Chapter 433: Conch Produces Pearls

Reading about Black Horse Island on the phone.

Liszt is inspecting the mining of volcanic glass ore. This volcanic glass is quite interesting, being hard on the outside and filled with bubbles inside, with a clear boundary from the surrounding soil and rocks.

By digging deep into the ground to reach the basalt columns, one can follow the cracks to find the volcanic glass.

Thus, once a thousand serfs mastered the digging techniques, they turned over the soil along the low-lying areas, not only excavating a large amount of volcanic glass but also incidentally reclaiming the land into farmland.

"Sir, we have been reclaiming and mining southward with the Red River as the boundary, and have now reached the wasteland between the eastern foot of Needle Grass Hill and the east coast. The reclaimed wasteland has been sown with soybeans and peas, although the germination rate may not be high, and the yield is likely to be very sparse," reported Blair, the administrative officer of Port Town.

Mining, reclaiming, and sowing are the construction plans guided by Liszt.

He chose soybeans and peas for sowing because the roots of legumes can breed rhizobia—he has observed that in this world, legumes still grow rhizobia, though not very prominently. Among them, soybeans, peas, and peanuts not only have stable varieties but also a relatively large number of rhizobia.

Moreover, alfalfa grass also has rhizobia, which might be one of the reasons it is considered high-quality forage.

Therefore, he decided to plant a large number of legumes and alfalfa grass during the early reclamation of Black Horse Island to fertilize the fields and provide organic nitrogen to the soil.

"Low germination rate and low yield are not a problem, as long as the harvest can cover our investment in sowing. Farmland needs continuous domestication to mature, and the sooner we domesticate it, the sooner it will give us returns," Liszt said with a smile, as only he understands the benefits of rhizobia.

The humans in this world rely too much on spirit bugs for farming, not even understanding fertilization, let alone something like rhizobia.

Under the rule of the lord, the most common farming system among serfs is the fallow system, divided into two-field and three-field systems—dividing the farmland into long strips, with each strip left fallow for one year every two or three years to restore soil fertility. Only within the influence of spirit bugs is fallowing unnecessary, allowing for annual planting.

A small part of the farmland in Flower Town has abolished the fallow system, adopting manual fertilization to ensure annual cultivation.

Of course.

Due to the shortage of serf labor, most of the wasteland cannot be intensively cultivated and still adopts the two-field system, planting one year and leaving fallow the next—after all, there is more land than people, so they can farm as they wish. Only after development will he gradually guide the serfs on how to intensively cultivate.

Cooperating with spirit bugs for scientific farming.

As for the farmland reclaimed on Black Horse Island now, as long as some beans can grow without losing money, it's acceptable.

After inspecting the work site, he said to Blair, "Organize the serfs to transport all the volcanic glass to the Bone Burial Ground, placing it among the five large bones."

He plans to extract the Fire Dragon's magic power from them.

This is a massive project, and only he can handle it—he plans to stay on Black Horse Island, carefully conducting this work, and incidentally live a few hard days to save expenses for the castle in Flower Town.

Piercing the volcanic glass to release the Fire Dragon's magic power, these powers are quickly absorbed by the five Fire Dragon bones. What he needs to do is repeat this set of actions. But soon he finds that the magic power from a single piece of volcanic glass cannot form a magical Fire Dragon.

This means it cannot burn people and will be absorbed by the Fire Dragon bones before the magic power converges.

"I can definitely have Marcus and others come to work together, arranging two or three knights around each Fire Dragon bone to repeat my work."

Thinking this, he couldn't hold back and immediately organized the knights to come and work—squires can complete this task.

With his hands behind his back, he walks through the Bone Burial Ground, using his Magic Eye to watch as fiery red magic power continuously converges towards the Fire Dragon bones, lighting up vein-like patterns, then calming down.

Continuing until August 25th.

Finally.

The smoke mission changes.

"Mission completed, reward: the restlessness of the rubber bug."

Ten tons of volcanic glass.

It was not difficult to mine, and half a month was sufficient. The reward for the smoke mission was quickly distributed. However, when Liszt took out the rubber bug triplets he carried with him, the three little ones seemed unresponsive. He stared at them for a good while.

Still, no movement.

This left him feeling a bit awkward: "You should be getting restless!"

The rubber bugs heard Liszt's inner call and stirred slightly, but they were far from restless. He could only set the triplets aside and turn his attention to the new smoke mission.

"Mission: Ten tons of volcanic glass have been mined, and the Fire Dragon's magic power has also emerged. This is the much-needed source for the dry dragon bones. Please channel all the magic power into the Fire Dragon bones to nourish and revive them. Reward: A conch that produces pink pearls."

"A conch that produces pink pearls?"

"Do conchs even produce pearls?" Liszt was astonished. He only knew that shells could produce pearls, whether they were pearl oysters or giant clams, both of which are types of shells.

But conchs...

"Conchs seem to be a type of shell as well. It appears that must be the case, otherwise how could they produce pearls?" He set aside his doubts and pondered what a conch looked like.

Conchs are often found on the beaches of Flower Town.

Serfs from Oyster Village have even gifted some strikingly beautiful conch shells to the castle as decorations: "So, will the conch that produces pink pearls appear on the beaches of Flower Town or Black Horse Island?"

It was already midsummer, and both Flower Town and the port town had mobilized many serfs to harvest seafood from the sea. In Flower Town's Oyster Village, there was a group of professional fishermen who rowed sampans to dive and harvest seafood in the nearby waters. The fishing industry had been flourishing in Liszt's territory.

He summoned Gort: "Advisor Gort, instruct all the serfs harvesting seafood to keep an eye out for conchs, particularly checking for any pearls inside."

"Pearls?" Gort's eyes widened in confusion. "My lord, what do conchs have to do with pearls?"

"I recently read a book that mentioned a magician who found a conch on the beach with pearls that had magical effects. Anyway, pay more attention to this matter." Liszt fabricated an excuse to send Gort on his way. The authority of the lord often meant he didn't need to desperately find excuses to cover up his actions.

Gort, already familiar with Liszt's ways, didn't press further and simply set about his task—he understood one thing: Liszt was blessed by The glory of knighthood! If he said conchs have pearls, then conchs most likely have pearls.

...

For the next two days, Liszt remained on Black Horse Island, overseeing the extraction of Fire Dragon magic power from the volcanic glass.

Once all ten tons of volcanic glass had been processed, he commanded the remainder to be stored, no longer releasing Fire Dragon magic power—these Fire Dragon magic powers were precious; as long as they fulfilled the smoke mission, there was no need for excess.

At this moment.

He called out the smoke mission.

The serpent tongue content had changed: "Mission completed, reward: A conch that produces pink pearls."

This book is from.