Zongman: I'm working hard to develop my daily life in the time-travel series

That's probably why they postponed their visit to Big Tree Village.

At this moment, the Demon King's representative, suppressing his fear, respectfully said:

"I am the Demon King's messenger, and I wish to meet with the representatives here."

He glanced at the high elves and angels wielding all sorts of magical weapons, and all he wanted to do was escape and resign.

Shi Yu stepped forward and smiled:

"I am."

He hasn't had such normal social interactions in a long time.

The Demon King's messenger stared at Shi Yu in surprise.

He then bowed and scraped obsequiously.

"Oh my, it's a pleasure to meet you! I've heard so much about you! I am Fensel, an emissary of the Demon King."

Shi Yu looked at Fensel with a strange expression. "Your Demon King hand has instantly lowered the prestige by more than one level."

Demon kings in every world are just a bunch of scoundrels, so why are you acting like a lackey in this one?

Fensel carefully displayed the various identification items and documents from the Demon King's subordinates, and eagerly pulled out a pile of gifts for establishing diplomatic relations.

Lulucy, Tia, and the others looked delighted.

As a person from "Leisurely Farm in Another World", the awe I feel for the Demon King's castle is subconscious.

The fact that the Demon King's castle, which they perceive as so powerful, is now trying to please their man gives them an overwhelming sense of security.

At this moment, they had no idea that with the upgrade of the Adventurer Card, their strength was already vastly different from what it used to be.

Originally only S-level (levels 70-80), they are now all super S-level beings at level 90. No matter which world they are in, they would be among the top tier of mortals.

Fensel rubbed his hands together and chuckled, "This is our Demon King's Castle as a token of our close relationship. We thank you, sir, for providing protection to our Demon King's Castle in the Forest of Death. The Demon King's intention is to have some friendly exchanges with us, preferably something like paying some taxes."

Shi Yu raised an eyebrow. Pay taxes?

He remembered that in the original story, it was the protagonist, Huo Le, who made a mistake and paid taxes to the Demon King's castle. Now, the Demon King's castle actually dared to ask him to pay taxes voluntarily, which made him impatient.

Seemingly sensing Shi Yu's unfriendly gaze,

Fensel hurriedly explained, "It's our Demon King's City that pays taxes to the Great Tree Village!"

Lulucy and the others were thrilled upon hearing this, and the high elves looked at Shi Yu with expressions that suggested they wanted to devour him.

These poor nomadic peoples, who wandered the Death Forest all day long, had never experienced such treatment.

Fensel, seeing Shi Yu deep in thought, gritted his teeth and extended five fingers, saying:

"Fifty percent! Our Demon King's Castle is willing to hand over fifty percent of its tax revenue to you, sir!"

This is the limit they can offer; any more would affect the operation of the Demon King's Castle, since the army needs maintenance and food, and officials need to be paid.

Shi Yu looked at the nervous Fensel and chuckled.

He knew the other person had misunderstood; he was simply a little taken aback.

Shi Yu shook his head, causing Fensel to show a sorrowful expression, just as he was preparing to return to the city to tell the Demon King this sad news.

Shi Yu held up one finger and smiled, "One percent is enough."

He didn't want to use a reign of terror as a diplomatic tool, as that would take away a lot of his enjoyment.

Unlike the protagonist Huo Le in 707 who pays 10% of the tax to the Demon King's Castle, Shi Yu's powerful strength allows him to collect 10% of the tax back and give it to the Great Tree Village.

"As for the taxes, let's use some of the Demon King's Castle's specialties to make up for them."

Shi Yu smiled at Fensel and said, "No need to pay."

Money was completely useless to Shi Yu. Gold coins might be universal, but they were utterly useless to Shi Yu, an alchemist.

"Huh?! Is it... okay?!"

Fensel looked at Shi Yu with excitement; he was already prepared to die and had no intention of going back unharmed.

After all, given the strength of the Great Tree Village, it would be much easier for them to destroy the Demon King's Castle and collect all the taxes.

Shi Yu nodded: "Just bring them over yourself every winter. You can also bring some novelties, or ask my villagers what they need, and we can exchange them then."

Although Big Tree Village is self-sufficient, it can only maintain a normal life. Once the survival crisis is over, it's time to improve the quality of life.

We can't rely on online marketplaces or generators to create everything ourselves.

"Yes, I understand! Let's do it this way!"

P.S. Sigh, new readership is dwindling, and we're almost at our reader limit.

Chapter 213 Visitors Arrive in droves, a long-awaited hot spring getaway

Within the Demon King's castle,

"Fensel, how's it going? Have they made any demands?"

"They were easier to talk to than I expected; they agreed to let us pay taxes!"

"Really!? Hmm... it doesn't mean I have to pay 90% upfront, does it?"

Under normal territory, if taxes are paid using harvested goods, paying 50-60% is reasonable, and in some harsher cases, it is even possible to have 90% taken away.

However, the expenses of the Demon King's Castle are relatively high, so they could barely squeeze out 5% to make offerings to Shi Yu.

However, Fensel excitedly held up one finger: "1%!"

"Huh??? 1%?!"

"That's right, 1%!"

Fensel puffed out his nose triumphantly, "And he even agreed to let us trade with them! I took a look, and the magical plants there are truly precious!"

"Hey!?"

"Really?! He clearly has the power to easily take down a flying dragon?"

