For Tian Yuan Territory, which still relied mainly on agriculture, the Summer Harvest and the Autumn Harvest were without doubt the two most important points of the whole year.

In past years, a few hundred grain stores and liang lanes, mostly small ones, had contended with one another inside the territory. Friction over profits never ceased, and the mood in the territory shifted from one day to the next.

With everyone’s attention scattered, the tension was hardly noticeable.

But this year was different.

In Mulberry Field Town, the largest agricultural town around Hope City, vicious competition had left only two slightly larger grain stores. More and more eyes had unconsciously turned toward this gathering known as the Summer Harvest warm-up meeting.

As the main host of the event, the leadership of Mulberry Field Town clearly understood what kind of economic stimulus this spotlight could bring to the town if it was handled well.

A few days earlier, outside the town’s east gate, an entire venue had already begun to be built, with an area initially estimated at no less than five thousand square meters.

It included not only the main venue for the warm-up meeting, but also, even more, various sub-venues for outside visitors to spend money in.

Inside the town, countless stalls and shops meant for outsiders’ spending had also been set up early, waiting only for people to move in.

They had longed for it day and night.

When the day truly arrived, the grand scene in the town did not disappoint anyone.

From morning until noon, the asphalt road outside Mulberry Field Town ran almost at full load.

Countless private and public energy vehicles, carrying dozens or even hundreds of people who had come to watch, kept pouring into the town.

Luna Town, Hope City, Kaide Town, Baiyue County...

People from all four corners of the territory began to gather here, bringing a flow of more than thirty thousand visitors in just half a day.

Everyone was pumped up, eager to see which grain store would come out on top in this life-and-death contest.

What they never imagined was that far more people than those who had come were watching this event.

Elsewhere, countless pairs of eyes had already been fixed on it.

In a dense forest one hundred and thirty kilometers east of Hope City,

the sun was high, and daylight kept falling through the gaps between the leaves, casting dappled spots of light across the ground.

In a hollow within the forest, three alloy gates stood side by side. They had endured plenty of wind and sun, and a yellow-black rust had formed on them.

From the outside, the place looked like an ancient underground ruin, full of mystery.

But very few people knew.

This was the ancestral ground of the territory’s foremost family, the Chen Clan!

Unlike the Inspectorate, which had built its office inside a natural underground cave, here, following the alloy gates inward, one could see a downward ramp that had clearly been excavated by hand, a terrifying eighty meters in length.

Going down the ramp, by the time one reached the end, one was already more than fifty meters below the surface.

All along the way, everything within sight, even the least conspicuous spot, was level three alloy at the very least.

The pillars that bore the load, often weighing tens of tons, were rated level six.

With such extravagance, the interior structure and environment hardly needed describing.

Once inside the real underground, the bright supplemental sunlight lamps turned the underground into a world above ground.

And the flowers and plants growing inside made it impossible to tell where one actually was.

Following the inside of the underground shelter deeper in, one reached one of the larger rooms, just where the path ended.

The room’s thick alloy door was pushed open from outside, and two men in light blue uniforms hurried in, then shut the great door behind them.

They first glanced at the man behind the desk, whose temples were already streaked with gray and who wore a pale gray mask.

Then they respectfully stepped forward and laid the materials in their hands gently on the desk.

“Clan Head, we have pulled up Su Youzong’s file!”

“Oh?” Hearing the three words “Su Youzong,” the man busy with his work behind the desk raised his head.

Beneath his gray mask were a pair of clear eyes, left uncovered.

But at this moment, those eyes were fixed on the file bag on the desk, showing a contemplation whose meaning was hard to read.

“You two go out first.”

“Also, call Chen Yi, Chen Yun and Chen Kai here.”

As the words fell softly, the two men in front of the desk nodded and hurriedly bowed as they backed out.

Only when the alloy door was closed again did the masked man slowly pick up the file bag and lean back against the desk.

He tore open the seal of the bag, and several sheets of paper slid out and dropped into his hand.

“Su Youzong, male, currently thirty-one years old (doubtful), height 176 to 181 (doubtful), appearance and bearing ordinary (doubtful). Landed on the new continent in June of Year 1 of the Doomsday Calendar. First appeared in the settlement of Three Small Spirit Seas, where he was an ordinary resident. In January of Year 3, the Three Small Spirit Seas came under siege by alien races. Su Youzong fled early by luck, drifting along the way, and in April of Year 4 joined the White Cloud Alliance. Later, because the White Cloud Alliance refused to sign the identity fulfillment agreement, it was forcibly dissolved, and he again drifted from place to place as a vagrant...”

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