Chapter 158: You Have Great Foresight

Lin Manzhi looked up, watching a caravan of camels as tall as a small building dragging a cart piled with rectangular giant stones; the cart slid heavily across the sand, transporting the stone material needed for building the city wall.

Bare‑armed muscular men, several of them cooperating, lifted stone blocks taller and larger than themselves, weighing at least a ton, while a herd of bull‑like beasts hauled container buckets on their backs, carrying the cleared sand and gravel outward.

This sight gave Lin Manzhi the illusion of being in a land of giants, especially since she could not see the far end of the construction site with a single glance.

This this this!

Are they building a city? Why is it so huge?

She pulled her slightly aching head back and looked toward Mo Lie beside her, surprised, and asked, "How big of a Planting Base did you actually prepare for me??"

Mo Lie pointed at the unfinished city wall and said, "Not big, this area adds up to thirty‑four thousand square meters."

Lin Manzhi was stunned.

That's roughly fifty acres!

For a modern farm's Planting Base it would be considered small, but for her current situation it could be called a very spacious field.

She only wanted to plant some Cherry Tomatoes, never expecting Mo Lie to give her such a vast plot; she then mentioned why everyone knew about the recent matters in the west.

The last time she followed Mo Lie here, he also pointed with a single finger; she followed his finger and saw a dilapidated house of moderate size, assuming the area was at most about three thousand square meters, maybe five or six acres.

This time, looking again, she realized he was referring to the entire region.

When Lin Manzhi said she wanted to farm, Mo Lie quickly arranged it, and she didn't ask for details then.

Now…

She watched the densely busy figures ahead—at least a thousand people—and, full of uncertainty, asked, "How tall are we building the city wall?"

Mo Lie raised an eyebrow and replied, "One hundred meters high, six meters thick."

Lin Manzhi: "……"

Exaggerated.

Yet thinking further, she had to admit that the Beastfolk here already stood four or five meters tall, snake‑like races could reach over twenty meters in length.

For example, the feline races could leap seven or eight times their own height, easily clearing a forty‑meter‑high wall.

If the wall weren't higher, the crops she planted, even with Beastfolk guards, would be more likely to be stolen.

With that thought, Lin Manzhi calmed herself: "I may not fill this whole plot now, but perhaps we'll need to expand later."

Her eyes were bright; when she looked at him it was as if she were admiring him, wanting to give everything to him.

Mo Lie's gaze softened and he said, "We can continue expanding along the wall's entrance side, making another Planting Area; whatever width you want, I can bring the whole desert to your side."

Lin Manzhi squinted and smiled, "Mm‑mm."

A faint light flashed in Mo Lie's blue eyes; without a word he reached out and pulled her into his arms: "Come, I'll take you inside to have a look."

They walked forward, and the silently hidden Xiang Sa and Xiang Zhuang, who had been trailing them, also moved; their footsteps sounded, finally giving them a hint of presence.

The party soon passed the wall‑repair zone and entered the interior; Lin Manzhi cast a glance outward.

The floor was paved with stone slabs, the ground sank seven meters deep, the sand inside had been roughly cleared, and the uneven old stone slabs formed a flat area.

Xiang Sa stepped forward, jumped down into the pit, and said, "Xi Ze sent the black soil over; I've placed it here, please follow us."

Lin Manzhi was carried by Mo Lie down; after a few minutes inside she arrived at a small hut built of leather, where a heap of mud smelling of earth piled like a small hill in the corner.

She stepped forward, crouched before the mud pile, unafraid of getting dirty, grabbed a clod of soil, rolled it in her hand, a wet, sticky black mud from elsewhere.

After a few days, the soil had begun to dry a bit, and Lin Manzhi could easily crush it.

However, this mud was clearly soil suitable for farming.

The Planting Base Mo Lie arranged for her sits on rock slabs; she plans to spread the mud brought from outside over it, about seven meters deep, which should be sufficient.

Seeing Lin Manzhi crouching and playing with the black mud, Xiang Sa and Xiang Zhuang watched with mixed feelings, thinking, "It's so dirty, why start right away? We spent so much labor bringing these useless black muds back."

Playing?

He didn't understand.

Xiang Sa looked at Mo Lie with a expression like "a ruler dazzled by a female," secretly feeling a hint of joy.

If the leader kept acting like this, perhaps the day would come when he could reclaim his own power.

Lin Manzhi, convinced the soil was useful, stood up.

The soil pile here, when flattened, can produce roughly fifty ping; the Fierce Sand Escort Bureau, aiming to fill this entire fifty‑mu Planting Base, estimates it will take a little over twenty days.

That matches the pace of wall construction; she now needed to prepare enough leather.

Growing Cherry Tomatoes in the desert requires building a greenhouse; humidity control is crucial.

As for anyone knowing the greenhouse contains precious crops, with Mo Lie as the leader, no one would risk death to steal the leader's goods.

Thinking of the upcoming planting, Lin Manzhi realized crops also need one more thing: fertilizer.

Besides green‑manure methods like planting beans, the first thing she thought of was the obvious: manure.

The sand everywhere here is like a natural cat‑litter box; Fierce Sand City had long designed it, with the squat toilets of everyone's homes draining Underground sand, collecting somewhere unknown.

She ordered Xiang Sa to have people build four additional latrines by the wall, digging large pits Underground to collect fertilizer.

Xiang Sa listened, a face half‑wishing to speak, "Huh? Such disgusting work is unheard of!"

He looked about to faint, and under Mo Lie's cold stare dared not refuse.

After Lin Manzhi finished her instructions, she quickly left with Mo Lie.

Xiang Zhuang could no longer hold back, jumped out and crouched beside Xiang Sa, his face grim, whispering, "Brother, he's clearly torturing us! We now have a thousand Beastfolk under us; why not leave with them and become the boss elsewhere!"

Xiang Sa steadied himself, glanced at the uncooperative Xiang Zhuang, and said, "No, we cannot leave."

Xiang Zhuang's eyes widened: "Why! Must we really follow his orders to collect …"

Xiang Sa stepped out of the mud‑filled room, looked up over the workers, his eyes full of ambition.

He said without turning back, "Only you and I with these thousand underlings can't achieve anything in Fierce Sand City; following him is our only chance. I want his entire camp."

"!!" Xiang Zhuang's eyes widened.

Wow! This isn't impossible; the leader of Xicheng Qu has never been able to sit still, and indeed, his brother's words were very foresighted.