Chapter 386: The Sect Leader Returns (2)

Poison Toad nodded and turned his attention to Shen Jingbin and Zhao Chengning who were standing off to the side the entire time. Both of them had stern looks on their faces as a result of either his sudden appearance, or the disappearance of the Four Divine Beasts.

Seeing Poison Toad looking in his direction, Zhao Chengning cried out a greeting. Poison Toad gave a satisfied nod of his head.

"Seeing you like this means you've succeeded; as expected of my disciple."

"Sect Leader, my Four Divine Beasts have disappeared. Do you know what happened to them?" Shen Jingbin asked.

"They disappeared? Was this a recent occurrence?"

"It happened when you appeared."

Poison Toad muttered uncertainly to himself for several moments before turning to face his tablet. A glint flashed across his eyes as he said, "Step forward and grab ahold of my tablet."

Shen Jinbing had no idea what was happening, but did as he asked anyway. She realised something wasn't quite right when she picked up his tablet.

Poison Toad's tablet was unnaturally heavy. It was nowhere near what a wooden tablet should weigh.

Poison Toad was able to more or less confirm his hypothesis when he saw the look on Shen Jingbin's face. He sighed and said, "I owe the Black Tortoise a great deal. I fear even giving my life wouldn't be able to repay it for all it's done for me."

"What do you mean, Master?" Zhao Chengning asked.

Before Poison Toad had the chance to reply, the tablet in Shen Jingbin's hand started to violently shake. Four differently coloured beams of light burst forth from the tablet and disappeared out the door in the blink of an eye. Immediately after, a notification appeared before her.

"Your Divine Beasts have volunteered to guard the Abyss Realm in exchange for the freedom of the Sect Leaders of the Six Great Sects. You have lost the [True] Four Divine Beasts and gained the [High Grade] version of them instead. (Note: To continue the quest, the owner of the Four Divine Beasts has to step into the Lich Palace. This is a compulsory event that automatically activates.

As thanks for helping to advance the plot and to compensate you for your loss, you'll be awarded with the permanent buff: 'Shentu and Yulü's Blessing' on the completion of the quest. This buff allows you to return to the realm of the living regardless of which Door of Rebirth you choose when you're dead. <<Legends of Celestials and Demons>> thanks you for your cooperation. We wish you a pleasant gaming experience."

The notification only went away after a whole five minutes had passed. When it finally went away, Shen Jingbin noticed that there was a faint layer of white light covering Poison Toad's body. At the same time, his body gradually began to take on a corporeal form till he was back in the flesh.

Meanwhile, everyone else in game noticed that the sky had started to churn, and a system announcement appeared before them.

[System Announcement] A gale wind blows, and there's changes within the heaven and the earth. A rip is torn open in the air and six figures speed out of it. Lo and behold, they turn out to be the six missing Sect Leaders!

A voice that could have belonged to either a man or woman spoke from within the void: The six Sect Leaders act of sacrificing themselves for the greater good has moved the heavens, and they've been returned to this land as a result. From this day forth, the Four Divine Beasts will guard the Abyss Realm where the demonic Shinra Sect reside!

[System Announcement] Young heroes, your Sect Leaders have returned. Why not head back to your sects and pay them a visit? Whether or not this is a fortuitous event depends on you taking the chance to grasp the opportunity.

After a moment of shock had passed, everyone was bubbling with excitement! Those who were picking herbs dropped what they were doing, while those who were digging for treasures threw down their shovels. Anyone who was running a dungeon just outright quit their run. Aside from those who were getting married, all of the players excitedly sped back to their sects. Some of them were heading back for a chance at getting a reward, but even more players were going back just because they wanted to see their Sect Leaders once again.

Back then, the sight of their Sect Leaders perishing together with their enemy was too much for everyone to bear. Even now, many people still found it difficult to put how they'd felt back then into words.

Shen Jingbin's heart started to race as well. For the moment, she was able to set aside the loss of the Four Divine Beasts. Her eyes were shining as she turned to look at Zhao Chengning.

"I'm going back to see my Master!"

Shen Jingbin was so riled up that her cheeks had turned red. Zhao Chengning eyed her for a moment and nodded. "Go then. Be sure to stay safe."

Shen Jingbin gave a bow to Poison Toad and Yu Xiao before she rushed out of the Lich Palace and sped back to White Cloud Temple.

Zhao Chengning watched her gradually retreating form till she was completely out of sight before he turned to face his Master. A long time passed before his eyes curved upwards in happiness and he gave his Master a formal greeting in the form of a clasped fist.

"Welcome back, Master."

Poison Toad eyed him for a moment before looking up at Yu Xiao whose eyes were brimming with tears. He smiled and helped Zhao Chengning up.

The entire place was crawling with players by the time Shen Jingbin reached White Cloud Temple. But, as if by some unspoken agreement, all of them opened up a path for her to move forward. Because of this, she was able to make her way over to the main hall unimpeded.

A figure with divine poise and sage-like features dressed in the sect's robes stood at the top of a flight of stairs in White Cloud Temple's main hall. His clothes fluttered in the wind further emphasising the air of excellence that he had about him.

Shen Jingbin made her way up the stairs till she stood face to face with Song Yuqing.

"Master," she called out.

Song Yuqing looked just as mysterious as he always did. His expression softened when he laid eyes on her, and in that instant, he seemed much more personable.

"You're back?" he asked.

Shen Jingbin nodded. "Mm."

"Elder Tan said you did pretty well during this time."

"I did ok."

Both Master and disciple suddenly fell silent. Song Yuqing looked down at his disciple who was craning her neck to look at him and gave a long sigh.

More time passed before he finally spoke again. "My disciple, us Sect Leaders want to thank you for what you've done."

Shen Jingbin silently rubbed her nose and looked at the sky.

It was a blue sky with white clouds. You'd be hard pressed to find such nice weather even in real life.

……

...

Yiju's game development department.

Beta Tester 1 logged out from the game and gave a long sigh. The moment that happened, they were instantly surrounded by people who were clamouring for an update on the state of things.

The corner of Beta Tester 1's lips curled into a smile and they put up a 'V' sign. Everyone around them immediately broke out into applause and celebrations.

After the battle between good and evil had ended, the customer service department received a deluge of calls, emails, and private messages from players on a daily basis asking for the Sect Leaders of the Six Great Sects to be brought back. As the number of requests had accounted for over 70% of the playerbase, the higher ups gave the order for the game development department to bring them back to life.

However, NPCs were designed to only have one life. They couldn't just revive an NPC all willy nilly! That wasn't their way of doing things! But, at the same time, it's not like they could ignore an order from the higher ups either. So, all they could do was put in extra hours to think up a way to bring the Sect Leaders back to life. And so began their rounds of testing.

Today, the program monitoring the triggering of the revival quest had finally gotten a positive. The developers immediately sent one of their beta testers in to take a look at what was happening as they were deathly afraid of something going wrong.

Now that everything had worked out, the worries hanging over their heads were completely purged.

The Sect Leaders were all brought back to life, and they wouldn't be harrassed any longer!

That is, except for those people who'd spent all that time working on the replacement Sect Leaders, only to have them take office for only a few days... Sigh, this truly was a case of: for those that win there'll be those that lose.