MC's career as foreign lord

Zhou Ren went to check his tea leaves. Hmm, another batch had dried. This time, he didn't need to ration them; he could drink them for a while.

This time, he was fermenting black tea. Black tea and green tea are different. For green tea, the fresh leaves are thoroughly dried in a tea winnow, resulting in the final form of green tea: dry green leaves.

However, black tea isn't processed that way. When drying fresh green tea leaves, you can get green tea semi-dried leaves, which are leaves between fresh and dry. This is the precursor to black tea.

As mentioned before, Zhou Ren put some tea winnows outdoors and some indoors. Of course, now they are all indoors, except some are under glass and some under stone.

This is the commonality of tea wind fermentation: exposure to sunlight is drying, while being hidden under the eaves is fermentation.

Zhou Ren took the green tea semi-dried leaves from the outdoor tea winnows and placed them inside the indoor tea winnows. This interrupts the original drying process and turns it into fermentation.

After fermenting for a while, the originally green leaves will turn red, and the chlorophyll will disappear completely. Then, Zhou Ren will get the tea that the British like the most: black tea.

The red tea leaves also have a hint of green on the edges, which may be his exclusive space during this time.

However, black tea fermentation takes the better part of a day, and he can't possibly guard it here, so he went to brew green tea first.

Yesterday, Mo Sa had already dried the new green tea. Since he wanted to drink tea, drinking green tea wasn't bad either.

There were still eight portions of boiled water in the Zisha water pot. Zhou Ren only needed to make eight more tea bags with thread and paper.

Now he had used up two sets of tea leaves, leaving thirty-two portions of green tea, which he could keep or brew in a white porcelain pot, both good choices.

He started pouring water, washing the teacups, and then taking out the Zisha teapot. In the process of making tea, he experienced a rare peace and tranquility. He decided to make another bamboo chair and several bamboo tables to replace the tables and chairs at the entrance.

Soon, Zhou Ren had brewed the tea and poured himself a cup, holding it in his hand.

He took out a bamboo lamp. The newly made bamboo tables and chairs were already in his backpack, and this small and exquisite bamboo lamp was in his hand. Now he could fulfill his original wish.

Zhou Ren passed by the farm and noticed the newly planted fields and Jim's bouncing figure, and couldn't help but be curious.

"What is Jim doing?" He looked closely and found that the little skeleton, who was originally working hard, seemed to have made some new discoveries.

He twisted his body and wandered around the Tree of Life, seemingly communicating with the tree, but the tree itself has no consciousness, right? What is he doing?

Zhou Ren became even more curious and found that, along with Jim's bouncing, the Tree of Life, which should have been motionless, was now swaying slightly, responding to the skeleton in front of it.

"Jim has an affinity that others can hardly achieve!" Mo Sa appeared beside Zhou Ren at some point. "Master, your Tree of Life may cause trouble for the elves!"

Zhou Ren nodded. "I know this, but since I dared to plant it, I'm not afraid of them coming, but Jim..."

He still looked at the little sapling dancing with some doubts. "But what's going on with this dance? This tree has no consciousness, right?"

"I thought the same when I first met Jim. At that time, this child was dancing like this even when he didn't even have a soul," Mo Sa said. "But he quickly gained his own life and began to evolve rapidly!"

Mo Sa continued, "It took him less than a hundred years to become a Skeleton Lord, which is a very short time for skeletons, whose lives are almost infinite!"

"It seems this little skeleton also has a past we don't know!" Zhou Ren said. "You go ahead! I'll go sit at the door!"

He didn't plan to disturb Jim. The little skeleton itself didn't have much malice. Innocent children don't have much malice, let alone Jim, who doesn't have the crying and irritability of children. What's wrong with playing for a while?

Mo Sa didn't leave slowly and soon left here. It seemed he was going back to drink a bowl of Mysterious Stew again. I wonder if so many life recovery overlays will have any special effects?

Then Zhou Ren thought of lemon tea. When it comes to life recovery, lemon tea is definitely better, and drinking tea is much faster than drinking Mysterious Stew. He could let Mo Sa try it when he has time.

