Chapter 173 - Upgrade Again

Zhao Hai and Green paid attention to the situation happening on the screen. Although the screen could only show what happened within two hundred meters, for the both of them this was already very good.

They really hadn't thought that the swamp would look like this. Even the Eagle Virtuous Phantasms were greatly influenced by it. However, the plants that they saw weren't taken by Zhao Hai since he believed Drunk would have already gotten those plants for him. He might as well wait to meet Drunk, then allow Drunk to come back inside the Space.

While the Eagle Virtuous Phantasm flew over the swamp, Zhao Hai himself didn't watch. Instead, he let the others do it.

The speed of the Eagle Virtuous Phantasms weren't slow while flying. However, flying over the Carrion Swamp while surrounded by the seven-colored smog made their speed slow. Even if they wanted to speed up, it wouldn't be possible.

Since the time to do transactions with Laura hadn't arrived yet, Zhao Hai and Green didn't go outside. Once a person came to observe the situation from the screen and replace them, they would go back to their own rooms and rest.

The Eagle Virtuous Phantasms hadn't encountered Drunk that day, which made Zhao Hai feel very strange. Drunk had only explored over a thousand kilometers, less than 1,500 kilometers into the swamp. Supposedly, the Eagle Virtuous Phantasm had also already covered over a thousand kilometers and less than 1,500 kilometers, which should have meant that they'd have encountered each other already. However, they currently haven't yet, which was really surprising.

Zhao Hai didn't let the Eagle Virtuous Phantasms rest on a small island in the swamp during the night, but instead let them rest inside the Space. The following morning, unlike the original plan which was to keep flying straight, the Eagle Virtuous Phantasms flew around the area as Zhao Hai was afraid they'd missed Drunk. He wanted to look and see if they could find where Drunk was.

However, to Zhao Hai's surprise, they weren't able to locate Drunk. The Eagle Virtuous Phantasms flew sideways for over three hours and they still hadn't found Drunk. Zhao Hai and Green felt that something was wrong and decided to let the eagles fly back, thinking that they could find Drunk that way.

Zhao Hai and Green might have felt that something was wrong, but it was also possible that they just couldn't recognize the places that they had already seen. After all, the visibility in the swamp was still too low. They might as well wait while looking at the big screen in the Space.

Meirin came back inside the Space during the evening to prepare food for Zhao Hai and Green. During the daytime, she watched over the slaves at Fort Iron Mountain, which made her very busy.

Zhao Hai didn't want Meirin to be so busy, but Meirin had gotten used to being active throughout her life. Thus, keeping her idle would make her feel somewhat unfamiliar.

Upon entering the Space, Meirin found it somewhat strange that Zhao Hai and Green frowned as they sat in front of the screen. They were still watching over the situation at the swamp, which appeared to be normal. "Master, how is it? What happened?" Meirin curiously asked.

At the same time, Meg had also just come back from the outside. She smiled after hearing Meirin ask these question and also looked puzzledly at Zhao Hai and Green.

Zhao Hai smiled. "There's not much to worry about. However, we still haven't found Drunk today. We're a little anxious since Drunk told us they weren't moving from the small island where they'd been. However, we still haven't found them today. We just feel that it's strange."

Meirin smiled and said. "Master, it isn't that you couldn't find Drunk, but rather that you forgot that you'd ordered him to go back to monitor Buffy. Buffy may not know them and definitely didn't look for them. That's why he flew straight ahead and without any thoughts of going back to look for them. So, we can't just relax and let the Eagle Virtuous Phantasm fly back since Drunk will definitely be found."

As Meirin told Zhao Hai of such things, Zhao Hao couldn't help but stamp his foot. "Yes, there really was such a thing. When Buffy went into the swamp, no one told him to look for Drunk. Naturally, he just flew straight ahead in order to make the map. It seems like what Grandma Meirin said was correct; that while Buffy was flying, he probably met Drunk."

Green smiled as he became aware of the issue and said, "The two of us were at this for a long time. We're not as good as the old woman in terms of thinking this through. I also became aware of that only after she said it. Tomorrow, we should let the Eagle Virtuous Phantasm fly out of the swamp so that can take a good look."

The next day, Zhao Hai allowed the eagles to fly straight, yet they still couldn't find Drunk's team. However, at night, Drunk's team rested at a campsite. Although they couldn't see Drunk, Drunk had seen the Eagle Virtuous Phantasms.

Drunk and his team were undead. Although they were zombies, their heights were still similar to that of a human. When they looked at something, they used their personal senses instead of their sight. Thus, the colorful smog didn't have any impact on their senses and they could feel the presence of things they examined from a large enough distance.

The Eagle Virtuous Phantasms weren't the same as they still relied on their sense of sight in order to see things. Although their Eagle Eye1 was powerful, in a place where it was covered with smog, it was still not easy to notice things.

Zhao Hai was afraid to miss Drunk, so he ordered those undead in the team to line up. He then ordered them to be on alert. As soon as they saw the five eagles, they were to immediately tell Zhao Hai as he really didn't want to miss them.

Drunk had really gained a lot of things this time around. There were a lot of Carrion Swamp plants that were very unique and weren't ones that had been seen before by Zhao Hai.

