Cultivation? Can't Cultivate at All!

"So we really are just a labor factory, while those merchant shops rake in the big money?"

Jiu Cai Rong was not surprised. Primitive business operations generally worked like this.

It was a management game, after all. They were starting with a small workshop; perhaps once they developed further, they could open branches outside, running shop after shop themselves, with no middlemen taking a cut.

Only once the shops were established could they build connections among powerful cultivators!

The customers who came knocking to shop were resources: holy sons, holy maidens, young men whose engagements had been broken off with a "do not bully the poor in their youth."

They had to squeeze them dry to grow bigger and stronger, until chain stores covered the world!

Jiu Cai Rong asked again, "Sir, can the blacksmiths in our manor cultivate? After all, if foreign enemies attack again, how are we supposed to defend Mountain Villa?"

"All things beneath heaven can cultivate."

Ning Zheng answered without hesitation. "But the resources required for immortal cultivation are beyond imagination, and it is a path of nine deaths and one life. It is not a road you can walk."

"Why?" Jiu Cai Rong asked.

"To cultivate immortality, one must first cultivate the heart. Ordinary Children must attend school and begin devouring the classics in their youth, nurturing conscience in their hearts and the principles of heaven in their chests. They must become scholars of the Scholar Path before they have a chance to step through the gate."

"To cultivate immortality, one must possess a Spiritual Root. They are broadly divided into five categories: metal, wood, water, fire, and dirt."

"That means choosing the Spiritual Root suited to you."

Hearing this, Jiu Cai Rong was finally baffled. "Huh? Spiritual Roots need to be chosen?"

"If you do not choose one, could you have been born with it instead?"

Ning Zheng was thoroughly speechless. "Plant a spirit herb or spirit flower, and that becomes your Spiritual Root."

"The Nine Continents of the World are all named after flowers. Our continent is Xinyi Continent, rich in Xinyi Grass, with seas of flowers carpeting the land in breathtaking beauty. Most cultivators in this continent can only choose Xinyi Grass as their Spiritual Root. That is considered a local specialty."

He paused.

"Each type of Spiritual Root corresponds to an Innate Divine Ability. It takes root atop the head—Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, in short. There are profound principles involved."

Ning Zheng recalled the experience he had gained while feeling his way through cultivation before.

He had only learned some basic cultivation knowledge because he had been "lucky" enough to obtain an introductory book on cultivation.

"This worldview is insane..." Jiu Cai Rong's mind churned with shock.

First become a scholar—it was somewhat like the ideas of ancient Taoism: meditate, read, cultivate the heart.

This Spiritual Root of yours seemed rather special.

The Three Flowers atop the head were meant literally. A heaven-and-earth Spiritual Root, perhaps?

"May I ask, the Nine Continents of the World are...?" Jiu Cai Rong asked curiously.

Ning Zheng said, "Jasmine, Baby's Breath, Pansy, Begonia, Xinyi, Wild Rose, Sacred Rice, Cardamom, and Other Shore."

Jiu Cai Rong thought that each of the nine continents had its own distinctive native Spiritual Root. He chuckled, then put on a bold, ambitious air, his brows dancing as he declared:

"To be honest! We refugees are unusual. We are a special immortal race. Being blacksmiths in this manor is truly wasting our talents."

"We are called the Fourth Calamity—brave in battle, fearless of death. Why would we need to forge weapons? We are willing to acknowledge the Sword Forging Manor's master as our godfather and help conquer this magnificent land! We'll smash every sect beneath heaven!"

Though he had no idea why this game was so realistic.

In his eyes, this management simulation game should only have been as large as the Manor Map.

What if I said we should go out together and conquer the world for the manor, step beyond the map boundary, and force this management simulation game to change genres into a massive sandbox combat-and-leveling game? How would you handle that, sir?

The AI would crash, wouldn't it?

Hearing this, Ning Zheng did not understand what the Fourth Calamity meant, so he secretly asked Xiao Ai.

After Xiao Ai explained, he learned that it was an internet term that had emerged in the highly developed online age of the years after his transmigration.

It roughly referred to players relying on respawning at resurrection points and swarming enemies to death with sheer numbers.

His expression immediately turned strange. "You brat, your horizons are too narrow. What special race? You are merely ordinary refugees with a somewhat commonplace ability."

