After his workout,
Xia Tian returned to the Lord's Mansion and saw a figure holding a small shovel, sleeves rolled up to reveal fair arms, carefully digging up "Blood Marrow Grass" from the flowerbeds of the mansion and placing them into a small basket beside her.
"Greetings, Lord! May you be well!"
Upon seeing Xia Tian, the figure quickly stood up and bowed.
It was a tall girl, about 1.7 meters, with skin as fair as snow-covered pear blossoms. She wore no makeup, yet her features were as picturesque as a painting.
"No need for such formality. By the way, how is the Blood Marrow Grass?"
Xia Tian nodded and asked her.
Yesterday, he had dug up some "Blood Marrow Grass" from the cave, complete with soil, and brought them back to plant.
Since other areas in the territory were either already built or empty plots with little soil, and it was getting late, Xia Tian simply planted the "Blood Marrow Grass" in the garden of his Lord's Mansion for the time being.
He planned to transplant them into different environments today and try various combinations to determine the optimal growing conditions.
"To answer you, Lord, some of the grass is slightly withered, but nothing serious."
The girl's voice was charming and melodious, like a nightingale's song. She was Qing Wen, the blue-tier talent with the "Hibiscus Flower Goddess" trait.
Last night, due to her illness, the girl from the world of A Dream of Red Mansions had disheveled hair, held mud and grass, and was pale, not drawing much attention.
But after a night of nourishment from golden honey and royal jelly, and having cleaned herself up, her appearance was absolutely stunning.
To quote the original novel, "All the maids in the Jia household combined are not as beautiful as Qing Wen alone!"
Actually, as a blue-tier talent with a rare trait,
Xia Tian had not intended to make Qing Wen work immediately after she had just recovered from her illness.
However, Qing Wen had stayed at Wu Song's family's house yesterday. She learned from Pan Jinlian, who was taking care of her, that the territory was currently short on people and everyone was actively working. So, she proactively came to the Lord's Mansion early in the morning to ask for a "task."
Xia Tian found it hard to refuse, so he naturally assigned her to "cultivate flowers and plants."
Oh, speaking of which, Qing Wen was the first resident of the territory to enter the interior of the Lord's Mansion!
"This item is the 'Sun Gold Vase.' After you transplant the flowers and plants, if you notice any signs of wilting, pour a drop of 'golden liquid' from the vase and mix it with water to irrigate them."
Then, remembering something, Xia Tian pointed to the "Sun Gold Vase" placed on the window of his room, shimmering with golden light under the sun, and said.
This wondrous item needed to be placed outside during the day to absorb sunlight and was not suitable for carrying around.
Considering that Qing Wen might be planting grass for the first time and might not be familiar with the process, Xia Tian granted her some "Wondrous Item" usage rights to prevent the plants from dying after transplantation and dampening the girl's enthusiasm!
As for himself, he had more important things to do today.
First was to find a suitable location to build a "Quarry."
The "Lumber Mill" could be built directly at the edge of the protective barrier because his territory was surrounded by trees.
If the quarry were also built within the barrier, unless he possessed the "Inner and Outer Mountains and Rivers" talent that could change terrain, which he had seen in the chat channel last night,
otherwise, he couldn't possibly dig down into the territory's foundation stones, could he?
Therefore, he had to find a suitable place outside the protective barrier.
Speaking of which, the gully from yesterday was a viable option.
However, its geographical location was too far, making it extremely difficult to transport stone back to the territory.
Unless Xia Tian chose to transport it using his "Lord's Space," but this would not only consume his time, but both the "Lord's Space" and "Gathering Hand, Eye of Insight" and other lord skills would cause a mental burden when used and could not be used indefinitely.
Fortunately, luck was on his side. After an exploration with Wu Song and a green-tier resident with "Stonemason" skills, Xia Tian found a suitable place to establish a quarry about two hundred and fifty meters from the edge of the territory.
Then, he took out a stack of blueprints from his Lord's Space and chose rapid construction.
【Quarry (Blue)】
【Level】Mortal Grade
【Materials】50 units of wood, 50 units of metal, 50 units of stone
【Trait】Mining Efficiency +100%
【Description】A small but efficient quarry.
Although the blueprint stated "efficient," compared to the golden-tier Lumber Mill with a 500% efficiency increase, the blue-tier Quarry's 100% could only be described as decent. Fortunately, the resource consumption was not high, and the amount of stone was just within the territory's current inventory.
After the quarry was built, Xia Tian selected ten miners who had joined yesterday to be responsible for mining, and two soldiers carrying simple swords and divine arm crossbows to be responsible for security.
Seeing that the quarry was almost operating normally, he prepared to return to the territory to handle other matters.
"Huh, this stone... Lord, it seems we've dug up something strange?"
However, the elite stonemason responsible for mining suddenly widened his eyes, and his words made Xia Tian stop.
"Something strange?"
Xia Tian became interested. He walked over with Wu Song and saw that the miners had dug out a dark red stone, about three feet square, with a texture somewhat like amber but not transparent.
"Hmm, this stone is indeed strange!"
Upon getting closer, Xia Tian's brows furrowed again.
After cultivating the "Five Animal Frolics," his senses had become sharper than ordinary people's. He could vaguely smell a bloody scent; this was a "bloodstone."
The quarry had just started operating, and a "bloodstone" was dug out.
If this were on the original Earth, it would definitely be extremely inauspicious.
However, this was the "Eternal Land." Digging up this "bloodstone" might not represent misfortune; instead, it might bring good fortune.
"The material of this stone is not natural; it's an artificial stone made by adhering sand together later... There might be something inside?"
The experienced elite stonemason made this judgment after touching it with his hand.
In fact, he was right. After using the quarry tools to break open this large "bloodstone," twelve peculiar eggs appeared inside, about the size of a basketball, half black and half white!
"Such strange eggs, I've never seen them before."
"Black and white, could they be the eggs of an 'iron-eating tapir'?"
"Iron-eating tapirs shouldn't lay eggs!"
The so-called "iron-eating tapir" was an ancient term for giant pandas, and pandas indeed do not lay eggs.
But some other creatures do, such as... "Hmm?"
Xia Tian's ears suddenly twitched, as if he felt something, and he abruptly turned his head.
And Wu Song, a step ahead of him, had already looked in the direction he turned.
In the dense jungle, a series of "rustling, creaking" sounds rang out. After the trees shook wildly, a figure rushed out. Its form was somewhat like a wild pheasant, about two and a half meters tall from head to toe, with a long neck, a mouth full of jagged teeth, and distinct black and white feathers arranged in a staggered pattern, each seven or eight inches long. The tail feathers were even over a meter long!