409: Chapter 409 Territory Expansion, Floors Doubled!

The changes within the territory were even more intuitive than the numbers on the panel.

The first-floor lobby was originally quite spacious; after passing through the Airlock, one would enter the open-concept meeting area, and further inside was the core control room.

After the queen merged, the first floor became the face of the entire territory, not only featuring a serious and dignified decorative style but also having sufficient negative space and flow, making the whole area look very grand and beautiful.

However, due to the excessive amount of supplies obtained recently, there was nowhere left to put them.

The floor was piled everywhere with bundles of equipment, jewelry in sacks, stacks of skill books, and over a dozen boxes of materials that hadn't been sorted yet.

Crates were stacked beside the sofa, various weapons were laid out on the coffee table, and even the wall space along the corridor had been temporarily filled with a few storage racks.

It wasn't just the first floor; the original second-floor living room area was an even worse disaster zone.

Several short swords hung from the sofa armrests, and the space under the coffee table was stuffed with canvas bags filled with various crystal ores.

Even the edge of the kitchen counter was filled with canned goods seized from the Silver-White Train.

Wen Yiran had already led the Logistics Department to try their best to sort through them, but the storage space was only so large, and no amount of good organization could keep up with the influx of hundreds or thousands of trophies every day.

However, these problems no longer existed.

Lin Xiao went up to the second floor.

Previously, the second floor was a comprehensive living area containing a studio, living room, and kitchen, but now, after opening the door to the second floor, the entire space had been completely repartitioned.

The area near the stairs was the workspace.

A few meters further in was the storage area.

The corridor between the two areas was paved with warm grey stone-patterned floor tiles, and the walls were embedded with several Merfolk-style crystal wall lamps.

The workspace held Lin Xiao's workbench, as well as several old tables that Yimu had moved back from the Heze Imperial Palace. Scattered on the tables were a few magic element stone raw pieces being processed, along with some rune artifacts that Jing Hua had brought from the Merfolk Kingdom.

The storage area consisted of row after row of high-capacity storage cabinets.

Lin Xiao waved to Wen Yiran, who was rummaging through a pile of supply crates in the corridor.

"Now that the new storage area is open, we don't need to pile things on the first and second floors anymore. The storage system supports remote access, saving us the trouble of moving supplies."

"Finally..." Wen Yiran looked up from the pile of supplies and responded wearily.

Not far away, Jing Hua was leading several Merfolk Guards to move the supplies that had just arrived.

Upon hearing this, everyone's shoulders relaxed, as if they had been granted a reprieve.

Jing Hua wiped the fine beads of sweat from her forehead and couldn't help but complain, "Master, I feel like I'm better suited for killing enemies on the battlefield, or... setting up a Rune Array would be better..."

Lin Xiao chuckled and walked forward to put his arm around Jing Hua's waist. "If you're certain about that idea, I can transfer you to the Strategy Department; it can be done at any time."

Jing Hua's body trembled slightly.

There were clansmen nearby!

Seeing this, the surrounding Merfolk Guards immediately bowed in salute and then consciously retreated to the first floor to organize supplies.

Wen Yiran looked at the black cabinets several meters high to the side, "I was just planning to store equipment and supplies in the storage cabinets. I wonder if this stuff is easy to use."

Lin Xiao stood in front of the cabinet, stored the items he wouldn't need for a while from his backpack into the storage cabinet, and then pointed, "Look, you can operate it directly through your backpack, and it will display storage and retrieval records. It's very convenient."

Wen Yiran leaned in, her eyes widening.

After she mimicked his actions and placed the supplies in, she marveled at the information panel that appeared on the cabinet for a long time.

Her eyes, which had been dulled by the torture of organizing supplies for days, finally regained their luster. "That... that's great!"

"Xiao Lin, Ranran, Jing Hua!"

At this moment, Jiang Wanwan leaned out from the spiral staircase on the third floor, "You guys, come upstairs and take a look."

Lin Xiao led the two women up the stairs to the third floor.

After the third floor was re-planned, the space was divided into two areas by a transverse ebony openwork screen.

The screen was not a vertical partition but was placed horizontally parallel to the floor-to-ceiling windows, about the width of three sofas and chest-high.

In front of the screen, which was the side closer to the floor-to-ceiling windows, was the living room area.

The floor was covered with a dark grey carpet, and a circle of light beige fabric sofas with low backrests was placed in the center, not obstructing the view.

Walking over from the stairs, one could see the scenery outside the floor-to-ceiling windows at a glance.

