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

Chapter 87: Chapter 87: Planning Wang’an County

"How can it be this cold?"

Returning to Wang’an County, Song Jiulai shivered from the sudden, heavy snowfall.

Even as a Cultivator at the Qi Refining Middle Stage, she could feel the chill from this massive snowfall.

Cultivators at least had Spiritual Energy circulating to keep them warm.

She couldn’t imagine how mortals were supposed to get by.

Wang’an County was now covered in white snow, a vast expanse of white in every direction.

At first glance, the scenery was quite beautiful, but upon returning to Wang’an County and finding that the mortals were all staying indoors, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of desolation.

Only the Medicine Workshop was still open.

After all, the apprentices at the Medicine Workshop here were all Cultivators.

Su Huanli also frowned slightly. "For it to snow this heavily, could something have gone wrong somewhere?"

Song Jiulai was already freezing. Before they returned, Su Huanli had taken a fur coat from her Jiezidai for her to wear.

Song Jiulai rubbed her hands together. "If we’re this cold, what about the mortals?"

Su Huanli paused, surprised that Song Jiulai would even ask such a question. She said, "I don’t know. But every time extreme weather hits, there are always mortals who freeze to death or die from the heat..."

"How could that be?" Song Jiulai genuinely didn’t understand. "Can they freeze to death even if they stay home and don’t go out?"

’If there’s no shortage of food, they should be able to endure it by staying at home.’

Su Huanli glanced at Song Jiulai and said, "This cold isn’t normal. Some mortals might not be able to survive it."

Song Jiulai was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do they have anything for warmth? Like burning charcoal?"

"They burn it, but it’s not very effective. Sometimes the temperature will plummet suddenly during the night. It all depends on how many days this weather lasts, and no one can predict that."

"..."

The Yunzhou Continent was typically spring-like year-round and rarely experienced such extreme weather.

This kind of extreme weather was like a natural disaster in modern society.

The cause was unknown, and there was no way to prevent it.

In weather like this, mortals basically never left their homes.

Severe cold was one thing, but the probability of dying from the scorching heat of summer was even greater.

Su Huanli thought back to her childhood and murmured, "This reminds me of my mother. She would always light the charcoal brazier. I’d stay bundled up in my quilt and not get out of bed. Then, the next morning, I’d wake up and hear that the neighbor next door had frozen to death."

Song Jiulai rarely heard Su Huanli talk about her personal life.

She asked cautiously, "And your mother?"

Su Huanli paused for three seconds. "She was killed by a demon beast."

"...I’m sorry."

Su Huanli shook her head. "It’s alright. Even without the demon beast, the fate between my mother and me was only for a few decades in this life. Cultivators... we’re supposed to sever our mortal ties..."

That’s what she said, but the look on her face as she spoke was not that of someone who had severed her mortal ties.

She looked dazed, with a hint of indescribable bitterness.

Because her Spirit Root was discovered at a young age, and those in the Cultivation World have good memories, she could still recall her childhood. The thing she looked forward to most was her mother coming home from a trip, bringing back treats for her.

Later, after she entered the Feique Sect, she rarely heard news of her mother.

She wanted to go back and visit more often, but her senior brothers and sisters always said that getting too involved with mortals would be detrimental to her cultivation in the future.

So, she rarely went back.

She only remembered the surprised and joyous look on her mother’s face whenever she saw her standing at the door.

And then, one day, her mother was gone.

Song Jiulai opened her mouth to speak, then stopped, unsure of what to say.

As someone with no parents of her own, she felt she had no right to say anything.

...

The players discovered that the mortals’ situation was more dire than they had imagined.

Take, for example, [Hao Kan], who was in charge of procuring food.

The name Hao Kan was obviously an ID he’d picked on a whim.

His original intention was to choose a name that meant "good-looking," which sounds similar.

Hao Kan was one of the players who worked with Fan Guzhou and Zhou Xiao, handling wine and food.

Because of their wine-making business, they purchased large quantities of grain, which they had to buy from the mortals at the foot of the mountain. Through this, Hao Kan got to know many of the mortals in Wang’an County.

