Edited by Aelryinth

The next day, Zhang Che remained in Xinjing City, wanting to see how the newly transplanted spiritual herbs from yesterday were growing, and to see the bees producing spiritual honey.

As for Huang Juyun, he’d be formally taking office in two days. He had to rush back to Bei Du to be officially promoted to lieutenant general.

To make Huang Juyun’s travels back and forth more convenient, Zhang Che lent Dijiang-hao to his father-in-law.

Well, that was the main reason why Zhang Che remained in Xinjing City. After he got used to the freedom and speed that came with Dijiang-hao, Zhang Che wasn’t interested in taking commercial flights at all.

As for directly flying back to Bei Du on the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon, that idea didn’t cross Zhang Che’s mind at all. Although the dragon could ward off the oncoming wind, and his flight speed was over Mach 2, not losing to the advanced jets, the experience was incomparable to travelling inside Dijiang-hao.

Also, Huang Tielan had yet to gather a complete set of ingredients. It was impossible to concoct cultivation fluid for the Purple Jade Condor and the Dark-Scaled Lizard for now.

——

The weather today was great. Zhang Che strolled around the herbal field, and he saw the spiritual herbs transplanted yesterday were showing no signs of incompatibility with the environment. The spiritual jade was a heavenly treasure, indeed! There was simply no better item to cultivate spiritual herbs with!

It was no wonder spiritual jades were priced so highly. Compared to the value they could generate, their price didn’t seem so high…

Zhang Che also saw the dozens of mid-tier beastmasters who had retired from the military due to various disabilities. They controlled the dozens of huge bees together, and the bees buzzed through the blooming spiritual herbs like unmanned aerial vehicles, gathering the nectar from those spiritual herbs with well-practiced moves. Afterwards, they returned to the large beehive built at the side of the herbal field and started producing spiritual honey.

-This little bit of spiritual herbs is too few. I need to increase the rate of transplanting spiritual herbs if I want to produce spiritual honey on a larger scale.- Zhang Che lamented inside after watching for a short while.

Although more than a thousand square meters of land was filled with spiritual herbs, not all of them were in bloom. The amount of spiritual honey produced every day was pathetically little. Furthermore, many spiritual herbs actually wouldn’t bloom.

“Right, the heck is wrong with me? Why did I forget about that?” Zhang Che nearly slapped himself when he thought of that. All he cared about was digging up as many spiritual herbs as possible in the secret plane, and he had neglected the most important aspect. There were all kinds of spiritual herbs dug out, and a large fraction of them wouldn’t blossom, or their flowering window was very short.

Those spiritual herbs could only be used as medicine, it wasn’t feasible to use them to produce honey! Fortunately, Zhang Che noticed this in time. When he went digging for spiritual herbs in the future, he’d surely have to look for bigger herbs with long flowering windows. That would increase the production of spiritual honey to the largest extent!

As for those spiritual herbs that wouldn’t bloom, he’d only pick some varieties that were necessary. After all, those low-grade spiritual herbs were much less valuable compared to spiritual honey!

——

After seeing the spiritual herbs’ growth and the process of producing spiritual honey, Zhang Che was no longer very interested in anything else. He decided to fly to the beach at the edge of Jingzhou on the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon, and have fun surfing.

The beach here had been deserted since the arrival of the new age. Large numbers of exotic beasts might wash ashore at anytime; no one dared risk their lives to take a vacation at the beach.

Naturally, those weak water-attributed exotic beasts were no threat to Zhang Che at all. In the end, although he didn’t get to have fun at the beach, he obtained a bunch of water-based exotic beasts, killing a variety of them and filling up dozens of cubic meters in his spatial storage, bringing them back to the herbal research institute in Xinjing City.

As the saying went, it was better to share the fun with everyone. Zhang Che took out all the seafood he had obtained and gathered the staff in the base, holding a unique seafood party. As a result, everyone warmed up to him.

Speaking of those water-based exotic beasts, they tasted several times better than the natural seafood on Mercury. They were quite a delicacy! Although they could be bought in the market, their prices were frighteningly high.

This time, the staff in the herbal research institute got to enjoy a free gourmet meal thanks to Zhang Che. Naturally they would have a much better opinion of him.

At the very least, when Zhang Che took over the herbal research institute in the future, he wouldn’t treat any one of them badly, given how generous he was.

——

The night went by quietly. Before noon the next day, Huang Juyun, who was now a Lieutenant General, returned to Jingzhou on Dijiang-hao in a hurry. He would officially be stationed in Xinjing City tomorrow.

However, Huang Juyun didn’t seem very happy after being promoted. The reason was none other than him being looked down upon by others when he returned to Bei Du.

The person who looked down on him was a fellow lieutenant general from another faction. He was at a similar age to Huang Juyun, and they could be considered to have known one another since they were young.

His clan’s standing was similar to the Huang family as well, but their vision on how their clan should develop was obviously different from the Huang family’s. Almost all their high-end combat forces were in the possession of the family members.

As a result, although that lieutenant general wasn’t very strong, he had a seven-star epic-quality subdued beast, and quite a few legend-quality subdued beasts as well.

As for Huang Juyun, due to the difference in their developmental vision, he rarely took part in battles at the frontline personally. The best subdued beast had had was only at legend-quality, and it was only a mid-tier beast. After all, the cost involved in arming a high-tier beastmaster was so high that even large clans needed to consider the matter carefully.

Other than Grandpa Huang, the rest of the family members weren’t equipped with very powerful subdued beasts. It wasn’t necessary, after all.

However, the lieutenant general had said something unpleasant directly to Huang Juyun. He said that Huang Juyun was now the commanding officer of a large city; how could he not have a powerful subdued beast?

Huang Juyun naturally understood this. As a lieutenant general, it was true that he needed a powerful subdued beast to back up his status and position.

Even so, was a high-tier epic-quality subdued beast so easily obtained?

Hearing Huang Juyun talk about this, Zhang Che couldn’t help but smile, “Uncle Huang, this is just a small matter. Leave it to me!

“Get your men to go through the information and see which epic-quality subdued beast you want. I’ll go to the beast world and help you get it!”

Zhang Che spoke very confidently. It seemed like hunting a high-tier epic-quality exotic beast was as simple as slaughtering a chicken to him.

In truth, however, Zhang Che had grown much stronger. Although hunting a seven-star epic-quality exotic beast wasn’t as simple as killing a chicken, it wouldn’t be very difficult for him, either.

Huang Juyun looked very moved. After muttering to himself for a moment, he said, “This… wouldn’t it be very risky?”

Although he was confident in Zhang Che’s strength, it was still rather dangerous to hunt a high-tier epic-quality exotic beast.

“Don’t worry, Uncle Huang. As long as it’s not a divine-quality exotic beast, I’m not afraid of them at all. They won’t be a match for me even if two, or even three, came at me at once!”

Seeing Zhang Che so full of confidence, Huang Juyun agreed to it without question. “Alright, then. I’ll get my men to gather information on high-tier epic-quality exotic beasts. I’ll inform you again when I make my choice.”

Huang Juyun told Zhang Che about this matter because he wanted to see if the latter had the strength to hunt high-tier epic-quality exotic beasts. However, as a senior it was awkward for him to bring up the subject directly.

With Zhang Che taking the initiative to handle this for him, in addition to his promise of it not being dangerous, Huang Juyun naturally and gladly accepted his help!