Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Having made his plan, Lin Yan didn't delay any longer. He took a bus to the vicinity of Shijingshan, found a secluded path, and headed straight into the depths of the Yanshan Mountains.

In this era, the outskirts of Yanshan were not very densely wooded, even somewhat sparse, clearly due to the nearby residents' long-term use of firewood for heating and cooking. To find enough prey, one had to venture deeper. Lin Yan kept his divine sense constantly activated, monitoring every movement within a thirty-meter radius, so he wasn't worried about any danger. It was nearing noon, and not a rest day, so there were almost no people on the mountain path, which suited him perfectly.

He channeled a wisp of spiritual energy into the meridians of his legs, instantly making his steps light and swift, like a mountain ape, as he raced towards the deep mountains. After running for about twenty kilometers, the surrounding scenery had changed dramatically. The vegetation had become exceptionally lush, with ancient trees reaching for the sky and thorns growing everywhere, filled with a primeval atmosphere.

His divine sense swept across the area, and he spotted a small, emerald-green snake silently hanging from the branches of an old tree not far away. Lin Yan cautiously avoided it and continued his exploration. Soon, he discovered a secluded valley, from which came the sound of flowing water.

"There's a water source!" Lin Yan was overjoyed. A water source meant that animals would come here to drink and rest.

He approached silently, his divine sense probing into the valley first. Sure enough! By the stream in the valley, two groups of wild boars were rolling and frolicking in the mud! A rough count revealed more than a dozen half-grown wild boars, plus six plump and strong sows and three ferocious-looking boars!

"Good luck!" Lin Yan felt a surge of excitement. He hadn't expected to find the main target so quickly. His divine sense detection ability was an invincible tool in the wild.

He held his breath and slowly crept to within about thirty meters of the boar herd—the furthest he could currently collect objects at once. With a thought, his divine sense instantly enveloped them like an invisible net! In an instant, the entire herd of wild boars, boars and mud, vanished from the valley without a trace, leaving only a few empty mud pits.

With his initial victory, Lin Yan's confidence soared. He walked upstream along the stream, scanning and collecting with his divine sense as he went. Roe deer, muntjacs, wild goats, pheasants flapping their wings, plump rabbits... his harvest grew larger and larger. To his greatest surprise, in a clearing in the forest, he discovered a herd of over twenty sika deer!

"You even have this? What a pleasant surprise!" Lin Yan accepted it all without any hesitation.

After sending all the wild game into the Qiankun Realm, he immediately instructed Xiao Qi telepathically: "Xiao Qi, castrate all the male piglets in the wild boar herd. Keep a few of the best boars and sows as breeding stock. Be careful with all animal populations to avoid inbreeding, and mark and manage them in designated areas."

"Got it, brother! I promise to raise them to be fat and strong!" Xiao Qi responded happily, and immediately directed the puppets to get busy, sorting the new "residents" into different categories and sending them to different areas of the special ranch.

Following the stream to its end, one finds a large, crystal-clear pool. Lin Yan realizes that the ordinary areas of his space are lacking a water source. He slips into the space and arrives in the southeast direction, far from the spiritual spring.

He focused his divine sense, like a highly precise drilling machine, digging deep into the earth beneath his feet. After descending about a hundred meters, a cool, pure underground water source was successfully activated! Lin Yan continued to expand the spring with his divine sense until its size was comparable to the central spiritual spring pool, reaching a scale of a hundred acres before stopping.

Then, following the same pattern, he dug a waterway along the newly opened "mountain spring," connecting it to the previously planned ordinary area. Next, he returned to the external pond and introduced common aquatic organisms such as crucian carp, grass carp, and small shrimp into the spiritual spring fishpond and the new mountain spring waterway within the space, respectively, for differentiated breeding—the spiritual spring for raising premium species, and the mountain spring for raising common species. He once again instructed Xiao Qi to arrange for the puppet to take care of them.

Before he knew it, darkness had fallen. During the day, out of caution, he hadn't released his puppet army to avoid being accidentally discovered. But at night, this vast, deep mountain was his absolute domain!

He stopped on a secluded flat area on the mountainside. With a thought, five hundred Foundation Establishment stage puppets silently appeared around him, like a disciplined army.

"Radiate outwards in a circular pattern, centered on me," Lin Yan instructed. "Your task is to collect samples of different kinds of plants and animals along the way. Don't collect too many of each type. For those going to Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, collect some grass seeds first to establish pastures. The primary principle is to avoid disrupting the local ecological balance! Remember, we must not leave the local hunters with nothing!"

