On Eileen's fifth day at Silver Sand Lake, Shane had already grown accustomed to her following him around like a little tail.
In the early morning, he squatted by the ditch in the northwest corner of the bean field to check the water level. Eileen squatted just three paces away, her pointed ears twitching slightly as if she were listening to something.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking at the soil.”
Eileen reached out, pinched a bit of wet soil from the edge of the ditch with her fingertips, and examined it closely under the sunlight. She then brought it to her nose to sniff it, and finally, her tongue darted out to touch it incredibly fast. Her movements were so swift that Shane was momentarily dazed.
“You taste soil too?”
“All of us Rangers do.”
Eileen stood up, patted her hands, and looked at Shane with bright, grayish-blue eyes. “When you dug this ditch, you made it slope downward, didn't you?”
Shane raised an eyebrow slightly. This wasn't some hidden secret; anyone with eyes could see it. However, he didn't understand why Eileen was bringing it up.
“At roughly a forty-five-degree angle, extending from the surface into the ground, sloping from the northwest toward the southeast.”
Eileen gestured as she spoke. “You intentionally dug the ditch deeper than that salt enrichment zone. This way, the excess salt in the groundwater will gather along the slope toward the ditch, and then you press the clean water back down through the deep well filtered with Moon Sand.”
“You even took water pressure into consideration.”
Shane looked at her. His face remained expressionless, but his heart stirred slightly.
This smooth-talking elf actually had some real skill; she had actually figured out his design.
“I've seen similar engineering works in the Empire.”
Eileen noticed the slight hint of surprise in his gaze, and the corners of her mouth curved up even higher. “However, back home, the ones who do this kind of work are the artisan elves. They use different methods, but the principles are the same. As for the Moon Sand you're using here...”
She tilted her head to look at the deep well in the distance, her pointed ears twitching. “To be honest, it's simpler and more effective than any project I've ever seen.”
Shane withdrew his gaze and continued checking the drainage of the ditch, though he didn't stop talking. “Does your Empire have issues with soil salinization too?”
“Of course.”
Eileen followed him with light steps. “The Golden Sea has it, and the elven forests do too. Forests age, you see. When a forest grows old, its root systems rot, the soil acidifies, the groundwater level rises, and salt accumulates on the surface just the same.”
“It's just that our approach is much gentler. We let strong lifeforce slowly decompose the dead wood, adjust the flow of groundwater, and plant specific types of ferns beneath the canopy layer to absorb the excess salt.”
“But you're using a completely different logic.”
Shane straightened up and finally looked her in the eye. “What logic?”
“Taking the initiative.”
Eileen came to a halt, leaning forward slightly with her hands clasped behind her back. Her pointed ears gleamed with a faint golden luster in the morning light. “You dig ditches, sink wells, and filter with Moon Sand. Every step you take is proactively changing the subterranean environment instead of waiting for the environment to recover on its own.”
“To be honest, I've never seen this kind of thinking in the Empire.”
She tilted her head, paused, and added, “Of course, I've never seen a necromancer who plants trees either.”
Shane was silent for a moment before asking, “I recall you saying a few days ago that the Empire also has necromancers?”
“We do.”
Eileen blinked. “But the necromancers in the Empire study the death process of the forest. To put it plainly, they research how to make dead wood decompose faster, allowing fallen trees to return to the soil more quickly.”
“After all, you human necromancers study corpses—you know, the kind that used to walk and jump around.”
“But our necromancers study trees—motionless trees.”
Her tone was light, but Shane could sense the underlying meaning. “So, using death magic to stimulate plant growth like you do is highly likely unheard of even to the necromancers of the Empire.”
“And maybe even...”
She paused, her grayish-blue eyes falling on his pale profile. “...you would be branded a heretic.”
The words were spoken very softly, yet her tone was exceptionally serious.
“What about you?”
Shane tilted his head to look at her.
“Me?”
Eileen returned to her usual grinning self, tapping her chin with a finger. “I'm a heretic among heretics, so I think what you're doing is absolutely brilliant.”
Then, she shifted the topic, dropping her playful expression for the first time.
“However, just planting like this won't cut it.”
She pointed toward the oasis in the distance, which had already begun to take shape. “Everything you're doing now—digging ditches, sinking wells, planting Red Willow and Suosuo—is laying the foundation for the soil. You've indeed done an excellent job. But if you don't keep moving forward, the upper limit of this oasis is already locked in.”
Shane raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, your current method of planting has solved the question of 'can they survive?' You've already achieved that.”
“They've survived, and across a very large area too. The coverage is decent, and they're growing well. But the next problem you need to solve is: 'can they survive on their own?'”
Eileen spoke fluently; she had clearly been observing closely over the past few days. “The root cause of salinization is excessive evaporation. Surface moisture continuously evaporates, drawing salt upward. Digging ditches and sinking wells only treats the symptoms. There is only one way to cure the root cause.”
She raised her hand and pointed toward the sky. “Block out the sun.”
“Tall arbor trees to form a continuous canopy of shade, reducing the evaporation of surface moisture.”
Shane remained silent, but his eyes flickered slightly.
In truth, he had been pondering this problem for a long time.
Of course he knew he needed to plant trees. Arbor trees were the key step to stabilizing a desert oasis. With shade, evaporation would decrease; with a canopy, the local microclimate could be altered; and with deep root systems, the groundwater level could be held more securely in place.
But the problem was, he didn't have any suitable tree species.
The existing Red Willow and Suosuo grew to a height of two or three meters at most, which didn't count as arbor trees.
And the tree species that could grow into towering giants either required massive amounts of water or simply couldn't survive in a desert environment.
“I know.”
Shane spoke in a flat tone. “I've been looking for suitable arbor tree species. I've already asked Isha to keep an eye out for them in Windrest City, but we haven't found any yet.”
Eileen didn't reply immediately upon hearing this.
She tilted her head, her pointed ears twitching slightly in the sunlight as if she were weighing something.
Then, she grinned.
“Actually, it doesn't have to be that troublesome.”
She turned around and gave a slight nod of her chin toward the pool. “Isn't there a ready-made one right over there?”
Shane followed her gaze. By the edge of the pool stood that crooked-neck tree he had seen on his very first day at Silver Sand Lake.
It was still crooked now, but it was far more lush than before.
Its branches stretched out, and its leaves were a deep, vibrant green, gleaming with a glossy sheen in the morning light.
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