Chapter 351: Crafting Enlightenment, Life-Style Talents! (6400)

Hearing the village chief's solemn instructions, the other villagers nodded one after another.

In fact, not to mention offending anyone, they didn't even dare to have any extraneous thoughts.

Before this, the villagers of Grapevine Village had basically lived their lives in their own small village.

They had also heard about what kind of lives those villagers who had been broken up and dispersed led.

In a new environment, being incompatible with others, and being ostracized or made things difficult for, were considered mild.

In serious cases, they might even lose their lives.

Furthermore, some lords had very strange tempers; if things didn't go their way, whipping and abuse were common occurrences.

Some lords with strange habits would even use these commoners for certain inhumane experiments!

Many commoners chose to end their own lives because they could not endure such torture.

Moreover, this time, it was said that their lord was a Chosen Lord.

As for what a Chosen Lord or a God-Chosen Lord was, these villagers had no concept.

They only knew that being able to live in a new place with their whole family was something they wouldn't have dared to dream of.

Even if this lord were a bit harsh or had a strange personality, they could only silently endure it.

At this moment, the old village chief, Zelko, saw a dignified figure walking over from the front.

He was over 1.7 meters tall, wearing a set of mage robes that looked like white silk, and his entire body radiated an astonishing chill.

He possessed a completely different temperament from the nobles and knights he had seen before.

Beside him followed two little girls, one big and one small, who looked like little princesses straight out of a fairy tale.

Their perfect faces and fair skin, delicate enough to be broken by a touch, instantly attracted the gazes of the group of boys and girls from Grapevine Village.

As the saying goes, with age comes wisdom; having lived for more than half his life, Zelko had long since honed the ability to judge people.

Therefore, he instantly judged that this person was their lord.

Before Cao Xing had arrived.

Zelko quickly glanced around and whispered: "Get ready, everyone. This is our new lord."

The villagers' expressions turned solemn, each of them acting as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

Just then, the village chief seemed to remember something and quickly asked: "By the way, where did those two boys, Sarle and Boudi, go?"

Upon hearing this, the villagers shook their heads one after another.

Seeing that the three figures in front were getting closer and closer.

The old village chief could not afford to think about that much anymore; he quickly led all the villagers to wait respectfully on the spot.

After Cao Xing arrived, the old village chief went directly to his front and knelt down.

"This powerful and handsome Lord."

"I am the village chief, Zelko, and I represent all the villagers of the former Grapevine Village in welcoming your return."

"Your wisdom will lead us to prosperity, and your strength will lead us to overcome all obstacles."

The old village chief started off with a string of flowery words.

He prostrated himself on the ground, pressing his forehead against Cao Xing's boots, keeping his posture as low as possible.

Cao Xing did not speak, but instead looked at the two hundred or so figures kneeling on the ground in front of him, his brows slightly furrowed.

"Did Cao Yi not tell you the rules of this territory?"

Zelko raised his head, a look of confusion appearing on his weathered old face.

"Uh… rules?" He seemed somewhat puzzled.

Cao Xing stated directly: "Except for those who have committed a crime, there is no need to kneel when seeing the lord; a bow is sufficient."

Upon hearing this, Zelko was stunned.

He recalled for a moment and quickly nodded, saying: "Lord Cao Yi did indeed tell us…"

Cao Xing immediately widened his eyes: "Then what are you still standing there for? Get up."

Hearing Cao Xing's stern voice, the hundreds of villagers present trembled, their faces turning pale as paper in fear!

The old village chief, Zelko, stood up almost instinctively.

And as he stood up, the others also stood up one after another.

"Clatter!"

The more than two hundred people from Grapevine Village stood in place, some tall and some short.

Before, they were all kneeling on the ground, so Cao Xing hadn't seen them clearly.

Now he realized that these people were truly thin!

Everyone was as thin as a skeleton.

