Chapter 595 - 366: Advancing to Divine Tier

Chapter 595: Chapter 366: Advancing to Divine Tier

Of course, this new population couldn’t just be fed for free. Li Xiang expanded the underground farms of Los Santos, putting these people to work and turning the area into a massive granary.

These farms relied purely on manual labor, as there was a large idle population. This was especially true for the wanderers from the South Asian Subcontinent. They were formerly of the Lower Caste and had experience with agricultural labor and other physical work, making them skilled at farming.

Li Xiang and Yao Yao worked together to reorganize the population. They formed production teams of about 200 people each, ensuring family members remained together. With Los Santos in urgent need of rebuilding from scratch, Yao Yao, as the City Lord, was incredibly busy.

Fortunately, she had hundreds of Clones, and this ability was being put to perfect use. While she couldn’t match Jiang Cai’Er, who could handle hundreds of thousands or even billions of tasks simultaneously, managing eight hundred to a thousand matters at once was still well within her capabilities.

Yao Yao had grown a great deal over the years and was now fully capable of handling things on her own.

’It’s not that I *want* to be such a workaholic,’ Yao Yao thought. ’But Brother Xiang doesn’t keep useless people around. You can’t secure your spot just by being a pretty face.’

They also re-established the Contribution Points system. In addition to earning points for work—of all kinds—there was also a childbirth contribution. Each child born would earn a family 1,000 points. These points could be exchanged for various items and daily necessities, and were sometimes even more versatile than Heat Coins.

For example, the initial housing assignments were simple, temporary shelters, mostly consisting of communal dormitories. However, once a family accumulated enough points, they became eligible to trade up to larger, better-furnished homes in more central locations. Other rewards included private lessons from elite instructors.

The reason for encouraging childbirth was self-evident: the population loss during the Apocalypse had been catastrophic. In the age of peace, Earth’s population had reached ten billion. But after just a year or two of chaos, it was estimated that only six or seven billion people remained.

Even so, this was a vast improvement over his previous life, where not even one in a hundred survived. Li Xiang could say, without any false modesty, that he had played an indispensable role in this outcome.

Now, with an abundant supply of synthetically produced starch and various high-yield crop seeds, they could ensure a steady food supply. As long as there was enough power—like in City No. 03—they could produce crops year-round. High-yield rice could be harvested three or even four times a year. Although their territory was smaller, they could now support an even larger population than they could have in the age of peace.

Agriculture was the absolute top priority. To that end, Yao Yao deployed a full one hundred and fifty of her Pioneer Clones. Clad in Battle Armor and wielding farming tools imbued with Extraordinary Attributes, they led the people in developing the new farmland.

Not every one of her Clones possessed a Saint Tier Cultivation. Her true body, thanks to Li Xiang’s support, had already reached Tier Twenty-Four. Her Clones were naturally not as formidable as her main self, but three of them had reached Tier Nineteen—the threshold for entering the Saint Tier. The rest were formidable in their own right, with even the weakest possessing Tier Three strength.

Combined with the vast arsenal of equipment Li Xiang had given her, each Clone was armed to the teeth. Their safety was not an issue.

Besides, her Clones rarely operated alone. They typically worked in groups of three to five, watching over each other. Each group was guaranteed to include at least one Clone at Tier Eight or higher. Even if someone had malicious intent, they wouldn’t be able to take one down quickly. By the time nearby soldiers or other Clones arrived, the assailants would have no chance of escape.

Yao Yao’s Pioneer Clones were spread throughout the underground farms, directing the workers as they prepared the fields, applied base fertilizer, dug irrigation canals, and installed electric lights...

As for temperature control and heating, Los Santos didn’t have an abundance of electricity, and a Nuclear Fusion Reactor couldn’t be built overnight. So, Li Xiang devised a simpler solution.

He went out scouting and launched a surprise attack on a Blazing Heaven-Burning Eagle nest. He not only killed its Saint Tier leader but also slaughtered several thousand of the sub-Saint Tier avian beasts.

These were avian space beasts wreathed in scorching flames, even larger than Black Fire Profound Crows, and capable of generating far more heat. Each one looked like a miniature sun as it flew through the sky.

These Exotic Beasts were extremely ferocious and could easily harm people while alive, but their carcasses were perfectly harmless.

Li Xiang buried their flesh and blood throughout the underground farms to serve as fertilizer. He separated out the bones, particularly the skulls, which were crimson red and radiated an intense heat. Li Xiang strategically placed the skulls throughout the farms, spacing them according to the different heat-radiation radiuses of the various Tiers of Blazing Heaven-Burning Eagle. With a continuous, inexhaustible source of heat emanating from them, the temperature control problem was solved.

When their heat eventually ran out, he could simply go and hunt another batch. Besides, by that point, the Nuclear Fusion Reactor would likely be completed, and Los Santos would no longer have any power shortages.

Numerous reservoirs had been built throughout the underground farms for irrigation. Li Xiang selected one of them, a massive pond, and tossed in the skull of a Tier Sixteen Blazing Heaven-Burning Eagle. Before long, steam began to rise from the water, which had transformed into a natural hot spring.

An idea struck him. He had a few buildings constructed on the edge of the reservoir to serve as a large public bathhouse, with separate sections for men and women. This would be a convenient place for people to bathe after a long day’s work.

Of course, one hot spring bathhouse wasn’t nearly enough, as it would be inconvenient for residents living farther away. So, he replicated the process, building seventy or eighty more bathhouses.

When this new "perk" was announced, the residents’ morale soared. After all, energy was a precious commodity in the Apocalypse. Back when they were wandering the frozen surface, who ever had the chance to take a bath?

Even if they could, they wouldn’t have. Bathing consumed precious energy. When you were dizzy with hunger, you’d rather curl up and sleep in a safe hideout than waste strength on a bath.