The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Having completed his inspection of the territory, Liszt saw Jela teasing and provoking Douson. This lively and active Little Minor Elf, who enjoyed flying in and out of the castle, had an extremely domineering temperament. Anyone who dared to block its path would get punched.

It could also spread seeds.

This must be some sort of “wood” or “nature” magic, able to rapidly make seeds germinate and then entangle someone. What sprouted seemed to be Rapid Growth Spiky Thorn; the huge wooden spikes could pierce someone to death—of course, it had never pierced anyone, as Liszt forbade it from spreading seeds at will.

The magic looked terrifying, but it could only deal with ordinary people.

A knight with Dou Qi could easily activate their Dou Qi to destroy the germination of the seeds.

Therefore, a Little Minor Elf’s combat power was generally very weak, almost negligible—even an ordinary person, in a fit of rage, could take it by surprise and kill it.

However, Jela did not consider itself weak at all, its domineering temperament remained unchanged, and then, it naturally encountered another creature with a fiery temper—Douson.

The first time Douson saw Jela, it was very curious and wanted to lick the smooth and shiny Jela with its tongue.

Unexpectedly, this enraged Jela, who waved its hand to scatter seeds, giving Douson quite a fright. Not knowing how to activate its internal magic, it could only watch helplessly as the thorns bound it, yelping in pain. But after all, it was an intermediate-level magical beast with thick skin, so it didn’t sustain any injuries after the pain.

After shaking off the thorns, it chased Jela around everywhere.

One small creature and one large creature thus became enemies, tearing into each other on sight, with no possibility of peaceful coexistence. A few days later, Douson was the first to submit, as its magic couldn’t harm Jela, and it couldn’t fly, so it could only be kited by Jela—of course, it might have been letting Jela win, knowing that Jela had a good relationship with Liszt.

Nevertheless, Jela did not let it go, always finding ways to tease and toy with it.

Scattering a handful of seeds, inducing sprouting, Jela gave Douson a taste of bondage art.

When Liszt returned.

He saw Jela teasing Douson once again, covering Douson in thorns that rapidly sprouted and twined around Douson’s body, quickly turning the big black dog into a big green dog.

Douson, however, had no reaction.

It just called out weakly to Liszt: “Woof, woof.”

“Jela, stop it!” Liszt glared at the Thorn Minor Elf, and only then did it reluctantly suspend the growth of thorns, landing directly on top of Liszt’s head.

Yawning, it decided to go to sleep just like that.

Liszt, unforgiving, pulled Jela down, handing it to Thomas: “Put it in the jade box, and send it to the Worm Room to sleep.”

Jela was unwilling.

Liszt glared again, using mental communication to let it understand that resistance would mean a beating. Finally, the Thorn Minor Elf obediently lay in the jade box, ready to sleep—after all, most of their time was spent sleeping, since their true form was a Cordyceps.

Removing the thorns from itself.

Douson lay on the ground feeling aggrieved, expressing its pitiful state to Liszt.

“An intermediate magical beast that can’t even defeat a minor elf is simply useless!” Liszt kicked it lightly and said, “Off you go, go whine to your wife… But first, let’s take you to the dog field.”

In the dog field, after a vigorous session, Douson successfully regained its lively nature.

But Liszt felt somewhat regretful.

The dog field manager, Old Difo, shook his head and said, “Lord Landlord, I’m afraid Douson doesn’t have the capacity to impregnate these female dogs. Normally, several female dogs are in heat and should get pregnant easily, but there’s been no sign.”

“If there’s no sign, then leave it be, take good care of them.”

Ordinary low-level magical beasts typically can breed with their wild counterparts. By the intermediate level, however, genetic mutations have generally led to reproductive isolation.

At least Douson should have become reproductively isolated from wolves and dogs.

“Good thing we have Earth Matron around.” Seeing Douson getting cozy with Earth Matron, any regret Liszt felt in his heart quickly turned to anticipation.

Looking forward to the future army of Fierce Earth Dogs, “The question is, will the offspring of Douson and Earth Matron be intermediate magical beasts or low-level magical beasts?”

This thought reminded him that ever since he arrived in Fresh Flower Town.

The town had entered its breeding season—after the townspeople’s lives stabilized, more and more chose to have children; Earth Matron was pregnant, the dairy cows were pregnant, the Fire Dragon Horses were pregnant, even the Fruit Thief Monkeys were pregnant; Goltai’s lover Freya was showing more and more, and he heard Marcus was busy quarreling with his wife.

It seemed he was the only one still single.

He shook his head.

Liszt stopped dwelling on it and continued to train Earth Matron, tempting her with dried meat to follow his commands.

The study, bright with the glow of the crystal lamp.

A few knight’s novels lay on the desk as Liszt absentmindedly flipped through them, occasionally jotting something down on a piece of thick paper.

A knock on the door.

Carter came in with a cup of milk tea: “Master, Mrs. Morson’s brewed milk tea, I have placed it on the desk for you.”

Liszt, without looking up, continued to scribble, “All right.”

“Mr. Bunier wishes to update you on the progress of the Fresh Flower Soap production.”

“Let him in.”

Moments later, Bunier Zhen Dan entered the study, led by Carter. Knowing that Liszt disliked idle talk, he spoke directly after bowing, “Lord Landlord, I have completed the revamped production process for the Fresh Flower Soap, and we can start mass production. With the current pace of the Soap Making Workshop and enough raw materials, we can produce fifty bars of Fresh Flower Soap a day.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Start tomorrow and produce at full capacity,” Liszt ordered.

After sending Bunier away, Liszt summoned Sherlock from the Thorn Caravan, “Have you tried the Fresh Flower Soap from the Soap Making Workshop yet?”

“Not yet, Lord Landlord.”

“It’s very effective. You can try it once and summarize its benefits. I will give you a batch of Fresh Flower Soap to distribute for free to all the nobles of North Valley City, so they understand the benefits of Fresh Flower Soap. Afterward, work together with Abagon to devise a sales strategy for it.”

“Rest assured, Lord Landlord, Sherlock knows what to do.”

Liszt sipped from the freshly brewed second cup of milk tea, “I have high hopes for the Fresh Flower Soap. I hope you can break into the market quickly, completely edge out the ordinary soaps until we monopolize Coral Island’s soap market.”

Sherlock hesitated, as if he wanted to say something.

Liszt gestured for him to speak freely.

“Lord Landlord, the soap business has always been a major industry under Baron Henderson of Serpent Spear City. Selling Fresh Flower Soap will inevitably impact Baron Henderson’s business. Should we give him a heads-up?”

If Liszt remembered correctly, Baron Henderson had gone to the battlefield along with the Earl.

Even if the other party hadn’t joined the battle, Liszt saw no need to be concerned about him. As the son of an Earl, conducting legitimate business was his prerogative, and no one could justifiably complain. If Baron Henderson went bankrupt as a result, that would be due to his lack of business acumen in managing his territory and could not be blamed on Liszt.

And if Henderson did blame him, Liszt wouldn’t be afraid; he dared to come, Liszt dared to unleash Douson.

Of course.

Leaving no room for survival might be going a bit too far.

After all, Henderson had made contributions to the Tulip Family before. Liszt thought it over and decided he could develop Henderson into a raw material supplier for Fresh Flower Town, “Sherlock, coordinate with Abagon, and once Fresh Flower Soap has crushed Henderson’s business, tell him when he has nowhere to turn, that he can specialize in providing soap powder for Fresh Flower Town.”