CHAPTER 200
🙞❤︎🙜
The reward that the System display showed as three question marks was some sort of mystery item, probably junk since this wasn’t a major quest. Only the big events or main quest lines had mystery rewards that were worth keeping.
Having accepted the quest, I checked my surroundings and found myself in a large chamber with an earthen ceiling and floor, with walls made of the same plain black wood as the door. At the far side was another door identical to the first one. The area was lit by what looked like light bulbs to me, but the people of this world would probably call them glowing pearls or something like that.
The clan members quickly went through the other door, and we followed after them when they said it was safe. The room behind the door was enormous, easily fifty feet across, with thirty-foot high ceilings, and it was a maze of corridors made out of wood.
Prince Muyang conferred with the other clan members before turning to me and asking, “Shall I fly everyone to the other side?”
I shook my head. “I think we’re supposed to solve the maze. Why don’t we give it a try?”
Though I wasn’t opposed to cheating, why borrow trouble when the maze probably wasn’t that hard to traverse?
“Uh, who is good at mazes?” I asked everyone.
One of the clan members raised his hand. It only took half an hour to get to the door on the other side.
The next room was empty except for a square-shaped puzzle on the wooden wall made up of nine squares, each with nine squares inside them. Some of the smaller squares had tiles with numbers written on them in white paint, and on either side of the big square were numbered tiles hung on metal hooks driven into the walls.
Clearly, I was supposed to put the numbered tiles on the empty squares.
Prince Muyang frowned. “What is this?”
“Excuse me, I must commit Sudoku! Give me a few minutes, please. I have to solve this puzzle.” I stood in front of the puzzle and took out a pencil and paper from my inventory to draft the answer.
Finding the solution took a while since I was no Sudoku expert, but I eventually figured it out.
The prince gave me a questioning look. “How do you know what to do?”
“Isn’t this a common puzzle?” Suddenly I realized what the problem was. The numbers were from Earth! This world, naturally, used different characters for their number system. “Uh, well, it’s just a mathematical formula I have to solve.”
I explained the rules of Sudoku to them and wrote down the numbers for them in their language.
“Then these are just magic squares, but written in your bloodline inheritance’s language?” Prince Muyang raised an eyebrow. “Could your bloodline be related to the Black Tortoise?”
I shrugged. “It’s a mystery to me.”
The door automatically slid open when I finished placing the last tile. The other puzzles in the other rooms were equally easy to solve. There was a memory game, jigsaw puzzle, crossword puzzle, spot the difference, and connect the dots, but the one that gave me the most trouble was the hidden object game. No matter how I tried, I simply couldn’t find the cloverleaf in the extremely intricately detailed carving of a fantasy forest. Kharli was the one who found it for me.
“Good work!” I gave her a hug. “I’ll give you an extra scoop of ice cream for dessert tonight!”
“But I always get an extra scoop! How about a whole bowl of ice cream this big, Teacher?” Kharli cupped her hands together to show the size of the bowl she wanted.
“No can do, kid. You’ll get a stomach ache like last time. Let’s go. Something tells me the next room is the last puzzle we have to solve.”
Prince Muyang and the other clan members reacted to that piece of information in different ways.
“What is that ‘something’?” murmured the prince.
“None of us can read these strange writings.”
“The qi here is quiet but intense. I’ll be glad to see the end of these rooms.”
“The maze is one thing, but these ‘puzzles’...”
“I think they’re very interesting! The jigsaw puzzle was fun.”
“But why aren’t they in our language?”
I scratched my head and said, “Hey, isn’t the Black Tortoise supposed to have a weird sense of humor? This seems like a very playful place.”
“No, I heard the gods have no sense of humor. That’s something only humans have,” said the prince.
After that brief discussion, Prince Muyang, who had never complained or expressed frustration at not understanding the puzzles, ordered his guards to go ahead to the next room.
I gasped in horror when I saw the last puzzle. “No, no, no! This is impossible. Let’s just give up. There’s probably nothing good in the prize room anyway.”
The prince looked down at the floor which was full of colored tiles. “What’s wrong?”
“I hate sliding puzzles, and it’s way too big! Look, there are like hundreds of tiles. We could be here for days.”
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“I think ‘days’ is an exaggeration. I’m sure we can finish in a few hours.”
“Do you know the saying ‘Pride goeth before a fall’?”
“We can do it.”
“Okay.” Since he was determined to complete the puzzle, I gave in.
We all circled the floor tiles and tried to figure out what the drawing on the tiles was supposed to be, but it was too jumbled up. Prince Muyang suggested sliding a few tiles around, but our big break came after the one-hour mark when the System took pity on us and a notification popped up.
[Buy a hint for 30 gold coins?]
I never clicked on the [Yes] button so fast in my life!
The System was stingy and only gave a partial drawing of the upper right corner of the illustration, but it was enough to give us a good head start. Once we finished that bit, the System offered another hint for more gold, and I kept on buying until we finally finished the puzzle four hours later.
I leaned on the wall and put a hand on my forehead as though I was an actress on stage who was about to faint. “That was way too hard for me!”
Lari flashed a smile. “Teacher, this should mean the prize will be really good. No one would put so many obstacles if the treasure isn’t spectacular.”
“I doubt it.” I almost had to bite my tongue to stop myself from saying that the best treasures were always guarded by boss monsters. That would’ve raised a flag.
