Chapter 272: Only Cheating Can Ensure Survival
After entering the illusion of the Great Old Dream, Jiang Li only felt that his entire body was enveloped by a dense fog.
Then, the ground beneath his feet disappeared and he fell from a height of ten thousand meters.
As he landed, the mountains and rivers below began to flow in reverse.
In the air not far from him, Ink Sect’s Zi Yao was also falling freely. When several people accepted the test at the same time, they would receive the same test in the same illusion.
They could compete with each other or cooperate together. As long as they completed the test well, they would not be restricted.
Zi Yao did not look too surprised by this situation.
She had disappeared some time ago, so she should have been prepared for this.
This Ink Child trial might really change as they had said. However, it was not without traces. At the very least, they could practice all the illusionary scenes in the records and try to bump into one.
What Jiang Li did not know was that Zi Yao’s status in the Ink Sect was special. She was the daughter of the previous Sect Master, which was why she received such treatment.
The Endless Mountain Range in the illusion below quickly became unrecognizable under the flow of time.
It was not until they were about to land that they began to slow down. Finally, they felt their feet hit the ground and landed in front of two villages not far away.
Jiang Li touched the ground beneath his feet. The soil could be overturned, and small insects could be seen crawling in the soil.
This illusion was quite real.
Jiang Li used his spiritual qi to try and see if he could use spell techniques in this illusion.
A sapling broke out of the ground and finally grew into a fruit tree that was as tall as a person.
Jiang Li frowned and was slightly speechless. He had used this spell technique, but the amount of spiritual qi that could originally create a forest had actually only grown such a small tree at this moment.
Zi Yao wanted to say something but hesitated before she reminded Jiang Li, “Alliance Leader Jiang, please use your spell technique carefully.”
“The flow of time in this space is different from the outside world. A day in reality is equivalent to a year here. In this place, we can only use three spell techniques.”
“You’ve already wasted one use. If you use up all three chances, you won’t be able to use spell techniques for a year in the illusion world.”
Zi Yao provided Jiang Li with a key piece of information.
Not only would the effect of casting spell techniques here be greatly reduced, both Core Formation and Nascent Soul cultivators could only use methods at the Qi Refinement realm. Moreover, the quantity would be severely limited, and they only had a mere three chances.
“Then what should we do in this illusion realm to pass the test?” Jiang Li took the initiative to ask.
After falling into this illusion, there were no hints. Everything had to be explored by oneself.
Only the two villages in front of him were especially conspicuous. Presumably, they were the focus of the test.
Looking at Zi Yao’s situation, she should have some understanding. Therefore, he asked her.
“Alliance Leader Jiang, to be honest, this is a part of the history of our Ink Sect’s ancestors.”
“My Ink Sect has a long history. We started at the beginning of the resurgence of the spiritual qi of heaven and earth.”
“At that time, it was a chaotic time. My Ink Sect’s ancestor went to a village and led the villagers there to resist the harsh winter famine and the beast tide.”
“In this illusion, we have to experience what that ancestor experienced.”
“What we need to do is personally lead these two villages to resist the calamity and develop.”
“This will last for seven years, which is seven days in the real world. If you do well enough, you will be recognized by the City Heart.”
“There should be no difference between these two villages. Alliance Leader Jiang, please choose first.”
As they spoke, dark clouds suddenly floated over from the sky. Snow began to fall, and the surrounding temperature began to plummet.
Jiang Li nodded and already had a rough understanding of the test.
The time when this happened was when the spiritual qi of heaven and earth first recovered. The power of spell techniques was greatly reduced, and it was reasonably so.
After all, the concentration of spiritual qi in the environment at that time was quite limited. Cultivators of that era generally could not use any powerful spell techniques.
Therefore, since the spiritual qi of the spell techniques was limited, the key to breaking through the trap should still be the Mo Clan’s exquisite mechanisms.
As such, he had almost no advantage here.
In just a few breaths, the ground was covered in a thick layer of ice and snow.
Jiang Li walked towards the village on the left, and Zi Yao also walked towards the village on the right.
