Chen Xin said with some surprise upon seeing Feng Yuan carrying a lantern. Feng Yuan glanced at the hole that Chen Xin and Yue Bai had just dug and said with a light chuckle,
"So you’ve dug out those parts?"
"Yeah, since I can’t be of much help anyway, I might as well get these things sorted out now to avoid being overly cautious tomorrow, in case we accidentally damage something."
Chen Xin picked up the well-carved parts and placed them on a platform supported by several wooden sticks while speaking. Feng Yuan, holding the lantern, waved it in front of the hole. The snow above the hole quickly melted and soon collapsed, burying Yue Bai, who was still digging underneath.
"What are you doing?"
Chen Xin pushed Feng Yuan somewhat helplessly and shook the lantern. Feng Yuan looked around and asked,
"Should we put up a barrier?"
"It’s best not to. It seems like those herds are patrolling around here. If we put up a barrier, it could very likely attract their attention."
Earlier, no one had noticed this, but during the day, when Agunas put up a barrier to avoid the snow affecting the construction site and attracted the Ice Snow Giants, everyone realized that larger barriers might catch the attention of the herds.
Otherwise, if we put up a barrier at night, we wouldn’t have to worry about the parts being buried by the snow.
"Let’s just leave it ."
Feng Yuan placed the lantern on the platform. Glancing at the slowly burning pale blue flame, Chen Xin asked curiously,
"A kind of lantern used for illumination, one that you can’t buy in the shops—"
Chen Xin, somewhat speechless, gave Feng Yuan a sidelong glance and flicked his tail. Agunas was eyeing Feng Yuan and asked,
"Setting it like that, won’t it affect the materials around?"
While the falling snowflakes couldn’t get close to the lantern, accordingly, the parts would also be affected by the lantern’s power. Agunas knew that the lantern was no simple trinket.
Scratching his head, Feng Yuan took the lantern back into his hands. After a while, he felt something was amiss and stuffed it back into the dark ancient book. Seeing Feng Yuan’s action, Chen Xin chuckled and said,
"You kind of look like a scholar owl. Did you borrow that from Big Cat?"
Scholar owls were known for stuffing things into their books, which is why Chen Xin made that comment. Feng Yuan put away the dark ancient book and glanced at Agunas,
"Why don’t you say I learned it from Agunas?"
Rolling his eyes, Agunas was too lazy to deal with Feng Yuan. Yue Bai burrowed out of the snow and grumbled at Chen Xin and Feng Yuan. Patting Xiao Ji’s head, Feng Yuan looked beneath Yue Bai and said,
"Use a strong wind to blow away the snow."
Agunas had just spoken up to stop Xiao Ji when a gust of wind immediately whipped up, not only blowing the snow away but also scattering the parts into the blizzard, their final resting place unknown. Seeing this, Xiao Ji gave Feng Yuan a sly look. What exactly was he up to? Xiao Ji was puzzled.
Chen Xin looked at Feng Yuan somewhat speechlessly and went off with Yue Bai to collect the scattered components in the snowy field, while Agunas floated to the snow pit created by Xiao Ji and picked up the parts one by one, placing them back on the platform.
With Feng Yuan’s "help" (meddling), it took them quite a while to finally get the parts in order. Rubbing his shoulders, Chen Xin looked at Feng Yuan with a speechless expression and said,
"Your ability to cause trouble really is..."
Feng Yuan scratched his head, looking a bit guilty. Agunas glanced at Xiao Ji, who clearly couldn’t keep his eyes open and was merely holding on. Picking up Xiao Ji, Feng Yuan said goodbye to Chen Xin and went back to the temporary wooden house they were staying in. Watching Feng Yuan’s retreating figure, Chen Xin murmured in confusion,
"What exactly did he come for? To cause trouble? But why do I feel something’s not right?"
Qi Chen remembered Feng Yuan occasionally cluttering the ground with items everywhere and felt something was off. That guy didn’t seem like someone who would do that on purpose. Yue Bai seemed to have noticed something and waved its paws while meowing. Chen Xin looked at Yue Bai and asked,
"What have you found?"
