Awakened Ones of the Real World, Deepening of the Reverse Invasion

After Gao Linzhi investigated these matters, he knew that there would be a great conflict between the two villages, North and South.

Before he transmigrated, he came from a rural family known for its exam-taking skills.

It's clear that in rural areas, for the slightest bit of benefit, even if you just walk up to their doorstep and step on their ground a few extra times, they'll get upset and annoyed.

It's really just because they're poor.

Resources are scarce, and even the smallest amount is fought over.

Therefore, those who flee the countryside rarely return.

Sure enough, it only took him half a day after he had investigated and obtained the basic information.

He then witnessed a conflict taking place.

The North Village were leading a large number of villagers toward the South Village in a menacing manner.

Compared to the population of four thousand, there were several hundred people, which can be said to be the majority of the able-bodied and young.

On the other hand, only more than thirty people were dispatched from South Village.

But everyone was clad in armor and carrying bows, and the armor was made of steel, clearly sourced from other players.

This is not the feudal dynasty before I traveled back in time.

Because of the existence of strange and extraordinary powers, the control over the armor is essentially non-existent.

After all, even if ordinary people wore armor, they couldn't withstand the suppression of the imperial court's experts.

However, when facing similar individuals, it can deliver a devastating blow.

Just like now.

Although the North Village numbered over five hundred, seemingly outnumbering and powerful, they dared not advance rashly.

On the contrary, it was the people from the South Village who spoke first.

A tall, strong man from the South Village, clad in full Steel Armor, walked between the two groups.

He shouted directly, "What are you people from North Village doing here again?"

"Hmph, the price of spices last time was too cheap. The imperial court is about to collect tribute, so we need to double the price!" A young man walked out from the North Village, shirtless and carrying a large, ghost-headed sword.

"That's right, you don't want to be unable to produce enough Enlightenment Incense when the imperial court arrives, do you?" someone else chimed in.

"Hmph, if you can't pay your offerings, it won't just be us from the South Village who suffer; you North Village will be replaced too!"

"You don't know the village chronicles? According to the chronicles, our generation is already the fourth generation of islanders!" the South Village Villager said coldly.

The young man from North Village gritted his teeth. "No matter what, the price of spices must double!"

"That's right, it has to go up!"

Otherwise, we'll all be doomed!

"Damn it! The previous price was already high enough; at least you could all eat your fill. You're pushing your luck!" the South Village resident said angrily.

"Damn it, we not only want to be full, we want to eat well!"

"That's right, we need to eat well!"

"We don't want to work 16 hours a day, we only want to work 8 hours!"

"We don't want our children to only be able to farm! We want them to make incense too!"

Upon hearing this, the people of South Village immediately changed their expressions.

The other party crossed my bottom line.

"What nonsense are you spouting? It's always been the Human Stock farm and the southerners who do manual labor; this is a rule passed down from our ancestors!"

"Do you want to go against the rules of our ancestors?!"

"Exactly! Do you think making incense is really easy? Let me tell you the truth, beneath every stick of Enlightenment Incense lies a skeleton!" the leader of the young men from South Village shouted.

"Lushan, what nonsense are you spouting? Don't say that again." An old man from the South Village, who had been standing to the side without saying anything, immediately changed his expression upon hearing this.

The young man named Lu Shan was taken aback.

The North Village looked puzzled.

"What's the meaning?"

"I mean, making incense is just as tiring. Every stick of incense you make can kill someone!"

"Otherwise, why do you think our South Village has always had so many fewer people than yours?" Lu Shan quickly changed his tune.

Gao Linzhi, however, understood.

Clearly, this was caused by sacrifice.

It's roughly said that for every stick of incense, a person is sacrificed.

Considering their population remains constant, it is highly likely that they will maintain a balance.

The population increase every decade or so has been used as incense-making material.

Gao Linzhi immediately thought of Chenguanzhuang and Linggan Dawang from Journey to the West.

Because those who are most easily sacrificed are actually the weakest.

Don't assume that people loved their children as much before modern times.

Many people have more than ten children in a single lifetime, and it's already a miracle if they can raise even a few.

Many children disappear while walking down the street, and adults just look for them briefly and then forget about them.

It really is a cruel place.

Gao Linzhi sighed.

