Ark Simulator, don't I have no physical form?

"Hey! Little Suri, need any help?" She came over with a grin, a small flame flickering at her fingertips.

Su Rui wiped the sweat from her brow and nodded, saying, "Sister Nian, could you block off the ditch over there? The stream beasts keep emerging from there."

Nian snapped his fingers: "Easy!"

The flame at her fingertip suddenly shot up, transforming into a fiery serpent that darted into the ditch. A moment later, a mournful hissing sound echoed from the ditch, followed by silence. How could fire possibly burn in water?

"Done!" Nian clapped his hands triumphantly. "Not a trace left!"

Suri breathed a sigh of relief: "Great, that way they can't—"

Before the words were finished, the soil on the other side of the paddy field suddenly churned, and more than a dozen wild beasts emerged at the same time, rushing madly towards the rice paddy!

Volume 9, Page 576: Do not scribble or draw randomly.

"There's more?!" Su Rui was startled, worried that he had missed something, and immediately swung his sword to unleash wind blades, but there were too many to intercept them all at once.

Nian snorted coldly and clasped his hands together: "Fire Wall!"

Blazing flames erupted from the ground, engulfing all the charging beasts. The stench of burning filled the air as the dark figures twisted and turned to ashes in the fire.

Suri gripped his longsword tightly and whispered, "It seems they're organized..."

Nian squinted: "Interesting, these little things are quite resilient."

Ling stood on the ridge of the field in the distance, holding a wine jug in her hand, her gaze sweeping indifferently over the battlefield. She had only been passing by, but seeing the fight between Su Rui and Nian, she couldn't help but take a few more glances.

(It's really lively...)

She gently shook her head, tilted her head back and took a sip of wine. Then, with a flick of her finger, a wisp of blue mist silently drifted over, covering the charred corpses. Wherever the mist passed, the remaining remains of the wild beasts quickly dissolved, leaving not a trace.

—This way, the soil in the paddy fields will not be polluted.

Su Rui seemed to sense something and turned to look in Ling's direction, but Ling had already turned and left, leaving only a faint blue afterimage.

He blinked, feeling a warm glow inside.

(Everyone is helping me in their own way...)

In the evening, Shu came to the edge of the field to check on the work and found that not a single wild animal had sneaked into the paddy field during the entire day of rice planting. She nodded in satisfaction and looked at Su Rui, who was resting on the edge of the field: "Well done."

Su Rui smiled a little shyly: "Actually... Sister Xi, Sister Nian, and Sister Ling all helped."

Shu reached out and ruffled his hair: "But you're the one who's had the hardest time."

She took a freshly steamed rice cake from the basket and handed it to Suri: "This is your reward."

Su Rui took the rice cake, took a bite, and the sweet, chewy texture melted in his mouth, making him squint his eyes and exclaim, "Delicious!"

Shu smiled gently: "Shall we continue tomorrow?"

Suri nodded vigorously: "Yes!"

As the sun sets, the water in the rice paddies reflects the golden afterglow. Su Rui sits on the ridge, watching the busy figures in the distance, feeling a sense of satisfaction.

Before the morning mist had completely dissipated, Su Rui was already sitting cross-legged on a blue stone by the edge of the field, with a sheet of plain white Xuan paper spread out in front of her. She was carefully drawing with her fingertips dipped in Xi's specially made spiritual ink.

"The dragon's head should be raised a little higher." Xi stood behind him, leaning slightly forward, her cool fingers gently supporting his wrist, guiding his brushstrokes with a turn. "The ink must be just right; too light and it will scatter; too dark and it will be lifeless."

Su Rui held her breath and followed her guidance to outline the dragon scales. The ink meandered across the paper, gradually revealing the rudimentary form of a young dragon.

"Yes, that's it." Xi's voice rarely carried a hint of approval. "Now, infuse it with spiritual energy."

Su Rui closed his eyes and concentrated, the dragon bloodline within him slightly warmed, and a wisp of golden light flowed into the ink line from his fingertips.

The young dragon on the paper suddenly trembled, its dark body gradually becoming three-dimensional, and finally "whoosh" it broke free from the paper, transforming into a three-foot-long ink-wash dragon that affectionately wrapped around Su Rui's arm.

