CHAPTER 56 - GREENHOUSES ARE PLANTASTIC, BUT HAVING TO DESTROY MY HOUSE IS A PANE IN THE GLASS

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When I informed my household of my plan to reclaim the desert, everyone was against it, but I ignored all of their protests. Anyway, I managed to get the Demon Chef’s promise that he would cook for me whenever I moved south, which was the most important thing to me. I could do all the landscaping and planting myself, but I couldn’t live without good food anymore.

“Do we really have to?” whined Lari.

“Yes,” I said.

We had just finished watering the vegetables and were on our way to my house.

“But that place is cursed!” Lari just wouldn’t give up. He had been complaining nonstop since breakfast when I told them of my plans.

Kharli and Mo were too smart to actually say anything, however, they nodded in agreement each time Lari said something.

“You guys can stay here if you like.” I was tired of their negativity.

The three of them exchanged glances.

“Teacher, we’ll go with you,” said Kharli.

“That’s settled then. Don’t even worry about some sort of curse, I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said.

I sighed sadly when we reached my house. It was time to say goodbye to my beloved refuge. Calling up the System menu, I navigated to the [Build] tab and selected the [Destroy Building] option.

The others screamed shrilly when dust covered my house and an ominous rumbling sound came from the ground. In seconds, my [Ranch House] was reduced to fine particles that were blown away by a mysterious wind.

“Don’t panic, I’m just replacing it with a building that we will need,” I said.

“But, Teacher, you loved that house!” said Kharli. She looked dismayed.

“I hope you all appreciate the sacrifice that I’m making.”

A glowing magic circle appeared on the ground and the space above it became hazy with a luminous mist. When it cleared, a [Sugar Mill] appeared in its place. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a nondescript wooden building, however, when we entered we saw that there was a huge industrial-looking machine inside. On one end was a large circular vat labeled “Sugarcane” and a red button that had “Start/Stop” written on it, while on the other end was a box labeled “Sugar.” The center part was enclosed in glass in such a way that one could see the insides of the machine that was full of steel rollers, robot arms, more vats, a centrifuge, and a conveyor belt.

My three apprentices were speechless with awe.

“This is a machine that makes sugar from sugarcane,” I said. “You may remember that I wanted to grow sugarcane last season.”

“Teacher, you wanted sugar so much that you exchanged your house for this?” asked Kharli.

“Of course not. I’m going to build a greenhouse. This is just a temporary thing because I want a few sacks of sugar.”

“Is this because I foraged a lot of wild berries and you want to make jam, but we don’t have enough sugar?” asked Mo.

I made finger guns and mimed shooting her as an acknowledgment that she had hit the target. Unfortunately, the three of them weren’t familiar with firearms so they didn’t know how to react.

“Yes, exactly! Topnotch jam can only be made with spiritual ingredients,” I said.

“Teacher, why are you always motivated by food?” asked Lari.

“What else is there?” I asked.

“Money! Beauties! Power…” he said.

“Teacher already has money and a beauty,” said Kharli. “By the way, when are you going to announce your engagement?”

I totally ignored her question and walked to the end of the machine where I placed sugarcane from the System inventory until the vat was full. Then I pressed the button to start up the machine.

The four of us watched in fascination as whirling blades shredded sugarcane stalks. Then the large metal rollers pressed the juice out of the shreds. The juice was collected in a large container which was subject to a series of mysterious processes where it was boiled, cooled, concentrated, purified, and crystalized. It took around six hours before it was finished, and Lari went to the main house to get some snacks and tea for us while we waited. Fengying, Deming, and the other staff also dropped by to watch. Finally, pure white sugar poured out of the machine into the steel box on the other end.

I gestured to the Demon Chef to go ahead and check it first. He dipped a spoon into the box of white powder and tasted some of it.

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“Jade Dust Sugar, low grade,” was his verdict.

We all crowded around the box and sampled the final product. Some of the others had never seen sugar before.

“It’s like honey, but sweeter,” said Mo.

“No, honey is better,” said Kharli. “This is bland and has no depth.”

“I heard this is really expensive stuff,” said Lari.

Using a spoon from my inventory, I scooped up a small amount. This was definitely not the sugar that I was familiar with. It smelled the same as it would have on earth, yet sparkled like diamonds and felt strangely heavy.

Gosh, I hope it tastes the same!

I tentatively poured a little bit of it in my mouth and was relieved when it proved to be as sweet as I remembered.

“The crystals are quite fine,” said Fengying. “I assume this is for making the jam that you requested?”

I nodded. “I hope Deming can make some really nice strawberry jam.”

“I’m sure he can,” said Fengying.

Yes! I was extremely fond of strawberry jam. I figured I’d keep the machine running for three days before building the greenhouse.

***

Three days later, my sadness at the loss of my [Ranch House] was mitigated by my delight in the new greenhouse.

The large, airy greenhouse was made of large, thick glass panels that allowed the sunlight to penetrate inside. There were separate spaces inside for the seedling trays, plant pots, gardening supplies, and a wide open space in the middle where top grade garden soil was ready for planting.

