Chapter 9: Entering A Guild

The Sect Leader of White Cloud Temple was called Song Yuqin. According to the game’s administrators, he was introduced as one of the top ten experts amongst the NPCs within the game. Naturally, the Sect Leaders from the other five sects were also among the top ten.

After being taken in as a disciple of someone of such stature, Shen Jingbin couldn’t help but applaud her own good fortune.

She seemed to have become especially lucky after entering the game. Could this be the rumoured “the uglier you are, the better your treatment”?

Once players joined a sect, a senior brother or sister would explain the sect’s history to them, while at the same time bringing them to receive some beginner items.

However, in view of her extraordinary identity, the Daoist from White Cloud Temple didn’t bring her to the temple’s main hall. Instead, he brought her to a small house and left in a very respectful manner.

Shen Jingbin tugged at her chin and sized up the plain and ordinary looking house in front of her, secretly guessing that this must be where Song Yuqing lived.

In general, most experts loved maintaining a low profile like this.

Sure enough, after awhile Song Yuqing arrived and led her into the house.

Once inside, Song Yuqing didn’t say or give her anything special. On the contrary, he followed standard procedure and explained White Cloud Temple’s history to her. He also gave her several martial arts skill books, a disciple’s robe, a weapon and some armor.

Following that, she was chased out of the house with a swish of Daoist Song’s sleeve.

He didn’t forget to add another sentence on top of that either, “The master has led you to the door, now the rest is up to you. My disciple, you should go out and experience the world. Experience the world so that you can have a better appreciation of life.”

What about the benefits of being a Sect Leader’s disciple?! What about the promised good treatment?! Why did it all disappear?!

With a few books and a messy pile of items in hand, Shen Jingbin made her way towards the entrance of White Cloud Temple while complaining. When she had her fill, she wore her new Daoist robes and armor and waited at the entrance for Shen Jingchen. While waiting, she thumbed through White Cloud Temple’s basic skill books to pass the time.

In the game, players weren’t allowed to enter the grounds of unaffiliated sects unless it was part of a quest. They’d be swiftly taken care of the moment their unauthorized entry was discovered. This was why Shen Jingchen didn’t follow her over to White Cloud Temple. Instead, he told her to wait for him at the entrance.

Shen Jingbin didn’t have many skill books in hand, totaling up to only eight. Five were single target attacks while the other three were AOE1 attacks. These skill books disappeared after being flipped through once. At the same time, eight new icons appeared in her originally empty skill window.

Although her level was rather low and her skills were weak, the additional negative status effects attached to all of her skills made her feel that the future growth of her character was pretty good.

However, it used up a little more Inner Strength as well.

Within the game, players who just entered a sect were only able to learn a few basic skills. If they wanted to learn martial arts of a higher rank, they could do quests — which came in the form of killing monsters — for the sect and accumulate enough Prestige Points to exchange them for higher ranking skills.

Otherwise, those with the ability to do so could also create their own skills.

As a result, most players that entered a sect would only have four to five basic skills. Someone like Shen Jingbin, who started off with eight skills was an outlier. This was all due to the benefits afforded to her by entering the temple through her connection with the Sect Leader.

But, she clearly didn’t know about this.

The sect disciple’s robe that Shen Jingbin received was a permanent fashion set. Sect disciples were required to wear their sect’s attire at all times when they were within the sect’s compound. If they didn’t, they might be mistaken as intruders by the patrolling NPCs and be taken out.

Thankfully, the game had very kindly given players another two permanent fashion slots for them to switch to, saving a fair bit of trouble for players.

After asking around, Shen Jingbin designated her disciple’s robes as her main fashion set, making it more convenient for her to switch back to in the future.

Shen Jingchen quietly stood to the side. He repeatedly shook his head and sighed as he watched her turn from an unbearably ugly village girl to a world-shakingly ugly Daoist nun.

Sigh, he’d originally planned on showing off his little sister to his comrades in hopes of evoking feelings of jealousy and envy at the sight of her.

But now that she looked like this…he didn’t even feel like admitting he had a sister!

“Oh right, come over to my guild. Although you haven’t met our acceptance requirements, you’re the disciple of White Cloud Temple’s Sect Leader. Your identity is different from the others, so I don’t think all that many people will be against you joining.” Shen Jingchen brought Shen Jingbin along as they slowly walked towards the heart of River City. However, Shen Jingchen felt as if he was forgetting something. This feeling continued to nag at him until he saw one of his friends from the guild call out to him with a gossipy look on their face. It was then that he realized he forgot to add her into the guild.

“There’s too many people. It’s too troublesome. I don’t want to go.” Shen Jingbin immediately rejected him without a second thought.

Shen Jingchen clenched his teeth and said, “There’s no point rejecting, I’ll have to trouble you to come. You damn pervert, you’ll definitely try to cause trouble for me once I take my eyes off you. Rather than letting you free and risk you turning into my enemy in the future, it’d be better if I kept you close by so I can keep an eye on you.”

After saying that, a guild invitation was thrown over to her.

“The world is filled with danger. It’s best for you to charge towards the heavens with your companions. Player Dawn’s Twilight invites you to join the guild: Jade Sea Pavilion. Do you agree to join? Yes/No.”

Looking at Shen Jingchen’s furious expression, Shen Jingbin, who had originally planned on declining stopped her hand and selected “Yes”.

“You have joined ‘Jade Sea Pavilion’. Till now, both parties have been separated by the land and sea. Now joined, may you work together to better yourselves and overcome your tribulations.”