Chapter 14

Qin Lang had fully expected that when he woke up, Xia Xifeng’s eyes would be swollen, needing a long compress with a hot towel.

Xia Xifeng had been prone to tears since childhood. Whenever a cartoon showed even the slightest hint of parting or death, he’d bawl his eyes out until they were swollen shut.

Seeing that Xia Xifeng’s eyes weren’t puffy actually surprised Qin Lang.

Xia Xifeng was indignant at Qin Lang’s surprise. How far back was that? He didn’t get so easily swayed by movies, shows, and games anymore!

Besides, they’d both been playing Fantasy Realms for so many years, the main storyline was almost finished, and the developers were about to reboot the world for a sequel. If there was any crying to be done over the plot, he’d already done it.

“Yeah, you’ve already cried over everything you needed to,” Qin Lang noted, understanding.

Qin Lang’s statement held no special meaning, but for some inexplicable reason, it made Xia Xifeng feel stifled inside, as if Qin Lang was mocking him.

This mild irritation evaporated the moment he saw the vast manor he’d be living in.

When Suer handed the key to Xia Xifeng, a “City Building” module appeared in Xia Xifeng’s System.

Xia Xifeng immediately ended his one-sided cold war with Qin Lang: [Waaaah, Qin Lang, look! The System just stitched in a simulation building game! It’s a patchwork monster!]

Qin Lang glanced at what Xia Xifeng shared. Zero interest.

He couldn’t understand the joy of digging mines, farming, gathering, hoarding resources to build houses, planning cities, managing laws, and governing the eating, drinking, and bodily functions of a bunch of little NPCs.

Xia Xifeng was utterly addicted to these kinds of games.

Things like Anno, Civilization, Frostpunk, and all those various Simulators. Just reading their descriptions made Qin Lang yawn.

The chat screen was flooded by Xia Xifeng again.

He was elaborately introducing the new “City Building” feature to Qin Lang.

This wasn’t a game; it was their future home, their homeland. He absolutely wouldn’t allow Qin Lang to slack off.

Learn it with me!

Qin Lang was baffled. What was there to learn? Wasn’t it just gathering resources and building houses and roads?

Xia Xifeng raised a finger, wagging it: [You don’t understand. Building a city from scratch requires so much knowledge, so many calculations.]

Qin Lang thought for a moment. Fine, in reality, that was true.

Qin Lang: [Let’s borrow books from the library.]

This was the first time Qin Lang accepted a “Simulation Base-Building Game” party invitation from Xia Xifeng. Xia Xifeng sighed with emotion.

Most simulation games were more fun, and less liver-destroying, when played in a group. But even though he was willing to accompany Qin Lang on hunts, Qin Lang always found an excuse to refuse participating in his farming, building, and little-NPC-raising. That bastard was just this shameless.

The initial plot of Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang’s Knight’s Domain was only about the size of a small elementary school in the later ages—the area of the future City Lord’s castle.

They needed to constantly purify and reclaim new land, attract new residents, to expand their domain.

Suer personally introduced them to the methods of territorial expansion.

This required starting with the origins of Green Sand City.

Green Sand City was prosperous now, but it was actually located on the fringes of the most flourishing civilized nations in the Dream World.

The largest racial groups willing to congregate and create civilization in the Dream World were Humans and Elves, followed by Dwarves. Both Humans and Elves had established empires. The Dwarves formed a neutral kingdom, maintaining friendly relations with both empires.

The Human Empire had the largest population and the most expansive territory. The Elven Empire was more isolationist, but its Magic Conduit Device civilization was extremely advanced, and individual Elven talent was overwhelmingly strong; they were called the “Darlings of the Gods.”

Other races, including Halflings, had no “Emperor” or “King.” Some races integrated into the three nations, becoming noble lords within them. Others, unwilling to be bound, fled far away to “The Wastelands” and established a loose Free Alliance.

Green Sand City was situated within The Wastelands.

The Wastelands were the battlefield and graveyard of the previous era’s Divine War. All manner of powers were restless here. Not only were the wild beasts driven mad by the contamination of divine power and lingering resentments, but even the climate and environment were bizarre.

