A bountiful harvest was always exciting and delightful. Even though the Spark Tribe often had all sorts of surprises, when it came to harvesting vegetables they had planted themselves, they still felt extremely excited—a kind of joy different from other times.
For the first harvest, Jiao even organized a sacrificial ceremony to give thanks to the heavenly gods for their blessings.
The scene was especially lively, with everyone’s attention focused here.
Yang Yi gave special permission for everyone who could temporarily set aside their work to come and watch or help out, to experience the joy brought by a bountiful harvest.
For most of the Spark Tribe, it was their first time experiencing something like this. So food could actually be grown and raised by themselves? No need to venture into dangerous forests, no need to walk long distances. Right at their doorstep, they could pick food!
And not just a little, patch after patch of it. Without even moving much, they could pick so much!
Eat as much as you grow, with no worries about searching for half a day and still finding nothing edible.
“Hey, newcomers, if you touch chili peppers, don’t touch your eyes afterward. You’ll find it’s the most terrifying torture in the world.”
The newcomers also joined the picking team. Many were curious about the bright, appetizing chili peppers and went over to pick the pretty fruits.
“Ah, I feel my hands getting warm.”
“That’s the sensation of spiciness. Once you taste chili peppers later, you’ll definitely fall in love with that flavor.”
Many of the newcomers had heard of the special foods brought by the Divine Envoy. They were eagerly looking forward to knowing what the ‘spicy’ taste everyone talked about was like.
With many hands at work, the harvest activity was completed perfectly in just a short while.
All the ripe chili peppers ready for picking were harvested. Unexpectedly, this small half-acre of land yielded four to five thousand jin of chili peppers! This output was astonishing—three to four times, or even more, than the yield of such chili peppers on Earth.
The variety Yang Yi had chosen was the facing heaven pepper, known for its high yield and low spiciness, though its quality was relatively poor.
Here, they weren’t just high-yielding. The quality was also remarkably good, and the spiciness had increased significantly.
The yield of leafy vegetables was even more astonishing, several times greater than that on Earth. With so many people and such hearty appetites, harvesting just a small half-acre of vegetables was enough to meet everyone’s needs.
Moreover, according to Qing’s estimation, these vegetables and chili peppers could continue producing for several more rounds.
Now that these crops had matured, they didn’t require too many people to manage. To maintain the soil’s fertility, they only needed occasional fertilization.
Their vitality was exceptionally strong, quick to seize nutrients, making it difficult for weeds to survive in their territory. Their pest resistance also seemed quite good so far, greatly reducing the need for labor.
Yang Yi wondered whether this could also be considered an invasive species, which would explain such tenacious vitality—just like water hyacinths on Earth.
Whatever the reason, such quality was something consumers would be more than happy to see.
At dinner, the cooking team brought out all their skills, using limited resources to prepare these various vegetables in different ways.
Especially when using chili peppers, they were lavish and unrestrained—unlike before, when they treated the chili Yang Yi brought as if it needed to be measured down to the gram.
These were ones they had grown themselves. In the future, they could have plenty, plenty more! They could eat to their heart’s content!
As a result, from the moment the chopping of chili peppers began, the entire tribe was filled with that spicy aroma, making people sneeze repeatedly.
No one disliked the scent. Even newcomers who had never eaten chili peppers looked on with longing and anticipation.
When it came time for dinner, there was nothing but astonishment—astonishment and more astonishment.
“This flavor is just amazing! I want to grow chili peppers. I want to grow chili peppers!”
“Vegetables we grow taste better than the wild ones we pick. I don’t ever want to go picking again. I want to apply to work in planting!”
“From now on, we’ll all be able to eat vegetables we grew ourselves… Wuwuwu, this is truly wonderful.”
“……”
Everyone ate to their heart’s content, carrying hopes for the future. Indeed, these vegetables were genuinely delicious.
There’s a reason why wild plants that grow unchecked never make it onto the list of human-cultivated crops. Vegetables carefully bred by humans are generally more suited to human tastes. This was no exception here.
The seeds Yang Yi brought had all undergone mutations in this environment, and their flavors improved alongside their quality.
