Chapter 268: Forefather, Save Me!
Boa Hanc.o.c.k, captain of the Kuja Pirates, Empress of Amazon Lily, and formerly one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, was also universally acknowledged as the most beautiful person in the pirate world.
Jiang He felt a little baffled even as he recalled details about Boa Hanc.o.c.k.
What the heck.
Was the doggone System having a laugh?
The world view that he attained a few days ago of this world being a galactic immortal series began to crumble—how did he manage to plant an anime character?
Right now, the two lotus leaves were almost a meter wide, just as the lotus flower and Boa Hanc.o.c.k continued to grow. However, it did not stick to human growth process that starts with infanthood, progressing to childhood, youth, and adult.
Instead, it was immediately adult in figure and appearance, although it was merely thumb-sized.
Her hair was long and jet-black and her eyes blue, and there were a pair of snake-shaped earrings. Her tall and alluring figure left Jiang He’s thoughts straying, and he thought, ‘If I could pluck her off that pistil right now...’
‘Nope, can’t do it. It would be premature to pluck her right now.’
‘And she’s just around a meter tall. What good would plucking her right now do?’
The Boa Hanc.o.c.k that grew out of the Mysterious Soil was not exactly growing quicky. It had been there for four hours and Jiang He estimated that it would take another four hours to ‘harvest’ it.
As such, Jiang He went off to harvest the rice.
The paddy field was still drenched since it was just watered around two hours ago. Still, that was no big deal, and neither Dumbo or Trumbo’s water-type powers were needed—circulating his mana, he materialized a ma.s.sive hand up in the air.
The hand then made a grasping motion, and there was a splash!
All at once, every drop of water in the temporary three-Mu paddy field was grasped by Jiang He’s magic hand and reduced to water vapor up in the air, with not even a chunk of mud left in the paddy field.
With that, the paddy field turned into a golden hue.
Aside from the rice grains, the stems were also glimmering in a faint golden hue as if the entire plant was forged from gold.
Jiang He measured them with his eyes.
The rice straws stood up to two meters tall—a little taller than himself, and that was only because the grains were too large and too heavy that each plant was slumping. Jiang He estimated that each plant would yield three catties worth of rice grain, and two catties even after processing.
Jiang He walked up and pulled out one straw.
[Ding!]
[+1 Farm Point.]
The crisp jingle of a System Notification sounded.
Jiang He’s eyes lit up as delight showed on his face, and he exclaimed in surprise, “A random plant like rice earns me Farm Points too?”
Before planting the rice, Jiang He had not thought about earning Farm Points. All he wanted was rice cooked from mutated rice grains strengthened with his farm, which would provide more flavor for meals.
How could Jiang He not be excited by such unexpected delight?
Most importantly...how much rice grains would he get from his three-Mu paddy field?
In standard soil, a single Mu paddy field could only be sowed with one catty worth of rice, which would be around twenty thousand grains.
Jiang He’s three-Mu paddy field, on the hand, was sowed with an entire pack of rice, which was at seventy catties...of course, Jiang He was also planting mutated rice, each grain of which was equal to five average rice grains.
In other words, one catty meant a yield of around 4,000 grains.
Multiplying by the seventy catties of rice grains planted over three Mu, that would make 280,000 grains.
Moreover, the successful growth rate for the rice was 100% since this was his farm...
That was why the three Mu worth of farm would earn Jiang He at least 280,000 Farm Points.
With delight written all over his face, Jiang He hummed a tune as he harvested the rice rapidly by drawing out his Dragon-Slaying Saber with a turn of his hand, keeping it close to the ground as he slashed out horizontally.
[Ding!]
[+1 Farm Point.]
[Ding!]
[+1 Farm Point.]
[Ding...]
The System Notifications jingled repet.i.tively in Jiang He’s head for an entire hour even though Jiang He had harvested three Mu worth of rice with a single slash within a single second.
In the end, Jiang He actually got irritated and simply used his spirit to block the System’s sounds.
As for the cut rice straws, Jiang He did not need to manage it.
He called out to Dumbo who was mid-cultivation and said, “Go with Trumbo and the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers and tie up the straw.”
Still wearing its baggy pants, Dumbo stood up on its rear legs and held its paws as it hips as it called out. All at once, Trumbo on the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers went to work as well.
Meanwhile, Jiang He pulled out a bench and sat beneath the shade of the willow tree, taking out some purple-gold sunflower seeds and walnuts which he had not eaten for some time to munch on. Even as he shook his legs, the next batch of Doom Shrooms would soon be ready.
In the end, farm life has always been that plain and boring.
***
Even as Jiang He continued farming back home, he was unaware of the many major events occurring outside.
