The Defeated Dragon

If magic beasts could be trained, then a few monkeys could naturally also be trained. To knights who cultivated qi, there was no difference between beasts and kittens or puppies.

However, there were currently only five people, Liszt, Marcus, Gort, Isaiah, and Blair, who cultivated qi in the Flower Town.

Each one had their own responsibilities, and could not also act as beast tamers.

“It seems like it is time to pick a few physically strong youngsters from among the commoners and teach them qi and let them become my retainer knights.”

As long as Liszt could afford to raise retainer knights, then he could even establish an order of knights.

However, with the castle's financial and material constraints, he could at most raise about a dozen retainer knights, forming a knight squad. He had planed this since a while ago. The knight squad's greatest use would be to suppress the Thorns Ridge's magic beasts. The Thorns Ridge would be incorporated into the Flower Town and become his territory.

“Once the oyster settlement's output is stabilized and the castle's tax revenue starts to stabilize, that will be the right time to immediately start to train retainer knights.”

The potential of Karl Eisenhammer and the other three retainer knights without qi was already wasted, there was no value in nurturing them. The new retainer knight, on the other hand, would be nurtured from young. They would cultivate qi and become genuine knights.

While cooling off in the shade, Liszt was contemplating his grand development plans.

Beside him, Gort could not help but wipe the perspiration off his face with a handkerchief. Always wearing an aristocratic three-piece-suit, he felt quite hot: “Liszt, the inspection of the fishermen had already been concluded, everything is progressing smoothly. Should we not go back?”

Liszt also felt quite hot.

Today's weather was really not appropriate to go out, so he nodded in acknowledgement: “May as well return.” He was not a spoiled brat, but he was also not against taking it easy. As the lord, he had authority over everything in his territory. There was no need for him to feign ‘dedication' or feign being ‘in touch with the people'.

Only bloodline and qi were the foundation of aristocracy.

On the way back, Liszt casually inspected the construction of the roads of the settlements. Although there was quite a lot of sand, but it was quite difficult to transport it. The commoners could only use buckets or basins to transport the sand, which was not efficient.

But anyway, the roads were taking form.

When pa.s.sing by the flower farm, a stench coming from the distance suddenly floated over and a.s.saulted Liszt's nose, nearly making him vomit.

Firedragon beneath him was sneezing incessantly, looking like it also could not stand it.

“Ah, so smelly! What is this stench?!”

“Who is responsible for this strange odor?”

The few retainer knights covered their noses, forcing themselves not to vomit.

“Who is drawing feces from their toilets?” Liszt recalled that when he was little, he had drawn feces in the village, though the smell was not as intense as the one being spread right now. He quickly reacted, “The Flower Town has no toilets nor septic tanks, and drawing feces should not have such a smell.”

Consequently, he held his nose, saying to the retainer knights. “Karl, the four of you go look for the place from where the smell is coming.”

Before long, Karl returned with a stalk of gra.s.s in his hand: “Sir, the cause has been discovered.”

He raised the stalk of gra.s.s in his hand: “It is this gra.s.s. A few children were fooling around, pulling out a lot of this gra.s.s from a tract of uncultivated land. Who could have thought that it would produce such a nauseating stench.”

When the other was speaking, a more concentrated stench a.s.saulted Liszt nose. The source was the stalk of gra.s.s in Karl's hand.

Liszt endured the stench, yet his eyes glimmered: “Is the tract of gra.s.s big?”

“It is.”

“Good, very good! Karl, go immediately inform Teacher Gort to protect the tract of gra.s.s! No one is allowed near the tract of gra.s.s, let alone damaging it!”

Although doubtful, but the retainer knight still accepted the order and went away.

Liszt was in a good mood after giving his order.

The gentleman's valet, Thomas, could not help but ask: “Master, why are you happy because of such smelly gra.s.s?”

“You don't understand, but this gra.s.s has great use.”

He took a cold water bath when he returned to the castle. Simultaneously, he checked the smoke Serpentines to see whether the mission was updated. He previously believed that he had to switch the equipment of all the fishermen to complete the mission. Yet now, the mission reward ‘a large tract of smoke gra.s.s' was clearly already in his possession, indicating that the mission had already been completed.

Sure enough, the Serpentines were updated once the smoke appeared: “Mission completed. Reward: a large tract of smoke gra.s.s.”

A moment later, the smoke Serpentines had changed into: “Mission: the newly cleared maize field has already been sown. The maize sprite worm, a courageous little fellow, is itching to breath fresh air. Please settle down the maize sprite worm's worm stalk. Reward: forgotten qi secret skill.”

“Forgotten qi secret skill? It's not a qi secret manual, but a qi secret skill. Does it mean that the reward is just a single special move?” Guessed Liszt.

Secret manuals included qi refinement and operation methods as well as qi moves.

Qi secret skills were fairly formidable and over-the-top moves, with some being similar to ultimate meanings of secret manuals, also known as special moves.

However, due to being cryptic, hidden inheritances, or very difficult to learn, it was very difficult for lesser aristocrats to preserve and pa.s.s on secret skills through generations.

The Tulip Family did not pa.s.s on secret skills, while Red Crab Island's marquis family's abrupt rise was not too long ago and it still had no secret skills.

Only old marquis families would have a section of a secret skill.

However, there was no denying that the value of secret skills was enormous. The ultimate meaning was the strongest move of each qi secret manual, yet was only limited to mid-ranked secret manuals or high-ranked secret manuals. Naturally, their might had restrictions. Secret skills, on the other hand, were different, their might rising with the rise of qi.

Liszt was very satisfied: “Not bad, not bad. Although I am not fond of fighting and killing, but with a secret skill, I can greatly increase my fighting strength and reduce the possibility of running into danger.”

“I just don't know what kind of qi secret skill it is going to be, but that's going to change soon.”

So far, there was no smoke mission with extremely difficult completion requirements. On the whole, the completion requirements encompa.s.sed day-to-day work that Liszt should do. This time's mission was no different. The reason why the maize field was cleared was to settle down the maize sprite worm's worm stalk. Regardless of the mission, Liszt would do it anyway.

Later, he thought of another question: “Is this mission still part of the invisible dragon chain mission?”

……

Three days later, the beachcombing of the oyster settlement's fishermen had been stabilized. Large quant.i.ties of seafood were harvested with each attempt.

As a subst.i.tute for the fishermen's requirement of bread and a means of minimizing the town's consumption of cereals, part of the caught seafood quickly joined the commoners' tables.

However, even more seafood had nowhere to be stored.

“Liszt, you must think of a way. There is too much seafood on the East Coast. The seafood caught by the fishermen that cannot be finished eaten will spoil.” Gort expressed his worry when he found Liszt

Liszt was quite speechless: “Since it cannot be finished eaten, then just think of ways to preserve the seafood as dry goods…. Now is not a good season to make dry goods, it is more suitable to wait until the end of summer and beginning of autumn… Stop catching too much seafood when not in dry goods season. Anyway, the seafood will not go anywhere.”

Without cold storage warehouses and without enough salt to pickle, making dry goods was the best way of storage.

Now that the weather was too hot, the dry goods would get easily spoiled. Therefore, catching less seafood, catching as much as was necessary for consumption, would be enough, not bringing about the overharvesting of the sea.

Next, Liszt's tone was a bit harsh, expressing his dissatisfaction: “Teacher Gort, I am the lord and you are the administrative official, I need you to manage the Flower Town in my stead instead of looking for the lord whenever something happens, understood?”

Gort smiled embarra.s.sedly: “I naturally understand. Liszt, please believe me when I say that I will not carelessly repeat this mistake.”