75: Chapter 75 New Baff

Inside the Star Gate, light and shadow were completely stripped away.

There was no up, down, left, or right, no past or future.

Time and space were compressed into an infinitely thin sheet of paper. The consciousness of every player felt as if it had been thrown into a silent, high-speed centrifuge; their souls were stretched into the finest threads, only to be slammed back into their physical bodies in the next instant.

When the first player stumbled out of that distorted curtain of light, it smelled something.

It was the scent of decay, of deathly silence—a smell like a graveyard of worlds, mixed with extremely high concentrations of spiritual energy and unknown forces.

This was the Gui Xu Spirit Eye.

The sky was an eternal, murky leaden color, devoid of sun, moon, or stars.

The ground was cracked, a dark brown with a metallic luster, as if soaked in the blood of gods and demons for billions of years.

Everywhere the eye could see, there were remnants so huge they were unimaginable.

There were broken divine weapons that looked like mountain ranges, collapsed palaces engraved with ancient runes, and some indescribable, eerie creations that seemed to be a fusion of giant beast skeletons and architecture.

In the air, invisible turbulent energy currents swept about like sharp blades.

As soon as a player landed, a wisp of pitch-black smoke suddenly emerged from the ground beneath their feet, carrying an eerie power capable of directly eroding the soul.

However, the moment the black smoke was about to touch the player's body, the [God Prison Walker] mark newly branded between their eyebrows glowed slightly, and a pale golden film, almost invisible to the naked eye, enveloped them.

The black smoke collided with the film, emitting a shrill shriek, and dissolved like snow meeting fire.

[System Prompt: You have gained immunity to the instant-death effect of "Gui Xu Death Qi."]

"Holy crap! This buff is OP!"

"So this is the Gui Xu? It feels like the air is full of poison... Good thing we have the Ancestors Specialties gas masks!"

"Brothers, don't rush to go sightseeing yet! Look at what we're wearing!"

The noise broke the eternal silence.

Millions of "penniless" players were "spat out" from the massive Star Gate like dumplings being dropped into a pot, densely covering the silent plain.

They were empty-handed, wearing only the basic gray tunics provided by the system, looking just like a group of slaves who had just escaped from some mine.

Infrastructure Maniac stomped hard on the iron-hard ground, his eyes flashing with excitement: "This soil quality... damn, this isn't soil at all; it's clearly an alloy mixed with high-grade metal! It'll be absolutely sturdy for building houses!"

"Quiet, everyone!" The voice of Outlaw Zhang San rang out. He was squatting on the ground, pinching a bit of black soil with his fingers, smelling it under his nose, and then sticking out his tongue... hesitating for a moment, he still didn't dare to lick it.

"According to the intel provided by the Demon Lord's remnant soul, the Gui Xu Spirit Eye is divided into three layers. The outer layer is the 'Remnant Battlefield' beneath our feet, which is relatively safe. The middle layer is the 'Law Turbulence Zone,' where you'll be randomly teleported upon entry. The core is the 'Spirit Eye Core' that those bastards from the Central Sacred Land are guarding. Our primary task right now isn't exploration; it's surviving long enough to leave this place and enter the territory of the Central Sacred Land!"

His words were like a bucket of cold water poured over all the excited players.

That's right, the gate was open, but they had been teleported to a legendary forbidden zone.

How were they going to get out?

How were they going to enter the prosperous, wealthy, and heavily guarded Central Sacred Land?

At this moment, a hundred-man squad quietly separated from the crowd. The person leading them was the "Financial Tycoon" known among players for his calmness and meticulous calculations—Wolf of Wall Street.

Beside him were the intelligence chief Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet, the business prodigy All Realms Connector, and a group of top-tier life-skill players proficient in stealth, disguise, and social interaction.

"The main force is responsible for establishing a temporary foothold here and attempting to use the materials of the Gui Xu to carry out the 'First Industrial Revolution'." Wolf of Wall Street's voice was transmitted to the leaders through the team channel. "We, the 'vanguard,' will follow the last secret path left by Ninth Prince to infiltrate the main city of the Sacred Land—Tianshu City—ahead of time. We'll pave the way for the main army."

"Understood." Immovable as a Mountain responded in a muffled voice. He had already begun organizing the members of the Pot Lid Army to pry off usable metal pieces from the remnants of the divine weapons. "Leave the front-line battlefield to us."

Three days later.

Tianshu City, the heart of the Central Sacred Land for ten thousand years, the shining pearl of the immortal cultivation civilization.

This massive city, suspended above the sea of clouds, had Dao rhymes embedded in every brick and stone, and every wisp of air was filled with pure spiritual energy.

The cultivators walking on the streets were at least at the late stage of Qi Refining; Foundation Establishment cultivators were everywhere, and occasionally one could see Golden Core masters riding magical artifacts, streaking across the sky like beams of light.

In the most remote area of the city's south side, closest to where mortals and servants lived—the "lower-class" district—a long-closed, cobweb-covered grocery store quietly reopened today.

There were no firecrackers, no bustling crowds of guests.

There was only a shrewd-looking young man, All Realms Connector, wearing a gray cloth robe of indeterminate material but well-tailored fit, leaning lazily against the counter, yawning intermittently.

The shop's sign was a makeshift board picked up from somewhere, with four large characters written in the crudest calligraphy: [Ancestors Specialties].

This impoverished, down-and-out appearance was completely incompatible with the noble elegance of Tianshu City, drawing disdainful gazes from passing cultivators.

"Where did this hick come from, daring to open a shop in Tianshu City?"

"Ancestors Specialties? Is its ancestor some local earth deity from a mountain ditch? I bet it's selling pills made of mud!"

