Chapter Ninety-Nine: Mount Tai, Tai City, and the Forbidden Land of Mount Tai

Once they had left the broad expanse of the Ancient Ruins Stone Forest, Night Feather and the others had truly stepped into a new map.

The new map: Mount Tai.

Its terrain had been designed against the backdrop of the splendor of Chinese history. The art direction of Divine Ruin was nothing if not formidable; with that kind of modeling, the Mount Tai region was vast, majestic, and imposing. On the old servers, Mount Tai had long been a place where Chinese players gathered in especially great numbers. Later, after data bridges were established with the foreign servers, the data became interconnected, allowing foreign-server players to enter the Chinese servers and Chinese players to enter the foreign servers as well, though only in guest mode, unable to affect the host world.

Within the Mount Tai region, there naturally stood a magnificent ancient city: Tai City.

Tai City was one of the main cities with the largest concentration of Chinese players on Divine Ruin’s Chinese servers, because it had been built entirely upon the framework of the Forbidden City from ancient Chinese civilization. Seen from above on the map, Tai City looked like a dragon pearl laid upon a dragon vein. Around it rose a ring of towering city walls, upon which were carved the totems of the great dragon of Chinese culture, lifelike and vivid.

The streets of Tai City were likewise rendered in the style of ancient Chinese civilization, steeped in antiquity and history. There was no imperial palace in the city itself, of course, but the districts were clearly divided into four parts corresponding to the four directions of Tai City, each aligned with the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise.

As in other cities, the main buildings along Tai City’s streets were mostly player-owned: guild bases, taverns, auction houses, and the like. What filled the city was an intensely rich classical Chinese atmosphere. The city had originally been designed by a player devoted to traditional Chinese aesthetics, so many players here could activate a Chinese style mode. Mages would shift into Chinese Daoists, while sword and spear users could become Chinese knights-errant, Chinese warrior generals, Chinese martial masters, Chinese rogues, and other intriguing Chinese-style roles.

Once Chinese style mode was activated, the player’s appearance would begin to change as well, and both equipment and cash-shop outfits would gradually take on Chinese-style clothing.

Although this was only a small part of Divine Ruin, it was one of the great cities most active on every server. Moreover, the Mount Tai region belonged to the midgame stage of the map, and most players in Divine Ruin preferred to halt their leveling for a time, build up their strength, and then advance again. As a result, Mount Tai naturally ranked among the top three most active map regions on every server.

"Once our server’s level cap rises, Mount Tai will be where we begin everything anew. We have to keep staying ahead of the Mystic Heaven server."

Night Feather spoke, and the six of them slowly stepped into that colossal city.

Mount Tai map unlocked!

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After entering Tai City, the six first familiarized themselves with the basic layout of the map.

Because they were on a new server, they were among the first to set foot in the Mount Tai region. If they wanted to secure land and property here, they naturally had to scout the best locations first in order to seize the advantage.

So the six split up and began checking the major resource and commercial districts of Tai City, preparing the necessary funds in advance. Once the server’s level cap rose, Night Feather and the others would be able to purchase property at the first available price and bring it under the Purple Void Illusory Realm. That was one of the advantages of a new server.

What Night Feather worried about, however, were the veteran players who had entered the Mystic Heaven server. They had enough experience to weigh the pros and cons of a new server. Although Night Feather had secured Old Hu’s cooperation and had been keeping in contact with him during this period, with Old Hu clearly lending support from the side, Old Hu’s position within the Purple Void Illusory Realm was that of a hall master. When the property was purchased, part of the territory would naturally fall under the management of players holding hall-master posts.

Not long after, fatigue debuffs forced Night Feather and the others to rest again. Still, they had already mapped out the property districts in Tai City that could be bought. They handed the matter to Night Feather so he could coordinate the most suitable locations and the funds required. Once that was sorted, he would simply wait for the instant the server cap rose and buy the property at once.

Although the server’s level cap had not yet increased, Night Feather had already obtained several ordinary quests from the auction house. Such quests were often well suited to a new server, though Night Feather also noticed that they all required materials in high demand that few people bothered to farm.

On an old server, naturally, no player would bother taking such a task; it was far too tedious. But on a new server, these quests were among the most profitable kinds of work, and they would not leave players feeling exhausted.

However, the drop locations for those materials were within the forbidden zone of the Mount Tai region. At the moment, when the map was opened, the marked area displayed was the Mount Tai Forbidden Grounds.

The destinations of Night Feather’s six quests all pointed either into that gray region of the Mount Tai map, the Mount Tai Forbidden Grounds, or to the areas near its edge. So their next destination was undoubtedly that forbidden place.

"In the old server, the Mount Tai Forbidden Grounds were also described as a place of extreme danger. I’m afraid it is no less formidable than the Ancient Ruins Stone Forest, and it may even surpass it."

At that moment, Luo Feng spoke up. Raising his right hand, he brought up a summary of the relevant information on the Mount Tai Forbidden Grounds and studied it.

Though these quests looked utterly ordinary, and few people would choose to take them, they were precisely the kind most favored by new-server players. Still, to accept them, a player needed a certain level of strength and skill. If one wanted a reputation that could spread across the world in Divine Ruin, then even more high-level, high-difficulty quests would be necessary. That was why Night Feather’s plan to make the Purple Void Illusory Realm more famous left no room for doubt: this was the only way.

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