Enemies Are All Nourishment for My Fungi

After saying that, Ye Nai ignored them and vanished on the spot to another location, not leaving them a single drop of water or a morsel of food.

She remembered that when she was on her way, she had picked up many fallen twigs and broken branches along the road, and dried them in the Secret Realm to use as firewood.

After checking on them, she felt they were well dried, at least on the surface they felt dry, so she gathered them all into her Space and then threw them to the Baron and Viscount who were busy pitching tents.

"Once you few families have set up your tents, divide up the firewood. Don't leave it outside or it will get wet from the rain," she said.

The captives swiftly bowed and expressed their thanks.

Next, she brought out freshly hot breakfasts that she had pilfered from the Military Fortress in the Duke's Main City, telling each household to bring over a pot to serve themselves.

The three families crowded around; they didn't need to look, just by smelling they knew it was the usual food of their military.

Starving till now and stomachs rumbling fiercely, their movements would become so hurried that they might black out from eagerness. They had been persevering just to have a place to sleep after dark. Now, the aroma of the freshly cooked food was irresistible, and everyone's stomachs were singing.

Ye Nai was not short on food, so she gave them ample portions; as long as they brought pots, no matter the size, she filled them up.

Lastly, she took out various farming tools and tasked the captives to start working at sunrise. Considering they were completely inexperienced with farming, she gave them a three-month grace period during which she would not mind their efficiency in clearing the land. After three months, she would set a standard for land clearance.

After giving instructions, Ye Nai let them divide the tools amongst themselves, while she returned to the edge of the fields to inspect the soybeans, corn, and the drip irrigation system.

On the way to True Dragon Gully, she had harvested half-grown soybeans, also known as edamame, leaving the rest to grow old and turn into yellow soybeans. The corn also needed more time; it had formed grains but had not yet reached maturity, so watering and fertilizing had to be ensured.

It was a bit dark now, and to see clearly, she pulled out an off-road vehicle and turned on the headlights to illuminate the area around the drip irrigation machine.

The brightness here naturally attracted the attention of all the captives. Whether far or near, they all looked towards Ye Nai's direction with shock on their faces.

Even the Duke who had been stationed on Blue Star had never seen such things, and he had personally said that Blue Star was very backward and not nearly as good as life at home.

Ye Nai had no interest in correcting their perceptions; she was just making things convenient for herself.

She took out a water bucket and a few sieves, put on gloves, and after diluting organic fertilizer with water and blending it, she filtered it through sieves of different mesh sizes three times before pouring it into the water tank of the drip irrigation machine. The rest was left to the machine.

After finishing, Ye Nai put away her things, got into the off-road vehicle, and drove to another field planted with alfalfa.

The Duchess nudged her husband with her elbow.

"You were stationed over there for several years and you've never seen these things?" she asked.

"Never seen them. That was a backward and primitive piece of land. If not for maintaining the occupation advantage, not letting other countries snatch the territory we occupied, I would never have been put there as a Duke," he replied.

"Then, what is this that the Great Witch has brought out? Does there really exist a nation in that world that cannot be conquered?" she questioned.

"I've heard there's an area that's particularly difficult to conquer. Years of sieging could only surround it, but not breach it. Even entering through the Fusion Zone led to being repelled back out. I don't know if it's the same place," he said.

"As a Duke, you don't know such important intelligence?" she pressed.

"I don't," he admitted.

The Duke felt a bit embarrassed; this amounted to acknowledging a problem he had always avoided facing head-on: their family was being disfavored by His Majesty.

Since the flow of time differed between the two worlds, with the other world having significantly longer lifespans, all the Nobles who went to battle sought ways to earn military exploits, aiming to extend their stay in that world. Yet he had been sent home to retire after a failed war.

This was the signal that they were being ousted from the power circle. Their sons who took over the battlefield did not achieve any significant military exploits either, as the spots good for earning military merits had already been snatched up by other nobles, leading to difficulty finding better marriage prospects for their children. Not one son-in-law or daughter-in-law was satisfactory.

"So many years our Sovereign has been sending reinforcements there without interruption, but where have they all gone?"

"They died on the battlefield. As for the countries that seized territories over there, who doesn't want to expand their land? We sent many troops, but the larger nations sent even more. War is initiated by all countries collectively, but land and resources go to whoever seizes them first."

"What can we do? Is this how our lives are doomed to be?"

The Duchess was still not reconciled; she had been a noble standing high above all her whole life and couldn't bear the significant drop in status.

"Can we defeat that Great Witch?"

"…" The Duchess fell silent.

The whole family was silent now, even the children clamped their mouths shut, holding their bellies—even if they were hungry and thirsty, they didn't dare to say."

Ye Nai drove to the alfalfa field area to check on the cattle and horses that were eating so well their bellies bulged. This farmland was a bit far from the river, but the safe area created by the growth of fungal mycelium in the soil was big enough, and it was safe for the cattle and horses to drink from the river.

After finishing the farm work, Ye Nai drove for three kilometers, arriving right at the edge of the mycelium's safe zone.

There, she released the servants and teachers from the Wizard Academy that were locked up in her Space.

Among the wizards, many were injured, the very pursuers who had chased the Smoke Formation Team out of the mountains and were seriously wounded by Ye Nai's blast.

Ye Nai also treated them with spores for simple healing, to prevent them from dying there. She was interested to see just how strong the labor force of wizards could be.

She knew that in the chaos at that time, not all the wizards who chased the Smoke Formation Team into the mountains had come out. She didn't care about their numbers; regardless of how many were left, the Transmission Platforms in the Duke's Main City had all been taken by her. The wizards who returned to the academy and wanted to travel far would have to slowly commute by vehicle.

To prevent a counterattack from these prisoners of war, Ye Nai blocked all their meridians used for energy flow within their bodies, and took the opportunity to check on the servants as well. They were all Ordinary people with not a trace of talent.

Only then did she awaken everyone.

The bright lights from the off-road vehicle's spotlights made it impossible for these slowly awakening prisoners to feign sleep. They all gradually sat up, tilting their heads to avoid the glaring light.

"Good evening, prisoners. Welcome to your reformation site."

"Who are you?"

"…"

The prisoners were speechless for a moment.

Ye Nai was in no rush and patiently waited for them to recover.

After a minute or two, a voice that sounded like it belonged to a middle-aged woman and was a bit shaky, one of the injured ones, finally spoke up.

"Who are you?"

"You haven't seen me before? Weren't you there when there was a fight on the academy's rooftop? So you were one of the wizards who chased us out of the mountains?"

"What about the people we were chasing?"

"You've become prisoners, so naturally, they safely returned home. Isn't that obvious?"