Chapter 418: The Earl is Stimulated

Regarding the Earl attributing his success to the noble bloodline shared by him and Melissa, Liszt did not refute.

He always had to save face for the other party.

He changed the subject: "Father, what are your thoughts on the sales of rubber?"

"I tested the rubber you provided yesterday, and it is indeed an extraordinary item, more impressive and versatile than glutinous rice paste," the Earl pondered slightly before saying, "Tulip Castle has gained a lot of supplies from the Iron Hoof Island campaign, and our reliance on gold coins is not high. I can purchase a batch of rubber to alleviate your pressure."

"Rubber, a specialty of Black Horse Island, is scarce due to the damaging tapping process, making it expensive."

"Is it more expensive than glutinous rice paste?"

Glutinous rice is a type of grain that can be eaten, but glutinous rice paste is more useful for irrigating castles. Marquis Ramirez of Leather Island, known as White Glutinous Rice, established his family relying on glutinous rice.

"I believe it must be more expensive than glutinous rice paste, as rubber can also be used in construction, and its quality is not inferior to glutinous rice paste. In terms of speed, hardness, and adhesion, it even slightly surpasses glutinous rice paste. But rubber is not only for building cities; it can adhere to any object, useful for shipbuilding, repairing armor, and more!"

Such a treasure, if not for the dire need of money, Liszt would never have been willing to part with it.

The Earl looked at Liszt, puzzled, and asked, "What other treasures are you hiding on Black Horse Island?"

"Well, indeed, there are some specialties," Liszt responded lightly, "The key is that the development efforts have been effective. Like the rubber from rubber trees, most people might just see it as sap from trees and not explore its uses."

In fact, he was very proud because the specialties of his territory were indeed numerous.

In terms of crops, there was the infinitely possible rubber adhesive, ironwood-quality thorn timber, directly drinkable fragrant coconut fruits, green tea trees not yet widely planted, and smoke grass that could attract invisible dragons, as well as corn grass that might become corn cobs.

Among magical herbs, the black tulip stood as a symbol of our territory, flame mushrooms and frost flame mushrooms grown from mushroom spores, magical Thorn Bugs that could grow rapidly among thorns, and the newly widely cultivated auxiliary herb, nightshade.

In animal husbandry, green caterpillars and green-headed ducks are set to become major exports, black pearl oysters were also good specialties, Black Blood horses were undoubtedly precious specialties, and dragon milk cows were equally precious specialties. If we can solve the breeding issues, blizzard beasts could become a specialty.

In terms of industry, the products of the Fire Dragon brick factory were all specialties: stone slabs, culverts, bricks, and other fired products under development, such as ceramics, glass, cement, lime, etc.; distilled white liquor Flower Brew, bath products Flower Soap, and future white paper were also specialties.

As for cuisine, Flower Town is renowned as Coral Island's culinary heartland, with countless delicacies starting to spread from here.

While others could hardly obtain even one resource, Liszt was troubled by having too many resources, unable to develop them all, and many were simply left unattended.

Despite the abundance of resources in Flower Town and Black Horse Island, Liszt remained so impoverished he could scarcely afford books.

"To discover treasures, they must first exist..." The Earl took a deep breath, suppressing his jealousy towards his son, "How many spirit bugs do you have now?"

"Well..." Liszt hesitated, considering his response.

The Earl was displeased: "Do you still need to hide things from me?"

"I have 24 spirit bugs... and also 2 spirit bugs."

"2 spirit bugs?"

"One is Jie La, whom you've met, and the other is a red mangrove spirit bug that's not very useful," he said modestly, though now Nami was not useless, as raising green-headed ducks was inseparable from Nami's abilities.

The Earl was stunned.

Then he sighed: "I remember at the time of enfeoffment, I only gave you four spirit bugs, and later because you discovered the black tulip, I rewarded you with another spirit bug. That is to say, you discovered nineteen spirit bugs yourself? And two spirit bugs?"

"The origins of these spirit bugs are quite intricate. Two spirit bugs were born from the potted plants my grandmother gave me, I contracted a barley bug outside the nameless castle in Mane City, and father, do you remember the six-headed king sea snake? According to a magic book, I used its blood to cultivate four snake blood fruit bugs."

Liszt calculated: "Apart from these, not many spirit bugs were born in the territory, only 13... and Jie La was a Thorn Bug you gifted that evolved."

That is to say.

Flower Town and Black Horse Island themselves have nurtured 13 spirit bugs and 1 small spirit bug.

"Thirteen and you still think it's too few? Since I took over Coral Island, twenty years of cultivation have only resulted in a little over two hundred spirit bugs, with just over ten spirit bugs being born each year!" The Count tried to steady his emotions, "The key point is, I have never discovered a wild small spirit bug."

Liszt wanted to say something to ease the atmosphere.

But he was directly interrupted by the Count: "I used to think that 'The glory of knighthood!' was just an inspiring slogan, now I believe that the glory of knighthood truly exists, and it obviously favors you... Go back, do not fail the favor of the glory of knighthood, I look forward to your future!"

He quickly sent Liszt away, not even planning to discuss the pricing of rubber.

When the door was closed.

The study fell into silence.

The Count leaned completely back into his chair, his gaze gradually drifting to an unknown point in time and space, softly saying, "Melissa, your most worrying son has grown to full wings, ready to soar high at any moment... It's just that this kid has too many tricks up his sleeve, Marquis Merlin wrote to tell me that he was clearly promoted to an elite Earth Knight last year..."

His voice drifted off.

After a while, his voice raised slightly in volume: "From an ordinary Earth Knight to an elite Earth Knight, it only took half a year... His territory has several kinds of magic herbs, and he has taken in a magician specifically to make magic herbs... Our son, I'm afraid, is performing even better than I did in my youth!"

...

"I really should keep a low profile; I shouldn't have provoked the Count."

Riding on the back of the chocobo, Loki, recalling the scene where the Count was almost on the verge of a breakdown, Liszt shook his head and sighed: "Forget it, let Gort come over tomorrow, have a good discussion with Levis and Frank, strive to negotiate a suitable price, to ease the financial situation of the territory."

The powerful attributes of rubber are obvious to all; he is not afraid of not being able to sell it at a good price.

Returning to the territory, before he was ready to inspect the corn grass fields, he received a report from the administrative office that the serf old Bor had discovered that a patch of corn grass in his field was very strange, with huge flower spikes blooming on top.

Isaiah further explained: "Sir, we can't determine if this patch of corn grass is nurturing corn grass insects; they look a bit abnormal, but there are too many, a full twenty or so corn grass plants, all blooming with huge flower spikes... It's unlikely that twenty spirit bugs are being nurtured at the same time."

"Flower spikes blooming on top?" Liszt frowned; this seemed different from the corn cobs he was expecting.