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Chapter 31 - Mill Stone

With a thought, Zhao entered his spatial farm. This time he didn't take anyone with him. The reason he allowed Meirin and Meg to look around the space was in order to secure their help for the Buda clan.

Once they knew about the spatial farm, they would be more confident about the future. With the Black Waste throwing them into one crisis after another, if they were to lose confidence, then everything would be over.

In the spatial farm, Zhao immediately sold his radishes, but only three quarters of it this time. This earned him a total of fifteen hundred gold coins, in addition to his original fifty gold coins. And if he used these coins to buy radish seed bags, he would be able to plant ten new batches of radishes.

Anyway, the radishes were able to earn him a lot of money. If he were to sell the rest of them, he would be able to earn even more, but he decided to wait until Green came back. Maybe then he could buy some books about plants so he would be able to decide what were the best crops to grow in the future. But right now he knew very little about the plants that grew on the Continent.

Tomorrow, he would get another batch of radishes. He had told Green that he had eighty thousand catty, so even though he had sold three quarters of his radish supply, with this new batch, he would temporarily have a sufficient amount.

But although selling those radishes gave him fifteen hundred gold, it still wasn't adequate enough. Zhao felt very helpless. His level was too low. Even if he wanted to buy higher ranked seeds, he couldn't. With such a slow speed, he didn't know how long it would take for him to level up.

Leaving the spatial farm, Zhao soon fell asleep on his bed.

The next morning, Zhao was woken by the space telling him that his radishes had matured. But it wasn't just the radishes, the corn were also about to mature too.

Zhao immediately harvested the radishes, then he bought another bag of radish seeds. Since it seemed like the corn would need just a few more minutes to mature, Zhao decided not to leave the spatial farm yet. Instead, he washed his face and rinsed his mouth while he waited.

Looking at those corn, Zhao felt like a glutton. In his past life, he used to live in the northern city. At the time, no one considered corn as a staple food, but they would sometimes eat it as a meal, and it was good. Zhao had occasionally eaten it a few times as well, like when he traveled to the rural areas to visit his relatives, who gave him cornmeal pancakes. Delicious.

The cornmeal pancakes were completely different from the ones you could buy in the city. Although they were both made from coarse cornmeal, their pancakes were served with fragrant soup, along with some red crispy rice. Each bite of the crust released a waft of fragrance.

Thinking of it, Zhao could not help but salivate. He smiled as he swallowed his saliva.

But although he ate this cornmeal porridge with pancakes, he didn't know how to make it. Processing the corn seemed very troublesome as he would have to grind it down into cornmeal.

In his past life, processing corn was very simple. All you needed was to find a food processing plant with the right machines. But here it was a bit more difficult. They simply didn't have a grinder to process the corn.

Zhao sighed, but then the voice sounded. The corn was mature. Zhao immediately harvested this batch of corn, and then replanted more in the two acres. But while he looked at the corn field, he couldn't figure out how to process them.

Suddenly the clever Zhao discovered something about his problem. People must have grinded corn for many years before they used machines. At that time, the people weren't stupid, right? So how did they process corn?

Zhao paced a few laps in the space, habitually touching his forehead, thinking of how his ancestors processed corn.

He suddenly smacked his head when he finally remembered something he had seen on TV. It was something that hadn't been used in a long time, but you would sometimes see it in rural areas.

Mill Stone!

Yes, when Zhao had gone to his relatives who lived in rural areas, he saw a disc. The disc wasn't used now but the rural people still had them. Out of curiosity, he asked about the disc. They told him that people would put rice or corn on the surface, and then they would roll another disc on top of it to grind it down.

Most importantly, he only needed some stones and a bit of wood to make it. Although they couldn't mine that much stones from the mountain, it should be sufficient since they didn't need that much good materials.

Thinking of this, Zhao immediately left the spatial farm, then he looked at the sky outside. Meg should also be up. Zhao pushed open the door to his room and walked out.

Zhao found Meg and Daisy who were carrying two copper basins towards his room. When they saw Zhao, Meg couldn't help but be surprised. "Master, how come you're up? Have you washed yet?"

"I just got up early and I already washed. Daisy, is your brother any better?"

Daisy, who was standing behind Meg, quickly said, "Master, brother is good. He's waiting outside to meet you."

Zhao smiled. "That's not the kind of place to hold an audience. Go call Ann and tell him to meet me in the living room. I have something to ask him."

Meg was stunned for a moment, but she didn't say anything. She followed behind Zhao as they went to the living room, while Daisy walked outside to call her brother.

There was a difference between the main parts of the castle and the servant rooms. The servants, such as Daisy and Ann, lived in the rooms of a small building behind the main part of the castle. Although they were now commoners and have been given Zhao's surname, their identities still had a long way to go to reach someone like Meg's. They could only be regarded as common servants.

Soon, Daisy returned with Ann. Her brother looked better, just a bit thin, but still very strong. Although he didn't look like someone who was dying, he still had his head down and he didn't dare to talk.

Daisy walked ahead and stopped in front of Zhao. "Master, I've brought Ann."

Zhao nodded. "Call him over. I have something to ask him."

Daisy called him over immediately, and when he came in front of Zhao, he knelt down and bowed. "Ann greets Master. Thank you, Master, for your kindness."

It seemed like Daisy had told him everything. Although he referred to Zhao as Master, he wasn't saying that Zhao was his slave owner.

"You don't have to be so polite," Zhao said. "You are now part of the Buda clan. Stand up and answer my questions."

Ann bowed his head and said, "Master." He then got up, but half his body was still bent and his head was down, afraid to look at Zhao.

Zhao couldn't help but wrinkle his brow when he saw Ann's apperance. He didn't like it when people acted that way towards him. Although Ann was no longer a slave, he still acted like it. "Ann, look up. You have to remember that you're now part of the Buda clan. You are a free commoner. Later, whenever you go out, you must not lose face for our clan. Don't kneel and act like a slave. It will make people look down on our Buda clan."

Seeing that Zhao seemed angry, Daisy and Ann knelt down while bowing. "Please, Master, punish us."

Zhao sighed. What did he just say? "Stand up, get off your knees." The two stood up, and Zhao noticed that Ann's back was as straight as possible. "Ann, let me ask you. Do you know any mason skills?"

Ann quickly said, "Yes, Master. My father was a mason. I learned a little from him. Although I'm not very proficient, I could still build a few things."

Zhao nodded. "That's good. I'm going to give you a drawing. See if you can build it. If you can, then immediately organize some people to mine stones. I want it done as soon as possible.

Ann's heart couldn't help but tighten, but he still bent over. "Yes, Master."

Translator Notes: I probably fudged up the food description. I definitely need to read more Shokugeki no Soma. Plus, although I written it as pancakes, it's probably better described as some sort of Chinese corn flat bread.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 32 - Planting Seeds

Zhao went upstairs to the study, followed by everyone else. The study was where Green had prepared some books. Although there weren't a lot of books, there was no shortage of pen and paper.

Seeing the pen, Zhao's eyes widened in surpise. It was an amazing thing made from animal bones, with the tip made out of metal, like some sort of combination between ancient and modern. However, the paper was nothing to boast about. Zhao had imagined that the paper would be white, but it was actually yellow. It looked like kraft paper, which Zhao remembered seeing when he was small.

From Adam's memories, although there were moments of sensual pleasures, there was little to do about writing on paper, which showed what kind of character Adam was.

Zhao picked up the pen and started drawing simple shapes on the paper. After he finished, he gave it to Ann.

Ann looked at the drawing and said, "Master, I can build this. Although it isn't exactly the same, I've already built something similar."

This assured Zhao. "Well, do a good job." He then turned to Meg. "Meg, you will arrange for forty men to follow Ann into the mountain. The remaining men should go gather some weeds, while the women learn how to weave weeds from Daisy. Hopefully, they would be able to make enough mats to hang on the windows of their houses. And if the slaves feel too cold from sleeping on the ground, you can take the corn stalks and lay them on the ground for the slaves to sleep on. We have too little supplies on hand, including beds. If they slept on the floor they might fall sick, so layering some corn stalks should make do as a bed."

Zhao then tried to think if there was anything else he forgot to mention. "Also, if any of the slaves show you their skills, you must tell me about it."

After the meeting was over, Zhao and everyone else came out from the study. They walked into the living room where they encountered Meirin, who told them that breakfast was ready. At the table, Zhao told Meirin of what he arranged for today. Meirin had no objections. She believed that what Zhao did would make life better.

After breakfast, Meg immediately did what Zhao said. She gathered the women to make weed mats, while also getting some men to follow Ann to find stones that were suitable enough to make the disc for the mill stone.

Seeing everyone working hard at the castle, Zhao and Meirin went to the underground lake and traveled to the valley. This time it was just the two of them. Although there wasn't any danger, Meirin thought it was easier with one less person.

They soon arrived at the valley.

Although Zhao had improved the land here yesterday, nothing much had changed because he could only improve one mu of land per day.

After he finished today's land improvement, Meirin said, "Master, tomorrow we should get the slaves to plow the soil here so we could plant something."

Zhao shook his head. He wanted to use this piece of land to do a test. He didn't forget the first time he got a prompt from the small shovel, telling him that it could be taken outside the space. He wanted to see if he took it out, would it still be under his control. If it was, he would be able to plow the earth everyday.

Seeing Zhao shaking his head, Meirin knew that he was going to do something himself.

With a thought, a small shovel immediately flew out of the space. Non-stop, it started plowing and then sowing. He then thought of the corn seeds, and the seeds also flew out of the space as well, falling into the spots in the ground that have been sowed. Zhao felt assured after the seeds had been buried.

But then he found a problem. He discovered that the shovel and seeds couldn't leave the range of the farm land. Also, he couldn't do anything too complicated with them. For example, the shovel could only be used for plowing and not anything else, and the seeds could only go into the ground and not anywhere else. He had also wanted to see if the water could do anything else besides improving the soil, but nothing happened.

Zhao felt discontent. If he could have changed what the water does with his mind, then perhaps he could have used it as an offensive weapon. Unfortunately, he could only water the soil.

Although Zhao wasn't satisfied, Meirin was very shocked. She had no idea that Zhao could use such a method for farming. He was like a god.

After more than two hours, ten acres of land were planted. The small shovel then immediately flew back into the space. Even though it was only ten acres of land, Zhao felt very satisfied with today's work.

He then wondered about something and turned to Meirin. "Grandma Meirin, can you use your spells to pour water on this place?"

Meirin, after recovering from her shock, nodded her head, then she walked beside the pool. Whispering an incantation, a mass of water vapor rose up out of the pool and then gathered in the air. Finally, a light rain fell.

Zhao was again astounded by magic, feeling that it was really amazing to be able to create artificial rain.

In fact, what Zhao didn't know was that not all mages could do this. Like Meirin, only a senior mage could do it. This was supplementary magic, not aggressive. Offensive magic was a lot simpler.

Under Meirin's control, once the soil became wet, she immediately stopped her spell.

Zhao looked at the farm land with a sense of accomplisment, then he turned to Meirin. "Grandma Meirin, unlike inside the space, the crops won't mature so quickly, so this is all we can do. We should go back. This is the most I could do to improve the farm land in one day."

Meirin nodded, then followed him into the cave.

As they traveled over the water, Zhao hoped that one day they would be able to ride over it with a boat. But they didn't have many things that could be used as boat building materials, so all he could do was hope.

The two had just come out of the cave on the other side of the lake when they heard the sound of chanting. Zhao and Meirin went to investigate and found the slaves trying to lift a stone out of the mines.

Zhao quickly went over. He first looked at the stone, but of course he couldn't tell if the stone was good or bad. He just wanted to see if the stone was big enough.

The stone was about five meters high with a diameter of about three to five meters. Seeing it, obviously the weight wasn't light. They had a lot of rope tied around the stone to try to carry it out of the mine.

Zhao quickly said. "Put down the stone. I'll bring it back to the castle. You all go continue exploring the mines to look for more stones."

The slaves looked puzzled. They knew how heavy the stone was. How could he carry it by himself? It didn't help that Zhao hadn't explained that he was going to use the space.

Although they didn't understand, they did not dare to go against him, so they immediately put the stone on the ground and took off the rope.

Once the rope was off, Zhao waved his hand and the stone was placed in his spatial barn.

The slaves were stunned from seeing this miraculous ability. Although there were items in the Continent that could do this, those things were generally only owned by great nobles. Even small nobles couldn't afford it. The slaves had only heard about it and have never actually seen anyone use it.

They thought that Zhao had used magic, so all of them were very excited in their hearts. "So our owner was a powerful mage," was what they all thought.

Zhao did not stay. Followed by Meirin, he walked towards the castle. On the way, they saw several male slaves in the mountain cutting weeds. Zhao didn't help them transport the weeds. Since they were very loose and light, those slaves should be able to bring the weeds back on their own.

Finally, they returned to the castle. In the castle square, they found a lot of women sitting down, weaving weed mats with Meg and Daisy.

Translator Notes: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 33 - Brainstorm

While working, the women had smiles on their faces. Life was full of hope, and it made them feel alive with something to look forward to every day.

Zhao's face couldn't help but smile too.

Some of the women were carrying the corn stalks. Zhao didn't intend to hide anything from these slaves. After all, they had been branded by the Buda clan crest, so their fates were now linked together with the Buda clan. There was no need to hide anything from them.

By now the slaves seemed to have adapted a little to Zhao's magical abilities. They didn't react much when he brought out the corn stalks.

Seeing the female slaves carrying the corn stalks, he told them, "You can use these as a bed when you lay them down on the floor. Also, you can use them to make a fire. But since the corn stalks still have some moisture, it's best to dry them first before you burn them."

This time, after hearing Zhao's words, the female slaves weren't in a hurry to kneel down. It seemed like Meg had talked to them.

In fact, unlike what Zhao guessed, this wasn't because of Meg. Although Meg was a servant, do not forget, she had a higher status than a common servant, even if the Buda clan had been forced down. Few of the slaves would dare look at her in the face, so it was hard to get along with her.

The reason for the change in the slaves was because of Daisy. Although Daisy became a commoner thanks to Zhao restoring her status, she had also been a slave for two years. In the eyes of the slaves, she was easier to get along with.

The main thing was that even though her status was restored and she now had her own room, she would still work and joke together with them, so the slaves found it easier to accept Daisy's words than anyone elses.

The status of slaves in the Continent was the lowest, to the point that some masters treated them less than dogs. They had even heard of how a noble family cared more about their dying family dog than killing one hundred slaves. This showed how low slaves were.

It was also because of this that slaves didn't have a great relationship with the nobility or anyone else of high status. It was hard for them to believe the words of nobility.

But the identity of Daisy was very special. She had been a slave, but had also been restored to a commoner. Plus Daisy was very honest, so she was able to talk to the slaves, and they would accept her words.

Even if they were slaves, the women would naturally chat together. While working with Daisy, they would ask her things about Zhao, and she didn't hide anything from them. Hearing what she said, they were very surprised, because they didn't expect that Zhao could be such a good person.

She had mentioned that Zhao didn't like it when people knelt in front of him. That, and the fact that he had been more benevolent these days, made the slaves less wary of him.

Zhao didn't care that much, to be honest. Even though he came from the modern age, he also had Adam's memories, so although he wasn't used to people kneeling in front of him, he could still accept it. However, he was more comfortable when they didn't greet him on their knees.

Meirin and Zhao had gone to the square to greet Meg. Afterwards, he went to a vacant area next to the square, where he took out the stone from the space.

Zhao then turned and watched the slaves weaving weed mats. Apparently, they were good enough to do this for a living. Their hands were flexible and they managed to learn this skill quickly.

Sitting on the ground, everyone was surrounded by piles of weeds, almost to the point of blocking them from his sight.

Seeing them like that, Zhao couldn't help but think of something: Cao Chuan Jie Jian.

It was the story of how Zhuge Liang used straw boats and scarecrows to steal arrows from Cao Cao.

Straw boats? It was then that Zhao finally remembered seeing something on the news in his past life. Someone had made a boat out of grass to try to sail across the Pacific. Although he couldn't remember if the madman succeeded, he knew at least one thing for certain, you could make a boat out of weeds!

Zhao ran around in excitement. If he could really use weeds, then the problem of making a boat would be solved. He would be able to get to the valley on his own.

The thought of it made Zhao even more excited. However, standing next to him was Meirin, who was scared because she didn't understand why Zhao was running around. "Master, do you feel well?"

Zhao recovered and saw Meirin staring at him. He turned around, and sure enough, everyone else was staring at him too. Zhao became embarrassed, and quickly said, "Grandma Meirin, you and Meg and Daisy come with me to the living room. I have discovered something!"

Meirin didn't know what Zhao was going to do, but if he thought of it, then she believed that it must be a good thing. She quickly called Daisy and Meg into the living room with her.

Zhao was pacing back and forth in the living room while touching his forehead out of habit. He only stopped when the three came in.

"Come and sit down, I have something to say." The three people stood in front of Zhao, not daring to sit down.

Zhao smiled, then sat down himself, and waved them to do the same. "Please sit down." The three finally sat down, but they sat with their backs straight, and Daisy was even looking down.

While looking at the three, Zhao said, "I just suddenly thought of a way, Grandma Meirin, of how we could make a boat to get to the valley. Right now we don't have enough supplies to build a boat, but when I saw the pile of weeds, I suddenly thought, why can't we build a weed boat?"

They all stared at him, and even Daisy looked up. This was the first time they had heard of building a boat with weeds.

Meirin was uncertain. "Master, can it be done?"

Zhao smiled. "Yes, it certainly can. We just need a lot of weeds and compact them together, and maybe a bit of rope too. The mountain weeds are very tough, so boat building shouldn't be a problem. Meg and Daisy will lead the slaves to try to make it. Don't be afraid if it may take a few tries to be able to build it."

Meirin saw Zhao's confident look, and even though she didn't say anything, in her heart she thought that even if this doesn't work, the worse that could happen was that they would lose some weeds and rope.

Zhao continued, "Meg, come to the study. I'll give you some plans for a weed boat design." Having walked upstairs, Meg quickly followed after him.

Once they were in the study, Zhao drew a weed boat from memory. The design wasn't very complex. It looked like Arabian shoes, with the front end tilted high and the back end relatively flat. Overall, it had a thick bottom, and was tied in the middle with rope to make it solid. He drew this as a reference for Meg.

Once he was finished, Zhao gave the paper to Meg. "This is probably what the boat looks like. See if you can make a boat according to this. Trying more than once doesn't matter."

Meg left while holding the drawing.

Left alone, Zhao didn't know what to do with himself, but then he caught sight of the books in the study, and his eyes brightened.

Fortunately, although Adam was a hooligan, he was still a child of nobility, so he was taught how to read. Otherwise, Zhao would have been illiterate.

Zhao looked through the books. There were a few history books and books about the art of war, which may contain words about magic or martial arts.

Zhao first picked up a history book, but looking inside it made him dizzy. Parts of it were written like a Bible while other parts were written like it was telling a fairy tale. It was too difficult to understand, giving him a headache.

After reading two pages of the history book, Zhao threw it aside, then picked up a miscellaneous book. This miscellaneous book seemed to be a personal travel diary, and it recorded a large number of traditions and legends in the Continent. This suited Zhao's exact taste, and he couldn't help but read it carefully.

Because Zhao hadn't come out from the study for a long time, Meirin and Meg went in to check up on him. But they were in for a surprise, because when they looked beyond the study door, they saw Zhao reading a book with a serious look.

Translator Notes: If you want to know more about the story of Cao Chuan Jie Jian, here's a LINK.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 34 - Scholar

Meirin could hardly believe her eyes. Adam? Reading? She knew clear enough that Adam hated reading while growing up. He would only do it when he was forced to by his father.

Although Zhao had done some amazing things recently, Meirin thought that it was because he had become more sensible, which wasn't the same as learning to love reading.

What she didn't know was that in his past life, Zhao was an otaku who loved books. The reason he didn't start reading a few days ago was because when he first came here, he had to face a lot of threatening situations, so he naturally wasn't in the mood.

Zhao didn't notice Meirin. He was concentrating on the book. Although the book just had miscellaneous topics, there were many things to learn, with most of them being traditions, which was very useful for Zhao.

Adam wasn't one to abide by traditions and he didn't bother to learn a lot of things about the Continent. According to the book, the Continent was quite large, led by five Empires, large and small, which contained a total of thirty two countries. That, and a few tiny settlements, described this vast territory.

Along with the Aksu Empire that Zhao was in, there was also the Rosen Empire, the Lyon Empire, the Buddha Empire, and the Blue Dynasty Empire.

Zhao now had a fief in the Black Waste, which was long discarded by the Continent. Behind it was the carrion swamp, one of the five forbidden areas, and something that no one wanted to talk about.

The other four forbidden areas in the Continent were Raya Hill, the North Pole, Fire Island, and finally the last one was a place of deep magic, where legend has it that the Devil lived there. But these rumors have never been confirmed.

All of these places, along with the carrion swamp which was known for its undead spirit beasts that were poisonous, were known as the five forbidden areas.

Adam's memories of these places were vague, and there were few records about them in this miscelleaneous book, but it was enough for Zhao.

In his past life, you weren't considered an otaku unless you read something about a world that had magic, elves, dragons, dwarves, and a lot of other things.

After reading all this, Zhao even further made up his mind that he had to be low key. He didn't know much about the powerful experts in this world, but after seeing Meirin's powerful water spells, he probably had some idea. Ah, dealing with people as powerful as Meirin would not be easy.

Zhao slowly put down the book. Although a lot of stuff wasn't of much use, he now had a better understanding of the this world.

This world wasn't like the ones in those poorly written novels he had read in his past life, where the mages didn't have any close combat ability, and the warriors couldn't attack from a far distance. This world was completely unlike that.

A mage's body wasn't as tough as a warriors. But if they use simple spells, like within the first three levels of magic, they would be able to instantaneously cast it. There would be no need to chant a long spell. So warriors wouldn't dare to look down on them in a fight.

But even if the warriors held a grudge against that, it doesn't mean that they would easily lose a fight. Don't forget that even the most average warriors could use bows and arrows, or spears and other long-range weapons. A warrior's strength shouldn't be overlooked.

Zhao slowly stood up and took a breath. After reading the miscellaneous book, he had determined that being low key was correct. He couldn't imagine how powerful the people were in this world.

He then walked to the window in the study, which was closed with paper shutters. Only a few commoners in the Continent had paper shutters, while the nobles had glass windows. But glass windows were too expensive, not something Green would buy.

Zhao opened the window and looked out. The study was on the third floor, and the light was good. From here he could see the castle square, where there were many women weaving weed mats.

Looking at those hard working people, Zhao's heart couldn't help but smile. These people were so happy and satisfied even though they were facing a huge crisis.

This time Zhao really hated himself for not having the strength to protect these people. The most he could do was let them escape into his spatial farm, but you couldn't always run away from everything.

Just then, a knock came from the door. It was Meirin. "Master, it's time for lunch."

Zhao froze for a moment. He really didn't think that time had gone by so fast, but after looking outside, sure enough there were people going back inside to eat.

He opened the door, only to find a look of joy on Meirin's face. "Grandma Meirin, why are you so happy?"

"It's nothing, Master. Time to go eat."

Zhao nodded and followed Meirin downstairs. Meg and everyone else was already waiting for him in the dining room.

After everyone sat down, Zhao decided to give out his instructions. He turned to Blockhead. "Blockhead, you will help Meirin with the weed boat. You have to lead people to cut the weeds and help them with your strength."

