Chapter234

Leif was in trouble again. No one knew the current state of the rivers and canals within Sargassum.

Passing through Sargassum this time, Elara decided to check things out and also inquire about Leif's situation in Sargassum.

After deciding the route, Elara led the merchant caravan and left from the central eastern part of Plumera.

The first country to the east of Plumera was the Magnolia Kingdom, which followed a male-dominated society. It was named for the many continuous mountain ranges in the south.

The Magnolia Kingdom's territory was long and narrow, and inside, it was chaotic—only slightly better than Plumera used to be.

Perhaps because of many bandits inside, the border defense in Magnolia Kingdom was very weak. After Elara's whole team passed through half a day, not a single patrol soldier chased after them.

When they reached the city and county frontiers, the guards looked listless and did not question their origins. As long as enough entry fees were paid, they passed smoothly.

Because Magnolia Kingdom shared its border with eastern Plumera, the customs and lifestyle were quite similar. However, Plumera's cities and counties had been reorganized and cleaned up, with rebellions ended and few beggars.

In contrast, Magnolia still showed war-torn ruined villages and towns everywhere. Hungry refugees and beggars lined the roads, and during the journey, Elara often saw moldy bones hidden in the wild grass.

This bleak scene reminded Elara instantly of the first time she went south to Marigold County. At that time, Plumera was even worse.

Luckily, when the caravan entered a large city in Magnolia Kingdom, although the guards under the walls appeared weary, and the city showed signs of decay and ruin, with many beggars outside, the basic order still existed.

Magnolia's city and county were divided clearly into four zones, similar to Plumera's old county cities.

Three of these zones were refugee and poor districts. Only the northernmost zone was reserved for the wealthy and powerful families.

Elara rode a horse at the front of the caravan. Along the way, she saw many refugee children with tattered clothes, holding spoiled dirty food, trembling as they hid in corners.

The adults protecting them had frozen to death nearby, their dark purple bodies leaning against the wall, unnoticed by anyone.

Frowning, Elara led the caravan to the high walls of the northern zone, where the surroundings suddenly changed.

All the beggars and refugees were driven away. The crimson high walls stood firmly in the middle of the road, like a dividing line between two worlds.

Inside the walls, there was noise, lust, and revelry. Outside, cold corpses piled up, bones stacked in heaps.

Under the crimson walls, better-dressed guards stood watch.

They gathered in small groups, drinking and laughing, watching Elara's merchant caravan approach.

Compared to the outer guards who took money without questions, these guards at least asked where Elara and her group came from. Their eyes lingered longer on Elara, since women were rare.

But that was all the questioning they did before demanding money.

Once the payment was made, the gates behind them opened quickly—faster than the outer guards had been.

Entering the gates, the bustling sounds of the jewelry market and street vendors greeted them.

From here, the true commercial trade circle of Magnolia Kingdom was fully revealed to Elara.

Although compared to Plumera Capital City's streets, this place still looked narrow, old, and dirty. Plumera Capital's roads were paved with bricks and had public toilets, with daily sanitation workers.

Here, there was cleaning, but the roads were mostly dirt and stones. Dust flew thickly, and the sunken muddy spots often had piles of... stepping carelessly could easily cause trouble.

But compared to the outside chaos, this place was already a lively center full of voices. People coming and going were all dressed in luxurious clothes, belonging to noble families or wealthy merchants.

Elara suppressed the faint emotions stirred up by the passing refugees. After entering the northern district, she let Uno lead the merchant convoy to find a station or inn to rest.

She then walked along the foreign street with Uno, Marigold City's Gongliangcheng, and Emory, who did not want to rest at the inn.

Although the Magnolia Kingdom was close to Plumera, the customs of the two countries were not exactly the same.

This place was more open. Among the tall buildings on the street, brothels took up most of the space. The people here seemed less shy about men and women.

In each brothel, besides a few female performers, most were male performers of various ages and types.

Elara sat down with Uno, Gongliangcheng, and Emory at a local street snack stall that looked particularly native. They had just ordered the specialty dish called "earthen meat" when a brothel manager appeared, dragging a long rope from the street corner.

The rope was very long and tied to more than twenty handsome boys.

These boys were all skinny and raggedly dressed, except their faces were washed clean, showing very handsome features.

They were tied to the rope like grasshoppers and led by the brothel manager. Their faces showed numbness and emptiness, like half-dead souls.

Not far behind them were many parents carrying children from the slums.

These parents placed the children like goods in front, waiting for buyers with cold and numb expressions, colder than the boys'.

Among the more than a dozen children for sale, only one was a girl. She looked no older than ten and had some burn scars on her face. This was why the brothel manager did not buy her.

Despite being rare, the girl attracted attention from passing men. Soon, two burly brothers came to buy her, planning to take her as a shared wife.

After the girl was sold, the parents behind remained cold and numb, waiting again for buyers or slave owners to come.

Further away at the street corner was a large open-air slave market.

Compared to the parents selling their children from the slums, the slaves inside the market were more varied and well-trained.

