49: Chapter 49 Five Days Later, the Rapidly Developing Territory

The night deepened.

After the bonfire party, the Lords Manor fell into quiet.

Loren was soaking in a hot bath, letting out a comfortable sigh.

After a tiring day, the sensation of the hot water provided a great deal of relaxation.

But he wasn't idle; he closed his eyes and began his second immersive cultivation session.

His body had not fully recovered from overexerting his strength, and practicing the Demon Breathing Technique required high-intensity exercise.

Loren didn't want to leave behind any hidden injuries, so for these past few days, he had been focusing primarily on the Bauhinia Breathing Technique.

In his mental sea, blue spiritual power rotated slowly.

This was the most fundamental power, and also the hardest to improve.

Without a breathing technique, the body could become strong through high-intensity exercise, but the improvement of spiritual power required separate cultivation.

Legend had it that Spellcasters had even more exaggerated requirements for spiritual power, and the breathing techniques they practiced took an extreme route purely for enhancing spiritual power.

Loren's previous path was quite similar to that of a Spellcaster, pursuing ultimate spiritual power as a foundation to erupt with damage far beyond his level.

But the appearance of the Demon Grand Duke Bloodline changed this situation; his ultimate spiritual power now had a strong body to rest upon, so he was no longer a "five-second man."

Body and spirit complemented each other, resulting in faster, stronger, and more enduring combat power.

Calming his mind, Loren activated the phantom of the Demon Grand Duke Bloodline within his bloodline and once again condensed his spiritual power to visualize.

But this time, Loren was not in a hurry to use his spiritual power to construct the Demon Grand Duke; instead, he simply experienced the might of the Demon Grand Duke Bloodline phantom.

He observed every detail of this terrifying life form's body, wanting to see through it completely before attempting to condense it.

Blood-colored pupils, wings of slaughter, demonic body...

He discovered that every part of the Demon Grand Duke's body structure was perfect, with almost nothing superfluous; it was born for slaughter.

Gradually, Loren became immersed in it, savoring the extraordinary nature of this epic life form.

A long while later, Loren's body suddenly sent a warning, as if his entire being had been hollowed out.

He woke up with a jolt.

At this moment, he was shocked to find that the spiritual power he hadn't even utilized had been consumed to an even more exaggerated degree than when he constructed the Demon Grand Duke's body last night.

Could such a thing happen just by probing the Demon Grand Duke?

After carefully contemplating for a moment, Loren's eyes gradually brightened.

His mental resilience had actually gained an improvement that even surprised him after visualizing the Demon Grand Duke phantom...

Loren's heart stirred, and his eyes erupted with brilliant light.

"Could it be that this is the correct way to unlock the Bauhinia Breathing Technique?!?"

Visualization, observation, conception.

Loren was lost in thought.

Today's accident made him feel as if he were approaching the essence of the Bauhinia Breathing Technique.

But a moment later, he shook his head helplessly.

Although his spiritual power was already considered exaggerated among those of the same level, he still couldn't maintain the visualization of a legendary life form like the Demon Grand Duke for long.

He had many thoughts in his mind, but for now, he had to suppress them.

Visualizing the Demon Grand Duke without sufficient spiritual power was asking for trouble; the backlash of a mental collapse would be enough to tear his soul apart.

After recovering some energy, Loren got up, dried off the water droplets, and put on a soft bathrobe.

He casually picked up the wine the maid had poured on the round table, walked to the window, and gazed into the distance through the half-open window.

Two bright moons hung high in the sky.

Outside, apart from the moonlight spilling down, everything was pitch black.

This scene had absolutely nothing to do with the name Bright Moon City at this moment.

He picked up the crystal goblet, took a gentle sip of the wine, and watched the red liquid swirl in the glass, his eyes gradually sharpening.

This territory, which was practically non-existent, would surely become the true Bright Moon City in his hands in the future.

A bright moon, magnificent and vast.

Above the Endless Wasteland, there should also be such a city, one that everyone admires and yearns for.

