The fairies I flirted with in the game became real?!

```

The options that popped up in his view invigorated Li Muyang.

Great! Finally, it's here!

This option was clearly the ultimate choice of the third stage.

One choice was to return to Black Cloud Fort, the other was to take Little Wild Grass with him, leave the Black Cloud Fort for good, and let the vast sea have the leaping fish, the infinite sky the flying birds.

It was a no-brainer to decide which one to pick using one's butt.

However, Li Muyang still cautiously saved his game first, then selected the second option.

In the morning light, Li Muyang looked at the girl in front of him and smiled gently.

"Before leaving the fort this time, Granny allowed me not to return to Black Cloud Fort after sending Wei Sandao away," he said.

"So I want to go out and see the world, and I want to walk with you."

"Do you want to leave with me?"

Li Muyang looked at the girl, sincerity in his eyes.

In the warm morning sun, faced with Big Brother's tender gaze, the girl was stupefied.

Mist appeared in her eyes.

"Mm!"

The girl sniffed hard, then nodded vigorously.

"I want to go with Big Brother, I'll go wherever Big Brother goes! We will never part!"

The girl hugged Li Muyang tightly, burying her face in his chest, and said with an unwavering gaze, "Even if Big Brother asks me to leave, I will never go!"

The girl's excitement and joy were conveyed to Li Muyang through her gently trembling shoulders.

Looking at the happy little girl in front of him, Li Muyang also let out a relieved sigh, saying with a smile.

"Then let's walk the road ahead together."

[Little Wild Grass: 61]

[Little Wild Grass's favorability for the first time has broken through 60, cultivation progress entering the fourth stage (out of five stages)]

[Third stage cultivation reward available for claim]

[Please choose your third stage cultivation reward (choose one out of three)]

[Cultivation +2 (Early Foundation Establishment Realm→Late Foundation Establishment Realm)]

[Jade Marrow Spirit Liquid X8]

[Item Upgrade Charm X1]

…

The settlement rewards popping up in his field of vision surprised Li Muyang.

"They are giving such generous rewards this time?"

Although he knew that as the game progressed, the rewards would become more generous.

But the rewards for the third stage were too lush.

Eight bottles of Jade Marrow Spirit Liquid and an Item Upgrade Charm, in the past, would've been the perfect reward for a perfect clear, and now they could be obtained directly.

Li Muyang was envious for a good while, really wanting to claim the Item Upgrade Charm and upgrade his Obliteration Wheel into a mid-grade Spiritual Artifact.

But after hesitating and struggling for a while, Li Muyang finally chose cultivation.

Fundamental Establishment was different from Qi Refining. Starting from Fundamental Establishment, each ascension in cultivation level became a difficult challenge, requiring who knows how many Spiritual Objects and long periods of arduous cultivation to advance a single realm.

Many white-robed disciples of the Inner Sect might even be trapped in the Foundation Establishment Realm for their entire lives, unable to reach Core Formation.

Even with the endless supply of Spirit Rice, the cultivation in the Foundation Establishment Realm was still slow for Li Muyang.

After reaching Foundation Establishment, choosing cultivation was still the most cost-effective option.

Directly advancing to the Later Foundation Establishment Realm this time saved Li Muyang at least a year of effort.

As he chose cultivation, he immediately felt a surge of abundant Spiritual Energy rushing into his Dantian.

Within Li Muyang's Qi Sea in his Dantian, the vortex of Spiritual Energy expanded and spread continuously until many shiny crystals condensed within the vortex.

At first glance, they looked like twinkling stars.

And this star-filled vortex of Spiritual Energy became even more mysterious and magnificent, like a nebula.

When a core of stars condensed in the center of this nebula, that would be the Core Formation.

```

After his cultivation level increased by +2, Li Muyang skipped over the long and arduous process of cultivating and refining Spiritual Energy at the Foundation Establishment Realm and began preparing for Core Formation.

