At the foot of New Biyou Village.
"There's really no attempt to hide it, is there?" Daniel Davis stood at the base of the mountain, looking up at the dense forest halfway up the slope. He shook his head slightly. Initially, Daniel thought that New Biyou Village would be difficult to locate, but to his surprise, he found its location easily through the internet—and it wasn't even the extraordinary beings' network.
This was mainly because of the free-spirited nature of Ma Xianhong, the leader of the sect. New Biyou Village had many ordinary people, most of whom had learned about the extraordinary world through various means but couldn't join it. After all, the best time for a person to cultivate is during childhood, and after reaching adulthood, the effort required to cultivate becomes much greater with less reward.
These ordinary people had stumbled upon New Interception Sect and its method of transforming ordinary people into extraordinary beings. Many flocked to the village to undergo the transformation using the Life Refining Furnace. Some, unwilling to stay quiet, even posted about their experiences online, though such posts barely caused a ripple.
It was like the internet back in Daniel's previous life—full of all kinds of strange information, from people claiming to have resurrected Qin Shi Huang to offering random advice. Without knowing the truth, most people would never believe such things.
But Daniel had been keeping a close eye on intelligence in this area, and that's how he found information related to New Biyou Village in the vast expanse of the web.
For most ordinary people, suddenly gaining power might make some want to hide and not reveal their abilities. But many others would become reckless with their newfound strength. To make matters worse, Ma Xianhong even provided these transformed individuals with many magical artifacts.
The combination of these transformed individuals and their magical artifacts had already proved deadly—Xia Liuqing, one of the older masters of Allheaven, had been ambushed and seriously injured by these transformed people. And these were individuals who had never trained before gaining their powers.
The power of magical artifacts was best demonstrated through Ma Xianhong himself, who relied on them to fight against multiple opponents. His strength was something even the older generation struggled to match. With all the temporary workers, including Feng Baobao, Xia Liuqing, Baron, and Wang Ye, they might take down a Ten Elders-level master, but not the Old Heavenly Master.
Unfortunately, Ma Xianhong's great ambition overlooked one critical issue: modern society's complexity. Not everyone who was transformed into an extraordinary being wanted to stay in New Biyou Village. Some couldn't endure the hardships of life there, and many eventually left.
New Biyou Village may have had a nice-sounding name, but in reality, it was just a rural village with harsh living conditions due to its mountainous location. For people used to city life, especially those with considerable wealth, it was hard to live there for long.
You might wonder why the people on the mountain were wealthy. The reason is simple: without money, even living would be hard, let alone having the time and means to travel to an unknown village. Only those with money—at least white-collar level—could afford to go to New Biyou Village.
"Who goes there?" Just as Daniel approached the entrance to New Biyou Village, two figures dropped from the trees ahead, blocking his path.
"Is this New Biyou Village? My name is Wei Zhuang. I've come in admiration." Daniel, of course, wasn't using his real face. After all, the company had been monitoring this place closely, and he didn't want to stir up trouble. So he had changed his appearance and borrowed the name of Wei Zhuang from Guiguzi's second disciple.
"Are you an extraordinary being?"
"Yes." Daniel nodded directly. He wasn't pretending to be an ordinary person; doing so would only cause unnecessary trouble, especially if they asked him to undergo the Life Refining Furnace process. Besides, Ma Xianhong hadn't prohibited true extraordinary beings from joining—New Interception Sect had members who were true extraordinary beings with high potential.
"Let's take you to see the master first." Hearing that Daniel was a true extraordinary being, the two men's attitudes shifted. There was a significant difference between transformed individuals and true extraordinary beings—not just in the amount of qi, but also in combat experience. In New Interception Sect, true extraordinary beings were considered higher-tier members, while transformed individuals were of lower rank.
"You want to join Biyou Village?" Before long, Daniel, guided by the two men, met Chou Rang, one of the twelve top-tier extraordinary beings. Under Chou Rang's lead, Daniel was introduced to the other top-tier members and officially joined the group.
After being assigned a house and a few plots of land, Chou Rang left, and it wasn't until that evening that Daniel finally met Ma Xianhong, the leader of the sect.
Ma Xianhong welcomed Daniel warmly. After having Jin Yong, another top-tier member, test Daniel's abilities, Daniel became the thirteenth top-tier member.
