Chapter 165 - Travel Plans
Right now, Zhao Hai had insufficient land inside the Space. He now had oil trees, bamboo rice, corn, and radishes planted all over the Space which made it so that he couldn't plant any other types of crops anymore. Zhao Hai had also observed that the improvement of the soil within the Black Waste was very good. He could plant oil trees in the Black Waste which could help loosen up the land usage inside the Space.
Zhao Hai observed the improvement of the soil within the Black Waste when using the spatial soil. He saw that the soil in the Black Waste wouldn't be improved much by just mixing it with the spatial soil, thus, he concluded that using the spatial water to improve the quality of the soil was the best way to do so. He also feared that using the spatial soil would eventually lead to a thinning of the soil within the Space, which would lead to his demise.
He had observed that the spatial water was taken from the springs. There was a large number of these springs, with so much water pouring out that it seemingly wasn't going to dry.
Actually, Zhao Hai had guessed that the spatial soil could also be rejuvenated, and that the spatial land wouldn't have any issue of thinning out. However, in his heart, Zhao Hai decided that using the spatial water would be the best.
Zhao Hai was very busy these days as he improved the lands of the Black Waste while also doing things inside the Space. This gave him a substantial amount of work each day.
The main thing was that Zhao Hai had been waiting for Buffy to come out of the Carrion Swamp. If he sees that Buffy was injured, then he wouldn't be polite.
Actually, Zhao Hai's reason for dealing with Buffy wasn't only due to revenge. He also wanted to learn more information about the Carrion Swamp as Drunk's team was too slow in exploring it; they would need a lot more time to do so properly. Furthermore, there were a lot of magic beasts1 and undead2 that had their own territories. Drunk could freely explore some areas as they were undead, but they would need to carefully pass by the territories of the magic beasts and other undead. Otherwise, they would be attacked by them. With such a situation, they could only advance slowly.
Buffy was different as he was a Rank Nine expert. He could fly and avoid the attacks of the majority of the magic beasts and undead, which allowed him to go deeper into the Carrion Swamp. If he was injured while coming out of the Carrion Swamp, then Zhao Hai would immediately destroy him and turn him into an undead. Then he could directly ask Buffy about the situation within the Carrion Swamp. This information would enable him to better cope with the recurring magic beast riots.
Zhao Hai wasn't too worried about the Purcell clan, especially now that Evan was the one in charge. Evan didn't have any malice towards them and wouldn't send anyone to deal with them. Zhao Hai's only worry was for the threat from the Carrion Swamp and, in fact, this was currently Zhao Hai's biggest worry.
He didn't want to live in the Black Waste his entire life. However, if the threat from the Carrion Swamp wasn't resolved, then he wouldn't feel at ease. Once this matter was resolved, only then could he be contented and travel with pleasure all over the continent. He wanted to see this unique world.
Although Zhao Hai was an otaku3 in his former life, his dream was to actually, one day, be able to travel all over the world. However, he really didn't have the money to do so back then. Travelling around the world would cost too much. Zhao Hai couldn't really afford to do it, so he could only stay at home.
It was different within the Ark Continent4 as he had the Space and a large territory. As long as he managed them properly, then he could afford to travel with pleasure around the world. Moreover, since he had the space he could travel back to his territory everyday, so he wasn't worried at all.
Unfortunately, now wasn't the time to do so. He should first resolve the threat of the Carrion Swamp. Green also didn't oppose his idea of traveling for pleasure since on the continent, no matter which of the respected clans, they would always allow their juniors go outside at a certain age in order to be informed and gain experience about the world. Zhao Hai should actually go too, but the time wasn't right.
The juniors of the aristocrats would have more knowledge for their travels upon leaving. It wouldn't only increase their comprehension and experiences, but they could also find several good friends. Along with these friends, they could explore the continent and understand the dangers within it. It was common knowledge that if the clans didn't let their juniors go out, then these juniors wouldn't ever grow up.
