Chapter 12: I’ll Carry You Until Your Gear Is Fully Graduated
Before Chi Zhen could even reply, the barrage assistant had already floated past with what felt like a thousand “Fight” comments.
He was starting to forget what the word even looked like.
[Friend] Qingzhou Yiguo: You might not know yet since you just logged on, but… something happened today. The grudge between me and Way of Heaven has gotten even worse…
[Friend] Wujin Shi: ?
[Friend] Qingzhou Yiguo: Well, they’ve been cursing me out in World Channel for half the day already. In this situation, I’m worried your guild might misunderstand if you queue battlefields with me…
[Friend] Qingzhou Yiguo: It’s not that I don’t want to play with you. I just… don’t want to cause trouble for you.
Chi Zhen typed and deleted over and over, painstakingly organizing his words, trying to make Wujin Shi understand that it wasn’t because he didn’t want to play together, but because he was afraid of causing problems for him.
It was only two short sentences, yet he spent nearly five minutes typing them out, while the mocking comments completely filled the screen.
[This reminds me of that distant afternoon when Xiao Chi first messaged Wujin Shi. He even spent forever choosing an emoji!]
[He’s obviously in love with Wujin Shi.]
Pretending not to see the comments, Chi Zhen kept controlling Qingzhou Yiguo, sewing the beast hide they’d gotten from yesterday’s boss into harness straps. Spirit Beast Harnesses were tradable and added 200 defense.
Using life skills to process rare boss-drop materials into tradable, higher-grade equipment for profit had always been the main content of Chi Zhen’s streams as a life-skill-player streamer.
But now his stream had over a thousand viewers. Some were there because of Wujin Shi, some were there for the drama, and others were there because of his sharp gameplay. He had barely sewn for a little while before people started complaining.
[Streamer’s in retirement mode? Go play battlefields with Wujin Shi! Give us something exciting.]
[Streamer, seize the traffic. Once this hype dies down, it’s gone. Queue a couple battlefields. Anyway, going to wilderness maps today would just get you bullied.]
[Tomorrow, go back to ambushing people in the wild again. Exciting. Love to see it.]
Chi Zhen pretended not to notice.
Even if he was a game streamer, he could still play the game however he wanted.
After he finished sewing the Spirit Beast Harness, a new message from Wujin Shi arrived.
Chi Zhen immediately stopped moving, his mouse hovering over the chat box.
[Friend] Wujin Shi: Heard about it from my friend.
[Friend] Wujin Shi: battlefields?
Chi Zhen froze, suddenly not knowing how to answer, while the barrage comments started flying again.
[Fight fight fight! I accept this marriage proposal on Xiao Chi’s behalf!]
[No, seriously, Wujin Shi you really won’t take a hint, huh? Nice. I like stubborn men like this.]
[Friend] Qingzhou Yiguo: I’m a game streamer, so I’m always live whenever I’m online. It might cause some trouble for you and your friend. If you mind being on stream, it’d probably be better if you played by yourselves.
[Friend] Wujin Shi: It’s fine.
Wujin Shi directly sent over a party invitation.
Chi Zhen clicked accept. There was already one other person in the party: Qingtian Wai.
[Party] Qingtian Wai: Hello hello~
[Party] Qingtian Wai: I heard from Wujin Shi that your mechanics and awareness are really sharp. Wanna play a round?
[Party] Qingzhou Yiguo: Ah, no, no, not really. Okay then. But I’m streaming the game right now. Do you mind?
[Party] Qingtian Wai: Don’t mind at all. I’ve been lurking in your stream this whole time, Streamer Xiao Chi.
[Party] Wujin Shi: ?
[Party] Qingtian Wai: What’s with the question mark? Yesterday I saw the guild channel explode, and Xiao Bing was even questioning why you teamed up with Qingzhou Yiguo, so I went and searched the forums. I already understand the whole story now, and I even followed Xiao Chi’s stream account~
[Party] Qingtian Wai: Too bad I was stuck working overtime and missed the stream. I heard Xiao Chi wiped eight people in a row. I want the recording, I want the recording~
The moment Qingtian Wai said he’d been lurking in the stream, Chi Zhen’s mind had already gone blank. His thoughts spiraled wildly. Those viewers had been openly joking about Wujin Shi in the stream—had Qingtian Wai seen it all? Had he really seen it? Would he tell Wujin Shi? Would Wujin Shi get angry?
By the time Chi Zhen snapped back to reality, Qingtian Wai had already posted a YY room number, telling him to join voice chat.
[I saw the YY number! Can I sneak in and listen?]
