“However, I can try out another Lord Skill—Hand of Gathering.”
Xia Tian used “Hand of Gathering” on the corpse of the Purple-striped Fierce Tiger on the ground, which was immediately enveloped in a silver light.
When the light dissipated, the tiger’s corpse, from skin to flesh to bone, was neatly separated into different parts and arranged in an orderly fashion.
The sheer hundreds of pounds of fresh meat made Xia Tian’s eyes light up; he was still starving, after all.
“Additional expenditure of Luck Points allows for ‘processing’ the target during gathering, such as making jerky, hardening bones, or tanning hides.”
Furthermore, as expected, like “Eye of Insight,” Hand of Gathering also had a paid “VIP” service!
“Lord, you truly are an immortal!”
This extraordinary scene further solidified his image as an “immortal” in the hearts of the newly joined refugees.
Even Wu Song looked at Xia Tian with a hint of awe; after all, everything was simply too difficult to explain without resorting to “immortal magic.”
“Huh, my Warring States bronze sword is still here!”
Among the items left after the Black-striped Fierce Tiger was dissected, Xia Tian was pleasantly surprised to find his bronze sword perfectly preserved.
Since it had only just been swallowed, there hadn't been enough time for stomach acid to corrode it, which was good.
Although bronze weapons weren't very durable, having one was better than none.
Moreover, after successfully recruiting this group of refugees, his territory's luck reached 1750 points, which was more than enough to upgrade this bronze short sword to gold quality.
“However, I need to solve the housing problem for these residents first.”
Xia Tian tallied them up and found that this group of refugees totaled seventy-three people.
His Lord's Mansion was spacious enough to house a hundred people without issue, but he obviously couldn't let the refugees move directly into the mansion.
That would be a pure disregard for proper order and would lead to endless troubles.
“Fortunately, this problem isn't difficult to solve.”
A flash of light appeared in Xia Tian’s hand, revealing a stack of ‘Residential Building Guides’ he had previously obtained from a golden resource treasure chest.
“Residential Building Guide (Blue)”
“Level: Mortal”
“Occupancy: 1-10 people”
“Trait: Comfortable Living (Stamina Recovery +80%)”
“Materials: 50 units of wood, 50 units of stone, 50 units of metal”
“Description: A complete and detailed construction blueprint, including structures and living facilities such as a kitchen, toilet, bedroom, and furniture.”
According to the information in his mind, these papers contained complete construction details, marked with the new language of “Eternal Land,” allowing anyone to follow them for construction!
However, the quality of the constructed houses would be affected by the builder's skill level.
For example, if a group of refugees with no construction experience were to build them, the finished product would most likely be gray “inferior” quality, at best white “common” quality.
However, if residents with relevant skills such as “construction, stonemasonry, or carpentry” were to build them, they could very likely obtain green or blue residential buildings.
If the craftsmen involved in the construction possessed extremely high skills, obtaining powerful traits, such as those of divine masters like Lu Ban, it would even be possible to transform them into silver or even gold quality!
“Among this group, there is one carpenter and one stonemason, but their skills are only at the ‘proficient’ level, and building them entirely by hand would take at least ten days!”
“So, it definitely won’t be enough time.”
Fortunately, besides relying on residents to build manually, there was a clever method for a lord: requesting assistance from the Earth's Will to “quickly construct” by consuming luck.
“All of you, come over here and move these materials to that open space.”
Xia Tian opened the “territory warehouse” connected to the Lord's Mansion and had the newly joined residents move all the materials needed to build a residence according to the blueprint to a specific location.
Then, he took out the blueprint and communicated with the Earth's Will through his consciousness.
“Do you choose to consume ‘Luck Power’ to accelerate construction? Note: This building is of Mortal-level blue quality, and each time requires 40 Luck points!”
A golden line of text appeared in his vision.
Hiss, this “construction fee” is really not cheap.
However, you can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a cub.
After all, the effect of this blue residence, which accelerates stamina recovery, is of great significance to a lord!
“Yes!”
As Xia Tian confirmed.
The pile of building materials on the open ground began to glow with a silvery-white light, and each material automatically deformed, cut, and reassembled.
Like time-lapse photography, wood flew into the air, transforming into eaves crafted with mortise and tenon joints; stone automatically colored itself and stacked up to form foundations and walls; metal materials melted and reshaped into pots, bowls, ladles, and bronze mirrors!
In just a few minutes, a fully equipped residential building took shape amidst the stunned expressions of the refugees.
Although not too large, only capable of accommodating ten people, its design was exquisite, and every item inside was ingeniously crafted.
Because one house required a total of 150 units of resources, and considering the initial resources were limited, Xia Tian only built eight houses for now, treating them as a welfare for this initial group of residents.
In fact, he could have used “Midas Touch” to further upgrade this blueprint to silver, or even gold.
But there was clearly no need for that.
Because from previous experiments, it was clear that the higher the grade of an item, the more luck it consumed to use.
Moreover, blue-grade items were already equivalent to “expert” level, and their exquisite craftsmanship was already quite high.
At least in the eyes of the refugees, such houses were something they could never dream of in their lives!
“Alright, you all group up with people you know, ten people to a house.”
Xia Tian allocated the houses.
Wu Song, Pan Jinlian, and Wu Dalang, being high-level talents, were assigned one residence among the three of them, while the rest were distributed among the remaining seven residences.
“Did I hear that right? It sounds like the Lord said we can choose these houses to move into?”
“Impossible, you must have misheard. Even the commander’s house I saw when I was in the army wasn't this good! How could we possibly be qualified to live in such houses?!”
One by one, the refugees showed expressions of disbelief after hearing Xia Tian's words, until they confirmed it again.
“Thank you, Lord!”
“Son, you must set up a longevity tablet for the Lord later! May the Lord live for ten thousand years!”
“Understood, Mother. Lord, I, Da Niu, have nothing else but this humble life, and I am willing to die for you.”
The refugees were filled with excitement, and their morale and loyalty instantly soared.
In truth, the common people of Chinese civilization have always been the most loyal and honest.
As long as they were given enough food to eat and a house to shelter from the wind and rain, they would wholeheartedly support and work without complaint.
It’s just a pity that some people don’t understand this principle. Or, even if they understand, they don’t care, because they don’t lack food or shelter.
“You have successfully gained the loyalty of your first batch of residents in a short time, and received a reward from the Earth’s Will—Territory Luck +50, Rare Bronze Treasure Chest *1!”