——

The next day, at the first light of dawn, Bright Moon City began to gradually revive.

The heads of the various departments at the City Hall began shouting for their subordinates and employees to start the day's work, and the army preparing to head out was enjoying a hot breakfast while tidying up their equipment.

Residents who were not employed by the City Hall participated in labor under the direction of the City Hall staff.

Even the elderly and weak, whose bodies were relatively frail, were assigned tasks; no one was idle.

The entire territory began to operate like a machine.

As the core of Bright Moon City, Loren implemented and arranged tasks one by one.

Currently, Bright Moon City had three main construction tasks.

First, building arrow towers; second, producing paper; third, organizing the territory's sanitation.

The arrow towers were the responsibility of the Construction Department, with a total of 50 people working on them.

Producing paper was the responsibility of the old man who was the only one who knew papermaking technology—Tommy; Loren allocated 20 people to him.

The Sanitation Department, responsible for organizing the territory's sanitation, originally had 20 people arranged, but to speed things up, Loren simply ordered a batch of additional people to be allocated, bringing the number up to 50.

The Sanitation Department not only had to clear away feces but also had to plan out areas to build toilets and septic tanks.

With this, out of the nearly 180 people, less than 60 were left.

These remaining residents were not idle either; they were all sent by Loren to build a new structure—the barracks.

For the past two days, the Barbarians and Kobolds had been living in simple structures behind the Lords Manor. He didn't care about the Kobolds, but as elite troops, the Barbarians needed appropriate living quarters, which would also make training easier in the future.

Although building the barracks was not urgent, it was a major project.

Loren simply ordered all the Barbarians and Kobolds remaining in the territory to participate... to go to the vast plains behind the Grey Eagle Territory to fell trees.

The site for the barracks was chosen 500 meters to the left of the Lords Manor, 1000 meters from the lake, which just happened to cut off the connection between the lake and the Lords Manor.

The Frogmen in the lake had been quiet, but they were a threat that could not be ignored.

He did not want to be ambushed by a group of wet, dripping Frogmen in the middle of the night...

The entire day of April 13th was spent in the hustle and bustle of the territory.

Repairing arrow towers, improving sanitation, developing paper...

Everyone was assigned work, and a vigorous major construction project officially began.

On April 14th, the territory's sanitation situation was basically improved; a large amount of feces and household waste was cleaned up, and at the same time, toilets began to be built.

The trait activated when Loren established Bright Moon City—Bright Moon Eternity—shined brightly during these few days.

After the moon rose, the Stamina Recovery rate of everyone in Bright Moon City increased by 30%.

This non-combat trait was extremely practical.

No matter how exhausting the work was, after resting for one night, they could appear on the construction site the next day, full of life and vigor.

It greatly improved the work efficiency of the residents of Bright Moon City; it could be called a divine skill.

On April 15th, the raw materials needed for rebuilding the arrow towers were basically prepared, and the arrow tower repairs entered the second step—official repairs began.

On the same day, the first toilet with a septic tank that required manual flushing was completed.

Because this toilet area happened to have a relatively murky spring, there was no need to worry about water sources.

The clean and tidy toilet made many residents very curious; they had never thought that a toilet could be so comfortable.

Moreover, the talent Loren found during the census—a family of three, including an apprentice physician—also prepared a type of mosquito-repellent herb spice to put inside, and the faint fragrance instantly made this toilet feel high-class.

Large crowds began lining up to use the toilet; even those who didn't need to pee would go in for a look, and the scene of a crowd surrounding a toilet and marveling at it was quite spectacular.

On April 16th, to accelerate the advent of papermaking technology, a Paper Mill was established.

Loren personally appointed Tommy as the first factory manager and simultaneously designated an area for him to build a site and develop paper.

On April 17th, the arrow tower repair progress was exaggerated; the general framework was completed, and only the final finishing work remained.

On the same day, the sanitation improvement situation was completed, with 20 toilets distributed in the downwind area of the residential district, greatly improving the situation of feces being everywhere.

