92: Chapter 92 Assignments are distributed and responsibilities are assigned based on the task.

The meeting hall window was still open.

The sea breeze was lighter than before, turning into intermittent cool air seeping into the room along the stone walls.

The six substrates on the table shimmered under the night-luminescent stone—the cold white of the coral, the gold of the earth vein jade spike, the dark green patterns on the black turtle egg, the dark blue of the vine seeds, the pale blue halo inside the shell, and the silver runes on the bamboo segment.

Lu Changyuan's hand was still pressed on the sea chart.

He moved his fingers away from the three characters "Cold Dragon Abyss" and sat back in the main seat.

"Qingli, continue. Finish reporting the accounts."

Su Qingli opened the three ledgers from left to right.

The first was the flow of Spirit Stones, the second was population resettlement, and the third was material inventory.

She didn't read from the beginning—her fingers pointed at the key numbers on each page, reciting them one by one.

Over 2.86 million Low Grade Spirit Stones.

She specifically explained one item: 40% of it was the docking fees collected at the Outer Port—when the neighbors turned pale at the mention of the Abyss Demon tide, cargo ships scrambled like crazy to find safe berths, and the Outer Port of Blue Moon Island was so crowded those few days that ship hulls were grinding against each other.

The remaining 60% came from custodial operations and mortgage contracts, all short-term income, not sustainable revenue.

"In other words," she closed the ledger, "most of these Spirit Stones were scraped up during the panic. Once the wind stops, the income stops."

Regarding the population, 3,172 people from Black Reef Island had already been settled separately, taking on work according to their respective skills—Spirit farmers went to the fields, miners went to the Ore veins, shipwrights went to the ship sheds, and the rough-hewn Array Master followed Chen Mo's talisman apprentices.

The first batch of over 2,000 people who arrived to fill the quota were temporarily squeezed into the West Slope Tents and the Outer Port long sheds, eating two bowls of thick porridge and a piece of salted fish every day; they weren't full, but they wouldn't starve.

Half of the 600 sea-beast pack animals had been assigned to the Pier to haul timber and stone, while the other half were still adapting to the island's fodder.

"What about the ships?" Lu Changyuan asked.

"Forty-seven ships. We picked out twelve that could barely enter the water to repair them."

The rest are for parts—if the hull is okay, we strip the hull; if the keel is okay, we strip the keel. If we can't assemble a whole ship, we store them as timber." Su Qingli flipped through the third ledger. "After the subsequent 4,000-plus people arrive, they will need food, tents, and work. The Spirit Stones look like a lot, but once spread out, they become thin."

Lu Changyuan nodded.

She was talking about a very simple thing: there was enough money, but it couldn't withstand only going out and not coming in.

The Xuangui Island military tally was still in his hands.

The names on the roster of the 5,000 mixed garrison troops were under his command, but the hearts of soldiers were not something a military tally could suppress—Chen Mo had gone to Xuangui Island to help repair talisman lines before and told Lu Changyuan the truth when he returned: among those 5,000 people, the old Zhao family troops accounted for 30%, the neutrals accounted for 40%, and only 30% had recognized Lu Changyuan during those few days of desperate defense on Xuangui Island.

"Don't rush with Xuangui Island," Lu Changyuan said. "The hearts of soldiers are fed—first feed them grain, then feed them battles, and finally, you can feed them a reputation. Let's arrange the things in front of us first."

He looked at the six substrates on the table.

"Has Ye Zhe arrived?"

"He's outside." Leng Feng tilted his chin towards the door. "I'll call him."

When Ye Zhe came in, he was still covered in mud—the Thunder Bamboo Garden had just been watered with diluted cleansing medicine this morning, and he had squatted by the garden for two hours before finishing.

He stood at the far end of the long table, his eyes sweeping over the items on the table, stopping when he reached the tide sound spirit bamboo.

"Recognize it?" Lu Changyuan asked.

"No," Ye Zhe shook his head honestly, "but I'm familiar with bamboo."

Lu Changyuan picked up the emerald green bamboo segment and placed it in front of Ye Zhe.

"tide sound spirit bamboo. Plant it two feet away from the devil-cleansing thunder bamboo. It cannot purify Devilish Qi, but it can coexist with the thunder bamboo—the speed at which the thunder bamboo purifies Devilish Qi will be three times faster. At the same time, it absorbs tidal water Spiritual Qi and converts it into wood Spiritual Qi to feed the Spiritual Vein."

Ye Zhe took the bamboo segment with both hands.

He looked down at the silver runes on the bamboo segment, his fingers not daring to touch the runes, only holding the two ends of the bamboo segment.

"Two feet?"

"Correct. Not too close, not too far."

"I'll go dig the hole when I get back."

Lu Changyuan looked at him.

This young man who had crawled out from under the suppression of the Zhao family on Black Reef Island still had no Foundation in Cultivation, but when he guarded the living roots of the devil-cleansing thunder bamboo, he hadn't closed his eyes all night, protecting a piece of scrap that no one had ever looked favorably upon into a living seedling.

"Be careful." Lu Changyuan only said these three words.

He picked up the jade box of the earth vein jade spike and pushed it to Su Qingli.

"Yours. Gravel ground, thin soil layer, plant it on the seventh day under the sun. It's not picky about soil, three harvests in one season. The roots can improve the soil quality—plant it for three years, and the ground below will become tillable land."

Su Qingli opened the jade box to look at the three golden grains, then closed it.

