My Golden Core is a Star, do you call this cultivating?

Chapter 98: Game Starts, A Soldier in Wugui City

The massive city had fallen.
Everywhere was devastation, ruins, and rubble.

In the city, only scattered hundreds of demonic fiends wandered.

The ground was littered with bones, and no one built graves.

Whose beloved sons' souls were tied to this place?

A month later, a human army returned to this city, reclaiming it after a bloody battle.

The commanding officer, with a gruesome scar across his face, looked particularly terrifying as he drank with the generals.

Five days later, the demonic fiends attacked again.

The city fell once more.

For two months, fires raged. Then, another human army arrived.

Unfortunately, their fate was the same—total annihilation.

Later, another human army came, only to meet the same end.

And later still, Qi Yuan stood on the city wall. This city had seen no human armies for over ten years.

He looked at the city full of bones.

"Once a soldier steps into this city, his lifespan starts counting down. No one survives beyond ten days."

"Now my task is to defend this desolate city?"

Qi Yuan stood alone in the desolate city, looking up at the towering, scarred city walls.

A sense of desolation and bleakness overwhelmed him.

On the wall, three characters read "Wugui City" (No Return City).

Qi Yuan glanced at himself: "Level 45, huh?"

Entering the game now, he was at level 45.

Unlike the first time, when he was at level 1.

So Qi Yuan guessed that level 45 was equivalent to the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

His soul strength in the Azure World determined his level in the game.

"Level 45, not bad. I can start killing mobs."

Qi Yuan's eyes sparkled with joy.

Killing monsters would allow him to level up in the game.

And this cultivation level would also be reflected proportionally in reality.

His cultivation in reality would improve rapidly as well.

He liked this feeling.

"Unfortunately, I don't have a suitable weapon." Qi Yuan looked at himself.

He seemed to have entered alone.

But in a moment, he froze.

"Xiao Jia?"

He noticed the mark of Xiao Jia on his chest.

Xiao Jia had come into the game with him?
"Xiao Jia!" Qi Yuan called out.

Immediately, beside Qi Yuan, Xiao Jia's figure appeared.

Dressed in a blood-red wedding dress, she looked incredibly enchanting.

Timid Xiao Jia looked around in confusion.

But when she saw Qi Yuan, she seemed reassured, tightly holding his arm.

Qi Yuan smiled, "In ancient times, scholars studied at night with a red-sleeved beauty accompanying them.

Now I, Qi Yuan, defend a lonely city with a bride in a wedding dress accompanying me."

Thinking this, Qi Yuan found the game interesting again.

At that moment, the wandering demonic fiends in the city seemed to notice Qi Yuan and roared as they rushed toward him.

For these fiends, tearing apart all humans was their instinct.

Hundreds of fiends, looking like various terrifying monsters, with huge bodies, charged at Qi Yuan.

"Xiao Jia!" Qi Yuan shouted.

Together!

Immediately, blood-red fireflies merged into Qi Yuan's body, covering him in blood-red armor, thoroughly protected.

Sharp, long spikes on his shoulders shone with a bewitching red light.

His height increased to ten meters, looking like a terrifying blood-colored monster.

Qi Yuan swung his hand, and a broken sword fell into his hand.

The broken sword immediately grew larger and longer, covered in blood-red color.

Now the broken sword looked like a red heavy blade.

He grinned, showing sharp teeth, "Little monsters, the hunt begins again!"

He was like a heavy mech crashing into a dinosaur park.

Those flesh-and-blood fiends were no match for him.

"Kill!"

With one swing, dozens of fiends fell.

+40.

+20.

+10.

+35.

Countless experiences flooded in, and Qi Yuan, like a demon god, kept killing.

Wherever he went, it became a purgatory, and all fiends met only death.

In ten days, Qi Yuan swept through the entire lonely city.

Now, Qi Yuan leaned against a half-collapsed wall, panting heavily.

"Finally, there are no more fiends in Wugui City."

All the fiends had been slaughtered by him alone.

His level also rose to 49.

Four levels in ten days, a rapid pace.

At that moment, a prompt sounded in Qi Yuan's ear.

【Successfully cleared fiends, obtained key fragment *1.】

【Begin defending Wugui City; the longer you defend, the richer the rewards.】

【If fiends enter Wugui City, the defense state will fail.】

Hearing these prompts, Qi Yuan relaxed.
"Who says this world isn't a game?"

"It is a game!"

"I'm playing a game!"

Qi Yuan, holding the broken sword, hugged Xiao Jia, and the two sat on the city wall.

