144: Evil cultivators exposed, public opinion wrong

“Damn, there’s such a secret behind the Yan Family’s extermination?”

After This Time Bu Ge received the complete message, he was a bit stunned. He quickly realized this was indeed big news, capable of generating significant buzz and bringing him extremely high profits, far surpassing ordinary strategy videos.

“I can’t believe Midnight Gao Sou, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, actually became an evil Cultivator. Tsk tsk…”

This Time Bu Ge remarked with a click of his tongue as he edited the video.

As a major streamer, even after transitioning to a video UP, Midnight Gao Sou still commanded immense traffic. His public persona was known for his morality, always adhering to rules that others ignored while gaming.

But now, to achieve an Immortal Foundation, he massacred the entire Yan Family, including the surrounding families and Sects. It was rumored that even passing Loose Cultivators were not spared, and he even killed people and gouged out their hearts, truly a heinous act.

“If this gets out, Midnight Gao Sou’s reputation might be ruined…”

After This Time Bu Ge finished editing the video, he slowly stopped.

As a fellow UP, he was very aware of the importance of a public persona to a UP and understood even more clearly the chain reaction that a collapse of that persona could bring, enough to make a major UP with millions of followers instantly fall from the peak to the bottom.

This Time Bu Ge wanted traffic, but his published videos had always been neutral, at least not involving specific individuals. Now, facing a controversial topic, he hesitated for the first time.

“Wait, I think I misunderstood everything.”

This Time Bu Ge paused, thought quietly for a while, constantly searched for recent information, especially looking at player discussions about evil Cultivators, and even found some videos and posts from players in other countries about evil Cultivators.

His expression kept changing, and a certain suspicion began to form in his heart. He then checked some posts about the current situation of the Great Jiang Dynasty.

Finally, he found information called “Dao Heart.” This information was scarce, just fragments, but all signs indicated a strong connection to evil Cultivators.

After a long while, This Time Bu Ge exhaled a turbid breath:

“As expected of a Xuanhuan World, as expected of Huan Meng…”

After a moment of emotion, This Time Bu Ge made a decision. He did not edit out everything he had found, only organizing the content related to the Yan Family’s extermination, and quickly uploaded it… The Mage got up from the VR pod, ended Deep Blue mode, opened the maintenance program, and then lay down in the life-support pod on the other side, letting the machine adjust his state.

At the same time, he logged onto the internet to see if anything major had happened recently.

Ever since his Immortal Foundation Breakthrough failed and he was rescued by the Bald Monk, he had embarked on a different path from Immortal Cultivation. Upon discovering his potential, he dedicated himself to it almost entirely, no longer reading posts, no longer browsing videos, and even neglecting his main job as a UP.

He watched as his cultivation grew deeper and deeper, with a chance to be brought into the “Buddhist Land” and achieve the rank of “Remaining Vajra.” Although not comparable to the true Vajras achieved through almsgiving and salvation, he was still on par with an ordinary Golden Core Cultivator.

However, the more he cultivated and the deeper he understood, the more he realized that this path of Buddhist cultivation seemed somewhat sinister and not accepted by the Righteous Path.

Moreover, this thing was even more terrifying than ordinary evil Cultivators.

Ordinary evil Cultivators coveted Qi and the Physical Body; only top-tier evil Cultivators coveted the Soul, but even if the Soul was refined, players were generally unaffected after Reincarnation.

But this path of Buddhist cultivation was formidable. After applying its methods, even Reincarnation would lead to being targeted and even exploited, unless one completely deleted their account, bought the game again, and created a new character; otherwise, this account was essentially Wasted. (This is a Chinese term for 'useless' or 'crippled', but the glossary doesn't have it. I'll leave it as is to avoid adding new terms.)

This made the Mage absolutely dare not tell anyone about his situation, not even Midnight Gao Sou, Old Potato, and others he was usually close to. He was like he had vanished from the face of the earth.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, the Mage saw a newly published video. Its views were skyrocketing, quickly reaching the hot list, and the number of comments was incredibly high.

When he saw the title, he was completely stunned: “Great Love Sect? Midnight Gao Sou? What’s going on? What big trouble have they stirred up?”

At this moment, the life-support pod finished its operation, and the VR pod completed its self-check. The Mage felt very light, his weakness gone, and he could lie back down to start the game again.

However, the Mage instead walked to his study, opened his usual computer split screen, and watched the video while reading the comments.

He found that this hotspot was very important, as it determined the player community’s view on evil Cultivators, and thus players’ views on some sinister methods.

If Midnight Gao Sou could safely navigate this storm, then he, the Mage, might also be able to openly appear, and even establish his own forces, which would be much stronger than fighting alone.

It’s just… “How is Gao Sou doing now?”

The Mage hesitated for a moment but still sent a message to Midnight Gao Sou, wanting to know his current situation, as he was at the center of the public opinion… Midnight Gao Sou sat blankly in front of his computer desk. The screen light was steady, but his heart was bewildered.

When the video first appeared, he was greatly alarmed. He immediately went into seclusion on the Great Love Sect mountain, instantly left the game, and frantically checked the comments.

Actually, the video content wasn’t extensive. There was almost no specific information about Midnight Gao Sou’s Cultivation Technique, and not even specific video clips, to avoid exposing the leaker.

There were only a few shots taken by Yan Sect players, and individual moments captured by peripheral players. More of it was the script read by This Time Bu Ge, which mentioned that a group of people from the Great Love Sect went to the Yan Sect at the same time, after which the Yan Sect was exterminated, and other surrounding Families and Sects were also exterminated. At the same time, Midnight Gao Sou disappeared and reappeared as an Immortal Foundation.

So, who was the evil Cultivator who achieved a Breakthrough to Immortal Foundation? It's so hard to guess.

“Holy crap, it’s Midnight Gao Sou!”

“Has Gao Sou finally crossed the moral bottom line? He actually attacked us players?”

“Laughable, they said Great Love has no boundaries and cares for every player, but the Sect Master of the Great Love Sect personally went out to kill people?”

Seeing these comments, Midnight Gao Sou’s heart tightened. He felt that he was probably going to lose face, become a scoundrel mocked by everyone, and might even be attacked by an angry mob of players.

But soon, he realized that the public opinion he imagined never materialized. Those who cursed him were mostly old haters, but more were teasing, and the most numerous, the focus, was in a direction he had never considered—

“Holy crap, you can get stronger by killing in the Xuanhuan World too?”

“My goodness, I thought the Xuanhuan World didn't have experience bars, but it does?”

“You can get stronger by killing? Then why should I cultivate diligently? We players may not be good at other things, but we're good at fighting monsters and killing people!”

“Gao Sou is holding back! Why did he hide such a good evil Cultivation Technique? What about the Great Love Alliance’s promise to share everything?”

Midnight Gao Sou stared blankly at the comments. He was stunned to find that players seemed to be more interested in the Cultivation Technique itself?

This interest quickly shifted the discussion in the comment section. No one discussed the moral issues brought by the extermination of a Sect itself; instead, everyone was discussing the convenience and speed of evil Cultivation, to the point where more people were @-ing Midnight Gao Sou, asking him a crucial question:

“Gao Sou, have you really achieved an Immortal Foundation?”

“Is your Immortal Foundation legitimate? It’s not a Mortal Foundation, is it?”

“Is evil Cultivation Technique really that amazing?”