Hunt

The next morning, Ning Zheng woke to his third day as the master of Mountain Villa.

With his hair sticking up like a messy bird's nest, he got up, combed his hair, washed his face, brushed his teeth, used the toilet, and began another thoroughly ordinary day.

There was nothing much to teach today, so this time he planned to leave early and go down the mountain at noon.

After all, he was about to break through to the next realm, and he wanted to hurry things along.

Although he could cultivate at Mountain Villa, the efficiency was far too low. With those people shouting and chattering away, it was practically impossible to quiet his mind.

Humans were such shameless creatures. When things had been quiet before, he had complained that it was boring and wished for guests to come, making the place lively and full of human warmth.

Now, after only a few days, he was already annoyed and felt that peaceful days were much more comfortable.

However, Ning Zheng soon discovered that something was wrong.

Today's Luck Value: 485

?

Why had his Luck Value dropped by fifteen points today?

Was something unlucky about to happen to him?

Ning Zheng frowned.

If his Luck Value had still been only fifteen like before, wouldn't he be about to die?

Ning Zheng looked carefully, and suddenly, the prompt above his head changed again.

Luck Value -1

?

It had dropped again!

This was baffling.

Ning Zheng pondered for a moment. "Is it continuous? Does it drop by one point about every hour?"

This loss of Luck Value might be some kind of warning.

Was some danger approaching him, or perhaps approaching Mountain Villa?

He did not panic. Instead, he finished breakfast and planned to look around Mountain Villa.

In his view, there were not many crises he could be facing.

1. River Monster.

Had he fished up too many River Monsters, causing them to come after him?

That actually sounded quite plausible.

Every day, he had taken Ning Jiaojiao to their gathering place to perform seductive dances, act flirtatiously, and sing. How many of their fine young men had she lured away?

Several years had passed, and they were only getting angry now. They were already remarkably slow-tempered!

But what could Ning Zheng do? Ning Jiaojiao mainly wanted to eat meat.

2. Crows.

Crows were not River Monsters. They had notoriously explosive tempers.

He had never dared provoke them.

He had personally seen the white-haired big brother who sold pork on the next street suffer daily attacks.

After making some indirect inquiries, Ning Zheng learned that this man had once attacked a crow with a broom while alive. The crows had held a grudge ever since!

The man had already been dead for more than a hundred years, yet they still kept defecating on him, bullying a weak yin spirit. Perhaps that was what people called living and dying together.

He was not a youth who had gone prematurely gray. He was a big brother with white hair from the passage of time, a yin spirit who did not know how to wash his hair while the crows helped him wash it every day.

Therefore, Ning Zheng absolutely did not dare provoke them for now.

But what if the crows suddenly took a dislike to him?

The chances of encountering either the River Monsters or the crows were relatively low. Even if it happened, Ning Zheng felt he could still run. The next two possibilities, however, were what concerned him most.

3. The Yearly Market.

Could some terrifyingly evil being from the neighboring Spirit Manor take a dislike to him while he was shopping?

Mountain Villa was surrounded by Spirit Manors. There were seven or eight of them. Ning Zheng had no urge to explore or court death, and he had barely visited the neighboring Spirit Manors. For all he knew, there really might be something even fiercer than Ning Jiaojiao there.

Perhaps he would be attacked at the Yearly Market. Even if he cleaned out Ning Jiaojiao's mind and sent her out in her complete form, she still might not defeat the opponent.

Thus, this trip would be dangerous.

4. The Demon People on the mountain, or their remaining factions?

"If there's danger at the Yearly Market, I won't go." Ning Zheng thought it over, feeling slightly uneasy. "Rather, if the Demon People still have surviving factions, that would be the most dangerous possibility."

Ning Zheng had launched a surprise attack without playing fair, but he could be certain that every Demon Person on the mountain had died.

But what if they had relatives?

Or friends who came to visit and discovered they could no longer get in touch?

After all, who in this world did not have a few friends?

Birds of a feather flock together. They could hardly be good people either.

"I have to eliminate these dangers one by one and figure out where they're coming from." Ning Zheng pondered this.

He was not especially nervous. After all, he had witnessed too many crises.

He had hidden in Spirit Manors below, searched for patterns while living among a group of terrifying creatures, and cursed the Demon People to death. Which of those experiences had not been a brush with death? Which had not been walking a tightrope?

Following the mountain road, he opened the gates of Mountain Villa.

He found that the open-air Blacksmith Shop was still roaring with activity, its clangs echoing through heaven and earth.

This group of people was extremely enthusiastic. They had practically fallen in love with the forging workshop.

After beginning to forge weapons, many of them wanted to create peerless weapons at +13.

Of course, most of them were not very lucky.

The weapons they made were riddled with flaws. Even the crude blanks for magic artifacts had to be perfectly smooth and whole, without cracks, hidden damage, or other defects. Quite a few of them failed their forging attempts again and again.

"I failed at quenching again. The Emperor's Crack is way too big. It definitely won't pass the chopping test."

"Wasn't forging this blank supposed to be easy? Why can't I even hammer out a sturdy, solid shape?"

"Use up the bad blades first. It's all just preparation—the big one's coming soon!"

"Exactly! The more I fail, the more my proficiency goes up."

"I might as well forge iron pipes. They're easy to make, and now that there's a quest, the dormitory pipes are needed anyway. Ten pipes will get me one Magic Coin."

The place was bustling with activity.

The main problem was that their luck was not very good.

After all, forging depended heavily on skill, condition, and luck.

But Ning Zheng believed that diligence could make up for misfortune.

After making a round, he found that everyone had been assigned quite well.

