"[Large Alloy Steel Warehouse Blueprint], 200,000."
Purple Phoenix Moon Dance doesn't seem to be doing anything, probably short on money again, and sends a trade request.
"No one needs this blueprint right now. I'll give you 100,000 Celestial Dao Coins. If that's fine, let's trade."
This time, Yi Tian wasn't trying to rip off Purple Phoenix Moon Dance. Because Yi Tian knew he could easily sell it for around 100,000 at the auction house.
Yi Tian took a close look at this warehouse; according to the blueprint's description, it's a large warehouse that can withstand level 12 gales. Such a description isn't pointless.
Yi Tian honestly needed a large warehouse himself.
"[Large Alloy Warehouse Blueprint*1]—traded for 100,000 Celestial Dao Coins."
Perfect!
In the end, Yi Tian added, "If you get any good items in the future, contact me. Any treasures in your region you can't offload, just contact me."
Purple Phoenix Moon Dance didn't reply, and Yi Tian couldn't be bothered to say more.
His "Wealthiest in the World" guide is in the top spot at the specialty auction. It's easy to contact him.
"Large Water Purifier, craft!"
He'd prepared all the raw materials, placing them in the kitchen. With a flash of light, a two-meter-tall water purifier appeared.
Looking at the capacity, there's no problem storing 100 liters of purified water at once.
Yi Tian went to the lake and filled up several buckets, topping off the purifier.
After three full days, he finally drank the first mouthful of pure water.
Behind the wooden cabin, thanks to the presence of the Cyan Spirit Fruit, the air felt particularly pleasant.
The Vermilion Fruit Tree and Jade Spirit Peach Tree were planted on either side of the Cyan Spirit Fruit Tree.
Four hundred drops of Water of Life were ready.
Blooming, fruiting, ripening.
The courtyard glowed with spiritual light in the night—every spirit fruit radiated fragrance, incredibly pleasant.
After they ripened, Yi Tian picked a Vermilion Fruit and finished it in a few bites.
His whole body felt warm, and his dantian itched slightly. Yi Tian could clearly feel his strength increasing.
The wound on his chest visibly healed up fast.
Striking while the iron is hot, he ate from the Jade Spirit Peach Tree too. Yi Tian planned to dry and store all these spirit fruit seeds.
Rumor has it, survival rates for Heavenly and Earthly Treasures' seeds are extremely low; some even need unique environments to grow.
With Water of Life, planting these spirit fruit trees almost isn't worth it.
For example, growing a Cyan Spirit Fruit from seed to mature tree takes five hundred months, then another three hundred months to flower and bear fruit.
Might as well just keep harvesting from a single tree indefinitely.
Besides, if the seeds don't have Spiritual Qi, the Water of Life is simply wasted.
Water of Life is limited. Looking at these three spirit fruit trees, Yi Tian suddenly had a wish: to build a big villa in the future, surrounded by all kinds of spirit fruit trees.
In the Celestial Dao World, without any wishes, life would seem pretty dull.
Strength: 144.
Constitution: 130.
Agility: 130.
Spirit: 260.
Spiritual Power: 35.
"Is the dantian's weird feeling the production of Spiritual Power? Just like True Qi in novels. But I don't have any martial arts manuals—I can't use it!"
"Big Child also has Spiritual Power, how does she use it? I'll ask."
Yi Tian picked a Vermilion Fruit and a Jade Spirit Peach, found Big Child under the gourd trellis gnawing messily on a huge watermelon.
The other Little Kiddos were super envious, all itching to land earlier.
Third Child had no idea when he'd land, but Second Child said he'd finish absorbing divinity and land within five days.
"Big Child, here's some spirit fruit."
Big Child put down the watermelon, grabbed a fruit in each hand, and took a bite left, a bite right.
After she finished, Yi Tian checked Big Child's attributes with the Celestial Dao Stone.
Strength: 220.
Constitution: 180.
Speed: 110.
Spiritual Power: 135.
"Big Child, how do you use your Spiritual Power?"
Yi Tian asked Big Child.
