Returning to hometown to farm: The apocalypse system arrived ten years earlier?

Chapter 374 The Li Family Treasury and the First Alien Beast-themed Starship's Trial Voyage
Zhao Xueqing had previously planted a small patch of West Lake Longjing tea in the underground farm in Guanghan City. In the past few years, when food was scarce, she was busy cultivating and promoting high-yield crop seeds. Now that the situation has eased a bit, she remembered that Li Xiang loved to drink tea and the traditional Chinese teahouse that he opened during peacetime, so she started planting tea again.

Although Li Xiang has a considerable amount of tea stored in his interdimensional warehouse, which has the characteristic of "preservation"—whatever goes in remains the same when taken out—it's still a waste. Besides, he always feels that tea doesn't taste as good as tea he grows himself.

Now that Jade Rabbit City is under construction, it's natural that an underground farm will be built. Lei Xiaohui felt that she should have everything that Guanghan City has. Since tea plantations don't take up much space anyway, Zhao Xueqing also helped her plant a small plot, but this time it wasn't West Lake Longjing tea, but the famous Mengding Ganlu tea from Sichuan Province.

Lei Xiaohui was extremely satisfied. When the tea trees matured, they would be a beautiful sight.

The tea plantation is not a flat piece of land, but a small, undulating hill underground, with climate and humidity conditions designed to mimic the original growing conditions as much as possible. As for how the tea will grow, that remains to be seen.

Anyway, they haven't grown up yet and are far from being ready for harvesting; it's just a small experimental plot.

Zhao Xueqing has many ideas about agriculture. In addition to scientific farming (using various methods of modern agriculture, such as artificial light simulation, precise control of temperature and humidity, and even soilless cultivation and tissue culture), she also studies extraordinary planting.

With a large population on Earth, even if only one in a hundred is selected, there are still a great many extraordinary individuals with a wide variety of abilities. She and Shen Wenqian collaborated to select a large number of plant-based seedlings and sent out invitations to them to work at her agricultural research institute.

Many people flock to work under a Saint-ranked being, upon hearing that it is possible.

Now that Li Xiang has reached the God King realm, the other Saint-level individuals naturally don't mind revealing their identities to demonstrate their power and influence.

Besides, Yao Yao, Zhao Xueqing, and Lei Xiaohui were already very popular.

The Saint Rank, in the current context of Earth, is equivalent to an academician. Zhao Xueqing, on the other hand, is a master who combines supernatural abilities with agricultural science, and was already quite famous in peacetime.

Although her academic standing is not as high as Jiang Cai'er's, it still surpasses that of ordinary academicians. Jiang Cai'er, on the other hand, is the queen of academicians, a renowned scientist whose name is known to everyone and who cannot help but admire her. The combined achievements of hundreds of academicians cannot compare to hers alone.

Therefore, Zhao Xueqing also gathered a large number of scientific research-oriented superhuman talents, such as those who are proficient in "spiritual plant synesthesia" and can communicate with plants, understand their specific needs, and promote their growth; those with water-based superhuman abilities who are good at bringing rain to plants; and those with insect-based superhuman abilities who can control insects and pollinate plants and flowers.

For example, there's a girl named Lin Wanwan, nicknamed "Little Dragon Girl of Sichuan and Chongqing," who is also from Sichuan Province. She is extremely skilled at beekeeping. Her hive includes queen bees of the third and fourth order, as well as ordinary bees of the first and second order, and her ability to collect nectar and pollinate is unparalleled. Not only is she good at pollinating, but the honey she produces is also extremely rare and highly sought after.

Of course, a large portion of these spiritual honeys were reserved as special offerings, directly presented to Li Xiang, with only a small portion available for sale. The girls would also keep some for themselves to share with family and friends.

Zhao Xueqing also has several dedicated spirit plant gardens, where she grows mutated plants. She has a large area in City 03, and now that she's on the moon, she has also established a "spirit plant garden." The spirit seeds she uses are all seeds or cuttings brought from City 03. It's worth mentioning that many spirit seeds don't grow well when propagated from seeds, but they thrive when propagated by cuttings or grafting, producing lush foliage and fruits full of spiritual energy.

It can be considered a beautiful back garden, a place where you can visit and pick spiritual fruits when you have free time.

The mutated plants that Li Xiang had previously discovered on Earth, such as the golden nanmu from the primeval forests of Sichuan Province and the agate vine from Kalimantan Island in Indonesia, have all been transplanted back and planted in the Spirit Plant Garden in City 03.

The main garden of the Spirit Plant Garden in City 03 has more than 600 kinds of mutated plants. The branch gardens in Guanghan City and Jade Rabbit City have slightly fewer, with about 200 kinds each.

The peach trees and golden bamboo are particularly noteworthy, having multiplied into peach and bamboo groves, and their spiritual fruits and bamboo shoots are exceptional.

Besides being edible, some spiritual materials are also excellent for crafting weapons. For example, rattan staffs made from agate vines were very popular among young people in Leijiagou during peacetime, and now that they have truly mutated, they have become divine staffs with extraordinary properties.

