The first issue was the food problem for 2.3 million mouths.
In addition to the original 470,000 humans on Ren Dao Island, the Southern Scaled Seahorse tribe had brought another 1.83 million humans.
These humans were even more thoroughly domesticated.
They had not only completely forgotten human civilization but had also had their most basic language stripped away.
Apart from eating, drinking, and sleeping, they were left with only the instinct to procreate.
Initially, Yang Hong had wanted to kill them all and be done with it.
In the end, he only killed the pregnant women and some of the elderly,
but he preserved the majority of them.
Now, the original inhabitants of Ren Dao Island were teaching these newcomers how to live like normal humans.
Upon seeing these 1.83 million humans, everyone on Ren Dao Island felt a surge of relief.
Relief that they had not been domesticated into such "livestock."
And relief that they had met a great senior like Yang Hong early on, otherwise their descendants would have surely ended up like this.
It was precisely because of the burden of these 1.83 million people that the humans of Ren Dao Island, who could have been self-sufficient, lacked sufficient manpower for farming.
At this time, the seahorse demon beasts that Yang Hong had confined to the sea were good food sources.
However, considering that the vast majority of humans had not yet cultivated, they could only consume first-tier demon beasts. Once the first-tier demon beasts were gone, they would have to rely on ordinary grains or first-grade spirit plants.
For this reason, Yang Hong had to pick up his old trade from when he first transmigrated,
which was also his old trade in the Great Sui Dynasty – cultivating grains.
On this Ren Dao Island, filled with spirit plants, cultivating ordinary grains became a significant problem.
On the shore of Ren Dao Island.
"Yu Ke Wei, Hua Xin Lei, I'm going out to the outer islands for a bit. Hua Mu City will be left to your protection.
I'll be back as soon as possible."
"Master, rest assured. With the Six Harmonies Prisoner Tiger Formation, even a seventh-tier Demon Lord would be captured if they came."
Hearing Yang Hong's instructions, Yu Ke Wei proudly patted her chest to guarantee.
"Master, rest assured."
Hua Xin Lei straightened his back and stood at attention.
He was a man of action and few words, not one to boast, but if something were to happen, he would be the first to step forward.
Yang Hong nodded at them and then looked at Lan Faxuan and the other two.
"Your task is very simple: teach everyone basic life skills and learn farming as quickly as possible.
Get the artifact refiners to forge farming tools with all their might. I want Ren Dao Island to enter an agricultural era as soon as I return."
"Senior, please rest assured. Your juniors will certainly complete the task."
Lan Faxuan and the other two quickly cupped their fists in agreement.
"Also, don't neglect your cultivation. You can hunt the seahorse demon beasts freely, eat as much as you want,
and improve your cultivation as quickly as possible!
This applies to both ordinary mortals and your original few cultivators."
"Understood."
The three cupped their fists again, faint beads of sweat still on their foreheads.
They had learned in the past few days from a captured fourth-tier small demon that Yang Hong had exterminated another 10 Demon Lords, 100 Demon Kings, and tens of thousands of great demons.
In their eyes, Yang Hong was a complete butcher.
Oh~ No!
He should be called a demon butcher.
In short, he was a terrifying existence.
"Alright, no more nonsense. I'm leaving."
With that, Yang Hong stepped into the water and used a water遁术 (water escape technique) to flee.
When he reappeared, he was already a thousand li away.
Without mastering the water escape technique to perfection, Yang Hong's maximum range was a thousand li.
Yang Hong planned to practice the water escape technique while searching for seeds.
In the Myriad Demon Archipelago, water was abundant, making the water escape technique the fastest and most convenient way to travel.
If he encountered danger, the water escape would also be the quickest way to escape.
His target this time was 20 million li away. According to intelligence from the Southern Scaled Seahorse tribe, about 24.17 million li southwest of Ren Dao Island, there was an island ruled by humans.
That was where human-cultivated ordinary grains could be found.
The demon kings were 100% certain of this intelligence, as the Southern Scaled Seahorse tribe had trade dealings with this human island named [Guangyou Island].
"I hope those demon kings were lying."
After fleeing for 30,000 li, Yang Hong stopped at a small island.
This island was only a hundred li in circumference. The island was lush with vegetation, not tall mountains but dense forests. The ground was covered in flourishing flowers and grasses, with beasts roaming the woods and birds flying and singing,
a scene brimming with vitality.
"If such a seaside island were placed in my previous life, it would definitely be developed into a tourist resort and make a fortune."
Seeing this small island, Yang Hong nodded with satisfaction, then his powerful divine sense swept back and forth across the island.
"Hmm?"
As time passed, Yang Hong's expression slowly darkened.
"This island has no spiritual veins and is unsuitable for demon beast cultivation. At most, there are only third-tier demon beasts.
But why are there no plants or fruit trees that ordinary humans can eat?"
Yang Hong, unwilling to give up, checked again carefully. Finding nothing he wanted, he left.
He used the earth escape technique to sense surrounding islands and flew towards them.
However, after a continuous month of investigation, regardless of the size of the islands, he could not find any plants that ordinary humans could safely consume.
Not even on the newly formed small islands less than a li across.
In fact, humans were omnivorous creatures. They could eat animals and plants. If that wasn't enough, raising first-tier demon beasts was also a very nutritious food source.
Yang Hong could have not dwelled on finding plants.
But Nan Daning had told Yang Hong something.
Within the Myriad Demon Archipelago, there were no human grains.
Let alone common grains like rice and wheat, even varieties like millet and soybeans that could grow wild in normal environments were absent.
Even non-toxic and harmless wild vegetables were missing.
A smart person like Xiao Ming might ask, if there are no such grains, how do the demon beasts raise humans?
Let me ask you, when you raise pigs, do you avoid feeding them feed that makes them stupid, even if you know it does?
The answer is yes, of course!
Pigs are naturally better off being dumber.
Now, you know how the demon beasts raise humans, right?
And you also know why the humans raised by the Southern Scaled Seahorse tribe couldn't even speak, right?
Furthermore, this is not an isolated case. All factions that raise humans are doing the same thing.
After inspecting over a thousand islands for a month, Yang Hong confirmed that there were powerful demons who were consciously playing a grand game, and humans were merely pawns.
On the islands he inspected, many plants were not deadly to humans if eaten, but they all had significant effects such as weakening spiritual roots, reducing intelligence, and diminishing bloodlines.
There were truly no natural human food sources on the islands of the Myriad Demon Archipelago!
Yang Hong was already a Golden Core stage cultivator upon arriving in the Myriad Demon Archipelago, so he could eat spirit plants and spirit fruits, and high-quality ones at that, so he had never paid attention to this.
It wasn't until Nan Daning, a Southern Scaled Seahorse demon, told him that he noticed this point.
Although it was a bit late, it was not too late to mend the loss.
Now, his goal was to find plants that humans could eat normally,
and that target was the island of Guangyou.
He hoped this island had not yet been destroyed by the demons.