"Cultivate!"
Yi Tian didn't hesitate to open the auction house and spent 1,000,000 Celestial Dao Coins to buy 10,000 Gold.
Time equals life. Yi Tian thought his talent was special, but where's the time to waste a whole month learning? Even if he mastered it, squeezing out two hours a day for body refining would be a stretch.
At the same time, Yi Tian realized how important Gold really was. In the future, if he wants to quickly learn Spiritual Power Techniques, it'll have to be Gold.
Don't be fooled by Platinum being more valuable than Gold; when it comes to practical usage, Gold beats it by far.
At that moment, Yi Tian's underground vault had 1.08 million Gold.
Yi Tian wasn't satisfied—he started thinking about stockpiling even more Gold.
Almost every Lord is hoarding Celestial Dao Coins, and boosting attributes.
The High-level Races are also desperate for Celestial Dao Coins, trying to develop their territories.
But Yi Tian doesn't need to boost attributes; War Manor is already his max possible control.
Celestial Dao Coin balance: 41,100,000.
Yi Tian encouraged the Fire Dragon again, then hurried back to the manor, ready to try out Celestial Human Body Refining Skill.
One hand on the ground, both arms reaching up, Flying Dragon in the sky, Fierce Tiger leaps out of its den, Monkey fishing for the moon...
Thirty-six moves, Yi Tian flowed through them smooth as water, finishing in just two minutes.
Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi swirled restlessly and washed Yi Tian's body for three seconds.
Yi Tian felt stronger, but something was off.
He checked his stats—absolutely no change!
Keep going!
Once, twice, three times... thirty times.
After thirty whole rounds, Yi Tian finally noticed his physical constitution increased by one.
Yi Tian's constitution was now 209.
"From now on, get up an hour earlier every morning to train body technique—time is like water in a sponge, squeeze it and there's always some left." Yi Tian knew that progress was what really mattered.
Yi Tian used to sleep at midnight, get up at 7AM.
From now on, he'd have to change to getting up at 6.
Brutal!
From afternoon to evening, Yi Tian spent his time crafting Hundred Power Divine Crossbows, with three Kiddos helping sort materials, speeding things up just a bit.
Once 6000 Hundred Power Divine Crossbows are finished, he'll sell them all at the end of the month.
Yi Tian saw the Divine Crossbow going for around 18,000 in the auction house, not matching the price he'd expected.
Whoever holds the Hundred Power Divine Crossbow Crystal, for sure it's not just Yi Tian. But their finances are limited. They can only craft one, sell one—once it's sold, slowly snowball again.
When the end-of-the-month crisis looms, everyone's gonna spend their Celestial Dao Coins like mad; Hundred Power Divine Crossbow should see a small price hike, and that's the perfect time for Yi Tian to dump his stock.
"Yi Tian bro, how you feeling today?" At 11pm, Pigman Race Pig Boar called out to Yi Tian in the zone chat.
"Feel great today, pretty chill mood too." Earth Human Race Yi Tian.
Yi Tian just scored Body Refining Skill; honestly, the mood was good.
"Aaahh~ Yi Tian bro, didn't Sam hit you with a Cursed Crystal? Didn't you get wrecked?" Sheep-headed Yang Yangyang.
"Nope! Justice can never be beaten by evil!" Earth Human Race Yi Tian.
"Justice always wins!" Black Stone Star Human Race Shan Dashan.
"Impossible, you have to be dying now, right?" Blue Skin Race Sam sent rage messages, bloodshot eyes.
Been up for two days straight—why isn't Yi Tian dead yet?
"LMAO, kid, don't tell me you haven't slept since yesterday, waiting for my ID to disappear? Kid, I'm about to drop; just wait one more night!" Earth Human Race Yi Tian.
Yi Tian wasn't talking nonsense—knowing Sam's petty, vengeful character, he probably really was doing it.
"Damn! I refuse to believe you'll last through the night." Blue Skin Race Sam was furious.
"What's everyone's stats now? I'm only at fifty across the board, is that normal?" The flame war ended, chat switched topics, Celestial Horse Star Race Ma Rulong.
"Pretty standard. Anyone still alive's opened Silver Chests, Bronze Chests, fought beasts, left some for territory growth. Even if you started at ten on average, now you'd have fifty." Celestial Gift Race Skage.
"Getting to fifty is easy, just need about 100,000 Celestial Dao Coins—almost everyone can do it. Problem is, getting stats from fifty to a hundred takes 1.5 million Celestial Dao Coins! At least ten Silver Treasure Chests, and if you're unlucky, twenty. Dude, just thinking about it makes my shell go numb." Turtle Race's Gui Jie.
"Don't just think about opening treasure chests, guys. Grow veggies, grains, raise livestock, mine. Prices look cheap now, but they'll go up eventually. Also, whoever gets a Technology Crystal can make all sorts of useful things. Even basic stuff like toothbrushes, towels, paper, pens, quilts, pillows or kitchen tools. Some got Furniture Crystals or Cloth Manufacturing Machines, good for big bucks. Most of my wealth came from flipping Technology Crystals. Just watch market prices, time your buys and sells, and adjust. That's all I'll say—cherish your chances!" Earthling Yi Tian.
Some zone members found Yi Tian annoying, but he genuinely enjoyed reading chat in the channel. It was his one bit of fun before bed.
He didn't want everyone to die in zone 66 before the year was up.
"Big bro's advice—enlightenment! I have a shampoo Technology Crystal I used to hate, but now it feels loaded with business potential."
"Yi Tian bro is definitely our zone's number one! I still remember the shock when he moved into a luxury villa in less than half a month."
"Small profits add up, our little businesses will boom eventually."
"Sounds like my mirror can actually sell, after all."
