7 – Advancement in Qi

What empty sea?

Liszt would never agree with this.

In his homeland, maritime contention was not inferior to dry land contention, with the blue-water navy representing the ambition of the countries.

Although maritime resources were quite difficult to exploit, but they were not lacking when compared to dry land resources. In this world, he did not dare claim whether there were mineral resources hidden below the sea. After all, according to the currently available information, only dragons had the ability to produce gems and metals.

However, the sea’s fis.h.i.+ng resources were bound to be immeasurably grand.

In Sapphire Grand Duchy, there was a great extent of uncultivated land and, with the serious shortage in manpower, not even all the fields that could be farmed were farmed, let alone development of the fis.h.i.+ng industry. But the main issue was that sprites were under the control of the aristocrats and could not affect much of the arable land, resulting in very little yield.

Just like Flower Town, the area of ​​arable land was not small at all, but it could support very few people.

The fewer the people, the more they were bound to the land by the aristocrats and the aristocratic system to help the aristocrats farm the land and allow them to collect great amounts in taxes that would support their luxurious lifestyles.

"The development direction of Flower Town shall be this azure Azure Waves Sea!” Liszt burned with pa.s.sion.

As long as there was a fis.h.i.+ng ground nearby, then it could supply a steady flow of food. Only by eating their fill would the commoners have more strength to copulate and increase their population, consequently resulting in an increase in taxes.

More taxes meant an improvement in lifestyle!

Of course, this was not yet a priority as the development of fis.h.i.+ng industry was inseparable from setting sail and Flower Town still having ways to go until it could build boats, as well as his savings yet not being sufficient for purchasing boats.

“Let us go finish inspecting the final boundary and then go back.” With a gentle flutter from the horsewhip and a long neigh, Fierydragon dashed along the Azure Waves Sea’s sandy coast.

The sand was lightly yellow and clean. Occasionally, they would stumble upon large trees resembling coconut trees blocking the afternoon sun and casting scattered shade.

With a little development, it would be the perfect summer resort.

After inspecting the beach and returning to the starting point of the edge of Thorns Ridge, Liszt had formally completed the mission to inspect his territory. Once the group of people arrived at the castle, Marcus and the four retainer knights and asked permission to take their leave. They had their own homes in the small town.

Only Liszt, his servingmen and his maids lived in the castle.

“My lord, seeing you return safely puts my heart at ease.” The old butler Carter led the servants to line up and welcome Liszt back.

“On my territory, even magic beasts have to exercise restraint in their behavior.” Liszt joked, “Mr. Carter, is everything fine with the castle?”

“Of course.”

“That is good. Mrs. Mawson, please prepare the bath water, I want to take a bath.”

“Yes, my lord.” Mrs. Mawson was nearly forty years old and had never been married. She had been working in the Tulip Castle and was now responsible for the maids in Liszt’s castle.

In fact, there were only three maids.

And in total, the castle only had 10 servants.

The butler Carter Potter was responsible for the castle’s affairs, he was Liszt’s trusted aid; the housekeeper Mawson Paddyfield was responsible for the maids and helping Carter managing the castle’s daily affairs; the cook Abby Ladle was responsible for everything related to the kitchen.

Among the servingmen was the valet Thomas Scissors, the servingman Tom Pigsty, and the a.s.sistant servingman Jesse Ricewater.

Among the maids there were the maids Maisie Thread, Debbie Window, and Michonne Oxtail.

There was still the cook’s a.s.sistant, also a maid but subordinated to the cook Abby, Irene Fourfingers.

Fourfingers, a very unusual family name. Probably, her forefather only had four fingers; therefore, at the time of registering the family name, he just named himself Fourfingers. An illiterate commoner who had lived his entire life in the countryside and had practically never traveled far away from home, how could he come up with a good family name?

Also, aristocrats did not allow commoners have good family names.

