Chapter 30: Unexpected Harvest

A knife sliced through the air.

Before Xiao Jiuni could even feel the pain, Xin Nian had severed all the tendons in her hands and feet.

By the time her reflexes registered the agony and she let out a wail, Xin Nian had already swiftly shoved a dark pill into her mouth.

Seconds later, Xiao Jiuni could no longer even manage a cry of pain; she could only instinctively claw at her throat.

Xin Nian clicked her tongue twice and tapped the Princess's face lightly with the tip of the knife. "My poor little worm, wait for sister here for a while. I'll come back for you later."

Xiao Jiuni’s face was contorted in a hideous grimace, her eyes staring blankly as she watched the monster girl slowly vanish before her.

Monster, ahhh, monster, monster, die, monster!

Father, she wants to find Father, to find the Great Xia Iron Cavalry to annihilate this damned monster.

She wanted her father to strip this monster naked, tie her to a red-hot copper pillar, and burn her alive.

Xiao Jiuni struggled to climb out of the bathtub, but her limbs were limp and powerless; she couldn't even conquer this small tub.

***

Xin Nian was now standing inside the courtyard's granary.

She didn't spare a single glance at the flowery screens or the gold, silver, and jade wares; her entire focus was on the exquisitely packaged gift boxes containing ginseng, deer antler, lingzhi, and other medicinal items.

The young girl frowned.

Aside from some top-tier medicinal herbs, the warehouse was filled with nothing but useless, flashy jewelry and trinkets.

In a year of natural disasters, these things wouldn't be worth half a mouthful of food.

Currently, the capacity of the Condensation Bead Space was limited. She refused to take large, useless items, instead storing only the herbs, fabrics, and other essentials into a single bead.

After appearing in the adjacent warehouse, she looked at the piles of food and supplies before her, and her furrowed brows finally relaxed.

This place had everything: rice, flour, beans, and soy milk. Bags of rice, flour, and beans were lined up against the walls; a rough count suggested there were sixty or seventy bags. Even with moderate rationing, this would be enough to feed her family of five for over half a year.

There was plenty of pork and mutton. Likely due to the Princess's grand visit, there was not only enough to host the Princess but also to cater to the large appetites of her guards.

Regardless of the reason, it was great.

The ten or so freshly slaughtered pigs and sheep had been cleaned and placed in baskets, totaling over a thousand catties of meat—enough to feed five people for a long time.

There weren't many vegetables or fruits, probably because they were difficult to store.

Three large baskets of vegetables, two baskets of melons, half a basket of apples, and a basket of oranges—Xin Nian accepted them all with a smile.

Once she finished clearing out this small warehouse, one Condensation Bead would be basically full.

Since the place of exile was the frigid far north, it would surely be bitterly cold. Xin Nian thought that while she could still acquire more Condensation Beads, she should pack more bedding, blankets, and similar items.

Her efforts were rewarded. As Xin Nian moved toward the West Courtyard, she finally found two more warehouses.

The bedding, covers, sheets, mats, and blankets inside all looked brand new. Without any psychological hesitation, Xin Nian began to pack, pack, pack.

After loading an entire warehouse of stock into a bead, Xin Nian suddenly shook her head, feeling a sudden, rapid surge of energy circulating through her body.

A spark instantly flashed in her eyes. As an endless stream of energy entered her body, her superpower unconsciously broke through the Level 3 barrier.

Almost simultaneously, guided by an intuition and her original memories, Xin Nian tore open an interdimensional space.

A corner of a static spatial warehouse suddenly appeared before her eyes.

How wonderful. After two lifetimes, the spatial supplies she had originally preserved were actually still there.

It seemed she could only access certain areas for now, but even this was excellent; it meant there was real hope of recovering all the assets she had stored before.

As a peak Level 9 spatial ability user, her massive space was almost beyond anyone's imagination.

Just in terms of "Human Civilization Seed Boxes," she currently had thirteen stored in her space.

The space was divided into seven major sectors. She took a quick look and saw that the area she could currently access appeared to be the daily necessities sector.

She had previously categorized all these supplies; the brand-new, unopened goods were lined up in neat rows.

Used items, semi-new items, and things that could still be used later were piled in the front.

The vast area spanned over a thousand square meters, yet this section of supplies was merely the smallest part of her spatial sectors.

The food sector, the armory, and the medicinal herb and finished medicine sectors were all more than three times larger than the daily necessities sector.

Not to mention the Seed Boxes. Back then, when the shattered human civilization had begun to rebuild and rapidly modernize, she and her brother had traveled between several major bases in the central and surrounding regions, acting as human storage tools for supplies.

There had originally been hundreds of Seed Boxes in her space, containing everything: species, medicinal seeds, livestock, machinery, books, scientific research materials, and the remnants of ancient human civilization. Most had been distributed to the various bases.

The remaining thirteen Seed Boxes were meant to be temporarily stored with her.

Most were duplicate medicinal seeds, grain seeds, egg incubators, specimens, books, and the like.

At that time, the bases were developing rapidly and had enough seeds; the rest was left for her to preserve, just in case something happened and humanity needed to rise again.

Who would have thought... her entire family would be wiped out.

Fortunately, before she died, she had led her team to kill that hideous monster. Once things got back on track and the original civilization was recovered, the bases would only continue to prosper.

Thinking about it now, those base commanders would surely be weeping over her memorial tablet. It was quite a poignant thought...

Had she known, she should have stored the remaining Human Civilization Seed Boxes in a warehouse first.

Who could have predicted that a young Level 9 powerhouse would just drop dead? The more Xin Nian thought about it, the angrier she got, and she waved her hand to close the daily necessities sector.

Still, this was an unexpected windfall.

Since a portion of her massive space had returned, she... following the philosophy of "since I'm already here, I might as well take it all," Xin Nian doubled back to the original two warehouses and swept up all the decorative, useless items: screens, gold, silver, jade, spices, calligraphy, and paintings.

Collecting and storing supplies was also a way to train her spatial ability. She had to collect more; only by collecting more could her ability level up quickly.

Although her thousand-square-meter living area didn't have much remaining floor space, it didn't matter—she could just keep stacking things upward.

It didn't matter if she built a mountain of stuff; the vertical expansion of the space was unlimited. She could organize it slowly when she had time later.

Now that she had ascended to Level 3, the Condensation Bead Space had likely expanded significantly as well, but she had no time to dwell on it now. She needed to collect, collect, collect, and look through everything carefully later.

After finishing the backyard, she found a small warehouse specifically for cotton and furs and took it all.

In this era, the poor survived the winter by stuffing willow catkins and reed fluff into their hemp clothes to stay warm. Things like cotton, feathers, and animal pelts were luxuries reserved for the nobility.

The Princess's several sable cloaks were worth a fortune each—enough to sustain an ordinary family for several lifetimes.

Xin Nian wasn't about to be polite; everything she saw was hers.

Now that she had the space to store them, there was no need to be modest.

Like a whirlwind, she scavenged every single room. If time hadn't been limited, she would have even pried up the floor tiles to see what was underneath.

In the garden, many plants and trees were uprooted and taken away.

In the kitchen, not a single drop of oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, or tea was spared.