The Embers Su Yu Niang before them called out from atop a high place, drawing over every blacksmith who was still working.
Everyone hurried over to see what she had discovered.
Soon, Su Yu Niang arrived at the Blacksmith Shop.
She picked up a copper ingot to use as a courtroom block, sat on the table, and related everything she had learned along the way, recounting every detailed plot point one by one.
"Now, as I faced the dusk and made my way down the mountain, I saw the multicolored flower lanterns beneath the mountain..."
Everyone listened, hearts soaring with longing.
In the distance.
The real Su Yu Niang silently listened to all this, then suddenly laughed and commented:
"See? The village beneath the mountain has tailors, blacksmiths, a bookstore, and all kinds of NPCs. I told you that this kind of text adventure usually has incredibly rich storylines."
Jiu Cai Rong nodded, deeply agreeing:
"After all, text is cheap. You can add NPCs to your heart's content without worrying about the operating load. They probably wish they could put hundreds or thousands of them on every map, each with rich storylines. It's more like a real village or town."
Su Yu Niang suddenly showed a trace of doubt. "It's just that, judging from her tone, those NPCs seem a little dazed and a little strange?"
Jiu Cai Rong chuckled. "That's what NPCs are like! When the intelligent AI isn't good enough, they seem a little strange and stiff. Isn't that how the NPCs in everyone's usual online games are too?"
They had focused on the Mountain Villa's various sights and sensory details, refining everything to perfection and spending their money where it mattered most. The result was already stunning beyond compare.
By applying this idle-adventure gameplay to the maps outside the Mountain Villa, they could display the vast, mighty immortal world they had depicted to the greatest extent the Server could bear.
This operating model was worth studying throughout the industry.
After all, if you tried to create a massive, realistic sandbox map, there was no way you could actually pull it off.
A true immortal world was larger than Earth itself. If you forcibly made a sandbox of it, the result would be neither fish nor fowl. This kind of text adventure was the best choice.
Text adventures gave people a hazy beauty born of fantasy and imagination.
Just like now—the textual descriptions of "Su Yu Niang" made them feel as though they had gone down the mountain and experienced a vivid adventure themselves.
"Looks like this branch system of idle adventures is pretty interesting too."
"Yeah. Every time you come back, you can tell stories about your adventures across the vast land—your legends, adventures, experiences, great love, and sorrow. The people who like listening will enjoy themselves too."
"Hehehe, in the future, I can use Travel Frog to have another version of myself set up a stall and sell weapons."
"Do you think this River Monster could possibly be the Nian Beast, suddenly attacking the villagers?"
Everyone froze.
No way. Was there another plot twist?
But it did seem pretty possible.
At that moment, "Su Yu Niang" tapped the courtroom block and continued boasting as she stomped on the River Monster:
"Everyone, this River Monster likes swallowing people. Once it swallows them, it won't let go. Its meat is delicious, but Money Boy, you can't eat meat, so don't eat it. I guess it's meant for the humans."
The real Su Yu Niang walked over and asked, "What does it eat? Can our Mountain Villa raise it?"
By now, she had revived and become a beautiful little human girl, her eyes and heart filled with the sight of another "self."
Another me—a bumper harvest from Travel Frog!
I really am super amazing too. Baby's aptitude is incredibly high.
"Of course I asked what it eats and how to raise it. The River Monster is an omnivore. It can eat carrion, and its diet should be similar to a catfish. Household waste should work as feed too."
The "Su Yu Niang" before them answered.
But she instantly realized something was off. Looking at the real Su Yu Niang, she said, "Wait, who are you? Why have I never seen you before?"
"I'm your Ember." Su Yu Niang put on an innocent face.
"My Ember?"
The "Su Yu Niang" in front of her was clearly stunned. She quickly recovered and shouted:
"How are you going to prove it? Wait! Scratch your foot for me first."
Su Yu Niang covered her face. "."
Scratch your sister.
