Chapter 105
This ancient, magnificent city reignited everyone’s inspiration.
Zhang Yu’s team worked day and night, chugging nutritional fluid like water. In the end, just before the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the mini Chang’an City had been completely transformed.
Beyond the outer edge of the plaza, dense mist covered everything. Inside the city, outside the walls, a vast moat surged like a nimble coiling dragon in motion. In the city, long trailing branches tangled around towering trees, while delicate birds sang among the flowers. ?
The towering city walls rose like clouds—solemn and imposing. Beneath them stood sturdy NPC soldiers in armor and red-plumed helmets, their movements rigid and disciplined. Their hawk-like eyes swept across the crowd, as if trying to sniff out criminals hidden among the townsfolk entering the city.
Inside the city, countless tall ginkgo trees—like sky-piercing giants—shed endless golden leaves in soft waves whenever the breeze stirred.
Staring at the awe-inspiring city, Zhang Yu couldn’t help crying tears of joy as she hugged the person beside her. “We finally finished.”
The mini Chang’an City, carrying the blood, sweat, and hope of the entire team, was finally about to be unveiled.
No one knew how much pressure they had endured over these short two weeks. No one knew how their hearts had churned like stormy seas as the construction progress accelerated day by day.
They stood greedily atop the city’s tallest structure—the central redemption tower—looking down, desperate to take in every inch of the “mini Chang’an City” below.
Seeing this, Ivy clapped her hands with an amused sigh to get everyone’s attention. “Stop staring. Go back and sleep first—recharge your energy. Don’t forget we still have a major task tomorrow.”
Right—tomorrow they still had a huge pile of ethereal Hanfu and accessories to process!
The girls, who had been intoxicated by the mini Chang’an City, snapped awake at once. Before long, they all logged off to sleep, planning to recover their strength and fight again tomorrow.
The Lantern Festival Morning — 6:30 a.m.
At a time when ordinary office workers were just starting their day, everyone opened a certain Boss Xie’s livestream—only to receive a very non-ordinary announcement:
Tonight at 8:00 p.m., Earth Commerce will host a Lantern Festival interactive event at Starlight Plaza.
The moment the news dropped, StarBlog exploded with activity.
[Kids are going crazy waiting]: Aaaaaah! An Earth Commerce interactive event in the StarNet mall—finally!! I’ve been waiting forever!!
[No water, no oxygen, no clothes]: Waaaah Boss Xie just said everything we want will be in the event… so can we really get those fairy-like outfits and pretty jewelry through the event prizes? Please please please—this kid wants them so badly!
[Long-tailed fish]: Honestly, who doesn’t want them? I’m going all-in tonight. I’ve been bored out of my mind lately, hehehe. Didn’t expect Boss Xie to drop a huge interactive event—love it!
…
Even though Xie Xingchen was being mysterious, the viewers dared to guess boldly.
If Boss Xie said “everything you want is there,” then of course the prizes must be overflowing with goodies!
And if not?
Everyone: Hehe… time for the little whip.
At 8:00 a.m., right after Xie Xingchen ended his morning stream, the system notification sounded immediately.
And along with it came the sound of new system mail.
Xie Xingchen hurried to a factory building he had already picked out, then took out the rewards from the system:
Advanced Hanfu Fabricator and Advanced Jewelry Fabricator.
The two enormous machines each took up an entire medium-sized room.
[Name: Advanced Hanfu Fabricator]
Function: Produces various high-end Hanfu
Output: 100 pieces / 24 hours
[Name: Advanced Jewelry Fabricator]
Function: Produces various high-end jewelry
Output: 200 pieces / 24 hours
After checking the details, Xie Xingchen tapped the attached panel on the Advanced Hanfu Fabricator to view required materials.
The raw materials were about what he expected: everything from assorted fabrics and furs, down to thread, dyes, and dozens of other items—including mutated metals.
Then he checked the Advanced Jewelry Fabricator. Its materials were mostly metals, supplemented by fabric, thread, fluff, crystals, pearls, shells… and even oddly colored insect remains and bird feathers.
