Chapter 7: The Artifact Refining Workshop (Major Revision)

But for Chi Yixuan right now, both the Three Great Sects and the Sea of Suffering were still very distant matters. And since the Sea of Suffering Path beside Nameless Valley had been blocked off by his base, no trouble would emerge from it in the short term. He could set it aside for now.

After pushing the schedule for that matter infinitely backward, Chi Yixuan began to ponder over his base.

If he were playing a game, he would definitely run to a stretch of fertile land with a water source and build his base there. But right now, his base was established in Nameless Valley. Even without the Sea of Suffering Path beside it, this place was not suitable for habitation.

Most of the valley was flat ground, so houses could be built quickly in the early stages. Because it was surrounded by mountain walls on all four sides, with the Sea of Suffering Path at its back and only one exit to the east, it was very suitable for defense.

But this place was extremely arid. Vast stretches of land had turned to desert, so dry that only a few sparse clumps of grass grew here and there. The nearest water source was still eighty li away. Forget reclaiming land and farming; even drinking water was a problem.

How should he solve this?

Just then, Chi Yixuan suddenly sensed something. His gaze landed on a certain point on the map. That point instantly enlarged, then enlarged again, revealing the scene inside Nameless Valley.

Beneath the cold, silent moonlight, the thirty odd-job workers led by Guo Qianshan were releasing the slaves from their cages. Every time they let one out, those odd-job workers would tirelessly repeat the same warning.

“You people really got unbelievably lucky... Our employer not only saved you, but is even willing to shelter you. From now on, you must be deeply grateful. Do you understand?”

One slave asked shakily, “What... should we call the employer?”

The odd-job workers were actually very patient. “Our employer’s surname is Chi. You can just call him Master. He is a true immortal, the kindest good man in this world.”

Chi Yixuan: ...

Help! He had only told the odd-job workers to release the slaves. He had not told them to add so much drama! Worse, the odd-job workers all looked completely sincere, which made it even more embarrassing. They even wanted the slaves to call him “Master.” It felt so perverted.

He withdrew his gaze and said expressionlessly, “Did you feel that?”

life-bound artifact: “I did. Your toes are continuously massaging the soles of your shoes.”

“Do you need me to warn these odd-job workers?”

Chi Yixuan looked as if life had lost all meaning. “Forget it. Let’s leave it like this for now!” After all, a pauper like him had not even solved the food problem yet. He really did not have the confidence to carry out ideological work for them. He could set this matter aside for now too! He had to let people eat their fill and dress warmly first before he had the qualifications to talk about anything else.

But he soon perked up again, because reward points had arrived.

That string of repeated emphasis from the odd-job workers might have been mortifying, but it was effective. As they released the slaves one by one, those people came to understand the ownership of the land beneath their feet, as well as the ownership of them as “property.”

And so, those more than two hundred points finally arrived. Including the original one hundred points, he now had three hundred and fifty-seven points.

“Congratulations. Although the number is very small, you already possess subjects, and have truly taken your first step toward the path of becoming the common sovereign under heaven. Please name your base.”

Chi Yixuan thought it over. “Let’s call it Zhaoge!”

Back in his homeland, the earliest dynasty with clear documented evidence was the Shang Dynasty, and Zhaoge was the capital of the Shang Dynasty. As Chi Yixuan’s first step in this world, he felt that calling it “Zhaoge” was rather meaningful.

“Initial base ‘Zhaoge’ named successfully! Reward points: 1000. You currently have a total of 1357 points. Extract points to raise your level?”

Chi Yixuan confirmed the extraction.

The next moment, the level bar on the panel lit up. The sections rose one by one, finally stopping at the fourth segment.

“Congratulations. Your current cultivation is the fourth layer of Qi Refining.”

Chi Yixuan clenched his fist and felt it for a while. He felt that his body was a little more comfortable than before, and his strength had increased quite a bit. With a slight hop, he jumped two meters high and nearly hit the roof.

“Not bad!” He was very satisfied.

And with the naming of his initial base confirmed, Nameless Valley on the map glowed with golden light. Even more functions in the game were unlocked.

A wash of drifting clouds passed across the panel interface of Immortal Dynasty Simulator, and it split into two sections: “Nation” and “People.”

“Nation” included infrastructure, defense, finance, propaganda, and so on. “People” included the four main categories of “clothing, food, housing, and transportation.”

Each of those four categories, “clothing, food, housing, and transportation,” was further split into two subcategories: “Mortal” and “Cultivation.” They very clearly represented ordinary mortals and cultivators.

And from the panel, one could clearly see that these two were not opposed to each other. Instead, they could progress simultaneously, and there was even a transitional relationship from “Mortal” to “Cultivation.” In fact, the localized name Immortal Dynasty Simulator had made the game’s main storyline obvious from the very beginning.

“A cultivation dynasty, universal cultivation, a nation of cultivators...” Chi Yixuan said longingly. “Just imagining it already feels amazing!”

Unfortunately, whether it was an imperial dynasty or universal cultivation, both were still far too distant for the current Chi Yixuan.

The four categories of “clothing, food, housing, and transportation” were all lit up. This meant that Chi Yixuan could now choose one of them to unlock.

Without even thinking, he skipped over “food” and looked at “clothing, housing, and transportation.”

“I thought you would prioritize unlocking ‘food.’”

