"Huh? Where is it?"
After returning to the Tree of Life, Lin Feng looked up, but unlike before, he didn't see a glowing orb above the tree.
"It's underground, Master,"
White Spirit was the first to notice—again.
Underground?
Lin Feng looked down, and sure enough, something was glowing beneath the roots of the Tree of Life!
This must be the Earth Elemental Sprite—born after the Tree consumed 100 energy points and absorbed the energy from the entire floating island's landmass.
The island itself was roughly one kilometer long, with an area of about one square kilometer. You could think of it as a square, one kilometer by one kilometer—though the actual shape was more irregular.
Its average thickness was around 100 meters—not counting any hills or elevated terrain, just the flatland. Including the mountainous parts, it would be even thicker.
The floating island was incredibly heavy. Beneath it was solid bedrock, and the soil layer varied in thickness—at most ten meters, and in some places less than a meter. That's why soil conservation was critical. If soil erosion occurred, importing dirt from Earth would be a major logistical nightmare.
Given the size of the island, there should be plenty of energy in the land for the Tree of Life to absorb and create an Earth Elemental Sprite.
Upgrading her should also be simpler than with Blue Silk or White Spirit, who needed specific conditions like thunderstorms.
Still, Blue Silk and White Spirit had their own advantages—when a thunderstorm arrived, as long as there was enough lightning and water energy, they could rapidly level up through the Tree of Life.
By contrast, the Earth Elemental Sprite required the Tree to slowly draw power from the earth. The process would take longer.
Moreover, once her level became high enough, the island might no longer contain sufficient earth energy for her to continue upgrading. In that case, Lin Feng would have to expand the island itself to support her future growth.
This was another difference between elementals—and differences were to be expected. Each type of elemental spirit naturally had its own unique traits.
———
Within Lin Feng's line of sight, the glowing orb soon began to rise and floated gently toward his hand.
As it settled in his palm, the light gradually faded, revealing a soft, pale-yellow energy.
The Earth Elemental Sprite!
The orb started to shift in shape. Before long, a small girl in a light yellow dress appeared—lively and adorably cute.
Just like Mengmeng, she was a little loli!
But Mengmeng looked even younger—maybe not even ten—while this Earth Elemental looked about eleven or twelve.
Though small in stature, Lin Feng couldn't help but notice… certain "assets" that didn't quite match their youthful appearance. Ahem. Whether it was Mengmeng, White Spirit, or Blue Silk, all of them seemed deceptively well-endowed beneath their petite builds...
———
"Yaya~"
The Earth Elemental Sprite was also quite clingy. Once her form was set, she immediately ran over and hugged Lin Feng's leg.
Earth Elemental Sprite: Unnamed
Level: 1 (Requires the Tree of Life to absorb sufficient earth-element energy to level up)
Skills:
• Soil Manipulation
• Rock Manipulation (very weak — becomes "weak" at Level 2)
Lin Feng examined her status panel.
As expected, she was Level 1, and required earth energy to upgrade. Her two skills were soil control and rock manipulation. However, her rock manipulation was labeled as very weak, which indicated just how limited it was. At Level 2, it would rise to only weak—still fairly ineffective.
That made sense. After all, she was an Earth Elemental, not a Stone Elemental (not that such a thing even existed).
Her abilities would naturally improve with level. A few more upgrades and she should gain meaningful control over stone.
———
"So she can't move rocks yet… that means I can't start building walls."
Lin Feng frowned slightly.
"The first monster wave probably won't be too strong. I'll see how strong the Mist Wraiths are once they're born."
Half a month had already passed. There was only half a month left before the newbie protection period ended.
Even if he hired workers now, there wasn't enough time to build a full city wall. Especially not one that stretched around the entire island—four kilometers in total! It just wasn't doable with his current funds or manpower.
Unless he could hire over ten thousand people at once—or better yet, supernatural beings with related powers—it was impossible to complete in time.
His two million yuan wouldn't cut it.
Even if the Earth Elemental leveled up once more, she still probably wouldn't have the power to manipulate stone on a large scale.
So for now, Lin Feng shelved the wall-building plans and pinned his hopes on the Mist Wraiths.
In addition, the next thunderstorm would allow Blue Silk and White Spirit to level up. Their combat power wasn't weak either.
———
"I'll just open my wallet a bit more. Worst-case scenario, I can always hire some mercenaries."
Lin Feng was already preparing contingency plans.
He had nearly two million in cash, and soon, his crops would be ready for a large-scale harvest—his finances would only improve from here.
Once the Mist Wraiths were born, he planned to equip them with weapons—bows and arrows, for example.
In this world, archery had become a highly advanced art. Gunpowder weapons didn't work on floating islands, so bows were the primary method of long-range combat.
Top-tier bows had a range of 700–800 meters and could pierce a half-meter-thick tree trunk with ease. Of course, those bows were expensive—and few people had the strength to draw them.
Crossbows and similar weapons were also common.
———
After sorting through his thoughts, Lin Feng stopped worrying and turned to something lighter:
"I'll call you... Miao Miao!"
He thought the name was cute—and it fit the Earth Elemental perfectly.
Miao Miao!
And just like that, the Earth Elemental Sprite was officially named!
With her joining the team, Lin Feng now had four elemental spirit girls at his side.
Four girls—two youthful maidens, two adorable lolis—all with stunning appearances.
Just standing together, they were a real feast for the eyes.
Currently, they still had elemental bodies, but as their levels increased, their forms would gradually change as well.
For example, Mengmeng, who had already reached Level 2, felt more and more real to the touch.
Lin Feng was sure that with further leveling, there would be even more wonderful transformations to come.
