458: Chapter 441 Returning to Blue Star to Retrieve Fertilizer

Saldari and Alice's expressions were a bit strange.

Zhang Mu looked from one to the other, unable to figure out what trick they were playing. When he asked in confusion, they both waved their hands and shook their heads, refusing to say anything. They just pointed toward the kitchen door, signaling for him to go see for himself.

Feeling completely bewildered, Zhang Mu walked to the door and looked inside.

Although it was called a "kitchen" and used for cooking food, the kitchens of the Saul Continent were clearly different from those on Blue Star.

Limited by cooking methods, the kitchen before him didn't have a row of low cabinets for spices. Instead, an iron pot was set up in the middle using three wooden sticks.

The heating method was undoubtedly fire, so the floor was paved with stone bricks rather than the wooden flooring used in the main hall to prevent fires.

Right now, a fierce flame was burning under the pot, its tongues licking the bottom. Frederica was squatting nearby, adding firewood to the blaze, occasionally lifting the lid to check how the ingredients were cooking.

She didn't notice Zhang Mu standing at the door. Staring at the chunks of meat bobbing in the boiling broth, she muttered to herself, "Grilling and boiling soup are completely different. Sweet and spicy ingredients shouldn't be used together; I must remember that for next time."

"I recall Zhang Mu likes to use two wooden sticks as utensils. Hmm, I can't cook it too thoroughly, or it'll fall apart when gripped."

"You're underestimating my chopstick skills, aren't you?" Zhang Mu only heard the latter half clearly. Not minding it, he walked in with a chuckle.

Frederica was startled by the sudden voice. She jumped up abruptly, turning around with her right hand still gripping the handle of the pot lid.

"Y-You, why are you here?"

"To see you," Zhang Mu said as he walked over, peering at the pot behind her. "What delicious food are you cooking? I happen to be hungry."

"Wait!" Frederica slammed the lid back on. "This... it's... an experiment. It's not edible. I'll take you to—"

"It can't be that bitter, can it?"

Aside from salt, there wasn't a single bottle of seasoning in the kitchen. No matter how poor Frederica's cooking skills were, she wouldn't have added an excessive amount of salt. This pot of meat soup would be bland at most.

Thinking this, Zhang Mu moved around her toward the pot, reaching out to lift the lid.

Frederica blocked him desperately, her other free hand pressing down on it as well. "Zhang Mu, the taste is really not good!"

"No salt?"

"It doesn't matter; I'll just treat it like drinking plain water." Zhang Mu tried to force the lid open.

While simmering the meat soup, the image of Zhang Mu showing a surprised expression after tasting it, then stroking her head and praising her cooking, had flashed through her mind more than once.

Returning to reality, she felt a bit of regret. Zhang Mu was busy treating the life tree; it was impossible for him to have free time to come to her chambers. She couldn't help but wish he would suddenly show up.

Yet now that her dream had come true, she was in a panic.

The soup that would amaze Zhang Mu in her fantasies was one she would make after honing her culinary skills, not this failed experiment before her.

Recalling the bizarre taste that had ravaged her taste buds during her earlier sampling, Frederica gritted her teeth and made up her mind—absolutely! She absolutely could not let Zhang Mu drink even a single drop of this soup!

Zhang Mu grabbed her wrist and pulled with some force, but the hands pressing on the lid didn't budge an inch. He helplessly let go.

Seeing Frederica so determined, Zhang Mu's curiosity was piqued. "I won't drink it. Just let me have a look, okay?"

"No!"

"Fine, fine, fine. I won't look."

Even after he said that, Frederica still watched him warily, as if fearing he would launch a surprise attack to lift the lid the moment she relaxed.

She actually sees me as that kind of person?

Zhang Mu shrugged, giving up his attempt to lift the lid while she wasn't looking, and stepped back a few paces.

She reads people quite accurately.

"Zhang Mu."

"Hmm?"

"Go out first."

Zhang Mu obediently left the kitchen. Frederica breathed a sigh of relief, turned to follow him out, and stood in front of the door to block it.

"The Elf Clan has planted many fruits and vegetables that don't exist in the human world. I'll take you to try some."

"Sure."

"Okay, let's go."

Having said that, the two stared at each other, their feet firmly planted in place.

Zhang Mu looked at Frederica, who was blocking the doorway completely. He finally gave up and walked toward the palace gate, carrying his confusion about what was actually boiling in that pot.

Frederica waited until he reached the palace gate before she started after him. As she passed Alice, she whispered instructions: "Dispose of the soup. Go somewhere far away, preferably outside the clan territory!"

Alice looked bewildered. It's just a pot of soup; why go so far?

Seeing her Highness's warning gaze that said "you're dead if you talk back," Alice didn't dare ask more and obediently ran to the kitchen.