Blockhead nodded, then Zhao turned to Rockhead. "Rockhead, you will help set up the stones as soon as possible after they have been mined. When you reach a certain number, call me back. This will save a great deal of time."

Rockhead nodded, then Zhao turned to Ann. "Ann, you must be careful when mining. Pay attention to everyone's safety."

Ann nodded, then Zhao turned to Daisy. "Daisy, continue to teach everyone how to weave the weed mats. Then you and all the women will go along with Meirin to build the weed boat, one that is big enough to seat a dozen people. Do not be afraid to fail and waste weeds. The mountain should have enough of them."

Daisy nodded, then Zhao turned to Meirin. "Grandma Meirin, you had said that we should build a guard post on the hilltop overlooking the carrion swamp. Not only would this allow us to pay attention to what's around the castle, but it would also help us prepare in advance for any undead spirit beasts."

Meirin nodded her head. "Yes, Master. A guard post should be built, but you don't have to worry about that. You should spend your time reading more books."

Zhao didn't expect her to say that. "Don't worry, Grandma Meirin, I will."

Meirin and Meg nodded, but Blockhead and Rockhead were in shock. They had grown up together with Adam, so they couldn't believe it when he said that he was going to read.

Once discussions were finished, they soon began eating. After he was done, Zhao immediately went up to the study. He wanted to know more about this world.

When Meirin saw Zhao going up to the study, her eyes shined. Although this world respects strength, a man of learning could also be respected. Even in the Aksu Empire, the king knew that there were many important aspects that could only be left to a scholar.

This was one of the reasons why Meirin was happy. Because Zhao drank the Water of Nothingness, it was impossible to learn magic and martial arts. And his space was only useful as life insurance since people could escape into it. But that wasn't enough.

He would also need the respect of others. If you couldn't learn magic or martial arts, then if you wanted respect, the only way was to become a scholar.

Translator Notes: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 35 - An Attack

Although Meirin was unhappy with the Aksu Empire, she still hoped that one day Zhao would be able to get back into the good graces of the king. This would represent that the Buda clan had been recognized as strong.

But what Meirin didn't know was that Zhao didn't intend to go back to the royal family, nor did he care about getting recognition from the old nobility. Those nobles had nothing to do with him. All that matters was that they had strength.

This was different for Meirin because she grew up in the Ark Continent. Here, even the emerging nobles put in great efforts to gain respect from the old nobility, otherwise they would just be called upstarts.

But in Zhao's past life, there weren't any nobles or kings. As long as you had money, you had the strength to do what you wanted. He didn't mind if the nobility gave him recognition or not.

Still, he had to carefully study to better understand this world. All that matters was that he developed the Buda clan as soon as possible.

Back in the study, he wasn't in a hurry to read the miscellaneous book. He carefully looked around and found the books on magic and martial arts. But when he looked inside, he found that his understanding of what was written was a little iffy. Without a teacher, he couldn't just learn by reading it. Plus, since he drank the Water of Nothingness, he couldn't learn magic or martial arts anyway. So he didn't really care.

Finally, Zhao decided to refocus on the miscellaneous book. But when he went to go grab it, he caught sight of another book. This one was about calligraphy.

The calligraphy book introduced several types of writing utensils, which made Zhoa realize that each of them had their own uses.

The brush was used by people who were particularly fond of calligraphy. But they were also used by great mages who made magic scrolls that were relatively large.

Quills, on the other hand, were mainly used to make smaller strokes on small and medium sized magic scrolls.

And then there was the pen, which was usually just used for writing and recording down notes. Because the inside of the pen's capsule could hold ink, you would be able to write a lot of words, which was very convenient. But the pen wasn't used to make magic scrolls because the metal tip was a poor conductor of magic. Mages generally didn't use metal things. Of course, there were special metals out there that could be used with magic, but those were very expensive. No one would be willing to make a pen out of them.

Zhao read about their uses, and how each were different. He even read about how nobles would use a brush to sign important documents with their signature.

All of this surprised Zhao for a moment. In his past life, he had always wanted to learn calligraphy. Unfortunately, at that time he had no money or teacher. So his desire amounted to nothing. He didn't expect that in this world, he might be able to achieve his aspirations.

But for now, Zhao could only remember the usage of these types of writing utensils. With everything happening in the Black Waste, it was unrealistic to expect that he would have the time to study calligraphy.

Zhao spent the afternoon in the study, until a knock suddenly came. "Who?" he asked.

Rockhead's voice came out. "Master, we've gathered quite a few stones and now need your help to transport them."

Zhao put down the book and went to open the door. "Come on," he said. He left with Rockhead.

While walking out, Zhao asked, "Is the mining going well?"

Rockhead nodded. "Yes, Master. Ann found several mines that we could easily exploit. No iron ore, but we should be able to get the right stones to make a mill stone."

"Pay attention to safety," Zhao said. "Altogether, the Buda clan has so little people. Even the lost of one person would weaken us. Make sure that they don't do anything reckless."

Rockhead understood what Zhao meant. Although the slaves had been encouraged to work with enthusiasm, they shouldn't do things too quickly out of impatience. He should pay attention to that.

They talked while they passed by the women who were still weaving the mats, but they didn't see Daisy or Meg.

Zhao didn't go greet them, and instead walked to the hill, followed by Rockhead. He saw something that looked like a makeshift shed. Pointing at the shed, Zhao asked, "Is that shed for housing our sentry?"

Rockhead nodded. "Yes. Grandma Meirin helped us. In the small shed are two look outs. They would be switched out every two hours."

Zhao was impressed. Meirin was more than worthy for the Buda clan, finding the right place to put a sentry and setting up a schedule for them.

Just then, a figure suddenly came flying down the hill, shouting loudly. Although Zhao couldn't hear what that man was shouting, he could feel his heart sinking, so he immediately turned to Rockhead. "Rockhead, go to the mines and tell the slaves to come back to the castle. Then get Blockhead and his people to come back to the castle too. I'll go look for Meg."

"Master, I'll do what you say, but you should immediately return to the castle. The Buda clan can't go on without you."

"Less nonsense, I am the lord of the Buda clan. At such a time, how can I chicken out and hide. You go do what I tell you."

He was about to walk away, but then Rockhead clung to Zhao's leg. "Master, you have to quickly go back to the castle. The Buda clan can't exist without you. If you're not here, then it would be over for all of us."

Zhao looked at Rockhead, who was being stubborn. The last time he didn't listen to Zhao was when he and his brother held their swords to their necks.

Zhao sighed. "Fine, I'll return to the castle. But you should remember to get everyone back safely."

Rockhead, after hearing what he said, stood up.

By now the figure had reached them, then he knelt down in front of Zhao. "Master, there's a lot of undead spirit beasts climbing up the hill!"

"Are there any people in the shed?" Zhao asked.

"There is one," the man immediately replied. "Someone always has to be on the look out on a regular basis."

Zhao was furious. "Fool! How come he's not down? Rockhead, call the guy to go down the hill."

Rockhead started running.

Zhao turned towards the kneeling slave. "What is your name?"

"Back then, the owner told me it was Lin."

"Lin, go back to the castle and find Grandma Meirin. If she isn't there, then tell everyone who is weaving weeds to go inside the castle. This is my command, so go fast."

Lin obeyed. He jumped up and ran to the castle. Zhao knew his own body. He couldn't run very fast, so he got someone else to pass on the message.

Zhao also started running, but even a few steps made him tired and gasping for breath.

Eventually, Zhao returned to the castle. He found the slaves who were working on the weeds inside. Everyone looked uneasy. Looking around, Zhao saw Meirin standing there.

Meirin also saw Zhao, and she immediately went up to him. "Master, what should we do now?"

Zhao took a few deep breaths, then said, "Grandma Meirin, count the number of people here. And make sure everyone made it back to the castle before shutting the gate."

Meirin quickly said, "Okay, Master. But you should stay here and do the count. I'll go to the gate." She walked out and left, giving Zhao no chance to oppose her.

Zhao looked at Meirin's departing back. She was taking care of him again, always putting him in the safest place. He wanted to argue, but Zhao knew that people who couldn't protect themselves would only be in the way.

He turned around and looked inside the castle, where stood more than thirty women, the only ones to make it here so far. "Stand in line," Zhao said.

The slaves immediately stood in line, their speed greatly beyond Zhao's expectations.

Translator Notes: Okay, I'm pretty sure that my translation of "undead spirit beasts" is wrong. But I don't care. Why? Because I think what the author meant was that there are a lot of living things, such as spirit beasts and people, who go into the carrion swamp and become undead. So even though undead people aren't the same as undead spirit beasts, I'm just going to group them together as "undead spirit beasts" to make it easier on myself.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 36 - Army of Spirit Beasts

Zhao knew that these slaves had never been to school, yet they finished his command so quickly, lining up in two neat rows. It wasn't worse than what Zhao did in school during his past life.

The slaves queue rate greatly exceeded Zhao's expectations, so he gave them a puzzled look. These slaves had been trained since childhood, standing to attention almost by instinct. When the slaves went to work and then came back, they had to stand in line so they could report the number of slaves. This method was to prevent someone from sneaking away.

But Zhao didn't know this, so when the slaves quickly lined up, he couldn't help but freeze for a moment. But then he recovered, and decided not to think too much about it. "Count!" he said.

The moment those words left his mouth, the slaves instinctively counted off, ending at thirty four. That was to say there were thirty four female slaves, and Lin, the only male slave.

Zhao nodded. "I had just received a message from the hill that a large number of undead spirit beasts have appeared out of the carrion swamp. They're probably coming to the castle, and since there may be a battle, you will have to stay here."

The female slaves couldn't help but reveal a look of fear. If a human army attacked them, they wouldn't be afraid. So long as they didn't resist, generally no one would kill a slave, because a slave could be sold for money. So most of the time, they would be safe.

But this time they were being attacked by undead spirit beasts. Money was no use to them. In their eyes, nobility was no different than slaves. People were people with no hierarchy.

A few more slaves came in from outside, and among them was Daisy. Zhao counted them off, even Daisy, which ended in a total of fifty people. All the female slaves had returned.

Although Daisy and the female slaves had come back, Meg was still out there, probably at the front aiding Blockhead.

Zhao didn't leave the castle. He knew that he would just cause trouble for Meirin, so he might as well wait here.

But that doesn't mean he couldn't do anything. He turned to Daisy and said, "Daisy, from this point on you look after the slaves. Do not let them run around." Then he turned to the slaves. "I want to go get something. All of you listen to Daisy's words. Do not run."

The castle had an underground storage, which was where Green brought all of their supplies, and that was where Zhao went. He loaded all of the supplies into his space so as to avoid them being ruined by the undead spirit beasts.

The underground storage was really great. Zhao was only there for a moment before he ran upstairs to where the study was. The most important thing were those books.

Green must have brought those books to cultivate the slaves, otherwise why would he bring so many books on magic and martial arts. Those books were very important, they were the key to Zhao's understanding of this world, and they could help train the Buda clan's personnel.

Once he reached the study, he put everything into his space, including the chairs. The spatial barn didn't really have any limits, and wasn't yet straining with the amount of things he had stored inside.

Zhao had just finished gathering everything from the study when he heard a voice. It was Meirin. Zhao quickly ran downstairs. Meirin was back, and so was everyone else.

Seeing all the people in the castle, Zhao felt a little relieved. "Grandma Meirin, is everyone back?" he asked.

Meirin nodded. "Everyone's back. The castle gate is closed. But I don't know if that would stop the spirit beasts from coming. Master, you should go into your space."

Zhao shook his head. "There is no need, Grandma Meirin. Let's go outside on the castle walls to get a good look. I have never seen undead spirit beasts before."

Meirin looked worried. "Master, that's too dangerous. What are you planning to do?"

"Nothing," Zhao said. "I just want to go see those undead spirit beasts, particularly their numbers. If there's only a small number of them, we could just repel them."

Meirin was surprised for a moment, but she didn't say anything. It was as Zhao said. She was confident in her abilities, so if there really were just a small number of undead spirit beasts, she could just fight them off.

Zhao waved for Daisy and Ann to come over. "You two, watch over the slaves. Don't let them run around." Having told them that, Zhao walked with Meirin to the castle walls, while Blockhead and Rockhead moved by his side, and Meg was behind him. There was no way to stop them from following him, Zhao was very clear on that. If they weren't following him, then there would be no way for them letting him go to the walls.

Meirin didn't think that the undead spirit beasts were very fast, but to their surprise, when they arrived at the walls, they found that those beasts had already reached the base of the hill.

At the forefront were a group of rat-like things. About one meter tall and three meters in length, with pale green hair and long tails.

Behind them was a large group of snakes!

There were countless snakes, large and small. Some of the snakes were green, some were red, and some were really colorful. The colorful snakes were the largest, reaching a meter thick. They couldn't be trifled with.

Those snakes were followed by a variety of insects. The insects were huge, even a spider was one to two meters wide. Of course, there were also smaller insects, but their every action was flexible and fast.

The insects too were colorful, showing that they were highly toxic. Zhao's heart couldn't help but sink. The number of snakes were more than enough, but there were even more insects than snakes.

By this time, at the forefront, the rats had already reached the castle. Apparently, they could swim as they immediately ran into the moat, instantly turning the water green.

Zhao made an ugly face. He finally understood why there was no fish in the moat. Those rats must have poisoned the river.

Meirin went to Zhao's side. "Master, we should go back. There are too many spirit beasts to deal with."

Zhao nodded and looked up the hill at the army of spirit beasts out there. There was even a crocodile-like spirit beast, brightly colored, and made up of bones.

There were many creatures, large and small, that were made out of nothing but moving bones, and more of them were slowly coming down the hill.

"Master, let's go." Meirin took Zhao away.

But then everything turned black for a moment. Puzzled, Zhao looked towards the sky and saw a lot of spirit beasts flying overhead. Some were flying insects, but others were large bird-shaped spirit beasts that were flying very high. It seemed like the castle wouldn't be able to protect them.

"Hurry, there's an army of flying spirit beasts coming. We have to get back inside the castle to protect the slaves, otherwise it'll be too late!" Zhao shouted.

Meirin saw them too. She immediately shouted, "Blockhead, quickly run back inside the castle and protect the slaves!"

Blockhead nodded. Suddenly, he was shrouded with a yellow light. Moving with a speed faster than before, he quickly ran to the castle. Rockhead picked up Zhao and quickly ran to the castle as well. Although he was fast, he was also stable, so Zhao wasn't jolted around a lot.

A blue light flashed around Meirin's body and she ran as well, her speed not any slower than Rockhead's. Not to mention Meg, also flashing a blue light, was moving even faster than Rockhead.

Translator Notes: You know, I didn't realize it until now, but I think this is the first time I've read of an MC that is weaker than EVERYONE else.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 37 - Into the Space

Fortunately, the castle wasn't far, and Rockhead was very fast. In just a few short breaths of time, Zhao had reached the main room of the castle.

The room didn't seem that big with all the people crowded inside. But there wasn't any confused ruckus going on. The slaves were very clear that if they didn't listen, it may result in their deaths. So they stood in order after Blockhead had entered the room.

"Grandma Meirin, you go into the space first," Zhao said the moment he came into the room. "When a slave enters the space, you will settle them down and make sure that they don't run around. Blockhead and Rockhead, you guard the doors. Meg, Daisy, and Ann, you organize the slaves to go into the space."

Daisy and Ann had never been inside the space, so Zhao made them work with Meg. Once they assist those to go into the space, Meirin would settle them after they entered, while Rockhead and Blockhead would be on alert for any spirit beasts that suddenly barged in.

A hole appered next to Zhao.

The hole was no stranger to the slaves. They had seen it before during Zhao's land improvement. When there was little reaction from the slaves, Zhao couldn't help but be surprised.

However, when Meirin went into the space first, there was an immediate reaction. After Meirin appeared inside, it was time to make the slaves go.

Those slaves were a little scared. They didn't know where Zhao was taking them. But when they saw Meirin enter, they knew that Zhao wouldn't harm them. Immediately, under Meg's supervision, each of the slaves slowly entered the hole.

By now, from outside the castle, they could hear the roars of the spirit beasts, as well as the pounding on the castle gate. They had to move faster. Fortunately, Zhao was able to make the hole big enough to allow four slaves to go in at the same time.

Soon all the slaves had entered the space, as well as Daisy, Ann, and Meg. With a thought, Zhao with Blockhead and Rockhead appeared inside the space together.

The slaves were looking around, dumbfounded.

While Zhao, the moment he entered the space, discovered that the radishes have matured, but he didn't have time to harvest them. He stood up and shouted at the slaves. "All of you listen. This is my spatial farm. Do not just walk around. Look for a place to sit down. And be careful of where you step."

Fortunately, in addition to the farm land, the spatial farm also had some open spaces. At one time, Zhao had tried telling the spatial farm to shovel the open spaces, but it just had the same result as the game, no response.

Although the slaves didn't understand what was going on, they still obediently sat down. Zhao then turned to Meirin after looking at the slaves. "Grandma Meirin, I've brought a lot of empty cups with me. If anyone wants to drink, let them go to the spring to drink some spatial water. I'll come up with some blankets that they could sleep on." Having said that, he walked in front of the barn, and with a thought, a lot of cups came out. They were wooden cups, cheap ones that Green had bought for the slaves.

Meirin and Meg soon passed around the cups. Zhao also brought a lot of blankets for the slaves to sleep on the ground with. And after that, Zhao came up with a few cushions.

These cushions weren't for sitting, they were used to build dividing walls. With more than a hundred people here, they will need a bathroom, especially now that there were both men and women inside the space. Although they were small, the cushions that Green had bought should be sufficient enough to build something that would separate the two sides.

Blockhead and Rockhead led several male slaves to one side of the barn and blocked off that piece of land with the cushions. The female slaves had the other side.

After everyone started working, it relieved Zhao with enough time to harvest the radishes and plant another batch.

In order to help the slaves calm down, Zhao gave each of them one magic radish to eat. The white radish tasted sweet and a little spicy. Seeing more than a hundred people eating radishes together, it was a spectacular sight.

The slaves were eating very happily. This was the first time they had eaten a radish with such a peerless taste.

After seeing that the slaves had calmed down, Zhao went into the thatched hut.

The inside of the hut wasn't very large, but there was enough room for a bed, and of course a table where a few people could sit. It was very comfortable. Although Zhao wished for a good night's sleep, he knew that this wasn't the time. He had entered the hut after telling Meirin to call a few people in, leaving only Daisy and Ann to watch over the slaves.

Everyone looked around curiously inside the hut, and then sat down on a stool.

"We don't know what's the situation outside with the spirit beasts. Although we can hope that they would return to the swamp early, we have to prepare for the possibility that we would have to stay here for the long term," Zhao said. "In a few hours, the corn will mature. Plus, we have the food that I brought in from outside. Food and firewood won't be a problem. But if we leave the slaves with nothing to do, they would just wait around in fear. Grandma Meirin, do you have any suggestions?"

Meirin thought about it, but then shook her head. "Although this space is really big, there is no land for them to cultivate. I can't think of anything. Master, what do you plan for the slaves to do?"

Zhao paced inside the hut. "I had brought some books from the study before I came in. Grandma Meirin, teach the slaves how to read. If we want to develop the Buda clan, relying on just the few of us isn't enough. I don't think that the slaves would betray us, so teaching them some words will be useful in the future."

"That's a good idea, Master. With nothing to do in the space, we could teach them to recognize some words. In the future, this will have far reaching effects."

Since she agreed, Zhao waved his hand. The books from the study appeared in front of him, along with some pen and paper. "Grandma Meirin, take a look yourself, and then teach them with that book."

Meirin carefully looked at the books, then took out the one in the middle. "Master, is this it?"

Zhao saw Meirin take out the miscellaneous book, which was simply titled "Traveling through the Aksu Empire". He nodded, then said. "We're not going to teach them right this moment. They had just come into this space, and some of them might still be in shock. Let them have a break first."

Meirin nodded, while looking at Zhao's tired face. "Master, you should have a good rest too. We'll go out."

Zhao knew that the hut was too small to be suitable enough for everyone to rest inside, so he could only say, "I took out several blankets from the barn, Grandma Meirin. Remember to use them when you sleep outside."

Meirin told him that she will. Along with Meg, she left the hut, while Blockhead and Rockhead stood at either side of the door, like guards.

Meirin then stood in front of the slaves and shouted, "This place is Master's magical space, where everything listens to the young master. Outside, there are undead spirit beasts, and we fear that they have already stormed the castle. This is the only safe place. So you must be obedient, otherwise Adam will kick you out of this space. Do you understand?"

The slaves immediately stood up in unison. "Understood," they shouted. They had been trained by slave traders. After obtaining some slaves, it was common sense to give them some simple training, like bowing and such. So these slaves had formed a condition reflex.

Meirin nodded. "A lot has happened today, and I know you're very frightened, but Master said that if you are tired, you can have a good rest. So go rest. But remember, do not run around, do not go near the young master's room, and do not fumble with the stuff inside the space. Understand?"

The slaves understood.

Translator Notes: Yeah, that bathroom thing came out of nowhere.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 38 - Literacy

Zhao didn't know what was happening outside the thatched hut. He believed that Meirin would take care of it. He was really tired now and just wanted to have a good sleep.

From the barn, he pulled out a blanket, then he immediately layed down on the bed. It only took him a few minutes to fall asleep. After drinking the Water of Nothingness, his body couldn't even handle a large amount of exercise, let alone the situation that happened today.

Outside the thatched hut, the slaves were also resting. With such a rare opportunity to rest, they naturally wouldn't say anything. Plus the ground was covered with a soft blanket. Soon the entire space was quiet. Even in front of Zhao's door, Rockhead and Blockhead was sitting down while napping.

After more than two hours, Meirin woke up. She slowly walked to the hut and opened the door to check up on Zhao, finding him fast asleep. She then quietly closed the door.

Looking at the slaves, she saw that some of them were already awake, just sitting there not knowing what to do.

Although Meirin could teach them how to read, she didn't know if now was the right time. Teaching these people would make noise, and she didn't want to wake Zhao up.

But then she noticed that the radishes, which were planted before she slept, had actually started to sprout. She was very surprised. This was her first time seeing how fast something could grow in this space.

Meirin couldn't help but squat to look at the growing radish seedlings. These seedlings were very sturdy, and they looked healthy.

Making the same movement, Meg crouched down next to Meirin, and whispered, "Grandma, how could these radishes sprout so quickly? Is it some kind of advance vegetable magic?

Meirin smiled slightly. "Master told me long ago that anything he planted in this space would have a greatly shortened maturation time. But I didn't think that it would be this short."

"In this space, the magic radishes will mature every eight hours." Zhao's voice came from a distance.

Meirin and Meg were surprised for a moment. They turned around and saw that Zhao had come out of the hut, with Blockhead and Rockhead standing behind him. Meirin stood up. "Master, is what you say true? A batch of magic radishes can mature in eight hours?"

Zhao nodded, then he pointed to the corn field. "See those corn? In the space, they only need fourteen hours to reach maturity after planting them."

They followed the direction of Zhao's finger. They saw the growing corn, with green leaves that looked strong and long.

Zhao turned to Meirin. "We will have enough food to eat inside this space. So it's better to stay here instead of encountering those spirit beasts."

"Yes, Master is right," Meirin said. "If we don't have to worry about finding something to eat, then we could stay here for a few days."

