act31side

You knew that the two of them were close.

I thought that stuff happened a long time ago.

It's still a sore spot.

Are family relationships all that serious?

When you only meet your sisters every few centuries, it's normal to be a bit serious.

Y'know, I'm even more afraid of her looking at me like that than I am of being on Dage and Ling's tongues...

For once, I find myself agreeing with you.

A face like she was wronged, then refusing to say a word about it, all the while looking like it's something she can't bear to discuss.

That's not like a sister at all. It's more like...

Perhaps she's simply been alone here for far too long.

These here are the two biggest, roundest peaches from the tree I planted.

Shennong, I beseech you. Bless this paddy, for the sake of my timely graduation.

I'm in my third year already, and every time, at the most critical moment, something or other goes horribly wrong.

Two years ago, my task was to protect my crops from pests, but right as I was about to harvest them, a great drought struck, and my entire experimental field withered.

Last year, my task was to protect my crops from drought, but right as I was about to harvest them, a deluge of rain struck...

Shennong, please, watch over us.

The W-25 Wu-Zi plate is set to connect to the main district today, and I pray that absolutely nothing goes wrong.

I know that I have been lacking in my studies, so the moment I return to the Tianshi Bureaus I will rededicate myself.

Right now all I ask is that this project goes smooth enough that I can go home early.

Hey, you sure you've got the right place? This shrine's dedicated to Shennong. You construction folk don't belong here.

We do our best for a good harvest, but it's ultimately up to Heaven. Since when do you engineers need to pray for success?

What do you know? Every complex field of study becomes metaphysics when you dive deep enough. It's beyond the reach of man.

No matter your work, it's <i>all</i> ultimately up to Heaven—Shennong was the first master of this land, so the best we can hope for is for her to make herself manifest and protect her humble disciples.

I guess you're right. Either way, we're both at the point where there's nothing more we can do.

Maybe if we're sincere enough, she would actually show herself...

Will you two shut up already?!

Ouch!

Gah!

Peach pits...? Where'd these come from?

Up in the rafters! Who's there?!

Can't you see that there's someone trying to get an afternoon nap here?! The nerve of some people, interrupting my sleep! Don't you have anywhere better to whine whine whine?!

Disturbing a dreamer's a mortal sin, y'know! Where do you think you are? Are you <i>seriously</i> kowtowing to your ancestors about your petty requests in Shennong Shrine?

Out! Out! OUT!

Alright, I'm going! Whoever raised this kid didn't teach her any manners—

Ah!

Hey! Stop throwing those! That hurts!

Gah! Let's get out of here! Look, I'll be the bigger man and let this slide, but you'd better hope I don't—

Ow! Bump into you on a dark night!

*sigh*...

The girl grabs the two peaches from atop the altar, carefully inspecting them for a moment, then decides to instead pick up an even larger one, wiping it with her sleeve and taking a bite.

As long as they keep offering up their harvests at your table every time there's a problem in this city, big or small, I'm never going to go hungry.

Hey, Shennong, you don't mind if I eat these two fruits, do you?

Maybe I should go back to sleep in the rafters where it's nice and cool...

Where's my fan? Did that kid take it again?

That annoying little brat, calling me 'megaphone'... Next time we meet I'll figure out a way to steal her flute.

Go to school, they say, school schmool. The only students to come out of the Tianshi Bureaus are these lazy louts. What was even the point of all that schooling?

Who knew that skiving off would be this hard!

Xiangzhang, do you know what's gone wrong with this drone?

Did you forget some steps while changing out its power source? It looks like there's some unconnected wires here.

I don't know. Maybe it was some kid swiping it to play ' Fowlbeast Wrestling'... I'll get them next time and make sure to give them a right trashing.

Did it hit you when it fell out of the sky?

Nicked my horn. Just a little bit to the right and it would have whacked me right in the head.

Most days I see you talking farming with the others. I never expected you to have a knack for Originium circuits.

Didn't the Tianshis teach you all how to operate it? This is a precision instrument. Please pay more attention when using it.

