Chapter 102 – Infrastructure List

Being an independent Lord is naturally not a dead end. Besides external investments, spending money, and support from elders, there are also some ways for Lords to earn money in the early stages.

For example, a Lord can apply to become a ‘Pioneer Lord’. Since newly established territories are located at the outermost edges of the Taixuan Alliance, this will attract many veteran players to explore the surrounding environment and farm resources. Pioneer Lords can almost make money effortlessly.

—They can purchase resource materials from veteran players at low prices (ordinary players find it difficult to transport large quantities of goods), sell supplies at high prices, operate lodging businesses, and so on.

If veteran players discover wild resource points, the Pioneer Lord can pay a reward to gain priority ownership of that resource point.

The cooperation between Pioneer Lords and adventurer players is a win-win situation.

There are drawbacks, however. Pioneer territories are bound to be a mixed bag of people.

This is clearly unsuitable for Tianyuan Territory, so Mu Yuan crossed it off.

Additionally, leasing the Lord Altar, training buildings, unit buildings, and so on are also unsuitable for him. In the future, when Tianyuan Territory grows stronger, with sufficient scale and stable order, he might consider opening it to players. For now, however… he must maintain a low profile and focus on development.

“After much thought, it seems Tianyuan Territory can only take the path of a ‘resource-exporting’ territory.”

But unlike most resource territories, his Tianyuan Territory will not take the low-end route… Well, actually, ordinary outputs like Jade Crystal Rice and Crimson Blood Fruit can also be included. Every bit of extra profit helps.

With a special building like ‘Golden Fertile Soil’, even if he only grows ordinary crops, he can reap far greater profits than other Lords.

However, high-end soil naturally pairs best with high-end crops.

Mu Yuan pondered and decided to transplant a few Snakeblood Fruit trees from the distant Snakefolk Tribe here. This would save a considerable amount of growth time, after which he could plant another batch.

“There’s also the Vitality Spring Water. The production of this special material is almost cost-free and highly profitable. If I can acquire an Alchemy Hut and obtain some potion recipes that use Vitality Spring Water as the main ingredient, I could earn even more.”

Lord Mu contemplated as he sat at the desk in the Mage Tower, picking up a pen to write and sketch.

After a while,

He silently recited and opened the territory interface.

A window filled with a wealth of information immediately appeared, completely different from the simplified version he had seen before.

「Tianyuan Territory」

「Rank: Level 1 Territory」

「Faction: Taixuan Alliance」

「Buildings: (Omitted)」

「Units: (Omitted)」

「Civilians: None」

「Buildable Structures: Watchtower, Cottage, Fence, Farmland, Guiding Beacon (3/3), Understanding Keystone (1/1)」

「Upgrade Conditions:」

After promoting to a Level 1 territory, the Lord can directly construct Miracle Buildings remotely and consume resources like Soul Sand to repair damaged Miracle Buildings.

A few structures can even be built directly without requiring Miracle Blueprints.

The four basic structures—Watchtower, Cottage, Fence, and Farmland—are the crucial supports for new Lords in developing their territories. Among them, Farmland comes with inherent fertility, providing a significant boost to crop growth.

It is precisely because of Miracle Farmland that tiered crops like ‘Jade Crystal Rice’ and ‘Golden Wheat’ can be easily cultivated and yield high outputs.

After the territory upgrades, ‘new buildable structures’ such as Arrow Towers and Artillery Platforms will be unlocked.However, no matter how much the territory is upgraded, it can only provide basic buildings. Advanced structures of rare tiers still require the lord to spend gold and blueprints to construct.

The number of constructions is always limited.

Lords cannot enjoy the pleasure of building freely.

Unless they obtain the legendary ‘Infinite Blueprint,’ which can be directly integrated into the territory and allows unlimited constructions.

…

Among the constructible list, there are two special buildings.

The Guiding Beacon and the Understanding Keystone.

The former has the function of guiding and absorbing refugees, with only three constructible at the first-tier territory.

The latter allows lost people from different regions, or even various forgotten worlds, to communicate without barriers upon entering the territory’s range.

Over time, players, residents, and Awakened troops with self-awareness can gradually learn the common language of the Eternal Continent.

Mu Yuan quickly constructed them.

「Prompt: You consumed 1 Soul Crystal. The Understanding Keystone is under construction.」

Rumble—

In the southern part of the territory, rubble appeared out of thin air, gathering inch by inch and instantly forming a stone tablet over three meters tall. Faint shadows of common script flickered across its surface.

“Tianyuan.”

Mu Yuan murmured it in the pronunciation of the common language. He was beginning to learn a little, finding it not difficult, especially when he stood before the tablet and gazed deeply—it felt as if he had a photographic memory, memorizing dozens of words in just a short while.

This Understanding Tablet is quite magical~!

“Gurgle~!”

Dolai also came here, widening its eyes and staring intently, speaking word by word, “Soul Sand is delicious, steel bars taste pretty good too, fire has a roasted chicken flavor, and lightning is a bit like mustard…”

Dolai learns very quickly as well.

Deadbone stood before the Understanding Keystone for about thirty seconds, said nothing, then turned and went back to work.

…

With the Understanding Keystone constructed, the matter of refugees was brought onto the agenda.

“Refugees can be recruited.”

“While they indeed lack the loyalty of troops, most are honest and reliable people. Before arriving at the territory, these refugees have wandered and suffered for a long time. As long as the lord gives them a little benefit, they can turn into ruthless bosses and be squeezed dry… ahem, of course, that doesn’t include a lord of high moral standing like me.”

“Most importantly, once refugees arrive and join the territory, they are branded as residents of that territory and are unlikely—and find it extremely difficult—to go elsewhere.”

In his Tianyuan Territory, ordinary tasks like infrastructure, logging, cultivating soil for farming, and crafting handmade items all require commoners to handle. Even troops with rudimentary intelligence are far less efficient at these tasks than ordinary people.

He planned to designate a residential area in the southern part of the territory to provide housing for commoners.

The core area, the barracks zones to the east and west, etc., would be designated as restricted areas, separated by fences and watchtowers.

That’s how it would be done.

However, he would only formally recruit refugees after planning and separating these areas.

…

Taixuan Alliance, Capital City.

In a pavilion atop the magnificent Tower.

Smoke curled around as an old man held a smoking pipe, exhaling wispy clouds that seemed to merge with the white clouds drifting outside the floor-to-ceiling window, making the elder appear as if he were amidst the mist.

Not far from the old man stood a relatively young man with a robust build, wearing a navy-blue mandarin jacket, his thick long hair casually flowing down to his waist, sitting as upright and still as a sculpture.The young man rested his hands on his knees, his gaze unfocused as he stared ahead, seemingly looking not at the Taixuan Capital but at the Blue Star Xuan Nation.

“Abroad, a small city vanished overnight—most of it destroyed by a monster tide, while the rest fell into the Eternal World.”

The old man still held his smoking pipe, gazing out the window where the faint outline of the Xuan Nation’s National Luck could be seen swirling among the clouds—vast and ethereal, yet still just a drop in the ocean compared to the Eternal World.

He said:

“This is fate. At the very least, we cannot change it. All we can do is try to ensure that, during the Fusion, the cities of Xuan Nation fall within the territory of the Taixuan Alliance. However, there are still several vast forbidden lands within the Alliance’s borders…”

Pausing, the old man looked at the young man in the mandarin jacket. “Flowing Arrow, I must trouble you to discipline the overlords of these regions.”

“Where fate leads.”

“If discipline proves useless, then eradicate them. Our Taixuan Alliance… is no longer the same Alliance it was twenty years ago.”

(End of Chapter)