The Court's Might, and the Fearless Villagers

When the imperial court's troops appeared, the player teams all stopped.

Their gazes darted around, clearly the imperial airship was a huge shock to the players.

To be frank, even in the top ten established servers, the current skill ceiling for players is only that of upper-middle-level powerhouses in the Imperial Court.

No matter how great the player's advantage is, time dictates that they cannot yet contend with these bosses.

"Damn it, other game bosses just stay at home and don't move. This realistic game is really unpleasant. Even when they come out, they're still doomed."

"Yeah, this BOSS is actively trying to steal treasures from the players. How are the players supposed to survive?"

"If it weren't for the Revival Stone, who would dare to come and steal it?"

"Even with Revival Stone, most people would only dare to revive once or twice before having to run away. After all, if the opponent can kill you once, they can kill you ten or a hundred times."

A group of players were chattering away, but dared not approach.

An old Daoist priest disembarked from the flying boat.

A squad of Ironclad Guard followed behind.

It was none other than the innate Old Daoist Tiansheng who had appeared many times before.

It seems this person is a professional field operative, or perhaps a marginalized individual who has been marginalized.

Gao Linzhi knew very well how dangerous it was to be out and about every day.

The old Daoist priest glanced at the numerous players, listened to the cacophony of noise, and immediately frowned:

"So noisy."

He waved his whisk, and a gray ripple swept towards the crowd.

The players quickly took cover.

However, the ripples came too quickly, affecting people within a radius of several kilometers in a matter of moments.

"Hmph, what's that old Daoist priest doing?" someone asked in surprise.

They were initially panicked, but then realized that they didn't seem to have been hurt.

"Wait a minute, your hair! How come it's suddenly turned so white!"

"Yours is too!"

The players immediately panicked.

They suddenly found themselves aged rapidly after being impacted by the ripples.

At that moment, Gao Linzhi was also impacted by the ripples.

However, after that ripple swept past, his body did not exhibit any abnormal symptoms.

At this point, the system notification indicated that it was arriving late.

"You are Aging Curse."

"Your mental attribute exceeds two thousand, successfully immune to this curse."

And at this time.

Other players noticed this as well.

"Look, the Game System actually gave a hint!" one player exclaimed. "It just said my Spirit attribute is only five..."

He only got halfway through his sentence before stopping.

"I just can't handle it; it's an Aging Curse."

"Damn it, I knew about the curse series before. If you have a weakness, you can be killed by a specific curse."

"Yes, just like Zhao Gongming, the Great Golden Immortal in the Investiture of the Gods. Unparalleled in battle, but he was also killed by a curse. His death was too unjust. The karma caused by this curse was too great, which resulted in Jiang Ziya and Ji Fa not being able to be enshrined as gods after their deaths."

"This Aging Curse shows it will last for 30 days. Every day it drains my life force, and every day is a year, so I'll lose 30 years!"

"The first time you get infected, you'll lose twenty years of your life!"

"Damn it, those people in the imperial court are so ruthless!"

The players immediately panicked.

"Damn it, I need to get resurrected quickly."

Some people choose to end their lives and are immediately resurrected using Revival Stone.

However, when he revived on the spot, everyone was horrified to find that his hair was still white.

"Your vitality hasn't returned!"

And at this time...

The innate Old Daoist Tiansheng in the distance glanced disdainfully at the group of players.

"Ridiculous! Do you think you can do whatever you want just because you've been resurrected?"

"This Aging Curse affects your souls directly."

"Even if you are resurrected, it will only be your physical bodies; your souls cannot be restored to youth through resurrection."

"Unless..."

The old Daoist priest stopped there, leaving everyone feeling incredibly troubled.

"In short, you can't get rid of them."

At this time.

Only then did the players realize how powerful the imperial court was.

"Damn it, they found a way to deal with us players so quickly."

"Yes, this method perfectly counters our players' greatest advantage—resurrection."

Everyone was in a terrible predicament.

"What should we do now?"

The group stood still, pondering a solution.

However, after searching their entire memories, they couldn't find a good solution.

