Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: Goodbye, World! (4)
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Animal Farm, finally released!
The launch date was set for the end of this year.
The original plan had been spring of next year, timed perfectly with planting season to match the Animal Farm name.
But there was no helping it.
It was because the mountains were buried under way too much snow.
A blizzard you might see once every few hundred years.
Even if they melted it with spells, it would just freeze over again into sheets of ice.
In the end, the poor Qi Condensation cultivators had to pick up their shovels.
The Qi Condensation cultivators were dying inside.
They shoveled like their arms would fall off, only to turn around and find snow piled up to their knees again.
The Qi Condensation cultivators wailed.
“Why doesn’t the Black Bamboo Sect have any snow-melting spells?!”
“Is this even normal weather?!”
“Stop snowing already!”
“Oh heavens!”
No matter what they shouted, the sky didn’t budge.
Humans couldn’t change the weather to begin with.
In the human realm, only Incarnation Cultivators and dragons could control it.
And by chance, the Black Bamboo Sect had a dragon.
Seoran asked Damcheong.
“Damcheong, could you maybe change the weather?”
Damcheong, peeking only his face out from under the blanket, replied.
“Of course I could.”
“Then this blizzard...”
Damcheong cut Seoran off.
“But would that be okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“Weather is all about cycles in the end. Forcing it with power won’t bring anything good. Changing today’s weather could mean years of drought as backlash. Still want me to do it?”
Seoran shook her head.
“No, forget I asked.”
“Before you go, could you move the brazier closer to the bed? It’s too cold to get out from under the covers.”
“Yes, got it.”
She moved four braziers closer and left the room.
The weight of the snow so far was on the verge of collapsing the roofs.
Watching the maids climb ladders to the roofs, Seoran finally made her decision.
“No choice...”
And so, Animal Farm (early access) was rushed into emergency release.
*****
The Qi Condensation cultivators, spending a merry white Christmas with their shovels, were stunned.
Animal friends made entirely of porcelain appeared.
Dogs, cats, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens, cows, rabbits, and more.
Their head shapes varied, but they all held snow shovels.
The Qi Condensation cultivators brimmed with hopeful anticipation.
“Is that Senior Brother Ryu’s puppets?!”
“Are they here to help with snow removal?!”
“Ugh, I knew it!”
“I believed in you!”
But the animal friends betrayed their expectations.
They shoveled clumsily and whacked their own feet.
While clearing snow, they’d smack nearby puppets with their shovels.
Some even slipped and fell on their own.
It was still early access, so there were plenty of rough edges.
There were more puppets flailing helplessly on the ground, unable to get up, than ones actually clearing snow.
The Qi Condensation cultivators gave up their hopes and went back to shoveling.
A disappointing first day for Animal Farm.
That night, the Dharma Brain dreamed based on the day’s data.
It analyzed the actions of the top performers who cleared the most snow and taught the rest.
But it didn’t train them all identically.
On the second day, the animal friends appeared right on cue.
The Qi Condensation cultivators were shocked.
Yesterday, most couldn’t even handle their own bodies, but today they moved quite convincingly.
There were occasional malfunctions, but on average, the improvement was remarkable.
That night, the Dharma Brain dreamed again.
Because it had trained them slightly differently yesterday, their performances varied a bit.
It once more learned from the top performers and improved all the animal friends.
The puppets’ snow-clearing skills advanced at a rapid pace.
Confirming that Animal Farm’s learning process was working normally, Seoran procured a massive amount of clay.
She dumped it all into the Dharma Brain’s occipital hole.
Soon, warm puppets emerged from the frontal hole.
Repeated learning and training improved their work abilities.
As long as there was clay, the number of puppets kept growing steadily.
After about half a month, something amazing happened.
The Qi Condensation cultivators were no longer needed.
They just had to point out where to clear snow and where to dump it.
The puppets handled the rest on their own.
The blizzard kept raging.
But the living areas were spotlessly clean.
Animal Farm’s snow removal outpaced the snowfall.
By the time spring came and the piled snow melted...
Animal Farm had gone through countless improvements and was finally complete.
Its scope of activity had expanded dramatically as well.
New functions updated daily.
Let’s raise them together, Animal Farm.
The animal friends picked up sickles, hoes, and plows.
They started with weeding and planting.
Let’s wash together, Animal Farm.
The animal friends grabbed laundry bats and laundry.
They pounded away, then twisted hard to wring it out.
Let’s carry together, Animal Farm.
The animal friends shouldered heavy loads and raced across the mountains.
Not even the murderously steep stairs could stop the puppets.
Let’s clean together, Animal Farm.
The animal friends swept and scrubbed every corner of the Black Bamboo Sect.
