At first, the serfs had all sorts of opinions about what the toilets were for. But when the first one was finished, they were astonished to discover that it had been built for them.
It was hard for the serfs to imagine that such a spacious, brand-new stone building had been built just to deal with their waste. Even as they wondered whether their lord was wasting money, they eagerly made use of the toilets every day.
It wasn't because of the notice issued a few days ago forbidding them from dumping their waste wherever they pleased. The serfs simply felt that aside from using the toilets, they would probably never have anything to do with a brand-new stone building in their lives.
After all three toilets had been built, Nalant personally inspected Wheat Leaf Village and Misfortune Village.
As well as checking the quality of the stone buildings, he inspected the roads.
Sure enough, the foul stench that had once filled the roads was gone. It seemed that even before the toilets were finished, the serfs had done a good job of obeying his order not to dump their waste.
"Five days have passed. The waste in those pits should be about done fermenting." Now that he had made some progress on sanitation, it was time to move on to the next step.
Nalant had learned from Pete Leatherboot and Kenbi Cowdung that the serfs were worried that the wheat seedlings had been planted too close together and wouldn't get enough nutrients.
So he ordered Pete and Kenbi to take the waste buried in the pits a few days ago and use it to fertilize the wheat fields.
The two village chiefs didn't understand why, but their lord's orders were divine grace. They brought the people of Storm Territory along and began carrying them out without hesitation.
"Blazing Triple Slash!"
In the castle's back garden, Battle Qi gathered and compressed inside several of Nalant's body's special meridians.
The process of gathering and compressing it lasted about four breaths.
"First slash!"
Boom!
Nalant moved in a flash. As he struck with the first slash, his longsword was suddenly wreathed in fierce flames.
The fire was scorching hot. It wasn't an illusion; the flames were real, formed when the highly compressed Battle Qi was released in an instant.
The second slash...
The third slash...
The flames on the longsword danced wildly. By the time Nalant's third sword strike came, they had reached their peak, and the air around them had begun to warp.
As the third slash came crashing down, the longsword struck a stone weighing dozens of pounds in front of him!
Bang!
The stone burst into pieces, and many of the smaller fragments were charred black.
"Haha! That feels great! No wonder everyone loves a powerful move. If I'd had Blazing Triple Slash, that Hellhound wouldn't have gotten a second chance to attack me that day!"
That was right. Nalant had now successfully learned the secret technique, Blazing Triple Slash.
After eating the Intelligence Fruit, the Battle Qi techniques written on the parchment had no longer seemed obscure or difficult to understand. After several days of constant practice, he had finally gained his first powerful move.
"Even though Dili is a Mid-Rank Bronze Knight, with a Battle Qi secret technique and Vivian at my side, we should be able to handle him."
Nalant let out a sigh of relief. He was now confident that he could deal with the biggest obstacle at Quinte Camp.
Meanwhile, inside a lavish, gilded hall in Quinte Baron Castle...
"Strange. Why haven't those unlucky fools brought over their fish to sell yet?"
Quinte sat on a sofa made from snow fox fur, holding a silver cup. He drank some Magic Coconut as he furrowed his brow and pondered aloud.
Although he had already accumulated quite a fortune from salt, Quinte still had his eye on the fish from Storm Territory. His expenses were enormous, after all, so he needed to make a lot of money.
"My lord, Captain Johnny is waiting to see you in the front courtyard!" A servant appeared at the entrance to the hall.
"Let him in!"
Soon, Captain Johnny entered the hall, escorted by the servant.
"Greetings, my lord!"
"Mm. Johnny, why aren't you patrolling the town? What brings you back?"
"My lord, I heard some urgent news, so I came right away to report it!"
"What urgent news?" Quinte rarely heard anyone use the word "urgent." He straightened his bulky frame.
"My lord, do you remember how the castle steward said the salt-buying caravans would be fewer this month?"
"Yes, I remember." Quinte nodded.
The nobles' caravans usually came to Quinte Territory to buy salt once a month, near the end of the month. But two days ago, something strange had happened: the number of noble caravans from Tulip Territory had dropped by more than half.
When the steward had mentioned it, Quinte hadn't paid much attention. He was the only one in the area who produced salt, after all. Perhaps something had delayed them.
But when he heard what Johnny had to say, his heart skipped a beat.
"My lord, I think I know why! Just now, at a tavern in town, I overheard the manager of a merchant caravan from Tulip Territory talking. He said that the neighboring Storm Territory is selling salt too!"
"Storm Territory is producing salt now? A few days ago, they were so short on salt that they came to us to dry their fish, weren't they?" Quinte was taken aback and didn't quite believe it.
"My lord, that's what the caravan manager said. What's more, the salt from Storm Territory is cheaper. Even commoners only have to pay seven Copper Coins per packet. If they go straight to Storm Territory to buy it, it only costs five Copper Coins per packet!"
Captain Johnny answered cautiously.
"Could you have heard wrong?" Quinte's hand shook, making the silver cup tremble.
"My lord, I don't think so. I even treated the manager to a beer. He said the salt from Storm Territory wasn't mixed with sand, either. If the nobles weren't worried about attracting bad luck, they probably wouldn't come to us to buy salt anymore!"
Bang!
"Bastard! Selling it to commoners for five Copper Coins a packet? And it isn't mixed with sand? Has that useless second son gone mad with poverty? How much could he possibly make?" After hearing confirmation several times, Quinte had no choice but to believe it. And the number of nobles from Tulip Territory who had come to buy salt this month really had fallen by half.
At the thought of this, Quinte hurled the silver cup in his hand to the floor and roared, his face twisted with rage.
Salt was the specialty of Quinte Territory! If Nalant really disrupted the market like this, Quinte's income would take a serious hit.
"Send someone over to investigate what's going on. And find out where that salt-producing Sprite is. The salt trade in this area must be under my control!"
Quinte truly hated Nalant now. After all, taking away someone's livelihood was like murdering their parents—especially when the livelihood in question belonged to a petty, stingy Baron Quinte.
"Yes, my lord!" Johnny heard the order and ducked out of the hall.