The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Chapter 0513 Alternative Species for Dragon Bloodline (First Update)

After returning to the castle, no one mentioned the outcome of the sword duel; since neither of the parties involved brought it up, others simply assumed it was a sparring session between father and son.

Since it was just a sparring session, there was no question of victory or defeat.

However, the Earl still felt a bit embarrassed, especially when Lady Marie asked, "Dear, why is there a bit less hair on your forehead? It looks like it's been singed by fire?"

Fortunately, Liszt cleverly extricated the Earl from the awkward situation, "I'm sorry, Lady Marie. When father was instructing me, I accidentally exerted too much force, causing my Dou Qi to burst and burn off a wisp of father's hair... Thankfully, it doesn't affect the hairline at all, really not at all." Continue reading at empire

Lady Marie smiled, "You are both Sky Knights, with powerful attacks. You must be careful when practicing."

Liszt nodded, "Please rest assured."

"We will certainly be cautious, my lady, you need not worry," the Earl chimed in before swiftly changing the subject, "Today's schedule seems to involve accompanying mother to watch a comedy play, why didn't you go? If you don't want to watch the play, invite mother over to chat with Liszt for a while."

"Mother didn't ask me to accompany her; she went to the flower market today to choose some potted plants. Recently, she gave away a batch of potted plants as gifts and needs to restock with a new batch."

"She really treasures her own potted plants. Apart from the two Elf Bugs that Liszt received, none of the other potted plants have ever produced Elf Bugs... By the way, the potted plant she gave to Lidun, do you think it looks like it might bear an Elf Bug?" the Earl said helplessly.

Ever since two potted plants had respectively nurtured a Dragon Kui Bug and a Fig Bug, Lady Penelope had become obsessed with her own potted plants, believing that the ones she cared for were the best gifts for bearing Elf Bugs.

Her gifts were always potted plants.

This caused dissatisfaction among many, as they felt the old lady was simply too stingy to spend money—on her birthday, others needed to give her valuable gifts; but when it was her turn to give, she only gave potted plants worth a few copper coins or at most a few silver coins.

Liszt smiled to himself.

Regardless, he had profited.

The three chatted idly for a while; the atmosphere was neither particularly warm nor awkward. However, they truly didn't have much in common to discuss— the Earl didn't want to talk about cultivation, and Liszt didn't want to talk about personal matters. Noticing it was already ten in the morning, he said, "Father, Lady Marie, I'm planning to go to Coral City to buy a batch of daily necessities."

"Go ahead, just don't be late for the luncheon."

"All right."

...

Buying daily necessities was an excuse; he didn't have to prepare his daily needs himself.

He was making preparations for the next visit of the Formless Dragon—from now on, he had to get ready to drain the Formless Dragon, to extract the greatest benefits.

"The Formless Dragon loves the scent of Smoked Grass; I need to prepare a garden of Smoked Grass for it. Ideally, a dense pile of dry Smoked Grass, lit at the same time to form a grand smoky stage. I believe the Formless Dragon will be so intoxicated by the scent of Smoked Grass that it will be unable to extricate itself."

Smoked Grass is a special product of the domain, so he didn't need to worry too much about it.

At most, he would use different methods to extract the scent of Smoked Grass—burning dry grass to create smoke, crushing tender grass to make a spray, and concocting some Smoked Grass sauce to apply to food.

"The food must be beef, and live cattle need to be prepared: adult cows, calves, all are necessary. Cooked beef also must be readied, braised, pan-fried, deep-fried, boiled, and a varied assortment of seasonings can't be omitted. I must ensure the Formless Dragon fully enjoys the allure of a complete beef feast!"

The domain did not raise beef cattle, so these would have to be purchased from the livestock market on Coral Island, and a chef proficient in cooking beef would need to be hired to help in the domain.

He wrapped himself in his cloak.

Passing through the foul-smelling streets inconspicuously, he appeared at the Fresh Flower Caravan's Coral City office.

Buying beef was naturally not something he needed to do personally; the caravan leader Abagon was listening to his orders: "All varieties and sizes of cattle, as well as chefs proficient in cooking beef, Abagon, this is the most important task you need to accomplish in the next three days."

