144: Chapter 144 What to do when resources are scarce? It's time to harvest the underlings!

Lords across the globe realized they were always trailing behind Xu Xuan.

Only after seeing the spirit mine did they realize they needed this stuff to enter the Spiritual Qi Recovery era.

Now, after digging three feet into the ground with great difficulty to find this spirit mine...

Damn it!

Xu Xuan has already stepped directly into the mid-stage of Spiritual Qi Recovery and will reach its peak in seven days. By then, even more alien races will appear.

Seeing this, everyone couldn't hold it together anymore.

"Are you kidding me, man?"

At this moment, many foreign lords had the urge to strangle Xu Xuan.

They had barely found the spirit mine and hadn't even entered the early stage of Spiritual Qi Recovery when Xu Xuan dropped a bombshell.

Regardless of how the global lords were exploding with rage, Xu Xuan calmly wiped the chat channel in front of him with his hand and closed the virtual screen.

According to the system, he would enter the mid-stage of Spiritual Qi Recovery in 7 days, and more powerful races would arrive then.

And judging by the system's tone, it wasn't just one race; there might be two or three or more races coming to the Lord Continent.

Xu Xuan now understood that all worlds would eventually succumb to heat death, and the Lord Continent was the final sanctuary.

Every race wanted to squeeze in, and the human race couldn't monopolize this paradise forever.

He had to prepare to face new challenges.

Sitting on the sofa, Xu Xuan opened the tier-2 technology tree of the Floating Island.

[Floating Island Tier-2 Technology Tree]

[Unlock Lower District: Consumes 1000 low-level spirit mines.]

[Lower District: Opens the bottom of the Floating Island, allowing soldiers to station underground, expanding living space, and allowing the placement of cannons and other weapons beneath the island.]

Nice!

Good grief.

The Lower District is basically making some residents live like cavemen, right?

When there isn't enough housing on the island, let some of them live in the basement.

However, Xu Xuan felt that the Lower District was more for military purposes.

On the floor plan, the Floating Island was circular.

But the Floating Island was a three-dimensional island, shaped a bit like a spinning top from his childhood.

The kind made of wood, spun by whipping it.

The shape of the Floating Island was roughly that of a spinning top.

The top was flat land, and the bottom was convex—to describe it with a character, it was like an inverted [ convex] character.

If the Lower District were unlocked, the habitable space would increase significantly.

"This thing definitely needs to be unlocked. By then, the underground warehouse and grain warehouse can all be placed in the Lower District."

But Xu Xuan had run out of low-level spirit mines on hand. What to do?

What else could he do? Of course, ask others for them.

He swiped his finger through the air and opened a screen.

[Vassal Chat Group]

[Xu Xuan: Hand over all the spirit mines in your possession.]

[Xu Xuan: Also, I'm out of meat on the island. Each of you, provide two-thirds of your meat supply.]

The japanese people and koreans that Xu Xuan had taken in as dogs all this time—now was the time for him to harvest them.

Don't forget, this vast expanse of land on the island was all part of Xu Xuan's territory.

Xu Xuan couldn't take this land on the surface with him, so he had distributed the conquered territories to his vassals.

For example, Jung Jae-soo, Takeshita Asuka, Yamamoto Chizuru, the mother-daughter pair of Tokugawa Yoshiko and Tokugawa Mio, and a total of over a hundred lords.

However, when Xu Xuan checked the [Current Number of Vassals]...

He was somewhat dumbfounded.

[Current Number of Vassals: 424 lords.]

Huh?

Wait a minute.

Xu Xuan remembered that when he went to fight the Chessboard of the Gods, he only had a little over two hundred lords under his command.

How had the number of vassals increased while he was away?

Did he misremember?

At this moment, this group of lords living on the surface also started popping up in the group chat.

[Jung Jae-soo: Master, I will present what I have in my hands right now! Everyone else, hurry up.]

[Yamamoto Chizuru: I have more meat than I can eat; I can offer all the meat in my warehouse to Master.]

[Lee Yoo-jin: Oppa, I dug up 49 low-level spirit mines, all for you. Can you let me on the island?]

[Takeshita Asuka: My Lord, I dug up 324 low-level spirit mines. Offering them is no problem, but I have a question.]

[Takeshita Asuka: If we can't upgrade to the early stage of Spiritual Qi Recovery, what should we do when the enemy comes?]

Looking at the Vassal Chat Group.

Jung Jae-soo was still very loyal, worthy of being the person Xu Xuan appointed to manage the vassals.

This Korean was working very hard to show himself off, hoping to make a good impression in front of Xu Xuan.

These people unconditionally offered their resources with both hands without a single complaint.

As for this Takeshita Asuka, he had some brains and even knew how to raise a question.

But, as a master, what he disliked most was his subordinates voicing their own opinions.

[Xu Xuan (Master): From the moment you surrendered, your lives belonged to me. What qualifications do you have to ask this question?]

[Takeshita Asuka: I... This subordinate deserves death; this subordinate shouldn't have spoken out of turn.]

[Xu Xuan (Master): Do whatever I say. If there is a next time, Takeshita Asuka, you can commit seppuku.]

[Takeshita Asuka: Hai!]

At this moment, beads of cold sweat the size of beans were forming on Takeshita Asuka's forehead.

He only then remembered his current status: just an expendable dog in Xu Xuan's hands.

Turning his gaze to the area below the Floating Island, one could see various vassal lords riding carriages, bringing convoys to the base of the Floating Island.

Large quantities of spirit mines and livestock were being continuously transported to the base of the Floating Island from all directions.

Now that Xu Xuan had over four hundred vassals, he was harvesting their resources just like shearing sheep.

These vassals had no autonomy; theoretically, Xu Xuan could even have them killed if he wanted.

Watching the vassals gathering from all directions, Xu Xuan also knew not to drain the pond to catch the fish.

These people were all working for him; although slave owners would exploit their slaves, they would absolutely not want to see them die.

He still had to use his traditional skill: the carrot and the stick.

While beating his subordinates down, he also had to give them a few sweet treats.

Xu Xuan summoned a Flying Eagle, departed from his palace, and rode the War Eagle to fly in front of the vassal lords.

He scanned the supplies in front of him.

[Meat: 100,000 units (Enough for 100,000 people to consume for one month.)]

[spirit mine: 7,304 units of low-level spirit mine.]

Looking at the things the vassals had offered, Xu Xuan was very satisfied. Raising so many vassals was exactly for moments like this, to harvest them when he needed to.

The four hundred-plus vassals below, seeing Xu Xuan appear, immediately prostrated themselves on the grass, heads lowered, not daring to look directly at their master.

Once Xu Xuan's feet landed steadily, the four hundred-plus vassals spoke in unison: "Welcome, Master!"

Xu Xuan nodded with satisfaction and said: "Chizuru, Mio, Jung Jae-soo, during the time I was away, how did a bunch of people appear?"

Yamamoto Chizuru, who looked like a delinquent girl and was wearing a long black sailor dress, immediately replied.

"Master, many lords nearby admired your strength and voluntarily joined to become your vassals."

Nice!

Good, good, good. A bunch of foreigners were actually fighting to be his dogs, right?