Compared to most wild vegetables, they had less bitterness and more refreshing sweetness.
“Everyone’s adapting to chili peppers really well.”
Yang Yi was impressed by this group’s iron stomachs. Despite eating them for the first time, they could still handle such a level of spiciness.
Perhaps they had been holding back too long. Knowing they’d have a continuous supply of chili peppers in the future, the cooking team added them in with reckless abandon. It was downright terrifying.
Yang Yi was the veteran, yet somehow ended up being the weakest, eating the same amount of spice as the children.
Though the children could also handle it, Yang Yi still felt that since they were still growing, it was better not to go too heavy on strong flavors. He wouldn’t stop them from eating it, but he didn’t want them getting the same scalp-numbing heat as the adults.
“Spiciness makes you sweat. It makes the body feel really comfortable.”
Hei Lie wanted to describe that feeling but didn’t quite know how.
Yang Yi understood anyway. “Because the foul air in the body is expelled, so you feel refreshed and clear-headed?”
“Yes, it even seems to take away drowsiness. Not to an exaggerated degree, but enough to make you feel different.”
This was probably one of the effects brought by mutation. Plus, since this was a humid region, eating some chili peppers was already beneficial to the body, and now their medicinal effect had become even more obvious.
“If chili peppers have this kind of effect, we should increase the planting area compared to before, by another…”
“Five times.”
Yang Yi stared wide-eyed. “That’s way too much. No matter how good chili peppers are, they can’t be eaten as a staple. After all, they’re still irritating to the system. We plant other vegetables not just for people, but also for poultry. This is something they can’t eat.”
“Even ten times wouldn’t be too much,” Hei Lie said with certainty. “Everyone who comes into contact with them will like them. They’ll be very popular for trade.”
“That’s true. Dried chili peppers can be stored for a long time, and their weight is greatly reduced.”
“Besides trade, I think they can be used for something else.”
Yang Yi looked at him, and Hei Lie didn’t keep him guessing before continuing.
“They can be made into weapons. This kind of stinging sensation, if shot into the eyes, can make prey or enemies instantly fall into pain, leaving them off guard, and then they can be killed in that moment. When facing a large-scale attack, they could be used for strong suppression.”
Yang Yi couldn’t help but clap for him. This was exactly the legendary chili water—an anti-riot weapon.
He himself, someone who had long known about such a thing, had completely forgotten this point and only thought of eating them.
Look at that awareness. It was a completely different mindset.
Just today, when cutting fresh chili peppers, someone had already fallen victim. The chili peppers Yang Yi had brought out before were all dried, so people hadn’t been as careful.
Luckily, Yang Yi had reminded them beforehand, so it wasn’t too serious. But it was still enough to make the person suffer for quite a while.
Chili water made from these chili peppers would definitely be powerful and effective.
“In that case, let’s just expand the planting area tenfold.”
This was a strategic resource, worth putting more labor into.
Chili peppers weren’t hard to grow. The land was easy to reclaim here, so it wouldn’t take much effort.
“No rush.” At this moment, Hei Lie, on the contrary, became calm.
“I was thinking. Didn’t you say that seeds change after coming here, mutating to better match this place’s environment? If we plant again using seeds that have already mutated, will the quality continue to change?”
Yang Yi pondered for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll have Qing pay attention to cultivation and observation. For this batch, we’ll continue using the seeds I brought to plant five mu first. Once the chili peppers are dried and we’ve selected new seeds, we’ll replant.”
“For now, let’s focus more of our planting efforts on staple crops. I can’t wait to see what they’ll look like when it’s harvest time.” Hei Lie’s eyes lit up, full of anticipation.
By now, most of the crops had grown very tall and healthy. They could already eat the tips of sweet potato sprouts. According to Qing, barring any accidents, they would have a major harvest in two months.
“I just don’t know if it’s still in time to replant now, especially wheat and rice.”
Many crops were seasonal. They were already gradually entering early summer, with temperatures rising.
They didn’t know how the climate changes here would affect planting.
“Didn’t you say some crops that have opposite growth habits can still coexist well here? Then maybe seasonal issues won’t be much of a problem in this place either.”