Zhao turned around and looked at everyone who was awake. The slaves were standing up respectfully while watching him. "Grandma Meirin, while you teach them to read, Blockhead and I will dig a stove to cook."

They had more than a hundred people to feed. Although Zhao had brought a lot of supplies from the castle's storage, if he wanted to make something for the slaves to eat, he would have to build a place to make a fire. There was nothing like that here in the space, so he could only dig a simple stove.

"Master, let the slaves build it," Meirin said. "They can do it in a shorter amount of time, and it would be strange for you to do it."

Zhao looked at the slaves and nodded his head. If the slaves were learning how to read and write, while their master was digging a stove, it would scare the slaves because it was contrary to what they knew.

Meirin saw Zhao nod, and immediately organized the slaves to start digging a stove. Zhao fortunately had the castle's supplies in his spatial barn so they weren't lacking any tools.

Although they had to feed more than a hundred people, they only needed ten or so to dig the stove. Then they would use the pot that Green had purposely bought for the slaves.

In fact, many slave owners would use this kind of method because it was the easiest way to feed the slaves. While the slaves were working, you just needed to find two people to carry the pot and cook the rice, thus saving a lot of time.

The ten slaves dug a good stove frame, but it was impossible to light a fire now. Zhao had to wait for the corn to mature first, then they would have something to burn, otherwise they would have to use the wood that he had brought, which would be a pity.

Zhao knew that they were short on wood, and he didn't know when Green would come back. After he returns, they could sell the radishes in exchange for gold coins, and then they would be able to buy more wood. But for now, Zhao didn't want to waste the supplies he had on hand.

After looking at the stove frame, Zhao nodded at the slaves, then he turned to Meirin. "Grandma Meirin, it'll take more than two hours for the corn to mature. In that period of time, you have to teach them to recognize some words. I'm going to go take a break inside the hut."

Meirin nodded, and once Zhao walked inside the hut, she turned to the slaves. "Please do not worry. In two hours or so, the corn will mature, and then you can eat. In these two hours, you will learn to read..."

Before she could finish, the slaves buzzed with excitement. The slaves couldn't read. It was common sense in the Continent to not teach the slaves to read. So for them, literacy was a sacred thing, and now they had just heard that Meirin was going to teach them, so all the slaves were very surprised.

Meirin shouted, "Quiet!"

The slaves immediately quieted down, but they all had a look of excitement as they watched Meirin. "We of the Buda clan are not the same as the other nobles. Our benevolent master has consented for everyone to learn. If you can learn the words quickly, Master can absolve you of slavery. Understand?"

This got the slaves more excited. Zhao letting them be taught was amazing, but if they were to learn well, then they could even become free commoners. For the slaves, it was like telling them as long you eat, you will also get a bonus. Such a good thing was hard to find.

"Because of the conditions we have now," Meirin said, "I can only teach you to recognize some simple words. In these two hours, I can only teach you ten words, but you must learn to read and write it." Having said that, she picked up some paper and a brush.

They didn't have a blackboard. Writing on paper was the only way she could teach the slaves. There were too many people, so she could only write one word on each piece of paper to make the word large enough for the slaves in the back to see it.

Meg was around Meirin, watching everyone, including Daisy and Ann, studying seriously. Before, Daisy and Ann were commoners, but they couldn't go to school because they didn't have the money for a teaching fee. Now that they had the opportunity to learn, they wouldn't miss it.

Meg had previously been to a school in the Empire. In the elite schools, she found that the reaction between the slaves and the school's students weren't the same. Those aristocratic students considered school as a form of torture. They didn't put any spirit into it. They would only be happy after class had ended and they could go home to play. Adam was such a person.

But the slaves were completely different. Learning to read, they looked excited and also very focused. Fearing that they won't remember the lesson, and because they didn't have anything to write with, they would trace their finger on the ground. Their earnest struggle to learn deeply touched Meg.

Blockhead and Rockhead also looked at the slaves. The two had been adopted by the Buda clan so they automatically received lessons on how to read. However, they didn't take it as seriously as the slaves. The reasons were because they were young, and they weren't very smart, but mostly because they got the opportunity to learn how to read so easily.

You do not know the value of things that are too easily obtained.

They had studied how to read together with Adam. Adam was not considered a wise man. Yet although he was smarter than the two, he was not fond of reading, so it took him several tries to learn, just like them. Looking at the slaves who were so focused on learning, Blockhead and Rockhead couldn't help but feel ashamed.

Meirin naturally saw this, and suddenly understood that Zhao's decision was correct. If the slaves didn't know how to read, then even if they wanted to contribute to the Buda clan, they would only have a limited ability to do so, no matter how much they work. But if they learn how to read, then they could help the Buda clan be greater. The Buda clan needs each person to be at their best in order to help revitalize the Buda clan. So she taught them very seriously.

Translator Notes: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 39 - New Features

Zhao knew that Meirin wouldn't let him down. That was to say, Meirin was an eighth level mage, so she used to have a few students in the Aksu Empire, before they all died along with Adam's father.

Still, Meirin had a lot of teaching experience. She was the best choice to teach the slaves. Meanwhile, Zhao had a headache thinking over another problem.

As long as the corn was ripe, they would have firewood, and with the food stored in the barn, they wouldn't have to worry about finding something to eat. But Zhao then realized something. Cooking with fire will certainly produce smoke. Although the spatial farm was big, if there was no way for the smoke to break out, then sooner or later it will fill up the space.

Zhao feared that he was going to pollute the spatial farm. But he couldn't just make the slaves eat radishes everyday, right? The only thing he could think of was to try to reduce the amount of cooking, then wait until after everyone left the space. Only then could he think of a way to discharge the smoke.

But Zhao also had another worry. He didn't know what was happening outside. He feared that by the time they go out, the spirit beasts would have wrecked the castle, leaving them with no place to live. This was most troublesome.

Pacing around the room, Zhao couldn't think of anything to do but to bring up his display screen. But the screen was black.

Zhao didn't know how to open the display. He tried saying, "On."

No response. Zhao was embarrassed. There were no obvious switches on the screen, so he didn't know how to turn it on.

Zhao then tried touching the screen with his hand, but he didn't think that he could actually touch it. The display lit up. Icons for his shop, barn, and tools appeared on the screen.

He was stunned. The last time he summoned the screen, it only showed an icon for the shop. He didn't expect that there would be more icons this time.

But Zhao didn't care why there were more icons on the screen. What mattered the most was that it displayed what was necessary. It was then that he noticed an icon that didn't seem to have anything to do with the farm. The icon had a picture of a camera.

Zhao couldn't help but freeze for a moment. If this kind of icon appeared on a computer, then it wouldn't be strange, but this symbol had appeared on his spatial farm's screen.

He pressed the icon, wanting to see what it would do. The icon immediately flashed a white light on Zhao's forehead. His head was suddenly filled with information.

Because there was too much information, Zhao had to close his eyes and lay on his bed to digest it all.

Only when Zhao digested the information did he open his eyes. "So it's something like a monitor."

Zhao finally understood what the icon was for. It was similar to a camera that you could use to monitor the surrounding area. That was to say, from the spot where he had entered the space, he could see outside within a radius of one hundred meters. And that was only because his level was too low. Once he leveled up, he would be able to see even further.

Zhao immediately sat up on his bed and touched the camera icon again. The screen changed. Now it displayed a three-dimensional image of the castle.

Below the image was the value of one hundred meters, showing the distance he was able to see.

In the three-dimensional image, there were a lot of green dots moving around constantly. Zhao couldn't help but point at one of the little green dots. The screen flashed, then it showed a large rat-like spirit beast. The rat was inside the living room, and right next to it was a pile of rotten wood that seemed to have come from the sofa.

Zhao looked again carefully, and on the upper left corner of the screen was a small image of the three-dimensional view. He knew what it was for, so he pressed it and sure enough the screen immediately went back to the three-dimensional map, where there were still a lot of green dots.

Zhao understood that the green dots represented the undead spirit beasts.

He decided to take another look into the living room. The screen changed. But this time there were now two rat-like spirit beasts. One of them was the rat that Zhao saw before, while the other was gnawing on the sofa. The other sofas seemed to have been destroyed, gnawed by the rats.

While he continued to look, one of the large rats unintentionally got close to the screen. The result was Zhao, out of surprise, swiping at the screen, causing it to show the room next to the living room.

Zhao froze for a moment. He didn't know that he could even use his fingers to change the image.

Zhao moved his finger down from the top of the screen and sure enough he could now see the castle square. It was filled with a variety of undead spirit beasts that were tossing around and destroying the piles of weeds and weed mats.

Seeing this, Zhao sighed and closed the screen. Now that he knew there were still spirit beasts outside, there was no reason to rush out.

Just then, a tone chimed and the voice echoed: [Corn has matured. Please harvest as soon as possible]

Zhao immediately left the hut, and found Meirin, who was still teaching the class. Everyone gave Zhao a puzzled look, but he didn't care who heard the space tone. He just softly said, "Harvest the corn. Corn stalks, corn cobs, and corn kernels are to be separately harvested."

The moment his words faded, the basket immediately flew out and started collecting the corn. Soon the entire two acres was harvested.

Although the slaves had already seen Zhao harvest the radishes, they still felt surprised when he harvested the corn.

Zhao then put the corn stalks and corn cobs next to the stove frame, along with some bags of food that he had brought. Then he planted some more corn in the ground.

Meirin understood that it was now time to cook, so she put away the papers, then said to the slaves, "It's time to eat. So go prepare dinner."

The slaves had forgotten about the food. For them, learning to read and write was more important than anything else, not to mention that the food was really unpalatable. But there was no meaning if they didn't eat.

Zhao didn't know what the slaves usually eat. These days, he had been eating bread, and he had grown a little tired of it. But since they were inside the space, Zhao wondered what Meirin was going to make today.

Sure enough, Meirin turned to Zhao and asked, "Master, can you come up with some vegetables, ham, and oil?"

Zhao immediately took out everything Meirin asked for, who then left some vegetables and oil for the slaves. She took the rest of the oil, vegetables, and ham with her to the hut.

There was a kitchen inside Zhao's hut, but there were many kitchen tools that she had never seen before.

Zhao really didn't know what Meirin was going to make, so he followed her into the hut. He found her kneading dough, so Zhao thought that she could be making pancakes.

After seeing that, Zhao didn't stay in the hut because he wouldn't have been much help anyway, so he left.

But when he went outside, he was stunned. Rice! The slaves were making rice! The slaves had lit a fire under the pot, and it seemed like they were going to pour oil, and then put the rice in to cook it. Zhao's scalp was tingling. It was the first time he saw rice in this world.

Translator Notes: Yet another chapter that slowed me down because of how freaking confusing it was!

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 40 - Rice

Zhao was depressed to the point of collapsing when he saw the rice for the first time.

He had been afraid that there was no rice in this world, and thought that was the reason why Meirin didn't give him any rice to eat. But now he discovered that rice was something that was used to feed the slaves.

At this point, they had only lit up the stove fire, but Zhao rushed over when he saw that one of the female slaves was preparing to pour the oil. "Wait a minute! Before you pour the oil..."

The female slave saw Zhao charging over, so thinking that she might have done something wrong, she immediately knelt down. "Please, Master, punish me."

Zhao slowed his outburst, then shook his head. "I'm not going to punish you. Just listen to me. Before you pour the oil into the pot, you should use a bowl to wash the rice. You put in some water, wash the rice properly, then dump the water back out. And then you put the rice in the pot." While saying this, Zhao took out a copper basin.

The female slave didn't know what Zhao wanted to do, but she took the copper basin from him and put some rice in it. She then went to the spring and washed the rice properly. After that, she brought the rice back and poured it into the pot.

Zhao then added, "Keep using the copper basin to get as much washed rice as possible, and then pour some water into the pot until it's above the rice."

The female slave obeyed and told the other slaves. They started pouring water into the pot with the rice, until the pot was almost full. Zhao had given the slaves a few copper basins he had pulled from the barn to complete the task, while a few slaves kept the fire burning.

Zhao just wanted to give them a meal of rice that was actually very simple to make. In his past life, he lived on his own, so he was very good at making rice. He understood the ratio of rice to water. But now in this pot, he told them to put more water than usual because the firewood directly touched the bottom of the pot, so the heat was relatively hotter than normal.

They all looked at Zhao, who told them to boil rice. The slaves had only heard of boiling vegetables to make soup. They had never seen this kind of method to cook rice before.

It didn't take long before the rice fragrance started to seep out of the pot. This rice hasn't been grown with pesticides and fertilizers, so the natural flavor of the outer bran was good.

Each of the slaves were issued a cheap wooden bowl and spoon to use. Although a bowl, spoon, and cup were simple things, the slaves were very happy that they got to use them.

Zhao was staring at the pot of rice when Meirin came out of the hut. "Master, how do you use those kitchen tools to make a fire?"

It seemed like Meirin was having a little bit of trouble. Zhao followed her into the hut. He had not been too concerned about the kitchen tools, but now that he had a good look, it turned out that all the tools were electrical appliances, such as rice cookers, pancake makers, and a bunch of other things. Everything was electric. Zhao silently looked for any wires, but he didn't even know if there were any, and the walls of his hut was layered with thatch.

Seeing all of these things, Zhao looked at Meirin and wished that she would make some pancakes and fill them with fried vegetables, like some sort of pizza.

Just to be clear, that pizza wouldn't be the same as the ones from his past life. It would be a pancake topped with vegetables and ham. Back on Earth, Zhao used to live in China, where Chinese cuisine was world famous. But in this world, where they normally didn't eat rice, but mostly bread, he thought that they would be able to make something like a pizza pie.

Zhao taught Meirin the usage of these electric appliances, and she learned of how convenient they were. There was no need for fire.

Seeing as how Meirin could now use the tools, Zhao didn't stay in the kitchen. He turned around and opened the door, which let in the smell of rice.

Zhao looked out, while Meirin whispered, "Master, it smells really fragrant. How did you make it?"

Zhao smiled and shrugged. "All you need to do is add in the right amount of water and then you can make some delicious rice. How can frying the hard rice grains directly compare to this? And to make it even more delicious, you can use some oil and vegetables to make a soup, then you could make a meal out of it. It would taste so much better."

Meirin had a look of worship. "Ah, Master really knows such wonderful things."

Zhao couldn't help but blush. This was something that everyone knew in China, but it seemed like he had just taken the credit for it.

Zhao went out to the pot of rice, which seemed to be ready. He picked up a corn stalk and used it to push off the copper basin that was covering the pot. The copper basin fell to the ground, releasing a large amount of heat from the pot, which caused Zhao to step backwards. Out of the heat came a full-bodied flavor of rice that smelled slightly sweet. The fragrance was even stronger than the rice from his past life. Zhao's mouth started to water.

Once the heat dispersed, the pot of rice revealed its true colors. It wasn't white like how Zhao imagined rice to be, but a little yellow. However, the fragrant smell was incredible.

Zhao pulled a spoon out of the barn and then slowly scooped up a spoonful of rice. Meg wanted to stop him, but Zhao moved the rice into his mouth too fast. Everyone couldn't help but stare as their master ate the rice that only slaves would eat.

Zhao closed his eyes as the fragrant flavor of rice filled his every being. It was savory and delicious, with a chewy, flexible texture. He then slowly put down the spoon as he opened his eyes. The slaves and Meg were all looking at him, and Zhao couldn't help but be embarrassed. "Please don't look at me. Go on and eat. If you absolutely don't think it's tasty, then you don't have to eat it. We can re-do the meal later."

The slaves didn't dare to move, although they did look eager. Zhao understood that it was because he was here, so the slaves tried not to act recklessly. He sighed and turned to Meg, and said, "Meg, let's go into the hut."

Meg understood what Zhao was trying to do, so she immediately nodded. "Yes, Master. Let's enter the hut and see what Grandma is making."

Zhao smiled. Meg was becoming more considerate, on top of being a kind and gentle girl. The two called Blockhead and Rockhead into the hut with them.

Daisy and Ann didn't follow. They wanted to stay and try out the rice to see how delicious it was. The moment Zhao and Meg went inside, the slaves immediately surrounded the pot, eating the rice and singing its praises.

Then one of the male slaves noticed a thick layer of crust in the pot. He had never seen this before. The slave was curious about the rice crust, so he grabbed some with his hand and sniffed it. It seemed to have an attractive scent. He eventually failed to block the temptation to bite it.

The moment he tasted it, his eyes brightened, and he quickly took a second bite. Since the pot wasn't small, there was a large amount of crust. A single person naturally couldn't finish all of it by himself, so the slave passed around the crust to everyone else. Before long, the slaves started to make a second pot of rice.

Meirin and Zhao, in fact, had been standing by the hut door, watching the slaves. The moment they saw the slaves making rice for the second time, Zhao immediately went out to them and said to the slaves. "I think that you will need another pot for soup. Although eating rice is good and well, some soup would be good too. You can't just survive on rice, you're going to need some vegetables."

Hearing what Zhao said, the slaves knew that he had been watching them, and they couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. But still, they moved according to what Zhao told them. They were very grateful to him.

A lot of these people were on the verge of crying, because they had never eaten something so delicious.

Translator Notes: Yeah, this chapter was confusing too. But I did my best.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Read Bringing The Farm To Live In Another World Chapter 41 - Oath online for free - AllNovelFull

Chapter 41 - Oath

The slaves weren't stupid. Almost all of these people knew how to cook. Previously, the slave owners would casually pick two people to make food for the rest of the slaves. So they weren't new to cooking.

Plus, making this rice was very simple. The slaves soon had another pot of rice going, and then covered it with the copper basin that Zhao had given them as a lid.

But the slaves didn't know how to make soup. The slave owners would only allow them to eat something like rice bran, and even moldy rice. Precisely because of this, everyday in the Continent there would be a lot of slaves that died. But for slave owners, they wouldn't care about those deaths, because they could just go out and buy more slaves.

Now the slaves were looking at the vegetables and oil in a daze. Daisy certainly understood their feelings, but since she had also been a commoner, she knew some simple dishes.

Daisy went to the empty pot that Zhao had brought out, and poured the oil into it. This oil came from a yellowish colored fruit that had a very high oil content. It grows in many places in the Continent, so it was very cheap.

Once the oil was hot, Daisy then put in the vegetables and simply stir-fried them. Finally, she added some water and threw in a little salt. After the water came to a boil, the soup was done.

This was the simplest way to make soup. There was almost no technical details or seasoning, only a little coarse salt.

On the Continent, salt wasn't cheap. The nobles generally used very refined salt, like the salt on Earth. But the slaves only get coarse salt, which was cheap with a lot of impurities.

Even so, if a slave owner gave the slaves a little salt every three days, then that owner would be considered very generous. But in general, slaves only get salt once a week, and the number of slave owners who gave them that much wasn't a lot.

Seeing Daisy working on the simple soup, Zhao sighed. Meg was standing beside him. "Master, is there a problem? Should we have given the slaves less salt?"

Zhao gave Meg a puzzled look. "With this kind of large pot, why should there be so little salt? I was just thinking how much our Buda clan was so weak that we could only give them simple food to eat. After we have money, we should let them eat meat."

The moment he finished speaking, he felt the eyes of everyone staring at him. He was confused, so he whispered to Meg, "Did I say something wrong?"

Meg looked at Zhao. Although the Buda clan had slaves, before they were exiled by the Empire, Adam had never come into contact with the slaves. Naturally, he didn't know what kind of life they lived. So she whispered to him to explain about the slaves living conditions.

Zhao was listening like a new born learning about this world. His ideas about how these people lived were so far away from Meg's. It was like something out of the olden days, like in the White-Haired Girl opera. It was difficult to resonate with because he didn't have the same kind of experiences. How could he understand it when he didn't have any personal experience to compare with.

Everyone waited until Meg finished explaining. Zhao then turned and looked at the slaves, his eyes full of sympathy. He sighed and said, "Rest assured, I will do whatever it takes. Sooner or later, I'll let you eat meat everyday. This I swear on the name of the Buda clan."

Zhao was a good person. Even though, in his past life, he was a timid person that didn't have much interpersonal skills, that didn't mean he was sick. He was just an otaku that couldn't understand the darkness of the world, so he chose to shut himself off. He was that kind of person.

But in the Ark Continent, Zhao's status had changed. He was now a noble with his own territory. He had a hundred slaves whose lives he was responsible for. His words and actions would decide the life and death of these people. All of this gave Zhao a sense of responsibility. He believed that it was his duty to give everyone a better life, so he was bent on developing his territory.

The slaves excitedly fell to their knees. Like a sea, they all bowed down as one. "Master rewards us!"

Although they had nothing to give back, this sentence was enough for Zhao. The nobles on the Continent had a strange tradition. They do not easily swear. Even under normal circumstances, they would never use their family name to swear. Because swearing would put you under oath before God and on behalf of your family. An oath was a promise that you should never violate.

It was because of this that the slaves believed in Zhao's words. They believed that since he said an oath under his family name, that he would one day realize this dream of eating meat everyday.

Meg opened her mouth, but she didn't say anything. For the past few days she had been managing the slaves so, to be honest, she was very sympathetic to them. She didn't object to Zhao's words.

Just then, Meirin's voice came from a distance. "Master, it's time to eat."

Zhao turned around and nodded in her direction, then he looked back at the crowd. "Meg, Daisy, Ann, it's time for dinner."

Daisy and Ann wanted to stay here and eat, but Zhao's look told them that they would be going along with him to the hut, followed by Blockhead and Rockhead.

The moment they went into the hut, the slaves became more relaxed. Although Zhao had been very good to them, but for the slaves, Zhao was their master, so they felt uncomfortable with him around.

Inside the hut, Meirin had already made some pancakes and soup. Zhao actually wanted to eat rice, but one look from Meirin told him that there was no hope.

The hut only had four chairs, so Zhao took out three more from the barn. Now they could sit seven people. Although the table wasn't as big as the one in the castle's dining room, it was still big enough for all of them.

After everyone sat down, Zhao pulled out some knives and forks, and began to eat the pancake. In fact, he didn't want to use a knife and fork, but unfortunately, Meirin didn't agree.

The pancake didn't really have much flavor, but the taste was okay. Zhao slowly ate dinner. After everyone finished and Meirin cleaned things up, all of them went outside. By this time, the slaves had finished eating as well.

The pot was still there, but it had been cleaned out. The slaves seemed very full, and there was even one sitting with a spiritual look.

Zhao knew that after eating dinner, people would become sleepy, and these slaves were the same. He didn't make them get up and allowed them to lay on the ground.

Looking at the garbage, Zhao didn't want the space to be dirty, but these things could be left for later. He then looked up at the sky, and although it was a little hazy, fortunately he didn't see any black smoke floating up there. Even though they had lit a fire, it was a good thing that the space wasn't small.

Zhao then turned to Meirin and said, "Grandma Meirin, let them rest. They just had dinner, so they're sleepy. Let them have a break."

Meirin eyed the slaves and only nodded her head. "Well, then we should take a break too."

Zhao shook his head. "Grandma Meirin, Meg, Blockhead, Rockhead, follow me into the hut. I have something for you to see." He opened the door to the hut and walked in.

Meirin and everyone didn't know what Zhao wanted to show them, but they followed him inside.

Translator Notes: If you want to know more about the White-Haired Girl opera, then here's a WIKI LINK

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 42 - Try

Zhao led the four back into the hut. He then sat on the bed and opened up the screen. Once he touched it with his hand, the screen lit up, and the icons appeared.

Everyone was surprised when they saw the screen. It was truly remarkable.

