"Yesterday, I think I saw a Celestial Dao Stone notification! I was so tired, my brain was numb. This Energy Pill is seriously not something to mess with!"
After getting up from my luxury king-size bed, I shook my head hard.
"Lord detected as awake, issuing rewards!"
I can't stay on the fourth floor of the villa, so I jumped out of bed and sprinted downstairs.
"Lord's territory detected to have basically reached level six, current (83,250/200,000)."
"Lord's territory detected as having reached level six. Level six is the limit for an ordinary territory. Unlocking Celestial Dao World Competition: Among all Lords in the Celestial Dao World, the first 100 to reach territory level seven will receive lavish rewards!"
I'll ignore the second notification from the Celestial Dao Stone for now, it's still a long way off. Even if the Calabash Sisters all land, it wouldn't be enough yet.
Basically, after all that building, the territory just gained 62,000 points in one go.
Villa: 13,000. City walls total: 40,000 points (including four gates and watchtowers). Large Alloy Warehouse: 3,000. Medium Boutique Warehouse: 1,000. Granary: 1,000. Biogas pool: 500. Swimming pool, pavilion, sofa, beds, tables and chairs, water tower, Tiger's Den, etc.: total 3,500.
"Congratulations, Lord, you are the first Trial Taker in zone 66 to reach territory level six! Reward: Water Element Core*2, Earth Element Core*2, Fire Element Core*2, Wind Element Core*2, Thunder Element Core*2, Gold Element Core*2, Wood Element Core*2, Light Element Core*2, Dark Element Core*2. Celestial Dao Coin: 60,000."
"Congratulations, Lord, you are the first Trial Taker in Zone 10086 to reach territory level six! Reward: SS-level Heavenly and Earthly Treasure—Dragon Blood Holy Fruit Tree. Celestial Dao Coin: 600,000."
"Dragon Blood Holy Fruit Tree, SS-level Spirit Fruit, matures every 900 days of the moon, bears 24 fruits per cycle. Strength +20, Constitution +20, Agility +20. Only the first time you eat a Dragon Blood Holy Fruit is effective!"
I stared at the Dragon Blood Holy Fruit, practically drooling.
This time I planted the Dragon Blood Holy Fruit in the backyard. My old backyard actually became the front yard now. The backyard was empty, so I planted the Dragon Blood Holy Fruit to show off a bit.
Next to the villa, in the boutique warehouse, I took out 900 drops of Water of Life.
Flowering, fruiting, ripening.
The fruit, bright red like blood, tasted as good as the previous three Spirit Fruits. Power flowed throughout my limbs and bones, ridiculously comfortable.
"Huh? My stats... Yesterday after the Old Yellow Ox incident, it seems strength went up by 2, constitution by 2, agility by 1."
Lord: Yi Tian.
Race: Earth Human Race.
ID: Zone 10086, Section 66, No. 99999.
Strength: 167
Agility: 151
Constitution: 153
Spiritual Power: 35
Spirit: 260
Talents: Mountain Lifting and Cauldron Carrying, Seven-Aperture Exquisite.
Skills: Beast Taming LV.5, Hunting LV.5, Water Mastery LV.4.
Technology Platform: Solar Energy Technology Crystal, Steel Technology Crystal, Alloy Steel Technology Crystal, Crossbow Technology Crystal, Ceramic Technology Crystal, Large-scale Water Purifier Technology Crystal...
Level 4 Building Platform, Level 4 Weapon Platform, Level 4 Tool Platform, Level 1 Refining Platform.
Celestial Dao Coin: 30,500,000.
Spirit Coin: 10,000.
Territory Level: Level 6 (83,250/200,000).
Inside the large warehouse: Wood*200,000, Iron*200,000, Copper*300,000, Silver*80,000, other colored metals*120,000, Plastic*200,000, Glass*10,000, Cotton Cloth*200,000, Silk*100,000, Beast Hide*20,000, miscellaneous other cargo!
Outside the warehouse are stacked High-Level Stone*200,000.
