Chapter 162: Establishing the Crocodile King's Palace

Such a brilliant hydro-transformation technique left Lu Chen in a state of quiet admiration.

In short, after carefully observing the mutated abilities of the three saltwater crocodiles and Black-spot, Lu Chen felt deeply gratified and emotional, very much like a parent watching their children grow up and mature.

The fellows were now fully capable of self-protection, meaning he no longer needed to worry about them in the future.

Speaking of which, it had been three years since Lu Chen was reincarnated as a saltwater crocodile.
For the sake of freedom, he had led the little guys to escape from a pet store through the sewers.

At the very beginning, the four little ones were only twenty to thirty centimeters long, sitting almost at the absolute bottom of the food chain, surrounded by countless natural predators eyeing them hungiously, ready to devour them at any moment.

Every day they lived in fear and trembling, relying on each other for warmth and huddling together for survival.

At that time, Lu Chen's thought was very simple: as long as they could successfully stay alive, that would be enough.

He never dreamed in a million years that, in just a few short years, things would reach such a state and bring such opportunities.

If Big Brother Croc and the others were to return to the Blue Star, they would undoubtedly be existences at the level of overlords. Among the native fierce beasts of the Blue Star, there probably weren't many capable of standing against them.

Even humans... unless they resorted to saturated missile strikes or their most powerful weapons, they would find it impossible to kill them.

Next, Lu Chen had Black-spot act as a messenger to summon the crocodile leaders to a meeting.

Under the policy of both rewards and punishments, the current leaders were extremely obedient.

Within half a day, all of them appeared before Lu Chen, and not a single one dared to be absent.

Many of the fellows slightly raised their heads, gazing with reverence at their King.

Lu Chen released his spiritual consciousness to sense them, then nodded with satisfaction.

Having not seen them for a while, their strengths had all grown considerably.

Most of them were at the mid-stage of Tier 4, with a few having already reached the late-stage of Tier 4.

If this speed of evolution were placed in the world of the Blue Star, it would definitely leave countless humans dumbfounded.

Of course, Big Brother Croc and the others didn't count; after all, those fellows had been entirely nourished by spirit stones.

Without any long-winded speeches, Lu Chen spoke briefly and immediately began a massive distribution of spirit stones.

The scene was once again filled with sounds of joy and laughter.

As for how to distribute spirit stones to the ordinary adult saltwater crocodiles, Lu Chen did not intend to rely on the hands of these leaders.

Instead, he planned to spend a few days traveling to each crocodile tribe and personally handing out the spirit stones to his subjects.

On one hand, this would increase their loyalty and sense of belonging; on the second hand, it would allow him to accurately understand the true condition of each tribe.

To reiterate, if a civilization wished to develop continuously, it could not rely solely on the hundreds of saltwater crocodile leaders; the foundation at the bottom was equally important.

Therefore, he needed to grasp the specific situation of the entire crocodile clan in a timely manner so as to formulate the subsequent development plan.

With the distribution of the spirit stones concluded, Lu Chen was just about to end the meeting and let these fellows return to their respective territories.

Unexpectedly, Big Brother Croc put forward a suggestion.

"In order to display the majesty and strength of the crocodile clan, we should build a Crocodile King Palace..."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen felt somewhat incredulous for a moment.

He indeed had the idea of building a Crocodile King Palace.

After all, architecture was a manifestation of civilization developing to a certain stage, and also the crystallization of the wisdom of the entire race.

It was just that he felt most saltwater crocodiles had not yet awakened their spiritual intelligence and the timing was too early, so he hadn't taken action yet.

He never expected that this plan would be proposed by Big Brother Croc first.

Had this fellow's ideological realm reached such a profound depth?

Or had he learned it from the videos provided by those humans?

Lu Chen felt that the latter probability was much higher. However, being able to propose such an idea in itself showed that Big Brother Croc had undergone independent thinking.

