Chapter 483: Black Horse Island 6 New Town

We chatted late into the night.

It was only then that I realized Acheronides hadn’t spent much time studying magic arrays in the past two months, but had been searching for spirit bugs in the sea. The ocean is much vaster than the land, with some areas plunging thousands of meters deep. Acheronides stuck to shallow waters, no deeper than a hundred meters, since plants are scarce in deeper waters.

Laver bugs, red stone flower bugs, and ink horn bugs weren’t found near Black Horse Island but turned up near Coral Island. Now Acheronides has moved their insect grasses to the waters around Black Horse Island.

The horsetail bug turned up in Flower Town’s waters and was also transferred by Acheronides to the waters of Black Horse Island.

"Acheronides, I’m really grateful for your hard work in searching for spirit bugs in the sea, but please be careful. After all, the ocean’s full of sea monsters. Low-level sea monsters are manageable, but intermediate ones are risky, not to mention high-level and even super sea monsters."

"Brother, Acheronides has become very strong and can handle intermediate sea monsters!"

"No matter what, don’t overdo it, okay?" Liszt pinched Acheronides' nose. "I’d prefer you focus on studying magic arrays, so you can help me sail the seas without a hitch when the era of maritime exploration arrives. Even better, aim to become a water mage soon."

Acheronides gave a serious nod. "Brother, Acheronides understands. Acheronides will hit the books and work on getting stronger, to help brother sail safely on the sea."

"That’s my girl, Acheronides."

...

The next morning, Liszt set sail on the Flower for Black Horse Island.

As they passed Red Tree Island, he took the helm of a sampan, circling around the mangroves for observation. At Acheronides’ command, the red mangrove spirit bug greeted Liszt warmly and guided him to the insect grasses and spirit bugs in the area.

This marked Nami’s debut in front of outsiders.

It sparked a lot of gasps.

But most folks in the territory were already clued in about the red mangrove spirit bug, so they weren’t too surprised. Soon, with Nami leading the way, Liszt spotted a spirit bug soaking up the sun. Its insect grass was a small tree in the mangrove forest, close to the sea.

It was decked out with long, strip-shaped fruits.

"Is this an autumn eggplant tree?"

Liszt knew it right away. This tree is a very common component of mangrove forests. In fact, most of the mangroves cultivated at the Red River estuary are planted with seeds from the autumn eggplant tree, as it is a viviparous species, with seedlings developing directly on the tree. After collection, they are easily transplanted elsewhere.

The fruits of the autumn eggplant tree are inedible, bitter, and toxic, and their usefulness doesn’t compare to Nami’s red tree. Their only function is to contribute seedlings, providing materials for the expansion of mangrove forests.

No matter what.

What needs to be contracted must be contracted.

Sprinkling jade powder to lure the green spirit bug to lick it, then extending a finger and giving it a smack, the contract was successful. It became the twenty-seventh spirit bug contracted by Liszt, who has contracted a total of twenty-nine, with the Thorn Bug and corn grass insects already evolved into spirit bugs.

The five spirit bugs contracted by Acheronides are not included.

"Captain Kosto, don’t go to Black Horse Harbor, continue sailing north. My red mangrove spirit bug tells me there’s another small island north of Black Horse Island, with new spirit bugs."

"Your spirit bug is truly remarkable, able to discover new spirit bugs!" Captain Kosto praised and continued sailing north.

In the evening, following the Flower, Acheronides kept prompting until they finally found the small island.

The island was very small, even smaller than Red Tree Island, and its mangroves were not as extensive as those on Red Tree Island. However, it was home to many birds, mostly seagulls.

"We should drive away the seagulls and continue raising green caterpillars and mallards here." Liszt stood at the bow of the ship, pointing casually, thus deciding the future of the island. "Let’s call it Seagull Island, after all, we’ve taken over their habitat, so we should leave some memorial."

"Your lordship is always so generous and kind."

"Haha."

Liszt chuckled softly. Captain Kosto was trying hard to butter him up, but it sounded somewhat ironic in his ears. Taking over the seagulls' habitat and leaving nothing but a name—how could that be considered generous or kind?

Anyway.

Nami quickly pointed out the spirit bug’s location, saving him the trouble of using his Magic Eye. The plant the bug was on was also a small tree, a common species in the mangrove forest, known as the "goat horn fruit tree." Although it was a fruit tree, its seeds were poisonous.

Its main use was probably its leaves, which could be used as feed for cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, and other livestock and poultry.

Most plants in the mangrove forest weren’t very valuable.

So.

After using jade powder, he swiftly bound the goat horn fruit bug, making it the twenty-eighth spirit bug in Liszt's possession: "Whether they’re useful or not, at least they can expand the mangrove forest and provide a habitat for the green caterpillar-green-headed duck breeding. That’s already a benefit."

...

That night, the Flower Ship finally arrived at Black Horse Port.

The port town officials, led by Gort, quickly organized a grand bonfire party to welcome Liszt's arrival.

Liszt used the chance to motivate the territory’s officials.

He also checked in on the living arrangements of the knights recruited to Black Horse Island, urging them to settle in quickly and help build up the territory. Right after the bonfire party, without taking a break, Liszt called a territory meeting. All knights holding administrative positions participated in the meeting.

The main agenda of the meeting was divided into two parts: one was the officials reporting on the construction progress, and the other was the planning of the new town.

The report didn’t offer anything new—Gort had already covered it.

His main purpose was to finalize the new town plan.

Blair had been leading this effort, so he presented the planning proposal prepared by the officials: "Sir, the population of Black Horse Island is counted at twenty thousand. Based on the capacity of a small town accommodating five thousand people, we need to build three new towns. But to ensure we can accommodate more residents in the future, we have planned six new towns."

At this, Liszt nodded in approval. He had always advocated that officials should have a forward-thinking mindset, not just focus on the present.

They needed to look at the long-term future and think about how to develop the territory from a global perspective. Now, the new town plan led by Blair was quite good. Six new towns, along with the continuously developing port town, would be enough to accommodate forty to fifty thousand people, meeting the development needs of Black Horse Island for several years.

Seeing Liszt's nod, Blair was quite excited, as it meant his plan had initially gained approval: "We plan to build the second town in the northwest corner of the island, at the location of the new port... The third town will be planned between the Sheep Grass Hill and the Needle Grass Hill, serving as a hub for entering the Black Horse Ranch."