The first option must be ruled out.
Causing chaos in the world and opposing cultivators is not considered at all.
Although I've been hiding continuously since being abducted, barely going outside.
However, from the snippets of words from the Demon Men, I understand that the current era has gone through dozens of cycles of the immortal cultivation system's rise and fall, reaching the pinnacle since recorded history tens of thousands of years ago.
This is the greatest era.
For those reputedly extremely meticulous scholar cultivators to use the term "greatest" to describe it, shows how dazzling and splendid this era truly is.
The realms of this world are divided into:
Five Elements, Four Viscera, Three Elements, Two Phases, One Heart, and Self-Transformation.
Just to say it this way.
Even the newcomer Ning Zheng, who, due to "good luck," obtained a cultivation technique and secretly cultivated it, just beginning the first of the Five-Body Realm, can take his head off to play soccer and still not die.
The theoretical lifespan is even eight hundred years.
The average lifespan, various abilities, of this world, completely overturned his worldview.
Now let's look at the second option.
Ning Zheng immediately showed some envy,
"Tsk! This person's Qi fortune is terrifying like this, clearly a mortal of unknown origin, yet carrying a Tao Fruit of Longevity that grants immortality?"
This stable suction, bringing him as another family member, is just a stronger version of the family member Ning Jiaojiao, the daily stable profit is enormous!
In just over a month, one makes back the investment, then profits wildly?
Ning Zheng remained silent for a moment, slowly shaking his head,
"This little bit of Qi fortune exchange is not having full control of him, but just using this savings to merely obtain an opportunity to meet him when he arrives here."
The difference here is as vast as exchanging for a meeting with the richest person, versus directly becoming the richest person.
If one wants to obtain this Tao Fruit of Longevity, it would probably far exceed just a little bit of Qi Fortune Value.
"If I can control him, I can daily absorb from him, but controlling someone temporarily doesn't ensure controlling them forever. I've never seen a person with 5000 Qi Fortune Points; the luck must be unimaginably good."
He continued pondering, sitting on the chair holding his Copper Sword, slowly shaking his head,
"Killing him directly to rob the Tao Fruit of Longevity?"
"But whether it can be killed is one thing; even if successfully killing a person with great Qi fortune, can one really keep such a holy object?"
"It might directly flee; if one wants to take the opportunity to intercept the Tao Fruit of Longevity, according to experience, who knows how much enormous extra Qi fortune would have to be spent."
He was very calm.
The greater the profit, the greater the risk.
Opportunities, if they can't be handled, just become a disaster.
Ning Zheng decisively averted his gaze, hesitating for a second would be disrespectful to the villagers' crowdfunded savings.
The villagers raised him for so many years, only to save up enough for a business outside the village; if that were all lost, it would truly shame his hometown.
His gaze fell on the third option, a hint of surprise showing between his brows.
A group of little blacksmiths?
Perfect, diligent, and relentless, these words just mean this fits the work of the Sword Casting Manor.
But how can it be?
Weapons crafted by those Demon Men, some even extremely using their life, bones, skin, and flesh as materials, with various great horrors and eeriness, more brutal than torture, how could anyone happily accept such a job?
Yet after several comparisons, he silently chose this little blacksmith.
"I'll choose three!"
The wind was calm and the waves were quiet, the opportunity did not appear immediately.
This was not arriving instantly, but reasonably appeared nearby.
He was not in a hurry, strolled around the mountain, tidying up the combat scene at the manor for a while, working straight through until the afternoon.
At sunset, he descended the mountain directly, returning to the house in the village to spend the night.
"I'm back."
"Hey, welcome back." Opening the door, Ning Jiaojiao excitedly ran over.
"Is dinner ready?"
Ning Zheng sat down, placing his sword and jacket on the chair next to him.
"Of course, it's ready; it's from the River Demon fished out from the well last time, it's delicious." Ning Jiaojiao muttered with some regret, "The spiritual Qi is abundant, very nourishing, but we're about to finish it."
Finished again?
Ning Zheng fell slightly silent, the feeling of joy was diluted.
Meals, indeed, that's a significant problem.
Ning Jiaojiao and these non-human fellows, although they also consume blood food to increase cultivation, they can maintain their basic Yin Spirit form by leveraging Earth Vein Yin Qi.
Ning Zheng is the only living person in the entire village, so eating is indeed somewhat troublesome.
Moreover, with originally no cultivation resources, if there's no supplement of meat rich in spiritual Qi, his cultivation speed would be extremely slow!
Fortunately, there's an ancient well in this courtyard, connecting the underground river, fish in the well, which is why Ning Zheng chose to live in this yard.
Ning Zheng put down his chopsticks, thought for a moment, and promptly said:
"Alright, tonight you'll bite on the hook again, I'll fish you up, and you can swim another circle in the river below the well. After a big fish bites you, I'll pull you up, and we'll catch a River Demon."
