Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 50 Upgrade
Currently, since Zhang Chengdao is not yet level 10, most of the blueprints and recipes have not been unlocked. In the Equipment Workshop, the only weapons that can be forged are the Stone Sword, Bamboo Bow, Wooden Knife, Plain Whip, and Stone Hammer.

While its destructive power isn't low, it's easily damaged.

That's right, in the original game, equipment had wear and tear values!

However, this figure is clearly just something the game developers wanted to add a bit of "immersion" to, and they didn't actually force players to spend money. Damaged equipment and weapons can be repaired for a very small amount of copper coins... Of course, these are in-game copper coins, not the copper coins in this martial arts cultivation world.

Besides weapons, characters can also equip eight other items: head, top, bottom, arms, belt, feet, and accessories.

These equipment items need to be crafted and forged by the players themselves, and they are only fully available after the [Refining Room] is built.

However, below level 10, Zhang Chengdao can only craft the most basic white-grade equipment, which is the lowest-level "Gebu Set", namely: [Gebu Crown], [Gebu Robe], [Gebu Skirt], [Gebu Belt], [Gebu Wristbands], [Gebu Leather Boots], and [Wooden Pendant].

Aside from the fact that all the attributes are negligible, crafting such a set of equipment would require a huge amount of kudzu vine resources. Zhang Chengdao worked hard and diligently for a month to barely gather enough raw materials for one set, but...

Are you crazy? Wasting so much effort to craft a set of basic, unequipped gear? It doesn't even have any stats!

Therefore, Zhang Chengdao never considered crafting these low-level equipment; he was only waiting to reach level 10 and unlock the blueprints for high-grade equipment!
Compared to the Equipment Workshop, which can craft a complete set of equipment, the Refining Room is rather useless. It can only refine one magic item at present, namely the gray-quality Qiankun Bag.

In the original game, the description of the [Qiankun Bag] is similar to the concept in various fantasy novels and games, but its actual function is not to increase space or backpack slots.

After all, the characters and villagers in the original game don't have backpacks, so adding backpack slots or space wouldn't make a difference, right?

Therefore, its attribute is quite peculiar: [Increases work efficiency by 5%].

While logically speaking, carrying more items should indeed increase work efficiency, but...

It's just so bizarre!

If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't gather all the materials in this martial arts and cultivation world, he really would have liked to craft one and see what it was for!

After waiting for a while, all the white wood was finally combined into white planks, and the [Cloth Shop] and [Alchemy Shop] could finally be built.

After careful consideration, Zhang Chengdao decided that the Cloth Shop could be built temporarily near the courtyard where everyone lived, but the Pill Shop would have to be built in the place he had discussed with Xu Ying a few days ago, specifically for the Spirit Medicine Peak.

The mountain peak was a very special one that the two of them had carefully selected. It was extremely sunny on one side and extremely shady on the other, and there was a pool of water halfway up the mountain.

Zhang Chengdao considered that this complex environment was most suitable for cultivating different spiritual herbs and plants, and that the stagnant pool could be transformed into a "spiritual water pool" with flowing water using some rare and precious materials, making it more convenient to irrigate and cultivate spiritual herbs.

After casually setting up the cloth shop, Zhang Chengdao channeled his spiritual power, using the "Shrinking Earth to an Inch" technique to quickly head towards the Spirit Medicine Peak. "Shrinking Earth to an Inch" is a minor supernatural ability, not too difficult, but Chang Ping'an actually learned it first before Zhang Chengdao secretly practiced it diligently in the middle of the night—how could a master not understand the supernatural abilities his disciple possessed!
When Xu Ying and Murong Ruyan "accidentally" saw Zhang Chengdao use this minor supernatural power, the two of them quickly learned it as well.

The "Shrinking the Earth to an Inch" technique is particularly useful for traveling. What would normally be an hour's journey can be completed in the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and it consumes very little spiritual energy. It is even more convenient than riding a horse and has become the most popular way of traveling among the entire White Stone Immortal Sect.

Zhang Chengdao traveled from the thatched cottage to Lingyao Peak in just over ten minutes.

Lingyao Peak currently consists of only an extremely simple courtyard, enclosed by the cheapest bamboo fence. Inside, besides a wooden-tiled house, there is only a medicinal herb garden.

The herb garden was planted with a large area of ​​kudzu vines and licorice, just like a peach orchard. Apart from a few plants that Zhang Chengdao bought directly from the mall, the rest were all "grown" by him through various means.

These propagated kudzu and licorice plants are growing very slowly. It has been more than a week since they were planted, and only a few tiny sprouts have emerged. I don't know if it's due to lack of water and fertilizer, or because the climate is too cold.

After inspecting the herb garden and finding no dead herbs, Zhang Chengdao built the [Pill Workshop] next to the herb garden.

Then, he took a deep breath and upgraded his cheat system to level 10.

There are a total of 9 new buildings unlocked at level 10. In addition to the fixed upgrades to the [City Wall], [City Gate], and [Arrow Tower], there are also upgrades to the [Workshop], [Equipment Workshop], [Clothing Workshop], [Weapon Forging Room], [Alchemy Workshop], and [Stove Room].

In other words, there are no new buildings that need to be constructed this time; all of them are upgrades based on the existing buildings.

After upgrading, you can easily unlock more blueprints and recipes.

Upgrading the Equipment Workshop was the simplest. In addition to the original materials, it only required some rough tiles and white planks. Zhang Chengdao still had some white planks left in his backpack, just enough to upgrade it, so he completed the upgrade of the Equipment Workshop first.

After completion, opening the crafting panel revealed a number of new blueprints. The highest-level set consisted of blue-yellow quality equipment: [Coarse Cloth Towel], [Coarse Cloth Robe], [Coarse Cloth Skirt], [Coarse Cloth Belt], [Coarse Cloth Wristbands], [Coarse Cloth Boots], and [Jade Pendant].

In addition, there are many other blueprints for individual equipment pieces of the same blue-yellow quality, such as [Jade Hairpin], [Jade Crown], [Jade Earrings], [Beasthide Armor], [Beasthide Belt], and [Beasthide Bracers]. These pieces of equipment are similar in their basic attributes, differing only in their emphasis. For example, [Rough Cloth Armor] increases movement speed, while [Beasthide Armor] increases defense.

After carefully examining the newly unlocked equipment blueprints, Zhang Chengdao opened his backpack, glanced at the various materials he had stockpiled, and sighed.

The coarse cloth set requires linen made from ramie and kudzu fibers. Although he had stockpiled a lot of both materials, he would probably have to use them all to make a complete set.

The key issue is, even if they were made, who would wear them? He currently has two apprentices, and the problem isn't the scarcity but the unfair distribution of the garments; it wouldn't be appropriate to give them to either of them!

(End of this chapter)