Chapter 148 - Lively Stony Mountain
The large firms didn’t know why the Purcell clan had to do this. This was just too risky, and in their evaluations, the Purcell clan wouldn’t dare take such a risk just because the large firms wanted to increase the price of food. Unexpectedly though, the Purcell clan did do it.
Two days later however, these large firms finally knew why the Purcell clan dared to take the risk of selling cheaply. They really did have the grains. Furthermore, it was around at least several hundred thousand kilograms. Even though it wasn’t a lot compared to the food requirements of the Purcell Duchy, it was able to stabilize the mood of the citizens.
The grains that the Purcell clan brought out was naturally the corn that Zhao Hai produced. Zhao Hai wouldn’t give Laura the unprocessed corn. Otherwise, the amount transported to Laura would have been more. Zhao Hai wouldn’t have this so he only gave Laura the corn that was processed.
This was also due to Zhao Hai’s personal selfishness. There was no corn on the Ark Continent, so if Zhao Hai gave Laura unprocessed corn, Laura might try planting them herself. By that time, Zhao Hai wouldn’t be the only one who could produce corn, which would depreciate its value in the end.
Zhao Hai, however, didn’t process the cornmeal. Instead, he just skinned the corn to the navel, and then processed it into corn kernels and let Laura use it however she wanted. If Laura wanted to get cornmeal, then she could just grind it on her own.
With the addition of these new grains, the price for food stabilized within the Purcell Duchy. But these large firms didn’t try to be patient. They moved to buy these new grains for themselves. This officially began the food war within the Purcell Duchy.
These days, Zhao Hai had been very attentive about the situation in Casa City. He also observed the Ica plains for several days. His observations showed that the pests he summoned really made it so that nothing could be produced. The entirety of the Ica plains, nearly 700 square kilometers, were infested and nothing was spared1.
Zhao Hai really didn’t think that such a small insect could have so much destructive power. This destructive power was just too astonishing. For about two weeks, the entire Ica plains were infested and none of the crops remained. But these insects actually hadn’t died yet since the space had set their lifespan for a specific time. They began to attack the windbreak zones2 that the Purcell clan painstakingly built.
These pests could even devour a tree. Though the speed of doing so could not compare with their speed of eating the crops, the damage to the trees wasn’t small.
Zhao Hai was, in fact, not in control of these insects. He found out that he could only kill them with his pesticide and that his pesticide was quite formidable when used on those insects. This was unlike in the game where you couldn’t kill the insect that you placed. Zhao Hai wasn’t in the mood to help the Purcell clan in exterminating them however, since the crops had already been thoroughly eaten and killing them wouldn’t make any difference.
After the matter in the Ica plains had been solved, Zhao Hai placed all his attention on Casa City. He looked after the bamboo rice everyday, and even though he was not ready to process it himself, he let Laura take it and process them in his stead. This was because the bamboo rice was not something only he had, so he wasn’t worried about the issue of it being leaked out.
After calculating the time when he had used Cast Pests on the Ica plains till now, it had already been half a month. It was now the time to let Green visit the Purcell clan to break off the engagement.
While he thought about this, Green came in from the outside and told Zhao Hai, “Master, the army is gone. Today’s bamboo rice has been transported away.”
Zhao Hai nodded his head. Several days earlier, the corn had been completely sold out by Laura. Now, Laura’s caravan would have to come here everyday to take away the bamboo rice.
However, Zhao Hai would never let them go into the Stony Mountains. He would just let them wait at the foot of the mountain and, under the cover of the Fog of Darkness, place the grains. Then he’d pull back the fog towards the mountain, allowing the people there to take the food and transfer them into the sacks and carriages that were provided by Laura.
Nowadays, the caravan would go from Casa City to the Stony Mountain everyday. It carried back a massive amount of grains to each of the cities within the Purcell Duchy while being guarded by the cavalry.
The foot of the Stony Mountain had almost become a small town. There was a temporary shelter that the Purcell clan built which allowed the slaves to eat, live, and work there in order to continue their job of loading the grains. Everyday there would be almost a couple hundred thousand kilograms of grain that had to be loaded. This wasn’t something that, fewer slaves would be able to do.