Furthermore, the Sanitation Department also widened the sewers, established regulations that garbage must be disposed of centrally, and that water drawn from wells must be boiled before drinking; the residents' sense of happiness improved visibly.

Time flew by to the 18th.

The weather was sunny, with clear blue skies.

Today there were a few pieces of news that made Loren quite excited.

Among the three major initial projects of Bright Moon City, the sanitation improvement was completely finished.

The Sanitation Department also specially established a supervision team, and anyone caught urinating or defecating in public would have their "tools of the crime" confiscated, which really intimidated a group of guys.

And the task of repairing the arrow towers could also be completed today.

Only the paper was still in intense development, with no signs of completion within three to five days.

Walking on the clean, fresh streets that no longer had any foul odors, Loren's eyes were filled with a smile.

Although the scale of Bright Moon City was still pitifully small, it already had some signs of what a big city should look like; everything was thriving.

"Lord Loren, the arrow towers can be repaired today. Do you need to go over and inspect them?"

After a few days of work and training, the timid and shy talented administrator, Ariel, had become much more capable, and the aura of the City Hall Deputy Speaker began to reveal itself.

But no matter what status she held in the territory, when facing Loren, this shy girl was still as prone to blushing as ever.

Loren looked at this talent for internal administration and nodded with satisfaction.

These past few days, Ariel had been more tired than him; many times, the lower-level officials didn't dare to report problems directly to him and often sought out Ariel first.

Almost every aspect of the City Hall required the girl to handle it.

Ariel also lived up to his trust, and her performance at work could be called perfect.

Not only was her handling of government affairs orderly, but what was even rarer was that the girl, who was usually somewhat timid and shy, never backed down at work.

What should be, was; she had quite a bit of a decisive attitude.

Over these few days, relying on this style and her quite high management level, she had won the conviction of the employees under the City Hall and faintly possessed a not-weak prestige.

This directly dispelled Loren's previous worry that the girl would be deceived by her subordinates.

To be evaluated as a genius by the system, she was indeed extraordinary.

Because of this, Ariel's status in his heart rose another level.

This girl, whose loyalty had slowly risen to 95 points, had completely become his confidante.

"Let's go take a look."

Loren nodded and took Ariel with him as they walked towards the direction of the city wall.

"How is the construction of Tommy's Paper Mill coming along? How much longer until paper can be developed?"

Originally, old Tommy guaranteed that paper would be developed within 5 days.

But Loren annoyingly discovered that half of the things this guy wanted, Bright Moon City didn't have, so for these past few days, he had been trying to find ways to solve the tool problem for him.

The development of paper had to be postponed.

He didn't know if it was a problem with magic, but paper manufacturing in the Nuoer Main Plane seemed to have a big difference from Earth, with many more procedures.

He didn't have any knowledge reserves in this area, and normal people wouldn't think about learning how to make paper... so he could only be helpless about it.

Ariel's clear eyes gazed at Loren's nearly perfect profile, her face carrying a faint blush, and she whispered.

"Factory Manager Tommy stayed up late last night to research and achieved good progress; it is expected that there will be results in at most 5 days..."

"5 days? Tell him to hurry up. Once the ordinary paper is developed, teach the technology to others; I need him to develop Magic Paper."

Although white paper could also be considered a profitable business, compared to Magic Paper, it was far inferior.

Magic Paper was a prerequisite for making magic scrolls, which could greatly enhance the territory's military strength and absolutely could not be ignored.

Moreover, Bright Moon City had Sim, a Bloodline Mage.

Once true Magic Paper was developed, he could completely let the Kobolds try to make magic scrolls.

If everyone had a Fireball magic scroll in hand, wouldn't his Barbarians and Javelin Throwers take off?

If they couldn't win, they could bury the opponent by piling up magic scrolls.

Thinking about this beautiful future, Loren wished he could make Tommy hurry up and research Magic Paper...