by Lazy Bird
Walking along Blad Heights for one round and also relieving his bladder, he then strolled towards the west direction.
For the west side, the land would gradually slope downwards. The trees here weren’t too dense and the weeds here grew vigorously. This was an important wild plant area in Li Siwen’s territory. It had the most anti-inflammatory grass and blood stopping grass. There was also a tree similar to a mulberry tree, but there was no legendary mulberry on it.
This place was named the South Slope of Weeds by Li Siwen, and it was also the area where he considered digging the well. When he built the wooden wall next to the treehouse previously, he dug down a full five meters deep, but no water came out.
Although there would eventually be water if he continued digging deeper, in terms of work efficiency, it wasn’t suitable. Also, he had to consider watering the farmlands too.
This place was quite good for digging as well. The location here was low, with a height difference of about two meters compared to the location of the treehouse.
Also, there were lesser trees here. With fewer tree roots, it would be easier to dig too.
Just that he needed to consider the problem of water backflowing.
The backflow of water from two nights ago had flooded this place too.
“Let’s look first. If there is water here just a few meters deep down, it will be quite good too.”
If he could cultivate more farmlands, this spot would be quite advantageous.
He was walking while thinking and examining the surroundings, not letting off any detail.
“Hm?”
Suddenly, Li Siwen stopped, his eyes fixed on a bush.
At the end of the line of sight, a stiff corpse of a pastry rat lay there, its limbs stretched straight, its eyes widened, and he could faintly see black mucus oozing out.
“It’s poisoned?”
Frowning, a warning sounded loudly in Li Siwen’s heart. This was the first time seeing such a thing in the past seven to eight days. Even when this area was dominated by the Iron Ring Black Snake, these pastry rats were also living comfortably. At most, they would be eaten, but not dying in such a tragic way, right?
Li Siwen didn’t get close to the corpse. He cut off a branch from a tree and held it in one hand. Then, holding his breath, squinting his eyes, he was about to flip the rat from a meter apart with the branch. But he felt that it wasn’t safe enough, so he retreated 10 steps back, picked up a stone weighing a few kilograms, then held his breath again, covered his face with one hand, and threw the stone at the rat. With a swoosh sound, the stone accurately hit the corpse.
Practically at the same moment, the blackened body of this rat seemed to become inflated with air and burst apart. The black mucus inside was like countless small snakes, instantly enveloping the area within a five-meter radius of the corpse!
By now, Li Siwen had already retreated an entire 30 meters, hiding quickly behind a tree, only exposing one eye.
Sigh, he had accidentally exposed his king-like mannerism. What an embarrassment!
“This is suspicious. Why did the corpse explode? Looks like it had only died after during the night yesterday. After all, I had patrolled this area during the evening yesterday.”
Feeling suspicious, Li Siwen didn’t rush to check the situation but waited quietly for 10 minutes before walking up three steps, seeing every detail in his eye.
That black mucus wasn’t some living thing, but something jelly-like, elastic, and shaking under the sunlight.
Also, the organs and bones of the rat were missing, only a black-colored skin was left. It was really strange.
As for the smell, it was a really horrible smell. But he didn’t know if it was poisonous or not. After all, he was quite a distance away from it.
There was definitely toxicity in it, and it was probably harmful to the human body.
As for the impact on the environment, he noticed nothing for the time being. The weeds and other things were still living very well at this moment.
Slightly considering, Li Siwen walked around the explosion area with the branch, drawing a circle with a radius of 50 meters, then plugged the branch into the ground, marking this area as a temporarily restricted area.
“Looks like this place isn’t suitable for digging a well. It will be too disgusting if a few poisoned rats constantly jump into the well to suicide!”
Li Siwen quickly changed his mind after some quick thought. Well digging, an important project related to the security strategy of the territory, couldn’t just consider one aspect.
“It’s better to place the well between the treehouse and the farmlands. Some things must be prevented. Wild beasts who are as kind as I am and won’t poison the well water are very rare now.”
Next, Li Siwen continued his patrol of the territory, being even more vigilant now.
Then, he suddenly thought of how the rat might have been killed by a poisonous insect. This insect wouldn’t be too big, so it would be hard to notice beforehand. If it suddenly bit him when he wasn’t aware, he might become a black jelly too.
The rest of the patrol was normal. He discovered nothing strange.
Returning to the treehouse, Li Siwen carefully checked all the pork and fish meat. He picked a few that weren’t dried very well and roasted them with some mushrooms. Then, he added an unknown fruit jam and unknown wild vegetable to it. This was his breakfast.
After resting for a short while, he checked the condition of the water tank. It was doing great. There wasn’t even a single small crack. After it was completely dry, it should be able to be heated.
But before that, he needed to make a simple furnace.
“Let it dry for another day today. Those bricks can be used by tomorrow. No matter what their quality is, it’s enough as long as I can make a furnace. I just need to put in the firewood, seal off the furnace door, and leave the rest to luck.”
