Chapter 24: Birthday Surprise

Chi Yixuan took inventory of his spoils.

Five magic artifacts: the Jinmu Awl, Blood Ruyi, and Thunder Pearl had already been tossed into the Artifact Refining Workshop for repairs.

The other two had been obtained from Song Dianlai’s residence: a spear and a sword.

Appraisal: Shuihua Sword. When swung, it comes with its own water-mist special effect. Its sword qi flows like water. Its ornamental value is slightly higher. Yellow-grade superior quality. Scarlet Flame Spear. The spearhead is vivid red, and attacks come with a burning effect. Yellow-grade superior quality.

Although cultivators all had one life-bound artifact each, not every life-bound artifact was suited for combat. More importantly, a life-bound artifact was as important as one’s life. Taking it out casually to use could very easily cause people with ulterior motives to deliberately target and destroy it. When that happened, one’s entire cultivation would be crippled. Only the natives of Easternmost Continent were that fierce, pulling out their life-bound artifacts at the drop of a hat.

Chi Yixuan enthusiastically swung the sword around for a while, then played with the spear for a while. Unfortunately, he discovered he had no particular talent, so he simply threw them into storage to gather dust.

Next were two thousand spirit stones and several bottles of pills. Aside from yellow-grade pills like Blood-Replenishing Pills and Qi-Replenishing Pills, there were also several bottles of mystic-grade pills, namely Spirit-Replenishing Pills, Cold-Resisting Pills, and Rebirth Pills.

Appraisal: Spirit-Replenishing Pill. A mystic-grade pill that can quickly replenish lost spiritual power in the body. Its effect depends on the pill’s quality.

Spiritual power was a very versatile thing in this world. Because everyone was born with spiritual roots, everyone had spiritual power inside them. People with abundant spiritual power had vigorous qi and blood and strong bodies, and they were not invaded by external evils. Those with weak spiritual power, however, were deficient in qi, physically tired, frail, and thin, and therefore suffered from many illnesses and pains.

So when ordinary people got sick, it meant they lacked spiritual power. They just had to replenish a little spiritual power. As long as they had enough spiritual power, they could drive out most illnesses in their bodies.

Chi Yixuan translated it for himself and felt that this “spiritual power” was basically something that could infinitely strengthen immunity. Once someone reached Foundation Establishment and the spiritual power inside their body underwent a qualitative change, they could fly through the sky, burrow into the earth, and surpass the mortal world.

Just like now. As he took inventory of his possessions, wontons flew one by one out of the bowl on his left and fed themselves into his mouth, while the fan on his right hovered in midair, fanning him again and again.

There was clearly only one person, yet he had created the feeling of three people.

But this kind of multitasking was extremely difficult. One moment of carelessness and—

The next moment, a clattering crash rang through the room. The wontons smashed onto the floor, soup, bowl, and all. The fan slapped him hard on the head. Chaotic spiritual power flew into the corner and knocked over a vase, and the clothes rack beside the bed also fell over…

By the time Chi Yixuan came back to himself, the room had become a complete mess again.

Chi Yixuan had long since grown used to this sort of situation. Without changing expression, he waved a hand. The palm-leaf fan flew up and landed on the table. The clothes rack and vase stood back up. The broken porcelain pieces and the wontons on the ground separated into two piles, one going into the trash can, the other into the drain.

That was right. Spiritual power was this convenient and practical, more than ten times better than a robot vacuum. And this was only Foundation Establishment. What would it be like at the Golden Core or Nascent Soul stage? Chi Yixuan truly did not dare imagine it. No wonder everyone wanted to cultivate immortality.

“Good thing I made the sewer first. Otherwise, once the wontons fell on the ground, I’d have to throw them out, and they’d definitely say I was wasting food.”

Your Majesty, no one here would think you were wasting anything.

Chi Yixuan could not help remembering how the odd-job workers had praised him to the skies, saying things like ancient emperor. Just thinking about it made his scalp go numb from embarrassment. His smile stiffened for a moment. “Yeah, but they’d definitely pick it up and eat it.”

Although those people who were extremely deprived of material goods did not mind eating other people’s swill, he himself minded very much!

He continued taking inventory of his possessions.

Appraisal—Cold-Resisting Pill. As its name suggests, it can resist extreme cold. Effective for twelve hours. Mystic-grade pill.

Rebirth Pill. Can preserve a breath of life when a cultivator suffers severe injuries and is on the verge of death. Its effect varies according to the severity of the injury, the cultivator’s cultivation level, and the quality of the pill.

Chi Yixuan raised a brow. “Translate.”

What that means is, even a top-grade Rebirth Pill is only effective on severely injured cultivators at Golden Core and below.

Chi Yixuan understood.

Spiritual power already had the effect of repairing the body. The higher one’s cultivation, the more spiritual power one had inside the body, and the faster one could absorb spiritual power. The Rebirth Pill was only a mystic-grade pill. If a cultivator above Golden Core was so seriously injured that they could no longer heal themselves, then a Rebirth Pill would also be powerless to bring them back from the dead.