Like the scene Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang witnessed upon first arriving: forest and desert, side-by-side in stark contrast, looking like blocks of woodland, grassland, and desert randomly placed by a game player, completely defying common sense.

That was the result of the powers of forest-related deities and desert-related deities clashing against each other.

To tame this slice of wilderness, one first needed to expel the maddened beasts, purify the convergence points of divine power and resentment in the land, construct Purification Towers, and only then move on to the standard city-building steps.

The Green Sand City established by Amuruo was the largest city on “The Wastelands” and its largest “Purification Source.” Every year, on the moonless night of the twelfth month, it faced a counterattack from demonic beasts twisted by the remnants of fallen gods’ power and resentment.

Thus, Green Sand City was not just a city, but a border fortress, the very front line of a battlefield.

With Green Sand City holding the vanguard, the smaller towns of the Free Alliance could develop in peace.

It was precisely because of Green Sand City’s border fortress role, relieving the defensive pressure on the Human Empire, Elven Empire, and Dwarven Kingdom, that the Three Great Nations tacitly permitted the existence of the Free Alliance and granted it equivalent “friendly nation” treatment.

Although Amuruo, the Lord of Green Sand City, wasn’t an emperor or king, he was, in essence, the uncrowned king of this political entity called the “Free Alliance.”

Xia Xifeng, taking notes all the while, nodded repeatedly: [So in other words: first kill monsters, then clear out the enemy’s crystal towers, build our crystal towers, and then we can chop wood, pull weeds, flatten the land, and build houses.]

Qin Lang copied down Xia Xifeng’s summarized gaming experience, struggling to learn while fighting off sleep.

Just as Suer was in the middle of instructing them, Amuruo repeatedly sent people to urge Suer to return to the city and work.

The secular affairs of the entire Free Alliance were truly burdensome.

Suer turned a deaf ear.

“He’s grown up now; he can handle all the work himself,” Suer was extremely displeased with Amuruo’s constant laziness.

Back when he first picked up that half-elf whelp, the half-elf had been so hardworking and sensible.

How come, after raising him, the half-elf had grown crooked?

With new “dragon eggs” to care for, Suer’s tolerance for Amuruo plummeted rapidly.

Suer only left, glancing back every three steps, when Leo and Perila arrived with the Halflings to help Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang reclaim the land.

If Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang didn’t need tempering and growth, Suer truly wished he could just handle everything for his two new hatchlings, letting them simply eat, drink, play, and be merry.

“If Mr. Suer hadn’t gone back, you would’ve gotten to see the teacher come and hug Mr. Suer’s leg, crying,” Leo winked, lowering his voice. “You actually wanted to see that scene, right?”

Before Xia Xifeng could answer, Qin Lang covered his mouth, saving Xia Xifeng from a disastrous slip of the tongue.

Now that they knew Amuruo was a Demigod, even if Amuruo probably wasn’t monitoring them, it was best for Xia Xifeng not to court death on Green Sand City’s territory. Too troublesome.

Perila also wanted to cover Leo’s mouth but was a step too late.

So, he swung his staff and cracked Leo hard on the back of the head. “Shut up! Don’t be a bad influence on Feng!”

“Oww.” Leo clutched the back of his head. “If I weren’t wearing Power Suppression Runes, you couldn’t hurt me.”

Qin Lang dragged Xia Xifeng away to talk to the excited Halflings about what kind of fields to cultivate on the purified land.

Leo was provoking them like that; Perila would start fighting him any second.

They still had much to do; no time to waste here watching Leo and Perila brawl.

Halflings, true to their reputation as natural-born farmers, had already laid out the land plans.

It was just the beginning of spring. For his first round of planting, Xia Xifeng planned to grow wheat, soybeans, and Chinese cabbage—the classic spring trio from farming sim games.

Based on his and Qin Lang’s eating habits, they actually wanted to plant rice. Unfortunately, this was a Western fantasy world. Seeds uncommon in such settings, like rice, originated in the Elven Empire. Getting rice meant waiting and hoping to run across traveling merchant caravans.

