Even at the end of December, the heart of the lush green forest was still vibrant and verdant.
On the banks of a crystal-clear stream, Byron rolled up his sleeves and added the final shovel of soil to a small spice sapling in front of him.
He then took out the Warrior’s Cup and recited the inscription, ’Spring Flow Inscription!’ A continuous flow of fresh water streamed out, thoroughly watering the sapling.
The farm compost was still in the process of decomposition, so that would have to wait until next time.
By his side, Catherine, dressed in long pants and short boots, also put away the dozen or so spades she had mimicked with her [Mithril Hand] and unceremoniously plopped down on the ground.
Covered in sweat, she had soaked through the back of her shirt, making it semi-transparent.
"Five hundred spice trees and two thousand teak trees—finally, we’re done planting them! Why is it that the person who bears the ’farming’ Mandate of Heaven is you, yet the one who ends up digging the holes is your older sister? Next time there’s this kind of back-breaking work, go find Bruh. No matter how much I might roll around and play cute, I’m not coming again. I’m getting paid a Treasurer’s salary to dig holes and shovel dirt! Even a borrowed beast of burden from a neighbor wouldn’t be used ."
Kicking off her shoes, she dipped her white feet—tips painted a brilliant rose color—into the cool stream and breathed a sigh of relief.
Lately, she had been following Byron around planting trees, and in just a few days, she had dug over two thousand holes with her [Mithril Hand].
It had exhausted her, causing several blisters to form on her feet.
But the task they were undertaking needed to be kept strictly confidential.
Apart from Byron, Catherine, and Bruh, not even the highly trusted Gus or Eight Fingers were privy.
Moreover, it wasn’t until they started planting trees that Byron suddenly realized a serious problem.
Originally, he had chosen two types of shipbuilding timber—oak and teak.
However, oak wasn’t really suitable for planting in tropical regions; it thrived better in the cooler areas of the northern hemisphere.
For instance, in the Strait Islands and the Eternal Night Peninsula.
On the other hand, teak, which was much more prized on the Old Continent than oak, was perfectly suited to the environment of Banta’an, and saplings were readily available.
In fact, as a shipbuilding material, teak—this high-end tropical timber—was far superior in performance to oak!
It was highly resistant to wind and seawater corrosion. Even after long-term erosion and exposure to sun and rain, it wouldn’t warp or crack, instead revealing an even more attractive color.
Ocean-going vessels, even the highest quality sail battleships, if made of oak or walnut wood, mostly lasted only about 10 years.
Basically, after a dozen or so ultra-long-distance ocean voyages, they would have to be scrapped.
But teak-built warships were different. They were almost completely immune to the ravages of seawater and time, with a service life of up to 30 or even 40 years.
Even retired teak warships could be broken down and reused as high-end furniture materials; one absolutely wouldn’t lose money on them.
Shipbuilding engineers from the countries of the Old Continent would also have loved to build pure teak warships, if not for the exorbitantly expensive raw materials.
As teak from the Old Continent was consumed in vast quantities and remained in perennial short supply, its price kept climbing.
It had become so luxurious that, counting all such vessels worldwide, there were only a few large sailboats built entirely of pure teak.
Even Castilia’s Invincible Fleet could not afford the hefty costs of constructing its capital ships entirely out of teak.
At that time, it was only on capital battleships that one could see pure teak, over 10 centimeters thick, being used to construct gun decks designed to bear the weight of several-ton gun carriages.
Since Byron had found that planting oak on the Tayman Archipelago was unsuitable, he went all out and changed all the saplings to teak.
With the help of Catherine’s [Mithril Hand], they managed to complete this back-breaking and astonishing amount of work.
It also indirectly proved that old joke: when a rich woman farms, she really does use golden and silver hoes.
Byron took the Crystal Skull out of his pouch and chanted its tale, bringing history to life:
"The gods used yellow and white corn dough to create humanity’s flesh and blood, forging their personalities. Then they took reeds, forming bones, instilling them into the flesh and infusing them with vigorous energy..."
The Fertility Emblem burst forth, covering half the island and creating a vast land of bounty.
Byron then placed the Mossy Tombstone and Crystal Skull back in his pouch. Just then, Franklin, the Omnitrix, immediately began addressing the Crystal Skull:
"Composting involves using various animal and plant remains—such as crop straw, weeds, leaves, peat, refuse, and other discarded materials—as the main ingredients. It includes mixing in human and animal excrement and, under conditions of high temperature and humidity, an organic fertilizer is produced through fermentation and decomposition. The key points are as follows..."
Clearly, this was a piece of agricultural knowledge with profound implications.
But for Yum Kax, the Corn God, who embodied all the agricultural knowledge of the Taya civilization, every sentence and every word seemed to shimmer with the radiance of civilization.
He was utterly engrossed and relishing every word.
Moreover, this body of knowledge, capable of elevating an entire agricultural civilization, was of such high quality that it far surpassed the minor intellectual dabblings of the Old Continent.
The saplings rustled around him, growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This time, the ’Land of Fertility’ far exceeded any previous Blood Sacrifice on Tayman Brak Island, both in its speed of inducing growth and in the area it covered.
Byron even felt that if he allowed the Crystal Skull to unleash its power without restraint, it would be no problem at all for the newly planted saplings to grow to maturity in mere months.