Chapter 164: with translation of chapter title

The dozen or so guards behind him likewise sprang into action.

The Golden-Eyed Beast rose, and the guards beside him swiftly unloaded the luxurious carriage from the camel's back, transferring it onto the back of a nearby black eagle with a wingspan of several meters.

Like a mythical mount, it stood in the desert, making everyone dare not look up, as if fearing that knowing something tremendous would get them killed.

The Golden-Eyed Beast walked forward with hands behind its back, facing the towering giant eagle as lofty as a city gate, making human stature seem tiny, like a small pet.

His steps did not cease, and he walked straight toward the splendid carriage.

Some guards spontaneously lowered their heads, serving as a beastfolk staircase; the Golden-Eyed Beast stepped upon their shoulders and entered the luxurious carriage with leisurely grace.

The giant eagle let out a long cry, its roar piercing the sky.

This fearsome flock of small raptor tribe sped off toward the horizon, soon leaving a cluster of black dots on the skyline.

……

With sufficient manpower for constructing the planting base, the completion speed surpassed Lin Manzhi's expectations; in just three days, four walls a hundred meters high and several meters wide were finished, including the four watchtowers on the walls.

In the slightly gentle hill terrain of Xicheng Qu, from afar it looked as sturdy as a solitary walled city rising in the desert.

On the day the construction finished, Lin Manzhi followed Mo Lie to the planting base she herself called Number Two for inspection.

She stood on the wall, gazing around; the wind, laden with yellow sand, lifted her white scarf, outlining the distinctive graceful figure of a female.

The wind is just too strong.

Lin Manzhi could barely keep her eyes open here; instinctively she narrowed them, using her long lashes to shield her delicate eyes from sand.

Seeing this, Mo Lie beside her slowly drew near, his tall, slender frame positioning himself against the wind; Lin Manzhi instantly felt the wind and sand diminish, finally able to open her eyes and survey the surroundings.

This planting base faces the city on one side and the boundless desert on the other; its overall yellow‑sand‑colored stone blends perfectly into the desert, with a backdrop of azure sky meeting the yellow‑blue horizon, making it visible at a glance in the desert, like a lighthouse in the vast wastes.

Now that the enclosure wall is erected, Lin Manzhi lowered her gaze inward and saw that the fifty mu of land appeared not large at all; compared with the four hundred‑meter‑high walls, it even seemed narrow.

Consequently, the planting base looks like a tall, straight rectangle from afar, and up close it is at least as high as a thirty‑plus‑story building.

She stood in the semi‑open watchtower, quickly took in the entire planting base's environment, then her gaze fell upon the planting area inside the wall, and she felt a bit excited.

Fifty mu of land—wow!

I really want, I really want to fill it all with crops right away.

Lin Manzhi turned her head to look at Mo Lie standing beside her, and beneath her headscarf she pursed her lips and smiled faintly: "Seeing the planting base completed fills me with great delight; although the Fierce Sand Escort Bureau has arranged a team to transport soil, they haven't yet finished filling the whole base, but I think we should go ahead and break ground and plant whatever area we can prepare."

Mo Lie: "Good."

He then lowered his gaze to her, his voice low: "I have already had people gather a large amount of hides and forged the iron frames to support the greenhouse construction; Xiang Sa is here with two thousand warriors, awaiting your orders to arrange things."

"Oh dear, I almost forgot that building a greenhouse needs a skeletal frame." Lin Manzhi widened her eyes, a flicker of regret appearing; she lifted her gaze to Mo Lie beside her, and that hint of regret completely faded.

The corners of her mouth rose again: "Good thing you're here, it's wonderful."

Building vegetable greenhouses for planting is something they used to do in the tribe; she hadn't thought to arrange the greenhouses in advance, but fortunately Mo Lie had anticipated it and made the preparations.

"While it's still not night, let's hurry down to level the soil piles in the hides, then arrange the land division; this plot is too large—even if we planted it all, we'd need to first split the land, which also makes setting up the planting greenhouses easier." Lin Manzhi said.

Mo Lie nodded.

He and Lin Manzhi walked out of the watchtower; outside, the guard at the door, Xiang Sa, immediately stood ramrod straight, and beside him a hulking beast with a tiger's back and bear's waist relaxed his casual stance, lowered his head, and saluted Mo Lie and Lin Manzhi at the doorway.

She had seen Xiang Sa before; Lin Manzhi glanced at this male beast she was meeting for the first time—the very one Mo Lie had mentioned, the other captain dispatched to garrison here, Hei Cheng.

Like the ferocious feline tribe, he belongs to the Black‑Pawed Cat Tribe; his beast form is slightly larger than that of the ferocious feline, reaching a height of four meters, and his combat power is formidable thanks to innate racial talent, making him hardly inferior to the five‑meter‑tall Xiang Sa.

Xiang Zhuang was reassigned to the military camp; even though he was reluctant to part from Xiang Sa, such an important planting base could not allow the commanders of the two garrison squads to be related by blood.

Xiang Sa now harbors no thought of dying, fleeing, or establishing himself as king; before absolute power, he willingly submits to the other side and dare not raise any objection to the leader's arrangements.

After all… if he won't do it, there are plenty of male beasts willing to come here.

Xiang Sa and Hei Cheng stopped at the entrance, waiting for the leader and the Female Lord to walk ahead a stretch, then they slowly followed behind the two.

Lin Manzhi knew that the Xiang Sa and Hei Cheng behind her were the warrior squad Mo Lie had assigned to garrison here.

Both are squad leaders, each commanding a thousand beastfolk, responsible for the security of this planting point, and in peacetime also tasked with carrying out her instructions to manage the plantation land.

Thus, as they walked, she turned back and had the two gather all the beastfolk except those on guard duty, to go tidy the soil piles beneath the hides.

Xiang Sa and Hei Cheng immediately agreed; after receiving the order, they no longer followed behind the Female Lord, but set off ahead at once to go down and summon the workers.

One could see the two arrive at the side of the wall, and in a few moments they vanished from atop the wall.

Watching others jump down from a height made Lin Manzhi's heart tighten, recalling the beastfolk world's wall stairways.

The sheer, steep hundred‑meter‑high stone wall—each block of stone cut and polished for the wall, the surface altogether smooth—they established a passage on the inner wall face, namely protruding stone blocks from the wall serving as steps, but spaced at least twenty meters apart.

The inner wall, a hundred meters high, had only five stone steps installed; yet rather than call them steps, if built to suit a male beast's stature they would amount to at least twenty square meters, and normally they serve as the male beasts' internal lookout posts.

Thinking of how Mo Lie had brought her up here, it was practically like riding an elevator in a jump‑building contraption.

Lin Manzhi's steps faltered, she slowed down, and with a hint of anticipation she asked: "Um… is there any other way to go down? Like a real staircase, even climbing hundreds of floors I'd be willing—just a normal stairway?"

Mo Lie turned his head sideways.

In his blue eyes lay an inscrutable hint, "No problem, I'll carry you down, Zhizhi—it'll be faster."

He reached out, pulled Lin Manzhi into his embrace, exerted force with his feet, and with one arm holding her leapt downward, landing lightly on the protruding step twenty meters below inside the wall.