Chapter 69: Changes in the Divine Realm Over Half a Month

Under the dim yellow streetlights, No. 1, the Divine Energy Vehicle, slowly exited the southern city gate, heading toward the outskirts.

Zeng Shen closed his eyes slightly, leaning back in the driver's seat. His consciousness drifted into his divine realm.

Instantly, his awareness formed a conscious body, appearing high above the Yanhuang Realm, thousands of meters in the air.

At this moment, the Yanhuang Realm was shrouded in darkness, as if a hand could not be seen in front of one's face.

However, in Zeng Shen's vision, everything in the divine realm was as clear as day.

He looked toward the brightest spot in the realm, the entrance of the divine palace.

At the palace entrance, Xiaobai lay resting in its dog house.

Having not paid much attention to Xiaobai for over half a month, Zeng Shen noticed it had grown larger, with its snowy white fur appearing more majestic.

Yet, its old sleeping habit remained unchanged—it still wagged its tail rhythmically.

Suddenly, Xiaobai's wagging tail stopped, and it opened its bright almond eyes, looking up at the starry sky, letting out a bark.

"Is this little guy sensing that I'm watching it?" Zeng Shen murmured, shifting his gaze from Xiaobai to the town of Bastet, thirty meters away.

In Bastet Town, aside from the stump-shaped cat houses he had initially placed by each large tree, there was a 1,000-square-meter storage facility.

To the left of the facility's entrance were stacks of open bags filled with cat and dog food.

Several large wild cats were eating the cat food scattered on the ground.

Zeng Shen looked around but didn't see Xiao Hei or the five kittens in Bastet Town.

His gaze wandered and soon spotted them near a creek bay, a hundred meters from the town.

At that moment, they were all drinking water, led by the big black cat.

Like Xiaobai, Zeng Shen hadn't focused much on them for over half a month, noticing Xiao Hei and the five kittens had grown slightly larger, with their fur appearing smoother and more refined.

Having checked on Xiaobai and Xiao Hei and their status, Zeng Shen turned his attention a kilometer away to Emerald Valley.

At the valley entrance, there was a tall mound of earth.

The mound was substantial, about the height of an adult.

"I wonder how many ant eggs this queen ant has laid over this period," Zeng Shen mused, concentrating to inspect the mound.

Suddenly, he was taken aback.

Inside the mound, the number of ants remained at five hundred fifty.

However, they were no longer the grain-sized male and female ants he had initially brought into the realm; they were now as large as thumbs.

"How did they get so big?" Zeng Shen wondered, puzzled.

Moreover, he noticed that over half a month, the queen ant, attended by the colony, had grown to nearly the size of a fist, yet hadn't laid a single egg.

Frowning, Zeng Shen turned his gaze to another group that would transform into mutant beasts after the catastrophe, the Black Ant Colony.

Originally housed in rock crevices, the Black Ants had also constructed a large mound.

"Could it be that the Black Ants have grown larger too?" Zeng Shen speculated, focusing intently to peer inside the mound.

Indeed, inside the mound, Black Ant and its harem of ants had also grown to about the size of a fist.

"Could the enlargement of these ants be due to the influence of one point of divine energy within them? But why haven't Xiaobai and Xiao Hei changed?" Zeng Shen pondered, deciding not to dwell on it further, and shifted his focus to the small multifunctional mining and refining vehicle deep within Emerald Valley.

Over the past half month, the vehicle had consistently mined roughly a thousand jade stones daily.

The daily production of various elemental crystals had also remained steady at two or three pieces, which wasn't much.

Suddenly, the mining vehicle sprang to life, laden with jade stones and elemental crystals, and headed out of the valley.

Zeng Shen's gaze followed the vehicle as it transported its load to the storage facility in the Lingnan District.

There, it dumped the jade stones onto a massive pile, while the ten or so gems were placed into a small gem pile using mechanical arms.

Once unloaded, the vehicle returned to Emerald Valley.

Zeng Shen briefly surveyed the mining operations in the Lingnan District.

Recently, after acquiring the coal mine and moving it to Lingnan, Xiao Ti had arranged for six intelligent mining vehicles to transport iron, copper, silver, and gold ores to the divine energy furnaces.

These ores were smelted into bricks and stored in the space warehouse for future use.

Whenever he acquired blueprints for equipment, he could conveniently retrieve these materials to craft weapons and armor.

Considering this, Zeng Shen quickly checked the quantities of refined iron, copper, silver, and gold bricks in the warehouse.

Iron bricks: 500

Copper bricks: 350

Silver bricks: 200

Gold bricks: 100

"A bit low," Zeng Shen remarked, shaking his head in dissatisfaction.

But he quickly came to terms with it.

There wasn't much he could do.

Had they acquired the coal mine earlier and not been limited by the furnace's capacity and mining speed, the reserves could have been higher.

With a basic understanding of Lingnan, Zeng Shen turned his attention to the border between the forest and plains.

Having assigned intelligent machines to oversee this area, he hadn't paid it much attention for a while.

Now, the area was crisscrossed with pathways.

Beside the original three acres of rice paddies, an additional ten acres of land had appeared, planted with vegetables, mushrooms, herbs, and other crops.

Clearly, the ten acres were the work of the three intelligent machines engaged in agriculture, reflecting their recent efforts.

"Impressive, very intelligent, they're even expanding farmland on their own," Zeng Shen nodded in satisfaction at the machines' initiative.

He began to look forward to the prospect of acquiring more intelligent machines.

With more, the divine realm's agriculture, livestock, construction, and light industries could flourish.

Zeng Shen then reviewed the growth and changes of the flora and fauna he had introduced into the realm.

Before he realized it, Zeng Shen felt like a teenager surfing the internet, completely immersed in the game-like world he was building, observing the changes and harvests over the past half month.

It wasn't until he noticed the rivers in the realm reflecting a red morning glow and heard the wild roosters crowing in the forest that he realized he had been in the divine realm for quite some time.