All the slaves in the market were male, ranging from teenagers to men in their thirties. Most were good-looking and trained to be servants, workers, or even for more private uses.

They were all shirtless, with their hands tied, hanging in the market to be inspected like pork hanging in a meat market, waiting for buyers.

This scene reminded Elara of Plumera more than half a year ago. It was just as wild, primitive, chaotic, and lives were cheaper than grass.

She withdrew her gaze and no longer looked at them. She focused on tasting the "earthen meat" in her hand.

It was not very tasty. Occasionally, she bit on sand and grit, which was hard on the teeth. But after careful tasting, it had a unique flavor, somewhat like the earthen meat she had eaten in her previous life.

"How does it taste?"

Elara held the earthen meat and looked at Uno, Mr. Gong, and Emory.

The three just glanced at the street and lowered their eyes to eat their own "earthen meat."

Elara looked at the grayish meat in his hand and gave a very professional comment: "It's enough to fill the stomach."

Emory frowned slightly and chewed for a while, then nodded. "It's okay, just a bit too much grit in the sand."

Mr. Gong's evaluation was more detailed. After all, he was out on a mission and needed to record local customs and specialties.

The clay-wrapped meat was considered a local specialty snack in Magnolia Kingdom, with some commercial reference value.

He frowned as he carefully finished half of the clay-wrapped meat. After drinking a sip of tea, he said,

"The meat has a strong earthy taste. There's not enough oil, the salt is too coarse, and it lacks spice. Overall, it's a bit bland. But wrapping the meat in clay and roasting it results in even cooking, and the texture of the meat is quite good."

"The clay seems to be a special fragrant type. Once evenly roasted, the scent of the clay and the meat blend well. The base flavor is decent and has great potential."

True to his professionalism, Elara nodded at Mr. Gong and gave a thumbs-up gesture. Then she saw him put down the half-eaten meat, take out a small notebook he had prepared before the trip with pre-cut, glued sheets, and begin writing and sketching, recording all aspects of the clay-wrapped meat's value in Magnolia Kingdom.

Mr. Gong had served for a few months as a commercial official in Plumera City. While becoming familiar with various Plumera products, he had also visited restaurants of the Lianyi House and Bai Family's Business under the pretense of food product investigation and sampled many dishes.

Most of those dishes were made from recipes released by Elara and used a variety of spices. They were far more delicious than ordinary food. While being sold across the continent by Lianyi House, they were also distributed to over a dozen nearby countries by Bai Family's Business through the Zhaiyun Pavilion.

Now, nearly all major inns and restaurants in Plumera widely purchased spices to create more flavorful dishes.

Since Magnolia Kingdom didn't trade with Plumera and wasn't part of the Zhaiyun Pavilion's trade network, they naturally didn't use expensive spices. The taste of the clay-wrapped meat was far inferior to Plumera City's buns, steamed bread, or roasted meat.

But at least, it did have its own unique flavor.

Mr. Gong carefully recorded the taste of the clay-wrapped meat, planning to improve it later and hopefully turn it into a new dish in the future.

Drawing commercial inspiration from local customs was one of the goals of their journey.

After finishing the clay-wrapped meat, Elara took the three of them to visit all the shops and markets in the northern district.

Aside from items similar to those in Plumera, they also found two promising local trade goods:

The first was a fruit called "water mandarin" from the southern region of Magnolia Kingdom. Elara thought it was essentially an alternate version of citrus.

Fruits were rare in Plumera. Even though the Zhaiyun Pavilion connected with over a dozen countries, fruits spoiled easily. People of this era didn't know how to preserve them. Trade caravans took too long, and the spoilage rate was too high, so during the months Elara had been here, she had eaten very little fruit. Zhaiyun Pavilion rarely sold any either.

But preserving citrus wasn't that difficult. It just needed to be picked early and stored in a sealed, low-temperature, low-oxygen environment.

After eating the first citrus he had bought, Mr. Gong took out his notebook again and began recording while asking the vendor about the fruit's name, characteristics, growth habits, and harvesting areas...

It was also Elara's first time eating such a sweet and tasty citrus since arriving in this world. As Mr. Gong asked questions in his calm tone, she bought two large baskets. They ate some themselves, and the rest were meant to be taken back for the Wei and Shi clans to try, to get some vitamin intake.

The second local trade good delighted Elara even more. It was this world's version of walnuts.

Kristof had found alternate versions of peanuts and sunflower seeds but hadn't found any walnuts.

Walnuts were easier to store than fruit and didn't spoil easily.

Since walnuts were not available in the Zhaiyun Pavilion's product list, it was unclear whether this world had a low walnut yield or whether the dozen trading countries simply didn't have them.

After tasting a few fresh walnuts, Mr. Gong once again pulled out his notebook and started asking the vendor while recording all the details about walnuts.

Elara also bought two large baskets to store in the caravan and eat along the way.

After noting down these two items, the four of them finished browsing the entire northern district but couldn't find anything else that caught their attention.

The northern district was quite small. Elara finished walking and snacking through it in just half an hour.

