He took it well, all things considered.
“And this child, it’s the Azure Dragon?” he asked with an expression of great confusion on his face. “Not the White Tiger?”
“No, no, no! He is a blue dragon but not the Azure Dragon of legend.”
We were drinking tea in my private sitting room, a small and cozy place with overstuffed armchairs and climate control, which was necessary since it was the height of summer, and I didn’t want to sweat through this meeting.
“But he is a god?”
“Yes.”
There was silence for a while as Shuye pondered this information and then seemed to give up understanding it for now.
“I see.” His facial expression was now a mixture of acceptance and bewilderment. “And you need staff for him.”
“Yes, Prince Baiyu and I want an experienced nanny to teach us stuff like how to feed, dress, and bathe a baby. And, of course, we’ll need all the baby essentials. I figured I could consult you since your child was just born.”
He cleared his throat. “Perhaps Lady Yuying and Lord Yulin could help better than I. Have you considered moving in with Prince Baiyu’s family? Portals make it a lot easier now.”
“Nooo….” I pouted a little. “I’m an independent woman.”
I had nothing against my future in-laws, but that didn’t mean I wanted to live with them.
Shuye chuckled. “Yes, I don't think you would agree, but I felt like I should suggest it. I don’t live with my in-laws either.”
“Hmm, okay. Did I mention that the nanny should be from one of the dragon clans of the Easternlands?”
“Because your baby is a dragon? I’ll need more time to find one then.”
We discussed the details and then I showed him the new [Greenhouses], explaining that I was growing some fast crops for exp that would not be for sale. However, I didn’t show him the interiors.
Later in the day, after Shuye left, I went to the Mustard Tree farm with my apprentices and saw that the new batch of eggs was about to hatch.
“Lari, can you call the others? They might want to witness this.”
He ran off, and I got busy setting up a few cameras to capture the moment the animals hatched.
Mo had her fingers crossed, and she was chanting, “Horsey, horsey, horsey!” under her breath over and over.
Alas, my poor apprentice was doomed to more disappointment as the animals that hatched this time weren’t horses.
“A dragon's head, a lion's body, and wings! Pixiu!” said Scholar Wu. “Three male and female matched pairs of pixiu. They say the male hunts and brings back treasure, and the female guards it.”
Deming moved a little closer to his wife, his eyes flashing red, as though he was afraid the pixiu would steal his treasure.
If I had only known these legendary creatures from the description, I would have thought they would be an ungainly chimera made of mismatched parts, but that was not the case at all. They looked like winged, antlered lions, with piercing black eyes and majestic golden manes and beards.
I bowed to them, and the others followed my lead.
The pixiu showed no signs of leaving, which amazed me since I assumed they would fly away immediately like the qilin had. Instead, they wandered all over the farm, trotting here and there and flying everywhere, making trumpeting sounds at each other.
Scholar Wu set up a qi measuring control station equipped with various instruments, and my apprentices and I gathered a substantial amount of video footage, which was sure to be popular. I would definitely print out some good images of them. The scene of the mythical beasts frolicking under the bright blue summer sky with the fairytale castle in the background should sell like hotcakes.
After I got bored of watching them, I went back to my suite of rooms in the inner courtyard to soak in the hot spring facility. This, along with another cup of the ultra-strong coffee blend, gave me enough energy to plant some more [Silphium] in the [Greenhouse]. The exp was pretty good.
***
And so over the next few days, we continued to plant more until the [Greenhouses] were full. The pixiu stayed for a few days before flying off just as the qilin had. We placed more eggs in the [Animal Pen], and Mo said that if it happened a third time, she would give up on the idea of riding a legendary flying horse.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The crops were doing quite well, and the [Fragrant Flower Sanctuary] was exceptionally good at neutralizing the odors from the farm animals once the seeds grew into [Fairy Rose], [Fairy Sunflowers], [Fairy Tulips], [Fairy Carnations], etc. The flowers appeared to be the same as the regular flower variety, except for an easy-to-miss speckling of silver dots at the edges of their leaves.
We put the [Vineheart Fairy House] in the middle of the flower garden, along with a dozen [Bee Houses].
“Haoran thinks we’ll be able to get something called [Fairy Honey], but isn’t that the stuff from fairytales that drives people mad?” asked Lari.
“No, the stuff that drives people mad is red honey. It’s also called mad honey, and it has nothing to do with fairies,” said Kharli. “I know there’s a story about a farmer who made spiced mead with mad honey, and it killed some invaders who looted his farm.”
“I hope Haoran is right. I’d absolutely love some [Fairy Honey], if such a thing even exists,” I said. “Everything here looks great. Shall we portal to the desert?”
“Yes, Teacher!” they chorused.
