Chapter 20

"And it was always so itchy!"

Xie Juanhan said, "Maybe it's because you live underground, where it's dark and damp, and you come into contact with more Resentment Moss. It's parasitized your bodies."

One of the little dwarves looked at Xie Juanhan pleadingly. "Could you help us get rid of the Resentment Moss too? It is Resentment Moss, right?"

"But," another little dwarf stammered, "we can't give you a discount for it. Mainly because building the house is, is, is a matter for the whole dwarf clan. But we can give you gold coins!"

The little dwarf whose Resentment Moss had already been removed produced a gold coin and held it out to Xie Juanhan. "Lord Silver Dragon, please accept this."

The other two little dwarves promptly produced gold coins and held them up in their short little hands. "Please accept these!"

Xie Juanhan hadn't wanted to take them, but seeing how insistent they were, he finally accepted.

Once he had taken the heavy gold coins into his palm, Xie Juanhan noticed that the three coins were smaller, and instead of the usual flowers and little fish, they were engraved with exquisite designs of ores, tools, pointed hats, and the like.

Xie Juanhan asked curiously, "Are these gold coins you use among yourselves?"

"Yeah," the little dwarf said. "A lot of metals rust underground, but gold doesn't, so we like using gold coins."

Xie Juanhan said, "Telingewei told me about that."

The little dwarves also knew the two of them were acquainted. They muttered, "That dragon is so stingy. He never trades gold with us. His gold is piled higher than a mountain already."

Xie Juanhan smiled. "That's because my friend also likes gold very much."

The little dwarves looked up at Xie Juanhan, showing some of the whites of their eyes, and didn't dare say another word.

Xie Juanhan had no intention of making things difficult for them. After accepting the gold coins, he removed the Resentment Moss from the other two little dwarves and warned them, "Removing the Resentment Moss only works for a while. If you spend too long somewhere with a lot of it, it'll grow back on you."

The little dwarves didn't mind at all. "Got it."

Xie Juanhan hadn't managed to reach an agreement with the little dwarves about building the house, but he had earned three gold coins instead.

He planned to drag things out and see whether there was room to bargain.

Unexpectedly, early the next morning, while the Companion Beasts were still sleeping in and hadn't come over,

a huge crowd of little dwarves came pouring in across the river.

There were at least several hundred!

The little dwarves stood by the river, looking across at Xie Juanhan on the opposite bank.

Xie Juanhan woke up wearing his nightcap and hugging his fluffy feather quilt, only to see the crowd of little dwarves staring eagerly at him without saying a word.

For a moment, he wondered if the mushrooms he had picked over the past two days were poisonous.

Otherwise, why would he be seeing something like a vision brought on by poisonous mushrooms?

"Lord Silver Dragon, you're awake?"

"My lord, we've come to ask you to remove the Resentment Moss."

Xie Juanhan said, "..."

It seemed he really needed to build his house as soon as possible, lest he wake up to find people gawking at him like a monkey.

The dwarves had come right to his door, the whole clan together.

Xie Juanhan had no choice but to ask them to wait a little.

After washing up, Xie Juanhan crossed the river to help the little dwarves remove the Resentment Moss.

He channeled Dragon Power into the little dwarves one by one.

The Resentment Moss on their bodies received the energy, grew at a tremendous speed, and fell off just as quickly.

The little dwarves lined up in a queue were quickly covered in yellow and green Resentment Moss, making them look like little scarecrows.

The children among them, in particular, had short arms and legs and big eyes. Once the Resentment Moss grew, they looked just like little dolls.

Xie Juanhan sighed silently, and his movements grew a little gentler as he channeled Dragon Power into the children.

The little dwarves didn't notice Xie Juanhan's thoughts.

They happily helped brush one another off. After patting the Resentment Moss clean, they jumped into the river to bathe, so it wouldn't parasitize them again.

The clear water flowed past, carrying away the fragments of Resentment Moss from the little dwarves' bodies.

After washing clean, their expressions brightened too.

"I feel so much lighter!"

"As expected of Lord Silver Dragon's blessing!"

"Oh, goddess, it's finally stopped itching! Thank you, Lord Silver Dragon!"

Xie Juanhan had corrected them countless times and could no longer be bothered to tell them that this wasn't a silver dragon's blessing.

He put the shiny gold coins in a bag, then fetched whale oil and burned all the Resentment Moss the dwarves had shaken off.

That would keep the spores in it from parasitizing animals again.

Although the riverbank got plenty of sunlight and the Resentment Moss stimulated by his Dragon Power had mostly lost its vitality, he was still very cautious.

That afternoon, Xie Juanhan made a special trip to eat grilled meat with Telingewei and the Companion Beasts, and took the opportunity to tell them what had happened from beginning to end.

They grilled the meat outside the dragon's cave.

Thin slices of meat and mushrooms sizzled on a hard stone slab.

The Companion Beasts had been listening intently to their conversation at first, but as it went on, their gazes became glued to the meat.

Xie Juanhan divided the cooked meat and mushrooms among the little ones' gold plates.