“Don’t do anything yet, let me test out the hoeing skill!” Xia Xifeng rolled up his sleeves eagerly.

The tool upgrade path was: Stone → Bronze → Black Iron → Mithril → Demon Gold → Sacred Crystallite.

In this world, farm tools barely reaching ordinary iron was considered plenty. The farm tools the System let him craft were clearly no ordinary farm tools.

With Suer opening the backdoor for Green Sand City’s purchase orders, Xia Xifeng had unlimited access to basic stone, copper, and iron ores.

Mithril and Demon Gold, he’d need to mine himself or buy. As for Sacred Crystallite, that would require Qin Lang to max out his level and go slay gods for supplies.

In just a few short days, Xia Xifeng had only leveled his crafting enough to make Bronze equipment.

Gripping the bronze hoe, he silently activated the skill. Small grid squares appeared in his vision. When the hoe gently struck down, the soil within the square was perfectly tilled.

Xia Xifeng’s eyes lit up.

This was the fully immersive farming game he’d always wanted! This was the exact feel!

He’d also crafted a set of “Crude Farmer’s Set”—hat, shirt, pants, shoes, gloves, all included.

The Crude Farmer’s Set reduced the “minor energy drain when activating farming-related skills” and offered year-round effects: insect repellent, heat protection, and cold protection.

Most importantly, the shoes hovered just above the ground, so he needn’t worry about stepping on and damaging already-tilled or planted soil.

Xia Xifeng swung his hoe like the wind, whoosh-whoosh-whoosh, tilling an entire mu of land in no time.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, his face beaming with the joy of honest labor.

The edge of the field was already crowded with Halflings, craning their necks to watch Xia Xifeng farm using Divine Favor.

When Xia Xifeng finished tilling his first mu, the Halflings burst into applause and cheers.

“Feng, you’re absolutely amazing!”

“You must be the favored child of the God of Agriculture!”

“Truly worthy of being an Honorary Halfling! Your soul must have our Ancestor Gods’ blessing!”

“Too cool! I’ve fallen for you!”

“Get lost, I fell for him first!” …

The Halflings’ enthusiastic praises made Xia Xifeng feel drunk.

Dear gods, finishing work and being surrounded by applause and compliments—this was maximum emotional value! He loved this “fully immersive farming” game!

Immediately, he replenished his Stamina Bar and activated his sowing and watering skills.

Sadly, he hadn’t leveled his fertilizer-making skill yet, or he’d have received even more applause.

Qin Lang had already silently retreated beyond the crowd.

Arms crossed, he quietly watched Xia Xifeng bustling away by himself.

After their fight, Leo had pushed his way to the very front of the crowd to cheer for Xia Xifeng. Perila, on the other hand, had retreated to Qin Lang’s side.

Perila asked, puzzled, “You’re just letting Feng do all the work?”

“Division of labor,” Qin Lang said. “Are you free? Come hunting with me.”

Xia Xifeng’s farming would keep him busy for a while. Qin Lang decided to go grind monsters in the nearby forest.

The System hadn’t specified the experience-sharing range for parties. He wanted to test if Xia Xifeng would still gain experience if he went solo.

“Alright.” Perila rolled his neck. “Not calling Leo?”

“He’ll steal the kills. Bad for my skill practice,” Qin Lang said.

Perila laughed. “True. Let’s sneak off!”

Once Leo got worked up in a fight, he’d immediately forget all about “mentoring the newbies.”

Later, when Xia Xifeng finally came down from the massive high the Halflings’ emotional support gave him and messaged Qin Lang to scold him for slacking off, he discovered Qin Lang was long gone.

Leo looked around. “Where’s Perila?”

“Also gone,” Xia Xifeng said glumly. “Went hunting in the forest with Qin Lang.”

“And they didn’t call me?!” Leo bounced off the ground in fury. “Feng, make the dinner dishes they hate the most!”

“Deal!”

The two childish spirits were in perfect agreement.