Hei Lie was quite optimistic about this.
“At worst, it’ll just waste a bit of effort. And if any problems come up after planting, Qing will report back in time. We can just switch to planting something else.”
Yang Yi stopped overthinking it and began replanning the land, expanding the cultivated area to four times its original size.
While planting was being expanded here, the quarrying team—which had grown several times larger than before—also began their work.
Armed with the quarrying tools Yang Yi had given them, they headed to the rocky mountain to mine stone.
These people knew stone very well; not long ago, they had still been using stone tools, so now, with iron tools for quarrying, they worked with even greater ease.
Although most of them were ordinary people, their efficiency was still very high. Every day, batches and batches of stone were transported back to the tribe in preparation for building houses.
The tung seeds they had collected earlier also started being put to use. The oil-pressing equipment had already been made. Tests showed that the oil yield was very good.
The tribe’s oil-pressing team was officially formed, though for now, it only had four members.
One person was in charge of grinding, one for steaming, one for wrapping the oil cakes, and one for pressing the oil.
Although all of them were beginners, after several test runs, they had basically mastered the technique.
In particular, the person in charge of wrapping the oil cakes had improved rapidly. His role was extremely critical. Once the steamed material was removed from the pot, any delay would greatly affect the oil yield.
Now, he had essentially trained his hands into iron palms. His speed in wrapping the oil cakes could be described as “shadowless hands”—fast, precise, and completely unafraid of the heat.
The pressed tung oil was already enough to meet the current needs for house construction. When they began pressing edible vegetable oil later, they could add more workers if necessary.
For building houses, aside from the natural cement that had to be transported from the pottery group, the rest of the clay was dug directly near the tribe.
The digging site was chosen after much consideration by Yang Yi. Since they were already digging pits—and given the current needs, they would need quite a lot of soil—it had to be put to full use.
When they dug ponds earlier, this point had also been fully taken into account.
Yang Yi had now outlined the general plan of the entire city, which would be able to accommodate the daily lives of about fifty thousand people.
The soil was to be dug right along the future city wall area, to a depth of around ten meters and a width of about ten to twenty meters, following the planned city wall’s path. In the future, these pits could serve as a moat.
For now, they would act as water reservoirs and lotus root ponds. The pits dug earlier were already covered in lush green lotus leaves.
After some more time, when lotus flowers bloomed, they would become another scenic sight of the tribe.
“This area’s general range has already been marked out. You can make appropriate adjustments according to actual conditions. But if your changes differ too much from the plan, you’ll need my approval before continuing.”
Yang Yi entrusted this task to Hong Guang, who was especially skilled at locating wells. Most of the wells in the tribe had been located by him, with shallower depths and larger water output than Yang Yi could achieve. He was much more professional.
To locate wells, Hong Guang had surveyed every part of the tribe’s land. Upon learning he would be responsible for digging and sourcing soil, he would often head to the outer edges whenever he had free time.
He could be said to know the underground conditions of the tribe better than anyone else. Not only could he locate wells, but he also had a deep understanding of the soil, even a kind of closeness to it.
The underground conditions of this land varied. Not all clay layers were located very deep; some were relatively shallow.
Hong Guang’s task was to find, as much as possible, a route where the clay layer was relatively shallow, to provide more clay for house construction.
“Divine Envoy, don’t worry. I will definitely do it well!”
Hong Guang was full of confidence. He dared to say that in the entire tribe, no one understood this land better than he did.
At first, he thought his gift was water-related, but later he realized he could actually understand the soil—or rather, the conditions beneath the ground.
The site selection for the tribe’s houses also had to be confirmed by him to know which locations were most suitable, especially for large buildings like the temple.
Hong Guang had never imagined he would be able to accomplish something so important. He had always thought of himself as just an ordinary person without any special abilities.
But now, he had become one of the most respected people in the tribe, admired just like the warriors. He had never dared to imagine a day like this.
All of this was thanks to the Divine Envoy’s guidance. Otherwise, he surely would have overlooked this talent, which didn’t seem very useful for finding food.
“Plan it so that you dig one large pit at a time, then connect them in the end.”
