I Can Reap Qi Fortune from Players

Chapter 980: Chapter 73: Golden Core Production Line and Innovation

Now that she’d broken through to Human Immortal Great Perfection, Ning Zheng, who always felt insecure, finally found a tiny bit of comfort.

She was finally no longer a mortal.

For Ning Zheng, who didn’t like combat, the biggest impact of this breakthrough was—

She would finally no longer be just hurrying along in the Immortal Realm, only for a bunch of Tribulation Cultivators to jump out:

"Hey, look, there’s a dumb mortal actually traveling around outside. Perfect to hold the lineup, bring it over for the disciples to practice on."

Ning Zheng’s mood immediately soared.

Though.

In most people’s eyes, this realm was just a starting point.

As long as you had money you could refill the energy, repair the corresponding ten Dantian houses—it was completely trivial, no technical difficulty at all.

Human Immortal was where most Loose Cultivators got stuck, especially those "one tribulation one calamity" Human Immortals, whose cultivation resources were a full 82 times that of Ning Zheng. How terrifying was that?

A super bottomless pit.

Aside from a few mortal-cultivation-flow protagonists who could force a cheat on, constantly stumble into fortuitous encounters, rake in resources to improve their Five Mixed Spirit Roots and break through to Celestial Immortal, most people would never touch that breakthrough in their lifetime.

And Celestial Immortal was the true starting point for a normal Immortal.

Ninety percent of all Immortals in the Immortal Realm were stuck at Celestial Immortal.

Every layer meant comprehending one branch of Law, every layer’s Combat Power was worlds apart, and the difficulty of breaking through was a pure test of personal comprehension.

"A long road and a heavy burden ahead!"

Ning Zheng quietly warned herself not to get cocky, and headed up Sword Casting Manor.

As she went up the mountain, she saw a group of blacksmiths clanking away on a casting assembly line. Jiucai Rong stood high up as overseer, shouting orders, who knew what he was bellowing about.

And in the sky, a blazing sun was pouring down scorching light.

The blistering midday sunshine beat down on these brick-haulers, making them sweat buckets.

Obviously.

They hadn’t paid Sun Moon Su Yuniang protection money today to have her adjust the manor’s [Background Weather System].

"This new batch of blacksmiths has backbone!"

Ning Zheng felt their willpower was impressive—rather die than turn on the AC, better to roast than let someone else profit.

Worth mentioning, Jiucai Rong was supervising.

But he couldn’t manage this huge construction site alone, so he’d hung a bunch of streetlamps up high to watch these brick-moving players work.

Ning Zheng blinked in mild surprise. So there was a trick like this?

The blacksmiths had thought hanging a bunch of streetlamp Jiucai Rongs up was to punish that capitalist, and hadn’t expected they were now punishing themselves?

This boomerang had smacked them right in the head; with overseer streetlamps overhead, they were on the verge of tears.

Ning Zheng was thoroughly amused, thinking to herself, "These past few days, they’ve been building new factories and really playing it wild."

"My lord, we’re constructing an assembly-line factory."

At this moment, No-Life Whale trotted over eagerly, mimicking Jiucai Rong as he fawned, "After all, Golden Cores have been on fire lately, right? Our Xi Rong’s flagship product—Golden Core—selling like crazy across the Immortal Realm!"

"So we’re organizing an expansion of the Golden Core assembly line and preparing to launch new variants."

Ning Zheng nodded. "Not bad."

You could see they were very practiced by now.

The previous Golden Mud production line had given them experience in factory construction.

Off in the distance, Jiucai Rong was holding a proposal and having a heated discussion with Night Mad Cultivator, shouting a bunch of professional business terms: Golden Core, central kitchen, chain store, supply chain...

Ning Zheng didn’t really understand, nor did she care to learn.

She was an online game planner; all she had to do was maintain the ecosystem of the MMO. As for in-game commerce... let them handle it themselves.

No-Life Whale went on, "Lately, as an outstanding blacksmith, I’ve been helping improve new Golden Cores! I’ve already made some progress."

"Oh?" Ning Zheng looked at No-Life Whale.

Management talents like Jiucai Rong were important, but solid product quality was the core of doing business.

Research talents were what Ning Zheng most valued nurturing.

No-Life Whale did not disappoint. He produced a Pill Medicine radiating soft golden auspicious clouds. "First, this one. I call it... Dream Pill."

"This was only possible after consulting Chongshan Fang’s gourmet Array Pattern, and then reproducing it onto an Array Pattern Pill."

"After taking this pill, your five senses will be stimulated, illusions will surface, like a dream bubble—you’ll have a dream."

"Not bad." Ning Zheng raised a brow, took the pill, and swallowed it in one gulp.