The slaves were the slaves from the Ica plains that the Purcell clan then transferred here. All of the crops had been infested in the Ica plains, and even spread so they attacked the woods. Even if they want to plant new crops there, they wouldn’t dare. So the Purcell clan transferred the slaves here, making them load the grains.
Zhao Hai didn’t manage them, but had laid a strict rule that the no one should go to the west side of Stony Mountain. Since the Purcell clan needed Zhao Hai’s cooperation now, no one dared to disobey.
Zhao Hai had to do this in order to create an illusion for the Purcell clan that hinted that side as the passage used to transfer the grains within Stony Mountain. If he didn’t do this, he would have had no way to explain how Stony Mountain could continuously provide food.
Leaving behind such a channel, the Purcell clan could not see how the grains were transported to Stony Mountain. But there was a kind of explanation; on the continent, there was something called a ‘space’ being used.3
Green looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Master, the price of grains are now stable in Casa City, but those big firms aren’t honest. They are probably still trying to find a solution, and I heard recently that they’re going to deal with us first.”
Zhao Hai shook his head. “Nevermind that. Now the Purcell clan is more nervous than us. If they believe that those people will come at us, then the Purcell clan will tidy them up. Right, Grandpa Green. Tomorrow, you should go to Casa City and withdraw the engagement.”
Green nodded and said, ”Yes Master. Don’t worry, I’ll go tomorrow. And Master, you said that we shouldn’t be in Casa City. Aren’t you establishing a transfer point?”
“It is a good idea,” Zhao Hai said, nodding, “but I do not want to place a transfer point in Casa City now. I think in the coming two days, we should make a trip to Casa City and select a transfer point then. ”
“That’s good,” Green said. “As long as we got a transfer point in Casa City, we can directly place the grain there. The people here would then be able to withdraw. Right now, there’s a lot of people around here in Stony Mountain. I’m afraid that they’ll find something.”
Zhao Hai nodded. “Alright, I’ll do that. Tomorrow, you should go break off the engagement, then we will go to Casa City. I just don’t know if this engagement can be so easily withdrawn.”
Green smiled and said, “It should be really easy to withdraw it. Although right now we’re providing food to the Purcell clan, their issues have increased greatly. Furthermore, it is them that wanted to withdraw this engagement in the first place, so they shouldn’t make things complicated.”
Zhao Hai sighed. “I hope everything goes well. I fear the Purcell clan will embarrass you, so it should be convenient to let Grandma Meirin to go with you. Right now I don’t want to make a move just yet. If there is nothing else, I just want you to take care.”
Green shook his head. “No, if Meirin came with me, then the Purcell clan would be suspicious. Let’s leave behind Meirin. They would think Meirin is protecting you. Moreover, even if Meirin didn’t come, they would still think twice before they attack me.“
Zhao Hai nodded and said, “Tomorrow, I’ll let a few of the Night Shades4 accompany you. I believe that with their current strength, they could sneak inside Casa City without anyone knowing with ease. If the Purcell clan wants to attack you, they can lend a hand. ”
This time, Green didn’t refuse. Green also knew that the Purcell clan was not a good bird5. Once he breaks the engagement, the Purcell clan might reason that they lost face and attack him. Since Meirin wouldn’t be present, they wouldn’t dare to kill him, maybe just injure him.6
For the Purcell clan, it was a very good opportunity to do so once Green broke the engagement. They could just use it as a pretext to attack the Buda clan. In any case, there wasn’t anyone who would speak up for the Buda clan. Moreover, the Buda clan only had Rank Eight experts, no Rank Nines. Even if the Buda clan gets mad, they weren’t afraid.
In the eyes of the Purcell clan, the Buda clan was the same as the commoners that they could bully. There was no proper successor to the Buda clan head. Though their power was a little strong, one would only have to use a little strength in order to bully them.
The next morning, Green went out of the Stony Mountain. Although the outside of Stony Mountain was still lively, Green wasn’t afraid since he was a peak Rank Eight expert warrior. It can be said that as long as there were no Rank Nine experts used to get rid of him, there would be few who could match him here on the continent.