[The guy upstairs is dumb, right? As long as you stay in the stream, you ARE the front row audience…]
[Xiao Chi’s social death! This Qingtian Wai has been lurking in the stream the whole time, so doesn’t that mean he’s already seen us shipping the CP!? Which means Wujin Shi basically already knows we ship him with Xiao Chi!]
Chi Zhen finally came back to his senses. His hands moved faster than his brain as he quickly deleted the latest few CP-shipping comments.
“Everyone, seriously, stop joking around,” Chi Zhen said sternly. “Making fun of me is one thing, but don’t say things like that in front of other people right now.”
[Party] Qingtian Wai: I password-locked the YY room. Xiao Chi, close the stream interface for a sec and I’ll PM it to you~
[Party] Qingtian Wai: Streamer Xiao Chi is so serious. Don’t worry, being shipped with you is Wujin Shi’s honor. Wow, your stream has so many viewers. If you make him famous, that’ll be his blessing~
[Party] Wujin Shi: ……
The moment the words “shipping CP” were typed out so directly, displayed right in front of Wujin Shi’s eyes, Chi Zhen went completely numb.
He wanted to quit the party, rip out his internet cable, and swear off the internet forever.
But Wujin Shi spoke first.
[Party] Wujin Shi: Get on YY.
YY was the voice-chat software most commonly used by Wendao Qingtian's players. Voice communication was necessary for raids and battlefields alike—it was straightforward and convenient.
Numbly, Chi Zhen logged into YY and entered the room number Qingtian Wai had sent him.
There were two people in the room already, with the IDs Qingtian Wai and Wujin Shi.
The moment he entered, Qingtian Wai’s cheerful male voice rang out.
“Wow, Xiao Chi’s here! Welcome, welcome. Xiao Chi, where are you? Let me check your gear. Oh, you’re in Guangling City. Alright, stay where you are and don’t move. Wujin Shi, and I will fly over.”
Chi Zhen was so nervous he didn’t dare speak. In the party chat, he silently typed a single word.
[Party] Qingzhou Yiguo: Okay.
He stood in front of Guangling City’s trading house for a while before he saw Wujin Shi and Qingtian Wai running over. Wujin Shiwas still dressed in the dark-black Cangming Sect uniform, the Kunwu blade strapped to his back. As he approached, he said nothing at all—cool and handsome as ever.
To Chi Zhen’s surprise, the lively and talkative Qingtian Wai was actually a Buddhist Cultivator from Mount Xumi. Draped in a martial monk’s kasaya and wielding a long staff, he first recited a Buddhist greeting upon seeing Qingzhou Yiguo.
The cheerful male voice rang out in YY again. “Wow, Xiao Chi, your gear’s really good! What do we do now? My gear hasn’t been updated in half a year. Can I just follow you guys straight into battlefields, or should I work on my equipment first?”
A calm, steady male voice immediately answered, “So are you trying to do battlefields or raid dungeons?”
Chi Zhen froze.
Ah… was that Wujin Shi’s voice?
He hurriedly opened the YY interface. There were only the three of them in the room. It wasn’t him, and it wasn’t Qingtian Wai, so that meant it could only be Wujin Shi.
Wujin Shi’s voice sounded so good… cool, just like the man himself…
[AHHHHH Great God Wujin Shi’s voice!]
[Sounds amazing, I’m imagining a mature handsome guy!]
[It matches Xiao Chi’s bright youthful voice so well, they fit each other perfectly!]
Chi Zhen went numb again. He wanted to delete the comments, but there were too many.
Very soon, Qingtian Wai’s hearty laughter rang through the headset. “Hahahahaha, Wujin Shi, hurry up and come to Xiao Chi’s stream! These comments are too funny~ Hahahaha~ They’re saying you and Xiao Chi are such a good match~”
Chi Zhen completely shut down.
Wujin Shi paid absolutely no attention to Qingtian Wai’s teasing. Instead, in-game, he circled around Qingtian Wai once before saying, “With your current gear, you’ll only be dead weight. Let’s run a dungeon first and get you a few pieces of clothing.”
Qingtian Wai immediately replied, “This week’s random sect secret realm just happens to be Mount Xumi, perfect timing. We can run that. How many people should we call?”
Wendao Qingtian’s Random Sect Secret Realm was a very special dungeon. There was no limit on party size—you could go alone, or with a hundred people, it didn’t matter. But the amount of equipment and materials dropped by the secret realm was fixed. Too many people made the loot hard to divide; too few people made the bosses difficult enough that you might not be able to clear them.
Even the difficulty of the secret realm bosses was random. Sometimes two separate parties wouldn’t even encounter the same bosses.