They instantly lost interest in the two dragons' conversation and carried their plates off in their mouths to eat the meat nearby.

Xie Juanhan gave Telingewei half of the remaining grilled meat and mushrooms. "I've already signed a contract with the dwarves. They'll come to build the house starting tomorrow."

Telingewei nodded. "Congratulations."

Xie Juanhan said, "You said before that you wouldn't allow the dwarves back into the Magic Forest. I'd like to ask your permission to let them come and go freely while they're building the house. Is that all right?"

Telingewei said, "The riverbank is your territory. I have no objection."

Xie Juanhan raised his cup for a toast. "Then I'll go tell them."

Their cups clinked together.

Telingewei asked, "Is there anything I can help with?"

"There really is." Xie Juanhan put down his cup and clasped his hands in a pleading gesture. "The dwarves absolutely refused to lower the price. I collected a bag of gold coins from them, and so far I've scraped together about ten fourth-level magic cores in total."

"If I still haven't managed to gather the remaining five fourth-level magic cores when it's time to make the final payment, could you lend them to me?"

Telingewei agreed without hesitation. "Of course!"

Everyone said Telingewei was a dragon who clung tightly to his gold coins.

He was actually quite generous.

Xie Juanhan thought.

"Thank you," Xie Juanhan said solemnly. "If I can't gather enough, I'll have to count on you then."

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

Starting tomorrow, there'll be two updates a day, at five in the afternoon and ten at night. If I'm late or miss an update, I'll send out little red envelopes. Feel free to hold me to it!

See you tomorrow! Thanks to Yingjin and 81427679 for the rocket launchers; thanks to Ersan, Moonlit Breeze, Gu Ling Jing Guai Xiao Yatou, Nanzhi, Master Falcon, Funü Weiai Shuang Nanzhu, Zuiguang, Lülüo Zai, Glowing Tangyuan, Xiameng, Faint Water Marks, Mango King, Xiaoyu, Chashao Bao kk, Wuwang Xin'an, and Cining for the landmines.

Chapter 20: Chapter 20 [VIP]

"Lord Silver Dragon!"

"My lord, good morning. May the goddess bless you!"

"You're up! We're still laying the foundation today."

After Xie Juanhan entrusted the little dwarves with building his house,

they immediately got to work.

Early every morning, they came from far away carrying their tools to help Xie Juanhan build his house.

When Xie Juanhan reached the riverbank, he saw the little dwarves in their pointed hats carrying hammers and pickaxes, working with cries of "Heave-ho, heave-ho."

The little dwarves came far too early.

To avoid waking up to an audience first thing in the morning, Xie Juanhan had deliberately moved his sleeping quarters deeper into the woods.

Every day before heading out, he came over to inspect the construction site.

"Good morning," Xie Juanhan greeted them in return. "Are there any materials you need me to prepare today?"

"No need! We have enough materials for now!"

With that, the little dwarves went back to work.

They had expanded the site Xie Juanhan had originally chosen for his house to nearly twice its size.

They had protected the surrounding forest and grassland, so presumably it would still be green all around once the house was finished.

Only at the building site had the little dwarves dug an enormous pit, preparing to lay a solid foundation.

Deep in the foundation pit, the little dwarves had leveled the bottom and walls and were busily laying down gravel, placing stone slabs engraved with protective magic runes at short intervals.

They swung their pickaxes and hammers swiftly, the blows falling in a distinctive rhythm.

After inspecting the foundation pit, Xie Juanhan went to look at the mortar.

The little dwarves had already mixed the mortar they would need for the day.

It also contained hay and animal hair that Xie Juanhan had collected earlier.

The dwarves had taken some of the materials he had prepared, chopped them up, and mixed them into the mortar in proportion.

In addition, Xie Juanhan noticed that the dwarves had applied construction magic to the mortar. The magic wasn't strong, but it should work well.

Xie Juanhan had heard the mason Arnold say that mortar treated this way was the strongest and most durable, and wouldn't crumble at all.

As Xie Juanhan looked around, the little dwarves enthusiastically explained what they were doing and what steps would come next.

The little dwarves seemed very reliable.

Xie Juanhan left the house construction in their hands.

He went to tend the rice paddy.

The rice seedlings had grown enough. After he spread a layer of humus over the paddy, they could be transplanted after a while.

He hadn't bought many rice seeds, and the paddy he had cleared wasn't very large either.

After tending the paddy, he went into the woods to hunt and forage.

At noon, Xie Juanhan returned from hunting.

Before he had reached his temporary shelter, he heard the dwarves' singing carrying far into the Magic Forest.

"Oh, bodies forged from divine soil, bones forged from crystal rock-"

"Oh, dwarves blessed by the gods, drinking Bumili's mead-"

Xie Juanhan listened to a few lines and guessed that they were probably singing about the little dwarves' mythology.

The dwarves' singing was rough and vigorous.

It was quite entertaining to listen to.

He looked out through a gap in the woods.

The dwarves had finished their morning's work and were eating lunch, with earth-brown tablecloths spread over tree stumps.