Before the moat was completed, these large pits couldn’t go to waste. They had to be used for planting or raising animals.
It was just a pity that they hadn’t found a suitable fish fry yet; otherwise, it would have been another source of food for the tribe.
Crocodiles, however, were far too dangerous. Given the way creatures mutated here, Yang Yi worried they might end up raising something like a prehistoric giant crocodile. That would be far too dangerous.
And raising them would also require finding a large amount of food for them, which wasn’t cost-effective.
Still, once the city walls and moat were built and dug out, raising crocodiles inside could be a good idea.
They could guard the place and also be eaten as meat—a win-win situation.
For now, they could consider raising some turtles. The meat was edible, and the shells could be used to make many things.
Thinking this in his heart, after giving some instructions to the pit-digging team, Yang Yi went to visit the livestock farm.
The livestock farm and the egg incubation site were separate, located even farther from the center of the tribe.
Originally, for the protection of these animals, they shouldn’t have been set so far away. But as the number of poultry grew larger and larger, to make them healthier and less prone to illness, they were all free-ranged. Since they roamed everywhere and were hard to manage, the farm had been relocated.
For this reason, Hei Lie had assigned a strong security team to guard the area, preventing nearby wild beasts from eyeing it.
“Divine Envoy, you came at just the right time! We’ve added a special dish today—pork. I heard pork is your favorite. These long-haired pigs may not be very big, but the meat is excellent, almost as good as bristleback pig meat. You’ll definitely like it.”
As soon as Yang Yi arrived, he was warmly greeted by Fei Cao, the person in charge of the livestock farm.
True to his name, “Fat Grass” was one of the rare plump people in the tribe.
Even so, he was only slightly chubby, the sturdy and healthy kind of chubby—clearly living a good life, with a face glowing from good meals.
It was worth noting that, despite his name, he hadn’t been fat before. He’d been so skinny he looked like a blade of grass.
“Where did the pork come from?”
Yang Yi remembered that the tribe hadn’t hunted any pigs recently.
“Yesterday they came to us on their own, hahaha. Delivering a whole load of meat for free. We were just about to have someone send it back to the tribe later. There’s too much for us to finish ourselves.”
Fei Cao proudly patted his belly.
Since the livestock farm was far from the tribe, they cooked their own meals there, only periodically collecting ingredients from the tribe.
Long ago, they had only taken vegetables and salt from the tribe, but Yang Yi hadn’t known about such trivial matters. He usually only cared about the animals’ numbers and weight.
“What happened?” Yang Yi asked curiously.
“Hahaha, those stupid pigs. Of all things to provoke, they went and provoked our Goose King. Isn’t that just begging for trouble?”
“Goose King?”
Fei Cao didn’t explain right away. Instead, he shouted over his shoulder, “Goose King, come, come, come. Your favorite tender greens are here!”
After a moment, a massive white figure came flying over and landed heavily right in front of Yang Yi. Looking closely, it was a goose.
This goose was much larger than an ordinary goose, with a proud and imposing demeanor—truly majestic.
When facing Fei Cao, it acted extremely arrogant, as if looking at its own servant. That little attitude was downright haughty.
Fei Cao didn’t dare neglect it and handed over the vegetables the tribe had just sent. A large head of greens was devoured in no time.
The way it ate was both fierce and graceful—a strange contradiction.
“Divine Envoy, this is Goose King. Its combat power is incredible. It can go up against a level-one warrior! And it’s still just a juvenile. When it’s fully grown, it’ll definitely be able to fight a level-two warrior! It was the one who led this whole group of geese to defeat those long-haired pigs.”
The goose seemed to understand Fei Cao’s words. It lifted its head high proudly and smugly, tilting its eyes toward Yang Yi with an expression of utter disdain.
Weakling. Hmph.
Yang Yi swore he heard those exact words.
This couldn’t even be described as shocking anymore. He had always known geese had formidable fighting power. Once one set its sights on you, you could only prepare to cry.
In some places, border guards even raised geese like police dogs, using them as a combat force. When they got aggressive, they were almost no different from fierce beasts.
Their beaks and wings were both extremely powerful.
