BXBX NOVEL Chapter 36 - 36: The Grim Reaper Harvests_l
Ange waved his scythe, happily harvesting mature crops. With a growth period of a month and a half, these crops were as mature as they could be and ready to be harvested. This speed was beyond Ange’s imagination.
When ange was stationed at the Resting Camp, the period from sowing to harvest took six months, and that was after Ange selectively bred the crops to hasten their growth.
Initially, when the undead souls had not vanished, the crops took six months to mature. During that time, Ange was sowing seeds brought in from elsewhere, so he didn’t sense anything unusual.
However, after the undead souls disappeared and foreign seeds were no longer available, Ange could only use mature crops as seeds. After several years, he discovered crop degradation. Previously maturing in six months, it gradually increased to seven or eight months, and the crops became less, smaller, and shrunken.
At Resting Camp, four months of the year is winter. Although it doesn’t snow, temperatures drop to freezing. If the crops couldn’t be harvested within eight months, it meant they would be entering winter unharvested, leading to essentially no harvest.
From then on, Ange consciously began breeding plants. His soul was etched with the knowledge of planting, so he knew how to breed, but he had never needed to consider it before, so he hadn’t remembered it.
After starting to breed, the harvest time for the crops was shortened. However, as the fertility of the land declined, the harvest time increased again. Ange burned the wasteland, buried bone meal, and then started crop rotation. In the end, he barely maintained a six-month crop harvest cycle after exhausting all other options.
“Does that mean that the seeds you’re using now are the ones you’ve cultivated for over a thousand years? The seeds that can still mature once every six months in a closed environment where the fertility of the land has been depleted for more than a thousand years?” Negris exclaimed surprisingly.
Ange nodded.
“So why are you asking why it’s matured in just a month and a half? Can’t you figure it out?” Negris roared.
As the God of Knowledge, Negris’s understanding of planting knowledge was profound, yet he could not achieve what Ange had mentioned.
Was it truly surprising that seeds that had been nurtured under difficult circumstances, now placed in the external world where the fertility had not been lost and the water temperature was suitable, could mature once every month and a half due to the addition of luminous moss and the illumination magic array?
Ange tilted his head; he didn’t grasp Negris’s rhetorical questions, but he got the gist, which seemed to imply that the seeds he bred were exceptional, enabling him to harvest every month and a half. Therefore, couldn’t he grow several seasons?
This speculation made him happier. He merrily harvested the crops, preparing to sow another season once he finished reaping.
However, Negris wasn’t satisfied, particularly upon seeing Ange’s method of harvesting. He couldn’t help criticizing, “If you’re using a scythe, then just use a regular one. Why are you using the Scythe of Death? That’s a skill meant for reaping souls. Can’t you show a bit of respect?”
Ange held the scythe, which gave out a brief flash of blade light that was identical to when he detached Turus’s soul. It was clearly in the form of the
Scythe of Death.
Ange answered in two words: “It’s handy.”
When the blade of the scythe stretched out, it entirely covered a whole row of soil. He would take two steps back, give it a pull, and the crops in that row would neatly topple over. If he didn’t use the Scythe of Death, Ange would have to swing the scythe twice to reap a row of crops, thus tripling the time.
So Ange didn’t care about its reverence; as long as it was practical.
Upset, Negris huffed unhappily, unable to do anything. He could only comfort himself by saying, “I suppose you likely practiced your Scythe of Death during harvest. Otherwise, why would you bring it out just because I mentioned it?”
With the handy Scythe of Death, Ange finished harvesting the crops in just a day and night. Since they didn’t nurtur prior seeding, Ange directly scattered the seeds into the land.
Of course, it’s not randomly scattered; he used a precision-tooled Pollination Technique to bury individual seeds into the soil at fixed intervals, whilst simultaneously covering them with a thin layer of soil. It was like an invisible hand at work.
Unable to resist, Negris commented, “Your precise control would work wonderfully in engraving magic scrolls, even high -level ones, and yet you used it for farming. But, that’s understandably so; if someone used low-level magic to farm for a thousand years, they would also develop such control.”
While Negris was chattering, at the Isthmus Square in front of Ice City, a Delivery Magic Circle was all set, ready to receive the food sent from the human world at any time.
Food, a bulk commodity, is the least suitable for interdimensional transfer; it’s just too costly. One tonne of food costs one Demon Crystal for transfer, but to transport it to another dimension might need ten Demon Crystals. The freight cost is ten times the price of the goods.
Anna spent one hundred Demon Crystals to buy one hundred tonnes of food. However, to transport them here required a thousand Demon Crystals and an extra four hundred for “miscellaneous” expenses, causing her a great deal of pain.
But there was no choice; food is a necessity. Even if it caused bankruptcy, it still needed to be purchased. Especially after the demons burnt several cultivation areas, a food shortage in Ice City became inevitable. Without stocking up on enough food, there would likely be a famine next year, causing an uncountable number of deaths.
Not only did she intend to continue buying after this successful food purchase, but she also planned to keep doing so in the future. After all, she saw this food supply as untapped resources; she was just a middleman.
After selling the essence fluid and using half of the received Demon Crystals to pay Ange, the rest was used to buy food. Not a single penny was spent.
If this trade is to persist, monthly purchases would add up to twelve hundred tonnes of food a year, enough to feed between ten and twenty thousand people.
Regarding this prospect, Anna was very confident since the Goblin Trade Guild, named “Silver Light”, had proven to be trustworthy. In previous transactions, they had promptly provided the agreed upon 1500 Demon Crystals. It was unlikely they’d embezzle the remaining hundred tonnes of food.
Today was the agreed-upon delivery date. Ice City had already placed the Delivery Magic Circle. Unlike the Teleportation Array, the Delivery Magic Circle only had the functionality to provide a precise location to prevent incorrect placements by the foreign teleportation array.
Because it only provided the location, the foreign teleportation array would need to expend more energy to deliver goods.
If there was a teleportation array here, it would save eighty to ninety percent of the energy. This means, one tonne of food might only need one Demon Crystal for teleportation.
The World Transit Station is a gigantic teleportation array that substantially cuts shipping expenses. It connects myriad worlds, directly reaching every Prime Material Plane and the Abyss Dimension. It builds an unhindered conduit for goods and talent exchange throughout the void.
Regrettably, this world has turned into a barren island since the station ceased operation a thousand years ago, even struggling to support the existing population.
“All set; it’s coming soon. Get ready.” Lan suddenly raised the alarm as the coin-delivery magic circle began to illuminate.
Everybody readied themselves, not just Anna and Lan who were preparing to receive the delivery, but also the soldiers and ballista carts stationed around.
Because no one could guarantee whether the Items pemg transportea were food or enemies, one could never be too careful.
A dazzling light flashed, and within the center of the Delivery Magic Circle, a pile of grain bags and three figures appeared..