Aside from a small portion of materials that were a little bizarre, the usage was similar to other food machines. The “output” listed didn’t mean the sum of production time per item—it meant the machine’s refresh cycle for a new production run.
So after feeding enough raw materials into the machines, just two hours later, Xie Xingchen received:
100 exquisite high-end Hanfu, and 200 beautiful pieces of jewelry.
Curved-hem robes, straight-hem robes, cross-collar ruqun, high-waisted ruqun, front-opening ruqun, mamian skirts, jacket-and-skirt sets, Zhu Xi-style deep robes, triple-layer garments, cloaks, scholar robes… everything you could think of.
To modern people, “Hanfu” is a general term for traditional ancient clothing. But in reality, these outfits belonged to different dynasties, each with its own distinct characteristics.
The Wei-Jin era was the most unrestrained—people pursued the Dao and harmony between heaven and humanity, so clothing favored lightness and flowing grace: elegant, understated, yet full of personality.
The Tang dynasty was powerful and prosperous, socially inclusive—its clothing leaned toward vibrant colors with lighter accents, creating a luxuriant and regal silhouette.
By the Song dynasty, the rise of Neo-Confucian restraint changed the social atmosphere, and clothing gradually became subtle and minimalist.
Then in the Ming dynasty, strength returned again; clothing inherited the Song’s simplicity while also carrying the Tang’s grandeur—noble without losing refinement.
Every style revealed its dynasty’s temperament. But beyond that, the system also produced many “improved” Hanfu designs:
Cute Hanfu with cross-collar tops and skirts, featuring fluffy elements that looked soft and sweet;
Pure white outfits with touches of pale blue—so ethereal that both men and women looked like immortals;
And minimalist, sharp-edged designs with a cold palette—radiating a heroic, martial spirit…
As for jewelry, there was even more: hairpins, ornamental pins, comb-pins, dangling step-shakers, floral ornaments, flat hairpieces, phoenix crowns… hair crowns and hair bands for men; even accessories like sword pendants, folding fans, and round fans.
It truly proved that old saying—
If you can’t imagine it, the system can still make it.
At 10:00 a.m., when all the Hanfu and jewelry were finished, Xie Xingchen stood there blankly for several minutes.
For a moment, he wanted to keep everything for himself—just to admire it every day.
When he snapped back to reality, he couldn’t help laughing at himself. “If even I can’t resist, everyone else definitely won’t be able to either.”
His eyes sparkled as he smiled, then he called Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life over. The four of them worked together to scan all 100 Hanfu and 200 jewelry pieces into the holographic marketplace and apply for special patents.
After uploading, Xie Xingchen chose an extra-large room as a temporary Hanfu storage room, carefully placing the high-end clothing and jewelry inside.
Only then did he finally have time to log into the StarNet marketplace.
Inside the creator decoration workspace, he saw twenty girls who had completely forgotten their image.
They stared at the gorgeous Hanfu with utterly bewitched faces, practically drooling—like they wanted to tackle the outfits and hug them.
At this moment, they had completely forgotten what self-control was.
It wasn’t until Xie Xingchen made a sound that they remembered they were elites in their fields. They forced themselves back to normal, cracked their knuckles, and began working.
100 Hanfu originals × 10 copies, and 200 jewelry originals × 10 copies—since the base quantity was small, even tenfold duplication only produced 1,000 Hanfu and 2,000 jewelry pieces.
Anyone could tell—three thousand prizes would never be enough for all participating players.
But even so, those three thousand items were absolutely tonight’s centerpiece—and the biggest prizes of the event.
The grand prizes came in two tiers:
Tier One: The original 100 unique Hanfu and 200 unique jewelry pieces—these were the “grand prizes among grand prizes.” They would not be modified at all. Once obtained, players could use them in the holographic marketplace indefinitely.
Tier Two: Simplified Hanfu and jewelry—based on duplicated originals, then manually altered: remove delicate embroidery, swap to more common colors, strip out precious gems, change gold hair ornaments to silver, and so on—resulting in sets that were still pretty, but clearly more modest than the originals.
