In the morning, when Zhang Xiaoman woke up from his sleep, the first thing he saw was the message Li Xiang had left for him.
"Near the Three Institutes, No Light Alley? A plant system monster? And a big one at that, it seems I could go have a look..."
After reading the contents, he roughly calculated the situation and decided to go check it out tonight if he was free.
He had been busy with many things recently, mainly the Enlightenment Array Awakening. He couldn’t immediately check out the intelligence Li Xiang provided.
"Speaking of which, he has provided me with two unusual reports in the past few days. I haven’t had a chance to look at them yet because I was busy with the Enlightenment Array. I wonder if they’re true or not. Counting this one, it should be the third report..."
Zhang Xiaoman remembered the "mission" he had casually assigned to Li Xiang in the small woods north of the city, asking him to provide five valuable reports. Later, because he went to Rebirth Island, he told Li Xiang that he would be away for a while.
As a result, he had actually forgotten about Li Xiang completely, and if Li Xiang hadn’t sent a few reports a couple of days ago, he would have almost forgotten about this matter entirely.
"Who would have thought that this guy would be quite persistent? Well, I’ll go and check out those three places he mentioned tomorrow. If it’s really as he says, with some bizarre situations, then there’s no problem with me letting him join as promised..."
Zhang Xiaoman thought to himself and decided to give Li Xiang the opportunity, after all, it was a promise he had made, and he, as a "Star Lord," couldn’t break his word.
"Let’s put these things aside for now, the most important thing today is to first help Brother Hero and Mr. Ye with their Awakening..."
It was a plan he had set before and had agreed on with Ye Cang and Brother Hero; the time was set for this afternoon.
Regarding these two people, Zhang Xiaoman actually had no particular expectations. In other words, he didn’t plan to cultivate them as "combat personnel".
No need to mention Ye Cang, being over ninety years old, his limbs were not what they used to be. Even if he had the will, Zhang Xiaoman wouldn’t dare let him do it.
Recruiting him was purely for the Olharast Rock Vein in his possession.
As for Brother Hero, he was purely looked after as a good brother.
After all, Zhang Xiaoman wasn’t the kind who was emotionless and only considered interests. Naturally, he wanted his close ones to share in the benefits.
Of course, all this was under the premise that Awakening didn’t require him to spend too many resources. If the Enlightenment Array required spending thousands of points, he would definitely prioritize giving the opportunity to those who were truly helpful to him.
Speaking of which, the first batch of four Awakened people weren’t intended for combat positions. Compared to ordinary people like Brother Hero and Lin Sisi, Zhang Xiaoman was more optimistic about special forces soldiers like Wu Feng and Lord Bear who had rich combat experience.
Even members of the Light Blue Clan like Yang Yangyang, who conducted long-term expeditions in the wilderness, were stronger than ordinary people with no experience.
After all, they braved mountains and rivers every day, so in terms of physical fitness and resilience, they must be a cut above Brother Hero.
Luckily, the second batch of Awakenings wouldn’t take too long because, with the mining veins of Dragon Sleep Mountain as a backup, Zhang Xiaoman could easily obtain some of the hardest-to-get materials.
Looking at the time, there were still over two hours until noon, so he planned to take this time to go to Rebirth Island to prepare a bit. This time could be considered his first official recruitment and Awakening of members.
As for Lin Sisi, Zhang Xiaoman subconsciously didn’t see her as an outsider. Besides, with her being blind, there was no need for him to arrange anything for her to see there.
"That’s settled then, let’s start the action and hope everything goes smoothly today..."
As he spoke, he directed the Dark Energy in his hand, immediately activating the Starry Stone and returning to Rebirth Island.
Rebirth Island was an expansive territory, spanning 986,720 square kilometers, nearly the size of Pharaoh Country.
If we go by the customs of this world, once an island reaches a million square kilometers, it can truly be called a continent.
At present, Zhang Xiaoman and his team were located in a lake at the island’s center.
This lake actually didn’t feature just a single island, but rather a series of seven islands floating connectedly; the one they were on was simply one closer to the edge.
Hence, he had named this body of water Seven-star Lake.
Seven-star Lake, he found, was quite different from what Zhang Xiaoman had initially imagined.
Since arriving here yesterday in an anti-gravity car, he had looked down from high above, stunned to see just how large the lake truly was.
Zhang Xiaoman had also used the car’s built-in scanning system to survey the area, only to discover that Seven-star Lake was an astonishing 9,000 square kilometers in area, roughly twice the size of Blue Sea Lake.
This was also the reason their island was closer to the shore; otherwise, if they had had to follow that dim path up here, who knows how long it would have taken them.
From this observation, Zhang Xiaoman felt that his understanding of Rebirth Island was still rather limited. If he planned to use it as a base for development, then he certainly needed to deepen his control of the information.
Therefore, he decided that as soon as he had resolved the current matters at hand, he must quickly become more acquainted with the island’s situation.
Zhang Xiaoman re-entered the Underground Palace, now referred to as the "Inheritance Land."
The visibility in the Inheritance Land during the day was quite good, since sunlight could penetrate through the gaps from the ruins above.
However, this also meant that rainwater could accumulate significantly during rainy days, and with the dilapidated roofs of abandoned buildings, they could definitely be deemed "hazardous." Zhang Xiaoman planned to reinforce them in the future.
Suddenly, he felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of tasks at hand; hunting Alien Species, setting up Enlightenment Arrays, recruiting new members, in addition to a myriad of other miscellaneous tasks, all combined to befuddle him.
"It seems I must hasten the recruitment of members. These tasks indeed cannot be accomplished by one person alone. Just managing a camp is giving me a headache..."
Somewhat helplessly, he rubbed his temples and then summoned two Star Guards, ready to start setting things up.
In reality, the setup wasn’t so particular; it was merely about having the Star Guards clear the nearby rubble, level the ground, scrape off moss, and remove some of the fallen rocks, roughly cleaning the area to make it look a bit more tidy and spacious.
The Star Guards were quite efficient and tireless. By noon, they had already made the place much tidier than before, which greatly pleased Zhang Xiaoman.
"Not bad, although it still looks like broken walls and relics, it’s much better than before. Combined with some of the ancient decorations and inscriptions here, it does seem to have a certain charm now, probably enough to hoodwink people."