Frederica and Zhang Mu left the palace gate one after the other. The former led the way, walking along the corridor toward the Elf Clan's dining hall.

"My father is worried about the health of the life tree. Didn't he urge you to hurry with the treatment?"

"Some preparatory work is needed. Besides, whether to save it or not is up to me."

"Speaking of which, Zhang Mu, have you promoted to Magister?"

"How did you know?"

Zhang Mu hadn't intentionally hidden his professional rank, but he never broadcasted it either. Forget enemies, even few within his own circle knew. Where did Frederica, far away in the Forest of Spirits, hear about it?

"I guessed."

"A very accurate guess."

"How long did it take? Over two years?"

Zhang Mu tried to search through his past memories. "Less than two years, I think."

"At that speed, many people must have been amazed when you successfully promoted."

"At that time, I was impersonating a Magister-level city lord, so no one knew that the person named Zhang Mu had advanced to Magister.

After my identity was exposed, the acquaintances around me were surprised, but... not all of them."

"Oh?" Frederica turned her face to look at him as they walked. "What kind of genius wouldn't even care about such a speed?"

"You," Zhang Mu smiled.

Frederica turned her gaze back to the front, thinking about why she hadn't been shocked when she first learned of Zhang Mu's terrifying cultivation speed.

After thinking for a long time, she still couldn't come up with a clear conclusion. There was only a vague feeling in her heart that no matter what earth-shattering thing Zhang Mu did, she wouldn't be surprised.

Without any reason or basis, in her eyes, Zhang Mu was simply capable of achieving feats that ordinary people couldn't reach.

If Frederica understood Huaxia culture, she could probably succinctly summarize her state of mind—beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The two arrived at the "dining hall." Calling it a dining hall, it was actually a supply distribution point, except only fruits picked by elves could be collected here.

Because the life tree was withering, the orchard's harvest had plummeted over the past year. Elves also lacked the awareness to stockpile fruit to resist unknown risks. Even with Frederica, the Crown Prince, coming in person, she only received enough for an eighty-percent full meal.

Frederica led Zhang Mu to the garden and sat on a rock by the path, pulling fruit from her Storage Pouch and stuffing it into Zhang Mu's hands.

Zhang Mu didn't know that the Elf Clan was currently facing a severe food shortage, so he took it and started munching. She watched from the side, blinking her eyes, still holding an unknown fruit in her hand. Seeing Zhang Mu finish, she quickly handed it over.

Half a minute later, only one of the collected fruits remained. Zhang Mu patted his bulging belly. "I'm full."

"Really? There's still one more here." Frederica held up the fruit in her palm.

"I'm really full."

Only after confirming several times that he wasn't just being polite did Frederica begin to nibble on it in small bites. The fruit wasn't large, and she ate very slowly, but it still took only a minute to finish it.

She stuffed the fruit pit into her Storage Pouch. "The pit contains a small amount of life elements and can be used as fertilizer for the fruit trees.

It didn't used to be this tight, but the harvest has dropped too much lately."

Zhang Mu realized belatedly. No wonder he had almost finished the breakfast for two by himself. He had thought he just had a large appetite, but it turned out the rations had been reduced.

"Don't worry, the problem will be solved in a month."

"Speaking of that," Frederica hung the Storage Pouch back on her waist and asked in confusion, "Why is the life tree withering?"

"You think it shouldn't be?"

"The life tree has lived for over a hundred thousand years and has always grown healthily. Of course it shouldn't!"

"Over a hundred thousand years?" Zhang Mu took a sharp breath. "This forest is certainly resilient enough."

"I don't understand."

Zhang Mu organized his thoughts. "Furei, what do you think is the reason if an ordinary tree suddenly withers and dies?"

Her attention didn't seem to be on the latter half of the sentence. "I don't know. Also, why do you only call me by half my name?"

"Uh, I'm used to it."

"Do you call others that way too?"

"No, only you."

Zhang Mu thought to himself that other people's names weren't this long, but Frederica clearly misunderstood.

A name exclusive to me?

Her beautiful eyes curved slightly. "Go on."

"For a tree to wither, it's nothing more than insects eating the roots or beasts gnawing the bark.

The life tree is the foundation of the Elf Clan's survival. If it were really those two reasons, you would have discovered them long ago."

"Yes, Father did check the roots, and everything was normal."

"So that leaves only one last possibility: a lack of nutrients."

Zhang Mu raised his hand and pointed to a nearby short tree. "The life tree is special, but compared to an ordinary tree, the essence of needing nutrients to maintain its health remains the same; at most, the nutrients are just more specialized.

After figuring this out, I specifically tested the soil in areas far from and near the life tree. Sure enough, the closer to the tree, the more barren the land."

Frederica had a moment of realization. "The nutrients in the soil are no longer enough to support the life tree?"

