"The ship is here, folks! Let's get moving!" Xinbadi shouted, raising his arms.

"Ooooh!" The Fishbone Clan members swarmed the pier, busying themselves with their respective tasks—some were securing mooring ropes, others were setting up gangplanks. Although it looked chaotic, there wasn't the slightest delay. If they weren't boarding the ship, their skills were not much different from seasoned sailors. It was hard to imagine that a year and a half ago, these people had barely seen the sea, let alone done something like this.

Soon, the ship's supplies were unloaded completely.

"Xinbadi, they said the goods can be loaded!"

"Red goods or black goods, how many barrels each, did you ask clearly?"

"Don't worry, I've got it all written on the back of my hand!"

"Alright, let's start then!"

"Goods" was a common abbreviation used by everyone. The Endless Cape only produced one kind of goods, and that was the Styx Blackwater. However, as the mining area expanded, the Sand People discovered that it wasn't just one color. In the other two underground river valleys, there appeared deep red and dark green Styx water—they could also burn, with significant differences in properties and odor. Therefore, for convenience, everyone began to use "goods" to replace Blackwater, and this term quickly spread among the Northerners.

Xinbadi was working at Daqing Port for the fourth time.

He remembered that when he first set foot on this desolate sandy land, his first thought was that if he could survive, he would stay as far away from this place as possible after these three months were up. But beyond his imagination, a city was really gradually taking root at the southernmost tip of the desert—if the revival of an oasis was considered a miracle, then Daqing Port could simply be described as a divine feat.

The Endless Cape became a place of exile precisely because it had nothing but danger. Even the most experienced hunter couldn't survive alone. And to build a town here where hundreds or even thousands of people lived, only the Three Gods could do it for the Sand People.

He thought that the Great Chieftain, who underestimated the power of the desert, would completely dismiss this absurd idea after failing, but he didn't expect that it was the Sand People themselves, who had lived here for hundreds of years, who knew nothing about the desert.

The Endless Cape was not without anything.

It was just that they had never realized it.

The first problem to be solved was the water source.

The Northern official named Kangkeruite led them to build an endless reservoir—they were short sheds covered with black film. At first, no one saw anything special about it, but after the Evil Moon ended, the Sand People found that the sun could really separate the white salt from the seawater. Water vapor condensed into dew on the film, then flowed along the inclined surface into the pipe, and finally converged into the storage tank. The stronger the sunlight, the faster the water storage. Although a single pool didn't produce much fresh water, the amount from hundreds of pools added up to be quite considerable.

Now such reservoirs are still being expanded continuously. They can not only meet the needs of the Sand People, but also provide supplies for the ships of Neverwinter City, which can be regarded as subverting the inherent concepts formed by the Mo Jin Sand People for hundreds of years.

The second was the housing problem.

It was impossible to resist the direct sunlight at noon with tents alone. The closer it got to summer, the more so. Without a reliable place to escape the heat, you couldn't last long even with water.

Legend has it that the stone of Iron Sand City came from the extreme south before desertification, which is why Silverstream has many oases, but only one city.

And the Northerners' approach was still to use local materials.

They built furnaces, using Blackwater as fuel, filled them with sludge scooped from the seabed, and mixed in filtered fine yellow sand to fire into bricks. Since the raw materials were inexhaustible, Daqing Port quickly had a batch of brick bungalows, and the outer walls and ceilings were all built using a double-layer method. Even without the shade of trees in the oasis, there was a stable place to live.

Finally, there was food.

Elder Tualamu of the Ao Sha Clan directed everyone to pull up dozens of fishing nets on the beach. Whenever the tide rose, the seawater would engulf all these nets, and when the tide receded, a large pile of strange prey would appear in the "squares" surrounded by the nets, such as sea crabs, sea snakes, and sea urchins. At first, Xinbadi didn't dare to eat these deformed foods at all, but under the threat of Tualamu's whip, he could only grit his teeth and choose to comply.

And the result was the surprising discovery that these things tasted pretty good.

Although the staple food still had to be transported from Neverwinter City, their diet was much richer than it had been a year and a half ago.