"It just happens—if I think about it, I can use Spiritual Power. But I'm not good at it. Second Sister, Fourth Sister, Fifth Sister, Sixth Sister, and Seventh Sister all fight using Spiritual Power."
Big Child couldn't really explain, she didn't know any kind of chant. Yi Tian didn't dwell on it—Spirit Race and Human Race surely have different cultivation methods.
"Awooo..."
Little White strode gracefully through the front gate, letting out a low growl.
Obviously, that was a call for food.
"I thought none of you would want dinner tonight!"
Yi Tian had wanted to quietly get through the night—who knew Little White would call him out like this?
If he fed Little White, could he not feed the Five Tiger Generals?
Yi Tian checked the auction and noticed meat prices had plummeted.
Meat that once cost 20 Celestial Dao Coins per kg now only needed 2 Dao Coins, and still the price kept falling. Especially wolf meat—only 150 Spirit Coins for a kg.
Tonight's beast wave was risky, but for most people, it was an opportunity.
Whoever survived got to eat meat.
Yi Tian directly bought 110kg of wolf meat. The Five Tiger Generals each got 20kg. Little White had 10kg.
After a hectic day, Yi Tian finally lay down on his bed. Big Child cozied up beside him, not wanting to sleep alone.
The bed wasn't big, but Big Child barely took up any space.
Maybe because today's haul was so great, Yi Tian wasn't tired yet. He opened the zone chat to check on everyone else.
The instant he logged in, barrages of messages about who died and which IDs had vanished filled the screen.
ID disappearance only happened two ways. First, a Trial Taker died, and their Celestial Dao Stone was sealed; second, their Celestial Dao Stone was stolen, and the Trial Taker couldn't reclaim it within 24 hours.
Celestial Dao Stones are indestructible. Once stolen, the Trial Taker can sense its location.
For now, it's only the first type.
Someone tallied that in Zone 66 alone, over a thousand died in this beast wave. More got injured than they could count.
This was just a minor trial.
For most, death had come frighteningly close. And with it, the helplessness of fate.
Forest Elf Race's Mumu Qingqing: "I believe that with this victory, we are all brave ones. Heaven has gifted us strength and speed—these are the medals of warriors. Next time we face beasts, we will overcome!"
Earth Human Race's Yi Tian: "Well said. Let's all strive on together!"
Yi Tian had seen this elf a few times—when others got pessimistic, she stayed optimistic. With a new day, he had a fresh posting chance.
Everyone chimed in, brimming with apparent confidence for the future.
From the message feed, Yi Tian realized he was the only one to get 20 free attribute points. The rest mostly got 5 points.
The chat was lively—for example, Gui Jie of the Turtle Race, complaining about being slow and putting all his points into speed.
"Pathetic Earthling Yi Tian, you actually survived?"
In the midst of the camaraderie, Blue Skin Race's Sam chimed in obnoxiously.
"Heh, if you're still alive, how could Grandpa be dead? Better hope his grandkids live a little longer." Yi Tian snapped back instantly, nearly making the blue-skinned guy explode.
Yi Tian wasn't alone in his fight—Sam from the Blue Skin Race just attracted too much hate.
Though there weren't many Earthlings in the zone, and most of them were pretty lame, never backing Yi Tian up, there were plenty of Human Race folks from Brother Planet!
"Yi Tian, thanks for your spear tip. Thanks to that, I easily beat the wolves today."
At this moment, Qin Fanshuang sent a private message to Yi Tian.
Though the spear tip was for bear hunting, the long handle and extended blade made it the perfect tool for killing wolves.
"You're welcome. Did you deal with the brown bear?" Yi Tian asked offhandedly.
Yi Tian's strategy guide gave an order for eliminating the three threats: Wild Boar first, brown bear second, Lightning Snake last.
Because killing the Wild Boar got you the resources for crafting the spear tip; killing the brown bear earned you Celestial Dao Coins to invest in strength and take out the Lightning Snake.
