Touring the Territory
"It's so high, won't she fall?" Mother Lin asked, holding Jiang Wanqing's hand with a worried expression.
"A-Xu is a lord, don't worry~" Elder Jiang laughed heartily, "When I was young, I also dreamed of flying, but unfortunately, I wasn't talented enough to break through to the higher ranks. I never thought that I would realize my dream in my old age."
"If Grandpa wants to fly, I can make you a magical artifact, then you can fly however you want." Lin Xu smiled, mounted a cloud, and flew out of the Daoist temple. "Let's go see how the roads in our territory are being repaired."
At this time, two major projects were launched simultaneously on the territory: one was land reclamation for farming, and the other was the construction of a road network that runs through the entire territory.
It was just a territory of a few hundred square kilometers, so the design and planning of the road network was not difficult. Lin Xu only designed a few main roads between villages, and the militiamen started construction.
The construction progress of several roads is slow due to the small number of workers and the limited time available.
"It seems that it will be impossible to complete the entire road network in less than one or two years." Lin Xu shook his head as he looked at the busy construction teams on the ground.
These militiamen had virtually no prior experience in construction and were simply pulled out to build roads. As a result, both the construction speed and the quality of the work were appalling.
This is the difficulty faced by a rising new force: everything is in ruins, talent, resources, and even basic tools are scarce, and there are countless things to deal with.
"Take your time, the foundation of your territory is quite good..." Elder Jiang stood on the cloud, looking down at the vast land. He couldn't see the end of it as far as the eye could see, and couldn't help but turn to Lin Xu, "A-Xu, how big is your territory? It seems to me that it's bigger than some of the legendary thousand-household territories..."
"About 120 square kilometers," Lin Xu replied casually, his gaze already piercing through the earth and looking deep underground.
Inside the underground city, five Heavenly Craftsman Rabbit Demons were carving through rock layers, laying spirit-patterned floors and wall tiles according to plan, gradually rotating and approaching the surface in a spiral passage.
Compared to the spirit version of the Heavenly Craftsman Strongman, the rabbit demons, although less efficient in production due to the need to constantly replenish their mana, have a significantly faster rate of improvement in their main skill, "Spirit Rune Construction."
At the current rate, it will take another month or two to open up the passage from the underground city to the surface, which is too long.
"It seems that the fused Heavenly Craftsman Strongman are the mainstream for territory construction..." Lin Xu looked at the dark underground city. His territory was constantly facing external threats, and he was not prepared to develop it step by step.
With a thought, a large amount of Source Fire was consumed, accompanied by the tremors of the ground, and the rock layers deep underground were squeezed by an invisible force.
"Boom!"
Following the direction of the underground passage, the hard rock strata were quietly carved out, and a three-meter-wide arched tunnel extended from the depths of the ground until it reached the surface.
Behind the main hall of the Daoist temple, the floor of an inconspicuous side hall quietly collapsed, revealing a deep tunnel extending downwards.
The surface rock strata shimmered with light, and the spiritual patterned floor tiles and wall tiles, along with the operation of the Spirit Gathering Formation, absorbed strands of Spiritual Qi from the air.
Lin Xu's consciousness merged with his territory, and with a thought, he planned a path that extended from the Daoist temple to the edge of his territory, pointing directly to the distant orcish territory.
The Source Fire extended along the illusory path, and the 1-meter-wide spirit-patterned stone path on the ground stretched in the same direction until it reached the misty area at the edge of the territory.
With nearly a thousand points of Source Fire consumed, the narrow stone path connecting the underground city finally took shape.
This is the special characteristic of spirit-patterned floor tiles. They do not have the function of storing Spiritual Qi on their own. One side must be in contact with another spirit-patterned floor tile to ensure that the energy circuit is unobstructed so that the magic array embedded in the floor tile can take effect.
A portal opened, and several Heavenly Craftsman Rabbit Demon appeared at the edge of the territory, hopping and skipping across the ground as they ran along the spirit-patterned paving stones toward the edge of the mist.
"... Most of the Spirit Realm territories are actually just villages a few miles in diameter. Your territory is so large; if you develop it properly, you have a real chance to be promoted to viscount." Old Master Jiang looked at the vast territory under the clouds and couldn't help but sigh.
"What are you thinking about?" Jiang Wanqing asked him, puzzled. From her perspective, Lin Xu was in a daze.
"I'm building a road, a road leading to the orc territory..." Lin Xu explained as he came to his senses, while directing the rabbit demon to extend the construction of spirit-patterned floor tiles.
After leaving the territory, he lost his near-omniscient abilities and could only let the Heavenly Craftsman Rabbit Demon do as he pleased.
As the spirit-patterned floor tiles extended, a path gradually appeared in the Spirit Realm Mist. Centered on the edge of the spirit-patterned stone slabs, the Soul-Devouring Mist was quietly dispelled in an area about 10 meters wide.
Above the sky, a dozen Evil Eye, led by Captain Qiuqiu, floated silently, their gazes piercing through the mist of the Spirit Realm and scanning the vicinity of the Heavenly Craftsman Rabbit Demon who was treading on the ground.
"You mean, you've taken over the orc territory that invaded Meng City last night?" Elder Jiang looked at him in shock. "Last night, the garrison outside the city went into the city to deal with the orcs, right? This orc tribe shouldn't be weak, should it?"
"In a tribe of over 2,000 people, orc warriors make up about a third of the population." Lin Xu nodded. With a thought, pieces of spiritual materials materialized from the void and fell from the warehouse into the Precious Radiance Spirit-Tempering Cauldron in front of Azure Cloud Cave, more than ten miles away.
"The whole tribe is a soldier! A tribe this size must have at least ten mid-level orc warriors!" Elder Jiang shook his head as he spoke. "Even an orc tribe like this can't stop you, A-Xu. I'm afraid even a typical chiliarch wouldn't be a match for you."
Lin Xu remained silent, as he was busy refining magical artifacts.
With a thought, spiritual fire rose within the cauldron, melting the black iron in the blink of an eye, and stripping away the impurities that were originally hidden deep within the ore.
The black iron was cast according to the thought, the high temperature was removed, and a set of spirit pattern armor that fit the rabbit demon's body was formed.
The entire set of spirit-patterned equipment took about half an hour to complete. When the rabbit demon set, shimmering with a faint spiritual light, appeared on the clouds, the group was immediately drawn to it.
"A-Xu, this is... a spirit pattern set?" Elder Jiang looked at the exquisitely designed equipment in front of him with suspicion. A spirit pattern steel chisel was used to shape rocks, a small box that looked like a satchel was on his back, and there were slender gauntlets and leg guards. This equipment did not look like something a person would wear, let alone something for combat.
Item: Heavenly Craftsman Spirit-Storing Canister; Grade: Cyan (Excellent); Type: Magical Artifact; Spiritual Qi: 1000/1000
Description: Contains thousands of spiritual patterns, capable of stably sealing a large amount of Spiritual Qi. This provides the Heavenly Artisan Yaoguai with a large reserve of Spiritual Qi to ensure that they can carry out engineering construction stably for a long time.