This was a small village with less than a hundred houses.
The village was quite backward. The houses were made of irregular wood, branches, and straw.
There were cracks everywhere on the simple and crude wall. The grass on the roof was also broken in two.
The cold snow could almost blow in from the north and out from the south.
They would not even use mud walls to increase their resistance to the cold wind.
Jiang Li casually pushed open a room, and everything inside was visible.
A wobbly table was the only piece of furniture.
Apart from that, there was only a pile of dry grass in the corner of the wooden house. In the pile of dry grass was a body curled up, a dead body.
He could only use three spell techniques and knew nothing about mechanisms. Moreover, the situation in this village was so terrible. It seemed that this trial was much more difficult than Jiang Li had imagined.
On the other side, Zi Yao, who had undergone special training, had already started working non-stop.
Zi Yao changed her usual gentleness and used violent methods to chase out all the residents who were still alive hiding in the house.
She got them to take off the clothes of the dead residents and run to the forest to do logging.
The trees that grew on the frozen earth were several times denser than ordinary trees.
If a person used an ordinary axe to chop it, he might not even be able to chop one in four hours.
This was also the reason why the houses in the village were so simple and crude. Local residents could not directly cut down trees to pick up branches and wooden sticks to build wooden houses.
If one wanted to become rich, he had to start from logging. This was common knowledge in survival games.
But here, the first step encountered serious obstruction.
However, to Ink Sect’s Zi Yao, some simple farming tools were simply toys from her childhood.
Due to the current crude conditions, through simple modifications and assembly, the convenient and fast fire saw and gravel saw were created.
First, she charred the surface of the tree with a long fire saw. Then, she used the gravel saw that was made with hard obsidian rocks to remove the charcoal.
The two were repeatedly used together in turns. Compared to before, the efficiency was more than ten times higher.
Soon, she led the villagers to cut down many trees.
Then, they gathered the villagers, repaired the houses, cleaned the snow, built a bonfire, and even used wooden planks to connect them together to create a heating system that benefited the entire village.
Just a few days into the illusion, everyone in her village already had a fire to cook soup to drink.
No one was frozen to death anymore. As expected of the outstanding new generation of Ink Sect, she had done everything she could to resist the calamity.
On the other hand, Jiang Li did not take any effective measures.
If this test evaluated his mind, soul strength, courage, and willpower, he would not be afraid no matter what.
Even a hundred Zi Yao would not be his match. However, this test was targeted at mechanisms and control over the development of the people.
Jiang Li was at a loss.
With the knowledge from his previous life, it was naturally not impossible for him to take precautions.
However, when he realized his disadvantage, he knew that in terms of mechanisms, he was definitely inferior to any Ink Sect disciple.
The spell technique was severely restricted here. So many Ink Sect disciples had failed here.
If he obediently did the test according to the rules, there was no way he could pass.
Therefore, seeking a breakthrough outside the rules was his only choice. Fortunately, Jiang Li did not plan to be honest anyway.
He first circled the entire village and discovered that only the village chief’s house was relatively wide and warm. There was a stone furnace inside that could be used to keep warm.
After using his fists to reason with him and swaying his emotions, the village chief very bluntly agreed to let all the residents of the village stay in his house.
They covered the ground with dried grass and warmed each other up, making it less likely to freeze to death.
After that, Jiang Li went out and found a place to sit alone, and he paid no further attention to them.
If he did not do anything else, his test would definitely fail.
However, Jiang Li still did not care.
He reached out and took out a handful of pine nuts. He had borrowed them from the village chief.
After grinding these pine nuts into powder, it was their food for the winter.
When the Demon Awakening Technique was activated, the Nine Nether spiritual qi that was originally enough to awaken at least 50 Wood Demons only caused a pine nut to grow into a dwarf Wood Demon that was half the height of a person.
Jiang Li nodded and was unmoved.
He picked up a seed and used the Demon Awakening Technique again. This time, he only used one unit of spiritual qi, but the Wood Demon he pointed out was also exactly the same. It was half the height of a person.
