Back at the manor, Big Child and Second Child were still busily making clothes.
Yi Tian wasn't just standing around either, he continued to craft large water filters in the warehouse.
With the Fire Dragon tamed, plus Third Child, Little White, and the Five Tigers keeping an eye out, those captives couldn't stir up trouble.
What Yi Tian had to do now was to make money.
In the afternoon, after the Fire Dragon came back to report that the damaged trees had been replanted, Yi Tian started expanding his territory.
Yi Tian made another four hundred large water filters, all put up for auction, same old price as before.
Ten Celestial Dao Stones—how to use them to expand territory?
The manor itself couldn't be expanded, otherwise the walls would have to be redesigned—huge loss.
Besides, the manor was already big enough.
After walking a lap around the territory, Yi Tian had a plan in mind.
First, use one Celestial Dao Stone for Lake Two, one for Lake One.
Let Lake One have an area of three square kilometers, and Lake Two with two square kilometers.
Use one Celestial Dao Stone in the south of the High-level Trees forest area, increasing farmland from 1,500 mu to 3,000 mu.
At the southern ends of Orchard No. 1 and Orchard No. 2, by the Mist, use three Celestial Dao Stones to form seven small mountains, linking to the original hills. That made a total of thirteen peaks in the territory, creating a southwest barrier.
The last four were used north of the city and south of Lake One, to expand the area, preparing to plant 240,000 high-level trees. By then, the planned creek would flow from this forest into Lake One.
Since Lake One was farther away now, Yi Tian switched his domestic water to Lake Two, and re-routed the water pipes.
It wasn't that Yi Tian didn't want to increase farmland—there were too few people and too much land; three thousand mu was more than enough for Yi Tian to handle. After all, crops here ripen every twenty days. Last time, he had left 1,500 mu idle—he simply had no time to manage it all.
In the auction house, normal tree saplings were already scarce, but there were still plenty of high-level saplings. The Trial Takers would rather not sell than bother planting them.
Many people fantasized that they could leave in a year (April), but for trees to mature in eight months—they just couldn't wait that long.
Yi Tian kept sweeping up goods, buying up a total of 310,000 high-level saplings with plans to cover the mountains with them.
This time, the seven little mountains were a mix of rock and soil—just right for planting various trees.
Two days later, it was Yi Tian's nineteenth day in the Celestial Dao World.
That afternoon, Yi Tian used up all the materials for water filters. All in all, he had sold 2,000 large water filters, netting a total of 100 million Celestial Dao Coins.
The Kiddos did their part too, using up all the silk and cotton, selling 20,000 sets of silk clothing and 40,000 sets of cotton. Total profit 80 million.
After deducting the cost of the 310,000 saplings, Yi Tian's balance was 180.2 million Celestial Dao Coins.
Yi Tian's assets broke 100 million again.
With the captives working themselves to death under Fire Dragon's lead, clocking in over eighteen hours daily, it only took them two days to plant saplings all over those seven little mountains.
The Fire Dragon also recruited five Human Race prisoners as his little brothers, ruthlessly exploiting the other natives. The native prisoners gritted their teeth at him, but dared not show it.
The Fire Dragon's strength was 210, constitution 220, agility 195—the native captives with bracelets added together couldn't beat him.
Not to mention, the Fire Dragon now had five little brothers. These five Humans were considered strong among the captives, their three-dimensional stats averaged at 130.
Yi Tian even made time to give them a pep talk—work hard and you'll be rewarded, screw up and you'll be punished. Like the Fire Dragon, each of them got a stone house and three meals a day, with meat and veggies till full.
Maybe it was tribal loyalty, maybe just simple hearts, but all five Humans had Loyalty over 70. Yi Tian could barely trust them.
Since they were too weak, Yi Tian didn't plan to waste any precious Lord Contracts on them.
"Gold*1,000,000."
With nothing better to do, Yi Tian seized the opportunity while gold was still cheap, spending 100 million Celestial Dao Coins to buy one million units of gold as an investment.
With the original 80,000 units, that made for Gold*1,080,000, all stored in the Boutique Warehouse's basement—this would be Yi Tian's gold vault from now on.
From Yi Tian's experience, once everyone knows the importance of gold, its price will definitely go up.
Stockpiling gold, whether for backup or as an investment—so long as you survive, there's no way you lose.
Celestial Dao Coins sitting as a balance are just numbers, and there's no interest. Keeping 80.2 million on hand is enough to deal with any emergency.
"Wuwu! So scary, a flying monster ate all my vegetables, grains, and saplings inside my territory." Yi Tian had just opened the regional channel when he saw this message scroll by.
"Ah??? Seriously? The flying monster didn't eat you?" Someone was clearly skeptical.
"No, I was shivering inside my house. That monster was too fierce—just one bite, giant trees were uprooted. Celestial Dao Stone called it Spring Beast, all three stats over 200, and a long list of talents!" The victim replied again.
"Hah, the more you say the more ridiculous it sounds. How could our region have a monster with 200+ in all three stats? And a bunch of talents. You think talents are cabbage? In this region only Sam is a Talented, you know." Someone sniffed in disbelief.
"It's true! I was also attacked by Spring Beast this morning. My land is wrecked, looks like a wasteland now. Lucky I had some Celestial Dao Coins saved up, or I'd be screwed." Shadow Qianqian the Dark Elf.
