Chapter 2066: Preparing for Departure

Over the next few days, Xia Duo and Saville worked overtime to complete and test the Growth Array at the First Farm. After confirming there were no obvious defects, they notified Laidun that he could arrange for the territory residents to come and begin cultivation.

The cultivation team was split evenly between official residents and probationary residents. Under the leadership of several advanced Working Groups from the Territory Development Department, they began their vigorous labor.

Perhaps it was the deterrent effect of the Portal, or perhaps the midsummer-like heat within the vast First Farm, but not a single probationary resident caused trouble; many even performed more diligently than the official residents.

Xia Duo came to watch for a while at the beginning, and once the cultivation work was proceeding in an orderly manner, he called for Laidun and left the First Farm together.

As they walked, Xia Duo instructed, "The growth cycle for crops at the First Farm is about one week. After this group, try to have all probationary residents pass through here."

"I understand your meaning, my lord; it is to demonstrate the strength of the Territory to those probationary residents!"

"It is not just to show strength, but to tell them that the Territory lacks neither food nor land. As long as they abide by the Territory laws, a good life is still ahead!"

"Yes." Laidun responded thoughtfully.

Xia Duo did not care whether Laidun truly understood; at this stage, as long as he could earnestly execute his instructions, the other party would eventually grasp these things through continued work in the future.

The worst-case scenario would just be replacing the Administrator, though Xia Duo sincerely hoped that Laidun could continue to follow him all the way.

As long as he did not fall behind, this Territory Administrator, who was currently still a Believer of Radiance, might not be unable to sit on equal footing with the Lord of Radiance in the future and converse with ease.

When they reached the Public Level, Xia Duo and Laidun parted ways. Watching Laidun walk with a steady gait toward the Portal leading to the Code Plaza, he merely smiled slightly before teleporting into a Control Room in the Central Control Zone.

Niya was there familiarizing herself with the operation of the Floating City. Seeing Xia Duo arrive, her face immediately lit up with joy, "Is everything handled over there? Can we set off now?"

"Everything is handled, but as for setting off—" Xia Duo teased, staring into Niya's eyes, "Have you practiced enough on your end?"

"Of course I have, if you don't believe me, look!"

Niya made a move to perform an actual operation, and Xia Duo hurriedly grabbed his wife's hand, "Have you forgotten yesterday's mistake? You almost destroyed my Territory!"

Upon hearing this, Niya was immediately mortified, recalling the heart-stopping scene from yesterday afternoon. She had been attempting a horizontal movement of the Floating City, but somehow it turned into a free fall.

Niya certainly knew that directly beneath the main body of the Floating City was Daxia Territory, as well as the Tower of Time. If she couldn't control it, neither Daxia Territory nor the Tower of Time, with all its various Protections, would be spared.

But the more she worried, the more nervous she became. In the end, it was only after catching a glimpse of the out-of-control recovery procedure on the cover of the Operating Manual that she reacted and stabilized the Floating City's descent.

Of course, from Xia Duo's perspective, every operation Niya performed on the Floating City would first be fed back to him, and only after his approval would it be executed by the Floating City.

Yesterday, when he received Niya's operation prompt at the First Farm, he was stunned for several seconds; he truly could not imagine how Niya had made such an operation.

In order to leave a deeper impression on Niya, he had transferred that operation—which caused the Floating City to free fall—to the Floating City exactly as it was.

Then he waited to see Niya's blunder, but Niya had narrowly managed to control the Floating City just before he took over.

However, after that, Xia Duo still verbally forbade Niya from directly controlling the Floating City, saying she had to wait until he confirmed she was qualified before she could truly get behind the wheel.

"Aren't you watching right here? I'm not doing anything dangerous, I just want to let the Floating City take a turn around the Territory, just say yes!"

Even though they were an old married couple, Xia Duo still couldn't resist Niya's coaxing, mainly because Niya was usually very dignified, occasionally shy, and almost never acted spoiled.

Or perhaps it was that women of this era generally lacked some of the traits found in the peaceful times of Xia Duo's hometown; of course, the same went for men, the most obvious being that Apprentices of the Tower of Time almost never grew tired of learning.

They seized every opportunity they could.

As for now, Xia Duo pulled Niya to sit down beside the console. Floating City operation had no physical buttons; it only restricted the operating space to the Central Control Zone, and certain specific operations could only be done in specific Control Rooms.

And all control commands for the Floating City itself issued from outside the Central Control Zone, except for those from Xia Duo himself, were illegal.

The Control Room Niya was currently in was, of course, one with a higher Permission Level, otherwise, it wouldn't have allowed her to send the Floating City into a free fall.

"You operate it, I'll watch!"

Xia Duo said this, then activated 【Wide-Area Detection】 to project the environment outside the Floating City into this Control Room at a proportional scale, to enhance Niya's intuitive Perception.

"Watch me!"

Niya clenched her fists, looking eager to try. Seeing this, Xia Duo just smiled without a word; he had already received Niya's operation command to move in a direction 90 degrees offset from the indicated gravity direction.

In plain language, that meant moving horizontally to the south.

Xia Duo had originally thought Niya would deliberately mess with him and go into another free fall. If that were the case, he would just go along with it and let the Floating City remain out of control until it neared the ground.

But since Niya was being so serious, he didn't intend to play any tricks.

Right now, the trivial matters of the Territory and the Floating City had been handled, and there was still some time before the end of the month. Since they were idle anyway, accompanying Niya to practice could be considered a way to enhance their marital affection.

Outside.

The Floating City's movement inevitably stirred the hearts of the residents below. However, they now knew that the circular object above was also the Territory of their Lord. Even after experiencing yesterday's rapid descent, the residents were mostly just curious about what that thing actually looked like.

Some had already passed through the Portal to visit the Floating City, but being inside it was completely different from being outside.

Inside the Control Room, Xia Duo suddenly isolated a small piece of the Magic projection of the outside world, placed it in the center of the Control Room, and magnified it.

It turned out to be a scene in a corner of the Code Plaza below, where several residents were loudly discussing; one of them guessed that the Territory in the sky might be something like a flying saucer.

But someone quickly refuted, "I've been there, it's enclosed top and bottom, it can't possibly be a flying saucer!"

"You're the one talking nonsense! My son is an Apprentice to Chef Kuke, and he told me that the Lord's flying city is an inverted plate! People on top can even see the ground!"

The few people argued back and forth, unable to convince each other.

And Xia Duo, seeing this scene, knew clearly that it was because the spatial transformation of the Floating City had been restored when the Semi-plane was synchronized; after that, people visiting the Floating City could no longer see the ground.