Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 65 To be a sect leader, you need to have a thick skin.
Then, Wang Ergou suddenly burst into great enthusiasm, excitedly saying to the old village chief, "Welcome, welcome! We're just worried about not having enough manpower! We'll pay everyone the same!"

The village chief replied, "Immortals, please feel free to ask for anything you need! How could we possibly ask for wages? That would be utterly shameful for us!"

"How can that be! We can't let you work for nothing!"

"How could it be a waste of our efforts? The immortals don't eat the offerings or ask for rice or grain; instead, they've done so much for us. We could never repay them, even if we tied grass in our laps and carried a ring in our arms. How could it be a waste of our efforts!"

"hiss--"

Wang Ergou gasped for breath, then frantically typed in the community channel: "Brothers, hurry up and kill some wild monsters! They have to be edible and delicious!"

"Hey, didn't one of our brothers open a grocery store near the sect's headquarters? Tell him to bring all his stock over, I'll take it all!"
"And who has ever been a cook? Get the fire going!"
"The NPCs have all come to help, we can't just let them work for free and then expect them to bring their own food, can we?!"

His lightning-fast reflexes, honed from years of being single, were on full display at this moment.

Even Zhou Qian, who took a long time to understand what was going on, felt a pang of sadness.

In just a few days, the second closed beta test of "Ten Continents Chronicles" gradually got on track. With the help of veteran players, new players began to cultivate their inner energy one after another.

Zhu Tu Meng Jin (Zhao Qing), whose combat power has always been ranked first, became the first player in the entire server to reach the Foundation Establishment stage. Not only could she easily solo dungeons, but she could also independently accept various bounty missions issued by the Taiping Town government. The rewards were generous, and she later became a guest of honor at Guangcheng Immortal Abode. Even the famous aloof male-female NPC Du Zhong invited her to visit the Guangcheng Sect, causing all the players to shed tears of envy.

However, compared to the veteran players who mostly gathered together to complete tasks and grind levels, the players in the second closed beta had a much wider variety of ways to play. Some learned to farm from NPCs, some went to the only tavern in Taiping Town to sing and perform, and many others stuck in the sect's library trying to truly cultivate immortality.

The most outrageous story is that a supposedly literature PhD player, facing unemployment right after graduation, decided to dedicate himself to the game "Ten Continents Chronicles." He even took courses in talismans, summoning spirits, and formations, and opened a general store at the entrance of the only dungeon in the entire server, [Cold Pool Cave], specializing in various talismans and his own homemade magical items. He became incredibly popular on live streaming platforms, second only to Wang Ergou and La Ni in popularity. Rumor has it that in just a few days, he has already achieved the financial freedom to buy a house in real life…

As for Wang Ergou, who has the highest live stream popularity, he streams the construction of Chang'an City every day, which leads netizens to jokingly call the players of Chang'an Sheyi "big black slaves" who work during the day tightening screws and then cry and beg to go into the game to tighten screws after get off work.

In this way, the players quickly became friends with the NPCs, and the reputation of the "approachable" and "upright and kind" "Taiyin Sect Immortal" spread throughout the nearby villages and towns. Even though Fang Xianyu's restrictions prevented the players from leaving her monitoring range, it could not stop the people from spreading the word.

A week after the second closed beta test began, Guangcheng Sect actually sent Fang Xianyu a letter, congratulating the Taiyin Sect on rescuing the people and stabilizing the area. They also sent a number of slightly better but still not much better defective products of weapon crafting and alchemy as congratulatory gifts.

When Fang Xianyu was in the previous cycle, he had been in a first-rate sect for over a hundred years, so he was able to figure out the Guangcheng Sect's thoughts. This invitation meant that the other party was finally taking the Taiyin Sect seriously.

From the moment she received the invitation, she began to analyze and plan in her mind.

Initially, she chose to ally with the Guangcheng Sect for two reasons: first, it's good to be under a big tree... well, the same goes for a small tree. Second, her own resources weren't particularly strong; not only could her cultivation level not be raised quickly, but the system's remaining energy was also limited, making it impossible to rashly establish a sect. Now, however, her own cultivation had reached the Golden Core stage, making her a True Person. Although she only had one Foundation Establishment player under her command, their sheer numbers and high quality were overwhelming, not to mention that these players had a country that was flirting with her behind them!

If you calculate it this way, it seems like you could just start your own business?
However, we still need to carefully consider our dealings with Emperor Guangcheng.

After all, although the political systems of civilizations in this world are still in a state of local rule, and the various sects and their subordinate factions are not in an absolute superior-subordinate relationship, it is still somewhat shameless to kick someone aside and establish one's own sect so soon after clinging to their coattails for protection.

This necessitates an analysis of the survival model of sects in this world.

Most sects are self-sufficient, with their medicinal and spiritual fields producing their own food. Mining and animal husbandry are done by the disciples with the lowest status in the sect, contrary to what many players speculate about, where they oppress ordinary people.

This isn't because cultivators have particularly high moral standards, but rather because the resources they need are almost all spiritual resources, which ordinary people rarely have access to, let alone collect or harvest. Even if they were used as quickly consumed resources, their output efficiency would be pitifully low; hundreds of ordinary people couldn't compare to a single Qi Refining stage cultivator. Therefore, cultivators wouldn't consider "oppressing the people" for resources.

Therefore, the reason why various sects protect settlements of ordinary people is not only to serve as a large sieve for selecting prospective cultivators with excellent potential, but also to collect offerings. These offerings are either made to immortals or deities within their own sects who have attained godhood, or to immortals or deities they have allied with—this is the main reason why sects are so eager to protect settlements of ordinary people.

Among them, the most important "incense offering" is not a matter of either/or.

In other words, an ordinary person can worship many deities at the same time, and it is not that worshipping one deity means they cannot worship another. The amount of incense and prayers they offer to the deities they worship will not increase or decrease due to changes in the number of deities they worship.

Therefore, even if a sect's subordinate factions intend to establish their own independent entities, as long as the people under their jurisdiction still worship the original gods, whether or not they establish their own independent entities is merely a matter of name, and most sects do not care.

Oh, you're asking why, since people can worship multiple gods, there isn't a global alliance of gods that people can worship all of?

How novel! Even gods aren't saints with absolutely perfect morality. You see your new colleague earning the same salary as you, a long-time employee who's been there for several years, and you're still unhappy about it. A powerful god sees other gods enjoying the same incense offerings as him, how can he be at peace with that?

Wherever there are people, there is a world of competition and rivalry. This principle certainly applies to gods as well!

Just as Fang Xianyu was pondering how to maintain her relationship with Guangcheng Sect and how to shamelessly find an opportunity to establish her own sect, several players she had secretly marked as Dragon Group accounts suddenly approached her alias, Baili Shuang.

"Senior Sister, we've developed a brand-new formation. Its effects are similar to the sect's grand formations described in the books. According to calculations, it can theoretically withstand an explosive attack equivalent to 10 tons, which is equivalent to a full-force attack from a Foundation Establishment cultivator at the Great Perfection stage, or even an early Golden Core cultivator. These figures were calculated based on information provided by Master Huang and some NPCs in Taiping Town. Although this formation's resilience is slightly weaker than a true sect's grand formation, it doesn't require any spirit stones. It can maintain normal operation solely by absorbing and converting the surrounding spiritual energy..."

Upon hearing this, Fang Xianyu, who had been somewhat troubled about how to negotiate with the Guangcheng Sect, suddenly brightened up—

It doesn't seem like a big deal for a sect leader to be a little thick-skinned!
(End of this chapter)