Chapter 204: Double Victory

"During the construction of this colony, I got them to build a manor up here on the mother mountain. They even bore a hole sixty meters or halfway down the entire mound itself. It's all isolation chambers in there, filled to the brim with infected soil as well as mutated plants, waiting to be decontaminated!"

Qin Feng wore an ecstatic look on his face.

"The soil in there is entirely dark soil, the perfect substance to make a garden with. It's gonna be the best place yet for me to meditate in!"

Although he already possessed the gem of darkness, Qin Feng still had a load of runes before him to master. To do that, he needed a suitable environment which this place offered. What was more was that there were ten layers of varying dark herbs beneath the surface waiting for him to use.

Qin Feng had specially ordered for Xue Xingfu to construct this unique structure.

While dark-ability ability users were few and far between, that did not mean that the same applied for its items.

The gunpowder that gunners relied on could be used by anyone regardless of their type or build. Since dark-ability attacks were typically stealth-based, gunpowder was extremely useful when facing against creatures with low vitality but high attack power. The same went for certain jellyfishes from marine biomes.

And since Xue Xingfu thought that Qin Feng was planning to invent items that were unique to Fengli colony, he wholeheartedly agreed to the mayor's plans without second thoughts.

"Yeah, I have a feeling that this will turn into our very own herb garden in the future. We should turn the front garden into something like this too! That consciousness tree from Chengbei colony looks promising!"

Bai Li started pitching in her ideas.

An uncomfortable feeling rose up in Qin Feng's chest once Bai Li started babbling about her grand plans. He hastily led her away from coming up with anymore mischievous ideas.

"We'll cultivate it here IF we bump into it next time. You know, you gotta have a sufficient amount of heaven and earth spirit aura here to be able to pull such a plan off. Since the climate here is completely different, we're better off not doing anything drastic!"

The most important issue was that the whole "conscious fruits being stolen" incident had yet to clear up. For Bai Li to bring the tree here out of the blue would only raise more suspicion about her and disrupt the peace they were going to enjoy here.

Only after a half day's worth of lecturing did Bai Li give up on her master plan. Still, it led to a new idea sprouting in Bai Li's mind—she started wondering what new doodads she could bring home.

Ignoring her, Qin Feng looked one more time at the colony below him. Only half a month and the construction progress was already going on so smoothly that the first ring wall had already been erected!

Of course, as the colony continued to develop, the second, third, fourth, fifth or even the sixth wall would follow, spreading out like a ripple across a water surface.

Though, for now, this wall was more than enough for him!

"I want all of the higher-ups to gather around. Our meeting's gonna start soon! Mayor Zheng will also be attending."

Qin Feng issued his orders.

Upon hearing his words, everyone in Fengli colony started moving around busily, like well-oiled cogs in a machine.

Zheng Yang had been so busy the previous day that he stayed up all night dealing with urgent matters. However, ancient warriors generally possessed great endurance and staying up one night was not even worth mentioning. These people could stay up for three days and three nights, relying on their internal strength alone.

At 1pm in the afternoon, the man arrived at Fengli colony.

In the past two weeks, Zheng Yang was unable to get the chance to catch a glimpse of the colony's development progress. And now, his chance had finally come. Looking at the colony, it was entirely made up of newly-finished buildings which seemed to have sprung up overnight like mushrooms after a downpour.

"With Qin Feng here, this colony's potential is near limitless!" Zheng Yang exclaimed.

Trailing behind Zheng Yang were two F-tier aptitude users. They appeared to be quite competent but both of them felt envious at the grand sight of the new colony nonetheless. If only they had a say in the establishment of this colony.

However, knowing Qin Feng's capability, which was precisely what it took to raise this new colony, they could not help but sigh out in helplessness. Still, it was hard to deny the dissatisfaction they felt in their hearts.

"Mayor, are you going to just leave the colony in Qin Feng's hands like that? This place was something that you painstakingly exchanged for with tons of gold and silver after all. Don't you think that it was just dumb-luck back then? To be chosen by the mayor to soothe the tension between other E-tier aptitude users and all."

"That's right! I don't think he deserves that much credit!" The other F-tier aptitude user added.

Zheng Yang halted in his tracks and looked over to his subordinates. With a hushed voice, he replied, "Since he took down Lin Zheng yesterday, essentially cutting off the serpent's head, does that mean that I should give him half of Chengbei?"