The old village chief's cheeks were sunken, his cheekbones protruding high, like craggy rocks polished by time, and his hands were bony with prominent joints, like withered branches.

Others also looked like refugees suffering from long-term malnutrition, their bodies slender, as if a breeze could blow them away.

Besides this, he also noticed that many people here had brought their whole families.

Among them were quite a few children.

There were toddlers of three or four years old, as well as children of seven or eight.

However, like their parents, they all had pale faces and thin figures.

Clearly, this was caused by long-term hunger and malnutrition.

In this world, it was good enough just to grow up alive; there was no way to consider other nutritional matters.

These children all wore nervous expressions, looking down at their feet.

But they couldn't help but cast their gazes on Tong Chuchu and Elisa.

As peers, it was their first time seeing such pretty little girls.

Their skin was so fair, their features so delicate, just like fairies from heaven, and their clothes were bright and beautiful.

Compared to them, these two little girls were simply from a different world!

This made the children of Grapevine Village feel very envious.

They had also fantasized time and again about being able to wear such beautiful clothes like these two little girls.

However, they only dared to think about it; they dared not act out.

After all, these children could sense that although these two little girls were pretty, they were also very dangerous!

Even that five or six-year-old girl carried an aura that made them fearful!

Facing the nervous villagers of Grapevine Village.

Cao Xing did not say anything to comfort them.

He knew that these villagers had just arrived in a new environment and would need some time to adapt.

So, he stated directly: "You should know the specific situation."

"I am the lord here, and my territory is currently very short of manpower."

"Coincidentally, I have some connection with Baron Fitz Walker, so he arranged for you to be sent to my territory."

"From today on, you will serve me."

"Do you have any questions?"

The village chief, Zelko, was stunned for a moment, then quickly shook his head and said: "It is our honor to work in your great territory!"

The old village chief agreed very readily.

After a pause, he continued: "Respected Lord, we will work for you wholeheartedly from now on."

"Besides this, do you have any other requirements for us?"

"Requirements?"

"For example, how long we need to work every day, or how much work we need to complete, and so on…"

Cao Xing shook his head: "There are no such requirements; just work to the best of your ability."

"As for whether you will slack off, other staff members will supervise you."

"Are there any other questions?"

Upon hearing this, the village chief, Zelko, said with a blank expression: "No… nothing else…"

The other villagers were also blank-faced.

They had assumed that after seeing them, this lord would make things difficult for them and suppress them, and then assign them some arduous work.

As it turned out, the other party didn't seem to have such intentions?

For a moment, everyone couldn't figure out this Chosen Lord.

Just as Cao Xing was about to recruit them all into his territory, he suddenly felt some movement above his head.

On the eaves of the high-level residence above, there was a commotion.

Then, two figures fell directly from above.

And the place where they fell was right next to the lord, near that four or five-year-old little girl!

This sudden scene left the villagers on the scene in a daze at first.

Then, extreme shock appeared in their eyes!

However, the situation happened too quickly, and the villagers couldn't react at all.

Just as those two figures were about to crash onto Tong Chuchu's head.

Elisa was quick to react; she grabbed Tong Chuchu's arm and pulled her over.

And Cao Xing's reaction was equally swift; he immediately raised his staff.

An Ice Wall spell rose from thin air, propping up the two figures who were about to fall to the ground.

"Ouch!"

With a scream, the two thin figures slid off the ice wall and landed on their bottoms on the ground.

They didn't suffer any injuries.

The two who fell rubbed their bottoms, looking terrified.

They looked like two thirteen or fourteen-year-old children, also very thin.

At this moment, after the villagers saw their faces clearly, they were all so scared that their faces turned pale and their bodies stiffened!

Zelko rushed over almost immediately, grabbed the two children's arms, and asked in a trembling voice!

"Sarle, Boudi! What are you doing!"

In this temperature of over twenty degrees below zero, a layer of cold sweat had already appeared on his forehead.

Everyone could tell that the two girls next to this lord were definitely important people to him.