After the merger, the windows were replaced with double-layered floor-to-ceiling tempered glass.

The afternoon sun in the desert shone in from outside the window, filtered by the Coating on the glass surface into a soft, warm golden hue.

In front of the sofa was a low solid wood coffee table, and on the tabletop sat a shallow white porcelain basin containing the blue hydroponic plant "Luna Orchid" that Jing Hua had brought from the Merfolk Kingdom.

It used to be placed in a corner, but now it finally had a more suitable position.

The dark grey carpet in the sofa area had neatly cut edges, distinguishing it from the light grey short-pile carpet in the study area.

Behind the screen, which was the side closer to the stairs, was the study area.

Between the two areas, a passage about one meter wide was left, with no furniture placed there, to allow people to walk through.

On one side of the passage against the wall was a water bar.

It had a dark granite countertop with a copper kettle and porcelain cups on it.

Inside the study area, a long old elm table was placed with its back to the sofa backrest.

Behind the table, along the wall, was a full-wall teak-colored curio cabinet and bookshelf, extending from the floor to the ceiling.

The curio cabinet displayed specialty ornaments from the Merfolk Kingdom and Heze Kingdom.

As for the bookshelf, Tian Xiwei was currently standing barefoot on a stool, tiptoeing to place skill book parchment scrolls onto the shelf, arranging them by color from dark to light.

Although the skill books could be placed in the second-floor storage cabinets, it wasn't a bad idea to display them on the bookshelf.

Looking from afar, it really had a unique charm.

Near the wall below the bookshelf, there was also a bamboo lounge chair and a low stool for reading and resting.

The flow of the entire third floor was in a "loop" shape.

Coming up from the stairs, one could enter the study area via the water bar, then pass through the corridor behind the screen to reach the sofa area, or return the same way, without needing to backtrack.

Lin Xiao raised his hand to beckon Xiao Tian, and the group continued up the spiral staircase.

The fourth floor was the kitchen and dining room.

The kitchen counter remained unchanged from before, still a long quartzite table.

In the center of the dining room was a rectangular solid wood dining table that could accommodate a dozen people for meals at the same time.

It was originally just a small square table.

"Did you rearrange this?" Lin Xiao looked at the four women.

Jiang Wanwan smiled mysteriously, "After the territory changed, the original furniture didn't quite match anymore. I took the time while you were downstairs to do a little rearranging upstairs and downstairs."

The dining table was covered with a cloud-and-water patterned brocade table runner that Yimu had brought back from the Heze Imperial Palace, with delicate silver threads shimmering in the sunlight.

The fifth floor was currently still an empty room.

The four walls were plain, and several sensor lights were embedded in the ceiling.

Lin Xiao walked a few steps in the empty room, "This floor can be made into a leisure area or a game room later. Anyway, the territory space is abundant now, so all the necessary functional zones should be arranged."

The sixth floor was the bedroom area, with the basic situation remaining unchanged.

The seventh floor was also an empty room.

However, the ceiling on this floor was higher than the floors below, and the view outside the window was even more expansive. Standing in front of the window, one could see the silhouette of the sand dunes gradually receding behind the Astral Express.

The eighth floor was the area where the Rune Array was located.

The layout of the entire floor remained basically the same as before, with the floor covered in rune stone slabs engraved with energy circuits.

Yimu was standing next to the Rune Array, appearing to be studying the stone slabs on the ground.

Seeing Lin Xiao push the door open and enter, she straightened up and nodded slightly, "Lord of the Kingdom."

Jing Hua stepped forward and explained, "When Yimu and I were discussing Heze rune technology, we learned a lot of new things. Many of them can be integrated into the current Rune Array, which might further improve the conversion efficiency of stardust source essence."

"Not bad." Lin Xiao nodded. "Also, today's Reversal Technique was very impressive. Thanks to you two, I was able to completely defeat Sikong Lie."

Lin Xiao recalled the reverse Rune Array that Jing Hua and Yimu had set up together on the battlefield and praised them sincerely.

Subsequently, he took out the thick "Illustrated Book of Crafts" and handed it to the two women.

"This is a good thing I found on the aircraft. It contains detailed introductions about rune technology; you can take a look at it.

On this basis, I hope you two can continue to cooperate. For example, use these rune technologies to mass-produce magic element stones from the batch of Scarab Beetle remains we obtained earlier."

Jing Hua and Yimu looked at each other and smiled, nodding simultaneously.