Green also wanted to quickly resolve the threat of the Carrion Swamp. However, he also knew that this problem wasn't easy to resolve. If it were easy to do so, then the Carrion Swamp wouldn't be given the title of one of the Five Restricted Areas.
* * * * *
On the continent, no one went to the Black Waste to observe anymore, even those from the great clans. This matter wasn't known by Zhao Hai. The reason why was because the Purcell clan had sent a Rank Nine expert to the Black Waste in order to chase them down and hadn't succeeded. What had made them astonished was the fact that Buffy said that Zhao Hai absolutely wasn't in the Black Waste, nor even at Fort Iron Mountain.
People believed the words a Rank Nine experts said and they'd thought that the Buda clan had secretly moved out of Fort Iron Mountain.
Although the new King had ordered the Buda clan not to leave the Black Waste, everyone knew that if the Buda clan stayed there, they would only meet death. Therefore, secretly moving out of that place was understandable.
Adding to this fact, the Black Waste had always encountered magic beast attacks in the past, yet Green had been seen as safe and unscathed. It could only be explained that they haven't been living in the Black Waste.
Moreover, everyone thought that Zhao Hai hadn't left the Purcell Duchy since the Purcell clan had sent a Rank Nine to search Black Waste and hadn't found anyone. Furthermore, there was Black Mountain Fortress5 where a mix of good and evil people stayed. Generally, people thought that Zhao Hai would hide in the nearby areas of the Black Waste, which made them lose interest in searching the Black Waste in order to look for the Buda clan. Also, they feared that they might accidentally meet with a magic beast riot while they were searching, which would make them cry tears in vain.
Those great aristocrats actually felt quite relieved. Buffy, this time around, was a Rank Nine expert that had been used to get rid of a Rank Eight expert. That Rank Eight's cultivation would be slowly weakening, so he wouldn't be a difficult matter. Buffy had personally recognized this point. In other words, presently the Buda clan would only have one Rank Eight magician left to assume personal command. This meant they wouldn't be able to produce anything which could become a threat to them.6
The great nobles wouldn't even think about what three ants could do to them. Thus, no one would look, and the Buda clan could be considered as forgotten.
The only one who couldn't forget the Buda clan was Evan. Evan had sent someone to search for clues of the Buda clan within Black Mountain Fortress. Sadly, he failed and wasn't able to find anything. Finally, he gave up.
They hadn't thought of sending people to the Black Waste to search there. Zhao Hai, on the other hand, had placed the undead around the perimeter to block any intruders. Even a Rank Eight expert wouldn't be able to hold its own against a large number of Rank Seven warrior undead. Furthermore, since the great aristocrats decided not to check on the Black Waste, there also wouldn't be any Rank Nine experts going there to check.
This situation had actually benefited Zhao Hai. He was busy preparing to deal with Buffy, who was still exploring the Carrion Swamp. If ever he arrived at Fort Iron Mountain, it would be catastrophic.
On the fifteenth day of the Tenth Month, Laura arrived at Stony Mountain. Zhao Hai, who'd been busy at Fort Iron Mountain, quickly rushed to Bluestone Villa7.
By the time the undead had welcomed Laura into the mountain, Zhao Hai was already in the living room waiting for her. Green, Meirin, and Meg also came along and were curious as to why Laura had visited since there seemed to be no problem with their current cooperation. Nowadays, Laura had brought in around 10,000 gold coins of revenue to Zhao Hai, which was a very large help to him.
Green welcomed Laura into the living room. Zhao Hai then said with a smile, "Miss Laura, I'm really sorry for the lukewarm welcome as I had been handling some matters lately."
Laura smiled and replied, "Mister is too kind and polite. Laura only came out of habit, and I was presumptuous."
Zhao Hai smiled8. "Miss Laura is too polite. Please, sit down."
Laura also hadn't been able to visit Stony Mountain lately as she was quite busy with matters from the new branches being opened up. There were a lot of issues that needed to be addressed.
After Laura sat down, Meg served tea to them, then stood back beside Zhao Hai and looked at Laura and Nier. Laura couldn't help but also look at Meg, and found that Meg was looking back at her too. She really felt that there was a hint of hostility coming from her.
