How to Cultivate a Game

"Listen here, LU GAO!"

Nee Chen raised his voice, his intent finally reached little Gao. The little brat finally stopped crying, but his sniffling was clear evidence of Lu Gao trying his best to suppress his tears.

"Little Gao. You were only 9 years old this year. You have about a decade to wait for what you want to become. Being a cultivator was a matter of chance, so you could not really say for sure if you would turn out to be one. My suggestion was for you to enjoy your childhood for now, and not think of the heavy stuff, okay?"

"I—"

"O.k.a.y?"

"I don't know if—"

"O.K.A.Y?"

Nee Chen cut off little Gao with an interrogative 'Okay?' giving no room for the troublesome brat to argue.

Lu Gao meekly nodded at Nee Chen's assertiveness.

"Anyway. Little Gao, why come here?"

"Uuummm... because mom would just smack me if she hears me crying like this."

"..."

Nee Chen nodded understandably at little Gao's words. This village's perception of cultivators was quite nasty. This was true for many villages like One Well Village. But the truth is... not many villages are like One Well Village.

"Go home now. You were annoying me. It was fucking midnight, brat..."

Nee Chen returned to his sleep.

But he couldn't do so, he stayed awake until sunrise. Tirelessly, he proceeded to work on his farm, but first, he gathered the trash that had accumulated from his wood carving.

Nee Chen cleaned up the excess wood. To be more specific, Nee Chen was alternating from his hut to his farm. Using the wood waste as fertilizer for his crops, Nee Chen was making steady progress.

Just like that, Nee Chen worked until sunset.

Tomorrow, Nee Chen would continue tending to his crops and then proceed to hone his woodcraft. "Ugh... today was too tiring. I should rest early. I think I overdid my woodcarving last night."

Nee Chen slept early in anticipation of what he was about to achieve. "Tomorrow, I will do better...:

Maybe because he was in a good mood, Nee Chen had a sweet dream that night. He got married, got a huge house, and earned a lot of money. 'This was a dream,' Nee Chen instinctively knew as he watched Xiang Ya in his house cooking him food.

"Xiang Ya, I love you."

"Me too." The most beautiful girl in the village answered Nee Chen's confession.

Suddenly, the clouds got darker, and a sword pierced Xiang Ya's chest. Nee Chen's eyes were wide in fear as blood swept the village red.

The corpses of his fellow villagers scattered, and their blood flowed forming a stream of crimson.

There was death, and then there was none.

What Nee Chen thought was a sweet dream was actually a terrible nightmare.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Nee Chen woke up, his back drenched with sweat. He could feel his heart explosively beating with his hoarse panting. He rubbed his bloodshot eyes in disbelief.

Ominous...

~~~

Nee Chen hurried to the village elder's house to tell him his worries. The village was at peace this early in the morning. The fog was low and the sun was still obscured in the clouds.

*Knock *knock *knock

Nee Chen knocked on the door only to receive silence.

The people were still asleep so it was understandable why it was so quiet. Maybe, the elder, the village chief was still sleeping, but Nee Chen could not calm his heart. So he knocked once more.

*Knock *knock *knock

And finally, the door opened. It was Xiang Ya, the most beautiful girl in the village and the village elder's only granddaughter.

Nee Chen was surprised by Xiang Ya's appearance. Dark hair, supple lips, beautiful face, fair skin…

"Boobs..." *ahem

"..."

"..." *gulp

"*Cough~ Brother Chen, why did you come?" Xiang Ya dispelled the momentary awkward silence with a cough.

"I—"

"WAAAAAAAAA~ WAAAaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaaa~!"

When Nee Chen was about to speak, a familiar annoying cry interrupted him. He frowned at the sight of the dashing Lu Gao.

"C-cultivator! B-brother Chen, my mom... waaAaaAa.. hik... hik..."

Seeing Lu Gao hyperventilating in pain, Nee Chen felt something gravely wrong. Nee Chen calmed little Gao by slowly rubbing the kid's back.

"What happened?" Xiang Ya asked little Gao, but the kid was clearly having a hard time answering.

It didn't take long for Xiang Ya and Nee Chen to know the answer. Three men hurriedly walked to their side, all of them were bleeding from severe wounds that would have definitely killed them if it was not treated.

All of them were familiar people whom Nee Chen usually made interactions with.

"Demonic cultivator!"

"Run!"

"He killed all of—"

*SLAAAASH!

Blood scattered in the air revealing a robed figure just behind the three men. It was Zha Dong.

"They ran quite fast..." He playfully said as he flexed his sword. "Greetings, mortals. I am Zha Dong. Rever me!"

Nee Chen was frozen in his place, while Lu Gao had already fainted from the shock of seeing blood once more. Xiang Ya was similarly shaken.

