Chapter 117: Preparing to Head to the White Tiger Clan Mine

Chapter 117: Chapter 117: Preparing to Head to the White Tiger Clan Mine

Hearing that Soro was willing to provide an acre of land for breeding prey, Ophelia couldn’t deny she was a little tempted. After all, five-sixths of the Fu Clan’s land was currently used for growing crops. She was truly reluctant to sacrifice arable land for livestock. Furthermore, once the pigs were fully grown, she would need to build a larger pig farm, which would inevitably take up even more space. If she wanted to expand the chicken and rabbit farms later on, she would require additional land.

The shortage of land resources was exactly why she wanted to partner with others for livestock breeding.

"Are you really that generous?" Ophelia knew Soro was never one to take a loss.

"Ophelia, how could you say that? We have years of history between us, after all. If you need help, I’m naturally willing to step up," Soro replied. "As long as you tell me how to breed wild boars, I’ll carve out an acre of land to serve as a breeding base."

"You want to raise wild boars?" Ophelia looked at Soro as if he were spouting nonsense.

When she proposed a joint breeding venture, she had only ever mentioned rabbits and chickens; pigs were never part of the discussion. For one thing, the pigs hadn’t fully matured yet and couldn’t produce piglets, so expanding their numbers was currently impossible. Moreover, pig farming was a crucial technique she naturally intended to keep firmly in her own hands. She had no plans to share her methods for the next few years.

"You certainly have some nerve."

Over the past few days, the people who came to inquire about or participate in the breeding program had covertly asked about the pigs, but no one had ever dared to bring the topic out into the open. The Snow Wolf Clan truly lived up to their lineage of shamelessness—they didn’t disappoint her.

"Ophelia, your Fuzu Tribe only has so many people. Even if you want to raise more pigs, you don’t have the manpower," Soro reasoned, wearing an expression of pure charity as if partnering with him was a blessing bestowed upon her. "The Snow Wolf Clan has a massive population. Sparing ten or twenty males is a breeze for us. Are you really going to refuse such a great opportunity laid out right in front of you?"

"You can keep such a great opportunity for yourself. Please leave, Clan Leader of the Snow Wolf Clan." Ophelia left Soro a final shred of dignity. If he continued to act shamelessly, she would have to resort to extreme measures to kick him out.

Fortunately, Soro still cared about his pride. Seeing that the negotiation had hit a dead end, he didn’t push the matter any further.

Over the next few days, Ophelia and Tyler took corn seeds to the Mountain Goat Clan. They handed over the seeds and personally demonstrated how to plant them.

Seeing that she had truly fulfilled her promise, the Clan Leader of the Mountain Goat Clan teared up with excitement. "Little female, don’t worry. Once this corn ripens, I definitely won’t shortchange you on your compensation."

Ophelia dusted the dirt off her hands with a faint smile. "Make sure to cultivate this corn well. Its yield is even higher than rice, so in the future, you can rotate between planting rice and corn."

The Mountain Goat Clan Leader tried to invite Ophelia and Tyler to stay for a meal, but Ophelia still had to rush back to teach the elderly males how to raise chickens and rabbits, so she politely declined the offer.

That night, when Tyler was washing Ophelia’s feet, he noticed they were somewhat swollen. Looking up at her noticeably bulging belly, a flash of heartache crossed his eyes.

"Princess, your due date is approaching. Please don’t work yourself so hard."

Ophelia smiled and affectionately rubbed Tyler’s head. "Alright, I promise you. Besides, I’ve already finished all the busy work."

"I feel like you’ve lost weight recently, Princess. It hurts to see," Tyler said, placing her foot on his knee and gently drying it.

Ophelia looked down at her significantly thickened waistline and laughed. "How have I lost weight? I’ve clearly plumped up quite a bit."

Whether it was due to the pregnancy or not, her appetite had been steadily increasing. She practically ate an entire prey animal a day, easily matching the food intake of a male. If Zerev hadn’t repeatedly assured her that this was normal, she would have thought something was wrong with her body.

One day, when Zerev arrived at the Fuzu Tribe, he saw Ophelia directing the tribe members to fertilize the fields.

He looked a bit confused. "What are you doing? Are you planting something else?"

Ophelia nodded. "The weather is warming up. I saved the cold melon seeds from what we ate last year, so I want to see if I can grow them."

"You want to grow cold melons?" Zerev found it unbelievable. Cold melons were something one could only stumble upon by chance; they were almost exclusively foraged deep in the mountains, and he had never heard of anyone successfully cultivating them.

"How will I know if I can’t grow them if I don’t try?" Ophelia blinked playfully. Of course, the real reason she was so confident was because these watermelon seeds came from the System Space. They could successfully take root even in the most barren soil.

"Alright, if you want to try, then go ahead." Zerev stepped closer to Ophelia and pulled out a handkerchief to dab the sweat seeping from her forehead. "Let me help you sit down over there. Your body is heavy now; don’t exhaust yourself."

Ophelia didn’t reject his intimacy. She compliantly followed him and sat down beneath a large tree nearby.

"Ouch!" Ophelia cried out the moment she sat down, clutching her stomach.

Zerev instantly grew incredibly tense. "What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable somewhere?" He stared at her anxiously as she just kept holding her belly, her brows knitted together.

"I... I’ll go call the healer for you." Panicking, Zerev tried to stand up, but Ophelia grabbed his arm.

She guided his hand and slowly placed it against her abdomen. "The baby inside just kicked me."

Zerev was astonished. Dragon whelps hatched from eggs, so how could Ophelia feel fetal movement? But as if to prove her words, his hand was suddenly bumped by something from within a moment later.

"See, I wasn’t lying. You felt it too, didn’t you?" Ophelia found it just as miraculous.

Zerev nodded in a daze. "Yeah... I felt it."

After planting an acre of watermelons, Ophelia planted another three acres of corn. Corn took about eighty days to mature, meaning it would be ready for harvest right when autumn arrived. Once the corn ripened, she would be able to make up the quantity of grain she had promised Klein.

Since their original contract stipulated three thousand five hundred pounds of grain without specifying that it had to be rice, Ophelia planned to use the time difference to make up the numbers with corn. It was all grain anyway, equally capable of filling stomachs and perfectly suitable for the little females to eat.

With that thought in mind, Ophelia decided to have Tyler deliver a batch of grain to Klein first, preventing any unexpected mishaps from too much time passing.

The White Tiger Clan’s mine was a five-day journey from the Fuzu Tribe, and carrying five hundred pounds of grain made Ophelia a bit uneasy. Therefore, she sought out her brother, Laxus, asking him to help deliver the rice to the White Tiger Clan’s mine.

As her brother, Laxus naturally wouldn’t refuse his sister’s request. But even so, Ophelia still felt anxious, so she went to find Zerev as well.