Everyone: Hehe. Making beautiful Hanfu and jewelry from scratch is hard—but making them uglier on the basis of already-beautiful designs? That’s easy.
They were all prizes—but prizes had tiers, right?
The simpler ones were still good-looking—just not as stunning as the premium versions. And that only made people chase the top prizes even harder.
Though… if you went by the “100 premium Hanfu” standard, then 200 jewelry pieces still weren’t enough. To complete a truly gorgeous or handsome full outfit, players would probably need to win at least five to ten original jewelry pieces.
Thinking of those infuriating “gotcha” mini-games, everyone couldn’t help sighing: this difficulty was no joke.
Lantern Festival Day — 6:00 p.m.
Ba Yuqing stepped out of the training room.
As the top-ranked student of her year, her life was monotonous: class and training, training and class.
To her, today was no different. After training she ate, returned to her dorm to rest, and prepared for night training…
But while she was resting, her friend from the cultivation department suddenly bounced in, full of energy.
“Why are you here?” Ba Yuqing asked, puzzled.
Ba Yuqing was stunning, but her beauty often felt “bland” to others—because whether she was looking at someone or speaking, she carried a cold, flavorless calm like plain boiled water.
Jiao Yu had been used to her coldness since childhood, so she didn’t find Ba Yuqing’s tone strange at all.
She quickly explained why she came, then looked at her pitifully, begging her to come along to the event.
Ba Yuqing frowned, about to refuse—but when she met her friend’s puppy-eyed pleading, she reluctantly agreed.
Jiao Yu immediately clenched her fist in excitement. “Yes! Then you rest a bit first. We’ll log in around 8:00 p.m.”
After that, she didn’t leave. She dragged a chair over and sat down right there—like a door guardian—camped outside Ba Yuqing’s single dorm room.
Ba Yuqing: “…”
Used to Jiao Yu’s occasionally suffocating behavior, Ba Yuqing didn’t find it strange.
Anyway… in other people’s eyes, both of them were kind of weird. Might as well be weird together.
Clearing her mind, Ba Yuqing rested for half an hour. Once her energy recovered, she opened her eyes and said cleanly, without delay:
“Let’s go. Log into the holographic marketplace.”
That was Ba Yuqing: once she agreed, she did it. No dragging things out, no making people anxious.
When they arrived at Starlight Plaza and looked back, Roads 355, 356, 357, and 358 were already packed with people.
The surging crowd was terrifying. Ba Yuqing—who hated noisy gatherings—almost turned around and fled, but Jiao Yu, who had anticipated this, grabbed her tightly.
“Don’t run, don’t run! It’s almost time—just fifteen more minutes,” Jiao Yu soothed repeatedly.
Unfortunately, that didn’t soothe Ba Yuqing at all. Instead, she instantly regretted agreeing without asking anything.
Fifteen minutes… she had to stay squeezed like this for fifteen minutes?
Ba Yuqing hesitated for only a second, then tried to activate Do-Not-Disturb mode.
But—
No. Still no. Why wasn’t it working?
Ba Yuqing was stunned. She turned to Jiao Yu. “Xiao Yu, I think the marketplace’s browsing mode is broken.”
She couldn’t even turn on Do-Not-Disturb.
Jiao Yu blinked. “Huh? Broken?”
Before she could investigate, a friendly girl nearby laughed and said, “Relax, sisters—browsing mode isn’t broken. It’s just that the surrounding blocks have been locked into normal mode.”
As soon as she said it, many people chimed in.
“Yeah, I asked customer service. They said large interactive events usually set the area like this—visitors can’t change it. Unless we can find the event contractor—Boss Xie. Only Boss Xie has permission.”
“So don’t even think about it. The event hasn’t started; how would we find Boss Xie? Just wait quietly. It’s not a big deal—just squeeze a little longer… though honestly, this level of crowding is something you can’t really experience elsewhere.”
“Personally, I don’t care about the crowding. I just want to know how big Starlight Plaza is. Can the inside space even hold all of us?”
“Uh… it should, right? Isn’t it said that if you rent a large plaza, the marketplace gives some proportion of space expansion rights?”