"We succeeded!" Su Rui's eyes widened in surprise, and the little dragon also raised its head and let out a soft dragon roar.

Xi's lips curled up almost imperceptibly: "Barely passing."

In the afternoon, Ling arrived gracefully, carrying a wine jug. Seeing Su Rui directing five or six black dragons to patrol between the paddy fields, she tilted her head back and drank the wine in the jug, then suddenly splashed the wine into the air.

"Watch closely."

The bluish-green mist condensed in the air, transforming into a lifelike mist dragon. Compared to the exquisite ink dragon in Su Rui's painting, this mist dragon was even more ethereal and agile, with tiny ice crystals entwined between its whiskers.

"Mist has no fixed form." Ling's fingertips traced through the mist. "Your ink dragon is too rigid."

As she spoke, the mist dragon suddenly dispersed into a sky full of blue mist, then in the blink of an eye reformed into three smaller dragon shadows, which pounced on three different field ridges. The lurking river beasts that had just peeked out were pierced through by the mist dragons and instantly frozen into ice sculptures.

Su Rui was engrossed in watching when he suddenly realized his black dragon was still aimlessly wandering along the same fixed route. He scratched his head: "Then what should I do..."

"First, learn to observe." Ling had somehow gotten close to him, her breath, carrying the scent of wine, brushing against his ear. "How the wind blows, how the clouds drift, how the water flows—these are the rhythms of living things."

She grabbed Su Rui's hand and led him to splatter ink randomly on the paper. The seemingly chaotic ink dots, under the influence of spiritual power, automatically connected to form a playful dragon.

"You're all being too bookish!" Nian appeared out of nowhere, his red hair still smudged with furnace ash. "A dragon should have the imposing presence to soar to the heavens!"

She snatched the brush and scribbled a crooked dragon shape on the paper, then slapped a fire talisman on it. The dragon on the paper immediately burst into flames, actually transforming into a fire dragon that soared into the sky—before burning to ashes three seconds later.

Xi's tail smacked Nian's calf with a "smack": "Nonsense."

"Ouch!" Nian jumped back, clutching his leg. "I was teaching him about innovation!"

Looking at the falling paper ash, Su Rui suddenly seemed to realize something: "Actually... if we combined the explosive power of fire with the persistence of ink..."

Xi and Ling both turned to look at him.

Nian proudly put his hands on his hips and said, "See! Little Suri understands me!"

Xi silently unfurled the scroll, immediately separating Nian by a distance of three zhang: "Continue practicing."

By evening, Su Rui's results were quite impressive. More than twenty black dragons intertwined in the sky above the rice paddies, no longer patrolling rigidly, but sometimes gathering into formations, sometimes scattering like shooting stars, and even mimicking Ling's mist dragon clone technique.

Most astonishingly, sparks flickered between the scales of two black dragons—though the duration was brief, they did indeed unleash scorching heat waves as they pounced on the wild beasts.

When Shu came to inspect, this was the scene he saw: Mo Long was swimming in the rosy light, Su Rui was standing in the middle of the field, Xi and Ling were on the left and right like two generals, and Nian was squatting on a haystack in the distance, eating glutinous rice balls.

"Looks like I don't need to worry about it." Shu smiled and put down the food box. Su Rui was about to run to take it when the three black dragons had already picked up the food box and steadily delivered it to him.

Xi looked at the black dragons, then suddenly reached out and pinched one of their horns: "This form..."

The dragon's horns had faint forks, which was a characteristic of her original form.

Ling also discovered that a certain black dragon with a more pronounced mist had a tail fin shape exactly like his own.

Both of them looked at Su Rui at the same time.

The boy was busy opening the food box, his silver hair still stained with ink, completely unaware that he had unintentionally drawn the features of the three teachers.

Nian poked his head out from the haystack: "No one looks like me, right? Right?" Of course there are, you just haven't noticed.

Xi and Ling exchanged a glance and, in rare unison, waved their hands at the same time—all the ink dragons suddenly turned their heads and sprayed more than twenty tiny streams of ink at Nian.

"Hello!"

The setting sun cast long shadows of their chasing and playing figures. Su Rui took a bite of the dragon-shaped sugar painting made by Shu, thinking that tomorrow she would try to make the flames of the New Year even more realistic.

Volume 9, Chapter 577: Don't wander off, there are too many people here.