He then ignored the people from the two villages who were now silent and stealthily entered the South Village.

The truth, however, took him by surprise.

He guessed wrong!

South Village, at the south end of the village.

A cluster of windmill workshops sits on the sea.

The huge windmill is turning slowly, probably serving as the power source for the workshop.

Gao Linzhi ventured into a windmill workshop and discovered that the windmill's power was mainly used to compress various spices, repeatedly pressing them from a loose state until they were finally transformed into a solid substance.

It would be better to use people to do it.

However, since there are few people in South Village, they used windmills instead.

Inside the windmill workshop, several people were busy at work.

They operated the machinery, carefully placing spices into specially made containers, and through each step of the process, the rudiments of thick incense sticks were formed.

So far, there are no surprises.

It wasn't until Gao Linzhi saw a worker carrying a basket of coarse incense, carefully entering a secret passage and then a Secret Room, that he realized what was happening.

They were then carefully placed before the memorial tablets.

He immediately became stern.

Because the names written on those memorial tablets were none other than the ancestors of the North Village!

North Village is surnamed Qi, while everyone in the South Village is surnamed Lu.

The memorial tablets I saw in South Village should have been for the surname "Lu," but instead, they were all for the surname "Qi"!

Having investigated all along, Gao Linzhi naturally knew what those memorial tablets represented.

Clearly, the people of South Village used some kind of secret technique to easily get all the incense offerings to them.

This secret method of incense burning was clearly not something that a single village could have researched.

After all, this involves important incense-making techniques, requiring extensive testing and profound theories.

This is not a research project that can be completed by a single village.

The saying "There are extraordinary people among the common folk" doesn't apply to the mystical world either.

Because the extraordinary masters in the mysterious world also come from organizations with deep roots; they are masters who have escaped.

This was clearly a gift from the imperial court.

This must be a special method used by the imperial court to control the two villages.

The imperial court possessed secret techniques and also controlled the exchange of goods with foreign countries.

In this way, generation after generation of people are turned into leeks, into raw materials for the true Enlightenment Incense.

In reality, it's the incense that's effective; everything else is just supplementary.

Even the protagonist couldn't help but shake his head upon seeing this.

He always remembered that incense was poisonous.

Absorbing incense offerings alters one's memories and personality, ultimately shaping one into what the incense itself desires.

For example, those Buddhas, before they attained Buddhahood, still possessed human nature.

After attaining Buddhahood, one becomes something that believers look forward to.

They are no longer human, no longer living beings, but AIs.

This is what it means to achieve enlightenment and attain Buddhahood.

Although incense can enhance comprehension, Gao Linzhi has lost most of his interest in it.

There's no way around it; in this Skyfall World, many things are related to incense offerings.

After all, this is a cheap and extraordinary resource.

Moreover, ordinary people survived thanks to its ability.

Therefore, the drawbacks are significant. Just like oxygen, which is essential for human survival on one hand, it also causes human cells to be constantly oxidized and age.

He then switched to his own Substitute Puppet.

His Substitute Puppet remains on that icy plain, continuing to learn the Way of Petrification the headmaster.

He went straight to the point and asked, "Headmaster, I've heard that the imperial court has a kind of Enlightenment Incense."

"How effective is that stuff?"

The old lady looked at Gao Linzhi and couldn't help but smile.

"The so-called Enlightenment Incense is actually just some trivial stuff."

That thing will only make you lose your own judgment.

"The principle behind it, in the final analysis, is simply to use the power of incense and prayer to stimulate your wisdom."

"Push your Mental Power to its limits, thereby boosting your comprehension in a short period of time."

It cannot truly change your intelligence, nor can it truly enhance your understanding.

"On the contrary, it will only deplete your potential quickly."

"This thing is usually used by ordinary mortals."

"After all, their lifespans are short. This is actually a tool used by the royal family to quickly train a group of martial arts masters and maintain their dark rule."

After hearing this, the protagonist understood.

"So that's how it is. This imperial court is truly corrupt."

"That's right, they'll stop at nothing."

"Therefore, we Longevity Being cannot allow such a dynasty to exist for long."

"As long as we Longevity Being want to live, the imperial court cannot live forever; it needs to be replenished periodically."

Gao Linzhi nodded.