And we don't call it a drone, either. The Tianshis call it a 'Sky Pole'.

The first time I saw these flying around a field, covering the whole thing, I thought it was a swarm of locusts. Scared me half to death!

So when these gadgets jam themselves into the ground, they can tell the soil's condition and how the crops are doing?

While we ponder how best to plant our crops, the Tianshis ponder how best to help us. Farming's a lot easier than it once was, thanks to these inventions.

This season's harvest...

The weather's been a bust this year, and every field's gone bust with it. These experimental paddies in front of us, the ones the Tianshis call <i>Qianzhong,</i> I reckon they could yield two thousand catties a field.

It's enough to fill our bellies, but it's far from what the Tianshis expected from their research.

Give it time. We harvest twice a year now. There was a time we wouldn't have dreamed of that.

In the distance, huge machines slowly lift entire chunks of farmland, their rumbles startling a flock of fowlbeasts.

The farmers in the fields seem already used to this sight, momentarily lifting their heads before going back to their tasks at hand.

Since Dahuang's remodeling project began, there's been lots of mandarins coming in from elsewhere, and you've gotten pretty busy yourself.

It's been days since I last saw you. How did you manage to get time off to visit today?

The summer harvest is about to begin. Only once you've inspected every piece of land yourself can you begin to plan.

And there's also the matter of the upcoming ceremony of sacrifice. We have to take those preparations seriously. No sloppiness.

You're in charge of Dahuang. You've faced worry after worry for however many years now. Seems real tiring.

What's your official title again? Dahuang City... Tongzhi? What a mouthful. I think I'll stick to calling you the Xiangzhang.

No matter the name of my office, I still work the same land as everyone else.

I'm a Dahuang man, born and bred, never left. I heard that in some other nomadic cities out there, they do their farming in high-rises?

You're from the outside. Can you tell me what the other cities are like?

It's been years. I don't quite remember myself.

The only thing that comes to mind is how the people of certain villages would get Dahuang seeds and laugh, saying the harvest may get any bigger this year.

They could only pray that they wouldn't hit a Catastrophe.

I can understand how you study seeds planted in the ground, but I don't get how you're supposed to study the sky over our heads.

Even if a Catastrophe doesn't hit the fields directly, the water supply would still get contaminated with Originium, and the soil would be filled with lots of tiny crystals...

*sigh* It's not like equipment to grow crops in high-Originium zones is cheap either.

That is why we're here.

Look. All fixed.

An embankment circles this land where ravines alternate between dry and flooded.

Between waterways coursing a hundred meters above the surface, agricultural plates hold tight to one another.

This is a nomadic city still <i>growing—</i>

As far as the new generation of Dahuang farmers is concerned, this is a new paradigm, established by their own hands.

This engineering project is enough to make your blood run cold.

Give it another six months, at least until the soil has been moved atop the plate.

The people are fine. It's the stockbeasts who are really freaked out. They touched little fodder in months. Slimmed down a lot, by the looks of it.

I still feel a little uneasy every time I see a field lifted up into the sky.

There will be lots of benefits once the fields are on the mobile plates.

Not only will it be much easier to access electricity and water, if a major Catastrophe comes about, the Tianshis do not need to risk their lives to handle it. The fields can simply move aside.

These are just plain old ordinary fields that we've been planting for generations. Why'd the government suddenly decide to renovate all our cropland anyway?

A large harvest ensures more full bellies, meaning more strength to establish new settlements.

It's a transformation. People who come back from a long trip, wouldn't even recognize the place.

What would Shennong think, if she knew we were moving these fields?

The land is merely taking a new form. Home itself is not leaving.

I suspect Shennong would be grinning from ear to ear.

From the moment she arrived on this plot of land, she was concerned only with how to scrape together a few measly fields from the bitter cold wastes.

Later, when the fields multiplied, so too did her ideas. She decided to plant crops in soil contaminated by Originium, even planting in Originium itself.

That's insane... Are you saying Shennong was a genius, or a fool?