Medium Boutique Warehouse: Earth Element Core*7, Water Element Core*4, Fire Element Core*3, Gold Element Core*3, Wood Element Core*3, Wind Element Core*3, Thunder Element Core*3, Light Element Core*2, Dark Element Core*2, D-level Beast Core 1150*1, Ice Storage Design Map*1, Water of Life*23,000 drops, all kinds of Spirit Fruit seeds, Ordinary Fog Scroll*1. Beast tendons, beast teeth, E-level Divine Weapon Thick-Backed Saber, E-level Divine Weapon Xuanhua Great Axe, Gold*80,000.
Also, half-automatic garment machine temporarily put on the first floor.
"Attention, Lord! Heavy spring rain is coming, please be prepared!"
First thing in the morning, the Celestial Dao Stone starts giving the weather report.
Spring rain isn't usually super windy, so I'm not too worried about my saplings that haven't grown up yet.
My War Manor is in the south section, inside the territory. Other than the mountains, it's the highest ground around. No worries about flooding.
I also still have two sealed Celestial Dao Stones. As for their use, I already have plans.
One is to be placed between the two orchards in the far south, to set up a small lake, which I'm calling Lake Two.
When the time comes, I'll dig a small stream, the stream will run
Through the manor, and eventually flow into Lake One.
The south is higher ground, so the water will flow naturally—super convenient. The stream will be about three kilometers long.
I'm planning for the creek to be about one foot deep at most, and no deeper than three feet.
The plan is to cut a channel under the south and north walls, using High-Level Stone: each channel one zhang long, half a foot high, and done.
This little gap, no way for the indigenous folks or wild beasts to crawl in, unless they master shrinking skills.
Originally, between the two orchards, there was only one two-zhang wide path. Now, adding a 1 km² lake makes sense.
But, right now Lake Two only has a few meters of fresh water, no aquatic resources.
I plan on catching some wild fish fry from Lake One to release into Lake Two.
The other Celestial Dao Stone, I'm thinking of using in the southern section of the High-Level Wood area, northwest of the orchard. It's just outside the War Manor's West City Gate.
I chose a flat area. These 1,500 mu of farmland, I'm not going to plant trees. My plan is to grow grain, veggies, peanuts, cotton—you name it.
Honestly, I really like grasslands. But if there's no food chain, it's just not the same.
The grassland covers four km², but now the Medium Wood Area, High-Level Wood Area, and Ordinary Wood Area together have taken over half of it.
"Not enough manpower!"
I checked the auction house, but there weren't any Indigenous Race Human captives for auction, or if there were, someone already snatched them up.
I stubbornly believe, if they're indigenous, Humans are easier to subdue than the others.
Especially in the Celestial Dao World, where the races exist in tribes. They're simple folks. Unlike us Trial Takers, who've been through high-level civilization, everyone's got a ton of scheming going on, always thinking they're the main character. Seriously, who would submit to anyone else?
Even though rain's forecast, since it hasn't started yet, can't waste any chance for life to thrive.
The watermelons and greens planted in the black soil have matured.
While everyone else's crops aren't ready yet, I immediately sold off most of the greens, cabbages, and watermelons.
I also bought a bunch of veggie and melon seeds from the auction house, and planted them in the black soil.
Onion, ginger, garlic, all kinds of greens, radish, cabbage, tomato, green beans, green peppers, winter melon, pumpkin, eggplant, chives, watermelon, Hami melon, cantaloupe, you name it—over thirty varieties. Each one sown over about three fen of land.
The black soil doesn't just speed up crop growth—it also boosts yield by 200%.
Knowing rain's coming, I didn't even bother watering. Took my two Kiddos and six tigers—just dig some holes and plant the seeds.
Ten mu planted, and it was afternoon already, with no sign of rain.
But the sky was gloomy, like a heavy downpour could come any minute.
I had no clue what this rainfall was planning. Maybe it's just some random spring rain!
Everything's supposed to stay within the rules; this one isn't allowed to have strong winds.
Because nobody's crops are mature, and the Celestial Dao Rules just handed out loads of saplings.
If there is a disaster-type weather, it'll probably be a month later.
Crack!
Fat raindrops hit my face. I yelled to the tigers, "Back to the Tiger's Den to shelter!"
