Chapter 279
Linhai Heaven, Guanyu Village
Since Hai Jing and his daughter left, Guanyu Village didn’t return to its former impoverished state. On the contrary, the salt-drying industry began to thrive.
With the methods Hai Jing had taught them, the salt they produced was whiter and purer.
Roughly every week, someone from the town center would come by with food and other supplies to trade for salt.
The Flame Stones that Hai Jing had previously traded to them had gradually lost their heat over time, and now the weather was getting colder by the day.
Just as they were starting to worry, the salt traders from the town brought along a new and useful item called Peace coins.
Not only could they regulate temperature, but they could also be used in future transactions with others—it was “money,” something they’d only heard of but never seen before.
With Peace coins, the issue of staying warm was solved.
Life slowly began to improve. Before long, a road from the town center was extended all the way to their village.
It was said the road was built with a material called cement. The surface was smooth and sturdy, allowing vehicles to drive over it without any bumps.
Soon, construction teams arrived and organized villagers to connect the road to the perimeter fence. The fence extended along the dirt path in front of the village, encircling all of Guanyu Village.
Then they were informed that the land and houses in Guanyu Village now belonged to the Church of the God of Commerce.
They had long known that the management of Linhai Town had changed hands.
What they didn’t expect was that the Church of the God of Commerce would have so many rules.
“On land owned by the Church of the God of Commerce, robbery, theft, and harm to others are strictly forbidden.”
“Without permission, fences cannot be damaged, and public defecation outside of designated restrooms is prohibited…”
After the rules were read aloud, no punishments were mentioned. The construction team simply moved on to build roads for other villages.
It wasn’t until a few days later that people realized these rules weren’t just for show. As long as you stayed within the fences, you couldn’t break them!
This mysterious power frightened those who broke the rules—they trembled and knelt down, begging for the God of Commerce’s forgiveness.
Meanwhile, the villagers who had been obeying the rules found their loyalty to the Church rising sky-high upon discovering this.
They even took the initiative to build fences.
At first, it was simply to prevent robbery and theft. But to their surprise, the fences also kept out mutated creatures!
Even though their self-made fences weren’t as sturdy as the construction team’s, they still managed to stop mutated crabs the size of millstones.
Now the village children no longer had to worry about being attacked while drying salt!
With safety secured and food reliably sourced, life in the village—whose population had been dwindling for years—began to feel like paradise.
Though they still lacked strong young adults, as long as they held on a few more years, the children would grow up and bring vitality back to the village.
So this is what it feels like to be protected by a god…
In their free time, the village elders loved discussing this.
They didn’t understand deep philosophies; they just knew that this previously unheard-of deity had brought them a better life.
Now, every household had taken down their old sea god idols and replaced them with plaques honoring the God of Commerce—
Yes, coastal communities traditionally worshipped gods. Fishermen would always pray to the sea god before setting out, hoping for a safe journey.
Although the sea god hadn’t been completely abandoned, their status was now far beneath that of the God of Commerce.
The elders were even discussing whether they should send someone to the town center to apply to the Church to cast a statue of the God of Commerce to place in the village.
Privately worshiping at home with a plaque just didn’t feel proper—they weren’t sure if it would truly earn the god’s recognition…
Then, one day, a truck arrived from the direction of the town center. Onboard were forty to fifty people—elders, children, but mostly strong adults.
These people had dark, purplish skin, showing signs of long exposure to sun and sea wind, but they still looked far more robust than the local villagers.
Yet the man leading them stood out even more.
His hair was graying and he was lean, but his skin was fairer and more supple than those who had lived by the sea all their lives. His temperament was distinct as well.
Despite clearly being no longer young, his eyes were especially bright—he looked full of energy and spirit.
“Young man, where’s your village chief?”
Looking at the elder’s kind and friendly smile, Shui Sheng was momentarily stunned, then stammered, “He… he’s in the village…”
The village chief of Guanyu wasn’t appointed by an authority but was someone elected by the villagers themselves—an elder held in high regard.
“Could you call him out? And bring the other villagers too.”
Shui Aheng agreed and ran off in a hurry.
Watching him run off, Liu Changguo smiled, then looked at the immigrants from Purple Sky Fortress who had come with him. He couldn’t help but feel emotional.
Even on this new planet, life wasn’t easy for anyone.
Thankfully, with the power of the Church of the God of Commerce, they had a stable environment. Though not as affluent as before, it was something they could build on with their own hands.
As for whether the God of Commerce truly existed?
That didn’t really matter—for now, it wasn’t important. As long as people could live good lives, that was enough.
Liu Changguo had only been an ordinary office worker in his original world. After retirement, he did community service work. When the Apocalypse arrived, he barely survived with the help of the Self-Defense Force.
He had only followed Dark Moon to the new planet hoping to see space before he died—but things turned out very differently from what he’d expected.
Still, in just one or two weeks, he’d learned a lot.
Originally planning to live quietly in the Desolate City Haven, he unexpectedly got chosen as a village official because of his background in community work.
Yes, he had now been assigned to manage this village and its new residents.
Boss Tang had said Guanyu Village was just a pilot project. If he managed it well, more people would be sent to learn from his experience, and other fishing villages could also be brought under scientific management.
Liu Changguo suddenly felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.
Fortunately, even if he’d never eaten pork, he’d seen the pig run (Literal meaning= Even though one may lack direct experience, they still have an understanding or knowledge of the situation from indirect observation) immersed in civilized society for years, he had long since internalized everything he needed.
When problems arise, the way to deal with them naturally comes to mind—this comes from experience and broadened horizons.
Once the villagers of Guanyu Village had gathered, Liu Changguo first introduced himself.
