The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

This isn’t flattery.

Liszt himself felt that his talent was extraordinarily potent.

Perhaps his body, by nature, had strong lineage, superior genes, far surpassing those of ordinary people. Now with a soul that surpassed the era’s thinking, his grasp of principles allowed him a clearer touch on the essence of cultivation.

Others learned archery, perhaps solely through practice and experience.

In their minds, there was no conception of air resistance, parabolic trajectories, inertia, or Newton’s three laws of motion.

Yet he could, through some simple laws of physics, discern the trajectory of an arrow’s flight and thus more quickly master how to shape muscle memory to rapidly learn archery skills.

What he lacked was just control over technical details.

Analyze failure.

Improve technique.

Bend the bow and shoot arrows again.

Liszt felt that such pure cultivation, once one delved into it, was also a kind of painful yet joyful indulgence.

“My lord, I’m planning to take a day off to buy my family out of serfdom and bring them to live in Fresh Flower Town,” Karl said, having successfully handed over the position of defense officer, and following the afternoon’s briefing for the patrol team, attended the evening’s banquet in the castle for the first time.

He was nervously fidgety with excitement.

Liszt, biting into a piece of bread, replied, “I approve your leave. Go ahead and bring your family to live here, Goltai will ensure your work is managed well… By the way, do you have enough money to buy their freedom?”

“I’ve saved up enough, Rom and the others lent me some. There are only four people in my family, my parents and younger brother and sister, and the money I have is just enough to buy out their serf status.”

“If it’s not enough, don’t hesitate to speak to me, whether you need an advance on your salary or a low-interest loan.”

Karl, formerly a retainer knight, had family members who were serfs of the Tulip family. Now that he had obtained freeman status, he wanted to free his family from serfdom.

As a follower of a noble, he now had enough power to protect his family.

Goltai raised his glass to Karl in celebration, “Blair and Marcus’ families have settled into their new lives and are doing very well; your family will do the same.”

Karl downed his beer in one go, excitedly saying, “Fresh Flower Town will only get better, the glory of the knights shines upon this place, shines upon the lord!”

“I agree!” Marcus, too, raised his glass and drained his beer.

Blair and Isaiah also raised their glasses to drink heartily.

Goltai, who had a taste for good wine, finished his glass, eagerly waited for the servant to refill it, and then promptly raised his glass again, “In that case, let’s drink another round to Fresh Flower Town, to our lord!”

One glass of wine was downed.

Then Goltai added, “Karl, come back soon. In three days, a caravan from North Valley City will come to Fresh Flower Town. The patrol team needs to supervise the entire process and promote the rules of Fresh Flower Town to them.”

“I’ll return as quickly as I can, without delay to the work,” Karl assured.

“Douson, release the magic!”

Outside the castle, Liszt held Douson’s leash, issuing the command.

Douson immediately followed the direction of his pointing finger, opened his mouth to roar, and in an instant, a rock spike emerged from the ground. After Liszt led Douson away, a male servant immediately came over, shovel in hand, to dig the rock spike out of the ground.

This kind of rock spike was created by the earth attribute magic power solidifying the soil into a hard stone compound.

It was extremely hard, with the toughness of granite.

Every day Douson could produce many such rock spikes, then the male servants would collect them and use them for paving roads. Liszt had requested the construction of a stone road between the castle and the town’s main street, passable even on rainy days; otherwise, it was impossible to go out when it rained.

At the moment, this road was already forty meters long.

“Douson, up!” Liszt continued to train Douson. He had specifically bought all the wild rabbits caught by hunters, and these rabbits were materials for Douson’s training.

The wild rabbits ran rapidly on the ground, making various abrupt stops and changes in direction.

Even if Douson was a magical beast, hailed as the King of Thorn Ridge, catching up to a wild rabbit still took considerable effort. It chased the rabbit around the riding ground for about a kilometer before finally pinning the rabbit to the ground and biting down on its neck.

It killed the rabbit.