To be honest, this is mainly because the players who came were all from the new server.

Players from the older servers didn't come.

They've seen too many tricks and are desensitized to all sorts of treasures.

I know they're mostly huge traps.

The better the treasure, the bigger the trap.

If you're a player from an older server, there are still many ways to counter this move.

"How hateful! This imperial court is far too ruthless."

"We simply can't hold on!"

Moreover, not only could they not handle it, they also found that their minds were in a rather dull state.

It's like your brain has been cursed, and you suddenly become demented.

This is a huge problem!

"Damn it, what should we do now?"

"I don't want to look this old forever!"

"I'm only 18 years old, I don't want to be an old man yet."

The crowd started shouting in the event channel.

Of course, this chat channel is the same as the previous activity channel.

It's just that since they're all on the same island, they can see each other's chat messages.

Fortunately, someone in their group noticed that Gao Linzhi was perfectly fine.

These people immediately saw a glimmer of hope, and one by one they pleaded with Gao Linzhi:

"Boss with Canxue, please, save us!"

"Yes, boss, you're completely alright, you must have a way."

"What should we do now?"

"We'll do whatever you say. If we find any clues about the treasure, we'll give them all to you." In their haste, someone made all sorts of promises.

Gao Linzhi smiled upon hearing this.

He knew these people were just saying it casually.

He didn't believe the other party would actually give him clues about the treasure.

However, we still need the labor force of these people.

So he shook his head and said, "You really treat this place like a game?"

"Don't you know how to handle matters concerning the imperial court?"

Some people were taken aback by what they heard.

Some people seemed to be deep in thought.

"This matter is actually very simple; all we need to do is give that old Daoist priest some personnel."

What is human resources?

"If you don't even understand human relations, then you don't need to play this game anymore," Gao Linzhi said, shaking his head.

This is an extraordinary world set against the backdrop of a feudal era.

If you don't understand "human resources," how are you supposed to play the game?

What did people rely on to act in the feudal era?

Someone suddenly realized.

At this point, there were still some clever players among them.

They immediately took out some Rare Tier medicines, expensive equipment, and many other gadgets from their Game Backpack.

Some people walked directly towards the Old Daoist Tiansheng.

When they were still dozens of meters away, they suddenly knelt down with a "thud".

"Sir, please accept these things. Please forgive us."

Gao Linzhi nodded.

Wow, the players who made it this far are truly adaptable.

Being born into poverty is not a disgrace; true men are those who can bend and stretch.

"You all seem to be quite sensible," the Old Daoist Tiansheng, waving his hand, and another green ripple appeared on the group.

Only the white hair on the heads of these people turned black again.

Clearly, the vitality of their souls has returned.

The players were immediately shocked.

Having played their game for so long, they no longer cared much about these people from the imperial court.

After all, they have too many advantages.

Those in the imperial court, however, need to cultivate for decades to achieve considerable strength.

In just one or two years, resource-rich high-level players can quickly rise to power.

But now they realize that the imperial court's strength is far beyond what they can contend with.

The opponent's strength was so bizarre and formidable that it far exceeded their current imagination.

A single old Daoist priest was enough to leave them helpless.

And at this time...

Some people immediately understood how formidable Gao Linzhi was.

"The Canxue boss is truly formidable."

"Yes, they simply ignored the harm they caused."

"But we have to kneel down and beg for survival."

"And what's most impressive is that the big shot immediately thought of the gift-giving method."

"We never imagined that such a powerful and well-established court could be resolved simply by spending some money."

"This method is really very simple to do, but if the other party doesn't tell us, we really wouldn't be able to figure it out."

"Yes, who would have thought that this powerful old Daoist priest would let us go as long as he accepted the gifts?"

In Gao Linzhi's view, it was perfectly normal for the old Daoist to do this.

Because these players are still very useful.

After this incident, the players dared not cause any more trouble and behaved themselves.

And at this time...

As expected, the Old Daoist Tiansheng nodded to the crowd and said, "Alright, now listen to my instructions."

"Go and drive all the people out of these four villages."

