The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

The brick factory had six furnaces in total, all of them were lit, but they used just two Fire Dragon Jars worth of Fire Dragon Magic Power. There was no longer any real need to produce traditional bricks, since there were many Basalt Columns on the island, and just one to two meters below the ground there was nothing but hard rock.

There was no shortage of stone materials.

Besides, when it came to building houses, wood was still the preferred material, as wooden houses were a great time saver.

The six working furnaces were mainly used for testing new types of clay building materials—selected workers with a flair for brick-making were researching slate, culverts, tiles, and other materials, striving to find the most suitable clay and produce quality materials.

Slate could be used for paving roads, and Liszt had long been dissatisfied with the gravel roads in Fresh Flower Town.

Smooth slate roads were indeed the standard for nobles.

Culverts could be used for drainage in sewer systems and for bridge construction and water supply systems—not yet necessary, but he would certainly need a comprehensive sewer system when the time came to construct his new castle.

Tiles were used for laying on the roofs of tile-covered houses.

Traditional wooden house roofs were constructed with thatch, straw, and thorn branches, which would leak during heavy rains. Roofing with tiles greatly reduced the chance of leaks and also prevented thatch from being blown about on windy days.

…

The secondary function of the furnaces was to produce charcoal.

Charcoal was a fuel widely used by nobles, and with these Fire Dragon furnaces, just neatly stacking the wood and igniting it for a moment was enough to burn off the impurities, then quickly dousing it with water to cool down, leaving behind charcoal.

Every time the Fresh Flower Vessel returned to Fresh Flower Town, it brought back a ship’s worth of charcoal.

Charcoal burned with Fire Dragon Magic Power was of high quality, environmentally friendly, smokeless, and burned completely—both the Fresh Flower Caravan and the Thorn Caravan had already begun selling these charcoals in small batches. Once the workers mastered the technique of charcoal production, it would increase yet another specialty product.

…

Last of all,

Liszt was in the process of setting up a “Calcination Technology Experimentation and Development Group”, planning to use the Fire Dragon furnaces to diligently delve into calcination technology.

Bricks, pottery, porcelain, glass, cement, and lime—all were products of calcination.

Although right now, Liszt only knew how to calcine bricks, pottery, porcelain, glass, cement, and lime were all in line for future research.

In short,

The brick factory was just a front, its true essence was—that of a Calcination Research Center.

…

The next morning,

Liszt picked up the bugle, mounted Douson, and headed straight for the Rocky Beach beneath the lighthouse, where he then sounded the bugle. Before long, a large white conch shell emerged on the surface of the sea, followed by the sound of the bugle in response.

After exchanging greetings,

Liszt then began a new day’s work, taking the triplet Rubber Bugs to the oak forest.

He intended to study the unique abilities of the triplets, to restore the vitality of damaged Rubber Trees. The Cordyceps were now intact, with all previous cuts healed. He placed the triplets on a Rubber Tree with several notches cut into it and, through the contract of mental communion, let the triplets heal the Rubber Tree.

“Come on, you three little ones, try to heal the Rubber Tree and help it regain its vitality,” he said.

With the Eye of Magic in use, he observed their actions closely.

The three Rubber Bugs lined up, began to move on the trunk of the Rubber Tree, and then two of them moved apart, climbing to the other side of the trunk.

“Huh, these three little guys, they actually separated on their own without any external force?” Liszt expressed his surprise.

Unless someone picked them up and separated them, as long as they were placed on the ground, they would crawl together, then line up and act in unison.

This kind of initiative to separate had never occurred before.

However, before Liszt had finished expressing his amazement, the Rubber Bugs positioned in a triangular formation on three sides of the tree trunk suddenly quivered with magic power.

A ripple of shock waves radiated out from them, spreading in all directions.

Through the Eye of Magic, the shock waves spread out in circles as magic wave patterns, touching a Rubber Tree and igniting its magic power, outlining its shape. Then, with that Rubber Tree as the center, new magic wave patterns emanated.

The patterns spread farther and farther, and soon the whole Rubber Tree forest was a series of spreading magic wave patterns.

The intense visual impact left Liszt speechless.

He had never known that magic could be used this way. As his gaze shifted from the fading magic wave patterns, the damaged parts of this Rubber Tree had rapidly healed under the stimulation of magic. In a few minutes, as the magic wave patterns gradually disappeared, all the damaged Rubber Trees were completely restored.

There was no sign they had ever been cut.

“Incredible!” Liszt checked each Rubber Tree one by one, finding each perfectly intact, “This is almost like a cheat ability!”

Suddenly.

Through their mental connection, he felt the exhaustion of the three Rubber Bugs; after releasing such a miracle, they seemed very tired.

He quickly had his personal servant bring the Jade Box, collected the triplets inside, and sprinkled them generously with Jade Powder, allowing them to thoroughly recuperate.

Now.

These three Rubber Bugs had become Liszt’s treasures.

He had initially felt that three Rubber Bugs for only one Cordyceps was too wasteful. Now he realized that Elves, such magical creatures, should not be surmised by common sense; they always bring astonishment.

Having put away the Elf Bugs, Liszt suddenly wondered, “I wonder if the Rubber Trees outside the garden have also been repaired?”

So he rode Douson to the pasture, switched to the King of Black Blood Treasure Horses, Lightning, and started to inspect the Rubber Trees scattered across the island one by one—the young Rubber Trees had all been transplanted to the garden, and the much larger ones, which couldn’t be moved, were left to grow wild.

However, there was a bit of regret.

On the first wild Rubber Tree he checked, the cut was very clear, and it had not received treatment from the Rubber Bug triplets.

This indicated that the peculiar “magic” released by the Rubber Bug triplets only affected Rubber Trees within its range or, in other words, Trees within the area where the magic waves could overlap had the healing effect. Rubber Trees beyond this range could not enjoy the enhancement of the Rubber Bugs.

They were left to fend for themselves.

“In that case, does that mean we would need to use the Tri-Phase Force on every single wild Rubber Tree?” He referred to the Rubber Bugs triplets’ ability as Tri-Phase Force.

If it really had to be done that way, it would exhaust the triplets to death.

However, the Smoke Mission seemed to only require the discovery of the triplets’ special ability and did not demand the repair of the Rubber Trees, so Liszt directly summoned the Smoke Mission.

The swirling smoke formed a piece of Serpent Script.

“Task completed, reward one Apple Tree Elf Bug.”

Indeed, upon discovering the Tri-Phase Force of the Rubber Bug triplets, the task was already complete, and the reward was astonishingly an Apple Tree Elf Bug.

The first thing Liszt thought of was the apple tree not far from the Castle gate.

The Apple Desk beneath the apple tree was where he often communicated with his Knight followers, “It must be this apple tree that nurtured the Elf Bug, which is very interesting. Now, the apple tree truly has exceptional symbolic meaning… It might become another tale of knightly glory coming my way.”