Liu Hui and An Qi met again on that canyon platform in Shuzhou Province, and as they recalled the past, they were overcome with emotion. Their hearts leaned toward each other once more, and though many difficulties lay ahead, they had finally resolved to be together.

Liu Hui and An Qi, intimately close once more, returned to Chuzhou. They spent two more days in nostalgic remembrance there before finally arriving back at the "City of Starlight."

Due to Hu Xian'er's presence, Liu Hui dared not bring An Qi home immediately, nor did he dare mention An Qi to Hu Xian'er, as he could not predict her reaction upon hearing about her.

An Qi, now reunited with Liu Hui in a time of tender affection, understood his current predicament and agreed to keep their relationship private for the time being, waiting for the opportune moment to introduce An Qi to Hu Xian'er.

Thus, after Liu Hui's sealed memories, recovered through the intervention of Zen Master Zhiguang, were awakened, he and An Qi quietly began living together. He would sneak away for rendezvous with An Qi periodically; his secrecy was so meticulous that outsiders remained completely unaware. Liu Hui himself was especially cautious, showing no hint of anything unusual in front of his parents or Hu Xian'er.

Liu Hui’s parents remained genuinely oblivious to the fact that their son had awakened his memories, found An Qi—who was suspected to be Shu Yan—and was now involved with her. However, Hu Xian'er understood everything transpiring in her heart, patiently awaiting Liu Hui's explanation. Alas, Liu Hui had never mentioned An Qi to her. Several times, Hu Xian'er had been on the verge of directly questioning him about his relationship with An Qi, but the words always caught in her throat and she swallowed them back.

Consequently, the Starlight Group continued on its established trajectory of development, appearing utterly unaffected by the preceding events.

Only after Liu Hui resolved the matters concerning An Qi and finally settled his mind did he realize that September of 2015 had arrived. The two products previously launched by the Starlight Group, "Starlight Quit-Smoking Elixir" and "Starlight Detox Elixir," remained red-hot sellers in the market. Within several months, they had generated a staggering sales revenue of two hundred and fifty billion US dollars for the Starlight Group, further solidifying the brand’s reputation: "Starlight Production, Guaranteed Excellence."

The construction of the "City of Starlight," save for the temporary halt during the siege by the five battleships, had proceeded at a breakneck pace. The current footprint of the entire "City of Starlight" had reached an astonishing one hundred and twenty square kilometers. Viewed from the sea, the "City of Starlight" stretched as far as the eye could see, truly becoming a colossal maritime behemoth.

Somalia, Africa, was the headquarters of Zhou Tengyun’s Dragon Fang Mercenary Group. The Dragon Fang Mercenary Group had now grown into the most renowned mercenary corps in Africa. Thanks to their superior weaponry, formidable individual combat capabilities, and precise command structure, they had successfully executed numerous extremely difficult commissioned missions across Africa and the Middle East, wielding immense influence on the continent.

Nowhere was their influence more astonishing than in Somalia, the base of the Dragon Fang Mercenary Group. They were not only investing heavily in construction and distributing wealth throughout Somalia, but the current Somalian regime had actually ascended to power with their backing. It could be said that the members of the Dragon Fang Mercenary Group held the status of unseen sovereigns within Somalia.

Recently, a development pleased the Somalian government greatly: through the mediation of the Dragon Fang Mercenary Group, they had managed to contact the powerful "City of Starlight" and enter negotiations for a peculiar business transaction.

The deal involved the "City of Starlight" exporting vast quantities of soil from Somalia, in exchange for which the "City of Starlight" would pay the Somalian government substantial soil purchase fees. This unprecedented and novel business venture thrilled the Somalian government, who were also deeply grateful to the Dragon Fang Mercenary Group; it was their presence that allowed Somalia to sell off its barren, nearly unproductive soil. In this strange new enterprise, they were merely relinquishing worthless earth and receiving enormous sums of US dollars in return—a perfect, cost-free profit stream.

What the Somalian government failed to foresee was that the party most satisfied with this novel arrangement was the "City of Starlight" itself. This was because the area of the "City of Starlight" was expanding rapidly, and the original construction blueprint required an enormous volume of soil and rock. Since all land on Earth, save for the Antarctic, had already been claimed by human settlement, the "City of Starlight" had no option but to purchase soil from nations around the world.

As for the numerous small, uninhabited islands scattered across the ocean, they inherently lacked sufficient topsoil, and the acquisition cost was too high, leading the "City of Starlight" to disregard them. After surveying nations globally, the only place the "City of Starlight" could easily source soil was Somalia, where the Dragon Fang Mercenary Group held dominant sway.

