Cultivation Online

"L-Look! There's an announcement!" The players that noticed the announcement quickly pointed at it.

"Third Heaven is open?! And it's Player Yuan who opened it!"

The players were filled with excitement after seeing the announcement even though it hasn't been that long since Yuan connected Spirit Heaven and the Lower Heavens.

The players began talking with their friends and their groups.

"Are you going to the Third Heaven?"

"Hell no. Don't you remember what happened when this realm was opened? Everyone and their mother rushed to ascend, but they quickly realized that it was a mistake since they weren't prepared for the increased difficulty. Besides Player Yuan, I doubt there are any other players out there who are capable enough to traverse the new level."

"Yeah, and we have barely scratched the surface for this level. I'll stay here for a few more months before I even think about ascending to the next level."

"No matter how illogical it may seem to ascend, there will always be people who don't care about the consequences or are too stupid to understand their situation. A lot of people will die in the next few days."

Sure enough, when news about the Third Heaven spread online, countless people rushed to the Stairway to Heaven to ascend.

In their eyes, even if it was extremely risky, the Third Heaven will have more opportunities than Spirit Heaven, and the spiritual energy there was much more plentiful, allowing them to cultivate faster.

However, these players would soon realize what they were getting themselves into— that they were walking towards a death trap.

Meanwhile, outside the Stairway to Heaven in the Third Heaven, the Seven Legacy Families and the Ji Family were still camping outside, patiently waiting to ambush Yuan.

"It's been over a month since this Yuan entered the Stairway to Heaven. Do you think he'd failed the trials and couldn't ascend?"

"He probably died inside the Stairway to Heaven."

"I doubt it. We have people watching the Stairway to Heaven in Spirit Heaven. They would've notified us by now if he failed the trial."

The leaders of the Seven Legacy Families spoke to each other as they sat down for some spiritual tea.

Several minutes later, their bodies froze when someone shouted, "The Stairway to Heaven is opening! He's coming out!"

"Get ready! Kill him the moment he steps out of the Stairway to Heaven!" The head of the Ji Family shouted, his voice alerting everyone there.

The following moment, a group of people walked out of the Stairway to Heaven with clear excitement on their faces.

"ATTACK!"

Whoosh!

Boom!

Thousands of Cultivators launched their attacks at this group of ignorant players before they could even realize what was going on, and before they knew it, they were dead.

The world shook for a moment from so many techniques going off at once.

"Did we do it? Did we kill them?"

"We did it! We killed him! We have avenged our families!" The people there celebrated when they saw the blood splatters.

However, their celebration was cut short when someone suddenly shouted, "Wait! It's not over yet! There are more people coming out of the Stairway to Heaven!"

When the cultivators saw this, they immediately stopped celebrating to attack these innocent players that had no idea what was even going on.

"Wait… Why were there so many people? The numbers don't add up." The cultivators realized this after killing the players.

But alas, they weren't given any time to think, as more players started coming out of the Stairway to Heaven.

"T-There are more of them! Attack! Kill them all!"

The cultivators stopped thinking and merely focused on attacking the players that came out of the Stairway to Heaven. It was a massacre— one that neither side understood.

Within minutes of the massacre, the players that had been killed by the cultivators started warning the others online, and the situation spread like wildfire.

[Warning! Do not ascend to the Third Heaven! You will be killed!]

[Third Heaven is a death trap!]

[I was killed the moment I entered the Third Heaven!]

Complaints from the players that had been killed flooded the online forums and pretty much the entire internet, causing widespread shock.

"Holy shit, I am so glad that I decided to wait a few days before ascending. I dodged a bullet today."

"See! I told you that it was a bad idea to ascend so quickly!"

"But why would the NPCs attack them?"

"Who knows."

"What about Player Yuan? Since he was the first one to ascend, there's a good chance that he was also killed, right?"

The players began wondering if Yuan had also been killed by the cultivators, unaware that he was responsible for their situation.

Meanwhile, back at the Stairway to Heaven.

"There's something wrong here! Why are there so many people ascending in such a short time?! What is happening?!"

"Lord Ji! I think we have made a grave mistake! We need to stop attacking immediately!" The leaders of the Seven Legacy Families said to him.

The Lord Ji of the Third Heaven also realized that something was amiss, so he demanded for the attacks to stop.

However, it was already too late, as hundreds of players have already lost their lives because of this misunderstanding.

The cultivators waited for more players to show up so that they could ask the players about Yuan, but because of their massacre, none of the players dared to ascend anymore, and it would remain like this for an entire week.

"What the fuck is going on?! What happened to Yuan?! Did we kill him or not?!" The cultivators were at a loss, and they couldn't tell if they'd killed Yuan or not due to the chaos and misunderstandings.

The Seven Legacy Families and the Ji Family held an emergency meeting afterward. In the end, they decided to leave the scene and return home for now, leaving behind some people to investigate the situation. As for their business with Yuan, since he was nowhere to be seen and they didn't know whether they had killed him or not, they decided to consider him dead until they figured things out.