Sword Forging Manor Turns a Profit, Raking in Gold by the Day

The lamplight flickered.

The entire room brightened and dimmed by turns.

Ning Jiaojiao had never lit lamps at night in the past hundred years. She had only picked up this habit after Ning Zheng arrived.

"Did Sword Forging Manor recruit good people today?"

Ning Jiaojiao ate like an adorable hamster, revealing a row of sharp shark teeth. "How many people?"

"Mm, a hundred."

Ning Zheng casually recounted what he had seen that day and sighed. "Every one of them was strangely diligent. They all had one little flaw or another, but nothing serious."

He reported the good news and withheld the bad.

"Can I find a time to go up the mountain and play?" Ning Jiaojiao was terribly bored, able to play only in the courtyard every day. "I can help them build houses too. I can farm and plant rice seedlings."

"When I have time, I'll take you up to have a look," Ning Zheng said with a smile.

How could he possibly take her there?

Taking her there would only make him worry more.

Besides, it was not that he did not want to take her out.

It was that all the living beings in this Spirit Manor were Earthbound Spirits, the kind that could not leave and believed themselves still alive, maintaining the routines they had followed in life.

Ning Jiaojiao possessed a stronger sense of self-awareness.

But she still could not stray too far from the Spirit Manor's territory.

"Oh, right. Catch someone from the manor and bring them down to help me fish for the River Monster." Ning Jiaojiao's little face was full of delight, as though she had thought of something wonderful.

She could not let it go. Since she had been drenched by the rain herself, she wanted to tear away someone else's umbrella. That was the difference between her and Ning Zheng.

"We'll talk about that later." Ning Zheng took a bite of fish.

Honestly, he did not want to bring them down the mountain either.

Home was home, and work was work.

Work should not intrude upon life. The two areas had to be clearly divided, and this place was his true core residence.

It did not really matter what happened to the manor.

As long as it generated income and provided resources to support his cultivation while he hid here, that was enough.

As the boss, he could even choose never to visit the manor at all.

Ning Zheng felt that once they had settled into smooth operations, visiting once a month would be more than enough. There was no need to pay it too much attention.

That was how most cultivators operated as well.

Who would keep watch over their own businesses and mines every day?

They entrusted such matters to others and cultivated in seclusion inside their cave abodes.

After all, personal strength was everything. As long as one was strong enough, any resources could be obtained with ease.

Ning Zheng could even make time to venture out and take a look at the world beyond.

Of course, not as Jiu Cai Rong had suggested—expanding the manor and opening weapon stores directly outside.

After seeing them today, he was even more certain that this batch of Blacksmiths was the worst he had ever seen.

Delicate young masters whose ten fingers had never touched spring water; their enthusiasm and effort barely passed muster.

They truly had no great strengths.

Who cared about their immortality?

As for their other abilities?

Their work efficiency was even worse than that of honest villagers!

Naturally, he would not go out because of them. In Ning Zheng's eyes, it would not do to stay indoors forever, refusing to understand this world and burying his head in the sand like an ostrich.

As for how incomparably dangerous the outside world was?

With a reserve granary behind him, money kept panic at bay.

This was where the Blacksmiths' usefulness came into play. As long as he accumulated more Luck Value before heading out, he would be extremely "lucky" and avoid danger.

After that,

Ning Zheng continued describing what he had seen at work that day, his thoughts on those Blacksmiths, and the future prospects of their work. Ning Jiaojiao did not understand much of it, but she listened with great relish.

To Ning Jiaojiao, this was what home truly meant.

In her distant memories, she vaguely recalled that her parents would tell her and her brother about what they had seen while working that day whenever they ate dinner at night.

After dinner, he played house with Ning Jiaojiao for a while longer.

Then Ning Jiaojiao suddenly said, "The yearly market only comes once a year. Shall we go this year?"

The yearly market was a festival gathering held by several nearby villages during the New Year.

There were lion dances, mountain songs, and even martial contests for marriage.

But all the surrounding manors had long since become Spirit Manors. They did not know they had been dead for over a hundred years and still maintained their routines from life.

They still went to the market together.

A Hundred Ghosts Night Parade, Ghost Soldiers Passing—those were the magnificent sights of that time.

They were celebrating the New Year too!

But Ning Zheng felt neither discrimination nor reverence toward them.

If anyone was to blame, it was those Demon People who had killed these farming villages. What fault did these law-abiding common folk have?

They did not actively harm anyone. They merely followed the logic of ordinary life, day after day and year after year, repeating the years like Earthbound Spirits.

Still, it would be quite lively then, and rather familiar. Though the people were dead, the local customs had not changed much. Thinking of this, Ning Zheng said,

"Mm, we can go have a look and join in the bustle. I happen to want to buy some things this time as well."

They maintained the routines of their former lives, plowing fields and farming, so naturally they still had goods to produce and trade.

Farm tools, ironware, books, furniture—everything was sold there. It was a Taobao treasure ground, bustling with life.

The introductory cultivation manual Ning Zheng had in hand had been bought at a market gathering.

This world stood at the Golden Age Peak. The Current Saint had single-handedly beaten all the sects of the world into submission and swept away the Spiritual Root Bloodline Theory.

Under the repeated push of Teaching Without Discrimination, the major sects and holy lands began voluntarily teaching mortals all kinds of introductory cultivation techniques, and cultivation methods spread throughout the Mortal World.

Most families hoped their children would become dragons. Over more than a decade, they exhausted their family fortunes and painstakingly raised their children to study, hoping to change their fate.

Yet cases of Opening Three Flowers on Crown, dying with one's Dao extinguished, and leaving the entire family shattered were everywhere.

Even though education had become widespread, how many Literary Confucian Scholars capable of understanding their Original Heart, or top students who could truly learn something substantial, could there be?

