It was a small cloth pouch. Gu Ning activated his Spirit Sight skill to inspect it.
Fog Tree Seed (Green): The seed of the Fog Tree. Planting it around your territory will release mist that conceals the area, making your territory safer by hiding its presence.
"Huh?" Gu Ning was a bit surprised. "This is actually quite useful—it can effectively obscure the appearance of my territory. If enemies come, it'll help prevent them from scouting out the situation."
All three items this time were excellent. Gu Ning began to consider handing over fishing duties to Windsor permanently—her luck seemed to be far better than his!
After breakfast, Gu Ning planned to continue making ice, but first, he wanted to dive and let Windsor and the others go hunting—making good use of the time.
He activated the diving function, sank the wooden ship, and left it under the control of the navigator while he went back to producing ice blocks.
Once they reached the shore, Gu Ning didn't check the haul immediately. He decided to organize everything later that night.
He opened the Trading Channel and began listing the ice blocks:
Ice Block ×10Trade Requirement: White Stone ×90
Ice Block ×100Trade Requirement: White Stone ×900
...
Gu Ning posted each trade listing one by one. After finishing, he opened the World Chat and announced:
"Hey everyone! I've listed some ice blocks in the Trading Channel. Hurry and grab them—limited stock! First come, first served!"
He also asked Wang Mu to help promote the ice blocks and even gave him 50 as a token.
But honestly, Gu Ning didn't even need to do that. As soon as he made his announcement, the World Chat blew up:
"Whoa! It's been ages—Lord Xia actually showed up!""Selling ice blocks? But everyone has a personal shop now. Did Lord Xia get heatstroke or what?" (a snarky comment)"Thank god I was quick—I bought 50! So worth it!""Wait, what? Where are the ice blocks? I didn't see any listed!""Hahaha, too slow! Better break up with your partner and train your reflexes!""What does that even have to do with anything?""Guys, I'm still a kid—don't get weird.""Lord Xia is amazing! His ice blocks are just as big as the ones from personal shops, but way cheaper. I saved 50 white stones on my purchase of fifty blocks!""Same here! Fifty ice blocks should be enough to get me through this tough patch.""Damn it! You greedy bastards didn't leave me even one!""Lord Xia, please restock more ice!"
...
Gu Ning didn't expect the ice blocks he'd made over the past few days to sell out so fast.
He hurried to continue production. Whenever his mana ran out, he'd use the break to post more ice blocks for sale.
Just then, a message popped up in his friends list. It was from Lico'er.
"Gu Ning, do you have any more ice blocks? I need a hundred."
Lico'er didn't beat around the bush.
Gu Ning thought for a moment, then replied,
"I'm out right now. You really need to come to me for just a few ice blocks? You're not exactly short on white stones."
"Every bit saved counts!" Lico'er replied. "Next time you have more, sell to me first, okay?"
"Nah," Gu Ning refused flatly. "You can compete with everyone else in the Trading Channel. I don't have much, and you're not hurting for 100 white stones."
With that, he closed the chat window.
"Ugh! He won't sell to me!" Lico'er muttered angrily, clenching her dainty fists. "Who cares who he sells it to?! What's he thinking?"
But Gu Ning had his reasons for not selling privately to Lico'er:
She didn't really need the discount. Even if he didn't sell to her, she could easily afford to buy from elsewhere.
Selling publicly could save more Blue Star survivors. His cheaper price might make the difference between life and death for some, helping his own side in the long run.
He wanted Wang Mu to spread word that he turned down Lico'er's private request and chose to sell on the public channel instead—building a reputation for fairness.
A good reputation can bring unexpected benefits.
This way, he could make money and help others—a win-win situation.
From then on, Gu Ning kept up the cycle: make ice, sell ice, repeat—until evening.
At one point, Li Chong stopped by. Since he had traded Gu Ning a lot of good items before and wasn't very wealthy, Gu Ning sold him 50 ice blocks at the regular price.
After dinner, as his mana recharged, Gu Ning took a moment to check his current assets.
"Holy—this much?!" He was stunned.
Even accounting for leftover white stones from yesterday and today's earnings from hunting and fishing, the profits from selling ice had easily surpassed 10,000 white stones.
He decided to use this time to upgrade his wooden ship.
Upgrade Requirements:
Wood ×2000
Nails ×4000
Copper ×200
Ship Core ×1
He spent 10,000 white stones to purchase the necessary materials and started the upgrade.
A flash of light enveloped the ship—and then it transformed dramatically.
It became longer, wider, and—more importantly—taller. Gu Ning noticed a staircase had appeared near the fishing gallery, leading downward. This meant a new level had been added, not just more structures on the existing deck.
He checked the ship's updated info:
Tower ShipLevel: 1 (Length: 45 meters, Width: 15 meters)
Facilities:
First Floor: Kitchen, Large Cabin ×1, Public Toilet, Observation Deck, Fishing Gallery, Mast, Rudder
Second Floor: Core Cabin, Large Cabins ×2, Small Cabins ×4, Storage Room, Public Toilet
Propulsion: Multi-oar linked drive
Tech Upgrades:
Ship Drainage Tech (Level 3)
Ship Thermal Tech (Level 2)
Ship Automation Tech (Level 1)
Multi-Oar Drive Tech (Level 3)
Ship Diving Tech (Weakened Level 2)
Special Ability: Diving
The name had changed from "Wooden Ship" to Tower Ship, and it reset to Level 1 again—suggesting ship upgrades work in six-level tiers.
New additions included a large cabin, kitchen, public toilet, and observation deck.
Meanwhile, the former upper-level core cabin had been moved to the newly-added second floor.
Gu Ning went to inspect the observation deck—it was like a small watchtower, ideal for long-range viewing.
Then he descended the new stairs and explored the second floor. The core cabin had been expanded into a two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit with a kitchen.
He figured he could let Molly move in and stay in one of the new bedrooms, making her his private chef. The other chef could cook for the rest of the civilians in the general kitchen.
As for what to do with Darkmoon now that Molly had a room?
Of course she'd keep sharing a bed with him. After all, they'd already done it once...
Finally, Gu Ning checked the upgrade requirements for the next level, curious whether it would still require a Ship Core—since that was always a key bottleneck.