Chapter 159: Taihu Lake Waters, Fragment Map of Wuhou’s Tomb

Taihu Lake’s waters were vast and misty, stretching across thirty-six thousand acres, with countless beautiful sceneries.

In the game, it was unknown how many times it had been expanded. Looking out, it was a boundless waterworld.

Ye Rong bought a Dragon Riding Light Escape Talisman in Chengdu City and directly went to Lin’an City, then arrived at the Taihu Lake waters.

If he had flown here by Sword Flight, who knew how many thousands of miles separated the two Main Cities. Even at his speed, flying for days and nights would not get him there.

A Dragon Riding Light Escape Talisman was not cheap. If not for the three hundred gold reward from the Herbal Hall, Ye Rong really couldn’t have afforded even the Teleportation Talisman fee.

Though he was born in Lin’an Main City, as soon as he reached level 15, he hurried to Qingcheng, not lingering long in this Jiangnan watertown.

Besides the Sichuan Region, this fertile Jiangnan land was also the area with the highest concentration of Players in Far Shore, mainly because the number of Players starting here was large enough.

Although there were no large Sects located in Jiangnan, there were many Rogue Cultivator remnants here, and it often happened that Players obtained ancient cultivators’ legacies; plus, there were many small schools and Heterodox Schools everywhere, so one could always find a place to study.

Moreover, after joining a Sect, it wasn’t like you couldn’t return to your birthplace.

If Ye Rong hadn’t sought convenience and wanted greater development in Qingcheng, he could have returned to Lin’an and leveled up by farming monsters around the Taihu Lake waters.

Qingcheng now had nearly one hundred thousand Formal Disciples, but usually only about twenty to thirty thousand stayed near the Sect.

More Qingcheng Players, after studying there, returned to their birthplaces to team up with real-life friends for leveling, or joined local Factions, rather than all grouping together by Sect.

This situation wasn’t unique to Qingcheng; large Sects like Emei, Kunlun, etc., were all the same.

So when Ye Rong was at the Taihu Lake waters, the main leveling area near Lin’an, he saw a scene completely different from other places—

No longer were there clear boundaries between Sects, with Emei groups here, Qingcheng groups there, and Kunlun groups elsewhere. There were disciples from all Sects, Righteous Path, Heterodox Schools, and even a few Demonic Path Players, though their numbers were small, and they all looked strong, their Sword Lights quickly flashing past.

When Ye Rong first arrived at Taihu Lake, it was misty and vast, with glimmering waves. He had no idea where to go.

Surrounding the Taihu Lake waters were over a hundred fishing villages. Each village had many nearly useless life-type NPCs and a few important NPCs that provided Players with supplies, selling medicine and buying back equipment.

Scattered in the center of Taihu Lake were also over a hundred islands, all divided up and occupied by nearby Player Organizations.

It wasn’t like when he was in the Dujiangyan Waters, where he could act recklessly, since it was his home ground with no Players to fear.

But the Taihu Lake waters were different. He was unfamiliar with the place, and there were many large Player Organizations here, dozens of times stronger than the current Green Emperor Alliance, and they were among the most hopeful to establish formal Factions.

If he provoked these giants, even with Ye Rong’s strength, he wouldn’t gain any advantage, and even if he could escape, it would be hard to stay in this area.

“So strong! In just this short while, I saw four or five patrol teams, all from the same Faction.”

Ye Rong looked up and saw a team of Players in uniform robes flying overhead. Players who could serve as patrols were not low-level. This Faction could assign so many people just for patrols, showing how powerful they were.

Wandering aimlessly was no solution. He picked a fishing village and landed. After thinking, he sent a Flying Sword Message, then idly walked around the village.

The life-type NPCs in the fishing village mostly lived by fishing, so there was a rumor that someone got a job quest to become a Shipbuilder in a fishing village.

In this watertown, like coastal areas, the Shipbuilder profession was highly valued, more important than any Alchemist or Sword Refiner; no other job could replace it.

But the rumor was old, and still no Player had successfully gotten the job. Everyone’s hope slowly faded. Besides buying medicine or clearing junk, few went to these small fishing villages anymore.

The small fishing village Ye Rong was in now was called Ruan Family Village. Eighty percent of the NPCs here had the surname Ruan. Since he was waiting for the Flying Sword Message reply and had nothing to do, he chatted with every NPC he met and actually got two quests.

Uncle Ruan San wanted three live crucian carp. Aunt Ruan Er needed her fishing net repaired. The village elder wanted to buy a batch of wine…

These quests were simple errands, but even Players in their teens wouldn’t do them because the rewards were too pitiful. If he weren’t so bored, he wouldn’t have taken them.