Trash and laundry? The puppets took care of it.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter.
A year ended, and spring came again.
Thanks to endlessly multiplying relays and animal friends, Animal Farm’s influence spread across the entire mountain range.
Farming, transport, cleaning, laundry, and more.
Almost all the jobs the Qi Condensation cultivators used to do vanished.
Now, just a few managers were enough.
The Qi Condensation cultivators were essentially freed from labor.
*****
A new world had arrived.
Thanks to Animal Farm, demand for unskilled labor plummeted.
What was left for Qi Condensation cultivators was work puppets couldn’t do.
Usually childcare, office assisting, that sort of thing.
All people-facing tasks or brainwork.
Even that was split among several people when one could handle it alone.
There was still work for Qi Condensation cultivators.
But average work hours dropped sharply.
They used the freed-up time at their discretion for cultivation or leisure.
Suddenly increased leisure time.
The Qi Condensation cultivators twisted and turned from boredom.
The need for leisure culture arose.
The joint leadership held heated debates and reached a conclusion.
Let’s promote reading.
Of course, they didn’t just shove books at people.
That wouldn’t be smart.
The joint leadership first opened tons of hobby classes.
Go, pottery, embroidery, crafts, cooking, woodworking, etc.
Classes in all sorts of fields opened every five days.
That five-day interval was key.
Geum Yeongyeong signed up for Go class.
She’d recently suffered losses to Seoran: win-loss-loss-loss-win-loss-loss-win-loss-loss-loss.
She wanted to learn killer moves and wipe the floor with her.
The instructor was a Decided Realm cultivator.
He’d picked up stones at age five; four hundred years later...
He’d won international Go tournaments ten times, for reference.
Geum Yeongyeong returned from a fruitful session.
She immediately tested the day’s joseki on Seoran.
It didn’t work for long, but she managed three straight wins.
Geum Yeongyeong kept attending diligently after that.
But soon, she felt it wasn’t enough.
Go classes every five days were too tantalizing.
Around then, the Go instructor mentioned.
“If anyone wants to study alone outside class, check the Scripture Pavilion. Tons of Go books—joseki, life-and-death problems, famous Ming Kingdom game records. You can borrow them too.”
Geum Yeongyeong dashed straight to the Scripture Pavilion.
She borrowed two Go books.
This happened frequently.
People who started with hobby books found their interests broadening with each visit.
They couldn’t help it.
It was because of those irresistible lines.
‘One Hundred Ways to Meditate.’
‘Be Human Before Becoming a Sage.’
‘Spirit Creature Encyclopedia: Don’t Miss Out If You Don’t Know.’
The ad copy hooked them perfectly.
More people borrowed out of curiosity.
They had nothing better to do and were bored anyway.
Finally, people even started writing their own books.
Countless new titles hit the Scripture Pavilion’s lending list.
Popular ones got reprinted.
The printing press never ran dry of ink.
A reading craze swept the Black Bamboo Sect.
Watching the process, Seoran thought.
Should I write a book too?
Seoran closed her eyes and imagined.
In the near future, she was a literary giant.
Everyone adored her.
‘Author Ryu, please release a new book!’
‘That puppetry book last time was amazing!’
‘I want to be a puppeteer when I grow up!’
A reading and publishing boom was underway.
Seoran planned to ride the wave by writing a book.
Then a puppetry craze wouldn’t be a dream.
Seoran already felt like a success.
“Senior Brother Yeop, I finally did it!”
She holed up in her room and threw herself into writing.
She compiled the essence of puppetry from both eastern and western continents.
A grueling process pouring her soul into it.
Seoran finally completed it.
‘Introduction to Puppetry’
An immortal masterpiece to pass down through generations.
Seoran published it confidently.
Written by the greatest puppeteer on the western continent, no less.
She was even from the eastern continent study abroad school.
Seoran eagerly awaited the splash her book would make.
A month later, Seoran visited the Scripture Pavilion.
Geum Yeongyeong took this month’s top reader award.
She’d read a hundred books alone in a month.
Seoran was purely impressed.
“Does she not cultivate at all?”
Seoran moved along.
This month’s popular book: None.
This month’s recommended book: None.
She checked the new releases.
This month’s popular new title: None.
This month’s recommended new title: None.
Seoran steadied her shaking mind.
It’s fine, you can’t fill up on the first sip.
They probably don’t know I published yet.
Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense.
Seoran asked the Scripture Pavilion librarian.
“How many checkouts has my ‘Introduction to Puppetry’ gotten so far?”
The librarian rifled through papers and answered.
“No one’s borrowed it.”
“No way!”
It hit like a bolt from the blue.