If anything went wrong, the lives of their entire village wouldn't be enough to pay for it!

The two children were startled by the village chief's roar, their whole bodies trembling.

They came to their senses at this moment and knew they had caused trouble, and big trouble at that!

They quickly scrambled up from the ground and hurriedly apologized: "Sorry! Village Chief!"

The old village chief could not care about that much anymore; he directly grabbed their shoulders and pressed the two children in front of Cao Xing.

"Quick, apologize to this Lord and the young lady beside him, hurry!"

The two children were also scared silly; they came to Elisa and Tong Chuchu like puppets.

And then knelt down directly.

"Sorry! Respected Lord, and this respected young lady, please forgive our recklessness for offending you!"

Elisa and Tong Chuchu held hands and looked at Cao Xing with blank expressions.

At this moment, the atmosphere suddenly froze, and everyone held their breath.

Including the two children on the ground, whose bodies were also trembling constantly.

Everyone couldn't help but glance at this Lord, waiting for his judgment.

It could be said that the lives of almost the entire village were in the hands of this young man!

Cao Xing did not speak; he could tell that although this old village chief was scolding these two children, in reality, he was protecting them.

If it were in other territories, encountering some lords with bad tempers, the two children's actions just now would have been enough for them to lose their lives.

More seriously, it might even implicate the villagers of an entire village.

This was also the reason why they were so afraid.

Cao Xing waved his hand: "Get up first. Remember to be careful next time and don't climb such high places."

"If you fall, you will break your bones."

The high-level shelter was twelve meters high; falling from such a height, with the constitution of these two little guys, breaking a leg would be considered light.

Upon hearing this, the oppressive atmosphere on the scene suddenly paused.

Everyone's expressions changed from their previous terror and fear to confusion.

It seemed that with this lord's words, an impending storm was directly dispelled into nothingness.

All the villagers of Grapevine Village were still in a dazed state.

Beside him, Tong Chuchu spoke up: "Get up, don't keep kneeling on the ground, Big Brother will get angry!"

"I'm not blaming you, you didn't hit me anyway."

"Don't worry, Big Brother won't punish you."

Tong Chuchu's innocent words rang out.

It also made the villagers of Grapevine Village breathe a sigh of relief.

The two children who had made the mistake stood up from the ground in a trance, as if in a dream.

The old village chief, Zelko, also came to his senses and said gratefully: "You are truly a merciful lord; may the Goddess bless you."

"And this beautiful young lady, you are as pure and kind as the stars in the sky."

Including the two hundred or so villagers in the back, their gazes towards Cao Xing and Tong Chuchu were also filled with gratitude!

Cao Xing shook his head and did not say much more.

He directly issued a recruitment invitation to them.

The next moment, a system prompt appeared.

[Recruitment successful: Villagers Zelko / Abu / Betsy / Anfensen… have joined your territory. Territory population +237…]

…There are over two hundred people in total, and they are all ordinary creatures.

Cao Xing's territory population has increased by another two hundred plus.

After that last major boost, his population count had long since surpassed one thousand.

The majority of them, naturally, are the combat personnel.

One elite-grade creature takes up 2 population slots, a chieftain takes 3, and so on…

He glanced at his territory's population status.

[Territory Population: 1462 / 3000]

"Not bad, the population limit is still quite sufficient for now."

"Currently, every time the Lords Manor levels up, it increases the population by 1000. Once it reaches level 10, there will be 5000 population capacity."

Then, Cao Xing glanced at the attributes of these newcomers.

