No Leaving the Mountain Villa for Eight Hundred Years

Su Yu Niang: "Cough, cough, cough. So our wages are Magic Coins? Individual Spiritual Energy Batteries? The equivalent of Spirit Stones in traditional cultivation, which only break after being recharged many times?"

Jiu Cai Rong: "That's right."

Su Yu Niang: "Then if we're paid in Magic Coins, doesn't that make the gameplay deeply meaningful? Magic Coins as batteries, forging new-energy planes, machine guns, Gatling guns... isn't that possible too?"

Jiu Cai Rong: "Personally, I don't think it'd be very practical. Based on what we know, magical artifacts aren't just compact—they're also precise and powerful. Which one isn't stronger than planes and cannons? Your idea is a problem of perspective, like assuming that an emperor must plow his fields with a golden hoe because he's so rich."

Su Yu Niang pondered for a moment. "That's true. They have their own forging system. The descriptions in myths are so awesome—aren't flying swords far better than planes? But we can still try it when we actually start forging. After all, it's a game built on wild imagination."

Jiu Cai Rong also believed that practice was the sole criterion of truth. "Actually, this world allows cultivation. You cultivate by absorbing the spiritual energy in Magic Coins. In short, it'll be very hard for us to cultivate."

After that, Jiu Cai Rong gave them a brief rundown.

Everyone found it bizarre.

Planting Spiritual Roots?

Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown?

Different Spiritual Roots had different Innate Divine Abilities?

High-grade Ancient Celestial Herbs could produce Exotic Spiritual Roots with heaven-defying abilities?

Su Yu Niang discussed it with him and found it fascinating.

"Based on my many years of reading novels, these Spiritual Roots are damn interesting. It's like Spiritual Root Gacha—trees, flowers, grass, everything on the ground has its own Natal Divine Ability. Doesn't that mean random C, B, and ASSR are everywhere? That's so fun!"

Look at that!

This game was all about refinement.

This blacksmithing battle setting was so much better than those stale combat systems next door. I'd want to play it even as a combat MMORPG.

Those lazy cash-grab assembly-line games should take a look and learn properly.

Every aspect of this game was filled with detail.

This was what it meant to create a game with genuine care.

Jiu Cai Rong said, "That said, most cultivators choose the same common Spiritual Root, because every type of Spiritual Root requires a corresponding Cultivation Manual. A cultivation method is perfected through countless cultivators charging forward one after another, using their lives to refine it. A road only becomes broad when enough people walk it. You could say that a single inheritance of a Five Elements common spiritual root is enough to establish a sect, and with everyone working together, that sect will also develop all kinds of matching spells."

Su Yu Niang said, "So if you choose an unknown Spiritual Root, even if its Innate Divine Ability has great potential, it's still a dead end without cultivation methods or corresponding combat arts? That's a shame."

Their initial guess was that it existed to enrich the game's setting.

After all, the name "Sword Forging Competition" already made it clear that blacksmithing and crafting were meant to be the mainstream, not cultivation.

Su Yu Niang asked another crucial question. "What about the Map Border?"

Jiu Cai Rong said, "There's only this one Mountain Villa. If you go out, the fog at the Map Border blocks you, and you can't leave. I asked the Old Steward too. He said we all signed Ten-Year Contracts. We aren't allowed to leave the mountain or visit family during that time, but we are allowed to exchange letters with our families."

"That basically hints that the map will stay this size permanently, but perhaps after ten years, once the developers have money, they'll expand it into a true open-world map."

Everyone fell into thought.

Ten years.

Most games didn't even survive ten years before shutting down.

This game's map was obviously going to remain nothing more than one mountain forever!

And Ning Zheng had actually been thinking the same thing.

Your activity area was only this big. Leave the mountain after ten years?

You wouldn't be allowed to leave for even a hundred years!

For cultivators with a theoretical lifespan of eight hundred years, how brief was a mere decade?

One had to know that cultivators and mortals measured time differently.

He only felt that he could keep operating in that world throughout those eight hundred years.

It had never occurred to him what the social civilization of that world might develop into over eight hundred years.

They could have sons and grandsons who could play the game, couldn't they?

Descendants upon descendants, without end. As long as batches of little blacksmiths kept charging forward one after another over those eight hundred years, that would be enough.

It was a very simple, down-to-earth operational idea.

Though his eight-hundred-year lifespan was heavily watered down.

In the First Body of the Five Bodies Realm, he had only cultivated a single head. The flesh and blood of his head was indestructible.

At present, only his head could live for eight hundred years. His body would age and rot.

How was he supposed to live out that theoretical eight hundred years?

His head could be removed and soaked in a special vat that supplied nutrients.

He would live out that theoretical eight-hundred-year lifespan as a single head—and only if someone spent a fortune regularly replacing the nutrient solution in his fish tank.

A whole fish-tank display piece. It was said that some cultivators kept their Dao companions, wives, or husbands alive this way.

But!

