Chapter 259: The Secret of the Spirit Grass?
Several players acted with lightning speed.
They rushed forward excitedly, and Chen Miaomiao promptly produced the contract the system had prepared, which materialized before their eyes as a sheet of white paper.
A signature wasn’t needed. All it took was for them to bite their fingertip and let a drop of blood fall on it.
The players made a show of glancing at it. "Oh, so we just can’t talk about this? That’s easy enough."
Then, faster than one could blink, they bit their fingers and pressed them to the paper.
It was as if they were afraid they’d miss out if they were a second too late.
Chen Miaomiao was true to her word. Any player who signed the contract immediately received Elixir Pills produced from the Jiezidai of another player standing nearby.
"Here you go. This month’s Elixir Pills, for the Early Stage of Qi Refining. Do you want a Qi Replenishing Pill, a Blood Replenishing Pill, or something else?"
"I’ll take one of each, Qi and Blood Replenishing."
’My first time being a shill, and I even get to be this close to the top-tier players! This is so exciting!’
After receiving the Elixir Pills, the player walked away gleefully.
It really was free.
This was the reward for being a shill.
Several players swarmed to sign; people have a herd mentality, after all.
This was especially true for these disciples who had grown up in the Feique Sect. They weren’t that old, and in terms of life experience, they were still far too young. Confused and dazed, they were pushed forward by the players, approaching with trepidation.
They glanced at the contract; it just said they couldn’t speak about matters related to the Longevity Sect.
’Isn’t that what they’re doing right now anyway?’
Violating it would result in punishment.
The scope of this punishment was broad, the concept vague.
Of course, this was something the system could enforce.
Signing a contract with it was like a game company’s terms of service—the game company reserves the right of final interpretation!
What, you have a problem with that?
You signed it yourself!
But there were no other restrictions.
It was basically a freebie!
With almost no hesitation, they pressed their bloody fingerprints onto the page.
Some of them, however, put a little more thought into it.
Zhu Xiangchen, for example.
However, he had long been envious of the Longevity Sect’s disciples. Now, his own sect could enjoy similar benefits. He also interacted with the Longevity Sect disciples frequently, and his impression was—’Those people aren’t bad.’
In the Cultivation World, "not bad" was already extremely high praise.
Even Zhu Xiangchen had witnessed cultivators pushing mortals forward to die just to block a demon beast.
At that time, he had felt it was natural, that it was how things should be.
But the players from the Longevity Sect never allowed anyone to harm mortals.
During the last demon beast invasion, they had even made hiding the mortals their first priority.
A different way of thinking had been subtly taking root in his mind, but for now, he thought, ’Isn’t it just about keeping a secret?’
’I’m just a minor disciple in the Qi Refinement Realm. If I can get more rewards, why shouldn’t I?’
What the Feique Sect couldn’t give them before, the Longevity Sect was willing to provide. So, they were willing to work for the Longevity Sect.
As the majority of disciples signed, the remaining quick-witted ones dared not entertain any other ideas upon seeing Chen Miaomiao’s smiling face.
Their cultivation was low; if they refused to sign, they could instantly imagine the consequences.
The Longevity Sect didn’t kill mortals, it was true, but they had punished mortals with sticky fingers in the past.
Although, in the eyes of the Feique Sect, those methods were far too merciful.
The Feique Sect wouldn’t bother with mortal disputes. If they were forced to intervene, they would simply toss someone out of Wang’an County to fend for themselves for even the smallest crime.
The Longevity Sect, however, not only intervened, but did so with ’hair-splitting’ meticulousness.
They’d whipped out a baffling set of Longevity Sect laws, with one player even declaring, "According to the laws of Huaxia—ah, crap, I mean, according to the laws of the Longevity Sect, the penalty for theft is one month of imprisonment."
The so-called imprisonment meant being put in the prison they had built.
It was for mortals who had committed crimes.
As for Cultivators, the Longevity Sect players hadn’t yet come into conflict with any.