…
As the crowd grew, many began worrying about the plaza’s capacity.
If the plaza could only hold tens of thousands, then most people here would be doomed—they might not even be able to enter.
Even with the marketplace’s limited-time maximum space expansion, it might still only hold most people, leaving some unable to participate.
The only way everyone could join was if Boss Xie spent a fortune to buy the full expansion service package.
Listening to the discussions, Ba Yuqing was surprised.
So the StarNet marketplace had restrictions like that?
Why had she never heard of this before?
And how did these people know the rules and solutions?
Jiao Yu shrugged. “Maybe they read the marketplace regulations. Ever since we started following Boss Xie, we’ve gotten used to digging through all kinds of regulations.”
Then she brightened. “Anyway, forget that. Yuqing, let’s move forward—looks like the fog ahead is about to clear. Let’s push in!”
Since holographic bodies wouldn’t get crushed, everyone surged forward like sardines, squeezing hard—and dragging Ba Yuqing with them.
At 7:50 p.m., the dense fog covering one corner of Starlight Plaza began to disperse. Those facing that direction screamed.
And then everyone realized—
Behind the fog was an ancient city glowing with lantern-lit splendor.
Outside the city, a moat wound around it, dotted with countless lotus lanterns. Only at the city gate was a wooden drawbridge lowered—wide enough for ten horses to ride side by side. On both ends of the bridge stood soldiers in armor and plumed helmets, heavy swords at their waists.
The solemn, majestic atmosphere of the ancient city instantly silenced the noisy crowd.
Everyone stared with eyes that felt completely insufficient—as if they couldn’t look fast enough.
Bold players tried to enter, but when they reached the fog boundary, they found they couldn’t pass through.
At that moment, an Earth Commerce announcement appeared in the air—glowing neon green text, dazzling against the darkness:
[Earth Commerce]: “All players who wish to participate in the Lantern Festival event, please draw your city-entry number. This number is both your entry order and your identity number. Once you confirm, a stamp mark will appear on the back of your left hand. Tap the stamp to view your stamp collection album and collection info. Collect a certain number of stamps and you can exchange them for exquisite prizes—rich rewards await you!”
The announcement hung motionless in the night sky above the “mini Chang’an City,” but countless lottery orbs appeared densely above the crowd.
Ba Yuqing reached out and touched an orb. She drew a fairly smooth number: [789].
Once everyone received their numbers, they began lining up in order.
While lining up, each person’s number floated above their head to help with positioning.
Ba Yuqing’s spot was relatively close—after all, 789 was still within three digits.
But Jiao Yu—who came with her—was insane. She drew [1], meaning she would be the very first player to enter the mini Chang’an City.
They agreed to meet at the city gate after entering, then joined their respective queues.
Ten minutes of lining up wasn’t enough for everyone to fully settle, but it did make the area much more orderly.
At exactly 8:00:00 p.m., the event officially began.
As the first in line, Jiao Yu stepped onto the wooden drawbridge, curious and nervous. When she passed the heroic knight NPCs, she even paused to admire them before leaving with satisfied delight.
The moment she entered Chang’an City, her mouth fell open exaggeratedly. Her eyes widened as she stared at everything in a trance.
“Fire trees and silver flowers merge as one; the star-bridge’s iron locks open.” ?
Starlight glittered. Moonlight draped like gauze. Against the deep black sky—besides stars and moon—there were lanterns hanging all through the trees. Flames in the night blazed brilliantly, reflecting across the city like a celestial wonderland that could only exist in a dream.
The players who entered couldn’t move. They jammed up at the gate, blocking the normal flow.
But clearly the city’s owner had anticipated this. While everyone was still stunned, strong soldiers marched in with spears raised, guiding them away from the gate.
Under the NPC soldiers’ stern gaze, Jiao Yu suddenly remembered her friend.
So she left the impatient crowd and crouched in a discreet corner where she wouldn’t be easily noticed, patiently waiting for Ba Yuqing.
Watching each newcomer gape open-mouthed and then get herded away by soldiers, she covered her mouth and snickered shamelessly.
