Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 235: Five Acres of Vegetable Garden

Once all that was done, Li Wei checked the sky — no rain in the near future. Fine. He grabbed buckets and hauled water from the well beside Farmland No. 5 to irrigate the fields.

The efficiency was modest, but he had more than enough Stamina — he turned the well crank until it was practically smoking.

He spent the next two full days on this task, not stopping until all five wheat plots had been watered.

The farming experience he earned wasn't much — hoeing, loosening soil, and watering less than five acres combined came to about 300 Farming Experience. Adding what he'd had before, the total was only 1,800.

Still a long way from the 10,000 needed to reach Four-Star Farmer.

Fortunately, that wasn't a real concern. With enough people handling the camp's various tasks inside and out, there was no risk of anything going wrong. With no competition for the next few months, it was straightforward.

The natural humans had brought a lot of food when they evacuated the underground base, including various seeds — ordinary varieties: wheat, corn, rice, and all kinds of vegetables.

Planting staple crops at this point was too late, and there was no urgent need — the camp's stored food was enough to feed a hundred people for a year.

But planting vegetables and fruits was completely feasible.

Li Wei grabbed a shovel and headed to the central green park in the middle of town, picked a spot, and started digging. It was the apocalypse — who needed a park? Turn it all into farmland.In just three days, Li Wei dug out five standard acres of vegetable plots and planted them in sequence: napa cabbage, carrots, radishes, green cabbage, scallions, garlic, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, string beans, pumpkins — a whole range of vegetables.

Deeply satisfying.

However, because the camp's food supply was already very adequate, and there were more important tasks going undone, Li Wei only earned 25 Contribution points — and even received a warning. If he dared open up one more acre of vegetable garden, he'd have a chance to earn the special title of Liability to the Team.

Ha!

But in the process, he'd smoothly farmed 1,000 Farming Experience. Total was now 2,800.

Not bad at all — because the bulk of farming experience came at harvest time in autumn. If he could personally handle all the crop harvesting across every plot, he might earn 3,000 or more Farming Experience in one go.

——

4:30 AM. Li Wei woke from deep sleep.

A basin of wash water and a towel had already been set out beside him. Zhao Xuanxuan's doing — every day, rain or shine, she woke twenty minutes before Li Wei, then went charging off to work, full of drive and energy. Still the same little firecracker she'd always been.

She valued the opportunity Li Wei had given her.

Her first profession was Craftsman, second was Miner, third was Blacksmith. She'd thrown herself entirely into the craftsman system.

Because of that, assigning her to logging, patrol, farming, digging, foraging, hunting, or fishing would genuinely be wasting her. Only in ore extraction, construction, forging, and crafting could she get maximum returns.

In the Scavenger Camp, Zhao Xuanxuan was now fully in charge of the charcoal kiln, brick kiln, lime kiln, iron smelting furnace, blacksmith shop, and scrap iron recycling. She was on her feet all day, sleeping only four or five hours, spending the rest of her time working.

She moved like a gust of wind.

Li Wei genuinely hoped she'd seize the opportunity and push her Destiny Grid higher.

After washing up, Li Wei went downstairs. In the fourth-floor kitchen, five older women chefs worked in a row — one washing vegetables, one starting the fire, one kneading dough, one cooking porridge, one baking bread. All busy.

Thanks to the Two-Star wild mushrooms Liang Yuzhi had cultivated, combined with One-Star salted fish, they'd managed to produce a One-Star wild mushroom broth in under ten days. A budget version, but genuinely good — consuming it 120 times cumulatively would increase Spiritual Power by 0.1 points.

If they kept at it, the future was bright.

And the most significant advantage: these women weren't players. They wouldn't leave after six months, or three years. They'd stay in the territory permanently, becoming part of its overall strength.

That alone illustrated how important and advantageous having a pioneering territory truly was.

"Good morning, my Lord!"

The older women bowed respectfully. Li Wei had never asked them to do this — perhaps it came from genuine respect.

He nodded and continued downstairs.

The third floor was mostly empty — currently only Liang Yuzhi lived there. Zhao Xuanxuan and Li Yue both squeezed in beside Li Wei's bed.

Passing the second floor, the sound of snoring filled the air. The Freemen generally woke at six in the morning, while children were permitted to sleep until eight.

Of course, at the moment, there were almost no adult men among the Freemen here — they were all temporarily stationed at the underground base, handling dismantling, transport, logging, and quarrying.

Yes — ever since Liang Yuzhi joined the operation, things over there had clearly escalated into an arms race.

Three electric buses made three round trips per day, each carrying twenty tons of supplies.

The specialty cement, steel, and other materials had basically all been transported back by now, temporarily stored in the parking lot — a natural large-scale warehouse. As long as flooding was prevented, it was perfect for everything.

