Chapter 76 Seventy-Six Cuts "Just tell me, are you going to recharge or not?"...
Xie Changming's words were interrupted, and then a person walked out of the Empress's Palace with an unfriendly expression.
Luo Mingshu asked Xie Changming, "Was the Empress someone you hired to impersonate her?"
“He’s a demon from the Demon Realm,” Xie Changming said. “His original form is ‘Firefly,’ so he probably doesn’t like cultivators with fire elemental roots.”
"His original form is a firefly?" Luo Mingshu asked curiously. "So his butt glows, right?"
Xie Changming thought for a moment and nodded. When the demon reverted to its original form, it did indeed glow, and the glowing part was precisely its tail.
"She's really unlucky. Making her top up her account isn't harming her," Luo Mingshu said. She also needed Fan Qing to help her check for loopholes, so she couldn't ground Fan Qing.
"Find a way to get her out," Luo Mingshu whispered to the palace maid in Fan Qing's palace.
"Miss Luo, is there anything I can do for you?" the young palace maid asked, cracking melon seeds.
"Your concubine is under house arrest. When she returns, try to sell her a no-penalty card package priced at 80,000 spirit stones. That's too stingy; I'm afraid she can't afford it," Luo Mingshu instructed.
"There are props like this?" the palace maid asked in confusion.
"This is a brand new monetization point I came up with. I'll have someone add it in a bit. You just need to promote it." Of course, Luo Mingshu wouldn't let Fan Qing off the hook for nothing.
Not long after, Shui Qingsi and Shui Qingnian, who had gone to visit the Empress, also came out in a sorry state. They were dressed in gorgeous clothes and overshadowed the Empress. Each of them was confined to their quarters for half a month.
So, if you want to get the perfect ending in this experience, even if you spend money recklessly, it won't work. This project requires you to use your brain.
Xu Qian and Meng Weifang were more experienced in this regard. They bought a monthly card and could receive a certain amount of reward items every day. After completing tasks, they could also unlock advanced rewards.
They chose the route to the Imperial Garden. Meng Weifang, who was originally a concubine, gained the emperor's favor, while Xu Qian was appreciated by the emperor and finally got rid of her status as a palace maid. Meanwhile, Fan Qing was caught in a painful argument.
Luo Mingshu and Xie Changming were still watching the excitement from the rooftop. Xie Changming had already added the new exemption card to the formation system, and the demon palace maids started to sell the exemption card to Fan Qing.
"Your Highness, you...you've been confined to your quarters? Oh my god, this is truly devastating news!" the maid exclaimed, covering her mouth.
Luo Mingshu wrote down the precautions in her notebook: "The hired cultivators must speak politely and appropriately, and must not be sarcastic or cryptic."
“You’re dressed in red, which must have offended Her Majesty the Empress,” a palace maid said to Fan Qing. “You’ll be confined for a month, which will put you behind schedule.”
"Your Highness Consort Gen, after you visited the Empress, would you rather stand on the Emperor's side or the Empress's side?" The palace maid began to follow the script.
In the storyline designed by Yu Hanlu and Luo Mingshu, the choice of faction is very important. If you choose the Empress's faction, you can trigger the hidden ending where you are pushed into a well and awaken your cultivation talent in the future. If you choose the Emperor's faction, you can either become the Empress and reign supreme in the harem or poison the Emperor and ascend the throne legitimately. Once you choose a faction, you can only switch factions by spending money or completing difficult tasks.
Of course, to achieve these endings, certain stats need to be raised to a certain level. For example, to become the empress, you need to max out the emperor's favorability and also raise the average favorability of other characters in the harem. Buying items can accelerate the acquisition of favorability, but there is a daily limit, which roughly balances the experience of paying players.
For someone like Fan Qing, who was immediately confined to her quarters, it was a truly hellish start. When the palace maid asked her to choose a faction, she unhesitatingly chose the emperor. The reason was simple: Fan Qing felt that the empress was ungrateful.
"The Emperor," Fan Qing said to the palace maid, "can he help me lift my confinement?"
"Your Highness, it's like this. Because your current rank is not high, there is only a very low probability that the Emperor will pass by your palace gate. Only if he appreciates you will you have the opportunity to be released from confinement." The palace maid bowed and explained the rules to Fan Qing.
"The probability is very low. You might wait for thirty days and still not see the emperor. How about it? Isn't our experience very realistic?" the palace maid said.
Luo Mingshu drew several heavy strokes on her notebook: "The cultivators playing characters from Yingtian Palace must not break character."
"Of course, Consort Gen, you can also choose to spend 80,000 spirit stones to buy a pardon card. You will receive a luminous pearl item, which you can present to the Empress. Your confinement will be lifted, and this pardon card will also increase the Empress's favorability." The palace maid introduced enthusiastically, "The original price was 88 spirit stones, but now this pardon card only costs 88,000 spirit stones."
