Chapter 184 - 165: Robber

Thinking of his silly younger brother, Qin Ziwen couldn’t help but sigh. "For those of us still living, just having people with us is a blessing."

He chatted with Luo Gang for a while longer, and after leaving, Qin Ziwen returned to his residence.

Seeing that his lord had a free moment, Jia Liangcai came forward to report on the state of affairs.

After hearing Jia Liangcai’s report, Qin Ziwen had a general idea of the situation.

First, on the guild front, Zhao Pu’s tailor shop had officially opened. He had hired a designer who previously ran a small studio.

Second, the guild’s plan to popularize farming had run into a setback, the core reason being a lack of fertile soil and water.

The sandy soil of the Gobi Desert lacked nutrients, suffered from erosion, and was unsuitable for growing most crops.

Next, the number of ordinary guild members had surpassed twenty households, most of them residents from Building Eight. They had also formed a gathering team composed mainly of ordinary residents; it was a sizable group, with a full fifteen people.

The gathering team’s mission was to collect usable resources nearby and draw a detailed map.

In addition, every household had relatives participating in the work of the Lord’s Home: the Leather Armor Workshop, the Bow and Arrow Workshop, the iron mine, the stone quarry, the coal mine...

Finally, Jia Liangcai had discovered that people in the Gated Community were collecting vehicle frames, parts, and other items from the underground garage. He had sent Qin Ziwu with a team to join in the collection.

After finishing his report, Jia Liangcai waited quietly by his side.

Qin Ziwen nodded slowly. He had given Jia Liangcai some authority, but he hadn’t expected him to be so efficient. He could even order that silly kid Qin Ziwu around.

’This steward... he’s the real deal.’

Qin Ziwen said, "Liangcai, you certainly live up to your name. My very own ’good talent.’ You’re extremely capable. If I had a few more competent people like you, I could put my feet up and retire."

Jia Liangcai’s expression turned serious. He immediately took half a step back and bowed deeply, his clasped hands nearly touching the ground. "My Lord, you praise me too highly. I am unworthy."

He straightened up, his gaze lowered, his voice as deep as still water. "All directives originate from my Lord’s strategies. I am merely following the path you have laid. It is only because my Lord has placed his trust in me and granted me the authority to act on my own discretion that I am able to command the others."

At this, Jia Liangcai raised his eyes slightly, his pace slowing. "Besides, all our enterprises are just beginning to flourish. This is precisely when we need our Lord to steer the ship. How can you consider slackening off?"

Qin Ziwen laughed at his words. "’All our enterprises are just beginning to flourish,’ ’steer the ship’... you make it sound like we’ve built some grand undertaking. Alright, you can go back to your work. I’ll go take a look around myself."

"Yes."

Qin Ziwen got up to inspect the Home’s industries.

Inside the Home, the busiest place by far was the Leather Armor Workshop, followed by the coal mine.

The Gobi Desert has a huge temperature difference between day and night, so the high-quality, naturally pure coal from the mine had many uses.

Whether for smelting, heating, or simply for fires, it was extremely useful.

The greatest advantage of a resource point is that it’s renewable.

Just as a spring can endlessly produce water, the resources extracted from a resource point can also slowly regenerate on their own.

The higher the Level, the faster the recovery speed.

That’s why Qin Ziwen had been constantly using the Healing Spring. After all, it would be a waste if the water filled up completely.

Currently, the Healing Spring’s output rate wasn’t slow, producing about fifty to sixty liters per day.

Next was the Blacksmith Shop, where Du Yu was working with fiery enthusiasm. Under Li Tieshan’s guidance, Du Yu was hammering an iron disk, preparing to forge it into the shape of a spearhead.

Since acquiring the Furnace Fortress, the efficiency of iron ore purification, while not exactly skyrocketing, was at least dozens of times faster than before.

Qin Ziwen walked closer. "How’s it going?"

Li Tieshan praised him repeatedly. "Brother Du possesses Divine Power and has a real talent for smithing! If he’s willing to dedicate himself to it, he could become a master craftsman one day."

"He probably won’t get the chance to be a master craftsman, but you have a shot, Tieshan. I have high hopes for you."

Finally, he arrived at the tavern.

He sat quietly in the tavern for a while. Whether or not this place could attract customers was purely a matter of fate. He would sometimes come here for a bit in the evenings, but most of the time it was just a waste. Over time, he’d lost the desire to come.

