338: explore

Great River City was bustling with people, and the number of players gathered was increasing.

Originally, many Veteran Players, especially those who had achieved Golden Core, were unwilling to come to Great River City, fearing that the state-stabilizing seal would impose means upon them.

But after the Xuanhuan World update, the situation changed.

On one hand, the state-stabilizing seal, in order to better control players, began to make concessions, offering a pile of extremely excellent rewards, enough to make even Golden Core players envious and tempted.

On the other hand, the players' privileges also changed.

Before the update, players' privileges were a restart Golden Finger + Lifespan acceleration. The lower limit was very high, allowing them to easily surpass ordinary Mortals, and even achieve Golden Core in a short time, or even seek Nascent Soul Opportunity.

Such privileges were also coveted by many new players, who even cursed the official for modifying the privileges, forcing them to endure long and tedious cultivation periods, which was simply torture.

However, in the eyes of many Veteran Players and top players, the current new privileges for players are truly extraordinary.

Analysis System + Purification System.

The former ensures that as long as players' cultivation, skills, etc., reach a sufficient grade, they can directly analyze secrets, without being tormented by hidden means.

Even if the grade is not reached, basic analysis can still obtain some information, so as not to be completely ignorant.

Even if they are truly unfortunate enough to have means set upon them, as long as they die once and undergo the Purification System's cleansing, they can directly return to normal.

In the past, once a Veteran Player's Soul was implanted with means, he had no choice but to restart his character, losing all his reincarnation points.

Now, even if a player's physical body and Soul are completely controlled by others, he can easily start over by dying once, and still keep all his transaction points.

As a result, even the most cautious Golden Core players happily went to Great River City, accepted the means of the state-stabilizing seal, and participated in the leaderboard competition.

Regarding this, the state-stabilizing seal's attitude was... "Foolish players."

The state-stabilizing seal was not afraid at all.

From the beginning, he never thought of manipulating players through rigid control.

From start to finish, he knew about the players' uniqueness, knowing that players were not afraid of death, and even had ways to resolve the means planted on their Souls.

These means used to be character restarts, now it's the Purification System. To players, there's a big difference, but to the state-stabilizing seal, it's all the same.

Therefore, what he thought of from the beginning was to guide players, making them gradually accept him, and even rely on him.

As long as he can make players subconsciously regard him as the faction leader arranged by the official, and regard the tasks he releases as tasks designed by the official System.

Then he, the state-stabilizing seal, would have succeeded.

The vast number of unkillable players will become the sharpest blades under his command, completing a series of seemingly impossible tasks for him.

In this process, he can also easily understand the characteristics of each player, and even secretly seize the Opportunities that players come into contact with, always maintaining his advantage over players.

Thinking that his plan was proceeding smoothly, and that the foolish players still thought they had taken a huge advantage, the state-stabilizing seal couldn't help but hum a tune.

But amidst this joy, he still had a touch of worry.

"The thick fog has dispersed, the scroll has unfolded. Whether Li Changfeng is right or not, this indicates that there is a more powerful force outside..."

The state-stabilizing seal was in the clouds, his Spiritual Sense spread out, looking in all directions, very anxious.

He, as a Magic Treasure, had schemed against Great Jiang's emperors for dozens of generations, finally achieving Nascent Soul, which was indeed a miracle in the eyes of outsiders.

But he knew that his Nascent Soul body was incomplete, and his power was limited, unable to directly confront a true Nascent Soul powerhouse.

Within the Immortal Dynasty, and even in the North-South Mountains and Western Great Desert, there were no fourth-grade powerhouses, which was why he could act so unscrupulously.

But now that the thick fog had dispersed, and the scroll outside suddenly unfolded to form famous mountains and rivers, and even cities and Secret Realms, he immediately felt a palpitation.

If there were Soul Transformation powerhouses, then there would be nothing to say; he, the state-stabilizing seal, would be the first to run away.

But if it was just a Nascent Soul, or a fourth-grade powerhouse from another System, then the state-stabilizing seal felt there was still room for maneuver.

He dared not investigate himself, so he handed this glorious reconnaissance mission to the players, even setting up exploration-related leaderboards specifically for players, and the rewards given were very generous.

Things went as the state-stabilizing seal expected.

Leaving aside the Veteran Players, the new players were also smart enough.

They found that the newcomer leaderboard could only be participated in by new players, but the leaderboard in another section could be participated in by everyone.

Hunting Demon Bodies, Artifact Refining, Alchemy—these were too difficult for newcomers to compete with Veteran Players.

But exploring outside the domain was different.

Everyone had infinite resurrections, risking their lives to explore. If they really found something, they would secure a place on the leaderboard.

Wouldn't that just take off directly?

Moreover, new players exploring could simultaneously receive rewards from both the newcomer leaderboard and the overall leaderboard, which was simply killing two birds with one stone.

The smarter the newcomers, the more hardcore players who deeply understood the game, the more they could be manipulated by the state-stabilizing seal.

There was no need for Divine Abilities like mind control or Soul snatching, no need for Divine Abilities that interfered with Karma, nothing was needed.

He only needed to design relevant tasks easily and leisurely based on the players' psychology.

Then, easily and leisurely design some NPCs to guide them, and casually give some rewards.

These arrogant players would then be played in his, the state-stabilizing seal's, palm.

"Go, explore for me..."

A map flashed before the state-stabilizing seal's eyes, with countless light dots symbolizing players rapidly moving towards the border.

He curled his lips, feeling leisurely and contented... Wan Lin completed the newcomer guidance task designed for him by the state-stabilizing seal, cultivating the Golden Edge Emperor Qi Art and continuously accumulating Spirit Nurturing.

Without the Lifespan acceleration System, there was no longer any way to achieve quick success in a day. He could only absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi day after day, constantly cultivating and refining.

The monotony of this led many players to travel outside the Immortal Dynasty, hoping to find evil cultivation methods for quick success.

Wan Lin disliked evil cultivation, but he also felt the long and arduous nature of the cultivation path.

The main point was that he was so poor he had no money to buy resources, and his cultivation speed became increasingly slow.

When he discovered that the rewards given by the leaderboard tasks were considerable, his fighting spirit immediately ignited:

He wanted to rush the leaderboard!

The leaderboard rewards were cleverly set. The final settlement after ten years required players to constantly compete to maintain their position.

But there was also an annual settlement, which allowed players who lacked the courage to compete for the final ranking to spend energy and resources competing for a specific year's ranking.

Most importantly, there would be a one-time reward upon initial entry into the leaderboard, which encouraged all players to enthusiastically rush the leaderboard, not fearing being squeezed out after making it.

To secure cultivation resources, Wan Lin consulted forum guides, especially the leaderboard rushing guide published by "This Time Bu Ge."

Thus, he understood that exploring outside the Immortal Dynasty was the most profitable way to play.

Not only could he stably earn rewards from both leaderboards, but he was also more likely to discover Secret Realm resources, allowing for faster cultivation and improvement.

If he also found a way to restart the immortal path during this process, he would truly soar to great heights.

Wan Lin prepared, using the Spirit Stones provided by the novice tasks to exchange for a ninth-grade Spiritual Artifact, plus some low-grade Medicinal Pills for healing, and spent the remaining portion on the teleportation array.

Soon, Wan Lin appeared at the edge of the North-South Mountains.