Along with the dance of the Tree of Life, he saw the continuous growth of the trees in the distance. It seemed that this tree was still quite useful. This growth rate could make the trees completely mature in less than a day, which was also a good thing.

Zhou Ren continued to move forward. Some small shrubs and berry bushes on both sides of the road complemented each other. He also saw some blueberries and raspberries hanging on them. The wooden sign at the gate was already in sight.

Now that Zhou Ren's resources have increased, he naturally felt that the original wooden sign was a bit glaring, so he immediately took action and used the stone bricks on his body to rebuild a gate style, and then put the wooden sign on it, which was much more impressive!

Then he collected the wood at the door and put on the bamboo tables and chairs he brought, which did have a bit more charm than when he first arrived. Finally, he placed the bamboo lamp in the center of the table, and suddenly that magical fresh meaning surged out.

"Your Excellency, a gift has arrived!" Zhou Ren had just prepared to sit down when he heard a shout from the door and couldn't help but turn his head.

There was an elf staff member wearing a mercenary guild uniform. If Mo Sa were here, he might recognize that this was the little elf girl at the guild's front desk when he went to find someone last time.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Zhou Ren asked. The little elf girl was slightly nervous. "Your Excellency, this is a gift someone entrusted the mercenary guild to send you!"

"A gift?" Zhou Ren was very curious. "Who would send me a gift? And entrust the mercenary guild?"

He took the thing from the other party's hand. It was a small package that looked very distinctive, about the size of a palm, wrapped in blue cloth.

Just as Zhou Ren was about to open the package, the little elf girl was about to leave. "Well... the thing has been delivered, I'll go first?"

"Wait!" Zhou Ren said.

The elf turned back with a somewhat frightened look. "Your Excellency... is there anything else?"

"Don't be nervous, I won't hurt you!" Zhou Ren said. "You're tired from running for so long, right? Take an apple to eat on the way!"

He handed over an apple, which the elf girl took. "Th... thank you, Your Excellency!"

She seemed to know that tipping was traditional in this situation, but her timid personality made her a little embarrassed to speak, and she quickly ran away.

"There are such female elves in the elf race too?" Zhou Ren smiled. Isn't this situation only supposed to happen to male elves in rumors? After all, in the female-dominated elf kingdom, females are the majority.

But no wonder, wasn't Auster, who came this time, a male elf? It doesn't seem like he had such a reaction, right? Rumors can't be trusted!

Zhou Ren shook his head, gently brushed away these random thoughts, and refocused his attention on the gift in front of him.

Although he knew quite a few people in this world, it didn't seem like anyone would give him a gift, right? Could it be someone he helped? That was the only thing he could guess.

But instead of guessing, it was better to take a closer look. Zhou Ren directly lifted the blue cloth. The thing itself wasn't big, only about half a palm's size. Now that it was open, it was even smaller, only about the size of two thumbs.

It was a somewhat peculiar badge, similar to Raichu's lightning mark, but clearly made from biological materials, with obvious forging marks on it.

Attached was a letter, "A Letter from Soyas." The MC system's notification made Zhou Ren suddenly realize who the sender was. That paladin mercenary captain had left a deep impression on him.

"Your Excellency, greetings. Soyas has restarted the journey with his team. Perhaps we will die on the road of subduing demons or dragons, but to thank you for saving our lives, please accept our family's holy emblem."

Zhou Ren watched the disappearing words. On the blue cloth, the gray emblem shone brightly. It was an "X" intertwined with a mining pick and a hammer. Was this their dwarven holy emblem?

"What is this thing for?" Zhou Ren was very curious. He admired that dwarven captain. At least he was practicing what he preached, upholding his beliefs and persisting. They were doing good deeds and constantly waging war against evil.

Zhou Ren might not be able to do that, but it didn't stop him from admiring these people. He put the badge into his inventory, thinking about locking it in a box with his phone later.

At this time, the scene in front of him slowly quieted down. He looked at the raging wind in front of him, almost blowing past his nose, but blocked by the wall.