Summer in the Great Wilderness City always arrives exceptionally hot.

Golden waves of wheat rippled in the wind, and the air was filled with the sweet fragrance of new wheat and the bitter scent of mugwort.

The eaves on both sides of the street were covered with decorations woven from grains. Children chased and played as they ran past the alley entrance, clutching freshly picked wild fruits in their hands, their laughter as crisp as the wind chimes swaying on the eaves.

Suri's nose twitched. The aroma of baked flatbread mingled with the sweetness of honey wafting from afar, making him quicken his pace unconsciously, his silvery-white tail wagging happily behind him.

Suddenly, Xi's dark dragon tail wrapped around him, and the cool scales against his ankle sent a shiver down his spine.

"Sister Xi?" Su Rui turned around in confusion. Xi was staring at the candy vendor on the street corner. He was a young merchant with an unfamiliar face and a strange bronze bell hanging from his waist.

"Don't wander off." Xi's fingertips traced the inside of his wrist, where ink stains from drawing talismans two days ago still remained. "There are many outsiders during the festival."

Nian jumped up from behind, her red hair smeared with flour from who-knows-where: "What are you afraid of! I'm here!" She hooked her arm around Su Rui's neck and stuffed a sesame cake she had just bought into his mouth. "Try it, it has osmanthus honey in it!"

The moment the aroma of roasted sesame seeds exploded in her mouth, Su Rui's eyes narrowed in bliss. Ling, who had appeared beside her unnoticed, gently tapped Su Rui's hand with his jade pipe: "Feed slowly, you'll choke."

A newly woven mugwort sachet was hanging from the end of the pipe, swaying and releasing pale blue smoke with each movement.

A voice called from ahead: "The festival is about to begin."

The altar in the center of the square was piled high with newly harvested wheat ears. Shu stood before the statue of Shennong, her white robes billowing in the wind, the golden wheat ears tucked into her hair dazzlingly bright. As Su Rui tiptoed to peer inside, she suddenly noticed that Xi's tail had tightened a little more.

"I can see..." he protested softly, his ear tips burning from the warm breath of the person behind him. Xi's chin rested on the top of his head, her long, dark hair falling over her shoulders like an impenetrable curtain.

The drums suddenly began to beat. Twelve large drums made of Kui skin formed a circle around the altar, and the bare-chested drummers swung their drumsticks wrapped in red silk. The first muffled thunderous sound made Su Rui tremble all over, and her back pressed completely against Xi's chest.

As the drumbeats grew faster, the enormous Shennong statue made of wheat ears began to wriggle, and countless grains of wheat fell down, revealing the real deity inside—an old farmer carved from century-old boxwood, with a few real wheat seeds embedded in the lines of his palm.

"It's starting!" Nian excitedly pulled Su Rui forward. Xi was about to stop them when Ling's pipe blocked their way: "Let him go. This is a memorial service; try to be happy."

Xi was somewhat unwilling, but she still nodded, looking in Su Rui's direction with her gaze fixed on Su Rui.

Suri was pushed to the front row. Dancers wearing painted masks were spinning around the statue, and seeds thrown from their sleeves sprouted and blossomed in the air, then fell like raindrops.

When the statue's eyes suddenly turned to look at him, Suri was so startled that he leaned back, his head hitting a soft chest.

"Be careful." Ling's voice, mingled with the aroma of wine, fell. She placed one hand on Su Rui's shoulder, while in her other hand, the wine jug had somehow been replaced by a bronze compass, its needle spinning wildly.

The drumbeats stopped abruptly. Shu, carrying a bowl of fresh wheat, approached the statue, and everyone held their breath. The moment the first grain of wheat fell to the ground, Su Rui heard a strange buzzing sound beneath her feet.

Clear springs began to seep from the ground, and translucent grain fish swam in the water—a unique auspicious sign of the Great Wilderness City, said to appear only in the most bountiful years.

Actually, Suri thinks this is probably some kind of magic that the millet is secretly using? There's nothing here that could become a god except for a few ancient creatures... and there seem to be a few giant beasts too.

"Make a wish quickly!" Nian reminded him in his ear. Su Rui hurriedly closed his eyes, but then heard Xi's voice slip into his ear: "Wishes won't come true if you say them out loud."

