Stepping into the dusk, Jade City First Building moved northward.
The building life maintained a slow speed; in this mode, the interior lighting was intact and there was hardly any sense of bumpiness.
Zhou Yi, sitting on the sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, said to the two people next to him, "Don't be constrained. Although this trip is for official business, eat when you want to eat, drink when you want to drink. Be at ease."
On the table beside, one side was lined with beverages like cola, orange juice, milk tea, and sparkling water. On the other side were bagged snacks like French fries, potato chips, sunflower seeds, almonds, dried tofu strips, and beef jerky.
Qian Su was the least restrained; she had already started cracking almonds and macadamias.
"These two are delicious! Opportunities to eat freely from the Dead Sea's delicacies are rare… Mr. Zhou is truly generous." The source of thɪs content is Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
Zheng Tao, on the other hand, was examining the opened bags of sunflower seeds, "They look similar to the seeds of the red sweet melon; the melon seeds could also be nice if roasted at high temperatures. The variety of nuts available in the market is quite limited, mainly peanuts, beans, and dried fruits."
He sniffed: "This smell is roasted spices; a little seasoning can enhance a lot of flavor, which could increase the price and taste of food. We could do the same in the future. Then sell the cooked melon seeds in the market."
In the midst of casual conversation, Jade City passed the Oasis Side and arrived at the Clawed Pig's territory to the north.
Facing the massive aliens, even the territorially-minded Clawed Pigs one by one sensibly made way, carrying their young and hiding far away.
Once ashore, Zhou Yi's range of activity was actually quite narrow.
Having confirmed that Jade City had decent mobility, and with his own second body and new combat species, he then proceeded to survey the surrounding area.
This time out, Zhou Yi had the Sea God accompany them in the Dead Sea and had invited Zheng Tao and Qian Su to join the journey.
Zheng Tao was the company's agricultural consultant. Observing the wild firsthand is beneficial for his agricultural planning.
Qian Su was a businesswoman. The ultimate destination was to visit the sea lord in Sand Port City, so bringing her along enabled inquiries about the conditions of several market towns along the way.
The northern end was a sizable forest area where Forest Sheep and Red-eyed Vultures, two Guangna Species creatures, thrived.
Forest Sheep are small black-brown creatures that look like mutant sheep.
They could climb and jump onto treetops, then move between trees, which is why it wasn't easy for Clawed Pigs to catch them. Usually, they would leap up to the treetops to absorb Death Light, only coming down at night—that was also when they were most vulnerable to attacks.
Red-eyed Vultures, meanwhile, were a common species that fed on carrion, found wherever there were corpses.
"This is a very smart species."
Red Kestrel emphasized, "Red-eyed Vultures can be found in various environments, they have great endurance, and the structure of their special Guangna organs allows them to digest and absorb various decaying bodies, deriving residual energy, giving them a natural survival advantage. However, they only eat the corpses of Guangna species."
"They exist in this forest also to feed on the corpses of Forest Sheep."
Zhou Yi remembered, the first time he encountered Ajin, he killed two Clawed Pigs; Red-eyed Vultures were watching from afar, wanting to partake. But in the end, they smartly kept their distance until he left, then they swooped down on the leftovers.
Intelligence for survival.
Besides them, many small birds lived here, and many of the birds that harassed the farmland came from this area.
Further north was the Dead Sea again.
Trees on the south side of the forest were quite normal, but those on the northern side started to take on a strange shape. They looked like plastic twisted by high temperatures; the closer they were to the Dead Sea, the more withered and twisted the trees became.
After observing, Zheng Tao said, "This side is not suitable for agricultural planting but could be used for livestock rearing."
Zhou Yi puzzled: "Livestock rearing?"
Zheng Tao pointed through the glass toward the forest below: "Chairman, if the company needs Clawed Pigs, then it's worth increasing the number of Forest Sheep so they have prey to hunt in the winter. The number of Forest Sheep and the scale of the forest are closely linked, so as long as we further expand the forest area, it would help them to reproduce and strengthen. Although vertically there's the Dead Sea barrier, horizontal expansion is not a problem."
"It's just that the cycle will be quite long; trees need several years to grow to a certain size," he contemplated, "In terms of cost and benefit, the uncertainty is quite large."
But Zhou Yi thought it was an idea.
Mainly, it didn't require too much effort. Just plant trees, nothing else to worry about; letting the Sand Rats, who were experts at planting, do the job would be most suitable.
Then, Zhou Yi controlled Jade City to turn westward, stepping on the sand.
Along the way, there was plenty of barren land as well as some gentle hills, extending from the hilly area of Mao Valley Town.
After crossing Death Dune, daylight had arrived.
Zhou Yi saw the second new humans settlement.
Chicken Head Town was considerably larger than Mao Valley Town, also built against the mountain, but with an open-air fence outside, a stone-built drying platform, and some leafy vegetables planted in the surrounding soil.
There were a few stone cottages and a tall stone structure that seemed to be a landmark of the place.
The base of that building was an oval sphere, with a circle carved on each side at the top, and below, parallel lines like cat whiskers were chiseled out.
Qian Su said, "That's the statue of Lord Sha Hai; sea lords would erect statues to represent their respective territories. It can deter outsiders as well as make the ownership here obvious at a glance. However, what exactly Lord Sha Hai looks like, I do not know, as I have never had the opportunity to meet him in person."