This absolutely isn't the real me. This is so damn embarrassing!
The people around them also struggled to hold back their laughter. She had been punished by this ill-natured female brat who was herself.
"Hahahaha! That really is my expression. It's exactly the same."
Seeing this, "Su Yu Niang" was overjoyed. As though she had passed some kind of verification, she hugged the other girl. "I have an Ember too! That's wonderful—I have a baby now."
"Oh, right. I'm your Ember Baby."
Su Yu Niang secretly marveled at how high this AI's intelligence was. It was as if another version of herself from a Parallel World had crossed over here.
So all the NPC AI processing power went into this.
On the surface, she smiled brightly. "Let's work hard together."
The blacksmiths nearby saw the two sisters in their honeymoon period and had no idea how to comment.
Their interaction gave everyone a strange feeling: Was this person really that narcissistic?
At that moment, the Medical Fairy Maiden sisters from the clinic spoke up:
"Ahem, since it's an omnivore, I suggest we find a way to breed it and raise it in my clinic. It can serve as a living experimental specimen."
Food God also raised his hand and addressed the crowd:
"I also suggest breeding it, but it should be raised in my canteen. It can serve as a mount—and of course, it can be eaten too. After all, the new human blacksmiths can't eat dirt anymore. They can't keep eating vegetarian food forever. Their menu needs to be expanded."
The main reason was that a new profession—an enchanter—had successfully appeared last night. To celebrate, Food God, as the chef in charge of the Bonfire Party, had been forced to bring out the universal trump-card recipe that both humans and Money Boys could eat:
Corpse-Colored Mushroom.
Both races could eat vegetarian food, and they had eaten with great enthusiasm.
But when those human blacksmiths got up this morning, their faces were deathly pale. Something was obviously wrong.
Food God immediately sensed trouble:
These humans' bodies are so delicate. How did eating just one meal leave them completely unable to cope? Every single one of them woke up with legs too weak to hammer iron.
Humans are actually much more pampered than Money Boys. If this continues, my identity as a five-star chef is going to be exposed.
Therefore.
With the River Monster's appearance, he was determined to claim it!
"The River Monster is mine!"
The Medical Fairy Maiden was furious.
"My clinic is more valuable. This morning, it was packed with patients, who should all have caught chills from sleeping on iron beds last night. That proves health is the core issue of people's livelihood. After all, this is ancient times, and preventing and treating epidemics is crucial."
Bah!
That's only because I sent business your way.
If you just gave it to me, I'd take even better care of your clinic's business in the future and let you make money treating patients every day.
If they discover there's something wrong with my cooking and replace me, do you think your clinic will still have any money to make?
But he couldn't say that.
"It's mine!"
Food God shouted, refusing to back down. "Food is the first necessity of the people!"
As they continued, the two sides began arguing. They fought heatedly over ownership of the River Monster's breeding rights.
Just as everyone was discussing the River Monster—
"It really doesn't have any teeth. It can swallow people, so isn't it just a catfish?"
A dazed little Hairpin Doll girl, seemingly still not awake, had already sleepily crawled into the River Monster's mouth. She wore a blissful expression. "Curling up inside is so soft, tender, and moist. This is the best sleep I've had here."
Everyone: "."
This one is on another level entirely. What kind of line is that?
Are you treating it like a sleeping bag?
The blacksmith entering the fish's mouth clearly caught the Medical Fairy Maiden's attention. She shouted:
"Everyone! The River Monster must be given to me. This is the prototype of a bed! A new project no less important than bladder research! It must be studied and modified by me!"
"It eats carrion, which means it can perfectly clean up everything the blacksmiths eat, drink, excrete, and urinate! It will become a fully automatic, self-cleaning, heated bed!"
"This will be a great leap forward in the history of human progress!"
When those words fell, many blacksmiths were shocked.
Even Su Yu Niang, who had been speaking loudly, slowly opened her mouth and looked at the Medical Fairy Maiden speaking among the crowd. "This game really struck gold by finding such an unparalleled genius!"
