The green surge was overwhelming, filling the valley.

The wild grasses grew wildly upwards. They overran the road surface, covered houses, and absorbed streams. In an instant, they surpassed human height; in the next moment, roots climbed higher, and in yet another moment, more plants spontaneously sprouted.

In a blink of an eye, the small village looked just like those abandoned villages Garrett had seen in his past life, left only with houses after the villagers had moved away.

From afar, the cries and shouts of the villagers came with the wind.

To Garrett, this green storm felt like it lasted a thousand years and yet also seemed to last only a moment. After a long while, he lay back, spreading his arms and legs, lying on the grass. His thin clothes were completely soaked with sweat.

He lay with his eyes closed for a long time, finally mustering a bit of energy to look up at the grey clouds above:

"Teacher, this is all I can do—"

Repairing soil pollution is an extremely difficult and prolonged process. As far as Garrett knew, the methods used in his past life, though universally expensive and slow to take effect...

And most of them, he couldn’t do. For example, soil replacement wasn’t feasible as there wasn’t enough soil available;

Leaching just washed the surface heavy metals down into the groundwater, creating further pollution;

Electrokinetic remediation required a large amount of electrolyte solution, which Garrett couldn’t produce, and he wasn’t sure about the voltage required, nor could he generate electricity with his hands like his teacher;

Stabilization and solidification involved adding chemicals to the soil, and frankly, he only had a vague idea about what chemicals to use, so, goodbye.

Only phytoremediation seemed feasible. As a caster of natural magic, he could manage to foster the growth of wild grass.

He lay still while Elder Elwin wandered through the grass, identifying each plant. For each plant identified, he’d chat with Appa, then move to the next plant and chat again...

Eventually, with Appa’s help, Elder Elwin brought over a plant about a foot tall with small white flowers. Ah, this one consumes less divine magic and accumulates pollutants particularly well—

Mainly because Appa said, "It smells particularly strong." He brought it over to Garrett and began instructing his student:

"Ah, this round-leaved mustard absorbs less divine magic and accumulates pollutants well. Plus, it can grow for many years; grow a crop, cut it, and grow another... Garrett, remember this, next time you come to remediate pollution from lead and zinc mines, use this one; its brothers and sisters can be used too..."

Garrett painfully rolled over on the ground, looked up into the bushes, and groaned in agony.

These things, they recognize me, but I don’t recognize them, what to do?

But he still had to remember. Phytoremediation wasn’t going to be effective overnight. It wasn’t like these plants could just grow once and pull all the heavy metals out of the soil.

It would take many springs and autumns, the plants growing over and over, enriching with heavy metals, being harvested and treated, to gradually reduce the metals in the soil. This spellcasting could only reduce a little bit.

"Garrett, what do we do with these grasses?"

Garrett glanced at the newly sprouted grass covering the hills and really wanted to hold his head and groan. No need to have studied soil remediation to know, these grasses can’t just be left to wither and rot on the spot; the heavy metals come from the soil and would return to it.

But, should he kill all this grass?

"Uh, theoretically, we should collect them all, carbonize them, and then extract the metals... Dehydration spell might work, but..."

It’s not that it can’t be done, but having just brought them to life, to then kill them with magic, the mere thought made Garrett’s stomach ache.

And more difficulties were on the way. From afar, the miners’ and villagers’ clamoring and crying spread along the road:

"Lord priests! Our fields, our fields, are all covered with weeds..."

"Lord priests, the road down from the mining area is all covered with weeds, the ore can’t even be transported..."

Oh.

Let it be covered then.

After all, the crops grown on this land, the vegetables, everything produced, were inedible; eating them would continue the accumulation of heavy metals. As for the mining area’s roads, just mow the grass...

Mow the grass...

Garrett casually took out a gold coin. After a thought, he put it back and took out two silver coins:

"Here, I’ll pay you to cut the grass. For the grass in this valley, cut a load for 2

copper coins, five loads for a silver coin. Once it’s all cut, the money earned will be enough for you to buy a year’s worth of food. How about that?"

Two copper coins could buy a pound of flour or a well-cooked loaf of bread. If used to buy unground wheat, they could get even more. A strong laborer could easily cut several loads of grass a day.

Garrett cheerfully crossed his arms.

Let others cut; I only handle the carbonization—or I could just seal the furnace and burn it all directly. Ah, a gentleman stays away from the kitchen, as long as I’m not the one doing the killing, then it’s not me doing the killing...

With a wave of his hand, the entire hillside was covered in weeds. With the amount provided, giving enough money for a year’s food was no problem at all.

