Chapter 145: Moonlight’s Distant Resonance
When coming, it was just one horse carriage, but this time returning, it was a long caravan, including personnel from the Stonemason Guild specialized in construction tasks, accompanying personnel from the bakery, and several patrolling cavalry.
After returning to the valley, Xilutiya first took the bakery people to retrieve the stored 2400 jin of wheat and delivered it on the spot, letting them transport it back.
Afterward, the Stonemason Guild people surveyed the valley, then selected a mountain wall to excavate, chiseling out a large amount of stone blocks as materials for building the windmill.
Because the guild members were basically Transcendents, their efficiency was far higher than ordinary people, many of them were apprentices of ‘Castle’ Nature, and when building the windmill, they also engraved special textures on it, forming a small stable barrier to prevent other creatures from approaching and intruding, and also resisting Twisted erosion to a certain extent.
After the windmill was built, they cleared a large flat area around it, laid stone slabs, filled the gaps with lime plaster, and finally brushed a layer of special mortar on the surface, which was exceptionally hard when dry, similar to the cement in Xilutiya’s memory.
This place could be used for drying and threshing in the future, and could also be used as a plaza.
Next were the toads’ residences; the previous small houses were still too crude, and they were built by the toads themselves with wood, crooked and slanted.
Now they were uniformly changed to neat houses, and specialized kitchen, canteen, toilet, bathtub, etc. were also built; if humans lived there in the future, it would also be quite comfortable.
Finally, the warehouses; at Xilutiya’s request, three warehouses were built in the valley: one inside an excavated cave, one next to the windmill half-buried underground, and one next to Xilutiya’s residence, which was a large cellar with space half the size of a football field inside.
All construction was completed in nearly a month, costing 120 gold coins; although expensive, the quality was indeed good, far superior to surface standards.
During the construction of these buildings, the new round of wheat in the valley also slowly grew, gradually lush and green.
……
After seeing off the Stonemason Guild personnel, the valley returned to quiet again.
Today’s Xilutiya wore a black dress, forming a stark contrast with her fair legs, sitting on the bed in her small house, counting how much money she had left.
When coming, Madam Fran gave her 200 gold coins, which was a huge sum for her at the time; if in a place like Jiaoshi City, it could be spent very comfortably for decades.
However, after arriving in the woodland, the expenses unknowingly increased.
First was buying the full set of seeds, costing 50 gold coins; this price was indeed a bit expensive, probably because the local guild knew the students in the Camel Building were not short of money, so they quoted high, then hiring toads in the first few months and buying grain utensils cost 8 gold coins, which was very worthwhile, basically all put to use.
Additionally, recently selling wheat to the bakery profited 96 gold coins, building the windmill and various buildings cost 120 gold coins, the two offset each other, equivalent to spending another 24 gold coins, currently 118 gold coins left.
Other fragmentary small expenses were not included, such as renting the post station in the city, dining costs, etc.; these added up to no more than 1 gold coin.
Putting away the remaining gold coins, she hugged the pillow and rolled on the bed, relieving the mood of lacking small money, then leaned on the pillow for a nap.
In the afternoon, Xilutiya tried on the apprentice robe provided in the supplies; it had to be said that this set of clothes was well designed, the robe slightly loose to fit most body types, while the waist had a wide belt that could fix it well and also show the body’s curves, with side slits so even large-angle movements wouldn’t restrict the legs.
The material used special cotton-hemp fiber, exceptionally tough, probably not made from ordinary plants; ordinary swords could hardly cut it, unless using refined sharp weapons or blunt instruments.
Better quality than the set Madam Fran gave her initially.
As for the light armor, its leather thickness was about one centimeter; even a black steel short sword could only poke a shallow hole, excellent defense; after wearing it, adjust using the ropes between armor plates to fit the body, so it wouldn’t affect movement, overall black-brown color, stylish and crisp.
With this set of light armor, survival rate against general ‘First Order’ beasts would greatly increase; even facing ‘Second Order’ enemies, it could provide good defense.
It seemed that fully armed adventure into the secret realms of the Shadow World should be no problem, Xilutiya thought.
Her original plan was to visit the border outpost after stepping into Second Order, but she didn’t want to advance too fast; the valley’s management hadn’t reached half a year, far from time to leave.
At least, she would set off for adventure only after this batch of wheat matured, trying to complete Second Order student tasks.
After trying on, Xilutiya changed out of this light armor, put on the more comfortable apprentice robe, and walked out of the room.
In the valley, the peaceful scenery remained; the wheat in nearly 100 mu wheat fields grew healthily; at this moment, a group of toads were watering these wheat according to Xilutiya’s requirements.
The process was not directly pouring on, but pouring into the ditches beside the fields, letting the water flow naturally along the waterways, then seep into the soil on both sides through the fine gaps on the side of the waterways.
After they finished irrigating, Xilutiya would inspect again, using the gardener’s ability to sort the wheat along the way, making it absorb water to the right degree.
This ensured consistent growth conditions for these wheat and all in optimal state.
After going back and forth several times, Xilutiya finished today’s field care task and returned to the room to rest.
She first read some leisure books, then thought about what to learn in this stage.
Speaking of which, she hadn’t gone to the association for lessons once; there were many teachers giving lessons, only needing to spend certain points, no extra money required.
Currently, she lacked an attack method; although Flower Blooming Technique was good, it was all large-range impacts, not effective against single powerful opponents.
Furthermore, the First Order ‘Fire Cloud Orchid’ was now slowly unable to keep up with Second Order situations; she needed stronger plants, or continue cultivating ‘Fire Cloud Orchid’ to Second Order.