Looking out, yellow sand filled the sky, occasionally swept by strong winds, with rusted broken swords sticking out.

Qi Yuan, holding Xiao Jia, watched the desert scenery with her.

Sometimes, he shielded her from the sweeping wind.

Sometimes, under the charming night, he dug a hole and slept with Xiao Jia under the city wall.

If any fiends approached, he sensed it and killed them with one sword strike.

"I wonder when the next wave of monsters will attack."

One day, Qi Yuan and Xiao Jia sat on the city wall, both expecting and not expecting it.

A little clever monster might sneak into the city.

His defense state would fail.

But without fiends, he couldn't gain experience.

At that moment, in the distant desert, two armored, tattered figures caught Qi Yuan's attention.

In the distance.

"Cough, cough…" Zhang Sheng, seeing the towering city walls, teared up, "Finally here."

Beside Zhang Sheng, the pale Chen Jiao, with a broken arm, handed him water.

"Sheng, drink the water. We'll take Wugui City together!"

That water bag held their last remaining water.

As reinforcements for Wugui City, the Song Battalion had 1,723 soldiers.

The commanding general, named Li Huan, was once a renowned general in Great Xia.

Wugui City hadn't been under Great Xia’s control for over ten years.

It was one of the lost 108,000 cities.

Half a year ago, Great Xia's king exhausted national resources to gather an army of elderly soldiers to retake Wugui City.

Unfortunately, they encountered a fiend army on the way.

A fierce battle ensued, and only Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao survived, waking up from the pile of corpses.

Severely wounded, they still headed for Wugui City to plant Great Xia’s flag on the city wall.

Once the flag was planted, it signified that Wugui City still belonged to Great Xia.

Wugui City wouldn't be considered entirely lost.

If a city was occupied by fiends for over a hundred years, it would no longer belong to humans.

Unless retaken and defended for a hundred years.

How difficult was that?
Soldiers who went to Wugui City had no retreat, not even supplies.

In Great Xia, there was a saying.

Once on the road to Wugui City, one's lifespan was only a month.

"Too bad the flag can't stay on the wall," Chen Jiao lamented.

He used to be a butcher, like his ancestors.

His cousin and father died in Wugui City.

He was the last of his family.

Zhang Sheng, a town constable, with his father as the head constable.

To Chen Jiao, Zhang Sheng was born with a silver spoon.

Zhang Sheng always loved playing the hero, dressed finely and riding spirited horses.

This time, he defied his father’s advice and joined the army secretly, ending up here.

Seeing Wugui City, Zhang Sheng was thrilled, "Wugui City has been out of Great Xia’s control for over ten years. Once we plant the flag, Great Xia’s people will be inspired!"

Zhang Sheng's grandfather also died in Wugui City.

He was the youngest in his family, with elder brothers taking care of his father, so he came.

Both severely wounded, they spoke, blood dripping from their mouths.

"To be buried with the unyielding heroes of Great Xia, I have no regrets," Chen Jiao, despite his butcher background, liked to use literary phrases.

"The only regret is we can't build graves for our ancestors," Zhang Sheng said, drawing his plain knife, his gaze steely.

Entering Wugui City meant facing fiends' attacks.

Certain death awaited, even without fiends; their injuries wouldn't let them live beyond ten days.

At that moment, Zhang Sheng’s eyes widened, "There’s someone on the wall?"

Chen Jiao was also stunned, disbelief written on his face.

Wugui City had been lost for over ten years. How could there be people?

Was it an illusion?
Wasn't Wugui City full of fiends?
They couldn't understand, looking at each other.

"Let's go see."

Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao quickened their pace toward Wugui City.

The closer they got, the more amazed they were.

Wugui City was eerily silent, without any fiend roars.

It contradicted their information.

Wugui City should be swarming with fiends.
On the wall, the dark-robed man holding a broken sword became clearer.

Sitting on the wall, his figure was thin but unmistakably human.

"Who… who are you?" Chen Jiao mustered the courage to ask.

The man on the wall moved, looking at them, his voice calm, "Wugui City, the defender!"

Chen Jiao and Zhang Sheng were shocked, emotions overwhelming them.

Could it be that Wugui City hadn't completely fallen?

There were still Great Xia’s people, one man with a broken sword, sitting on the wall, defending?

"I am Zhang Sheng, a soldier of Great Xia’s Song Battalion!"

"I am Chen Jiao, a soldier of Great Xia’s Song Battalion!"

Hearing this, Qi Yuan looked at them, "The NPCs meant to defend this place?"