At sunrise the next few days, the villagers of Zhengjia Village lined up outside the gate of Gaojia Fort, rubbing their eyes and yawning as they waited for the morning sun to climb awake. Once sunlight hit the rooftops, they boarded Solar Car No. 2 and rumbled off toward their village.
Of course, that was only what Lidaoxuan saw.
What he couldn't see was what the villagers were thinking:
"Every morning, the dawn star god wakes the sun, and we ride the divine cart that Tianzun borrowed from that star god… to go farm. Ha! Even the emperor wouldn't get to commute like this."
Well… the newly crowned Chongzhen Emperor was actually a young man, not an "old fellow"—but accuracy wasn't part of their morning routine.
After observing for a day, Lidaoxuan realized something odd: Only one-quarter of Zhengjia Village's farmland was in use.
The village used to have far more people than Gaojia Village, with double the farmland. But when Zheng Yanfu followed Wang Er's rebellion, many Zheng villagers were dragged along. After several battles:
— some died,
— some survived but were now labor convicts in Gaojia Village.
Result: a huge chunk of farmland sat untouched.
And because the remaining villagers were honest, they refused to farm land that didn't belong to them. So the fields stayed barren, wasting precious soil.
That wouldn't do.
Lidaoxuan summoned Yiye and Shansier and assigned them to handle the farmland issue.
Shansier had dealt with this sort of thing back when he served as a clerk. He was in his element. First, they inventoried the remaining population and their land deeds. Then they visited the labor camp to check which convicts originally belonged to Zhengjia Village and how many deeds they still possessed.
From that, they identified who had died—meaning their plots became ownerless land. Normally, the imperial court would handle that during scheduled land surveys and redistribute or auction the fields.
But Gaojia Village didn't need to wait for the court anymore. Their "waist was stiff and straight" now.
Shansier sent Adviser Tan Liwen and a group to survey the fields, mark all ownerless land, and loan it rent-free to the twenty-some remaining Zheng villagers.
(The labor convicts weren't eligible.)
Suddenly, those villagers had over twice the farmland available. They nearly exploded from joy and attacked the fields with the energy of chickens injected with caffeine.
Meanwhile, the labor convicts watched with burning jealousy. Some who had planned to "lie flat" forever revised their life goals:
"If I behave well and finish my term early, maybe I'll get a chance next time the Tianzun gives out free farmland…"
But Lidaoxuan wasn't thinking about fields anymore.
He was thinking about roads.
Solar Car No. 2 shook like a drunk ox on the uneven official road. When more villages appeared, rough roads would bottleneck his entire "tiny nation development plan."
Time to invoke an old classic:
If you want prosperity, build roads first.
He left his apartment, crossed two streets, and arrived at a construction site where workers were—once again—breaking up and rebuilding a sidewalk. For reasons beyond mortal comprehension, this particular sidewalk had been rebuilt so many times that even geological layers had opinions about it.
Thick-skinned, he handed a bottle of drink to an old worker and grinned.
"Uncle, the wall at home cracked. I only need a tiny bit of cement. Buying a whole bag is a waste. Could I, uh… take just a little from you? Just a tiny bit."
The old worker chuckled.
"No problem, kid. Quick, before the foreman sees."
Lidaoxuan thanked him and scooped two small plastic bags—one of cement, one of sand—then slipped away like a professional wool-harvester.
Back home, he prepared to dump the materials into the magical box… but paused.
Repairing roads was a massive project. Gaojia Village had too few people—how long would it take them to build a 5–6-li road?
Forget it.
He would do the first road himself.
Besides… kinda fun.
He grabbed an unused plastic container, looked up online instructions, and mixed water, sand, and cement until he got a thick paste.
Then, inside the magical box, he tapped "EAST" and "NORTH" to zoom the view out. Using a small metal scraper, he cleared away dead branches, weeds, and stones, carving a fresh road beside the old official route.
The online "how to build a rural cement road" guides were absurdly complex, full of mysterious steps. Lidaoxuan ignored most of them. He sprayed some water to moisten the soil, set up expansion joints, then poured the cement and smoothed it with a plastic sheet.
In reality, building a six-li (3000-meter) long, five-zhang (15-meter) wide road in the box translated to a 7.5-centimeter-wide, 15-meter-long strip on his floor. Easy.
He finished it in no time.
If he had left it to the villagers, who knew how many months it would take?
The babysitter Tianzun, applying cement online, felt quite satisfied.
"Ahhh! Look! Tianzun is using divine powers again!"
A group of villagers had gathered nearby, watching the spectacle. From their perspective, a massive metal plate scraped the earth with a thunderous roar, splitting rock and crushing vegetation to carve a straight new road.
Then gray liquid rained from the sky, filling the trench with flowing mud. The giant metal plate swept back and forth, polishing the mud until it gleamed like a still lake.
The villagers gaped.
"What kind of divine technique is THIS? What… what is he doing?"
They argued for a long while until Yiye approached.
"The Tianzun has given us a road connecting Gaojia Village and Zhengjia Village. No one may approach it for seven days. After seven days, you may use it. Anyone who violates Tianzun's order…"
She puffed her cheeks and gave a tiny "hmph."
Not fierce at all—actually adorable—but the sentence she didn't finish was what terrified people.
The villagers hurriedly bowed.
"We wouldn't dare! Who dares defy Tianzun's decree!"
Yiye pointed at the labor convicts.
"Form a team. Smooth the road surface with wooden boards. Then patrol the divine road. For seven days, not even rats or rabbits may set foot on it. If you catch one—beat it to death."
The villagers wiped sweat.
"Saint Maiden… we've had drought for years. The rats and rabbits are almost gone. Don't worry."
Footnotes
① Fun Fact — "Solar Car Morning Routine"
The villagers' mental image of riding a divine commuter bus is basically ancient China's version of bragging about having the fanciest company shuttle.
② Fun Fact — "Sidewalks of Eternal Rebuilding"
Modern Chinese cities really do have sidewalks that get rebuilt suspiciously often. Lidaoxuan has unlocked a universal urban mystery.
③ Fun Fact — "Wool-Gathering Pro Level"
Him taking two scoops of cement = the cultivation-world version of looting free samples at a hardware store.
④ History Note — Ownerless Land
In real Ming-era policy, land of deceased or vanished households was surveyed and reassigned during government land audits.
⑤ History Note — Rent-Free Land Loans
Local officials sometimes loaned fields to survivors after wars or disasters to quickly restore food production.
⑥ History Note — Road = Wealth
The saying "To get rich, build roads first" reflects a long-standing truth in Chinese rural development: good roads meant market access, tax efficiency, and military mobility.
⑦ History Note — Concrete Curing Time
Even historically, craftsmen knew to keep fresh construction undisturbed for days—hence Yiye's seven-day rule.