Zhao pressed the camera icon, and a three-dimensional view of the castle appeared. There were a lot of little green dots.

Pressing one of the green dots immediately switched the screen to show the castle square.

The screen could only display a radius of one hundred meters from the spot where Zhao entered the space, and although that range wasn't small, it was still too far away to show the entire castle square. The square that the screen displayed wasn't very big, only showing the inner courtyard, the part closest to the castle. Even so, they could still clearly see a snake-like spirit beast and an undead humanoid on the screen.

Everyone was paying attention to the situation on the screen, and from what they could see, they couldn't help but freeze for a moment.

After awhile, Meirin said, "Is this the castle square?"

Zhao nodded. "Yes, this is the square. It seems that the spirit beasts are not gone yet, so we can't go out."

Even after hearing that, Meirin was excited. "But this is a good thing. With this, Master, you can be safe. You don't need to be afraid of the enemy."

Zhao gave a wry smile. No matter what, Meirin's first thoughts were always the issues concerning his safety.

Zhao returned the screen back to the three-dimensional map, then he pointed at the green dots for Meirin to see. "These green dots represent spirit beasts. It seems like the density of spirit beasts are a lot less than the last time I checked. A few spirit beasts might have already left."

He then switched the image to the living room. It was a mess. Everything was destroyed. Zhao then flicked through all the main rooms of the castle within his range, and almost all of them were destroyed by the undead spirit beasts.

Meirin made a face that wasn't very nice. When they first came to the castle, there was nothing, but since then they had filled it with household items. Now it had all been destroyed.

After looking through a radius of one hundred meters, Zhao returned the screen back to the three-dimensional map, then he turned to Meirin and said, "Grandma Meirin, the situation outside is dire. We'll have to rest in the space for a few days. Right now all you can do is teach everyone how to read and write."

Meirin nodded. "Master need not worry, I know how to do this."

Zhao then said, "Meanwhile, I'll tidy up my barn. I had brought a lot of seeds from the castle's storage and I want to try to grow them in this space."

Meirin froze, then she shook her head. "Master, those kinds of seeds are nothing. They're just common seeds. Their yield aren't as high as corn and they don't grow any magic vegetables. We only brought them here to the Black Waste because we thought that we could grow it on the mountain. So we didn't buy any precious seeds, only common ones."

"I still want to look at the seeds anyway. It would be a waste to not examine them," Zhao said.

"Master, I don't agree. If you are going to plant any seeds in this space, you should plant those magic radishes. Magic vegetables are better sellers than ordinary vegetables, and right now the Buda clan needs money. If you want to try to plant those common seeds, then you should plant them on the mountain. Those kinds of worthless seeds shouldn't take up the land in this space."

"Grandma Meirin, I'm not going to plant those seeds yet. I just want to take a look. You don't know this, but one of the characteristics of this space is that every time I take something out that could be special, the space will level up, uh, I mean this space will get stronger. Last time, I took the black soil and the lake water into this space, and it gave me two extra acres of land. So if I try to grow those seeds, then maybe the area of land in this space might get larger, and then I would be able to grow more things."

Meirin was stunned by Zhao's words. "If it's like this, then it's possible to try, Master. If those seeds could help make this space stronger, then that's good."

Since that was settled, Zhao continued, "Grandma Meirin, tomorrow morning, tell everyone to clean up the garbage and pile all of it into one place. So when we leave this space, I could just take out all the garbage in the same process."

"Yes, Master. I'll take care of it."

"And Grandma Meirin," Zhao said after looking around at all the furnishings, "if I organize this room a little, I think I can fit in another bed, then you won't have to sleep outside."

Meirin shook her head. "No, Master. Resting outside is fine."

Zhao saw that Meirin absolutely wouldn't budge on this issue, but a part of him already knew that it was impossible for Meirin to rest inside this room, so he said, "Then at least let me get some beds from the barn and put them outside. Yes, I'll move them next to the hut so you and the others can sleep close by."

Meirin had no objections this time. She felt that it was nice to sleep in the open air. But do not forget that this was a closed space. Being crowded around a hundred slaves makes it hard to sleep.

Zhao decided that he was going to take out some wood and make two separate rooms on the side of the hut. Although he couldn't make a roof, he could at least make it so that people wouldn't be able to look inside.

Seeing as Meirin had no objections, he left the hut, followed by everyone else. Outside, the slaves were up, filled with spirit. After eating a meal, they would be very sleepy, but after a period of time they would feel better.

While calling over those slaves, Zhao came up with some wood and told them to build two separate rooms next to the hut. Each room was to have three beds. One was for Meirin, Meg, and Daisy, while the other was for Blockhead, Rockhead, and Ann.

The reason that Zhao let Daisy and Ann stay with the others was, in fact, to show that they were different from the slaves.

Although Daisy and Ann had become commoners and servants of the Buda clan, they still interacted with the slaves. He wanted them to tell the slaves what a change of status could do. Whether it was dinner or their sleeping arrangements, he had to show off their differences in order to nudge the slaves towards the goal of trying to become a free commoner. This was his policy.

Zhao was an otaku, he had no extraordinary management skills. However, he was an avid reader, although he mostly read light novels. But you couldn't deny that you could learn something useful from those books. Everything Zhao knew came from school and reading light novels.

Although the stuff in those light novels might not necessarily be true, those books had been written by people from all walks of life. Those people had put everything they knew into those novels, so it makes them worth reading. Zhao liked those types of books, he had learned a lot of useful things from them.

To an outsider, what Zhao was experiencing might seem like something out of a fantasy novel, but here it was much more real. Zhao was clear on the fact that if he died here, he would really be dead. This wasn't a game or a dream. This was real life.

Everyone would use everything they learned and apply it to their life, and Zhao was no exception. Although he didn't know if what he learned was correct, he would always try to keep on learning, and it was only through this way that people would mature, right?

Translator Notes: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 43 - Refresh

After everything was finished, Meirin taught the slaves to read for awhile, then they made arrangments to go to sleep.

The temperature in the space was very appropriate. Not too cold, not too hot. Spreading out the blankets, the slaves got a good night's sleep.

At midnight, a tone chimed, waking Zhao up. The radishes have matured, and he had to harvest them.

Zhao originally wanted to plant the common seeds, but he was too sleepy, so he decided to just plant another batch of radishes. Otherwise, if the seeds got the spatial farm to level up, he would have to do a lot more things and thus wouldn't be able to go to sleep.

By the next morning, the corn was almost about to mature. Zhao heard movement outside, so he got up. He went out and saw that the slaves were already awake, cooking for themselves under Meirin's watchful eyes. Seeing Zhao up, Meirin immediately got him a basin of water.

After Zhao washed up, he searched around the farm to see if there were any changes, finding nothing special.

But when he looked over at the place where the slaves were cooking, he suddenly felt that something was wrong. It was too clean. The garbage that they had made yesterday was gone. Today, there was nothing, which didn't seem right. Even if the slaves were to pick up the trash, it was impossible to make it that clean.

Moving to Meg's side, Zhao asked, "Meg, did Grandma Meirin tell those slaves to clean up yet?"

Meg was surprised at Zhao's questions, but she shook her head. "No, ah, Grandma hasn't told them yet to work this morning."

Zhao nodded. In his heart, he made a guess. He turned around and went to the barn. Meg knew that next to the barn was the bathroom, so she thought that Zhao was going to take a dump.

But Meg was wrong. Zhao just wanted to see the bathroom in order to confirm his guess.

When he entered the bathroom, he knew that his guess was correct. It seemed like the space refreshed its environment once a day. All the useless things were scrubbed away and the space was restored to its original appearance.

However, the rooms that he had built hasn't disappeared, probably because any useful things weren't brushed away by the space.

Seeing this, Zhao couldn't help but feel relieved that there was a way to deal with the junk problem in his space. It was a headache for him, and he didn't expect that the space would actually solve it on its own. This was very convenient.

Zhao returned to the hut where Meg was standing, waiting for him. Looking at Zhao, Meg couldn't help but blush. Zhao wanted to ask her why she was blushing, but he didn't know how to ask, because after all he had just come out of the bathroom.

Meirin had been directing the slaves to cook, but now that Zhao was awake, she naturally went into the hut to prepare breakfast for him.

Zhao wanted to see what was happening outside the space, so he also went into the hut, but he sat on his bed and opened up the screen to look. In this case, he was checking the three-dimensional map. The outside situation seemed to be improving. Within the radius of one hundred meters, there were only a few spirit beasts. To Zhao's surprise, there were less than ten green dots within range. Three of them were humanoid skeletons, while the rest were more beast shaped.

Although he didn't understand why there were so few undead spirit beasts, Zhao wasn't concerned about it. As long as there were still spirit beasts outside, then it was unsafe to go out.

Shutting down the screen, Zhao looked at the kitchen and saw Meirin making breakfast. She was preparing to make him pancakes. To be honest, every morning he would get bread with his meal, so he really wasn't used to this.

Meirin saw Zhao standing next to her, and said, "Are you hungry, Master? Rest assured, it'll be ready soon."

"Grandma Meirin, although this looks delicious, how about tomorrow morning, we could eat some rice. You don't need to bother with making this pancake pie anymore."

Meirin was surprised. "Rice is food for the slaves. How can I make Master eat it?"

Zhao went silent. From Adam's memories, he couldn't recall of any mention of nobility eating rice. Shaking his head, he said, "Grandma Meirin, you know that we have to stay in this space for a few more days. This place isn't the same as the castle. There is no way to make bread here, so there's no reason not to eat rice everyday, right? You saw it yesterday, didn't you? The rice tastes very good."

Meirin didn't say anything. Yesterday, she could see that the rice did seem really good. To tell the truth, she also wanted to give it a taste too.

She also thought of how this space was different from outside. In the castle, the kitchen had a stone oven, so she could make bread or desserts, but here she could only make pancakes with the electric pancake maker. It would be troubling if they just ate pancakes everyday, so she finally nodded her head. "Well, let's do as you say, Master."

Zhao couldn't help but cheer loudly. Although he had respect for the dough, he preferred to eat rice. In particular, the rice from yesterday, which was really good.

After breakfast, Meirin taught the slaves how to read. Zhao also told Meirin that they didn't need to clean up the garbage, and instead just move it to one side. Meirin didn't understand what Zhao meant, but she did what he said because she believed in him.

She believed in Zhao because he had used the space to save all of them, and also because the longer she stayed in the space, the more it affected her.

When Blockhead and Rockhead first entered the space, it changed their hearts, same way it affected Meirin. At first, the change wasn't that strong for her due to the fact that she was a mage with a lot of spiritual force, so anything that completely affected other people would only have a slight effect on her. But after staying in the space for a long time, she had been changed by it. That was why she didn't refute Zhao's words.

That was to say, she had never refuted Zhao's words before, except when he wanted to do something dangerous. If anything he did was detrimental to himself, she would stop him. The space might have changed them, but it didn't affect their intelligence. On the contrary, it made them smarter.

As for the slaves, they were loyal to the Buda clan because they were the clan's slaves. But ever since they've been in this space, they swore allegiance to Zhao.

Zhao didn't feel any change from the space. No one actually felt it. That was because it wasn't just changing one person. Everyone was changing at the same time, so no one noticed it.

Shortly before noon, the radishes matured. After Zhao harvested the radishes, he took out some seeds from the barn.

These seeds were divided into several types. The most common seeds came from the fruit that had a very high oil content. Green had bought these seeds because it could be grown in poor soil. Not only that, it also had a long lifespan, lasting hundreds of years. Plus, from planting the seeds to growing the fruit, it would only take two years.

Green thought that these fruit seeds would be necessary for the future development of the Buda clan, so he bought a lot of them.

Although the price of oil was cheap, it was still a necessity to the people of the Continent. Green's idea was that once they planted these fruit seeds, two years later, they would be able to harvest a lot of fruits, then process them to make oil. Selling this oil would be able to give the Buda clan a steady income.

The remaining seeds that he had bought were just some common vegetable seeds and field seeds.

Magic vegetable seeds had very rich soil requirements, so it was impossible to grow them on the mountain. That was why he only bought ordinary vegetable seeds.

As for the field seeds that Green had bought, they were used to grow a crop called alfalfa, which was an herb that grew annually. It can be grown as a pasture to feed low leveled herbivorous spirit beasts. But what was most important about this crop was its fertilizer effects. When you harvest it, you would cut off the top of the plant, leaving the roots in the soil. These roots would slowly improve the land, making the soil more fertile.

It can be said that before coming to the Black Waste, Green had thought of many things to try to help the Buda clan survive. Fruit seeds to make oil that could pay for basic living expenses and alfalfa seeds that could fertilize the soil in the mountain. And once the land becomes more fertile, they would be able to plant other things, increasing their income even more.

Of course, Green didn't know about Zhao's farm cheat.

Translator Notes: I really, really wanted to add a joke about F5 ninjas in this chapter.

Translator Notes #2: Okay, I can't tell if the space has mind control abilities or if staying in the space will change your perspective on life, like when a poor man stays in a rich man's mansion for a couple of days.

Translator Notes #3: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 44 - Level Up

[Discovery of vegetable seed. Level identification: Negative. No merit. Do not extract]

[Discovery of vegetable seed. Level identification: Negative. No merit. Do not extract]

[Discovery of vegetable seed. Level identification: Negative. No merit. Do not extract]

...

[Discovery of field seed. Level identification: Zero. Similar to spatial hay seeds. Do not extract. Retaining seed]

[Discovery of fruit seed. Level identification: Four. Extracting seed. Extraction complete. Seed has been digitized into the space. Seed can now be purchased from the shop]

The moment Zhao took out the seeds, a bunch of tones rang out. Except for the alfalfa seeds and fruit seeds, the other seeds disappeared. "This space is really overbearing," he said. "If it doesn't have a high enough level, it would be taken out of sight. Fortunately, the rest were good enough."

Everyone else didn't understand what the series of tones meant, nor did they know what identification or extraction was. All they saw was that half of the seeds had disappeared.

Once Zhao finished, the voice echoed again: [Spatial farm level has risen to five. You will be rewarded with a bag of eggplant seeds, which can fill two acres] [Cultivating new land requires you to be at level five and one thousand one hundred gold coins. You have reached the requirement. Do you wish to cultivate two acres of land?]

When Zhao heard the voice, he couldn't help but feel relieved. He finally confirmed that the best way to level up his spatial farm was to take things into the space, otherwise his level up speed would have been too slow. He immediately said, "Cultivate the land."

The moment he spoke those words, a white light flashed next to the corn field, and then two new acres of fertile land appeared.

Understanding that the space would continue to add fertile land, Zhao wondered about the other places, like the background land of the game. He wondered if he would be able to some day grow things in the background. Ah, that would be nice.

The voice echoed: [Your level is not high enough. Cultivating background land requires you to be at level thirty]

Zhao froze for a moment. Would he really be able to use the background land if he reached that level? If he could, then that would be great.

Meirin went to Zhao's side. "Master, now that you've cultivated some new land, what are you going to plant?"

Zhao looked at the two acres of land, as well as his original mu of farm land where he had just finished harvesting the radishes. "Grandma Meirin, I'm going to plant corn on those two acres of land. As for the rest, how about I plant some fruit seeds? What do you think?"

Meirin hesitated to answer while looking at the mu of land. She knew that was where he grew the magic radishes, so she was surprised when he said that he wasn't planning on continuing to plant radishes there.

Zhao saw Meirin's hesitation, and smiled. "Right now I already have two hundred forty thousand catty of radishes. Even if they are good sellers, if I sell too much, it might decline the price of radishes. But the oil from that fruit isn't the same. That oil is a necessity to everyone in the Continent. Even if I sell a million catty of it, it won't cause too much of an impact on the market."

After hearing what Zhao said, Meirin agreed. "Okay, Master. Go ahead and plant a fruit orchard."

Zhao nodded. "Plant one mu of fruit seeds."

The moment his voice faded, the small shovel and bucket immediately went to work until the seeds were safely in the ground. Zhao made a calculation and it seemed like he would only be able to plant three hundred trees.

Once the fruit seeds were planted, Zhao put the rest of the seeds back into the spatial barn. As of now, he wasn't going to plant any more corn seeds just yet. He decided to wait until after the corn had matured. That way, he would be able to plant the corn seeds in all four acres at the same time, and then harvest them together.

Everyone was stunned silly from Zhao's performance. Such a big space was listening to Zhao's every word. It was like a miracle.

The crowd stared at him in worship, and even Meirin had the same look in her eyes. Everything that happened in the space was too amazing. Not to mention the slaves, even Meirin had never heard of something like this. They were amazed that such a thing existed in this world.

Seeing everyone's eyes on him, Zhao felt a bit embarrassed. Although he was now the lord of the Buda clan, in his past life, he was an otaku, so by nature he felt shy with everyone watching him.

Zhao quickly said, "Grandma Meirin, I'm going back to the hut to check the situation outside." He went into the hut and shut the door.

Looking at Zhao's departing back, Meirin and Meg couldn't help but laugh. They understood that he was feeling shy. This surprised them because they knew the Adam from before, and Adam was not a shy person. But Adam and Zhao were completely different. Previously, Zhao had little contact with people, so he was very shy. Seeing him act like that was very funny to Meirin and Meg.

When Zhao entered the hut, he took a few breaths to calm himself, then he cursed the two. He then opened the screen and looked at the castle, trying to find any spirit beasts. He could do this while lying in bed.

Operating the space was really too easy. There were a lot of things he didn't know how to do, whether it was plowing or just farming in general, but he just needed to think it, and the space would help him. Although this was quite convenient, it still made him feel very bored.

From outside the hut, he could hear Meirin teaching the slaves how to read. The sound calmed his heart. He felt like he was in the poem, Lou Shi Ming, about how a noble was living in a shabby home. Zhao suddenly felt like reading so he pulled a miscellaneous book from the barn.

It took two hours before the corn matured. Zhao went outside to harvest the corn, then he planted some corn seeds in the four acres of land. After he was finished, he returned to his hut and continued to read.

Zhao knew that, unlike the other crops, the oil fruits wouldn't grow as fast. After all, in the outside world, it would need two years to fully mature. Now that the seed has been digitized, he estimated that it should take around three to four days.

Sure enough, in the next two days, although the corn had already matured, the fruit seeds had just started sprouting.

In these two days time, Zhao had been paying attention to the situation in the castle. By now he hasn't seen a shadow of an undead spirit beast, but he still didn't let Meirin got out to explore yet. He was afraid that the spirit beasts were still around, just beyond his range. If they were to find Meirin, although she might not necessarily be in danger, there was still a risk.

Still, they couldn't stay in this space forever. After all, the castle was their home. They had to leave sooner or later.

These days, Zhao found that the slaves weren't in a good mood. Although they have been learning to read and write, they haven't been working. All they do was eat and improve their literacy skills. They weren't accustomed to doing no work at all, and for some reason this made them feel sorry for Zhao.

Everyday they would eat fragrant rice with soup as a meal, which for the slaves seemed like paradise. Although this made them grateful to Zhao, it also made them feel like they were doing something wrong to him.

But Zhao didn't notice this. He has been doing nothing but reading. It was Meirin who was teaching them. Only after the two days had passed did Zhao finally realize that the slaves mood seemed very low.

Meirin didn't know why, so she had no choice but to let Daisy ask them because they were more open with her.

Over the evening meal, Daisy asked them what was wrong. When she told Meirin, and when Zhao heard about it, he was dumbfounded.

Translator Notes: I tried to understand why the slaves were in a bad mood, but I probably fudged it up. Maybe it'll be explained in the next chapter.

Translator Notes #2: I think that the background land is the backdrop of the game. You can see it, but you can't actually go there yet.

Translator Notes #3: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 45 - Angry

After dinner, Meirin and Zhao were left alone in the room. While she was making some tea, Zhao asked, "Grandma Meirin, what do you think we should do about the slaves?

Meirin thought about it, then looked at Zhao in the eye. "Do you really want to listen to my advice, Master?"

"Of course, Grandma Meirin. You're the one that's been managing the slaves. I have never been in control of the Buda clan before we were exiled. So in that respect, you have a lot more experience than me."

"Thank you for the compliment, Master." Meirin smiled. "Here's my advice. I think that you have been too good to the slaves. You should crack down on them a little."

These words confused Zhao. "You're saying that I should be a little more harsh to the slaves? Why?"

"Master, you know, it's not bad to have a tough side. If you're too gentle, people would think that you could be bullied. Of course, the slaves would never do that to you, but if they think that you're too good to them, then they will feel sorry for you. This time it's because of you letting them learn literacy skills. In their view, learning to read is a reward. But they haven't been working, so giving them this reward makes them feel uneasy."

Zhao was surprised. He had been thinking that the slaves were the same as the students from his past life. To be honest, no student considers learning as a reward. They would only be happy when classes ended.

But it was different in this world. Almost all technology and knowledge has been closed off from the slaves. The slaves were just there to work. In the eyes of the nobility, slaves weren't even considered people.

"I understand," Zhao said. "Thank you, Grandma Meirin. Let me think about it."

Meirin nodded, pleased. It was undeniable that he had become a good person, but she recognized that he still had so much to learn.

Zhao sat there for a moment. He had been thinking about how to deal with this problem. To be honest, since this was the first time he had encountered something like this, he wasn't sure if he could handle it.

After he thought about it, Zhao stood up and took a deep breath. "Grandma Meirin, I want to meet the slaves."

Meirin nodded. The two left the hut and went to the slaves, who were now practicing their words on the ground, using the corn stalks to write in the dirt.

From what Zhao could see, the slaves seemed somewhat listless. This was a big difference from how excited they were when they first started to learn to read and write.

"Stop!" Zhao said.

When the slaves saw Zhao, they immediately dropped their corn stalks and knelt on the ground. But it wasn't like before because this time Zhao didn't ask them to stand back up. "I have heard that in the past few days, you haven't been very serious about learning to read and write?"

His voice wasn't very loud, but it had a disturbing calmness to it, making the slaves involuntarily shiver. In unison, they said, "Please, Master, punish us."

Zhao's words were like ice. "You still haven't figured it out? Learning how to read and write isn't a reward. It is to help you better serve the Buda clan. Even if you are stupid, you should be able to understand the situation that the clan is currently in. Except for manual labor, what else can you do? What can you make? What's your specialty? If I give you a book, would you be able to understand the words? No, you would not. You don't understand anything. Are you a horse? Can you do nothing but work like a horse? Remember that people can learn how to read, but a horse can not. If you don't learn, how can you better serve the Buda clan?

All the slaves were trembling on their knees. This was the first time Zhao had said such harsh words to them. They were scared.

Zhao took a few breaths to calm himself. "I'd told you that if you do well, I can free you from slavery. But if I give you a commoner status, do you think you will live out good days? Wrong! If you can not afford anything, at best you would be an inferior commoner. You have to remember that I need motivated people for the Buda clan, people that are bent on having a good life, not those who would settle for just eating and shitting until they die!"

He then looked over at Daisy. "You are probably wondering why I gave Daisy a commoner status even though all she did was weave weeds. A lot of you can now weave weeds, and even those of you that worked with Ann are not doing a bad job, so why didn't I restore you as a commoner? I'll tell you. It is because she stood up and tried to change her life. She wanted to be better, as well as save her brother. What I'm giving you is a fair chance at education, not a reward. I hope that you can learn from Daisy. Right now the Buda clan needs one hundred dedicated people, not one hundred slaves. Do you understand?"

Kneeling, the slaves loudly shouted, 'We understand, Master!"

