The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Liszt planned to build a modern castle.

With rubber and ironwood, many plans could be realized—of course, there was no money to build a castle now, and he would have to live in a cash-strapped situation for a few days.

This did not hinder him from planning the location of the castle's construction, as well as its footprint, floor height, and other requirements.

An attached castle was generally the tallest building in a city. Fresh Flower Town's Nameless Castle only had two floors; most unnamed castles stood between two and three floors in height.

Named castles were mostly four floors high, and many viscounts and earls would build four-story castles. Beyond the four-story main body, there might be an even taller spire for vigilance and defense. Tulip Castle was a four-story castle, but it looked particularly majestic as it was built according to the mountain terrain.

Nobles generally chose steep and rugged terrains for their castles, easy to defend and hard to attack.

The most magnificent castle Liszt had ever seen was Long Taro Castle, which seemed to merge with the mountain range, a miracle of rock masonry five stories high.

"In the future, this Rocky Beach will be the site for the castle's construction; to the east and north, the castle's ancillary buildings will be constructed in succession; to the south, a stone road connecting to the port city will be built. And the planning of the port city, I hope, can be between that of a large city and a small one," he said.

By the way, Liszt also outlined his thoughts for his new city.

Typically, a landlord's city construction would develop organically, gradually accumulating population and slowly expanding in size. This led to cities appearing chaotic and filthy, with sewage and excrement flowing everywhere. Liszt did not wish his city to become another so-called excrement city.

Sewers, toilets, and septic tanks were essential facilities he required for building a new city and town.

Separating the commercial district, workshop area, and residential zone was another principle he advocated for city planning, as only such a city could be called the light of civilization.

...

Nighttime.

Liszt called forth the Smoke Mission, "The location for the new castle has now been decided, this place is definitely the right one."

Fate's threads moved, smoke twisted into trails like little snakes, forming a message in Serpent Script, "Complete the mission, reward: Advanced Dou Qi Manual 'Rising Sun Blaze'."

The Advanced Dou Qi Manual had arrived; it was probably being stored at Tulip Castle now.

He immediately turned his attention to the new mission.

"Mission: Crystal craftsman Brad is unemployed, and all the volcanic glass stocked in the town has been carved into vessels, leaving his crystal workshop completely idle. As a landlord, it is your responsibility to solve his employment issue. Reward: Mutated Variety Corn Grass."

"Mutated Variety Corn Grass?"

Corn Grass was currently being cultivated as fodder on a large scale, covering an area of 300 acres. Frequently harvested, it provided nutrition for the Black Blood Treasure Horses and Dragon Breed Cows.

Liszt thought to himself, "Could the mutated variety of Corn Grass develop towards a magic potion? Or toward… corn?"

Corn Grass is not corn.

Experience tales with empire

According to Earth's taxonomic classification, corn was domesticated from wild Corn Grass millennia ago by humans, and only in modern times has it turned into the grain corn with the big ears. This suggests that there is some connection between Corn Grass and corn ears, and in this world full of magic power, it is not impossible for Corn Grass to mutate into corn.

Compared to the fodder attribute of Corn Grass, the grain attribute of the corn ear is the real divine artifact.

"I remember not only that corn is a high yield crop but compared to other grains, it is the simplest to grow…" Liszt recalled some of the videos about Africa he had seen.

Africans love to grow corn because it can be directly sown into the fields without weeding or fertilizing, waiting until the harvest season when the wild grass withers.

They then find that the corn has managed to produce ears!

Corn could be processed into cornmeal, from which they made their staple food "xi ma" — similar to corn pudding, which could be eaten by pinching it with one's fingers.

"If only we could really mutate corn. Black Horse Island is huge, and I don't have enough serfs to cultivate it. But with corn, all you need to do is plant it and then leave it be. Come harvest time, the yield might not be high, but it'll be better than other crops that can be taken over by weeds and end up with no grains at all."

This was a wonderful expectation.

In order to obtain the possible corn cobs, Liszt decided to seriously solve the issue with Brad's employment.

Brad was a crystal craftsman, making a living by carving crystal items. He had a good income in Coral City, belonging to the wealthy class among the commoners. However, due to the secrecy of the telescopes, he was sent by the Earl to Fresh Flower Town, becoming one of Liszt's subjects and settling there.

Now there was no need to make telescopes, nor volcanic glass vessels, so he was idle all day long.

"I had originally planned to have Brad make glass in the future, but it seems glass won't be figured out anytime soon... Even if it is, glass seems to be very brittle and difficult to carve; it appears that glass is 'blown' into shape," Liszt recalled from his memories of glassmaking.

The red-hot glass, after being blown and inflated, then hand-molded, forms glass goods like wine glasses, tea cups, jars, etc. Moreover, there seems to be another method of flattening, pressing molten glass into flat pieces to be used as windowpanes.

Unfortunately, neither of these two manufacturing methods seems to have anything to do with Brad's profession. It's not like they could have him abandon his expert carving skills to deal with high-temperature glass solutions. As for finished glass, it doesn't require further carving.

"Should I have him learn other carving arts?" Liszt thought next.

But he quickly dismissed the idea, as the craftsman's trade is generally passed down through the generations -- a type of profession where the son follows in the father's footsteps. It would be very difficult for Brad to change to other forms of carving.

His thought processes had become rigid; it was clear when he was asked to carve volcanic glass that he was quite reluctant.

Besides, the art of crystal carving also requires constant practice to maintain proficiency.

"Why not just give him another batch of crystal to keep him busy, after all, once the castle is completed, a large number of crystal items will be needed for decoration. By the time he finishes carving this batch, it will be about time to mine new volcanic glass, keeping him busy... Those five revived Fire Dragon bones are still waiting for my rescue."

Having made a decision,

he could rest easy and sleep.

...

Early the next morning.

Riding the landwalker bird Loki, he headed to the pasture and switched to the King of Black Blood Treasure Horses — Lightning.

Actually, he no longer needed such ordinary Dragon Breed Horses as mounts, but in order to show that the Landlord and his following Knights were united, he still had to have a fine horse — even the Sapphire Duke kept a Blue Blood Treasure Horse as a mount, often charging into battle with his Knights.

Lightning was the link between Liszt and his Knights.

"Giddy up!"

Accompanied by the Retainer Knights, he dashed straight to the green tea trees on the north slope of Ice Grass Hill. The green tea was still being picked vigorously this season.

The tea leaves that had been fried could satisfy Liszt's personal drinking needs.

Using the Eye of Magic, he could easily see that the biggest green tea tree in the middle had already nurtured an Elf Bug, "Karl, this green tea tree has nurtured an Elf Bug. Protect it, and as soon as the Elf Bug is born, notify me immediately."

"The glory of a Knight favors us!"

Karl Ironhammer responded with excitement, "Please rest assured, my lord, I will protect the green tea tree cordyceps carefully and prevent the Elf Bug from any harm!"