"Not that fast—it'll take at least two days to dig the traps. Honestly, I used to be scared stiff, didn't dare go near the woods, but once I made sure the brown bear wouldn't come out of the woods... and since the wolves were coming, I only started digging a bit today. I put all my Celestial Dao Reward attribute points into strength and constitution. I should be able to speed up tomorrow," Qin Fanshuang replied.
"Alright, good luck! Let me know when you're going after the Lightning Snake—I'll lend you the iron chain and hook."
Yi Tian sympathized with Qin Fanshuang, but his kindness had limits, and he kept it to a simple encouragement.
He figured, after Qin Fanshuang finished with the hunting gear, he'd auction off the spear tip and snake-catching hook—otherwise, he'd never sell them later.
After chatting a while, Big Child yawned and fell asleep. Yi Tian caught the mood, closed Celestial Dao Stone chat, planned out tomorrow's work, and closed his eyes.
Three days later, today marked Yi Tian's seventh day in the Celestial Dao World.
During these three days, most Trial Takers had been busy eliminating the three threats, but Yi Tian spent almost all his time on one thing.
Planting trees!
Yi Tian found that his territory had too few trees—in the entire woodland, only four hundred, enough for just about four thousand units of wood.
Judging by the prices of buildings, weapons, and tools, if each Trial Taker had only 4,000 units of wood, it'd barely meet temporary needs.
Early on, Yi Tian was fooled by those 400 trees—this is the Celestial Dao World, wood consumption can't be measured by common sense.
Plus, Yi Tian noticed, last time everyone basically got various saplings from the Celestial Dao Fortune.
And in these past few days eliminating the threats, a good chunk of people had gotten intermediate and even high-level saplings.
The Celestial Dao's hint couldn't be clearer.
Yi Tian kept an eye on the auction house; without a villa blueprint for future planning, he just went all in on planting saplings.
Yi Tian had now mapped out three forest regions, two orchards, four mountain regions, and one lake region.
The woods east of the lake, once home to the brown bear, would be standard forest area.
There are 400 Fragrant Birch Trees here—Yi Tian planned to plant 30,000 ordinary trees, including more Fragrant Birch Trees.
Ordinary trees take 45 to 60 days to grow from sapling to mature. Intermediate trees take three months; high-level trees need eight months.
On the grassland north of the lake, Yi Tian cleared a huge area to plant 30,000 intermediate trees.
To the west of the lake, connecting to the mountains, Yi Tian aimed to plant 20,000 high-level trees.
By the lakeside, he'd plant willow trees that love wet soil: Intermediate Water Pine trees, high-level Purple Wood Rong Trees, and high-level White Dragon Fir Trees—one thousand of each in his plans.
On the plains south of camp, from planned city walls stretching to the mist, Yi Tian mapped out two orchards, planning to plant 10,000 fruit trees in each orchard.
Of the four mountains, one has little stone and lots of slopes, perfect for fruit trees. Yi Tian planned to plant a mix of apricot, plum, pear, and peach—10,000 in total—on that mountain.
The other three mountains are 80 percent rock—average trees wouldn't survive there. At the auction, Yi Tian had seen three high-level tree types: Cangyun Pine, Strong Growing Cypress, and Tiger Fir.
Just add some soil, and these trees can "take root right in the shattered rock."
Cangyun Pine on Axe Splitting Rock Mountain, Strong Growing Cypress on Limestone Mountain, Tiger Fir on Bluestone Mountain—10,000 of each.
As for the one-of-a-kind ore vein that is Amethyst Mountain, he'd plant High Mountain Purple Bamboo. High Mountain Purple Bamboo is top-grade wood, and wasn't sold at auction. Purple Phoenix Moon Dance said she got hers from a Golden Treasure Chest—one thousand saplings in total—which Yi Tian bargained down to 100 Celestial Dao Coins apiece.
Yesterday, during trade with Purple Phoenix Moon Dance, Yi Tian learned from her words that there'd been a native invasion in the Monster Region—she got her Golden Chest thanks to that invasion.
Whereas yesterday in Zone 10086, things were quiet as ever.