What’s more, I had set up a very nice tea corner for us to use where I had set up a small, round table and comfortable overstuffed armchairs. It didn't look like much right now, but it would surely be extremely cozy when the greenhouse was full of plants.

“Teacher, this is for the winter? A greenhouse is for growing plants even when it’s cold outside, right?” asked Kharli.

“Do you like it?” I asked.

“We like anything that gives us farming exp,” said Mo.

Lari was busy inspecting all of the gardening supplies. There were shovels, rakes, trowels, pruning shears, wheelbarrows, hoses, sprinklers, sprayers, garden hoses, clippers, gloves, tarp, soil, mulch, compost, fertilizers, weed killers, plant food, etc. When he saw that we were talking, Lari joined us.

“Then you’ll love this because it gives exp, though not a lot of it,” I said.

“I know what this is for. We're going to plant trees,” said Lari.

“Obviously!” said Kharli.

“We can’t turn the desert into a forest like Teacher wants us to unless we have lots and lots of trees to plant,” said Mo.

“I’m glad we all know what to do. Take this and follow me.” I took out the packets of seeds that I had prepared beforehand and gave them to my apprentices. Walking over to the nearest seedling tray, I poked a hole around half an inch deep and placed a seed in it. Then I sprinkled a little soil over it. This action depleted some of my energy. “Now you guys try it.”

The three of them followed suit, and we continued planting more seeds until only one third of our energy was left.

“The last step is simply to water it. We’ll have to do that every day, of course,” I said. “These are all fertilizer tree seeds.”

Lari took out a seed from his pocket and gave it a dubious look. “Teacher, this is a type of tree that we can use as fertilizer?”

The System gave a succinct explanation of fertilizer trees, also known as nitrogen-fixing trees, however, the concept of “nitrogen” wasn’t well known in this era, so I thought it would be good to give them a simpler explanation.

“Are you thinking of taking the leaves and using it as fertilizer?” I asked.

The three of them nodded.

“No, that’s not how it works. The seeds I gave you aren’t just one type of tree, but half a dozen trees that are good to grow in land where the soil has degraded. Their roots can bring up nutrients from deep in the earth up to the surface where other plants can use it.” It was a bit of a long speech, but I had prepared the explanation a few days ago, so I knew what to say. “They can also extract valuable elements from the air, which will improve the quality of the land and make it more fertile.”

“I have a feeling these trees won’t make us any money,” said Lari.

“On the contrary, these trees are known as fertilizer trees because they boost agricultural productivity,” I said. “If the soil isn’t that good, planting one of these nearby will make the harvest much better compared to not having a fertilizer tree.”

“The soil must be really bad in the cursed lands,” said Mo. “They say that nothing grows there.”

“The maids told me that there are ghosts wandering around there even during the day,” said Kharli.

“I’ve heard that if you spend the night in the cursed lands, you’ll have bad luck for a whole year,” said Lari.

“I’ve heard that if you keep on talking about silly superstitions, your teacher will send you to bed without dinner,” I said.

The three of them groaned, but that did shut them up nicely because today was the day that Deming and his assistants had prepared a harvest feast for us.

When we finished planting all the seeds, we went back to the house to wash up and change into better clothes. The feast was just for all the people in the house, so it was quite informal, but everyone dressed up anyway.

Deming and Haoran, one of his assistants, stayed in the kitchen to put the finishing touches on the dishes, while the rest of us waited at the outer courtyard where two large, round tables had been placed.

The feast consisted of eight vegetarian dishes made of the crops that we had just harvested. I expected Lari to complain about the lack of meat, but, to my surprise, he was just as excited about it as the girls.

We all oohed and aahed whenever a new dish was served. They all came in large serving platters and had been painstakingly arranged to look their best. The first one was a dish called “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea” which consisted of colorful vegetables served with eight different dipping sauces.

Using my chopsticks, I picked up a carrot slice and dipped it in a spicy sauce that reminded me of ranch dressing. The sweetness and crunchiness of the vegetable combined with the creamy, tangy, and spicy taste of the sauce was absolutely scrumptious.

Then a parade of steamed, baked, stir-fried, and raw vegetable dishes followed, each one more elaborate than the last. I was particularly fond of the sweet potato spiced cookies that capped the feast.

It was all amazing, and we agreed that there was something really special about eating food that one had grown.

… But I really missed eating meat!

I would have to ask Deming not to make the next feast a vegetarian one.

CHAPTER 56.5

An excerpt from the journal of Shuye Skullcrusher, Guardian of the Ancient Hill Forest:

Could the cursed lands be her real goal? What does she want to do there? That ominous place has a bad reputation among humans. We've had to gently dissuade various unorthodox human cultivator clans who wanted to build schools there. When the gods' punishment devastated the land, the qi in that place became tainted with the lingering resentment of the tens of thousands of people who died there.

If she's really able to build a farm there, it could only be by appeasing the souls of the restless dead, or...

By possessing a divine power able to lift the age-old curse that has befallen that desolate land.