"Seems true! Dark Elf did ask in the channel this morning, no one believed her then." Deer Biyong of the Deer Race.
"Shows you all don't pay attention to the regional channel. In neighboring Zone 65, at least two hundred people got hit by Spring Beast yesterday. Someone even said he'd shoot it, and then his ID disappeared. Today Spring Beast's come here to wreak havoc. Long story short, Spring Beast is unbeatable—if you meet it, give up and stay put. Just stock up on food and Celestial Dao Coins. There are a hundred zones per region. There's only one Spring Beast, so only a very small number of people will get hit." Pig Boar of the Pigman Race posted a super long message.
"If its stats are really all over 200, and with talents too, that's completely unstoppable—and really unreasonable. Does that mean someone in our region has over 200 in all stats, which triggered a monster like Spring Beast?" Tianjin Mi of the Four-armed Race asked.
"There are a hundred zones in the region, getting a powerhouse is normal. Look at our own Yi Tian, moved into a super villa ages ago—is that reasonable?" Turtle Race's Gui Jie.
"God bless, please don't let Spring Beast come to me… ah, God, why is there a giant bird in the sky…" David Brian, Earthling.
"What the hell is God? Here, Celestial Dao is the only big boss. The gods from your planets are toys to Celestial Dao. Otherwise, why would we be here!"
...
Yi Tian watched all the heated chat scroll by.
One of the Eight Great Celestial Beasts—the Spring Beast.
C-level Celestial Beast. I wonder if my Beast-Catching Celestial Net will be useful?
Last time, when catching the D-level Celestial Beast, another second slower and it would have escaped.
From the messages, this Celestial Beast had wings—a raptor type, could attack even from the sky.
Yi Tian had a bit of everything, especially crops and forests. If this Spring Beast came, he'd be reset overnight!
Yi Tian figured, since he was the one who killed the Rain Beast, the Spring Beast would definitely pay him a visit.
Chance of Spring Beast hitting other camps, 0.001%. Yi Tian's camp? Over 50% easy.
Otherwise, the quest to collect Celestial Pearls is bull.
"Yi Tian, still peddling water filters and clothes of all races recently, huh? Must have made a killing."
Yi Tian had just opened the auction house, when he got a chat invite from Purple Phoenix Moon Dance. Yi Tian opened it out of habit.
"Didn't earn much, just small business," Yi Tian modestly replied.
Now that people had seen how much Yi Tian made off water filters, a bunch teamed up to make their own, to fight for market share. But like Yi Tian, they were bottlenecked by plastic.
Plastic was so scarce that Yi Tian had already paused production of water filters.
Now there was not a single piece of plastic in the auction house, and even cloth barely lasted a second.
"Based on stats in our region, you made at least 150 million." Purple Phoenix Moon Dance.
"Your region is really free, huh? You know what 150 million even means? Just mouthing off?" Yi Tian didn't expect people to be tracking his sales so closely, and not far off either. Not that he'd ever admit it though.
"Don't try to deny it. Let's make a big deal this time—a bunch of people in my region are selling Heavenly and Earthly Treasures. Interested or not?"
Purple Phoenix Moon Dance flipped the topic, probing Yi Tian.
Yi Tian, ever sharp, instantly read the situation in her region from that one sentence.
First, the Rain Beast, then Spring Beast. The Rain Beast loved Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, so Spring Beast probably does too. Must be that treasures in the Monster Region were trashed by both Rain Beast and Spring Beast in turn.
So now the whole region was disillusioned and emergency-dumping their Heavenly and Earthly Treasures.
"Sigh! Don't mention Heavenly and Earthly Treasures. Talking about them pisses me off. Last time, the ones you sold me, I planted in my yard and overnight they were all dead. I never understood it, either—raining non-stop and a few Spirit Fruit Trees still withered? Now our region is full of rumors about Spring Beast, eating anything green, yanking out every tree, scaring everyone. God knows if what you plant today will be wiped tomorrow by the Spring Beast." Yi Tian sent a long tirade, sounding equal parts sob story and complaint.
"I see. I know the Spring Beast, but the odds it attacks your land aren't really high. Only for the super unlucky." Purple Phoenix Moon Dance obviously knew about the Rain Beast plaguing lords during the rainy season and how much trouble it caused in the region.
"Odds are low, but having Heavenly and Earthly Treasures raises the odds even higher. Unlike your region, our treasures are just E-level, D-level at best. If I had a bunch of them, Spring Beast would definitely show up at my camp." Yi Tian started tossing out smoke grenades.
"My batch is really cheap, and you've got so many Celestial Dao Coins, why not consider it? If they mature, the harvest will be huge!"
Purple Phoenix Moon Dance was in a hurry—she hadn't spent much on those treasures, and wanted to unload them onto 'foolish and rich' Yi Tian at last time's price for a quick fortune, but things had changed.
Given how long they took to mature, if no one bought them, they'd just rot in her hands.
"First, yes, the rewards are rich if I survive, but who knows if my Heavenly and Earthly Treasures will live long enough. Second, I might have some cash, but money doesn't grow on trees." Yi Tian corrected Purple Phoenix Moon Dance.
Yi Tian's words made Purple Phoenix Moon Dance desperate!