The two of them were left speechless.

"When doing your tasks, you should not expect rewards when you did not put in an equal amount of effort. If not for Qin Feng, I wouldn't be able to gain control over the colony so effortlessly, not in a million years! For this, I am indebted to him. When we meet the actual man himself, I do not want to hear such words coming out of your mouths! Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir! It was our fault, Mayor!"

"Our mouths are sealed, Sir!"

In actuality, even if they uttered such things, it would all be irrelevant.

Upon reaching Fengli colony, the man waiting at the gates to welcome them was naturally Zheng Yang's old subordinate, Xue Xingfu. Seeing the man's rounded body, it naturally implied that life was rather enjoyable here at this colony.

"Mayor!" Xue Xingfu looked nervously at Zheng Yang. There were hints of embarrassment and guilt painted on his face.

Of course, he had already caught wind that Zheng Yang was here to talk with Qin Feng about the shares he owned in Fengli colony.

"Old boy Xue! You'll be staying here from now on! Don't sweat it! It was me who had wronged you back in Chengbei!" Zheng Yang assured Xue Xingfu while patting his shoulder.

"Mayor, if you'd like to use our land in the future, please do not hesitate to ask me about it." Xue Xingfu felt a heavy load slide off his shoulders and at the same time, he felt a sense of gratitude toward his old boss.

It did not take long for them to get a conversation going as they walked up the skyscraper, heading toward the grand conference room.

Qin Feng stepped forward to welcome his guest.

"Mayor Zheng, I welcome you to our humble colony."

"Ha ha, what's that? I have yet to express my gratitude for your actions, Mayor Qin!"

After going through the formalities, both of them finally took their seats.

Zheng Yang's seat was placed on one end of a long table with Qin Feng on the other end.

Both of Zheng Yang's subordinates sat on the other side of the table, beside the mayor himself. On Qin Feng's end, there were a great deal of people, both seated at the table as well as around his seat.

There were more people than Zheng Yang originally imagined there to be.

Silently, he started sizing up his counterpart. Zheng Yang grew more and more surprised as he did so.

Seated on Qin Feng's right was, as he had expected, Bai Li. On his left was a young man who appeared bone-thin. Something seemed off about him but it was hard to pinpoint exactly which part of him was weird. Still, based on his aura alone, Zheng Yang could make out that he was a solid E-tier user⁠—it was Lin Wuyi.

Fengli colony was only about as large as Han Town, which was by no means a big city. Despite this, they already had three E-tier aptitude users roaming around!

Moving along, there were Qin Feng's subordinates, Xue Xingfu and Lin Derong.

Zheng Yang was already well-acquainted with these men.

Even for those who he was not familiar with, he made sure to gather data about them to study on.

Liu Xue, Wang Chen, He Ling, Zhao Xiang and the rest were all those who Qin Feng personally rescued from Han town. These were all F-tier users.

There were some who appeared as complete strangers to Zheng Yang.

For example, there was Liu Heng, the former slave owner outside Sea City. Ever since he provided Qin Feng with slaves, he was appointed as the minister of the propaganda department, whose job was to recruit fighting troops for the colony and to increase their population, all of which he had done well, hence the reason why there was a recent spike in his popularity.

And then there was... Zhou Hao!

He was the only G-tier user on the scene but surprisingly, no one looked down on him. Standing on his shoulder was a palm-sized golden ant. It had wings which appeared disproportionate to the rest of its body to the point where people doubted its ability to fly.

This F-tier Golden Ant Queen was in the process of recovering from its wounds, so its wings were still far from its usual size.

It appeared to be trembling in fear, as if trying to minimize its presence in the room.

Before entering the room, both of Zheng Yang's subordinates still had the same dissatisfied look on their faces. However, upon seeing the higher-ups of the colony, they were so intimidated that they uttered not a single word more.

The talks that day ended smoothly.

Zheng Yang transferred forty percent of his own shares to Qin Feng, which could be said to have been done under the table. Apart from that, Qin Feng was also rewarded with two of the most prosperous streets in Chengbei colony. That included the high-end street where Qin Feng bought clothes for Bai Li. The second street was located near the central square where Wanzong's store was set up.