Chapter 19 (continued)

Xie Juanhan stepped forward to take a look.

Sure enough, there wasn't much rice left in the horse's trough.

Right in front of them, the horse lowered its head, scooped up a big mouthful of rice, and lazily chewed away.

The distinctive fresh fragrance of rice wafted from its mouth.

The sprouted rice still smelled just as fragrant.

Clearly, it was good-quality rice.

Xie Juanhan walked over to the trough and reached in to scoop up some rice for a closer look.

The horse chewing grain beside him immediately took offense and stretched out its head to bite Xie Juanhan's hand. "Neigh—"

"Chirp, chirp!" The Companion Beasts rushed forward, kicked off with their hind legs, and jumped onto the horse's back. They grabbed its ears with their claws, keeping it from lowering its head.

The horse's ears were pulled so hard that even its eyelids stretched upward. "Huh?!"

The Companion Beasts cried, "Chirp!!"

The fat shopkeeper hadn't expected things to come to this in the blink of an eye. He hurriedly tried to separate the two sides.

"Goddess above, no fighting!"

"Friend, those little magical beasts of yours are really fierce."

"Hey, Little Sally, don't bite the customer! No kicking, either!!!"

While the fat shopkeeper was scrambling to break up the fight, Xie Juanhan had already finished examining the sprouted rice.

"Is this rice for sale?"

"You still want it after it's sprouted? You can't eat it anymore; it tastes bitter. Our Little Sally is the only one who still likes the stuff."

"I do. I'll take it back and see if I can grow it."

"You can't grow it! Lots of people have tried, but none of them could. It grows in warm, damp marshes. We can't grow it here."

"I'll give it a try. Maybe I can."

The fat shopkeeper looked at Xie Juanhan dubiously, but seeing how confident he was, he didn't object in the end.

Xie Juanhan didn't manage to buy rice.

Xie Juanhan bought a small bag of rice seed for a third of the price.

He had even snatched it from a horse's mouth.

The horse watched helplessly as its owner swept the remaining rice out of the trough, put it in a bag, and handed it to Xie Juanhan. It was stunned.

After a while, it realized what had happened and angrily kicked up its hooves and snorted, glaring at Xie Juanhan. "Neigh!"

Xie Juanhan looked at the horse, took out a handful of nuts he'd gathered in the Magic Forest, and held them out. "Want some?"

The horse tilted its head.

The fat shopkeeper quickly took the nuts from Xie Juanhan's hand and fed them to the horse.

Only then did the horse end its one-sided hostility.

After leaving the fat shopkeeper's shop, Xie Juanhan was visibly in a better mood.

Telingewei looked at him. "Want to look around some more?"

"No, I want to go back and plant rice." Xie Juanhan raised the cloth bag. "I can't put it off with rice that's already sprouted."

Xie Juanhan hadn't expected to be able to buy rice so soon.

He had originally planned to clear some land and plant a few things after collecting enough Demonic Cores to build his house.

Now that he had rice, clearing the land couldn't wait.

Rice needed to be grown somewhere warm and damp, so he cleared a small plot beside the hot spring, near the river.

The hot spring's geothermal heat made it warmer here than elsewhere, though not scorching hot.

The rice should grow well here.

Xie Juanhan planned to clear a small plot for a seedbed first. Once he had sown the seeds and the seedlings had grown a little, he would transplant them to the plot beside it.

It had been too many years since he had last planted anything with his own hands.

Xie Juanhan's farming skills were a little rusty.

Fortunately, he had Dragon Power, and the seedlings grew fairly smoothly in the field.

Once the seedlings had grown, he could clear more land and prepare to transplant them into a paddy.

Xie Juanhan borrowed a plowshare from Orfrey's family and plowed a plot specifically for it.

The villagers of Ailan Village needed draft horses to work the land.

Xie Juanhan could pull the plowshare with his bare hands.

He plowed the field three times, only beginning to build the ridges once every inch of soil was soft and fine.

Farming was Xie Juanhan's own interest.

He declined help from Telingewei and the Companion Beasts and completed the enormous task alone.

Once the ridges were finished, he channeled river water into the field.

The field had just been plowed, and the soil was fine beneath the shimmering water.

The blue sky and white clouds were reflected in the field.

The trees were reflected there too, a swath of green.

Xie Juanhan admired the patches of azure, lead white, and dark brown.

As he stood absorbed in the view, he suddenly caught a faint scent of moss and dampness.

There was something else mixed in with the damp smell.

For a moment, he couldn't tell exactly what it was.

He raised his head and looked straight toward the source of the smell.

As soon as he looked over, he saw a bearded, big-nosed dwarf in a pointed hat and yellowish-brown clothes jump out from behind a tree stump on the opposite side.

Noticing Xie Juanhan's gaze, the little dwarf's short legs churned rapidly as he fled in a panic, stepping across the pebbles in the middle of the river to the other side.

