Chapter 128 Snow Clan Invitation Letter: Everything is in Desperation
"Xi, don't you need to explain?" Shu Xin stood on the magical cat's forehead, her smile forced.
Xi had transformed back into his blond-haired boy form. He flew over, smiling ingratiatingly, his blue eyes blinking: "I was just worried you wouldn't like my original form... I never lied to you about being a half-blood; everything I said is true!"
Shu Xin remained noncommittal, neither saying she believed nor disbelieved. With the equal contract in place, she could usually tell whether Xi was lying. The problem was that Xi was too good at lying, or rather, he was really good at mixing the truth into lies, using the truth to fabricate falsehoods. Whether it was nine parts truth and one part falsehood, or nine parts falsehood and one part truth, it was difficult for people to tell the difference.
But that doesn't matter. Words can deceive, but actions cannot. Shu Xin glanced at him sideways: "I want two magic gems. As punishment, I won't provide you with any energy, but I need to get two magic gems within a month, understand?"
Xi nodded with a bitter expression: "...I understand, I heard you."
Shu Xin nodded: "Remember, I will not provide you with any energy within a month."
"Wait, what do you mean by 'not providing any energy'? It's not what I thought, Shushuxin, is it?" Xi realized what was happening, his eyes widening in surprise: "I don't want that! Shushuxin—"
He hurriedly chased after the magical cat that had already flown far away, but when he arrived at the Flower Castle, he couldn't get in no matter what he did. An invisible barrier stood softly yet firmly in the air. Xi watched helplessly as Shu Xin flew to the terrace and walked in without looking back.
The only thing that gave Xi some comfort was that the magical cat couldn't enter the Flower Castle either, except that he was refused entry by the Flower Castle, while Daisy was refused entry because she was too big.
Xi watched with glee as the magical cat tried various methods to squeeze itself into the Flower Castle, but it couldn't manage it. Before long, Shu Xin reappeared on the terrace. He quickly put on a smiling face, but before Xi could even say a few words of pleading, he saw a leaf flutter down from the sky and land on the magical cat. A soft magical glow quietly spread out, and when the light faded, the magical cat's body shrunk to the size of an ordinary cat.
Daisy glanced triumphantly at the stream, meowed proudly, and then dashed to the terrace, leaping into the flower fairy's arms and being carried away.
Xi, covered in dust and dirt, circled the Flower Castle several more times, but couldn't break through the barrier no matter what he did. Finally, he looked up at the tree canopy above that blocked out the entire sky and shouted, "Don't discriminate! I just helped you fight off the monsters from the outer continent! Help me too, Tree of Life!"
Soon, another leaf fluttered down, and Xi eagerly caught it. Soft magical light spread out again, but as the light slowly faded, the blond boy's face darkened even more: "I don't need you to replenish my magic! Do I lack magic? Huh? I want to enter the Flower Castle! Let me in!"
Unfortunately, no matter how hard Xi tried, the Flower Castle refused him entry, and in the end Xi slunk back to the underground city to sleep in his cave.
Shu Xin cuddled the magical cat and slept soundly.
The next day, Shu Xin woke up and immediately began her busy work. The harvest month was over, but there was actually even more to do—
The most important thing is naturally the collection of magic tax, because Shu Xin not only pardoned a large number of flower fairy slaves in the Land of Sin and made them free citizens, but also invited flower fairy merchants and their relatives and friends to move to the Land of Sin. This resulted in a surge in the number of civilians in the Land of Sin, and the amount of magic tax to be paid naturally increased accordingly.
Since there was no need to eat bitter wheat anymore, they only kept a small amount of wheat seeds. Together, Pengpengan and Nonoli extracted all the bitter wheat they had grown into magic tax. The grayish-white powder that would usually be discarded was not wasted, but was collected and carefully stored in the kitchen.
Although this powder has no magical residue whatsoever, it was named "Magic Powder" by the Tree of Life. This Magic Powder is frequently used in recipes provided by the Tree of Life. Although we don't know exactly what its function is, it seems to be quite versatile.
Shu Xin once asked Mei Meilin to try cooking without using magic powder, but the result was a complete disaster. Despite strictly following the recipe in terms of ingredient preparation and cooking steps, except for the magic powder, the final product was so bizarre that it looked like tires were boiled in oil!
Since magic powder is an indispensable ingredient in the recipes of the Tree of Life, it is necessary to store some for future use. After all, the population of the Land of Sin has increased significantly, and the consumption of food has also increased dramatically. The amount of magic powder added is not small. During the harvest month, Shu Xin basically has to make some magic powder every two or three days.
In order to produce magic powder, Shu Xin extracted a lot of magic tax. Unfortunately, even with this magic tax, the total amount was still not enough. In the end, Shu Xin sought help from the Tree of Life and used the magic liquid condensed by the Tree of Life to make up the amount.
After the harvest month ends, the flower fairy merchants in the territory will also begin to travel out to trade. As usual, Shu Xin provided them with acorn wine as a product. At the same time, she also provided some dried fruit. Among them, the dried golden cherry fruit was to be sold as a sample, and the other dried fruit was to be provided as portable food for the caravan. As for the goods list needed by the Land of Sin, magic powder and golden cherry fruit seeds were added.
The land of sin after the harvest month is practically in ruins and needs rebuilding.
The bitter wheat has all been converted into magic tax and magic powder, and the vacant fields need to be plowed and sown; the grass fields are also withered and yellow, and the grass berries everywhere need to be harvested; the berry trees that frequently flowered and bore fruit during the harvest month have all withered and died, and the dead branches and leaves naturally need to be cleared away; not only do the mountains of berries in the warehouse need to be disposed of before the time magic array expires, but the civilian settlements on the surface also need to be expanded...