One peck, two twists, three strikes—utterly formidable.
When Yang Yi was little, he’d been chased by geese before. It had been a “cry for your mom and dad” kind of experience.
This one was even bigger than the geese on Earth. When its strong wings flapped a few times, Yang Yi could feel the sharp force they carried. Its beak was even sharper. Getting attacked by this thing would definitely be painful.
The most crucial thing was that, even for the earliest batch to hatch, it had only been a month.
Wasn’t it growing a little too fast?!
Not only had it grown larger, but its combat power had also increased. It even dared to pin a long-haired pig to the ground and grind it down.
Although long-haired pigs were smaller—just over a hundred jin each—any kind of wild boar had extremely strong attack power. And yet, they still lost to a goose. That was downright fantastical.
Thinking back, Yang Yi vaguely remembered overhearing something about quite a few guards being withdrawn from the breeding grounds.
He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now it seemed likely that it had something to do with these geese.
“Truly impressive!” Yang Yi praised from the heart.
Fei Cao beamed. “Exactly! Now, Goose King guards the whole farm. When wild beasts attack, it just means extra dishes for us.”
His greatest worry back then had been safety. He was afraid that so many fowl would be carried off by wild beasts, especially since they loved to roam around. With the farm being so large, there was no way to keep an eye on them all.
In the beginning, accidents had indeed been common, with thieves showing up every few days.
After Goose King arrived, everything changed.
Compared to humans, they were far more vigilant, never allowing any other animal to step into their territory.
“How old is Goose King? Are the ones the same age as him all this big?”
“He was hatched from the very first batch of eggs, and it’s been thirty-six days now. He’s a special case. The other geese aren’t nearly this big; they’re a whole size smaller than him.”
Fei Cao pointed into the distance. “The biggest is only about that size.”
Yang Yi looked over. It was only about the size of a normal goose, though, considering their age, their growth was still astonishing.
Fei Cao blinked, pressed his lips together, and asked hopefully,
“Divine Envoy, could I ask you for a favor?”
“Go ahead.”
“Goose King isn’t just an ordinary goose. He’s really smart. He can understand human speech. Could we… not eat him?”
As soon as he said that, Fei Cao’s ears turned red.
To people here, those words were downright unbelievable.
Not to mention wild beasts being meant for eating unless they were too unpalatable—even the geese they raised were for eating. Keeping them without eating them? Wasn’t that a joke?
Yang Yi, however, agreed without hesitation. “Of course. Animals can also become our companions.”
“That’s wonderful!” Fei Cao was overjoyed. “Goose King, did you hear that? You’re our companion from now on! No one’s going to have designs on you anymore!”
Goose King, standing to the side, still maintained his aloof demeanor, yet Yang Yi could sense a distinct change in him.
“The other geese aren’t this smart, are they?”
“No, they just listen to Goose King more. Whether it’s size, brains, habits—everything about Goose King is different from ordinary geese. He’s not very social with his own kind and prefers being around humans.”
Yang Yi let out a breath of relief. If all of them were this intelligent, then should they be eaten or not?
The hatchery’s survival rate was now very high, so the farm already had thousands of various types of poultry. Even the ponds dug earlier had come into use, giving ducks, geese, and other animals a place to swim.
After experiencing the benefits of Goose King as a guardian, Fei Cao had the hatchery produce more goose eggs to form a self-defense force.
Although part of the security force had been withdrawn, the overall number of workers had increased because they needed to find and prepare food for all this poultry.
Fortunately, the farm’s designated area was very large, allowing the poultry to roam freely and forage for plenty of food within their territory, easing a lot of the burden.
Still, no one knew how big these birds might grow after mutation.
Just as Yang Yi was about to leave, Goose King suddenly lunged at him, making him stiffen all over and freeze in place.
He was about to call for help when Goose King stopped right in front of him, flicked his head, and dropped a small white bundle at Yang Yi’s feet.
Looking closely, it was a little goose, just slightly bigger than a fist, seemingly only recently hatched.
“Gwa-gaa—gwa-gaa—”
Yang Yi was stunned. This goose was clearly saying: “It’s yours.”
