Chapter 444: A Ke Picks Up a Fairy Bug

With the completion of repairs to the Red Tree and Pearl ships, and their official joining of the fleet, along with the Thorn Ship, the three double-masted cargo ships are now sufficient to meet the shipping needs between Black Horse Island and Flower Town.

Thus, the Flower Ship has become the exclusive vessel for Liszt and the local officials to travel between the islands. When not in use, it usually docks at Flower Port.

When needed, there is no need to wait for the ship to return; it can set sail immediately.

Upon arriving at Black Horse Island, he noticed the port town hadn’t changed much. All the serfs have been assigned to tasks like reclaiming farmland and excavating underground volcanic glass. Liszt insists that all farmland on Black Horse Island be reclaimed before fully mining the volcanic glass.

Otherwise, once crops are planted on the farmland, it will be difficult to turn the soil over for mining again.

In the rubber plantation, rows of young rubber tree saplings are thriving around the rubber tree spirit bug. These are new varieties bred by the spirit bug, which keeps producing saplings without slowing down.

"It seems like a sudden burst of energy, aiming to breed enough saplings for over a hundred acres of rubber plantation at once?" Liszt looked at the current rubber plantation with satisfaction.

It felt like the land wasn’t growing rubber trees but fields of gold.

After inspecting the rubber plantation, he hurried over to the pasture, which has recently been named Black Horse Ranch. At Black Horse Ranch, Liszt mounted his horse, Lightning, and galloped towards the Bone Burial Ground. The Bone Burial Ground was now filled with volcanic glass piled between the five revived Fire Dragon bones.

All of it was volcanic glass still holding Fire Dragon magic power.

"Once the Earl’s birthday is over, I’ll collect the Fire Dragon magic power and store it for future use."

There is no time to do this work now.

Touching the Fire Dragon bones, which seemed unchanged, he still couldn’t figure out what they were up to.

So he had to leave for now.

Heading to the northern part of the island, he inspected the green tea plantation. Thanks to the green tea spirit bug, breeding green tea trees has become much simpler. Cutting and planting green tea tree branches, they easily sprout and grow under the spirit bug’s influence.

Agriculture here still relies on primitive slash-and-burn methods, as spirit bugs have limited humans’ farming innovations. Everyone’s used to planting crops haphazardly under the spirit bugs’ influence. Without spirit bugs, the land is just barren wasteland to lords and serfs alike.

Liszt is determined to change all this.

However, he doesn’t know how to invent chemical fertilizers, only using organic ones, which once earned him the nickname "Manure Baron."

"I don’t know how to invent fertilizers or pesticides, only composting to slightly enrich the soil. But I shouldn’t overlook water conservancy." Looking at a small river flowing beside the green tea plantation, he thought.

Back on Earth, during a natural disaster period, many in China starved to death. But with focused research on fertilizers and pesticides, and massive water conservancy projects, grain production grew steadily. With high-quality seeds imported and improved by experts like Li Zhensheng, the food crisis was eventually solved.

To Liszt, fertilizers, pesticides, water conservancy, and seeds are the four keys to a good harvest.

Now, fertilizers and pesticides are out of reach, seed improvement depends on spirit bugs, and the only feasible project is water conservancy.

"Once the reclamation order arrives and new serfs are brought to Black Horse Island, the priority will be building water conservancy projects to manage the island’s water resources."

Thus, another item was added to his agenda.

Speaking of which, there are too many projects he needs to vigorously promote now, almost every industry requires a lot of effort to complete. However, for every industry, he only dabbles in it, neither wanting to give up nor having the manpower to develop it, so he can only barely maintain a half-dead state.

If serfs could move freely, high welfare would surely attract a large number of settlers.

However, serfs are the private property of the lord, forbidden to move, and those free people often do not work in agriculture, they are mostly craftsmen. In many places, craftsmen do not lack food and drink.

They would not be attracted to Flower Town.

...

On Black Horse Island, he did not stay overnight. That very night, he boarded the Flower and returned to Flower Town. The next day was the Earl's birthday, and he had to rush to Tulip Castle to celebrate his father's birthday.

Just as he was about to listen to the waves and sleep on the sea for the night,

he suddenly heard the familiar sound of a horn, which was the mermaid Acher calling him. Based on the tone and length of the horn, Liszt understood that Acher had good news to share with him.

Under the current circumstances, of course, they couldn't meet.

So he immediately picked up the horn and blew his response: they would meet at the seaside villa the next morning.

After sailing all night,

he returned to Flower Port just before dawn. Liszt did not go back to the castle but went directly to the seaside villa, where he saw Acher already waiting. She swam incredibly fast and had returned here to rest the night before.

"Brother, you're back. Acher has something good to share with you."

"What good thing? Did you catch some pearls again?"

"Not this time." Acher waved downstairs, and soon, the red mangrove spirit bug, Nami, flew up, holding a chubby spirit bug.

Then, she handed the spirit bug to Liszt.

"Chirp."

She tilted her head, eyeing Liszt's pocket.

Seeing the spirit bug, Liszt's eyes lit up, and he immediately pulled out a peanut nougat candy and handed it to Nami.

"Chirp, chirp."

Nami, holding the peanut nougat candy, flew off happily to enjoy her treat.

As he played with the slightly nervous, dark green spirit bug, Liszt asked in surprise, "Acher, what kind of spirit bug is this?"

"It's a very long plant, around the mangroves on Red Tree Island, covering a large area densely. Look, brother, I brought one back too." As she spoke, she waved her hand, using a water band to bind and hand over a dark green, slightly yellowish long plant to Liszt.

Seeing this familiar shape,

Liszt immediately recognized it: "This is seaweed. You actually found a seaweed spirit bug? Can spirit bugs emerge in the ocean? Have you already contracted it?"

"Yes, I meant to catch it for you to contract, but it secretly bit Acher, so I contracted it."

"It's fine, whether you contract it or I do, it doesn't matter." Since even the mermaid Acher was considered Liszt's personal property, he naturally didn't mind who contracted this seaweed spirit bug.

He was simply amazed.

Plants in the ocean could also give birth to spirit bugs, meaning this seaweed bug thrives in the ocean. Then he carefully observed it and indeed found something different about the seaweed bug: it had gill-like structures near its neck, which was probably how it survived in the sea.

It must be said, spirit bugs are truly full of wonders.

He handed the seaweed bug back to Acher to keep, and he mused with mixed emotions: "Seaweed is a delicious food. Now, my territory will have another specialty... So far, no seaweed has been found in the waters around Coral Island. It's just a pity that for now, we have to let it grow wild and fend for itself."

There's just not enough people...