Chapter 19

Telingewei said, "You're welcome. Without you, I couldn't have followed the currents and found so many Demonic Cores."

Xie Juanhan had been so busy chasing the currents today that he hadn't kept track of the route either.

The sea all looked much the same to him anyway.

Without the stars to guide him, he couldn't have remembered the way even if he'd tried.

Xie Juanhan turned to look around and asked, "Do you know where we are?"

Telingewei nodded. "I sometimes fly out here to hunt magic sharks. Normally, it takes three days to fly here from the Magic Forest."

"That's so far!" Xie Juanhan suddenly realized something. "Doesn't that mean we won't be coming here very often?"

Telingewei said, "There's usually no need to come here. These Demonic Cores took at least ten years to accumulate."

"That's not what I meant," Xie Juanhan said.

Telingewei was puzzled.

The little ones floating nearby with Demonic Cores in their arms were puzzled too.

They all looked up at Xie Juanhan.

Xie Juanhan tipped his chin toward the seabed. "Don't you think the silt down there is especially fertile?"

They had spent all day stirring things up in the sea.

The silt below was fertile and fine.

Perhaps a great deal of debris from magical creatures had settled in it. Besides the usual nutrients, it also contained a faint trace of magical energy.

Telingewei immediately understood and said seriously, "You can't grow things in soil from the sea."

"You can," Xie Juanhan said cheerfully. "You just have to desalinate it, dry it in the sun, and ferment it. Back home-by which I mean the spacetime I originally came from—we sometimes used treated sea mud."

Telingewei asked, "Are you sure?"

"Of course." Xie Juanhan nodded firmly. "I even took courses on the subject and put it into practice many times. The sea mud in my original spacetime didn't have any magical energy, but it still worked very well when blended into fertilizer."

Telingewei hesitantly rummaged in his Dragon Scale Space.

Xie Juanhan watched him.

Telingewei pulled out a stack of large cloth sacks and held them up in front of Xie Juanhan. "Then shall we scoop some up?"

Xie Juanhan laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. "That's just like you!"

A smile entered Telingewei's eyes as well. "Let's scoop it up before dark."

The two dragons dived back down to the seabed to gather silt.

Gathering silt was much easier than finding Demonic Cores. Before long, they had filled seven large sacks.

Xie Juanhan had emptied out all the sacks that originally held Demonic Cores.

Apart from the Demonic Cores the Companion Beasts were holding, he had stuffed them all into his Dragon Scale Space.

There was too much silt for Xie Juanhan to carry.

Telingewei transformed back into a gigantic black dragon and floated on the surface of the sea.

Xie Juanhan piled the sacks of silt on his back, then sat cross-legged there, holding the little ones. "All set."

The black dragon said in a deep voice, "Then I'm taking off. Let's go back and carry the whale oil home."

"Okay!" Xie Juanhan said.

The giant dragon took flight, and the sea breeze brushed against Xie Juanhan's face.

Xie Juanhan narrowed his eyes and looked around at the large sacks of silt, then thought about the Demonic Cores in his Dragon Scale Space.

Today really hadn't been a wasted trip!

==========Author's note:==========

Here I am! Since the story's going on a featured list tomorrow, tomorrow's update will be pushed back to eleven at night. See you tomorrow!

PS: You can adjust the font size and line spacing of the author's notes in the settings at the bottom of the app.

Thanks to Mango Nuomici, Full-Sugar Zero-Fat Herbal Tea, Mischievous Little Girl, Walking Whale, Su Aqi, Rain-Glazed Flowing Frost, A Passerby, Y, mgk993, South Branch, Sleeping Lychee, and Suihe for the land mines.

Chapter 19: Chapter 19 [VIP]

Xie Juanhan and the others encountered no trouble on their return journey.

They set off from the offshore island in the morning and reached the Magic Forest before midnight.

There was no moon that night.

In the dim starlight, the trees of the Magic Forest cast shifting shadows in the wind.

It seemed especially tranquil.

The giant black dragon landed silently by the river, outside Xie Juanhan's temporary home.

Telingewei was about to change back into human form.

Xie Juanhan gently stopped him, leaned close, and whispered, "Don't turn human. The little ones are fast asleep. Don't wake them."

The giant dragon gestured with his eyes toward the sacks on his back, asking whether Xie Juanhan could manage alone.

"Of course." Xie Juanhan smiled. "I'll be done in no time."

Xie Juanhan quietly unloaded the sacks of silt from the giant dragon's back, one by one.

After stacking them up, he was about to jump off Telingewei's back and say goodbye.

Telingewei gave him another look, indicating that he should take another pot of whale oil.

Xie Juanhan hadn't wanted it, but seeing how hard he was working to convey the message with his eyes in the dark, he finally accepted the whale oil.

"Get some good rest tomorrow. See you the day after." Xie Juanhan waved at the giant dragon.

