Dust swirled in the heavy air.
As the grit settled, the gruesome remains of Wushang Mingwang and that massive, crater-like handprint became increasingly clear. Viewed from the top of the stone walls, the scene was nothing short of soul-shaking.
The original forty-two residents of the Gao Village Family had seen this divine display before, but witnessing it a second time didn't dampen the shock.
In an instant, knees hit the dirt with a rhythmic thud-thud-thud as they collapsed into worship.
Then came the newcomers, the tenant farmers from the Bai family, and the Bai family guards; one by one, they toppled over like dominoes, pressing their foreheads into the dry earth.
Even Mr. Bai was frozen in place.
He had spent his entire life cultivating a sense of scholarly pride and stoicism, but the vibration of that impact had shattered his composure more effectively than any lecture.
He glanced to his side and saw San Shier and his wife already kneeling alongside the commoners, their heads bowed in humble submission.
The air was thick with a low, melodic murmur:
"All hail Dao Xuan Tianzun! Your power is unrivaled!"
At that moment, the heavy curtain of the Bai family carriage the one housing the women and children, was thrown aside.
A middle-aged woman and a young man scrambled out.
They were Mr. Bai's wife and son.
Without a moment's hesitation, they threw themselves onto the ground, their fine silk garments soaking up the mud and dust as if they were common beggars.
Mr. Bai looked around.
In the entirety of the Gao Village Family, he was the only one still standing.
He felt utterly exposed, a lone reed in a flattened field.
He took a deep breath, desperately trying to reconcile his Confucian upbringing with the reality in front of him.
He isn't an evil god, nor a false idol, he told himself.
He is a true immortal who has just manifested his power.
Besides, his name sounds like it belongs to the Taoist pantheon. Paying respect to a Taoist deity isn't exactly joining a cult, right?
In the late Ming Dynasty, it was fashionable for literati to wear Taoist robes and dabble in Taoist philosophy.
To most, the Taoist immortals were a "proper" and "official" part of the spiritual hierarchy.
Once he successfully tricked his brain into this justification, his knees didn't feel quite so stiff anymore.
Mr. Bai finally sank to the ground.
"All hail Dao Xuan Tianzun!"
Up in the "heavens," Li Dao Xuan looked down at the village full of kneeling little people.
A small, satisfied smirk played on his lips.
He was just about to tell them to stand up when he felt something strange.
Tiny, shimmering motes of light began to rise from the bodies of each little person.
They looked like minuscule fireflies, drifting upward and hovering in the air before scattering toward the four glass walls of the craft box.
With the original villagers, the new arrivals, and the Bai family retainers, there were nearly three hundred people in total.
That meant nearly three hundred specks of light.
One after another, they floated up and merged into the box's walls.
Suddenly, the entire craft box erupted in a blinding golden light!
It was as if a massive sun had been ignited within the glass.
The little people didn't seem to notice the radiance, they didn't even blink but Li Dao Xuan had to shield his eyes from the glare.
When the light finally dimmed, he realized with a start that five new buttons had appeared on the corner of the box.
They were labeled "East," "South," "West," "North," and "Center."
Below them, a string of floating text flickered into existence:
Salvation Index: 325.
A bizarre sensation washed over him, a moment of pure clarity similar to when a gamer finally figures out a hidden combo or a secret mechanic.
These five buttons... they couldn't possibly do what I think they do, right?
There was only one way to find out.
He reached out and tapped the "East" button.
With a soft whoosh, the village inside the box seemed to slide to the left.
His field of vision on the left side narrowed significantly, while a brand-new stretch of terrain opened up on the right.
He tapped "East" again.
The houses and the little people slid further left, and even more of the eastern landscape was revealed.
Then, he tapped the "North" button several times in rapid succession.
The village drifted toward the southern edge of the box.
To the north, the horizon expanded to reveal a small hillside covered in a dense thicket of trees—though they were all skeletal and dead, their bark long since stripped away by starving refugees.
This was the very hill where Zheng Daniu had gone to chop wood previously.
At the time, Li Dao Xuan hadn't been able to see it, but now it was right there in plain view.
"I can actually move the camera!"
Li Dao Xuan was ecstatic.
"Haha! Finally, the map is getting bigger!"
He began to piece the puzzle together.
Whoever or whatever, had sent him this box clearly intended for him to save the people of the late Ming Dynasty.
The "Salvation Index" acted as a progress bar.
When he had first saved a hundred villagers, his index hadn't met the minimum threshold to expand the view.
But now, by successfully repelling the bandit army and saving Mr. Bai's entire caravan, his score had surged.
Meeting that new threshold unlocked the directional buttons, allowing him to navigate the "fog of war" surrounding his initial starting point.
Driven by excitement, he kept mashing the "North" button, but he soon hit a literal wall.
The map refused to budge any further.
"I guess I've reached the limit of my current range," he mused.
He tapped the "Center" button, and the view instantly snapped back, centering perfectly over the Gao Village Family.
He experimented with all four directions, eventually grabbing a ruler to measure the new areas.
Based on his 1:200 scale conversion, he calculated that he had gained roughly 500 meters of extra visibility in every direction.
It wasn't a massive increase, but that didn't matter.
Knowing the method for expansion was the real prize.
As long as he kept increasing that Salvation Index, the entire world would eventually be within his reach.
Li Dao Xuan pulled up a notepad file on his computer and meticulously recorded his findings:
1. The Box's Center: The default center is the Gao Village Family, and the radius is determined by the "Salvation Index."
2. Navigation: The "East, South, West, North, Center" buttons allow for movement, but the 200:1 scale remains constant for all objects and people.
After saving his notes, he leaned back and let out a long, bone-popping stretch.
He felt a surge of joy, but also a growing sense of weight.
Originally, he had viewed this as a fun hobby, raising a box of "pet" people and helping out where he could.
But this Salvation Index felt like a nudge to "level up."
Numbers and scores always had a way of making things feel competitive.
I'm not going to let this turn into a grind, he decided.
I'll just save the people I want to save. If the map opens up, cool. If not, whatever. I'm doing this my way.
He turned his attention back to the village.
The crisis had passed, and the residents were already busy with the aftermath.
Much like the last time bandits had raided, it was time to clean up the mess.
A group of villagers was systematically stripping the bandit corpses.
In this era of scarcity, not a single scrap of fabric could be wasted.
They confiscated every weapon and checked every pocket.
If someone found a few stray copper coins, it was theirs to keep, a reward for the grim work.
Once the bodies were picked clean and left shivering and naked, they were carted out of the village.
A large pit was dug on the hillside, and the bandits were tossed in and buried without ceremony.
Thanks to Li Dao Xuan's blatant favoritism, the villagers had come through the fight almost unscathed.
Ironically, the most serious injury belonged to one of Mr. Bai's guards.
While he had been pouring boiling oil over the wall, he had accidentally splashed a few drops onto his own leg.
The man was currently sitting on the ground, his pant leg rolled up to reveal a nasty, blistered burn.
He was groaning in agony while a few villagers poured cold water over the wound to try and soothe the heat.
But beyond the water, they had no medicine to speak of.
Li Dao Xuan opened his desk drawer and rummaged around until he found a tube of high-strength burn ointment.
He squeezed out a tiny glob, smaller than a grain of sesame, and carefully lowered it toward the injured man...