“I’m a cadre appointed by the Church of Commerce to manage here in Guanyu Village. You can consider me either a priest or an administrator—whichever is fine, as long as you cooperate with my work.”
Then, he introduced both parties.
“These are new residents from Purple Sky Fortress. From now on, they’ll be part of the Linhai Settlement as well.”
“There will be more immigrants coming in the future,” he continued. “But don’t worry, they’ll be building new houses for themselves. They won’t compete with you for living space.”
The villagers of Guanyu looked at each other in uncertainty, until finally the village chief stepped forward.
“There are some vacant houses in the village. If they don’t mind, they can stay in those,” the chief said.
“Great, let’s do that then!”
The native villagers were willing to cooperate, which made Liu Changguo happy. He quickly led the new residents into the village.
There really were a lot of vacant houses in Guanyu Village.
“What about the previous owners of these houses?”
“They all left,” the old village chief said. “Went out to sea to fish and never came back.”
Liu Changguo couldn’t help falling silent. But the new immigrants from Purple Sky Fortress weren’t too affected—they were fishermen themselves and had seen this kind of situation before.
They quickly chose homes and began settling into their new lives.
Seeing their positive and optimistic attitude, Liu Changguo was quickly encouraged and got back to managing the village.
“I’ll register everyone’s household information,” Liu Changguo said.
“Household registration?”
“Yes. Every villager will be registered under the Haven system, and I’ll issue ID documents. It’ll make population statistics and management easier.”
When he mentioned this, Liu Changguo found it all a bit amazing.
This new planet might seem underdeveloped in some ways, yet it had advanced technology—like the smart terminals and construction robots in Desolate City Haven.
At least in his old world, he’d never seen things like this.
He now had one of these smart terminals to help him with the registration work.
Originally, Guanyu Village had just over seventy people. With the newcomers, the total population was just over 120.
It took less than three hours to complete the registration.
To Liu Changguo’s surprise, the smart terminal, which had been disconnected from the internet, suddenly reconnected.
He could now upload the data directly to the Haven AI system, and contacting others would be much easier going forward.
Just then, a video call from Tang Yu’an came in.
“Grandpa Liu, I’m testing the terminal signal. How is it on your end?”
“Very good!” Liu Changguo smiled, then asked, “Have we set up the local area network?”
“Yep. From Desolate City Haven and Jufeng Mountain to Linhai Town—anywhere the highway goes, there’s basically signal.”
Tang Yu’an added, “I created a group chat. You can use it to discuss and share management experiences with everyone. We’ll all learn and grow together.”
“Great, great. Thank you for all your effort.”
“No problem. If you ever need help, just say so in the group. If you can’t find me, ask Grandpa Li.”
After some conversation, they ended the call.
Liu Changguo stared at the smart terminal, a bit lost in thought. If his granddaughter were still alive, she’d be around the same age as that boy…
His daughter’s family had lived in another city, and after the apocalypse, they lost contact. He didn’t know if they were still alive and safe.
Liu Changguo wiped his eyes and quickly pulled himself together.
There were still over thirty families waiting for his help. The living conditions in Guanyu Village were truly poor—things needed to change!
He tagged Mo Ke in the group chat, asking him to print and deliver the household registration books for Guanyu Village as soon as possible, then went out to inspect the village.
This time, three young people—two men and one woman—had come with him.
Two of them were transferred from Desolate City Haven, and the third came from the Linhai Town center. All had been carefully selected as outstanding candidates.
The two from Desolate City were among the earliest residents rescued by Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi. After over half a year of learning, they had already picked up math and basic literacy.
Originally, Old Li was planning to train them as staff. But when Tang Yu’an said Linhai Town needed talent, he sent them over.
Desolate City Haven still had fewer than a thousand residents—far fewer than Linhai Town—so naturally, jobs here were more in demand and offered more opportunities for growth.
As for the one from Linhai Town, he had been recommended by Li Peng, who was the foster son of Li Zhentian, so he had received some education as well.
Since he was still young and hadn’t been led astray, Hai Jing thought he had great potential and sent him to learn from Liu Changguo.
Next, Liu Changguo took the three of them door to door, conducting detailed surveys of every household.
Meanwhile, Tang Yu’an had just installed the final signal transmitter and was heading back to Linhai Town Center by car.
Linhai Settlement had dozens of villages, and the highway had only reached five or six of them so far.
Although they now had a new way to expand the protective barrier, that method didn’t work in Linhai Settlement.
There was simply too much uninhabited land here.
According to the system’s rules for land ownership, the first requirement was a deed, followed by evidence of habitation or human-built structures.
Even if he stood on the Desolate City and loudly declared it was his land, the system wouldn’t acknowledge it. So exploiting a loophole had failed.
Since the villages in Linhai Settlement were scattered, even if the residents were willing to hand over their land and homes to the Church of Commerce, they still needed the highway to connect the protective barrier expansion.
Without connected land, the barrier couldn’t extend to another place across open space.
Tang Yu’an was now considering building two more branch stores.
They could serve as teleportation hubs and also help speed up the spread of the protective barrier—but building branches meant more staff and careful site selection.
Since the villages were scattered, figuring out how to make each branch reach as many villages as possible was something that needed careful planning.
But right now, there was another matter that could be arranged immediately—and that was:
The Linhai Settlement bus line!
As the road network continued to expand, having just one bus was no longer enough to meet the growing demand.
Shu Gen had been shuttling back and forth between three locations each day, but could only manage one round trip at most—which was clearly insufficient for a public transportation system.
So, after returning to the Linhai Town center, Tang Yu’an directly purchased two passenger buses and, under the name of the Church of Commerce, assigned them to operate in Linhai Town.
With that, the Settlement Bus Line No. 2 and No. 3 officially began service!
