Beast World: A Fragile Beauty Blessed with Many Children-Chapter 198 - 197: Overly Cautious
After dinner, Wei Ce took Ji Liang, Xiao Cheng, Gong You, and Si Shuo to his clan to find the Seventh Elder.
The Beast Husbands in the family, especially those who had followed Si Shuo from the Southern Continent, didn’t really have a family to visit.
Yin Jiang had already cut ties with the Eagle Clan, and Xiao Cheng hadn’t had a proper formal visit with her to his clan yet. This was her first time formally visiting one of her Beast Husband’s clansmen.
Before leaving, Si Shuo had prepared a Rootless Flower Wood Spirit in a metal cage for every member of the Iron-eating Beast Clan. They would be great gifts, whether they kept them for themselves or gave them to their own females and cubs.
The Rootless Flower Wood Spirits weren’t expensive, but her family was the only source. It was the thought that counted!
By the time they arrived at the entrance to the Iron-eating Beast Clan Land, the Seventh Elder was already waiting with two strong, young Beastmen.
"We heard you were heading out, so we hurried to the entrance to wait," the Seventh Elder said with a cheerful laugh, showing no airs at all.
Ji Liang smiled and handed over the burlap sack of Rootless Flower Wood Spirits, briefly explaining their use and benefits.
The Iron-eating Beast Clan members were slightly taken aback. It wasn’t that they had never seen them before. In the North City District, plenty of young females carried Rootless Flower Wood Spirits, flitting about and playing like butterflies. This had often made the females and cubs back home stare with teary-eyed envy.
It was just that the price for a Rootless Flower Wood Spirit had been driven up to one Level 10 Crystal Stone, and even then, you couldn’t buy one even if you had the Crystal Stones!
To think they had been given a whole sackful, enough for every single Iron-eating Beast family. It made even Level 10 Crystal Stones seem cheap by comparison.
"No, this gift is far too valuable. We can’t accept it," the Seventh Elder said, shaking his head and trying to push it back. The combined monthly salary of the five Beast Husbands in this little family from the Beast Soldier Camp didn’t even amount to a single Level 10 Crystal Stone, yet this gift was worth five hundred.
Si Shuo chuckled lightly and held out her hand. In her palm were several rootless flower seeds. Amidst pulses of fluorescent green light, the seeds in her palm rapidly took root, sprouted, grew stems, blossomed, and became transparent and crystalline!
"This..." The three Iron-eating Beast Clan members stared with wide, unbelieving eyes.
"The Wood Spirits everyone in the city buys are all condensed by me. As a Female Saint, the Wood Spirit Energy I condense is purer, so these little things are born with a bit of Spiritual Sense. It’s not much, but it can bring us a lot of convenience.
We were actually worried everyone would look down on our gift because we didn’t spend Crystal Stones on it."
Seeing this, the Seventh Elder no longer stood on ceremony. He smilingly accepted the heavy burlap sack and turned to have one of the Beastmen take it back to the clan before rejoining them.
’It seems the family of the female Wei Ce found is truly sincere. If they’re willing to spend this much effort to maintain a good relationship with the Iron-eating Beast Clan, they’ll surely treat Wei Ce well.’
"Come, I’ll take you to have a look. Should we see the shops first, or the farmlands?"
"The farmlands, please. They’re easier to choose," Ji Liang replied with a smile, acting as the family’s representative.
After leaving through the gate, the group headed north. The Iron-eating Beast Clan Land was located in the northwest corner of Guangshou City. Exiting through their west gate led to a vast, winding mountain range of bamboo forests.
To the north lay endless fields!
"Our Iron-eating Beast Clan, whether in how we conduct ourselves or handle matters, always prefers to be prudent. We don’t have a talent for business or farming, but you can never go wrong with having a lot of land.
No matter how hard life got, we never once even considered selling a single piece of the land our ancestors left us.
As Guangshou City has expanded, no other clan still owns as many shops and farmlands as we do.
When we rent out the farmlands, we don’t collect Crystal Stones. Instead, we have the Beastmen who farm them turn over forty percent of the grain, fruit, and vegetables. For the shops, we collect rent based on their size and the market price..."
The Seventh Elder led them aboard a Flying Beast, pointing out the fields that belonged to the Iron-eating Beast Clan.
"Our clan has a rule: as long as a family has an Iron-eating Beast Clan member, whether they’re an adult male or a cub, they are allocated a plot of land and a few shops.
Wei Ce is a Warrior of our clan, so he can be allocated fifty *mu* of prime farmland... What do you think of that plot over there? It’s not far from your home, and it produces a good amount of grain, fruit, and vegetables..."
The plot of land the Seventh Elder suggested was indeed excellent. It was close to a water source and the soil was fertile.
Si Shuo glanced around. Everyone said the Beastmen in the Central Continent City were skilled at farming, and that the food produced from the land was enough to keep them fed and get them through the rainy and coldest seasons.
From outside the Beast City, the lush green expanse was a delightful sight. But upon closer inspection, the Beastmen’s farming methods were still a bit crude. The plants were sparse, with weeds growing in between, and some leaves were yellowed and looked malnourished.
You could only say they were a bit better than the Beastmen in the outskirts, and that’s it!
Si Shuo pursed her lips. ’I’ve never farmed before. Even if I’ve read books on how to increase grain and vegetable yields, I can’t pat my chest and make any guarantees until I’ve put it into practice.’
She smiled and asked, "Seventh Elder, once the land is allocated to us, can we take it back and hire people to farm it?"
The Seventh Elder nodded. "Of course, you can. But you should think it through. Renting the land out is less hassle. You don’t have to worry about anything and just wait to receive forty percent of the harvest.
The Beastmen who rent the land are doing it to fill their bellies, so naturally, they tend to it with great care. The more the land produces, the better they can feed the females and cubs in their families!
If you take the land back and spend Crystal Stones to hire help, you’ll have to plan what to plant and when, purchase seeds, sow them, weed, water, and so on. You’ll need to worry about and supervise everything yourselves.
If any part of it isn’t handled well, you could be busy all year and end up with no harvest, all while still having to pay the Crystal Stones for the workers you hired."
This was all spoken from experience. A forty-percent rent was just right.
Si Shuo smiled and nodded, her mind already calculating. ’The Beast World Continent has eighteen months in a year. It’s been just over three months since the start of spring, and we’re now entering summer. There are still six months until the rainy season, which is enough time for one crop to mature and then to plant another. We can take the land back then and try farming it ourselves. As long as we get a pleasing increase in yield, I believe that by next year, we can take back all the land belonging to the Iron-eating Beast Clan members and manage it under a unified system!’
The Seventh Elder immediately carved the boundaries and ownership of the plot onto the bamboo slip he was carrying, then led them to see the shops.
Since the Iron-eating Beast Clan had many shops and all of them were rented out, Si Shuo and her family didn’t hold back, directly choosing three large, adjacent shops on the busiest main street!
As it happened, one of the shops was a clothing store run by a Grey Parrot Clan Member. Of the other two, one was a high-end Beast Skins shop belonging to the Spirit Cat Clan, and the other was a grain store run by a porcupine.
"This year, five couples in the clan have formed unions, so we’ve been busy. Just like in previous years, we haven’t collected the shop rents yet.
We also take into consideration that if the family of the female our clansman pairs with happens to be good at running a shop, they can earn more than the rent would be, which helps lessen their family’s burden."
The Seventh Elder added as an explanation, "These three tenants have been renting our shops for twenty or thirty years. The rent for other shops has more or less increased, but theirs has remained at the original rate..."
