406: Yanwang County, Zhongyu

Old Potato and the others exchanged glances, feeling quite surprised.

The situation in the West was completely different from what they had previously gathered piecemeal.

It seemed that the Great Desert had been divided by Strange Flames, preventing Loose Cultivators and the Yao Race near the East from learning the full situation in the West.

Only Fifth-Rank Cultivators, possibly possessing special methods like the Old Monk, could cross the Strange Flames boundary and head eastward, bringing back some intelligence.

For various reasons, the intelligence these people provided was a mix of truth and falsehood, leading the players to make several misjudgments.

The biggest misjudgment concerned the Buddhist Kingdom. Heaven knows how long these trespassing monks had been praising the Buddhist Kingdom, leading many factions within the Immortal Dynasty to believe the West was the Buddhist Pure Land.

"So, what do we say now?"

Ginger Ore Sword looked at Old Potato: "Before, we thought it was the Buddhist Kingdom, where we'd have to fight to the death, so we brought many people, preparing to force our way in.

"Now it looks like heading west leads to the core of the entire Cultivation Civilization—a place with numerous factions, a chaotic social structure, and many opportunities to fish in troubled waters.

"Our goal is to first meet up with Yan Xiao, right? If so, I don't think it's necessary for so many people to advance all at once. It would be best to carefully gather intelligence first, wouldn't it?"

Ginger Ore Sword had come for Yan Xiao, the Son of Luck, and did not crave the other resources that exploration and adventure might bring.

When he discovered that the West was filled with established Sects and complex situations, he instinctively didn't want to take big risks and preferred to solve problems using simple methods.

Murong Shusu stood to the side. Since she had previously self-destructed her cultivation, although she quickly caught up to the Immortal Foundation after respawning, she had ultimately fallen out of the Fifth-Rank.

If not for her unique relationship with Yan Xiao, she wouldn't even be able to attend the high-level meeting. At this moment, she mused:

"I agree we shouldn't act rashly. The most important thing now is to find out the rumors Yan Xiao left behind.

"We need to clarify Yan Xiao's reputation and deeds, and then decide whether we enter the scene as Yan Xiao's friends or as his enemies."

Subconsciously, players like Murong Shusu had grown accustomed to prioritizing their relationship with Yan Xiao when making decisions.

As if doing so would bring them some Luck.

Old Potato and the other Golden Core Playerss discussed the matter and all decided to proceed with small-scale exploration first.

They selected players who were skilled at role-playing and less likely to expose their identity as Extraterrestrial Demons. These players formed small teams or acted alone, all heading westward.

One of these players was named "The Last Great Jiang Person." He was a heavy role-player whose every word and action was practically indistinguishable from the natives.

To facilitate his actions, he adopted the mainstream "Dual Name" system used by the player community: using an unchangeable nickname among players and a more normal name among the natives.

His name was Jiang Vengeance.

Jiang Vengeance chose to act alone but was not among the first batch of explorers.

He waited for a period of time.

Only after the initial explorers sent back information about the clothing and style of the Mortals in the new region did he find the corresponding fabrics, change into clothes that allowed him to fully blend in, and quietly travel west.

When he arrived at the nearest village, he stayed there for a while, posing as a storyteller gathering material, specifically asking the local elders about customs and habits.

This endeavor cost him a significant amount of time, temporarily putting his progress behind the other players.

The other players had already found out the name of this region:

Yanwang Prefecture.

This prefecture stretched along the edge of the Great Desert, distributed in a long strip, and was named Yanwang Prefecture because of the scorching fire waves to the east.

Unlike the initial "million population" intelligence the players received, the actual population of Yanwang Prefecture was much higher, reaching tens of millions.

This was because the players initially overestimated the population proportion of Yanwang Prefecture's capital city and underestimated the population of scattered villages.

Yanwang Prefecture, and the entire vast region further west referred to as the "Central Domain" (in fact, based on the intelligence Jiang Vengeance gathered, Yanwang Prefecture is still in the Eastern Domain, not the Central Domain, but it is vastly different from the Four Kingdoms of the Immortal Dynasty), possessed incredible resources.

The rice here was not harvested once a year, nor three times a year, but an astonishing twelve times a year, leaving all players speechless.

They could harvest every month.

During times of favorable weather, they could even harvest multiple times in a single month.

The fertile land, abundant food, and widespread cultivation culture meant that the Mortals here lived incomparably better than the poor wretches in the Four Kingdoms of the Immortal Dynasty.

Therefore, the areas near the desert appeared to have low population density, giving players the false impression that the population was sparse.

However, once they moved away from the desert and traveled westward for a distance, the population density immediately astonished everyone.

The reason for the low population in Yanwang Prefecture's capital city was also uncovered by the players:

This Prefecture City was a Mortal Prefecture City, not the Administrative Seat established by the major Sects in the Mortal world.

The numerous Sects vying for power in Yanwang Prefecture had each established Branch Sect Immortal Peaks, or "Spirit Cities" specifically designed to house Outer Gate disciples.

Compared to the Branch Sect Immortal Peaks and Outer Gate Spirit Cities, the Prefecture City controlled by Mortals became the nominal Administrative Seat. Although the Spirit Testing Halls of the major Sects were gathered there, it was not the main venue for recruiting disciples.

After figuring this out, the players immediately understood the key:

To obtain more intelligence, they had to go to the Sects' Spirit Cities and find a way to join the Outer Gate.

However, different Sects had different recruitment standards, offered different benefits, and most importantly, offered different future Dao paths.

Thus, the players once again began their ancestral skill:

Differentiation.

There were 136 Sects, each different, but they all shared one commonality:

Every Sect possessed complete Fourth-Rank methods.

Upon learning this, intelligence gathering and message scouting suddenly became irrelevant.

The important thing now was to figure out the Dao Lineages and Legacies of the different Sects, then investigate how to join the Outer Gate, successfully infiltrate a Sect, receive a Legacy, and reach the Fourth-Rank.

A bright future was beckoning them!

Old Potato couldn't control these players at all. He could only watch helplessly as they dispersed, one after another, striving to join a Sect.

Some players even actively leaked that they were players, hoping to exchange their special identity for a Legacy.

For a time, Old Potato and the others were frantic, feeling that the westward exploration had been a complete failure.

What followed was the chaotic exploration of the new map by the uncontrolled players.

Amidst this chaos, Jiang Vengeance, who had researched and studied the customs and culture of Yanwang Prefecture, finally began heading west.

Due to the players' voluntary exposure, many players who were poor at role-playing and had been identified were viewed with suspicion by the native Cultivators, who feared that a single leak would be known by the entire player community.

Consequently, a large number of players were unable to obtain effective intelligence.

However, Jiang Vengeance, relying on his near-perfect imitation of a native, successfully deceived the Mortals and even the Cultivators, obtaining a wealth of valuable intelligence.

After careful consideration, he chose not to share this intelligence.