In the afternoon on the twenty-third of October, the day Jiang He left Jingdu city, w.a.n.g Hu gathered the many elites and the military big wigs of the Hua Nation and held a two-hour long conference.
Then, on that very night, the many elites of the Hua Nation combined forces with the military and began a partial culling of the Feral Kings across the country.
As for why it was partial...
It was a decision made following serious discussion and deliberation in the conference.
The first reason was that chaos would certainly ensue if all Feral Kings were killed in one go, and every Feral in the Hua Nation was left leaderless.
Secondly, despite the death of the two Feral Emperors in the Dragoncroc Emperor and the Golden-Winged Roc, the ancient daemons had yet to show up.
The ma.s.s slaughter of Feral Kings might just draw the ancient daemons out, and the losses caused then would far outweigh any gains.
Otherwise, everyone would have went with w.a.n.g Hou’s idea of kill’em all.
If he had his way, every Hua Nation elite would go forth with military support, killing every Feral King and then the high-ranked Ferals, and the Hua Nation would no longer have any worries.
Even so, Lin Tianzheng stopped w.a.n.g Hou, the latter of whom mused to himself for a long time before agreeing to his suggestion.
After all...
Keeping some Feral Kings and high-ranked Ferals would keep the fighters pressured to train, and a target to kill for, would they not?
Hence, on that very night, report of victories came in as a total of three Feral Kings were killed.
More news followed on the next day, the twenty-fourth of October, as two more Feral Kings were destroyed.
“Keep up the pressure!”
“Right now, there would still be nine Feral Kings in the Hua Nation...of course, there is the possibility of some hiding themselves deep in the mountains and never once showing up.”
w.a.n.g Hou commanded.
On the other hand, the Feral Kings were absolutely petrified when they received the word, with some actually fleeing out of Hua Nation borders or to the depths of the oceans, just as others hid themselves deep in the jungle where no humans reached.
Later...
At 6 pm on the twenty-fifth of October—in other words, after Jiang He finished harvested the rice—at the northwestern region of the Hua Nation, the depths of an unending chain of mountains.
This was the northernmost part of the Hua Nation, packed with dense virgin forests and was the region with the historically lowest temperature in the Hua Nation.
Winters here were long and difficult here, while summers brief but breezy. There was a huge difference between daytime hours and night, and the yearly average temperature was minus 2.8 degrees, the lowest of which was minus 53 degrees.
It was merely the end of October, but there was fluttering storms of snow in the mountains.
Even the dense virgin forests were covered in thick snow.
Whoosh!
A figure was dashing through the forest.
It was a gigantic scarlet fox with a pair of wings growing from its back, one of which had been severed and bleeding profusely.
The blood had a blazing texture to it, and it causes a sizzling sound whenever a drop would fall upon the snow, just like what happens when fiery-red coal falls upon snow.
Behind it, an elite was walking up in the air.
In the forests, there was also a pursuer with blades in hand.
The scarlet fox spoke in human tongue then, barking, “Blade King, are you humans so bent on wiping us daemons out?”
Incidentally, Three Blades Lin was its blade-carrying pursuer.
He was the face of absolute smugness right then, having deliberately released his Blade Will and his entire being now appearing no different from an unsheathed combat blade. “Scarlet Fox King, spare me and stop acting that pitiful,” he said and sneered. “Did you really think I would spare you?”
“You’ve ma.s.sacred three small towns when you first ascended to Feral King, killing 190,000 people, as well as inciting multiple Feral Swarms to a.s.sault human cities. This blood debt could only be paid by your blood!”
Swish!
Suddenly, Three Blades Lin slashed out while yelling on top of his lungs, “You’re not getting away, Scarlet Fox King... Daddy just need three cuts to take off your head!”
Having chased the beast from Daxing’anling to Mount Changbai, Three Blades Lin had lost all patience.
The instant he attacked, he burst out with the ‘Three Blades Ultimate Move’ that he developed himself.
Once his first slash extends, the second and third followed immediately.
Being a divine-tempest pinnacle elite and just half a step away from divine-union, he was equal in cultivation to the Scarlet Fox King... but with its injury, how would the beast be a match for him?
Be that as it may, a loud yell could suddenly be heard from the skies when Three Blades Lin’s third slash extended.
“Watch out, Blade King!
Oom!
A small three-floored tower descended from above the Scarlet Fox’s head.
Veins of obscure earthen-yellow l.u.s.ter descended from the small tower, rigidly blocking Three Blades Lin’s third slash.
The Scarlet Fox King opened its mouth and spat, the Daemonic Qi in the blood welling within its mouth splashing on the three-floored tower before it reared its head skyward and shrieked, “Forefather, save me...”
“Sigh!”
A soft sigh resounded from the distance.
Then, a ma.s.sive hand that blocked out the skies descended from above.