Under the eaves of the villa, when Yi Tian arrived, two Eastsea Falcon chicks, each about the size of a grown hen, were pecking at their eggshells.
Although their wings hadn't developed yet, their fluffy down was already looking beautiful.
"Chirp chirp…"
The little Eastsea Falcon finished eating its eggshell, chirped softly, then hopped to Yi Tian's feet and affectionately rubbed against his pant leg.
Their tender calls didn't have the "sky-shaking, cloud-piercing" might of the adults yet—sounded pretty much like ordinary chicks.
Race: Eastsea Falcon
Stage: Juvenile.
Strength: 20.
Agility: 30.
Constitution: 20.
Talent One: A-level Innate Divine Eagle Bloodline. On activation, increases strength and speed by 40% for 100 seconds. Usable once every three hours.
Talent Two: A-level Talent God of Ten Thousand Eagles. Increases aerial combat attack and speed by 20%.
The two Eastsea Falcons had identical attribute talents.
"This enhanced Eastsea Falcon is seriously OP. Pity they're so small, no idea when they'll be able to help me."
Right now, just caring for both Eastsea Falcons every day was already making Yi Tian's head hurt.
Don't be fooled by the Little Kiddos being able to work—in daily life, they're totally clueless. Bathing, clothes, food—Yi Tian had to hustle for half a day, playing both dad and mom at the same time.
"Come on, eat some meat."
Yi Tian bought a chunk of beast meat from the auction house.
The two Eastsea Falcon chicks crowded up to the meat, ripped off a small bite with their sharp beaks, tossed it back, and swallowed it.
"Celestial Dao Fortune detected. According to Territory Level, three Treasure Chests will appear in the territory. Lord, please retrieve them promptly."
"Time until chests vanish: 2:59:30."
Yi Tian wasn't impressed at first—bet it's just Black Iron, maybe at best Bronze Chests.
But when he saw that the chests were tiered according to Territory Level, Yi Tian's heart skipped a beat.
He was a Sixth-Level Territory Lord—the whole Celestial Dao World is too massive to say, after all, there are so many strong races.
But in Zone 10086, Yi Tian was hands down the undisputed number one territory.
So, at this moment, with Celestial Dao Fortune descending, and Treasure Chests distributed according to territory, it was obvious the system was giving them more chips to face the end-of-month big challenge.
Yi Tian could feel it—Celestial Dao pulling them all into this world wasn't trying to just kill them all off.
If you want to get stronger, it's not an overnight thing—you gotta walk the path step by step.
At the same time, Yi Tian also realized that the coming end-of-month assault would be exceptionally brutal.
Yi Tian told the Eastsea Falcons to take their time eating, not to run about. He opened the zone channel, getting ready to go pop those chests.
For some people, running the whole territory in three hours is pretty hard. For Yi Tian, easy peasy. Not to mention he'd already sent out Little White and the Five Tiger Generals to help search too.
"Damn, an Old Yellow Ox is running around outside my camp with a Bronze Treasure Chest on its back."
"Over here, two goats are pulling a Bronze Treasure Chest, leisurely strolling the grasslands."
"What a gorgeous Treasure Horse, carrying a Bronze Treasure Chest."
"Celestial Dao finally grew a conscience—delivering livestock AND chests this time. And it's a Bronze Treasure Chest!"
"Haha, I feel like I might actually survive a bit longer now!"
"Why do I only have a Black Iron Treasure Chest? And there's a bunch of chicks standing on my Black Iron chest."
"Two Bronze Treasure Chests and one Silver Treasure Chest, they just appeared out on the grasslands. I, Sam, truly am the Chosen One!"
Yi Tian had never seen the zone so hyped before.
A Level 1 Territory should get Black Iron, Level 2 for Bronze. Sam's territory's Level 3—his lackeys just bragged about it in chat yesterday.
Yi Tian knew there was a world of difference between Golden and Silver Treasure Chests for sure.
Even Level 4 wouldn't have a Golden Treasure Chest.
Level 4 Territories might get three Silver Treasure Chests.
As he mulled this over, Yi Tian already found the first Treasure Chest.