That was on the premise that his Cultivation Level did not improve. He couldn't possibly remain stagnant forever, could he?

With the support of Fellow Villagers and Blacksmiths, Ning Someone gained five hundred Luck Value every day. He was truly a heaven-sent genius!

There was no way he would spend his entire life in the Five Bodies Realm having cultivated only one head.

Su Yu Niang said, "The Manor Map will probably remain this size forever. But we can send letters to our families. It makes sense for hired hands in a landlord's household to get that treatment, but is it some hidden setting here? We don't have families outside. Who would the letters even be sent to?"

Jiu Cai Rong said, "Mm, we can send letters. Maybe they'll go to our one-on-one exclusive clients? Once a blacksmith becomes famous, there will always be all kinds of important people asking for you by name to start work. It could be a type of gameplay for later."

Su Yu Niang thought about it and found it increasingly interesting.

"The possibilities of the Mail System? Then I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going to become the woman of the Blacksmith King, famous throughout the world, making them desperate for a single artifact! They'll have no choice but to write letters begging for magical artifacts, calling me big sister and grandma, while I extort all kinds of resources from them as forging fees!"

Su Yu Niang felt that Jiu Cai Rong was an exceptionally sharp and capable person.

At the very least, he understood this game far better than she did.

He was incredibly sneaky beneath the surface, pulling off all sorts of fancy tricks, fishing for hidden information through indirect probing, and even daring to create a heaven-defying AFK dormitory.

Most people probably wouldn't have had that kind of adaptability.

Even his current reservedness gradually began to relax.

At that moment, the conversation between the two made the bullet comments scroll even faster, while the number of people in the Live Stream Room surged madly.

What was more—

Even Jiu Cai Rong's newbie Live Stream Room had gained more than twenty thousand viewers.

Jiu Cai Rong smiled. "Also, I obtained an interesting piece of information. The source of Magic Copper may contain a terrifying Giant Worldview."

Su Yu Niang let out a cute gasp. "Eh? Eh? Isn't Magic Copper an Underground Mineral?"

Jiu Cai Rong said, "The cultivators of this world have exceptionally powerful bodies and casually live for hundreds or thousands of years. It's said that what dies is usually the soul; after death, they generally leave behind powerful Indestructible Flesh. As for Magic Copper... I saw a term in the steward archives: Copper of Shou Mountain."

Su Yu Niang looked stunned. "Huh? Could it be literal, just like Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown? Is the copper ore we're digging up a giant head? That would be too heaven-defying!"

Jiu Cai Rong said, "I don't know. It's only a possibility. If that's the case, then as we dig downward, we might uncover a mineral vein called a spine. That would make for an interesting Digging Game. But I want to discuss another issue now: food."

He had completely loosened up. Confidence gradually appeared on his face as he said,

"Of course, I'm not talking about recipes or dish combinations. Someone is already organizing the recipes—the tastes of different stones and people's reviews of them. It's practically a fairy-tale Mountain Villa of cuisine. Anyone interested can check out the food livestreams there."

"I'm looking at it from another angle. Today, someone in the game used a Mud Worm Sandwich as a Dark Crab Roe Burger and threw up after eating it. The issue was that there were worms inside. We Money Boys throw up when we eat meat, but that Old Steward clearly eats meat and not Dirt. That hints at a setting."

Su Yu Niang played along perfectly. "What kind of hint?"

Jiu Cai Rong said, "Then if other races are added in the future—such as the Old Steward's human race—would their sense of taste be different too?"

"Here's my bold prediction! In the future, we may trigger some Hidden Race Quest that unlocks new race options. Once we switch races, our taste buds will open up a new world. To us, the earth will no longer be Dessert Mountain, chocolate, or ice cream sundaes—it will become all kinds of meat, transformed into peerless delicacies."

Everyone listened in shock.

A Hidden Race Quest?

If that was true, it would be an incredible move.

Switch races, switch recipes, and gain a Brand New, entirely different gustatory experience?

This setting was truly ingenious. Calling it stunning would not be an exaggeration.

For players who loved eating and traveling, it was an instant kill.

And looking at it from another angle, who in this world didn't love traveling or tasting delicious food?

You only had to look at the crowds covering the mountains and plains during holidays to know.

Yet here, they could experience it the moment they logged in.

By this point, everyone could feel the immense care poured into every aspect and detail of this Sword Forging Manor. Calling it an exquisite work of art would not be excessive.

It felt like a truly complete and resplendent mythological world.

A mere management game centered on a tiny patch of land and a Mountain Villa had played its small territory in countless imaginative ways.

The more they talked, the more interesting it became.

One obscure detail after another was explored and deduced.

Never mind the players outside who were marveling at it—even Su Yu Niang, who had only just come out, was listening with her blood boiling and her whole body buzzing with excitement. She wanted nothing more than to go in immediately, swing a massive hammer, and DUANG! DUANG! pound out ten jin of iron, then ruthlessly play two rounds to indulge and vent.

This game was way too satisfying!