Advancing Fire Cloud Orchid was not easy, probably requiring special techniques; now that Madam Fran was not around, Xilutiya could only note it down for now and ask when returning to White Stone Fortress later.
Additionally, meditation; at First Order, most abilities didn’t require high mental power, but as tier increased, the more powerful spells or abilities required stronger mental power for control and guidance.
Meditation improves mental power; it seems I need to learn a meditation method, Xilutiya noted down.
At this time, she remembered the purple gemstone given by that witch after the assessment, which had a meditation method engraved inside.
Should she use that one? She couldn’t help but be tempted.
Taking out the deep purple gemstone hidden in the box, lightly pressing it to her forehead, feeling the rhythm inside, then immersing into it.
As if entering a half-dream half-awake state, a strange coolness spread from the forehead, followed by a black world.
According to the rhythm in the gemstone, she needed to prepare suitable incense, enter complete meditation state, then simulate nightmares’ phantoms, overcoming and defeating them one by one, thus improving past fears and increasing certain mental power.
Learning this kind of meditation method, without Nightmare Nature, required ‘Nightmare Incense’ for training, and ‘Nightmare Incense’ was not cheap, about 1 gold coin per stick.
Forget it; this kind of mid-tier meditation method had good cultivation effects, but many condition requirements; she would try more basic meditation methods first.
Afterward, Xilutiya flipped out her previous notebook, and recalled『 the knowledge of Melelan Ke』 from the lake prayer, which also recorded meditation method content.
【Meditation Method】: A meditation method usable by all Three Lunar Natures; if other Natures, though cultivable, cannot elevate the main Nature Phase Order.
‘Brilliant Moon’, ‘Mist Shadow’, ‘Nightmare’ are all strong Natures in the mental domain; Transcendents of other Nature categories in the early stage also have to concurrently cultivate it, building foundation before learning specialized meditation methods for each Nature.
As a maiden favored by ‘Brilliant Moon’, she naturally chose ‘Brilliant Moon’ as the meditation method foundation; before learning, she first unequipped 【Flower Blooming Technique Lv.3】 to free up ability card space.
At night, Xilutiya opened the window, letting moonlight shine on the room’s floor.
She laid a layer of soft blanket on the ground, then knelt sitting under the moonlight, closed her eyes to concentrate, sensing the faint moonlight.
According to the meditation method’s instructions, she focused her mind in her head, starting to outline the moon in the sky.
The moon’s outline……
The moon’s color……
The moon’s details……
The moon’s scars……
As the moon constructed in her mind became clearer and more real, her consciousness also echoed distantly with the moon in the night sky, a faint halo emerging on her body surface.
Finally, a bright moon formed in her sea of consciousness, and the mental power used to construct the bright moon poured out moonlight with it, slowly returning to the sea of consciousness.
In such a cycle, her mental power was slightly refined.
（’Meditation Method’ cycle achieved, completion +24）
The entire process had no hindrances, as if some muscle memory, naturally completing one cycle.
After a good while, when the sea of consciousness calmed again, she opened her eyes.
Exactly half an hour passed; her mental power increased about 1% in this meditation, Xilutiya didn’t know if this speed was fast; perhaps improving mental power was originally a water-grinding effort.
【Meditation Method Lv.1】（Brilliant Moon）: Bathed in moonlight, you outline the bright moon’s appearance, your mind also refined in the process.
However, when Xilutiya thought the cultivation ended, another cool feeling was also cycling in her body.
（’Moonlight Breathing Technique’ cycle achieved, completion +24）
（’Xilutiya’s Clear Spring’ familiarity increased, completion +12）
Can these three be trained and improved simultaneously? Xilutiya felt somewhat incredulous, because she had previously heard Scholar Heide teach that concurrently cultivating multiple abilities easily led to power disorder, greatly increased failure rate, and backlash.
On the Fate Plate where soul consciousness belonged, the three ‘Brilliant Moon’ Nature ability cards echoed distantly, blooming faint moonlight spreading toward the Fate Plate center, trying to twist the 【maiden surrounded by alfalfa】 from 【Emerald Honey】 to 【Brilliant Moon】.
The isolated Fate Card 【maiden surrounded by alfalfa】 could only resist this erosion twist alone; fortunately, it was already Second Order, exceptionally solid, not easily changeable; the emerald vines surrounding the card intertwined between silver and verdant, but the silver moonlight could never enter inside the card face.
Perceiving this scene, Xilutiya couldn’t help covering her forehead, like a mother seeing several children fighting, not knowing whom to help.
She suddenly thought of something, moved her mind, directly flipped the middle Fate Card, turning it into a same-tier 【Alien Star】 Fate.
【Maiden Surrounded by Alfalfa】（Second Order·Emerald Honey）→【Maiden Surrounded by Starlight】（Second Order·Alien Star）
The previous surrounding alfalfa dissipated; the maiden on the card face bathed in starry sky, and the ‘Brilliant Moon’ Nature extending around was fully absorbed by it, then transformed into brilliant stars, blooming one by one in the night sky.
【Alien Star】 was not afraid of this erosion, or rather, 【Alien Star】 was the Nature with the strongest erosion characteristic; even 【Twisted】 was a special Nature brought by 【Alien Star】.
If ‘Illusory Moon’ split into three Natures, with ‘Brilliant Moon’ as the main inheritor, then 【Alien Star】 might also be split from some primal Nature; 【Alien Star】【Twisted】 plus some unknown Nature, all three were star-attribute Natures.
Sun, moon, star, three major attributes, nine Natures, occupying half of all Natures; they were the origins of many spells, intangible rules without entity yet influencing world operation.