Fearing that Green might get into an accident, Zhao Hai deliberately let Green go out with his Ghost Cane7. Regardless of what happens to Green, Zhao Hai would be the first to know and he could easily send Green back into the space.
Moreover, Green bringing the Ghost Staff was tantamount to bringing the space into Casa City. As long as the marriage proposal was withdrawn, they could later change their identity and find a warehouse within Casa City. Later on they could use the transfer point to directly send grains to Casa City, thus avoiding the liveliness around Stony Mountain that resembled a marketplace.
From Stony Mountain, Green walked towards Black Mountain Fortress8 via the Casa City Official Road. Then he went back into the space and quickly changed his clothing. He took off his helmet, armor, and warrior clothes and put on a butler suit. He combed his hair meticulously, and then left a very fine sword attached to his waist.
This was a rapier. Although it looked like the kind that the aristocrats used for etiquette, those were designed for decoration and were useless as a sword. But people who knew Green also knew clearly that this sword was not as simple. Instead, this sword was a rare weapon that the Buda clan owned.
The whole sword was made of a very special metal. Moreover, it had passed through some magic refining and was of use for wind element warriors. If a magic crystal stone was embedded on the sword’s hilt, then one could use the wind magic Wind Bladedge technique, thus making it a magic weapon. This was Green’s famous weapon, named the Spiritwind Sword. Green was nicknamed the Spiritwind Battle General9.
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL'ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
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-Please check out the Editor's footnotes, thanks.
1More math. The Raw was 1 million (百万) mu which is almost 165,000 acres or 667 square kilometers, rounded to 700. Remember, Zhao Hai only wanted to messed around with approximately 1% of the land and aimed for a max of 10%... ↩
2 A barrier of trees and shrubs planted in order to keep the farms from being hit by winds and to prevent erosion of the soil. Wiki ftw... ↩
3 Not very confident about this sentence in terms of translation and edit. I tried to read the raws, but it’s too ambiguous. ↩
4 夜无影 - yè wú yǐng. Lit. Night(夜) no(无) Shadow(影). I had trouble coming up with a better alternative. Keeping Night by itself, the 无影 could be called Shadowless. Night Shadowless or Shadowless Night or if you combine 夜无 and leave 影 by itself… Nightless Shadow isn’t a very good name. I approve of Shif’s version of Night Shade… ↩
5 可不是什么好鸟. Basically means Not a Good Bird. The Good Bird part, is a bit derogatory for a bird that doesn’t clean its nest or something. I dunno, it’s a chinese, maybe. It could just mean as it said and that the purcell clan wasn’t a good bird, literally… *shrugs*: here. http://www.ichacha.net/好鸟.html ↩
6 Better to kill both rather than kill one and incite undying vengeance from the other... ↩
7 恶灵手杖 - è líng shǒuzhàng. Evil(恶) Spirit (灵) Cane (手杖). Cane can also be termed walking stick or hand wand. ↩
8 黑山塞 - Hēishān sāi. Black Mountain Fortress… This was confusing at first because 黑山 was tled as Montenegro. Anyways, 黑山 lit. means Black Mountain. The even more difficult part was 塞 which means stopper, plug, cork when it’s used as sè. Different pronunciations of the same word can mean different things. This one I’m using, sāi, means fortress or strategic pass. ↩
9 灵风剑 - Líng fēng jiàn. 灵风将战 - Líng fēng jiāng zhàn. The 灵 is spirit, the 风 is wind, and the 剑 is sword. The first two characters, 灵风 is also part of his nickname in 灵风将战. As for the last part, 将 is zhan for battle and 战 is Jiang which can mean general or king. Thus, the weapon is called Spiritwind Sword (灵风剑) while his nickname is Spiritwind Battle General (灵风将战) where I switched the last two words so it flowed better. Badass. I didn’t use king cause with his position in the family, it’s more likely he led troops as a general than anything. If I kept it in the right order, it would still be an awesome name, Spiritwind General of War, but a bit too long for a nickname... ↩