Master of Kaidan
Chapter 412: Here it Comes

Chapter 412: Chapter 412: Here it Comes

"Third junior brother seems a bit off today, it must be because senior sister went north, huh?"

"Even though senior sister and I are almost equally skilled, why can she go to the Yellow River Martial Arts Conference but I have to stay behind?"

"That young couple looks like they just left the mountain sect, easy to deceive..."

"The reward from Six Gates is as sluggish as ever; I’ve been waiting for almost half an hour now!"

...

Feng Xue walked along the small paths in the county town, listening to the thoughts of the passers-by while piecing together a general picture of this world.

With the help of the friendly sponsorship of the locals, Feng Xue soon realized that, apart from the slightly outrageous level of productivity, other aspects of this world were surprisingly realistic.

The most obvious point being that it was impossible to buy a map; in fact, when he asked where he could purchase one, he immediately attracted the pursuit of the officials. It was only thanks to the Oathkeeper’s Appearance that ensured he wouldn’t be recognized, or else there would be more trouble.

Besides, based on the ideas of the Jianghu people, he also gained some understanding of the structure of this world—

Firstly, the basic situation was a standard plot template where a farming civilization unified under one dynasty was combating nomadic foreign enemies. However, it was neither like the Great Han where pulling any powerful figure could easily dominate the neighbors, nor was it like the chaotic mess that made one’s blood pressure rise, but rather it was in a state of relative equilibrium. Although he didn’t know if it was all-inclusive, from what Feng Xue heard alone, there were five or six different enemies, which made him wonder if this unified agricultural civilization was currently being besieged by many small countries.

Even so, the current situation seemed to be in a stable period, where the court and the neighboring foreign enemies were frictional but not fully at war.

In general, the closer to the west and north, the higher the danger level and the more perilous the Jianghu; conversely, the southeast was safer and the order of Jianghu was more stable.

Where Feng Xue was currently, this county town in the south was part of the stable region. Although there were inevitably bandits and renegades from sects, these elements were mostly just hearsay to most people.

The main responsibilities of the Jianghu folks were martial arts training and hunting dangerous animals, with occasional rewards for maintaining roads and fighting bandits. From this perspective, even small villages served as supply points, so it did not seem too outrageous to have blacksmith shops and taverns there.

"This really is a standard base-world view, with the southeast as the beginner’s map, higher levels and more quests up north. Villages outside the county town are starting villages, and the county town is the main city for early players... Just not sure if there’s a faction choice, like whether the nomadic tribes also have players, or maybe there’s even a foreign server on the neighboring continent? Stuff like magic, fighting spirit, and so on..."

Feng Xuexin muttered to herself, pondering the benefits she could extract from this world.

She currently had Mystical Lord as the ceiling in the Martial Arts sector, unless she shifted directly to a mythical immortal scenario. And to start a mythical immortal account, whether using the ghosts from the cyber world to segue into mythical immortality or having Mystical Lord’s martial arts Reach Profound and ascend to immortality, those were more feasible than a new world.

Compared to the bland martial arts elements, the knowledge provided by game players had higher operability.

Feng Xue pondered the possibility of conjuring terms like "World Main Character" or "GM", and shook her head.

To farm ghostly stories from players, one must first confirm if their existence is ghostly. Moreover, the nature of a game world means its lifespan is much shorter than that of a normal world. When players stop coming to this game, even if this world itself is a baseline world, would it transform from a grand catastrophe world into a mere ordinary martial arts one? Would the ghostly stories provided by the players still exist by then?

More importantly, was this game the type that had an explicit game panel enforcing a traditional virtual game pattern, or was it one providing auxiliary panels, or even a hardcore survival-type game in an Other World without any panel at all?

"Let’s just observe for now," Feng Xue thought to herself, an amusing idea forming in her mind. She purchased a large quantity of materials in the county town and removed her Oathkeeper’s Appearance. Then, using the Taiyin Transformation Technique, she adjusted her temperament and appearance before heading back to the small village she had left earlier. There, she discussed with the village chief and bought a small plot of land. After hiring a few villagers, she built a simple, crude hut. Only then did she activate her Skilled Craftsman Power to greatly modify this little hut, which outwardly resembled a thatched cottage.

...

In the blink of an eye, Feng Xue had been in this unnamed village for nearly half a month. During that time, she had encountered a few Jianghu people who had missed the town gate’s closing and were seeking lodging, but the players she was waiting for had never arrived.

Just as Feng Xue wondered whether she had made a mistake, or whether the open test and closed test were using different starter villages, a peculiar sensation suddenly spread throughout the village.

Feng Xue, who had been sitting at the entrance of the thatched cottage roughly working on a piece of old wood, immediately stood up and, deploying her Qinggong, quickly reached the center of the village.

At this moment, the villagers clearly hadn’t realized what had happened, or perhaps they were simply unaffected by the previous force, and they continued chatting or playing chess as usual. Even when a person appeared out of thin air, the little ghost urinating everywhere didn’t stop what he was doing.

Yes, appeared out of thin air.

Their appearance was incredibly abrupt, as if with the blink of an eye, around two hundred people had just materialized around the large pagoda tree near the village’s ancestral hall.

"Damn, this sky! This earth! This water! These people!"

"I’m back again!"

"Where’s the Skill Tutor? There should be a Skill Tutor this time, right?"

"Guide my ass! You stepped on my foot!"

"Damn it, Wang Ergou, you peed on me!"

A group of men and women, indistinguishable from the villagers in attire, were loudly raving and ranting there. Listening to their words, the corners of Feng Xue’s mouth twitched slightly. By now, it was clear, without the need for further discussion, that these lunatics were undoubtedly players!

However, what surprised him was that these people were also real.

More precisely, they were like the real people who had entered Infinite City.

They were high-density information aggregates.

"Interesting," Feng Xue thought, a spark of interest flashing in her eyes. He was certain this world was definitely not a Kaidan world like Infinite City, and the people living in this world were all real, flesh-and-blood humans.

But the high-density information on these players couldn’t be faked...

"That means, are the players real people from another world? Then what maintains their state of being information? Is it Kaidan itself? If that’s the case..."

Several guesses sprouted in Feng Xue’s mind, but she couldn’t confirm them immediately. After pondering for a moment, she followed her original plan, returning to her thatched cottage near the entrance of the village. She took out an erhu she had made by hand and quietly began to play...