Chapter 563: Chapter 553: The Sound of Blacksmithing from the Long River, No Bugs in the System

After handling these three vortices, Su Mu experienced significant improvement.

He wished he could find a few more vortices like these.

Were it not for the system being too stringent, with no bugs at all, Su Mu could use the Stone Sect he obtained to create vortices himself and then handle them.

By exploiting bugs like this, he could fast-track through the game in a few days. Unfortunately, the system was too strict, leaving no room for any bug exploitation.

He still remembered the one time he successfully exploited a bug was right when he first crossed over to this Long River and encountered a stubborn turtle.

It would crawl up the riverbank, and he would throw it back down every time, earning several hundred Favor Points in a stretch.

Later, he realized that the system merely disdained these small gains of Favor Points and didn’t bother to intervene; it was all just small-time play for dozens or hundreds of Favor Points.

Nowadays, his actions would affect a large water area, involving many tributaries, so the system couldn’t ignore them anymore. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Back when he blazed his own trail and tread a risky path by allowing "pollution sources" to contaminate the river, with himself periodically purifying it, it was quite perfect and almost bypassed the system’s judgment mechanism.

But as he did it more, the system eventually caught on, rendering that method completely ineffective.

...

Even though he accumulated two hundred thousand Favor Points, Su Mu still felt a bit frustrated.

Because the problem of the main channel’s dropping water level still couldn’t be traced to its source. He initially thought he’d gotten clues about the dropping water level from Jiang Bai, but upon finding them, they had nothing to do with the decrease.

Now, all the clues had been severed.

He seriously suspected that the dropping water level might not be caused by humans!

In his mastery over the Long River, which had reached a level of "Great Success," who could create such a commotion right under his nose??

If it’s not man-made... then Su Mu would have to adopt a different line of thinking.

He now faced two problems.

The first was to promptly solve the issue of the dropping water level, earn Favor Points, and completely refine the Long River.

The second was to guard against enemies’ schemes against him and constantly be mindful of any disturbances at home.

Thinking about these issues made Su Mu’s head spin. He felt like a small fish trapped in a sewage ditch, needing to avoid spears cast by enemies outside the ditch, while also preventing the sewage water inside the ditch from escaping, lest he be grounded.

He shook his head to stop overthinking, calmed his mind, and continued patrolling along the river.

....

This was his first visit to this water area, making it a good chance to scout for any anomalies.

After patrolling for a few hours, Su Mu discovered something peculiar.

This stretch of water was very far from his home, quite isolated in terms of geographical location, and he had never dealt with it before, so logically, there should be various minor issues.

Yet, the nearby waters were remarkably stable; not a single strand of weed could be seen, and there wasn’t even any floating debris on the river surface, truly a wonder.

Intrigued, Su Mu grew interested.

He continued to inspect deeper along this section of water.

The deeper he went, he noticed slight temperature changes around, growing warmer as he progressed.

However, the variations were subtle enough to be almost negligible, but still discernible to Su Mu’s insight.

Usually, the temperature over the Long River remains stable without any changes, so... there must be something up ahead.

Upon this thought, Su Mu’s eyes lit up.

It was a good thing to encounter an anomaly — the true fear was having none!

Immediately, Su Mu quickened his pace. The deeper he went, the warmer it became, and the narrower the river path became.

Eventually, he arrived at a reef area.

Cluster after cluster of dense reefs emerged from the water, blocking Su Mu’s path.

The reefs were normal and didn’t impede the water flow, so Su Mu didn’t remove them.

He walked over the reefs, continuing forward.

Gradually, the reefs grew so dense that they leveled out entirely. Unknowingly, Su Mu had reached a flat stone ground.

This stone ground just happened to appear at the center of this water region.

It seemed that the peripheral reefs blocking the way weren’t naturally formed but were man-made.

The ground he stood on was too flat, clearly artificially smoothed, suggesting that someone lived here.

He lifted his gaze, looking ahead.

Though night had fallen, coupled with rising black mist impeding visibility, it had no effect on Su Mu.

His gaze penetrated the black mist, looking ahead, where he saw tall trees growing out from the stone ground, in such numbers that they formed a dense "wooden wall."

Seeing this, Su Mu walked step by step toward the "wooden wall."

Upon approaching the wooden wall, Su Mu discovered that the black trees forming the "wooden wall" weren’t mere decorations but living, truly growing on the stone ground.

He also noticed that this wooden wall blocked most of the black mist rising from the river surface, protecting the area inside and serving a defensive purpose.

However, it couldn’t block Su Mu’s Divine Sense.

To play it safe, Su Mu restrained his aura, and his Divine Sense stealthily pierced through the wooden wall, probing inward.

Suddenly, he sensed a particularly strong life force within the wooden wall.

It seemed his guess was correct — this place was indeed someone’s home, and the inhabitant was certainly no ordinary person.

At this moment, Su Mu was extremely cautious and wouldn’t recklessly barge in, being unsure if it was an enemy ambush.

With a thought, he transformed into a firefly and found a small hole in the nearly airtight wooden wall, slipping through it.

Upon entering the wooden wall’s interior, it suddenly became spacious and much brighter.

The light came from stone fireplaces placed on the ground, with flames inside making the night no longer dark.

In his firefly form, Su Mu looked ahead, where even greater firelight appeared.

Two rows of stone fireplaces on the ground just illuminated a path, and Su Mu flew along this route toward the area where the firelight was most intense.

The closer he got, the higher the temperature, and the more distinct the strong life force he had sensed earlier.

After flying for about a kilometer.

Clang—

Clang—

Clang—

The sound of metal striking stone echoed from the firelight ahead.

Seeing this, Su Mu slowed his flight and completely concealed his aura, flying toward the source of the metal and stone sounds.

Approaching the firelight, Su Mu finally saw where the metal sound originated.