"Squeak squeak, hiss hiss..." Black-spot was the first to express agreement.

This fellow's intelligence was likewise very high, and it instinctively felt that there should be a structure to showcase the Dragon King's majesty.

"Hiss hiss..."

Immediately following that, the other crocodile leaders successively voiced their approval.

Fine, seeing how enthusiastic everyone was, Lu Chen went along with the flow and agreed. It happened to be a good opportunity to boost the cohesion of the saltwater crocodile race.

This could be considered the very first major engineering project since the establishment of the crocodile civilization.

However, Lu Chen did not intend to handle it personally; instead, he prepared to delegate the entire management of it to Big Brother Croc.

He wanted to find out whether, without his participation, Big Brother Croc and the other crocodile subjects truly had the capability to construct such a massive project.

If things were handled well, he could try giving Big Brother Croc more responsibilities in the future.

As the crocodile civilization continued to develop, managing tens of thousands of subjects would likewise consume massive amounts of energy and time.

And Lu Chen needed to go out frequently and wouldn't stay in the waterfall space all the time.

At such times, it was necessary for a fellow clan member to step forward and share the daily affairs on his behalf.

Therefore, for Big Brother Croc, building the Crocodile King Palace was also a test.

Having handed over the task, Lu Chen officially began his inspection and assessment of his territories. At the same time, everywhere he went to a tribe, he would lavishly distribute spirit stones.

Such behavior naturally moved countless subjects to tears of gratitude.

The situation was better than expected. Without the hunting of natural predators, coupled with the meticulous care of the adult female saltwater crocodile groups, the survival rate of the newly born little ones was extremely high.

In just a few short months, more than twenty thousand had been added.

Moreover, their physiques were generally much stronger than those of the previous generation at the same age, and their growth rates had also accelerated significantly.

This was only the beginning; it could be anticipated that the number of saltwater crocodile hatchlings born next would only increase.

However, wanting them to truly grow up would still take at least several years.

Lu Chen did not have that much patience to wait. What he wanted to do was to quickly develop the crocodile dynasty to a certain level.

Time, to him, was likewise very important.

Therefore, he planned to make another trip to the Blue Star in a few days to continue introducing more saltwater crocodile peers.

With the spirit stones distributed, Lu Chen finally had the time to check on the specific construction progress of the Crocodile King Palace.

To his surprise, Big Brother Croc actually knew to draw a conceptual rendering before starting the work.

From the drawing, the entire Crocodile King Palace was built against the mountain and facing the water, and the materials were entirely made of stone. It was stacked layer by layer, just like building blocks.

The overall design was extremely crude and rough, lacking even much aesthetic appeal.

Even so, Lu Chen was very satisfied and directly nodded in affirmation of the plan.

This was the crystallization of the wisdom of the crocodile clan, or rather, the best they could possibly achieve at present.

Of course, whether it could actually be built remained to be seen, after all, some mechanical knowledge had to be applied in the process, and he didn't know if the crocodile subjects participating in the construction were adequately prepared.

Next, Lu Chen went to the stone quarry of a certain tribe to observe how Big Brother Croc directed his peers in mining stones.

As a result, he was startled once again.

He had completely underestimated the creativity of these fellows. They actually knew the principle of thermal expansion and contraction to quarry stones.

After finding suitable stone materials, Black-spot immediately leaped into the air, its mouth spewing raging flames to roast and heat them, while other saltwater crocodiles poured water streams along the cracks in the stone.

Finally, Big Brother Croc used the Law of Energy to instantly freeze the water streams into solid ice.

Stimulated by the alternating heat and cold, the stone cracked right down the middle with crunching sounds.

There were also many other peers stationed in the distance, grinding and cutting the irregular boulders that were mined out.

The entire process was simple, effortless, and efficient. In just half an hour, a square stone slab more than 10 meters long was completed.

Lu Chen had originally harbored doubts about whether the Crocodile King Palace could even be built, but now those doubts were completely dispelled.