When Ning Zheng went up the mountain, he saw them happily dancing around the power hammer.

Although somewhat curious, he didn't bother with the affairs of the blacksmith shop.

Steward's Room.

He sat on the chair and checked the accounts.

Various expenditures of magic coins for crafting tasks.

Quantity of magic copper coarse embryos put into storage after forging.

Staff welfare expenses for free meals and accommodations in the canteen and dormitory.

And the cost of public facilities, such as the power hammer...

Hmm.

The ratio of "wage investment" to "product output" is quite healthy, even making quite a profit!

After all, Jiucai Rong secretly reduced the wages and rewards for various tasks like mining, smelting, and forging.

Most people worked nine hours a day, and the pay was only one or two magic coins, with 30% of the meager salary supposedly spent on the "dormitory" and "canteen" shared costs of the blacksmiths!

Shared costs?

What the hell is that term? Isn't providing meals and lodging normal welfare for workers?

Ning Zheng understood it clearly.

Jiucai Rong's management is characteristically "unethical."

Even more ruthless than the previous fat steward who often resorted to beating and scolding.

That person exploited people through violence and insults, while he exploited people kindly and amiably.

"Is this the cruelty of capitalists!"

At this moment, Ning Zheng looked at the beautifully decorated account book and felt a bit shocked.

It made him feel a little sour inside: Could it be that having no conscience really earns so much?

After reconfirming the accounts and finding that Jiucai Rong was indeed working diligently, he handed over the shadow rice wine seedlings, accelerated with fertilizing spirit liquid, directly to him.

And explained its efficacy, letting Jiucai Rong set the price.

Although the grade is not high, it excels among the lower-grade spirit rice type spirit roots.

In the steward's room, Jiucai Rong's eyes lit up upon hearing this and said, "Sir, Lord of the Manor's aura on the spirit rice has an idol effect, I think one plant could be 100 magic coins!"

Idol effect and such, Ning Zheng felt a bit embarrassed.

Especially recently, when logging in with the [Blossoming Wealth] account, seeing them crazily praise such phrases like "I could have this Manor Master" "I want to have children with the Manor Master" "I'm already 3D printing figurines" "This arrow has pierced my heart," having fans for the first time left him somewhat at a loss.

Just felt that these blacksmiths, who stole things everywhere, spoke really nicely.

But right now, the issue isn't the pricing, but whether anyone actually has such a huge sum.

"No problem, we can offer loans."

Jiucai Rong seemed very experienced:

"After the currency system was introduced, I thought about whether to implement a loan system, and if one cannot repay, they could sell themselves into servitude, which I think has great potential for profit in our manor!"

Ning Zheng pondered.

This selling could be a literal selling of oneself.

Not repaying would probably mean being caught and thrown in front of the forging furnace, where a group would induct them into servitude?

Ning Zheng couldn't be bothered to manage them, not because his moral standards had declined, but because he was numbed to it.

What you may think is very unethical, turns out to be very popular! This made Ning Zheng completely realize he had fallen 20 years behind the times!

However, Jiucai Rong soon asked, "Steward, in our manor, do we have any special secret techniques to increase the probability of [Embers] appearing after death?"

After asking, he immediately realized his behavior might seem too strange in front of the old steward, and quickly added an explanation:

"Mainly because our race has committed so many unethical deeds in our life, we kind of... don't want to die peacefully!!"

Ning Zheng laughed out loud on the spot.

Last time, your race not only loved wetting the bed, but also avoided sleeping in beds.

This time, your race constantly commits unethical deeds, yet wants to avoid a peaceful death?

Your lives are really quite colorful.

There are indeed ways to increase the probability of embers appearing.

Otherwise, how could those demon men have converted all the villagers downhill into embers?

Ning Zheng didn't know how they did it; it was too advanced.

But he had his own way, in his opinion.

Just be unlucky, and it'll work.

When one's Qi fortune value is reduced to zero, the misfortune god takes over, and the death god arrives, naturally fulfilling their wishes.

After all, when people are unlucky, they naturally don't die peacefully!

Seeing how much they liked it, Ning Zheng naturally would fulfill their desires.

As for the specific probability increase of embers appearing when doing this?

Ning Zheng didn't know either.

Ning Zheng thought for a while, took out a few magic coins, and handed them to him:

"I've infused them with mana, just hold them and channel mana into them to increase the probability of embers forming upon death. The price you can decide yourself."

This was merely a pretense.

Letting Ai assistant monitor them, having the Qi fortune value deducted before these magic coin holders died, they could still make a little extra income.

Soon, Ning Zheng left.

Although coming up the mountain this time, he handed over the spirit root to them, he didn't place all his hopes in one basket.

He retained the original stock, found a piece of wild field in Spirit Manor to plant it, and asked Ning Jiaojiao to help manage it.

Magic coins, meat field, and spirit rice, the three elements for cultivation were preliminarily gathered.

...

...

Three days passed by just like that, unnoticed.

The manor was bustling with blacksmithing, when the Hairpin Lady, reading books.

They were mainly preparing various facilities for the blacksmith shop, power hammers, forging machines... The Hairpin Ladies were also handling various needles, threads, and sewing tools.

The book readers were truly engrossed in reading.

In fact, there were quite a few readers, and Sword Casting Manor was about to turn into a book manor!

And these people were reading both online and offline in real life, with some even staying up till four in the morning.

They are more enthusiastic about it than someone preparing for graduate exams.