Upon placing all the plants that Drunk's team had collected into the Space, the Space actually rose to level 15, which made Zhao Hai really surprised.

After reaching level 15, they could now open up twenty mu of land2. Unfortunately, most of the plants were poisonous. But they weren't that toxic and were just plain poisonous plants. Even though the space had been upgraded by four levels, it still had no way of cleansing the toxicity within the plants.

Zhao Hai wasn't short on money right now, so he naturally opened up the twenty mu of land. He wasn't polite as he planted the seeds that the Space had awarded all over the land.

From level 10 to level 15, the Space had given him an award of four kinds of seeds. They were namely: soybeans, sponge gourd3, bamboo shoots, and grapes.

Before level 10, the space only awarded an amount of seeds that could be planted within two mu of land. However, after level 10, the seeds that were awarded could be planted in upwards of five mu of land.4

Zhao Hai was still observing two kinds of crops in the Spatial Shop. These two crops were like the Magic Peach and had special abilities as well. One was called Ba Jiaoshan while the other was the Immortal Gourd. Banana Leaves were used as a material for the Palm-leaf Fan in the Journey to the West5. It was a type of a wind magic plant that could produce strong winds, with a ten percent probability of the item having the ability to reach a distance of up to 5,000 kilometers6. The space had evaluated it as a level 15 special plant. In order to cultivate it, the Space needed to be level 20.

The Immortal Gourd was similar, but its main effect had a more special use. It was able to be used to make wine. The Immortal Gourd had an infinite space. Crops suitable for wine could be absorbed into the gourd's reed. Then it'll automatically start brewing, making it very convenient.

Although it had such features, it also required the Space to be level 20. As well, while the Immortal Gourd could absorb a lot of wine making materials, if it was still young, it could only absorb enough to make five kilograms every seven days. Half a kilogram of wine needed fifty kilograms of grain, and also a minimum of 25 kilograms of fruit, else it would be impossible.

The wine was excellent as it didn't only heal minor injuries, but could also instantly restore magic power or battle qi. For both magicians or warriors, this was very important.

Zhao Hai also knew that the Magic Peach was the same as it was an award from the Space given before reaching level 10. In order to cultivate it, there was a restriction, which was to reach level 10. This was the case for the Ba Jiaoshan and Immortal Gourd as they were special items. The seeds were given before reaching the level required to plant it, which was the case for these two. They were given at level 15, but could only be planted at level 20, showing that there was the restriction7.

Zhao Hai wasn't too concerned about the Ba Jiaoshan as its usefulness wasn't that great. It didn't have the ability to cause mass destruction. As long as the enemy had good defensive capabilities, then there wouldn't be much damage. All it could do was to blow the enemy away8.

The Immortal Gourd, on the other hand, would be really useful9. However, the yield was very low as it would take seven days to produce five kilograms, which was really too lacking. Both of these magic plants required the Space to be level 20 in order to be planted, so Zhao Hai didn't buy them yet.

The toxic plants that were collected by Drunk were somewhat useful. These plants had helped upgrade the Space and were also edible. Not only that, they could also be used to produce some detox potions. However, producing a detox potion would require the Space to be level 30, as that was the level required to be able to open the Processing Plant10.

Zhao Hai and Green didn't have enough time to manage all of this, so after they brought Drunk back into the Space, Drunk was immediately placed at Fort Iron Mountain to guard it. Then the Eagle Virtuous Phantasms were ordered to fly straight into the Carrion Swamp.

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 Currently unknown whether this is an ability. However, 鹰眼 (Yīng yǎn), are the characters used for Hawkeye from the Avengers...↩

2 Note that I have no idea why 4 level ups only equals to 20 mu of space when he got 10 mu between 10-11...↩

3 Fun vegetable. More info at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luffa_aegyptiaca↩

4 Based on all this, I hypothesize that level 11 is a threshold level, so he gains more land and no extra seeds. Instead of the previous idea of 10 mu per level, he only gans 5, which is more balanced.↩

5 The characters for Bājiāoshàn is used prevalently for this plant, which makes a mess to translate. Basically, the characters are 芭蕉扇, with 芭蕉 meaning Banana/banana tree and 扇 meaning fan. Together they can also mean Palm-leaf Fan. In the Journey to the West, the Palm-leaf Fan belonged to Princess Iron Fan and was made of Banana Leaves. However, banana leaves is not a name I'd actually use for a super magic plant. Neither would I use palm leaf fan. As such, I'll just stick with Ba Jiaoshan. Suggestions? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Iron_Fan↩

6 万里 - Wànlǐ. Basically, ten thousand li, which is converted to 5,000 kilometers. Kinda OP sounding.↩

7 I dislike when the author gives so much repetition, like we don't know anything… but I can't really say anything cause of all the notes I give...↩

8 With a range of 5,000 kilometers, I'd place some importance on it…↩

9 Drunkard… 5 kilograms of wine a week and he's making it out to be a treasure...↩

10 Yes, you read it right. The author changed his initial level 20 to level 30 in order to get the processing plant and cure Zhao Hai's Water of Nothingness thingy. This is true, as I read ahead and had to wait till the Space reached level 30 before his disability (major sarcasm) was cured.↩