"What kind of project is this? You can't rip people off like this!" Fan Qing thought to herself, as expected of the experience project developed by Luo Mingshu, Yingtian Palace is practically writing "scam" on its face.
As expected, the Yinglong clan are all treacherous and cunning creatures. Fan Qing snorted lightly, "What if I don't buy it?"
"Here's the thing," the palace maid said, "we've also launched a monthly card priced at 9.98 million spirit stones. After activation, you can receive extra items daily, including the Immunity Card. You can get two Immunity Cards in the monthly card package, which is a very cost-effective purchase." Her calculations were swift and precise. (Pianozl)
"Is there no other way?" Fan Qing asked.
"Your Highness, the entrance ticket costs 800,000 spirit stones. Here, real cultivators are paid to play with you. Do you think this price is expensive?" the palace maid asked.
"Are you real?" Even now, Fan Qing still thought the palace maid was a fictional character, like the characters in the Misty Star Sea.
"Of course I really mean it," the palace maid said, bowing. "Your Highness, just tell me if you're willing to pay or not."
"The pale yellow dress you previously took a liking to, as well as the dancer's costume, are all included in the monthly card rewards. For cultivators who don't want to spend too much money, this is the most cost-effective option to recharge," the palace maid coaxed patiently.
Luo Mingshu originally wanted to fire this demon palace maid, but she was just too good at deceiving people.
"Nine hundred and ninety-eight spirit stones, not expensive at all. Happiness in the cultivation world is so rare." The palace maid's voice seemed to surround Fan Qing's ears like a demon.
Fan Qing wanted to ask the system for help, but the system was pretending to be dead. After a long period of thought, she still shamefully recharged her account.
"Congratulations, Consort Gen! You have received the first recharge reward for new players: an exotic dancer outfit. Based on your current activity level, you will also unlock a disguise pill and a bottle of mysterious poison." The palace maid immediately presented the prepared recharge rewards.
"No...where's the pardon card?" Fan Qing couldn't do anything bad in this small room, and she really wanted to leave.
"The pardon card will unlock on the third day of signing in," the palace maid said with a bow and a matter-of-fact air.
Luo Mingshu was on the rooftop, laughing so hard she almost cracked the tiles. After adding the Exemption Card to the in-game purchase program, she originally intended to put it in the monthly card package, but since it was a newly added reward, she couldn't give it out on the first day, so she put it out for the third day.
"Why doesn't she just spend 80,000? I didn't intend to make 9.98 million spirit stones from her anyway." Luo Mingshu thought to herself that the demon worker assigned to Fan Qing was a real sales genius.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Fan Qing was about to vomit from the sight of Yingtian Palace.
"Your Highness, waiting two more days is the same as waiting," the palace maid said, suppressing a laugh.
"I'll top up another 80,000 and buy a ready-made one." Once the top-up channel was opened, there was no stopping her; Fan Qing was a little out of her mind.
"Yes." After collecting 80,000 spirit stones, the palace maid gave Fan Qing the pardon card. Once this pardon card is in the hands of the cultivator undergoing the trial, it will become an item favored by the superior who is punishing the criminal. It can be effective regardless of the severity of the punishment, and any excess will be exchanged for favorability.
Finally able to go out, Fan Qing now only wanted to tear down Luo Mingshu's Yingtian Palace. She even suspected that Luo Mingshu was plotting against her.
In fact, Luo Mingshu had no intention of harming her. She just regarded her as an ordinary cultivator who came to experience the world. It was only because she herself had violated the rules of Yingtian Palace several times.
After this point in time passed, the players in Yingtian Palace received their second mission and chose their own faction. Due to a lack of communication, Xu Qian and Shui Qingnian chose the Empress's faction, while Meng Weifang and Shui Qingsi chose the Emperor's faction. The cultivators who had arrived here together were separated because of this unintentional choice.
"The Empress is holding a birthday banquet?" Fan Qing unfolded the invitation presented by the palace maid, carefully studying the words on it, and said in disbelief, "They want us to come and offer our birthday wishes?"
"Yes, Your Highness, please choose your attire for the occasion. Currently, your wardrobe contains: a silk dress with a Jiangnan flair, an exotic dance costume, and your initial simple red dress," the palace maid explained to Fan Qing in a measured manner.
Their conversation took place in the courtyard, so Luo Mingshu and Xie Changming, who were spying, moved to a tree nearby. The two sat side by side on the branch to watch the show. This scene reminded Luo Mingshu of the scene in the Misty Star Sea Heaven Realm, when she and Xie Changming seemed to have also sat on a tree to watch Xu Qian's drama of not bullying a poor young man after breaking off their engagement.
Of course, the scene where Fan Qing faces a choice is also quite interesting.
This task was designed by Luo Mingshu and Yu Hanlu together, so she took a bite of her apple and commented: "Fan Qing doesn't have any suitable clothes right now. The long Jiangnan dress is too plain and would be considered disrespectful. As for the dance costume, if she doesn't receive a special task to perform a dance, then this dress is useless. Not to mention her original clothes."