We made our way to the door in the outer courtyard, which had the door to the desert. Yinuo had been promoted to housekeeper of the desert farm, but she still spent most of her time at the main house. I’d given her our schedule, and she met us at the desert farmhouse with sunshades and veiled hats to shield us from the summer sun. Summer at the Ancient Hill Forest was hot enough, but the desert was on a whole ‘nother level. I didn’t suffer from the heat thanks to my [Advanced Environmental Support System Regulation Suit]. However, I could still get sunburned if I didn’t protect myself properly.
“The desert is inhospitable at this time of the year, so we’d best plan everything thoroughly before we go out,” I said to the others.
The last time we worked on this project, we planted berry bushes and fruit trees, specifically the [Date Palm]. This time, I decided to proceed with numbers seven, eight, and ten in the epic quest list.
[Epic Quest: Greening the Desert
Turn the cursed desert into fertile land.
1. Improve watershed by using water harvesting methods by digging contour swales. - done
2. Improve watershed by using water harvesting methods by digging a lake reservoir. - done
3. Plant the berms with one hundred fruit trees and one hundred berry bushes. - done
4. When the lake is full, plant a riparian buffer of one hundred trees. - done
5. Plant one hundred fertilizer trees. Use a cultivation box. - done
6. Graze spirit animals. Sow wild grass and flowers on the grazed land.
7. Plant one hundred fruit trees. Use a cultivation box.
8. Plant one hundred nut trees. Use a cultivation box.
9. Plant one hundred trees. Use a cultivation box. - done
10. Create windbreaks to protect the crops.
11. Plant one hundred perennial crops.
12. Create a food forest made of a diverse array of one hundred fruit trees, one hundred shrubs, one hundred vines, one hundred grasses or herbs, and one hundred root crops.
Progress: 6/12]
The reason for that was simple. These last few quest items could be bundled together to complete a separate mini-quest, which would give me more exp.
[Quest Available: Heart of the Desert]
[Heart of the Desert:
Myriad poems and songs have been written about the most welcome sight in a desert, the oasis. The large ones can sustain a good number of families and consist of an endless sea of date palms, with other, smaller fruit and nut trees that thrive under their canopy, such as oranges, olives, figs, jujubes, almonds, pistachios, and walnuts. Traditionally, grapevines climb all over the palms, and small plots of vegetables are grown under the trees.
Create your own desert oasis.
Plant an [Oasis Seed]
Plant 100 [Date Palms]
Plant 100 fruit trees
Plant 100 nut trees
Plant 100 grapevines
Plant 100 crops
Progress: 0/5]
“We have always planted more than what the quests ask us to because I really want to make this place into a paradise, but just this once, I will prioritize exp-giving quests,” I said. “Put on your hats, it’s time to plant the [Oasis Seed].”
The section of the land that the System indicated as the right place to plant the seeds was quite far from the house. Since I was a spoiled young duchess, we opted to use a flying ox cart instead of walking there in the heat. The driver was well aware that I had a fear of heights and kept low to the ground.
We flew over almost the entire width of the land I had been granted. This time of the year, most of the grass that we had planted were turning brown, apart from the area around the ponds. As we traveled further out, the green grass slowly disappeared until it was slowly replaced by brown, sere grass. It was a sorry sight, but I knew the grass was not dead and would become green again once summer was over.
The plants weren’t the only things that were wilting. My apprentices were sweating like crazy.
“Teacher, do we really have to wear the ‘sunscreen’ you made with the [Ageless Beauty Essence]? It’s sticky.” Kharli was continually wiping the sweat running down her face with a fancy blue handkerchief embroidered with daisies.
“Yes,” I said.
“Just wear it. You know it's made with ground-up pearls!” said Lari.
“What? I thought ‘pearl powder’ was what it’s called because it's white. Is it made of real pearls?” Kharli asked disbelievingly.
Of course, it was normal to be skeptical since cultured pearls were not a thing here, and natural pearls were hideously expensive.
“It’s true. I made pearl powder using [Pearls] from the System,” I said.
Mo touched her cheek. “I can’t believe I’m wearing a queen’s ransom on my face.”
I chuckled.
We arrived at the place after a few more minutes of flying, and I quickly dropped the [Oasis Seed] on the ground. This was a quest item that one would normally have to craft using twelve items from different regions around the world, but luckily, I had 2,147,483,647 of them.
I was not expecting the System pop-up that appeared.
[Warning: This area will be unstable for a time. Move away from the magic circle.
Time left: 02 hours: 00 minutes: 00 seconds]
An enormous glowing magic circle appeared on the ground, which started shaking.
? ? ?
Author's Note:
- Mad honey is real! -
- Pixu is a type of mythical creature -
- Thanks for reading!
- Please let me know if there are any errors.