He opened one eye and saw Shu hand a bowl of wheat to an old man with white hair. The old man's trembling wrist revealed a strange tattoo, resembling some kind of curled-up worm.

Just as Su Rui was about to take a closer look, a wisp of blue mist suddenly drifted past his eyes—Ling's pipe was lying in front of him.

"Don't look." Ling's lips barely moved, but her voice clearly reached your ears, "It's a Gu farmer."

The joyous sounds of the festival suddenly seemed to fade into the distance. Suri felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

Xi's tail had somehow wrapped around his waist, and the slightly blistered scales showed that its master was also on guard. Nian, on the other hand, was nonchalantly chewing on the glutinous rice cake, but the sparks dancing on his fingertips betrayed his true emotions.

Just then, the song of millet began. She carried her second bowl of wheat in another direction, her voice as clear as a mountain stream. With each step she took, tiny white flowers bloomed on the ground, dispelling the eerie atmosphere.

Su Rui suddenly realized that the white-haired old man had disappeared without her noticing.

"Want to try some new barley wine?" Nian poked his cheek, deliberately breaking the silence with a cheerful tone. Ling put away his compass and pointed his pipe to the stall to the west: "That stall uses snow water to brew their wine."

Xi finally released her tail, but instead grabbed Su Rui's wrist: "Stay close."

As they walked through the crowd, Su Rui noticed that many outsiders were secretly staring at them.

A woman wearing a straw hat had a bone flute tucked into her waistband, the snake head carved at the end of the flute facing them; the pottery vendor had bandages soaked in medicine wrapped around his hands, and strange symbols were painted on the inside of each pottery jar. The strangest of all was an old man in a straw raincoat, whose fish baskets occasionally emitted the sound of metal striking metal.

"Quite a few 'guests' have come this year," Ling said, taking a sip of his wine, his tone as casual as if discussing the weather. Nian, already engrossed in his drink, his cheeks flushed, exclaimed, "What's there to be afraid of! Perfect timing to test my new weapon!"

Xi suddenly gripped Su Rui's wrist tightly. Across the street, under the eaves of a building, stood a woman holding a red umbrella; the golden rice ears embroidered on the umbrella shimmered eerily in the sunlight.

When Suri's gaze met hers, the woman's lips slowly parted into a wide smile—a smile far beyond what most people could achieve.

"Don't look into her eyes!" Xi suddenly pulled Su Rui behind her.

With a flick of his finger, Ling's cigarette ash transformed into a green arrow that shot towards the red umbrella, only to bounce back the instant it touched the umbrella's surface. As Nian smashed the wine jar and leaped up, the woman had already vanished into the crowd, leaving only a piece of gold foil slowly drifting down.

Shu's voice came from behind: "Having fun?" She was carrying a bamboo basket full of fresh fruit, and the wheat ears in her hair had been replaced with mugwort. "Want to try some freshly picked bayberries?"

The four fell silent. When Su Rui took the bayberries, she noticed red threads tied to the stems—a custom of exorcising evil spirits in the Great Wilderness City. Shu's smile remained gentle, but a sharp glint flashed in her eyes: "The festival lasts three days; there's even more fun tomorrow."

Volume 9, Chapter 578: Cleaning and Purification

That night they stayed in the attic of the millet barn. Nian got drunk and slept sprawled out on the wheat pile; Ling leaned against the window to keep watch, the fire in his pipe flickering on and off; Xi wrapped Su Rui in his outer robe, his tail tightly wrapped around Su Rui's waist, like a dragon guarding treasure.

Su Rui vaguely heard voices talking downstairs in the attic.

"Seven companies came this year," said Shu, "more than expected."

"Should we close the net ahead of schedule?" This was the order.

"Wait a little longer," came the rustling sound of millet's clothes. "Let them make the first move..."

A light rain began to fall in the latter half of the night. Su Rui dreamt that he was standing in a wheat field, with countless golden eyes watching him in the darkness. When he woke up, he found Xi wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with her fingertips, and the sound of morning drums from a festival drifted in from outside the window.

The Shennong Festival in Dahuang City was supposed to last for three days, but on the morning of the second day, the sky suddenly turned gloomy.

At first, only a few scattered raindrops fell on the festival banners, making a soft "patter" sound.