Rewards like 20 EXP, 10 copper coins, etc. Ye Rong could only give a bitter smile and treat it as killing time.

“Hey, this village actually sells wormwood. Isn’t this the ingredient I’m missing for brewing wine!”

One quest even gave a zero-tier fishing spear. When Ye Rong was clearing his inventory at the sundries shop owner, he found the owner sold several materials, one of which was the wormwood he lacked for brewing first-grade fine wine, Jimo Old Wine.

He immediately bought a bunch, along with several wine gourds, and started brewing.

This was his first brewing attempt since becoming a Brewer. Before, he couldn’t because he lacked materials.

Of course, it was also because he didn’t pay much attention to it; otherwise, materials for a mere first-grade fine wine could be obtained with a little effort.

After failing twice in a row, he finally succeeded on the third try, brewing a gourd of fine wine.

As a Jingsheng Sect Brewer, he had a ten percent bonus effect when brewing recovery-type wines—

Jimo Old Wine, first-grade fine wine, rich aroma, mellow taste, slightly bitter with a lasting fragrance. Each sip restored 66 points of Qi and Blood, but only the first sip per minute had the recovery effect.

“Wow, not bad! When I brew third-grade fine wine, I probably won’t need to bring many regular pills for leveling, just a few large wine gourds.”

Right after brewing it, Ye Rong took a big sip. The taste was indeed good, even for someone who didn’t drink much in real life; he found it pleasant.

He checked his Life Profession experience: success only gave ten EXP, failure gave two more EXP. To reach second-level Brewer required five hundred EXP.

He sighed. Life Profession Players without big Faction support indeed found it hard to progress on their own.

He continued brewing until he used all his materials, succeeding three more times, producing three gourds of fine wine.

He gave one gourd to the elder of Ruan Family Village. This quest originally required Players to go to Lin’an Main City to buy a vat of wine.

“Hmm… The aroma is pure, good wine, good wine!”

The elder with white hair and a beard almost reaching the ground took the wine gourd from Ye Rong. After just one sip, his face glowed red.

“Taoist Priest, the village has nothing good to repay you. This old book fragment was left by my great-grandfather; I pass it to you now!”

“Damn… Well, good stuff, thank you, old sir!”

Ye Rong had seen many quest rewards that gave so-called ancient books or broken books. Early on, some Players got excited, thinking they got a huge opportunity, but soon everyone found these were just traps set by the designers.

These ancient or broken books were either scribbles or maps to a treasure thirty miles away. Following the map would lead to a few purely decorative gold and silver items.

To life-type NPCs, they were treasures, but to Players, they were worthless junk, too heavy to carry.

But luckily, Ye Rong glanced and found this old book fragment in his hand wasn’t useless; at least not to him.

Tomb of Marquis Wu Relic Map Page One, Tomb of Marquis Wu Relic Map Page Two.

This way, he now had Tomb of Zhuge Wuhou Ruins Map Pages One, Two, Three, and Seven—four pages in total.

“They say during the Closed Beta, the Tomb of Zhuge Wuhou Ruins never opened because the map couldn’t be fully collected, always missing the crucial Page One and Page Nine. I randomly killed time doing a small quest and got this reward. Is the System Deity hinting that the Tomb of Zhuge Wuhou Ruins belongs to me?”

Ye Rong guessed it was probably because the fine wine he used to complete the quest exceeded ordinary wine, causing the quest reward to change. Probably, following the quest normally would give Tomb of Zhuge Wuhou Ruins Map Page Two, but he happened to give a gourd of freshly brewed Jimo Old Wine, making the Ruan Family Village elder give out Tomb of Zhuge Wuhou Ruins Map Page One as well.

“It’s all fate. If I hadn’t suddenly thought of coming to Taihu Lake to trouble that Red Chi Dragon, I wouldn’t have gotten this benefit. Worth it, worth it, the price is already paid back!”

Although the Tomb of Zhuge Wuhou Ruins wasn’t a super dungeon or top treasure spot, it still contained Zhuge Wuhou’s remains, including all the Magic Treasures he used and many high-level Mechanism Blueprints.

Especially for Mechanists, besides attacking the Southern Sea Xuan Turtle Hall for possibly more and higher-tier Mechanism Blueprints, the items related to Mechanism Art in the Tomb of Zhuge Wuhou Ruins should be the largest and highest quality treasure trove in Far Shore.