The weather turned cold quickly, seemingly overnight, the autumn wind withered, and white frost appeared on the ground.
The cold wind howled and the temperature dropped sharply. Although Chu Xin's talent for gentle breeze and drizzle could keep the wind and rain out of the territory, the cold and humid air that followed the cold wind was difficult to stop.
After the cold wave hits, the temperature drops like a cliff, and the biting coldness in the air seems to penetrate into the body, making people shiver involuntarily.
Even Chu Xin had to wrap herself in fleece.
His mental power can indeed isolate the cold air from the outside world, but doing so is too tiring, and will also gradually make him lose his awareness of the surrounding crises.
More than half a month has passed since Chu Xin returned from exploring the Crazy Lich's laboratory. These days, the temperature has been continuously dropping.
The entire dark land seems to be gradually entering a cold winter, which will be a disaster for many races with insufficient food reserves.
"Reporting to the owner, the outdoor temperature reached minus eight degrees today, which is another three degrees lower than yesterday."
Listening to Yinhe's report, Chu Xin couldn't help but show a hint of sadness on his face. The temperature now poses little threat to the territory, but he is worried that the temperature will continue to drop.
"How many residential buildings have been built, and have all the residents been properly settled?"
"A total of 1,372 residential houses have been built, 100 high-end residential houses have been built, and a total of 1,633 people in the territory have been settled." Galaxy Hui reported that it has the ability to mobilize resources. Chu Xin opened some permissions for the construction of ordinary buildings to it.
With the supply of lumber mills, Green Devil Forest and multiple forest farm resource points, a large number of ordinary houses have been built in the territory these days. One of the most basic functions of the houses attached to the black castle is temperature control.
Therefore, as long as the citizens stay in their houses, they will not feel too much cold.
"Will the growth of fish and livestock animals be greatly affected?" Chu Xin continued to ask. This was the territory's main source of food after entering the cold winter, in addition to food reserves. He was still very worried.
"Master, please rest assured, the impact is not big."
"Yes." Chu Xin nodded and signaled Yinhe to go get busy. Then he stood by the window and looked out the window, feeling slightly startled.
The small garden below the castle was also withered, with only bare branches left, and it felt so lonely.
This is not just the case in this garden, but also in the entire territory. The fields in the agricultural area are also bare.
All the crops in the fields were harvested just before the cold wave came. Wheat, corn, potatoes and other grains were piled up in several warehouses and cellars.
However, it is more difficult to continue planting. The land in the fields is very hard and it is extremely difficult to cultivate. More importantly, there are currently no crops with strong cold resistance in the territory.
Whether it is wheat or cabbage, these crops have not been selected for variety, and their resistance to this severe winter is very weak.
After planting a crop and discovering that it froze to death, Chu Xin completely gave up her plan to sow seeds in winter.
During this period, it was difficult for farmers to withstand the severe cold outside. There was not enough cotton and fur in the territory to equip them with corresponding clothing.
In this kind of temperature, it is difficult for them to work outside for a long time wearing single clothes.
Chu Xin still values the current limited population of the territory. He does not want the population to drop by half after one winter.
However, Habib can't sit idle. He is also responsible for the task of selecting and breeding various plant seeds, and the cultivation of black soil grass cannot be stopped.
To this end, Chu Xin specially built a greenhouse for Habib, and Ferlan engraved a set of large constant-temperature magic patterns to provide Habib as an experimental site.
All the furs accumulated from hunting in the territory were made into clothing for Uli and his men.
This winter, their tasks have not diminished at all. The ten piglets that have grown up in the pasture, the black pigs that have given birth to a litter of piglets, and the flocks of cattle and sheep all require their careful care.
Although pastures and stables can provide them with enough food, when it comes to breeding and caring for cubs, they still need daily guidance and care from Uli and others.
After the explosive reproductive growth of turkey chickens some time ago, it has gradually slowed down. Although the temperature has not affected their growth, it still has a potential impact on their egg laying and hatching.
With the arrival of cold winter, the number of eggs they lay has been greatly reduced. Originally, a chicken averaged one or two eggs a day, but now it takes several days to lay an egg. As for the hatching, it has stopped directly.
Chu Xin asked Wu Li to study the artificial hatching of fire-feathered chickens. The production of territorial gunpowder requires a large amount of fire magic cores. These one-star fire-feathered chickens are the best targets, and their group reproduction is very important.
