World version update

Chapter 1 Version Update
"Lu Yan! Go and move the talisman paper out of the warehouse. Remember to clean it up with the dust removal talisman."

"Lu Yan! Why is there 20% less cinnabar for drawing talismans today? I give you one spirit stone every month. Is this just to let you be lazy?"

"This piece of talisman paper is actually broken. What are you doing? I'll deduct half a spiritual stone from you to compensate for the loss!"

Inside the Ling Fu Fang, the pot-bellied shopkeeper Chu Hao kept yelling and scolding the only clerk in the shop.

The waiter looked to be no more than twenty years old, with a thin build, handsome face and a scholarly air. However, the coarse linen clothes he was wearing ruined his temperament.

He just lowered his head and sorted the materials and prepared cinnabar without saying a word according to the orders of the shopkeeper Chu Hao.

It was already evening, and there were not many monks coming and going in the market to buy spiritual objects. Shopkeeper Chu Hao's scolding immediately attracted many shopkeepers and clerks from the surrounding shops to watch.

One of the shopkeepers couldn't bear to watch this and couldn't help but give advice:

"Manager Chu, please stop talking! I think Lu Yan is a hardworking and dedicated guy. If you really want to scold him away, where can you find such a suitable clerk?"

Upon hearing this, the pot-bellied shopkeeper Chu glared and said loudly and unceremoniously:
"It's hard to find a three-legged frog, but aren't there many two-legged people? If he doesn't do it, there are plenty of people who will!"

"What's more, these mortals are all ungrateful fellows, and sooner or later they will find a way to escape.

Do I want him to be like those other ruthless fellows, who were fed and pampered by me, but in the end stole my family's skills and spirit stones and ran away quietly?"

As soon as Manager Chu said this, the people around him were speechless.

Zhulinfang Market is not very big, and everyone has heard about what happened to Manager Chu.

A few years ago, Shopkeeper Chu found a clerk with a talent for spiritual practice and planned to train him as his successor. Not only did he provide him with spiritual practice techniques, he also personally taught him the skill of drawing talismans.

As a result, not long after that clerk entered the Qi training stage, he took advantage of Manager Chu's absence to steal away the skills and spirit stones in the Lingfu Shop, causing Manager Chu to suffer heavy losses.

From then on, Manager Chu became full of distrust towards the clerks he recruited and would beat and scold them at will.

In just four or five years, Ling Fu Fang had more than twenty employees come and go, and the shortest one stayed for only half a month.

Thinking of this, the other shopkeepers in the market could only shake their heads secretly and disperse.

Shopkeeper Chu, who was standing at the door, took a look at the gloomy sky outside, said a few words, and left the shop in a hurry.

In Lingfu Shop, only Lu Yan was left, who was tidying up the shop.

Lu Yan was brought into Ling Fu Fang by Manager Chu three months ago. He works diligently every day but is still criticized for various reasons.

The fat-headed shopkeeper Chu said that he would get one spirit stone every month, but in reality, he would often have to take all the spirit stones away within three days of work.

If the talisman paper in the warehouse is damaged, the spirit stones will be deducted; if the cinnabar is of poor quality, the spirit stones will be deducted; if the store's business is not good, the spirit stones will be deducted; even if the customer bargains, Lu Yan's spirit stones will be deducted.
After three months, Lu Yan even owed Lingfufang twenty-seven spirit stones.

This number of spirit stones is even more than the total assets of most cultivators in the early stages of Qi training. Compared with this shopkeeper Chu, even the capitalists are considered generous.

"No, it's twenty-seven and a half."

Lu Yan, who was sorting out the talisman papers, silently added a note in his heart.

To outsiders, Lu Yan was a clerk randomly picked by Manager Chu from a mortal city, but only Lu Yan himself knew that he did not belong to this world.

Lu Yan came from Earth, a world only he knew. His soul traveled through time and space and landed in a person with the same name and surname. At first, the world Lu Yan saw was also a prosperous city, and its technological level and cultural development were almost the same as those of Earth in the 21st century.

Until three months ago, Lu Yan experienced a version change.

At that moment, Lu Yan realized the truth of the whole world.

It was as if an almighty power had turned the entire world into a game, and the world went directly from the urban version to the fairy-tale version.

In just a short moment, the once prosperous city disappeared, and was replaced by an ancient and charming fairy world.

Those complex and exquisite technological creations disappeared, the original order was wiped out in an instant, and the immortal cultivators who flew in and out of the blue sky with swords became the masters of the immortal version.

In this earth-shaking change, all living beings seemed to be unaware of it and just went with the flow instinctively.

Even the rulers of the city and the high-ranking immortal cultivators can only follow the changes in the world version.

In this rapidly changing world, Lu Yan, as an outsider, is the only creature independent of the world version update.

He witnessed with his own eyes the transformation of tall buildings into low houses, bustling cities into mortal cities, and the disappearance of a large number of familiar faces. Even if there were one or two familiar faces, their identities had changed.

Among all the changing things, only Lu Yan himself is an eternal and unchanging individual, able to maintain different versions of memories and retain items from the previous version.

This was originally a good thing, but Lu Yan, who had just experienced a version upgrade, had not even had time to adapt to the changes before he was spotted by the shopkeeper Chu who went to the mortal city to select his assistants.

Manager Chu forcibly brought Lu Yan to Zhulin Market and forced him to work hard day and night.

In the early days of version updates, Lu Yan still had fantasies about the so-called immortal cultivation magic and the world of immortal heroes.

However, as he was exploited day and night by Manager Chu, and had to sleep on a cold and hard bed and eat inedible food every day, most of Lu Yan's fantasies had disappeared.

Even if he really did live a life of immortal cultivation, traveling in and out of the world of Qingming, it did not belong to a lowly market clerk like him.

The harsh living environment and difficult life are secondary. What is more important is that there is no stable order in this fairy-tale version.

Even though there are differences in power and wealth in the urban version, we are all just human beings, and a gun or a dagger can eliminate all gaps.

But in the fairy-tale version, mortals and monks are completely different life individuals, and the differences between them are to the point where they cannot be quantified.

This is a cannibalistic world!

This is not capitalist exploitation, but cannibalism in the literal sense.

Keeping silent won't protect you. If you don't want to be eaten, you have to fight back.

After placing the last stack of talisman papers on the shelf, Lu Yan walked to the counter and took out the remaining thirteen spirit stones and the few remaining finished talismans from the drawer.

Then, amid the surprised gazes of the surrounding shops, Lu Yan closed the door of Lingfufang and walked towards the backyard of the shop.

A string of illusory words popped up in front of Lu Yan's eyes.

[Current version: Xianxia
Version update progress: 99.3%】

(End of this chapter)