by Fang Xiang
He really wanted to tell Daren what a large influence killing the three Ren Family elders would have on Xu Ling City’s inhabitants. Xu Ling City was most likely in an uproar at this moment. No matter how low-key or weak they pretended to be, no one would believe them … …
Of course, these words only spun in his mind. He smartly closed his mouth. Boss definitely had Boss’ reasons for doing a thing. A little character like him definitely could not understand the profound meaning of Boss’ action.
He already knew that Boss wasn’t just a boss. This was a classic combat troop. However, that had nothing to do with him. No matter what the other had him do, he would unhesitatingly do it, even at the risk of his own life.
When the evil laughs in the room decreased, he reported the assets of Turtle Island to Zuo Mo. “Daren, we have finished our survey.”
When Zuo Mo held the result, his eyes were wide.
The area of Turtle Island was forty seven thousand mu. Zuo Mo had to sigh that Turtle Island was, as expected, one of the largest islands of the intermediate-sized islands. The next string of statistics caused Zuo Mo to start drooling.
There were fifteen thousand mu of ling fields on the island, of which ten thousand were third-grade ling fields and another three thousand were fourth-grade ling fields.
Seeing such enormous numbers, his thoughts almost diverged. The entire Wu Kong Sword Sect had never had so many ling fields in the past, much less third-grade ling fields! Such an large amount of third-grade ling fields was enough to support a sizable sect. Adding on that the three thousand mu of fourth-grade ling fields was an enormous sum of wealth!
They had struck it rich!
Deliriously happy, Zuo Mo’s gaze moved down and then he suddenly froze.
Ten thousand mu third-grade ling fields but they only had thirty ling plant farmers!
Thirty ling plant farmers!
Compared to the enormous amount of ling fields, the number of ling plant farmers was not enough! Thirty ling plant farmers, not one of them had the Summer Flower Jade Medal, they were all Spring Sprout ling plant farmers!
This meant that almost ten thousand mu of the third-grade ling fields were in fallow! A spring spout level ling plant farmer could only plant and care for fifty mu of third-grade ling fields at maximum for a total of one thousand and five hundred mu! On their hands, the fourth-grade ling fields were an even larger waste, and could not reach their full potential.
Thinking about the ten thousand ling fields being in a state of waste, Zuo Mo instantly felt pain.
“Is it hard to hire ling plant farmers?” Zuo Mo asked Shang Wei Ming.
Shang Wei Ming shook his head. “Not easy. Even though many roaming xiu have come recently, but there still aren’t many ling plant farmers. Many families are recruiting ling plant farmers.”
Zuo Mo bared his teeth with a painful expression. He secretly noted down this problem.
Wastefulness was shameful!
Zuo Mo quickly found that it wasn’t just the ling fields that were not being utilized to their full capacity.
There were thirty six ling springs on the island, but only six were being used, and even then they only raised very normal kinds of animals.
There were three ling lakes on the island but not even one of them was in use. Each ling lake was surrounded by weeds. Supposedly, the three Ren Family elders were not interested in the ling lakes at all, and hadn’t even cleared out the weeds.
The one asset developed the most was a cave on the island, Snow Silkworm Cave. This cave was extremely deep and cold. There was a herd of Snow Cloud Silkworms living in the cave. The silk that the snow cloud silkworms produced were flowing cloud silk. This was an upper fourth-grade material and was easy to sell. The flowing cloud silk was the biggest source of annual income on the island.
There were many other caves on the island but none of them had been explored and used.
When Zuo Mo finished reading the report, his first feeling was, the Ren Family was really wasteful!
His second feeling, they had really struck it rich!
But the first decision Zuo Mo made was to order everyone to explore the entire Turtle Island. With this kind of slacker mentality from the three Ren Family elders, Zuo Mo felt that the possibility they had missed good things was very high.
Forty seven thousand mu was not a small area. How to set up defenses was also a problem. This headache would be given to Gongsun Cha to deal with.
