The Royal Chapel was a place of silence, shadows, and the smell of ancient sandalwood.
Empress Su Qingyue knelt before the altar. Usually, this place was reserved for praying to the Ancestors for rain or harvest. Today, she was here for a personal transaction.
"Are you certain this works?" she asked, her voice hushed.
The High Priest, a withered old man who looked like he was made of parchment, bowed low. "Absolutely, Your Majesty. When one wishes to send aid to a... spirit... in the Netherworld, one must burn the effigy. Fire transforms the physical into the spiritual."
Su Qingyue nodded. She looked at the pile of items on the silver tray next to her.
She wasn't burning paper money or cardboard houses. She was the Empress; she didn't deal in counterfeits.
On the tray lay:
A set of robes made from Cloud-Silk (fire-resistant, knife-proof, warmer than fur).
A bag of high-purity gold leaves.
A jade bottle of "hollow-point" healing pills (though she just knew them as the best medicine in the treasury).
"He looked cold," she whispered to herself, remembering the grey suit the spirit wore in the dream. "And thin."
She felt a strange flutter in her chest. The advice he had given her—Leverage—had saved her face in court. The least she could do was make sure her spectral advisor didn't freeze in the afterlife.
"Light it," she commanded.
The Priest hesitated. "Your Majesty, burning real Cloud-Silk is... it produces a lot of smoke. And it is worth a city's ransom."
"Did I ask for an appraisal?" Su Qingyue's eyes flashed with the "Intimidation" she was learning to control.
"No, Your Majesty!"
The Priest threw the torch onto the pile.
The flames roared. The silk didn't burn like normal cloth; it disintegrated into sparks of white light that swirled up the chimney, vanishing into the night sky.
Su Qingyue clasped her hands, closing her eyes.
Spirit of the Snow, she prayed. Please accept this tribute. Buy yourself some food. And... thank you.
[Northern Creek Village: Lin Feng's Hut]
Lin Feng was busy reinventing the concept of indoor plumbing.
He was crouched by the corner of the hut, sketching a diagram on the dirt floor with a piece of charcoal.
"If I route the runoff from the roof into a filtration basin," he muttered, drawing a series of squares, "and use the heat from the 'Spirit Stone Reactor' to boil it, I can have a sterile hot water supply. Hygiene is the first line of defense against infection."
He was just calculating the flow rate when the air in the center of the room began to distort.
It wasn't a subtle shimmer. It was a pixelated, glitching tear in reality that looked like a bad special effect from a 90s sci-fi movie.
ZRRRRT.
Lin Feng scrambled back, grabbing his hatchet. "System error? Graphics card failure?"
A blue notification box slammed into his vision, flashing gold.
INCOMING TRANSMISSION DETECTED. SOURCE: [LINKED PARTNER]. PROTOCOL: DIVINE TRIBUTE / SACRIFICIAL OFFERING. CONVERTING MATTER TO DATA... RECONSTRUCTING...
"Sacrificial offering?" Lin Feng frowned. "Is someone trying to upload a virus?"
POOF.
A heavy bundle dropped out of thin air and landed on his straw mat with a soft thud.
Lin Feng approached it cautiously, poking it with the handle of his axe. It didn't explode.
He untied the bundle.
Inside, he found a robe that felt like water in his hands but was warm to the touch. It was white, embroidered with subtle patterns of clouds and dragons.
Next to it was a pouch of gold leaves—real, heavy gold—and a small jade bottle.
LOOT BOX OPENED. CONTENTS: 1. [CELESTIAL CLOUD-SILK ROBE] (ARMOR CLASS: HIGH). 2. [IMPERIAL GOLD (20 TAELS)]. 3. [GREAT RECOVERY PILLS (10)].
Lin Feng stared at the haul.
"Okay," he said slowly. "Rational explanation. The System has a 'Reward' feature. Maybe I hit a milestone? 'Survived 48 Hours'? And this is the starter pack?"
He picked up the robe. It was exquisite. Far too nice for a woodcutter.
"Or..." He narrowed his eyes. "This is a supply drop. Like in those battle royale games. Someone—maybe the developers or an admin—is watching and realized the difficulty curve was too high for a newbie."
He stripped off his filthy, lice-ridden rags and slipped on the Cloud-Silk robe.