The mocking sounds were incessant, but All Realms Connector didn't care at all.

Behind it, inside the narrow and dim shop, Wolf of Wall Street was looking at a simple "sand table" made by players. On the table, the locations, scales, and main product prices of hundreds of pill shops and talisman stores in Tianshu City were densely marked.

All of this had been gathered by Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet, who had spent three days pretending to be a rogue cultivator seeking medicine, visiting every single shop.

"The time is right." Wolf of Wall Street spoke calmly. "Stock the goods."

All Realms Connector nodded and took out two of the crudest clay jars from under the counter, placing them heavily on the tabletop.

One jar had a note attached: "Qi Recovery Pill, three low-grade spirit stones per bottle (ten pills)."

The other jar had a note: "Cleansing Talisman, one low-grade spirit stone per sheet."

Once the prices were revealed, the surrounding low-level cultivators, who had originally just been watching the spectacle, instantly fell silent.

A Qi Refining servant who was sweeping the street nearby hesitated for a long time before summoning the courage to step forward, asking tremblingly: "Shopkeeper, this Qi Recovery Pill of yours... is it really three spirit stones per bottle?"

The market price in Tianshu City for the lowest quality Qi Recovery Pills was ten low-grade spirit stones per bottle.

Three spirit stones wasn't even enough to cover the cost!

"Buy it or don't." All Realms Connector didn't even lift its eyelids.

The servant gritted his teeth and pulled three sweat-stained low-grade spirit stones from his bosom; this was his month's wages.

He took the small clay bottle handed over by All Realms Connector and poured out one pill.

The pill was grayish and inconspicuous, without even a medicinal scent.

But the servant was shocked to discover that this pill was different from any Qi Recovery Pill he had ever seen.

It was too "standard."

It was as round as if measured with a ruler, and as heavy as if weighed on a scale.

Resigned to being scammed, he swallowed the pill.

The next moment, a gentle and pure spiritual energy dissolved in his dantian, neither fast nor slow, neither too much nor too little, precisely restoring the spiritual energy he had consumed.

There was no pill poison, no impurities; the effect was neither good nor bad, but terrifyingly stable!

The servant's eyes instantly turned red!

For low-level cultivators like him, this wasn't just a pill—it was life!

"Shopkeeper! I'll buy two more bottles!" he shouted excitedly.

"One bottle per person per day, purchase limit." All Realms Connector's voice remained lazy.

This "purchase limit" was like a spark thrown into hot oil, instantly igniting all the low-level cultivators watching.

In the immortal cultivation world, when had anyone ever heard of a "purchase limit"?

This could only prove one thing—demand exceeded supply!

This pill was definitely the real deal!

"Give me one bottle!"

"I want one too! Don't push!"

"And the talismans! A Cleansing Talisman for one spirit stone; it's cheap enough to use for calming the mind during meditation without feeling the pinch!"

The previously deserted [Ancestors Specialties] instantly had a long queue forming at its door.

The line snaked and curved, stretching all the way to the street corner, and it kept getting longer, drawing the side-eyes of more people.

On another street not far away, Chen De, the shopkeeper of "Spirit Herb Hall," was frowning as he looked at his empty shop.

"What's going on? Not even a single servant came to buy Qi Recovery Powder today?" he scolded his assistant.

"Shopkeeper, you don't know?" The assistant ran in, looking panicked. "A new shady shop called 'Ancestors Specialties' opened at the street corner. Their Qi Recovery Pills only sell for three spirit stones a bottle! All our customers have run off to queue there!"

"What?!"

Chen De was struck by lightning.

He dashed out of the shop in one stride, and when he saw that exaggeratedly long line, he was completely stunned.

He couldn't understand it.

Three spirit stones?

Was this charity?

Or was some great expert bored and experiencing life?

He squeezed into the crowd, managed to buy a bottle, returned to his own shop, and placed that pill, which was as "standard" as a handicraft, on the table, examining it repeatedly with the eyes of someone who had immersed himself in the way of alchemy for a hundred years.

The more he looked, the colder he felt in his heart.

This wasn't alchemy; this was manufacturing!

There was no soul, no Dao rhyme, no heart and insight poured in by an alchemist during refining.

It was cold, precise, like a machine without emotion, sealing the medicinal power perfectly inside according to the most standard and efficient process.

This technique was something he had never heard of or seen before!

"Heresy... this is a desecration of the Dao of Alchemy!" Chen De's hands began to tremble, half from anger, half from fear.

He knew that a storm capable of overturning the entire ecosystem of the lower levels of the Sacred Land had quietly arrived with this inconspicuous little shop.

Tianshu City, Heavenly Law Court.

Inside a simple and majestic hall, an old man wearing a black Daoist robe with a rigid expression was listening to a subordinate's report.

"...The people from Fairy Yunshang's side seem to be paying attention to this shop as well."

"Hmph, a bunch of opportunistic hicks selling some inferior pills that can't be brought to the table—is that worth her attention?" Master Xuantian snorted coldly, his eyes full of disdain. "It's just some grandstanding tricks, disrupting the market and corrupting the atmosphere! Pass down my decree, order the City Guard Office to seal this shop, with the reason being 'passing off inferior goods as superior, disrupting market prices'!"

"Yes!" The subordinate accepted the order and left.

Master Xuantian picked up his teacup and blew on it gently, a trace of disdain flashing in his cloudy eyes.

In his view, this kind of small trouble was just like a speck of dust on a magnificent Daoist robe, easily brushed away.

He did not know that what he was brushing away was not dust.

But the first tentative charge of one civilization against another.