Chapter 133

Chapter 133

Waste space, junk.

Mine space, junk.

In less than an hour, two of the four doors were already useless, but Ji Xinghai had amassed a pile of steel and a mountain of gold!

He used the steel to upgrade his room. Although the area didn't increase, the overall safety improved by leaps and bounds, laying the groundwork for a second floor. He even framed the doors and windows with metal.

It was time to prepare food.

"Merchant Duggins is a dwarf; he loves gold, and so do the vendors in the dwarf market." The equation "dwarves love gold" solidified in his mind.

He grabbed a handful of gold beans and pushed open the second door.

Ah, chicken, duck, fish, beef, mutton, fruits, and vegetables! The aroma of ingredients filled the air.

There might be races in this world that dislike gold, but dwarves were certainly not among them. The gold beans Ji Xinghai took out immediately caught the attention of the dwarf merchants.

These cunning merchants tried to exchange the least amount of goods for his gold, underestimating the cunning of human traders, especially those who liked to get something for nothing. These people had particularly dark hearts.

One gold bean for two plucked hens and a dozen eggs, two gold beans for two pork legs and a large bag of clean bones, five gold beans for prime beef...

Actually, he preferred live animals, but there were none in the market; even live fish were sold slaughtered.

Otherwise, buying a couple of nesting chickens to collect eggs daily would have been wonderful?

Apart from meat, he bought other storable items like cabbages, radishes, and cabbages by the basket.

Chickpeas, peas, soybeans—all packed in large sacks.

Flour was no exception; he had several bags of different varieties of wheat. With money paving the way, he even got a hand-pushed stone mill as a 'gift.'

If it weren't for the limited space in the cellar, he would have bought out the entire market.

"Ji!"

Suddenly, a student excitedly stopped him; it was someone from the Hungry Academy, with whom he had previously collaborated.

"Rosa?" Ji Xinghai still remembered her, the Barbie doll nearly dismembered in the doll replica.

"You remember me!" Meeting an old acquaintance in a foreign land, Rosa almost wanted to give him a hug. But now, there was something more important: "Ji, do you need planting soil and wood?"

This was exactly what he needed, as he was worried about the limited space of his house: "Do you have some?"

"Yes, I have a door leading to a primitive forest, but students are not allowed to damage any trees or plants. I can only trade with the cannibals inside. They need salt, sugar, spices, and clothes. But the dwarves in the market charge too much. Can you lend me some gold? I promise to repay you double."

Ji Xinghai understood. She wanted to borrow gold from him, buy these supplies, and then trade them with the cannibals for wood and planting soil.

This was reasonable; the dwarf market only sold food, and their prices for other goods were extremely low, making it unprofitable.

"I can lend you ten gold beans. In return, you can give me ten logs over a hundred years old or ten blocks of planting soil."

Initially just a try, she was overjoyed when it worked: "Wait, I'll deliver the items today and repay you double."

Rosa left with the gold to make purchases, and this gave Ji Xinghai a great idea. He found a plastic board, drew a picture of exchanging goods for gold, and sat on a small wooden stool outside his door waiting for students to approach.

Many students entered the dwarf market, all needing food. Even if they couldn't afford to buy, they could at least look around. These idle visitors soon noticed Ji Xinghai's unique setup.

"How do we exchange?" the first student interested in trading approached.

Ji Xinghai smiled kindly: "What do you have? Have you tried trading with the local dwarves?"

The person showed a bitter face. It was clear he had tried and felt cheated. The dwarves' prices were too low, yet he had to buy.

"I have some saltpeter. Can it be exchanged?"

"Of course. They love gold, and only gold fetches a decent price, so exchanging it for gold and then buying is more profitable."

Ji Xinghai pointed out his advantage before continuing: "Of course, I will make a profit, but we are all students. For the sake of our shared status, I won't cheat you. You can check the prices first before deciding."

Ji Xinghai quoted a price: one gram of gold for ten pounds of saltpeter.

This price was much fairer than the dwarves', but the student still tried to bargain: "Can it be higher?"

"Alright, if you have a hundred pounds of saltpeter, I can give you eleven gold beans. This is already a favor among fellow students."