Zuo Mo’s thoughts were completely focused on how to use the resources of Turtle Island.
———
“The Ren Family was killed?”
“Really? How can the Ren Family be killed? They have three jindan!”
“It’s true! I heard that only three people in the group fought and there was another that watched. Miss Ren also died, she was the cause of the conflict!”
“Ha, I’ve said it before. With Miss Ren’s personality, she would cause the Ren Family to die!”
“The Heavens really sent a blessing this time!”
“But we need to be careful in the short-term. People that casually killed the Ren Family are not ones that us little people can provoke!”
Just as Shang Wei Ming had predicted, Xu Ling City was in an uproar over the news that the Ren Family was destroyed. The cloud islands near Turtle Island acted as though they were facing a great enemy, fearing that this group of unknown origins had malicious intents towards them.
———
At the Tian Family, the elders that were in charge gathered together in a hall with serious expressions.
“I hadn’t thought that the Ren Family would be destroyed like this.” Tian Yong Qing sighed. “The three Ren Family jindan gone like this. The world has changed too quickly.”
“Don’t speak of useless things.” Tian Heng Bo had an unconcerned expression. “This group of unknown origins have taken over the Ren Cloud Island, that is land that we have planned to obtain! Fifteen thousand mu of ling fields with more than three thousand mu of fourth-grade ling fields, the rest are all third-grade ling fields! Not to speak of the flowing cloud silk produced on the island, the Ren Familly got rich based on just that!”
“If we can have Ren Cloud Island, our power would immediately go up a level!” another elder said. “I hadn’t expected that a group of outsiders got ahead of us!”
Everyone was silent. The Tian Family was most skilled ling farming and their desire of ling fields was much greater than other families. They had been planning for a long time and were preparing to take Ren Cloud Island soon. But Zuo Mo’s group had appeared out of nowhere and gotten there before them.
“Do not move rashly,” Tian Yong Qing said after a moment of thought. “We do not know the origins of this group. If we move now, it is hard to predict the results. Should we send someone to ask if they sell this island? The price can be negotiated!”
“Who would be so dumb to sell such a good place?” Tian Heng Bo did not believe it.
“That might not be the case,” Tian Yong Qing said with a smile, “No matter how many ling fields they have, without ling plant farmers, they can only go to waste! The only thing the other might be reluctant to part with is the flowing cloud silk.”
The elders smiled. About seven-tenths of the ling plant farmers on the Xu Ling City market worked for the Tian Family. The third grandpa of the Tian Family was skilled in ling farming and was a high level ling planter farmer with a autumn fruit jade medal. These ling plant farmers mostly wanted to improve so they entered the Tian Family.
Possessing the highest number of ling plant farmers, the Tian Family’s desire for ling fields was also the highest but the cloud island with the most ling fields near Xu Ling City did not belong to the Tian Family, but was Ren Cloud Island.
“If it is like that, it might not be impossible,” another elder spoke, “maybe we can use Star Cloud Island to trade. There is a fourth-grade star cloud metal mine on the island, and it isn’t lacking compared to the flowing cloud silk!�
��
Hiss, many elders inhaled sharply. That star cloud metal mine produced good fourth-grade star cloud metal, and was one of the important sources of income for the Tian Family.
“This price is too high!” Tian Heng Bo had a pained expression.
Tian Yong Qing waved his hand. “Do not hurry. They have just arrived. If it wasn’t for that Ren Qing being stupid and provoked them, they wouldn’t be so arrogant and aggressive! Right now, we shall observe and slowly come into contact with them.”
“If they use force?” an elder said in worry.
Tian Yong Qing lightly laughed. “If they think that because they destroyed the Ren Family, they can provoke our Tian Family, that is their death day!”
Looking at the puzzlement on everyone’s faces, Tian Yong Qing said faintly, “After one or two months, Eldest Grandfather is coming out of seclusion.”
The elders paused and then showed ecstasy.
Tian Yong Qing seemed to feel that one piece of good news wasn’t enough and continued, “The other good news is that our Tian Family Battalion, Tian Ye is coming back!”