Shu Xin and the flower fairies worked tirelessly for more than half a month before they finally managed to sort things out.
Since a lot of Golden Wheat had been consumed, Shu Xin simply didn't arrange for sowing. She only planted Golden Crispy Wheat and Brown Crispy Wheat. Shu Xin also instructed the Flower Fairies to plant a lot of Bitter Wheat. She planned to introduce the Bitter Wheat variety to the Wheat Herders when she went to the Wheat Market to buy wheat seeds again, to see if they could improve the taste of Bitter Wheat.
Bitter wheat can grow normally even in extremely barren magical conditions. After receiving sufficient magical replenishment, the mature bitter wheat ears have a higher magical content than golden honey wheat! Peng Pengan and Nonoli were also greatly shocked after extracting the magical tax, and they both regretted not leaving enough bitter wheat seeds.
All the grass pods of the ground grass have been harvested and stored away. However, we still need to study what these grass pods can be used for. As for the withered grass leaves, Shu Xin used stacking magic to crush them and then turned them into the soil to serve as green manure.
Considering that the Sinful Lands wouldn't need to build any more structures in the short term, and that building materials could be purchased elsewhere, Shuxin didn't allocate too much land area for the newly planted Ground Grass. After all, she also needed to protect the Sun Spring and the Tree of Life; digging any further would really mean digging up the roots of the Tree of Life...
After the harvest month ended, large tracts of berry trees withered and died. Shu Xin then arranged for the flower fairies to cut down the intact branches of the berry trees and let them dry in the shade. The withered and fallen branches and leaves, along with the tree roots in the soil, were crushed together and used as green manure. The large tracts of plowed land were left empty until the caravan brought back enough golden cherry seeds and acorns, at which point they would be planted one by one.
It wasn't until the harvest month had passed that Shu Xin remembered the vine plants she had planted, namely the reed grass. Under the stimulation of high concentrations of magic, all the reed grasses had grown to more than a meter tall, and even after the harvest month, they all withered and died, leaving behind more than enough grass leaves.
The flower fairies selected the grass leaves they liked, harvested them, and took them away. They also picked out some to store in the underground warehouse. Shu Xin crushed the remaining withered leaves and grass roots to use as green manure. Thinking that the reed leaves could be used as a substitute for white clay, she expanded the planting area of reed grass.
While dealing with farming matters, the vacant magic workshop was also transformed into a fruit wine workshop. Some of the flower fairies devoted themselves to farming, while others devoted themselves to brewing fruit wine and drying fruit. Even the flower fairies on patrol came to work. Shu Xin was practically immersed in the freeze-drying workshop, working hard to process the berries into freeze-dried berries. Only in this way could they finish processing the large amount of berries harvested during the harvest month before the time magic array completely failed.
After that, Shu Xin began to expand the civilian residential area.
After the harvest month ends, the flower fairies will no longer need to live in their underground mushroom houses for shelter and safety. The mushroom houses are generally less comfortable than their ground-level dwellings, especially in terms of lighting and ventilation. However, these mushroom houses can be preserved until the next harvest month arrives, at which point the flower fairies can move back in.
Although the number of flower fairies has greatly increased, building houses for ordinary people has actually become much easier.
Because the flower fairies and commoners who later moved to the Land of Sin were all relatives and friends of the merchants, and were able to leave the merchants' villages and towns, they all had their own unique products. Therefore, when they learned that the Flower Fairy wanted to use reed leaves and berry wood to build houses for the commoners, many flower fairies said that they were good at weaving, and quite a few flower fairies said that they were proficient in carpentry. There was even a flower fairy from one village who volunteered to say that they built houses with reed leaves and berry wood in their hometown and could share the building plans with everyone.
Shu Xin thought the building blueprints provided by the flower fairies were excellent, so she didn't make any changes. Instead, she helped plan the water channel route for the commoners' settlement. Considering that the flower fairies could only fetch water from the Sun Spring if they wanted to drink, Shu Xin thought it would be more convenient to bring the water directly to the commoners' settlement.
A flower fairy reminded the flower fairy that berry wood is also a good material for magic wands, something Shu Xin hadn't thought of.
If she had known this earlier, she wouldn't have shredded the fallen branches. But it's not too late to know now. Given the size of the flower fairies, building houses won't consume much berry wood. The remaining berry wood can be used to craft magic wands. Shu Xin plans to wait until all the houses in the civilian area are built before calling the wand workshop to start work. At least she wants to ensure that every flower fairy in the Land of Sin can get a magic wand.
With everyone's wisdom and efforts, the construction of houses in the land of sin began in a lively and bustling manner.
"Shuxin—Shuxin—I know you're awake—"
Early in the morning, Xi started shouting outside the Flower Castle. Shu Xin frowned and flew out of the bedroom, immediately seeing two glittering magic gems floating in Xi's hands.
"It hasn't even been a month, has it?" Shu Xin reached out and took the magic gem, feeling very pleased. "Well done! You can enter the Flower Castle starting today."
The blond boy's expression remained ingratiating and obsequious, looking extremely well-behaved, but Shu Xin suddenly became alert: "What, is there something else you want?"
Xi sheepishly pulled something out of her sleeve: "...There is something else, you know, the Snow Clan sent an invitation to the Land of Sin. It's nothing much, they just want to discuss the hunting of snow elephants with the lord..."
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