Seeing this, the student didn't push further: "Then a hundred pounds of saltpeter for eleven gold beans."

The first deal was done. With this successful example, other students began to trust the stall and gathered around, wanting to exchange their excess goods.

Their goods weren't as useful, but Ji Xinghai had enough gold and traded for some extras.

After everyone had finished their exchanges, he closed up shop and returned home. It was around eleven in the morning, lunchtime.

One pot contained stewed hen with potatoes, another steamed plain buns, and he also boiled two vegetables and an egg.

Ji Xinghai finally enjoyed a meal with meat, vegetables, and starch. High-energy meals indeed quickly replenished his hunger points, and the taste was excellent.

He also discovered, to his surprise, that seafood left on the balcony yesterday had already dried and could be stored.

So, he rubbed salt on a ham leg and hung it to dry. He sliced the beef into thin strips, marinated them, and hung them too. He also seasoned the other plucked chicken and hung it, waiting for it to become preserved.

Like a diligent little bee, he went back to the dwarf market and bought more meat, which he processed and hung on the balcony.

Now standing on the balcony, he saw a forest of meat hanging everywhere.

"If only the balcony were a bit bigger."

Once the balcony was full, he started buying fruits with high water content and canned drinking water.

Ji Xinghai was about to embark on his grand transportation venture—transporting these fruits and canned water to the oasis space, where he would place them on crushed ice made using large amounts of nitrate, clean them, and make them shine like gems.

Resting merchants, seeing the fruits and water cans on the ice, looked as if they had seen gold, their tongues licking their chapped lips, unable to look away.

"Hello, brave conqueror of the desert. May I ask about these items..."

"They were originally meant as gifts, but if the price is right, we can talk." Ji Xinghai patted the melon the size of a rugby ball meaningfully.

The merchant's mouth watered. Knowing this was a negotiation tactic, he still nodded: "We can talk, we can talk."

With both sides willing, business began.

The first caravan mainly carried spices—besides familiar ones like black pepper, cloves, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, mint leaves, and coriander seeds, there were also roses, sumac, and saffron.

The variety was extensive, but so were the prices.

The merchant proudly said that these spices, once delivered to their destination, would be several times more valuable than gold. But because Ji Xinghai had the advantage of timing, he managed to exchange a small amount of water and melons for several bags.

He wanted to trade more, but it seemed there was a limit to the transaction amount with each caravan. Even offering ice couldn't convince the merchant to part with more. Ji Xinghai had to turn his attention to the next caravan.

This one was even larger, with over a hundred camels and dozens of guards.

More people meant more need for water.

"Look," the stingy caravan leader allowed Ji Xinghai just a glance. "These are priceless treasures; only kings in other places get to see them. You're lucky to have seen them, kid."

Ji Xinghai saw the lustrous silk, the understated porcelain, and the dignified lacquerware.

He seemed to know where these people came from.

"Brother, look at my face." Ji Xinghai pointed at himself. "You took these treasures from my hometown. Do you really expect me to buy them back at a high price? Give me something useful."

The merchant finally examined him closely and sheepishly rubbed his nose. "Alright, actually, my camel train has some unsold goods. Though they didn't sell, they're still good. I can give them to you at a discount."

Ji Xinghai smiled. "That's how trading should be, right?"

The unsold goods were mostly dried fruits—dates, pine nuts, cashews, raisins, and figs. Ji Xinghai bought them all; he needed these high-calorie, long-lasting foods.

By getting rid of these surplus goods and securing enough drinking water, both parties felt they had made a good deal and quickly completed the transaction, as if afraid the other might change their mind.

"These ice blocks..."

"I don't sell the ice." Ji Xinghai didn't bother explaining that the ice was toxic and couldn't be eaten; he simply said it wasn't for sale. Besides, when the ice melted and evaporated, the remaining nitrates could be reused.

This scenario was peculiar; who knew if extreme weather might occur, in which case the nitrates could still be useful.

At this moment, the last caravan arrived. They were the smallest and looked the most ragged, but the goods they brought shocked Ji Xinghai.