Then she felt that it actually made quite a bit of sense.
After all, once they had become human, they discovered that their bodies were rather delicate.
Unlike the tough and hardy Money Boys, who could sleep on iron-grid beds and still leap about full of energy, they woke up today with aching backs and sore waists. Their stomachs in particular might have caught a chill, leaving them utterly drained.
At the time, they had all thought:
Iron-grid beds just aren't fit for humans to sleep on!
Improving their lives really did need to be put on the agenda.
"Is this River Monster-brand heated sleeping bag really feasible? I'm afraid that if the River Monster boss saw it, it would cry out that this is perverted. It wouldn't even know which side was the monster."
"Mm, the weather may have turned a little cold recently. Winter might arrive soon. Money Boys aren't afraid of the cold, but we are. If we sleep on iron-grid beds, we'll turn into ice cubes by morning."
"That makes sense. There's obviously a weather system."
"Mm. Even an elementary-school student like me knows you have to solve the stomach-acid problem, or anyone sleeping inside will be corroded."
"I don't think removing the River Monster's stomach-acid-producing organs is impossible either. Why not let the Medical Fairy Maiden try? She seems pretty professional at dismembering things. This morning, she even dragged a Money Girl away to perform bladder modifications. I heard the procedure also included synchronized body-shape beautification?"
"Holy crap, are you people really this perverted? You want to live inside a monster's stomach? Even a ghost would call you perverted!"
While everyone outside was arguing over the River Monster, the Embers "Su Yu Niang" had already grown too lazy to pay attention to them. She had followed Jiu Cai Rong to the Steward's Room.
As they walked and chatted, "Su Yu Niang" also received the Mountain Villa's latest real-time information.
Yesterday, after she left, the seven enchanters had followed close behind and all died, becoming materials.
Unfortunately, another Ember had not appeared after their deaths.
Counting yesterday evening and this morning, they had nearly finished forging the enchanted artifacts. Their forging success rate was 100 percent—a historic milestone!
Of course.
Because they had no forging experience,
most of the artifacts were +1 or +2, each carrying one or two innate divine spells. A small portion were +3 of ordinary quality.
At that moment, "Su Yu Niang" reached the Steward's Room, moved over a chair, and sat down. She held a Spiritual Root divine-ability compendium that they had compiled by testing everything with their lives:
1. Foxtail Grass (Fire Mixed Spiritual Root), Trait: Rabid Transformation
Spiritual Root Introduction: This Spiritual Root has tremendous side effects. Cultivators who plant this Spiritual Root will occasionally undergo a rabid transformation, gaining strength while losing intelligence and becoming extremely berserk.
Image (a weed resembling a dog's tail has been drawn)
Enchantment Trait: Low-Level Berserkification.
Brief Review: This lowest-grade Mixed Spiritual Root has enormous potential. Although no cultivator would touch it with a ten-foot pole and it is a useless Mixed Spiritual Root when planted in a cultivator, once forged into an artifact, it can actively trigger low-level berserkification and possesses extremely high practical value. It is recommended that this Spiritual Root be planted on a large scale and developed into a flagship product.
Potential: C. This Spiritual Root possesses bestiality and is suspected to be a spirit herb stained by the blood of ancient canine beasts. It degenerated over generation after generation into mere weeds. Perhaps it can be cultivated to return to its ancestral form and advance into a higher-grade Spiritual Root.
Everything was written in great detail.
Most of the old hands were data-analysis fanatics.
After all, forging was the Mountain Villa's core business, and they were now officially launching the Blacksmith Shop industry.
Some had even begun tracing the origins of Spiritual Roots through the theory of plant evolution.
Some people went further, expressing a desire to cultivate Spiritual Roots and perform all kinds of wild operations—mutation, grafting, ancestral revival, and so on—to forge mutated Spiritual Root artifacts.
Before you continue