Chapter 739: Jie La’s Strive

After dismissing the others, only Gort and Blair remained. The reason was simple: "You must quickly hand over your duties as Counselor and Administrator of Port Town. I will assign you to Ironhoof City. Gort will temporarily serve as Counselor of Ironhoof City, and Blair as its Administrator."

Upon hearing this, Gort stammered, "Your... Your Highness, Gort pledges his life to serve Your Highness!"

Blair spoke through tears: "I swear loyalty to Your Highness and will never betray Your Highness's expectations!"

"Hmm, Ironhoof City is a supercity of a hundred thousand people. This will be a challenge for you. If you perform well, you will take on greater responsibilities when the kingdom is founded. If not... need I elaborate?" Liszt wasn't particularly confident in them—neither in their methods nor their boldness.

They might manage as Counselor and Administrator of a small town, but overseeing a metropolis of a hundred thousand was a stretch.

Yet, Liszt lacked capable personnel and had no choice but to make this temporary arrangement. Once Flame Dominion was fully secured, adjustments could be made.

Short on funds, manpower, and spirit bugs?

Raid!

By coordinating with the Sapphire Duchy, they could launch multiple reclamation decrees and aggressively raid the Kingdom of the Eagle.

By the time Gort and Blair left, Liszt was already planning how to organize the raids. The Fire Dragon was inherently a predatory beast, never one for production—its nature was to seize. As a Fire Dragon Knight, he couldn't abandon this innate skill; instead, he had to refine and amplify it.

With the Kingdom of the Eagle’s Dragon Knight dead and its dragon stolen mid-journey by Liszt, the kingdom was at its weakest. The moment they showed vulnerability, Liszt would not hesitate to strike—after all, the Kingdom of the Eagle had already mastered maritime technology and could threaten the seas at any moment. They had to be suppressed.

He would make the nobles of the Kingdom of the Eagle understand: aside from the Sapphire Duchy, only he, Liszt, could dominate the seas!

"Speaking of which, the letter from Marquis Raging Waves should have reached his family by now. Representatives of the Yuhua Stone Family should be on their way with a Grand Sprite to ransom him... If only I had captured a few more great nobles before the dragon-slaying battle began, I might have been overwhelmed with spirit bugs by now!"

Regrettably, before the battle, he had adopted a neutral stance and hadn’t acted much. Once the battle began, he held back out of pride as a Dragon Knight, unwilling to intervene.

As he pondered, smoke slowly materialized before his eyes.

"Task completed. Reward: one Thorn Bug."

After receiving the cheers of his subjects, the task was finally deemed complete.

"Ah, excellent! Another Thorn Bug!" Liszt had initially worried the smoke task was underwhelming, offering only an ordinary spirit bug, but it turned out to be a Thorn Bug.

A single Thorn Bug could cultivate roughly a hundred acres of auxiliary thorns. These auxiliary herbs could be used in a 1:3 ratio with magic herbs, and for Earth Knights and Sky Knights training in mana, their value far surpassed that of magic herbs. A Thorn Bug's worth nearly matched that of an ordinary spirit bug.

Currently, the territory had two auxiliary herbs—black nightshade and thorns—both lacking spirit bugs for cultivation. This was where Jie La’s importance shone.

Then, the smoke before him shifted, revealing new serpent tongue text.

"Task: You've noticed the uniqueness of Thorn Fairy Jie La. As the number of spirit bugs in your territory grows, it's easy to overlook Jie La’s temperament. But the hot-tempered Jie La won't settle for a supporting role and is striving to advance. Provide Jie La with new thorn species. Reward: one Grand Sprite."

"Huh?"

Liszt was stunned by the sudden boon, barely believing his luck: "The task is Jie La's advancement, and the reward is a Grand Sprite. Does this mean Jie La is about to evolve into a Grand Sprite?"

He had never witnessed a spirit bug evolving into a Grand Sprite, but he knew the process. The Tulip family’s Grand Sprite, Xiang Xiang, had evolved from a Tulip spirit bug.

The evolution wasn't complicated.

For a spirit bug to become a small spirit bug, it required a cocooning period before emerging from molted skin. The evolution from a small spirit bug to a Grand Sprite involved a wilting period—failure meant death, but success meant growth into a Grand Sprite.

The body will gradually grow from the size of a palm to that of an infant.

Both mental capacity and intelligence will greatly increase, and the vocal cords will fully develop, allowing it to learn to speak.

"Immediately!"

"Right now!"

"Go at once!"

Liszt dispelled the smoke task and directly mobilized the territory's officials to search for new varieties of thorns. At the same time, he contacted Tulip Castle, asking Marquis Niuwei to leverage his connections to find new thorn varieties. Even if they had to search all of Blue Gem, they would locate different types of thorns to provide Jie La with evolution-inducing pheromones.

He called Jie La to him.

Though pleased, he was also somewhat nervous.

The task was risky. Though protected by the smoke task, failure was unlikely—but who could guarantee a repeat of the Tulip spirit bug's outcome?

"Starting today, I'll invoke Jie La's name before bed every night to strengthen subconscious control over fate's power!"

No matter what, once Jie La evolved into a Grand Sprite, she could live for two hundred years. That would be enough time to accompany him for two centuries. Moreover, after Jie La's evolution, the planting area for supporting medicinal thorns would greatly expand, doubling the territory's magical herb yield.

"Wuaa!"

"Jie La, you must push forward!" Placing Jie La on his shoulder, Liszt began inspecting his castle, checking on every spirit bug and small spirit bug, then went to the underwater bug room to play with the Giant Kelp Grand Sprite, Pyke.

The Grand Sprite Pyke didn’t live in the underwater bug room but in a tiny undersea castle built for it by Virginia Truth at the canal entrance.

It preferred solitude, disliking even its own kind, let alone other spirit bugs.

After calling for a long time, it lazily swam over, eating the jade dust Liszt scattered for it. This Grand Sprite remained as narcissistic and snarky as ever.

"Liszt, hurry up and get rid of Jie La. What an ugly little clownish spirit bug."

"Wuaa!"

"A mute clown—so ugly." Pyke sneered, baring its sharp teeth. "Only Liszt and Pyke are handsome."

"Wuaa!" Jie La raised her hand and shot out a green light.

Pyke reacted swiftly, countering with a yellowish-brown glow: "Looking for a fight?"

"Both of you, stop!" Liszt channeled a wisp of Dragon Aura, dispersing the two beams. "Pyke, you are indeed handsome, but keep it low-key."

"Pyke is already very low-key." Floating on the water, it said smugly, "Originally, only Pyke was the most handsome, but to spare your feelings, I reluctantly included you."

"Heh."

Without turning his head, Liszt left the underwater bug room—there was simply nothing in common between them. Before leaving, he didn't forget to instruct the small spirit bug on his shoulder: "Jie La, once you evolve into a Grand Sprite, remember not to copy Pyke's attitude, or you’ll lose me."

"Wuaa!" It was unclear whether Jie La understood.