At this time, this windy afternoon was when there were the fewest people. The heavy rain last night left everything outside Zhou Ren's built road muddy.

Behind the wall were rows of wooden houses that had been built, places for the soldiers to live and also places for mercenaries to trade. The elven race had invested a lot! Zhou Ren couldn't help but sigh.

Not far away, Old Ford's flag seemed to be flying outside. Anna had given up a part of the house she built to the half-elves as a shop, and the shops in the town had basically moved out as well.

The arrival of a large number of mercenaries, adventurers, and mage apprentices had brought the town's population to over 100,000, which was almost the size of a small city.

Zhou Ren saw some vehicles marked with Silvermoon City. It seemed that this war was not just a local war!

He saw these people safely stationing their camp behind his territory, and was speechless for a moment. The wind protection technology of his territory saved them the money to set up windbreak barriers.

Of course, Zhou Ren didn't care too much about these. He watched the weeds on the rain-soaked lawn rapidly rise, covering the land damaged in the war and concealing the remains of flowing blood.

Rain is indeed the source of life! Zhou Ren thought, would someone come to attack tonight?

He looked at the bamboo lamp in front of him and took out a wooden cup of black tea. "Drinking black tea in autumn is really appropriate!"

The effect of black tea was to increase life, and the specific manifestation was that he suddenly felt a big boost throughout his body! His body was full of power, his eyesight was better, and even his thinking seemed more acute!

This effect didn't last long, only half the time of Cloud Body, which was about four hours.

But this kind of body really made him feel much more comfortable. Before, he was 100% satisfied, but now he was exceeding the limit by 120%!

Lying on the bamboo chair, drinking black tea, and fulfilling his first day's wish, Zhou Ren felt that his life seemed to be partially complete!

Here, he could see the little skeleton running up and down the stairs, and the sunlight reflected on the skeleton's body, shining with a holy light!

"Ah!" Zhou Ren sighed and collapsed on the chair with satisfaction. He felt that it would be great if time could stop here. His sense of satisfaction was simply exploding at this moment!

"You really are here!" A somewhat intriguing voice sounded. Zhou Ren looked up and saw Shia standing in front of him with a staff.

Zhou Ren smiled, "Princess, you suffered a lot of injuries last night. Instead of resting well, what are you doing here?"

He released her restraints so she could come in. "Sit down!"

The two sat on either side of the bamboo table. "Unfortunately, I didn't bring extra tea. Is hot water okay?" Zhou Ren said.

He took out a wooden teacup and looked at Shia.

"No problem!" Shia said, "Sir Zhou Ren's tea is very precious, isn't it?"

"It's not wrong to understand it that way!" After all, a cup of tea requires six tea leaves! Zhou Ren complained in his heart. Besides fulfilling his wishes, he was also here to wait for someone to see if any big fish would be hooked.

Now, the fish has arrived!

"Princess Shia, you haven't explained your intentions yet! Could it be that your elven elders have come and want to discuss with me about purchasing elven fruit?" Zhou Ren asked.

After all, his biggest business with the elves was the elven fruit business. Shia had come in a hurry, so it should only be this matter, right?

But the elven princess didn't seem to want to dawdle with him and said directly, "Sir Zhou Ren, let's not beat around the bush. Let's get straight to the point! Did you grow a Tree of Life?"

"Haha!" Zhou Ren laughed, "Princess, you are really straightforward! That's right, the Tree of Life has grown!"

"Quick, take me to see it!" Shia was a little anxious. Unlike the constantly growing elven fruit, no Tree of Life had grown during this time!

Zhou Ren waved his hand, "Princess, this is the Tree of Life. Unlike elven fruit, you should know what this means!"

"This is the elven race's greatest foundation. As long as it doesn't exceed the elven race's bottom line, I can promise you anything!" Shia said.

"No, no, no, you misunderstood. I'm not asking for a huge price, just a promise!" Zhou Ren said. This was him really setting conditions, "A promise from your elven race!"

He smiled, "I'm not too comfortable building diplomatic relations with you in such a place without any protection. I need insurance!"