They had been divided into cooks, miners, blacksmiths, and a law-enforcement team. This was to prevent them from stealing things. Everyone had to be weighed when entering or leaving, and a huge scale called the Fairness Scale had even been set up in the distance.

Everyone had to step on it when going in or out, and they could take the opportunity to weigh themselves too.

It was clear that the management system had improved tremendously.

After all, since the steward took a five percent cut, Jiu Cai Rong certainly would not let these bastards who opened treasure chests everywhere steal from him.

Another group of people was busy in the dormitory, further improving it and working on mechanisms involving pipe showers and feeding through pipes.

Ning Zheng went over to take a look.

The dormitory was now an enormous square toilet. The floor had been dug extremely deep, the equivalent of four or five stories. Water was flushed through it at regular intervals, while individual rotating iron-mesh bed frames hung in midair.

At this height, Ning Zheng felt a little dizzy with fear when he leaned over to look down!

It was equivalent to sleeping on individual iron-mesh hammocks suspended in the air of a high-rise building.

If someone fell in, they could not swim back up. They could only slowly slide down the slope into the pipes and enter the septic tank. The muddy stench was truly tragic!

But some people were not afraid at all. They lived for the thrill.

At that moment, the people working at great heights not only neglected to wear safety ropes, they even deliberately leaped back and forth between the iron pipes and iron beds like monkeys showing off their skills. They laughed and joked, treating it as some kind of extreme sport.

They were not afraid of falling.

They even shouted things like, "Something's bound to happen sooner or later, but I'll be fine playing until noon!" and "I can get Red Bull to sponsor me!" They were full of all kinds of nonsense, their mouths harder than their heads.

After making another round, Ning Zheng was no longer surprised. Instead, he was somewhat impressed by their ability to get things done.

They had transformed the place into this in only two days. Such organizational power and enthusiasm naturally could not have been achieved without Money Boy's tremendous strength. They were born to be laborers carrying bricks, and they were experts at digging holes and mining.

They were practically pangolins from another world, perfectly suited to the job.

Ning Zheng pondered for a while, unexpectedly feeling rather satisfied. "It seems I can raise my expectations of them! Could this Sword Forging Manor really grow large and strong?"

At that moment, Jiu Cai Rong came over and respectfully saluted. "Master Steward, we want the method for forging finished magic artifacts."

If this were another game, the skill book would certainly have to be purchased or exchanged from an NPC.

But this game was conscientious, especially the Old Steward. He had a mild temperament and would do his best to help with reasonable requests.

"What do you want that for?" Ning Zheng frowned. "Haven't you only just begun forging crude magic-artifact blanks?"

He had previously given them the first half of a basic forging book. The second half was still in his hands. There had never been any need to give them the method for forging magic artifacts, since they had no materials anyway.

"We want to forge magic artifacts," Jiu Cai Rong said. "As for materials, we intend to hunt crows."

Ning Zheng's heart jolted.

So this was the source of the danger. These fellows had decided to provoke the crows right from the start?

When crows air-dropped things as usual, that was them showing you favor. It was Lord Crow rewarding you. Did they really think the crows had no ability to fight head-on?

Their claws were no joke. They could even peck people. A whole flock flying through the sky and attacking together was terrifying just to imagine.

Provoke them?

There would have to be at least tens of thousands of them.

That was an exaggerated number beyond the need for explanation.

Judging by the population ratio of Mountain Villa, it would be one hundred people against tens of thousands of crows, pecked to death alive.

Ning Zheng had just been about to stop them, but after thinking it over, he still said nothing.

Crisis and opportunity coexisted.

If they succeeded, it would indeed be a good thing.

Besides, they were the ones who would be remembered by the crows. What did it have to do with Ning Someone?

He had not planned to go up the mountain frequently in the near future anyway. This would be a good chance to keep his distance, sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, and spectate the crow air drops and the battle between the flocks from below the mountain.

If they could not win and suffered defeat, they could hide in the dormitory and simply stay indoors. The crows could not get in and would only fly around outside.

Money Boy did not need sunlight anyway and liked living in burrows. At worst, they could switch to an underground Mountain Villa, forge iron underground, and build a subterranean manor.

If they succeeded, they might even obtain crow monsters and turn them into a Meat Field.

Ning Zheng had never possessed a mentality of avoiding everything.

If you did not fight for resources, did not grow stronger, and merely survived in hiding, peace would never truly come.

Sooner or later, you would become someone else's cultivation resource simply because you were too weak. By then, you would only regret your previous timidity and all the precious time you had wasted.

You never knew whether danger or tomorrow would arrive first.

Besides, once enough crows were killed and their leader lured out, Ning Zheng would have a chance to use the "good luck" of turning four ounces aside a thousand pounds, secretly fire a surprise arrow, and happen to kill the leader.

This was a chance to obtain a Meat Field.

If he succeeded, his cultivation would certainly accelerate.

Ning Jiaojiao also lacked a Meat Field. Having a large amount of flesh and blood to consume would accelerate her transformation, grant her a higher level of self-awareness, free her from the shackles of her former life, and let her follow the path of yin cultivation. She might truly have a chance to "live again."

"You're very brave. You want to change your fate as slaves of Mountain Villa. I'm very gratified, but this will also be an extremely dangerous challenge."

Ning Zheng said, "If you insist on doing this, I suggest reinforcing the dormitory on the first floor. You should also turn the Blacksmith Shop on the second floor into an enclosed building instead of leaving it so exposed."

Jiu Cai Rong rubbed his chin. "Are you worried about rain? That we won't be able to forge iron when it rains?"

"Yes, something like that. Rain, and not being able to forge iron." Ning Zheng imagined the scene and decided it was too beautiful to look at.