Those who studied only half a bucket of water faced an exceedingly, exceedingly high death rate.

Ning Zheng and Ning Jiaojiao chatted for quite a while about how they would play at the yearly market and what they should buy. Then he checked the time. It was exactly seven o'clock, so he kicked everyone offline.

All transactions for today completed. Luck Value +2000

A trace of surprise appeared on his face.

Each person gave him +2. With those 900 visitors, there were a thousand people in total, and he had gained a full two thousand Luck Value!

Ning Jiaojiao only provided 100 a day, while the Fellow Villagers provided even less.

This was a sudden windfall.

In the future, he would rake in gold by the day!

Ning Zheng instantly tasted the sweetness of it.

He immediately wanted to expand their numbers. A thousand people was already so much—what about the daily supply from ten thousand people?

Unfortunately, the Server currently had a maximum capacity of only one thousand.

To upgrade it, he would probably have to pour in an enormous amount of Luck Value before he could be "lucky" enough to find some method of upgrading the Server.

Ning Zheng took a deep breath, and his gaze fell upon two sets of data.

Name: Jiu Cai Rong

Race: Money Boy

Status: Living Being

Luck: 55/57

Name: Su Yu Niang

Race: Money Boy

Status: Living Being

Luck: 120/122

Ordinary people had around 10, with 2 points deducted each day.

But these two exceeded the standard. Deducting 2 points was insignificant.

Jiu Cai Rong had originally been an ordinary person. After being chosen by him, his fortunes turned, and his luck flourished. That was understandable. But Su Yu Niang was clearly different from ordinary people.

She was a Blessed Individual.

Such people often came from extraordinary families and possessed all kinds of abilities. Su Yu Niang likely lived very well in reality.

But as Ning Zheng looked at these two people, what he was thinking was this:

Should he deduct their Luck Value until only 8 remained and turn them into ordinary little Blacksmiths?

After all, other people believed status was divided into noble and lowly from birth.

Here, Ning Zheng believed in fairness—fairness, and still fairness.

If he deducted it, he would gain an additional 175 Luck Value each day.

But compared to his current enormous daily income of 2,000 Luck Value, it was merely a fraction.

At the very least, Ning Zheng did not want to deduct Jiu Cai Rong's.

His Luck Value was not that high to begin with. It was better for a member of the Management Staff to have higher Luck Value, enough to steady the place and prevent accidents.

After pondering for a while, he decided not to deduct Su Yu Niang's either.

Unlucky little Blacksmiths with 8 Luck Value were everywhere.

But a Blacksmith with over 100 Luck Value could only appear through sheer fortune. Deducting her Luck Value for that tiny gain and turning her into an ordinary person would be a tremendous loss.

She was lucky and had potential!

He could try investing in her. There was no need to squeeze her dry.

Extracting Luck Value from ordinary people was where the greatest returns lay.

Both of them could become Special Talents.

And extending that idea further, it would be great if he could also attract more Blessed Individuals and people with special talents to visit his "Inn."

At the same time, with a huge sum in hand, Ning Zheng faced another question.

Now that he was wealthy, was spending only 15 Luck Value a day a little too little?

This shabby miserly air simply did not suit his Manor Lord demeanor.

Could this daily Luck Value, only 5 points higher than an ordinary person's, truly let him become the master of a manor and hold down such a vast territory in the future?

One had to know that the Demon People who had previously occupied the manor averaged more than 200 Luck Value per day!

Ning Zheng rubbed his chin and fell into thought.

"The reason I managed to hold on with 15 points before, without anything unlucky happening, was mainly because I was just a rat crossing the street—a hidden ordinary person. But with my position now... I fear it will not be enough to suppress things."

After thinking it over, he raised it directly.

-500 Luck Value

Daily Luck Value from now on: 500!

He was rich and overbearing!

For now, this amount should be enough to hold things down.

He had no intention of pinching pennies and trying to save a little more Luck Value either. Save where one should save, spend where one should spend.

It would be a joke if something happened and he saved himself right into death. He would rather spend more and sleep peacefully.

After all, this business cost 500 Luck Value a day and earned a net profit of 1,500. That was still a daily profit margin of 75%!

Trying to cut every corner and save every scrap would make him far too afraid of trouble.

Besides.

Was this daily 500 Luck Value being spent for nothing?

The fortune it brought each day was equivalent to that of some mortal possessing one-tenth of an Immortal Dao Fruit!

Finding some money whenever he went out, catching a Great River Monster while fishing, encountering Minor Fortune, cultivating smoothly without suffering qi deviation—those were all fixed daily benefits he ought to receive.

Of course, that did not mean he was absolutely safe.

Ning Zheng still did not fully understand his own abilities.

But he had already vaguely realized that Fate Numbers collided with one another and changed constantly. If he encountered a being with more than 1,000 Luck Value, I fear he would fall into danger.

Time flowed normally in both worlds.

By the time Ning Zheng had gone home, finished dinner, remotely kicked them offline at seven o'clock, begun calculating his profits, and quietly cultivated, being kicked offline at seven at night on their side marked the beginning of their exciting nightlife.

After taking a hot shower, Su Yu Niang walked to her computer and added Jiu Cai Rong's private chat account, which they had exchanged in the game.

"I'm going to start streaming. Do you want to visit my Live Stream Room? You can comment on this game."

Jiu Cai Rong: "Sure, boss. I'm really looking forward to it."

"This is mutually beneficial. I'll guide you outside, and you'll guide me through the game inside." Su Yu Niang nodded, then opened her Live Stream Room.

A title was written in the Live Stream Room:

This game is insane! Live guide and personal impressions for the first test of "Sword Forging Manor"