Chapter 465: Herbal Field Expansion

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Edited by Aelryinth

With his draw strength reaching twenty thousand kilograms, the frisky monkey once again possessed powerful offensive ability. If he was equipped with a superstrong bow, he’d become a long-range killing machine.

But there was a problem. Given the frisky monkey’s twenty-thousand-kilogram draw strength, where could Zhang Che find such a strong bow?

Materials from dark gold-quality exotic beasts were probably unable to satisfy the requirements needed to craft a bow of that level. At the very least, materials from legend-quality exotic beasts were needed.

Moreover, not all materials from exotic beasts could be used to craft strong bows; their elasticity, plasticity, and many other factors had to be considered.

Most materials from exotic beasts were tough enough, but lacked a certain elasticity. Even if they were forcibly used to craft into bows, they’d probably snap at the first pull.

Zhang Che still had the Titan Python’s ribs he’d obtained long ago in his spatial storage. Regrettably, he had already let the frisky monkey try them; those ribs could withstand less than ten thousand kilograms of pull strength. If the frisky monkey were to use them, he wouldn’t be able to display his true strength.

“Tsk, tsk. This guy… having too much strength is also troublesome.”

Zhang Che was at a loss with regard to this trouble born from happiness, shaking his head. He could only pin his hopes on those exotic beast material shops, hopefully finding the materials that suited his requirements. Otherwise, he could only do it himself and let the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon kill suitable exotic beasts when he came across them in the beast world. He’d be able to obtain the materials that way.

But the problem was that the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon’s attacks contained extreme cold attributes. If he killed the exotic beasts, the materials left behind would surely be affected to a certain extent. At that time, whether the materials could still be used to craft a bow was questionable.

Of course, Zhang Che still had the legend-quality pet, the Steel-Armored Tyrannosaurus. He could totally beat a legend-quality exotic beast whose body parts could be used to craft a superstrong bow half to death first, then let the Steel-Armored Tyrannosaurus go deal the final blow.

All this was based on the assumption that Zhang Che wouldn’t be able to find the suitable materials. If he could find the materials in the next few days, then he wouldn’t have to worry so much.

“Come on, we’ll go walk around in the material market and see if there are any suitable materials available,” Zhang Che beckoned the elemental queen to his side, who was busy watching films on her personal terminal. They got in the car and sped off to northern Bei Du.

On the way, the elemental queen never mentioned anything about learning to drive anymore. Indeed, she was so obsessed with the television that she couldn’t pull herself back.

-Hmm, I definitely need to find something to divert her attention!- Zhang Che thought.

——

Soon, they arrived at the northern sector.

The material for the bow grip was very easy to find. The wood from aged trees in the exotic beast worlds could do the job. Even if there wasn’t such good wood, Zhang Che could totally substitute with alloy materials, even though the user’s experience might be a little worse, but it wouldn’t affect the bow’s power.

As for materials to craft the bow limbs, they weren’t so easy to find. Zhang Che went to several large material companies and still didn’t manage to find anything that suited his needs.

“What? Materials able to withstand twenty thousand kilograms of draw strength? Mister, are you joking? Let alone those materials being very rare, even if a bow was crafted from them, is there anyone who can use it?”

“Twenty thousand kilograms draw weight? Pardon my straightforwardness, but it’s impossible for even high-tier beastmasters to draw such a strong bow! I’m very sorry, mister, our shop doesn’t have materials suitable for you.”

“Handsome, are you sure you’re not joking with us?”

“…”

——

In the end, Zhang Che went to almost every large-scale exotic beast material company, but was unable to find the materials he needed, only buying a piece of ten thousand year old scarlet-gold wood to craft into a bow grip.

Alas, not finding the materials to craft the bow limbs meant that the true superstrong bow Zhang Che had in his heart couldn’t be crafted.

“Master, it looks like we won’t be able to buy that kind of material. Let’s go look for it ourselves in the beast world.”

Although the elemental queen had the appearance of a human, she was fundamentally a fire elemental creature. Her interest was television; shopping really wasn’t something she liked.

Seeing Zhang Che wasn’t able to find the suitable materials, she suggested Zhang Che end their shopping trip, as she wanted to get back to watching television.

Zhang Che sighed, nodding slowly.

They had no other choice. Since they weren’t able to find what they needed after walking through the whole of northern Bei Du, it was very unlikely they’d be able to buy suitable materials to craft into the limbs of a bow.

Going forward, they’d have to wait until they entered the beast world again and look for the materials themselves.

—–

After driving back to the villa, Zhang Che didn’t forget what he had set out to do. He started to shift the elemental queen’s attention. “Come, I’ll teach you an interesting game.”

In the study, Zhang Che sat facing the unwilling elemental queen. Two chess boards were placed on the low table between them. One of them was Chinese chess, the other was Go.

These were the spiritual treasures handed down from their Chinese ancestors. They were the most suitable to cultivate a person’s disposition.