After the problems of food and shelter were solved, Xinbadi's mentality gradually changed. When the three-month assignment period ended, he took a step that surprised even himself—he chose to continue working at Daqing Port.

After all, the pay here was much more generous than at Clearwater Port.

Of course, besides that, he had another reason.

…

After loading the last seagoing ship, today's work was considered to be over.

"Xinbadi, thanks for your hard work today."

"See you tomorrow morning, big brother!"

"I want to go to the market later, do you want to come with me?"

Because of his frequent participation in the assignments, Xinbadi became the nominal head of the Fishbone Clan. Whenever there was a task, Tualamu was the first to look for him. Faced with such a change, he was really a little flattered—when he was still in the Silverstream Oasis, he was an inconspicuous member of the clan. Not to mention being responsible for any affairs, there were few people willing to talk to him. But now, not only were the younger generations treating him as a leader, but some girls were even extending invitations to him. This made him feel grateful to the Great Chieftain, and also added a bit of pride.

However, Xinbadi did not accept those invitations.

Because he already had the figure of one person in his heart.

"Hey, wait for me, Xinbadi!"

Just as he was about to leave the pier to find Muli, a familiar voice entered his ears.

Xinbadi couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth. He turned his head with a smile, but his expression suddenly froze on his face.

The person who came was indeed Muli, the girl who always wore a head of black braids and was the only one in the clan who didn't show him disgust.

After the favored son of heaven, Kaluen, left the assignment team, Muli did not choose to withdraw, which was also a major reason for him to persevere. Xinbadi thought he might have a chance, but now he saw the other party holding a man's hand and running towards him.

And that man was not a Mo Jin Sand Person!

"Muli, you... and him..." Xinbadi stammered.

"Ah!" Muli then noticed that the two of them were holding hands, and quickly let go of her palm. She smiled embarrassedly, "I was in a hurry to bring him to see you, so I grabbed his hand all the way here."

"Is... is that so?"

"Phew, this xiaojie has really good stamina," the man gasped, "I couldn't stop even if I wanted to, it was like being pulled by a wild bull... the Mo Jin Sand People are indeed well-deserved." He sized up Xinbadi a few times, "Let me introduce myself first... My name is Rex, from the Fjord across the sea."

"One look and I knew you were a Fjord person," Xinbadi vigilantly stood in front of Muli, blocking her behind him, "I don't have any relics that can be recycled here, you can leave!"

If Daqing Port had been developing steadily, slowly expanding its territory and population, then the past three months could be said to have completely broken the peace. The Endless Cape seemed to have become a popular shipping route overnight, with a large number of Fjord ships appearing in this newly built seaport city, bringing a series of troubles.

These islanders, who claimed to be explorers, either dug holes everywhere or bought all kinds of strange things from the assignment team, causing chaos in Daqing Port for a while. It was true that their influx made the place lively and unparalleled, and the gradually formed market was also very popular with the Mo Jin people—in this way, everyone could use their wages to buy some things they liked, instead of having to wait until they returned to Clearwater Port to spend them. But what was even more impressive was a series of negative news.

For example, an explorer wanted to go deep into the underground Styx to explore, but fell into the river valley and his life or death was unknown. In the end, it was the Sand People of the assignment team who cleaned up the mess and rescued the person.

Another example was that some explorers purchased suspicious stones and metal utensils from the Sand People on a large scale, but used counterfeit coins, so that the two sides almost had a violent conflict.

The most excessive thing was,

They even reached out to the lifeblood of Daqing Port—coveting the special film used for the reservoirs, the roofs of several reservoirs disappeared. This matter finally alarmed the First Army, and after catching the criminals, they were directly escorted to Neverwinter City. It was said that what awaited them would be a lifetime of mine labor.

It was these endless troubles that made Xinbadi full of vigilance against the Fjord people.

"I don't plan to recycle anything, because compared to speculation and getting something for nothing, I prefer to rely on my own ability to obtain it." Rex rubbed his hands and said, "This is also the best opportunity to clear the name of us, Fjords."