At this point, the price of wood had dropped to 50 Spirit Coins per unit, twenty times lower than at the start. Yi Tian felt there was still room for it to fall further.
But he didn't dwell on it, and directly bought 500,000 units of wood.
To build the luxury villa, he needed a Level 4 Construction Platform. Yi Tian first spent 500,000 to upgrade the platform to Level 3, then another 5 million to raise it to Level 4. Upgrading the Tool Platform to Level 4 cost a total of 100,000 and some materials; upgrading the Weapon Platform to Levels 3 and 4 cost 1.1 million and some materials.
Stone was the main material for the villa and the city walls. Yi Tian needed a huge amount of stone.
Yi Tian wasn't interested in the ordinary stone at the auction house. He set his sights on High-Level Stone. Not only did this stone increase the territory score for his villa and city walls, but more importantly, it massively boosted Defense Power.
The luxury villa required 300,000 units of High-Level Stone. The War City Wall required 1,000 units of stone per meter. For a total of 4,000 meters, he needed 4.1 million units of stone. The extra 100,000 was for building city towers.
In the end, Yi Tian bought 5 million units of various High-Level Stone, injecting a strong dose of adrenaline into the High-Level Stone market.
All of this High-Level Stone came from Lords' "unique mines." Some less fortunate Lords only had Mid-grade Stone mines.
But buying all this High-Level Stone made Yi Tian bleed. Ordinary Stone was 10 Spirit Coins per unit, Mid-grade Stone was 1 Celestial Dao Coin per unit, and High-Level Stone had powerful Defense Power and increased Territory Points. Even in such a sluggish market, it still sold for 10 Celestial Dao Coins per unit.
That means, just buying High-Level Stone alone, Yi Tian spent 50 million Celestial Dao Coins.
Iron was 1 Celestial Dao Coin per unit, copper 2 Celestial Dao Coins per unit.
Yi Tian bought 1 million iron and 500,000 copper for 2 million.
Silver was 10 Celestial Dao Coins per unit. Yi Tian bought 100,000 silver, costing a million.
Gold was 100 Celestial Dao Coins per unit. Yi Tian bought 100,000 units of gold. Envious of those with gold mines! Cost: 10 million.
He spent a total of 400,000 Celestial Dao Coins on various alloy precious metals.
A large amount of glass, plastic, and other materials cost 400,000 Celestial Dao Coins.
Leather, silk, and so on cost 400,000 Celestial Dao Coins.
Buying blueprints for flush toilets, luxury beds, solar shower systems, premium kitchen layout, and a refined pavilion cost 100,000 Celestial Dao Coins; Yi Tian was still collecting other blueprints.
For this round of shopping, Yi Tian spent a total of 72.25 million.
Balance: 31 million Celestial Dao Coins.
If not for the expanded land, there would be no way to store all these supplies.
"There's never enough money!" sighed Yi Tian. He knew this wasn't the end––he would definitely need to keep spending.
The Celestial Dao Stone Construction Platform, and many other things that were unobtainable, could all be substituted with precious metals, which is why Yi Tian needed so much gold. For example, the Large Luxury Villa blueprint alone required a whopping 10,000 gold.
"Everything's ready except for the east wind! As soon as the lottery is done tomorrow, we'll get started!"
Day Ten.
"Seven pulls in a row!"
Early in the morning, Yi Tian opened up the lottery wheel. Drawing seven times at once––he was a little excited.
"Ding! The lottery begins."
"Ding! Congratulations, Master of the Roulette Wheel, you have obtained: Exquisite Patterned Table & Chair Blueprint *1."
"Ding! Congratulations, Master of the Roulette Wheel, you have obtained: Granary Blueprint *1."
"Ding! Congratulations, Master of the Roulette Wheel, you have obtained: Iron *100."
"Ding! Congratulations, Master of the Roulette Wheel, you have obtained: Copper *100."
"Ding! Congratulations, Master of the Roulette Wheel, you have obtained: E-level weapon – Xuanhua Great Axe."
"Ding! Congratulations, Master of the Roulette Wheel, you have obtained: Solar Energy Technology Crystal."
"Ding! Congratulations, Master of the Roulette Wheel, you have obtained: E-level Pill – Energy Pill *1."