It was deathly silent. Many elders showed terror.
* * *
Translator Ramblings: Turtle/tortoise is also another term for “bastard” “wang ba” in Chinese. Also, no rest when one is rich … … no one will make trouble for poor people, you’re only worth targeting if you are rich.
Chapter 447: On The Island
Zuo Mo inspected A Gui and showed a hint of joy. The vitality in A Gui’s eyes had grown a bit. She no longer looked dead. Compared to the recent past, the purple energy inside her body had doubled.
A Gui’s change was wonderful, Zuo Mo was happy.
Staring at this still wooden face, for some unknown reason, Zuo Mo felt slight heartache. If she hadn’t had to save him, A Gui wouldn’t be in an abnormal condition like this, not human or ghost. Even though Zuo Mo did not know why A Gui would make such a sacrifice for him, but no matter what, the debt of saving his life was significant enough for Zuo Mo to be willing to repay it with his own death.
It would only be another half a year, then they would find the Water Cloud Embryo and A Gui’s wounds would heal. Thinking about this, Zuo Mo couldn’t help but be filled with hope towards the future.
Now that they had Turtle Island, he could truly be considered to have his own property. Just that ten and some odd thousand mu of ling fields was enough for him to support all this people.
They had pretty much settled down on the island. What was left was to manage all this. This had to be slowly worked on. Everyone, including himself, was born poor, and it was their first time to managing such an enormous place. However, Zuo Mo was not afraid. Ge had marched through the storm of blood, and wasn’t afraid of a little matter like this.
Zuo Mo’s heart felt very sweet.
———
After Chun Yu Cheng finished visiting the last ling spring, he couldn’t help but sigh, “This really is a good place!”
Gazing at the serene and cold ling spring, he felt happy inside. This ling spring was a fourth-grade ling spring. Most likely due to its proximity to the Snow Silkworm Cave, the water was unusually cold. When he put his hand into the spring, his entire arm had almost frozen instantly. It was the first time Chun Yu Cheng had seen such a good quality ling spring and his happiness could be imagined.
This was the third fourth-grade ling spring he had visited and the other ling springs were third-grade. Even though the quality of each ling spring was different, but all of them were clean and high quality ling springs. There were many uses for good ling springs. They were especially suitable for raising some water element ling beasts, or planting some special ling grass. All water methods required good ling springs.
In those secret paradises, ling springs were something that could not be absent.
With these ling springs, he had enough confidence to raise excellent ling beasts. His knowledge of the beast pool was far deeper than when he first started, but there had been many ideas that he could not test due to the lack of conditions. He had never imagined there would be a day that he would truly have the conditions to study just because he wanted to.
So when he knew that there were many ling springs on the island, he hurriedly ran over to inspect them one by one.
The results left him overjoyed!
The conditions on the island and the quality of these ling spring surpassed their imagination. He had never thought there would really be a day that he could have this kind of conditions.
He felt as though he was dreaming!
Please don’t wake up from this dream!
Chun Yu Cheng murmured to himself.
———
“So is this the Snow Silkworm Cave?” Ji Cheng Wei poked his head into the cave and looked curiously.
“Yes, Daren.” The one leading the way was a supervisor. The flowing cloud silk that the Snow Silkworm Cave produced was the primary source of income from the island. The Ren Family had placed great important on it due to this and hired a supervisor specifically to be responsible for managing the Snow Silkworm Cave.
The deep cave was completely black. A gust of wind suddenly blew inside the cave and the people passing by all shuddered.
“So cold!”
“My heavens!”
“What place is this!”
The group of Golden Crow Camp exclaimed. This gust of wind was biting to the bone. Even at the entrance of the cave, they felt it was unbearable.
The supervisor was used to seeing this and was not shocked. He explained, “The Snow Silkworm Cave is extremely deep. The place that the snow silkworms live is about two hundred zhang from the cave entrance and no one has gone any deeper. After three hundred zhang, it really is too cold, ningmai that go in there would become ice cubes after ten breaths. We will not go to those deep places when we harvest the silk.”
