Farming the Golden Land

"Why did it get smaller?"

Wentesi, who had just crossed back into the Western fantasy world, looked around the cave in puzzlement.

He found that the Golden Land cave was now so small he couldn't even turn around.

"Right. I was only two meters long before I fell asleep. Now I'm seven meters long."

Wentesi realized that he had grown.

As a juvenile dragon, he had a twelve-meter wingspan and a seven-meter-long body. The cave simply couldn't contain him.

The cave hadn't actually shrunk; he had grown bigger.

The cave also contained a patch of Golden Land Wentesi had planted earlier, which was now a little larger than before.

"Some Hairy Head Sun Law Power must have leaked out while I was asleep, and the Golden Land absorbed it."

Wentesi thought it over. Perhaps some Hairy Head Sun Law Power had leaked out while he slept, becoming nourishment for the Golden Land and helping it expand.

It was an unexpected bonus.

Because the cave was so cramped, Wentesi adjusted his posture and angle, trying to charge out through the entrance.

But his seven-meter body and twelve-meter wingspan were simply too large.

He had only just reached the entrance when his body got stuck.

But how could hard rock stand up to the physique of a true dragon?

"Crack!"

In an instant, the hard rock shattered like sheets of flaky pastry.

Wentesi exerted himself and charged straight ahead with brute force, bursting out of the cave and into the great lake.

Icy lake water surged toward him at once. Wentesi hurriedly wrapped his entire body in Hairy Head Sun Law Power, keeping every last drop out.

Then he swung his dragon tail, tucked his wings close, and stretched all four claws forward, swimming steadily upward like a giant red fish in the lake.

The schools of fish blowing bubbles and playing on the surface sensed a terrifying dragon might and scattered.

The herds of wild deer and goats drinking by the lake also felt that terrifying dragon might. They first raised their heads, their eyes wide.

The next moment, they pushed off with all four hooves and fled into the dense forest, vanishing from sight.

These ordinary beasts lacked the powerful abilities and talents of Devil Creatures and magical creatures.

Yet it was thanks to this caution and care that they had survived and reproduced in this world to this day.

"Boom!"

With a tremendous, sky-shaking crash, Wentesi burst through the surface and flew into the sky.

As he rose, the sunlight of the Western fantasy world fell squarely on him.

The sun hung directly overhead. It was evidently around noon.

After seven months, Wentesi finally faced the sun once more.

"The sun."

Wentesi stared directly at the sun overhead and suddenly felt an inexplicable comfort.

His ravenous dragon body involuntarily drew the Greater Yang Qi scattered through the air into itself.

Countless strands of Greater Yang Qi became a warm current, merging into Wentesi's limbs and every meridian, nourishing his body, replenishing his Law Power, and strengthening his physique.

At moments like this, Wentesi always marveled at how wondrous the cultivation world's Cultivation Methods were.

They could actually turn sunlight into energy, draw it into his body, and then convert it into Law Power.

The Hairy Head Sun Method alone would absolutely be a supreme divine art in the Western fantasy world, possessing so many abilities: dispelling evil, removing obstacles, purifying, cleansing, and more.

It could even break the shackles of racial bloodlines and allow constant improvement. What tremendous power that was.

"So I can't give up on the cultivation world."

Wentesi spoke to himself. Cultivation Methods were far from the only treasure in the cultivation world; there were surely countless other good things.

Giving up that treasure trove would be far too great a loss!

Just then, he suddenly felt an itch in his throat. He wanted to let out a dragon roar.

"Roar-!"

A long-awaited dragon roar, carrying dragon might and Hairy Head Sun Law Power, burst forth from the center of the lake.

The roar was immensely piercing, startling the flocks of birds roosting throughout the surrounding woods into flight.

"That feels wonderful! I really do need to stay in a world with a sun."

Wentesi sighed, then beat his wings and flew toward Emerald Valley.

He hadn't seen his Emerald Valley territory for seven months. He didn't know what earth-shaking changes might have occurred.

He hoped nothing had gone wrong!

His twelve-meter wings did indeed carry him faster than before. In no time, Wentesi reached the edge of the Emerald Valley territory.

