CHAPTER 62 - A WAND-ERFUL DISPLAY OF POWER

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We traveled so smoothly through the skies that, to my surprise, I didn’t feel a thing at all before I felt another slight jolt when we landed at our destination.

“We’ve arrived,” said Prince Baiyu.

I swung the door open.

“We’re already here? No way! I hardly even felt a thing,” I said.

He laughed as he helped me down from the flying vehicle. “What did I tell you? This carriage is worth every penny.”

“It is, it really is! I love it,” I said. “Thank you very much for buying it for me. Let’s use this whenever I have to go somewhere.”

“It’s rented, but the monthly terms are reasonable,” he said.

“I like it. Whatever you’re paying, I’m more than willing to cover it.”

“We seem to have arrived earlier than expected,” he said, looking up at the position of the sun in the sky.

I and my apprentices, of course, had the System to tell us the exact time. However, other people didn't always have a clock with them. Therefore, it was quite common for time to be quite flexible and inexact. I was told that we would be arriving at the site “by midmorning,” but that could be anytime from 8 AM to 10 AM.

The ox carts could technically match the carriage’s speed, but it was much less comfortable, so they would be going slower and were expected to arrive “by noon,” which was a rather vague term meaning sometime around noon rather than exactly noon.

We stepped down from the flying vehicle into a vast, flat land covered in dry-looking brown grass that was barely a foot tall. A few places here and there were completely bare of any vegetation, revealing patches of cracked, parched ground. So this was Blossom Valley.

In the distance, a hill rose from the flat ground like a hump on the back of a giant beast. Jagged and pointed rock formations jutted out from the hill’s peak, giving the appearance of sharp teeth reaching toward the sky, which is why it was called Skyfang Hill.

“Do you feel anything?” I asked Mo and Kharli.

“I feel hot.” Kharli took off her jacket.

Mo just shrugged.

So…

None of us felt anything, therefore we probably wouldn’t be affected by the “curse” that was said to be so uncomfortable that people couldn’t stay in this place for long.

“Could you please ask your people to find me a good place that’s upwind and maybe slightly elevated? I’ll place the house there,” I said to Prince Baiyu.

The sun was beating down on our heads quite fiercely, so I placed a large open tent for us to shelter under while we waited. It didn’t take long for them to find a suitable location for us. I asked Prince Baiyu to request that his staff keep quiet about what I was going to do, and he assured me that they were his most trusted and discreet clan members.

“Okay, don’t panic whatever happens!” I said to the others.

I called up the System menu and selected the [Two Courtyard House] option. Since I had plenty of space, I built the largest one possible.

A magic circle filled with glowing mystical symbols appeared on the ground, and a few moments later, the house appeared. It had twelve-foot high stone walls and a magnificent [Stardust Silverwood Door].

[Stardust Silverwood Door

A door made of white wood that shines softly as though it's covered in stardust.]

There was a chorus of gasps behind me, and I turned around to see that everyone, including Prince Baiyu, was staring at the house in open-mouthed shock. Of course, the girls had seen me summon a few small buildings before, but nothing on the scale of this enormous courtyard house.

I smiled to myself. That was just the beginning.

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Working according to the plan that I had thought of weeks ago, I doubled the size of the house by adding an [Elegant Chinese Garden] from the Cash Shop to the eastern side.

[Elegant Chinese Garden

The character for garden contains four symbols that must all be present to capture the essence of a classic Chinese garden: the majesty of mountains or the ruggedness of rocks, the tranquility of water, the beauty of buildings, and the life of plants.]

The most important thing about this was that it contained a large man-made pond and an artificial river that had a very pretty little moon bridge whose curved shape created a moon-shaped reflection in the water.

I reckoned that it was almost noon time, so I had to work fast. Navigating to the [Favorites] folder in the cash shop, I used the space around the house to place one of each of the items I had chosen earlier: [Crystal Cascade], [Moonlit Mirror Pond], [Starlight Stream], [Twilight Tide Pool], [Enchanted Fountain], [Velvet Veil Rain Curtain], [Nirvana Lotus Pond], and [Celestial Spray Dancing Fountain].

When I was finished, the perimeter of the house was crowded with all the different water features that I had added.

Mo and Kharli closed their mouths and finally remembered my instructions. They went over to check each of the Cash Shop items that I had placed.