It seemed that this illusion realm limited the upper limit of the strength of the spell technique, and it was not proportional to the amount of spiritual qi used.
Jiang Li cast another spell, but he could not release anything anymore.
Zi Yao did not lie to him. In this illusion, he could only use three spell techniques for a certain period of time.
He had used up his precious spell casting times, but he had only exchanged for two useless dwarf Wood Demons.
From the looks of it, Jiang Li seemed to have done a very stupid thing, and the chance of him passing the test was practically zero.
However, he did not feel anything towards such an outcome.
After a few more attempts, he was not disappointed.
Closing his eyes and being silent for a moment, he opened his palm again. This time, a dreamy seven-colored ball of light slowly appeared in his palm.
He was overjoyed. It worked!
This world built from illusions was like a computer game. Typically, one could only follow the rules.
In reality, even if one used physical methods to blow up the computer screen, the characters in the game would not be injured at all.
However, what if you used a modifier?
Using illusions in the illusion world was equivalent to using a game modifier.
Jiang Li dragged the seven-colored ball of light and waved his hand.
A large table of delicacies and food immediately appeared in front of him.
It was delicious in color, smell, and taste, and it only cost him a little bit of the Illusory Life spiritual qi.
However, it was obvious that those who wanted to use this method to easily pass the test had already tried it over the years. The City Heart of Thousand Sieve City had long patched this bug in this illusion.
He quickly discovered the surrounding scenery became blurry for a moment. The food was not erased, and he was not kicked out of the illusion.
It was as if nothing had happened, but when he opened the interface to check, the illusory status called the Great Old Dream had already changed from seven days to six days.
The standard of this illusion technique was for the participants to lead the village through the difficulties and develop to a sufficient extent.
Now, seven days had become six days, which meant that in the illusion world, seven years had become six years.
Losing a year would undoubtedly increase the difficulty greatly.
This was equivalent to using a cheat in the game and being discovered, so he was punished by the developers.
Every time Jiang Li used an illusion technique, the punishment given by the City Heart of Thousand Sieve City was to reduce the duration of the illusion technique by a day.
When the time was up, he would be kicked out of the illusion space.
If he did not reach a certain standard, it would mean that he had failed the test.
However, Jiang Li smiled in this situation.
Was it that easy to kick him out?
He pressed on the Great Old Dream status for five seconds as the duration became infinite. After the test ended, he would use the minus button to remove this status.
As such, he was practically invincible now.
It was time to start!
He directly waved his hand and released Qin Shuman. The two of them worked together and cast illusions as they walked in the village.
The simple wooden houses in the village directly became luxurious courtyards. The snow and frozen earth directly blossomed like it was the season of spring.
In the outside world, illusions did not represent reality. However, in this illusion space, illusions could defy the heavens and change fate.
The scenery around Jiang Li constantly became blurry and clear.
However, it was still unable to kick Jiang Li out of the illusion realm.
On the other side, Zi Yao worked hard and finally gathered the villagers together. She arranged all kinds of work and the measures to resist the tough winter.
However, according to the historical records left behind by the sect, after the harsh winter ended and the snow melted, a famine caused by drought would follow.
Therefore, from now on, although it was still winter, they had to prepare for drought and famine.
She planned to stockpile snow water in advance, cultivate frozen soil, and prepare to grow crops that were produced quickly. She wanted to grow enough food after spring before the moisture in the soil was completely lost.
Relying on her foresight, she and the Ink Sect Elder had rehearsed a strategy to deal with various sudden events in advance before barely managing to deal with this series of calamity tests.
In the following beast tide, it would be even more difficult to rely on these unarmed farmers to resist.
Even she, who had such an advantage, was in such a state. How could Jiang Li, who did not know anything, do anything in this situation?
She turned around to see Jiang Li’s village.
She was shocked to discover that the neighboring village was almost like a different world.
The buildings were decorated with carvings and paintings, the land was blooming in spring, wine and meat were abundant, and there were even piles of silk and brocade…
Zi Yao: “…”
Were they really going through the same test?