After Thomas helped Liszt take off his leather armor, the casually dressed Liszt went upstairs. The old butler Carter promptly said loudly: “Jesse, take Fierydragon away. Remember to add more beans when feeding it as it should be tired. Mrs. Abby, go prepare dinner. Tonight, add more roasted meat for our lord. Mrs. Mawson, remember to instruct a maid to prepare the bath water for the lord. Tom, go fetch water from the town. Thomas, go clean the lord’s leather armor.”

“Yes, Mr. Carter!” The servants replied.

Carter nodded in satisfaction.

Although the castle was small, the servants were few, and the life in the castle was a bit lacking, but he was the castle’s butler. He managed the castle’s everyday affairs and was the lord’s right-hand man.

He liked this comfort and power.

……

The temperature of the bath water was just right. Even though Liszt’s maids were not as skilled as Tulip Castle’s, but after under Mrs. Mawson’s instructions, these new maids had already quite adept at their work.

Liszt reclined in the bathtub, enjoying the feeling of being immersed in warm water.

It was not that he did not want for everybody to be treated equally, to let the people of this world feel the light of civilized and democratic society, it was just that he was not delusional. The survival of the servants hinged on them serving the aristocrats and in return being sheltered under the aristocrats’ wings.

Without their work and status, the servants would have to return to the fields, their lives likely turning even more miserable.

Every year, not a small number of serfs and free persons died from starvation.

In a castle, so long as the lord was not some pervert, then at least there was not a need to worry about basic necessities. And once one managed to became a butler, they would achieve the top in terms of status the commoners could hope for.

“Who would have thought that one day I, Liszt, would have so many people depend on me to live.”

His thought wandered.

He entered a state of trance. Soon after, smoke Serpentines appeared before his eyes.

The Serpentines had changed, the symbols from before were no more and instead, there were new symbols: “Mission completed. Reward: advancement in qi.”

Liszt was excited. He was ready to claim his reward, but he suddenly realized that he did not know how to do it. He was about to investigate this issue, when the Serpentines before his eyes scattered into smoke and then swiftly reformed into Serpentines with new content.

“Mission: A grave crises has befallen your territory’s peanut settlement. An unknown change took place in a large part of the peanut fields. The farmers can only watch helplessly as the production gets diminished. As the lord, you need to address this issue. Reward: one sprite worm.”

“Oh, a new mission, and the reward is an sprite worm, good stuff!” Liszt was happy at first, but then immediately turned gloomy: “But what about the reward of the previous mission, the advancement in qi, how do I claim it?”

Liszt was quite agitated.

Feeling that there was no change in his qi, he kept fidgeting until the warm water had turned cold. He had not received the reward for the mission.

He even started seriously suspect whether it was not just an illusion.

The smoke was no more.

After getting dressed, Liszt walked out of the bathroom. After seeing Liszt’s gloomy expression, Thomas, who was waiting outside, let his imagination run wild.

“My lord, you do not look too good. Is something…”

“I’m fine. Go busy yourself, I’m going to the study to read.” After entering the study, Liszt went to look at a book in order to calm down.

But with his thoughts in disarray, how could he calm down?

Might as well change into a set of workout clothing and go practice cultivation in the castle’s small garden. He was practicing cultivation according to the [Fundamental Qi] secret manual, a widely spread low-ranked qi secret manual. Apart from the focused qi secret manuals of some large families, this secret manual was the best foundational secret manual.

The low-ranked qi could just strengthen one’s body, that was all.

After finis.h.i.+ng a set of exercises and giving vent to his frustration, he finally felt a little better and his emotions slowly settled down. At this moment, a gust of wind blew over and Liszt’s eyes suddenly lit up. Apparently, an idea welled up in his mind.

Immediately after, he performed all of the [Fundamental Qi] secret manual’s exercises.

After performing them once, the low-ranked qi inside his body seemed to have reached a critical point and began undergoing a metamorphosis. It gushed out of his invisible meridians and flooded into every cell of his body.

“Advancement in qi!”

“So that is how it is!”