The wooden houses in Oyster Hamlet had yet to be built, but the fishermen were making good progress with their work.
Road construction in the hamlets and the town wasn't fast, but it continued every day.
The low-yield, low-nutrition Two-Leaf Clover at the Dairy Farm had been completely uprooted and replaced with high-yield, nutritious Alfalfa. The ten cows loved the new pasture, and their milk production had risen considerably.
Alfalfa was also thriving in the pasture outside the castle, but none of the mares had become pregnant yet. The Li Dragon Horses hadn't entered their breeding season.
The peanuts in Peanut Hamlet were growing well. Those near the Bug Grass where the Peanut Bug lived were almost ready for harvest, and two harvests a year seemed achievable.
The Black Tulip at the Flower Farm had begun to bear fruit. Its fruit came in small capsules—dry fruits—but they hadn't split open yet. Once they did, they would release many flat seeds that could be used for mass propagation. Thanks to the influence of the Bug Grass where the Tulip Bug lived, this Black Tulip had produced more than thirty fruits.
That would probably be enough to cultivate several mu of land at once. Then the seeds could be handed over to Xiangxiang, the Great Elf at Tulip Castle, to keep propagating. In less than half a year, they could be planted on a large scale.
With ordinary farming methods, it might take years to achieve the same scale. That was the power of the elves.
But elves were both powerful allies and a limitation. They had restricted humanity's understanding of plant cultivation and fertilizer research. Even now, people still relied on primitive slash-and-burn farming.
Liszt was changing the way Flower Town farmed. Every hamlet had begun making compost from manure, plant ash, and pond mud.
Wheat Hamlet was still growing wheat. With the help of the Wheat Bug, increasing the yield by twenty or thirty percent seemed possible. Meanwhile, three stalks of Corn Grass were being tended by dedicated workers. More Corn Grass, however, was growing in Barley Hamlet, where the serfs worked the land and collected grass seeds.
Barley Hamlet had mainly grown barley and oats before. The millet fields had recently been reclaimed from wasteland there, and with Corn Grass being cultivated as well, the hamlet was seriously short of serfs.
Mushroom Hamlet and Tomato Hamlet remained much as they had been, with little change.
The town had changed the most. There was no longer filthy manure lying around, and no one dared litter in the streets. That was all thanks to Liszt's strict orders. Patrols went around every day, and anyone caught littering faced severe flogging. Nobles punished commoners with all kinds of cruel penalties, and Liszt had chosen to retain some of them.
At first, Liszt had considered using a police-station-style detention system. But then he thought about it: locking up serfs without physically punishing them would practically be a vacation for them.
They wouldn't have to work and would get free food every day.
So physical punishment was unavoidable.
"I've set aside fifty mu of wasteland for millet. That's the limit of the Millet Bug's influence. Barley Hamlet can't meet our planting needs anymore, and it's difficult to bring in serfs from the other hamlets. We've already taken a group from Oyster Hamlet, so for now we only have ten mu of millet fields."
Gortai explained the situation to Liszt.
They had come to settle the Millet Bug. The millet had sprouted, laying a lush green carpet over ten mu of newly reclaimed land enriched with farmyard manure.
"Ten mu it is. Once the oats and barley have been harvested, we can plant millet in their place. Without an Elf Bug, growing barley and oats isn't worth the effort." Liszt nodded.
Then he began settling the Millet Bug's Bug Grass.
The Millet Bug's Bug Grass was Yellow Millet, so the whole bug shimmered a brilliant golden yellow. It was dazzling to look at.
"Little fellow, come on. Breathe some fresh air."
The Millet Bug really was a brave little thing. It crawled out of the jade box, opened its mouth, and spat out the Bug Grass. It planted itself in the fenced-off spot at the center of the field, quickly growing taller in the breeze until it had become a stalk of Yellow Millet laden with grain.
And with that, the new mission was complete.
Of the six Elf Bugs, five had been settled. Only the Thorn Bug remained.
In high spirits, Liszt sat on his horse and focused his mind. The Smoke Serpent Script quickly twisted into view: "Mission complete: Reward—combat qi secret technique, Magic Eye."
