Huh? Isn't this an adventure kingdom building game?!-Chapter 69: The So-Called Divine

The walls of Anping Town are very high, with sentry posts on top.

It is said that when the Wilderness descends, the divine light emitted by the statue of the Immortal Elder can just envelop the walls. Besides maximizing the protection of the townspeople, the construction of high walls and gates naturally also signifies not letting any outsiders take advantage.

"Master, when my grandpa and I used to enter the town, we only exchanged goods on this street and never went further inside. So... I don’t really know the way further in." Wan Mingchuan looked at the familiar street, reminiscing about the last time he came to Anping Town with his grandfather, but now things have changed as heaven and earth separate us.

Jiang Yuan surveyed the layout of the town’s streets with interest.

Usually, the gates of large towns open directly to an east-west or north-south main road for convenient access, but when you enter the gate of Anping Town, it’s a transverse street; once inside, you either turn left or right.

The streets are spacious, but the shops and residences are cramped, appearing much like Riverfront Village—the lower levels being the periphery where the poor live, extending zigzag over dozens of miles, turning upward to another level. The closer you get to the statue, the more noble the families living there, although fewer in number, they occupy large areas, and their buildings become increasingly luxurious.

Even from this distance, Jiang Yuan could spot the statue at the highest point of the Immortal Ancestor Temple in the town. It’s an elderly figure with a slightly humped back in a kind smile, leaning on a staff, with beard and eyebrows all white and drooping, resembling none of the Immortal Elder images in Southern Extreme that he remembered except for their age.

Entering from the East Side and since the statue faces south, he could see the side of the statue and noticed something pointed on the statue’s shoulder and back, unsure what was sculpted.

"Let’s take a look further up, the goods here are of poor quality." Jiang Yuan habitually held a jujube wood stick just in case, pointing casually and instructing, "Go find out where the blacksmith shop is in town."

He needed to purchase a pickaxe head to fulfill an order, and if he could restock iron ore at the blacksmith shop, he wouldn’t need to laboriously mine at Lao Dragon Cave and could quickly smelt iron ingots to construct the mill!

In the game world, there’s the possibility of dying and resurrecting, but in the Otherworld, once you die, there’s no chance to start over, so he needed to hurry to upgrade and grow stronger.

Wan Mingchuan quickly learned the situation; Anping Town was divided into upper, middle, and lower districts, each having a corresponding blacksmith shop. According to the unspoken rule, the one closest to the statue in the upper street had the best quality but was the most expensive.

The two of them bought cotton fabric clothing and cloth shoes in a shop in the Central District, replacing their "starting gear," and after leaving the clothing store, the master and disciple’s attire made them look no different from the ordinary residents of the town.

"Master, these cloth shoes and cloth clothes are really comfortable, hehe!" This was the first time Wan Mingchuan had worn white cotton socks with cloth sole shoes, which were soft and fit better than straw shoes;

He skipped the rough hemp and linen clothes and directly wore cotton clothes, which were light and breathable with bright colors, making the already tall, strong, and handsome young man look even more eye-catching, even drawing a few glances from the ladies in the adjacent rouge shop.

"If you like them, pick a few more sets to keep on hand, we’ll buy some other daily items later." Jiang Yuan heard the shopkeeper’s quote and found it ridiculously cheap—a single Gold Coin could outfit his disciple from head to toe with three sets, practically a giveaway!

Even buying up all the ready-made clothes in the store would cost only a few coins, though these clothes made by ordinary people had no enhancements and were prone to dirt and damage, incomparable to the clothing bought at Cyan Fish Mountain Market.

Thus, he could discern the clear gap between mortals and cultivators—in the Mortal World, Gold is the most precious, usually used with silver coins and Copper Coins, but with sold goods having no bonuses and only for daily use;

In the Cultivator Market, Gold Coins are used the most, and more expensive magical treasures require Spirit Stone purchases. Even clothing and food bought with Gold Coins aren’t ordinary items, and those needing Spirit Stones are of even higher quality.

In the past, Wan Mingchuan would quickly sell off supplies and exchange them for a copper plate to buy other goods when in town, having little concept of the higher denominations of money.

Hearing that all his choices only cost one Gold Coin reminded him of the three hundred Gold Coins his master had given to Lin Chunxi and her siblings, and he couldn’t help but gasp—how much food and drink could that buy!

Oh no, if Auntie took three hundred Gold Coins and her two children to Anping Town, she could definitely buy a small yard and settle down to become a townsperson!

The thought that she might not even know that the Gold Coins gifted by his master could change the life of a family of three prompted Wan Mingchuan to decide that once they returned, he must find a way to inform Auntie, so she could take her children and leave Riverfront Village for a better life.

While buying along the way, they had lunch at the town’s most famous restaurant, Drunken Immortal Pavilion. The food was tasty, but still no additional effects, only filling the stomach, so Jiang Yuan dismissed the idea of buying food here.

"Master, up ahead is the blacksmith shop in the upper street. We’ve already checked out the other two; if the quality here isn’t good, there’s really nowhere else to buy pickaxe heads." Wan Mingchuan, with a skewered candied haw in his left hand and a sugar figure in his right, eagerly led the way.

The pickaxe heads sold in the lower street blacksmith shop were the kind commonly used by the villagers in Riverfront Village, with the cheapest available for eighty Copper Coins but with extremely rough craftsmanship and poor materials; the mid-street blacksmith shop’s products were noticeably better quality.

But Jiang Yuan thought the Ice-winged Eagle leader Yun Mo was a decent "boss", especially since they had offered 3,000 Gold Coins, so he had to procure the best possible pickaxe heads within his capability.

After all, his years of living in society taught him—never speak too definitively, and never act too harshly, the leniency you leave is your own safety net.

"Ten Gold Coins for twenty-three pickaxe heads and two axes, truly excellent items. But all the iron used by the blacksmith shop must be obtained from the town chief, so they cannot be independently traded..." Leaving the upper street blacksmith shop, Jiang Yuan’s idea of trading instead of mining was immediately snuffed out.

Since ancient times, iron capable of forging weapons was a controlled commodity, and the control of iron ore by the town was understandable. It seemed that for building new structures, they would still have to rely on mining at Lao Dragon Cave.

Wan Mingchuan, munching on a candied haw, bypassed a wooden high building and looked up at the smoke-enshrouded Immortal Ancestor Temple not far away, sincerely exclaiming, "This Immortal Elder’s statue is really tall!" freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

Jiang Yuan strolled over slowly, his gaze lingering on the silver-lit statue, and a system prompt appeared in his view.

[Demon Cultivator Statue: Level Three protective treasure, bestowed by the demon cultivator Copper Thorn Beast Bai Heqing to believers. Can open an invisible barrier during the Wilderness descent, ensuring that the houses and fields in Anping Town are not damaged, capable of resisting attacks from Qi Refining Ninth Layer cultivators or demon beasts]

Indeed, what is offered as so-called deities are merely demon cultivators!

The spikes on the statue’s shoulder and back should be the spikes of the Copper Thorn Beast itself.

He couldn’t help but ponder, how can demon cultivators be so bold as to masquerade as gods to gather believers, what about the real Immortals?

The game’s background introduction said that most humans had lost their inheritance of cultivating immortals, surely not even the tradition of worshipping deities is lost too?

After touring Anping Town, it was already mid-afternoon. When Jiang Yuan and his disciple headed back through the original path, they saw many refugees or villagers who hadn’t sold their goods looking anxious. He gave Wan Mingchuan a handful of silver coins to buy the miscellaneous items, allowing them to exchange for supplies and return home early.