Chapter 1604: Chapter 1235: Being an Eight Desolates Disciple Really Is Sweet! Pilgrimage to the Black Wind Holy Land

On the way to Qing Province, Jiang Dali looked at the lively scene on the Jianghu Forum and rubbed the stubble on his chin in thought.

After Black Wind Village went through that battle with the God-searching Palace, many buildings had been destroyed during the war, and the casualties were also extremely heavy.

Even more, quite a few resource points had been seized by some short-sighted forces; among them, the World Association sub branch that hadn’t yet been fully recovered back then was especially carved up by a few audacious forces.

Although after more than twenty days of repair, some of the sub branch buildings had been rebuilt and the resource points taken back, there was still a lot of work left unfinished.

After all, manpower was limited, which made efficiency rather poor.

Black Wind Village’s 97 sub branches—those with more manpower, like the Dragon Tiger Gang, might only have seven or eight thousand natives; those with fewer people were just like Black Wind Village in its earliest days, with only a little over a hundred people.

After the great battle, as casualties increased, manpower decreased even further. Even with the materials transported over from Ming and Song to help with reconstruction, it still couldn’t all be fully rebuilt that fast.

But these imperfections, in Jiang Dali’s eyes, became one perfect interactive quest point after another to make use of Players.

Whether it was "Rebuild Our Home," "Develop and Reclaim Resource Points," or forming a "Black Wind Debt Collection Team" to go after those Martial World forces that had kicked them while they were down—these were all highly entertaining interactive quests that would instantly fill up Players’ free time and help them quickly rediscover that "game" feeling.

And with so many sub branches under Black Wind Village and such complex quest lines, the sheer quantity of quests was enough to simultaneously satisfy the interactive needs of over a million Players. This was a huge advantage that no other force could hope to match.

In this situation, once Black Wind Village got busy and blazing with activity again, it would quickly form a stark contrast with those other quiet sect forces where Players still had to slowly familiarize themselves and hunt for quests on their own, allowing Black Wind Village to once again stand out, catch everyone’s eye, and completely solidify its position in Players’ hearts.

"Over a million Eight Desolate Disciples and nearly a hundred thousand online Mountain Village Disciples—once this wave of Players is done with their interactive quests, I’ll ’harvest’ again. Even if some of the chives are cunning enough to slip past the sickle, I’ll still be able to rake in at least tens of millions of Cultivation Points... after a long drought finally getting sweet rain, this should make up for the losses of guarding an empty house alone for a whole month..."

Jiang Dali pondered in his heart, looking at the endlessly flowing Ju River below, which at this moment lay quietly between the mountains like a silver serpent.

On several of the surrounding peaks, the silhouettes of temples and pagodas were reflected on the river’s surface; at the far end of the stretching fields, the outline of a massive walled city lay sprawled like a slumbering beast.

Qing Province was here.

This was Cold Moon City of Qing Province.

Jiang Dali knew there was also a Yun Family stronghold here, one of the Four Great Families’ bases.

Now that Players were all back online, as long as the Yun Family hadn’t abandoned this stronghold, there would definitely be people online hanging around the base.

His trip to the Feng Clan had a stop along the way, and that stop was precisely the Yun Family stronghold in this Cold Moon City.

The move where the Four Great Families had screwed him over once—though he’d been forced by his own "native NPC" "simple exterior" to pinch his nose, play dumb, and swallow it, that didn’t mean he had no way or reason to knock the Four Great Families around a bit.

Although the Four Great Families had indeed turned the tables for the time being and greatly raised their status in Players’ eyes, gaining more discourse power, on this land of the Mixed Martial Arts World, in the end, fists still did the talking.

...

At this very moment.

Inside Cold Moon City, in a tavern controlled and run by the Yun Family, one of the Four Great Families.

Ting Shui and Heartbroken Little Knife were upstairs, listening to the noisy chatter below while browsing the flood of Black Wind Village-related topics constantly refreshing on the Jianghu Forum.

Although both of them were martial fanatics who hated to waste time on too many other things, as standout family disciples and representatives among the Players, they still had no choice but to divert some attention to observing the current situation.

Seeing how Black Wind Village had stirred up such a huge commotion in less than an hour, the two exchanged a glance and could both see a trace of helplessness and amusement in each other’s eyes.

Ting Shui sighed in admiration. "The Black Wind Village Chief really lives up to his title; still the same old flavor, hasn’t changed at all. Sometimes I even feel like he understands us Players better than we understand ourselves. He’s a terrifying guy."

Heartbroken Little Knife’s eyes flickered slightly. "His thinking is far more open than other natives. He manages to pull off surprising moves every time, but I suspect this Blessing Bag event of his was probably suggested to him by some Player behind the scenes. Only then did he come up with such a bizarre move."

"Exactly!"

Ting Shui nodded. "He’d already set up an intel organization and a think tank entirely composed of Players back in Black Wind Village. That level of trust in Players far surpasses any other native. His status in the hearts of Black Wind Village’s Players is something else entirely. A month ago when we all logged off together, someone must have tipped him off about the general return time and given suggestions, which led to today’s astonishing operation from Black Wind Village."

Heartbroken Little Knife said coolly, "For the vast majority of Players, as long as the Black Wind Village Chief is willing to adopt their suggestions and implement them, each one becomes a task that benefits them.

Of course they’re happy to pitch all sorts of ideas, and that in turn pushes the Black Wind Village Chief to become more and more ’specialized’ among all natives—less and less like a native, and more like the ’NPC’ as we understand the term. But that is precisely what some people within our families absolutely do not want to see."

A trace of mockery appeared on Ting Shui’s pretty face. "The world has always been this ironic. Some people assume only they are allowed to be special, and can’t stand others being just as special as they are. When someone else becomes just as special, they’ll go all out to suppress, oppose, and trample them."

As the two were talking, they suddenly felt an inexplicable jolt of dread; all the hair on their bodies stood on end involuntarily.

And then—

A sharp, terrifying roar that shook people to the depths of their Spirit erupted without warning, making the entire tavern tremble. The wine cups on the table immediately started dancing, liquor splashing onto the table, filling the air with rich fragrance.

"A dragon!?"

"Dragon’s roar!"

The two reacted extremely fast. One tapped the tip of his foot and swept to the window; the other slapped the table and "pounced" out through another window like an arrow, flipping to land on the rooftop, then lifted their heads to look.

In the air outside the city walls, a massive, sinuous ink-black dragon shadow blocked out the sun, emanating a terrifying, suffocatingly ferocious aura. Like a mass of black cloud, it pressed closer and closer. Atop that dragon shadow, a burly figure stood with hands clasped behind his back, tall and proud, a Black Cloak billowing in the wind, like a Demon God descending—shocking to the soul!

"Whoosh——"

The entire Cold Moon City instantly erupted into an uproar, faces one after another churning like flowers tossed into a vat of multicolored dye, wildly shifting and twisting...

...

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(As usual, extra Chapter at dawn. There’s already a "trade monthly tickets for ’Black Wind Village’ title" event in the book review section.)