Chapter 17: Lunatic
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In the Ark Continent, it was not that no one had studied the Black Soil Wilderness before. About a thousand years ago, there was a famous wood-type advanced mage who worked with a few water-type mages, alchemists, and elves who knew the most about plants. They wanted to change the soil of the Black Soil Wilderness and make it the largest granary in the entire continent.
However, after twenty years of research, they still could not make even a single blade of grass grow on the Black Soil Wilderness. In the end, they had no choice but to give up.
From then on, no one studied the Black Soil Wilderness. People thought that there was no value in studying it anymore and that it was just a waste of time.
In fact, this had a lot to do with the basic situation on the Ark Continent. Although there were many people on the Ark Continent, the land was much larger. There was also a lot of land to farm, so there was no need to worry about food. Therefore, agriculture had never attracted the attention of the people on the continent.
However, because the continent had been relatively calm in recent years, and there were no large battles, the population growth was very fast. Food crisis was already appearing in some small countries. However, because the five empires on the continent had no issues, this situation did not attract widespread attention.
Moreover, there were slaves on the Ark Continent. It was fine if the price of food was high. As long as the slaves ate less and did not die from hunger, it was okay.
Of course, those slave owners would not go out and say that their slaves had less food to eat. In fact, those slave owners would not talk about slaves at all. They would rather talk about women and the moon than talk about slaves. Therefore, the people on the continent did not realize that the food crisis was getting closer and closer to them.
The continent was peaceful now, and the economies of various countries were developing well, so prices had been rising. However, those in power did not realize that although the economy of the country was rising, the standard of living of most civilians had not increased. On the contrary, it had decreased greatly, let alone the quality of the lives of those slaves.
When the country’s economy developed, the prices of goods would naturally increase. However, the income of the civilians did not increase. This naturally made many civilians unable to support themselves. Without food, more people would be reduced to slaves, and the conflict in society would intensify.
Of course, Merlyn did not know about this. She only knew that the food on the continent was expensive. If Zhao Hai could really turn the Black Soil Wilderness into fertile land, it would be impossible for the Buda family to not develop.
Zhao Hai looked at Merlyn’s excited expression and smiled. “Yes, Grandma Merlyn, this is an ability I’ve obtained. However, I can only modify ten acres a day, so you have to organize them in the afternoon and measure as much land as possible. Let’s use a thousand acres as the benchmark. We won’t be able to handle more for now.”
Merlyn nodded excitedly. “Alright, Young Master. I’ll arrange it immediately.” With that, Merlyn walked out.
Zhao Hai quickly stopped her and said, “Alright, Grandma Merlyn, don’t be in such a hurry. You can go after dinner. By the way, we cannot plant too far away from the castle. We can’t let outsiders discover my ability. Otherwise, with our Buda family’s current ability, we won’t be able to stop those guys at all.”
Merlyn was someone who had seen the world. Hearing Zhao Hai say this, she calmed down and nodded. “Alright, I understand, Young Master. Leave this to me.”
Neither Zhao Hai nor Merlyn noticed that Meg, who was standing behind Merlyn, was looking at Zhao Hai with infatuation.
Previously, as long as Zhao Hai appeared, Meg would lower her head, but now, she raised her head and looked at Zhao Hai carefully. She no longer looked as shriveled as before.
Meg had grown up with Adam. Because Adam was two years older than her, they had played together a lot when young. At that time, Meg had been Adam’s little tail. Wherever Adam walked, Meg followed. If Meg was bullied by other children, Adam would fight for her, so she had a good impression of her Young Master brother.
But as they grew older, they slowly became sensible. Meg knew that Adam was her Young Master. She could not call Adam the same way as before because she was a girl and Adam was unwilling to play with her, so she was very sad.
When he grew older, Adam joined the circle of other noble Young Masters. From then on, Adam began to learn bad things, and he seemed to have forgotten about his childhood friend.