"Does he have other plans behind the scenes?"

Several ministers of the Demon King's castle were discussing excitedly.

Fensel waved his hand dismissively:

"Impossible. That place is home to the true progenitors of vampires, annihilating angels, countless hell wolves and devil spiders, and high elves."

"And the one leading me was actually an Angel of Annihilation, which is even higher than the Angel of Annihilation! And there was also a Lich, the King of the Undead."

The Demon King's minister stared at Fensel in utter disbelief.

Although I knew that Big Tree Village was very strong, I didn't expect it to be this strong.

The minister who was the head of the Four Heavenly Kings swallowed hard.

"There's a giant demon spider there that can fight the Demon King of the previous generation to a standstill...? I'm resigning today!"

"Wait a minute! You're the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings, the boss here! Planning to run away? Huh!? Are you serious? Wait! Please, take me with you!"

The news of Fensel caused a stir in the Demon King's castle.

The supplies were delivered the very next day, before winter even arrived.

At the same time, a huge Western dragon, more than 30 meters long, also arrived.

“My name is Drem, and I am a true dragon.

The dragon spoke cautiously, "This is a small gift to mark our meeting. Please accept it."

A man serving Shi Yu respectfully handed him a large suitcase.

Shi Yu gestured for An to accept it, then looked at Dreem with some excitement.

This is a genuine 'evil dragon', unlike the Storm Dragon Thor and his companions; it's a creature of flesh and blood.

The Storm Dragon is essentially a genderless spiritual entity. Although it has transformed into Thor at this moment, Shi Yu still finds it difficult to accept psychologically.

But this dragon in front of us is different; it genuinely has a gender.

Of course, Shi Yu wasn't after the male, but rather his daughter and wife... well, forget about the wife, his daughter was a great beauty in human form.

Seeing that Shi Yu accepted the gifts, Dreem and his attendants breathed a sigh of relief. This was someone even the Demon King's castle had to submit to and pay tribute to.

The attendant hurriedly explained to Shi Yu:

"This is my master, Lord Derem. We live in the southern part of the Death Forest, on that mountain that you can see from here."

Shi Yu glanced at the mountains to the south, and could vaguely make out the outline of one mountain.

"Can you lift your head now?"

The dragon has been keeping its head down and hasn't dared to move since it appeared here.

He knew that the lines spoken by the master and servant had been memorized in advance, and it was truly astonishing that a dragon could be so cowardly.

"Ah, oh! Yes! Well then, that was very rude of me, Master, please raise your head."

The dragon blinked blankly:

"Nice to meet you. My name is Drem, and I am a true dragon."

A crow flew across the sky.

The butler explained somewhat awkwardly, "Well, the master isn't good at talking to people he's just met, so to prevent him from saying the wrong thing, I'm speaking on his behalf. If this causes any unpleasantness, we apologize in advance."

After saying that, he poked the dragon and said speechlessly, "Shrink! Shrink!"

The dragon shuddered and then, as if by magic, transformed into a frail-looking middle-aged man with a bang.

“My name is Drem, and I am a true dragon.”

The butler covered his eyes with his hands, speechless.

Shi Yu laughed heartily and invited Dreem to visit the village. Dealing with such silly people always made him feel better.

After several rounds of drinks,

Dreem, as if he were a completely different person, shouted loudly:

"The wine is delicious! The food is great! I'm not going back. I'm going to stay here and be a gatekeeper! ┗|｀O|┛ Aww~~!"

The attendant, his face dark with embarrassment, pulled at his master and tried to persuade him:

"No, we must protect the nest properly, otherwise we will offend people from all sides."

The attendant, looking apologetic, hurriedly dragged the drunken dragon away, fearing that his master would offend Shi Yu and be killed by a javelin.

Before leaving, the entourage left behind a large amount of jewelry and ornaments, as these dragons seemed to have a penchant for collecting such items.

In exchange, Shi Yu gave them a lot of drinks.

Diplomatic activity during this period seemed to have suddenly exploded.

After seeing off the Demon King's messenger and the dragon, the orcs from the neighboring village also came to Big Tree Village.

To please Shi Yu, they also brought quite a few animal-eared girls.

Judging from its ears and tail, it should be a canine-type beastman, not the same kind as the silly rabbit Shia.

Yu said that these guys were really savvy.

Due to population growth,

The high elves began a new round of expansion of Great Tree Village.

It must be said that the high elves like Lia have not lived for hundreds of years in vain, even though in terms of elven physiological age they are only equivalent to 18 or 9 years old.

However, the knowledge they have acquired over the past few centuries is enough to make them top performers in every aspect of life.

Construction work, farming, hunting in forests, and even mining and smelting.

There's nothing that Shi Yu can't do, and nothing that these high elves can't do.

Aside from their penchant for night raids, these elves have almost no flaws, and they're in a completely different league from the pretentious and sassy characters in some isekai anime.

The Oni maids were responsible for improving the living standards of Shi Yu, Lulu, and the others.

As full-time maids, they were perfect in cooking and cleaning. Even when Shi Yu grew otherworldly delicacies using the all-powerful farming tools, they could quickly master the cooking skills, which allowed Shi Yu to successfully enjoy the eight major cuisines in this backward primitive village era.

Lulucy, Tia, and Flora took on roles similar to their secretaries.