[Li Muyang: Late Foundation Establishment Realm (3%)]

Looking at the experience bar in his field of vision, Li Muyang chuckled, feeling a sense of liberation throughout his body.

As the Spiritual Energy increased, his bodily functions and attributes across all areas improved significantly.

Li Muyang prepared to close the game and fully experience the cultivation level of the late Foundation Establishment Realm.

However, after he claimed the settlement rewards, the system interface, which should have closed, remained active.

After the settlement reward was claimed, new system information popped up in Li Muyang's field of vision.

["Deadly Little Wild Grass" Stage Three cleared, reward obtained—a special reward: Eye of Spiritual Sight]

[Eye of Spiritual Sight: Having witnessed beings beyond this world with the naked eye, your soul ascends a level, enabling you to see the essence of all things, see through illusions, and directly view all demonic creatures]

[Cost: Mental contamination; the soul will gradually become aberrant (cost has been exempted)]

Seeing this system message, Li Muyang blinked.

"Eye of Spiritual Sight?"

This thing is quite eerie.

Luckily, the system was as reliable as ever, exempting the cost outright.

Li Muyang opened his eyes, got down from the bamboo bed, and began walking around inside the house.

Everything in the bamboo house appeared normal in his vision, without any strange changes.

But when Li Muyang stepped out of the bamboo house and came into the courtyard, he was instantly taken aback.

Majestic floating islands were everywhere, with palaces and pavilions, houses standing in neat order, shrouded in an ethereal mist.

A flock of ethereal cranes flew past him, their calls filling the air.

However, upon closer inspection, Li Muyang noticed that all the cranes had a vacant stare and stiff movements, devoid of any ethereal grace; they were clearly dead puppets controlled by dark magic.

"...Is this a boosted version of clarifying eyes that can see through deception?"

Li Muyang suddenly realized.

He had not noticed anything odd about the flock of cranes before, but now he discovered that they might be puppets crafted by a high-level practitioner from the Demon Sect.

The cranes flew aimlessly within the floating islands, their dull, blood-red eyes coldly surveilling all living beings on the islands—obviously a set of watching eyes.

Li Muyang was somewhat alarmed, but did not take it too seriously.

He used the Eye of Spiritual Sight for a little while before retracting his gaze.

Despite the creepiness of the cranes, this was the demeanor expected of the Demon Path. No matter how much the Inner Sect of the Refinement Demon Sect disguised itself with ethereal airs, at the end of the day, it was still a Demon Sect.

Li Muyang stretched languidly under the sunshine, paying no more attention to the elusive cranes, and turned to walk back into the bamboo house to continue playing the game.

However, once Li Muyang shifted his gaze away, the group of cranes that he had been observing with the Eye of Spiritual Sight began to shudder erratically after flying a certain distance.

In the end, the last row of cranes stiffened and fell down, vanishing into the sea of clouds below.

Inside the Artifact Refining Hall of the Refinement Demon Sect, Elder Ge Hongshan, who was reading, felt a sudden twinge in his heart.

"My corpse cranes have been broken?!"

Ge Hongshan was baffled and quickly got up to run to his Artifact Refining chamber.

On one of the rows of shelves in his chamber, there were rows of miniature white cranes, arranged neatly in hundreds, each no bigger than a grasshopper.

At this moment, among these white cranes, a dozen had cracked open, inexplicably damaged, with dim Demonic Qi continuously escaping from the fissures.

Ge Hongshan quickly grabbed these cracked cranes, frowning as he sensed them and started to review the images transmitted by the cranes before they were damaged.

Then...

"How were these corpse cranes broken?"

Ge Hongshan was bewildered.

It was just routine patrolling, and no one had attacked the group of corpse cranes, but shortly after they flew over the island where the Enforcement Hall was located, they all split open.

It was as if they had cracked on their own.

This is freakin' spooky!n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

They self-destruct without being attacked? Is there a problem with my Artifact Refining?

Ge Hongshan's eyes glazed over, starting to question his life.