Golden Fruits

In the blink of an eye, more than twenty years had passed.

It had been nearly thirty years since she had received a weapon from the divine spirit, returned to her tribe to reclaim the position of chieftain, led her people in expanding their territory and hunting monsters, and struggled to survive on this land...

Perhaps because of the divine spirit's blessing, the Female Chieftain—whose age was already considered quite advanced in this era—not only wasn't on the verge of death, but still retained some of the valor of her youth and could continue leading her people into battle.

But... she was old and frail, after all... Although the tribe had expanded and multiplied, the resulting demand for food had also forced its warriors to go hunting, battling the monsters lurking deep within the jungle for the sake of their people's survival.

In the past, the Female Chieftain, possessing a Divine Artifact, had been able to feed most of her people by herself.

But as she aged, she had gradually become unable to cope. As she weakened, young members of the tribe were injured on every hunt... For such a large tribe, which had not even fully entered the Stone Age, keeping themselves fed during the harsh winter had become a problem in itself.

The old Chieftain, who had seen the future of her people, was powerless to change any of this. Although that divine spirit had always been the being they worshiped, it had never responded to their calls...

"Why are you sighing so sorrowfully?"

The moment Xuan Sheng opened his view of the divine stone, he saw a certain old woman with a mournful expression.

Before the other party could even respond, the complete Eye of God had already transmitted all the information into Xuan Sheng's mind...

Only half a day had passed in his world, yet more than twenty years had passed here?!

And... although this Female Chieftain was clearly only in her early fifties, why did she look so haggard?

[This tribe, which has yet to enter the Stone Age, survives by hunting and gathering wild fruits. With winter approaching, the tribe's food supply has become a serious problem.]

I see...

Without agriculture or stored grain, this tribe, still at the most primitive stage, was struggling for survival... Was this really the state of the tribe he had nurtured?

"Great divine spirit..."

Although they couldn't understand one another's speech, the old Chieftain, who could communicate directly through consciousness, had finally received a message from the divine spirit. Tears of excitement filled her eyes as she immediately fell to her knees!

The people gathered around their Chieftain still didn't understand what was happening, but at her gesture, they quickly knelt respectfully as well, facing the divine stone that radiated a faint pressure...

In the past, after the Chieftain had brought back the divine stone, she had ordered all her people to revere it.

But no one knew what use this actually had.

With the so-called 'divine spirit' providing no help at all, the Faith points Xuan Sheng received were pitifully few. After all, the believers in this world were still struggling just to survive. Where would they find the spare energy to worship a divine spirit?

As a result, even after more than twenty years had passed, the Faith points he had accumulated were not even as many as the amount gained when the Chieftain had first received Divine Grace...

Were you worrying about food?

[You lowly ants, you can't even provide your own food?]

The majestic, thunderous voice exploded in the minds of every tribe member, making all their bodies tremble. None dared look directly at the flickering divine stone, which seemed to be building up its anger.

Damn it! This stupid stone translated my words all wrong again.

Seeing these poor people unable even to fill their stomachs, Xuan Sheng scratched his head helplessly.

As a divine spirit, he seemed to be a little negligent in his duties.

Although Divine Grace and offerings could only be used once a day, communication could be maintained indefinitely.

As long as he was willing to teach these dependents more ways to survive, they wouldn't have to live in such misery.

However, the most important thing right now was clearly to provide these little fellows with food first...

While cleaning out his warehouse, Li Xunsheng looked around to see what he had.

For a plentiful and stable food supply, the honest answer was still farming.

Nomadic lifestyles might be stronger in the early and midgame, but they couldn't stand up in the late game. In the struggle of civilizations, farming was always the steady late-game powerhouse—the true path to kingship.

To let the tribe keep expanding and provide ever more Faith points, Xuan Sheng felt it would be best to let these primitive people gradually multiply and grow stronger.

But these dependents, primitive enough to be called savages, would have a hard time even figuring out what to plant... He really needed to find some food that was easy to grow and produced a large yield...

Hmm... Oh, I've got it!

The young man searching through the warehouse suddenly brightened as he found his target.

Most of the food in the warehouse had long since rotted and spoiled, but in a corner, Li Xunsheng found a sprouting potato!

Perhaps because sprouted potatoes were poisonous, even the rats hadn't touched it. The sprouting potato was still mostly intact. In fact, even if it had several missing chunks, that wouldn't prevent it from growing.

Plants that reproduced through tubers were simply that easy to grow. As long as they had eyes, these little potatoes could take root and sprout in the soil.

This thing was practically a treasure for transmigrators. There wasn't a transmigrator alive who didn't want potatoes.

An astonishing yield, simple propagation, extremely high calories, and abundant starch...

It truly was an excellent food, and the same held true for his dependents, who were still living in a savage age.

By the time he finished, it was already the early hours of the next day... In that case, he might as well throw this thing down.

Opening the [Divine Grace] portal and tossing the sprouting potato inside, Xuan Sheng set down his broom with great curiosity and began watching what was happening on the other side of the divine stone.

The golden, vortex-shaped portal opened once more. Under the old Chieftain's expectant gaze, a golden fruit flew out!

There was no earth-shaking tremor or thunderclouds gathering overhead. This Divine Grace was utterly ordinary. The golden potato fell straight down, landed on the surface of the map, bounced slightly, and rolled two circles.

Under the gaze of everyone present, more than a hundred pairs of eyes stared at that golden potato. For a moment, even Li Xunsheng felt awkward...

[Creator... this... isn't enough to eat...]

The old Chieftain's simple and clear meaning came through her mind. Her pitiful gaze left their 'divine spirit' both amused and exasperated.

He was just about to tell these primitive people how to plant potatoes when the scene before him left him stunned.

After touching the soil for a few seconds, the golden potato seemed to come to its senses. It burrowed into the soil on its own, and dense shoots quickly broke through the ground. Vast stretches of lush green leaves rapidly spread outward. Even the cold winter couldn't suppress the plant's furious growth!

The revival of Life unfolded right before their eyes. At this moment, all the tribe members were stunned by the miracle before them. Only then did they begin to understand in a daze why the Chieftain revered that inexplicable golden stone so deeply...

The luxuriant green leaves soon stopped growing. Beneath the ground, where the tribe members could not see, an even more astonishing transformation was taking place.

Large golden potatoes grew and solidified. They multiplied so quickly and in such enormous numbers that they seemed to be proliferating. In the span of only a few breaths, countless golden potatoes had been produced!

While the tribe members were still staring eagerly at the green stems, waiting for fruit to appear, strings of golden potatoes cheerfully popped out of the soil, ready to be cooked and eaten at any time.

When Li Xunsheng became curious about what changes had occurred in these little potatoes and swept his Eye of God over them...

[Golden Potato: Strength +5 after consumption]