"Ai?" Ashina hadn't reacted yet.
Phield pounced on Ashina, burying his face in her neck, then Phield fiercely pressed down.
Her waist was soft and slender, gripping it tightly.
"My lord, don't do this!" Ashina felt the hot breath on her neck, looking around in panic. She said that, but didn't push him away forcefully.
She even needed to control the powerful divine power within her body, otherwise the rampaging divine power might hurt her own lord.
Feeling Phield's breath, Ashina immediately felt her legs go weak. The next moment, Phield's hand reached towards Ashina's chest.
"How did things turn out like this!"
Ashina was both crying and laughing; she needed to resist the pleasurable sensations coming from her body, and also control her divine power to prevent it from going berserk.
Multitasking like this made her even more sensitive.
"This can't happen."
Ashina lightly bit her tongue, gaining a bit of clarity in her mind, and quickly retreated.
"Mm, although it feels inexplicably comfortable, no! This thought is too strange!"
"That plant is problematic; in the gray mist, there are only devilish things."
Ashina regretted it deeply; she should have burned that suspicious thing earlier.
"Lord Phield! Where are you?" The guards, noticing Phield wasn't at the village center, were anxiously searching for him.
"Oh my!" Ashina's shy face immediately showed panic.
In her panic, Ashina broke free from control, channeling divine power to tap Phield's forehead. The pure divine power immediately dispelled the magical plant's effects.
"Ugh, so dizzy."
Phield held his head, gradually waking up, his beastly desires suppressed by reason. Seeing Ashina's face flushed red, but pretending to look at the scenery.
"I'm fine."
The guards found them; Phield waved his hand, signaling him to wait outside first.
"I think I haven't studied that little plant yet." Frowning, Phield felt like he had done this before, shook his sore arm, and immediately bent down, reaching out to pick one as a sample. "So, is this a magical plant?"
"Don't!" Ashina was almost scared silly; if this happened again, she might not be able to hold back, she even had to change her skirt when she got back, how could she let Phield torment her like this again. "You studied it earlier; this plant is very dangerous."
Ashina helplessly whispered everything that had happened into Phield's ear.
"What a perverted plant." Phield was shocked, but then sighed, "What a pity, I have no memory of it at all."
"What do you mean pity! I was scared to death by you. If this plant devoured souls, what would happen to the territory?" Ashina huffed, waving her finger, "Even if you want me, you shouldn't rely on this, uh, cough cough."
Realizing she said something wrong, Ashina immediately shut up.
"Right, burn it! As long as we burn it, the devil's plan will fail." Ashina gritted her teeth, her red pupils seeming to burn, like a fanatic villager at a witch hunt.
Phield looked at the flustered Ashina and burst into laughter: "Don't rush, we need patience and tolerance for new things. Think about it, if we give this to horses and cows, what would happen?"
Ashina's beautiful eyes widened, hands forming an X: "So perverted! No crossbreeding! Uh, I mean, cows and horses can't, but humans and Demei-humans can."
"Pfft." Phield laughed heartily; obviously, Ashina's actions had thrown her intelligence offline. "It's about livestock breeding. With this herb, breeding livestock will be much simpler in the future."
"As long as the number of cattle and sheep increases, we'll have endless meat to eat." Phield snapped his fingers happily.
The Divine Chosen have strong magical resistance. Scholars from the royal family have conducted experiments; ordinary Divine Chosen can immunize against 35%-70% of magical damage, and those specialized in defense can even achieve complete magical immunity, or even rebound magic.
Phield handed over a jar, letting Ashina collect three plant samples along with the soil.
The monetary harvest was quite dismal.
The guards searched the entire village and found a total of 21 silver coins and 87 copper coins.
"The village is too poor; we're not the first visitors." Phield picked up an old silver coin, gently brushing off the dirt, revealing the beautiful patterns on it once more. "When the empire and the Orcs went to war, both sides would raid Rum Village, so it's expected that there's little coinage."
As for the other spoils, a barely usable chair, a box, a dozen broken pottery jars, and a large pile of firewood dismantled from the furniture in the houses.
Fortunately, the return journey was smooth, without any monster ambushes.
As soon as they stepped into the territory's range, Phield's eyes lit up. There were no wriggling tentacles or chunks of flesh in the farmland; it was refreshing, like taking a clean bath that washed away all the grime.
The farmland was left with only toxic soil and the ashes from the burned corrupted creatures.
"My lord, we've already cleared all the corruption within the territory and burned them to ashes in one fire." The slaves showed ingratiating expressions, hunching their bodies.
Phield, riding on horseback, nodded after surveying the area: "Well done. Each of you will receive a reward."
The slaves beamed with joy.
"The next task is to repair my grand winery, shovel away the remnants of corruption, replace the rotten wood, and fix the collapses and holes." Phield had planned this long ago; living in a place full of drafts and permeated with the monsters' urine stench was a torment to the body, even if Phield's residence was the best place in the Nightfall Domain.
"But my lord, I don't know carpentry work."
Phield was stunned for a moment; he seemed to have forgotten that. He immediately shouted loudly: "Is there anyone who knows carpentry, masonry, or blacksmithing?"
No one in the field responded. Steward Kaor
spoke bluntly: "My lord, those who master skills are free folk; slaves are all worthless."
"Then recruit some. I'm planning a trip to a city outside the gray mist anyway. The nearest city is… right, Maple Leaf City in High Castle Province. There must be what we need there."
Kaor looked regretful: "Every city's craftsmen belong to exclusive guilds, under the direct jurisdiction of the lords; they can't be recruited just with money. Moreover, I don't think any craftsmen would be willing to come to the Nightfall Domain."
"I'll go personally." Phield shrugged; Steward Kaor only raised objections without thinking about solutions—he was used to it.