245: The construction of Hongyu City and Leng Ren's exit

He redialed Huo Yuan.

“Huo Yuan, listen, I’ll give you a city building order and resources to build a city, but this investment is countless times larger than those few barracks. I hope you focus on mining for me and don’t let my investment go to waste. Can you… promise me?”

“Da Ge, I’ll listen to you!”

Huo Yuan had never dreamed that he would one day be able to build a sub-city.

Han Huohuo told Huo Yuan to return to his cave first, then sent him the city building order and resources, telling him not to act rashly for now.

Instead, he should wait three days until the number of troops increased to over three hundred before going to the weeping Desert stone beach to build the city.

Han Huohuo also specifically chose several powerful arrow towers for him.

【Repeating Crossbow Arrow Tower】: 6th-tier arrow tower, equipped with a repeating crossbow, capable of shooting six arrows simultaneously, physical damage, each arrow equivalent to 200 Strength, can garrison twelve ranged physical archers, triple power, doubled range. This blueprint can be used to build four arrow towers.

【Frost Arrow Tower】: 5th-tier arrow tower, can launch ice ball magic, ice magic can slow down enemy movement, each ice ball equivalent to 120 Intelligence, can garrison ten mages, triple power, doubled range. This blueprint can be used to build four arrow towers.

The Repeating Crossbow Arrow Tower could be garrisoned by Mechanical Giant, but the Frost Arrow Tower, without mages to garrison it, would only be used to assist the repeating crossbows with its freezing effect.

A large amount of resources was traded over.

Han Huohuo even thoughtfully prepared several treasures for Huo Yuan.

【Bow of the Wood Elves】: Ranged damage increased by 5%

【Mane of the Divine Beast】: Ranged damage increased by 10%

【Hard Leather Armor】: Defense +5.

Huo Yuan, with his equipment upgraded, wearing the treasures and leading a massive army of over three hundred, once again marched mightily towards Ringing Stone Beach.

He crushed everything in his path, encountering several 6th-tier Sandworm at Ringing Stone Beach. This time, he had experience, fighting steadily and only losing a few Gold Man before dealing with these Sandworm.

The army entered the stone beach.

This Ringing Stone Beach was very large. Huo Yuan didn't just pick a random spot to build the city. He searched for a long time and finally found the area with the most red jade. There was an open space here, and he sent photos to Han Huohuo to show him.

After Han Huohuo confirmed it, he decided to build the new city there.

He then asked Han Huohuo for the city's name. Han Huohuo casually named it Hongyu City, simple and direct.

This was typical bandits logic: a simple name that immediately conveyed its purpose—such names were best.

Han Huohuo wasn't cultured enough to come up with fancy names.

Hongyu City was built in the Desert. Under Han Huohuo's command, Huo Yuan was told not to rush into mining. Instead, he should first build the city walls and arrow towers, then garrison the Mechanical Giant in the Repeating Crossbow Arrow Towers, which would control a large area.

The Desert was hot during the day and cold at night, so heating facilities in the Main Camp also needed to be built first.

At Han Huohuo's suggestion, Huo Yuan transferred all his barracks to Hongyu City. With a resolute heart, Huo Yuan even moved his brothers and crystal to the new city.

In fact, the living conditions in the new city were harsh, far inferior to those in the cave. The cave was warm in winter and cool in summer, and it even had a water source.

But Huo Yuan endured it.

He didn't want to stay in the cave his whole life and have it eventually become a relic of cavemen. He also had his own dreams, so breaking out of the cave was the first step towards his dream.

Once he had a firm foothold, his first priority was to seize the red jade mine.

There were many red jade mines within the coverage area of the Repeating Crossbow Arrow Towers, making mining very safe there. Even if a few 6th-tier Sandworm appeared, they wouldn't pose a threat to the miners.

In the Desert, of course, Huo Yuan and his few friends weren't the only group. Others had also survived in small mountains elsewhere, but due to the harsh conditions, none were very strong. Without realizing it, Han Huohuo had cultivated a powerful force in the Desert.

Han Huohuo learned that Huo Yuan also had a few brothers who had shared hardships with him. They had a good relationship, bound by life and death, and were learning beast taming because they discovered that Sandworm could actually be tamed.

Beast taming was actually very difficult and unstable. After all, wild beasts were alive and their wild nature was hard to tame. One could easily lose their life during taming if they weren't careful. Han Huohuo prepared some traps, cages, and other tools for them to make beast taming more successful.

Two brothers and one sister.

The other two brothers were named Zhao Tianjing and Hu Yun.

Among them was also a girl named Zhu Rong, who had extraordinary comprehension and was the first to master beast taming techniques, currently trying to tame some low-level Sandworm.

Hongyu City, led by Huo Yuan, finally gained a foothold in the Desert and began to gradually grow stronger.

Then, as Huo Yuan ventured further and further into the Desert, he discovered that it wasn't actually uninhabited. There were also indigenous people who could be recruited. In some Oasis on the edge of the Desert, there was a special local race with blue skin, whom everyone called the Blue-Bloods.

Huo Yuan hired some Blue-Bloods, and Hongyu City also began to gain popularity.

All mines worked at full capacity, with overtime.

Han Huohuo's red jade began to accumulate.

However, at this production rate, it still took several days to produce one 7th-tier soldier.

He couldn't rush things now, even if he wanted to.

It wasn't just that red jade was insufficient, but all resources were lacking. Sea willow and mithril were rare minerals, and even though the Elves were frantically collecting them, they were still very limited.

So Han Huohuo didn't rush the collection of red jade, but he was curious about the uses of two other types of jade ore: blue jade and white jade, these two strange jades.

He went to the Armory.

At that time, Sandru's White Dragon ore field had a research institute, which had now merged into the mechanical research institute as the Armory upgraded.

He searched through the list in the research institute.

An option appeared: Ore Research.

Interesting, consuming the crystal from the White Dragon cave could also research ore?

He put both the blue jade and white jade in.

【The research cycle for each mineral is seven days. Please wait patiently.】

The seven-day countdown began, with blue jade being researched first, and white jade following behind.

Winter arrived, and this year the snow was particularly heavy, snowing every day, with snowflakes falling everywhere.

Han Huohuo withdrew all his troops from the Great Qian Empire, defending the Ten Thousand Mountains. He found that he didn't need to participate; those guys were fighting evenly on their own.

One day, to please Mu Jiu, he returned to the small villa on the mountain peak in Mingyu City to barbecue. Suddenly, he saw a brilliant light shining from the Northwest, and an ancient roar echoed through the heavens and earth.

The primeval power illuminated half the world.

Everyone in the world saw it, not knowing what had happened!

Han Huohuo remained unfazed, his hand holding the grilled fish not even trembling. He smiled, “That idiot has finally successfully changed his profession. I wonder how much more turmoil the situation will cause.”

That was the roar of Jörmungandr. Han Huohuo had heard it before, so he knew Cold Blade had emerged from his seclusion. From the sound, he must have successfully changed his profession, and the commotion was quite grand.