---
By now, Lin Feng didn't need to personally teach Miao Miao how to speak—
Mengmeng and the others had happily taken on that responsibility.
After a busy day, White Spirit prepared a tub of warm water for Lin Feng, letting him enjoy a relaxing bath.
Afterward, he lounged on a deck chair, watching as Mengmeng, Blue Silk, and White Spirit took turns teaching Miao Miao how to speak.
At the same time, he checked his island lord's wristband, enjoying a rare moment of peace before bedtime.
---
The next morning, when Lin Feng stepped outside, he was greeted by a shocking sight:
The land had become soft and fluffy, as if it had been thoroughly tilled overnight!
And not just a small area—dozens of acres had been turned over.
That's several football fields' worth of land!
On these freshly tilled fields, Mengmeng, Blue Silk, and White Spirit were swiftly planting seeds that Lin Feng had purchased earlier.
At this stage, the seeds were still mostly fast-growing crops.
Fruit trees and other long-term plants weren't part of the plan yet.
For most new island lords, the first year was all about growing fast-harvest crops to build up capital.
However, with a system backing him, Lin Feng had a different strategy:
He'd only grow quick-maturing crops for the first month or two. After that, once he had more elemental spirits and Mist Wraiths, he'd switch to planting higher-value crops.
---
Lin Feng walked through the fields and was amazed to see that in just an hour or two, the girls had already planted over 20 acres!
The speed was insane.
He quickly realized why they could work so fast:
The land had already been perfectly loosened and prepped.
They didn't even need to cover the seeds after sowing—they could just scatter them straight onto the soft earth.
That's because Miao Miao was handling everything else.
She fluffed up the soil and gently covered the seeds once they were scattered, all with her control over the earth!
Then White Spirit brought in water to irrigate the fields.
Mengmeng and Blue Silk only had to focus on spreading seeds.
It was a full-service farming team, and the efficiency was off the charts.
Seeing the four girls busy sowing seeds, Lin Feng was left to harvest the crops all by himself.
Every day, he had to gather a new batch.
To be honest, Lin Feng had already accumulated quite a bit of money by now.
He had thought about hiring some workers to help with the harvest.
But…
There were just too many secrets on his floating island.
The Tree of Life wasn't something he had to hide—after all, in the floating island world, some veteran island lords also had trees over a hundred meters tall.
Some seeds, once modified, could grow incredibly tall and massive.
The problem was…
Lin Feng wasn't a veteran island lord.
He'd only entered the floating island world ten-some days ago.
.
Of course, it was his own island—others couldn't really interfere. And if anyone did ask questions, he could just say the seeds were extremely rare.
But the real issue was the four elven girls.
Their sowing speed was downright abnormal.
Even special abilities couldn't explain it.
It's not like Lin Feng could tell them to hide or stop them from sowing—he'd need to hire hundreds of people to replace them.
Sometimes, it's best to keep secrets under wraps until you're strong enough to protect them.
Once you're powerful enough, there's no need to hide anything.
.
So Lin Feng continued harvesting on his own.
It took longer now, but thanks to his storage space, he could collect crops much more efficiently.
After a full day's work, it was only in the evening that Lin Feng would contact Shen Mengxue to come and buy his goods.
Today's harvest wasn't bad either—he made a solid 400 to 500 thousand.
Thanks to the system's growth-enhancing modifications, the crop quality was top-notch.
During their occasional chats, Lin Feng learned that Shen Mengxue's company didn't just resell the fruits.
They only sold a small portion directly.
The majority were used to create specialized potions—deep-processed products that boosted the fruit's value several times over.
Of course, not all fruits could be processed like this.
For example, Treeberries below grade D were best eaten raw—processing them wouldn't help much.
But Lin Feng's Treeberries were of such exceptional quality that Shen Mengxue's company treated them like treasures.
They even took the initiative to raise the buying price for both his Treeberries and strawberries.
Clearly, they wanted a long-term partnership with Lin Feng.
.
Strawberries weren't very efficient at absorbing life energy, and their primary effect wasn't life extension.
In the floating island world, every plant, after absorbing life energy, developed unique effects.
For instance, Lin Feng's strawberries, once they reached grade C, had a special benefit—if consumed regularly, they could gradually restore severe nearsightedness, eventually allowing someone to ditch their glasses entirely.
That was the effect!
The higher the grade, the stronger and faster the result—though also more expensive.
So Shen Mengxue's company extracted the essence from his strawberries and refined it into a vision-restoring potion.
Making it into a potion also meant longer shelf life and better absorption.
.
Lin Feng kept things simple—he just kept calling Shen Mengxue for the pickup.
At this point, he was raking in serious cash every day!
Not every new island lord had this kind of income. Most could only grow E-grade crops, and even with the same land area, they'd be lucky to make a tenth of what Lin Feng did.
C-grade crops were worth far more than E-grade ones.
.
And so, Lin Feng continued this busy routine for another two days.
With the increasing crop volume, just harvesting took him an entire day.
Though busy, Lin Feng felt deeply fulfilled.
The four elven girls maintained their impressive efficiency.
Each day, Lin Feng also went to check on the Mist Trees.
The entire ring of trees had fully grown.
Even the last batch of seeds had shot past ten meters tall, thanks to the daily boost from the system's growth value.
Eventually, these Mist Trees would grow to around twenty or thirty meters.
At that point, vertical growth would slow down, while the trees became thicker, broader, and emitted even more mist.
.
A full circle of ten-meter-plus Mist Trees made the whole floating island look lush and vibrant.
The Mist Forest had officially taken shape.