She began her report with a serious expression.
"Lord, one of the three portions of Moon Spring Water you listed on the market this morning has been sold."
"The area around the territory has been generally calm throughout the morning, with no unexpected incidents."
Zong Shen smiled and nodded in acknowledgment.
"Very good, thank you for your hard work."
"By the way, help me find a good spot around the territory to plant this."
As he spoke, he tossed out a seed that radiated a purple halo.
Luna caught it nimbly.
A look of shock appeared on her face.
"This... this is a Seed of the Ancient Protector!"
"A powerful guardian tree spirit of our Night Elf race!"
Seeing Luna’s surprised expression, Zong Shen felt like laughing.
The Night Elves are a powerful branch of the Elven race.
And the Ancient Protector is a type of tree spirit.
Elven buildings are essentially large trees that possess life, which are known as tree spirits.
An Ancient Protector is equivalent to the guardian of a territory or a city.
It possesses powerful defensive and counter-attack capabilities.
That is why Luna was so surprised.
She held the [Seed of the Ancient Protector] in her palms with great solemnity.
"Rest assured, Lord, I will plant it with the utmost care."
"However, the growth of a tree spirit requires irrigation with Moon Spring Water..."
"It needs about 200ml of Moon Spring Water every day, for three consecutive days."
"The tree spirit will then grow rapidly and contribute to the protection of the territory."
Luna knew that Moon Spring Water was a true treasure and hard currency for the territory at this moment.
Therefore, she had to obtain Zong Shen's permission once again.
Zong Shen, however, waved his hand with the air of a wealthy man.
"It's fine, use the Moon Spring Water as you see fit."
He had activated the effect of "Spring of the Moon Well" just before heading out today.
Right now, there was nearly 2 liters of Moon Spring Water in the well.
He could truly be described as wealthy and well-stocked.
After receiving Zong Shen's permission, Luna took some Moon Spring Water and left with the [Seed of the Ancient Protector].
Zong Shen went to the market and retrieved ten Primary Elemental Crystals.
He didn't know which wealthy tycoon it was, but someone had actually used ten Primary Elemental Crystals to trade for 40ml of Moon Spring Water!
However, the other listing had failed to sell.
These ten Primary Elemental Crystals could be used perfectly to build a [Tier 1 Elemental Arrow Tower].
As a Fine-grade defensive building blueprint, its warning range reached 500 meters.
It only occupied 10 square meters of land, making it perfect for internal defense within the small courtyard.
Once the three-day novice protection ended, and before they had city walls, this arrow tower would be enough to cover the current building range of the territory.
Zong Shen consumed eighty units of hemp to twist into eight hemp ropes.
Next, he opened the [Build] menu and selected [Tier 1 Elemental Arrow Tower].
A phantom image of a twelve-meter-tall arrow tower appeared.
Zong Shen moved it to the center of the small courtyard.
He called over a farmer and put him in charge of the construction.
The construction time for the arrow tower was not short, taking a full 6 hours and 24 minutes, even after being reduced by [Engineering].
He would let the farmer hammer away at it slowly.
Next, Zong Shen selected a [Tier 1 Blacksmith Shop] and placed it in the open grass area outside the small courtyard.
Now that the territory had the dwarf uncle as a professional blacksmith, the blacksmith shop needed to be built immediately.
Another farmer, under Zong Shen's guidance, was ordered to begin construction.
This building would only take 1 hour and 36 minutes to complete.
Following that, Zong Shen selected the [Tier 1 Territory Technology Research Institute], placed it in the open space as well, and had a farmer build it.
As for the [Primary Farmland], it was already a complete blueprint, so he just had to place it.
He did it himself, spending four minutes.
He hammered out this piece of farmland.
It was a 10m x 10m square field.
The total area was 100 square meters.
It didn't look very big.
Zong Shen called over two female farmers, Er Ya and Xiao Ping.
He handed them some wheat seeds and told them to start planting immediately.
Among the remaining buildings, the tavern had no use for the time being.
It would be better to gradually upgrade the six [Tier 1 Thatched Cottages] in the territory to [Tier 2 Dwellings].
Upgrading a building only required the difference in resources between the two tiers.
Even so, it still required twenty units of wood, eight units of iron, fifteen units of stone, and three hemp ropes.
The other resources were fine.
But the hemp needed for the ropes was running low.
He had already twisted eight ropes earlier, and now, only 114 units of hemp remained.
He could currently twist eleven more hemp ropes.
Zong Shen calculated and decided to upgrade three [Tier 2 Dwellings] first.
Then, he would build two more [Tier 1 Thatched Cottages].
Although the thatched cottages were not as good as the dwellings—only accommodating two people and being drafty—they were cheap to build.
They were perfect for a transition.
Thus, Zong Shen twisted nine hemp ropes.
He upgraded three dwellings.
Then, he added two [Tier 1 Thatched Cottages] on the side.
Including the farmland, all ten farmers were now in a state of construction or labor.
There were no farmers left on standby in the territory.
The surroundings were filled with the sounds of "ding-ding-dang-dang" hammering.
One by one, the building phantoms were becoming solid, looking quite spectacular.
Under Zong Shen's wave of massive construction, the entire territory had begun to take shape.
It was many times stronger than it had been on the first day of arrival.
The future was promising!
A sense of achievement and pride welled up in Zong Shen's heart.
He felt like a fanatic of infrastructure.
Watching the previously empty grass field gradually fill with buildings, and seeing the busy farmers hammering away, made Zong Shen feel proud.
The territory was like a child, growing up step by step.
In the future, this place would become a town, a small city, and perhaps even eventually grow into a vast, sprawling metropolis.
Of course, Zong Shen's future might not be limited to just one territory.
Everything was full of possibilities.
This wave of construction consumed quite a few resources.
The resource reserves in the territory had been significantly depleted.
Zong Shen returned to the small courtyard, opened the storage box, and took a look.
[Wood x 171]
[Stone x 87]
[Iron x 83]
[Hemp x 18]
[Mithril x 30]
[Primary Elemental Crystal x 14]
Hemp was already starting to run short.
Basic infrastructure required a massive amount of resources and time.
Even for a wealthy person like Zong Shen, his inventory was much emptier after this wave of construction.
Not to mention other lords.
They were probably having to calculate carefully just to build a Tier 1 structure.
How could they possibly start building a whole bunch of structures at once like Zong Shen?
Zong Shen went to fill a small bucket with Moon Spring Water.
He went to the [Market] and withdrew the other listing that was trading for elemental crystals.
Then, he began to browse the [Market].
After more than half a day of development, the items listed by the lords had become much richer in both variety and quality.
Clearly, many more people had obtained blueprints for the [Market].
Market trade only becomes sufficiently developed when enough people participate.
Zong Shen began to try and search for some valuable items in the [Market]!