But he soon noticed something strange.

"Why is it gold as far as I can see?"

Wentesi was puzzled.

The ground throughout the Emerald Valley territory before him had been dyed gold.

At a glance, one might have thought the Goddess of Wealth had used her divine power to turn the land into gold.

Wentesi sensed it briefly and realized that the entire stretch of land had become his Golden Land.

That was right-Golden Land!

Most of Emerald Valley had become Wentesi's Golden Land.

There was something else strange.

Wentesi looked down. The planting area halfway up the slope was covered in a peculiar crop of bluish-gold.

It looked like millet, yet also like rice. Every plant was laden with plump grains, its head bowed.

The bluish-gold crop covered roughly thirty mu, a magnificent sight as far as the eye could see.

Even more conspicuous was the five-meter-tall stone statue outside the dragon's nest.

He didn't know when it had been built.

Judging by its appearance, it was unmistakably Wentesi's big-headed dragon form from before his slumber.

Many Devil Creatures sat before the statue: a large group of gnolls, another large group of kobolds, and a small number of bearfolk and minotaurs.

At the very front of the Devil Creatures were Walker the gnoll and Kru the kobold.

Over the past seven months, both Devil Creatures had advanced in rank.

Walker had returned to level five, while Kru had finally broken through the shackles of level three to become a level-four Devil Creature.

At that moment, their claws pointed at the ground one moment and the statue behind them the next, as though they were talking about something.

Wentesi swooped down from the sky and landed beside the statue.

His enormous dragon body and terrifying dragon might instantly caused an uproar among the Devil Creatures.

The warlike bearfolk immediately picked up the weapons beside them and stood; the minotaurs followed, gathering together and preparing for battle.

The kobolds were the first to recognize that familiar dragon might. They called out in draconic, sounding like barking dogs, to welcome their master's return.

The gnolls joined in with wolf howls, echoing their welcome for their master's return.

Walker and Kru naturally recognized their master Wentesi as well, despite his greatly changed appearance.

Walker immediately let out a wolf howl at the Devil Creatures, bringing the commotion under control.

He then scolded the minotaurs who had risen and the bearfolk holding weapons, ordering them to put down their weapons and sit.

He made it clear to all the Devil Creatures that the red dragon who had flown in was the master of the territory!

Kru, the territory's chief steward, rushed up to Wentesi, knelt on one knee, and performed a gesture of submission:

"Welcome back, Master!"

Wentesi held his head high, ignoring the group of Devil Creatures with their varied expressions, and asked Kru:

"Tell me how things have been in the territory."

As the territory's chief steward, Kru naturally needed to report on this in person.

Before going to sleep, Wentesi had placed Kru, the chief steward, in charge of all the territory's affairs, great and small.

Kru seemed to have been prepared and gave his account in detail:

"Master, seven months have passed since you left.

"First, quite a few gnoll and kobold young have been born during this time. The population has increased by a tenth.

"Second, regarding trade with the caravan: one week after you left, the shapeshifter caravan returned and bought all the three-flower honey in storage. Following your instructions, I exchanged it all for gold coins.

"Third, the spirit seeds and Spirit Plants you ordered us to plant..."

At this point, a rare trace of hesitation appeared on Kru's face.

Wentesi noticed something was amiss and said:

"What is it?"

Kru gave a wry smile.

"When your Spirit Plants were planted in ordinary soil, they either suddenly withered and died or failed to sprout. No amount of careful tending helped, and I couldn't do anything about it."

Wentesi fell silent.

Come to think of it, that made sense. It was only natural for the spirit seeds and Spirit Plants from the cultivation world to struggle to adapt here.

After all, this wasn't even the same world.

Wentesi simply hadn't thought of it.

But Kru changed tack:

"However, I later discovered by chance that planting these spirit seeds in your Golden Land gave them an extremely high survival rate and an astonishing growth rate.

"So I took it upon myself to order my subordinates to plant all these spirit seeds in the Golden Land."

"The results... were quite good."

As Kru spoke, he pointed at the flourishing Spirit Plant crops in the Golden Land.

Wentesi was taken aback.

What? My Golden Land can be used for farming too?