The number of fire-feathered chickens currently remains at about three thousand, occupying ten stalls in total. Each stall is filled with a large number of hens and a small number of roosters.
Although eggs can be laid without a rooster, they are unfertilized eggs and cannot hatch into chicks. But again, if there are too many roosters, they will easily fight.
As for the water blue rabbits, there are about five thousand of them. They have to be slaughtered all the time, otherwise their number will be even more exaggerated.
Rabbits in the pasture have no natural predators at all, and their reproduction rate has been maintained at an exaggerated rate for a long time.
This also resulted in the territory's warehouse currently storing the most rabbit meat. Fortunately, the warehouse itself has the function of storing and preserving freshness. Otherwise, Chu Xin would have to put them all in his own portable warehouse, which would take up a lot of space.
As for salting, the territory currently does not have this condition. Although kitchens, grocery stores and other places have these things, the quantities are limited and they cannot supply such large-scale rabbit meat pickling.
After the work in the fields was put aside, the residents had few opportunities to go out. They spent most of their time in the assigned residences.
Occasionally, Ron would light a fire and organize several bonfire parties. While organizing everyone to learn about the territorial culture, he also built a blind date and matching platform.
At the party, those who like each other can register directly at the Population Management Office under Ron, and then they will become a legal couple.
In fact, most of these people originally had their own families, but most of them were destroyed in the war, and their families were broken up. Those memories have gradually become blurred in the struggle for survival. Now, they have no resistance in their hearts to forming new families.
Moreover, the territory has also introduced corresponding supporting policies. If a citizen of a territory has a newborn at home, he or she can receive a certain amount of points every month, and the territory will also bear all the expenses and expenses such as the education and growth of the newborn.
At the same time, pregnant women will have about a month of leave and do not have to work.
This is actually somewhat similar to the current population policy. Chu Xin wants to use this method to increase the population of the territory and at the same time cultivate a group of his own loyalists.
Compared with these adults who have experienced too much, children who have grown up in the territory will have the highest recognition of the territory in the future. This is his hometown.
Attracted by Ron's instigation and policies, there are currently 152 couples registered together in the territory, and this number is still growing.
Normally busy with work, they may not have the time or energy to consider these issues. Now that they are free this winter, I believe many people will have ideas in their minds.
After all, they don't have much entertainment. They stay in the nest all day long. If they don't have a companion to talk to and play sports for two, it won't be a panic.
Chu Xin guessed that at the end of this winter, the territory's population would see a small increase.
The Black Rock dwarves couldn't stand the severe cold. Except for a small number of women and children who stayed in the territory, most people crowded into the abandoned mines, preferring to dig instead of sleeping in at home.
The moat outside the city was basically completed, but before water could be introduced, the cold winter ushered in.
On the west side of the Winter Territory, the original stream on the Gray Fang tribe's side had a significantly smaller water flow. Even if the ditch was opened, it would be difficult to divert the water, so the project was put on hold for the time being.
Also affected by the cold wave are those mutated plants, but their vitality is very tenacious and they will not freeze to death.
Galaxy is pouring elemental spring water into several key mutant plants every day, and from time to time it sprinkles a large amount of powder ground into the soil from water-based magic cores. With sufficient energy nourishment, the growth rate of the mutant plants has not been affected too much. Big impact.
However, those low-star mutant plants such as armored walnut trees and explosive pomegranate trees did not enjoy such treatment. Under the invasion of the cold wave, they were left with only bare branches.
Terrain environments such as Clay Swamp and Green Goblin Forest have their own specific environmental rules, so they are only slightly affected.
The second Green Devil Forest in the current territory was successfully synthesized after Chu Xin used more than 20 copies of the sweep scroll. The resources of the two forests can deliver a large number of exotic beasts and fresh wild animals to the territory every day. Fruit and wild vegetables.
Generally speaking, Chu Xin's territory was not particularly affected by the cold wave. Production and life may have been affected to a certain extent, but it would not cause serious losses.
For more than half a month, the territory has been very busy, preparing for the cold wave, but as the lord, Chu Xin is not busy.
His daily schedule is very regular. He gets up early to exercise his abilities, and then goes to work for two hours.