[Vine Village Chief: Zelko]

[Level: 9 (Tier 1 Ordinary Creature)]

[Health: 540 / 883 (Pale Tree Blessing)]

[Attack Power: 47 ~ 49]

[Skills: None]

[Life Skills: Intermediate Management Mastery (Possesses rich management experience, can quickly and reasonably allocate work, coordinate relationships between territory residents, and simultaneously boost the morale of allies to a certain extent); Intermediate Planting Mastery (Possesses rich planting experience, increases crop survival rate by 20%, and increases crop yield by 10%); Advanced Brewing Mastery (Possesses extensive brewing knowledge, increases the success rate by 30% when brewing high-grade liquor, and has a certain probability to increase the quality of the brewed liquor)]

[Talent: None]

[Status: Frost Rot (A disease contracted from long-term living in polar environments, absorbing large amounts of cold air, combined with malnutrition. Early symptoms include declining physical fitness and a continuously decreasing maximum Health; by the middle stage, internal organs will also be affected, leading to functional decline, difficulty breathing, weak heartbeat, and eventually death.)]

[Satiety: 52]

[Loyalty: 67]

…

[Villager: Ruger]

[Level: 7 (Tier 1 Ordinary Creature)]

[Health: 323 / 523 (Pale Tree Blessing)]

[Attack Power: 24 ~ 38]

[Skills: None]

[Life Skills: Primary Planting Mastery, Primary Brewing Mastery]

[Status: Frost Rot]

[Satiety: 53]

[Loyalty: 66]

…

A faint look of surprise appeared in Cao Xing's eyes.

He hadn't expected this village chief to be a rare high-level talent.

That Advanced Brewing Mastery is truly powerful; it directly increases the success rate by 30% and has a certain probability of increasing the liquor's quality.

You have to know, when brewing ordinary liquor, there is basically no chance of failure.

But it's different for those high-grade liquors.

The materials required for such high-grade liquor are too premium, and the brewing process is many times more complicated.

If one step goes wrong, all previous efforts will be wasted.

Therefore, a 30% success rate is still very powerful.

As for the latter effect, increasing quality…

He happened to have a [Phantom Magic Wine Recipe] in his hands, which is a gold-quality magic wine.

Could it be that after increasing the quality by one grade, it will turn orange, which is epic quality?

Thinking of this, Cao Xing began to feel some anticipation.

However, to brew [Phantom Magic Wine], not only does he need to collect materials, but he also needs an [Advanced Brewing Workshop].

He still needs to prepare for a while longer.

Besides this village chief, he also discovered that these Vine Village villagers all possessed some sort of skill to varying degrees.

Of course, most of them have [Primary Planting Mastery].

Through their names, Cao Xing also knew that the villagers of this village previously made a living by planting a type of winter grape.

So it wasn't strange that they had [Planting Mastery].

Cao Xing pondered: "The quality of this batch of villagers is actually quite high. If so many of them possess Planting Mastery, I can have them specialize in cultivating crops."

"Just in time, after my first batch of Kulin Barley and Cold Dew Rice matures in a while, I can prepare to expand the farmland area."

In his territory, the livestock industry has already shown some improvement.

As for the agricultural side, it has just started.

If these villagers are used well, they can bring Cao Xing quite a lot of profit.

Of course, he also noticed that these villagers all seemed to have a disease called [Frost Rot].

According to the system, this disease is caused by long-term malnutrition, combined with the long-term inhalation of cold air, leading to cold energy invading the internal organs.

Villagers who have contracted this disease basically won't live long.

But fortunately, this is not some kind of contagious disease, so there is no need to worry about others in the territory getting infected.

Cao Xing continued to ponder: "My Cloud Yak milk can treat some hidden ailments."

"It should also be able to be used to treat this Frost Rot."

"However, let's forget about it for now. I'll cultivate their loyalty for a while first, and wait until they have made some contributions before deciding."

Although Cao Xing doesn't like the feudal rules of the nobility and commoners, he isn't some saint either.

It's impossible for him to just pull out a large amount of resources to treat these people every time he sees a patient.

If that were the case, there would be too many patients in this world, and he wouldn't be able to save them all.

Cao Xing scanned his gaze across these villagers one by one.

He wanted to see if there were any other talents.

Then, his gaze rested on those two small children in the crowd.