~~~

Lu Gao remembered still hearing the chirping of the crickets. He was waving his wooden sword, fantasizing about the amazing powers he could wield if he were a cultivator.

Lu Gao was playing in the village's periphery at that time when he saw… a certain cultivator killing his mom who was searching for her kid.

Slashed right in the gut, Lu Gao watched his mom's entrails burst into the damp soil, her blood, and white matter mixing with the dirt.

"M-mo-mom..." Lu Gao muttered in a small voice.

As a boy with an inquisitive mind and a desire for exploration, Lu Gao was someone who was considerably knowledgeable among his peers around his age.

Lu Gao recalled the time when he visited the butcher's workplace. The smell of blood is sickening, but that's not what really gave the little boy the heaviest impression in the butcher's workshop.

It was the squealing.

"K-kyaaa~" That was the last thing Lu Gao heard from his mom.

Knowing that it might be his fault that his mother died, little Gao felt strong guilt for playing without asking permission from his mom.

"N-no..." Lu Gao ran.

The village was big so it took Lu Gao some time to run towards the village elder's house. The massacre followed him as he heard intermittent screams of pain from the many houses around him.

"Who was this?"

"Ah! He had a knife!"

"That's a fucking sword!"

"Please, not my child!"

It snowballed into a chaotic disorder as the villagers woke up at the screams, resisted with all their might, and did their worst to survive.

It was futile as the demonic cultivator made quick work of them.

~~~

He, Zha Dong, was killing the villagers with a manic smile. Zha Dong personally drove his sword to his victims' hearts. After that, he extracted their bones with perverse obsession. His movements were fast as expected from a cultivator.

Every house in the village was visited by this grim reaper. Zha Dong reserved the biggest house in the center of the village as a finale.

When Zha Dong reached his final destination, he found some stragglers left.

…

"Well, what do we have here? A beauty, a farm boy, and a brat…" Zha Dong casually said as he cleaned the blood from his sword by rubbing it in the dead man's robe.

In his struggle to take control of his panic, Nee Chen rushed to the fainted Lu Gao. The demonic cultivator remained unmoving at the sight of a panicking farm boy.

Nee Chen carried Lu Gao into a concealed space among the hay. He worriedly gazed at the panicking livestock around.

The murderous intent of the deadly cultivator felt so vivid, that Nee Chen was having lapses in his judgment.

Nee Chen was scared, but he wanted to do something, just anything. Hiding little Gao like this seemed futile, but it was better than doing nothing. Nee Chen then raised his head, his eyes landed on Xiang Ya. He was about to take a step when chilling murderous intent once more engulfed him.

Frozen in place, Nee Chen was left helpless in the face of the demonic cultivator's mysterious means.

"Heh~ It was just killing intent, but this farm boy was already like this." Zha Dong scoffed.

Xiang Ya was trembling in fear as Zha Dong approached her.

"Not bad." He pinched the girl's chin, examining Xiang Ya's face. Zha Dong then pressed his lips to the trembling girl.

When Xiang Ya felt the cold sensation of dread, she didn't know what to do. But the cultivator's intrusive act made her boil in disgust.

Xiang Ya bit Zha Dong's lips causing the cultivator to flinch in shock. Xiang Ya retreated, hurriedly cleaning the filth that touched her lips.

Zha Dong watched Xiang Ya scratch her tongue and rub it with the dirt. The already angry cultivator was now seething with hatred.

"You slut! I show interest in you and now you insult me?!"