Adam became more and more outrageous. Meg, on the other hand, became more beautiful and sensible. She even showed good talent in magic. She and Adam took completely different paths. But Meg became more and more unhappy. Seeing Adam’s antics every day, she wanted to stop him, but it was useless. Adam did not even listen to her grandfather, let alone her. She wished that time could return to the past, to when they were young, to when her young master played with her every day and fought for her.
Everyone said that a girl’s emotions were always poetic. Meg was like this. She had always hoped that one day, Adam could return to his past appearance, but reality mercilessly shattered her dream. Adam actually tried to rape her.
When Adam walked towards her with a lewd smile, she felt her world collapse. Those beautiful memories left her. Although she had escaped a calamity, she was like a lost soul. Her world had lost its color, and she lived every day in a daze.
At that moment, a disaster arrived. The Buda family was in a life and death situation. She watched as the people who had lived with her since she was young left the Buda family one by one. She saw with her own eyes that the place where she had lived since she was young was taken away by the emperor. She saw Adam being fed the Void Water. She saw her home disappear in a short time.
Then, they arrived at the Black Soil Wilderness, a land of death. However, Adam did not wake up. She watched her grandparents work day by day. For the sake of the continuation of the Buda family, they kept working hard like a person who was about to drown and was making a final struggle.
Meg was just a young girl who had not experienced much. She could not take these sudden blows. If not for her grandparents, she might have killed herself.
However, not long after they arrived in the Black Soil Wilderness, Zhao Hai came. Meg realized that her Young Master had changed, he was no longer the young master who knew nothing other than to cause trouble. He had matured and knew to work hard for this family.
First, it was the blue-eyed rabbit, and now, it was the black soil. She suddenly realized that her Young Master had become a stranger, but he was slowly fusing with the perfect Young Master image in her heart.
Meg realized that there seemed to be something about Adam that was attracting her. His aura was no longer frivolous and terrifying. Instead, it had become a calm and natural aura that made people want to get close to him.
She liked to see Adam’s confident expression, his gentle smile, the unnatural and guilty expression on Adam’s face when he saw her. Unknowingly, the girl’s heart was tied to Adam.
Merlyn did not notice Meg’s change. After talking to Zhao Hai, she immediately walked to the kitchen. This also brought Meg back to her senses. She immediately lowered her head and followed Merlyn to the kitchen with a red face to bring food.
The few of them ate together, but Merlyn and the others ate very quickly today. Then, Merlyn and Meg immediately walked out. It seemed like they were preparing to organize people to measure the land.
Looking at Merlyn’s impatience, Zhao Hai could only smile. He could understand Merlyn’s mood. Merlyn and the others had always thought that the Black Soil Wilderness was a land of death. Now, someone suddenly told them that he could turn a land of death into a place of life. This was like someone telling a terminal patient that their illness could be saved. How could they not be excited?
Zhao Hai slowly finished his lunch and led Wood and Rock out of the castle. Once they were outside the castle, they realized that Merlyn and the others were already leading the slaves to measure the land.
Although those slaves did not have any skills, they had farmed before. If they were asked to do other things, they might not be able to do it, but they could still do things related to farming.
Ten acres of land were soon measured, but Merlyn and the others did not continue. Instead, they looked at Zhao Hai to see if he could really improve the land.
Zhao Hai looked at the ten acres of land and was stunned. He had seen how big the ten acres of land was in the Space Farm, but he did not need to worry about planting or harvesting in the Space Farm. Now that he was looking at these ten acres of land outside of the Space Farm, he did not know how to start modifying them. Could the space soil and space water be controlled by him when they left the Space Farm?
When he was in the Space Farm earlier, he had been focused on calculating the ratio and had forgotten about this. What should he do now? Could it be that he had to slowly sprinkle the soil and water on the ground?
Just as Zhao Hai was pacing around anxiously, the Space Farm’s notification suddenly sounded. “Do you want to modify the land in front of you? Yes/No.” Following the voice, a screen projection appeared in front of him. On it were two buttons. One said ‘Yes’ and the other said ‘No’.
Zhao Hai was overjoyed. He immediately reached out and pressed the yes button, but he realized that his hand passed through the screen. He did not touch anything, and the screen and the two buttons were still there. He looked like a dancing lunatic.