Aside from stopping by here during his breaks, he spent most of his rest time at the Celestial Star Arrow Gallery. He had now mastered the Two-Star Linked Bead technique.

After making a few practice motions, Qin Ziwen’s hands started to itch. He felt the urge to go shoot some arrows.

But looking at the always-empty tavern, he felt it was a bit of a waste.

’Now that Luo Gang’s Traveler’s Tea House exists,’ he thought, ’there’s a way to spend the currency earned from tavern trades.’

’Maybe I should hire a full-time Shopkeeper to be stationed at the tavern.’

’Otherwise, with one of the tavern’s waiters out killing dinosaurs every day and the other, a chef, running off to be a steward instead of cooking, they’re completely neglecting their duties.’

As he was thinking, the door curtain was pushed aside.

A man carrying a shoulder pole walked in. Two baskets hung from either side of the pole, covered with white cloth. From the outline, he could roughly tell they were filled with fruit.

"It’s boiling hot! Got any boiled water?" The man grabbed the towel on his shoulder, wiped the sweat from his face, and sized up his surroundings.

"Yes. What else would you like?" Qin Ziwen asked from behind the counter.

"Let me think... Shopkeeper, go get the water first. I’m dying of thirst." A sharp glint flashed in the man’s eyes.

As Qin Ziwen walked into the back kitchen, the man stood up. Pretending to wander around the tavern and look around, he asked, "Shopkeeper, is it usually just you here? Can you manage on your own?"

Qin Ziwen came out carrying a pot of cooled boiled water. "Business is very slow. I don’t usually have customers, so one person is enough."

"Oh." After speaking, a murderous glint flashed in the man’s eyes.

He suddenly whipped a short dagger out from behind his back and lunged forward, stabbing at Qin Ziwen’s chest.

Qin Ziwen was already prepared. Ever since the man had walked in, his eyes had been shifting restlessly, and some of his small movements seemed a little too deliberate.

Taking half a step back, he dodged the dagger and countered with a flying kick.

The man was sent flying by the kick, crashing into and overturning a bench.

"My bench!"

Qin Ziwen put down the bowl, snatched up the nearest long bench as if it were a wooden plank,

and brought it crashing down on the man’s head.

"You—"

He didn’t give him a chance to argue.

The long bench came down hard. Once, twice, until the man’s body convulsed and then went still.

Putting down the bench, Qin Ziwen dusted off his hands. As long as he wasn’t facing someone like Du Yu, whose physical fitness and skills were exceptionally high, his own Full Stars physique meant he was basically fearless in a one-on-one fight.

They say remote and impoverished places produce unruly people. This was the first time Qin Ziwen had ever encountered a robber.

The man had probably heard he was running the tavern alone and gotten ideas.

Qin Ziwen went forward to search the body. He found a small cloth pouch in the man’s clothes. Emptying it out, he found two small pieces of silver and over twenty Copper Coins. All the coins were glowing with a faint yellow light.

He recalled that the copper coins he had found in Jia Liangcai’s book-box during their first meeting hadn’t glowed. Qin Ziwen speculated it was probably because this man had harbored malicious intent.

As for what to do with the body... Qin Ziwen picked him up and tossed him out past the curtain!

When he lifted the curtain again, his Home was completely empty.

The man had already returned to his own world.

He then looked at the shoulder pole the man had been carrying. Inside one of the baskets was a large gourd.

Picking up the gourd, he gave it a shake. It seemed to contain some kind of dry substance.

He poured it out and found a yellowish-brown powder mixed with some impurities, looking as if it had been ground from some kind of plant.

"This is a Soporific Drug." Du Yu recognized the yellowish-brown powder after he returned.

Qin Ziwen fanned it with his hand and took a light sniff. The Soporific Drug had a faint, earthy smell and the bitter scent of herbs. A normal person would definitely notice it. No wonder it had to be mixed into wine.

Du Yu advised, "My Lord, you should still be a little more careful when you’re alone. Taverns like this are usually found in remote areas, rarely on main roads. The people who come here are either local villagers or passing brigands and travelers.

"Even the villagers aren’t necessarily good-natured. Many of them work the fields during the busy farming season and take to the mountains when they’re idle. They usually don’t bother locals, only robbing outsiders who are passing through—people like you, my Lord, with an out-of-town accent. In comparison, the people from the Gated Community seem much kinder."

...

...