"She still needs to spend money, otherwise the Empress's favorability won't increase. But since she's chosen the Emperor's side, the Empress's favorability is useless anyway." Luo Mingshu actually put herself in Fan Qing's shoes and started to calculate carefully.
"You'll meet the emperor at the birthday banquet. He likes vibrant yet tasteful colors, so sky-blue clothing is the most appropriate. You can also get this outfit from the previous mission, but she was confined to her quarters for those two days," Luo Mingshu analyzed. "It seems the only option is to spend real money."
Xie Changming was completely bewildered. He couldn't quite grasp the intricacies of the situation; he was merely a tool responsible for turning Luo Mingshu's wild imaginations into reality.
Luo Mingshu straightened up and looked at Fan Qing with great interest.
Fan Qing even began to immerse herself in the experience: "The light green dress is too plain and doesn't suit the taste of that tasteless empress. The dance costume is too revealing, and it would be indecent to wear it to a banquet. I can't wear my original dress anymore..."
"Are there any other clothes available?" Fan Qing asked.
"Yes, would you like a formal dress or an exquisitely designed sky-blue petal skirt?" the palace maid asked.
"How much is the petal skirt?" Fan Qing simply didn't want to wear the same style as Shui Qingnian and the others.
"A bit pricey, a bit pricey—" Since it's still in the testing phase, the prices of all items in Yingtian Palace can be changed at will.
"Sell it to her for 800,000," Luo Mingshu instructed the palace maid telepathically.
"Eight hundred thousand spirit stones, the original price was one million six hundred thousand, this eight hundred thousand is a special price for your monthly card," the palace maid said immediately.
"Are you a fraud ring?" Fan Qing asked angrily.
"Of course not, the price is clearly marked, and Consort Gen is free not to buy it," the palace maid said respectfully.
"I won't buy it!" Fan Qing held firm to her temporary bottom line.
Just as Fan Qing was struggling with whether or not to continue spending money on in-game purchases, Xie Changming received a telepathic message from his subordinate.
"Your Excellency, the injured person I'm dealing with today is really strange. I can't handle him. Please come and think of a solution." Feng Xin Suo Ai (183 cm tall), who is also Xie Changming's protector Wen Yu, transmitted his voice to Xie Changming.
"What's wrong?" Xie Changming and Luo Mingshu exchanged a glance and asked directly.
"This injured woman is that cruel concubine from the palace. She said she was beaten by someone and insisted that I treat her injuries, but I have no idea how. Didn't you say that the position of imperial physician in Yingtian Palace was just for show? Now it seems that's not the case at all," Wen Yu said anxiously.
"What did he say, Cool Concubine..." Luo Mingshu exclaimed in surprise, "Isn't this his online girlfriend?"
“You’ve seen Suo Ai before. He’s changed his appearance. It would be a miracle if she could recognize him.” Xie Changming led Luo Mingshu toward the Imperial Hospital.
“They…” Luo Mingshu pinched the bridge of her nose.
At this moment, Shui Qingnian was leaning against the couch in the Imperial Hospital, instructing Wen Yu to massage her legs: "I feel like my legs are about to break, can you massage them for me?"
Wen Yu: "?" Can I press it to break?
As an official of Yingtian Palace, he could clearly see how many spirit stones Shui Qingnian had spent, so he maintained a respectful demeanor towards her on the surface.
He was afraid he would break Shui Qingnian's legs, so he refused: "The Imperial Hospital does not offer this service."
Shui Qingnian stared at him intently, feeling that Wen Yu's features looked somewhat familiar, but upon closer inspection, she realized that he was not Suo Ai's.
Could he be some kind of relative of Suo Ai? Many races in the Demon Realm are related by blood, so Shui Qingnian naturally assumed that the Demon Race was the same.
In fact, all demons are independent individuals and have no blood relation with each other.
It's simply that Wen Yu over-photoshopped Shui Qingnian's picture, because Shui Qingnian once said she preferred men who were more gentle and elegant.
Wen Yu himself was far from being gentle and elegant, but he was good at photoshopping, and sure enough, the influence he sent captivated Shui Qingnian.
Shui Qingnian reached out and grabbed Wen Yu's sleeve, saying domineeringly, "What's the use of the Imperial Hospital if it doesn't treat patients? Just tear it off."
Wen Yu pushed Shui Qingnian's hand away, exasperated: "You're not hurt."
Shui Qingnian was not hit by Fan Qing at all, but that did not stop her from pretending to be sick and revisiting the Imperial Hospital. Unexpectedly, she ran into Wen Yu, who looked somewhat familiar.
When Luo Mingshu arrived, the two were arguing, and the formation belonging to Yingtian Palace was in operation. From the perspective of the administrator, Luo Mingshu could clearly see what hidden route Shui Qingnian had triggered.
Winning over the aloof and unattainable imperial physician at the Imperial Hospital and eloping with him was one of the hidden endings planned from the beginning.
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