CHAPTER 389: CHAPTER 34: SETTLING ACCOUNTS AFTER AUTUMN

Yue Jinghua and Qian Luo stepped into the light and shadow, and in an instant, a whooshing wind sounded by their ears, as fast as lightning. In the blink of an eye, they were already stepping on the soft soil of the Mazaro Breeding Farm.

Even Qian Luo, who was an Array Master, showed a face full of surprise. This Jiuxiao Sky Eagle Crystal Plate was unbelievably useful—it was faster than her own Transmission Array and didn’t require preparation of array materials, truly convenient and economical, a worthy Holy Treasure indeed.

The sky still twinkled with stars, and the sounds of insects were incessant.

On the Jiuxiao Sky Eagle Crystal Plate in hand, a First-level Profound Pill was consumed completely, instantly turning into dust. Only a small cursor floated where the long and short needles connected, displaying "Mazaro Mountain Farm."

Yue Jinghua was absolutely enchanted with this Treasure Plate. Although Qian Luo had mentioned that such Array Plates could only be used to travel to places the bearer had been, for unknown locations, they couldn’t be used. However, using this Treasure Plate could save Yue Jinghua a great deal of time.

In critical moments, she could also use it to escape instantly. Now that she temporarily lost the Cannibal Small Qingpu, it was indeed a powerful tool for her.

The few mercenaries of the Inspection Team who were left at Mazaro Mountain Farm, as expected, had already been dealt with by the Giant Winged Mosquito King.

After using another Profound Pill, Yue Jinghua transported Qian Luo near the Heavenly Pit at the mountaintop. After redeploying a more High-level Illusion Array around the pit, the day was gradually brightening.

By the time it was light, Yue Jinghua had hunted an Earth Tyrant Bear in the mountain woods and dragged it back to the farm.

When Granny Madan woke up, Yue Jinghua then dragged out the bear corpse, claiming that the recent cattle theft incidents were due to this evil bear secretly hiding in the farm’s storage warehouse, and assured that similar incidents would never happen again at the farm.

Granny Madan believed Yue Jinghua’s words, and indeed, similar theft incidents ceased in the following days. Of course, Granny Madan would never know that the real cattle thief, Qian Luo, had already taken a personal letter from Yue Jinghua and had gone to Fengdan County to find Hong Yao and the others.

On the tenth day since Old Kuru left, he finally returned, with only five short days left until Yue Jinghua finished her mercenary mission.

Yue Jinghua also breathed a sigh of relief, feeling less burdened. Ever since discovering the Star Falling Mine at the mountaintop, she had wanted to transport a batch of it out.

Without Old Kuru returning, she couldn’t complete her task.

Who knew that upon Old Kuru’s return, learning that four Snowflake Cattle had died at the farm, he flared up, saying, "Four Snowflake Cattle, what exactly did you do? I hired you to help watch the cattle, and now not only did you not watch them well, you lost four of them. Do you know how much money a Snowflake Cattle is worth?"

He ranted on and on, and whenever Yue Jinghua tried to interject, he would shut her down completely. If it weren’t for knowing this old fellow was incredibly capable and could knock her down with a single move, Yue Jinghua would have liked to knock him out cold with her sword.

Unable to listen any longer, Granny Madan put her hands on her hips and intervened, "Old man, stop your scolding! If it wasn’t for you getting drunk with your old chums and delaying your return, would Jinghua and I need to miserably guard this farm? And about those two Dark Arrays you boasted could defend against an army, now even a single bear can break in, and you still dare to yell so loudly."

Granny Madan hardly scolds, but this time she roared like a lioness, scaring Old Kuru speechless, he didn’t dare utter a word and Yue Jinghua found immense secret pleasure in his speechlessness, visibly enjoying his misfortune.

After Granny Madan had scolded enough, she huffily dragged a milk bucket to milk the cattle, leaving Old Kuru sheepishly following her, meekly shrunk. Before leaving, he still fiercely shouted at Yue Jinghua: "Don’t you feel smug, lad. In the remaining five days, you are going to the back of the mountain to chop wood for me, and build a new cattle shed. If the cattle shed isn’t built well, I’ll dock your Mercenary Points, dock it mercilessly."

Yue Jinghua gave Old Kuru’s departing figure the middle finger, thinking to herself that she might as well chop wood since there were only five days left anyway.

Although using the Lianyun Great Sword to chop wood was somewhat an overkill, it was better than having her points deducted by multiples, thinking of which, Yue Jinghua had no choice but to grit her teeth and stick it out to the end.

Time and again it was proven that the older, the craftier; Old Kuru, a stingy and miserly old man well past his prime, would never make things easy for Yue Jinghua.

On the day of wood chopping, the appearance of Venus barely brightened the sky when Yue Jinghua was jolted awake by Old Kuru’s thunderous shout filled with vigor.

In the Mazaro Mountain Farm, there were six cattle sheds in total, all built when Old Kuru and Granny Madan got married.

As the farm prospered and the number of Snowflake Cattle increased, the existing sheds became insufficient.

Old Kuru had always wanted to take the opportunity to rebuild and add a new cattle shed, but alas, there was never enough manpower on the farm to proceed.

Now that he has just sold a group of cattle, and the Snowflake Cattle not requiring extra "exercise" anytime soon, coupled with the availability of Yue Jinghua’s free labor, he naturally wouldn’t waste the opportunity.

Building a residence for the Snowflake Cattle was no easy task.

Because the Monster Snowflake Bull is a restless Dark Beast; even within the confines of the sheds, there are frequent skirmishes among the herds, especially in spring when their horns begin to grow. The incessant growth causes severe pain in their heads, leading them to madly collide into the beams and columns of the shed.

Therefore, the wood used for constructing the cattle shed must be a special kind of wood capable of withstanding repeated impacts from the Snowflake Cattle.

According to Old Kuru’s experience, there is only one type of wood in all of Mazaro Mountain that meets the requirements for building the farm’s cattle sheds, and that is the Qu Wood growing on the backside of the mountain.

Like the myriad types of Dark Beasts, the wood species in Canglong Continent are diverse. Following Old Kuru over the mountains, Yue Jinghua encountered many kinds of spirit wood she had never seen before.

After walking for about two hours, Yue Jinghua saw a cluster of trees thriving profusely, somewhat resembling bamboo in appearance.

Qu Wood is a species unique to Mazaro Mountain, standing tall and upright with a stature of ten-story buildings when they are five years of growth.

Their appearance resembles bamboo with numerous tree nodes, except without the abundant branches and leaves of bamboo, only bearing a layer of leaves at the very top.

From a distance, they look like tall, skinny figures sporting hats that are too small, which appears quite comical.

Arriving in front of this Qu wood forest, Old Kuru glanced at Yue Jinghua beside him; they had brought nothing with them when they left home.

Seeing Yue Jinghua hesitating to start, Old Kuru snorted in displeasure, saying in a deep voice, "Go chop one hundred Qu Woods, and you’re not allowed to use an axe or any weapons."