Chi Yixuan said, “Isn’t there a merchant caravan eighty li away? When the time comes, we can buy some food from them and make do for a few days first.”

Chi Yixuan had already spent quite some time studying the game panel, so of course he was not completely clueless. After localization, the game’s setting of unlocking content according to level had still not changed. It had only gone from unlocking one workshop every ten levels to unlocking one workshop at each cultivation stage.

This world’s cultivation was divided into seven major realms in total: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Tribulation Transcendence, and Dao Integration. Each realm was further divided into three stages: early stage, middle stage, and perfection.

The Qi Refining stage had ten layers in total. The first to fourth layers were early stage, the fifth to ninth layers were middle stage, and only the tenth layer counted as perfection.

Chi Yixuan was currently in the early stage of Qi Refining and could only unlock one workshop, so naturally he had to unlock the most important one first.

“Clothing can be made do with for now. As for transportation, we still have the carriages that were used to transport the cages earlier, and we temporarily don’t have any need to transport large amounts of goods. Then let’s unlock housing! Once people have even a roof tile over their heads, they’ll always feel much more settled, and their sense of belonging here will be stronger too.”

As Chi Yixuan said this, he saw the area under “housing” glow faintly. When he opened the details, he discovered that the pile of cages used to imprison the slaves had been assessed by the system as yellow-grade materials.

System note: After yellow-grade materials are dismantled, they can be converted into house-building resources. Houses constructed using yellow-grade materials are sturdy and solid, and possess a certain degree of fireproofing, waterproofing, and impact resistance.

From the original body’s memories, Chi Yixuan learned that the materials in this world were all divided by grade. From high to low, they were divided into four grades: heaven, earth, profound, and yellow. Anything that could enter the grading system was good stuff. For example, the two magic artifacts seized from the two stewards earlier were both low-grade yellow-grade items.

His eyes lit up, and he was just about to build beautiful houses for his base when life-bound artifact suddenly said, “Although this may be somewhat offensive, I do not recommend that you do this.”

Chi Yixuan said, “Why?”

life-bound artifact asked him in return, “If you build houses for them, what should these people do next?”

What should they do? Of course they should rest well and eat properly. Hadn’t he seen that all of them were as skinny as bamboo poles?

But very quickly, Chi Yixuan realized a problem. This was not fertile land waiting to be reclaimed, but a remote area where vast stretches of land had turned to desert. At present, it was simply impossible to open fields for planting. And if he gave them food and housing but could not find anything else for them to do, then these idle people might cause trouble for him.

Such speculation was somewhat cruel, but it was also a reality Chi Yixuan had no choice but to face.

This world was not his homeland, and those slaves were not disaster victims from his homeland waiting to be rescued. They did not have that kind of awareness of obeying all organizational arrangements. To them, Chi Yixuan was simply a person who had appeared out of nowhere. The previous stewards had wanted to slaughter them and sacrifice them to the Sea of Suffering Path, but Chi Yixuan might not necessarily be anything good either. If he took good care of them without asking them to do any work, perhaps it meant he wanted to demand an even greater return.

If someone were to stir them up at this point, and all these slaves who had regained their freedom scattered and vanished without a trace, wouldn’t he lose both the chicken and the eggs, ending up with nothing at all?

Thinking of this, Chi Yixuan immediately developed a sense of crisis. “If these people run off, my points and my cultivation won’t be deducted back, right?”

“Rest assured. Nothing like that will happen. This is your game. You should know that.”

Chi Yixuan let out a breath of relief. True. Back when he planned the game, the main purpose was to let players experience the joy of building a country from nothing. A setting that made players unhappy like that naturally could not remain. As expected, his game had localized extremely well!

“However, if subjects truly leave, you will need to make up for the lost number before you can level up again.”

Chi Yixuan waved his hand, indicating that this problem was not serious. Then he asked life-bound artifact whether it had any recommended options.

“The ‘Cultivation’ path under ‘transportation’ already has one option lit up.”

Chi Yixuan was rather surprised. He had thought it would be impossible to activate the “Cultivation” path at this stage, so he had not looked at it at all earlier. Hearing this, he immediately opened the “Cultivation” path and saw a “yellow-grade artifact refining workshop” there, glowing faintly.

System note: Yellow-grade artifact refining workshop. Can produce items below yellow grade, with a low probability of producing yellow-grade items. Unlock level achieved. Unlocking materials: several yellow-grade materials and ten spirit stones.

“An hour ago, during reconnaissance, I discovered a mystic armor beetle nest fifty li away. The shell of the mystic armor beetle is extremely hard and can be put into the artifact refining workshop as material to make heart-protecting armor.”

Chi Yixuan clapped his hands and praised, “I understand what you mean. The conditions here are poor, and we can’t farm, so we can only take the commercial route first, uncover local specialties, and manufacture superior products to sell externally.” He paced back and forth where he stood. “And that merchant caravan just happens to be passing through here within three days. If we can make it in time, we can even conveniently have the caravan help us do a wave of advertising... Wow, you’re even smarter than I thought!”

life-bound artifact was extremely modest. “I am merely offering a few suggestions based on the content the game system has already displayed. The one who truly combined all sorts of resources and made a wise decision is you. In my view, you are the wisest person.”

Chi Yixuan waved his hand and praised it sincerely, “You’re very impressive too. Being good at flattery is also a very rare virtue.”

life-bound artifact: ...

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