“What are those, Master?”

Indeed, the elemental queen immediately asked curiously when she saw the two chess sets Zhang Che set on the table.

Zhang Che raised his eyebrows. – Looks like there’s a chance?-

As such, he started using his lousy chess skills and taught the elemental queen how to play chess.

First, he taught her about Chinese chess.

The rules of Chinese chess were quite complicated. It wouldn’t be easy for a newbie to grasp them in a short time. However, the elemental queen was indeed a highly intelligent creature. She only spent an hour to learn all the basic rules, then split the territories with Zhang Che and battled across the river.

Of course, even though the elemental queen was very gifted, it was impossible for her to be Zhang Che’s match after just learning how to play Chinese chess.

As a result, after losing three games in a row, she immediately grew to hate the game and shifted her attention to the Go chess at the side.

“No matter. Chinese chess is too complicated. But Go is very simple. It’s easy to learn.”

Seeing the elemental queen’s attention was temporarily shifted away from television, Zhang Che grew happy inside and started teaching her how to play Go.

The rules of Go were unusually easy. It was a much happier experience learning it than Chinese chess.

Of course, Go was an extremely complicated, yet simple game. Although the learning process was fast, becoming a master at it was something many people couldn’t achieve in their lifetime. That was because Go chess had a very high requirement for calculating ability. If you wanted to obtain victory, there were many more things you needed to learn.

However, the elemental queen displayed the advantage of her super high intelligence here. After learning the basic rules, she was actually able to play on par against Zhang Che in a game where he let her have a nine piece advantage.

Well, the reason for that was mainly because Zhang Che was a noob at Go chess. His Go skills were too pathetic.

The elemental queen progressed very quickly, and she seemed to be absorbed in the profoundness of Go chess. She really forgot about the television’s existence and sat in front of the chess board, playing with Zhang Che until dinner time.

By that time, Zhang Che could barely let the elemental queen have a three piece advantage!

“Ai, this really is a case of the master starving after teaching the apprentice. If she had two more days of practice, I probably won’t be a match for the elemental queen anymore…” Zhang Che sighed, feeling a little terrible inside. Although he wasn’t good at chess, wouldn’t letting someone who only learned the game for a few days surpass him make him seem stupid?

{ TLN : The apprentice having surpassing the master would then open their own shop and take all the business away.}

-Okay, the elemental queen can’t be considered human, after all. I won’t compare myself with her.-

“But, I finally managed to shift her attention away from the television for now. Hopefully the status quo is maintained!”

The elemental queen was really beginning to be absorbed into the profound world of Go chess. That night, she even started searching for guides on the internet and learning by herself.

——

This surprised Huang Tielan when she returned home. She had no choice but be impressed with Zhang Che’s methods.

The next morning, Zhang Che let the elemental queen stay at home to learn by herself, while he drove to the Huang family’s herbal research institute.

Yesterday he was busy preparing the materials for the frisky monkey’s strong bow, and to divert the elemental queen’s interest, forgot about transplanting the spiritual herbs he had obtained on his latest trip to the research institute.

Although Huang Juyun was busy with military affairs this time and wasn’t present, Zhang Che already knew his way around the herbal research institute. After verifying his identity, the person-in-charge quickly came to receive him.

“Oooh, you built such a huge greenhouse here!” Zhang Che saw the huge shed erected on the herbal field just as he entered the research institute.

Of course, Zhang Che wasn’t surprised by this. After all, the weather was now cold. The snow from before hadn’t fully melted yet, and some spiritual herbs wouldn’t be able to grow in this kind of weather. If the spiritual jade’s spiritual qi wasn’t nourishing them, the herbs would probably freeze to death.

—

“Zhang-shao!” The institute’s in-charge came out to receive him, greeting him respectfully.

Zhang Che nodded at him, indicating for them to open the greenhouse. He had brought many spiritual herbs this time. It was better to transplant them quickly.

In the end, they met in the greenhouse. The person in charge of the research institute watched as Zhang Che took out close to a hundred spiritual herbs from his spatial storage in one go, shocking him to no end, his eyes nearly popping out.

“Zhang-shao, with so many new spiritual herbs, I’m afraid the herbal field doesn’t have enough space to accommodate them.”

Cultivating spiritual herbs wasn’t like growing grass, being able to survive with a little bit of soil. Their attributes and other relevant things had to be considered, and the spiritual herbs had to be spaced a certain distance from one another.

At present, the herbal field was nearly filled up with all the spiritual herbs Zhang Che had brought back on previous occasions. It really couldn’t accommodate close to a hundred new spiritual herbs.

Zhang Che waved his hand, immediately deciding, “Expand it, then!”

Since they had the huge spiritual jade, the spiritual qi would be able to sustain the place even if they expanded the field a few times over.

As for the future, they could purchase spiritual jades through some other channels. Although they were expensive, it wasn’t much of a problem given how wealthy Zhang Che was, as long as they didn’t purchase too big a jade.