The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

This chapter is a special update sponsored by "Little Ruizi's Kitchen."
Discover hidden content at empire

————

Liszt planned to settle all the Abandoned Cordyceps in Mushroom Town where there had already been plans to build mushroom sheds over ten thousand acres. Now it was just the right place to settle the new Abandoned Cordyceps.

Regrettably, there were only ten serfs for each type of Abandoned Cordyceps, and it wouldn't be easy to train other serfs to cultivate them in a short period of time.

After all, each island had different hydrology and climate, which meant the planting techniques had to be adjusted accordingly.

Within about a year, these five types of Abandoned Cordyceps would not be of much use. However, Liszt could afford to wait, as he was still young, just eighteen years old.

For the following period, he supervised the newly arrived fifty serfs in the construction of the Abandoned Cordyceps sheds—yet, after assessing the environment of Mushroom Town, twenty serfs shook their heads, only those who knew how to cultivate Golden Cordyceps, Monkey Head Mushrooms, and Horse Bladder Fungus thought the environment in Mushroom Town was suitable.

The serf who cultivated Blue Pine Mushrooms said, "Lord Landlord, Blue Pine Mushrooms need dark and rotting forest land for cultivation. Mushroom Town lacks trees, making it hard to grow Blue Pine Mushrooms."

The serf who cultivated Black Truffles likewise said, "Lord Landlord, Black Truffles need a large number of dead trees, preferably pine trees, and they should not be too close to the sea, otherwise the quality will be poor."

"Then you survey Black Horse Island and select an appropriate place for planting, ask Consultant Goltai for whatever you lack directly," Liszt replied.

Liszt had always taken a high-level approach, providing direction and leaving the rest to his subordinates to execute.

When dealing with estate matters, it was nothing more than holding a meeting and making decisions that had been repeated time and again—"You must attach great importance to this," "Goltai, I leave this in your hands," "Execute it as soon as possible," "This is a key industry of the estate, not to be overlooked," "There will be rewards for good work."

To put it simply, it was all about saying the right things.

Fortunately, although he liked to replace decision-making with the right things, he never interfered in the specific tasks. For instance, the cultivation of the Abandoned Cordyceps was handed over to Goltai, and he would only inquire about the progress, without strong interference in how to plant them.

However, in recent times,

There were still many problems in the estate, gradually entangling him.

Administrative Officer Isaiah of Fresh Flower Town kept complaining, "My lord, Fresh Flower Town is severely short of serfs; we can no longer draw any more from Black Horse Island."

"Have a cup of tea to cool down," Liszt motioned for the servant to brew a cup of green tea for him, "There will be serfs. I've already had Levis help me look for new ones. A new batch of three thousand serfs is coming soon. Besides, when the Pioneer Mandate commences again this year, I will continue to gather twenty thousand more serfs to bring back."

Isaiah bargained, "Then you must allocate these three thousand serfs to Fresh Flower Town, my lord. Fresh Flower Town can make do with fewer serfs at the end of the year."

"Rest assured, you will not lack serfs; what you need to do now is to soothe the public sentiment in the estate, make the serfs loyal to the estate, and prevent any disturbances when the new serfs arrive," Liszt assured.

"Yes, my lord. Isaiah will definitely tightly control the public opinion and sentiment within the estate, step up the propaganda, and ensure the serfs quickly become loyal, without affecting the integration of the new serfs!" Isaiah responded.

No sooner had Liszt appeased Isaiah,

Administrative Officer Blair of the port town came asking urgently, "My lord, we are short of people. The construction of the town hall has been stalled for a week due to a lack of workers! Consultant Goltai has also reassigned a group of serfs to cultivate Abandoned Cordyceps, and if this continues, there will be no one to maintain the operation of the town!"

"Stay calm and have patience, Blair. Here, have a cup of tea to calm down," Liszt let the servant brew another cup of green tea for Blair.

Serving green tea had become his trademark, gradually guiding the trend of drinking green tea. After a moment, he sent Blair away with the same reasoning he used before.