“Of course, if I purely depend on luck, it also means that I am about to die. For anything I do, even if I can’t plan it perfectly, I need to prepare backup plans for it. For example, if my skill at heating mud is lousy, I can just practice and learn from experience. But to do that, I need more mud, meaning I need more water to make mud. Therefore, I must give priority to digging a well first.”
Li Siwen pondered for a while and dug a well first.
chapter 56
If a map of Li Siwen’s territory was drawn, the location of the treehouse was definitely the center and heart of the territory, and also the highest spot in the territory. When during the flood last time, the maximum water level it reached was still three meters lower than the treehouse. This was a huge advantage.
However, when it comes to digging a well, this advantage became a disadvantage.
50 meters south of the treehouse was the five acres of farmland he cultivated. 50 meters east from the farmland was a huge lone tree that required five people to hug. At least for now, Li Siwen didn’t plan on cutting it down.
Now, with his hands behind his hand, Li Siwen walked back and forth between the treehouse and the farmland, observing and considering, then finally deciding to dig the well at a spot 20 meters from the farmland. It didn’t matter if he could dig out the water; it was more important that the strategy location was correct.
Sticking his shovel into this spot, Li Siwen walked 20 meters towards the treehouse, leaving a distance of 10 meters between him and the treehouse.
“I can build a brick kiln here. If possible, I must continue to build and extend the treehouse to cover this spot too. However, if the bricks are not made by mixing rebar in it, the hardness will be too poor. Therefore, I have to build a solid stone wall around the tree house first.”
“Yup, no point thinking too much on it, better start working.”
Li Siwen went to the well digging spot and started digging with the shovel. With his 24 points in strength now, the shovel was as light as a toothpick to him. He easily flung away the soil he dug out dozens of meters away. This w
as also why he could easily dig five-meter deep moats. He was simply—too remarkable.
Ha, let’s not talk about it, it would easily expose his king-like mannerism.
Actually, a matter like digging required technique too. When Li Siwen dug four to five meters deep and still didn’t see water, he instantly climbed out and carried over five 10 meters long, bucket thick logs. Then, he smashed them down into the hole, and tied shorter logs to them horizontally, to form a fence. He knew stuff about collapse prevention.
Then, he continued to dig deeper, waving the shovel at a rapid speed, throwing out shovel after shovels of soil. The hole visibly became deeper.
Finally, when it was about seven to eight meters deep, mud appeared. Li Siwen instantly breathed a sigh of relief. Could he reveal that he was panicking too?
Of course not.
He stopped digging and climbed out of the hole. Then, he carried over dozens of stones weighing 100 to 150 kilograms from the valley and threw down some of them into the hole before he went inside again.
He laid the stones into a circle and continued digging again. More and more mud appeared, and when the stones were submerged in mud and he couldn’t dig out any more mud and only muddy water was left, he stopped. Climbing out of the hole, he threw the remaining stones inside and laid them against the logs he smashed down. It formed a simple well.
In total, he used about five hours.
25 Stamina Points were depleted—perfect.
Resting for an hour at noon and recovering all of his stamina, Li Siwen continued to carry some more stones over from the valley, throwing them into the well and placing them against the edges, at the same smashing down more logs.
Basically, it didn’t matter that the technique was poor. Great strength creates miracles!
During the evening, a slightly ‘ugly’ square-shaped well was successfully made. Li Siwen threw back some soil, made it compact, and everything was settled.
Having no time to be pleased with himself, Li Siwen started thinking about the problem of obtaining water from it.
First, he needed a pail. But embarrassingly, he didn’t know the legendary wooden bucket making skill, and if he wanted to make one through pottery, he would need to continue waiting.
“Let’s check the situation of the well first. If the water quality is okay, at least I need not collect dew water anymore.”
Next, making use of the remaining evening light, Li Siwen went to the farmland and did the daily weeding and loosening of the soil. This was basic work that he couldn’t skip or miss.
After weeding, he did the daily routine of catching grasshoppers and rats, finding bird eggs, digging wild vegetables, and killing mosquitoes.
The effort he spent in this routine not only determined how much food he could have for dinner but was currently also an important source of Spirit Points.
When it was about 10 PM or so at night, Li Siwen finally returned to the treehouse and had dinner, which couldn’t make him full.
As for the dry fish and pork, that wasn’t something to be easily used. He only had some not so perfectly dried ones during breakfast and lunch.
Once they were fully dried, he would stock them to eat during winter.
Up to this point, Li Siwen had stocked up 200 kilograms of dried meat, 500 kilograms of dried fish, and 25 kilograms of dried mushroom. These were all important strategic reserve materials. He would stock count them once per day to check for mold or imperfect drying.
During the day, he would use the stove to burn some stalks and leaves from the anti-inflammatory grass to smoke them.
This was mainly to prevent insects. When burned, the stalks and leaves of the anti-inflammatory grass would give off a fresh and bitter smell that had a miraculous effect on repelling insects.
Basically, he would definitely not allow insects to eat his dried meat and fish!