"Living grape vines?"

"Yes, sir. These are the best grape vines from my homeland, capable of producing the largest and sweetest grapes. But due to lack of water, only these remain."

How tragic.

The cold-hearted Ji Xinghai lowered his head and calculated: "I want half. One grape vine can be exchanged for a bucket of water like this."

Actually, he had long wanted to plant something in his cultivation area, but no matter what seeds or saplings he tried, he always received a message saying he couldn't plant them. However, when he touched the grape vines, the prompt said: "Dehydrated grape vines. Please plant them in the soil and provide water soon."

This price was close to the merchant's bottom line, but they had no choice but to agree. Without water, not only would the remaining grape vines perish, but the people might too. It was a lesser evil.

Thus, Ji Xinghai traded for seven weak grape vines.

But a new problem arose: his cultivation area was insufficient.

"Hope Rosa brings back more cultivation land."

Rosa did not disappoint.

When Ji Xinghai returned to the dwarf market, he found a crowd gathered around an area where two factions were confronting each other.

"Ji! Over here!" One of the factions was from the Hungry Academy, and Rosa was among them, carefully protecting a stack of century-old trees and a pile of rich planting soil.

"Ji, they want to steal your things." Seeing Ji Xinghai, they looked like children finding a supportive parent, indignantly reporting the incident.

It turned out that the goods Rosa brought for trade had attracted greedy hyenas who surrounded her and forced her to sell at a low price. There were other members of the Hungry Academy in the market; could they stand by and watch their own be bullied?

No!

So the situation became what Ji Xinghai saw. The reason they hadn't fought was that the market prohibited robbery and theft, and they feared being expelled for breaking the rules.

"So, without this rule, you would have stolen my things?"

Ji Xinghai drew his long knife, his smiling eyes now open: "The market rules prohibit robbery and theft, but they don't say anything about murder."

He killed the six students who had initially attacked Rosa, their heads rolling in pools of blood. A group of uniformed dwarves stormed over angrily.

"Sorry, could you help clean up the trash?" Ji Xinghai calmly spread his fingers, revealing a dozen golden beans. "This money is for tea."

"!" Gold!

"Well, we understand the situation now. If anything like this happens again, just call us." The patrol captain said with a righteous face.

By the wealth of the gods, they couldn't refuse such easy gold.

The market patrol team quickly dragged away the bodies and cleaned the ground, leaving only a faint scent of blood in the air.

The people from other academies who had gathered around earlier had long since dispersed, watching the tightly-knit Hungry Academy team with some apprehension, too envious to come any closer.

Rosa let out a sigh of relief and stepped forward. "Thanks, Ji. These are all things we traded for. By the way, do you like cocoa?"

Ji Xinghai looked puzzled.

"Cough," she lowered her voice. "Actually, I also got two cocoa tree seedlings in exchange. One is for you, as a thank-you gift."

Ji Xinghai didn’t like accepting extra favors from others.

"No need. I have grape vines, which I can trade with you."

Rosa was a bit tempted; plantable seedlings and seeds were hard to find. "Okay, but I did promise to return your supplies doubled, and you can’t refuse that."

Thus, Ji Xinghai exchanged ten gold coins for thirteen century-old logs and seven bags of planting soil.

All the logs were used to expand the room area, while the planting soil became the planting ground. Ji Xinghai’s room now had this layout: planting ground 9 + bathroom 4 + balcony 6 + living area 22 + cellar 8. There was still an additional 1.7 square meters of usable space left.

His planting ground finally had plants: six grape vines and one cocoa tree.

That night, the monsters once again condensed and wandered in the shattered space.

One by one, small houses were manipulated by invisible hands, changing positions. They instinctively drifted toward places with food, peering through door cracks and windows.

One of them found a house with a particularly strong aroma, floated over, squinted its eyes, and looked inside. There were plenty of things inside, but no sign of anyone, wondering if they were hiding...

Before it could finish its thought, a head hung upside down.

"Was it you yesterday?" The golden-brown eyes reflected its dark face, and a pale hand slowly reached through the glass.

The monster was slapped away, rolling far off like a bowling ball.