"Yes." Zhang Mu nodded, then stood up and tapped the ground with his foot. "This land has been depleted after over a hundred thousand years of extraction by the life tree.

Since the life tree can't absorb enough nutrients, it instinctively takes the life force of other living things, such as magical beasts or jela flowers."

"If left alone, once the magical beasts and plants in the Forest of Spirits go extinct, the objects of its plunder will become you."

"What we need to do is help replenish the earth's nutrients?"

"Yes."

"Then it's simple, just apply more fertilizer..."

"If you had started fertilizing a hundred thousand years ago, it would have worked. But not now, because the gap is too large. With your fertilizer technology, plus the nutrient loss during the process, it's simply impossible to restore the soil's fertility to its original state in a short time."

Frederica stood up as well. "What do you plan to use to achieve this?"

"fertilizer."

"What is that?"

"A precious thing."

"Can you show me?"

"I don't have any on me. You'll see it in a few days."

Frederica didn't press him; Zhang Mu wouldn't run away anyway.

Afterward, she led Zhang Mu around the clan territory. They visited a forbidden area. Anna was sitting in front of the entrance; she only gave them a glance when they arrived and didn't say much.

Until nightfall.

Frederica, still wanting more, said goodbye to Zhang Mu and returned to her palace alone. The latter found a secluded forest and summoned a Portal to return to Blue Star.

...

Outside the clan territory, in the Forest of Spirits.

There was no moon, only dots of starlight, and the night was thick.

The edge of the forest was still pitch black, but it didn't affect the Elf King and the eighteen Elders patrolling along the boundary.

The Elf King was concerned about the safety of the life tree. In the half-day from morning to noon, he had completed the blockade of the Forest of Spirits.

Zhang Mu's request to forbid outsiders from entering wasn't out of fear that the treatment would be sabotaged, but to prevent humans from accidentally consuming the "medicine."

If the commoners of the Saul Continent saw the small, pure white granules, they would inevitably take them home as some kind of rare treasure. If they tried to toss some in while boiling meat soup, it would be a disaster.

However, the Elf King had clearly misunderstood, thinking the treatment process required extreme caution and couldn't be disturbed in the slightest.

After completing the deployment, he inspected the defensive line without sleep or rest to prevent any negligence by his clansmen, right until late at night.

The Elders resting in the clan territory felt ashamed when they heard the King was working hard on the front line. They quickly got up and rushed over to accompany the King on his patrol.

The Elf King didn't pay much attention to their performance, only asking where Elder Anna was.

The Elders informed him that Anna was waiting at the entrance of the forbidden area for Sinéad's punishment to end.

The King remained silent and didn't express an opinion.

After walking in the forest for a while, the Elders couldn't contain their curiosity and tentatively asked the King about Zhang Mu's method for saving the life tree.

However, the King didn't know either, because Zhang Mu hadn't said anything.

A few Elders looked slightly uneasy and whispered among themselves, wondering if the heretic's claim that he could save the life tree was just an excuse fabricated for his escape.

"The heretic appears confident on the surface, but he's actually secretly planning how to escape the Forest of Spirits."

The speculation was quickly agreed upon by the other Elders, who spoke out in support.

The King was a Gods Blessing; no matter how low the Elders' voices were, he could still hear them clearly. At the same time, he knew in his heart that the Elders were intentionally saying it for him to hear.

As Saint-level beings, any one of the Elders could spread their Mental Energy to cover the exit of the Forest of Spirits. They could detect even an ant entering or leaving, let alone a grown man. If they could do it, would they think the higher-ranked King couldn't?

The Elf King turned his head. "What are you trying to say? That Zhang Mu is deceiving me?"

An Elder stepped out of the line and bowed slightly. "King.

We certainly hope the heretic can cure the life tree and solve our clan's life-and-death crisis.

It's just that our clan has investigated for many days with no results, yet a human entering our territory for the first time says he possesses the cure. This...

King, suspicion is the normal and rational reaction."

"It's possible Zhang Mu is lying." The Elf King turned his head back, gazing at his clansmen standing in the night, "But our clan is already in a desperate situation. Other than believing him, is there any other way?"

The Elders were momentarily speechless and fell silent.

It wasn't that they hated Zhang Mu; what they had just said was from the heart. They truly hoped Zhang Mu could cure the life tree, as it concerned the continuation of their own lives. Of course, their doubts were also real; the two were not contradictory.

The Elders' request was to send someone to secretly monitor Zhang Mu. Once he was found intending to flee, it would prove that his "certainty of curing the life tree" was a lie, and they would immediately kill him.

One Elder thought for a moment and decided to stop being indirect: "King, I suggest that I go—"

"Fool!" The Elf King, who usually presented himself as gentle, flew into a rage.