"They're all gathered here."

"The villagers should know best where the treasure is."

The players exchanged glances.

The other party had just given them a taste of their own medicine.

They naturally dared not disobey the old Daoist priest at this moment.

Now they understood why the old man had brought them back.

It's not just about the gift.

Rather, these people are still useful to the old Daoist priest.

The number of people in the imperial court is not large.

The imperial court was, after all, far away.

They can't bring a lot of people with them.

In contrast, players with mobility advantages are the most numerous.

There are now hundreds of players.

The imperial court only sent a mere dozen or so people.

With such a small number of people, controlling so many villagers is indeed a bit of a challenge.

Besides, they also need these players to step on landmines and explore where the treasures are.

Soon, these players spontaneously formed groups and set off in various locations.

They quickly went to the village to arrest the villagers.

The villagers of the four flower villages were clearly the most unlucky.

They could hide from the strange in the ancestral hall, but they couldn't hide from their own kind.

One after another, they were living peaceful lives.

As a result, they were driven out.

There were tens of thousands of villagers.

These four villages are clearly all large villages.

Their daily lives are visibly quite good.

The old Daoist priest saw a large number of villagers appear on the grass in front of him.

He then gestured to a young attendant beside him.

The boy immediately went forward to question him, looking fierce and menacing.

"You all need to answer honestly, have you seen any treasure recently?"

"Or rather, have some strange things been happening around the village lately?"

The player had actually considered going to find the villagers beforehand.

However, before these players could even begin to act, the imperial court arrived.

If the imperial officials don't come, after a while, the players will spontaneously organize themselves to question the villagers.

They would even torture and interrogate these villagers.

Even to the point of massacring entire villages to eliminate witnesses.

Gao Linzhi had no doubt about these players' bottom line.

If they're ruthless enough to wipe out Rogue Players, what chance do they have against local natives?

To everyone's surprise, the villagers all remained silent.

Even if a few people speak up.

They were also saying:

"We didn't see anything."

"What treasure? We have no treasure here."

"What's so strange? Everything here is ordinary. We just grow flowers and provide the imperial court with honey and fresh flowers."

The old Daoist priest immediately became impatient.

"If you don't talk, I think you all have a death wish."

As soon as he finished speaking, just as the players were feeling tense, they weren't worried about the villagers, but rather about the old Daoist priest accidentally harming them.

The villagers, however, were laughing.

"Hahaha, what's so scary about death?"

"Life is as brilliant as summer flowers, death as serene as autumn leaves—that's all there is to it."

Of these tens of thousands of villagers, not a single one was afraid of death.

From the elderly to children, none of them were afraid of death.

At this point, Gao Linzhi began to feel puzzled.

Even if these people believe in certain aspects of the "mono no aware" (the pathos of things) culture, they wouldn't be so unafraid of death.

What exactly happened?

The players, too, were clearly puzzled.

They didn't know why this was happening either.

"These guys are fearless, they're even more formidable than us players."

"This is very strange."

Gao Linzhi frowned.

He scanned the villagers and began his identification process.

[Strange things happening in the village]

[They are all Flower Anomaly; each villager is a flower, disguised as the villager themselves.]

The total number of flowers is fixed; when one flower withers, another will bloom.

[If you are touched by it, you will become a villager.]

[And the original villagers will turn into flowers, and then wither away.]

"I see," the old Daoist priest sneered.

Then he turned and ran.

They ran so fast it was dazzling.

All the players were stunned.

The old Daoist priest who was so arrogant just a moment ago has actually run away so fast.

Those in the imperial court, however, followed suit and fled.

They didn't even ask a single question.

Gao Linzhi naturally chose to remain hidden as soon as the test results came out.

Unfortunately, I can't log off.

While the players were still in a daze, the villagers suddenly pounced on them.

Several players also attempted to attack them.

As a result, when they killed a villager with a single blow, that villager turned into a flower and withered on the spot.

The attacker turned out to be one of the villagers themselves.

"What the hell is this?!"

"Resurrect and escape! Quickly resurrect and escape!"