How to Cultivate a Game

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

Nee Chen blankly watched Xiang Ya getting her first kiss stolen, and... the next second, being slapped by the cultivator in fury.

Zha Dong's palm was filled with demonic qi. He used it to slap the girl mercilessly. Xiang Ya was sent crashing into a hut and another.

Nee Chen's eyes turned bloody red in fury. "You fucker, if you want to hit someone, hit me!" With sheer will, Nee Chen moved.

Xiang Ya could feel several broken bones in her body. She coughed blood and grimaced in pain.

Nee Chen arrived by Xiang Ya's side. He didn't even dare to touch her afraid that he might exacerbate her injuries. "Xiang Ya, please, d-don't... don't lose consciousness... Please!"

Zha Dong watched pathetically at the drama unfolding in front of him. "What a bunch of insects..."

Cold sweat drenched Nee Chen's back, and the color of despair etched itself on his face. Was this the end? He thought that this might be it... The miserable end of a farm boy, and the demise of One Well Village...

Nee Chen felt weak in his arms, and legs, causing his knees to give out. Slumped, the young man felt his world turn upside down. At the back of his mind, he prayed for the nightmare he had to remain an illusion or a hallucination.

Maybe... all of this was not real. But... that's just wishful thinking. It was real! Very. Real.

Zha Dong with malicious intentions laid his fangs bare. "What a pity, she was kind of my type. Never mind, she's not even that beautiful."

Nee Chen tilted his head at an unnatural angle and glared at Zha Dong in chilling wrath.

Zha Dong didn't know why, but the sight of the menacing Nee Chen made him flinch. However, Zha Dong had no leeway to pay attention to the irregularities that Nee Chen had shown... for a strong presence suddenly revealed itself.

"You insolent fool! How dare you lay your filthy hand on my granddaughter?!" Words brimming with qi echoed in the winds. It was Elder Fu--- Xiang Ya's grandfather.

Carrying a long curved blade, he erupted at the demonic cultivator. Xiang Fu, the retired cultivator of the One Well Village glowered. "You bastard, you must be eager to die!"

"How dare a 3rd stage talk to me like that?" But Zha Dong just spat back with contempt. "Did you think that your Will Reinforcement Realm Cultivation was enough to deal with me?"

There were 11 stages of cultivation known to the current world. From 1st stage to the 4th stage, they were: Martial Tempering, Mind Enlightenment, Will Reinforcement, and Spirit Mystery— these four specific stages were also known as the [Four Earthly Attributes].

Being in the Spirit Mystery realm, it could be said that Zha Dong had already attained the basic Four Earthly Attributes, capable of wielding the synergistic powers of martial, mind, will, and spirit.

In a sense, there might not be a big difference between 1st to 3rd stages, but that was a different story for 4th stages that possessed deep-to-the-bones superhuman qualities. Even without the use of qi--- Spirit Mystery experts could easily crush rocks, hear from a hundred li, and see from a thousand li.

"Old man, I would make you despair!" Zha Dong's demonic qi churned with excitement.

Xiang Fu didn't mind his foe looking down on him. It was because he was aware of how truly outclassed he was in terms of cultivation levels. However, Xiang Fu did not show any worries on his face. What he lacked in cultivation, he would compensate with fighting spirit, experience, and technique.

Xiang Fu with a resolute heart raised his blade and then spat back.

"You would make me taste despair? I have been there, it ain't a fun place."

~~~

Xiang Fu was born a farmer's son. His father expected him to till the soil, sow the seeds, and tend to the farm. It was his fate, his father repeatedly reminded him.

But the farmer's son didn't want any of that. So he left home, pursued cultivation, and then joined a sect. It felt fulfilling for him, to challenge the world with only his sword at hand.

In his every waking day, he cultivated, and refined his swordsmanship, and challenged experts.

The Biron kingdom was too small for him. That was why when he reached the Spirit Mystery realm, he resolved himself to leave for a higher place— the Azuon Empire.

Filled with ambition and dreams, he ventured into the golden sands of the Sandwyrm Desert in preparation to reach the higher stage.

It didn't take long for Xiang Fu to realize how futile his actions were… his ambitions and dreams are reduced to delusions as the heavens above strike him with lightning.

The 5th stage, the Soul Recognition realm, was just before him. When the lightning above descended, Xiang Fu was mercilessly struck with misfortune.

Heavenly Tribulation... They happened on the rarest of occasions for lower-level cultivators. It would certainly happen if it occurred for those ascending in the 8th stage and above.

But the 5th stage?

Xiang Fu could only blame his bad luck.

The despair was not something you could just forget with a little bit of optimism.

When he returned to the Biron kingdom, his cultivation was forever reduced to the 3rd stage, the Will Reinforcement realm. Xiang Fu gave up cultivating ever since.

It was a cruel reality, he met a wall in his cultivation, and never was he disillusioned enough to force his way out just to find a breakthrough that uncertainly existed. He didn't take his chances anymore.

He then returned to his village, only to be met by his parent's graves.

With the appearance of a 20-year-old, but was in fact at least a 50-year-old-geezer, the village learned of his identity as a cultivator.

The villagers were fearful of him at first, but slowly he was able to integrate with their community thanks to his amiable personality.

Since then, Xiang Fu lived his every day as a farmer with the powers of a cultivator. With his abilities better than an average mortal, it took him not that long to become the most acclaimed individual in the village.

It was an ironic but satisfying outcome for him. Longevity? Power? This in the first place was not what helped people to gain happiness. In the passing of time, he learned of this golden truth while forgetting all of the despair that caught him in its webs.

More than ironic, it was a funny thing. As a farmer, he had become truly a 'cultivator' in every sense of a word.

After that, he married the village elder's youngest daughter and had kids. Quickly after that, he wizened and aged, now old and weary— he wanted to rest.

Time quickly ate at him as his pursuit of longevity came to a definite end. However, it wasn't that bad. The 'journey' after all was what truly mattered.

Xiang Fu the cultivator was no more; there was only Elder Fu, a person who lived two lives.

As a cultivator, he lived the tenacious life of living by the edge of his blade. Meanwhile, as a farmer, he lived a fulfilling life of having children and now… a granddaughter.

But the world was unforgiving. Cultivation or without, the world wouldn't just leave you alone in your happy peaceful days. Sometimes, tragedy really did happen in the most unforgiving of circumstances...

Why? Why did this tragedy have to happen now? Now, that he was still happy, and his granddaughter was happy?

Xiang Fu perished the thought as he learned this through his bones and blood— he just has terribly bad luck... When he lost his wife to a disease… he mourned as any mortal would. After his eldest child, a son was eaten by a demonic beast… he raged and desired vengeance as any father should. Before his daughter-in-law died as she gave birth to her child… he prayed to the heavens for the two of them, mother and child, to survive.

Even though there were so many sad things that happened to him, elder Fu wanted to live a happy life with his granddaughter. He did not want to blame it all on bad luck.

Now, it was happening all over again. Another sad thing… another misfortune…

Xiang Fu could not help himself but swear at his rotten bad luck.

A trace of blood, and from a distance, Elder Fu's eyes landed on the hardly breathing Xiang Ya.

"You shall perish!"

With a sword at hand, Elder Fu lunged forward with the might of crashing waves. They exchanged more than a dozen moves within a single breath. Xiang Fu realized that he was outmatched, but despite that, he wouldn't back down. This series of nightmares of misfortune, he shall end them today!

*Clang!!

"Not bad," Zha Dong snidely commented.