They were the little ones who had just fallen from the roof.

[Vine Village Villager: Sarle]

[Level: 6 (Tier 1 Ordinary Creature)]

[Health: 462 / 568 (Pale Tree Blessing)]

[Attack Power: 31 ~ 35]

[Combat Skills: None]

[Life Skills: Primary Planting Mastery]

[Talent: Artisan's Insight (Born with strong curiosity and desire for knowledge regarding various crafts; when learning various life skills, learning speed is increased by 30%)]

[Status: Frost Rot]

[Satiety: 53]

[Loyalty: 66]

…

Including the other child named Boudi, he also possessed the [Artisan's Insight] talent.

A look of surprise appeared in Cao Xing's eyes once again.

"To think there is such a talent, significantly accelerating the learning speed of life skills?"

"These two little ones are truly rare talents!"

Talents and skills are different.

[Talents] are innate; they are there from birth.

Under normal circumstances, talents will grow as one grows.

Besides that, during the growth process, activating the power of one's bloodline can also unearth new talents, such as Volibear's [Behemoth Bloodline].

Of course, there are also some special situations, like the Dragon Blood Warrior, who has fused the bloodlines of other races within their body, which will also activate new talents.

Whereas [Skills] and [Life Skills] both belong to acquired diligent practice.

Therefore, beings who possess talents are actually more precious than those who possess high-level skills.

After all, one is innate, and the other is practiced acquired.

When Cao Xing saw the [Artisan's Insight] talent, he knew that these two children would likely become excellent life-skill talents in the future.

For example, forging, alchemy, painting, and so on.

After pondering for a moment, Cao Xing decided to send these children to the blacksmith shop to let them learn forging techniques.

Combined with their talents, it won't be long before they can become blacksmith apprentices, or even primary blacksmiths.

It just so happens that Harold is quite busy with work, so he can have these two children go over to help out.

Thus, Cao Xing called out directly: "You two, come over here."

Hearing the voice, the two children were instantly so scared that their faces turned pale.

Including those villagers, their expressions also changed one after another.

They thought this Lord had changed his mind and suddenly wanted to punish them again, and they were all scared out of their wits.

But Cao Xing shook his head with a smile and said: "Rest assured, I am not going to punish you; I just want to ask you a few questions."

Hearing this, everyone on the scene breathed a sigh of relief again.

"What were you doing when you climbed onto the roof just now?"

These two children didn't look that mischievous.

The child named Sarle replied: "Respected Lord, we climbed onto the roof just now because we wanted to see how this house was built."

"In our Vine Village, there has never been such a tall house, so we were very curious."

Boudi, who was beside him, also chimed in: "Yeah, yeah! In the future, we also want to build big houses like this for our mom and dad to live in!"

Cao Xing nodded slightly upon hearing this.

As expected of beings with the [Artisan's Insight] talent, they are curious about this world and the basic structures of some buildings.

If they were on Blue Star, these two children might have become masters in the fields of mathematics or physics in the future.

Cao Xing continued: "You two are not bad."

"Right now in my territory, I need two blacksmith apprentices. Are you interested in learning forging?"

The fear in the eyes of these two children vanished, gradually turning into a look of bewilderment.

"Forging?"

"That's right, it's blacksmithing."

Hearing this, the two children hadn't even spoken yet.

Their parents already said excitedly: "Sarle, Boudi, hurry up and agree to the Lord!"

"This is your chance, hurry up and agree!"

They appeared even more excited than their own children.

Including the old village chief and the other villagers, they all looked at these two children with excitement.

And they also reacted, replying without hesitation: "We are willing! Respected Lord!"

Cao Xing nodded and said: "Very good, your choice is very wise."

At this moment, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The old village chief could almost not help but shed tears at this moment, saying with deep emotion: "That's great, our Vine Village will produce blacksmiths. We will never have to plant grapes for generations again…"

"That's great…"

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