It was a Golden Treasure Chest. Surrounding the chest were two hundred three-month-old local chickens.
Yi Tian heard others in the zone say that a Black Iron chest only spawns seven or eight chicks, so his two hundred chickens were pretty damn generous.
Yi Tian, using a Celestial Dao Stone, confirmed these chickens wouldn't run beyond the territory border. Since that was the case, no need to keep them penned up in the main city—just build a coop at the foot of the mountain and let them free-range.
There weren't any birds in the territory, so the grassland's bugs had no natural enemies and could destroy the grass fast. Killing off pests was the perfect job for these chickens.
"Open Golden Treasure Chest."
"Gold*5, Celestial Dao Coin*5000, Solar-Powered Large-Scale Refrigeration Unit Design Map*1, Intermediate Silver Mechanism Guard Design Map*4, B-level Metal Black Profound Iron*1."
"That's it? Seriously? Can't be!"
Yi Tian was kind of bummed out.
The Silver Mechanized Guards weren't crystals, but design maps—and just intermediate ones at that.
According to the info from the Celestial Dao Stone, Silver Guards are split into Junior, Intermediate, and Advanced Silver Mechanic Guards.
Intermediate Silver Mechanic Guards have over 300 in all three attributes.
Yi Tian realized this large solar refrigeration unit seemed interesting. Completely enough for a decent-sized ice storage.
Yi Tian already had an Ice Storage Design Map—it'd just been sitting in the boutique warehouse, totally unused.
He'd originally planned to build an ancient-style ice storage like they had on Earth, using ice blocks for cooling.
Looks like he could just go for an electric Ice Storage now.
With no ice storage, food could never stay fresh for long.
The auction house is always a blind gamble—Yi Tian had been scammed by crook merchants more than once.
The meat he bought had almost gone rotten. The auction house is system-managed, so unless it's fully spoiled, nothing gets delisted. A ton of Trial Takers have been burned by this.
Now with ice storage, Yi Tian could keep meat, vegetables, and fruits in reserve.
Although by Earth standards, meat that's been frozen isn't considered fresh food anymore because the taste is worse,
everyone's just trying to survive here—who cares about taste? It's a million times better than eating near-rotten stuff.
As for the B-level Profound Iron, Yi Tian couldn't even be bothered to check the stats—just tossed it into the boutique warehouse.
"Roar…"
At this moment, Tiger Four came running over and let out a growl.
Yi Tian understood, and jumped straight onto Tiger Four's back, racing off towards the grassland.
The grassland had thirty sheep now, with the strongest one carrying a golden chest on its back. Yi Tian took down the lead sheep and opened the chest without hesitation.
"Gold*5, Celestial Dao Coin*5000, B-level Metal Ice Iron, Automatic Grain Processing Plant Design Map*1, B-level Spirit Fruit Wine*10, Small Villa Design Map*1, Skill Upgrade Scroll*1."
Yi Tian checked over everything in the box and felt this was a pretty sweet haul.
Each bottle of Spirit Fruit Wine is 1L ceramic, gives +1 to strength, agility, and constitution if you drink 100ml. After that, it's just for your tastebuds—no more attribute boosts. For those who love booze, this is a hundred-gold-quality wine.
The Automatic Grain Processing Plant includes both the factory and the equipment, can be paired with the grain warehouse.
Small Villa Design Map—Yi Tian didn't need it. He could save it and sell or trade it for something else later.
Skill Upgrade Scroll—can upgrade any skill by one level. Yi Tian didn't think much, directly used it to upgrade Archery Mastery, which was now Archery Mastery LV.2, further increasing arrow damage by 20%.
The Ice Iron went straight into the boutique warehouse. Yi Tian still didn't have the ability to handle Special Metals for now.
"Roar…"
Little White showed up, walking gracefully and holding its head high, looking super arrogant—obviously, it found the last Treasure Chest.
The final chest was at the foot of the mountain west of Lake One, being carried by a big cow, with nine more cows of various sizes guarding it around the edges.
When he saw a white glow distinctly different from the usual silver, Yi Tian's eyes lit up with joy.
