The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

“Fresh Flower Soap, Fresh Flower Brew, gourmet food, and now ironwood—the specialties of Fresh Flower Town are growing in number.” Li Si Te sat in his study, flipping through the records of public affairs sent by Goltai, quietly sipping his milk tea.

With a net profit of five Gold Coins per day from Fresh Flower Soap, as long as the technology isn’t stolen or counterfeited, he could continue to monopolize the market and gradually expand the scale with the channels of Tulip Castle and Beer Castle.

“No one should know the technology formula of Fresh Flower Soap in the short term.”

Soap Maker Bunier Zhen Dan was continuously refining the formula for Fresh Flower Soap. Compared to the initial Fresh Flower Soap, the present version, although still primarily made of soap powder, pancreas, and plant ash, now included several additional auxiliary materials. These enrich the variety of Fresh Flower Soap and improve its cleaning effect.

Even if inferior counterfeit soaps appeared on the market, they wouldn’t pose much of a threat to Fresh Flower Soap.

Li Si Te picked up his quill, dipped it in ink, and wrote down the number “10” on a blank piece of thick parchment. He hoped that Fresh Flower Soap could reach a daily net profit of ten Gold Coins.

If that were achieved, there would be no more worries about feeding the Castle and the Blizzard Beasts.

“So, the worry that the Blizzard Beasts would eat me out of house and home was an unfounded fear. As a transmigrator, I do have some goods in store; a casual move can bring in a substantial profit,” he thought with some pride.

Fresh Flower Soap was now the pillar industry of Fresh Flower Town.

Gourmet food is also a pillar, although it doesn’t make much money, it greatly enhances the reputation of Fresh Flower Town. Now, who on Coral Island doesn’t know that Fresh Flower Town has the most delicious food?

However, reputation is not very important to nobles; at most, it makes people notice Fresh Flower Town and Li Si Te.

Li Si Te himself didn’t place much emphasis on it. He developed these foods for his own stomach.

What he truly valued was the upcoming white alcohol business: “Next, whether we eat meat or drink porridge depends on the impact of this wave of Fresh Flower Brew.”

The expansion of the Brewing Workshop hadn’t been completed yet.

The Brewers sent by his brother Levis had already arrived and were learning brewing techniques under the tutelage of Frank Dregs and others. The family members who came along had settled in Fresh Flower Town. Thirteen thousand pounds of iron had been transported in two batches, and batches of corn and other brewing materials had also been delivered.

Wooden bottles, ceramic bottles, and jade bottles were being crafted.

Levis’s family tutor, also named Frank, often followed the convoys back and forth, supervising the progress of the Brewing Workshop. Clearly, Levis was more anxious than Li Si Te—Levis had taken some Fresh Flower Brew base and traveled through all the nobles in the six cities of Coral Island, inviting them to taste the new brew.

Pre-orders had piled up on the desk.

In about a week, the first batch of Fresh Flower Brew could be produced and then packaged for the market.

The quill paused for a moment.

Li Si Te forcefully wrote down the number “50” on the thick parchment, hoping that after dividing the profits, the daily business of Fresh Flower Brew could net fifty Gold Coins.

But he furrowed his brows slightly.

He crossed out “50” and replaced it with “100”, considering white alcohol as a luxury item here, a consumable luxury sought after by nobles in their daily lives.

As long as he could capture the markets of Coral Island and Red Crab Island, making a hundred Gold Coins a day should be achievable. If he could also take over Golden Island and Newland Island, the profits would be even greater.

By then.

Black Horse Island could forge ahead with full-scale development, instead of the current situation where he had to stealthily send a few hundred serfs who toiled night and day, barely managing to build a few streets and rows of houses.

Once the Rubber Tree Elf Bugs were in place, Li Si Te planned to immediately expand the planting area of the Rubber Trees.

After the spring, the grazing fields for Black Blood Treasured Horses would also need to be expanded.

“`

“`

This requires a large workforce and it’s impossible without money.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help feeling fortunate, “Thank goodness I have the Smoke Mission, which has already rewarded four types of magic potions. The revenue from the Black Tulips is used to pay for the current construction of Fresh Flower Town and Black Horse Island, barely enough. Flame Mushrooms, Ice Snow Flame Mushrooms, and Rapid Growth Magic Thorns, I’m keeping for my own use.”

The Black Tulip could bring in about four or five hundred Gold Coins each month, which would almost immediately be invested in town construction, not even getting a chance to warm up.

Now is the early stage of expansion and burning money.

Just buying food every month costs over a hundred Gold Coins—the price of grain is astonishingly high, especially in winter. The noble landlords on Coral Island can barely manage to feed themselves, let alone sell any grain.

“This winter, a large amount of farmland needs to be reclaimed. I hope that Fresh Flower Town’s grain can achieve self-sufficiency… no, if it can fulfill three-quarters of the food requirements, I’ll be satisfied, after all, there aren’t enough Elf Bugs to amplify the harvest. For the remaining quarter, I’ll have to buy with money.”

Now is the time to tighten one’s belt and work hard, for only through enduring hardship can one emerge superior to others.

Yet Liszt felt that he must first ensure his own quality of life, so… the expenditure for the castle is nearly catching up to the standards of a Viscount Lord.

It’s precisely because of his lavish spending on food and drink that he’s been able to quickly advance to an Elite Earth Knight and rapidly increase his Dou Qi reserves.

Those nobles with excellent bloodlines make it to Sky Knight in their twenties, and isn’t that also achieved through good nutrition?

Eating Magical Beast Meat like bread and drinking Magic Potions like water, even a pig could fly—his uncle Mesiro is the living proof of this, with mediocre talents and yet still trained by Marquis Merlin into a Sky Knight.

He yawned.

Liszt had no patience to look at these government records anymore. He tossed his quill into the inkwell, “Why do I need to know how much money is spent and earned each day? I only need to ensure that there’s enough money for spending, to meet the needs of my life and training, and then to keep getting stronger!”

He stood up and left the study.

He ordered someone to call Paris, ready for a real fight to sweat it out.

…

After a satisfying battle, he felt completely relaxed.

At noon, his appetite was wide open, and he ate an extra plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, then took a comfortable nap. Just after waking up, Liszt received good news.

Marcus had returned to Fresh Flower Town aboard the Fresh Flower Vessel.

He hurried to the castle, “Lord, the Elf Bugs of the Rubber Tree have been born! Incredibly, there are three Elf Bugs, an unheard-of occurrence! Lasse, Griffin, and I checked every two hours, and when it was my turn early this morning, I personally witnessed three Elf Bugs emerge one after the other!”

He emphasized that he had personally climbed the tree to check, fearing that Liszt wouldn’t believe him.

Liszt had already known this, so he showed no surprise, merely nodding calmly, “I know, Teacher Marcus. Triplets of Elf Bugs are indeed miraculous, but not impossible. As soon as the Fresh Flower Vessel is finished unloading and loading cargo, we will set sail immediately.”

Surprised by the Landlord’s reaction.

Marcus also suppressed his excitement and regained his composure, “Yes, Lord!”

Normally, the Fresh Flower Vessel would not sail at night, as nighttime navigation carried great risks. However, due to the urgency about the Elf Bugs, as soon as the Fresh Flower Vessel was loaded in the afternoon, Liszt urged Kostor to set out.

Splitting the seawater, the spray splashed.

They sailed at full speed towards the setting sun.

Marcus was describing the scene he had witnessed, “They were three ivory-colored Elf Bugs, identical, smooth like milk. One was crawling in front, two followed behind, moving lively from one branch to another. They looked very lively.”

“`