The giant dragon nodded and took flight, carrying the whale oil and a back full of fluffy little ones to his cave.

After Telingewei carried the little ones away,

Xie Juanhan took a bath in the hot spring and then had a long, sound sleep at his temporary home.

He didn't wake until the following afternoon.

Once awake, he carried the sacks of silt downstream and submerged them in the river to desalinate.

They weren't far from the sea.

Salt water and fresh water met at the river's mouth, so putting the silt in the slightly saltier river water to desalinate wouldn't pollute the environment.

Instead, because the difference in salinity wasn't particularly great, the silt would lose relatively less energy and nutrients during desalination.

Xie Juanhan reckoned that after soaking it here for ten days to half a month, he could pull it out for further treatment.

While waiting for the silt to desalinate, Xie Juanhan and Telingewei took the little Companion Beasts to Teme Port.

They were going to sell Demonic Cores and buy rice.

Selling the Demonic Cores went smoothly. Telingewei found an acquaintance at the Adventurers' Association to trade with.

The acquaintance was very accommodating.

In the end, Xie Juanhan exchanged his large sack of damaged Demonic Cores leaking energy for six level-four Demonic Cores.

Added to the one he already had, he now had seven in total.

That was enough to build a house and a half.

Xie Juanhan counted the Demonic Cores in high spirits and called to Telingewei and the Companion Beasts, "My treat. Let's get something to eat first, then buy rice."

The little ones cheered. "Chirp!"

After lunch,

Telingewei led Xie Juanhan off to buy rice.

Teme Port was a large port.

Xie Juanhan had been there a few times, but after following Telingewei through a series of twists and turns, he soon realized he had never been to this part before.

They followed the inland river that ran through Teme Port into an alley.

The river ran along one side of the alley, while neat rows of houses stood on the other.

Most were stone houses, their gray-white walls topped with gray-white slate tiles.

Statues of fairies, demons, and magical beasts in various shapes stood atop the different houses, all with their mouths wide open to serve as drains.

Xie Juanhan admired the distinctive architecture.

Every now and then, adventurers carrying weapons or with wands tucked into their sleeves came toward them.

The adventurers thought nothing of the Companion Beasts hopping along beside them.

Xie Juanhan, on the other hand, sometimes looked back for another glimpse of them.

"That's the trading house." Telingewei gestured toward a shop ahead.

Xie Juanhan's attention returned, and he looked ahead.

The Companion Beasts were faster than him. They ran and bounded to the entrance, then turned to look at Telingewei. "Chirp chirp?"

Telingewei said, "Knock."

The little ones stood on their hind toes with both front paws against the door, jumping up and waving their paws as they tried to reach the metal ring on the door.

The metal door knocker hung a little too high.

After a long struggle, one little creature finally hooked the ring with the tip of its claw and knocked it against the door, only to find that it couldn't pull its claw free.

It dangled from the knocker, swinging back and forth, but still couldn't get loose. It looked back pitifully, pleading for help with its eyes.

Xie Juanhan hurried over, took the little one's paw, and freed it. Then he gave the door a knock.

"Knock, knock."

"Knock-knock-"

After a while, a sleepy voice came from inside. "Who is it?"

Telingewei said, "We're here to buy something."

"Coming, coming." The person inside came to open the door. The moment he saw Telingewei, his eyes went wide. "Goddess, you're actually still alive!"

Telingewei nodded. "Thanks to you."

The fat shopkeeper looked at Telingewei, then curiously at Xie Juanhan beside him. He didn't ask any further questions, though, and only said, "What do you want to buy? You know I don't have as wide a selection as Old Madam Mary."

"Rice," Telingewei said.

"Rice?" The fat shopkeeper quickly caught on. "You mean Herbert Fang Rice? Goddess above, you're too late."

Xie Juanhan cut in. "It's sold out?"

"Oh, no. It went bad."

The fat shopkeeper looked back at Xie Juanhan with a sad expression. "It only went bad a couple of days ago."

A question mark popped up over Xie Juanhan's head.

"There was a strong wind a couple of days ago, and a roof tile fell and smashed the Demonic Core installed in the protective array." The fat shopkeeper spread his hands in frustration. "The protective magic failed, and all the unhusked rice sprouted the next day. I've already fed it to Little Sally."

Xie Juanhan asked, "Sally?"

"My horse, out in the back courtyard." The fat shopkeeper sighed. "It must be a demon's curse. Besides the rice, several other items in my warehouse went bad too."

This merchant was said to be the only one in Teme Port who sold rice.

Xie Juanhan hadn't expected such a coincidence.

He looked toward the back courtyard.

A horse stood facing the courtyard door, its head lowered as it chewed food from a trough.

Xie Juanhan asked, "Can I go take a look?"

"Of course," the fat shopkeeper said. "But Little Sally has almost finished the rice. I'm afraid all you'll see is the trough."