"Within cultivator circles, creating spirits and creating horrors as slaves—immortal legions are not particularly rare. They are everywhere, in fact, and only more useful."

"And cultivators themselves possess even stronger immortality. Take this old man, for example. I have only cultivated the most rudimentary entry-level realm: the First Body of the Five Bodies Realm."

With that, Ning Zheng swung his sword and chopped off his own head, then reattached it. "This immortality is nothing unusual."

Jiu Cai Rong: "."

Holy shit.

This old steward had just chopped off his own damn head on the spot.

And you are telling me this is the first tiny realm after getting started?

Could the Five Bodies Realm mean exactly what it sounded like? The First Body had cultivated the head, which was why his head was so formidable?

Ning Zheng found his wide-eyed little expression genuinely amusing.

This was an era of individual might. A single powerful figure could sweep through the age and dazzle all eternity. What use were greater numbers?

Ning Zheng had a gentle temperament, and he had not chatted with a normal person in a long time. He was happy to keep talking, pointing up at the sky. "Do you see those stars?"

Jiu Cai Rong nodded.

This world was truly strange. The stars shone even in daylight, scattered like glittering specks. They were rather beautiful, too.

Ning Zheng said, "Those are pairs of eyes. They belong to the greatest sect in the Nine Continents at present, Nine Grains—the current imperial court—inspecting the provinces and counties under its rule!"

"What?" Jiu Cai Rong was stunned.

Seeing his surprise, Ning Zheng secretly laughed. For some reason, he felt rather proud.

Ning Zheng had only occasionally heard this from the Demon People's words, and he did not truly know much about it himself.

Back then, Ning Zheng had also been profoundly shaken.

They were so far away from the ground, yet they flashed so madly. How enormous must those eyeballs be?

And how enormous must the bodies of those truly powerful cultivators be?

Ning Zheng pondered that question every day as well.

Two guesses had arisen in his mind.

1. Perhaps their bodies truly were that immense, supporting heaven and bearing earth, and they really did use their eyeballs to watch the world. Mortals were as tiny as ants on the ground, grazing through spring and autumn.

2. Perhaps their bodies were not that large. Perhaps they had plucked out their own eyeballs and hung them in the sky to watch.

Whichever possibility was true, the powerful beings of this world were beyond imagination.

Jiu Cai Rong murmured, "If every pair of stars is a court minister, then the moon and sun must be...?"

Ning Zheng nodded. "They are the Current Saint who founded the Nine Grains Dynasty."

Jiu Cai Rong immediately fell silent. His towering ambitions vanished in an instant, and his whole body went numb.

"Hehe, we really are just a bunch of small fry! As for the Fourth Calamity... we should just be little blacksmiths, stupid pay-to-win sows."

Jiu Cai Rong was deeply shocked, ripples constantly spreading through his heart.

This Old Steward was truly kind and gentle, truly easy to talk to. It was clear he sincerely wanted what was best for them. No wonder he was the village chief of the newbie village.

But this was obviously a closed-off small manor management game. Was the vast world outside really this ridiculously outrageous?! Gods and Devils were everywhere.

This was a living, breathing supernatural otherworld. They received no special treatment, nor did they have the cheat of killing monsters, leveling up, and gaining experience like in online games.

If the little blacksmiths cultivated diligently, I fear it would take years to break through even a single realm.

But in reality, who could play a game for years or decades?

Besides, even after breaking through, it would only be a minor realm.

Everyone was here to play a game, not sit cross-legged in meditation!

Make someone serve that kind of prison sentence for half a year and see what happens.

They would quit gaming cold turkey.

Based on the information available, compared with tediously cultivating for decades or centuries to become great cultivators, forging iron, farming, and researching the manufacture of magical treasures and weapons was much more fun.

Precisely because of that, Jiu Cai Rong instead found this realistic worldview quite interesting.

It was not so Dragon Overlord-like, with no cheat system smashing into his face. They received the same treatment as the natives; it was all about gritty realism.

"I understand. I dare not hope for cultivation. I will become the Blacksmith King!!"

Jiu Cai Rong's face was resolute as his fingernails dug fiercely into his flesh.

Though Ning Zheng did not know why he was digging his fingers into his flesh with such righteous fervor, he still nodded in satisfaction. The boy could be taught, after all. He had finally dispelled that notion from his mind.