Other than that, the fire would also get rid of moisture in the treehouse. After all, the treehouse was newly built and there were a few rainstorms these past few days. The humidity was inevitable.
“Therefore, after making the bricks successfully, I must make more tiles to prevent rainwater from leaking inside. If not, no matter how good I store them, the dried meat will also become moldy!”
Li Siwen solemnly thought to himself. He must do his best regarding protecting the safety of his food.
After thinking for a while about the development matters of the territory and possible flaws, he put out the fire in the stove, closed the skylight, and extracted one Spirit Point.
This was something that he did every night. The side effect of adding one Spirit Point to Spirit Development was slightly weaker. Stacking up the progress every day, he would be able to bring the Spirit Development to 50% quickly.
After some pain, he quickly entered dreamland.
Maybe it was because of the increase in Spirit Development, Li Siwen only slept for about five hours and woke up spirited.
It was about four or five in the morning now. He would collect dew water at this timing every day, and today was no exception.
Because the water in the well still needed some time to become clear. However, he didn’t need to collect too much dew, the well water would probably be drinkable by noon.
Also, the process of collecting dew was also the process of him doing his patrol of the territory. At the same time, he could also practice his spatial judgment, so he could achieve the stage of closing his eyes and still walk freely in his territory in the future.
Basically, out of heaven, earth, and human factor, he had already controlled one factor now.
As per usual, he lighted up the two stoves and threw in some stalks. Then, he carried the mountain axe, brought two water gourds, went out of the treehouse, and started collecting dew water.
About an hour later, the two water gourds were full. Just as he prepared to straighten up his body and stretch, something suddenly flew out from a bush a few meters in front. Its speed was very fast. When he just caught sight of it, it had already come right in front of him.
Subconsciously, Li Siwen hurriedly stepped half a step back, turning sideways to protect his vitals, and punched out like lightning, knocking this thing onto the ground.
This set of movements flowed like water, originating from the result of his spatial judgment and his Stable talent.
However, before he could start being pleased, a sharp sense of pain came from his fist.
“What the heck! It’s poisonous?”
Li Siwen was slightly shocked. Looking towards the ground, he saw a black insect only 30 centimeters long. It looked like a scorpion on the outside, but it had wings. It was fully black and it looked hideous and evil.
This was something he had never seen before in his territory.
chapter 57
Currently, although the winged scorpion was punched onto the ground, it didn’t seem to be injured. It quickly climbed onto its feet and was going to escape back into the bush.
But how could Li Siwen let it escape? He grabbed over the mountain ax and smashed towards it, directly smashing it into meat sauce.
Instantly, an awful smell came out, and it was actually quite similar to the smell from the exploded rat the other day. Li Siwen hurriedly moved back, at the same time opening one of the water gourds and pouring the dew water onto the fingers on his right hand. There were four pin-sized wounds on it now, and it felt really numb.
After washing the wounds, the two fingers had become as swollen as a carrot. Its surface had become blue-green and there seemed to be liquid flowing inside them.
Li Siwen hurriedly took out the medicine gourd and poured some anti-inflammatory and blood stopping powder on it. At the same time, he poured some into his mouth and washed it down with water.
In just these few seconds, his entire right hand had become as swollen as a bear’s paw.
“What a powerful poison!”
Opening his attribute bar and taking a look, he saw a message flashing there. Accompanyi
ng this message, his Stamina was dropping continuously.
“98%… 96%… 94%…”
“So incredible!”
Li Siwen was quite surprised. Even the toxin from the Iron Ring Black Snake would only deplete one Stamina Point for diluting 10% of it.
When he was testing the herbs, for the most powerful Iron Wolf Poison Grass, one Stamina Point could dilute 5% of the toxin. But now, the toxin from this winged scorpion reached a level of 2% for each point.
Now, he only had 50 Stamina Points. Just for diluting the toxin, he would need to deplete all of them.
But judging from this point, he wouldn’t die from the toxin.
Having a high Stamina did ensure his safety!
Having made such a judgment, Li Siwen quickly rubbed away the black material on the mountain ax and returned to the treehouse. He sealed off the skylight to prevent any wild beasts from taking advantage of the situation.
At this moment, the swelling had extended to his arm. There seemed to be something moving inside, it seemed to be parasites?
This couldn’t do. If this carried on, even if the toxin was fully diluted and neutralized, his arm would be crippled too.
“Let’s release some blood!”
Li Siwen calmly took up the mountain ax, walked in front of the fire stove, and made a cut on his arm all the way to the back of his hand.
Black-colored blood instantly flowed out. There even seemed to be some tiny thing jumping about in the blood, waving its claw and baring its teeth. But when the blood dropped inside the fire stove, it was directly burned into ashes.
Then, he opened the medicine gourd again and poured the powder onto the wound in large amounts, like it was free. At this point, he looked at the attribute bar. In a matter of seconds, the percentage flashing on it had changed.
From the original 2%, it became 5%, then 10%, then lastly became 20%. After a while, it completely became zero and disappeared. This medicine was surprisingly effective.