Platinum Treasure Chest!
This herd of cattle was gentle—domesticated already. Yi Tian intercepted them and snatched up the platinum chest.
"Open Platinum Treasure Chest."
"Platinum*5, Celestial Dao Coin*30000. Wind Element Warrior Design Map*1, High-level Mist Scroll*1, Nightlight Tree*100, Mountain-Suppressing Stone*1, A-level Metal Star Iron*1, Beast Core Gift Package*1."
Elemental Warrior, attribute: wind, Spiritual Power Value 500. Strength 100, Agility 100, Constitution 100. Can cast Wind Blade for attacks. Skill: Wind Slash, can be activated once every 300 seconds, massacres all enemies with constitution below 500 in a large area.
What the hell? Magic stream? Any random Bronze-tier close-combat would get obliterated.
High-level Mist Scroll—lets you leave the territory for 12 hours, after which you're auto-teleported back home.
Nightlight Tree, a top-tier species, a curious treasure tree—evergreen year-round. At night, its leaves glow, illuminating everything nearby. Each Nightlight Tree increases Territory Points by 10.
This is basically nature's street lamp, right?
Just thinking that even at night, the whole War Manor would be as bright as daytime, Yi Tian felt pretty damn good.
Mountain-Suppressing Stone—all stones within one square kilometer get their Defense Power boosted by 50%, plus 1000 territory points.
Hell yes! Set this smack in the heart of the manor, covers all city walls. The walls were already made of High-Level Stone—add the Mountain-Suppressing Stone, and enemies would have a hard time breaching the place.
A-level Star Iron!
Beast Core Gift Package: includes one A-level Beast Core, five B-level Beast Cores, thirty C-level Beast Cores, and a hundred D-level Beast Cores.
"If you think about it, that's a ton of loot this time. Plus, the overall defense of the territory just shot up."
A Wind Elemental Soldier, four Intermediate Silver Mechanic Guards. Facing the end-of-month, Yi Tian felt way more confident now.
With night falling, Yi Tian called in the captives to haul the Nightlight Trees and the hundred-square-meter Mountain-Suppressing Stone back to the manor.
The Mountain-Suppressing Stone was so huge, it took everyone working together just to barely move it.
On the grassland, to save effort, Yi Tian bought stone and lumber on the spot, and built a cowshed, a sheeppen, and a big chicken coop. Drove all the animals out to the pasture to fend for themselves.
They'd have more than enough to eat before winter came.
Because of all these livestock and poultry, Yi Tian even called a mini-meeting with Little White and the Five Tigers to tell them—no sneaking snacks from the animals! Especially Little White—Yi Tian threatened, "If you dare steal, I'll stew you!" Little White shrank its neck in fright.
Yi Tian hustled like mad until midnight before finally finishing planting all the Nightlight Trees.
Each Nightlight Tree lights up a twenty-meter radius—just enough to illuminate paths from the villa to all four main gates.
Just like Yi Tian's manor was dazzlingly bright, the zone chat was lit too tonight.
Even Level 1 Territories got two Black Iron and one Bronze Treasure Chest. Level 2 got three Bronze Chests. Level 3—two Bronze, one Silver.
Except for a few unlucky folks, most people managed to find all three chests.
E, D-level Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, Special Metals, all kinds of blueprints, Technology Crystals, and some random weird treasures.
"[Toilet Technology Crystal*1]." Turtle Race's Gui Jie flexed his loot.
"Totally useless. Who'd use a toilet now! [D-level Weapon Long Spear*1], now that's a survival lifesaver!" Sheepman Race's Yang Yangyang chimed in.
"[D-level Heavenly and Earthly Treasure Power Apple*1]—in 15 months adds 3 Strength. What do you think, everyone?"
"15 months—that's more than three years in this world, way too long. Check out my [D-level Pill of Great Rejuvenation*1]: use it and get +3 Strength, I'm gonna save it till I hit 50 strength, much better payoff."
"Jealous of the pro up there!"
Yi Tian, with his C-level strength, wouldn't get much out of D-level pills, so he didn't plan to buy any low-level Heavenly and Earthly Treasures.