In his estimation, a thousand kilometers to the north would be enough to cover the vast Northeast region, a treasure trove of resources. Foundation Establishment stage puppets could fly at low altitudes at extremely high speeds, and theoretically, they could roughly sweep across most of China in a week.

He then took out a large number of low-level invisibility talismans left by the ancestor from his storage ring and gave seven to each puppet: "Put this on, and make sure to conceal your whereabouts when moving during the day. One talisman per day, and do not expose yourself."

The puppets can communicate with each other through the core's spatial imprint and store the collected resources directly into the static warehouse in the spatial courtyard. Of course, retrieving items from the warehouse requires authorization from Lin Yan or Xiao Qi, making it safe and convenient.

At the same time, he specifically pointed out two puppets, a man and a woman, and ordered them: "You two go to Xinxiang, Henan, and use those two blank letters of introduction to obtain letters of introduction from the local street office to go to Beijing to visit relatives. Make sure it is done properly and can withstand verification." This was a crucial step in confirming the identities of the "cousin and his wife."

After making the arrangements, Lin Yan did not linger outside and immediately returned to his spatial dimension, arriving at the spirit spring.

Time was precious, and he deeply felt that there was so much he needed to learn and cultivate. Cultivation was inherently slow for those with eight spiritual roots; without the Qiankun Realm and the ancestor's inheritance, an ordinary person might never break through to the Qi Refining stage in their entire life. He could not afford to slack off in the slightest.

After explaining the awakening time and how to handle the supplies sent back by the puppets to Xiao Qi, he placed a array plate with ten top-grade spirit stones next to the Enlightenment Tea Seed, swallowed a Bigu Pill, and quickly immersed himself in deep cultivation.

Enveloped in the faint Daoist aura emanating from the Enlightenment Tea, his understanding of the complex meridian pathways of the third level of the "Qiankun Creation Technique" increased rapidly, and his spiritual energy accumulation also steadily improved.

Seven days later, Little Seven woke him up right on time, lying on his lap and nuzzling him with her fluffy little head.

Awakening from his deep cultivation, Lin Yan sensed the surging spiritual energy within his body and his cultivation level, which had reached the peak of the second level of Qi Refining. He nodded in satisfaction. He gently carried Xiao Qi to the courtyard, then returned to the spirit spring to calm his mind and adjust his state.

Then, he decisively swallowed the third Marrow Cleansing Pill!

The familiar, excruciating pain swept through his body once again, but his will was as firm as iron. He precisely guided the medicinal power and launched a final assault on the barrier of the third level of Qi Refining!

After an unknown amount of time, the pain receded like a tide, and an even stronger sense of power surged through my body.

Qi Refining Level 3, Success!

"Brother! Congratulations on your breakthrough!" Xiao Qi cheered and rushed into his arms, nuzzling his chin affectionately with her little head.

Lin Yan smiled and patted it, and then, led by Xiao Qi, toured the "spoils of war" that the puppet army had sent back from all over the country over the past week.

The special supply area only selected the best varieties for propagation, while the vast majority of plants and animals were rationally arranged by Xiao Qi in the vast ordinary areas. Lin Yan scanned the area with his divine sense and found that the space-time ratio had increased to 1:120, and the land area had expanded tenfold again, with the pattern remaining unchanged.

Xiao Qi excitedly pointed to the specially supplied ranch: "Brother, look! Tigers, black bears, leopards... so many big guys! Almost everything that can be found in China has been brought here!" Then she pointed to the orchards and tea gardens, "There are countless fruit and tea trees. Look over there, there are even cuttings of the mother tree Da Hong Pao from Wuyi Mountain!"

The space today is richer than imagined in terms of resources, and has already formed a large-scale ecological cycle system that is initially self-sufficient.

After confirming that all the puppets sent out had returned safely and been stored in his space, Lin Yan selected two puppets he had carefully chosen earlier. The two young men and women, dressed in modified Dacron cloth and bearing a resemblance to Lin Yan, were none other than "Cousin Lin Gang" and "Cousin Wang Cuihua".

"Let's go, let's 'go home'." Lin Yan smiled slightly, leading the two puppets on a journey through the air, silently leaving Shijingshan and arriving at a bus stop on the outskirts of the city. The three of them, like ordinary citizens, squeezed onto a bus and headed towards the Nanluoguxiang Subdistrict Office.