Chapter 497: The Castle’s Glass Greenhouse

The golden Sun Scepter, though broken into two pieces, still reveals its splendor in its prime. This is undoubtedly a priceless artifact, and the person who possesses it must be a powerful and authoritative figure.

Liszt reached out and retrieved one half of the scepter.

It was a rod, with a metallic sheen, but it was unclear what metal it was made of. It felt moderately heavy in his hand, perhaps slightly lighter than an iron rod of the same size. The patterns on it were very regular, interlocking rings, but their meaning was unclear.

At the very end of the scepter was a hexagonal column roughly the length of a finger.

At the broken cross-section, there were jagged, uneven edges, not caused by cutting or smashing, but rather by a fracture caused by stress.

"So it's not a single metal, but a metal rod layered through casting," Liszt concluded, looking at the color of the broken surface.

Because the cross-section had ring-like patterns resembling tree rings.

The very center was a transparent triangle, no thicker than a finger, resembling some kind of crystal. Surrounding it was a circle of silvery metal, encasing the triangular crystal. Next was a layer of gray metal in a hexagonal structure. Then came a layer of light blue metal in a circular structure.

The outermost layer was golden metal, also circular, as thick as a baby's arm.

These five layers of structure had distinct color boundaries but were arranged very tightly, with uniform thickness, seamlessly fused together. Such casting technology was beyond Liszt's understanding. At least in the Sapphire Duchy, no blacksmith could achieve such precision in metalwork.

He put down the lower half of the Sun Scepter and picked up the upper half.

The sunburst structure at the top of the upper half defied description. Inside was a ring, and at the center of the ring was embedded a golden gemstone the size of an adult man's fist. The gemstone was irregular, meteorite-like in shape, transparent, with diamond-like clarity.

Unfortunately, this gemstone was already cracked, with the largest crack as thick as a fingernail.

Yet even so, this golden gemstone could still dazzle the eyes, showing how dazzling its brilliance must have been when intact.

Outside the inner ring was another ring.

This outer ring's shape bore a resemblance to the Moon Gold Wheel from "The Legend of Shu Mountain," circular but with a slight gap, like a crescent moon. On the crescent-shaped outer ring were depicted "rays of light," represented by metal needles of differing lengths.

Some were long, some short, haphazardly arranged, though the longest needles angled at 45 degrees upwards and downwards.

Both the inner and outer rings were made of the same golden metal as the scepter's shaft.

"What level of artifact is this? Is it a weapon or a piece of magical equipment? Is it a scepter symbolizing status, or a magic wand wielded by magicians?" Liszt joined the two halves of the scepter together. The broken surfaces matched, but there was no reaction.

From what he had observed, magicians in this world didn’t use magic wands.

They might wear some magic-enhancing equipment, but they didn’t need wands or incantations.

As for the Sun Scepter’s weapon classification, Liszt couldn't determine that either.

Based on the information he had gathered from knight novels and magic books, the most top-tier artifacts were those like Dragon Soul Weapons, where a dragon's soul was infused into a weapon forged from dragon bones, with devastating power. Next were Dragon Spirit Weapons and Dragon Fang Weapons, though none of these three types had appeared in the Sapphire Duchy.

Then there were Great Spirit Weapons and Dragon Bone Weapons.

In the Sapphire Duchy, there was one Great Spirit Weapon, the Duke’s blade, "Wailing Prison."

As for Dragon Bone Weapons, during the Iron Hoof Island campaign, the Marquis of Bull's blue-flaming greatsword made Liszt suspect it might be a Dragon Bone Weapon.

After that came Spirit Bug Weapons and Gem Weapons, of which Liszt had the Swift Shadow Bow and the Red Blood Sword.

"Judging from the materials used to make the Sun Scepter, it is at most a Gem Weapon, though the gemstone it's embedded with is unusually large."

Most gemstones are small, and a gemstone the size of an adult man's fist is truly rare.

Moreover, its golden color is different from most gemstones. Liszt had seen a similar-colored yellow gemstone before. During the New Year celebration at Longtaro Castle, his grandfather had given his cousin Rolly a yellow gemstone pendant, but the yellow gemstone had a more yellowish hue rather than golden.

Too bad.

This golden gem has shattered, and the Magic Eye shows no magic power in it. It's now a worthless gem.

...

Liszt stored all thirteen boxes in the gem space.

Though he couldn’t understand the books or plant the seeds, maybe they’ll be valuable later. As for the Sun Scepter, he also planned to keep it, even though it was useless. He’d fix it later, and its looks alone could still impress.

Apart from the items in the boxes, the other things Acheronides had salvaged were of no value.

Not that they’re totally useless; they might have high archaeological value, but right now, that’s useless to Liszt.

"Acheronides, I’ve got all the boxes. Get some rest and don’t stay up late."

"Mm."

Leaving the seaside villa and returning to the castle, Liszt wasn’t tired. The Mini Charmander was still asleep in his heart and wouldn’t wake up soon.

After reading a book in some celestial-like script, his eyes started to hurt.

He sighed and put the book back: "Might as well sleep. Tomorrow, I'll build a glass greenhouse and plant a batch of Potion Seeds!"

He got right to it.

Next morning, he got some glass from the Fire Drake brick factories. With glass now in production, they continued the cooperation with Tulip Castle and were negotiating profit sharing. Mass-produced glass would shake up the crystal market.

Pricing was tricky.

With the discovery of quartz ore, Liszt had sent people to find quartz deposits in many places on Coral Island, ensuring ample raw materials.

Although the glass still had many impurities and the color wasn’t perfectly transparent.

It was more than enough for a glass greenhouse. He had the servants use wood and rubber to secure the glass, and they quickly built a small glass greenhouse in the castle's flower garden. Liszt then selected a batch of Potion Seeds without magic power and tried planting them.

Watering and fertilizing, he waited for them to sprout.

To maintain the indoor temperature, he placed a Fire Drake with magic power in the glass greenhouse. With the Fire Drake's warmth, the temperature inside could reach over ten degrees, which was quite suitable for seed germination.

"Seeds that have lost their magic power, I hope they can still sprout."

He wanted to see what kind of plants these seeds could grow into. Knowing the type of plant, he could purchase the corresponding spirit bug and then plant the Potion Seeds. Even without the corresponding spirit bug, he could cultivate them generation by generation, in case one generation might give birth to a spirit bug.

Wouldn’t that allow him to plant Potion Seeds again?

Liszt had to pat himself on the back for being so clever.