I Just Wanted To Live but I Somehow Became Better Than the Protagonist

Should or Should Not

In a certain magical space, a plainly dressed young man opened his eyes and let out a deep breath of turbid air: “Just a bit short of the eighth layer’s peak.”

After taking Liu Xuan as his master, Long Tian’s status rose significantly, and Bai Song could no longer use minions to provoke him. Thanks to this, he could focus on his cultivation, spending over a hundred days in the jade pendant space, while only about sixty days had passed in reality.

However, Long Tian couldn’t rely solely on pills to enhance his cultivation like Ye Yong. He was currently just a Chaos Sacred Body; although he had divine techniques to assist him, his starting point was not high enough, leading to bottlenecks in his cultivation. Moreover, everything he did had to be done personally.

He had to purchase materials himself, refine pills, and practice techniques, while occasionally making time to visit his master Liu Xuan to pay his respects. Without the magical jade pendant space, Long Tian felt he wouldn’t be able to manage everything with just the time in reality.

“Today I have to go out to complete a task; otherwise, I’ll lose contribution points to the sect…”

Outer disciples must undertake a task once a month for training, inner disciples every two months, while true disciples have three months. If one fails to take on a task for an extended period, their contribution points can drop to negative, and their monthly stipend

As for why Ye Yong only completed one task after joining the sect and never did another, it was because the sect granted him an exemption. After all, going out could attract danger and trouble; it was safer to stay within the sect.

In short, the protagonist couldn’t live the carefree life of a villain, even though Long Tian had now become a direct disciple of an elder. Life was still quite tight, with scarce resources. The master he had chosen was not wealthy; Liu Xuan was incredibly passionate about swords and had spent most of his savings on them. However, during the initiation ceremony, Long Tian still received over ten bottles of third-grade elixirs from Liu Xuan, along with a first-tier earth-grade sword.

Yes, a first-tier earth-grade sword alone was worth a fortune; Long Tian couldn’t ask for anything more.

As for Liu Xuan’s other disciple, Long Tian had not seen him yet. He had heard that the disciple was out on a mission, somewhere far away, and was a late-stage Golden Core cultivator. Long Tian wasn’t particularly interested, so he didn’t inquire further about him.

“Just be careful not to be discovered by Bai Song,” Long Tian thought for a moment before leaving the independent courtyard of the direct disciple and heading towards the Contribution Hall.

—Yin Hua Hall;

“Speaking of which, the protagonist went into seclusion for quite a while after becoming a disciple, but had to go out on a mission, encountering assassins from the Dark Mantis Sect, getting thrown into a river, narrowly escaping death, and unintentionally discovering an underwater cave where a certain Golden Core senior had passed away, finding resources and treasures…” While petting the fox, Ye Yong suddenly remembered something as he waited for Wu Xue to return. “But now many details have been disrupted; the protagonist’s visit to the Dan Fire Hall and the time of becoming a disciple have both been moved up, making it hard to determine exactly when he went out…”

Ye Yong was now eager for a reversal point. He wanted a time-based treasure; as long as he had that, he wouldn’t need to rush his cultivation.

On the female protagonist’s side, there weren’t many reversal points to be gained for now. Take Hua Ningyan, for instance; her favorability was at 96, and it hadn’t increased for a while. After all, staying within the sect was very safe, and nothing significant would happen. It was genuinely difficult to increase favorability based solely on a few intimate actions, so Ye Yong had to shift his focus to disrupting the protagonist’s opportunities.

After all, even small opportunities were worth several tens of thousands, and what that Golden Core senior left behind, Ye Yong felt, should belong to the category of medium to small opportunities, starting at a hundred thousand, which was still quite attractive.

“Master, what are you talking about?” Hua Ningyan heard Ye Yong mumbling to himself, occasionally frowning and shaking his head, which piqued her curiosity.

“Nothing, just thinking that I might go out for a bit.”

“A far place?”

“Not really far, maybe just a day or two, but it’s not certain I’ll go.” Ye Yong didn’t know what the situation was like with the demon clan’s Peng Zhang. If a bounty had already been issued, then going out would not only fail to earn him reversal points but would also consume quite a bit.

Ye Yong somewhat regretted not establishing a communication stone connection with Mu Qingyin back then; that way, he could have asked her about any developments in a timely manner.

But having destroyed her territory, and since she hadn’t taken the initiative to ask, Ye Yong didn’t have the face to bring it up. In any case, he couldn’t stay cooped up in Tian Luo Sect for life. As the saying goes, fortune favors the bold; the protagonist’s opportunities were all earned at the cost of their lives. Ye Yong believed he didn’t have the protagonist’s halo, but he had a system to help make up for it.

The urgent matter was still to gather information about Long Tian.

Ye Yong set Hua Ningyan down, letting her play by herself, as he didn’t want to mention the protagonist too much in front of her.

Hua Ningyan didn’t think much of it, assuming her master was busy with important matters, and ran to the courtyard to find Xia Shijia. Xia Shijia was squatting motionless on a chair in the pavilion; if it weren’t for the wind blowing through, her brown-gray fur would have made her look just like a wolf statue.

Hua Ningyan was unaware that Ye Yong had given her a cultivation method for her training. As she got closer, she noticed that the surrounding spiritual energy was slowly flowing towards Xia Shijia.

The beast clan has no mental techniques; their cultivation is primarily achieved through consumption. This is also why some rare spiritual plants in deep mountains and old forests are often fiercely guarded by spiritual beasts and monsters.

When the beast clan began to actively absorb the surrounding spiritual energy to enhance their cultivation, it meant they had mastered mental techniques. Hua Ningyan had been cultivating for quite some time and naturally understood this point, so she was quite surprised by Xia Shijia’s changes.

Not wanting to disturb her, Hua Ningyan decided to check if Xia Shiqi had also mastered mental techniques. She circled the house and found her in the backyard, where the silly wolf was biting a branch, tossing it away, and then retrieving it, amusing itself.

Without needing to ask, Hua Ningyan already knew the outcome. Just as she turned to leave, a branch suddenly flew and hit her. Turning back, Xia Shiqi flashed her a charming smile, her eyes slightly provocative.

Hua Ningyan sighed; there was no way to leave directly. So, she coiled her tail around the branch and flicked it out of the yard and over the wall. Xia Shiqi howled and leaped high into the air, vaulting over the wall. By the time she returned with the branch in her mouth, the little white fox had already vanished without a trace.

She was played! Xia Shiqi spun in place, frustrated, realizing she should have thrown it first for the other to fetch.

On the other side, Ye Yong had already learned the latest intel on Long Tian through Ye Gou.

Just like in the novel, Long Tian had been in seclusion for a long time. Ye Gou hadn’t seen him for a while, but as a loyal lackey, Ye Gou was quite adept at socializing. He heard that someone had spotted Long Tian at the Contribution Hall today, but his face was obscured, making it impossible to confirm.

Upon hearing this, Ye Yong felt it was completely certain. Although the protagonist was described as unremarkable and easily overlooked in a crowd, once he wanted to hide his whereabouts, he would definitely leave traces behind. Villains often tracked the protagonist based on those uncertain clues.

Ye Yong felt lucky; he had just come out of seclusion and encountered Long Tian going out. Should he follow him or not?