Mortals always held a sense of awe and fear toward Cultivators.

It was just like how low-grade Cultivators viewed High-level Cultivators.

But the players of the Longevity Sect were just ordinary people in their real lives, so they interacted with the mortals very naturally.

On this snowy day, he couldn’t collect the tofu he usually bought.

It was usually made by an old woman who lived with her granddaughter.

When Hao Kan went to pick it up this morning, the little girl, Little Ya, answered the door, wrapped in a thick fur pelt, shivering as she spoke. "Sorry, Hao. It’s just too cold today. Grandma can’t make tofu."

"I know," Hao Kan said after a moment’s pause. "I just came to say you don’t need to make any tofu for the next few days since it’s so cold."

"Okay, okay."

Seeing how understanding Hao was, a grateful expression appeared on Little Ya’s face.

Even though she was bundled up so thickly, Hao Kan could see that Little Ya’s face was purple from the cold.

This cold... it was unnaturally cold.

"You should get back inside where it’s warm. And try not to go out for the next couple of days. If you two can’t manage to make food, I can bring some over for you."

In this frigid weather, even preparing food was a hassle.

Little Ya was even more incredulous. "How could we trouble you like that, Hao?"

"It’s no big deal." The girl was so young, only about ten years old—still school-aged in the modern world.

But here, with no channels for upward mobility, there seemed to be nothing for them to do.

All the mortals could hope for was to live out their lives in peace.

But a life like that...

Hao Kan scratched his head. He was just an ordinary person, too; he couldn’t dwell on such profound things.

Little Ya was indeed freezing badly. Her lips trembled so much as she spoke that her words were airy.

Even wrapped in fur, she couldn’t fend off much of the cold. "Hao, I’ll go back inside then. The charcoal is burning in the house, and I need to watch it so it doesn’t go out from the cold. Grandma is old and can’t get out of bed when the weather turns cold."

"Mm, okay."

Hao Kan then visited a few other mortal households from which he usually bought side ingredients. Zhou Xiao had developed many processed food products, and even with her not around, Hao Kan could produce a ton of them based on the recipe lists he’d found. Not many players in the Sect were interested in making these things, so cooperation with the mortals was necessary.

But faced with this situation, the mortals could only shut down their operations.

Hao Kan discovered they had no means of protection against the cold other than burning a small fire for warmth. Cultivators, on the other hand, had a type of ore they could place in a room to heat it, but the ore had to be bought with Spirit Stones, and very few mortals could afford it.

Renovating the rooms now would be simple. Hao Kan was from the north in his real life, and he felt the easiest solution was to build heated brick beds for the mortals.

After all, some production processes couldn’t be stopped, or else the products would spoil.

When Song Jiulai arrived at the mountain, Hao Kan had already found Fan Guzhou to discuss a plan to renovate the houses of the mortals down the mountain.

The main goal was to make them resistant to severe cold and scorching heat. Ideally, they could also dig some wells or cellars to store ice.

Getting ice would be even simpler. The main reason, though, was that the Cultivators wanted to eat ice cream.

This was all too easy for the players, who only needed to lift a finger.

Fan Guzhou, who was currently in charge of the town’s food business, didn’t disagree. He just said, "If we’re going to do that, we might as well re-plan all of Wang’an County."

"We can zone out the areas we need to, making space for when we have more players in the future."

Hao Kan was silent for a moment. "The Feique Sect has their general store and Medicine Workshop on the street. If we start moving things around, will they agree to it?"

Fan Guzhou said, "Get a designer to create a whole new interior design for them. You think they’ll be tempted or not?"

The Cultivation World has its own aesthetics, too.

The current Medicine Workshop and general store are just simply decorated. What great aesthetic sense could an ordinary Cultivator have?

But among the modern players, you could find every profession imaginable. Modern aesthetics would be a curb-stomp battle. It would be way too easy.

Developing Wang’an County is our undeniable duty!

Of course, this matter still had to be run by the Sect Master.