Tons of people started chiming in.
Honestly, Yi Tian was being general—the rest is down to your own hustle. Lots of people sell daily necessities on the auction house.
Day twenty-two, twenty-three, and twenty-four, the entire Celestial Dao World was super chill.
Yi Tian worked non-stop for three days, max effort crafting Hundred Power Divine Crossbows. At one point, he was making a thousand per day.
Spring Beast was in the 53rd zone now.
Yep, Spring Beast circled way out, seeming like it might loop back to zone 66.
Guess it still sensed Yi Tian is loaded.
Sam didn't want to see that ID still alive; it got him depressed. He's finally had to admit—Yi Tian wasn't affected by the Cursed Crystal.
Could Yi Tian's Spiritual Power be over 200?
No way, right?
Time hit day twenty-five, and after practicing Celestial Human Body Refining Skill, Yi Tian's agility finally went up.
The last four days, Yi Tian's strength increased by two, constitution by one, and now today's agility.
Yi Tian's current stats: Strength 214, Constitution 210, Agility 212.
"Hehe, Daddy, watch me land!"
Fourth Child shook a gourd, super excited.
She already told Yi Tian yesterday that today was her big landing day. After training an hour in martial arts, Yi Tian walked over to the gourd vine.
On the gourd vine, Fourth Child's personality was already set—she was absolutely a little mischief-maker.
Bam!
The gourd dropped.
Just like when Big Child and Second Child landed, first came a burst of blinding green light; then all the divine energy in the gourd was sucked away and it turned to ash.
Name: Yi Lu'Er.
Race: Gourd Spirit Race.
Strength: 100.
Constitution: 150.
Agility: 150.
Spiritual Power: 200.
Spiritual Power Value: 200.
Talent One: Innate Fire Body, Divine Talent. Can spit flame from the mouth, absorb any type of flame. Also can spit Origin Seven-Color True Flame, dealing triple Spiritual Power damage. Origin Seven-Color True Flame needs three hours to recharge after use.
Talent Two: Divine Thunder, Divine Talent. Activated Divine Thunder can attack with divine lightning. Divine Thunder attacks use up huge energy; each hit costs 30% of Spiritual Power and does triple damage, with lightning speed three times Spiritual Power.
Skill: None.
"Detected a god-tier potential in the territory. Territory Points +10,000, current total (132,100/200,000)"
"Spring Beast, the later you come, the harder you'll die!"
Damn, Fourth Child's impressive.
Compared to the first talent, Origin Seven-Color True Flame, the second talent, Divine Thunder, looks less spammable but is just as powerful. Except the second talent is super fast—can't dodge at all. Unless you've got defense gear or defense talents, you have to take it head-on.
Although Fourth Child's Spiritual Power is way less than the Warrior's, in terms of actual combat power she's miles ahead.
Different from Second Child, Fourth Child has decent defense and speed, but her initial Spiritual Power Value is much lower.
No stress though—her Spiritual Power'll catch up soon enough. Attack-type Calabash Sisters like her just keep getting stronger.
"Daddy! Hehe!"
Smooth as a pebble, Fourth Child flashed and jumped into Yi Tian's arms, climbing right up onto his neck.
"Good girl, Fourth Child!"
Yi Tian teased Fourth Child, making her giggle like silver bells.
Up next, Fourth Child's got a tough task: eat 15 spirit fruits, all types, for full enhancement.
"Lord, after this morning, the little creek running from Lake Two to Lake One should be finished."
The Fire Dragon, who had already taken Vermilion Fruit, reported to Yi Tian.
Right now, the channel from Lake Two through the manor and out, everything was done.
After leaving the manor, the northward stream into the lakes was already set up.
"Good! When the creek is done, send the crew to clear the 3000 acres outside the manor."
Yi Tian assigned Fire Dragon the task.
No plow machines—just manpower for plowing.
But with strength and speed over 100, plus dozens of advanced plows, they're actually faster than plow machines.
An ox's strength isn't even close to these D-level prisoners.
"Lord, the prisoners have had less than five hours' rest a day lately. Complaints are everywhere. If you push them harder, it'll get tougher to control later on." Fire Dragon tactfully advised Yi Tian.
"There is no later. The harder I push them, the easier they are to sell. Month's end is almost here, and I don't want them left in the territory." Yi Tian told Fire Dragon to ignore the protests, just squeeze them harder.
Once they finish planting the crops, Yi Tian'll sell them off for Celestial Dao Coins.
"Roger!" Fire Dragon dropped any argument after hearing Yi Tian's plan.
"Reporting, Lord, White Tiger's been acting weird lately, always trying to ambush me. Thanks to the Vermilion Fruit boosts, I barely dodged each time. I suspect White Tiger got bitten by a stray dog and has intermittent rabies." Fire Dragon brought up something important to Yi Tian.
"Oh? Really? I'll keep an eye out." Yi Tian frowned. Wasn't White Tiger behaving last night, letting three Little Kiddos ride it, jumping all over the place? Why's it flipping out?
Yi Tian knew Fire Dragon wouldn't make stuff up, so it must be real.
Yi Tian's well aware mammal bitten by stray dogs can get rabies easily—he'd seen it on Earth; rabid cows are pure chaos, total berserk mode, nothing can stop them.
After Fire Dragon left, Yi Tian saw Little White running out of the villa hall.
Right behind Little White jumped out a Fire-breathing Sister, blowing tiny flames from her mouth, scaring Little White's fur straight up.
When Little White saw Yi Tian, it ran over like Yi Tian was salvation, rubbing up against his pants leg.
Big innocent eyes looked up at Yi Tian, face full of grievance.
The three Kiddos had already driven it crazy, and now there's a Fire-breathing Sister? She almost torched its beautiful tail.