin!”
Xun Qiushui said bluntly, “Let’s just meet in your brother's hospital room.”