A farm that breeds gods and demons
Chapter 233 - 195: Freedom Village

Chapter 233: Chapter 195: Freedom Village

"Hmm." Su Yu and others nodded, all feeling deeply.

Because of the huge differences in their abilities, their team couldn’t move much faster than regular people, thus they meandered in the forest for days without finding an exit.

While this forest was vast, it wasn’t boundless as Kou Xiaowei described. Of course, the area surrounded by the "River of Oblivion" was the Newbie Forest where rookies survived. Beyond the River, the area they were in now was also a forest, but the terrain was a bit different, with undulating mountains and various branches of the river. From afar, they saw many towering mountains and long, ribbon-like branches of the "River of Oblivion".

"Meng Ting, since you call the area surrounded by the ’River of Oblivion’ as the ’Newbie Forest’, what do we call the area we’re in now?" Su Yu asked with a smile.

Meng Ting smiled sweetly and said, "This area where we are now is scattered with several small villages, ours is one of them. This area, stretching roughly ten miles around, basically belongs to our activity range. I even deliberately set up a monument to mark our territory. As for what this area is called... you may call it the Village Zone. Ah, I forgot to mention, once you reach Fifth Level, don’t casually go into the Newbie Forest of the Heavenly Pit Forest. Accidents can easily happen."

Ada added, "That’s right, the Heavenly Pit Forest is a place where evolutionaries below Fifth Level are protected and restricted. After reaching Fifth Level, you must leave the Heavenly Pit Forest and not stay there long. If you randomly attack or damage anything in the Heavenly Pit Forest, you are violating the rules and will be severely punished, even to the point of death. Su Yu, remember all of you, don’t enter there casually after reaching Fifth Level."

Having heard Kou Xiaowei talk about these rules, now hearing Meng Ting and Ada remind them again seriously, Su Yu and others nodded in understanding. It seems there were such strange rules in this world, prohibiting beings of Fifth Level or above in the Newbie Forest of the Heavenly Pit Forest. No wonder they had yet to encounter stronger humans or creatures in the forest.

As the Heavenly Pit Forest was being referred to as the "Newbie Forest" by Meng Ting and others, the name seemed more appropriate. The ones surviving there were basically rookies, and anyone Fourth Level could potentially be king.

While they strolled and chatted casually, Meng Ting spoke proudly about their village. "We’ve named our village Freedom Village. We’re all united, striving to increase our strength in this cruel world with the hope of living better. However, we’re all free. Our ultimate effort is to achieve true freedom for each one of us, to not be bound by this world or any rule. This is the true meaning of our Freedom Village."

Su Yu slightly nodded. ’Freedom Village’, huh? Does complete freedom truly exist in this world?

"Here we are, welcome to our Freedom Village!" Meng Ting laughed and turned around. She extended a hand in a welcoming gesture. At this moment, Su Yu, Qin Jiagui, Zhang Zhongmou, Ma Ziye, Fang Jiong, and the others all stopped and looked ahead at Freedom Village.

The so-called "Freedom Village" was built against the hillside. Facing them was a large upright boulder with the words "Freedom Village" carved into it. Behind the boulder were sparsely constructed simple houses made of trees and boulders. The roofs were covered in thick fallen leaves and dry grass. They were even more ramshackle than the houses seen in the most remote areas of the old Earth.

This was Freedom Village? Everyone looked at one another.

Seeing the expressions of everyone, Meng Ting felt a bit embarrassed and cleared her throat before saying, "Though it might be too simple now, it’ll get better soon. Our Freedom Village is located at the foot of the mountains, facing the Oblivion River. It’s a good location. My dream is to make Freedom Village into the most powerful force in this area, welcoming more people, and ultimately forming a real town, becoming the 11th great city outside the existing 10 great cities."

"Ten great cities?" Su Yu asked curiously.

"Um, it’s said that there are ten cities in this world which are unimaginably magnificent and large. They are known as the Ten Great Cities and are the custodians of this world’s order. However... I’ve never seen them personally, it’s all I’ve heard from others," Meng Ting said, a look of longing on her face.

Su Yu nodded slightly, remembering all this new information in his heart. Just then, a group of about ten people came towards them, the pale teenager, Zhang Huaqin, leading the way. Those following him were holding baskets woven from vines and tree branches and wooden poles as makeshift carrying poles.

This group of people following Zhang Huaqin were of different ages and genders, most of them wearing leather armor made from monster hides, while a few wore torn clothes. Su Yu secretly sensed their abilities, not very strong, mostly around Second Level, with two at the Third Level.

When they saw Meng Ting, they all greeted her from a distance.

