Devour: Can you also draw entries from clone projection worlds?

[In the first year, you drew the "early to bed and early to rise" attribute (white tag). As long as you maintain a regular schedule, your physical strength, energy, stamina, mental state, and so on will all recover at a rate of +5%.]

[You looked at the new entry, paused for three seconds, then nodded. White is fine, little by little, it adds up. Besides, as long as you just slack off—no, I mean, pay attention to work-life balance—a 5% bonus isn't small.]

[The storyline of Swordsman is indeed still in its early stages, giving you ample time to develop and grow.]

[Later, the cheap master adopted another group of orphans from the foot of the mountain and took them into his fold. The Huashan Sect's economic crisis was already showing signs of beginnings, which you yourself judged.]

[Because your cheap master Yue Buqun has started to look gloomy from time to time, and your master's wife Ning Zhongze is in charge of all the affairs and logistics of the sect, she is obviously having an even bigger headache. Your eldest brother Linghu Chong is punished every few days, and it is common for him to be meditating on the Cliff of Repentance.]

[With your keen observation, you also noticed something else: every night, the light in your cheap master Yue Buqun's room is always on.]

Sometimes you can hear the rustling of pages turning, and sometimes you hear sounds that are inappropriate for children. The lamplight flickers, making your blood boil.

But all of this is none of your business. You only know about other people's affairs, so mind your own business, especially those who could easily take your life.

[This year you continued to maintain your fixed rhythm: getting up early to practice, participating in the daily training of outer disciples during the day, going to the back mountain for an extra hour of training in the evening, returning before dark, and going to bed early and getting up early.]

The white-label phrase "early to bed and early to rise" combined with "ordinary" further reduces your presence within the group, greatly increasing your sense of security.

[In the second year, you drew the "simple meals" (white attribute). When your diet is simple, your digestion efficiency increases by 5%, and your nutrient absorption efficiency increases by 5%.]

"Another blank entry..." You accept it expressionlessly. It's alright. Just as that master said, a blank entry is still an entry. You believe there are no useless entries, only useless people.

[And the story seems about to begin; you vaguely sense the approaching storm.]

On this day, Linghu Chong descended from the Cliff of Contemplation. Yue Buqun's expression was grim, Zuo Lengchan's actions were becoming increasingly blatant, and the shadow of the Five Mountains Alliance loomed over everyone.

The story is about to unfold, and you are faced with a new choice.

[1. Staying with the main group and surviving within the team might be somewhat dangerous, but it's unlikely to be fatal.]

[2. By traveling with the main group, and with Master Yue Buqun making every effort to prove himself, he might be accepted into the inner sect ahead of time and learn more advanced martial arts, but he might also face greater dangers.]

[3. Continue to stay on Mount Hua. The existence of the "unremarkable" attribute means that even if you don't participate much in the downhill training missions, few people will remember you, and even if they do, they will quickly forget you.]

Please make a choice, host.

The projection was paused, awaiting Wei Wen's decision on the subsequent projection process.

Wei Wen considered it for a moment. Was option 1 serious? Would anyone actually choose him? He'd pass immediately.

As for the other two options, option 2 seems worth considering, but it still goes against his original intention of surviving, even though his strength is no longer as weak as it was at the beginning.

You chose option 3.

[You haven't been participating in activities with the main group, nor have you gone down the mountain for training. After all, you're just an ordinary outer disciple, and you're not qualified to go down the mountain for training, at least not for now.]

But you know these fellow disciples have benefits from going down the mountain to gain experience; it would be even better if they could see some blood.

Although you know all this, you have no desire or impulse to take the risk because... you simply don't have the resources to do so.

[And you also want to know, without anyone interfering, how Yue Buqun and Linghu Chong, this originally destined master and disciple, ultimately met their tragic end.]

Therefore, while your fellow disciples went down the mountain for training, you either diligently practiced your swordsmanship on Mount Hua or stayed in your room, going to bed early.

It's not that you don't care about other things; it's just that caring wouldn't help. Your role is to be invisible, and the greatest value of an invisible person is simply to live, and the longer you live, the better.

As time passed, the rare green attribute "Body Refinement Genius" gradually began to show its brilliance. Your physical attributes steadily improved, approaching those of a second-rate expert. However, during the sect's assessments, you still suppressed your performance, consistently hovering around the passing mark.

[No one noticed that an outer disciple's strength had surpassed that of most inner disciples, because you simply hadn't paid any attention to you.]

[In the third year, you drew the "Slippery Foot" (white attribute), which increases your escape speed by 10%.]

When Wei Wen from the main world saw this entry, he smiled, a rare occurrence for him.

Although it's just a white-label entry, it can significantly increase speed, making it a useful survival skill.

In the world of Swordsman, where entire families are wiped out at the drop of a hat, escape speed is obviously more important than anything else.

However, you don't plan to change the keywords for the time being, because "clone projection", "body refinement genius" and "ordinary" are already the best combination of keywords at the moment.

Of course, you also feel regretful, but you can only equip three affixes at the moment, so there's nothing you can do about it.

[After that, you continued to live a secluded life on Mount Hua, even spending several months alone on the back side of the mountain. Every day you practiced martial arts, meditated, chopped wood, and grew vegetables, living like a hermit, or perhaps a wild man.]

By the end of the year, your skills had firmly established you at the level of a top-tier expert, but you still showed no intention of leaving the martial world.

[So what if you're a top-tier master? Zuo Lengchan is top-tier, Ren Woxing is top-tier, and Yue Buqun was top-tier both before and after practicing the Evil-Slaying Sword Manual. There are plenty of top-tier masters in this world; one more or less won't make a difference. Why bother joining the fray?]

Although Wei Wen in the main world also wanted the projection to continue like this, he seemed to gradually discover some key points.

His initial requirement for the projection was to survive as long as possible in order to extract more entries and accumulate some strength.

But... while the projection was carrying out his requirements, it seemed to be very thorough, almost inflexible. He didn't know if this was good or bad, so he could only wait and see.

"Fortunately, if we encounter any special nodes, we can intervene in the projection by making choices, otherwise..." With a thought, the projection had already extracted the term again.

[In the fourth year, you have drawn the ability to locate objects by sound (white entry), indicating a slight improvement in your hearing and the ability to perceive your surroundings.]

Wei Wen from the main world nodded again. This entry was also good. Combined with "slipping away," it meant that one could hear pursuers in advance when escaping.

As time passed, you no longer cared about what was happening in the martial world; you simply focused on surviving, practicing your skills, and drawing in-game items...

[Countdown to this clone projection: 23:59:59]

[In the blink of an eye, you've spent nearly five years in the world of Swordsman Online. You don't seem to mind, though. The only slight regret is that if you had a little more time, you could have drawn another entry.]

[In the last bit of time, you decided not to do anything special, but simply took stock of your gains over the past five years: five white attributes, one green attribute—not many, but still quite good. And then there's this internal energy and physical condition that suggests you've already crossed the threshold of a top-tier master.]

And most importantly, you're alive, and you've lived for quite a while.

In the treacherous world of *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer*, for you, an outer disciple, to have lived peacefully for nearly five years without suffering a single injury or being schemed against is the greatest victory.

[And all of this is largely thanks to the white-label entry for "ordinary"!]

[As for the original plot? It hasn't even officially started in five years, and you're just an invisible person in the back mountains of Mount Hua, practicing your skills and sleeping every day, occasionally drawing a white-level item.]