Chapter 5: Forming a Party, Skill Books

After her resurrection, Qin Yumo stood frozen in place, her dark, gleaming eyes filled with wonder and excitement.

Hearing a voice, she looked toward Fu Chen and suddenly understood, smiling as she called out his name in gratitude: "Thank you, Half Love in the Mortal World."

Fu Chen nodded in response, then turned to point toward the direction of the Pengcheng Inn and reminded her, "See the newcomer prompt? That’s the Pengcheng Inn. The guide is in the house to the north. Remember to be respectful to her and choose the 'Little Carnivorous Flower' quest."

Qin Yumo nodded in agreement. Even as she turned to leave, she couldn’t hide her excitement, exclaiming, "This assist function is incredible—it feels just like playing an online game."

Fu Chen, accustomed to this, sent a friend request to [Wilderness], which was reluctantly accepted. Not long after, Qin Yumo returned with the quest in hand, eagerly drawing her wooden sword, ready to begin the fight.

Fu Chen offered, "You have no combat experience yet. Let's team up and fight together." He then sent her an invitation to form a party, creating a two-person team.

He carefully reminded her, "We’ll attack together, focusing on the same monster."

With that, he swung his wooden sword and charged at the nearest little carnivorous flower monster.

Qin Yumo followed exactly as agreed, obeying Fu Chen’s commands and closely trailing behind.

As they attacked the same monster simultaneously, the difference in skill became immediately apparent.

Fu Chen’s sword strikes were bold and decisive, skillfully dodging the flower’s counterattacks while attacking.

In contrast, although Qin Yumo was only assisting and didn’t have to worry about the monster’s retaliation, her sword swings felt like a child playing pretend.

Her movements were hesitant and stiff, her attacks weak and lacking any real force.

Seeing this, Fu Chen sighed inwardly, thinking, "Newbies are really hard to train."

He then began to demonstrate personally, carefully instructing Qin Yumo on how to swing the sword to cause damage, where to strike for best effect, and so on.

At this moment, Qin Yumo appeared nothing like the aloof persona her appearance suggested.

Instead, she was unusually obedient and eager to learn—especially in something she was unfamiliar with.

She followed Fu Chen’s instructions without hesitation, carrying them out strictly and without shortcuts.

Soon, she reached a normal beginner’s level of attack, occasionally even landing critical hits.

When the little carnivorous flower was finally slain, both of them received rewards of “Cultivation 2, Spirit 1.”

The monster dropped gold coins and a piece of equipment upon death, which Fu Chen picked up casually.

However, the equipment automatically went into Qin Yumo’s spatial backpack beside him.

She saw a notification from the personal assistant: “Picked up 1 ☆ Rough Linen Cloth.”

Her exquisite face tensed with nervousness as she hurriedly explained to Fu Chen, “I-I didn’t take it—it went into my backpack on its own. You’ve got to believe me.”

Seeing her desperate and aggrieved expression was far more interesting than her usual cold elegance.

Fu Chen couldn’t help but smile and nod, “I know it wasn’t you. I set the party loot distribution mode to ‘random.’”

He went on to explain the basic principles of the party mode:

Gold picked up is automatically shared evenly, going into each member’s spatial wallet;

Items picked up are distributed randomly (or freely) into one party member’s spatial backpack.

He emphasized, “Since we’re cooperating as a team, don’t worry about these details. Let’s continue the quest.”

Only then did Qin Yumo relax, following closely as Fu Chen led the way to the next little carnivorous flower.

Fu Chen had just leveled up, and although he hadn’t allocated attribute points yet, his attack power had slightly increased.

More importantly, with a teammate assisting, their efficiency in killing the little carnivorous flowers had multiplied.

After about seven or eight minutes, they completed the task of killing twenty flower monsters.

Together, they immediately returned to the Pengcheng Inn to turn in the quest and received five small bottles of Golden Wound Healing Potion as a reward.

The guide looked at them with satisfaction and said with a smile, “It’s time to head toward Sword Immortal City. Just go straight north. The first person you need to meet is the city guard, Lü Qing.”

“Outside the city, the Five-Star Longhorn Beetles are infesting the area. Eliminating twenty of them would be the best gift for the guard.”

At the same time, both received the quest prompt for “Military Intelligence Outside the City” and accepted it immediately.

Afterward, Fu Chen led Qin Yumo out of the Pengcheng Inn, heading north toward Sword Immortal City.

Not long after leaving, the number of people appearing on their path increased.

Thanks to the regional map prompts, they managed to avoid or detour around others each time.

Several times, Qin Yumo seemed about to speak but stopped, looking at Fu Chen’s impassive face and ultimately remaining silent.

Fu Chen inwardly felt pleased, thinking, “Fortunately, you’re not a bleeding-heart saint.”

They pressed forward at full speed, passing through the little carnivorous flower area and leaving behind the juvenile spotted scorpion territory.

About forty minutes later, they finally saw the blue, goat-sized Five-Star Longhorn Beetles.

The regional map showed they had left the Pengcheng Inn’s range and entered the outskirts of Sword Immortal City.

Considering how close it was to the inn, there were bound to be others nearby.

Fu Chen decided to press further north until they could faintly see the city’s outline before stopping.

Here, not only were there level 2 Five-Star Longhorn Beetles, but also level 3 Grave Fire monsters, their bodies wreathed in green ghostly flames.

Fu Chen smiled with satisfaction. “Let’s stop here and get to work.”

Before finishing his sentence, he gripped his wooden sword and charged at the nearest Five-Star Longhorn Beetle, whose basic stats were:

[HP 150/150; Level 2, Five-Star Longhorn Beetle; Gold quality; 87% Accuracy, 9% Evasion], with movement speed boost.

Without Fu Chen needing to remind her, Qin Yumo instinctively swung her wooden sword alongside him, beginning her support attacks.

This monster’s special “movement speed boost” attribute made it an elite enemy, noticeably faster than ordinary monsters.

Fu Chen struggled to dodge its attacks, taking heavier damage as a result.

Fortunately, with his teammate’s combined assault, their total output clearly surpassed the monster’s damage.

Even so, killing this monster cost Fu Chen nearly 80% of his health, making the situation seem quite perilous.

Of course, high risk often came with high reward.

This elite monster granted them double rewards of “Cultivation 6, Spirit 4.”

Fu Chen was in high spirits. “Haha, it’s the elite monsters with special attributes that yield the best rewards.”

That day, he did not forget his teammate and smiled warmly, praising Qin Yumo’s efforts: “Thanks to you, it would have taken me at least twice as long to clear this alone, and I might have been killed in the process.”

Qin Yumo did not respond, instead staring curiously at the ground, watching the monster’s dropped items.

“Is something wrong?” Fu Chen asked, bending down to take a look.

Besides gold coins and a ring, there lay a book with an orange cover titled [Tornado: Level 1].

Fu Chen was slightly surprised but nodded happily, “Not bad, a skill book dropped!”

Qin Yumo’s eyes lit up with anticipation as she urged, “Pick it up and take a look. I was wondering why a book would drop—it’s a skill book after all.”

Fu Chen stepped forward to collect the items. The ring went into his backpack, but the skill book was placed into Qin Yumo’s backpack.

Seeing this, Qin Yumo promptly shared the detailed information about the skill book in the party chat.