"I guess only the Solar Energy Technology Crystal is worth mentioning, the rest... better than nothing! Wait, this Energy Pill––for three days after consuming it, you won't feel hungry, won't get tired, and will be filled with motivation. Isn't this supposed to be an energy pill? This is clearly an Old Yellow Ox Buff!"
"Hmm! I'm already full of energy now. I'll save it for when I'm tired this evening, maximize the benefit."
Yi Tian put away the pill, planning to take it when his energy dropped at night.
"Ding! As the Master of the Roulette Wheel has done ten One-Star Lottery draws, the Two-Star roulette is now activated and grants one unrestricted lottery draw."
"Ding! Lottery points now increase from 1 to 2 per day. Two-Star draws cost 5 points each. After ten Two-Star draws, the Three-Star Wheel will unlock."
In front of Yi Tian, right next to the One-Star Lottery wheel, a new, larger white lottery wheel appeared. At the top of this white wheel were two stars.
This wheel had forty-eight slots. The best prize was an A-level reward, with just a 1-in-48 chance–very low.
But there were three B-level rewards.
Five C-level rewards.
Ten D-level rewards.
Ten E-level rewards as well.
The remaining 19 rewards included various ore resources, high-tech prizes, and two special lotteries.
"Even though it costs five points, I should try to draw from the Two-Star wheel whenever possible. The prizes aren't in the same league. I'll get two points per day now, so every five days I can draw twice. Hmm, one draw every five days!"
"I'm going to use the unrestricted lottery now."
Yi Tian silently chanted "Divine Level Reward, Divine Level Reward" in his heart.
"Ding! Congratulations, Master of the Roulette Wheel, you have received 10 acres of Advanced Soil."
"Ding! Not enough space. Please select a location to land as soon as possible."
The Celestial Dao Roulette's mechanical voice reminded him.
"Advanced Soil, basically boosts crop growth speed and yield. Just right, I'll designate ten acres of advanced land within the manor area, for planting Heavenly and Earthly Treasures in the future."
Yi Tian was quite satisfied with this lottery outcome.
Yi Tian called over the ten strongest members from the planting team to help him move miscellaneous items.
Soon after, they cleared out a ten-acre vacant lot.
This was a meter-thick stretch of black soil. Yi Tian placed it in the southwest corner of War Manor, right up against the city wall. He'd build some stone flower beds there later.
Advanced Soil: plant growth speed is four times that of ordinary soil.
Keep in mind that this world's ordinary soil is already several times better than Earth's. However, one thing to note: Advanced Soil can't be exploited with the Water of Life bug.
Yi Tian ordered the prisoners to transplant the yard's watermelons, greens, and cabbages into the black soil. With this black soil, it'd be hard for anything to die.
There were also five apple saplings in the yard, all transplanted to the southern orchard.
The Heavenly and Earthly Treasures didn't need relocating; Yi Tian had already planned their location. The villa would be built behind the Heavenly and Earthly Treasures. If it were built in front, the Calabash Sisters would have to move, and that was clearly out of the question.
Next, tear down all existing buildings and fences.
Once the space was cleared, Yi Tian, together with the indigenous folks, transported the villa construction materials into place.
This large luxury villa had four floors, twenty-four rooms of various sizes, resembling a small castle. By Earth's standards, these rooms wouldn't all be bedrooms, but Yi Tian wasn't fussy about that.
There were gardens in front and back of the villa, great for collecting and planting Spirit Fruit.
"High-Level Stone *300,000, Wood *10,000, Silver *10,000, Gold *10,000, Tiles *10,000, Glass *500, Plastic *1,000, Beast Core *10, Earth Element Core *1, Iron *100,000, Copper *10,000, Celestial Dao Coin *200,000."
Yi Tian figured the Earth Element Core must be substituting for cement or something. As for all the gold, even he wasn't too sure.
"Build!"
Yi Tian activated the construction platform, placed the large luxury villa blueprint on it, and confirmed the construction site.
A vast amount of resources was auto-sorted; like a Divine Miracle, a villa that resembled a small castle shot up from the ground, beautiful and dazzling.
"Now I get it—this Gold *10,000, eight out of ten is just the Celestial Dao's handling fee."
Yi Tian looked at the villa, delighted but also pained.
