The morning sunlight spilled over Silver Sand Lake. With the pool at its center, an area spanning a radius of about two hundred meters had transformed into a lush, vibrant green.
The seabuckthorn bushes near the pool had already grown to over half a person's height. Their branches stretched outward, and their plump leaves swayed gently in the breeze.
Slightly further out, the Red Willow and Suosuo were neatly arranged along the grid formed by the straw checkerboards, their tender green branches shimmering with a soft glow in the morning light.
Shane stood by the edge of the pool, his gaze sweeping past the greenery to land on the distant bone wall.
He had adjusted the position and height of the bone wall, which was originally meant to block the wind and sand. Now, it looked more like a dividing fence, lined up along the edge of the oasis.
Inside lay the comfort zone, where the plants grew vigorously and the temperature was noticeably cooler. Outside the bone wall was the construction zone, densely packed with straw checkerboards and scattered with Red Willow and Suosuo seedlings.
“Having the undead run back and forth between the construction zone and the comfort zone is a bit of a hassle. When I have time, I should dig some wells in the construction zone for irrigation.”
Shane silently planned out the construction zone in his mind. As he turned around, he saw Alicia walking toward him.
Her flame-like red hair fluttered in the morning breeze. For some reason, hesitation flickered in her violet eyes. Instead of her sand-resistant robe, she wore a light linen cloak. Her very first words made Shane knit his brows: “Shane, we're out of money.”
“Hmm?”
Shane let out a confused sound and blinked, not quite understanding what the princess meant, looking a bit dazed.
Alicia placed her hands on her hips with a helpless expression. “I'm saying our financial reserves are about to hit rock bottom.”
“Isha is also having a hard time with cash flow over there, and the financial pressure is immense. We have to figure something out ourselves.”
The princess spoke quite frankly, looking exactly like a landlord who had run out of surplus grain. But Shane narrowed his eyes as he looked at her, his mind spinning with his own thoughts.
Since the sand spirit incident a month ago, the soil near the pool had turned into extremely fertile earth. Coupled with the irrigation from the mana-rich pool water, the growth rate of the plants had increased yet again.
Thanks to this, the yield of the water beans Elon had planted had grown, allowing them to sell more of them.
On top of that, ectoplasmic crystals were being produced in the pool. Scooping up a random bowl of them would probably be worth quite a few gold coins.
Under such circumstances, the princess was actually telling him they were out of money?
Countless possibilities flashed through Shane's mind in an instant. He even wondered if the princess, seeing the oasis beginning to take shape, was planning to kill the donkey after it finished grinding—kicking him to the curb.
As a result, although his face remained expressionless, his jaw clenched slightly, and the corners of his mouth turned down.
Alicia clearly read the emotions hidden beneath Shane's deadpan expression and couldn't help but laugh. “Don't be so quick to doubt me. Let me finish.”
“Isha sent word that someone in the Empire has recently been buying up water beans on a massive scale to manipulate their market price. They've driven the price down again and again, to the point where we'd almost be selling at a loss. Clearly, someone is deliberately blocking our sales channels.”
“As for the ectoplasmic crystals...”
Alicia spread her hands, a bitter smile playing on her lips. “That stuff isn't particularly rare in the Empire to begin with. It would be fine if it originated from other parts of the Empire, but since it's coming from the west, the obstacles we face are immense.”
“So, we no longer have anything viable to offer.”
After listening, Shane nodded slowly. The princess's explanation was perfectly reasonable, not some flimsy excuse.
Their sales channels were blocked, causing a temporary loss of liquid capital, but this actually made Shane relax. To him, this wasn't a major crisis.
In his past life, he had understood that desert reclamation could never rely solely on the single action of planting trees and grass. It had to shift from an 'ecological burden' to an 'ecological industry.'
Otherwise, relying blindly on external financial investment meant that no matter how much they planted, everything would fall apart once the funding dried up.
They had to establish their own ecological industry chain to achieve economic self-sufficiency.
Shane stood by the pool, his eyes scanning the lush greenery around him as his mind raced.
What was the most classic model of a desert economy?
Of course, it was photovoltaic desert reclamation—generating electricity on the solar panels to sell, planting medicinal herbs and forage between the panels, and raising sheep under the panels. This three-tiered industry integration could both fix the sand and generate sustainable revenue.
But the problem was, there were no photovoltaic panels in this world.
Although magic-centered alchemy was highly advanced, trying to develop a power generation device similar to photovoltaics from scratch would take an eternity just for the research and development phase.
This method clearly couldn't solve their immediate crisis.
Shane looked at the clumps of seabuckthorn by the pool.
Although the seabuckthorn fruit of this world tasted great, had high sweetness, and was rich in juice, making it perfectly suitable to circulate as a novel fruit in the imperial market,
the problem was that the people of the Empire had virtually zero knowledge of seabuckthorn. Getting the market to accept it would require a vast amount of time for promotion and education, making it impossible to monetize in the short term.
As for Suosuo, it could actually be grafted with Cistanche. That was a high-grade medicinal herb in the Empire and highly profitable. But the problem was, where would he get Cistanche seeds? Those were only in the hands of the elves.
Finally, Shane's gaze landed on the Red Willow.
Having been nurtured through various events, the Red Willow was growing exceptionally fast. Quite a few branches already had tiny pinkish-purple buds peeking out from among the green leaves.
If they could raise bees in the desert to collect Red Willow honey, they could establish a stable honey production line.
But where to find bees adapted to the desert environment was another issue.
It seemed he would have to ask Elon about this.
Just as Shane was thinking, Elon's voice rang out from behind him: “Shane, come look at this!”
Elon's voice sounded somewhat anxious. Shane turned around to see the old druid walking over with large strides, holding a water bean seedling in his hand.
The seedling was only about the size of a palm, but its leaves were yellowing and curling at the edges. Moreover, its fine roots had several missing sections, looking as if they had been chewed on by something, leaving jagged edges.
“Ever since the soil became fertile, bugs have started multiplying in the ground,” Elon said, handing the seedling to Shane with a deep frown. “These little pests specialize in chewing on the roots of the seedlings. They can fell a whole patch in a single night. Thirty percent of the third crop of water beans has already been chewed up. If we don't deal with them, the whole harvest will be ruined.”
Shane took the seedling and carefully examined the damaged roots. The bite marks were tiny, dense, and neatly arranged, clearly left by some insect that loved to feed on root systems.
His gaze lingered on the roots for a moment, and a sudden spark of inspiration flashed in his mind.
“Elon.”
“Yes?”
“You said there are bugs in the soil?”
“That's right. They target the tender seedlings specifically.”
Shane looked up at the princess and smiled. “Your Highness, regarding our money problem, I think I have an idea.”
Alicia had still been worrying about the accounts, her brow furrowing even deeper at the sight of the ruined seedling. Hearing this, she instantly perked up and took a step closer to Shane. “What idea?”
A confident smile played on Shane's lips as he spoke with absolute certainty: “We're going to raise chickens.”
“Raise chickens?”
Alicia gave him an odd look, clearly failing to grasp his meaning. “In the desert?”
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