Then, I’ll catch some fish before lunch, explore the map in the afternoon, and finally, in the evening, I’ll either do dungeons or play cards with people.
After this period of training, Chu Xin's spell-casting ability has made a complete breakthrough. He has mastered the ability of mobile spell-casting. Even during high-speed movement, he can still ensure that the lightning scorch prison is completely released at the designated location.
In terms of mental ability, he developed a new application called breath simulation, which can gradually achieve the level of integration with the environment by changing the mental fluctuation breath.
This is not just an ordinary environment. Even in the world of the undead, Chu Xin can simulate the aura of death on his body through this method.
If he sets foot in the world of the dead now, ordinary skeletons will not be able to identify Chu Xin's living aura, but will think that this is one of their kind.
With this ability, Chu Xin can confidently inspect Friday's territory on the Wind Continent.
In terms of exploration, after this period of hard work, Chu Xin completed the exploration of almost the entire Dark Land.
The dark land is dotted with watchtowers he left behind. As long as the golden villain can set foot, basically all key forces and special areas have put down watchtowers.
Although it is far from the level where the full field of view of the map is opened, at least the golden villain can find a relatively close point wherever he goes to investigate.
After this period of investigation, Chu Xin finally had a certain grasp of the overall situation in the Dark Land.
The entire dark land is probably similar to the country where he grew up in his previous life, covering an area of about 10 million square kilometers.
To be honest, this area is not too big, much smaller than Chu Xin expected.
The place where his current territory is located is a corner in the northeast corner of the entire continent. A huge mountain range separates this corner from the outside world.
This mountain range is very dangerous. The golden man has entered and explored it more than ten times. He has never been able to safely cross the entire mountain range and died halfway.
Because of this, the tentacles of the big forces in the outside world have not extended to the small corner here on the mountain range.
This also caused a phenomenon. Outside the mountain range, there were disputes among the heroes, and a large number of forces were mixed together, and the war was raging. However, inside the mountain range, there were only a few forces, and the resources were relatively poor.
Currently, there are five largest forces in the Dark Land continent, namely the Duron Empire ruled by the orc pig-headed people, the Holy See and the Iron-Blooded Empire of the human race, the Mechanical Empire of the dwarves, and the Golden Tribe of the goblins.
Each force occupies a fairly vast area, with lords of all sizes dotted under it, relying on them for survival.
According to the investigation of the golden villain, these lords are a mixture of fish and dragons, and they come from all races. They are protected by dependent forces in the form of paying protection fees.
In fact, the forces behind some territories are not necessarily weaker than these five major forces, but they have not invested much strength here.
If he plans to explore the world beyond the mountains in the future, he will encounter great resistance, and none of those forces will be easy to deal with.
What's strange about Chu Xin is that he specifically paid attention to the powerful races such as the Abyss, Zerg, and Undead that he had a grudge against, but he didn't see any territory on this continent.
Perhaps it is related to the extremely aggressive nature of these races, which has led to them being excluded from this circle and not being allowed to participate in the exploration, trading, and war of the Dark Land.
The external areas have little to do with Chu Xin for the time being, and he is far from exploring the strength of those areas now.
Therefore, he focused more on this small corner inside the mountain range. Being able to settle down in a corner and establish his own kingdom seemed to be a good choice.
Although this corner is called a corner, it is actually not too small. It is about the size of four or five municipal administrative districts. Chu Xin's current territory probably occupies less than 1% of it.
Through exploration, Chu Xin has basically discovered the forces in this area.
In addition to the goblin tribe near the edge of the Dark Land, which has developed to a four-star territory, to the north, there is a large feathered kingdom that has developed to a six-star territory.
The Feathered Man is a humanoid creature with two wings on its back. In terms of appearance, it looks a bit like an angel, but it is not an angel.
Their kingdom occupies nearly 10% of the area in this corner, and the forces in the north have basically been eliminated by them.
To the west, the main force was the once-orc tribe, which has now been overrun by the undead and has even become a channel for their invasion.
Except for the orc tribe, the remaining forces were all relatively ordinary small tribes, and Chu Xin didn't take them seriously.
The south is more complicated. There are three five-star territories there, occupying about 30% of the area. The relationship seems to be quite tense.
In this area, these forces are more difficult to deal with. In addition, there are many large and small exotic beasts and alien tribes with low levels of civilization.
