Chapter 34: The Second Projection

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After receiving the items provided by the Crystal City, Li Mingxing did not stay there any longer. He was driven out almost immediately.

Naturally, this meant that his plan to purchase troops from the Crystal City came to nothing. Even his intention to learn the art of leadership was shattered before it had even begun.

Li Mingxing understood, however, that this was not the time to dwell on such matters. He did not have much time left. He needed to build his own city as quickly as possible; otherwise, once Dragon City realized what was happening, he would be in serious trouble.

Thus, he did not even take the goods he had exchanged for. Instead, he had the people of the Crystal City deliver them to the former centaur camp.

He himself led his subordinates onward without pause, reducing what should have been an eleven-day journey to only seven days.

By the time Li Mingxing reached the former centaur camp, he found that it had already been searched. Yet of the centaur skulls he had buried there, only three were missing. The remaining seven had transformed into centaur tents.

Naturally, these tents were completely in keeping with the style of this Otherworld. They were all tree houses. Looking at them, Li Mingxing laughed.

By then, Aisha, one of Li Mingxing’s subordinates, had been sent to the Witch’s Cottage. Only a few harpy witches and Blackstone Heroes accompanied him. Seeing the empty tents, they could not understand why Li Mingxing was laughing.

Li Mingxing paid them no attention. He simply walked into one of the empty tents. A short while later, four centaurs emerged from within.

These centaurs were identical in every respect, from their appearance and stature to the wooden spears in their hands. Once they came out, they stood motionless behind Li Mingxing.

At this point, Li Mingxing said smugly, “See? This is the power of these tents. Every week, each one provides four free first-tier centaurs. Did you collect the soul coins I told you to gather when we attacked the enemy? Bury seven hundred and fifty soul coins beneath a tent, and tomorrow there will be seven second-tier centaurs here. Unfortunately, our luck is not very good. We do not have any third-tier tents. Otherwise, we could mass-produce third-tier troops in the future.”

When the twenty-eight centaurs emerged from the seven tents, the Blackstone Heroes remained relatively calm, but all the harpy witches were stunned.

At last, one of the harpy witches asked cautiously, “My lord, can the same be done for us harpy witches?”

“It can, but the success rate is not very high. Moreover, only someone like me or Aisha can summon them. Once summoned, they can be used only for battle; they cannot reproduce or continue your species.”

“That would still be enough,” the harpy witch said. “With so many subordinates, we could live much better here.”

“But it would also wear away your wild nature and turn you into useless weaklings. I have no intention of feeding such weaklings.”

Hearing Li Mingxing’s words, all the harpy witches who had entertained that idea lowered their heads. Instead, the Blackstone Hero said, “My lord, I believe you will do this again in the future.”

Li Mingxing nodded. “Yes. But I will never do it to a complete, living race. If I did, my forces would grow weaker and weaker, and I would eventually lose my battles.”

After hearing this, even the harpy witches who had secretly blamed Li Mingxing lowered their heads and began considering how they might improve their own strength.

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Li Mingxing then summoned all twenty-eight newly created centaurs and led them into the forest where the centaur ancestral totem stood.

By then, the forest had been thoroughly darkened. Once inside, it felt as though they had entered the night itself.

After choosing a location, Li Mingxing ordered the twenty-eight centaurs to start digging into the ground. He intended to place the City Heart beneath it.

However, he had underestimated the conditions here. This was nothing like the part of the Otherworld he had passed through before. This place was a paradise of trees. No matter how the centaurs dug, they encountered nothing but roots beneath the soil. It was impossible to dig deep or wide enough.

This only aroused Li Mingxing’s stubborn nature. Gritting his teeth, he went to the centaur ancestral totem.

He remembered that the totem had been driven into the ground. If that was truly the case, then the earth here ought to be diggable.

But Li Mingxing failed once again. The ground had already become as hard as iron. Let alone Li Mingxing and his centaurs—even a Sword Saint would have been unable to break through it.

Faced with this situation, Li Mingxing had no choice but to abandon the attempt and leave the forest. After careful consideration, he had the harpy witches prepare a large quantity of vines before entering the dark forest once more.