"I understand, Lord Landlord."

Three days was the time Liszt had set for preparations.

It was too short to make full preparations, but he feared that if he waited any longer, the Formless Dragon might slip away or visit early. Should it arrive early without proper preparations in place, not only could it lead to significant losses for the territory, it might also expose the secret of the Formless Dragon.

By then, there would certainly be endless trouble.

Therefore, he only gave himself three days to fully prepare: "Abagon, there's one more thing. Chefs who can cook various meats like lamb, horse, pork, and chicken must also be hired." Just because the Formless Dragon favored beef did not mean it wouldn't enjoy other meats.

Liszt did not believe that the Formless Dragon could survive on beef alone.

According to the Dragon Rearing Manual he had once obtained from the desk of the Marquis of the Bull, dragons were carnivorous creatures, and different dragons had preferences for different foods. Some dragons would even eat stones or wood, seeming to have particular tastes, but most preferred meat.

The Formless Dragon was clearly carnivorous, and while beef was a favored food recorded in The Adventure of Ranger Griffe, it was no guarantee that the Formless Dragon wouldn't eat other meats.

That's why Liszt wanted a bountiful meat feast to fill the Formless Dragon's belly and conquer its taste buds.

And that wasn't all.

He also instructed Abagon to collect various alcohols from the market, to serve as a complement to the meal for the Formless Dragon—should it happen to get tipsy, wouldn't that be... exciting to just think about.

...

After having lunch at Tulip Castle,

Liszt hurried back to Fresh Flower Town, dispatched a large batch of Smoked Grass from the storeroom and transported it to Black Horse Island— he had decided to set up the dining table for the Formless Dragon in the open wilderness of Black Horse Island—many places on the island were free from serf activity, making them very suitable for contact with the Formless Dragon.

He also had serfs uproot a large number of fresh and tender Smoked Grass, especially the high-quality ones growing around the Cordyceps.

The serfs, wearing thick masks, pounded the tender leaves into juice, sealed it in glass bottles, and sent it to Black Horse Island.

As for Liszt himself, he chose suitable livestock overnight, prepared to be infected by the Formless Dragon's magic power and acquire dragon bloodlines.

"The bloodline magic power released by the Formless Dragon must be very limited, otherwise the world would be full of dragon breed creatures, so there's a limited number of chances for infection," he mused.

Firstly, the Dragon Breed Horses were already in existence, with the Black Blood Treasured Horse population slowly growing; there was no need to occupy more slots.

Secondly, there were already Dragon Breed Cows, but their number was small, with only four coming from close kin, which wasn't conducive to future breeding—taking two or three pregnant cows could help increase the number of new Dragon Breed calves.

Next, poultry like chickens, ducks, and geese were relatively small in size and probably required less magic power; he could choose some females along with their incubating eggs to bring in bulk.

Then, since pork was going to be a main source of meat for the territory, having a batch of Dragon Breed Pigs was clearly necessary; he could bring a few pregnant sows.

Furthermore, he could select a batch of Green-headed Duck eggs to take with him; creating Dragon Breed Green-headed Ducks would surely be wonderful.

"We can basically guess that embryos are the most susceptible to infection by dragon bloodlines... So, should I also bring a group of adult individuals?" he wondered, thinking of Douson and the Eight Tiny Ones, turning them into Intermediate Dragon Breed Magic Beasts would definitely greatly increase their might.

However, the last visit from the Formless Dragon did not evolve the adult cows into Dragon Breed Cows, which shows that the bloodlines of mature organisms were already set and hard to infect.

The Earth Matron was already reproductively isolated and could no longer breed, essentially dashing any hope of Douson's offspring becoming Dragon Beasts.

"Besides, to turn Douson into a Dragon Beast would probably require a lot of bloodline magic power... I have so many species needing infection that I really can't spare much magic power for Douson... Nevermind, they have already achieved greatness, so this time let's not consider the Blizzard Beast,"

He shook his head, unwillingly gave up, and continued to think about what other species needed to be taken.