Radahn's seclusion brought a rare period of peace to the entirety of The Lands Between.
This prolonged war temporarily came to an end, allowing every faction a chance to catch its breath.
After a brief period of rest in Liurnia, the allied forces each departed on their return journeys, heading back to their respective territories to recuperate.
Those who had suffered greatly during the war now emerged from their hiding places and resumed their daily lives.
Although life under the Golden Order was eternal and immortal, the people of the Golden Lineage could still genuinely experience hunger, cold, and pain.
During the war, in order to avoid becoming targets for nobles and powerful figures to casually harvest, they chose to endure everything in silence.
Now that peace had finally arrived, they were no longer willing to continue suffering from hunger, and The Lands Between quickly regained its former vitality.
This was the power of the Golden Order. No matter how devastating the impact of war was, because the people were immortal, civilization could rapidly recover through the endless labor of the Golden Lineage.
…
…
After taking over Volcano Manor, Xiao also met the dancer Tanith, Rykard's concubine, who had previously been imprisoned by the Serpent-Men.
Xiao did not hold much ill will toward Tanith. After all, this woman was one of the rare gentle existences within The Lands Between, and only someone filled with enough love could raise a naïve and adorable girl like Rya.
Therefore, Xiao brought Tanith back to Liurnia to meet Rykard. At the same time, Rykard used this opportunity to propose an alliance.
The content was simple: Rykard would help Xiao retrieve Destined Death and assist him in becoming the new god, while Xiao would choose Rykard as his king.
Xiao was surprised for a few seconds that Rykard would actually betray Radahn, but he still agreed to this exchange of interests. Their current situations were clearly bad for both sides, and cooperation meant mutual benefit while refusal meant mutual destruction. There was simply no reason to decline.
On the other side, the Xiao Family immediately began a comprehensive transformation of Volcano Manor.
Using the vast resources accumulated by the family across multiple worlds, they introduced various advanced technologies.
Volcano Manor itself was a naturally blessed location. Its volcanoes remained perpetually active yet showed no signs of erupting.
For the Xiao Family, these volcanoes were practically inexhaustible sources of energy. With only slight modifications, they could continuously provide power for all kinds of large-scale machinery.
Naturally, construction required a huge number of laborers.
The common people of The Lands Between were all born with the holy bodies of oxen and horses. They did not even require labor wages.
Many agricultural workers stated that they only needed a small bag of slightly sweet Rowa Fruits every week—roughly a dozen fruits or so—and they would even personally gather the fruits themselves within the lord's territory.
The Xiao Clan was deeply shocked by such humble and pitiful demands, because Rowa Fruits were never intended to be eaten directly by humans at all.
Although they became slightly sweet after drying, the digestive systems of ordinary mortals could not properly process them. They would remain inside the stomach and intestines for an extremely long time before finally being expelled.
Anyone who had frequently suffered from indigestion knew how intense the pain of undigested foreign matter lingering inside the intestines could be.
Yet for the people of the Golden Lineage, the fact that Rowa Fruits were difficult to digest was precisely what they desired most. For their eternal lives, never feeling hungry was the most perfect state.
Although Rowa Fruits could not truly fill one's stomach, they possessed a special charm—sweetness.
For the people living in this world, that sweetness was simply the ultimate luxury.
As for the stomach pain that followed after eating them?
It did not matter at all. After all, the people here had already experienced countless deaths. What was a little pain compared to that?
As long as they could taste even a trace of sweetness, everything was worth it.
Although the Xiao Family pitied the humble requests of these agricultural workers, since it was their own choice, the Xiao Family naturally did not want to interfere too much.
Randomly increasing wages would only offend the surrounding lords while bringing no real benefit to the Xiao Family. Since the market price was already like this, there was no need to deliberately change it.
However, the Xiao Family members in charge of logistics generously announced that they would directly give each agricultural worker two full bags of Rowa Fruits as compensation, while the most outstanding workers would receive three bags of fruit.
Faced with such blessings, the agricultural workers immediately burst into tears of gratitude and continuously thanked the supervisor.
The supervisor nodded with satisfaction before leaving gracefully, leaving behind a lively construction site and a bustling atmosphere of labor.
However, as time passed, the distribution of wages soon led to a shortage in the supply of Rowa Fruits.
Relying solely on manual gathering was not only dangerous but also far too inefficient.
Faced with this issue, the Xiao Family finally had no choice but to take action themselves. After careful consideration, they decided to specially designate a plot of land for the large-scale artificial cultivation of Rowa Fruits.
This decision sounded simple, but for the people of The Lands Between, it was utterly unrealistic.
If Rowa Fruits could truly be farmed, they would have already done so long ago.
After all, Rowa Fruits were blessings bestowed by the Golden Order, and eating them directly was actually the lowest and most wasteful method of use. Their true purpose was to serve as materials for refining magical consumables.
However, for the Xiao Clan, this seemingly impossible task was completed with ease.
Relying on Cyber Aura, unique biological technology methods, and accumulated experience, they quickly succeeded in simulating the environment required for artificially cultivating Rowa Fruits and rapidly brought them to maturity.
The Xiao Family even conducted genetic hybridization experiments on Rowa Fruits by incorporating grape genes into them, successfully cultivating Volcano Rowa Grapes.
Although this reduced the medicinal value of the original Rowa Fruits, it greatly increased their edibility, combining the sweetness and juiciness of grapes with the effect of rapidly restoring stamina.
This allowed the oxen and horses of The Lands Between to recover their energy much more quickly after labor.
The birth of Volcano Rowa Grapes immediately made both ordinary laborers and nobles fall in love with them.
Especially those nobles who cared deeply about quality of life became even more obsessed with this new delicacy.
Merchant caravans began arriving at Volcano Manor one after another, all hoping to purchase this precious fruit.
For a time, Volcano Manor became the center of attention, and Volcano Rowa Grapes even turned into a famous local specialty.
At the same time, the Xiao Family also used this opportunity to begin selling various commodities.
Whether it was exquisite ceramic ware, soft and lightweight silk, luxurious robes and clothing, daily necessities such as tea, spices, salt, and white sugar, or even precious ingredients imported from other worlds, all of them were enthusiastically sought after by the people.
These goods not only satisfied daily needs but also allowed people to experience luxury and enjoyment they had never known before, gradually becoming fashionable among the nobles and quickly selling throughout every aristocratic territory across The Lands Between.
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