This large villa gave Yi Tian 13,000 Territory Points.
Next, Yi Tian got ready to build the city wall.
Among the Level 4 Buildings was a kind of city wall: 3.5 meters thick, 13 meters tall. Each meter needed 1,000 stones (any grade), 10 units of iron, 1 unit of copper, and 100 Celestial Dao Coins.
These walls were built 100 meters per run. Catapults and Bed Crossbows could be installed atop the walls. The city gate area was widest, six meters across, with city towers in two tiers.
Yi Tian had never given up plans to recruit more from the Indigenous Race. Otherwise, he wouldn't have spent so much on these walls. One person's strength just isn't enough.
Not much High-Level Stone was actually hauled—the stones he bought were all for the foundation.
Within the construction platform's detection range, the massive, thick walls stood upright and straight.
By evening, Yi Tian had already completed 1,000 meters of wall.
Without hesitation, Yi Tian swallowed the Energy Pill, profiting big-time.
Time is life, time is power, time is money.
After cooking for Kiddo, Yi Tian had them rest in the villa.
High-level Wood wasn't available at the auction, so Yi Tian used Water of Life to speed-grow some High-level Wood, then crafted the luxury leather sofa, the luxury bed, and the exquisite tables and chairs.
Yi Tian quietly got back to work.
One night, one day, and then another night. As long as it doesn't kill you, just keep going. Yi Tian finally finished the city wall construction. The towering fortification made the prisoners tremble; from then on, "Demon's territory" would be how they spoke of this place.
Building the wall cost another 400,000 Celestial Dao Coins.
Today was the day to ransom the prisoners—five small mountains' worth. And under the mountains, 60,000 new High-Level saplings on newly cleared land were already done.
From here on, Yi Tian would do the rest at an Old Yellow Ox pace. He'd just return the prisoners in exchange for the much more valuable Celestial Dao Stone.
"[Sealed Celestial Dao Stone *2] trades for [Alili, Ababa....]"
The prisoners disappeared, making things much quieter. No worries, though—the Old Yellow Ox attribute would last another day and a half.
The large alloy steel warehouse was placed by Yi Tian on the eastern wall inside the manor.
The 20-acre large warehouse consumed 200,000 High-Level Stone, half a million iron, copper, gold, manganese, and other alloy steel, plus construction fees of 50,000 Celestial Dao Coins.
Once the large warehouse was complete, he put the medium Boutique Warehouse not far from the west side of the villa.
The Medium Boutique Warehouse was three stories tall, with one basement. It cost 100,000 High-Level Stone, 10,000 each of iron and copper, and five Beast Cores.
The granary was set against the west city wall. There were ten medium warehouses and two big ones; each medium could store 300,000 kg of grain, each big one 1 million kg.
The pavilion was built in the exact center of the fortress. All roads leading to the various warehouses were paved with bluestone tiles, obviously bought at auction––just ordinary Bluestone and very cheap. Yi Tian didn't want to waste his High-Level Stone here, even though he had more.
Using the "Advanced Water Pipe Blueprint," the entire villa got running water. Underground pipes led from the lake to the manor, passing through triple filter systems, then into four water towers holding ten tons each, and finally to every villa room. Kitchen water still used a purifier, of course.
There was only one flush toilet blueprint, so he put it in the master bedroom on the 4th floor. The solar shower system was also in the master bathroom.
The kitchen on the first floor got a luxury renovation. It looked great and Yi Tian was very pleased.
The luxury swimming pool blueprint was used on the villa rooftop. The top floor was perfect for a pool and didn't take up any space. If it couldn't be built there, Yi Tian would have just sold the swimming pool blueprint.
The living room's luxury leather sofa had cost Yi Tian a fortune.
In one corner of the living room was a table and chairs made from authentic Yellow Flower Rattan Wood.
Yi Tian had a Solar Energy Crystal, so he made a solar panel and a solar-powered automatic cleaning biogas digester, which he placed in the southeast corner.
Whether it was the manor or the villa, these were just the beginnings; there would be plenty to arrange in the future.
Once everything was settled, the energy pill's effects ended. Yi Tian was absolutely exhausted, and slept straight through till dawn. When he woke, it was already his fourteenth day in the Celestial Dao World.