12: Chapter 12 The Chen Family

If the battle at Black Wind Stockade was a novice tutorial that gave players a first glimpse into the cruelty of this world...

Then this encounter with the Qingxi Chen Family was like having a horror novel titled "The Real Cultivation World" slammed bloodily right into everyone's faces.

【World Channel】

"Holy crap! A Flying Sword! It's actually sword kinesis! I just wet my pants!"

"Wet your ass! Didn't you see War God Number One get one-shotted? A +2 fine steel broadsword! It was like paper! He was gone instantly, and all his gear dropped!"

"What the hell was that Fireball Spell? Area-of-effect damage? Three dead in one blast? Is this a mob you're supposed to meet in the novice period? Developers, come out and take your beating!"

"What developers? Does this game even have developers? Isn't it all up to the Old Ancestor? Old Ancestor, help! There's a Gundam outside!"

Panic was spreading.

It was an instinctive fear when faced with the crushing weight of absolute power.

A Flying Sword taking a head from a thousand miles away, Daoist spells burning everything in all directions—these scenes, which only existed in legends, were vividly displayed before their eyes, bringing an unparalleled impact.

The confidence built up from fighting bandits and killing wild beasts was shattered in an instant.

However, the most unique trait of creatures like players is that their fear is often accompanied by excitement.

After the brief panic, a more fanatical emotion began to surge forth like underground magma.

"Qingxi Chen Family? I've memorized the name! Damn it, they dare kill our brothers and steal our mine? This grudge is set!"

"Revenge! We must have revenge! War God Number One's +2 broadsword can't have dropped for nothing!"

"But... how do we fight? They can fly and shoot energy blasts. We can't even touch their shadow!"

"What are you afraid of! This game is Life-Bargaining! What's there to fear about dying once? I refuse to believe his mana bar is infinite! We'll zerg them! We'll use our lives to bury them!"

Anger and defiance quickly replaced fear, becoming the main theme of the channel.

Just then, a bloody... no, a white light stumbled through the gates of the family territory and fell heavily onto the square in front of the ancestral hall.

It was none other than the Miner Boss.

His current appearance was incredibly wretched; half his body was charred black, and his health bar was down to a sliver. He looked like an evil spirit that had just crawled out of hell.

"The... the Chen Family..." He gasped for air, lingering terror still visible in his eyes. "They are cultivators... true cultivators! They said... that's their territory..."

All the online players gathered around, looking at this "hero" and "survivor," and for a moment, there was total silence.

The impact of a video was far less shocking than seeing a living, wretched victim in person.

"Brother, it's fine. It's good that you're back." Demolition Office Director patted his shoulder and handed him a bottle of freshly made Inferior Golden Sore Ointment.

Miner Boss gulped it down, and his health bar ticked up imperceptibly.

He regained his composure and said through gritted teeth, "They... they are too arrogant! They didn't treat us as human at all! Their eyes were full of contempt, like they were looking at a swarm of... ants!"

The word "ants" was like a needle, deeply stinging the self-esteem of all the players present.

They could accept being killed by powerful monsters, but they could not endure this blatant class-based contempt from another "intelligent being."

"Son of a bitch!" A player slammed his pickaxe onto the ground. "I play games to be a VIP! Whoever dares treat me like an ant, I'll let him know what a locust plague looks like!"

"Right! Let's get them!"

"How? Who has a plan?!"

Amidst the public indignation, a calm voice rang out in the crowd channel. The speaker was a tactician-type player with the ID Infrastructure Maniac.

"Everyone, calm down. Anger won't solve the problem. I've replayed Miner Boss's recording thirty times in slow motion and found several key points."

As soon as these words were spoken, the originally noisy channel instantly fell silent.

"First, the enemy is strong, but not invincible. Their attack pattern is 'Magical Artifact + Spell.' The Flying Sword is extremely fast and deals lethal single-target damage; the Fireball Spell is area-of-effect, but it has a clear casting wind-up and projectile trajectory."

"Second, the enemy is arrogant. They stood on the hill and hardly moved, maintaining a condescending posture. This is both their advantage and their fatal weakness. They underestimated us, giving us an opportunity."

"Third, and most importantly. Although War God Number One was one-shotted, he was facing the enemy head-on. Why... do we have to fight them head-on?"

Infrastructure Maniac's words were like a bolt of lightning, splitting open everyone's thinking which had been imprisoned by anger and fear.

"That's right! We're players! Why should we care about martial ethics?" I Love Exploiting Loopholes was the first to react, chiming in excitedly, "If we can't beat them, can't we just harass them?"

On the forum, a stickied post was quickly pushed to the front page—"Feasibility Tactical Seminar on How to Scientifically Kill Cultivators."

In an instant, countless dirty tactics flashing with the light of "wisdom" sprouted like mushrooms after rain.

"【Shield Wall Style】! Brothers! Who says defense has to rely on gear? Are our wooden door planks thick enough? Are the iron pot lids from the blacksmith shop hard enough? Organize a suicide squad, each person with a door plank, holding the front, while the brothers in the back handle the damage! I refuse to believe his Flying Sword can cut through ten door planks in one hit!" — Poster: Shield Mountain.

