Chapter 185 Drought: Breaking Ice to Obtain Water with "Golden Acorn Powder"
Bright sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the conference room exceptionally brightly, while the elves all sat in the shadows—
“Even the water level of Sun Spring has started to drop.” Nonoli said gravely. “When I went to see it today, a large patch of the velvet flowers by the artificial lake had withered and died.”
Peng Peng'an's expression was also grim: "The magic tax outside has been increased significantly, and the caravans are bringing back more and more slaves. Your Highness, the water supply from the underground lake is also limited. I think we should stop buying slaves."
Shu Xin frowned even more: "The harvest month is almost here, and the temperature is already rising—this is not good."
The situation is indeed not good. With only half a month left until the harvest month, the water level of the artificial lake has dropped so low that the reed roots are exposed. Recently, the water level of the Sun Spring has also dropped significantly. At present, the water flow in the irrigation canals has completely dried up, and even the water spheres summoned by water magic have shrunk significantly.
Unfortunately, this is the time when wheat is in its grain-filling stage, which is exactly when it needs watering!
Shu Xin considered digging a well for water, but she had already used detection magic. Apart from the underground lake that had already been discovered, there was no more groundwater in the Land of Sin. Fortunately, the water level of the underground lake had not changed significantly, so the drinking water in the territory was still guaranteed for the time being. However, it could only guarantee drinking water, and irrigation water was out of the question.
“We’ll continue to acquire flower fairy slaves as usual,” Shu Xin finally said. “The Twin Moon Snowfield is right next door; we can break the ice to get water.”
Although the workload will be a bit large, it is a solution. In addition, the flower fairy slaves now each have a production-type magic wand, which can be used to obtain ice, whether it is cutting magic or crushing magic.
With the Flying Ball competition over, the entire Sinful Land bustled with activity once again. Shu Xin appointed two elves from the champion team as administrators, tasking them with the exclusive responsibility of obtaining ice.
Shu Xin first went to the Twin Moon Snowfield to select a location. After she drew the teleportation array and the defense array, the flower fairy slaves teleported to the ice point. They released magic within the defense barrier to cut and shatter the designated ice surface. The flower fairy civilians then transported the simply processed ice blocks to the teleportation array. Afterwards, the elven servants used leaves from the Tree of Life to collect and store the broken ice blocks. They then carried them to the Land of Sin through the teleportation array and handed them over to the civilians and slaves in the territory to melt and irrigate the farmland.
The demons were assigned to guard the area near the ice point, where they were responsible for driving away passing monsters and protecting the flower fairies.
"Has this happened before?" Shu Xin frowned and waved her staff, melting the large block of ice she had brought back into a large water ball, which she then evenly scattered across the golden wheat field in front of her.
Nonori, who came to report on the irrigation of the fields, shook her head: "I asked Pengpengan, and he said that before coming to the Land of Sin, it would rain every rainy season."
After a moment of silence, Nono added, "Never before has the magic tax been this heavy."
Was it because of her appearance that the king increased taxes? Could the sudden drought be related to the excessive magic tax?
Shu Xin didn't know if there was any connection between them, but the caravan was indeed bringing back more and more flower fairy slaves, and the amount of magic powder they were exchanging for was also increasing.
The existence of common flower fairies does indeed improve the magical environment to some extent. Conversely, if the number of common flower fairies decreases significantly, the magical environment will likely deteriorate. This reminds Shu Xin of the soil erosion caused by deforestation...
The Land of Sin has underground lakes to ensure daily drinking water, and can also collect ice water from the Twin Moon Snowfield for irrigation. However, the other territories of the Kingdom of Garnar probably have neither underground lakes nor ice water. Not to mention how many people will die from the disaster, reduced crop yields are inevitable. Yet the king keeps increasing the magic tax—what is the king doing?!
Shu Xin didn't know what the King of Garnar was doing, but Xi did know what the Emperor of the Breizman Empire was doing—
The human in the magnificent room still possessed a tall and robust physique, but his fiery red beard and hair had become dull and gray with the passage of time. His eyebrows and the corners of his eyes, like the potion bottle he was caressing in his hand, bore the indelible marks of time. His gaze was blank, staring blankly ahead, his expression hesitant, as if he were facing some kind of choice.
Xi hid in the shadows high above, coldly looking down at the aging humans below.
Under the protection of the Purple Flower Mercenary Group, Wols arrived safely in the capital of the Bratzman Empire and successfully entered the Bratzman Royal Magic Academy. After receiving a generous reward from the young human master, the Purple Flower Mercenary Group stayed in the capital. They continued to take on missions, occasionally venturing out of the city to hunt a couple of low-level magical beasts and kill a few weak but powerful fugitives. They appeared to be just an ordinary, third-rate mercenary group.
As a "good friend" of Worth, Xi naturally had to visit him at the magic academy. The young man, who had made new friends, seemed much happier. He remembered that his friend had taken on a long-term mission to collect wand materials and had specially brought several kinds of practice wands for Xi.
The runes drawn on these magic wands were all made using fragments of river elves' bodies as magical materials.
The elves who accompanied the group disassembled the magic wands bit by bit, eventually separating out extremely fine powder. Xi remembered the scent of this powder and, after sneaking into the magic academy's wand workshop, found the crystal bottle containing this magical material.
A label was affixed to the transparent bottle, bearing the name given to this magical material by the humans: "Golden Acorn Powder".
"Golden Acorn Powder" is classified as a high-grade magical material by humans. Only a very small amount is needed to draw stable and effective magical runes, but it has no other uses. Therefore, it is used to make practice magic wands.
Xi disguised himself as a thief and stormed into the wand workshop, looting all kinds of magical materials. Afterward, he staked out the wand workshop for a while and found the human responsible for replenishing the "golden acorn powder". Following this human, Xi went to a farm, where there was indeed an oak forest, and the acorns on the branches were indeed golden.
Having marked the farm's coordinates, Xi was about to bring the elf over to carefully examine the situation when he noticed a royal white-robed mage hurriedly leaving the farm. He immediately followed and chased him all the way to the palace.
The white-robed mage carefully handed a bottle of potion to the human emperor. The bottle was sealed very well; only the pale green liquid inside the transparent bottle, which had some strange scratches, was visible. Xi couldn't smell anything, but he had a gut feeling that the potion was related to the river elves—
The emperor seemed to have made up his mind; he sat up straight and pulled out the cork.
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