Chapter 103: Born with a Lowly Life, Impossible to Die!

Wanjin, this place on the coast of Ise Bay facing the Pacific Ocean, had only just been named a couple of days ago and didn't have a single soul in sight.

Harano looked around at the desolate, silent surroundings, feeling the faintly salty sea breeze brush against his face, then glanced at the nearby stretch of fine sandy beach. He bent down, used his short knife to turn over the soil beneath his feet, pinched a small clump of blackish-gray dirt, examined it, and then let it slowly sift through his fingers.

Wasteland is wasteland—sure enough, the soil was terrible, a heavy clay that had poor aeration and drainage. Plant roots would struggle to access water and oxygen here; if you really wanted to farm, you'd have to dig out leaf mold from the forest, mix in sand and rocks in proper proportions, and then deep-plow and turn it over for a year or two before there was any hope of turning it into "paddy soil."