Everyone’s faces were slightly pale. Ningmai would become ice cubes in ten breathes, how cold would that be!
They were all users of fire and did not like this type of extreme coldness the most. After taking a look around, everyone retreated in unison.
“Are there fire caves nearby?” Master Sun Bao asked.
“Yes!” The supervisor hurriedly nodded. His attitude was very respectful. With the change of the employer, many things would likely change, like his position as supervisor. He did not want to lose this job.
“Where?” Ji Wei’s eyes lit up as he asked.
The Golden Crow Camp was most skilled in forging. Even though they all had Golden Crow Fire now, but fire caves were still of great help to them.
“It is a place that Third Master cultivated in before, called Fierce Yang Cave!” the supervisor said.
“Take us there.”
The procession quickly reached the entrance to the Fierce Yang Cave. Compared to the other caves, this cave appeared much cleaner. There was a layer of fire clasts. The red-black fire clasts were not high-grade, just second-grade, and were a kind of commonly seen fire lava rock.
The air at the entrance twisted under the high temperature as waves of heat erupted from inside the cave. Everyone felt the pressuring heat from a long way off.
Their eyes instantly lit up.
Xiuzhe that practiced fire techniques liked all kinds of fire. They were not afraid of the fire’s high temperature, but rather were afraid that the temperature wasn’t high enough.
When they saw the scene at the entrance of the Fiery Yang Cave, everyone knew the temperature inside this Fiery Yang Cave was extremely high.
Sun Bao was relatively composed. He shouted to call back those xiuzhe that were eager and did not allow them to charge in on their own. The Fiery Yang Cave was their territory, they did not need to hurry and could progress slowly and cautiously, taking proper precautions to avoid any accidents happening.
When they learned that there was only one fire cave on this island, even Sun Bao lost interest in the other caves.
The Fiery Yang Cave w
as the existence they were the most interested in!
———
The island was very busy, and it was not quite in Xu Ling City either.
The killing of the three Ren Family elders had come people clapping and naturally had others who were discontent. As xiuzhe came in from the outside, the tensions between local and immigrating xiuzhe rose daily. The death of the three Ren Family Elders caused this conflict to increase, especially when the local xiuzhe found that Xu Ling Sect did not listen or inquire about the matter. This caused them to become even more discontent.
No matter how wrong the three Ren Family elders were in the matter, they were still xiuzhe of Xu Ling City. Many local xiu became angry when they discussed how the Ren Family was destroyed, that Xu Ling Sect did not respond, and had allowed the Ren Cloud Island to be occupied.
Some placed their hopes on the Cloud Pavilion. Everyone knew the background of the Cloud Pavilion. This time, the entire store had been destroyed, and the losses were very great as there were many talismans that were damaged or lost.
According to the conduct of the Cloud Pavilion, no one believed that the Cloud Pavilion would not make a sound.
Compared to the Cloud Pavilion, the Ren Family was just a little ant. Many people said if it wasn’t for the fact that the Ren Family produced flowing cloud silk, the shopkeeper of the Xu Ling City Cloud Pavilion wouldn’t even look at the Ren Family. This shopkeeper hoped to get more flowing cloud silk from the Ren Family to raise his own contributions. Who would have known that in showing favoritism he offended such a ruthless group of brutes and almost lost his little life!
The counter-attack from the Cloud Pavilion would definitely be very strong!
Just a few jindan and they wanted to face the Cloud Pavilion, that was daydreaming.
Some local families also moved in the dark. The cloud island of the Ren Family was very rich!
In this time, turbulence flowed under the surface.
———
The large formation of Turtle Island was the [Yinyang Cloud Thunder Formation]. The defensive power of this large formation was outstanding and especially suited to a large island like Turtle Island. The Ren Family had spent a great sum to invite an expert to set up this [Yinyang Cloud Thunder Formation.
