47: Chapter 47 Seeds

For an entire month, Gladstone immersed himself in the Ash District and the barren lands demarcated by the Horn Family.

He personally screened them, weeding out the few who were obviously ill, severely disabled, or mentally unsound, and finally selected a thousand people.

Behind these thousand people were parents, children, and spouses. A rough estimate put the total number of family members involved close to four thousand.

He relocated all four thousand of them to the newly purchased wasteland.

Large swathes of crude, temporary prefab housing had been erected there in advance, with centralized canteens and water points set up.

Gladstone looked at these faces filled with bewilderment, trepidation, yet carrying a faint sliver of hope, and felt somewhat lost himself.

He didn't know what attitude to adopt towards them. Prisoners? Employees? Or some kind of future asset?

He ultimately decided that, before receiving further explicit instructions, he would manage them in the most basic humanitarian way: provide food sufficient to stave off hunger and clean water, maintain basic order, and prohibit internal oppression.

At the same time, following instructions, he meticulously registered everyone's basic information and family relationships, especially the close ties between the selected individuals and their families.

After completing all this, he arranged for several reliable subordinates to handle daily management and returned to the Aovis Star office to wait in silence.

-

Two months later.

A medium-sized transport ship with an ordinary exterior and no significant markings quietly landed on the temporary landing pad in that marginal wasteland on Aovis Star.

Gladstone Cole had long been waiting there. He watched as the ship's hatch opened and a team of personnel wearing Tiangong Merchant Bank uniforms, but with a distinctly more capable and sharp demeanor, filed out. The leader presented him with a higher-level electronic directive.

The handover process was silent and efficient. Gladstone handed over the detailed personnel roster and settlement records.

The other party offered no extra words, merely cross-checked the list, and then began organizing the boarding.

The selected thousand people, along with their families, totaling nearly four thousand souls, were guided onto the transport ship amidst bewilderment and unease.

They carried meager luggage, their faces a mix of fear for the unknown and a faint hope of escaping their living hell.

The ship's interior was spacious but crudely furnished, clearly a converted cargo vessel.

People were settled in partitioned areas. The conditions were crowded but relatively clean, with basic ventilation and lighting.

Among the crowd, an exceptionally thin and small figure huddled in a corner. His hair was messy, his face dirty, his clothes old and oversized, their original color indiscernible.

He himself didn't know his own name or age, only remembering that since gaining consciousness, he had struggled to survive in the garbage heaps of the Ash District. Judging by his build, he seemed around eleven or twelve.

Beside him, pressed close, was an equally frail but bright-eyed little girl, probably seven or eight years old.

The little girl tightly clutched the hem of a young woman's clothes. The woman had a sallow complexion and an exhausted expression, and she held a sleeping boy in her arms. This was the little girl's mother and younger brother.

The little girl was very afraid, her body trembling slightly. She whispered to the orphan, "Brother Stone... where are we going?" She called him "Stone" because the orphan said he was as hard and as unnoticed as the stones in the Ash District.

Stone was actually scared too, his palms slick with cold sweat.

But seeing the little girl's terrified eyes and her mother's weary, helpless expression, an inexplicable sense of responsibility welled up inside him.

He puffed out his thin chest, though the gesture was almost invisible beneath his oversized, tattered clothes.

"Don't be afraid," his voice was somewhat dry, but he tried to sound calm. "Look, there's food, a place to stay. It's better than the garbage heaps.

Those in charge... don't seem like bad people." He wasn't actually sure, but he felt it was at least better than waiting to die in the Ash District. "We're together, we'll watch out for each other. Once we get there, we'll find a way to survive."

The little girl looked up at him, the fear in her eyes seeming to lessen a bit, and she nodded gently.

Her mother gave the orphan a grateful glance, said nothing, just held the boy in her arms tighter and gently stroked her daughter's head with her other hand.

The transport ship slowly closed its hatch, its engines starting up with a low rumble. It broke free from Aovis Star's gravity well and headed into the deep starry void.

Its destination was the neighboring agricultural planet—Blue Winter Star.

-

After a period of Warp travel, the transport ship landed on a remote agricultural plain on Blue Winter Star.

The hatch opened, and nearly four thousand immigrants from Aovis Star stepped onto this unfamiliar land, filled with bewilderment and apprehension.

The air was fresh, carrying the scent of earth and some sweet plant, completely different from the foulness of Aovis Star.

In the distance, massive processing towers stood tall, but the surrounding environment appeared peaceful and orderly.

They were guided to a newly built settlement area.

The houses were standardized prefab units. Though simple, they were sturdy and windproof, equipped with basic lighting and sanitation facilities.

Compared to the shacks and garbage heaps of the Ash District, this was like heaven.

The crowd gathered in the central clearing of the settlement area, still waiting uneasily.

Then, a young man dressed in simple, dark-gray attire with a steady countenance, accompanied by a person in well-made guard uniform, stepped before the crowd.

It was Liang Qiming.

His gaze swept calmly over the dense, ragged, and fearful crowd before him.

In these people's eyes, there was fear of the unknown, a yearning for food and warmth, and also a deep numbness.

Liang Qiming knew clearly in his heart why they had gone to such great lengths to bring these people from distant Aovis Star.

Blue Winter Star was the Liang Family's otherworldly stronghold, of paramount importance.

But the original residents here—those Servitors and the few managers—were either cogs in the Imperial system or already controlled "tools," not the Liang Family's true "own people."

They were limited in number, and their backgrounds were traceable in Imperial databases. Large-scale mobilization or engagement in sensitive activities could easily attract attention and investigation.

And the Liang Family itself, in Heishan Town and even in the Immortal Realm, had shallow roots and scarce manpower.

The family's core members numbered only a handful, insufficient to support a cross-world, clandestine force requiring secrecy and efficient execution.

They needed truly their own, reliable personnel of a certain scale.

These people selected from the Ash District of Aovis Star had clean backgrounds—because they were originally at the very bottom of society, almost never recorded by any faction.

They lived in hardship and struggled to survive, harboring a strong desire to change their circumstances.

More importantly, most of them had family ties. These bonds were both a weakness and a controllable link.

Pulling them back from the brink of hell, providing basic survival guarantees and hope for the future, made it easier to cultivate loyalty.

Relying on constantly hiring outside adventurers or mercenaries? That was too unreliable, costly, and secrets could leak at any time.

Therefore, Liang Qiming formulated this plan: utilize the funds and channels of the Tiangong Merchant Bank to select suitable people from those forgotten corners, transfer them to the fully controlled Blue Winter Star for initial settlement and observation, and cultivate them into the Liang Family's first batch of "backbone" personnel in the other world.

These four thousand people were the seeds.