Chapter 110: Chapter 110

“My god, there was a goblin hiding down here!” Guan Hai exclaimed in shock. He’d thought this was where the goblins hid their loot, but it turned out to be where they hid themselves.

Niu Shun checked the goblin’s corpse. “Looks like Mu Ying killed it. That girl is fierce! Nothing else here—let’s go. We’d be better off picking up some blood raven corpses outside.”

Mu Ying left the goblin tribe and found a small creek to wash her fur thoroughly.

Once her fur was dry, she changed back to human form and used a cleaning spell to freshen herself up. She felt like a whole new person.

By now, it was fully dark. Time to head back.

She took out her flying broom and headed south.

When she returned to the treehouse, she ran right into Yuan Gungun, who was busy playing with money.

The big jar for storing the territory’s income was overflowing, with coins even scattered around its base.

Yuan Gungun was sitting atop a pile of copper coins, playing.

The other large jar, which was connected to the territory’s mailbox, was also piled high with coins.

Mu Ying checked the territory interface and realized that many people had deposited their spare money into their identity tokens.

Of course, they thought the money was stored in their tokens, but in reality, it was transmitted to her.

On her territory interface, she could use the identity token system to view information about residents who had bound their tokens, including their spending and savings. With these tokens, the territory’s residents were now completely under her control.

She could occasionally borrow a small portion of these deposits in emergencies, as long as she returned it in time. It was basically like running a bank.

But with so much loose change piling up in the treehouse, it was getting inconvenient. After some thought, Mu Ying teleported the two big jars and their contents to the plantation.

She expanded the wooden house in the plantation, adding three small rooms.

She set up teleportation points for territory deposits, income, and the mailbox in these three rooms, so she wouldn’t have to worry about the jars overflowing anymore.

She also opened the goblin leader’s chest. Sure enough, there were quite a few coins inside, along with some goblin equipment. The quality was average, but everything was brand new.

After combining the coins, she had over twenty gold coins, fifty solid silver coins, and thirty or forty copper coins.

Mu Ying put all the gold coins in the room for territory income, keeping only some loose silver and copper coins for daily expenses.

The territory’s income now exceeded seventy gold coins.

The residents’ total deposits didn’t even come close to that.

It seemed her territory’s residents weren’t exactly wealthy—they couldn’t save much.

Thinking of this, Mu Ying felt she really needed to work harder to create jobs for her people. With stable incomes, their lives would be much better."

"“Professor Su, congratulations! You’ve been appointed as the quarry supervisor!”

“Congratulations, Professor Su!”

“Professor Su, I’m planning to work as a quarry laborer—please look after me!”

…

Amid the constant stream of congratulations, Su Huashi made his way slowly toward the notice board, his face still wearing that usual faint, calm smile.

Whether it was the arrival of the apocalypse, struggling to survive with his wife, or falling overnight from a respected intellectual to someone who could barely get enough to eat and had to squeeze in with others at the bottom rung of society, his expression had never shown distress.

Now, having suddenly landed a coveted “iron rice bowl” position in the territory and become the envy of many, Su Huashi remained composed as ever.

But deep down, he was genuinely happy that the knowledge in his mind could finally shine again.

What he regretted most about the apocalypse was the loss of so many treasures of civilization.

As Su Huashi approached, the crowd in front of the notice board instinctively parted to make way for him.

“Thank you,” Su Huashi said as he walked up to the board and saw his own name.

“Su Huashi is hereby appointed as the supervisor of the quarry camp. Please report to the quarry camp as soon as possible after seeing this notice and prepare for tomorrow’s work.”

After reading, Su Huashi immediately chose to teleport. Sure enough, there was now a new teleportation destination: the quarry camp.

He had already guessed he might not be able to return home for a while, so before leaving, he’d told his wife not to wait up and to start packing their things.

Would he get to meet the mysterious lord of the territory today?

As the dizziness from teleportation faded, Su Huashi looked up and saw a strikingly young girl. Her emerald-green eyes made people instinctively lower their guard.

“It’s you—just as I thought,” Su Huashi said. He’d long noticed the difference between lorded and unclaimed territories, and had his own guesses about the lord’s identity. Mu Ying was the most likely candidate.

After all, she was recognized as the territory’s strongest, and a druid to boot. Given the territory’s style, the lord had to be someone who loved nature.

“Hello, Professor Su. I’m the lord of Qingshan Territory,” Mu Ying said, extending her hand for a gentle handshake.

Talented people always deserved special treatment. There were things he needed to know to help out, and besides, Mu Ying felt her identity wouldn’t stay secret for long. People had probably guessed already—look, even Professor Su wasn’t surprised to see her here.

“Hello,” Professor Su replied, looking at the girl in front of him—someone who should have been preparing for college entrance exams in a classroom. He felt both a pang of pity and a surge of hope. Having young people like her was a blessing for humanity!

Elf. Green Witch. Not quite human. Mu Ying thought to herself that Professor Su, as a rare elder who’d survived the apocalypse, truly was special. Most people would have bombarded her with questions by now.

“Professor Su, to be honest, the territory’s construction needs stone and ore. Stone is easy enough—we have plenty in the Rocky Forest—but as for ore… I wonder if you know of any mineral veins around Binhai City?” Mu Ying got straight to the point.

More than quarrying, Mu Ying actually cared about mining. That was why she’d chosen Su Huashi. As a local of Binhai City, even though he’d worked in the imperial capital, his expertise meant he should know something about the area’s mineral distribution.

“Well…” Professor Su looked a bit troubled. Sure enough, Mu Ying heard the answer she least wanted: “As far as I know, there are no mineral veins around Binhai City.”

Seeing her disappointed, Professor Su thought for a moment and added, “To be precise, there aren’t any on land nearby. As for the sea, no one’s ever really explored it. There might be something there—I’d expect so…”

Huh? Underwater?

Right, just because there’s nothing on land doesn’t mean there’s nothing in the sea.

Although there’s no way to reach the seabed right now, at least it’s hope.

Mu Ying immediately asked if, when the opportunity arose, Professor Su could help survey the seabed—even if it was underwater.

“No problem. My attributes aren’t great, and my profession’s already hit a ceiling. All I have left is what I know about rocks. Compared to you young folks, us old bones are bound to be phased out by the apocalypse sooner or later. I’m just happy I can still help,” Professor Su said with a cheerful, open smile.

“Don’t say that. Strength and knowledge are equally important, and your expertise is invaluable!” Mu Ying said earnestly. If she had the ability, she’d want to gather up living treasures of civilization like Professor Su and keep them safe.

The apocalypse had wiped out humanity’s past civilization. Books and records were gone. The knowledge accumulated over centuries could only be found in the minds of people like him.

It was just that, with most people still struggling to survive, this was all being overlooked.

Mu Ying made a mental note of this. Some things couldn’t wait. If these people didn’t make it, it would be a huge loss. She’d save as many as she could—if not useful now, they certainly would be in the future.