The same goes for Jinlei bamboo; bamboo flutes made from it are worth a fortune to music students with extraordinary talents.

The extraordinary bracelets made of Phoebe zhennan wood have been sold at exorbitant prices.

These items are currently only circulating in the domestic underground city, but news and short videos have also reached overseas. When overseas superhumans see them, they can't help but sigh again, realizing they are truly on a different level, and are once again filled with endless longing, wanting to immigrate.

The residents of foreign underground cities now look at the underground cities of Country C, especially City 03, Guanghan City, and Jade Rabbit City, and they think everything they see is wonderful, as if "even the air smells sweet".

……

While condensing stardust in space, Li Xiang also discovered a lot of high-quality "meteorite iron." He then activated "Crystal Gold Armor" and casually crafted some extraordinary armor or spiritual weapons.

As his cultivation level improved, the power of the "Crystal Gold Armor" became increasingly divine. Now, he could easily refine extraordinary items of Saint rank and below using only his own strength.

However, items at the God-tier and God-King levels are still quite difficult to obtain. Out of a thousand items, only five or six are God-tier, and no God-King level items have been crafted yet.

With his current strength, he only feels comfortable with spiritual weapons at the God King level or above. Weapons below the God level are like Sun Wukong picking out weapons in the Crystal Palace, all of which he finds disgusting. They are not as useful as ordinary star sand that weighs ten thousand tons per grain.

Sun Wukong's Ruyi Jingu Bang weighs 13,500 jin, while Li Xiang's star sand weighs 10,000 jin per grain, or 20 million jin per grain, which is much heavier than the monkey's Ruyi Jingu Bang.

Over the years, Li Xiang has accumulated countless extraordinary battle armors and spiritual weapons. Some of them were obtained by killing alien space beasts, some were obtained by killing potential extraordinary beings on Earth due to a system bug, and some were forged using "Crystal Gold Armor".

On a whim, he used his divine sense to infiltrate the interdimensional warehouse and took inventory. There were more than 60,000 extraordinary items of Saint rank and above, a large part of which he had crafted himself.

There are many more below the Saint rank, totaling more than eight million pieces, ranging from the first to the eighteenth rank.

With so many extraordinary items, he no longer needed them himself, so he thought he could use them to establish the "Li Family Treasury" to reward meritorious officials.

However, extraordinary items are still too few relative to the human population, and he doesn't have that much time to keep killing low-level alien beasts or using "Crystal Armor" to refine them, as that would delay his cultivation. Therefore, the reward policy is currently only being piloted in City 03, Los Santos, Moon City, and Jade Rabbit City.

If it works well, we'll extend it to other dungeons in China. As for overseas, that depends on the situation.

Now, City 03 has more than 2600 million people. Due to the new talent policy introduced by Jiang Cai'er, many high-level talents and their families have come to settle here. In addition, the population has been growing rapidly and is no longer the original 1500 million people.

Los Santos has around 1800 million people, while Moon City and Jade Rabbit City each have around 2000 million. Adding them all together, the total population of Li Xiang's directly administered cities exceeds 8000 million. If we include Eileen's territory, the cities under Chiba Yukio and her daughter's control, and Aki Toto's territory, the total population under his direct control is approximately 1.3 million.

Of course, since the reward is to be given to meritorious individuals, two conditions must be met. First, they must have made outstanding contributions, not limited to military achievements; their academic achievements, model worker status in various industries, and other contributions are all eligible for evaluation. The second condition, naturally, is unwavering loyalty and a sense of belonging to the organization. Those with a rebellious nature are definitely not eligible.

Those who are inherently rebellious are unlikely to make any significant contributions.

Li Xiang also helped Eileen collect many rare metals in space. These metals are either non-existent on Earth or extremely scarce, but are abundant in space. Eileen's metal-related abilities are also extremely rare, combining combat power with scientific research. With these precious materials, she will likely be able to make even greater progress.

Eileen's magic cannon and alchemical furnace are also high-performance magical weapons and engines, but they belong to two different systems than Jiang Cai'er's. Firstly, the systems are vastly different, and secondly, Li Xiang doesn't dare let them meet. Therefore, these two systems operate independently. Currently, Jiang Cai'er's side has the upper hand.

Putting everything else aside, the resources, manpower, and materials on Jiang Cai'er's side are far superior to Eileen's "small-scale" efforts.

Last time, Li Xiang contributed the remains of a god-level space beast. Jiang Cai'er oversaw the reconstruction of the space beast carrier, and progress has been made, with ground trials already completed.

The process involves moving the massive mothership out of its underground workshop and conducting a static ignition test on the Earth's surface to verify the interoperability of the engine array.

After multiple verifications, optimizations, and continuous improvements, it has completed its first test flight: the maiden flight was completed at an altitude of 1,000 meters above the Earth's surface.

The next step is to conduct suborbital test flights to test the ship's pressure resistance and maneuverability.