Laura cannot help but smile bitterly in secret as she pretended to drink the tea. Zhao Hai hadn't paid any attention to these matters as he drank from his cup of tea and asked, "I wonder what Miss Laura wants to talk about this time?"
Laura put down the cup of tea and replied with a smile, "Mister, remember that you had asked me to look for seeds of different magic plants? I had found several types and today, I came specifically to give them to you." After clapping her hands, Searle entered the room and brought several small bags which he then placed on Zhao Hai's tea table.
Zhao Hai hadn't expected that Laura would come for this matter. For him, this was definitely very good news since the Space hadn't been able to level up for quite a long time. As long as the level rose to 11, he would be able to further open up the land. But if he couldn't raise the present level to 11, then he would be anxious.
Zhao Hai looked at the bags on the table and impatiently opened them. There were five bags on the table altogether. Each small cloth sack had about half a kilogram of seeds within it.
Zhao Hai opened all five cloth sacks and carefully looked at the amount of quality seeds. He saw that theses seeds didn't seem anything special, and Zhao Hai didn't find any special seeds inside the five bags.
Laura looked at Zhao Hai's expression, smiled lightly, and explained, "Mister, these five bags contain seeds of potato, sweet pepper, red turnip, olives, and green lettuce. "
Zhao Hai nodded and placed the five bags down. He turned his head towards Laura, smiled, and said, "I have let Miss Laura become a laughing stock. However, I do hope the Young Lady would still look for more magic vegetables or magic plants, along with magic beasts."
Laura smiled. "You're welcome Mister. I'm embarrassed that I can only give this much. Recently I'd been very busy and wasn't able to help Mister look for magic plants. I do hope Mister would forgive me. But Mister, please be assured that later, I will diligently look for the magic plants that Mister seeks."9
Notes:
- This chapter was MTL'ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice.
- Please support the author if you love this novel.
- Please check out the Editor's footnotes, thanks.
1 魔兽 - Móshòu. Lit. Magic Beasts. Also oddly machine translated as Warcraft...↩
2 不死生物 - Bùsǐ shēngwù. 不死 is immortal or "not dead". 生物 is biological or creatures. Immortal Creatures or not dead creatures. Basically, undead.↩
3 宅男 - Zháinán. Stay at home man. Home man. Otaku. I don't know why this isn't hikikomori...↩
4 方舟大6 - Fāngzhōu dà 6. 方舟 is Ark while 大6 would be continent. 6 can also be pronounced as 六 or Liù. 方舟大陆 - Fāngzhōu dàlù. The character for Land within continent or world is 陆 which is Lù. 陆 is also an accounting form of 6. Depending on where you read it from, you may either get 大6 or 大陆.↩
5 Oh, I guess I forgot to reference it earlier, but Black Mountain Fortress was dubbed as Montenegro Fortress by Trung and can be found at http://trungnguyenwriter.blogspot.com/2016/03/bringing-farm-chap-57.html. The MTL translation for Black Mountain was Montenegro, which is weird, but basically, Montenegro is another name for Black Mountains. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro. Since the name has no background with Zhao Hai's Earth history though, it'll be Black Mountain.↩
6 If you haven't seen the intention of the author yet, he really wants to weaken the Buda clan's presence and power to outsiders while increasing their true power… kinda fun.↩
7 青石山庄 - Qīngshí shānzhuāng. I think I forgot about this place as well? Anyways, Bluestone = 青石. 山庄 can mean manor house or villa. A literal meaning for 山庄 is mountain village or farm or manor.↩
8 Even though I am pretty sure she can't see his features...↩
9 I guess this is as good a place to talk about this. Laura and Quinn John regularly refer to Zhao Hai as 先生, or Xiānshēng. This basically means Mister or Mr. or teacher. This is the same as what she calls Green (in armoured warrior mode) which is why the decision was made to change what Laura calls them depending on context, similar to the decision for Divine Sense and Spiritual Sense. Zhao Hai would stay as 'Mister' while Green gets 'Sir'.