Ma Xianhong's ideals were very appealing to ordinary people, but they didn't hold much sway over true extraordinary beings. Moreover, his main focus seemed to be on transforming ordinary people, so the extraordinary beings who sought him out each had their own personal reasons—some were in debt, some sought Ma Xianhong's help in curing an illness, others were avoiding enemies, and some were just curious onlookers. Very few truly believed in Ma Xianhong's vision.
"Zhao Guizhen, Daoist." Watching the calm and affable Zhao Guizhen, Daniel couldn't help but shake his head. Ma Xianhong's policy of accepting anyone had allowed all kinds of people to join, including the infamous Zhao Guizhen. Daniel remembered him well, especially since he was humiliated by Xiao Zizai, who used him to scare the transformed individuals.
"I'll leave him to Xiao Zizai." Daniel considered himself rather ruthless toward bad people, but compared to Xiao Zizai, he was on a different level. Since that was the case, Daniel decided not to bother dealing with Zhao Guizhen. He knew that his punishments couldn't compare to what Xiao Zizai would do.
"These people are quite determined." The remaining ordinary people in Biyou Village had stayed for quite some time already, some of them even CEOs of their own companies.
With the wealth they possessed, they could have lived comfortably in Biyou Village, but the village didn't allow people to bring their own supplies. They had to live through their own labor, which was why many couldn't endure.
Those who could stay had either a strong desire to become extraordinary beings or were rebelling against the pressures of city life.
"Using sword energy to farm… Fu Rong's luck really is bad." Fu Rong, one of the twelve top-tier members, was a sword energy expert and a formidable figure in the extraordinary world, comparable to Zhuge Qing. However, she had terrible luck, frequently encountering scoundrels. Now heavily in debt, she came to Biyou Village to escape her creditors.
Fu Rong didn't agree with Ma Xianhong's ideals, so when the temporary workers later besieged New Biyou Village, she didn't fight back. Fortunately, while she had suffered financial losses due to bad relationships, she herself was unharmed. As a traditional woman and a sword energy expert, any boyfriends trying to take advantage of her wouldn't stand a chance against her.
It was rare to see someone with her level of power living such a difficult life. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't have fled to the mountains just to avoid debt.
It's easy for extraordinary beings to make money, especially someone as powerful as Fu Rong. She could do it without breaking any company rules.
In modern society, large corporations and financial conglomerates are often linked to the extraordinary world. Some are even run by extraordinary beings themselves, like Feng Zhenghao's Tianxia Corporation, a company valued at 300 billion.
Even if ordinary people manage to take control of such a corporation, they'd only end up changing ownership. A small trick from an extraordinary being would be a deadly threat to regular people. Those with innate extraordinary powers are especially hard for companies to deal with.
Many of the Ten Elders own major companies or groups.
For example, Lu Ci, one of the Ten Elders, holds political power within the Lu family and is an unchallenged authority. Similarly, the Jia family in the west is also deeply influential, although their focus is military rather than political. The Jia family's Artifact Manipulation Art is incredibly powerful in combat.
Although the world appears peaceful on the surface, beneath it, conflicts continue, especially in a world with extraordinary beings. The hidden battles are dangerous, and even the Jia family has suffered losses.
Given Fu Rong's strength, the fact that she hasn't abused her power against ordinary people is a commendable trait. Daniel admitted that if he had such power, he wouldn't be living such a miserable life.
The company later stepped in to pay off Fu Rong's debts, not wanting such a rule-abiding master to be pushed into breaking the rules. Fu Rong wasn't just any ordinary extraordinary being. Aside from Zhuge Qing's admiration for her, her background was significant—sword energy experts are hard to cultivate in the modern era.
"This is the Life Refining Furnace, the device that can transform people into extraordinary beings and create spatial equipment." After spending several days in Biyou Village, Daniel finally got the chance he had been waiting for—Ma Xianhong and Chou Rang had left for the time being, so Daniel headed to the back of the village, where the Life Refining Furnace was stored
.
Many only paid attention to the furnace's ability to transform people into extraordinary beings, overlooking the fact that it could also create spatial equipment like storage pouches capable of holding even living beings.
In modern society, the utility of storage pouches was immense. They could be used to store modern weapons or transport goods. For instance, the Everywhere Courier Company's efficiency would skyrocket if they had access to a large number of these pouches.
If the furnace could only transform people, Daniel might not care as much. But the fact that it could also create storage pouches made all the difference. Even with his own Undetectable Extension Charm, he wouldn't dismiss the value of these pouches.
