Chapter 473: Misnaming a Deer as a Horse

"Hurry, hurry!"

Wu Cangshou urged repeatedly.

Summer was hot, and having to be crowded again upon returning made it even more irritable.

Liang Qu had no choice.

The craftsmen were working in two shifts around the clock, but laying stones, building pavilions, building walls, and solidifying all had cycles; it couldn't be built in a few days.

"A calm heart naturally brings coolness."

The old clam was calm and composed.

One man, one turtle, and one clam chatted.

The big beaver was focused, grabbing a charcoal pencil with its claws, writing and drawing on paper; after a long time, it suddenly put down the pen, ran to the pond to wet its paws, groomed its messy hair, rolled up the paper, tucked it under its arm, and walked over with its head held high.

Liang Qu was stunned, then delighted.

"Any progress?"

The big beaver nodded earnestly; it bent down to lay out a thick stack of drafts, using stones as paperweights.

The first thing that caught his eye was... an assembly diagram?

Liang Qu called it that for now.

The first page showed a large building boat divided into multiple sections; a rough scan showed at least twenty large components, each of which was broken down into five or six small parts.

A total of nearly a hundred parts.

Not too many, not too few.

As a new product, if it were too complex, the craftsmanship requirements would be quite strict.

According to the drawings, once the plan succeeded, the entire ship could reach a staggering six zhang, or twenty meters, even taller than Liang Qu's own treasure ship.

Professional matters still required a professional beaver.

"What's the success rate?"

The big beaver stretched out both claws, making a six.

"Let's see if we can piece together a model."

Production couldn't just be talk on paper; it had to be combined with reality, especially for such a huge ship model broken down into multiple independent parts.

Liang Qu didn't want to increase costs by using spiritual wood materials and reducing the profit margin of ship sales, so he had to let the big beaver use its brain more.

The big beaver, having received the order, turned and left, organizing the next round of production activities in full swing.

The next morning.

Liang Qu was practicing spear techniques by the pond.

The fat catfish was the first to drag back a sturdy Great Demon with bulging muscles that looked like a water buffalo, pointing and saying it was "plump," proudly raising its head and showing its white belly.

For a moment.

Wu Cangshou and the old clam fell silent.

Liang Qu didn't expect that he would have a day of "misnaming a deer as a horse."

He had clearly taught it once last year.

After a long while.

The fat catfish, having found the right water beast and received praise, happily went to look for "sturdy" and "cute."

Liang Qu secretly sent a message, telling Immovable, Roundhead, and Fist to give up looking for "sturdy" and turn to look for "plump" and "cute."

The three water beasts lived up to expectations.

Before dark, they had collected all the required offerings.

A sturdy water buffalo Great Demon, Upper Stage of Great Demon.

A round, grayish-white porpoise-like creature, Mid-Level Great Demon.

And an old friend, "Ranchu."

Liang Qu didn't expect that he would encounter another Great Demon that looked similar to last year's offering.

Compared to last year's, the current "Ranchu" was larger, nine meters long, short and fat, Initial Stage of Great Demon.

In this way, all the water beasts matching the three meanings were collected.

Chen Zhaoan received the news and sent people to pull the customized large cart to the gate early, preparing to have it pulled to the pier when the time came tomorrow.

Seeing the Great Demon and the cart, the villagers were all enthusiastic and excited, looking forward to it.

The only one unhappy was probably Wu Cangshou.

The three Great Demon offerings were moved in, making the already crowded pond even more crowded.

Fortunately, it didn't last long; on the morning of the fifth, the craftsmen finished completely, breaking through the ponds on both sides, making the entire pond area more than double!

Boom!

The underground living water rushed in, surging toward the new pond paved with pond stones and built with pavilions, kicking up large patches of white foam.

Wu Cangshou couldn't wait to swim toward the new pond.

The entire pond expanded to five acres!

And this was just the pond area; if you added Long Pingjiang and Long Pinghe's huts, the big beaver's shipbuilding point, and the stone road around the edge, the entire garden area was nearly six acres!

