Chapter 214 - 137: The Timid Eye Demon
In the days that followed, Lin Kong would head to the isolation lab and the Natural Essence Manufacturing Plant after each invasion to check the research progress on the Eye Demons.
Everything else in the territory was also proceeding smoothly.
Since the main task this month was to defend against the Eye Demon invasions, the plant people were the busiest.
They had to fend off the attacks of the Eye Demons’ soldiers every day. On the bright side, this process caused the defensive flora to spawn quite a few new plant people.
Guiding the newborn plant people, teaching them the basics, and helping them integrate into the territory became the new work for many of the veteran plant people.
After each day’s invasion, one could always find sapient, humanoid plant people in the plaza by the World Tree, leading their newborn brethren to gaze in awe at its majesty.
While the plant people were busy, the territory’s other soldiers and heroes seemed quite idle in comparison.
Each day, the soldiers and heroes with time on their hands would head to either the Eternal Battlefield or the Cosmic Arena. There, they could unleash their full potential against various opponents, honing their combat skills and gaining experience while also earning points for the territory.
The other residents of the territory were all busy with their own tasks.
The Dwarf population had grown quite large. Every day, they forged the Spiritual Weapons the territory required in their individual Blacksmith Shops. The Urban Planning Bureau had even constructed an entire smithing district around the Dwarf Fortress, providing each Master Blacksmith with their own personal shop.
When the workday was done, they would gather at the tavern to drink heartily.
The Landscape Planning Bureau spent its days repairing the defensive lines. They also incorporated newly developed hybrid defensive plants into the new fortifications, which both enhanced the diversity of their defenses and allowed them to test the new plants’ effectiveness.
The Urban Planning Bureau managed the daily construction of new buildings, upgrades to old ones, and adjustments to the territory’s overall plan.
At the research institute, with the exception of Lin Haoyue who was studying the Eye Demon’s abilities in the isolation lab, everyone else was methodically carrying out their scheduled R&D. Their work included adapting the various technologies acquired from Glacier World.
Lin Yu had decided to pursue the path of Rune Technology, as it was better suited to the territory’s current state of universal cultivation.
The territory had already unlocked basic Rune Technology. With the Technology Tree, it was as if the entire tech path was already laid out before him; all he had to do was slowly conduct R&D to unlock new projects one by one.
The only drawback was that this path differed from the technology of Glacier World, and with no real-world examples to reference, all rune-related tech had to be developed from scratch.
This was unlike the Imperial technology path chosen by most lords. They could rapidly advance their technology based on their existing knowledge even before their Technology Tree was available. Moreover, once they reached the third stage and unlocked the Technology Tree, they would receive a research acceleration buff that lasted until their technology surpassed that of the Empire.
Fortunately, the points shop stocked a vast number of basic and elementary runes, precisely because they were low-level.
To save time, Lin Yu spent most of the competition points he had earned to buy out the points shop’s entire stock of rune schematics, purchasing one copy of each.
Having these schematics on hand would save time when researching the corresponding Rune Technologies.
Furthermore, when adapting technology from Glacier World, they could selectively research specific runes to substitute for the techniques originally used, bypassing the need to unlock prerequisite runes first.
The institute’s current priority for adaptation was factories. With a large population and high demand for goods, the territory urgently needed a large supply of daily necessities.
Relying purely on the populace to craft goods by hand was far too inefficient. Lin Yu planned to get assembly lines operational as soon as possible, allowing his people to first manufacture enough goods for their own use and raise everyone’s quality of life.
...
Through everyone’s combined efforts, the entire territory was developing slowly but steadily.
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In the blink of an eye, half of October had passed.
On this day, Lin Yu had immersed his consciousness in the territory’s core, learning Druid knowledge through the World Tree.
This was a recent discovery of his. Learning Druid knowledge through the World Tree was like having a cheat enabled; his rate of comprehension was astonishing.
The only issue was that after withdrawing from the territory’s core, he needed a moment to adjust. Otherwise, it was like installing the latest software on an ancient computer—all sorts of crashes and lag would ensue.
And Lin Yu was that ancient computer, while the World Tree was a state-of-the-art optical supercomputer.
"My Lord, My Lord!!!"
Lin Chenxi’s voice pulled Lin Yu from his immersion in the territory’s core.
"Chenxi, what is it?"
"My Lord, something’s happened at the Natural Essence Manufacturing Plant."
"The Eye Demons are finally making a move?"
"Yes! They..."
"Let’s go. Tell me on the way."
With a wave of Lin Yu’s hand, his clone, Lin Kong, appeared at his side. Lin Chenxi was currently the only person in the territory who knew that Lin Kong was his clone.
Of course, it wasn’t as if Lin Yu had told her on purpose. One time, still groggy after waking up, he had absentmindedly summoned his clone right as Lin Chenxi happened to walk in with his breakfast.
Thus, Lin Chenxi became the sole person in the territory privy to this secret.
She had guarded the secret well, never breathing a word of it to anyone else.
Lin Kong and Lin Chenxi exited the Lord’s Mansion, came to the base of the World Tree, and walked toward a dedicated Heaven-Reaching Vine off to the side.
"My Lord..."
"Whoa, whoa. How many times have I told you? Don’t call me that when we’re outside. Just call me Lin Kong. If you can’t remember, this clone of mine might not walk with you next time."