Qin Yu stopped Silver Crimson Snow from attacking the beastkin girl. This time, he had come for the children living in the monastery.

As mentioned before, troop-type buildings could create their own exclusive armies. But those armies couldn't appear out of thin air. They needed an initial population.

Once you had people, you could carry out troop conversion.

Like that beastkin girl. If there was a beastkin troop building, the other children could be transformed into beastkin like her.

And the reason Qin Yu had found these children was to make them the people of his territory.

"Hello. My name is Qin Yu. I'm from another world. We mean you no harm."

Qin Yu stepped forward with a smile and tried to negotiate with the beastkin girl. She was probably the leader of the children here. As long as he could persuade her, there shouldn't be any problem.

The girl in the tattered cloak lowered the short blade in her hand, but she still hadn't let go of her guard against Qin Yu and Silver Crimson Snow. Who knew if these two were bad people?

"As for why we came here..."

Qin Yu paused for a moment.

"...we want to adopt you and give you a safe place to stay."

As he said that, Qin Yu didn't forget to keep a kind smile on his face.

"..."

"..."

"..."

After hearing Qin Yu's words, the children looked unusually terrified. This big brother was definitely a bad guy.

"Master, you really sound like a child trafficker trying to lure kids away right now."

Even Silver Crimson Snow couldn't help but roast him. No matter how you looked at it, his behavior was weird.

"*Ahem.* Then I'll say it normally. In the future, my territory will need people. So I want you to become my citizens."

"..."

The beastkin girl frowned slightly. Qin Yu had told the truth this time, but that only led to her next question.

If they became this man's people, would it actually benefit them?

"If you agree, then first, I'll guarantee your safety. With this big sister here, a Rank 7, you won't be in much danger for the time being..."

Rank 7 Silver Crimson Snow was Qin Yu's greatest safeguard right now, and she had enough weight behind her words to convince the children.

When the children heard Qin Yu say Silver Crimson Snow was Rank 7, admiration immediately showed on their faces.

"Rank 7?! Then does that mean..."

"Big Sis, do you have your own Fated Artifact?"

"Can you show us?"

...

The children crowded around, chattering all at once. In their hearts, Rank 7 Silver Crimson Snow was exactly what they dreamed of becoming.

Being stared at by so many little admirers, even Silver Crimson Snow got a little embarrassed. She summoned her Bloodwood Coffin.

"A dark red coffin?"

"That's Big Sis's Fated Artifact?"

"It's kinda weird~"

...

They had expected some normal weapon. Instead, it turned out to be a coffin, and the children started talking again.

When the beastkin girl saw Silver Crimson Snow's Fated Artifact, envy rose in her heart as well. If she had also reached Rank 7, then those children from before wouldn't have...

"Can you really guarantee our safety?"

With a trace of unease, the beastkin girl spoke again.

"Of course. I'm willing to sign a contract with you."

"Okay!"

With a contract as guarantee, the beastkin girl finally believed him a little more.

"Xiaoxue, help me out. I want to make a blood pact with them."

A contract made with one's own blood couldn't be broken easily.

But Qin Yu currently had no way to use that form of contract himself, so he needed Silver Crimson Snow's help. Then he formed a contract with the children here.

That meant these fifty children were now his future citizens. However, to truly complete the blood pact, he had to establish his own territory within one month. Otherwise, the blood pact would directly become invalid.

"One month should be enough. We need to move a little faster..."

Building his own territory within a month was basically first-tier speed. For Qin Yu, achieving that wasn't a problem at all.

"Your name is Hong, right?"

Through the blood pact, Qin Yu had also learned the beastkin girl's name.

"Mm."

"It won't even take a month. Within seven days, I'll definitely get you out of this place. Before that, protect the children here."

"I'll definitely protect them. I just hope you'll honor the contract too."

"Of course I will. Right, take this set of equipment. It'll boost your strength a bit..."

Qin Yu handed the purple Blood Bishop set to Hong. Seeing how ragged her clothes were, it was about time she changed into something decent.

"This... it's too valuable."

When Hong saw that it was a purple-grade set, she didn't dare accept it.

"It's nothing. You're already one of my people. How can you not dress a little better? Once those children reach the territory, I'll give them new clothes too."

"Thank you, Lord..."

Because of those words from Qin Yu, Hong's favorability toward him shot straight up to 60, even higher than Silver Crimson Snow's. Right now, Silver Crimson Snow's favorability toward Qin Yu was only 55.

After they left the monastery, Silver Crimson Snow finally spoke.

"Master, are you planning to trick children into becoming child laborers?"

"Why make it sound so awful? I'm building a reasonable cooperative relationship with them. What do you mean tricking them? Watch your mouth."

As Silver Crimson Snow kept talking with Qin Yu, her favorability with him started rising again. Honestly, the way those two got along was pretty strange.

But Qin Yu was already used to it, and he was willing to put up with her. That might also be why Silver Crimson Snow's favorability kept increasing.

"You don't get it. After signing the contract with those kids, I realized every one of those fifty children is extraordinary. The weakest aptitude is 6. Ten of them have aptitude 7, and two have aptitude 8."

What did aptitude represent?

It represented the upper limit of the strength they could reach in the future.

If someone had aptitude 7, then the strongest they could become in the future was Rank 7.

In the world of Fate Paradise, reaching Rank 6 already made you a very powerful high-level unit.

Rank 7, meanwhile, was what most people longed for. Only those at Rank 7 were qualified to awaken a Fated Artifact. Those who awakened a Fated Artifact were called Fatebreakers, people who had broken through fate itself.

In the early and mid stages of his previous life, if a player's territory had one Rank 7, it could protect itself. Two made you a regional powerhouse. Three made you a top-tier giant. With four, even nations would come trying to recruit you...

Ten people with aptitude 7 was almost unthinkable. If word got out, others would probably fight to snatch them away.

And even more outrageous, there were two with aptitude 8.

One sentence summed up aptitude 8 perfectly:

Their future was limitless.

If those two could really reach Rank 8 one day, they would absolutely leave their names in Fate Paradise, just like the Flower Shadow Sword Saint.

"Oh? Then that really is lucky. Still, they have to actually reach that level first..."

Silver Crimson Snow was very calm about it. It wasn't like high-aptitude geniuses had never died young before. In the end, they still had to grow up first.

"That's for sure. I'll definitely make sure they grow up smoothly..."

Qin Yu had obviously already thought through the later stages of development before coming to find these children, and the result had exceeded even his expectations.

Originally, he had thought finding three or four children with aptitude 7 would already be pretty good. Now it had far surpassed what he expected, and it gave him even more confidence.

Next, he was heading to the next destination in his plan...