The slaves were really excited. This was the first time a noble was trying to help them become something more. Although Zhao spoke to them with fire, there was no resentment in their hearts. On the contrary, they were full of gratitude and reverence towards Zhao.

After Zhao finished his speech, he said, "Stand up! I do not like it when people always kneel in front of me. Remember, learn to read and write well. This isn't a reward, it is my command!"

The slaves stood up in unison, "Yes, Master!"

Although the slaves had been kneeling on the ground for a long time, when they stood up, instead of wilting, their bodies were full of strength.

Meirin was standing behind Zhao, smiling with eyes full of joy. In her heart, she didn't expect that Zhao would do so well today, even better than she had imagined. Not only did he crack down on the slaves, he also made them feel gratitude towards him. She was extremely satisifed with Zhao's performance.

After looking at the slaves stretching their bodies, Zhao nodded, then turned to Meirin and said, "The rest is up to you, Grandma Meirin. But maybe this time we shouldn't teach them everyday, otherwise their heads would turn into wood, unable to remember anything."

Meirin smiled. "Master need not worry. I know what I'm doing. This isn't my first time teaching students."

Zhao laughed, then turned and walked into the hut, while Meg watched him with a look of worship.

Today, Meg thought that Zhao looked very handsome. When he gave that speech, his body seemed to glow with a strange force that attracted her eyes. She couldn't look away for one second.

When Zhao returned to the hut, he tried to remember if he did everything like he had planned. He went over the emotions he conveyed, the pauses in the appropriate places, and the right expressions on his face, all to make the performance more real. Thinking over his words, he didn't notice that Meg had followed him into the room.

Looking at Zhao, Meg couldn't help but smile. His strength settled her mind, giving her a serene feeling that was very reassuring.

Zhao then noticed that someone was standing behind him. Surprised, he looked back, but it was just Meg. Since Zhao was an otaku, he wasn't used to being in contact with girls. Now that Meg was standing behind him, he didn't know what to do.

Feeling helpless, Zhao said, "Ah, Meg, what can I do for you?"

"What? Can I not enter this room, Master?" Meg smiled.

"Yes, of course," Zhao quickly said. "You can always come in. Sit down, I'll make some tea."

Meg couldn't help but laugh. "Master, let me prepare the tea, otherwise Grandma will scold me."

"No, let me do it. I'm the one that offered you a drink," Zhao said.

Translator Notes: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 46 - Red Dot

Meg laughed as she looked at Zhao. She really didn't think that this person's character would actually become so great. Before, Adam was wild and outgoing, on the edge of being an idiot. But now, Zhao was an introvert, calm, and very attentive. She preferred Zhao.

Seeing as how Meg wasn't speaking, Zhao grew nervous, not knowing what to do. "Uh, how about you sit down, while I check the situation outside just in case." He pulled up his screen and looked at the castle.

In the three-dimensional map, there were no green dots, same as the last time he checked.

Zhao sighed. He was preparing to wait two more days. In two days, if the green dots didn't reappear, then he'll send Meirin out to check if the spirit beasts really did leave.

Meg was standing beside Zhao, also looking at the screen. But she didn't know how to operate it. It seemed like Zhao was the only one who could do anything in this space.

For example, Blockhead had tried to pick up the small shovels and buckets, but it was like they were nailed to the ground. Even with his strength, he couldn't move them.

Meg understood that the green dots represented the spirit beasts. Since they were concerned, they've kept up to date with the situation outside, so she knew that there were no spirit beasts on the screen the last time Zhao checked. When Meirin wanted to go out and see, Zhao stopped her. Meirin didn't oppose his decision, knowing that he was worried.

But seeing that there were no green dots again, Meg said with urgency, "Master, there are no spirit beasts outside, let me go out and see. With my speed, there will be no danger."

Zhao shook his head. "Now is not the time. Those spirit beasts might have disappeared, but they could still be out there beyond the moat. And what if there was poison throughout the castle. If we rush out there, we might find some trouble. Let's stay in the space for another day or two, just for some added insurance."

Although Meg didn't agree with what Zhao said, she still nodded, but then she suddenly noticed something on the screen. "Master, what's that red dot?"

Zhao's attention wasn't on the screen, so he didn't notice the red dot until Meg pointed it out. He turned and looked. There really was a red dot on the screen! And it was moving so fast!

The red dot was quickly moving through the main rooms of the castle. Zhao was surprised because he had never seen it before. He immediately tried to press the red dot on the screen, but it was moving with such a fast speed, he couldn't hit it. The only thing he could do was summon up the living room view and quietly wait for the red dot to end up there.

Meg was also looking at the screen, but occasionally her eyes would flick up to the upper left corner where there was a reduced sized three-dimensional map of the castle. She was able to see the movement of the red dot as it explored the rooms.

Soon the red dot was going down from the third floor and was now moving towards the living room. Zhao and Meg concentrated on the living room, and soon the red dot ended up there.

Suddenly, a shadow flashed on the screen, and a man appeared in the room. Zhao and Meg cried out in joy at the sight of the man. It was Green!

Seeing Green, Meg grabbed Zhao's shoulder. "Master, it's Grandpa! Grandpa came back! He's looking for us."

Zhao nodded. With a thought, a misty hole suddenly appeared in front of Green, followed by Zhao's voice. "Grandpa Green, come in."

Green felt anxious. He had been back in the Black Waste for the past two days.

When Green had first left the Black Waste, he went to the Purcell duchy, which was a subsidiary of the Aksu imperial principality. This duchy was ruled by Evan Purcell. Because of the fact that the Black Waste was located behind it, there would be no threat from that direction, so the duchy was able to grow and become one of the most developed economic regions in the Aksu Empire, making Duke Evan very powerful.

It was worth mentioning that the Purcell clan and the Buda clan had a very secret relationship. Evan's favorite daughter, Rui Purcell, who was the future Duchess, was supposed to marry Adam Buda. Normally, Rui would be Adam's fiancee, but now she was Zhao's fiancee.

But anyone on the Continent with a discerning eye could tell at a glance that it was impossible for the Purcell clan to recognize this marriage. That was because everyone was aware that there was no real love or friendship between the nobles. Adam's and Rui's marriage was only for political purposes.

So when the Buda clan was in trouble, the Purcell clan didn't help them, and instead selectively chose to forget about the Buda clan. Even when the Buda clan had to cross over the Purcell duchy to get to the Black Waste for their exile, the Purcell clan didn't come forward to meet them, adding insult to injury.

Still, Green recognized that the Purcell clan really ran their territory well, and it was precisely because of this that it was able to become a duchy.

Because of the well-developed territory, even the living standards of the ordinary commoners was relatively high. It would be easy to sell some magic radishes here.

Once Green went into the duchy, he found a large magic vegetable supplier, and talked to him a little about the price of radishes.

Eighty thousand catty of radishes was a lot, but it would be impossible for just that much to impact the Empire's radish market, even if the Empire was only a small principality.

But it wasn't as simple as Zhao just having eighty thousand catty of radishes. If Zhao wished to, he could grow three batches of radishes a day, adding up to two hundred and forty thousand catty of radishes. Two hundred and forty thousand catty of radishes per day? What kind of concept was that? Would there even be enough people in the Aksu Empire to eat all of those radishes?

But Green didn't know this about Zhao's spatial farm. The only thing he could do was talk about the quality of the radish. Because this time he wasn't just looking for any magic vegetable vendor, but a business that was well known across half the Continent: The Markey Company, which specialized in commodities, with magic vegetables as their core business. Although they didn't look fancy, generally even the nobles were afraid to offend them.

The radishes produced on the Continent weren't as great as the magic radish. Ordinary radishes had an acrid taste. But the magic radishes produced in the space were long, straight, and fat. Plus, they were crunchy with a sweet taste. In short, they will be very popular.

Because of the quality of the magic radish, the Markey Company bought them at eight times the market price, having decided on a batch of one hundred thousand catty per month. But this was just the initial number. If the radishes sold well, they were going to buy more.

While conducting business in the Purcell Duchy, Green happened to hear some mercenaries talking about an outbreak of spirit beasts from the carrion swamp. This news made his heart sink, so Green immediately ran back to the Black Waste.

However, he couldn't make it to the castle. There were too many undead spirit beasts. Green had no choice but to wait on the outer edge of the Black Waste for two days. He was so anxious, it felt like fire ants were crawling all over his body.

How could Green know that there would be an outbreak of undead spirit beasts from the carrion swamp. He had originally lived in the Aksu imperial capital, where the activities of the Black Waste wasn't well understood. They knew that it was a place of death and that no one went there, but the information about it was vague. There were only rumors that there would be an outbreak of spirit beasts every decade or two, and the last time there was an outbreak was two years ago. Although it was just rumors, everyone on the Continent agreed that the outbreaks came in a steady rhythm.

It was because of this that Green didn't spend so much on the castle's defenses. So when he heard about the outbreak of spirit beasts, it was like being hit with a hammer. He was afraid that Zhao would be hurt. If something happened to him, then the Buda clan was finished.

Translator Notes: Yeah, I don't get it either. Why are the spirit beasts labeled as green dots, while a guy named 'Green' is labeled as a red dot.

Translator Notes #2: Here's my theory on why Blockhead couldn't lift the bucket. He wasn't worthy.

Translator Notes #3: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 47 - Calculation

As Zhao expected, the undead spirit beasts were wandering around on the Black Waste.

Fortunately, there were no longer any undead spirit beasts in the castle, nor did they break the gate or destroy the defensive walls. They were only able to get into the castle by climbing the walls, break everything inside, then climb back out.

It had to be recognized that even the most ordinary spirit beast was stronger than any animal on Earth. If there were lions and tigers on the Ark Continent, they would starve.

When Green saw that everything inside the castle was destroyed, his heart froze, but he didn't panic like an ordinary person would. When he was young, he fought alongside Adam's grandfather, and later his father, on the battlefield, so he had a lot of combat experience. It only took him a couple of seconds to realize that something was wrong.

There were no signs of fighting in the castle!

Although everything was destroyed, Green could see that there wasn't a trace of blood. The spirit beasts were probably venting their anger when they found nobody in the castle.

To make sure, Green carefully explored every room, finding no one. The only explanation he could come up with was that everyone had suddenly disappeared.

Just then, a misty hole appeared in the living room, followed by Zhao's voice. "Grandpa Green, come in."

Green was shocked. He dodged past the mist and looked inside the hole, but he couldn't see anything. However, he had no other choice so he jumped inside.

Green appeared in the spatial farm, right on the edge of the oil fruit fields. The trees had not beared fruit yet, and there were slaves nearby carefully learning how to read.

Meirin was next to the slaves, but she was the first one to notice that he had returned. "Green, you're back!" she immediately said.

Green was looking around in a daze. "Meirin, what is this place?"

Meirin smiled. "This is the young master's space. This is where that magic radish he gave you came from."

Then Zhao and Meg ran out of the hut. Zhao quickly moved into Green's open arms. "Grandpa Green, you're finally back!"

Green smiled. "Yes, Master. I'm back."

Zhao laughed. "Come on, now that you're back, let's talk inside." He pulled Green along, followed by the others.

Inside the hut, Zhao simply told Green about the situation with the space. Hearing what he said, Green's eyes shined, understanding what the spatial farm means for the Buda clan.

Once Zhao finished, Green excitedly said, "This is great, Master! With this space, we can revive the Buda clan."

Zhao smiled, then he took a sip of tea. "Grandpa Green, how did the magic radishes sell?"

"Master doesn't need to worry," Green said. "I negotiated with the Markey Company. They agreed to buy our eighty thousand catty of radishes, plus an additional twenty thousand catty, per month. And if they sell well, they might order even more."

"Great! But for how much?"

Green smiled. "Eight times the market price."

Zhao nodded. To be honest, this price exceeded his expectations. He thought that six times the market price would have been pretty good. After all, they were selling wholesale, not retail.

He then pointed out the fruit trees. "These oil fruits should ripen soon, then we'll be able to get a lot of oil. Will the Markey Company buy these?"

"I don't know," Green said while looking at the trees. "But the Markey Company pays attention to quality. Since our magic radishes were of good quality, they might take a look. If these oil fruits are also good, they will certainly buy them."

Zhao nodded, followed by a frown. "Grandpa Green, I forgot to ask, how is the situation out there on the Black Waste? Are there any spirit beasts around?"

Green's brows wrinkled. "There are, but their numbers have lessened. But I suggest that we should wait a few more days before we go out there, unless we want to attract a large number of spirit beasts."

Not waiting for Zhao to speak, Meg jumped in." Grandpa, Master has long thought the same, otherwise we wouldn't still be in here. You see, there is this magical thing that allows us to see the castle. It also helped us find you when you came back."

Meg spoke of the screen, which she felt was now even more magical because it could distinguish between friend or foe.

Green was curious about this screen, and Zhao wanted to demonstrate it for him, but then the voice suddenly came: [Oil fruit has matured. Please harvest as soon as possible]

Zhao was surprised for a moment, but then he left the hut. He looked towards the oil fruit fields that he had planted four days ago.

The fruit from those trees looked like kiwis from Earth, but it had a smooth blue-gray outer skin, and it was the size of a man's fist. The inside was a greenish yellow, and the juice had a lot of pulp as well as a high oil content.

Green was surprised at the sight of them. He knew very clearly that the oil fruits that grew on the Continent weren't this large. Looking at all the trees, the amount of oil they could get would definitely not be low.

But Zhao didn't know what Green was thinking. He was focusing on trying to figure out how much fruit the space had produced. There were three hundred trees, and each tree seemed to have made one thousand five hundred catty worth of fruit. With such a high yield, there would be a total of four hundred and fifty thousand catty of oil fruits. So they could probably extract three hundred thousand catty of oil, and this was certainly not a low number.

However, after he harvests the fruit, it seemed like he would only need two days before they mature again. Zhao calculated that in a month, he would be able to grow a batch of oil fruits nine times. That would mean he could squeeze out two million seven hundred thousand catty of oil per month.

After Zhao made these calculations, he said, "Harvest the oil fruits."

The basket flew out, collecting all the oil fruits. Green was surprised because this was the first time he had seen such a thing.

Green knew of how useful oil fruit could be. In addition to the oil they could make, the remainder of the fruit could be used to feed a lot of spirit beasts. Also, these fruit trees were a multi-batch crop, which had a huge advantage. You wouldn't need to plant them again after every harvest.

After the oil fruit was harvested, Zhao went towards the hut, but Green couldn't wait to ask, "Master, how much oil fruit did you harvest?"

Zhao smiled. "Around four hundred and fifty thousand catty. Each of these three hundred trees yields about one thousand five hundred catty."

Green had his head down as he counted it out, thinking of how much oil they could squeeze out of these fruits. "That means we can make three hundred thousand catty of oil? What a huge yield!"

Green knew that in the outside world they would be lucky to produce five hundred catty of fruit per tree, but in this space they had grown a heavy one thousand five hundred catty. This wasn't a small difference.

"Also, we will be able to harvest from these trees nine times per month," Zhao said. "And the next harvest is in two days."

Green excitedly stood up straight, then he paced back and forth. "Nine harvests a month? If we could get three hundred thousand catty of oil from every harvest, that would mean we would eventually get two million seven hundred thousand catty. And each catty of oil is worth one copper coin, so we'll get two point seven million copper coins, which would be equal to two thousand seven hundred gold coins!"

Zhao was surprised at what Green said. He really didn't expect that the oil on the Continent would be so cheap, costing even less than a radish. It seemed like these kinds of crops weren't really cost-effective.

But Zhao didn't know about the amount of oil that the Continent consumed everyday. It was an astronomical number. Welcome to the big oil market.

Translator Notes: Sorry for the late post. I had food poisoning. I've got to tell you, it's been years since I vomited, and it's just as bad as I remember it. But I got over it in a day. What was worse was that I found out that my cat had fleas. Do you know what that means? My house has fleas. Now my hands and feet itch like hell. It's been going on for days, but I thought it was mosquitoes. This is the first time I've got flea bites. I didn't even know that fleas bit humans. Okay, now I'm done bitching. Time to go back to translating.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 48 - Ambition and Crisis

Radishes made more money than oil fruits. There was no comparison. A single batch of radishes could be sold for eight thousand gold coins, but every single oil fruit that he could grow in a month would only get him two thousand seven hundred gold coins.

But even if the Markey Company was one of the largest firms on the Continent, at most they would only be able to sell about four hundred thousand catty of radishes per month. After all, radishes cost one silver per catty, and many people couldn't afford that.

As long as Zhao grew five batches of radishes per month, he could make enough for them to sell. All together, it would only take forty hours, which was less than two days.

Then what could he grow the rest of the time? The common vegetables from the Continent? Those vegetable seeds would disappear as soon as it entered the spatial farm.

So he decided to grow oil fruits. Oil was in high demand. Cooking oil was needed on the Continent. Plus, some commoners who engage in heavy physical labor would consume oil as nutrients, because they generally couldn't afford to eat meat. The amount of oil used on the Continent per day was astronomical, resulting in a sustaining oil industry. Although radishes would get a higher profit, it would still make most of the nobility jealous.

And do not forget that two thousand seven hundred gold coins per month was an alarming figure. Even a small principality wouldn't get that much in monthly tax. Gold still has a lot of purchasing power on the Continent.

A gold coin could be changed to ten silver coins. A silver coin could be changed to a hundred copper coins. And a copper coin could buy you a catty of fruit, or half a catty of oil.

Rice and oil on the Continent was inexpensive, because oil was a high yield fruit, and rice was just eaten by slaves and a few commoners.

Zhao had over a hundred people living with him, and it didn't take much to feed them. A hundred gold coins per month should be enough, leaving them with two thousand six hundred.

And if it wasn't enough, they could also sell the five batches of radishes. Even if they couldn't sell them at eight thousand gold coins, they could still try selling them at six thousand, which would result in an extra thirty thousand gold coins per month.

But Green knew, after discussing with Zhao about the characteristics of this farm, that Zhao wanted to grow things that would also help them raise fish, rabbits, and other creatures.

They could obtain radish leaves from radishes and use it to feed the blue-eyed rabbits, but eating radish leaves alone wouldn't be enough. Sometimes they would need other kinds of nutrition. Once the oil was extracted from the fruit, it becomes one of the best feeds. Not only blue-eyed rabbits, they could also use it to raise a number of other spirit beasts. The most common ones on the Continent were horses and cattle.

For example, feeding oil to the horses would make them very strong. As long as they were fed oil, generally you could yield a good horse.

In addition, this type of feed could also be fed to some water type spirit beasts. Some of these spirit beasts liked to eat this oil, so it could be used for fish farming. These were the additional benefits that oil fruits could provide.

It was because of these ideas that Green got so excited. He took a deep breath, and was suddenly laughing.

The reason why he was laughing was because he had held it in too long. Before Zhao woke up, it was Green who was forced to feel the pressure of their decline. He thought that the Buda clan would slowly die out, and it was with this in mind that he desperately bought supplies to keep them alive. Although Zhao later changed for the better, Green was still unhappy because the Buda clan didn't have a source of stable income. It was their fatal weakness.

But after understanding this space, all of Green's concerns had vanished. Suddenly there was a shining sun sweeping away the hazy darkness in his heart.

Zhao didn't stop Green, knowing that he needed to vent because he was so happy.

After a moment, Green finally calmed down. "Master, after we go out, we can use the money from the magic radish sales to buy some things that we will need. Even if we harvest the oil fruit, we still need to buy a machine to extract the oil."

Zhao nodded. "I know, but Grandpa Green, we still have a bigger problem we need to solve. Outside, there are spirit beasts from the carrion swamp. Even if our future plans are good, we can't do anything if we hide in this space forever. We still need to go out there and develop our territory. So how are we supposed to face the attacks from all those spirit beasts?"

Green frowned. He knew that Zhao was right. Their plans might as well be empty air foam disappearing in the wind if they couldn't think of a way out of the spirit beast attacks.

But the question was how could they solve it? There was no simple solution. Although Green was confident in their skills, he understood that it was impossible to conquer the carrion swamp. There was a reason why it was one of the five forbidden areas, and that even the Continent's strongest couldn't conquer it.

Going over it a few times, Green couldn't think of a good way. He sighed and sat down at the table, his ambitions just disappearing without a trace.

Zhao also didn't have a solution about this situation. They were now too weak and small to resist against those spirit beast attacks.

Looking at Green's low mood, Zhao suggested, "Grandpa Green, we could still take a look outside, just in case." He pulled up the screen, but Zhao's eyes couldn't help but shrink, because he could clearly see that there were green dots on the three-dimensional map.

Zhao immediately stood up. Green noticed his actions as he carefully counted the green dots on the screen. There weren't that many, only about dozen, but they hadn't been there the last time he had checked.

Meirin's eyes were also firmly fixed on the screen. And Meg asked, "How come there are more of those things?"

Green spoke up. "When I came to the castle, there weren't any undead spirit beasts, but there were a few wandering around the Black Waste. Perhaps they had chased after me."

Zhao nodded, and pressed one of the green dots. The screen switched to the castle square where he saw several undead spirit beasts.

"This is nothing strange, Master," Meirin said. "Undead spirit beasts have a frenzied desire for fresh flesh. They could smell and feel the presense of living creatures. When Green came to the castle from the Black Waste, these undead would naturally follow him."

Zhao knew she was right. He switched the screen to the living room where there was another undead wandering around. This undead spirit beast was crocodile-shaped, but it was only a skeleton made of glowing green bones.

Translator Notes: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 49 - Undead Spirit Variation

Zhao took a serious look at this undead. He really didn't know how this thing was formed. Although there were many legends of zombies in his past life, they were still just legends. This was real.

This crocodile skeleton was blatantly crawling around the hall. It looked like a real crocodile composed entirely of bones, with a tail whipping around, leaving scars on the walls.

The thing that Zhao most noted was that the two eyes of the skeleton were just flashing green flames.

He also calculated that the crocodile was fifteen meters long and about three meters high. With its claws outstretched, it would have a width that reached five meters. If it wasn't for the fact that their castle's gate was large enough, this creature wouldn't have been able to get in because it was simply impossible for it to climb the defensive wall.

Switching the screen back to the three-dimensional map, Zhao could see the main parts of the castle. Except for the few spirit beasts in the square, there was the big crocodile, and the rat skeleton that was upstairs.

Zhao again switched the screen back to the living room and watched the crocodile skeleton. "Grandpa Green, how strong do you think this thing is?"

"This isn't a high level spirit beast. It's only a shallow water crocodile, so its fighting strength shouldn't be that strong, only around the fourth level. But now that it's an undead, it won't be afraid of death and it will not die so easily. Plus, its bones are poisonous. Even if it's not that strong, we should still be careful," Green said.

Zhao nodded. "Grandma Meirin, see if you can catch this thing and bring it into the space. I want to carefully look at it."

"That's simple. I can do that," Meirin said as she stood up and walked out of the hut.

Everyone followed her to the empty area behind the hut, then Meirin turned to Zhao. "Master, open a hole."

With a thought, a hole in space appeared. Meirin softly chanted a spell, and a blue watery light immediately flew into the hole. This band of light was like a huge rope, catching the crocodile skeleton and forcing it into the space.

Zhao looked at the creature that was twisting around on the ground. The blue light had completely shackled the crocodile skeleton. It couldn't attack with its claws, tail, and mouth because it had been tied down.

Since he had a closer look of this undead than just seeing it on the screen, he could clearly see that there wasn't a trace of flesh on the green bones, which somehow gave it a strange beauty.

