Chapter 8: Founding the City

After returning to his own city, Li Mingxing discovered that his city hall had finally been completed. Some of the fierce demon slaves were sprawled out on the ground resting, while others gathered in groups of three or five, brawling amongst themselves. Only a handful of the weaker ones were still laboring diligently at the barracks, projecting the training grounds as instructed by Li Mingxing.

The moment Li Mingxing entered, before he could even get a good look at his city hall, the demon slaves surged toward him. Several of them opened their mouths repeatedly, but no sound came out. From their behavior, Li Mingxing quickly guessed what was happening.

He brushed past the demon slaves and approached the city hall. There, he found a two-story stone building standing imposingly, occupying about three acres of land. It looked as though a pile of stones had been haphazardly stacked together, and there wasn’t even a door on the front facade.

Inside, the atmosphere was not at all gloomy or chilling. The ground floor was divided into a large hall and five rooms. Apart from two rows of stone benches and a staircase leading upward, the hall was sparsely furnished. The five rooms served as offices, each handling personnel, finance, construction, military, and administrative matters.

The second floor was Li Mingxing’s living quarters, also divided into five rooms. The largest was his bedroom; next to it was a chamber for the maids to reside and await his summons. The remaining three rooms were a bathroom, a dining room, and a study—altogether, a well-appointed suite.

Li Mingxing understood that the existence of a second floor was due to the city’s current status as a village. He had heard that upon reaching the rank of a town, there would be an option to add a basement or a third floor.

He did not dwell on such matters. In the ground floor hall, he pressed his hand to the floor, causing a subterranean platform to rise slowly. Pointing at the blueprint on the platform, Li Mingxing calmly ordered, “Construct a livestock farm at the northernmost corner of the city hall.”

His voice carried a magical power, instantly reaching the ears of the demon slaves. Whether fighting or resting, they all dashed toward the northern side of the city hall with such speed, it was as if some dreadful overseer was driving them on.

In no time, a large patch of ground at the northern corner was leveled. Stones and timber were buried in the earth, and the surface was divided into more than ten separate plots.

Standing on the second floor, Li Mingxing watched his demon slaves laboring with wild frenzy and couldn’t help but laugh. Who said these demon slaves were difficult to control? From the look of things, they were quite manageable.

Seeing that the farm would not be completed any time soon, Li Mingxing turned his attention elsewhere. He recalled that Raymond had once mentioned that, aside from training troops, the city could also house his forces. Now that the city was established, he wondered, where were his troops?

No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than a portal appeared beside him, and his troops marched out one after another.

Before they had all emerged, the demon slaves came rushing over, their eyes betraying clear hostility—some of them were even red-eyed with fury.

Li Mingxing had yet to speak when his newly arrived Minotaur Warrior shouted, “What do you want?”

Barely had the Minotaur Warrior finished speaking when the demon slaves swarmed over and gave him a sound beating.

Faced with this, Li Mingxing had no choice but to quell the demon slaves’ agitation with his imperial presence. One of them pointed toward the livestock farm, seemingly trying to express something.

Li Mingxing thought for a moment and seemed to understand. He led two minotaur slaves toward the farm, where he found the construction complete.

But the farm itself was empty save for the demon slaves, who were gathered around, drooling incessantly.

Li Mingxing glanced at the farm’s description, sighed, and assured the demon slaves that he would take care of everything.

He then left the city, only to return three hours later, arms laden with goods. Everyone stared in surprise when they saw he had brought back a pair each of live chickens, ducks, and rabbits.

After tossing these animals into the farm, Li Mingxing and his followers watched them closely. Strangely, after being placed inside, each pair slowly became two pairs, then four pairs, and then multiplied further.

It turned out that the farm was designed to provide food for the city, generating a fixed amount each day without consuming any resources. The only requirement was that at least one pair of edible animals be present as breeding stock.

For now, Li Mingxing had no way to procure and transport larger animals such as pigs, dogs, or cattle to his city unit, so he had to make do with smaller creatures.

The demon slaves didn’t seem to mind. Seeing the proliferation of live animals, they leapt into the farm, each grabbing one and devouring it on the spot.

Li Mingxing, losing any sense of excitement, assigned his troops to guard the city hall and arranged further construction tasks for the demon slaves before taking his leave.

Once outside his city, Li Mingxing did not revisit it for some time. Before leaving, he had set everything in order—the demon slaves would, as per Qin Fang’s instructions, build the parade ground for troop assembly and the basic foundry for crafting labor tools.

Afterward, they would divide into two groups: one to accelerate production at the livestock farm, the other to enter the foundry and forge tools for construction.

Once all the demon slaves were equipped with tools, they would rework the exteriors of the existing buildings, ensuring that at the very least, the four structures would no longer look like random heaps of stone.

Li Mingxing estimated that all this would take at least ten days to complete, which explained why the timeframe mentioned by his mentor Raymond was not as short as he had initially thought.