Yue Bai turned around and led Chen Xin into the dark snowstorm. Following with a sense of puzzlement, Chen Xin saw a shocking scene at a distance from the greenhouse, on the outskirts of the village.
Black swords were slantedly embedded in the snow, and it seemed as if dark lights were continuously flowing on them. The sword formation tightly encircled the village. Chen Xin was certain those things had not been there during the day.
"So that was his purpose? But why?"
Chen Xin was somewhat baffled. Just then, a group of Ice Snow Giants wandered over. Although she couldn’t see them in the darkness, the constantly trembling snow clearly revealed the identity of the newcomers.
As the Ice Snow Giants approached, the swords seemed to come to life, with the flowing lights suddenly bursting forth. A chorus of howls filled the air, and the earth shook violently until it gradually settled after a while.
"So that’s how it is..."
At that moment, Chen Xin understood. The Ice Snow Giants must have noticed the village, but the sword formation that Feng Yuan had laid out was keeping them outside. As for why it was Feng Yuan?
The unique power of the Death Series that flowed within those swords could only come from his Xiao Ji. Other Spirit Beasts couldn’t possess such power.
With a pat of the hands, Feng Yuan said proudly. Everyone was a bit excited, having been busy for several days, the greenhouse was finally completed. As the last functional piece was installed, the temperature inside the greenhouse gradually began to rise, and the glass panels on the roof simulated sunlight, altering the light passing through.
As the snow slowly melted away, little Gladys came over with a basket. Feng Yuan reached out, but Gladys growled in warning and handed the basket over to Teacher Yan instead, looking for praise for its efforts.
Feng Yuan pouted and walked away, hands behind his head. Teacher Yan took a fruit from the basket and carefully planted it into a predefined grid. The grids were the result of Feng Yuan leveling the ground since nobody was sure about the specifics of these fruit trees.
Even though Feng Yuan constantly said that the grids were perfectly suited for planting trees, nobody dared to take his word for it. Therefore, after Teacher Yan carefully planted one fruit, he stopped there.
After a while, sprouts broke through the soil and rapidly grew amid cheers from the onlookers. Watching the quickly maturing fruit trees, Chen Xin exclaimed with some surprise,
"Is this the power of time?"
Among the onlookers from Mordan, there were many who, like Chen Xin, marveled at the sight. Even in regions permeated by the Power of Time, such a spectacular phenomenon defying natural laws was incredibly rare.
"A Guardian of Time and Space? To possess such power..."
Feng Yuan muttered to himself, looking at the rapidly blossoming and fruiting tree. If the earlier rapid growth could be attributed to the Power of Time, the quick fruiting now also involved space. This was a tree that achieved cross-pollination, and such a process certainly couldn’t be accelerated by time alone. It required the intervention of Spatial Transfer to replace the pollination done by bees and insects.
"So, this is a type of Red Fruit..."
Dou Yanlan looked at the maturing fruit with some confusion and said aloud. Qi Chen also sounded puzzled when he asked,
"All the varieties of Red Fruit require cross-pollination from different trees, but there’s only one fruit tree here. How did it bear fruit?"
Dou Yanlan was baffled, while Feng Yuan chuckled and explained,
"It’s simple. The seed was pollinated from wherever it came from."
"Spatial Transfer, I see."
Now reminded by Feng Yuan, Dou Yanlan finally understood. Looking at the fruit tree, he asked curiously,
"Does the Spatial Transfer only happen the first time?"
"It should be, but they probably didn’t bring back just one Red Fruit seed, right?"
Feng Yuan scratched his head, feeling slightly uncertain. If there truly was only one plant, then it likely wouldn’t bear fruit in the future. Just then, Agunas spoke up,
"You should remind them to introduce honeybees, else it will be difficult for future fruit-bearing."
Since the greenhouse was almost entirely sealed, without introducing honeybees, those trees reliant on cross-pollination would pose a real challenge.
Qi Chen felt a headache coming on, not understanding the complexities of these fruit trees. Feng Yuan glanced at the translucent ice-blue fruit and paused,
"Why are there Darte Fruits too? Those things can’t bear fruit without corresponding grass bees, can they?"