Just then, the voice echoed: [Discovery of unknown object. Scanning. Scan complete. The robotic object is aggressively toxic. Extracting toxins. Strengthening the toxic compounds in the space] [The object is too manic. Does not meet space requirements. Re-implantation procedure initiated. The implantation procedure is successful] [Because the toxins might affect the humans in the space, a strong immunity is needed. Spatial water is given detoxification effects. Please consume spatial water as soon as possible]

Everyone was listening to the voice, although they couldn't understand what it said about robotic objects, or extracting toxic compounds, and a bunch of other stuff. This was the first time they had heard of such things and they simply didn't understand what it meant.

Zhao probably understood. But only probably. There were some things that he didn't quite understand as well. He only knew that the space categorized this undead as a robot, which wasn't exactly wrong.

First, it was a skeleton with no flesh and blood. It had no heart and it wasn't breathing, so it couldn't be regarded as a living thing. Second, its actions were controlled by some kind of soul fire, which was like a robot that was controlled by a smart chip. So the space classified this undead as a robot.

All of this was a surprise to Zhao because he didn't expect that the space would have such capabilities. It knew that the toxins would have an adverse impact on everyone here, so it extracted the toxins and formulated some sort of detoxification effect on the spatial water. As long as they drank the spatial water, they didn't need to be afraid of the toxins.

The part that Zhao didn't understand was when the space mentioned the re-implantation procedure, as well as the strengthening of toxic compounds. What did that mean? Did the space have toxic compounds?

Zhao then realized that the skeleton had stopped struggling. It was just lying there very quietly. And the green fire in its eyes had become red.

Looking at the color of the soul fire, he understood what the re-implantation procedure meant.

The re-implantation procedure changed the soul fire of this undead, making it an ally. He clearly remembered that the green dot on the screen indicated an enemy, and the red dot showed that it was a friend.

But it still had to be verified, so Zhao decided to try it out. "Grandma Meirin, please release this thing. The space might have changed it into an ally."

Meirin was surprised, but before she lifted her magic, everyone surrounded Zhao. This single undead couldn't handle their group, so it was impossible for it to pose a threat.

Meirin released her magic. The crocodile skeleton ran towards Zhao, but the impression it gave wasn't scary, almost like a spoiled dog.

"Stop!" Zhao quickly said.

He was afraid for it to get too close to him since he still hasn't drank the detoxifying water. If it touched him, he would be poisoned. Also, he wanted to see if he could command this creature.

Green was nervously looking at the skeleton, ready to attack it, but his fears were redundant because once Zhao gave the order, the creature immediately stopped. Although it still looked scary, people felt that it was a little pathetic.

Zhao didn't expect that such an evil looking undead could make people feel that way.

Meirin suddenly said, "It seems to be an undead spirit variation, Master. This time we really picked up a treasure."

Zhao was puzzled. "What is an undead spirit variation, Grandma Meirin?"

"Undead spirit variations are special. As an undead, the longer it can still move around, it will become more and more powerful. Not only will they gain a spiritual attack, they will also slowly regain the abilities they had when they were alive. This shallow water crocodile had a poison attribute. Normally, when it became an undead, it would just be an ordinary crocodile skeleton, but now it has poisonous abilities. So it could now hold dual attributes of the poison attribute and the spirit attribute. That is what we see now. In fact, when we felt it change, that was a spiritual attack."

Zhao nodded, trying to understand. "So would that mean if a humanoid undead doesn't die, it will slowly regain its original skill?

Meirin nodded, her face solemn. "Yes, Master. It is said that if a mage becomes an undead, he would slowly regain the same abilities from his life. A lot of people think that as long as one is an undead, they would only have attributes of a dark nature. But they are wrong. There are undead with various attributes on the Continent."

Zhao looked at the crocodile skeleton. He really didn't think that he would actually find such a treasure. Spiritual attacks are the Continent's most dreaded attacks. It would be difficult to guard against, even for a mage. He didn't know that this thing could really attack the spirit, which was really a surprise.

Translator Notes: Please eat the last few paragraphs with a large grain of salt. I tried my best, but I don't think I described the undead spirit variation right.

Translator Notes #2: It's official. The farm has mind control abilities. I never thought I would say that about a farm.

Translator Notes #3: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 50 - Catch the Undead

"Master, will keeping this thing in the space be safe? It is quite toxic," Green asked.

"Never mind that, Grandpa Green," Zhao said. "Call everyone over to drink some water. Only when you drink the spatial water will you have no fear of the poison." He turned away from the hut and walked towards the spring, with the crocodile skeleton obediently following five steps behind him, like a faithful dog.

They stood next to the spring, not finding anything special about it. There seemed to be no changes.

Zhao was somewhat puzzled. Meg went into the hut to get some cups, while Blockhead and Rockhead gathered the slaves.

Meg passed around a few cups. Zhao took a sip of the water and found nothing strange about the taste. Then he walked towards the crocodile skeleton.

After taking a drink of water himself, Green pulled Zhao back. "Master, let me do it. Your body isn't strong enough. If the water doesn't work, I still have a chance to withstand the poison. You don't."

Zhao thought about it, then he nodded his head. Green stood next to the crocodile skeleton, took a deep breath, and then held out his hand. They all looked on nervously as Green put his hand on the crocodile's skull. A few people unconsciously sucked in their breaths.

Nothing!

Green tried again and forcefully patted its bones, but evidently the water really did have a detoxifying effect.

"Master, it seems like the water is really effective." Green smiled.

Zhao smiled back, then he walked beside the crocodile and touched him. The crocodile skeleton felt that it had been rewarded, like a dog being caressed by its owner, so it shook its big tail, almost hitting a slave.

Zhao laughed while he rubbed the crocodile's skull. "Stop swinging your tail. You know, big guy, you are very interesting. I think I will call you Alien."

In his past life, there was a horror movie called "Alien", and this crocodile skeleton was so strange and scary, that he simply called him that.

The big guy seemed to understand Zhao's words. It wagged its tail in joy, but this time it held back the shaking. It was like it was shaking his tail at the same time as trying not to shake it.

Zhao patted its head, then said, "I want you to go to the back of the hut, lie on your tummy and stay there." After it slowly moved behind the hut, Zhao turned to Green and asked, "Grandpa Green, do you think we should catch some more undead?"

Green thought about it. "That's a good idea. Ah, but although your space is big, can you fit so many undead?"

Zhao frowned. His space only totaled over ten mu large. He couldn't let those undead roam around here, where the rest of the slaves also stayed. But there was no where else to place the undead.

Zhao turned twice on the ground, until he remembered what the voice said. The space classified the undead as robotic objects. It wasn't a living thing. Since the space didn't consider that it was alive, wasn't it possible to put it in the barn? If that was really so, then he could bring more undead into the space. Maybe Zhao could pretend to be a Summoner.

Anyway, there was no point thinking about it if he didn't first test out the idea to see if it would be successful.

With just a thought, the crocodile skeleton behind the hut disappeared. Zhao immediately went to the front of the barn and touched the doors. The barn prompt opened, and there he could see a small icon of a crocodile's skull.

Zhao couldn't help but laugh, then he turned to Green and said, "Grandpa Green, rest assured, I can put these undead into my barn. So we can bring them into the space."

"That's wonderful," Green said. "With these undead creatures, Master will be safer. If you were to wear a mage's robe, then you could move around the Continent and pretend to be a summoner. There's no doubt that no one on the Continent would be able to realize that it's you, because you drank the Water of Nothingness."

Zhao nodded. "That's good, Grandpa Green. Let's go grab some undead. Once we catch more, we could put them in the perimeter of the Black Waste, so that whoever comes will think that the undead spirit beasts weren't gone yet. This would be an added measure of security."

Hearing what Zhao said, Green's eyes lit up. "Master, could we take in some, you know, spirit beasts that are actually alive?"

Zhao shook his head. "Those spirit beasts aren't the same as undead ones. The space see the undead as objects. If they were alive, I couldn't put them in the barn. I can't hold those spirit beasts in the space."

Green nodded. He knew that he was being too greedy. Undead spirit beasts were good enough.

In fact, even though Zhao didn't say it, he knew that his level and his money wasn't enough to open a pasture. If he could open a ranch, then he could rein in those spirit beasts. But now he could only use the farm for farming.

Zhao then turned to Meirin and said, "Grandma Meirin, first move the slaves to a safe place. When we catch the undead, I fear that they might hurt them."

"I'll tell Daisy and Ann to move them to the oil fruit field," Meirin said.

Zhao nodded, then he walked to the hut, until he suddenly noticed that there were two bottles under the hut's window.

These two bottles looked very ordinary. In his past life, people wouldn't pay attention to them. If you were to see them on the street, you would just kick them aside.

But Zhao looked determinedly at these two bottles. One of them was white, while the other was blue. And they had the words "Pesticide" and "Herbicide" written on them!

They were written with Chinese characters, so Green didn't know what they meant. Of course, Zhao knew, and that was when he finally realized what the space meant when it said that it was extracting the toxins to enhance the spatial toxic compounds.

Originally, Zhao didn't know the meaning of that sentence because he didn't remember that the space had toxic compounds. But when he saw these two bottles, he realized that this was what it was.

Yes, the spatial herbicide and pesticide were indeed toxic. In his past life, many people wouldn't eat vegetables that were grown with the help of these things because they were afraid that they might be poisoned.

Zhao picked up the bottle of pesticide. This time there was no tone chiming, but the information went directly into his head. Pesticides. Toxic compounds. Can kill Pests. Unlimited dosage. Toxic strength can be adjusted.

Zhao understood that this pesticide wasn't that different from the original. The only change was that he could now adjust the strength of the toxin.

After Zhao put down the pesticide, he picked up the herbicide, and the results were similar.

Zhao was very satisfied of how the space could be upgraded in various ways. As long it keeps leveling up, he believed that there was no expert in the world he had to be afraid of.

Everyone was looking at Zhao with puzzlement, not knowing what he was doing. "Master, what are those two bottles for?" Meirin asked.

Zhao smiled. "There is poison inside these bottles. One bottle could kill the insects that eat the crops, while the other could kill the weeds that grow on the ground."

Meirin and everyone else didn't know that these two bottles could be so useful. In the Continent, although there were a lot of alchemists, because of their important status, they generally didn't pay attention to agriculture, so they didn't design any herbicidal or insecticidal poisons. This was the first time Meirin had heard that such things existed.

Green instantly understood what the bottles could mean. "Master, can these two things be taken out of the space?"

"Yes, of course." Zhao nodded. "And the amount you can use has no limit."

"Great! With these two bottles, the future crops outside will have no pests that we'll have to worry about!"

Translator Notes: Done!

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Read Bringing The Farm To Live In Another World Chapter 51 - Aggro online for free - AllNovelFull

Chapter 51 - Aggro

Because the people of the Continent didn't place great importance in developing agriculture, sometimes there would be pests cutting their crop yields, leading to a lot of starvation.

However, Green also knew that the natural conditions of the Ark Continent were very good, such as with the rice tree. This tree was like a bamboo, growing more than ten meters, and would produce rice twice a year. Despite that, most of the Continent's people would still go hungry.

The rice that this tree produces is mostly eaten by slaves. This tree didn't have very high land requirements. There were many places on the Continent where it could be grown, so it wasn't easy to have a food shortage in the Continent.

But Green didn't buy the rice seeds to grow these trees.

Even though he was clear on the fact that the soil requirements weren't that high, it would be impossible to grow this tree on the mountain, because this tree has one important drawback. It was very sensitive to metal.

A test was done in which they put a hundred pound piece of iron in a rice field. The result was that within ten days, all the rice trees in that farm land died off.

It was precisely because of this that Green didn't buy any seeds for the rice tree. Even though the dwarves have pretty much mined all the iron ore, the soil on this mountain probably has higher levels of iron than other places. Growing rice was simply nonsense.

So Green chose to grow oil fruit trees instead. Their soil requirements were very low and the clan would be able to benefit from those trees for many years. Plus, they could be grown on the mountain.

But, like the rice trees, the oil fruit trees also had a fatal flaw. They were vulnerable to pests.

Compared to the rice trees, the oil fruits were really susceptible to pests. Although rice trees would on average experience a large-scale infestation every five years, the oil fruit trees would practically be affected by those pests every single year. But fortunately, they could grow almost everywhere, so they would be able to keep up the production of oil fruit.

However, this disadvantage was very deadly to the Buda clan. They needed a large amount of oil fruit trees as a major source of income. But if the trees were infested with pests, then they would be finished.

This was what Green was worried about, but now that Zhao showed him the pesticide, it felt like a heavy load had vanished from his heart.

Seeing Green so cheerful, Zhao said, "But I don't agree with the use of these two things. These two bottles are toxic. If we use them on the crops, there would be traces of toxins on them. Although it won't immediately poison the body, over many years of eating those crops, the toxins will accumulate, deteriorating your health."

Green paused for a moment, then frowned. "This is a problem. It seems that we won't be able to eat if we use that stuff."

Zhao shook his head, and decided to think about it for later. There were other problems he had to face. "Grandpa Green, let's go into my hut and see how many undead are on the screen, then find a way to catch them."

Green nodded. To be honest, Green felt that the screen was very convenient. You could see outside the space to know what the situation was. The only drawback was that the range was too small.

Several people in the hut looked at the screen. The number of green dots didn't seem to change, staying around a dozen. Zhao looked at the living room and saw that a green dot had appeared there.

Bringing up the living room view, Zhao spotted a rat skeleton spirit beast. Looking at it, he couldn't help but freeze. He then looked up at the small three-dimensional map on the top of the screen, and sure enough, the green dot from upstairs was gone. It seems like the rat skeleton from upstairs had gone down to the living room.

Zhao wondered what was so special about the living room.

Green was also tracking the rat skeleton on the screen. "It seems like it senses people. Strange as it may be, the undead's ability to smell living flesh is really amazing."

Hearing what Green said, Zhao understood. The smell of human flesh must have leaked out of the space hole, making the rat skeleton go into the living room.

Figuring this out, Zhao felt joy because he thought of a way to catch these undead. There was a gaming term for it: Aggro.

In his past life, Zhao didn't play much of these games, but he still understood them from reading web novels.

Zhao turned to Green. "Grandpa Green, if we just wait for the undead to come into the living room, we might not get a large amount since we'll only be catching them one at a time. Maybe we can send a person out to pull more of the undead. We'll gather a lot of them and lead them here."

Zhao knew that the undead were sensitive to the living.

"Yes, that's a good idea," Green said. "But Master, what if this causes even more undead spirit beasts to attack us? Don't you think that it's because of us being here that those undead are coming?"

Zhao thought for a moment, then his face changed. This was certainly something he was worried about, in the case that the undead felt their presence, they would over run the castle and make it even more unsafe.

Meirin shook her head. "I do not think that it's because of us. Do not forget, we have been here for almost a month. If we're the reason, then those undead should have come out from the carrion swamp the moment we came to the Black Waste."

Green and Zhao heard what Meirin said, and they couldn't help but feel relieved. But Green then frowned. "That's strange. I remember people saying that here in the Black Waste, an outbreak of undead occurs every ten or twenty years And the last time was just three or four years ago. If it isn't because of us, then why did this outbreak happen so soon? If the frequency of outbreaks is this fast, then we're in trouble."

"You can't really believe those rumors. No one really understands how the Black Waste works," was all Meirin could say.

Green nodded. "Yes, ah, I forgot that there's really nothing appealing in the Black Waste, so naturally no one actually comes here. Well, anyway we can always hide in the space if the plan doesn't work."

Green's attitude was a lot better than before. It wasn't like when he felt so desperate as if he had lost hope. In their struggle, he became very serious because it was hard to do what was best, which gave him a lot of pressure.

But now that he knew about Zhao's space, Green's attitude completely changed. He looked relaxed, because he believed that as long as Zhao had the space, the Buda clan would continue. Even if it wasn't restored to its former glory, it wouldn't be difficult to ensure the continuation of the Buda clan.

Hearing what Green said, Zhao couldn't help but chuckle. "Don't worry, Grandpa Green. If we could put some of the Continent's plants into the space, we can level up the space, which means we could make it larger. This will make it more helpful."

Green's eyes lit up. "Really? Master, is it true that the space can become bigger?"

Zhao nodded. "Of course. In fact, the space has already leveled up twice, giving us four acres. Grandma Meirin knows this since she was in the space during the second level up."

Translator Notes: "Aggro" could also be worded as "Pulling" or "Chain Pulling". But I used "Aggro" because I like it better.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 52 - Right Answer

Green turned to look at Meirin, and after getting a positive response from her, he had a look of excitement. "That's great. As long as we can get through this crisis, we can then start sending the magic radishes to the Markey Company. What do you want to do now, Master?"

"Grandma Meirin, Grandpa Green, you'll go out the hole behind the hut while I monitor the undead from here. Today, we must grab as many as we can."

Green and Meirin nodded, then turned and walked out, while Zhao paid attention to the undead.

In the next five days, the slaves were practicing their reading and writing, while Zhao and the rest were catching the undead spirit beasts.

In these five days, they used Zhao's suggestion of aggro, and they managed to catch about a thousand undead. Once these undead entered the space, the green soul fire where their eyes were supposed to be turned red, and then Zhao threw them into his barn.

Also, in this five day period, thanks to his four acres of land, he was able to harvest eight batches of corn, while also harvesting a lot of oil fruit. Now that he had about a dozen batches of stored corn, Zhao thought that he should try planting something else.

But now wasn't have the time to think about that because there were spirit beasts outside. After a lapse of five days, the undead spirit beasts had almost all disappeared after getting caught and converted.

This allowed Green to feel at ease. He had some worry that it was because they were here that the undead spirit beasts came out of the carrion swamp. But now that the undead were gone, and no more were rushing out of the swamp, he was relieved by this good news.

Once the undead spirit beasts have receded, Zhao and everyone else immediately left the space. But once they were out, all of them had a frown on their faces when they saw the horrendous destruction of the castle. Although the main building didn't suffer that much damage, all the supplies had been battered and destroyed, making the castle look more ragged.

Looking at the dilapidated castle, Zhao's heart felt uncomfortable. Although the castle was plain and simple, it was still home.

The screen had allowed them to see what was happening outside, but now that they were actually here, the destruction looked more intense. Blockhead couldn't resist punching a wall until blood flowed down from his fist.

Contrary to that, Green was very calm. These past few days he had been out of the space doing the aggroing, so he was clear on the situation of the castle.

Meirin also saw the filthy state of the castle. "Well, let's gather up anything that the spirit beasts touched and get them out of the castle. I'm afraid that they could be toxic. Once we get everything out, I will use water to rinse out the castle."

Green frowned. "But now the moat water is green and it seems to be toxic. If we use that water to clean the castle, then it might just infect it instead."

Meirin also frowned, then she turned to Zhao. "Master, should we go look at the moat?"

Zhao also wanted to see it. He wanted to check if his spatial water's detoxification ability could be a solution to the moat water's poison.

Green apparently thought of this as well. "Master, do you think you can detoxify the water in the moat?"

"We'll go take a look first. Meg, you will arrange for everyone to throw out everything in the castle. Everyone has drunk the spatial water, so I don't think that they would be poisoned if they touch anything."

Meg agreed, then organized the slaves to clean up.

Accompanied by Green and Meirin, Zhao walked straight towards the moat. The three looked at the moat. It was really like Green said; the moat water indeed released a queer green light. Not only did it scare them, it also made them feel puzzled. Although the water was flowing, the green color didn't dissipate.

Meirin wrinkled her brow as she looked at the moat water. "The water is flowing, but evidently it still contains a lot of toxins. I think that the problem could be from the underground lake."

Zhao nodded. "Grandma Meirin, take out a little water. I want the space to analyze it and test how strong the toxicity of the water is."

Meirin waved her hands, and a bubble of water floated up. Zhao immediately put it in his spatial farm.

The spatial voice sounded in Zhao's head. [Purification of toxic compounds in the contaminated water is possible]

Zhao could now rest assured. "Grandpa Green, Grandma Meirin, let's go to the underground lake. If we want to use the spatial water to remove the water's poison, then we better start at the source."

Meirin and Green were also relieved. To be honest, they were afraid that the spatial water would have trouble removing the poison. Although they believed that flowing water would eventually take out the poison, this would require a very long period of time, which would impact their clan's development.

Just as they were about to head to the mountain, Zhao suddenly stopped, standing motionless while staring at something.

Meirin and Green were both puzzled, so they followed where Zhao's eyes were looking. It was just an area of black soil, nothing unusual in the Black Waste. Green was confused, not knowing why Zhao was staring at it. Meirin also had some difficulty figuring out why he froze, but when she finally understood, her face suddenly went white.

That area of black soil was where Zhao first did his land improvement. Now the color of that piece of land was no different from the rest of the Black Waste.

Meirin's voice quavered. "Master, could it be?"

Zhao nodded, his face pale. If it was really the case in which that land changed back to the original black soil, then his land improvement had failed.

Green didn't understand what was wrong with the two, but looking at their faces, he knew that something bad had happened. He walked behind Zhao as they went towards that piece of land.

Once Zhao stood in front of it, he squatted down and carefully looked over the land, then he dug his hand into the ground and brought up some dirt. He breathed a long sigh of relief.

It turned out that this land didn't completely change back to its originally appearance. Maybe those undead spirit beasts had just brought the black soil over and covered this piece of land so that nothing would grow. His land improvement wasn't a failure.

Meirin also grabbed a handful of soil and carefully looked at it. She still made an ugly face.

Green looked at the two with puzzlement, not knowing why they were closely staring at the black soil. He also crouched down and grabbed some of it with his hand. He soon discovered the improvements in this soil. Startled, he excitedly faced Zhao. "Master, what is this?"

Zhao took a deep breath and explained. "It is because of my space. Using the spatial earth and water, I was able to improve the soil in this piece of land so we could grow things here. But for some reason the spirit beasts brought this black soil from elsewhere and covered up the improved land."

Before Green could say anything, Meirin spoke up. "No, Master, I don't think that this black soil was brought here from elsewhere, but rather the surface of this land has been infected by the spirit beast's toxins, turning it back into black soil. If the spirit beasts really did bring the black soil here, it would definitely not be so uniform. Look around, this entire mu of land changed color."

Zhao took a moment to carefully look over the land and found that what Meirin said was true. The black color was very uniform. This was too unreasonable. The only explanation was that the improved land wasn't covered, it was contaminated.

No one on the Continent knew why the Black Waste had become like this. But when Zhao saw the polluted water, and now looking at this piece of land, he naturally thought that it was polluted by the spirit beasts. Unfortunately, they found the right answer.

Translator Notes: The last few paragraphs were confusing. The land retains signs of improvement, but at the same time it has been contaminated. My question is can anything still be grown on it or not?

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 53 - It may be the Truth

Zhao hit the ground. "Why must our efforts go in vain?"

Green patted Zhao's shoulder. "No, Master. Rest assured, we will find a way to resolve this matter."

Zhao's face still didn't look good. He touched the ground and said, "No, you don't understand. Such a big piece of land, I planned to slowly improve it for farming, but now it seems that this plan would never be implemented."

Zhao stood up with a look of frustration. This time the blow was really too heavy. He simply couldn't transform such a large area of land within a short amount of time. If those spirit beasts come before he completed the transformation, then all of his efforts will come to nothing. Even if he completed the transformation, and those spirit beasts appeared, that would also tantamount to him doing useless work.