This time, Li Mingxing did not have anyone dig downward. Instead, he tied the vines around a tree and ordered all twenty-eight centaurs to pull with all their strength.

This time, Li Mingxing had found the right approach. The trees were able to grow here because their roots extended deep into the earth. Once one of the trees had been pulled out, it naturally left behind a pit deep enough for Li Mingxing to bury his belongings.

Before new trees could begin growing in the pit, Li Mingxing raised his hand and threw his City Heart inside. The harpy witches’ scepter went in as well.

“City Projection Two is beginning to form. City projection: twenty-five percent. Environmental influence: twenty-five percent. Autonomous development: fifty percent. City level: Manor. City name: Darkleaf City. City Lord: None. City Guardian Deity: None. Allocated slaves: fifty.”

The instant Li Mingxing finished speaking, the nearby grove underwent a transformation. All the trees sank into the ground, while the previously unalterable dark forest shifted approximately seven hundred meters eastward.

Most astonishing of all, the area of the darkened forest expanded more than sevenfold.

Li Mingxing turned to the fifty savage demon slaves who had been delivered there and said, “Go cut down trees nearby. There is enough timber here, so you need not worry about a shortage of materials. I want the city hall built before the end of today. After that, devote yourselves to constructing the marketplace.”

Upon hearing Li Mingxing’s order, the savage demon slaves immediately began working. One group ran off to cut trees, while another began clearing the land, which had not yet been fully leveled.

The harpy witches were all frightened by this sudden turn of events. Before they could recover, however, Li Mingxing had already called them aside.

“Go and make preparations. Bring your eggs here. I will designate an area as your settlement. You may live on the ground if you wish, or in the trees if you prefer.”

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“We can live on the ground now? Will trees no longer grow here?” The harpy witches stared blankly at the scene before them.

“Within these thousand acres, I am the one who decides. Wherever I want trees to grow, trees will grow. Wherever I want open ground, there will be open ground.”

Not one of the harpy witches doubted Li Mingxing’s words. All of them felt that, after so many years, a fourth city was about to appear before their eyes.

While the harpy witches returned to transport the eggs they had hidden earlier, Li Mingxing’s savage demon slaves had already cut down all the trees across the surrounding thousand acres.

These creatures were remarkably meticulous. After felling the trees, they stacked the timber into piles. Without using any blueprints, they began constructing Li Mingxing’s city hall beside the darkened forest. Another group began building the simplest possible marketplace.

It was not that Li Mingxing did not want to construct other buildings. He simply had no choice. In this Otherworld, he had obtained no resources at all. Apart from a large quantity of timber, he possessed nothing else.

He therefore needed a marketplace to send the timber in his possession back to his own city and have the resources he required transported here.

While waiting, Li Mingxing did not remain idle. He gathered the seven centaur tents into a single location. He had only intended to make it easier to collect the centaurs, but this caused the tents to merge into a centaur camp. The number of free centaurs he could obtain from it each week increased from the original twenty-eight to thirty-six.

In addition, Li Mingxing gained the right to upgrade the centaur camp. It could be upgraded into a camp capable of training third-tier centaurs, but the sole requirement was that he first find a new method of training centaurs.

When the harpy witches returned and saw what had happened, certain thoughts began burning anew in their hearts.

Li Mingxing did not satisfy them, however. Instead, he assigned them an even better location in which to place their nest.

Later, through the partially completed city hall, Li Mingxing obtained information about the harpy witches’ nest. Only then did he realize that his decision not to turn the harpy witches into a fixed source of troops had been the correct one.

With their new camp, the harpy witches could give birth to thirty harpy witches each day. After one week of training, some of them would reach the first tier, while the rest could become workers, farmers, or serve in other roles within Li Mingxing’s city. This was an extremely advantageous arrangement.

Best of all, this rate of growth required only food. Unlike the centaurs, for whom every unit beyond the thirty-six free weekly recruits had to be purchased with soul coins, the arrangement was highly beneficial to Li Mingxing, who currently had very little money.