The Tiger's Den is inside the north gate of the city walls—a big stone house, 150 square meters, with indoor turf, a High-Level Stone king-size bed for each tiger, some simple toys, a tiger-specific bathroom connected to the biogas pool. Pretty damn fancy.
If anything happens, the tigers head straight for the city wall, roar to sound the alarm.
The city gates are thick copper, cleverly built. Anyone with strength over 100 can open and close them solo.
Right on top is the watchtower, which is pretty spacious—room for weapons and defensive gear.
"Damn, you wanna live in the villa or something?"
I saw Little White didn't follow the Five Tiger Generals to the Tiger's Den, but was lounging smack in the villa's living room.
Little White just glanced at me, didn't roar, curled up like a cat.
Not a single stray hair on this white tiger—definitely the most gorgeous feline I've ever seen.
I didn't push it, just stood under the villa's eaves. The rain was already coming down softly.
Not exactly a torrential downpour, but close to heavy rain, with a little breeze.
Any normal person by now would have built at least a small wooden hut, so they wouldn't have to worry about getting drenched.
Big Child and Second Child were up and down the second, third, and fourth floors, running around and playing—totally unfazed by the rain.
I decided to chill for the afternoon, sprawled on the sofa. First time I've kicked back like this in half a month—felt like a thousand tiny hands massaging my back, so comfy!
"Listening to the wind and rain, what a leisurely mood! Stone houses are totally next level compared to wooden huts!" I opened up the section chat, saw Wind Race Chief Feng had already commented.
I remembered this Lord's starting stats were pretty high, so living comfortably made sense.
"You bigshots already have stone houses. I'm still shivering in a little wooden hut." Sheep-headed Race Yang Yangyang.
"Sigh! Trees in the woods are all too young, can't build a treehouse yet. Otherwise, I'd be living it up." Forest Elf Mumu Qingqing chimed in.
"Mumu Qingqing, have you expanded your woods yet?" I was curious about the Forest Elf, so I tossed the question out.
"Of course! My dream is to turn my territory into a forest. But right now I've only planted about 10,000 saplings, and most of them are ordinary trees." Mumu Qingqing replied. All her income currently goes toward buying tree seeds to plant trees.
"I believe you'll be lucky in the future."
If Mumu Qingqing really does make a forest territory, she'll get a huge surprise someday.
"Yi Tian, haven't seen you around these days?" Earth Human Race Qin Fanshuang asked curiously. She's got me as a friend, so whenever I'm online she gets an instant alert. Otherwise, if my ID's still there, she'd think something bad had happened.
"Been building the camp these days, no time!" Earth Human Race Yi Tian.
"Bigshot, you're building a castle or what? Making a stone house should take, like, ten minutes max, right?" Pigman Race Pig Boar replied.
"Not really, just built a villa!" Earth Human Race Yi Tian.
"Holy crap, my hut still leaks. Bigshot's already living in a villa?"
"Bigshot, got room for one more on your leg?"
"How did you grow so fast, bigshot? Teach us!"
"Isn't a villa supposed to need a blueprint? That thing's worth tens of thousands of Celestial Dao Coin and still hard to get! Plus, the materials for a villa are way more than a million. Even a small villa needs at least a Level 3 Building Platform, right?"
With the rain outside, most people were hanging out in the auction house or chat. Just saying 'villa' got everyone hyped.
The section's bullet chat was going nuts.
"Bunch of idiots, you believe whatever he says? Building a villa costs at least a million Celestial Dao Coin. Heck, I'll say I spent ten million making a castle. This Human Race guy is always despicable!" Blue Skin Race Sam didn't forget to throw shade at me right when it counted.
With the Blue Skin Race fanning the flames, all sorts of trolls started crawling out. Criticism and trash talk coming at me from every corner.
I didn't expect things to blow up like this—I was just talking casually.
To be honest, just upgrading the Level 4 Tool Platform cost me five million. Never mind the villa blueprint; the materials and Celestial Dao Coins alone were over ten million. It's a top-tier standalone villa.
Ordinary small villas built with ordinary stone, I reckon a Level 3 Building Platform and less than five hundred thousand would be enough.
What I didn't expect was even other Earthlings started trolling me—two of them, acting like Sam's friends, taking turns mocking me.