Chapter 471

Those Naga stared with their snake eyes at the bonfire, constantly swallowing saliva.

The harpies feared fire and didn't dare get too close.

At this moment, what noble, human, or blood-race distinctions were there?

All of them were charred black.

Zhao Ji's corpse and the blood-race corpses burned into one mass.

In the end, they all turned into white ashes.

The village women cleaned the surroundings, sweeping all the ashes into one place.

Over four hundred people ultimately burned into just this small little pile.

Like a single person's grave mound.

In the end, this ash mound was also disposed of.

After the burning was complete, Zhao Chi once again caught that faint, elusive fragrance of the aphrodisiac atmosphere.

Very faint.

And it quickly disappeared again.

Presumably it was neutralizing the smell of the burning corpses.

The air became fresh again.

Zhao Ji and all his subordinates vanished completely at this point, without a trace.

The blacksmith's forge in the smithy was also burning.

Bloodstained black armor pieces were thrown in one by one, slowly burning into red-hot molten iron.

Then they became iron ingots once again.

Black iron armor wasn't made of black iron—essentially it was iron too.

It had also been reinforced with some kind of material; that was the nobles' technique, and Zhao Chi didn't understand it either.

This battle cost forty Taoyuan women from their side.

Twenty female soldiers, twenty female craftsmen.

Although it pained him, this outcome was indeed acceptable.

After all, since they could be resurrected, the pain of parting through life and death was greatly lessened.

But it was also impossible to feel completely indifferent.

After all, they had also fought hard before their deaths, and suffered immensely when killed.

After a busy night, the sky slowly brightened.

The ten newly arrived women looked around in bewilderment at everything.

This time Zhao Chi additionally converted five smelters.

【Class】 Smelter

【Level】 Beginner

【Skill】 Smelting +5

【Attribute】 Enhancement Points +5

Previously, the smelting work had always been handled part-time by those female blacksmiths.

Now that it was separated out, it could save those blacksmiths considerable time, allowing them more time for forging.

A smelting workshop had already been built last night.

It could be put into use today.

Among these five smelters, Zhao Chi chose a woman with a pleasant personality as the smelting team leader.

【Smelting Team Leader】 Shen Lian

Shen Lian hadn't expected that on her very first day here, she could become a team leader.

She hurriedly thanked Zhao Chi: "Thank you, my lord, for your trust. I will give it my all and work hard."

Zhao Chi smiled and said: "I trust you all. Go with Gu Qing to wash up, and eat first after you're done."

Now with the smelting workshop and smelters, those over a thousand short swords and these several hundred sets of black iron armor could quickly be smelted into iron ingots.

Those luxury goods and the jade-bone longbows had all been tightly wrapped by Gu Qing's silk.

Then they were also wrapped and protected on the outside.

Finally buried deep in the earth.

At this point, aside from the equipment which still needed time to smelt, everything else had been dealt with.

Zhao Chi opened the system once again to check the various communication groups.

He had opened it many times this night.

But there was absolutely no information about Zhao Ji.

This was normal.

After all, Zhao Chi's surroundings were all commoner environments.

He had no intersection with the nobles at all.

Even if the nobles were now mobilizing to search for Zhao Ji's whereabouts, Zhao Chi couldn't possibly know.

Since that was the case, he would no longer be distracted by such matters.

Focusing on developing himself was the proper path.

In the hot spring, besides Zhao Chi there were quite a few female craftsmen.

Those ten newly arrived ones were also inside.

They looked around curiously.

He noticed everyone was perfectly at ease about bathing with Zhao Chi, all chatting and playing in the water on their own.

The ten newly arrived women quickly accepted all this and loosened up as well.

No longer shyly covering their bodies, they began carefully washing the mud off themselves.

Xia Jing swam over from the side, and Zhao Chi called out to her.

Xia Jing stopped: "Huh? You called me, my lord? What is it? Want to hear about our mining work?"

Zhao Chi smiled: "I'm completely at ease with your work; with you in charge I don't need to ask at all. I wanted to ask if you've smelled something in the air."

"A smell in the air?"

"Yes, since last night."

Xia Jing looked up, thinking back.

"Hmm… seems like there is. Sometimes a fragrance drifts through our forest, doesn't really seem like flowers. I haven't smelled this kind of fragrance before either."

"Exactly. When you smell it, does it give you any particular feeling?"

"A particular feeling?" Xia Jing looked at Zhao Chi, baffled.

"Yes, something different from before."

"Hmm… no, I just think it smells really nice and want to keep smelling it. Too bad it's faint—if I try to smell it carefully, it's gone."

"Understood. Go on swimming."

"Okay."

Xia Jing happily continued swimming back and forth.

Moguoyi Society, Tang Ruan and Qi Yue arrived together.

Qi Yue took the new villagers to eat, while Tang Ruan entered the hot spring, greeted Zhao Chi, and then went to find Gu Qing.

Normally, it was always Tang Ruan who took the new villagers to eat.

Today there seemed to be a change.

Zhao Chi noticed Tang Ruan's cheeks were flushed red as she walked straight to Gu Qing's side.

Then she pressed close to Gu Qing's ear and said something.

The more she spoke, the redder her face grew.

By the end, even her neck and chest had turned a pale red.

They were a bit too far away, and Zhao Chi couldn't hear what they were saying.

But it was definitely about him.

Because after Tang Ruan finished whispering in Gu Qing's ear, Gu Qing gently nodded, then smiled and looked toward Zhao Chi.

Tang Ruan also turned and glanced at him once, then turned away and didn't look again.

Right after, the two began whispering to each other again.