NOVEL NEXT Chapter 313 Simulation: Village Development
In the Ancient Beast Wilderness Hills, more and more refugees were being driven here, and Su Jie did not turn anyone away, accepting each one. He had the original villagers arrange for their accommodations, and then had them join in the labor—felling trees, building houses, setting traps, and capturing the ancient beasts of the wilderness hills to serve as reserve food supplies.
Even the discovery of plants like hemp and cotton on the wilderness hills was particularly ordered by Su Jie to be transplanted and protected, waiting for them to bear seeds for cultivation.
Now, six months had passed since the village was established, and its size had expanded nearly a hundredfold, with the population reaching hundreds of thousands of people.
On Earth, this would be the population of a small, remote city.
But here, it was merely a small village.
However, most people were barely clothed in one or two pieces of animal skin, not much different from primitive tribes, but they felt that their lives were better than those of the common folk in Linghua.
Because under the leadership of the Immortal Village Chief, they had hope for their days!
This was the wilderness hills, stretching for thousands of miles, desolate and uninhabited. As long as one did not venture out, it was a Peach Blossom Spring, free from taxes and bureaucratic management, where everyone lived harmoniously and comfortably.
By this time, dawn was breaking.
From atop the hillside, Meng Xiaolan looked down at the people who had risen early to start their diligent work, their faces glistening with sweat, and a smile spread across her face involuntarily, "All they ask for is to be full-fed and to continue their lineage; why won't Kun Country allow it?"
The maid beside her said, "Mr. Su Jie has said that rulers don't want ordinary people to live well because if ordinary people are content, the rulers become unhappy, losing their sense of superiority."
The address for Su Jie had shifted from "Young Master" to "Mr."
In the maid's heart, respect for Su Jie had arisen spontaneously.
Despite feeling that Su Jie's ideals were unrealistic deep down, as someone who knew right from wrong, she would neither ridicule nor scorn an idealist.
Perhaps she too had harbored such thoughts at one time.
"Xiao Huan, I have a dream," Meng Xiaolan declared, looking towards the rising sun as if she had made up her mind about something.
"Miss, isn't your dream to become an Immortal?" the maid, Xiao Huan, asked.
"That was just an excuse, an excuse to escape from the family that wanted me to marry into another clan. Although I truly harbored such fantasies, I now realize that Immortals don't seem to care about the mortal world," Meng Xiaolan lowered her head, looking down at the working people below, "Su Jie is not the high and mighty Immortal spoken of in rumors, but a Saint who walks among mortals, more noble than any Immortal!"
"The path lies at our feet."
Xiao Huan nodded in approval, "Miss, you have finally grown up."
"Go away, go away!"
With a look of disgust, Meng Xiaolan waved her hand, "You sound just like my father, it's so annoying."
The two women laughed together and found Su Jie teaching some children, imparting to them principles of social conduct, although just superficially, to leave an impression on them.
The main part of the lessons, however, was to teach them martial arts—Chu Tiange!
"The hoe is versatile, able to harvest, dig pits, make ridges, plough, cover the ground, weed, break the soil, and mulch. It is an indispensable agricultural tool and the foremost among all farming implements," Su Jie introduced to the children, "Ancient farmers enlightened a form of boxing from it, named 'Intention Grip,' the mother of all boxing techniques. Once mastered, they could effortlessly perform various boxing styles."
"Later, I, Ming Lun, adapted and created Chu Tiange, which is the best method for your Foundation Establishment," Su Jie explained to the attentive children.
For Meng Xiaolan, she preferred to call this martial art "Hoeing Field Skill," because no matter how esoteric it was made to seem, it was essentially a boxing technique meant for tilling the land.
The farmers in this village were well educated, and Su Jie would also personally instruct them, correcting their mistakes one by one and demonstrating by example.
Now, in teaching these children, it was merely about giving them a rough understanding so that they could be twice as productive when they put it into practice later.
Half a day passed, and the children returned to the orphanage, which was the cave where the refugees previously stayed. Su Jie had ordered people to convert it into an orphanage, the place where the children lived.
Because most of these children were orphans, with only a very few living with their fathers or perhaps their mothers, brothers, or sisters. My Virtual Library Empire (M-VLEMPYR)
Therefore, Su Jie had them all move into the orphanage.
Beyond this cave, there was also a large expanse of open ground and houses, all within the range of the orphanage.
"Su Jie, what should we do next?" Meng Xiaolan waited until all the children had entered the cave before asking her question, "As the number of refugees increases, we will continue to expand, and the closer we get to the depths of the wilderness, the more powerful the ancient beasts become."
"The ancient beasts are not a problem; after all, they are just beasts without intelligence, not to be feared," Su Jie was not concerned about the ancient beasts. In the current situation, even without him, the people here could drive away the ancient beasts or even exterminate them.
In terms of size, even on Earth, humans are far from matching elephants, lions, and the like, but humans do not yield to these creatures.
Is it because of technology?
No!
It's intelligence!
Ancient humans, without modern technology, were still able to drive away wild animals using their intelligence, and humans in the Cultivation World are also capable of driving away ancient beasts, which are just slightly stronger wild beasts, with intelligence.
In the past, refugees came in batch after batch, giving the wilderness's ancient beasts an illusion—that humans were an easy to capture food source.
But now, with a population exceeding several hundred thousand and unprecedented unity,
the ancient beasts are merely prey.
The reason Meng Xiaolan considered the ancient beasts a threat was simply because her perception had not yet adjusted. She felt that the deeper one went, the greater the number of ancient beasts and the more dangerous it was for humans.
Little did she know that the unintelligent ancient beasts would not feel that it was humans encroaching on their living space, but rather their own kind or different species invading to snatch their territory.
And for humans, there was only one enemy—
which was also their own kind, humans.
"Alright, let's not talk about ancient beasts."
Seeing that Su Jie did not consider the ancient beasts a big deal, Meng Xiaolan did not dwell on the topic. After all, even the largest ancient beast on its own was not to be feared, and she could now cope with it as well.
Even more so, under Su Jie's arrangements, people in the village had started to capture the cubs of ancient beasts to domesticate them for labor. It had been somewhat successful—they had captured more than a dozen cubs the size of adults and kept them in a temporarily constructed animal pen.
In reality, these ancient beasts were no different from other animals domesticated by humans; their only characteristic was that they were omnivorous and much larger in size.
As long as their temperaments were understood and they were provided with enough food, domestication would not pose a problem.
"Now, the people in the village are all wearing animal skins, without clothes; they need to buy them from outside. Secondly, there is also the problem of salt," Meng Xiaolan expressed her concerns, "The salt we brought is almost gone. If we run out of salt, everyone will become lethargic."
Su Jie said, "Clothes are not a concern; crops like hemp and cotton are about to yield fruit. With a bit more searching, we can still find plenty of seeds. Moreover, the skins of the ancient beasts from this wilderness are enough to clothe everyone. All they need to do is keep them clean regularly and keep the insects away."
"As for salt..."