Then Ba Yuqing arrived. Before the soldiers could chase people away, Jiao Yu bounced over, grabbed her, and ran.
The mini Chang’an City was a bustling “ancient city.”
Everything here was steeped in antique charm:
Architecture, goods, people, NPCs, games, riddles…
Every player who entered refused to start tasks immediately. Like ordinary tourists, they snapped endless photos, then happily posted them to their feeds to enjoy everyone’s envy.
Only much later did they remember they came for an event, not a photo shoot—so they all rushed toward the commercial streets draped in colorful ribbons and lanterns.
There were many vendors. Some were intelligent NPCs; others were real people.
And those real vendors were interesting too—students doing part-time work to pay their way. Because they were young, they were generally cheerful and pure-hearted.
They’d also received training, so sometimes their speech and behavior were adorably on-point, making you feel like they truly were real Chang’an street merchants.
The vendor in front of Jiao Yu and Ba Yuqing was exactly like that.
He wore the vendors’ standard short gray-brown outfit and smiled as he held up a woven bamboo ring to show them.
“Hello, honored guests. This is the ring-toss game point. According to the rules, you can buy rings from me and toss them—anything you successfully ring becomes yours. A small investment for a big return: 2 StarCoins per ring, or 6 rings for 10 StarCoins. How many rings would you like?”
Ba Yuqing didn’t speak. Jiao Yu immediately bought 12 rings for 20 StarCoins.
After buying, she didn’t throw a single one. She handed all the rings to Ba Yuqing, then stepped aside, eyes sparkling as she cheered her friend on.
“Yuqing, go! We want the treasure box!”
Her confidence was so loud that the people nearby—who kept failing to ring the treasure box—burst into laughter.
Everyone knew the treasure box was good, but it was ridiculously hard to ring.
It was far. The angle was awful. And the rings were small. Anyone who could land it was a monster.
But Ba Yuqing really was that kind of monster.
She trained every day, so her fine motor control was excellent.
Even though she’d never played this game before, many principles were transferable. After wasting two rings, she nailed it.
The moment she ringed the treasure box, the vendor’s face brightened. He pulled out a box of stamps from behind him for them to draw.
Ba Yuqing let Jiao Yu draw one stamp, then the vendor pressed it onto the stamp mark on the back of Ba Yuqing’s left hand.
Ba Yuqing calmly tapped the mark, and saw that one icon in the previously blank stamp album lit up.
It was just a mini-game—but watching the album fill in made her strangely happy.
They played again. The remaining nine rings all landed on the treasure box.
In the end they split the stamps—each got five. But when Ba Yuqing tried to continue, the vendor said regretfully:
“Sorry, miss. You’ve already reached the maximum number of stamps collectable at this stall, so you can’t keep playing.”
Jiao Yu and Ba Yuqing: “?”
Jiao Yu pleaded, “What if we don’t ring the treasure box—what if we ring the smaller items instead?”
The young vendor scratched his head, embarrassed. “That still won’t work. You can only go to other places to get other items now.”
Then he quickly encouraged them. “But don’t worry—there are lots of game points here, and the prizes overlap in some places.”
Hearing that, the two left in frustration.
They wandered along the river inside the city with no clear destination. When they passed through a small lane and arrived at a lively lantern market, they found it dazzling—as if they’d stepped into a place where stars had fallen.
“The east wind at night releases blossoms across a thousand trees—then blows them down, stars like rain.”
“Fine horses and carved carriages fill the scented road.”
“Phoenix flutes stir; jade-lamp light turns—one night of fish and dragons dancing.” ?
The main commercial street was far more prosperous than the smaller lanes they’d been on before.
The entire street shimmered with lantern-fire and silver brilliance. On the simple bluestone road, luxurious carriages appeared from time to time. Soft, decadent strings and flutes drifted from the taverns, making the already lively street even more alive.
Scholars in ancient robes strolling with attendants; noble sons surrounded by followers; refined young ladies accompanied by nannies and maids; sweet girls from humble homes…
Stepping in felt like stepping into another wondrous world.
Even without exaggerated expressions, the brightness in their eyes revealed their impatience and excitement in an instant.
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