"Sister Ting!"

"Boss!"

"Sister Tingting, you’re back too."

Meng Ting nodded to each in return with a smile. However, when they saw Meng Jun cradling Ling Feng’s corpse, they immediately fell silent, their smiles vanishing, though they didn’t say much else.

Meng Ting said to Zhang Huaqin, "Zi Yu is standing guard over there. Be careful on your way, got it?"

Zhang Huaqin nodded his head, lightly humming in agreement and leading a dozen or so people away, set towards the valley to transport the energy stones back.

Qin Jiagui looked around and suddenly asked, "How many people are in this ’Freedom Village’ now?"

Meng Ting said proudly, "Though we haven’t been founded for long, we already have forty-three people..." Just as she was saying this, she seemed to remember something, glanced at Meng Jun cradling Ling Feng, and corrected herself: "No... make that forty-two now."

Qin Jiagui responded, "How do you handle food? Do you catch monsters and eat their flesh?"

Meng Ting said, "That’s part of our food source. Some of it is also purchased. I’m currently planning to do some farming myself."

Qin Jiagui perked up, "You can buy stuff? With ’Time Coins,’ right? Where from?"

Meng Ting didn’t hide anything and answered, "Yes, do you guys also know about ’Time Coins’? The place where you can buy food is called ’Peach Blossom Town.’ It developed from a rather large village. They have a lot of food that they grow themselves and sell to others. There are many places like this, but the closest one to us is Peach Blossom Town, approximately a week’s journey away. Actually, that’s also the furthest I’ve ever been. My goal is to turn ’Freedom Village’ into ’Freedom Town’, and eventually ’Freedom City’... perhaps even a ’Freedom Megacity’. Tee hee."

Qin Jiagui broke into an excited expression upon hearing this, striking his palm and murmuring, "That’s great." He rubbed his palms together, an excited look on his face.

Zhang Zhongmou asked in surprise, "Qin Jiagui, what are you excited about?"

Qin Jiagui replied, "The vicinity here has a large river, so water is not a problem, and there is plenty of rock and wood. If we can solve the food problem, then developing this area would be quite easy. I used to love playing city-building games the most, building villages... and this is real! Isn’t this exciting to everyone?"

A joyful expression appeared on Meng Ting’s face, "Are you very experienced with this?"

Qin Jiagui laughed, "I wouldn’t say highly experienced, but it’s essentially several components. Since we can’t leave this world for the time being, we need to think seriously about how to make a stand in this world. Miss Meng, building a village requires certain planning. However, as long as we have various resources, everything else will be easy."

Fang Jiong also looked quite thrilled, murmuring, "I think the first thing we need to do is build a kitchen." Even though the village was barely taking shape, his chef’s instincts had already begun to stir.

Just as they were talking, a messy-haired, short and plump old man rushed out from a room—built simply from piled stones—and shouted at Meng Ting from a distance, "Xiao Ting, have the energy stones been transported back? How many did you find this time? The ones you found last time have been used up."

"Uncle Shang, don’t worry. The amount we brought back this time is enough to last for half a year."

The short, plump, old man perked up at that and looked at Su Yu and the others, "Are these people newcomers? Not bad, not bad. The more people we have, the better ’Freedom Village’ will be."

Meng Ting introduced him to Su Yu and the others, "This is Uncle Shang Qi. The leather clothes and armor we’re wearing were all invented by him. Also, his ability is related to forging. In the future, he will be our ’Freedom City’s’ chief forgesmith. By the way, this time our search for fire element energy stones is because Uncle Shang plans to forge some tools and armor. When the time comes, we can sell them for a good price."

Su Yu smiled and nodded at the old man named Shang Qi, "It’s good to meet you, Uncle Shang. My name is Su Yu."

Before he could introduce the others, the oddly-named Shang Qi was already waving impatiently, "Alright, alright. I won’t be able to remember so many names anyway... Huh, you guys have artifacts. Tsk, tsk..."

He suddenly noticed the ’Earth Spike Ring’ Su Yu wore on his right hand and an excited expression crossed his face, "As long as conditions permit, the equipment I forge, if successful, can also help elevate the level of artifacts like these, but unfortunately..."

"Uncle Shang, what’s the unfortunate part?" Su Yu was intrigued.

"The unfortunate part is that it will take some time to produce and I need a prototype artifact to work on. I cannot guarantee success on the first attempt, how unfortunate." Shang Qi rubbed his hands in frustration, sighing at the unfortunate circumstances. (Story to be continued. To know what’s next, please visit www.qidian.com. More Chapters are available there for full enjoyment! Please support the author and rightful reading.)