Chapter 88 - Back to the Castle
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Green was excited to learn that the gold coins from inside the space could now be taken out, since this was the feature that he was most concerned about.
He knew that the space was mainly used for farming, and not very good for fighting. But there was a problem with farming when you harvest the crops too frequently. For instance, if Zhao planted nothing but radishes for one year, he feared that it would take a decade for everyone in the Continent to eat all the radishes.
Such a high yield was too much. It would greatly impact the market in the Continent. Trying to sell that many radishes would be a problem.
But that wasn't the same as selling the radishes inside the space. Although they wouldn't be able to get as much gold coins, they didn't have to worry about no one wanting to buy the radishes. What was most important was that the gold coins could now be taken out of the space, that they could use the gold coins as hard currency to buy anything.
After resting for one night, the next morning, Green was on his way to Casa city. This time they didn't conceal the fact that Green was going to buy something.
Once Green was gone, Zhao went to the manor's yard. He got ready to move the slaves back to Iron Mountain castle.
Yesterday, Zhao had discussed this with Green, and he agreed. After all, the estate was small and too close to Casa city. It was time to go back to the castle.
Anyway, the castle was like their roots. They had to go back sooner or later. And now, with the stones from Stony Mountain, not only could they make millstones, but they could also fix up the castle. Although the castle wasn't that damaged, after so many years it would inevitably be falling apart in some places. Mining from Iron Mountain wasn't very convenient, but now they had these stones from Stony Mountain.
Of course, if they wanted to continue to keep people away from Stony Mountain, they had to maintain the spell that covered the mountain in a blanket of darkness. Drunk had told Zhao that once they left, the darkness spell would lose its effect, allowing people to see the manor. Zhao didn't want that, so he planned to leave two of the black mages behind.
Zhao counted on these two, Scales and Brick, to defend Stony Mountain. He allowed them to lead one hundred undead. This should be sufficient if anything were to happen. As long as they could block the enemy for awhile, Zhao would be able to come with reinforcements.
The remaining six undead black mages were going to follow Zhao back to the castle. He planned to leave two of them to guard the castle, while the other four would go into the carrion swamp and capture undead spirit beasts.
Now that the ranch was opened, he would be able to keep any kind of spirit beast, which would help him form an army.
Only after establishing an army of spirit beasts would Zhao dare to start cultivating the land in the Black Waste, otherwise he wouldn't have the guts.
As of now, Zhao was preparing to take Blockhead and Rockhead to the castle in order to manage the slaves and protect them, but Zhao was going to stay behind on Stony Mountain. He wanted to wait until Laura came back. Although he could now take gold coins out of the space, the amount of gold he would get for the crops was too little. It wasn't cost effective. That was why he needed Laura's cooperation.
Zhao started working. He first had to organize the slaves before sending them back to the castle. This wasn't hard to do because the slaves had already grown accustomed to the space. Once they were all inside the space, Zhao said, "Let me tell you one thing. From the space, we can now directly go to the castle in Iron Mountain, where you will build millstones and repair the castle."
The slaves were in a daze while watching Zhao, not understanding what he meant. Zhao looked at them, then continued, "Simply put, the space is like a room with two doors. One door leads to Stony Mountain, while the other door will take you to Iron Mountain. Any questions?"
The slaves didn't have much of a reaction. They had always felt that the space was magical, so it didn't seem strange for it to have this ability.
It was silent. Zhao couldn't help but think that their reaction was too calm.
With a wry smile, he shook his head, then led Meirin and Meg, six black mages, Blockhead and Rockhead, and the slaves back to Iron Mountain castle.
Everyone came out of the space and stepped on to the castle square, which was where Zhao put the teleport point. Once they were out, Zhao took out the stones from Stony Mountain for the slaves to work with. He also took out some food that Meirin made with Meg's help, along with some supplies for living, like blankets.
Right now Scales, Brick, and one hundred undead were waiting at Stony Mountain for Green to come back from Casa city. It shouldn't take more than two days, enough time to settle things here in the castle.
They had been gone from the castle for twenty days. Not much had changed except for the amount of dust.
After a quick cleaning, the slaves made themselves busy under Ann's leadership. They mounted the stone discs together with the wood from the oil fruit tree. The wood was very strong, and after the space leveled up, it was even better. But because of the high oil content in the wood, it was very flammable. However, Zhao wasn't worried about that because there was a moat going around the castle. There was no need to worry about a fire.
Although no one here had full smithing and carpentry skills, making the mill stone itself wasn't that difficult. It didn't require too many technical details. You just needed to grind down the stone and stick the wood in. Anyone could make it if they were strong enough.
Once the slaves started working, Zhao went to find Meirin.
"Grandma Meirin, let's go to the valley and see if anything has changed."
Meirin was also curious about what happened to the corn, so she nodded.
The two people went into the mountain, crossed the underground lake, and have now reached the valley. Zhao and Meirin were surprised at what they saw. They didn't think that the corn would still be growing.
Although the corn seedlings weren't very high, even looking somewhat weak, they were still alive.
Looking at the seedlings on the thirty acres of land he had improved, Meirin and Zhao laughed. After the attack from the army of spirit beasts, they felt like giving up. With the land paved with a layer of toxic soil, Zhao didn't feel too much hope that the corn seedlings would still grow. But now, he was sure that the earth below the toxic soil was still fertile from his land improvement, allowing the seedlings to survive.
Ever since Zhao went on a journey to Casa city, these seedlings could only fend for themselves. It seems like their vitality was very tenacious.
Translator Notes: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by theno1fan. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.