Prince Baiyu cleared his throat and gave me a questioning look. “What is all this?”

“Well, our main problem is that we don’t have any water here, so I thought that adding this would help. The girls are checking if any of this water is seeping into the land,” I said.

The prince’s staff quickly got over their surprise and joined my apprentices in inspecting the items that I had placed.

“I see.” He walked over to the nearest water feature, the [Velvet Veil Rain Curtain], and I followed.

We put our hands under the thin sheet of water that was falling into a small plunge pool.

“What do you think?” I asked him.

“I can already feel the difference in the air. It’s cooler and moister.”

“Yes, but the bottom of this pool is tiled, which means that the water won’t be absorbed by the ground.”

“That’s true.”

I noticed that today he was acting much more formal and reserved. That was probably because the others from the White Tiger clan were watching.

“Let’s go inside the house and check out the garden while the others are looking at the water features outside the house,” I said.

We went to the [Elegant Chinese Garden] first. I was slightly disappointed but not surprised when Prince Baiyu examined the pond and artificial river and told me that they were lined with compacted clay that was almost completely impermeable. There should be a little bit of water seepage, but not very much.

“Well, at least the garden is very pretty,” I said. “Let’s go inside. I need to furnish the interior before the others arrive.”

“All right.”

I didn’t have much time to thoughtfully choose each item individually, hence I could only use the various [Furniture Packs] for the living rooms, bedrooms, and kitchen. We were only staying for a week, anyway.

“Now it’s time for some serious business!” I rubbed my hands with glee and gave the prince a smug look. “It’s gonna be amazing!”

He raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I look forward to whatever it is you’re going to show me.”

We headed outside, and I collected my two apprentices who informed me that only the [Nirvana Lotus Pond] was naturally dug into the ground without any cement, tile, stone, or compacted clay liners. I quickly removed all the other water features and surrounded the courtyard house with as many lotus ponds as I could.

Then we climbed into a flying oxcart and flew halfway up Skyfang Hill.

I activated the Cash Shop’s landscaping tools. Of course, in Adventure Incarnate, one could manually dig the contour swales. It was tedious, but it wasn't like it took forever. Players only had to click here and there with the manual landscaping tool to dig where it was needed. However, players could also open their wallets and use the Cash Shop’s [Empyrean Earth Transformer] that would automatically build the swales with one click.

“Time to boogie!” I raised my arms for dramatic effect and activated [Empyrean Earth Transformer].

It was glorious. The clouds parted, and the sky lit up with golden pillars of light that shone down on the hill, followed by the appearance of a gigantic magic circle that covered the entire hill. Glowing arcane symbols spun around inside a whirlpool of clouds and rained down on the ground.

The clan member who was driving the cart made a loud exclamation, and the flying vehicle dropped a few inches in the air before he got it under control again.

I screamed a little and clutched the side of the cart.

“My apologies, my prince,” said the driver. His voice sounded a little squeaky from shock.

“Control yourself,” said Prince Baiyu.

“Yes, sir,” said the unfortunate driver.

Were his hands trembling?

“Is he okay?” I whispered to Prince Baiyu.

“He’ll be fine,” said Prince Baiyu.

Since it seemed that our driver was becoming a little nervous, I quickly added as many [Construct-O-Matic Turbochargers] as I could. Terraforming the hill would have taken a few days in the game, but the construction time could be shortened by using this Cash Shop item.

When I was finished, I was chagrined to see that it was going to take longer in real life than in the game.

[Empyrean Earth Transformer

Time Left: 05 Days 23 Hours 59 Minutes]

It’s not that I was in that big of a rush, it’s just that the magic circle and the pillars of light would remain in the sky until the tool was finished.

“I’m done. Let’s go back to the house,” I said.

“Teacher, what about that?” Kharli pointed at the hill.

“I’m building the contour swales using that. It should be finished in six days,” I said.

Mo and Kharli exchanged dubious looks.

“Won’t people be alarmed when they see that thing in the sky?” asked Mo.

“That’s why we have this.” I patted Prince Baiyu on the shoulder.

He smiled down at me and said, “Yes, ‘this’ is a very useful person indeed.”

“Sweet! I like a man who’s useful,” I said.

“I’ll take care of any problem that arises,” he promised.

I must say, the [Rescue Prince Baiyu] quest was the best one the System had given me so far.