Chapter 572: The Ambition of the Earl

"Take a deep breath, Jie La!"

Seeing Jie La about to sow magic, Liszt hurriedly stopped her and then scolded Pyke: "Pyke, no using insulting words towards our own spirit bugs!"

Pyke acted nonchalant: "Pyke, the handsome Grand Sprite; Jie La, as ugly as Fizz, Tahm, and Eddie; Nami, who brings me food, is not bad; Mickey, whom I’ve never seen, must be ugly too; Acheronides, the older sister; Liszt, as handsome as Pyke."

Liszt's face turned grim: "Shut up, Pyke!"

"Heh," Pyke slumped onto the table, continuing to grin at Jie La.

"Wah!"

"Wah!"

"Wah!"

Jie La’s rage was hard to quell. If Liszt hadn’t been restraining her, she would have definitely charged at Pyke to fight—whether she could win or not was another matter, but her attitude had to be clear.

"Pyke, review the Serpent Tongue I taught you today." Liszt flicked Pyke's forehead, his expression grim—since this guy started talking, his mouth has become increasingly venomous. Despite learning from the gentle Acheronides and the gentlemanly himself, he hasn't picked up any elegance.

Pyke slumped onto the table: "I want to eat jade powder."

"I’ll check tonight. If your Serpent Tongue isn’t up to par, no food for you!"

"Heh."

...

Returning to the castle with the seething Jie La, it took a long time to calm her down.

Liszt was also at a loss. Jie La's temper was not to be underestimated, and Pyke, Fizz, Tahm, and Eddie were not easy-going spirit bugs either. Only Nami and Mickey were somewhat manageable. If it weren't for the suppression of the contract and the fact that land and water spirit bugs didn't live together, they would have been fighting all the time.

While he was troubled.

In Tulip Castle, tasting the unappetizing Shoebill Stork meat, the Count felt bitter: "An Advanced Magic Beast, killed so easily. Liszt's strength probably surpasses all sky knights... The most crucial thing is, why kill the Shoebill Stork?"

He struggled to swallow a piece of the magic beast meat.

His heart ached: "An Advanced Magic Beast! A flying one at that! Why didn't he call me to capture it together? Capture and tame it, and it would have been a high-tier flying magic beast mount... I've been chasing for half my life and haven't even seen a mid-level flying magic beast, and now a high-tier flying magic beast has become food on my plate!"

Reason told him that Liszt might not have been able to capture the Shoebill Stork, as killing and capturing are two different levels of difficulty. Moreover, even if captured and tamed, it would have been prioritized for Liszt's own use as a mount, and he would have had to buy it—father and son had already separated their households.

The value of an Advanced Magic Beast was immense. Just the materials from its body after being killed were probably as valuable as a spirit bug, many of which were priceless.

Tamed, it could serve as both a mount and a battle companion, making its value even greater. After all, the combat power of an Advanced Magic Beast was stronger than that of a sky knight.

Therefore.

After brooding for a long time, he had to admit: "This kid’s luck is as unbelievable as ever. If one day he tells me he's ridden a dragon, I probably wouldn’t even blink... I’m numb."

At the dining table.

His heir, Levis, chewing on the magic beast meat, praised: "Though not the tastiest, Advanced Magic Beast meat is incredibly satisfying to eat. I didn't expect Liszt to quietly get another Advanced Magic Beast. Father, are Advanced Magic Beasts that easy to hunt?"

"Advanced Magic Beasts vary in strength. Few have seen them, and even fewer have fought them. But this Shoebill Stork knew many advanced magics, so its strength was probably not weak, likely at the level of a peak sky knight," the Count agreed with Liszt's assessment.

In his letter, Liszt had estimated the Shoebill Stork's combat power to be at the level of a peak sky knight.

"A peak sky knight?" Levis gasped.

Lytton was dumbfounded: "Father, Liszt is just an ordinary sky knight, how could he possibly hunt down a peak-level sky knight!"

Penelope, who had come for dinner, was also surprised: "So, Lee William, there's no way you could have hunted the Shoebill Stork, but Liszt did. Doesn't that mean his strength surpasses yours?"

Mary, Lvera, and Gloria all stared at the Marquis, waiting for an answer.

The Marquis glanced at everyone, his hand holding the knife and fork trembled slightly before he quickly regained composure, and said indifferently: "Battling magical beasts is not just about who is stronger, various factors can interfere with the outcome of the battle. Under normal circumstances, I probably couldn't hunt the Shoebill Stork... but with Liszt's talent, surpassing me is just a matter of time."

He couldn't bring himself to directly admit that he had long been no match for Liszt.

He only vaguely hinted at Liszt's talent—surpassing him was a matter of "time," sounding like it would be "later" before he could surpass, but actually, he meant it had already happened. Whether others could understand was not his concern.

However, he still forcefully changed the topic: "Liszt's talent is indeed stunning, but effort is equally important. Levis, you're at a crucial stage in your breakthrough to becoming a sky knight, I hope to hear good news from you soon."

Levis nodded emphatically: "Father, I have been working hard!"

Gloria chimed in: "Father, Levis has been working hard, but his talent after all cannot be compared with Liszt's, and he still needs the strong support of the family. If Levis becomes a sky knight even a day earlier, it would be a great help to the family in competing for the Marquis title."

Lee William glanced at Gloria and nodded: "The family will naturally fully support him."

Mary smiled and said to the Marquis: "As the heir of the Tulip family, Levis indeed needs strong support from the family. Since you're still in your prime, with an excellent heir like Levis and a genius like Liszt aiding from outside, I believe that after a few expansion orders, no one can stop the progress of the Tulip family."

Hearing this, Lee William's previous gloom had been swept away, replaced by excitement: "Yes, with Liszt and I joining forces, the rewards from the expansion orders are ours for the taking! In a few years, I will surely step on the soil of Iron Hoof Island, and control one-third of the land of Iron Hoof Island!"

...

The Shoebill Stork had sparked the Marquis's ambitions, but Liszt was unaware of this.

He remained busy on his territory, although he had delegated all work to his subordinates, he still cared about the progress in detail.

Currently, his main concern was the cultivation of flame mushrooms.

"Speculations on the Correlation between Magic Network Nodes, Spirits, and Dragons" was already being written, and the cultivation restrictions of flame mushrooms would be a very good entry point.

"Viscount, from the current batch of mature flame mushrooms harvested, the quality is indeed much worse than the previous batches," Cris confirmed after refining the magic potion.

"So, the restrictions of the Abandoned Insect Mushroom do exist... this is quite inconvenient, I just opened two thousand acres of mushroom greenhouses in Mushroom Town, and there are still more than two hundred acres in Flower Town."

"Although it's regrettable, it's inevitable that we'll have to reduce the number of flame mushroom greenhouses. Once I calculate the most suitable acreage for flame mushroom cultivation, you can start dismantling them. However, we can replace flame mushrooms with ordinary mushrooms, and when winter comes, we can plant snow and ice flame mushrooms."

"That's also a solution," Liszt nodded, "In a month's time, those nobles will send representatives to trade for Abandoned Insect Mushrooms, I hope you can calculate the suitable acreage as soon as possible, so as not to be in a passive position during the trade."

Cris thought for a moment: "It should be almost possible to complete the calculation."

The trade of Abandoned Insect Mushrooms.

The more information Liszt has, the better his position in the trade. Otherwise, incomplete information would greatly devalue the flame mushrooms.