Green didn't know how to comfort Zhao. Obviously, after encountering such a situation, it would be hard to make his heart feel better.

Zhao looked at the Black Waste, and sighed. He turned around and walked towards the mountain, but he didn't take two steps before he stopped, and muttered, "No, this seems right."

Just when Meirin and Green were about to follow Zhao, Green was puzzled when he stopped. "Master, what's wrong?"

Zhao pointed at the mountain. "Grandpa Green, what do you see in that mountain?"

Green looked at the mountain, and frowned. "I only see weeds. Ah, wait, how can there be weeds on the mountain when the spirit beasts make black soil with their toxins? How could the soil on the mountain be unaffected?"

Meirin also reflected over this question. She looked puzzled thinking about how the spirit beasts trampled over the weeds, but after a few days of recovery, they would just crop up again. They were really tough with a tenacious vitality.

Seeing the weeds with restored vitality, Zhao felt that something was wrong. If the Black Waste was really contaminated by the touch of those spirit beasts, then it should be impossible for anything to grow on the mountain.

Looking at the patch of black land, Zhao murmured. "No, but if it isn't because of being touched by the toxins on the spirit beasts, then what is it?"

Green and Meirin also turned to look at the black land, seeing how far it stretched to the end. Originally, Meirin felt that her answer was right, but now that she saw those mountain weeds, she knew that it was the wrong answer.

Zhao walked in a circle, trying to figure out why the land had become like this, and thoughtlessly he ended up at the edge of the moat, where he unconsciously stopped, seeing the green moat while in a daze.

Meirin and Green saw Zhao standing motionless by the moat, and were a little nervous wondering what was happening to Zhao.

Zhao then forcefully clapped his hands. "I think I got it."

"Master, what are you thinking about?" Green was surprised.

Zhao pointed to the moat. "The water is flowing, but it is still green. That is to say, the underground lake where the water comes from must have been contaminated by the spirit beasts. But why should those spirit beasts go there? There's nothing to eat there. So I think that the purpose the spirit beasts go to the lake is to most likely take a bath."

"A bath? " Green and Meirin couldn't help but say. They both gave Zhao strange looks, thinking that he was frantic.

"Master must be distraught," Meirin quickly said.

Zhao turned around and looked at Meirin. "What? Grandma Meirin doesn't believe what I said?"

"Master, those spirit beasts came from the carrion swamp. It's a marshy place where there's no scarcity of water. Why would they come here to take a bath?"

Zhao snapped his fingers. "This is the problem. Although the carrion swamp does have water, that water is toxic. Like you said before, the air over there is toxic, so how could the water not be toxic? They wouldn't use that water for bathing. I think that they must be looking for some clean water to bathe in."

Hearing what Zhao said, Green and Meirin had never really thought about it.

Zhao looked at the two. "The reason that this land has become black is most likely related to those spirit beasts. Those creatures came from the carrion swamp, where everything, including the air and the water, is toxic. Maybe even the poison is too much for those spirit beasts to stand. So they will most likely go to the Black Waste, here, and try to flush out the excess toxins from their bodies. This will slowly make the Black Waste reach its current state."

What Zhao said made more and more sense to Green and Meirin.

But Green frowned. "But even if we can detoxify, when the spirit beasts come out of the carrion swamp with a high frequency, wouldn't we still be in trouble?"

Hearing what Green said, Zhao's look of excitement disappeared. He remembered that even if he found out a possible truth, he still didn't find a solution yet. Zhao took a deep breath and looked at the Black Waste. "We can't keep worrying about it since it's already happened. If there is a solution, we'll think about it eventually."

That being said, he walked towards the mountain. Green and Meirin took one last look at the Black Waste with a sigh, before they followed behind Zhao. They were afraid that there could be spirit beasts lingering around the underground lake, so it would be dangerous for Zhao.

The three made it to the entrance to the mines. Before Zhao could walk in, Meirin pulled him aside. "Master, let Green have a look first."

Zhao reluctantly stopped, but soon Green's voice could be heard coming from inside. "Master, Meirin, come in. There are no spirit beasts here."

Zhao and Meirin went into the mines, and eventually made it to the underground lake where Green was standing, looking at the lake in a daze. Meirin immediately used a lighting spell, now the three could clearly see the situation of the lake.

The lake was green. It was a deeper green than the moat.

Zhao sighed. "With such a good lake, I hate it when you guys take a bath in it." With these words, he opened up a hole, and the spatial water poured into the lake.

But Zhao didn't think that the moment the spatial water entered the lake, it would induce something like a chemical reaction. From the point of contact, the detoxification effect moved with a fast speed towards the center of the lake, and then beyond where Zhao could see.

Zhao was stunned. Although they suspected that the space could solve the water's poison, wasn't this too quick? From where the water flowed out of this lake, would it also react as fast?

Zhao was still uncertain. "I don't know if the water still contains toxins, Grandma Meirin. Could you look and see?" Since Meirin was a powerful water mage, this kind of thing was within her abilities.

Meirin nodded. She reached towards the lake and whispered a spell. A group of blue light emitted from her hand, like a sky full of stars, then they disappeared into the lake.

Eventually, the blue lights were brought together in Meirin's hands, then they slowly disappeared. Meirin opened her eyes with a look of shock. "That's amazing! All the toxins had disappeared. There's nothing left."

Zhao at once said, "Let's go back to the castle and see."

The trio immediately walked out of the mines, as soon as they were out of the entrance, they could see smoke rising from the castle. Evidently, Meg was doing her job.

Once they made it to the castle, they saw Meg was setting some of the garbage, which they threw out of the castle, on fire. After seeing that, Zhao quickly walked to the moat, and sure enough, the water was clear. All the green had completely disappeared.

But Zhao still wasn't reassured. He told Meirin to float up a water bubble, and then he brought into his space to see if it was still poisonous. The voice came, and it told him that the water has been completely cleared of toxic compounds.

After waiting until after Meg threw out all of the garbage, Meirin magically used the water to clean the castle. Once it was done, the castle was finally livable again.

Translator Notes: This chapter was as confusing as fudge!

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 54 - A Seedling

Although the castle was clean again, it wasn't wet, mainly thanks to Meirin's control over water. She was an eighth level water mage, her control was perfect. The water only washed away the dirt until the castle was practically shining, and then there was nothing left but a little water vapor after she was done.

After Meirin cleaned the castle, Zhao immediately took the supplies back out from his space, along with some corn stalks for the kitchen and the slaves. After all, they needed this stuff to live. Once those things were taken out, Zhao left Meg to finish cleaning the castle, while he took Meirin to go check out the valley. He wanted to see if the valley also became the same as the rest of the Black Waste.

Green also wanted to look at the valley with Zhao. If it hadn't been contaminated, it would be considered a good source for growing food.

Meirin used her water spells to bring them over the lake and straight towards the valley. Zhao's heart was disturbed. He feared that the valley would be no different than the rest of the Black Waste.

Once they made it to the valley, Zhao was silent. It was as he expected, the land in the valley he had improved returned to its original look. But as he was looking at the valley, he discovered a problem.

There were no footprints.

There was no indication that anything had been on this land. If the spirit beasts hasn't been here, then how could the land become like this?

Zhao was puzzled. Next to him, Green sighed. "If there are no footprints, then it seems that those flying spirit beasts were here, spreading their poison."

Hearing what Green said, Zhao looked up towards the mountain and saw a few black spots here and there. It really seemed like Green was right, that it was because of the toxins from the flying spirit beasts.

Zhao felt depressed. Not only did they have to deal with spirit beasts on the ground, they also had to deal with the ones flying in the sky?

Just then, while searching the ground, Meirin suddenly shouted. "Ah, Master, come look!"

Zhao and Green didn't know what Meirin was so excited about, so they rushed over and were shocked at what she showed them.

In front of them was a seedling. A tiny corn seedling.

In front of their eyes was a small seedling, but do not forget that this land had been turned into black earth, so seeing it grow, wasn't it strange?

Looking at these seedlings, Zhao was puzzled. "How could it grow when the land has become like this?"

Meirin and Green didn't know how to answer him, they too didn't understand why. Zhao clawed at the ground around the seedling, and found that even if the surface had turned into black soil, the roots of the seedling were being nurtured by the fertile earth. The roots were very sturdy, allowing it to grow.

Looking at these seedlings, Zhao was reminded of something from his past life, when he saw corn seeds in rural areas. He was shocked to discover that those corn seeds were pink, and not the golden color that he was expecting. Thinking that it was strange, he questioned the people about it, and they laughed because, of course, corn seeds weren't actually pink. The reason that they were that color was because they were treated corn seeds.

In the north, because of the climate and the worms, it was difficult to grow corn. So they needed to treat the corn seeds with pesticides to help them sprout and survive until they grew into seedlings.

Growing in such a difficult environment reminded Zhao of this situation. Of course, he wasn't thinking of using pesticides and killing insects. He was thinking about dousing these seedlings with spatial water to help them grow. He wanted to see if corn could grow without land improvement, because now the spatial water had detoxification abilities.

Green and Meirin were standing there motionless while looking at the seedlings. They were very surprised, thinking that they would see a catastrophe with all the planted corn being destroyed. Never did they expect that the corn seeds would survive.

Zhao patted the earth and stood up. "Grandpa Green, Grandma Meirin, after we go back and settle things, we can use the spatial water on these tiny seedlings. Since the spatial water can detoxify, maybe it can also improve the land. The success rate might be low, but if it is successful, we can do it many times in one day."

Meirin was surprised. "Master, didn't you say that you could only improve one mu of land per day?"

"Certainly, the space has specified that we couldn't do so much land improvement, but it never said anything about just using the spatial water. We'll need some more land to test, and I have a lot of corn in my barn that we could use as corn seeds. Let's try it to see whether we could do it or not."

Before Meirin could speak, Green nodded his head and said, "Master, this is a good idea, but will we run out of spatial water?"

Zhao chuckled. "That shouldn't be the case. When so many of us were living inside the space, we were drinking water every day. The amount of water everyone drank per day was certainly not a small amount, yet did you see if there was less spatial water?"

"There really wasn't any decrease," Green recalled. "This is really great, Master. But I still think we should first go send the radishes to the Markey Company. Then we could start growing oil fruit seeds and alfafa seeds on the mountain. Once we douse it with spatial water, we can slowly change the mountain land to shorten the growth period of the oil fruit trees. Once we have a good harvest, then we can have a fixed income."

Zhao nodded. "Yes, we should do that. But I'm a bit worried that when we go deliver the radishes, what would happen to the people in the castle when we leave? If those spirit beasts attacks, they will be unable to resist."

Green laughed. "Master, what are you worrying about? We can just take everyone with us inside the space."

Zhao thought for a moment, and then smiled. He forgot about that. With his space, he could simply take everybody with him. After all, protecting everyone was the most important.

'This is a good idea." Meirin nodded. "Also, we shouldn't disguise how damaged the castle looks. The people in the Continent already knows about the disaster with the spirit beasts invading the Black Waste, so if they send someone to come see, it would be like we were playing dead. Perhaps in the future, we wouldn't need to worry about those guys."

"I fear that it may not be that easy since you've just cleaned up the castle," Green said. "If someone were to look at it, then I'm afraid that we won't be able to hide it for too long. Once we head out, we can only stay away for a short time, so the only thing we should do is sell the radishes."

Meirin gave a wry smile. She never really thought that it would be a mistake to clean too fast.

"Well, then we should go as soon as possible, and not be found out by those guys," Zhao said.

"Then Master, we should go back and start at once. There are a lot of things that have to be done."

Translator Notes: I looked it up, and some corn seeds that have been treated with pesticides really are pink. Weird.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 55 - Black Mage

When Zhao returned to the castle, he told Meg to make the nessecery preparation. In two days, they were going to go to the Purcell Duchy with everybody.

In fact, this preparation was very simple. They could just put everything they needed into the space. The slaves had already been in the space before, so they were ready and willing to go in when they were informed .

Two days later, everyone went into the space. However, Zhao didn't go in. He was staying outside with Green.

Green, if he was traveling by himself, could go really fast. But since Zhao was going with him this time, they would naturally move more slowly.

Fortunately, Zhao took out one of the undead from the space, and now he and Green were on their way, riding on Alien. Although Green was fast, he would still become tired, while an undead could keep on going like a perpetual motion machine.

It should be said that the Black Waste was really huge. Their speed was not slow, and they have been moving day and night, but it would take them three more days before they could see the outer perimeter of the Black Waste.

Fortunately, Alien was large enough for Zhao to simply cover its back with planks of wood to make a bed, like turning the undead into a car.

Right now they were going down a road paved with slabs of stone, and although it had become weathered, it was still flat, which showed off the dwarves superb craftsmanship. This road was used by the dwarves to move a large number of iron ore, along with a wide variety of iron products, to be sold to the whole Continent. But since all the iron ore were mined, and no more adventurers had tried to conquer the carrion swamp, no one uses this road anymore. If not for the fact that grass didn't grow here, there would simply be no road at all.

Three days later, Zhao finally saw the outer perimeter of the Black Waste. In the distance, he could see something green, which made his spirit rise.

Green was also relieved. To be honest, he would like a change of scenery. Seeing the endless black soil was a kind of a torture. Throughout their journey, he and Zhao had been talking less and less, especially in the last half day, when they didn't even say a word to each other. The two just sat there, looking at the endless black soil, like their souls had been sucked out.

Then imagine what would happen when their eyes suddenly spotted something green. Even if it was just a little bit, it had a huge impact.

Zhao shouted, like he wanted to run off. Green chuckled. "Master, this is the outer perimeter. Over there is the Purcell Duchy. If we go any further, we will be leaving the Buda clan's territory."

From what Green said, Zhao nodded and turned around to look at all that black land. The land was his, but it didn't bring him a happy mood. Seeing the endless land that couldn't be planted made it look like his ideas weren't feasible.

Slowly, they saw more and more patches of green. Zhao then spotted mountains that were bigger, and with a lot more trees, than the iron mountain near his castle. He was shocked when he saw these steep mountains, which made the iron mountain look gentle.

Green noted the look on Zhao's face, and smiled. "I guess Master didn't expect that the mountains here would be so high and steep?"

Zhao nodded, then Green continued. "In fact, this is not surprising. Even if it's not the highest place, it is definitely not the shortest. Comparatively speaking, they are higher than the one near our castle."

They then saw a valley, hundreds of meters wide, in the distance. It was the only way out of the Black Waste. As long as they go through there, they would enter the territory of the Purcell Duchy.

Green pointed to the valley. "That place was once called the Iron Stream Valley. All the iron flows out through there. But ever since there was no more iron coming out, people slowly forgot about the name of this place, and it eventually became known as the Forgotten Valley. In the Forgotten Valley, there's a fortress called Montenegro. It was designed to prevent any massive outbreaks of spirit beasts from going through the Forgotten Valley and into the Purcell Duchy. Strange to say, those spirit beasts had never come out of the Black Waste. So the fortress slowly turned into a paradise for adventurers. They were risk takers, and although the carrion swamp was too risky, they could still hunt spirit beasts around here."

Zhao nodded. "Then how do we get past it without getting found out?"

Green smiled slightly. "Master doesn't need to worry. Later, we will go straight into the mountains of Forgotten Valley, and then I will go into Montenegro and buy some clothing for you. Since you can use these undead, you'll have to dress like a black mage."

Black mages were actually general terms for those who learned dark magic, poison magic, blood magic, and other attributes that were related to darkness. But even if this world was repulsed by black mages, it still respected power. As long as you had strength, regardless of what abilities, you will be accepted.

The black mages were people that no one wanted to provoke, probably because they might have learned that type of magic for a very dark reason, and their characters were somewhat gloomy. If you mess with them, they might not attack you on the spot, but they will definitely make you pay one day.

If you were asked who had the highest position in this world, some might answer that it was the nobles or the royalty, but it was undeniable that the status of mages was certainly not low. A powerful mage will find courtesy in any empire.

There might have no longer been a Buda clan if they didn't have a powerful mage such as Meirin.

However, even if no one wished to offend a black mage, no one wanted to welcome them. Most people did not wish to get into contact with a black mage. Green wanted to make Zhao look like a black mage as an added protection, since they would stop people from finding out Zhao's identity.

Zhao's understanding of this world was too small, so he didn't argue with Green, and just nodded his head. "You arrange it, Grandpa Green. I've rarely walked outside, so I don't know what to do. I'll listen to you."

Green nodded. What they were doing was related to the survival of the Buda clan. No one could find out their identity while they were selling the radishes, otherwise the Buda clan would be in big trouble.

The Buda clan was hated by the Aksu Empire, who would deliver a merciless blow if they found out about this transaction. It was precisely because of this that Green had to be more careful. Even if he didn't know that Adam was replaced by Zhao, he would do everything he can to not let Zhao be killed.

Since Zhao was going to rule the entire Buda clan, Green wanted him to better understand the world. Green was actually paving the way for Zhao. He knew that his Master was young, but he still hoped that he would grow up. The day that Zhao would become a person that could support the Buda clan, he will be able to feel at ease.

Translator Notes: Road trip!

Translator Notes #2: Kinokey was hospitalized for a dislocated foot. Please wish him well and thank him for continuing to edit like a machine!

Translator Notes #3: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 56 - Not saying Hello

They quickly went into Forgotten Valley. Zhao didn't put away his undead yet, so as to keep up his identity as a black mage; because if they headed to the fortress, no one would bother them when they see a black mage with a summoned undead.

The sides of the valley weren't steep cliffs, but two gentle slopes, which contained shrubs and weeds, and also trees that were much stronger and more vibrant than the ones near his castle.

They didn't see anyone in Forgotten Valley, but occasionally they could hear the sound of insects, giving everything a harmonious nature.

After looking at the hills on both sides, Green turned to Zhao. "Master, once we find a good place to settle on the mountain, you will immediately go into the space, while I go into Montenegro to buy clothes and stuff."

Zhao nodded, and commanded the undead to climb the hill. Although it was just a skeleton, it still had sharp claws, so climbing a mountain wasn't strenuous. Once he was closer to the trees, he could see that they were similar to the ones on Earth. He didn't know much about trees, except for common species like poplar, willow, elm, and pine. He didn't recognize the other trees.

Green, while sitting next to Zhao, was also watching the trees. "Master, the woods are very dangerous. Not only because of spirit beasts, but there are plants that are highly toxic. So be careful."

Zhao nodded. Although he had never been in a forest before, he had read about dangerous scenarios that people had written online. Even in fiction, the forest would be depicted as a dangerous place. And since there were spirit beasts here, he had to be even more careful.

There was a lot of vegetation on the mountain. You could see a variety of trees everywhere, to the point where the light would get dim when you walked through the woods. It took them awhile, but they were finally able to find a secluded place.

They jumped off of Alien, and then Zhao and Green followed it into the space.

Inside the space, the corn were growing strong, the oil fruit trees were healthy, and Meirin was teaching the slaves to read and write.

But besides just reading and writing like last time, Zhao had brought the mined stones with him so Ann and some slaves could try to make a mill stone. Also, he had brought a lot of weeds into the space as well, to give the other slaves something to do. Moreover, the effect was surprisingly good. There were simply no problems for the slaves since they could now work, as well as rest.

Meirin saw the two come in, so she quickly greeted them and said, "Master, Green, how come you're here? Did anything happen?"

"Nothing happened," Green said. "We just finally made it to Forgotten Valley. Let the young master stay in the space for a few days, while I go out there to get some clothes from Montenegro."

Meirin understood what Green was doing. "Well, make haste. We'll be here waiting for you to return. And remember our position so you can find your way back."

Meirin was in a good mood these days. The Buda clan was about to receive an income for the first time since they were exiled. Although they haven't received the money yet, it still represented hope.

Zhao turned to Green. "Be careful, Grandpa Green. Our identity cannot be exposed, otherwise we will suffer. Remember that selling the radishes now doesn't matter; we can just wait for some other time if you run into trouble. Your safety is the most important."

A hint of a warm smile appeared on Green's face. He patted Zhao's shoulder. "Master doesn't need to worry. My bones may be old, but I can't bear to die before seeing the revival of the Buda clan." He finished his words with a laugh.

Before, Green would have never acted so friendly with Zhao, because he wasn't close to Adam. Green thought that Adam was very annoying, so how could he be so friendly towards him.

But now Adam's body was filled with Zhao's soul. Zhao was an otaku, an orphan, and he was born in China, which respected the elderly. Although Green and Meirin were his servants, ever since he woke up, they have been taking care of him, which resulted in a strong bond with his beloved elders.

This change in Zhao was felt by Meirin and Green. It was because of this change that Green could be so friendly with Zhao, otherwise it would have been impossible to get along with him.

Zhao let Green pat his shoulder, just feeling the elder's love, but he didn't say anything because he was very subtle and didn't like to put on an excessive show of feelings. He simply nodded and said, "Grandpa Green, I'll send you out." With a thought, Green left the space.

Green memorized his surroundings and left a mark, then he rushed towards Montenegro.

Green looked like an old traveler, so he didn't face any scruples when he encountered some adventurers. Those ordinary adventurers didn't pay attention to the Buda clan. After all, the great nobles didn't seem to see the Buda clan as a threat, so they didn't hire out any of these risk takers to deal with such a declining clan. Plus, they also didn't want to anger Green and Meirin, who were strong characters.

The real threat to the Buda clan was none other than the Purcell clan. The previous relationship with the two clans was good, even preparing their children for marriage, but since the fall of the Buda clan, the Purcell clan never mentioned the marriage again.

Aristocratic marriages weren't about love. The Purcell clan was only interested in the marriage with the Buda clan to gain some benefits.

But now that the Buda clan was down, the Purcell clan deemed that there was no value in honoring the marriage agreement. However, they still needed to save face.

Even though the Buda clan was now weak, if the Purcell clan dissolved the marriage that was their idea in the first place, then their clan would damage their reputation among the aristocratic circles. The Purcell clan wouldn't do such an idiotic thing.

There were only two ways to get rid of the marriage agreement.

The first way was for the Buda clan to initiate the dissolution of the marriage. Everyone knows that the Purcell clan was the one to offer the marriage, but if the Buda clan was the one to give it up, then the Purcell clan could possibly save face.

The other way was even simpler. Kill Adam Buda, and let the Buda clan die. Obviously, there wouldn't be a marriage after that.

In fact, Green had thought of releasing the marriage from the Purcell clan, but at the time, Zhao hadn't woken up yet. But when the Buda clan needed help the most, the Purcell clan chose not to aid them, even though they had the power to do so. It was precisely because of this that Green felt some resentment towards the Purcell clan, so he decided not to dissolve Zhao's marriage, just because the Purcell clan didn't help them, and let them fall to this point without even greeting them with a hello.

Green understood a noble's problems with saving face, so he will not take the initiative to dissolve the marriage with the Purcell clan, even if they were to pressure his Buda clan.

Still, Green had to be very careful, because the only way out of the Black Waste was the entrance to the Purcell Duchy. Since they were a thorn to the Purcell clan, the Purcell clan would obviously pay attention to their movements, so he had to be careful.

Translator Notes: How many of you are excited about the new season of Daredevil?

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 57 - Montenegro Fortress

Standing quietly at the exit of Forgotten Valley was a fortress. The fortress was made of black stone, with walls reaching an appalling height of forty meters, and a length that completely blocked the valley.

The whole fortress was like an iron wall. If you want to get past the valley, you will have to go through Montenegro.

But when you actually get closer to Montenegro Fortress, you realize that it's not actually as mighty as you imagined. In fact, with its damaged walls, the entire fortress looked shabby, as if it had not been repaired in a long time.