Loose Cultivators and Cultivators from other Sects who came into Wang’an County territory were generally mindful of the local Sect. And after seeing that the mortals here were clearly different from elsewhere, no Cultivator caused trouble by, for example, trying to forcibly abduct them.
Though such things happened often in other places.
When the players first started transforming Wang’an County, they set up a whole system of procedures. ’After all, if you don’t know how to do something, just copy it from somewhere else. What’s so hard about that?!’
And so, the Law Department was established.
People who practiced Cultivation were, in terms of available time, a better labor force than modern-day corporate drones—they didn’t need to rest.
Thus, lifestyle-focused players often juggled multiple jobs. The Law Department, for instance, was currently staffed by a dozen or so players taking shifts.
But they obviously couldn’t manage things around the clock; after all, they had to log off too.
So now, many of them were teaching the local mortals to learn this set of laws, so they could govern themselves in the future.
Furthermore, it wasn’t just the mortals who had to obey; amazingly, the Longevity Sect disciples abided by these laws themselves.
Now, they were half-coercing the Feique Sect to obey them too.
Zhu Xiangchen had once asked the Longevity Sect disciples in confusion why they did all this.
A disciple had leaned in conspiratorially and told him: "I didn’t get it at first either, but I do now. We want to build a utopia. It’s nice to realize some things here that are impossible elsewhere. Even if it’s just for a little while, at least we’re trying, you know?"
In truth, Zhu Xiangchen still didn’t understand.
He didn’t even understand what "utopia" meant.
But he vaguely understood that it was probably a good thing.
As for the two Foundation Establishment Stage disciples, they hesitated even less.
They might not care much about Second-tier Elixir Pills, but Third-stage Elixir Pills? Those were to die for!
’Fifty low-grade spirit stones, given away for free? What ordinary Sect can afford that?’
Although, if they, as Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators, went out and worked hard, they might be able to earn that much in a month.
But that was only when they were lucky.
But there was a world of difference between earning that amount in a month versus having to turn it over to the Sect or getting to keep it for yourself.
With these Elixir Pills, they would have a much greater chance of success on their expeditions.
Not to mention, Chen Miaomiao had said they could receive additional Elixir Pills just for going on an expedition. That meant they would have an even better chance of harvesting valuable Demon Beast Materials in the Demon Cave Valley.
At this thought, everyone’s breathing grew ragged, and some couldn’t wait to notify the other disciples to hurry back and sign the contract.
After all, Chen Miaomiao had made it clear: if you don’t sign, you don’t get anything.
And the unspoken subtext of not signing was probably even more dangerous.
Although the players were generally good, that didn’t mean every one of them had a good personality.
They would surely nip any potential threat to the collective’s interests in the bud.
After all, the world they came from had taught them such lessons by the basketful.
Chen Miaomiao wasn’t acting on her own authority either; she had gotten the Sect Master’s approval for all of this.
Song Jiulai knew this was the more secure option and fully supported Chen Miaomiao’s plan to bind everyone’s interests—and lives—together.
The only downside was—’I have to work even harder to raise my cultivation!’
After Chen Miaomiao finished having all the present Feique Sect disciples sign the contracts, the only ones left were Su Huanli’s group, who were still in the Demon Cave Valley.
She was sure some players would notify them.
She returned to the back mountain, back to her research base, to continue her work.
And then her breath caught in her throat.
Because right there, on her experimental Spirit Grass field, a gray-robed old man with a head of white hair had suddenly appeared.
He was pacing back and forth along the ridges of the experimental field, muttering to himself, "Well now, well now... no Spiritual Liquid, yet such a large quantity of Second-stage Spiritual Grass planted in such a tiny Spirit Field. Interesting, very interesting indeed..."
He had arrived silently, without alerting anyone.
This was the back mountain, the most heavily protected area of the Feique Sect.
Chen Miaomiao’s fingers clenched subconsciously.