Elder Elwin chuckled and added:

"We’ll pay cash for the grass cut today, and for the next few days, I’ll have a priest of the God of Nature come over, count the piles of grass, and pay for them. Is that okay?"

That’s more than okay! The priests of the God of Nature always had a good reputation among the poor; they were in charge of disbursing the money, and no one worried about them embezzling!

The villagers thanked them profusely and returned home. Soon, cheers erupted, and any villager who had the spare time and ability to move surged forth.

If cutting grass didn’t work, they could still pull it!

Elder Elwin chuckled and nodded at his disciple. Doing a good job by ruining their fields was actually a blessing in disguise!

To provide money, Garrett stayed in the village for another night. Men and women, old and young, including the miners, dropped their tasks and worked vigorously.

By the time it was pitch black, the valley was bald over a large area, and at the entrance of the village, piles of weeds were stacked so high they were almost impassable. And Garrett had distributed dozens of silver coins!

There was money now!

Money to buy food!

This winter, and next spring, they wouldn’t go hungry!

After a few more days of hard work, if they cleaned out the entire valley, they could save enough to make a few pieces of clothing, perhaps even fix a leaky roof!

Cheers rose and fell. Garrett walked slowly across the threshing ground, casually casting spells:

Dehydration spell!

Dehydration spell!

Dehydration spell!

"Right, do me a favor and sweep up all this carbon ash!"

The villagers rushed out eagerly. Elder Elwin watched closely:

"What do you need these for?"

"To take back for refining!" Garrett replied righteously:

"About the toxicity of cadmium to the human body, soil pollution, and what to do about it, it’s good for experiments and publishing articles! I’ve spent so much money, I’ve got to try to earn some back!"

However, for the villagers, what experiments, what publishing articles, what rewards from the Magic Council after publishing articles, they didn’t understand. What they saw was Garrett and his group working hard for the people here;

Treating everyone individually;

To repair the water and soil here, they launched a large-scale spell, fostering the growth of the entire valley’s plants;

Worried they wouldn’t have food for the winter, using grass cutting as an excuse for employment, giving them money...

What good people!

The priests of the Church of Nature, each and every one, were extremely good people!

Since they were good people helping them, the villagers naturally wanted to express their gratitude. It was rare for these priests to stay another night, so whatever good things they had, they brought them all out!

That night, under the dim oil lamp, Garrett saw wooden bowls, dishes, basins, with seven or eight dishes piled high on the table. There were bright green wild vegetables, seemingly just blanched without a speck of oil or salt;

There were extremely suspicious-looking dried meats, probably smoked, with an estimated terrifyingly high content of carcinogens;

There were fish that seemed to have been caught that afternoon. Garrett didn’t even need to dissect them to see their bent spines and incomplete ossification, clearly showing "I’ve accumulated who knows how many times the cadmium, I’m already extremely ill"...

Could these be eaten?

Garrett remembered that heavy metal pollution in animals, compared to in plants, seemed to accumulate exponentially... How many times was it again? To the power of three, four, or five?

Eating them himself was a bit difficult; giving them to the villagers to eat, these items had a large accumulation of toxins! It felt like no matter what, his conscience would hurt...

He glanced at Elder Elwin, who was already eating without a change in expression, obviously used to accepting the villagers’ thanks;

Looking at Serraina, she looked bored and simply stepped outside, and the villagers, although

disappointed, weren’t surprised, obviously thinking "it’s normal for the young lady to be picky";

Then looking at Appa, who had already started to bury his head in eating grass, while emitting a gentle glow, clearly casting detoxification spells on himself.

You, you’re fierce!

Alright, alright, cadmium accumulates mainly in the liver, kidneys, and bones, and if eating fish, those parts are anyway not eaten, and the accumulation of toxins in the muscles is relatively less...

Besides, there’s detoxification magic!

Eat!

Garrett forced himself to fill his stomach. By the next day, he was thankful for his decision:

The villagers’ food was hard to swallow, but the lord’s banquet was even harder to swallow!

"So this time it’s completely cured, right? No more strange diseases?"

Lord Joane of the city expressed his gratitude, raising his glass and asking earnestly. Garrett looked at the veal, foie gras, and pan-fried cod in front of him and instantly lost his appetite.

"There will be more. There definitely will be. Five years, ten years, fifteen years... As long as that lead and zinc mine keeps operating, as long as that workshop keeps running, toxins will continue to accumulate in the soil and water sources, and strange diseases will definitely reoccur."

He earnestly looked at the lord:

"Can that workshop strengthen its protections a bit, not to dump wastewater directly into the soil?"

"How could that be possible!"

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