Chapter 321: Snake Blood Cultivation Snake Blood Fruit

This chapter is an extra thanks to a 20,000-coin reward from "bittertree." Another chapter will follow.

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The relationship between a Lord and their followers is a delicate balance of power.

When the Lord is strong, followers are disciplined and loyal; when the Lord is weak, followers become unruly and their intentions waver. The situation on Red Crab Island exemplifies a weak Lord, with followers who are growing increasingly restless and ready to challenge his authority.

Therefore,

Liszt has always been learning how to be a competent Lord. If he were to stay on Coral Island for his entire life, he probably wouldn't need to learn much. With his family's protection, his followers wouldn't dare act out. But Liszt's ambitions go far beyond places like Flower Town or Black Horse Island.

The position of Earl or Marquis is not his goal either; his aim is nothing less than the rank of Grand Duke, where he'll ride dragons and command vast territories.

The future is bright, but the road is winding. Every step now is a preparation for the future, laying a solid foundation. So, the gossip surrounding Parris's salary is just a small test to see how well he can control his followers.

After a moment of thought, he calmed down—more important matters were waiting for him to handle.

……

Sea Snake.

A venomous snake that lives in the ocean, known for its vibrant, colorful patterns.

Sea snakes are commonly found in shallow waters, but sea serpent-type monsters, which are rarer, are mostly discovered in the deep sea.

The terms water monster and sea monster mean the same thing.

In this world, there are no officially recognized formal names, nor internationally accepted academic terms. Different regions have different names for species.

The author of *The Secrets of Sea Snake Monsters* is the royal court magician of the Starlight Kingdom. The Starlight Kingdom borders the sea, and the author, specializing in water magic, frequently sailed out to search for sea monsters. This popular science book mainly introduces sea snake sea monsters.

It records seven types of sea snake monsters.

There are five types of low-level sea monsters: the Rainbow Sea Snake, Blue-ringed Sea Snake, Ice-ringed Sea Snake, Red-banded Sea Snake, and Two-headed Sea Snake; and two mid-level monsters, the Six-headed King Sea Snake and the Frozen King Sea Snake.

Each type of sea snake describes its toxicity, magic abilities, and size.

Of course, the data is not comprehensive, as observations are rare and research conditions are limited.

What caught Liszt's attention was the description of the Six-headed King Sea Snake.

"The Six-headed King Sea Snake is more powerful than the Frozen King Sea Snake. I have observed it twice, once as an adult Six-headed King Sea Snake, over twelve meters long, and once as a juvenile Six-headed King Sea Snake, six meters long, with three heads unable to cast magic, and clearly weaker."

This royal court magician's data is solid and even includes hand-drawn illustrations.

The somewhat abstract Six-headed King Sea Snake has a very thick, muscular body, about two-thirds of its length, with the remaining third being six long, slender heads, each equally powerful and dangerous.

The patterns are vibrant, mainly black and white.

Each head can cast a different spell: Water Arrow Barrage, Water Wave Shield, Water Vortex, Powerful Water Jet, Water Blade, and Waterfall.

"The Six-headed King Sea Snake bears some resemblance to the Two-headed Sea Snake."

"Based on my speculation, for every two meters of growth, one of its heads matures and can cast magic."

"The Six-headed King Sea Snake feeds on sea fish and also preys on dolphins and humans who fall into the water, but it does not actively attack ships. If provoked, it will unleash a relentless barrage of magic, lasting over thirty minutes, turning the sea into a chaotic battlefield."

"While the six heads of an adult Six-headed King Sea Snake work together in perfect harmony, casting spells in a coordinated and deadly sequence, the heads of a juvenile are often disorganized, leading to failed spells, erratic behavior, and uncoordinated actions."

Since no one has ever captured a six-headed king sea serpent, the grand magician had no additional data.

In his magic books, he focused not on the attributes of sea serpents, but on a secret involving their blood and bloodfruit.

According to the book, bloodfruit is a medicinal herb that can be eaten, though it tastes terrible. Venomous snakes are drawn to bloodfruit, which grows in their natural habitat. When a hunter is bitten by a snake, they immediately search for bloodfruit to counteract the venom.

Bloodfruit can also treat children with diarrhea and help with difficult childbirth.

In the Starlight Duchy, bloodfruit is very famous because the region is home to a large number of venomous snakes, and the lords have to plant large quantities of it to treat snake venom at all times. Initially, the grand magician studied the connection between bloodfruit and snake venom to develop an antidote and profit from it.

However, after using snake blood to cultivate bloodfruit, he noticed that the plants thrived.

He started capturing various snakes and using their blood to nourish the bloodfruit. One day, when he used the blood of a sea serpent, he was surprised to find that the bloodfruit produced a spirit bug. After repeated experiments, he spent a significant amount of money acquiring sea serpents.

He finally concluded that the blood of low-level sea serpents had a small chance of stimulating bloodfruit to produce a spirit bug.

The blood of mid-level sea serpents had not been tested, so he didn’t know the probability.

This could have been a groundbreaking discovery, allowing for the mass cultivation of spirit bugs from bloodfruit for profit. However, when someone did the math for him, he fell silent—it took about twenty low-level sea serpents to cultivate one spirit bug.

On average, the price of purchasing one sea serpent is 160 gold coins—low-level magical beasts certainly wouldn’t sell for this price, but sea monsters are hard to catch, and their prices are generally inflated.

In other words, he would need to spend 3,200 gold coins to cultivate one bloodfruit spirit bug.

However, the local market price for purchasing one bloodfruit spirit bug is only 2,000 gold coins—trying to cultivate bloodfruit spirit bugs using sea serpents would result in a loss.

The grand magician angrily abandoned his money-making plan.

He then wrote his findings into the book *The Secret of Sea Serpent Monsters*, which was printed and sold—he believed that discovering a method to cultivate spirit bugs was still meaningful.

"So,"

Liszt looked up from the book and murmured, "The Dolomichita that’s hunting Acheronides might just be an immature six-headed king sea serpent, with four heads capable of magic, about eight meters long? Also, snakes all like to eat bloodfruit. Maybe I can use bloodfruit to attract the six-headed king sea serpent? Or perhaps disrupt the casting of the four heads?"

He closed the magic book.

He knew that bloodfruit was key to hunting Dolomichita, and that he needed to purchase a large quantity of it—though it seemed there was none on Coral Island; this was the first time he had heard of such a fruit.

"According to the grand magician's records, the blood of sea serpent monsters can give birth to bloodfruit spirit bugs... If we dig deeper into the principle, maybe we can uncover the secret of spirit bug gestation."

Unfortunately, Liszt didn’t currently have the ability to dig deeper into the secret, nor did he have any magicians under him who could conduct research.

"If we hunt Dolomichita, its snake blood might be used to cultivate bloodfruit, and perhaps we could successfully breed a bloodfruit spirit bug in one go. But the risk is high; it might be better to just sell the blood of the mid-level sea serpent, which could fetch a better price."

The materials from a low-level magical beast can sell for anywhere from a dozen to several hundred gold coins.

The materials from a mid-level magical beast are worth at least ten times that of a low-level one, so selling them for several hundred or even a thousand gold coins shouldn’t be difficult.

Instead of wasting the snake blood to grow bloodfruit, it would be better to sell it for gold coins.

Liszt pulled out a gold coin, spinning it on the table. "Before that, I need to act quickly and purchase a large quantity of bloodfruit!"