What the other party said wasn't so nice.

But thinking about it, I realize this is the reality.

That's how cruel reality is.

"If it's really good stuff, the imperial court will definitely send a lot of troops to guard it," the headmaster casually remarked.

"They won't let them roam freely outside."

Clearly, the headmaster values Gao Linzhi highly, because Gao Linzhi is indeed very capable.

They actually explained quite a bit more.

"I see, this thing is just a cheap consumable."

But the protagonist felt very unwilling to accept it.

He couldn't possibly have made a wasted trip.

Although what ran over was just his Game Character.

In reality, he didn't waste much time.

After all, his true form has always been cultivating offline.

Meanwhile, the Substitute Puppet was also listening to the Way of Petrification.

There wasn't much time wasted in the process.

The mental energy consumed by Game Character is only a few tens of minutes.

Most of the time was spent on the road.

But even so, he still felt very unhappy.

Having thought this through, Gao Linzhi knew he couldn't waste any more time.

Since that's the case, he intends to take over this place.

Although he himself could not use these incense sticks, his trading company and his power also required many martial arts practitioners to manage.

So he immediately sent a message to Bored.

Have the other side gather a portion of their players to prepare for taking over the island.

When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman profits.

He immediately thought of how to undermine the dynasty.

That is, it attracted a strange entity that sealed off this place.

Because players can log in from different islands by "switching their login location".

It's essentially exploiting a game bug, where logging in from different real-world locations results in appearing on different islands, allowing for time-space travel.

This kind of advantage is something the imperial court simply could not achieve.

Therefore, Gao Linzhi chose to log off and log off on Spice Island.

After logging off, he wanted to check where he had appeared.

This leads to boredom, sending players here, who then use items to switch spawn points and log in at that point.

Then, his eyes lit up, and he found himself in a new city.

He had just appeared when he suddenly heard a "Huh?" in his ear.

By the way, his method of logging off is different from others.

He logs off, but his physical body doesn't come here; instead, his Game Character "Can Xue Waves Across the Map" appears in reality.

The other players' real bodies were both transported to the game and then logged off.

Therefore, death is real death.

This is something that no one else can compare to.

In reality, he essentially has a real identity.

In fact, he felt that his Game Character was already invading reality.

In a sense, his Game Character is an oddity in itself.

It is an existence that others cannot understand.

Gao Linzhi heard a "Huh?" sound.

He looked up and saw a beautiful woman looking in his direction.

The protagonist was immediately puzzled.

You should know that he had actually been using invisibility the whole time.

Even in the game, ordinary powerful beings cannot sense it, nor can low-level monsters.

The other party was able to sense him.

This indicates that the other party is somewhat unusual.

After thinking about this, he looked up and carefully examined the beautiful woman.

The other person was dressed in white stockings, tall with long legs, and very good-looking, making them stand out.

Many boys passing by couldn't help but secretly turn around to look, and some even secretly took photos with their phones.

Some men in roadside shops stared intently, their eyes glued to the screen.

Keep in mind that this is a real city; while there are plenty of beautiful women, very few are as captivating as this.

Only a very small number of female celebrities can achieve this.

Gao Linzhi then used his Appraisal Skill.

[Han Lanlan]

[Constitution: 5]

[Spirit: 7]

[Status: Possessed by extraordinary energy, inspiration enhanced]

Indeed, it's extraordinary.

At the same time, his heart sank.

This data once again proves that the power of the Skyfall World is influencing reality in reverse.

This reminded Gao Linzhi of the Great Ying Empire's invasion of the Great Qing.

For the sake of a certain film, well, the result was quite something: the Great Qing ended up dumping it into the Great Ying Kingdom.

This is called reverse intrusion.

Ultimately, this forced the Ying Kingdom to voluntarily ban smoking.

This is ridiculous.

The same is true now.

The game invades the Skyfall World, attempting to seize something from it, but the game's power also enters the real world, silently changing it.

This is perfectly normal.

Gao Linzhi glanced at the woman but didn't think much of it.

There will be more and more people like this in the future.

Perhaps they will become a group outside of the players, such as "Awakeners," or perhaps they should be more similar to the professionals in the Skyfall World.

These people will rise rapidly and inevitably become another kind of ruler in the new era.