It fit perfectly. It auto-adjusted to his size (a feature of magical artifacts, which he interpreted as 'smart-fabric').
EQUIPMENT UPDATED. THERMAL REGULATION: OPTIMAL. DEFENSE: +50. CHARISMA: +20.
"Smart-fabric," Lin Feng nodded, stroking the sleeve. "Breathable, insulated, lightweight. This is military-grade tech. The gold must be in-game currency."
He felt a sudden wave of warmth in his chest—the bond reacting to Su Qingyue's sincerity.
"Thanks, Admin," Lin Feng said, looking up at the ceiling. "I'll leave a five-star review."
[The Next Morning]
Dressed in his new "smart-fabric" robe (which he had deliberately smudged with soot to make it look less expensive, or "camo-patterned" in his mind), Lin Feng stepped out of his hut.
He felt like a new man. He had food. He had heat. He had armor.
He walked toward the river. He needed to test the water wheel idea.
As he passed the village square, the villagers stopped and stared.
Yesterday, he was a woodcutter. Today, even with the soot, he moved with the grace of a panther. The robe shimmered faintly in the sun.
"Is that Lin Feng?" a woman whispered.
"He looks... noble," another muttered.
"I heard he killed a demon rat and ate its heart," a child added.
Lin Feng ignored the murmurs. He reached the riverbank. The water was half-frozen, chunks of ice flowing downstream.
He needed a pivot point for his wheel.
He saw a large, smooth boulder jutting out of the water.
"Perfect foundation," he noted.
He jumped.
Powered by his Iron Mountain legs and the Cloud-Silk lightness buff, he didn't just jump. He cleared twenty feet of water and landed on the boulder with the feather-light touch of a grandmaster.
"Gravity assists are calibrated well," he noted.
He began to stack stones to create a sluice. He worked with a rhythmic, mesmerizing focus.
Unbeknownst to him, a group of travelers was watching from the road above the river.
They wore matching blue uniforms with a white sword embroidered on the chest. They were disciples of the Azure Sword Sect, patrolling the mortal borders for demonic activity.
The leader, a young man named Chen, stopped his horse.
"Look," Chen pointed.
They watched Lin Feng moving rocks. To Lin Feng, he was building a dam.
To the cultivators, he was moving heavy boulders with one hand, his movements perfectly aligned with the Dao of Nature. Every placement was precise. The water didn't splash; it flowed around his work as if obeying his command.
"That posture," Chen whispered. "He is using the 'Moving Mountain' technique to... stack rocks?"
"Is he a senior expert?" a female disciple asked, eyes wide. "He is wearing a treasure robe! Look at the shimmer! It's Cloud-Silk!"
"But why is he covered in soot?"
Chen narrowed his eyes. "He is hiding his identity. A true master lives among the mortals to temper his heart. The soot is a disguise. We must not offend him."
Lin Feng finished the sluice. He wiped his forehead.
"Phase one complete," he said aloud. "Now for the turbine."
He looked up and saw the group on horses staring at him.
Cosplayers? Lin Feng thought. Or maybe the local militia?
He waved politely. "Morning. Don't mind me. Just doing some civil engineering."
Chen panicked. The Senior was speaking to them!
"Civil... Engineering?" Chen whispered to his team. "Is that a lost Daoist art? The Dao of Engineering?"
Chen dismounted immediately and bowed deeply, his forehead touching the snowy road. The other disciples followed suit.
"Junior Chen greets the Senior!" Chen shouted. "We apologize for disturbing your... cultivation of the River Dao!"
Lin Feng stood on the rock, hands on his hips.
"Cultivation of the River...?" He scratched his head. "I'm just building a water wheel, kid. For power."
Chen exchanged a look with his team. Power. He is building a device to harness the power of the river itself!
"We understand!" Chen shouted back, sweating. "We will leave immediately! We did not see anything!"
They scrambled back onto their horses and galloped away as if the devil was chasing them.
Lin Feng watched them go.
"weirdos," he muttered. "Must be a LARP group."
He turned back to his rocks.
REPUTATION UPDATE: FACTION [AZURE SWORD SECT] NOW VIEWS YOU AS: "MYSTERIOUS HERMIT EXPERT." RESPECT LEVEL: VENERATED.
"I really need to figure out how to turn off these role-playing notifications," Lin Feng sighed. "It breaks the immersion."