Keep your head down and grow stronger!
Lin Ke knew this rule for transmigrators during their weaker days, too.
Fortunately, Zong Ya had the same plan as Lin Ke.
After they talked for a while, Lin Ke set Lin Can down on the ground.
Thump!
Lin Can plunged her lower body into the soil Lin Ke had softened, braced her hands outside, and opened her mouth. "Daddy! I'm hungry!"
Lin Ke certainly would not neglect his child. He immediately took out his only Stinger Hawk Moth.
Lin Ke was not the only one who could control these Spirit Insects. Lin Can could, too, and she was effectively their second controller.
Simply put, as long as Lin Ke gave no orders, Lin Can could make all the decisions.
Now, Lin Can immediately ordered the Stinger Hawk Moth to fly to the sixth level.
Lin Can had probably inherited part of Lin Ke's soul, so she currently had roughly the intelligence of a five- or six-year-old child.
She also knew that plenty of delicious food was locked up on the sixth level.
Seeing that Lin Can had started eating, Zong Ya continued, "Junior Brother, aside from ventilation, there's another pressing issue."
On the same wavelength, Lin Ke said, "You mean waste disposal, Senior Sister?"
"Exactly." Seeing that Lin Ke had thought of it, Zong Ya nodded with a smile. "Since you brought it up, I imagine you already have a rough plan."
Lin Ke nodded slightly.
The sewage problem!
This was an extremely important issue!
No living creature, not even a cultivator, could escape the processes of absorption, consumption, and discharge.
It was just that cultivators absorbed spiritual energy and released Spirit Power, spells, and the like.
Blackgold Silkworm droppings were medicinal ingredients, but the excrement of many other insects was not.
Speaking of which, these insects' droppings were actually much like human waste: both could be used as fertilizer.
There were so many people in the Green Mulberry Garden. Previously, when they were out in the open, it had been fine. Once they all lived within these seven levels, however, the entire place would start to stink before long if they ignored waste disposal.
Many cities throughout history had been like this. Failing to manage sewage would only leave a city piled full of excrement.
High heels in the West, for instance, had come about to keep nobles from stepping in filth.
That alone was enough to demonstrate the importance of a sewage treatment system.
As it happened, Lin Ke knew that applying this waste directly as fertilizer might scorch seedlings, but building a biogas digester would be a different story.
Not only could it turn accumulated waste into nutrients for plants, it could also produce biogas for lighting fires.
"Let's do this. I'll take care of it right now." After thinking it over, Lin Ke immediately began making preparations.
Once the sect's grand formation opened, cultivators like them would be fine. They could move about wherever they pleased.
But more than half the mortals within the sect would probably end up dead or injured.
Leaving Demon Beasts aside, even many Spirit Insects were beyond a mortal's ability to handle.
Spirit Insects might be small, but in the cultivation world, strength had no necessary connection to size.
Lions were not as large as water buffalo, yet they could hunt them.
Thus, mortals could still run when facing Demon Beasts, but against Spirit Insects that were impossible to guard against, they might not even manage to escape.
At a time like this, Fang Tong and the others' best option was to hide underground and take turns sending people out to Golden Silkworm Peak to tend the Blackgold Silkworms.
The rest of the time, they could simply stay underground, raising and caring for the other insects.
Turn this place into an underground fortress!
"Right now?" Zong Ya paused in surprise. "Do you need my help?"
"No." Lin Ke smiled. "Senior Sister, you can get acquainted with Fang Tong and the others first, and familiarize yourself with the work."
What he was about to make was, to put it nicely, a biogas digester. Less nicely, it was a cesspit.
Moreover, he could not use spells to complete intermediate steps such as fermentation and decomposition. He could only leave the waste inside and wait for it to ferment.
Still, this was currently the method that wasted the fewest Spirit Stones and saved the most effort.
No sooner thought than done!
He would build an Underground City that belonged to him alone!
Lin Ke went to build the septic tank, while Zong Ya went to inspect the insects.
Zong Ya had originally worked in the Spirit Insect Cave, so she had both a discerning eye and the necessary skills. Familiarizing herself with the sixth level would not take long, and she could even offer the people of the Green Mulberry Garden some pointers.
Meanwhile, Lin Ke spent half an hour digging a large cavity beside the seven-level basement, then dug several sewers on the fifth level that connected to this septic tank.
The fundamental principle behind modern sewers was to gather all a city's wastewater in one place for centralized treatment.
What he was doing now was similar.
First, he designed a space for storage, then connecting channels-in other words, sewers.
Then, at the entrance, he created a space resembling public toilets, with a bathing room beside them.
With that, everything was complete.
"T-toilets?" Fang Tong stared at what stood before him, dumbfounded. "But can't we just find a clump of bushes to shit and piss in?"
"You could before. From now on, it'll be too dangerous." Lin Ke shook his head. "Go outside as little as possible. The sect's grand formation is about to open, and you could easily encounter danger out there."
"Yes, yes." Understanding dawned on Fang Tong. Then gratitude filled his face, along with some embarrassment. "But making an esteemed immortal toil over such filthy matters..."
"It's no trouble." Lin Ke treated these working people very well.
In troubled times, human lives were worth no more than grass.
All the more so in the troubled times of a world of immortals and heroes like this.
"You just need to tell everyone to come here whenever they need to use water from now on." Lin Ke pointed at the rooms ahead.
The toilets were on the left, and the bathing room was on the right.
Lin Ke had even separated them by sex.
However, the people of the Green Mulberry Garden could not read, so Lin Ke instructed Fang Tong to at least make sure everyone knew how to distinguish the men's side from the women's.
Though separating them did not actually make much difference. After all, everyone in the Green Mulberry Garden knew one another inside out. Even the women would not mind such details much among themselves.
"Bring water in here to bathe."
"There'll be a flame here later, so you can use it to heat water... not yet, though. There isn't one right now."
"If you run short of water, remember to tell us. Senior Sister or I will accompany you to fetch more."
Lin Ke explained everything in great detail.
He made every single matter clear, one by one.
"So that's how it works..." After listening to Lin Ke's explanation, Fang Tong felt something in his heart that he could neither explain nor describe.
He did not think waste disposal was important, yet he vaguely sensed a way of life different from before.
He might even have sensed the convenience and cleanliness, but he did not know how important either was.
"Oh, right, Immortal Lin." Fang Tong suddenly slapped his forehead. "I just remembered something."
He took a strip of bamboo from inside his robe, with some words carved on it.
"This is the weight of the Blackgold Silkworm Silk produced over the past five days." Fang Tong respectfully handed him the bamboo strip, his face full of delight. "It's increased by about one tael!"
One tael?
Lin Ke perked up at the news. "Production has increased again?"
At last, some good news.
"That's right!" Fang Tong's expression was full of admiration. "Your method is truly remarkable, Immortal Lin. I checked earlier-the Blackgold Silkworms are growing fatter and fatter, and the Blackgold Moths are much bigger, too. They're even laying more eggs!"
"Good." Lin Ke nodded slightly. "Then give me the surplus processed Blackgold Silkworm Silk first. This much should be enough for me to make a suit of Blackgold Silk Inner Armor."
Alchemy, artifact forging, spells, sewing, insect breeding, formations...
Although the original owner of his body had tried practically all of these, Lin Ke refused to accept that he would fare the same.
What if I'm different from the original owner?
Before you continue