Chapter 35: Chapter 17: Eating and Drinking
A few days later, inside the Lord’s Mansion within the World Tree, Lin Yu lay on a rocking chair. As he rocked, he surveyed his territory through his lord’s core, searching for suitable locations to place resource buildings.
Beside him, Chenxi sat on a stool, peeling the seeds of a Wind Chime Fruit and feeding them to Lin Yu one by one.
"Delicious!" Lin Yu exclaimed after eating a Wind Chime Fruit seed, unable to help but praise the exquisite flavor. Perhaps it was because the territory was so rich in Spiritual Qi that all its fruits tasted exceptionally good.
Lin Yu took another sip of fruit juice, smacked his lips, and asked, "Chenxi, how is the research on the Technology Tree coming along?"
"My Lord, the research on ’Biological Architecture’ will be completed today."
"That fast? Didn’t you say it would take another two days?"
"The Wisdom Library has been upgraded to level 5. Plus, in the last few days, another 200 elves have emerged from their fruit, and I’ve selected the 30 most intelligent among them to join the Research Institute."
"Right now, the Research Institute has a total of 100 elves and 20 fairies as researchers, and 260 members of various races as research assistants."
"They’re divided into 3 groups. Each group has 40 researchers and 65 research assistants."
Chenxi answered, her hands continuing to peel Wind Chime Fruits without pause.
As the Director of the Wisdom Library, she was now in charge of all research work in the territory, currently focused on researching the projects on the Technology Tree that had been unlocked and were available for study.
"Aside from the one researching architecture, how is the work of the other two groups going?"
"The second research group has already organized the relevant data. By tomorrow, they should be able to complete the establishment of an Urban Construction Planning Bureau that will be recognized by the system."
"The third group has been promoting the Faraday Cage recently, teaching the Jungle Guards who need to undergo Celestial Tribulation how to build them. After testing it through several Celestial Tribulations, we’ve found that a Faraday Cage can only be used once during the tribulation. It fails on the second attempt, regardless of the material used to build it."
"However, this has greatly increased the success rate of the tribulation. So far, 10 members have successfully passed their Celestial Tribulation. All of them acquired the [Yao] talent and their grade increased by one level. Two more members are preparing to undergo their tribulation today."
"Not bad!" Lin Yu praised generously. "Oh, right, if any of the Yao want to pursue a research path, you can recruit them into the Research Institute. Have them take charge of researching Yao-related technologies."
"I know, my Lord! Hurry and eat. These Wind Chime Fruits aren’t as good if you let them sit out for too long." As she spoke, Chenxi fed a peeled Wind Chime Fruit seed to Lin Yu.
"I can’t, I can’t. You eat it. I’m really stuffed."
Lin Yu rubbed his bulging belly. Ever since he had allowed Chenxi to freely enter and leave the Lord’s Mansion, he had suddenly started to gain weight.
"Sigh. Come on, let’s head to the library again today."
After noticing he was gaining weight, Lin Yu started heading to the library whenever he had free time.
The Technology Tree had a rather quirky rule: aside from the standard technology tree, if you wanted to research other technologies, you either had to discover them yourself or find the relevant knowledge in ancient tomes within the library.
Once a research project was entered into the Technology Tree, it would receive a certain research bonus.
You only needed to see if the research progress bar was increasing to know whether the current research direction was right or wrong, which was extremely useful.
Furthermore, upon completion of the research, the relevant findings would be directly instilled into the minds of personnel who needed that knowledge.
However, just because the mind knew something didn’t mean the body could keep up. This was also why the third research group was helping guide the Jungle Guards in building the Faraday Cages.
After all, the ones needing to undergo tribulation were beasts. Even if they had all become heroes, they were still limited by their bodies. Some races were simply not well-suited for manufacturing—snakes, for example.
But the Faraday Cage had to be built by their own hands to prevent the Celestial Tribulation from escalating in power, so they had no choice but to learn.
Things would only be this busy at the beginning, though. Once they had enough experience and a sufficient number of case studies, they could just follow the template. In the future, when there were more Yao, they would naturally teach the younger generation how to build Faraday Cages.
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「The next day.」
When Lin Yu emerged from his bedroom, Chenxi was already waiting in the main hall of the Lord’s Mansion.
Seeing Lin Yu walk out of his room, she skillfully took out congee, an egg, and fried dough sticks from the insulated food container beside her.
These items were made from plants found in the territory that were similar to rice and wheat. Although he didn’t know their real names, Lin Yu just called them rice and wheat.
The egg was an unfertilized one contributed by the territory’s birds.
Occasionally, breakfast would include steamed buns. The meat for them was purchased by Lin Yu from other lords using points; 0.8 points could be exchanged for 1,000 units of meat, with one unit being a cubic measure.
So far, Lin Yu had spent over 3,000 points on purchasing meat alone.
But because there were many carnivores in the territory, this meat was only enough for them to supplement their nutrition and improve their diet.
At the very least, it put an end to the vegetarian lifestyle the territory’s carnivores had been living. After all, once all the wild beasts became members of the territory, they could no longer hunt for prey.
When Lin Yu discovered that the carnivores in his territory had been eating a vegetarian diet for a full eight years, he was so moved that he immediately bought a large batch of meat and let them feast for a whole day. After that, he supplied them with meat every few days. (I don’t know if carnivores will die from not eating meat, so let’s just assume they only get malnourished. Yep, under the protection of the World Tree.)
"My Lord, please have your meal."
Looking at the beautiful woman by the table, a ripple went through Lin Yu’s heart. He pulled over a chair and gestured to it. "Come, sit and eat with me. I can’t finish all this by myself anyway."
"But, my Lord, this breakfast was prepared for you. I can’t..." Chenxi waved her hands in refusal.
"No. If you don’t sit down and eat with me today, I won’t let you bring me meals anymore." Saying this, Lin Yu turned his head to the side.
In order not to lose this one-of-a-kind privilege in the entire territory, Chenxi had no choice but to yield.
"Very well, my Lord." She obediently sat down, scooting her chair a little closer to Lin Yu.
"That’s more like it. You make so much for me every day, and I can never finish it. What a waste it would be!" Lin Yu said as he ladled a bowl of congee and handed it to Chenxi.
"It’s delicious!" Chenxi took a small sip and was immediately struck by the flavor. Compared to the various fruits she ate every day, this taste was even more delightful.
The rice and wheat were nourished by the natural energy in the territory, so their flavor was already excellent. Coupled with the cooking steps Lin Yu had provided, the resulting food was incredibly delicious.
"If you like it, eat more. Come, come, there are also fried dough sticks and the egg." Lin Yu picked up the food on the table and passed it to Chenxi piece by piece. Chenxi accepted everything offered, starting to eat in small, delicate bites.
She looked very elegant as she ate, but the food disappeared at an extremely fast rate. In no time, she had cleared all the food from the table.
"Ah—"
"My Lord, I’m sorry! I accidentally ate all of your breakfast, leaving you with only some congee." Seeing the empty plates, Chenxi’s face flushed slightly. She apologized profusely, about to offer to go make another serving.
"It’s fine. It’s better that you ate it. This congee is so rich in nutrients and energy that I’m already full just from this one bowl."
"Sigh, it looks like I need to find a suitable Cultivation Technique or a class-change item soon. Otherwise, I won’t even be able to enjoy a few bites of this delicious food," Lin Yu said helplessly, scratching his head.
"Let’s go. We’ll head over to the Wisdom Library and have a look."
