"Oh, that smells delicious! What are you cooking? Let me take a look. Is that Crimson-Striped Tiger?"
When He Ran and Wu Ding returned to the worksite, the cooks had already prepared the food and were calling the workers over to eat and drink. They hurriedly set down the two roe deer they had just hunted and joined the feast.
Before long, with their bellies full, they found Li Chen sitting cross-legged on a nearby ridge, gazing down at the worksite.
"Brother Li, what are you looking at up here?"
Li Chen said, "I'm looking at the design plans, wondering whether there's anything I haven't fully considered."
He Ran sighed with feeling. "You really do seem like the lord of a Blessed Land now."
But Li Chen said, "No, I'm thinking of you."
He Ran was taken aback. "Us?"
Wu Ding also looked at Li Chen in surprise.
But then, as though they had both realized something, an inexplicable melancholy settled over their faces.
Li Chen said, "Yes. This place belongs to Suyang, to Yunshan, and now it belongs to me as well."
"But in the end, it still belongs to you, and to your children and descendants."
"I won't stay here for too long. Even ten, twenty, or thirty years might be enough for an entire generation of mortals to grow up, but that isn't very long for a Foundation Establishment cultivator."
"Those at Foundation Establishment live for more than two hundred years. If they pursue the limits and have the fortune to obtain various life-extending methods, they can live even longer."
"And my true goal is to become a Grand Artisan and see the world of Core Formation and beyond."
"Heaven and earth are so vast. How could I let this little corner of the world confine me?"