Douson flung the rabbit carcass to one side.

It no longer ate raw food, its mouth spoiled by Liszt, only consuming cooked meals.

“Ga ji!”

On Liszt’s left hand, which was cloaked in a leather glove, perched a fluffy big bird, Juan Fu, a young Wind Falcon. Still unable to fly, it had quite a loud voice, squawking “ga ji,” “ga ji” all day long, and had a huge appetite too, consuming several fish in one meal.

Hearing Juan Fu’s squawk,

the cheerful Douson immediately turned around, then rushed beside Liszt, drooling at Juan Fu—it certainly wanted to eat a bird, to taste its flavor.

“Ga ji!”

“Ga ji!”

Juan Fu flapped its wings, seemingly eager to attempt flying. Once this layer of down fell out, replaced by flight feathers, it would probably be ready for its first flight.

Liszt felt slightly troubled, as birds yearn for the sky and are hard to keep grounded.

Yet without any sign of recognizing an owner, and with nobody on Coral Island adept at taming birds,

“Stop squawking, or I’ll make you into a red-cooked dish,” said Liszt nonchalantly as he passed Juan Fu to Thomas, who hastily caught it with his gloved hand, fearing it might fall and become prey to Douson.

Now roughly the size and weight of a sausage, Juan Fu was somewhat heavy for Thomas to hold with one hand.

Liszt, sympathetic to his struggle, said, “Take it back to the nest.”

“Yes, Master.”

By the time Thomas returned after delivering Juan Fu, Liszt had already exhausted Douson with training: “Lead Douson back and tie it up, I’m going to start practicing archery.”

“Yes, Master.”

Seeing this, two robust youths rushed over to pass Liszt his bow and arrows: “My lord, your bow and arrows.”

They were Philip Wool and Zavier Bull Dung, members of the Knight Squad who had cultivated Dou Qi and were no longer required to train daily with the squad, beginning their duties as Retainer Knights.

Accepting the bow and arrows,

Liszt quickly entered his zone, practicing Multiple Arrow. Now, he only lacked mastery of Spiral Shadow Arrow; he had successfully learned the other four techniques but wasn’t very proficient yet.

“Today, I aim to master Spiral Shadow Arrow, and I’ll start practicing Multiple Phantom Arrow tomorrow!”

From morning until afternoon.

Sweat streamed down time and again.

Finally, as the sun set in the west, he successfully executed Spiral Shadow Arrow. Four arrows spiraled through the air, instantly creating layers of illusions, eventually all striking the target.

“Phew!”

He breathed a sigh of relief.

Rubbing his wrist, he decided to call it a day with archery: “In another week, I should be able to master Multiple Phantom Arrow.” Thinking this, he summoned the Smoke Mission and habitually glanced over it.

But this glance revealed that the Serpent Script had transformed.

“Mission complete, reward: Black Pearl of the Deep Sea.”

“Mission: A trade caravan is soon to arrive at Fresh Flower Town, the first since the Landlord’s commencement. Ensure the trade’s total proceeds reach at least 3 Gold Coins to attract the caravan for future visits. Reward: Drifting Bottle.”

“Hmm?”

Liszt was puzzled, “When did I actually complete the mission? I clearly haven’t mastered the Ultimate Mystery Multi-Shadow Arrow?”

Suddenly, it dawned on him.

That time when practicing “Multi-Arrow”, Marcus’s Multiple Phantom Arrow had one stray from the target.

“Does this mean that Marcus hasn’t mastered the Ultimate Mystery Technique either? He shot in two sequences and still missed one, so he doesn’t qualify as having mastery? So, do I only need to learn the earlier Double Arrow, Triple Arrow, and Multiple Arrow to complete the mission?”

Without a doubt, that had to be the case.

It was an unexpected blessing, which Liszt gladly accepted, then shifted his focus to the rewards and new mission: “The Black Pearl of the Deep Sea? The Drifting Bottle? Is there any connection between them?”