Finally, Liszt had a moment of peace.

"I didn't expect that nearly twenty thousand serfs transported last year, compounded with an additional purchase of five thousand serfs at intervals, would still fall short of fulfilling the needs of the territory's development," he found himself nearly fuming. The trade in serfs he had been conducting in partnership with Levis had never ceased, and yet there was still a shortage of labor.

During the period of the Pioneer Mandate, the price of serfs was low, and he bought them in large quantities.

In times of peace, not only was the cost of serfs high, but they were often old, weak, sick or disabled, and so he continued to purchase them in smaller batches.

Other territories did not have as many industries and therefore did not require as many serfs; they could develop methodically. On Liszt's territory, industries surged continuously, with each one requiring a large number of serfs to operate. Thus, serfs were always in short supply and he had never had a surplus.

"I hope to quickly develop magic plants to lessen the dependence on serfs... Engaging in serf trade over the long term doesn't feel right," he sighed quietly to himself.

Behind each shipload of serfs lingered the souls of the wronged.

He could easily integrate into the system of the nobility, be corrupted by the luxurious noble life, but the remnants of goodness in his heart still remained. He wanted to convince himself—he was a transmigrator, and the humans here were not his kin but simply beings from a Different World. Yet, facing each living person, how could he remain indifferent?

He drained the cup of green tea in one gulp.

He made a clear decision, "I can't stop developing my territory, the only thing I can do is to ensure the safety of the serf trade and the happiness of the serfs on my lands... Starting tomorrow, I will reduce taxes and raise the basic wage of the territory, from two copper coins a day to three copper coins."

This was the second time he had raised the wage standard; during the festival period, he had increased it from one copper coin to two.

"With so many industries, my businesses can support the territory; there's no need to exploit my people,"

...

The distress of being understaffed was difficult to alleviate, and bad news came one after another.

This time, the bad news was related to the research of natural magic by Ach—the systematic verification of the Sun Script by Ach had allowed for the reading of a great deal of Sun Script—translated out by her was a segment in "Druid Essentials - Magic Bean Planting" detailing magic beans.

Essentially, it takes ten years for a magic bean to grow into a large tree. The yield for the first ten years was very low, with a gradual increase over the next ten years, and the peak yield occurring after forty years, when each tree could produce up to fifty thousand jin (25 metric tons) of magic beans per year.

"Each tree yielding fifty thousand jin a year is indeed impressive,"

Liszt clicked his tongue, "But why does it take ten years to bear fruit, and twenty years for the yield to increase? Why only after forty years does it reach an annual yield of fifty thousand jin?"

Forty years later, Liszt would be fifty-eight years old, by which time, by his own estimation, he would have likely unified the continent.

What use would he then have for magic beans?

Ach then deciphered "Advanced Druid Essentials - Transforming Tree Cultivation" which likewise recorded the growth cycle of the Transforming Tree. Surprisingly, it took a hundred years for a tree to grow and mature to the point where it could be used for building something like the Sky Ship Dragon Bone. Even a Transforming Tree as thick as a wrist took twenty years to grow to full size.

"Twenty years, wrist-thickness, barely enough to make a cart... do I need such Transforming Trees?" Liszt was utterly defeated by this news.

For a moment, he lost interest in all magic plants.

However, he still took ten minutes to collect himself, then left the matters of natural magic and magic plants to Ach. Once Ach had results, those would be passed to Chris for implementation—magic plants that mature in ten years and materialize in a hundred years were treasures better left for future generations.

The disheartened Liszt, a few days later, still received some good news.

Working together, Magicians Chris and Granney finally made thorough research of the Golden Pearls produced by the Golden-Lipped Clams. Using the Golden Pearls, they created a piece of Magic Equipment that could "cool,"—Golden-Lipped Clams were Water Attribute Sea Monsters, and their pearls were also of the Water Attribute, but they could generate an ice attribute effect.

Each Golden Pearl was a magical air conditioner, cooling only, without heating capability.