Main Quest Reward: Human Race Options Unlocked

Mid-mountain.

Ning Zheng was heading up the mountain, preparing to take the Crow King's body for the meat fields and enjoy a wave of bountiful harvest joy.

Honestly.

He hadn't been optimistic about these blacksmiths, who acted like lunatics, at first, but they kept surprising him more and more!

This meat field alone could be a huge cultivation boost for him, a new cultivator.

The magic coins in his hand were enough.

If he could get the meat fields, and then spiritual rice if he had the capability, with these three resources in place, his Heavenly Spiritual Root's super-fast cultivation speed meant the next small realm wouldn't be too far away!

He heard that some holy land's holy sons and holy daughters reached the Four Organs Realm in their twenties. He felt he could definitely make a run for it.

Going to ask them for the Crow King's corpse now made for another delightful day!

Swish.

The mountain wind blew.

Although this mountain was majestic and precipitous, over four thousand meters high, for cultivators, it was equivalent to walking four thousand meters on flat ground. Climbing wasn't strenuous.

Each trip up or down the mountain only took about ten minutes.

This was even with the winding mountain path, not a straight line.

But soon, Ning Zheng saw the traveling frog, "Yan Hua," who had already reached the mountainside. Yan Hua was pulling up grass on the ground, squatting down to collect materials everywhere, muttering:

"This game really has maps outside! It's not fictional! As expected, this is the typical 'pick up trash' gameplay found in open-world sandboxes."

He stuffed the items into the basket on his back as he picked them up, clearly taking the manor's mountain gathering quests very seriously.

Ning Zheng, who had just praised them for being sensible, fell silent.

???

He felt he had been too careless.

They wouldn't even spare him.

This was the first time he'd seen such unscrupulous people! Were they even human?

And why didn't you run further after breaking out? You just ran to the mountainside to secretly pick up trash?

Zero ambition.

These blacksmiths never failed to disappoint him.

Ning Zheng's gaze fell on "Yan Hua." "However, it actually got out of the manor."

Without a doubt.

The mist formation was a type of soul-confusing formation.

It confused the soul, naturally.

And without a soul, it naturally wouldn't be affected and could go straight down the mountain.

Embers had a characteristic.

Regardless of strength, they didn't fall for soul魅惑 or various illusion formations.

Because, in essence, they didn't have souls.

Ning Zheng honestly thought that the [Embers] were normal, but what was in front of him... was abnormal!

An consciousness appearing after death and meeting a revived self... was simply unprecedented!

Take Ning Jiaojiao as an example.

The current Ning Jiaojiao was an ember generated after death.

But suddenly, a living, breathing Ning Jiaojiao who hadn't died appeared outside the door, facing her deceased self, how bewildered? How incomprehensible?

—I'm not dead yet, how did my ember appear?

It was even more absurd than coming home from work one day and finding a grave built on your head, with a corpse of yourself lying inside.

"Something's wrong!"

Ning Zheng said, "This server has a big problem! Blacksmiths who can revive in the server also produce embers?"

There was no record of such an incredibly absurd event in the books. His situation was likely the first instance in this world, and definitely not the last.

His manor was about to become a BUG manor!

And the current "Yan Hua" was very happy, having the same thought: he had indeed exploited a BUG.

Not only did he exploit the BUG of sleeping and logging off, but he also exploited a BUG outside the manor map, allowing him to go to the outside world.

He walked around, looking.

The scenery here was even more captivating, giving him a sense of freedom, like a fish leaping in a vast ocean and a bird soaring in the boundless sky.

It was too beautiful.

This was clearly not a small-map management game with only a few scenes.

This is a vast sandbox world, endless, with infinite possibilities!

This wind!

This breathing!

This taste, he licked the mushrooms he'd picked with relish.

"Tastes good." Soon, he walked under a large tree to continue picking mushrooms, when he suddenly saw a pair of shoes. Looking up, he saw the old steward staring intently at him.

The old steward seemed to want to say something but stopped, finally sighing as if resigned to fate, "Come on, go up the mountain with me."

"Oh."

"Yan Hua" felt the old steward wasn't in a great mood. He quietly fiddled with the materials in his basket, thinking he'd gathered enough.

It was indeed time to go back and brag about the outside map.

To show off to the other silly blacksmiths!

Ning Zheng quickly led Yan Hua back to the manor's main gate and stepped inside. The entire manor had transformed; tall towers stood in rows.

But they hadn't been dismantled.

It seemed they planned to renovate these defense towers into various shops and workshops.

They were even reinforcing the defense towers and underground facilities, metalizing the walls to replace the original gravel and mud walls.

This idea wasn't bad.

In peacetime, the defense towers would be used to run shops, serving as underground commercial streets. During wartime, they would quickly transform back into defensive structures to repel invaders.

