act31side

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?

Neither. She was just a dreamer.

Big—Buff—A—Lo—

Dumb—Buff—A—Lo—

Are you going to help me find Mianmian or not?

No.

You're so mean! Mianmian really likes you! He won't take treats from anyone else!

Are you talking about the time it nearly picked all the Banfenghe saplings in my garden clean?

Well, you should've put up a fence.

I wanted to make sure people could get it as needed, I didn't think I'd be feeding your stockbeasts.

Lucky it was just a few flowers. Did you already forget the time your stockbeasts ate up all the plants in Laoshi's experimental field? What did she say again?

(Grimaces)

Besides, don't your stockbeasts have positioning devices? The display says it's over in this area, can't you go looking yourself?

Hmm... You're right.

Then how about you help me pick some fruit from the orchard? I need the ones that aren't quite ripe yet, the ones that are still sour and bitter. Go quick, I've got something really important to do with them!

No.

I still need to gather some samples from the fields. The last reports before the summer harvest are absolutely crucial. I can't delay.

Bo-ring...

But you're right. Everyone's been in a bad mood lately, like they're not eating or sleeping enough.

Didn't you say you're able to talk with them? Why not give them a good lecture on healthy eating?

I did go for a talk. They told me some really nasty things have made their way into Dahuang!

Are you talking about the new nomadic plates?

Don't be stupid. The stockbeasts talk to me, but they're not as smart as people. How should they know what the things are?

I'm not that smart either. I just know the work being done in the fields right now is really important.