Under Liu Hui's directive, Zhou Tengyun made a timely appearance, framing the deal as assistance to the Somalian government in resolving its fiscal crisis. This led to the agreement on the soil purchase plan, a deal in which both parties believed they were coming out far ahead.

The soil purchase agreement stipulated that the Somalian government would supply massive amounts of soil to the "City of Starlight," which in turn would pay compensation based on the volume provided by the Somalian government. The agreed price for the soil was set at $0.10 per cubic meter.

The Somalian government was overjoyed to sell soil they considered worthless for $0.10 per cubic meter. However, they feared that the quantity required by the "City of Starlight" might be too small to significantly impact their revenue, so they strongly insisted that the "City of Starlight" must transport a specific minimum volume of soil from Somalia daily. Consequently, the "City of Starlight" immediately added a clause to the agreement: they would extract a minimum of ten million cubic meters of soil from Somalia every day, meaning the "City of Starlight" would pay the Somalian government at least one million US dollars daily.

A daily revenue of one million dollars from selling dirt immensely satisfied the Somalian government. Calculated annually, this meant they could secure a colossal $365 million from the "City of Starlight" just by selling soil—a sum that made the Somalian government, whose annual fiscal revenue barely scraped $50 million, ecstatically excited. Fearing the "City of Starlight" might renege on the deal midway, they added extremely punitive breach-of-contract clauses. Paradoxically, this final addition by the Somalian government was precisely what delighted the "City of Starlight" the most, as they possessed unlimited funds but critically lacked soil.

After the "City of Starlight" and the Somalian government formally signed the agreement, two massive maritime trains departed from the "City of Starlight" bound for Somalia. The two maritime trains, with a combined carrying capacity of 8 million tons across 80 carriages, each capable of holding 100,000 tons, were loaded to the brim with materials for constructing large-scale docking facilities, as well as various heavy-duty excavation machinery and cargo trucks.

According to the agreement, the Somalian government had already cleared a small fishing village located one hundred kilometers south of Hobyo along the coast. Centered around this former village, they designated an unoccupied area for the "City of Starlight" to excavate soil, spanning fifty kilometers north to south and thirty kilometers east to west.

When the "City of Starlight's" two maritime trains arrived off the coast of Somalia, they anchored offshore. The 80 carriages, each holding 100,000 tons, were slowly towed by numerous barges toward the now-deserted fishing village. Next, the heavy excavation equipment and construction materials stored within the train carriages were transported ashore and piled onto the open ground outside the former village site. Once all 80 carriages were maneuvered to the shoreline, the two remaining maritime locomotive heads immediately returned to the "City of Starlight" to fetch more construction supplies.

Port construction commenced swiftly on the ground. The colossal excavators, capable of scooping up a thousand tons in a single pass, moved onto the construction site. Under the rapid work of dozens of these massive diggers, it took only one day for the "City of Starlight" to carve out an enormous pit where the small fishing village once stood. Following this, more machinery flooded the site, and all manner of materials were utilized on this grand construction project.

In just one week, the construction crew from the "City of Starlight" erected a massive port facility capable of docking four maritime trains at its peak capacity on the former site of the small fishing village. Another week later, once the port structures had fully cured, several tremendous explosions rocked the area as the retaining dam holding back the ocean waters was blasted away. Seawater surged into the new harbor, officially completing the construction of this super-sized port.

In building this ultra-large port, the "City of Starlight" incorporated numerous high-tech innovations, advanced materials, and massive equipment, including the deployment of several mystical formations, enabling the completion of a major port—which would normally take at least two years of slow construction—in a mere fortnight.

Upon the successful completion of this colossal harbor, the two maritime trains, which had been waiting offshore, slowly sailed into Somalia's brand-new port, laden with even more gigantic excavators and heavy transport trucks.

The "City of Starlight" quickly established an administrative department at the port to manage the new facility. On the surface, they hired mercenaries from the Dragon Fang Mercenary Group to guard the new port, ensuring no one dared to harbor designs against it.

With all preliminary arrangements in place, and under the supervision of personnel from the Somalian government, the "City of Starlight" began excavating the soil across the designated 1,500 square kilometers of land.

The various large-scale excavation equipment of the "City of Starlight" roared to life, beginning the systematic removal of Somali soil. On the very first day, they excavated over five million cubic meters of soil. Although this figure fell short of the Somalian government’s ambitious expectations, the sheer technological might displayed by the "City of Starlight" right at the commencement of operations left the supervising officials from Somalia utterly dumbfounded.

Thanks to the book friend: Mizong Dream Fantasy for your support! RO