Then the words changed, announcing a new mission: "Mission: All your companions have been properly settled, but the Thorn Bug still has no new home. As a lord, you cannot waste the productivity of even a single Elf Bug. Find a home for the Thorn Bug's Bug Grass. Reward: the Invisible Dragon's invasion."
As he read the new mission, his pride shattered.
If his retainers and servants hadn't been nearby, he would have jumped up and cursed. "Smoke Mission, are you messing with me? How can an Invisible Dragon's invasion count as a reward?"
According to the information he had received earlier, the Invisible Dragon might leave behind a priceless spatial ring.
But he would have to survive long enough to get it!
A dragon could easily destroy an entire town. Liszt had no desire to test whether two old milk cows and a bundle of Smoke-Cured Grass would be enough to send the Invisible Dragon away. In his view, one had to be powerful enough to enjoy the rewards one received. If he were the lord of Coral Island, he would be willing to risk losing an entire city to try his luck with the Invisible Dragon.
But he only had Flower Town.
If the dragon so much as rolled over, the town would probably be gone, and he'd be left destitute. His luxurious life as a noble would be over.
For a moment, he even decided to abandon the Thorn Bug and never complete the mission, so he would never trigger the Invisible Dragon's invasion as a reward.
But once he had calmed down, he couldn't bring himself to give up.
The Smoke Mission seemed to do no more than nudge things that were already meant to happen into his path. But without that nudge, he had no idea how difficult it would be to develop. Besides, he had already grown dependent on the quick rewards the Smoke Mission brought him. Completing a mission and receiving a reward each time felt wonderful.
He wrestled with the decision all the way back to the castle. By then, he had made up his mind.
"I'm doing it. It's just an Invisible Dragon!"
"I've got Smoke-Cured Grass ready, and the cows are right there. At worst, Flower Town gets destroyed, and I'll go to Tulip Castle and shamelessly beg for another estate."
"Surely the count won't let his own son starve to death!"
For the sake of the spatial ring—and, even more, the Smoke Mission—Liszt decided to take the risk.
Now that he had made up his mind, the next step was to prepare thoroughly.
For that purpose,
he spent the entire night in the castle study, working by lamplight on a plan. He didn't let anyone help him. It was best if he alone knew the secret of the Invisible Dragon. Too many people meant too many loose tongues, and if he got the spatial ring, there was a risk someone would find out and steal the artifact.
A spatial ring deserved to be called an artifact.
"Plan for failure before victory. Staying alive matters most." That was the core principle behind Liszt's plan. Whether or not things worked out, he first had to ensure his own safety and leave himself no worries.
He studied the map of Flower Town he had drawn and thought for a long time before circling the Dairy Farm. "This will be the battlefield for the Invisible Dragon's invasion. I'll leave the cows here as bait, then cut down all the Smoke-Cured Grass and pile it up at the farm to draw the Invisible Dragon's attention."
"As for fighting, that's out of the question. No one can defeat a dragon, much less slaughter an Invisible Dragon."
"Dragons are said to have dragon breath: special magical substances they spew from their mouths, such as fire, acid, or venom. Half a dragon's combat strength comes from its breath. So the ground is dangerous. I'll need to dig an underground passage so I can escape the Invisible Dragon as soon as it arrives."
"Surely a dragon wouldn't dig through the earth to catch a few little humans like bugs."
"Then again, I probably won't be able to see the Invisible Dragon, and no one in Flower Town should be able to see it either. To determine its exact position, I should spread a layer of flour at the Dairy Farm. Then its footprints will show when it walks... But wait, do dragons even need to walk? Don't they fly?"
Liszt scratched his head, wondering how he could detect the Invisible Dragon. But no matter how long he thought, he couldn't figure out how to see a dragon that could turn invisible.
Frustrated, he slammed his fist on the desk.
Clack.
The candleholder toppled from the force of his blow. The candle wax ran across the desk and dripped onto a knight's novel at the corner. Flames instantly engulfed the book.