After all, given their nature, even a non-combatant Sword Forging Manor would be turned into an impregnable fortress. Who knew when the next beast tide would come?

Who knew if bandits or robbers would attack the manor?

Those who had years of experience with various games and were familiar with all sorts of trigger events had long since taken precautions to avoid being caught off guard.

Ning Zheng observed a building, feeling conflicted. "Sometimes they're incredibly reckless, and other times they're so cautious it makes even me nervous!"

Even now.

Because it looked too much like a blizzard-stricken manor, the blacksmiths, who felt like a murder was bound to happen, had already begun to staff professional detectives to prevent homicide cases.

It was fine before, but now that the [Embers] had appeared, the manor was no longer safe.

It was possible to trigger their taboos at any moment.

Another thing was, they had to consider that some blacksmiths were like "Lu Bu among men," capable of stabbing their adoptive fathers in the dead of night.

Their [Embers], born from their personalities, retained their temperaments from life.

Who among modern office workers didn't have a bit of mental illness?

The main body suppressed it, but the embers might erupt, bringing out that anti-social subconscious personality.

For example, many enthusiasts who watched too many detective dramas had an urge – to commit a locked-room murder and show off their alibis.

Murder cases might very well happen here.

Jiu Cai Rong was extremely worried. Was this manor going to turn into a murder mystery game?

In the future, everyone would probably have to vote on which [Ember] was the killer. After all, these [Embers] might have watched thousands of episodes of Conan in their lives and were masters of hundreds of locked-room murder techniques! And they might not even be caught!

In short, the situation was too complex.

Ning Zheng, of course, was unaware of these "manor security management" concerns. It didn't concern him anyway. After walking around, he also saw Jiu Cai Rong.

"Old steward," Jiu Cai Rong said respectfully, "we have defeated the Crow Calamity and achieved a great victory. We have not failed your expectations."

"Where is the Crow King's corpse?" the old steward asked.

Jiu Cai Rong's heart leaped with joy. Was this it, the handover for the quest completion?

After submitting it, what kind of main quest reward would they get?

They had made a huge profit for the manor!

Soon, the old steward took a large box, opened it, and confirmed. The head and body, separated and bound in a strangely alluring manner, were still alive and kicking.

Ning Zheng looked at their eager eyes and chuckled in amusement.

He also learned from Little Ai what they wanted. He smiled, "What do you want? You have made great contributions to the manor. I will give you two choices, you can pick one."

"First, you can search for your relatives. The manor is willing to provide room and board and hire a hundred more blacksmiths."

"Second, I see you were originally human. I fear you were cursed by demons while fleeing famine. We can use soul-transferring gu techniques to help you shed your current weak Money Boy bodies and become human again."

Jiu Cai Rong understood what this meant.

Choosing reward one meant increasing the number of beta test slots by 100.

Choosing reward two meant unlocking a new race: Human race.

"You can think about how to choose," the old steward said, carrying the box and looking around, not in a hurry for an answer.

In reality, The first option was meaningless to Ning Zheng.

Since he could only log in a maximum of 1,000 people, and 900 were currently "Queuing to Log In," these 900 people would still have their luck harvested.

Letting in the 100 onlookers wouldn't increase Ning Zheng's benefits and would only add to the manor's operational burden.

Previously, Ning Zheng was unwilling, as they were too prone to causing trouble.

But now that they were capable of managing the manor well, Ning Zheng didn't mind letting another hundred people in to earn him cultivation resources.

The powerhouses in this world were incredibly heaven-defying, but the resources they required were also beyond imagination. Behind every powerhouse was undoubtedly a powerful sect.

He decided to try making them his resource supply team.

The second option he offered was the Human race, which required the flesh and blood of powerful Human race beings to serve as their vessels.

He still had that vat of demon flesh from before.

Now, with the Money Boy and Human race flesh vats, there were two species options.

Of course.

He also had the new Crow King corpse, which could be made into a flesh vat to breed crows, offering them a third species option: crows.

But Ning Zheng wouldn't waste it like that.

The Crow King was too weak; it couldn't split many times, and he needed to consume it himself. Why would he give it away to them?

As for using the Money Boy flesh vat to consume the meat fields of Money Boys?

Could that even be eaten?

Not all demon beast meat was edible, nor did all demon beasts have meat.

Furthermore, even if it were edible, he wouldn't do it. The Money Boy flesh vat was already nearing depletion.

This was fundamental to operating the manor!

He was already thinking about how to get another high-level Money Boy.

It was also the fault of those demons for not creating a new Money Boy to replace it before they died, which was why he was so troubled now.

"I've made up my mind,"

At this moment, Jiu Cai Rong finally spoke, "My choice is to give us the opportunity to become Human race."