Glug!

A bout of sharp pain hit her stomach.

But with Ning Zheng’s super cyclic regeneration ability, a bit of pain was nothing; instead, an Illusion Realm unfolded before her eyes.

As expected, No-Life Whale really was a true forging prodigy.

Here at Sword Casting Manor they didn’t have a single real ironsmith; they had to rely on this tricked little native girl to hold up the brand.

"The specific effect is good," Ning Zheng asked.

"In truth, the effect isn’t great. Your body is powerful, and your cultivation system’s Undying nature is strong, so you don’t feel the pain."

No-Life Whale showed a bit of regret. "If it were anyone else, they’d be clutching their stomach in spasmodic agony while enjoying a lovely food illusion. The conflict is too intense."

"It’ll wake them from the pain."

"But it can barely dull their pain somewhat, divert their attention—it’s painful yet joyful."

Ning Zheng frowned.

This path wouldn’t work?

So only our Nine-State people, Heaven’s Chosen, and Zhongluan People could take it?

The limitation was a bit too large.

Then again, this was just the blacksmiths’ fantasies and brainwaves anyway.

In practice, the pain induced by this Golden Core was so intense that even if you dumped Corpse-Colored Mushroom on it like crazy, you still couldn’t suppress it!

No-Life Whale said, "I showed it to the blacksmiths, and they said this Dream Pill still has huge potential."

"They said, you can tell stories inside it, narrate tales—like reproducing the content of the ’Detective Yan Shuangying’ series."

"When you swallow the Golden Core, you play a movie."

"Every core you take plays one episode, making Cultivators who love chasing shows get hooked, and it also increases the collection value of the Golden Core series."

Ning Zheng grew thoughtful.

One Golden Core per episode—certain obsessive types would definitely collect a whole drama series of Golden Cores, lining them up in a box to treasure.

Were they planning to break into the film and TV industry?

Ning Zheng frowned. "They’re taking a bit too big a step."

As the Immortal Realm developed, every possible profitable business path had been researched to death.

Professions that cultivated Spiritual Magic through storytelling already existed.

As they told their tales, an Illusion Realm would appear and immerse you in the story.

Some storytellers had even become huge Nine-State Civilization celebrities, worshipped by countless people, touring around like pop stars.

After all, any non-combat Profession pushed to the peak was terrifying.

A top-tier chef’s restaurant would require appointments from Immortal Venerates.

In the Nine-State, non-combat professions commanded respect from combat professions; naturally, the Immortal Realm was the same.

Storytellers were one side of it; there were also writer professions, whose books would pull you right into each story Chapter as you turned the pages!

The most outrageous were the Little Imperial Uncle type works, which sold like crazy.

Every page turn would bring a different plotline...

Some anonymous Little Imperial Uncle authors looked unremarkable, but in fact were making a killing in the Immortal Realm, with terrifying sales.

From the newspapers Ning Zheng had read, a few years back it was exposed that a certain upright, widely respected, stern Sect Master was secretly a famous Little Imperial Uncle author.

The art was exquisitely detailed, the tropes incredibly thrilling, a bestseller across the entire Immortal Realm, with over 3 billion copies sold, enshrined in the Wall of Masterworks.

You could see how viciously the Immortal Realm was involuted.

"They’re sure they can pull it off?" Ning Zheng asked.

"They said they want to give it a try, compare stories, and they don’t think they’re that far behind."

No-Life Whale said, "Plus, we have a natural market edge in Golden Core sales—if the stories aren’t bad, people will buy this kind of series when they purchase Golden Cores anyway!"

The Golden Core is the core product; countless ancillary industries can sprout from it.

Ning Zheng also felt this made some sense—might as well try.

The Golden Cores were already selling hot; adding a story inside each core was just a perk to increase user stickiness.

Specifically tailored to hook customers with a stamp-collecting fetish.

"Let me guess—you want to be involved in production, don’t you?" Ning Zheng looked at her.

No-Life Whale scratched her head shyly. "Because normal Golden Cores can be mass-produced, but Dream Pills with added Array Patterns need my touch. I want to run this series."

"You can give it a shot, test the sales." Ning Zheng said.

"Don’t worry, I’ll work hard."

No-Life Whale said, "They’re supposedly brewing a shocking plan to absolutely monopolize the movie market! It’ll tell the story of our Celestial Destiny World: every Golden Core will contain the tragic tale of its previous owner... tens of thousands of Golden Cores, a multi-line narration of lives, adding a few shades of tragedy and epic flavor for us Daoists."

Telling stories?

More like making them up?

Ning Zheng nodded. "Then I’ll be watching closely."