Chapter 2607

"Xia Jing, Shen Lian, come here for a moment!"

The two female squad leaders, who had been giggling away, turned their heads in surprise.

Then they bounced over, their two pairs of big peaches jiggling.

"What is it, my lord?"

"You were looking for us, my lord?"

Zhao Chi said: "Starting tomorrow, all the newly arrived main-race residents will be reassigned as miners and smelters in the morning. You two divide the personnel yourselves, one half each. Starting tomorrow, officially return to your own work."

The two female squad leaders were extremely surprised.

But their faces all showed joy.

"Wow~ my lord, we're going to start mining the minerals in the territory?" Xia Jing looked utterly excited.

Zhao Chi said: "While you two were making a ruckus just now, I had already set up a Nine Springs mineral vein in the west. It can be mined starting today. That's Tier Three ore, very difficult to mine, so don't force yourselves. Your current task is to mine and level up your skills. Understood?"

"Tier Three ore? My goodness, I understand, my lord. I'll go call the sisters to take a look right now!"

Zhao Chi nodded: "Remember to bring plenty of tools. Tier Three ore is sure to wear them out fast."

"Haha, understood, my lord. I'm on my way!"

"Don't rush. Go find Qiyue and collect 10,000 Quick-Work Talismans, then distribute them to the female miners for use. Level up their skills as fast as possible."

"Understood! Thank you, my lord. Is there anything else you need arranged?"

"Nothing else. Go on."

"Alright, I'm off~"

Xia Jing leaped up, jumping straight outside the Carefree Spring and dashing out.

Making the nearby water surface ripple up and down.

Shen Lian's white peaches also rose and fell with the water, bobbing up and down.

"My lord, so we're smelting Tier Three ore too?"

"That's right."

"But…" Shen Lian said with some worry: "But I'm afraid of failing the crafting and wasting such precious materials."

Zhao Chi smiled and said: "Don't be afraid. These ores are produced by us ourselves, there's no cost. Feel free to practice without worrying about waste. If you want to improve your skills and specializations, you have to go through this process. Just build it up little by little, it's fine."

Shen Lian smiled and said: "That's wonderful. Smelting such high-difficulty minerals will definitely give us a ton of experience. Then I'll go prepare too."

"Good, go on. You also go to Qiyue's side and collect 10,000 Quick-Work Talismans, distribute them to everyone to level up their skills. Don't hold back, do your best."

"We will work hard."

Shen Lian also left quickly.

Each of their squads only has 20 people right now, so 10,000 Quick-Work Talismans are absolutely enough for them to use for the time being.

Zhao Chi still has over 30,000 in hand, which isn't much again.

But every female craftsman in the forging squad and sewing squad has 200 each. Even if they practice intensively for one day and rest the next, it's enough for them to use for 11 days.

So Zhao Chi just needs to replenish the Quick-Work Talismans within 11 days.

Right now… there's really nothing he can do about it for the moment.

The White Tiger Regiment and Shubei Town have both been drained dry. He doesn't know if he can pull strings with the nobility. The nobility definitely has no shortage of Quick-Work Talismans; it's bound to be a huge treasure trove.

He'll wait until Shangguan Ting and the others come back to discuss it.

It won't be more than a few days.

Checking the time, it was already 4 in the afternoon.

Li Ruanyu and the others should have already set out.

He hopes they can achieve good results, and even more so hopes they stay safe.

Even though they're now vice squad leaders now, this rank will make them even more of a target for the enemy, and it's extremely dangerous.

Fortunately, they all have the Nüwa Stone and Fuxi Zither fragments, which basically serve as strong insurance. Even if they run into a life-threatening crisis, they can escape. Zhao Chi was fairly at ease.

This time he bought over 8,000 more Quick-Growth Talismans. Added to the over 2,000 left over from before, it once again exceeded 10,000.

Then he'll use another 8,000 on the Eternal Tree, to let it grow a bit more.

But right now it's only just over 2 meters. He doesn't know when it'll break through 200 meters…

The early-stage investment isn't small either.

A Quick-Growth Talisman normally costs around 2 gold coins, but the current market price has risen to about 2.3 gold coins. Zhao Chi bought in bulk, even grabbing the slightly pricier ones. This batch of Quick-Growth Talismans cost roughly 3 gold coins each.

So feeding the sapling once meant about 24,000 gold coins gone.

Simply the most expensive nutritional meal in the world.

He arrived at Chaoge Town.

Chaoge Town was the busiest and most lively territory.

Large numbers of slave laborers were working in the farmlands, with new slave laborers learning beside them.

Flower demons flitted through the crowd, looking as if they were dancing, but in fact they were also working hard.

In various planned locations, houses and public facilities were being constructed.

The female construction workers sweated buckets, working up a sweat even in the depths of winter.

But the more they worked like this, the stronger their fragrance became. The entire Chaoge Town was filled with a sweet scent.

Zhao Chi first found Fang Li.

Fang Li was directing the construction. Upon seeing Zhao Chi, she immediately greeted him.

"Hello, my lord. Are you looking for me to check on the construction progress?"

"No."

Zhao Chi initiated a trade.

Then put in 10,000 Quick-Build Talismans.

"These Quick-Build Talismans are for you to use. You decide when to use them. Don't worry about the cost — I still have over 10,000 more on my side, so feel free to use them. For example, if you need to rush the work right now, just use the Quick-Build Talismans directly."

Fang Li was very surprised.

"That many? My lord, are you sure? These are just ordinary buildings — do we really need to use that many? It'll probably cost quite a lot."

"Of course I'm sure. The cost is expected. You decide."

Fang Li clicked to collect, then nodded: "Understood, my lord. Then let's first finish building the public facilities — those are the most important.

Public facilities include toilets, kitchens, and a whole series of other installations.

The female slaves we bought aren't Taoyuan women.

Their feces and urine have no collection value.

It's not that they have no value… it's just that, unlike those of Taoyuan women, they don't have the value of rare materials.

So these female slave workers need to be separated from the Taoyuan women and use different toilets.

The kitchen is the same.

With this many people, we'll definitely need several large kitchens.

Otherwise, just feeding everyone every day would become a problem.

Besides these, we also need to additionally make tableware, tools, and clothing.

So we'll need to build more carpenter's shops, blacksmith's shops, and tailor's shops as well, specifically to make these things for the slave workers.

There are quite a few other buildings that also need to be increased at the same time.

Housing, on the other hand, is a small issue.

Zhao Chi nodded and said: "Fine, you decide. If it's not enough, come find me again."

Fang Li laughed: "10,000 Quick-Build Talismans still not enough? Definitely enough, my lord, don't worry! I'll go arrange it right now."

Said goodbye to Fang Li.

Zhao Chi found Qi Yue.

At the same time, he also called over those 20 Silk-Tribe female soldiers from last time.

Zhao Chi brought these 20-plus people together into the interior of the northern wall.

Inside the wall there was nothing — a vast, empty expanse.

Only a pink sapling stood in the distance, lonely, in the middle of a large stretch of land.

Around the area, some female soldiers in full fashion outfits kept patrolling.

Zhao Chi and the others quickly arrived before the Eternal Tree sapling.

The sapling's color seemed to have faded a little.

It had already changed from pink-purple to pale pink.