The next day, when Orfrey brought over the milk, Xie Juanhan asked him about the dwarves.

Orfrey thought back for a moment, looking puzzled. "I haven't seen any dwarves. Did one come looking for you?"

Xie Juanhan nodded.

"Perhaps they heard you were going to build a house and came especially to ask about it." Orfrey thought for a moment. "Dwarves would never miss a chance to do business."

Xie Juanhan recalled Telingewei's assessment of the dwarves as "money-grubbing." "How did they know I was going to build a house?"

"Maybe Arnold?" Orfrey said. "He and the other masons have always worked with the dwarves."

So that was it.

Xie Juanhan understood.

After deciding to hire the dwarves to build his house, he had even sent the mason Arnold a basket of bread and berries by way of apology.

Xie Juanhan did want to get in touch with the dwarves.

He contacted them through Arnold.

The afternoon after Arnold passed along the message, three little dwarves came together to visit Xie Juanhan while the Companion Beasts were away.

"Good afternoon, my lord." The three little dwarves properly removed the pointed hats from their heads and greeted Xie Juanhan.

"Good afternoon." Xie Juanhan skipped over the matter of the dwarves spying on him and got straight to the point. "I want to build a house, so I asked you here to take a look."

The little dwarves looked delighted. "You've come to the right people. My lord, where would you like to build your house?"

Xie Juanhan took the three little dwarves to see the place where he wanted to build, as well as the building materials he had gathered.

"These stones and straw are excellent, and the ground is very level. If you're willing, we can start building tomorrow."

The dwarf in the lead said this after looking over the materials Xie Juanhan had gathered.

Xie Juanhan asked, "I want to build three houses. About how many Demonic Cores would that take?"

"Five level-four Demonic Cores for one house, so fifteen for three. You provide the materials and leave the rest to us."

"We'll build the best houses, and we'll even inscribe them with the protective magic passed down by our dwarf ancestors!"

"They should take about a month to finish. You can come inspect them then."

Xie Juanhan looked down and negotiated with them. "I'll pay four level-four Demonic Cores at most for one house. I want to build three, and two of the walls can be shared, so you'll have less work to do. Surely the total price should be discounted?"

The dwarves stood firm. "Four level-four Demonic Cores is too little. If you buy slate roof tiles from us, we can give you a discount on those."

"The slate tiles can be full price. I want a discount on the houses." Xie Juanhan tried to persuade them. "Even at four level-four Demonic Cores per house, you'd receive twelve level-four Demonic Cores all at once."

"But three houses means more work too." One of the little dwarves looked pitifully at Xie Juanhan. Before he could finish, he let out an earth-shaking sneeze. "Achoo-"

Set off by their companion's sneeze, the other two little dwarves sneezed in unison. "Achoo!"

Immediately afterward, they raised their hands and rubbed their bright red noses together.

Xie Juanhan took four or five steps back in succession, putting some distance between himself and the dwarves, then turned his head aside and rubbed his nose too.

The little dwarves grew embarrassed. "It's been raining, and the cave is full of water. We've caught a bit of a chill."

Xie Juanhan said casually, "It's probably rather damp, and the Resentment Moss has gone wild again."

The little dwarves stared at Xie Juanhan with wide eyes, not understanding. "My lord, what's Resentment Moss?"

Xie Juanhan had only learned about Resentment Moss from Telingewei and didn't know much about the creature himself. He simply reached out and tapped one of the dwarves, sending a little Dragon Power into him. "There."

The instant Xie Juanhan raised his hand.

A layer of green moss rapidly grew over the little dwarf's thick skin, hair, and hat, then withered and turned yellow.

"Resentment Moss." Xie Juanhan gestured toward it.

The little dwarves were stunned.

They actually had that stuff on them!

The little dwarf who had grown Resentment Moss shook himself vigorously.

The withered yellow Resentment Moss fell from him with a rustle, leaving him completely clean in the blink of an eye.

The other two little dwarves grabbed his arms on either side and stared at him with wide eyes, then leaned close and sniffed him.

"It's gone."

"Goddess, there's no smell anymore!"

The three little dwarves looked at Xie Juanhan together.

"Lord Silver Dragon, were we cursed?"

"Goddess, you've lifted the curse for us!"

Xie Juanhan pointed at the little dwarf who had grown Resentment Moss. "Not really. I just sent a little Dragon Power into him and made the Resentment Moss on him complete one life cycle."

One of the little dwarves widened his eyes. "Was that purification?"

"No," Xie Juanhan said. "Dragon Power is just a kind of energy. It can promote the growth of living things. The Resentment Moss withered after producing spores."

"Then it was a blessing!"

"Lord Silver Dragon, you're so kind!"

"The other races always say we don't like to keep clean, but we really do. We just don't know why we always have a smell on us."