Because there are still a large number of alien creatures on Earth, and powerful alien creatures often appear in space, Li Xiang needs to return to escort the suborbital test flight.

Looking at the time, it's about time, which is about a week from now.

Once the suborbital test flight is successful, there will be deep space travel, carrying a group of immigrants to Jade Rabbit City to carry out interstellar colonization missions, collect data, and optimize energy allocation logic.

At the same time, it is also necessary to conduct tests on shipborne radar, missiles, directed energy weapons, laser weapons, high-energy particle cannons, as well as catapult launches and landings of shipborne aircraft and transport aircraft.

……

After collecting enough rare space metals, Li Xiang went to stay with Eileen for a few days, partly to help her prepare for pregnancy and partly to spend time with the children.

The mixed-race babies are very cute, but Li Xiang doesn't show favoritism; he treats all the children equally.

Time flew by, and the day for the trial voyage of the alien beast-themed space carrier arrived. Li Xiang bid farewell to Eileen and the children and arrived at the space carrier's Earth home port, an underground port located in western Sichuan.

When this colossal object, stretching over 300 kilometers long, over 100 kilometers wide, and reaching 70 to 80 kilometers high, soared into the sky like a continent, it was still awe-inspiring, even though it had already undergone brief ground trials.

Live broadcast worldwide.

This alien beast-themed space carrier is named "Xuanming". Because it was converted from the remains of alien beasts, it looks rather "fierce" and appears even more sinister, ferocious and terrifying in the black mist.

Even with a large number of searchlights deployed, and even the first-generation prototype "artificial sun" launched, the live broadcast still lacked clarity due to the dense black fog.

However, it was a lucky accident that created the "AFP" effect, making the scene appear even more imposing, solemn, and oppressive.

Li Xiang and Jiang Cai'er stood together in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the control tower, gazing at the enormous "aerial fortress" that was converted from a divine-level alien beast and integrated the essence of alien beast civilization and technological civilization. The three gilded seal characters "Xuanming" on the bow of the ship were faintly visible in the darkness.

"Final self-inspection of each unit is complete!" came the report from the bridge, accompanied by an electrical hum.

Thirty thousand crew members in silver-gray anti-G suits moved through the honeycomb-shaped bridge, holographic projections displaying streams of data in different colors on their retinas. Wang Lei, the engineer in charge of the engine array, repeatedly stroked the 03 city badge on his chest—a keepsake his father had held when he died in the third beast tide.

The instant the countdown reached zero, eight hundred anti-gravity devices hummed simultaneously, causing rubble within a hundred-mile radius to levitate against the laws of physics. The live broadcast captured this historic moment from thirty-six angles: the ship's hull, covered in bio-armor, shimmered with mother-of-pearl iridescence, and plasma streams from 120,000 vector nozzles tore the clouds into spiraling bands of light.

"We are witnessing a leap forward in civilization!" The CCTV commentator's voice was hoarse with excitement. The scene cut to the ecological cabin, where 200,000 trumpet vines, the core of the oxygen cycle, suddenly bloomed in unison, their pale golden pollen forming a galaxy-like vortex in the artificial gravity field.

In a bar in an underground city in North America, the patrons wearing AR glasses suddenly fell silent. "This isn't technology at all..." Mechanical engineer Tom's beer mug shattered on the floor. The trajectory of the mothership's exhaust plume in the stratosphere in the holographic display was clearly an energy matrix beyond human comprehension.

When the Xuanming broke through the Carmen Line, the dragon scale armor plates on the surface of the ship flipped over, revealing the stardust coating that shimmered with a ghostly blue light underneath.

At this moment, in a refuge in Africa, children cheer as they point at a colossal ship projected on the screen, resembling a mythical Titan. The old chief, however, kneels on the ground, playing an ancient melody on his ancestral bone flute to welcome the gods. Meanwhile, in the central square of City 03, 100,000 people spontaneously sing "The Sea of ​​Stars," the sound waves causing ripples to appear on the protective shield.

"Suborbital cruise mode stable!" As the main control screen lit up with emerald green runes, the command cabin erupted in prolonged applause.

The global live broadcast cuts to the observation window at the stern: against the dark backdrop of space, the mothership traces a dark golden trail as it navigates the gravitational slingshot effect of the moon...

As the Xuanming began its first orbital correction around the Earth, the ship's AI (Jiang Cai'er's digital life clone) suddenly recited a poem to all of humanity in Li Xiang's voice—"Lang Tao Sha: Xuanming's First Tour".

Black mist shrouds the sky, dark blue stardust rips through the heavens, a roar echoes through the firmament. Eight hundred engines shake the universe, a moon bow pierces the heavens. Spiritual plants pierce the moon's firmament, their roots serene, a shared bloodline of millennia-old civilization. Behold the starship cleaving the waves, a testament to humanity's triumph.

At this moment, whether it was the genetically modified individuals in the underground casinos of North America or the plant cultivators in the underground farms of Guanghan City, they all heard a strange resonance between their hearts and the starship engines.

(End of this chapter)