"Master Liang is truly a pillar of my frog clan!"

The old toad, upon learning that the pond expansion was completed, rushed over from the frog clan's hinterland, praising loudly, even forgetting the unpleasantness of seeing the old turtle for the time being.

Liang Qu appropriately used a few sentences he had learned recently, nothing more than loyalty and honesty without flattery, remonstrating without sycophancy, upright and unyielding without leaning, coaxing the old toad into croaking.

The Dragon Maidens, sitting on small stools in the courtyard, tucking their skirts and peeling broad beans, were secretly shocked.

As expected of Master Liang!

Chatting with Grandmasters, having no Galloping Horse martial artists coming and going, and laughing and talking with the frog clan's Elder Frog, he was like an old friend.

That was Elder Frog!

Even the Dragon-Man clan's elders had to be respectful!

All day long.

The old toad jumped around in the garden, repeatedly climbing onto the pavilion in the center of the pond, then jumping down with a splash.

Liang Qu added icing to the cake, having the Dragon Maidens mix a bucket of iced milk curd; the old toad drank while playing, having a great time.

Splash, splash.

Wu Cangshou couldn't bear the annoyance and ran off to swim in the Great Marsh alone.

Watching for a moment.

Liang Qu let the old toad play, and took the time to go to the two-hundred-acre experimental field.

Summer had arrived.

Half of the rice seedling period had passed, and now it was all in the transplanting period, officially planting rice.

Looking out, one could see many people transplanting rice seedlings on the large ridges.

The ditches were all dug according to the plan, and one could see a large number of small frogs smaller than a fingernail, some growing slowly, still dragging a small tail that hadn't completely disappeared.

And compared to rice frogs, rice leeches didn't seem so "cute."

Small leeches crawled onto the rice seedling leaves, sticking out half their bodies and slowly wriggling, like leaves produced on the leaf veins, making one's skin crawl.

Although gold-threaded leeches couldn't pierce the skin of a Wolf Smoke martial artist at all, Liang Qu still didn't want to get close.

"According to the current growth of rice and the growth of frogs and leeches, Master Liang's vision is completely feasible." The medicinal herb merchant was very happy.

"Whether it succeeds or not depends on the harvest in November this year; it's too early to be happy now."

Liang Qu was not blindly optimistic.

The biggest difficulty in farming is actually epidemics, which are especially prone to occur in large-scale farming.

If one dies, they all die; it can't be eradicated, and the whole year's harvest is wasted.

"Master Liang, don't worry, we are all experienced farmers and won't take it lightly."

Liang Qu nodded and said with regret: "It's a pity that if there's a real harvest, I might not be able to see it with my own eyes. I have to go on a long trip in October; we will correspond by letter then."

The medicinal herb merchant didn't ask much: "Master Liang, don't worry, everything will be detailed."

After all the trivial matters were ordered.

The sky was filled with mackerel scales, and Liang Qu bathed in the sunset and went home; he didn't eat dinner, but took advantage of the fact that several subordinates were there to distribute the remaining six treasure fish sent by the old toad.

Including the treasure fish and aquatic plants sent by the Dragon-Men, he ate a small portion first.

Just this was enough to fill his stomach.

Inside the Ze Ding, the pale blue water rose rapidly.

【Water Ze Essence +11245】

Communicating with the Ze Ding.

【Ding Master: Liang Qu】

【Refining Ze Ling: Ze Rong (Deep Cyan)】

【Water Ze Essence: 60,038 points.】

【River Favorability: 2.2591】

Returning from Xiangyi County, digesting snake gall, and gifting treasure plants, a total of 74,000 Water Ze Essence.

Evolving A-Wei and the others used 37,000, leaving half.

Since then, the pond expansion, the nine treasure fish sent by the old toad, three eaten, gained 4,000, the remaining six, plus Su Guishan's treasure plant, gained over 7,400.

Going out for a trip, no essence was credited.

Now, digesting the gains, the total essence had increased back to 60,000! ===== CHAPTER 474 =====