There were definitely better pills, but those were not things the current Chi Yixuan could come into contact with. He still needed Heaven’s will to make that happen.

From this, it could be seen just how confident Song Dianlai had been before. He had actually dared to go out without bringing a Rebirth Pill. If he had brought a Rebirth Pill at the time, what Zhaoge would look like now really was uncertain.

After putting these pills away, Chi Yixuan’s gaze fell on the map of Zhaoge.

He was now in the early stage of Foundation Establishment. According to the game rules, he could unlock one more new function. It was precisely this point that left him terribly conflicted. He clearly knew they were all good things. He wanted every single one of them. Unfortunately, his wallet was empty!

It would have been one thing before, but now Zhaoge had an Artifact Refining Workshop and a Medical Workshop. He had also gone to Silver City for a stroll and discovered that the products from his own workshops were quite competitive. In that case, he had to guard against people coming to rob him. So a defensive function was extremely urgent. First, the odd-job workers’ cultivation was still not high enough, and they also had to go out to hunt and work. Second, he would not be staying at home every moment of every day either.

If an enemy took advantage of a gap and stole his home, who was he supposed to cry to?

But the “Heavenly Garment Workshop” among “clothing, food, housing, and transportation” could also be unlocked now. If it had been before, he would have skipped over this option, but unfortunately, tonight he had discovered an ice silkworm. He definitely had to get his hands on that good thing.

The Heavenly Garment Workshop included a “silkworm raising” function. If he unlocked the Heavenly Garment Workshop first, he could soon arrange for the ice silkworm to move in. If he delayed too long, he was worried something might change.

But the water problem needed solving too!

Water use in the valley was very tight right now. The odd-job workers could still occasionally ride horses to a water source eighty li away to take a bath, but ordinary people had a much harder time. One small bucket of water a day was only enough to satisfy drinking needs. Even washing their faces had to be done with extreme thrift, and every last bit of household wastewater had to be saved to water the vegetable plots, even though the seeds had yet to sprout.

A thousand people. Who knew how long it had been since they had bathed? The desert in July was also quite hot, and places in the valley with many people stank. This was another reason Chi Yixuan did not want to go outside.

And as the population increased and living standards rose, people would instinctively pursue cleanliness in themselves and their environment. At that time, his subjects’ dissatisfaction with water use would definitely grow by the day.

If this were a peaceful world, Chi Yixuan could absolutely develop slowly, step by step. Pausing the intake of new population was also one solution. But the threat of Tyrant Blade Gate was still hanging overhead. The original owner’s grudge and the grudge of the He family’s extermination both had to be settled. If he took even one step slower, the risk would increase by one degree.

Although his Zhaoge had blocked the spread of the Sea of Suffering Path, those immortal gates would rather carry out human sacrifice every year than bother sending a Golden Core cultivator over to garrison the place. Presumably, they would not have any misgivings about this either.

Maybe in their hearts, they even felt: wasn’t it just sacrificing a few hundred or a thousand ordinary people every year? By comparison, resolving a future hidden danger was much more cost-effective.

“Heh. Are these immortal gates running relay stations or what? So many bastards. Sooner or later, I’ll tear them all down!”

After venting his emotions, Chi Yixuan decided to temporarily use the array disc he had scraped from Song Dianlai to protect Zhaoge.

Array discs and seal barriers were both used for defense. But magic artifacts required a person to inject spiritual power into them for use. The spiritual power of the Foundation Establishment stage could allow the seal barrier to last five days, but if it suffered external attacks during that time, once the accumulated attacking force broke through the magic artifact’s limit, the barrier would disappear, and the magic artifact would be damaged as well.

Array discs were different. They were a form of array. Once activated, the array disc would operate on its own, absorbing the surrounding spiritual qi as energy to maintain the barrier. The higher the surrounding concentration of spiritual power, the better the array disc’s effect.

Of course, array discs were also divided by grade, and they could also be damaged by external attacks. But in a place like Easternmost Continent, one yellow-grade array disc was already enough.

The only flaw of an array disc was that it could not be activated while running around like a magic artifact. It could only be activated in a fixed location. This was also why the defensive barriers of many immortal gates were called mountain-protecting grand arrays instead of mountain-protecting magic treasures, because they were fundamentally two different things.

Of course, there were also differences between arrays. For the kind of array formed by setting up array flags in fixed positions, Chi Yixuan coined a term himself: loose-pack arrays.

It was said that for arrays with the same effect, array flags were at least thirty percent cheaper than array discs in terms of materials.

But array flags were inconvenient to carry, and there was a risk of losing them if there were too many flags. If the situation was urgent, the time it took to set up the flags would be enough for you to die several times over. Array discs were different. Toss one on the ground, and it could be activated.

