These seedlings represented hope. Although they weren't growing well, they still showed a tenacious spirit since the layer of toxic soil didn't stop them from surviving.
Zhao bent down and gently stroked one of the seedlings. It really looked like it lacked nutrition. To be honest, even if it were to grow up, it would be impossible for it to produce much food.
Zhao slowly stood up, then turned around to face Meirin. "Grandma Meirin, I'm surprised that these seedlings are growing, but I think they need some water. Maybe it would help them grow a little better."
Meirin nodded and moved to Zhao's side, but before she could do anything, Zhao stuck out his ghost staff and showed, "Water!"
He knew that the ghost staff could use all the features of the space, so he wanted to try to use it to release water. Sure enough, the voice came:
[Portable cane has detected contaminated land. Do you wish to improve it?]
Zhao said yes, which prompted the voice to say:
[Please select the number for improvement]
A projected screen suddenly appeared in front of him showing rows of numbers, with units between ten to one hundred. Zhao was stunned. He didn't think that he would be able to improve so much land. According to these figures, he could improve up to one hundred acres, instead of the original ten acres that he was limited to. It seems like the level up had given him more benefits than he realized.
Zhao immediately chose the largest number, one hundred acres. Once he finished, a surge of water rushed out of the cane and started flying into the sky. It looked like rain was going to fall on to the land. The moment the land turned wet, it started to change color.
Meirin also noticed this. She was surprised because the area of modified land seemed a bit too large, greatly exceeding the ten acres of land Zhao said he could improve per day. Puzzled, she decided to ask Zhao. "Master, why is there so much water?"
Zhao turned to Meirin and smiled. "When the space leveled up, the area of land improvement has also increased. Now I can improve up to one hundred acres of land per day."
Meirin's face brightened. Looking at the one hundred acres of land, she said, "This is great! Now it will only take ten days to change all this land. Although it's a little late in the season, we should still be able to grow all kinds of stuff."
Zhao nodded his head. Improving one hundred acres of land per day would allow them to make full use of this valley. He thought about what they could do with one thousand acres of fertile land. He still wanted to grow corn because then he wouldn't have to worry about running out of feed for the ranch. If he tried to raise one thousand animals, then they would eat a lot per day.
Right now Zhao was just planting corn because once the weather got cooler, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to grow any more corn out here until next year. Of course, when he couldn't grow corn, he could try planting some bamboo rice, which had a very high yield. Slowly, the rice would become their main source of food.
With the food that Green had originally bought and the food that Zhao had grown, they would have enough to feed the Buda clan for ten years. It was precisely because of this that Zhao didn't worry about food. But that didn't mean he shouldn't grow some more. Once the food was placed in the space, it doesn't appear to rot, so it didn't hurt to try to store as much food as possible.
After all, once they finished the deal with Laura's help, they might eventually buy some more slaves. More people would naturally eat more. Eventually, the amount of food that they had that could feed one hundred people for ten years might not last as long, so he's going to plant some more food.
Not using this thousand acres of land would be too wasteful. If he planted some bamboo rice here, they would never have to worry about a food shortage.
Once the land changed for the better, Zhao held up his staff, ready to plant some seeds. The staff had the power of the shovel, so he was able to dig up the rest of the land, which was about seventy acres. Like magic, the land was opened up without any effort, then the corn seeds were planted.
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This staff really could use all the features of the spatial farm.
It was then that Zhao suddenly remembered something. He had the farm tools, just like in the game, but where were his ranch tools? What was that about? Did he not reach some sort of requirement, so the tools were canceled? Zhao wanted to go into the space and look. Things were finished here so he decided to forget the valley for now and go back to the castle.
Meirin naturally didn't know what Zhao was thinking, but when he said that he was returning to the castle, she didn't stop him. She wanted to go back herself.
As they traveled over the water, Zhao thought about giving some more wood from the oil fruit trees to Daisy and Ann in order to make a boat. He couldn't just tell Meirin to help him over the lake everyday.
Previously, he wanted a weed boat because they didn't have any wood, but now that they had some, they could begin to slowly learn how to build wooden boats. Anyway, it wasn't like there were waves in the underground lake, so at least a raft would be sufficient.
They returned to the castle. By now the slaves had already settled in. It was time for Zhao and Meirin, along with Meg, to go back to Stony Mountain.
But before they left, Zhao gave some alfalfa seeds to the slaves and told them to plant some on the mountain. When you harvest alfalfas, not only could these crops be used as feed for the animals, they would also help fertilize the mountain.
After explaining this to the slaves, Zhao went to meet Drunk and the other black mages. Two of them, Punch and Rash, will be staying here with a hundred undead to guard the castle, while Drunk and the other three will be going into the carrion swamp to catch some spirit beasts.
The carrion swamp was a place where people would never go, but Drunk and the black mages were undead, so they were able to fit right in.
But before they went, Zhao properly gave them instructions to mainly stay in the outer perimeter of the swamp and to not go too deep. If anything goes wrong, immediately come out.
Zhao didn't want any losses to occur. Even though Drunk and the rest were undead, they were still Zhao's summons and a very large part of his fighting force, so he didn't want to lose them to the carrion swamp.
But although they were Zhao's summons, the undead black mages were highly intelligent and they had gone through many battles in the Continent over the years. Except for going against the Xinya clan and Zhao, they had never lost. So it could be said that their combat experience was considerably higher than Zhao's. However, they didn't say anything as they seriously listened to his words. Zhao was their master. No matter what, they had to listen to him.
Once he was done talking, Zhao released some undead that they could ride, which was very convenient. In addition to those were some humanoid undead that would protect them. Originally, they weren't that powerful, but after the space made them stronger, they could now act as guards.