"【Spellbreaker Style】! Did everyone notice? When that cultivator casts the fireball, he needs to perform hand seals and incantations. Can we interrupt him while he's casting? Throw stones, throw dung, throw lime powder... use whatever is disgusting! As long as we can distract him, our chance will come!"

"【Trap Style Pro Max Version】! Our previous traps for the bandits were too low-level! We must upgrade now! Dig giant pits dozens of meters deep, fill the bottom with sharpened wooden stakes and scrap iron, and camouflage the top. When they fly over, find a way to lure them over the trap. I don't believe they can crawl out alive if they fall in!"

"【Kamikaze Self-Destruction Style】! Don't forget, we can respawn! Give everyone a bundle of explosives... oh, we don't have explosives now, but we can research them! Even if we don't have them, each of us is a bomb! Equip the trashiest gear, rush up and grab his legs! Ten people, a hundred people! Drown him with corpses!"

The vast ocean of people's war, at this moment, revealed its most ferocious and creative side.

T (Tank), DPS (Damage), Support, Crowd Control... a complete and efficient combat system gradually took shape in the players' wild discussions.

They were no longer a disorganized rabble, but were coalescing into an unprecedented whole for a common, evil... no, glorious goal.

Inside the ancestral hall.

Lu Bei "sat" quietly on the spirit tablet, taking all of this in.

The players' intense discussions on the forum, those tactics born from anger, humiliation, and infinite creativity, turned into streams of incomparably pure and majestic mental power, flooding into his soul body.

This power was far more complex and much stronger than simple satisfaction or joy.

It was filled with fighting spirit, resilience, and a paranoia to achieve a goal by any means necessary.

At the same time, the war-like killing intent he had absorbed after pacifying Black Wind Stockade, which had been dormant deep in his soul body, was completely ignited and detonated by this fanatical will to fight!

Boom!

Lu Bei felt as if his spiritual body had broken through an invisible barrier, reaching a whole new level.

His originally ethereal soul body became more solid than ever before. He could even feel that his ability to interfere with this world had gained a qualitative leap.

The time had come.

He knew that what this group of eager "Filial Sons and Virtuous Grandchildren" needed most right now wasn't comfort, but weapons.

It was the power to allow them to put those crazy ideas into practice!

With a thought, he mobilized his newly surged soul power.

A grand and majestic divine sense, like a clear heavenly decree, instantly descended into the minds of every player.

【System Announcement: The Old Ancestor is moved by the striving hearts of you descendants. In this time of family crisis, he has refined the battle merits from pacifying Black Wind Stockade into family heritage, unlocking new functions!】

【System Notification: Family function 【Equipment Refinement】 has been unlocked!】

【Function Description: You can consume 'contribution points' and 'Hundred Refinements Refined Iron' to refine White and Green quality equipment. The higher the refinement level, the lower the success rate. If refinement fails at +3 or higher, the equipment will be destroyed.】

【System Notification: Family function 【Basic Cultivation Technique Exchange】 has been unlocked!】

【Function Description: You can consume 'contribution points' to exchange for recorded cultivation technique manuals in the Contribution Shop.】

【New Arrival in Contribution Shop: Black Wind Saber Technique (Incomplete Scroll) — Exchange Price: 1000 contribution points.】

The series of system notifications was like pouring cold water into boiling oil, causing the entire player base to explode instantly!

"Holy crap! A system update!"

"Equipment Refinement! It's here, it's here! Now this feels like a proper game! My +2 broadsword can finally be upgraded!"

"Black Wind Saber Technique! It's an actual cultivation technique! One thousand contribution points? Damn it, I'll go to the back mountain and kill pigs for three days and three nights if I have to, just to grind it out!"

"What is Hundred Refinements Refined Iron? A new ore? 'Miner Boss'! Stop crying! Get up and get to work! We have new ore to dig!"

The solemnity and anger that had just permeated the player base were swept away by this sudden "version update," replaced by a near-frenzied excitement.

The fire of revenge had found its perfect outlet.

"Brothers!" Demolition Office Director raised his arm and called out, his voice trembling slightly with excitement, "What are we waiting for? Didn't that bunch of scumbags from the Chen Family look down on us? Then let's show them how we 'ants' will step on their ridiculous immortal faces and grind them into dust!"

"Our goal is—"

"Armed to the teeth! Flatten the Qingxi Chen Family!" All the players roared in unison, their voices shaking the fields.

At this moment, no one discussed whether they could win or not.

Only one word remained in everyone's minds: Grind!

Grind!

Grind!

Grind for contribution points, grind for new ore, grind to refine equipment!

The entire family territory instantly transformed into a high-speed war machine.

The furnace in the blacksmith shop burned even brighter. The players in the hunting squads rushed toward the back mountain with bloodshot eyes, where the animals they had killed were almost ready to apply for endangered species protection. More exploration teams set out once again with a brand new purpose.

Looking at all this, a deep curve formed at the corners of Lu Bei's mouth.

The whetstone he had prepared for the players was in place.

And the players, this fierce blade about to drink blood, had already begun to flash with a heart-palpitating cold light under the frantic forging.