Isn't This a Game? Why Are You All Cultivating for Real!

Chapter 130: Chapter 130: Even Worse Than a System Face

To think a single trip to the Secret Realm could bring such a great opportunity.

Song Jiulai felt refreshed and invigorated.

She led Da Hu out, and this time, the dog was even willing to wag its tail at her.

Su Daqiang was still not far from the Sect. This time, Song Jiulai called him over and said with a gentle smile, "From now on, I’ll have to trouble you all to take care of Da Hu. I need to go out and travel."

’Traveling was just a euphemism for going out to train and secretly grind.’

Su Daqiang nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes, of course! Don’t worry, Sect Master, I will definitely take good care of Da Hu!"

’He was the very first person to be assigned a quest by the Sect Master!’

Even though the Sect Master hadn’t even mentioned giving him a single point.

He’d still slap his chest and promise to do a great job.

It felt like such an honor.

The system clicked its tongue ambiguously, wondering when this bunch of players would ever discover Song Jiulai’s true nature.

Su Daqiang couldn’t tell if Song Jiulai had reached Foundation Establishment. In any case, her Realm had always felt rather mysterious to them.

’Even though we all secretly guess the Sect Master’s Realm isn’t actually that high, it surely has to be higher than us players, right?’

After Song Jiulai left, she didn’t actually go far. She planned to first buy some ores to try her hand at Artifact Refining.

Meanwhile, Su Daqiang, who was leading Da Hu, saw Fan Guzhou just as he was returning to the Sect.

Seeing the big yellow dog next to Su Daqiang, Fan Guzhou was a little surprised. "Huh? Where’d this dog come from?"

"The Sect Master brought it back for us to raise."

Su Daqiang petted the big yellow dog. Strangely, although it was a mongrel, it seemed to have a docile temperament and wasn’t afraid of people. It hadn’t resisted when Song Jiulai handed it over to him earlier.

Su Daqiang’s tone was smug. "This is a quest the Sect Master gave us. She said it was a dog raised by an old friend of hers. The friend just passed away, so the Sect Master probably brought the dog back."

"An old friend?" Fan Guzhou was thoughtful. "The Sect Master has old friends here?"

’That doesn’t seem to line up with our theory that the Sect Master is a lone wolf.’

"Who knows about the Sect Master’s business?" Su Daqiang didn’t care about such things. Petting the big yellow dog, he said, "Perfect. Doesn’t Han Tian have a pig? Wangcai has a companion now."

Fan Guzhou was speechless. "Can a pig and a dog even play together?"

Su Daqiang said matter-of-factly, "How would we know if we don’t try? Anyway, that pig Han Tian is raising seems useless to me."

That pig just ate and slept all day. It was a pig in name and a pig in nature.

It even stole Spiritual Wine sometimes.

It was living a very comfortable life.

The key thing was, that woman Zhou Xiao still spoiled it.

She called it a rare pet.

Now it spent all day running around the residential area at the foot of the mountain.

"Anyway, it’s not our problem." Fan Guzhou wasn’t concerned with such things. He was very busy now, working on the Spiritual Wine business at the foot of the mountain. Tang Lingxiao had also rushed back from Liu Xian City, saying that Spiritual Wine sales there were excellent.

It was just as they’d expected. People had never tasted such a rare product. The Spiritual Wine sold quickly, and they had no trouble finding buyers.

He had come back to stay for a while this time and ordered a full five hundred bottles.

But this time, the production speed could be increased because their brewing workshop was built. Now, even mortals could participate, freeing up the players’ labor for other things.

While shopping at the foot of the mountain, Song Jiulai also saw the greatly changed Wang’an County.

The demolition had been fast. The Wang’an County of before was nowhere to be seen.

The players had temporarily consolidated all the residential areas in one place, while other areas were undergoing massive construction.

But rebuilding a city was a long-term project, after all. They argued often and had to change the plans from time to time. For now, Wang’an County just had a new foundation laid out.

It was, however, noticeably larger and tidier than before.

Song Jiulai observed that its square, orderly layout was vaguely reminiscent of Liu Xian City.

In the very center, however, they had left the largest square foundation, spanning several thousand square meters.

She heard they planned to build the Longevity Sect headquarters here, turning it into a famous landmark.

Song Jiulai just let them do as they pleased.

The system also reminded her, "Now that you’ve reached Foundation Establishment, the Sect’s energy has filled up a notch. You can open up another fifty slots."

Song Jiulai was a little shocked. "Fifty this time? That’s generous."

"It’s alright. The Sect’s energy reserves are decent now. Besides, you’ve already reached Foundation Establishment; you could have opened fifty slots even during Qi Refinement. We could actually release more, but I’m worried you wouldn’t be able to manage too many new people at once. And aren’t you planning to go check on the other sects?" the system said. "Do you want to release them now?"

Song Jiulai nodded. "You have a point. Let’s release them. But these new disciples will all have to be registered as Outer Sect. Also, post 10 quests, worth 100 points each, for interested veteran players to guide them and introduce them to the basic rules of the Cultivation World."

One hundred points was quite generous. Soon after Song Jiulai posted the quests, they were snatched up by 10 veteran players.

Unfortunately, since the new players would only be in Wang’an County this time, Song Jiulai had to prepare the puppets herself.

The method for making puppets was actually quite simple, and even simpler if you used cheap materials.

The medicine powder for the puppets used a type of First-rank spirit grass and a type of Spiritual Energy-infused clay, both very common materials on the market.

The Medicine Workshops sold quite a lot of this Spirit Grass. It could be used not only for making puppets but also for small animals.

You just had to use Artifact Refining methods to create them.

It was a convenient opportunity for Song Jiulai to test her own Artifact Refining skills.

When the players saw the quests to guide new players, they knew new player slots were probably about to be released.

They thought the slots would be released immediately and even logged off to tell their friends and family to get ready to grab a spot. Even the "national team" tensed up and started preparing.

And then... there was no news in the game for a whole week...

This was mainly because Song Jiulai was stuck on making the puppets.

No wonder Su Huanli was so fast at it. For her, practice made perfect.

At first, Song Jiulai’s puppet-sculpting was truly awful. Either the arms would snap off, or one thigh would be thicker than the other...

Only at this moment did Song Jiulai understand that Su Huanli was actually talented when it came to making puppets.

’But there was no problem with the dozens that Shui Ping made later...’

’So where did the problem lie?’

Finally, after much difficulty, she got the hang of it and sculpted a batch of passable puppets.

Once she got familiar with the process, it was actually quite fast. It was just that she had absolutely no talent for sculpting faces.

To be specific, they were even more ghastly than the default faces made by Su Huanli.

Song Jiulai looked at the mannequins, whose facial features all seemed subtly distorted, and silently asked the system, "They’ll be able to customize their faces later, right?"

System: "Yes. Actually, you did a great job."

Song Jiulai’s eyes lit up. "Really?"

System: "Really. They’re much more recognizable than the previous players’ bodies. At least each one is uniquely ugly. I guarantee everyone will be able to tell them apart, and no player will complain about them being default faces anymore."

’That’s even worse than a default face.’

Song Jiulai: "..."

Fuck.