"Li Chen, oh, Li Chen, you really do treat your subordinates well! All that talk of looking out for them, letting them establish families and careers and live in peace-when it comes down to it, aren't you just after their labor, exploiting them for wealth?"
"But with this, Zhou Cheng and Yun Ya will probably become utterly devoted to you. Even their children and descendants will stay in this workshop to serve you. Everyone else will be deeply encouraged when they see it, too!"
"You really know how to seize an opportunity to buy people's hearts."
When Li Chen returned to the Inner Valley beneath Broad Cloud Peak, Mei Xuan was sitting on a Floating Chair with a refined gold casing. She smiled as she spoke to him, her words as much criticism as praise.
Li Chen remained unmoved. "How is the virtual reality doing? I haven't received any alerts, so everything should be fine, right?"
His question was directed at Heavenly Pivot through their mental connection. Heavenly Pivot immediately reported, "All conditions normal. Continuous operating time: three thousand three hundred and one days..."
Li Chen nodded silently.
Nine years.
It had passed a full nine-year trial of uninterrupted operation. He could now safely consider the methods for online maintenance and updates mature.
Several years earlier, his virtual reality techniques had still been crude. Over the intervening years, Li Chen had purchased more relevant texts on the market and hired elite Craftsmen specializing in Draw Silk, Rejoin Meridians to refine his feedback talisman arrays. At last, he had brought them to completion.
At the very least, he could now simulate the overarching framework of physical laws and all manner of natural phenomena. Only the level of detail still needed optimization.
For instance, within the world of the virtual reality, the