Chapter 8: 8. Chapter 8: The Vastness of Yunzhou

Chapter 8: The Vastness of Yunzhou

"Holy crap, for a second there, I actually thought I had transmigrated."

After entering the forest, a player spent the entire time sniffing around here and there. At this moment, he would probably find even the excrement of small animals in the woods to be fragrant.

"Right?" the player next to him said, clutching a handful of dirt. "How can every single detail be made this perfectly?"

How could technology leap forward like this in a single step? It was a total paradigm shift!

At this moment, they were like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden for the first time.

"Holy shit, damn it, there's a snake!"

Someone began wailing like a ghost, while others howled. There were some harmless small animals in the mountains, but seeing them gave the players quite a fright.

"Calling this 'realistic' isn't enough. This is the Second World, isn't it?"

The players whispered among themselves. Even when A-Wu issued tools and sent them in to chop wood, they had no complaints.

However, they soon discovered that chopping wood was a high-difficulty task.

In reality, they were mostly shut-in gamers who even ordered takeout for their meals; those who exercised were few and far between. Faced with chopping firewood, they stood there staring blankly at each other, not knowing where to even start.

Fortunately, someone who frequently watched wilderness survival shows stepped up. Despite lacking practical experience, they had the theoretical ability to command the situation, guiding everyone on how to select suitable trees and how to fell them before pruning.

"The temporary shelter for tonight doesn't need to be that refined; this is a long-term process."

Han Tian stepped forward and looked at the excited players around him. "We can conduct an experiment."

Wu Dahu immediately looked at him. "Boss, what kind of experiment?"

Han Tian looked at the dense forest surrounding them and said, "Let's see if the material reactions in this game are similar to our reality."

Wu Dahu understood instantly.

In the game world, are the elements of matter the same as in reality?

A cultivation world would inevitably have its own wonders, but if certain substances remained consistent with the real world, that would be terrifying. They could potentially use modern, convenient knowledge to create many things.

The surrounding players quickly formed groups. Han Tian was, after all, a veteran gamer; subconsciously, everyone tended to follow the "big shots." Only a few scattered individuals operated on their own, and Han Tian didn't mind. Zhou Xiao had sent messages to several groups, but not everyone knew the name of the legendary "Jingbaotian"; there would always be loners who wouldn't group up.

While the players were proactive, Song Jiulai was worrying about the food for the evening. For tonight, she would have to make do with steamed buns bought from the foot of the mountain.

The kitchen stove was lonely and cold. To be ashamed, the only one on the mountain who could cook was A-Wu. Regardless, Song Jiulai couldn't cook. She *could*, but she didn't want to.

Cultivators could practice fasting, but there was no need for it. Not to mention that Song Jiulai was currently only at the early stage of Qi Refinement, far from the stage of fasting, and as someone from Huaxia on Blue Star, she had quite an appetite.

The food at the foot of the mountain tasted alright, but there were too few ways to cook it. Because of the abundance of various resources, the cultivation world had many types of food, but it lacked the sheer variety found in the modern era.

She also had to arrange the rations for fifty people tonight.

The flow of time in the two worlds was different; two hours here was equal to one hour on Blue Star, and Song Jiulai did not restrict login times. Players willing to grind would stay online for a day and night straight; especially since this game was so shocking, they likely wouldn't log off at all. Currently, all fifty people were still online in an orderly fashion.

However, the sole advantage was that Song Jiulai could monitor the players' movements and possessed absolute control over them. This was the greatest guarantee the system gave her for recruiting people. As long as the players didn't cross her bottom line, she generally wouldn't restrict their freedom. For instance, if someone wanted to die by trying to go down the mountain, she wouldn't stop them—as long as they didn't cause trouble.

Below Feique Mountain was a mortal town, roughly the size of an ancient county seat.

On the Yunzhou Continent, cultivators were supreme. There was no concept of "nations," only cities that relied on great sects. This county relied on the Feique Sect, but within a radius of several thousand miles, there were dozens of human cities, all belonging to one massive sect: [The Myriad Immortal Sect].

Just hearing the name, one could tell how "overpowered" and domineering it was. They even dared to use the word "Immortal"!

Yet, the Myriad Immortal Sect was not even the most powerful sect.

The Yunzhou Continent was so vast that mortals could not imagine it. Beyond the continent lay the so-called Forbidden Zones. However, cultivators could not freely enter or exit Yunzhou either, because many territories were a chaotic mix of different powers; demon cultivators and rogue cultivators were scattered across the continent, and every cultivator had their own territory. If your strength wasn't sufficient, you would be discovered the moment you crossed someone else's land.

None of this was something the current Song Jiulai needed to consider. Humming a song, she arrived at the mortal county, Wang'an County.

Wang'an County was certainly not as large as a county in Huaxia; a single long street could stretch all the way through. Song Jiulai didn't know the population of the county, but it looked quite lively. Here, cultivators and mortals could coexist peacefully, provided the sect managed things properly.

Today happened to be market day. Since the time flow was different from Blue Star, it wasn't even evening in Wang'an County yet. Many small vendors were set up by the roadside, most of whom had nearly finished selling and were preparing to pack up and go home.

Song Jiulai immediately went to the place selling buns and bought 100 large steamed buns.

Mortals had their own currency system, but the universal medium was spirit stones. Mortals couldn't use them for cultivation, but spirit stones could nourish their bodies; unless they were injured, people here rarely fell ill.

One low-grade spirit stone could buy 100 buns, and the shopkeeper even threw in a few meat buns for free. Calculating the spirit stones in her bag, the food expenses alone would be a significant expenditure. The Longevity Sect would have to find a way to make money.

When she bought the puppets, her senior sister Su Huanli had given her a very small Mustard Seed Bag—a magical treasure made by cultivators that contained a small pocket of space. It could be used to store items, but not living things. Storing living things required higher-grade Mustard Seed Bags or the more miraculous Universe Jade Plate.

The Universe Jade Plate was something only cultivators from great sects possessed. A poor place like this certainly didn't have them.

Upon first arriving in the cultivation world, even Song Jiulai found it magical. Before her transmigration, she had been an orphan with no ties; being able to live an extra lifetime was a stroke of luck. If she cultivated well, she might even live for a very long time. Furthermore, since the system said she could open a space to return to Blue Star once her level was high enough, she quite wanted to go back and visit.

After buying the buns and some other ingredients, she couldn't let A-Wu be responsible for everyone's meals; she had to let the players learn to provide for themselves. She needed to think about how to properly distribute tasks to these players.

The most important thing was to distribute those fifty Spirit Root Pills to the players tonight, allowing them to open their spirit roots and officially become part of the cultivation army, thereby becoming better assets to her.

Thus, a system notification was uniformly received in the minds of all players

[Newbie Quest is about to begin. Please gather at the starting point after dinner. Sect Master Song Jiulai will distribute Spirit Root Pills. After consuming the Spirit Root Pill, you will officially embark on the path of cultivation.]

[Note: Once the spirit root is opened, the talent is determined by the player themselves; the stronger the will, the stronger the spirit root.]