The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

With the Mangrove Number and Pearl being repaired and officially joining the naval fleet, along with the Thorn Number, these three twin-masted cargo sailboats were now sufficient to meet the shipping requirements between Black Horse Island and Fresh Flower Town.

Thus, the Fresh Flower Vessel became the exclusive sea vessel for Liszt and the Territory Officers to travel between the islands, which would dock at Fresh Flower Port when not in use.

When needed, it could set sail immediately without having to wait for the ships to return.

Upon arriving at Black Horse Island, the port town didn’t show much change, the serfs had all been arranged to go and clear fields for farming, as well as to excavate underground volcanic glass—Liszt had required that before all the farmlands on Black Horse Island had been cleared, the extraction of volcanic glass must be completed.

Otherwise, once the fields were tilled and sown with crops, it would be difficult to turn the soil over for mining again.

In the rubber garden, row upon row of new tender rubber tree saplings were thriving, centered on the Rubber Tree Cordyceps. These were all new varieties continuously propagated by the cordyceps, and the Rubber Tree Cordyceps were still persistently breeding new rubber tree saplings, showing no signs of slowing down.

"Is it all set to propagate over a hundred acres of rubber garden saplings at one go?" Liszt looked at the current rubber garden with satisfaction.

It felt as if the land wasn’t planted with rubber trees, but with fields of gold.

After inspecting the rubber garden, he quickly headed to the pasture—recently named the Black Horse Ranch. In Black Horse Ranch, Liszt changed mounts to Lightning and galloped towards the Burial Ground. At this time, the Burial Ground was heaped with a great amount of volcanic glass around the five revived Fire Dragon Bones.

All of them were volcanic glass that had not released Fire Dragon Magic Power.

"After the Earl’s birthday is over, I must collect the Fire Dragon Magic Power here, and store all of it for any potential necessities," he thought.

Now was not the time for this task.

After touching the Fire Dragon Bones, which seemed unchanged, he still had no clear idea what these five bones were brewing, so he could only leave first.

He continued towards the northern part of the island to inspect the green tea garden—since the Green Tea Bug was introduced, the process of propagating green tea trees became simpler. Direct cuttings of the green tea tree branches were planted in the ground, and influenced by the Green Tea Bug Cordyceps, these cuttings easily sprouted and grew into new green tea trees.

The reason the world’s agriculture was still using the primitive slash-and-burn method was due to Elf Bugs restricting human exploration of farming ideas—everyone was accustomed to planting crops rudely under the influence of cordyceps, and for landlords and serfs alike, lands without cordyceps were barren wastelands.

Liszt was determined to change all that.

Yet he would not be inventing fertilizers; at most he might use some organic fertilizer which resulted in him being nicknamed "Baron Feces-Vegetable."

"I have absolutely no clue how to invent fertilizer, only how to compost, adding a bit of nutrients to the farmland; I know even less about how to create pesticides, and if the crops get sick, I can only wait for them to die. However, I should not overlook another aspect—irrigation," he thought while looking at the small river flowing beside the green tea garden.

On Earth, China once experienced a natural disaster period where many people starved to death, but as efforts were concentrated on researching fertilizers and pesticides and constructing extensive irrigation systems, food production increased year by year. Coupled with the introduction of high-quality seeds from abroad, and improvements to seeds by agricultural experts like Li Zhen Sheng, the food and warmth crisis was finally overcome.

Fertilizer, pesticides, irrigation, seeds—in Liszt’s view, these were the four means representing a rich harvest.

Now with no possibility for fertilizer or pesticides, seed improvement completely relied on Elves; the only thing left that his territory could achieve was probably the irrigation works.

"Once the Pioneer Mandate arrives, and a new batch of serfs is transported back to Black Horse Island, the first thing to do is to commence comprehensive irrigation to make rational use of the water resources on Black Horse Island," he planned.

With that, another item entered his agenda.

Indeed, there were so many projects he needed to push forward vigorously; nearly every industry required a ton of effort to complete. Alas, he dabbled in each industry but did not want to give up and had no manpower to develop further, so he had to struggle to keep them barely alive.

If serfs were able to move freely, he believed high welfare would attract a large number of migrants to settle.

However, serfs were the private property of the landlords and forbidden to move, while those freemen often did not regard agriculture as work; they were mostly craftsmen.

In many places, craftsmen lacked neither food nor drink.

They would not be attracted to Fresh Flower Town.

...

At Black Horse Island, he did not stay the night. That very night, he boarded the Fresh Flower Vessel to return to Fresh Flower Town. This was because the next day was the Earl’s birthday, and he must hurry to Tulip Castle to celebrate his father’s birthday.

Just as he was preparing to listen to the waves and sleep at sea for the night.

Suddenly, he heard a familiar horn sound—it was the Sea Sprite Ake calling him. Based on the tone and length of the horn sound, Liszt understood that Ake had some good news to share with him.

Under the current circumstances, of course, they could not meet.

So he immediately picked up the horn and blew his response—meet tomorrow morning at the Sea View Villa.

Sailing through the night.

He managed to return to Fresh Flower Port just before dawn, and without going back to the castle, Liszt went straight to the Sea View Villa. There he saw that Ake had already been waiting inside the villa—her swimming speed was so fast that she had returned here to rest for the night.

"Brother, you’re back! Ake has wonderful things to share with you," she said.

"What kind of wonderful things? Did you catch another pearl?" he asked.

"No, not this time," Ake waved her hand from downstairs. Soon, the Mangrove Minor Elf Nami flew up, holding a plump Elf Bug in her arms.

And then stuffed the Elf Bug into Liszt’s hands.

Continue your journey on empire

"Chirp,"

the Elf Bug tilted its head, looking at Liszt’s pocket.

Seeing the Elf Bug, Liszt’s eyes lit up and he immediately took out a peanut nougat candy and handed it to Nami.

"Chirp, chirp," n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Nami, holding the peanut nougat candy, happily flew to one side to savor her treat.

As he played with the somewhat nervous and anxious dark green Elf Bug, Liszt asked with surprise, "Ake, what is this Elf Bug?"

"It’s a kind of plant that’s very long, right around the Mangrove Forest on Mangrove Island, covering a vast area. Look, brother, I even brought one back," she said, gesturing with her hands to bind a dark green, slightly yellowing long strip-shaped plant with water and sending it into Liszt’s hands.

Recognizing the familiar shape,

Liszt immediately realized, "This is kelp, you actually found a Kelp Elf Bug? Can the ocean also nurture Elf Bugs? Have you bonded with it already?"

"Um, I originally planned to catch it for you to bond with, brother, but it sneakily bit Ake, so Ake bonded with it," she replied.

"No matter, you bonding with it or me bonding with it makes no difference." Even the Sea Sprite Ake was considered Liszt’s private property, so naturally, he didn’t mind who bonded with the Kelp Elf Bug.

He was just very surprised.

Ocean plants could also give birth to Elf Bugs, which meant that this Kelp Bug lived in the ocean. After a closer inspection, he indeed noticed the Kelp Bug’s differences, spotting two gill-like structures at the neck, probably the means by which it survived in the sea.

Indeed, elves are full of wonders.

Liszt passed the Kelp Bug back to Ake to put away, and with a painful yet joyful thought he mused, "Kelp is delicious food, and now, my territory will have another specialty... So far, no kelp has been found in the waters surrounding Coral Island. It’s just a shame that for now we must let the kelp grow and perish naturally."

There’s really a shortage of people.