"Room, slaughterhouse." It must be said that Ma Xianhong had too much faith in the residents of Biyou Village. The Life Refining Furnace was left completely unguarded—unlike later, when Bao Bao wanted to destroy it and Ma Xianhong had laid numerous traps, including ambushes by Ru Hua and the white and black puppets.
Daniel easily reached the Life Refining Furnace and used the power of the Ope Ope no Mi to slice it apart.
"There are traces of the Gongshu family's mechanisms. How interesting." While Daniel hadn't studied mechanisms in detail, he had learned quite a bit thanks to the mechanism-powered White Tiger and Vermillion Bird. The Gongshu family had provided him with many materials on mechanisms, and although the traces were faint, Daniel could still recognize the Gongshu family's handiwork on the Life Refining Furnace.
"Could Ma Xianhong be a descendant or inheritor of the Gongshu family?" Daniel knew about the Eight Great Arts but knew very little about who created them or the identity of their first users.
"A living being, complete with a meridian system." Cutting open the furnace, Daniel saw its core—a strange biological life form.
In Beneath One Man, it wasn't just the origins of the Eight Great Arts that were mysterious. Even that temporary worker with a woman's face but a man's body had a strange, jelly-like life form beside him.
"It seems the furnace isn't yet fully completed. Later, Ma Xianhong needed Zhuge Qing, a practitioner, to help finish it. That means I can't take this thing yet." After scanning the furnace's data and storing it, Daniel restored it to its original state.
Ma Xianhong was a genius. Even if Daniel learned the Divine Machine Hundred Refinements, he doubted he could surpass Ma Xianhong in artifact forging—not because Daniel lacked talent, but because Ma Xianhong was more focused.
Daniel knew that even if he mastered the Divine Machine Hundred Refinements, he wouldn't devote most of his energy to artifact forging but would instead focus on the combat applications of the technique.
The Divine Machine Hundred Refinements had incredibly high potential. Its highest level allowed one to refine anything. During his battles with the temporary workers, Ma Xianhong refined the clothes of both Hei Guan'er and Feng Baobao into weapons. He even refined Feng Baobao's 0.01mm thick kitchen knife into a weapon.
Such abilities were incredibly powerful in combat.
"Wei Zhuang, I didn't expect you to have knowledge of artifact forging." When Ma Xianhong returned, Daniel took the opportunity to demonstrate some of his mechanism skills, which greatly surprised Ma Xianhong. Among the top-tier members, only Chou Rang had any talent for artifact forging and had been taught the Divine Machine Hundred Refinements.
"Just a hobby," Daniel replied. He hadn't lied. His study of mechanism techniques stemmed from curiosity, and he never expected them to be useful in a situation like this.
Mechanism techniques and artifact forging shared certain similarities. Ma Xianhong had shown talent for mechanisms as a child, which is why he was taught the Divine Machine Hundred Refinements.
"From now on, you'll help out too." The Life Refining Furnace was far from perfect and required many improvements. Fortunately, Ma Xianhong had a large number of Ru Hua puppets to handle some of the more menial tasks.
One of the Eight Great Arts, Divine Machine Hundred Refinements, which had caused so much bloodshed outside, was something Ma Xianhong didn't care much about. He had memorized its contents and would teach it to anyone who wanted to learn.
After just two days of helping Ma Xianhong, Daniel was given the book of Divine Machine Hundred Refinements to study. Ma Xianhong's generosity was so overwhelming that Daniel felt a little embarrassed.
Still, embarrassment aside, Daniel memorized the technique immediately and stored a copy on his tablet.
It had to be said that the Divine Machine Hundred Refinements was truly profound. Other artifact forgers might spend their entire lives forging just a few magical artifacts and boast about them for the rest of their lives. Take Yuan Tao, for instance—he was an artifact forger from Allheaven who had made a set of nine dragon sons, which had already earned him widespread fame.
But Ma Xianhong mass-produced artifacts. If the power of the Divine Machine Hundred Refinements were ever revealed, artifact forgers worldwide would go mad.
The major families and even nations would react the same way. These magical artifacts were akin to modern technological weapons. Many extraordinary beings served in the military, and if they were equipped with such artifacts, casualties would be significantly reduced.
Unfortunately, most people only focused on the transformation of people and ignored the other aspects of the Life Refining Furnace. Those who knew the full truth weren't about to reveal it.
"Master, don't you think the storage pouches are too large and difficult to carry? Could you modify them into bracelets or rings?"
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