Chapter 767 Upright 0 Division

Light-attributed magic herbs are highly valuable because mages studying light magic require their enhancement. Otherwise, relying solely on a mage's innate affinity for light-attribute magic power is extremely difficult.

Not only is light-attribute magic power hard to attune to, but dark-attribute magic power is equally challenging. These two types of magic herbs are also exceedingly rare, which keeps their prices consistently high.

"What a shame I don’t have a Smilax Spirit Bug… Not only do I lack a light-leaf Smilax Spirit Bug, but I don’t even have a Lycoris Spirit Bug either." Liszt could only dig up both magic herbs, roots with their surrounding soil intact, wrap them carefully, and store them in his Spatial Ring—for soulless plants, the stasis effect of the space could preserve their vitality.

He would cultivate them once he obtained a Lycoris Spirit Bug and a Smilax Spirit Bug.

Among the seven plants emitting magic feedback auras, the last one was a small shrub bearing a Soulfruit. Seeing this fruit shimmering with yellow magic light, Liszt felt a surge of excitement.

He had long hoped to find another Soulfruit, preferably one with earth-attribute magic power, so he could capture a batch of Violent Earth Dogs and breed them. By using the Soulfruit to stimulate evolution during their pup stage, any that survived the violent forces of evolution would become new Blizzard Beasts—just in time to breed with Hiddleston and the others.

Thus, he could build a Blizzard Beast army.

In the future, his burning knights could each have a Blizzard Beast, making sieges and conquests terrifyingly effective.

"Never mind, it’s best not to get my hopes up too much. The failure rate of Soulfruit evolution far outweighs the success rate. I can’t always rely on the Invisible Dragon's power to tug at the threads of fate." Liszt dug up the Soulfruit, roots and all, and stuffed it into his Spatial Ring as well.

He carefully observed the Soulfruit’s reaction inside the gemstone space. If its magic power began to fade, he would take it out immediately.

Fortunately, the fruit froze instantly, unable to break through the spatial power of the Invisible Dragon—currently, only the Soulfruit Tree could defy the stasis of spatial power, dying on a whim with no way to stop it.

And so, the inspection of Island One was complete.

Liszt proceeded to Island Two, his Dragon Eye tracking continuously scanning for magic feedback auras. This island was about a third smaller than Island One.

Island One was roughly the size of Black Horse Island, less than two thousand square kilometers; Island Two was about 1,300 square kilometers; as for Island Three, Liszt estimated it to be only a little over five hundred square kilometers.

However, the harvest on Island Two surpassed that of Island One. Here, there were only two magic feedback auras, both belonging to Spirit Bugs.

Aside from a mangrove Spirit Bug, there was also a Spirit Bug—one that could produce magic herbs: a Stemona Spirit Bug!

"Fantastic!" After contracting this little fellow, with its tiger-headed appearance and a large green leaf atop it, Liszt felt particularly pleased.

Stemona was an ornamental plant, favored by many nobles for decorating their estates—a lush cluster of green Stemona looked quite striking. Commoners, however, used Stemona as an herbal remedy, as its root was highly effective at killing parasites—head lice, body lice, and even pubic lice.

Black Horse Island cultivated Stemona—Yevich Shui Huasheng had a Stemona Spirit Bug, allowing the growth of Stemona magic herbs.

Thus, this Stemona Spirit Bug was of the magic-herb-producing type.

After contracting and collecting the Spirit Bug, the search of Island Two was complete by just after 3 p.m. Liszt continued to inspect Island Three. The vegetation here was also dense, but the island’s terrain was rugged, crisscrossed with ravines. Such an environment was utterly uninhabitable, though it was home to numerous birds.

Perhaps because of the abundance of birds, any Spirit Bugs that appeared were quickly eaten—no magic feedback auras were visible on the island. However, after landing, Liszt discovered numerous caves within the ravines.

Confident in his abilities, he ventured into one of the caves—only to realize his mistake. This island wasn’t a haven for birds but for snakes.

The caves were densely packed with magic feedback auras from various snake-like magical beasts—earth-attribute, fire-attribute, water-attribute, wind-attribute, and even thunder-attribute, though light-attribute, dark-attribute, and ice-attribute were missing. However, the magic auras of these snake-type beasts were dim.

Apparently, their magic power seemed thin—so thin they might not even be capable of casting magic.

"Wait, it’s not that their magic is weak—they’re hibernating!" Liszt pulled out a few hibernating snakes from a branching side cave.

These snakes had different magic attributes, yet their patterns and colors were identical—an earth-toned pit viper species. Liszt had never seen this kind of viper before, nor any records of such a creature—a single magical beast species with multiple attributes was quite unusual.

The vipers Liszt held quickly awakened from their hibernation—they apparently weren't in deep hibernation and could wake at any moment.

The snakes hissed!

They lunged at Liszt, trying to bite him, but with their heads firmly gripped, they couldn’t land a strike.

"Fangs mean venomous snakes... I wonder if they can be farmed. Such a large number of magical snakes would be an excellent source of magical beast meat." He eyed the vipers in his hand, already picturing them simmering into soup. "Or perhaps farming isn’t even necessary—just come to this island every year and round up a batch."

Especially since these snakes hibernate. Come winter, collecting them from the caves would be effortless—their magic power is too thin during hibernation that they can’t even cast spells, posing almost no threat.

"These vipers aren’t very long, with short, thick tails. Let’s just call them short-tailed vipers." He swiftly gathered a batch of short-tailed vipers and stored them in his storage ring.

Frozen in an instant.

The snake blood, gallbladders, and meat remained as fresh as when they were alive. "I’ll have Mrs. Abi personally prepare the snake soup when I return. Her cooking keeps getting better. I wonder how this batch of short-tailed vipers will taste... Being low-level magical beasts, they should be delicious."

He’d eaten so many kinds of magical beasts, he knew his way around magical beast meat. Higher-level magical beast meat wasn’t necessarily tastier.

On the contrary, low-level magical beasts often had the best flavor.

High-level magical beasts, their flesh hardened by years of magic power saturation, tended to be tough—packed with nutrients but bland. However, the young of high-level magical beasts were a whole other level. The meat of the juvenile Six-Headed Sea Serpent King, for instance, had been unexpectedly delicious.

...

The snake meat was packed and taken away.

Liszt rode Leo away from the third island and made another sweep around the smaller islands between the second and third islands, but came up empty.

Still, the smoke task had been successfully completed.

"Mission accomplished. Rewards: one upright stem spirit bug, one sage spirit bug, one rootless vine spirit bug, one pine spirit bug, one purple butterfly spirit bug, and one mangrove spirit bug."

One spirit bug plus five others.

Additionally, there were two magical herb specimens, one bloodline fruit, and a large quantity of low-level magical beasts—the short-tailed vipers.

The harvest from these three islands was bountiful.

Liszt was in high spirits. Though these islands weren’t a place to start a kingdom, their existence proved that farther seas held countless more islands awaiting his exploration.