The whole thing was designed to feel as close as possible to a true xianxia cultivation world.
After thinking for a moment, Wujin Shi said, “Eight people. Can’t have too many, since you need gear.”
Qingtian Wai sounded doubtful. “Can eight people really clear it? I saw the guild put together a twelve-man group.”
Wujin Shi sounded completely certain. “As long as there’s a Spirit Cultivator, eight people is enough.”
Qingtian Wai clearly trusted Wujin Shi very much and immediately said, “That’s great. Good thing we have Xiao Chi~ I’ll start recruiting people right away~”
Suddenly being called out, Chi Zhen—who had secretly wanted to yank out his internet cable and disappear—saw that he was apparently quite important to the team after all. Embarrassed to leave now, he could only quietly stay put.
While recruiting people, Qingtian Wai chatted nonstop, explaining most of his situation. He said he’d been buried in a project for half a year, working overtime every day like a dog, and hadn’t played the game once during that time. The moment he logged back in, he’d wanted to queue battlefields, only for Wujin Shi to criticize his trash gear. He’d already bought everything he could from the trading house, so now he could only diligently grind dungeons.
Chi Zhen looked over his equipment and silently initiated a trade.
Qingtian Wai blankly clicked accept. “Huh? Xiao Chi, what’re you giving me?”
Chi Zhen placed the freshly crafted Spirit Beast Harness into the trade window, and Qingtian Wai instantly exploded into shouting through the headset.
“AHHHH WHAT IS THIS?! A Spirit Beast Harness! Xiao Chi! You’re my one and only bro! AHHHH!”
Spirit Beast Harnesses could be worn over armor without occupying the chest equipment slot, while still increasing stats, making them extremely desirable.
And the one Chi Zhen had crafted used Zhēng hide, making it top-grade quality.
Qingtian Wai didn’t immediately confirm the trade. Instead, he asked, “Top-grade Spirit Beast Harnesses are pretty expensive, right? I haven’t logged on in half a year, so I don’t know the market prices lately. Wujin Shi, how many spirit stones does one of these go for?”
Chi Zhen quickly said, “It’s okay, it’s a gift. The hide only dropped because Great God Wujin Shi helped me kill the Zhēng anyway.”
Qingtian Wai wasn’t the type to stand on ceremony and immediately accepted it.
“Thank you, our Xiao Chi~ Our Xiao Chi truly has discerning eyes! You must’ve realized I’m easygoing, approachable, and lovable! Unlike Wujin Shi, who’s cold and heartless~”
[Party] Wujin Shi: ……
[What?! Why is Xiao Chi giving the Spirit Beast Harness to someone he just met instead of Wujin Shi?! Has my CP already ended before it even began?!]
[Great God Wujin Shi’s already wearing full endgame gear. He doesn’t need a Spirit Beast Harness at all.]
Chi Zhen looked at the comments, then at Wujin Shi’s speechless ellipsis in party chat. After hesitating for a long time, he finally gathered the courage to initiate a trade with Wujin Shi.
Wujin Shi accepted.
Chi Zhen placed two Zhēng horns into the trade window.
[Party] Qingzhou Yiguo: Back when I passed by Mount Guguan, I accidentally ran into a Zhēng. You seemed to need these, and they’re not very useful sitting with me anyway.
In truth, Chi Zhen had bought the two horns cheaply from the trading house earlier, intending to resell them later at a higher price.
Zhēng horns were rare materials that couldn’t simply be bought with money.
He’d wanted to mail them directly to Wujin Shi, but he’d been afraid of looking like an obsessive fanboy.
“The last time I bought Zhēng horns from the trading house, they were 120,000 spirit stones each,” Wujin Shi said as he placed 240,000 spirit stones into the trade window.
Chi Zhen immediately cleared the price and said, “No need, really. I just happened to get them by chance. I didn’t spend money on them, so you can just have them…”
Wujin Shi didn’t press confirm.
Chi Zhen got nervous, afraid he was acting strangely, and hurriedly added, “I-I also need stuff from secret realms. Please bring me along for a few more runs in the future.”
Wujin Shi stayed silent for a moment, seemingly inspecting his gear. Finally, he clicked confirm.
“Thank you,” Wujin Shi said. “I’ll carry you until your gear is fully graduated.”
Qingtian Wai’s miserable voice rang out immediately afterward. “Suddenly, my Spirit Beast Harness doesn’t feel valuable anymore…”
“Thank you,” Wujin Shi said. “I’ll carry you until your gear is fully graduated.”
Qingtian Wai’s miserable voice rang out immediately afterward. “Suddenly, my Spirit Beast Harness doesn’t feel valuable anymore…”
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