These past few days, the electric buses had begun transporting one-star and two-star quality timber.

Worth noting: at the underground base, there were currently fifteen Freemen — nine men and six women, all able-bodied workers. Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi, in their competition and race against time, had already arranged second professions for all fifteen of them.

According to Thomas, before month's end, all fifteen Freemen would reach Two-Star Profession level — meaning they'd accumulate 20 Free Attribute Points each.

In terms of base attributes, they'd be on par with the Leon who'd just completed his first settlement back in the Rookie Mission.

All of this was good news for Li Wei.

Because Freemen didn't settle out and didn't leave. Whoever secured this territory at the end would take everything.

"Cousin, you're up early!"

From a distance, Leon came jogging over, shouldering a twenty-kilogram training Two-Star Heavy Wooden Sword. He'd originally been assigned to Li Yue's work team, but Li Wei had kept him behind under the pretext of repairing the two-handed greatsword.

Over these past few days, Zhao Xuanxuan had forged three two-handed greatswords for Leon — all of which he'd rejected with a look of disdain.

Zhao Xuanxuan's Blacksmith Destiny Grid wasn't quite there yet. Even though she'd produced one-star blank two-handed greatswords.

In the end, Li Wei had stepped in and carved out a training Two-Star Heavy Wooden Sword for Leon — which Leon immediately treasured, even though it was also blank.

Every morning these past few days, Leon had come looking for Li Wei to spar.

Leon had been training hard lately. Perhaps the last battle had shaken him significantly.

"Cousin, shall we go a round?"

Li Wei played along with the ritual, unhooking his own heavy wooden sword. No need for a ready stance or a signal — Leon was already moving like a swift leopard, bringing his sword down in a powerful overhead strike.

Li Wei didn't use his +1 Perception to bully him. He played the role of training partner faithfully — responding to each move, moving in sync with Leon's rhythm.

Leon's Agility was only 21, but his Stamina was 300, Strength had been raised to 32, Defense to 14, Life to 190.

Li Wei's stats: Life 210, Stamina 300, Strength 28+1, Agility 30+1, Defense 14, Perception 1.

Over the past few days, he'd merged a Two-Star Stamina Card and a Two-Star Agility Card. The numbers were decent.

Leon wasn't far behind — he'd also used a Two-Star Strength Card.

But because Li Wei had Perception and Leon didn't, Leon was thoroughly outclassed.

Leon's three professions were Three-Star Mason, Three-Star Miner, and Three-Star Butcher. By his own account, his Mason Destiny Grid was the highest at 35, Miner at 24, Butcher at 18.

He'd been with the All-Heavens Lord Alliance for seven years — one cohort ahead of Li Wei, and considered mid-to-upper tier.

"Clang, clang, clang—"

The two heavy wooden swords clashed, separated, shifted. In a straight power contest, Li Wei was slightly at a disadvantage — even switching to the Bear Hunter title to push Strength to 29 didn't fully close the gap.

Combined with Leon's 300 Stamina and twenty-kilogram sword, the advantage would keep accumulating.

And Leon's standard two-handed sword technique was extremely solid — something Li Wei genuinely needed to learn from.

After dozens of exchanges, Li Wei's wrists started to give. He immediately stepped back, shifting to footwork and movement, no longer meeting force with force — redirecting and deflecting instead. And yet, even with Li Wei deliberately ignoring countless openings and refusing to press attacks, Leon was still forced to stop after just two or three more exchanges.

He couldn't lie to himself. This kind of training was useless.

"Cousin, I think maybe my heavy wooden sword is too heavy? Why does it always feel like you're using a fencing sword, even though you're dual-wielding heavy wooden swords? Or maybe I should change my fighting style? If I run into an enemy like you on the battlefield, all my skills are useless."

Was his confidence breaking?

Li Wei looked at Leon. Honestly, he couldn't offer much better advice — he was half-self-taught himself. And because of violation rules, there was a lot he couldn't say.

"Maybe you should find a genuine sword master to consult."

"But as far as I'm concerned — blindly chasing someone else's strengths is always foolish."

"And abandoning your own fighting style is the stupidest thing of all."

"Stop practicing sword for now. A Two-Star stone quarry was found near the underground base. Go quarry stone starting tomorrow. We need a bigger, sturdier wall — one that can take a direct hit from a stone giant."

"What about the night watch?"

"I'll handle it."

"That doesn't seem right — the bigger picture matters." Leon jolted, looking at Li Wei with some concern, almost reaching for his Two-Star Conspiracy Card to start scheming.

But Li Wei stopped him with a gesture. How many Two-Star Conspiracy Cards did this guy have, anyway?

"I know what you're worried about, Cousin. But I have my own plan. Trust me. Go."

Li Wei was completely calm.