"There are a few pieces of gravel ground in the thin soil area of the Spirit field that have been left unused—they are too thin, and everything planted there only grows half a crop. It's perfect for this."

She paused and picked up a pen to write a line in the ledger: earth vein jade spike, plant on the seventh day, east three plots of the thin soil area of the Spirit field.

"Gold-patterned iron thorn vine." Lu Changyuan picked up the ball of dark blue vine seeds and looked at Leng Feng. "Outer Port broken reef plate, find three deep cracks in the reef, press them in. The hardness of the vine body is equivalent to third-grade Cold Iron—but it takes three years to grow. In these three years, it will be a living reef patch, and the roots will connect the broken reefs into a whole."

Leng Feng took it.

He weighed it in his hand; the vine seeds were cold and hard, like holding a piece of iron Ore.

"Can the vines cut down after they grow be used as ship bones?"

"More resistant to sea beast bites than the wooden keels you use now."

Leng Feng put the vine seeds into his bosom.

His gaze swept past the window—from the window of the meeting hall, one could see the large area of broken reef plates in the Outer Port.

The grey-black reefs were like broken turtle shells scattered on the sea surface, and when the waves were big, they poured in with a swish.

"Starlight Coral." Lu Changyuan turned to Chen Mo. "Measure the water temperature. The cold water channel on the north side of the Outer Port berth. Once the water temperature is right, put it in the water—the mother branch will attach itself to the reef wall and expand outward. Thirty zhang a year, and in three years, it will cover the near sea of Blue Moon Island."

When Chen Mo took the coral mother branch, his hands were very steady.

He was old, and his hands would shake when he held a pen to draw talismans, but when he held this palm-sized coral, his fingers were motionless.

"Then this old man will go measure it later."

"cold marrow jade shell." Lu Changyuan picked up the last one—a fist-sized, translucent white shell, with the blue light inside still slowly rotating. "Uncle Hu, yours. Take people to find the cold spring eye in the cold water layer of the Outer Port. A water channel three miles long and half a mile wide, feel it inch by inch."

Lu Hu took it and looked at it over and over again.

"Young Lord," he squeezed out a sentence, "can it really produce three to five layers a year? Three thousand per layer?"

"Elder Tianji said so." Lu Changyuan's mouth moved slightly. "That old Senior doesn't seem like the type to brag."

Lu Hu carefully tucked the mother shell into his bosom, an action similar to tucking away a Top-Grade Spirit Stone.

Only a dark green black turtle egg was left on the table.

Lu Changyuan picked it up.

The pale gold patterns on the eggshell were still flowing slowly, and the pulsation in his palm was clearer than it had been in the secret room just now—the frequency was faster, as if it were urging him.

"I'll keep this one myself," he said. "There is no place for it in the near sea of Blue Moon Island. Cold water, abyss, the intersection of undercurrents—we must go to the Cold Dragon Abyss at least once."

"When are we going?" Leng Feng asked.

"No rush. Let's land everything that can be landed first." Lu Changyuan put the black turtle egg back into his ring.

He took out a jade jar from his ring—palm-high, with the opening sealed tightly with Spirit wax.

"Thousand-year Spirit milk, one hundred catties. Elder Tianji's stuff." He opened the jar lid.

A faint milky white mist overflowed from the jar mouth.

The Spirit milk itself was not liquid, but a state between mist and water—it was water in the jar, but as soon as it encountered air when poured out, it turned into mist, drilling in along with the breath.

Everyone on the island above Foundation Establishment, each person gets a few catties first.

It's not for drinking—take a small spoonful before each Cultivation session, dissolve it in your palm, and use Spiritual Qi to push it into the Baihui acupoint and Yongquan acupoint to solidify the Foundation of the Early Stage of Foundation Establishment once more.

He looked at Su Qingli.

"Although your Meridians have been reopened, your Foundation is thinner than a normal Foundation Establishment Cultivator. Use it first."

He looked at Leng Feng again.

"The thicker the Foundation of the sword bone, the faster the sword will be drawn."

He looked at Chen Mo.

"You are old, and your Foundation is solid, so your hands will be steady when drawing talismans."

He looked at Ye Zhe.

"You haven't guided Qi into your body yet. Save it for now—wait for the day you succeed in guiding Qi, and use it to build your Foundation directly. It's better than Qi-guiding pills."

Ye Zhe nodded vigorously.

Su Qingli took the Spirit milk jar, used a pen to stick a small piece of paper on the jar body, and wrote the date and allocation amount.

"Three-day deadline." Lu Changyuan stood up. "Measure the water temperature if you need to, dig the holes if you need to, and find the spring eyes if you need to. At this time in three days, I want to hear the results of the first step of each substrate landing."

Everyone picked up the things they had received.

Leng Feng put the vine seeds in his bosom, Ye Zhe held the bamboo segment with both hands, Chen Mo carried the coral mother branch, Su Qingli carried the Spirit milk jar and earth vein jade spike seeds, and Lu Hu pressed the mother shell in his bosom with one hand and went to push the door with the other.

"Young Lord," Lu Hu looked back, "that black turtle egg—"

"I'll figure out a way."

The door of the meeting hall was pushed open.

The sea breeze outside rolled in, carrying the sound of sawing wood from the Pier and the slogans of the workers.

Lu Changyuan was left alone at the table, looking down at the four characters on the sea chart.

Fog zone, untested.

He reached out to roll up the sea chart and stuffed it into his bosom.