Ning Zheng has also been calmly cultivating at the foot of the mountain these past few days.

With the blessing of the Meat Field, the quality of life now is extraordinarily high.

During the process, Ning Zheng took a look at the forum and suddenly realized why they were so eager to plant Spiritual Roots.

"Su Yuniang: Urgent! Brothers, I discovered a hidden storyline. If you don't read, you'll all miss the new main plot planned!"

If Ning Zheng hadn't opened a forum, he would really have no idea what was happening.

"So, the reason everyone's been reading so quietly these past few days is because of this thing?"

Ning Zheng was puzzled on the spot, I didn't urge you, when you work doesn't matter, why so anxious?

What's all this about missing the planner's main storyline?

Even Ning Zheng himself, the planner, didn't know about it.

He curiously opened the post:

"Everyone, it's me Su Yuniang, and here's the scoop! Through the previous aerial view of the manor shot by Dizzy, yesterday I set up a telescope again to take another look. As a result, I found that the festival atmosphere at the foot of the mountain is getting increasingly vivid."

"This must be some kind of omen! Last night, with the help of fellow friends, we analyzed from at least 7 PM to 10 PM and felt like we've successfully predicted the main storyline of the manor!!"

Screenshots,

Screenshots.

The comparison images were posted, because the forest was too dense, only a corner of the manor could be seen through the telescope, with most of it covered.

"Firstly, anyone who's played this kind of management game knows that the scope of activities for inns, hotels, and manors is limited to just that area, and everything outside is just wallpaper, which we call an air wall,

outside are virtual maps, when Embers goes out, it's just a facade, once they exit, they turn into data. For details, refer to games like Traveling Frog, idle games, where they only bring back materials, belonging to text-based adventure...."

"So, why does the dynamic wallpaper at the foot of the manor keep advancing? The festival lanterns getting gradually hung up? It's definitely trying to hint to us that a storyline is about to unfold!"

"After the Crow Disaster, I think there are two possibilities for the main storyline's development."

"1. Looking at it optimistically, the management-type main storyline—annual celebration. We can't go down the mountain, so let Embers attend the fair, set up stalls and sell weapons to make deals with the locals. This logic makes sense, right?"

"2. Pessimistically speaking, the combat-type main storyline—the Year Beast. The Year Beast is a recurring guest in many games' New Year events, and amidst the joyful villagers during the festival, the Year Beast monster gets triggered to attack the village. At that time, we up on the mountain will be frantically crafting weapons, suonas, gongs, setting up stalls to sell to the locals below to drive away the Year Beast!?"

"In any case, the manor must hurry to craft weapons to have a sense of participation, and the main task is just that."

"Of course, the threshold for participation is high, Embers is needed! That way, whether it's going to the New Year Market to sell weapons at the stall or helping sell weapons to repel the Year Beast, Embers must be the one transporting our weapons down to sell to the villagers."

After a wave of Holmes-like brilliant analysis, everyone felt it made a lot of sense.

The previous main storyline was about collecting materials.

This main storyline surely advances to selling weapons made from the materials!

This game is full of strange details, they wouldn't just make a random wallpaper image at the foot of the mountain without implying something.

The comments below were pretty interesting.

[This game constantly refreshes my worldview, such a limited space yet so many imaginative new storylines.... The previous Crow Disaster provided forging materials from the sky, this one seemingly allows "pets" to remotely attend the fair and set up stores, truly unconventional!]

[Su Yuniang's buddies are impressive! Finally, we can send our pet babies to the market to sell our stockpile of crow materials and exchange for some good stuff! The trading feature is very innovative!]

[I knew this, lately she's been chatting at night, chatting up plots while picking her feet, watching the day's recordings with her friends, analyzing and joking frantically, and it actually yielded results.]

[She might have guessed right now.]

[The production team has slacked off, they haven't updated this, Jiucai Rong hurry up and write the update announcement for the new main storyline.]

...

Ning Zheng watched for a while, and roughly figured out what was going on.

Because it's New Year's down the mountain, and there's a fair going on.

What main storyline or not? It's simply them being thrilled upon sneaking a glimpse, wanting to enthusiastically participate in the fair below and set up stalls.

Ning Zheng guessed their thoughts.

Each one lively and excited, thinking about selling weapons all day long.

Even though they said they'd contact the merchants in the city once their skills improved, they just couldn't sit patiently.

But now there's a big problem.

The locals at the foot of the mountain aren't human.

The stalls are in the Ghost Market—a Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, Yin Soldiers passing through, and the folks in there aren't alive.

Things like Fishermen Water Monkeys, Red-clad Brides, Pig Sellers, Skull Candy Vendors, vicious and malevolent, bizarre and sinister, laughing wickedly, pushing people to buy by force, what they sell aren't exactly normal goods.

Yet, on second thought, Ning Zheng realized.

The blacksmiths don't seem to be normal people either?

The items sent out aren't exactly living either, both sides are compatriots, could there really be conflicts, deaths in the Ghost Market?

With no one being normal living people, at worst, not much of an incident could blow up.

In Ning Zheng's view, these blacksmiths' level of weirdness is also astonishing, forced buying and selling?

Who ends up bullying whom isn't certain.

After the crow event, he's learned his lesson, "Seems I worried for nothing, I'm the only living human in Spirit Manor, only I can die, I might as well just worry about my own safety."

Ning Zheng had already dismissed this bunch of little blacksmiths from human records, placing them among Spirit Manor's elders and folks.