This was true. The Purcell clan had built this fortress to prevent any carrion swamp spirit beasts from going through the Forgotten Valley and into the Purcell Duchy. But although the fortress has been established for hundreds of years, there have just been no activities of spirit beasts charging in from the Black Waste, which made this fortress become neglected. Although there were some troops here, they were more for protecting the peace and order of this place.

But even if Montenegro Fortress had no garrison, no one dared to underestimate the fighting strength here, because there were numerous adventurers and mercenaries.

However, with the existence of these people, the security of Montenegro Fortress became confusing. The city defense officials had to deal with adventurers, mercenaries, and even some rebellious guys that would even try to injure a child with knives. In the face of such a group of barbarians, the official defense forces were too weak.

Because of this, the defense forces of Montenegro finally evolved into several large mercenary groups and local merchants having their own site, and deciding not to infringe on each other, which resulted in a peaceful coexistence.

Of course, in this case, the Purcell Duchy can't even think of receiving any taxes, and because of this non-collection of taxes, the Duchy doesn't give them any money to repair the walls, so slowly Montenegro became a paradise for mercenaries, adventurers, and even fugitives.

This was also a side effect from the situation in the Black Waste. Since that wasteland was a place of death, Montenegro Fortress became one of the safest towns from outside forces, because it was surrounded by mountains and no enemies. Such a place should have been an important border town, but because there was no trade and the Purcell Duchy couldn't collect taxes, this place was forgotten.

For Green, Montenegro was an undefended fortress.

Of course, he wouldn't just go swaggering into the main entrance, but he could easily sneak over the walls.

Montenegro had a very abnormal commercial development. Weapon stores, drug stores, and equipment consultations were everywhere, but pubs, hotels, restaurants, and a place to buy consumer goods were difficult to find. The whole fortress was full of adventurers and mercenaries, so the number of ordinary people was very small.

This wasn't a concern for Green. He found a remote equipment store and bought five black magic robes, along with a hat and a wooden staff. He also bought for himself a very beautiful suit of armor. Although it wasn't as good as most decent armors, it still had the most important part he needed: a helmet that could hide Green's entire face.

Naturally, the magic robes were for Zhao. With these robes and staff, Zhao could dress up as a black mage. After all, it wasn't odd for black mages to wear something that wrapped up their whole body.

You should know that magic robes have been improved over many generations in this Continent. They were particularly more comfortable to wear, but also more beautiful, especially the ones worn by female mages, to the point that the gorgeous robes looked like a dress. Compared to the ones generally worn by mages, Green bought a black mage robe that was very thick, along with a large hat that could entirely block someone's face.

As for Green's set of armor that would cover his face, he wanted to dress as a follower of a mage. Mages were high status people, and under normal circumstances they wouldn't be short on money. Although mages weren't afraid of melee combat, they would still have followers with them, and make those followers fight and help them in battle.

Therefore, on the Continent, if you see a mage around, it wasn't strange to see them with a bunch of followers.

This time, Green was going to dress up as a warrior that was following a mage, which was the only way to stand by Zhao's side without being suspected.

After buying these things, Green then bought some mercenary items, including a backpack.

Backpacks were the standard equipment for mercenaries and adventurers. Because they would often go out into the field, they would prepare a lot of stuff that corresponded to their different tasks, such as food, gathering loot, finding a place to make camp, and a lot of other things. This was how a mercenary backpack came into being.

Green mainly bought these things to not let people discover the secret of Zhao's space. He wasn't worried about passing through Montenegro, since this was a place where people simply didn't care about anything other than themselves, and the Purcell clan didn't flaunt their power here. However, getting into other places might not be as smooth. With the exception of Montenegro, the Purcell clan had very good control of their territory.

Green would like to buy more things, but he didn't have the money on hand. Although he got the orders for the radishes, do not forget that he hasn't actually sold them yet. So he could only buy some essentials.

Without wearing the shiny silver armor that blatantly hid his face, Green looked like an ordinary adventurer, which made him blend in perfectly. There were hundreds of those risk takers here, so no one paid attention to him. Still, he had to be careful to not be observed when walking into the mountains. He walked in a roundabout way until he was sure that no one was following him, then he went to the place where he made the mark. Suddenly, the space hole appeared. After Green stepped into the space, the hole disappeared. Everything was quiet.

Zhao had been paying attention to what was happening outside the space. Do not forget that he could see in a range up to one hundred meters, so he was able to find Green when he returned.

Seeing Green holding a big backpack, Zhao froze for a moment, because this backpack looked a lot like those mountaineering bags back on Earth. Even though it wasn't made of the same materials, the quality wasn't as fine, and there were no zippers, it still looked like a mountaineering bag.

Zhao was puzzled as he pointed at the backpack. "Grandpa Green, why did you buy this thing?"

Green smiled. "Well, we don't actually need it, but this thing could mask the presence of the space as we're traveling around."

Zhao immediately understood what Green meant, and nodded his head. "Yes, I didn't think of that."

Green then took out a magic staff and handed it to Zhao. "This is something for a mage. I chose this one because of how light it is, so Master doesn't need a lot of strength to wield it. And in this backpack are the robes that Master should put on."

Zhao held the staff and the backpack. He didn't know what kind of wood this staff was made of, but it was as light as bamboo. However, he didn't continue to study the magic staff as he took the backpack into the hut.

In the beginning, Zhao had been wearing aristocratic clothes that had been prepared for him, but although they were beautiful, they were still very inconvenient. For example, the lower half was like the Western medieval tights back on Earth, which really affected his range of movements. Meirin knew this, so she hadn't objected when Zhao started wearing the clothes of a warrior, much like Green's. Naturally, they were very loose and convenient, and easy to move around in.

Now it was time to put on the black robe.

Translator Notes: Sorry for the late chapter. I was binging on Daredevil. Yeah, I know, it's bad for my health, but I'm addicted.

Translator Notes #2: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 58 - Sly Smile

Zhao silently looked at the black robe in his hands. He didn't know what it was made of, but it was very thick, with good craftsmanship. However, what he most noted was that the style of the robe looked like something a villain from a TV show would wear.

As for the hat that he was carrying, it was a big hat. The most important thing about it was that it would cover his face so people couldn't see the his appearance.

All of this was perfect for disguising himself as a black mage.

Zhao wore the robe over his warrior clothes. The black robe was very large and thick, not to mention he didn't feel cold after wearing it, and the cloth of the robe was quite soft, so it was comfortable to wear. He couldn't help but nod with satisfaction. Once he put on his hat, he then picked up his magic staff and walked out of the hut.

When Green saw Zhao coming out of the door, he discovered that the robe really suited Zhao. Wearing it really did make Zhao look like a black mage. That was because Zhao had a peculiar temperament that made him seem out of tune with the world. If you didn't pay attention to him, you wouldn't feel his presence, as if he was an invisible man.

In fact, Zhao's temperament was simply because he was an otaku from his past life. Otakus generally were less likely to communicate with other people and naturally they were very good at hiding their presence. They would always put themselves in a place where people didn't pay attention so that no one would notice them. And then they would sit there, watching the world.

In his past life, Zhao had such an experience. One time, he went out with his work friends. They went out to dinner and then to a hotel, but it was only when they went up to their rooms that everyone finally noticed him. "You were invited?" they all asked, surprised.

Being asked that by his friends, Zhao didn't know what to do, because even though he had accompanied them, they completely forgot about him. It was like being a pebble on the road.

It was precisely because of this temperament that made the black robe look appropriate on Zhao. It seemed like he was out of tune with the world, so you could easily ignore his presence, which was right for a black mage.

Everyone was looking at Zhao, while Green couldn't help but be surprised as he picked up the hat. "How very strange," Green said.

Zhao took the hat back from Green, and then wore it again. His body temperament suddenly changed, as if he was about to disappear.

This change, if you didn't personally see it, you wouldn't believe it. But everyone was happy about this. If Zhao wore the robe, he would look like a black mage. If he took it off, no one would think that he and the black mage were one and the same person. This was very convenient in hiding Zhao's identity.

Green shook his head. "I never would have thought that such clothes would be so suitable for the young master. Meg will also dress up too. She will follow you as a maid. If you go out, she can protect you, and no one would suspect anything when a maid follows a black mage."

Zhao looked at Meg. To be honest, although he wanted to see that side of her, his heart felt uncomfortable so he was a little afraid to face Meg.

Green then added, "Originally, I wanted Blockhead and Rockhead to follow you, but if those two fools worked together, then they would probably stand out too much and arouse suspicion."

Zhao didn't really think so. But since Green didn't want Blockhead and Rockhead to follow them outside, he had to give up.

Just then, Meg suddenly spoke up. "Master, do you not want me to go with you?"

Zhao was surprised as he turned around to look at Meg. He found that her eyes looked tearful, delicate, and charming to the point that would make people speechless. "No, that's not it," Zhao quickly said. "You can follow me." He then turned around again, afraid to look at Meg. When he turned his head back, he saw that she had a sly smile on her face.

Meg discovered that Zhao seemed to be a little afraid of her. Under normal circumstances, she would have not gone along with him, but now she wanted to see if Zhao cared about her. Turns out that he did care.

Men thought that girls would never understand if a guy cares about her or not, but just one look told her that Zhao did. Meg couldn't help but laugh when Zhao seemed to be afraid of her. Now she felt like teasing Zhao. But since Green and Meirin were standing next to her, she wouldn't.

Green couldn't help but stare at Meg, who lowered her head and then turned and ran off. "I have to go pack up some things," she said.

Meirin and Green didn't object when they realized that Meg was interested in Zhao. If it was in the past, they wouldn't have let Zhao get close to Meg, but now they didn't oppose it.

Green then turned to Zhao. "Master, you had better put up the screen so that Meirin could keep an eye outside, so that Meirin could be on alert for us, even if we were resting. If I were to leave, and if Meg wasn't at your side, you could always ask Meirin to help you."

Zhao thought there was no need for that, but he agreed nonetheless. However, he felt uncomfortable about it. If he allowed Meirin to use the screen, she would have to watch them twenty four hours a day, and he really felt bad about that. However, he still did it. Since they were outside the Black Waste, they needed the extra insurance.

Even though he had Adam's memories, from birth to now, Adam has never left the capital of the Aksu Empire, so he didn't know much about the outside world. In this case, Zhao didn't know anything about the situation out there, so he had to do things according to Green's advice.

Later, he put the screen up for Meirin. Meg was also finished packing, holding a bag while dressed as a maid. It must be said that Meg looked really beautiful in a maid outfit. She looked so gentle that people couldn't help but feel a desire to protect her.

After trying not to stare at Meg, Zhao turned to Meirin and said, "Grandma Meirin, if there's anything you need, you can just knock on the screen. I'll be listening."

Meirin nodded. "Master, you can rest assured. But you also have to be careful."

Zhao also nodded his head. Then with a thought, Zhao, Green, and Meg appeared in the woods.

Green took a look around, and then he said to Zhao, "Master, call out your undead. Then we will head off to Montenegro Fortress." Green smiled. "If it was any other city, when we have a summoned undead, people would think that we were attacking the city. But here is Montenegro. There's no reason to attack it. If we get past the city while sitting on an undead, it would reduce a lot of trouble because no one would bother us."

Zhao was puzzled. "But I'm wearing the robe of a black mage. Isn't that enough to stop them from bothering us?"

"That place isn't the same as other cities. It doesn't have that many mages, so many people would try to impersonate a black mage. Everyone in the Continent knows that black mages aren't to be trifled with. So often times someone would pose as a black mage to commit a robbery and extort things off of adventurers. If we don't take out an undead, people may not think that you're really a black mage."

Translator Notes: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 59 - Mercenaries and Adventurers

Zhao really didn't know there were people in this world that would impersonate black mages. He didn't think that someone in Montenegro would dare to pose as one. It was a strange place.

Green apparently saw Zhao's puzzled look, and he smiled. "There's nothing to be surprised about. Those audacious mercenaries and adventurers in this paradise have nothing that they wouldn't dare to do."

Zhao nodded. "Well, I'll listen to you. Let's go," he said as he summoned his undead.

Green put on the shiny body armor, even though he didn't actually need it for protection. As powerful a warrior as Green was, if he was someone that needed to rely on something to protect his own safety, he would have already lost the battle.

Meg, in her maid outfit, sat quietly on Alien, next to Zhao. She had seen Zhao sit on Alien before, but she had never personally got on herself, so she was curious about what it was like. She soon discovered that sitting on the undead was not very comfortable. Although there were planks covered with blankets to sit on, it still felt hard and there wasn't that much room.

Even though the undead reached a staggering ten meters long, most of it was from its tail, which measured about five meters, half the size of its entire body. Plus with a two meter long head, the main part of its body was a mere three meters. Green wasn't sitting with the two because he was on Alien's skull, and although the skull was a small area, with his skill, Green could stand or sit and even sleep with no problems. Alien naturally couldn't feel anything, so it didn't mind that someone was riding on its head.

The three slowly left the woods and were back in Forgotten Valley. They still didn't see any people yet, but Zhao didn't care as he directed the undead to walk straight towards Montenegro.

It wasn't very far, only taking about half an hour before they saw the distant walls and people by the gates. Zhao commanded the undead to keep going because of what Green told him. If they sat on Alien as they entered Montenegro Fortress, no one would dare to offend them. No one in this Continent wanted to mess with black mages.

While sitting on the undead's back, they swaggered towards Montenegro Fortress, and within five minutes, they ran into a group of mercenaries that was made up of five people. Each person, while carrying a backpack, was surprised as they looked with uncertainty at Zhao. When they saw the huge undead, they immediately stepped aside to the side of the road. It was as Green said. These people wouldn't dare to touch a black mage, especially one that could summon such a powerful undead.

It seemed like Zhao's head didn't move, but his eyes were looking over the mercenaries. They were wearing simple leather armor, each armed with weapons, and carrying a backpack. The guy in front was carrying a bow, a knife on his waist, and he had a body that was very thin, with long hands and feet. He seemed like a very agile guy. The second guy was holding a double-edged axe, and with a single glance you could tell that its weight wasn't light. Underneath his relatively thick leather armor, he looked like a powerful warrior with dark skin wrapping around iron-like muscles.

The third guy was dressed like an orthodox adventurer. He wore a leather helmet and thick boots along with his armor, while a cloak swayed from behind him. Plus he was carrying a large sword. The two people following behind that guy seemed to be brothers, who looked alike, but were not twins. They were very fat. One of them was stuffing his mouth with chicken feet, like he hasn't eaten in the past few days.

Although Zhao was watching them, with the large hat hiding his face, it looked like his head didn't move. Those five people thought that Zhao's eyes were focused straight towards the front, so they didn't notice him looking at them.

There were often people who posed as black mages in Montenegro Fortress, but to see such an undead, nobody suspected that Zhao was a fake. It would be impossible for a fake black mage to summon an undead spirit beast.

Soon Alien left those five people behind, and Zhao turned his eyes back towards the front. To be honest, this was the first time he saw actual mercenaries, so he was very curious. But even if Zhao got a first impression from those five individuals' characteristics, he still couldn't tell how strong they were.

Just then, Green spoke up. "Master, those five people coming out of Montenegro Fortress is part of a famous mercenary group called Kui Snake. The strength of those five are good, with the axe guy and sword guy already at the peak of a sixth level warrior."

Zhao was surprised. He thought that those people were so powerful. Peak of a sixth level warrior? So they were stronger than Blockhead and Rockhead? It seems like there were a lot of experts in this world.

Along the way, the three encountered a lot of adventurers and mercenaries. Some were dressed in leather armor similar to those previous five, while others were more mixed. Some of the adventurers didn't even wear leather armor, and instead just wore plain warrior clothes. A few didn't even have backpacks.

After these mercenaries and adventurers saw Zhao, they invariably got out of the way. Even if their strength was good, they weren't willing to get into a conflict with a black mage.

While sitting on an undead, under the eyes of everybody, Zhao swaggered into Montenegro Fortress. Even the guards that were standing in front of the gates did not dare to intercept them. Although they were supposed to guard the fortress, they weren't that big of a force, so naturally they wouldn't dare to touch a black mage.

According to Green's directions, the three stopped in front of a luxurious hotel. Zhao looked up at the hotel and found a sign that had a Bana symbol.

The three got off the undead. Green picked up the backpack, while Meg picked up her own bags. Zhao had nothing to hold but a magic staff, which he waved around and returned the undead back into his space.

The stewards of the hotel looked outside at the black mage. They didn't want to go out and meet him, but they were also afraid of angering the mage, so one unlucky guy had to bite the bullet and go out. He had a smile on his face as he greeted Zhao. "Welcome, distinguish mage. I'm sure you must have taken a long journey to Montenegro Fortress. In our upscale hotel, we can provide you with hot water twenty four hours a day so you can wash away your fatigue."

Zhao didn't say anything. He just gave a wave, and Green immediately stood in front of the steward. "Two of your best rooms. Have hot water ready, and bring a good meal to our rooms."

They were then escorted into the hotel. It was good that he and Green had discussed it beforehand, for Zhao to not speak as much as possible and to make it look like he was ordering Green do all the talking. Not only would this make Zhao seem mystical, but it would also prevent people from finding out Zhao's age from his voice.

Translator Notes: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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Chapter 60 - Fat Boss

In the Continent, under normal circumstances, the strength of a mage was directly proportional to their age. It was different for a warrior. All a young warrior needed to do was to toughen their bones and grow in strength with training under the guidance of adults.

Martial arts practice was not easy. The training had high strength requirements. But to become a mage was a lot more difficult. As children, they will be sent to designated locations to check if they have the talent for magic. If there was any, they would focus on training as a mage. If not, they would go back home to try to become a warrior.

The age requirement to become a mage was very strict. If you were younger than twelve years old, then you couldn't practice magic. After so many years of research, the people in the Continent discovered that if a person was twelve and under, then they didn't have the mental strength to learn magic. It was because one so young would have unstable spiritual power, which might cause them to become brain dead or result in death if they tried to practice magic.

It was precisely because of this reason that the age of a powerful mage would often times not be young. Meg, who had already become a sixth level mage, could definitely be considered a genius.

Very few people in the Continent knew about Meg's strength, which was strictly confidential. Even only a few of the Buda clan knew about it. That was because Meg was strong for her age. If word got out, it would only result in two things. They would either try to control Meg, or try to kill her. These two results were something the Buda clan didn't want to see.

Mages tended to live a lot longer than warriors. A warrior, even an eighth level one, generally could live up to two hundred years. But an eighth level mage can reach two hundred and fifty years of age. Because of this, advanced mages were very important to the Continent. They could protect the Continent for at least a hundred years or so.

On Earth, a king of a feudal country, even if it was a long lived one, could only rule the country for a couple of years. But it wasn't the same here in the Ark Continent. On average, the king of an empire would rule for a hundred years or so. A short lived king would be someone who only ruled for a few decades. And it was for this reason that, even after so many years, the Continent's development wasn't very fast. They didn't invent new machines and technology, and just stayed as a society that used slaves.

It was precisely because of this that Green wouldn't let Zhao speak, especially to a person that would scrutinize other people. As long as he heard someone speak, he could tell their age.

The steward led Zhao into the hotel, which was very well decorated. Beyond the door was a hallway about forty feet long, and from the top hung magic lamps. Even though it was still day, the magic lamps were lit. Facing the entrance was a large bar where two beautiful waitresses and a fat man were standing respectfully. This man was wearing nice silk clothes and on his chest was pinned with a badge that had the Bana symbol. He seemed to be the boss of this hotel.

When the boss saw Zhao come in, he immediately moved towards him and stopped three steps in front of Zhao, then greeted him with a bow. "Welcome, sir mage. You have brought honor to our hotel with your presence. Please stay here and rest, and we will immediately bring you some tea."

Zhao didn't say anything. He turned and walked to the side, then sat down on the sofa that was specifically placed there as a temporary place to rest. The moment he sat down, a waitress came over with a pot of tea and a cup, which she placed down on the coffee table in front of Zhao. He helped himself to it, then gently waved for Meg to stand beside him. With his black robe, the fact that he hadn't spoken, and just made small movements to command Green and Meg, Zhao seemed very impressive.

The boss of this hotel had been paying attention to Zhao. Feeling Zhao's peculiar temperament, his eyes couldn't help but shrink, but the smile on his face didn't change as he soon stood in front of Zhao, and bowed. "Dear Mr. Mage, your room has been arranged on the third floor. Please come with me."

Zhao nodded and stood up. He went along with the boss to the third floor, which wasn't the same as the first or second floors. The third floor had no halls, since there wasn't a need for one when there were so few rooms.

The fat boss led them to room 601 and personally opened the door. Zhao and his group went inside, while the boss stood outside the door. "Dear Mr. Mage, if you need anything, all you have to do is ring this bell to summon someone. Your food will be here shortly. This room has five bedrooms, enough for you and your followers to live in. If it's not to your liking, then I can arrange another room for you."

Zhao said nothing as he looked around the room, but Green understood what he meant, so he immediately turned to the fat boss. "We are very satisfied with this arrangement."

Fat boss immediately bowed. "It is an honor to serve such a great mage. Now please allow me to take my leave." He respectfully closed the door, then left.

With the fat boss gone, Zhao let out a breath and took off his hat. "I didn't expect that these clothes would work so well. That boss was really respectful."

Green also took off his helmet. "Master, you're too naive. That boss just did it out of habit. He's a professional. You may not know this, but this hotel is owned by the Markey clan. That fat boss is one of the Markey's intelligence agents. I believe that before long, the Markey clan will know about us."

Zhao was surprised. "This place is owned by the Markey clan? Grandpa Green, why are we staying here?"

Green smiled slightly. "Sometimes, Master, being low key is not a good thing. Since you can summon an undead, you can actually impersonate a black mage, so they would think we're suspicious if we're not blatantly swaggering around. Plus, this would make everyone doubt that we're from the Buda clan, because no one thinks that we would have the courage to do this."

"I really didn't think that we would actually inform the Markey clan about us in such a place. Grandpa Green, how did you know that this hotel was owned by the Markey clan?"

"It's not a secret. Outside the hotel is a sign that has a Bana symbol, which is the badge of the Markey clan. With the strength of their clan, no one in the Continent would come here to make trouble. We do not need to worry about anyone when we stay here," Green said. "Plus there are a lot of spirit beasts in the mountains. So you could find a lot of useful things here and get them at a very cheap price, so why wouldn't the Markey open a business here?"

Zhao nodded. He had learned from that miscellaneous book that a lot of things on the Continent were made out of materials that came from spirit beasts. Along with their powerful bodies, a lot of spirit beasts had magical properties, which were very useful for alchemists and pharmacists to refine. Those mercenaries and adventurers rely on hunting those spirit beasts to make a living.

However, Zhao was still somewhat puzzled, because from looking at the miscellaneous book, he knew that there weren't any adventurer guild organizations, which you would often see in web novels. "Grandpa Green, where can the adventurers get a task? Or is hunting spirit beasts all they do?"

"Of course not," Green said. "In fact, adventurers can receive a task from equipment shops, hotels, and pubs, which gets them from the big cities. Even if the task is not suitable, they could just go somewhere else to look for one. For example, whenever the Markey Company needed something, they could just share the task with their branches throughout the entire Continent, like the one here in Montenegro Fortress. If they administer any tasks, it would be simple to send a message and get it to an adventurer by tomorrow."

Translator Notes: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.

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