Therefore, array discs were mostly used at home and while traveling, while array flags were mostly used for cave residence defense.

However, Chi Yixuan had no choice right now. Easternmost Continent did not have any cultivator trade markets either. He could only use this array disc.

It was inferior to the game’s built-in yellow-grade defensive array, but it did not have to occupy one of his unlock slots!

Relying on the assistance of his life-bound artifact, Chi Yixuan began devoting himself to studying the array disc. It had only been a few days since he transmigrated, and he could not even understand array patterns. He could only seize the time to make up the lesson.

While Chi Yixuan studied, five more days passed quietly in the valley.

These were five incomparably peaceful yet busy days. Without Song Dianlai, Strange Treasure Hall no longer posed a threat, so the odd-job workers no longer had any scruples when they worked. Some people even rode horses to Silver City to purchase goods.

With everyone working together, the construction progress inside the valley advanced rapidly.

Those with great strength transported timber. Those with less strength wove vine mats.

The elderly sorted thatch and repaired roofs. Children ran back and forth delivering water and goods.

Young men raised hammers and drove down foundations while shouting chants. Women chopped wood and made some furniture…

Sweat fell onto the ground, silently nourishing this patch of land.

Shi Dahai accepted the water his younger sister handed him and gulped down several mouthfuls. Looking at the row of house frames gradually taking shape not far away, a silly smile appeared on his face.

His younger sister stood beside him, raised her head, and asked, “Brother, will we really be able to live here in the future?”

Shi Dahai nodded hard. “We definitely will. From now on, this will be our home!”

Ever since the three siblings became slaves, they had been sold back and forth, displaced and wandering. They had long since forgotten what home felt like. Now, looking at the frames with their foundations laid not far away, her mind filled with scenes of how they would live here in the future. His younger sister’s eyes gradually reddened. She could not tell whether her heart felt sour or joyful. As she cried, she suddenly sneezed, then burst into laughter.

The children’s laughter spread from one to another. Before long, bell-like laughter echoed through the valley. Accompanied by that laughter, an odd-job worker struck a bronze gong, calling everyone to stop work and eat…

It was not like at the beginning, when everyone fought and scrambled without any order, nor like when they had just arrived, staring at the food with eyes glowing green. Everyone came in twos and threes, greeting one another as they took their bowls and lined up. There were even people who did not raise their heads at all, wanting to finish the bit of work in their hands before going to eat.

Qiu Ping’an had fewer matters to handle today, so he stood beside the rice bucket helping serve food.

With the grain and payment Swift Wind Trading Company had given them before, the valley was temporarily not lacking in silver, food, or drink. Plus, everyone had to do heavy physical labor, so what they prepared was all good grain.

Big bowls of white rice paired with large chunks of meat and green vegetables, plus a bowl of refreshing vegetable soup. Everyone ate with complete satisfaction, so they would have the strength to work in the afternoon.

The line for food moved very quickly. At last, it was the turn of a child who held up a bowl with his head lowered.

Qiu Ping’an lowered his eyes and saw that it was Wutong, the one he had previously disliked very much because he was always slacking off and playing tricks.

However, this child had been working quite hard recently. Qiu Ping’an would not deliberately shortchange him just because of his previous dislike, so he served him a big full bowl of rice and deliberately picked large chunks of meat to pile on top.

Wutong was somewhat surprised when he received the food. His mouth moved, and he silently carried the bowl away.

Lanlan was sitting near Shi Dahai and his siblings to eat, and she waved at him.

The two of them ate all the rice together, until their bellies were a little round from fullness.

Wutong suddenly heard Lanlan say, “You’ve been working very hard lately. I saw it.” And that change had started from the day the immortal master protected all of them from the cultivator.

Wutong pressed his lips together. He looked a bit awkward and did not speak.

Lanlan smiled at him. “I always knew you weren’t the kind of bad child who slacks off and cheats. It’s all right. Do your work properly from now on, and the immortal master won’t hold it against you.”

Wutong opened his mouth, then closed it again in conflict.

Yet Lanlan seemed to know what he was thinking and said in surprise, “You want to see the immortal master?”

…

While Chi Yixuan was in seclusion studying, his life-bound artifact patrolled the entire valley in his place.

Of course, it had long since noticed Wutong, this strange child.

How interesting, it thought silently. In barren Easternmost Continent, the vast majority of people can only summon their life-bound artifacts after reaching adulthood. And although this child who possesses a life-bound artifact has cultivation so low it is practically nonexistent, he is only ten years old.

As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, Song Dianlai spent fifty years in Dongchen Continent, yet even he did not know that life-bound artifacts could be stripped away. But this child is afraid that a cultivator will take away his life-bound artifact.

I like children with secrets.

Because such children could usually bring benefits to its master, just like that little girl named Xingchun.

In a few days, it will be His Majesty’s birthday. This was the surprise the life-bound artifact had prepared for its master. No one was allowed to take it away.

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