The most senior guard went inside what I expected to be the prize room first. There were no screams, so the rest of us followed behind him right away.
The treasure room was vast and circular, its earthen walls bare except for patches of moss. Pillars of white stone, set with globes of glowing glass, were set here and there along the perimeter, brightly illuminating the massive oak chest dominating the center of the room, its iron-bound lid closed tight. Ornate runic carvings adorned its surface and it rested on a low black stone platform. Scattered loosely around the chest were three golden objects: a goblet, a ring, and a small statuette. The air inside was stale and carried a faint, earthy scent. Other than the chest and the few treasures, the room was empty.
We fell into a reverent silence.
“This probably isn’t dangerous, but please stay behind us,” said Prince Muyang’s chief bodyguard.
The kids and I obediently stood behind the clan members as one of the more junior guards undid the iron clasps and opened the chest. He smiled and took out a scroll case from the inside of the chest. It was made of dark wood and brown leather.
We all crowded around him and I used the System to check the item’s info.
[War Scroll:
An ancient scroll containing the original text of the Divine Strategist’s sermons to his disciples on the art of warfare and logistics.]
With this, I got a tiny bit of exp, which was enough to push me over the edge to my Farming milestone level.
[The War Scroll: Quest Complete
Reward: Farming Exp and Mustard Seed]
[Congratulations you just advanced a Farming level!]
[Your Farming level is now 30.]
Yes!
I was so excited by leveling up that I barely paid attention to the others when they took all the treasures. They would all be sent to Prince Muyang’s father, the ruler of the northern clans, and the scroll case was put back in the chest for now, since they feared the contents might be too delicate for us to touch, much less unroll and read.
We quickly went back outside where my flying ship was and returned to the islands. I went directly to my villa where I secluded myself in order to check on all the new goodies I received for reaching my level 30 Farming milestone.
There were lots of rewards: more energy, house unlocks, five puppet upgrade gems, an extra building slot, and the limit for farm animals was increased from eight to ten.
The five ruby hearts went into the gem on my puppet’s chest.
[Puppet Name: Mr. Bear
A magical plushie unlike any other. This cute and cuddly bear is made of a special type of plush cloth and magical stuffing that gives it special powers. When its owner is in danger, this bear will come to life.
Though Mr. Bear is a wizard type, this puppet is also equipped with hidden metal claws and teeth.
Type: Magic
Base spell: Fireball
Upgrades: 4→9/99]
While treating myself to a slice of osmanthus cake and a [Kola-Kola Soda] to celebrate my level up, I browsed the [Build] tab and saw that the [Palace] and [Four Courtyard House] were both unlocked.
Maybe I would build a [Palace] when it was time for my wedding, but at the moment, I felt that using that much land for a house was too much. The added building slot would be filled by another [Rice Mill] since it was needed for the war effort.
When I finished checking all the new goodies, I went to visit Prince Baiyu and we spent the rest of the night together.
The next day, I visited Prince Baiyu’s parents at their villa.
The royal couple were enjoying a honeymoon of sorts and kept to themselves. According to Scholar Wu, clan members’ babies were considered “newborns” for a longer time than human babies and needed a lot of care and attention because clan members grew and aged at a slower rate. Thus, the time when a female was pregnant was considered a very special time since the parents would probably not have much time alone together for a few years. That was why Lady Yuying and her husband spent all their time at their villa and even ate their meals separately.
Everyone thought it was hilarious when they had to ask Fengying to replace some of the furniture they broke. I tactfully changed the more fragile wooden furniture with sturdy metal ones.
Whenever they did emerge, the two of them looked bright-eyed and rosy-cheeked, and today was no exception. They sat side by side on a loveseat while Baiyu served us tea, looking quite pleased with themselves. We exchanged the ritual greetings and made some small talk before Lady Yuying got to the main point.
“We’ve decided to hand over Baiyu’s inheritance. We’ll be too busy to handle it after the baby is born,” said Lady Yuying.
“There are some gold and household items, but most of them are in the form of properties such as agricultural lands, undeveloped forests, houses and shops in towns and cities, and so forth,” said Lord Yulin. “There are a lot of taxes and documents that need to be filed when we transfer the deeds to Baiyu.”
Prince Baiyu’s eyes gleamed. “I’m sure I can handle it.”
My head started spinning when they talked about all the details of the contracts and legal papers that would be needed, but the important part was that this conversation signaled that they were getting ready for the time when their son married out of their family.
We parted with lots of smiles and mutual good wishes. Prince Baiyu was on cloud nine now that we got a concrete sign of approval from his parents, and we had a party that night to celebrate. Deming whipped up a scrumptious feast of fresh fish and seafood dishes served with the produce from the farm. After the kids went to bed, Prince Muyang contributed his alcohol stash and the staff spent a boozy night of stargazing and singing around a bonfire at the beach. Prince Baiyu hustled me off to my villa when our drunk guests dared each other to go skinny dipping.
***
The days of vacationing at the beach and planting strange fruit trees passed in a sweet haze of romance. It wasn’t until the winter season was almost over and we were packing for our return to the Emberstone Farm that I remembered to check the [Mustard Seed].
[Mustard Seed:
Plant this at the appropriate time on your farm to unlock a pocket dimension.]
What???