Continuing further was meaningless, so they decided to return. They passed by the slave market still coldly selling children and people and headed to the inn that Uno had already arranged. They planned to rest for the night, replenish food and supplies, and continue the journey the next day.

In the following days, after crossing the central region of Magnolia Kingdom, Elara gradually entered the next male-dominated country called Chrysanthemum Kingdom.

Compared to Magnolia Kingdom, Chrysanthemum Kingdom was more stable and prosperous. Although it was still classified as a third-tier small country, its internal powers were relatively disciplined. The court had governing ability, and the border patrols were much more strict.

Elara's new identity as a noblewoman from the female-dominated Carnation Kingdom finally came in handy after entering Chrysanthemum. Uno, Mr. Gong, and Emory, who followed her, naturally assumed the role of her attending consorts.

After the inspection, they paid the required entrance fee, and Elara's caravan was allowed to pass.

To the east of Chrysanthemum Kingdom was Sargassum.

Because the east bordered Sargassum, the terrain between the eastern and western regions of Chrysanthemum was vastly different.

The western region, similar to Plumera and Magnolia, had vast green meadows and shaded forests.

Closer to Sargassum in the east, the land gradually turned into saline-alkali soil.

The capital of Chrysanthemum Kingdom was located slightly west of the central region, right on Elara's travel route.

So once Elara's caravan entered Chrysanthemum territory, they headed straight toward Chrysanthemum Capital.

That city was indeed more prosperous than any of the foreign cities Elara had seen along the way.

Chrysanthemum Kingdom, being close to Sargassum, had joined the Zhaiyun Pavilion under Bian Lixin's leadership. It was one of the dozen or so trading countries, so its economy was relatively developed.

This morning, Elara went to find Emory for a disguise and heard that he was going on a long journey. Emory then volunteered to follow her.

Scholar Fu was not needed here.

He had already been away from his sect for too long and wanted to return to the Thousand Faces Sect in the northeast of the continent.

Emory planned to travel with Elara's group to the Banquet of Nations first. He still carried the charge of being a "traitor of the Thousand Faces Sect" and couldn't return just because he wanted to. He wanted to gather some information at the banquet before deciding what to do.

Elara naturally had no objection. Although she admired Emory's unpredictable disguise skills, their deal was already complete. Emory had his own matters to attend to, and she had no reason to keep him.

So that morning, with secret farewells from Francis, Damon, Mathias, Kristof, Oswyn, and others, Elara led Mr. Gong, Emory, and two hundred disguised shadow guards out of the eastern gate of Plumera City, starting her first journey away from Plumera.

After the battle that divided Edelweiss, Plumera occupied three major counties there: Yuancheng, Shangliang, and Yaxis.

Plumera's current territory resembled the shape of the character "乚." The horizontal connecting part at the bottom was Belladonna County, and the hooked part connected eastward to the three counties taken from Edelweiss.

Yaxis was the easternmost, bordering Dahlia, which had previously occupied much of Edelweiss land.

If Elara did not want to leave the country, she could first go south around Belladonna, then through the three counties, and directly enter Dahlia.

Above Belladonna, located at the base of the "乚" shape, were several other countries.

If she went through the three counties, she would have to make a large detour south, then head north again. The route would be too long and time-consuming.

Dahlia was northeast of Plumera City. The shortest path was to go straight east.

This would cross several countries. Since Elara planned to observe and record local customs, trade, and special products, this route fit her purpose.

After looking at the map from the System, she decided to exit from Plumera City's east gate and go straight east. This route would pass through four small third-tier countries on top of the "乚" and enter the nearest Dahlia county.

This saved much distance and time while passing through many countries.

More importantly, the third country along this route was Sargassum.

Sargassum had a "丿" shape, with its lowest point just touching Plumera's border. The Daisy River flowed through its tail.

Elara's first deal with Leif involved teaching him how to treat the salty alkali land in Sargassum using alum and gypsum, along with a plan involving the Daisy River.

She told Leif to dig a canal from the highly salty lower Daisy River and connect it to a river at Plumera's border.

Once dug, the salty water from Daisy River could flow into Plumera's border river, then down to the southern sea. This would greatly reduce salt buildup in Daisy River.

When Elara explained this plan to Leif, she had other intentions too.

Plumera lacked salt while Sargassum had plenty.

After the canal plan, she took builders from Marigold County to inspect the border river and asked them to build a salt separation pool there.

Once Leif dug the canal and salty water flowed in, Elara could quietly divert and collect salt downstream.

This way, Daisy River's salt content would reduce, and Plumera could collect salt in the pool, gaining its own salt source and easing Elara's salt shortage.

Now the deal with Leif had lasted a while. The salt pool on the border river was nearly finished, according to officials in Marigold County. They were just waiting for the canal from Sargassum to be finished so the salty water could flow.

Before Leif's accident, he wrote saying Sargassum's ruler agreed and organized labor to dig the canal. It should be nearly done.

But Marigold County officials still had not received news of salty water arriving.