Chapter 150: Ironwood Thorns

At this stage.

In Flower Town, the workshops and shops, apart from the few originally established by free citizens, are now mostly set up by Liszt—there aren't many free citizens anyway, so Liszt doesn't mind monopolizing all industries in Flower Town, as it is his own territory after all.

If he says he wants to build a workshop, then a workshop will be built.

However, Gort has some doubts: "My lord, the soap-making workshop can be entrusted to Bounie, the brewing workshop to Frank, Berdin, and Hunt, and the cooperage has many coopers... What is the peanut processing workshop for, and who should handle it?"

"It's about processing the harvested peanuts. They can be boiled or roasted with their shells on, sold as raw peanuts, made into peanut butter, or perhaps developed into unique flavors. The goal is to turn ordinary peanuts into delicious ones, much like turning regular bread into pineapple buns."

"Who will make these delicious peanuts?"

"Among the purchased serfs, weren't there some who served as cooks in other castles? My castle doesn't need that many cooks right now, so let them focus on how to make delicious peanuts... Remember one thing, Advisor Gort."

"Please speak, my lord."

"The agricultural products produced in Flower Town are cheap and do not have much trading value. However, after initial processing, they can fetch a good price. We might even buy agricultural products from outside and process them here. I hope Flower Town can become a center for agricultural product processing."

Terms like "initial processing" do not exist in the snake language.

Liszt can create a similar term using the snake language and explain it briefly.

Gort understands: "This is similar to how Tulip Castle rarely sells whole magic tulips but instead processes them into finished magic medicines before selling them, correct?"

"You understand correctly."

"I'll go arrange it right away."

Gort leaves, and Liszt quickly departs from the castle as well.

He rushes to the thorny cordyceps shrubbery to search for fast-growing wood thorns. Standing in the shrubbery, he looks around and sees nothing but bare hills in the distance. In the thorny shrubbery, the fast-growing poisonous thorns and fast-growing spiky thorns are separated into two large areas.

"My lord!"

The two insect guards protecting the thorny cordyceps hurriedly greet him. They were serfs from the dairy farm, selected by Rom for their strength to serve as insect guards, earning a decent part-time income.

Liszt asks: "Have you noticed any unusual thorns while guarding this shrubbery?"

He had specifically instructed Rom to tell the insect guards to pay attention to the growth of the thorns and report any special ones immediately.

The guard hesitates: "My lord, I'm not sure if these are unusual thorns."

"Oh, what's the situation?"

"There's an area where the thorns have become... very robust."

"Very robust? Show me."

The insect guard quickly leads Liszt to a patch of robust thorns.

These thorns have the same color and spikes as ordinary thorns, but each one is about twice as thick as usual. This is clearly different, yet the insect guard didn't know whether it was unusual or worth reporting, showing a lack of intelligence.

Of course.

Commoners indeed have limited intelligence, and Liszt understands this. He says: "Cut down these thorns."

The insect guards don't have iron tools but only inexpensive bone weapons.

They quickly draw their bone knives and swing them at the thorns. Cutting small shrubs like thorns isn't difficult, especially when they're still young. The insect guards are confident they can cut the thorns in one stroke, demonstrating bravery before their lord.

However, embarrassingly, the bone knives strike the thorn trunks with a crisp "bang," bouncing off and leaving only shallow marks.

"Hmm."

The two insect guards panic slightly and swing their bone knives again with great force. But each strike only leaves a shallow mark, and after several attempts, they couldn't even create a crack wider than a thumb. Instead, their bone knives are already damaged and close to breaking.

"Stop. Thomas, give them my knight's sword and let them use it to cut the thorns." Liszt's eyes light up, realizing the nature of the mutation in the fast-growing wood thorns.

With the knight's sword in hand,

the insect guards continue cutting, still struggling to cut through quickly. Fortunately, the knight's sword is made of fine steel and very sturdy. By continuously swinging and grinding, they finally manage to cut through the wrist-thick thorns. After removing the smaller branches, they present a bare thorn trunk to Liszt.

Breathing heavily, they hand it over.

Holding the thorn trunk, Liszt can feel its weight.

"It's heavy, solid, and very hard. If I'm not mistaken, its wood mutation likely leans towards 'ironwood.'"

Ironwood, as the name suggests, is wood as hard as steel. Many types of wood on Earth claim to be ironwood, such as iron birch, shell wood, and nanmu, which are harder than steel, sink in water, resist insects, and cannot be nailed. Many ships, vehicles, specialized buildings, and even aerospace parts use ironwood as material.

The current fast-growing wood thorns haven't reached the standard of ironwood yet.

But their "fast-growing" feature determines their value. Even if they don't meet the ironwood standard, they are far superior to ordinary wood, almost like steel.

"At this quality, fast-growing wood thorns are practically self-growing steel!"

Trees with ironwood qualities are not entirely absent in Thorns Ridge, like rockwood and stonewood. However, they are rare, grow slowly, and take over a hundred years to mature, making them scarce.

Fast-growing wood thorns can mature quickly, making their value unimaginable.

"Previously, the poison and spike mutations can't compare to this ironwood quality! These are the real treasures among thorns. Good job, my thorny worms; you'll get extra meals tonight, enjoy the jade powder!" This is the reward for the thorny worm's chain task, influenced by the thorny cordyceps.

He increasingly believes that the thorny worms might evolve into thorny fairies successfully.

"I've decided!"

With excitement surging, he can't contain his thoughts: "I will plant fast-growing wood thorns throughout the 180 acres of shrubbery directly affected by the thorny cordyceps!"

Ordinary fast-growing thorns, fast-growing toxic thorns, and fast-growing spiked thorns—either transplant them elsewhere or cut them down.

They shouldn’t occupy the influence of the Thorn Insect Grass.

The Black Dragon horse galloped.

Rushing back to the castle like the wind.

He immediately planned to summon Isaiah, the newly appointed administrator, to replan the Thorn Insect Grass shrubbery. However, as the wind blew and his mind cooled, he suddenly thought of a crucial issue: "The Thorn Insects are still accumulating power for evolution; the chain quests haven’t ended yet. The fast-growing thorns should still have room for mutation."

If we cut down the ordinary fast-growing thorns now, it will be difficult to produce new mutations.

"No, we can’t cut down all the ordinary fast-growing thorns. The ironwood can wait; there’s no rush. The most important thing now is to let the Thorn Insects continue developing and allow the fast-growing thorns to keep mutating... However, we need to change the name of the fast-growing wood thorns. Let’s call them fast-growing iron thorns!"