"You want me to go down again. Playing the bait game isn't fun; that River Demon bites my feet hard."
Ning Jiaojiao grumbled unhappily, "Your hook is so big... and so rough... It's painful when it's hooked on my chin, and you keep pulling and pulling from above the well."
"It's hard on you, but we siblings rely on each other to survive, we have to eat, right?"
Ning Zheng sighed, fortunately Ning Jiaojiao isn't alive, her life force is incredibly strong, otherwise, he wouldn't choose her as bait, "You also don't want our family to go hungry, right?"
Ning Jiaojiao rubbed her belly, "Right, we need to eat... I'm starving, starving. If there's nothing to eat, it won't work, we'll starve to death."
"Brother, you go out to work every day, you should eat more." She thought for a moment and eagerly handed over the meat, "Mother said I'm not worth much and will be married off sooner or later."
"Father and mother aren't here, we don't worry about those things, you secretly eat more." Ning Zheng smiled.
In this ancient demon world where the people can't make a living, only the men and laborers in the family eat more, because they need to do heavy work, while women often go hungry.
Ning Jiaojiao's daily life in the village when she was alive was surely like this.
After all, she still maintains the memory and logic from when she was alive.
"Thank you, brother." Ning Jiaojiao cheered and picked up another piece of meat, which looked tender and juicy, and ate it in small bites, cherishing it as she chewed for a long time.
"Eat and you'll have the energy to work." Ning Zheng just smiled. After dinner, Ning Zheng and Ning Jiaojiao went to the well with their fishing rods to prepare.
The hook was a large iron hook meant for hanging pig heads from the neighboring butcher's house, very sturdy.
"Bite onto it."
Woo~!
Ning Jiaojiao carefully took the hook into her mouth, slowly descending along the well opening.
The moonlight shone on the well, with ripples across the dark spring.
Gurgle~
The sound of entering the water.
Ning Jiaojiao held the hook in her mouth, her legs gradually transforming into a fish tail covered in scales, gracefully swimming forward, heading towards the gloomy and interconnected underground waterways.
River Demons mostly reside in the rivers under the countryside or in underground dark rivers.
With low intellect, they appear mostly at night, covered in fish scales, resembling large frogs, with ghostly green eyes, extremely ugly but with soft, tender meat, very nutritious.
They don't have teeth, and once they swallow prey, they never let go, which makes the bait unlikely to escape.
After more than ten minutes passed, Ning Zheng sat quietly by the well with his hand on the fishing rod.
Suddenly.
The rod suddenly jerked violently.
"Biting the bait!"
Ning Zheng gave a fierce pull on the rod, pulling hard.
"It's coming up, quickly pull it up!"
Soon, Ning Jiaojiao shouted and emerged from the water.
Ning Zheng quickly looked down the well and saw that her waist was firmly held in the River Demon's large mouth, its small round green pea eyes filled with a dazed clarity, refusing to loosen its grip.
"Quick, pull, pull! We caught a big fish today!" Ning Jiaojiao shouted below, her hands also helping with force, transforming into a strange form, climbing crazily up the well.
After a lot of hustle, Ning Zheng fell breathlessly into the courtyard, the silly River Demon that wouldn't let go was already smashed dead.
This one was quite big, enough for three days of food.
"Wow! Brother, big fish, big fish, we have big fish to eat again." Ning Jiaojiao exclaimed, hugging the River Demon foolishly, and laughed in delight.
"Life will get better and better."
Ning Zheng smiled.
If it weren't for Ning Zheng's great luck and finding food through this method, living humans wouldn't be able to survive in this Spirit Manor.
But now, always using Ning Jiaojiao to catch big fish, bait to catch big fish isn't a long-term solution. Perhaps they need to find other live bait.
After all, people aren't wood or stone; spending a long time together, one can't help but feel a bit protective.
Compared to those scheming humans, the Resentful Souls who act clearly and follow their life's logic don't betray easily; he also regards Ning Jiaojiao as his partner, like a cat his family once had in his past life.
After marinating the meat, it was already late at night, so they retired early.
The next morning.
Boom!!
A meteor suddenly streaked across the sky, with blazing flames, crashing into the back mountain of the village.
"It's here? A bit late, huh."
Ning Zheng didn't even have breakfast, hurriedly put on his coat, grabbed his sword, and quickly headed to the back mountain to see what great opportunity could change his life.
Upon reaching the destination.
He found a giant dark meteor crater, within which was a special black box. He reached out to gently touch it.
A mechanical cold voice suddenly came:
[Scanning current environment.]
[Error occurred... Unknown mutation in the space-time traversing program... Forced activation...]
[Your assistant Ai is initiating the 'Sword Casting Competition' for you.]