Chapter 232: Searching for New Food Crops

To the west of the Heitie Forest lies a rocky mountain, Yashishan.

Its terrain is not particularly steep, but its appearance is somewhat peculiar.

The further one walks up the mountain, the more granite is distributed; much of it is even directly exposed, without the slightest bit of soil or vegetation covering it.

Upon reaching the summit, there is an even more barren stone forest.

After seeing this mountain, Luoning thought of designating it as the lair for Kaierluosi.

This day, he arrived at the foot of Yashishan and, for the first time, issued a call to the dragon through their contract.

The connection on the soul level was quite marvelous; although the man and the dragon did not know how far apart they were, Luoning could feel that, following his call, Kaierluosi was approaching at an extremely fast speed.

Before long, a black dot appeared on the horizon and expanded at an extremely fast speed; within a few breaths, the massive figure arrived in the nearby sky.

Before it had even landed, the Tayunjv sensed its aura and let out an uneasy whinny.

With the bloodline of a Level 3 Magical Beast and having undergone training, such a warhorse would generally not panic unless it could not help it.

If the Tayunjv was like this, let alone the mount of Tangmu nearby.

This Ordinary Warhorse seemed to be trembling all over, uneasily lifting its front hooves as if wanting to leave. If not for Tangmu firmly gripping the reins and soothing it, it would likely have fled directly.

Whoosh—

Kaierluosi folded its wings and dove down, stirring up a gust of wind before slowly landing in front of Luoning.

"Master, you called me!"

Its voice seemed much more cheerful than before; it appeared that it had been living quite happily recently.

In fact, over these past half a month, Kaierluosi had already figured things out.

Following the master before its eyes not only allowed for ample freedom but also provided great help in improving its strength.

Especially the latter; this ability to instantly increase its strength and save it decades of cultivation time was truly inconceivable.

Acknowledging Luoning as its master was not a loss at all; on the contrary, it had great benefits.

"Half a month no see, your size seems to have grown a bit?"

Luoning said with a smile.

Besides the size, Luoning also noticed that the other's level progress had increased by 3 points, and it was now at (3/12500).

At this speed, it would be able to become a Level 7 Magical Beast in over a hundred years.

Hmm...

One can only say that although dragons are powerful, the process of becoming stronger is a bit slow.

Kaierluosi looked back at its own body; it also felt that it had grown a small circle larger.

"It might be because I've been eating too well recently, making up for a bit of the nutrition I lacked during that period."

A dragon over two hundred years old would normally be much larger than it was now.

"Let's not talk about idle matters; there are mainly two things I called you over for today."

Luoning pointed at the mountain peak in front, "I intend to use this place as your lair; you can come back to roost for a few days when you have time, so that nearby Magic Beasts will not dare to easily set foot in the town where humans live."

Kaierluosi glanced at the mountain peak; it did not reject settling down here. On the contrary, it preferred an open-air environment, which made it feel comfortable and free.

"Rest assured, Master; with me here, Magic Beasts will not dare to approach."

Kaierluosi vowed, "After we parted that day, I ate a large black bear around here; the aura it emitted was enough to make nearby Magic Beasts flee."

Not to mention its Dragon Might, just speaking of strength alone, a Level 6 dragon was enough to make many Magic Beasts retreat.

Other Magic Beasts knew that a dragon resided here and naturally would not dare to approach easily.

After finishing this matter, Luoning had Kaierluosi take him to patrol the Zhaoze once.

This was something he had wanted to do ever since he obtained Swamp Town, but unfortunately, he did not have the conditions at the time.

In the vast Zhaoze, wanting to travel on foot by human power was not only time-consuming and laborious but also dangerous; even if riding a horse, firstly there were no established roads, and secondly, the environment in the swampy land easily rotted horse hooves.

Now that Kaierluosi's physical strength had almost recovered, riding it to take a tour was not only convenient but also fast.

This time, Luoning's patrol of the Zhaoze, besides wanting to roughly get a sense of the scope of the swampy land, was also to look for some things he wanted.

The dragon let out a low moan, and in the blink of an eye, it carried Luoning into the high sky.

On the ground, Tangmu, who was holding the Tayunjv, was somewhat lost in thought.

Thinking back, with his strength, he could still spar and trade blows with the Lord, but now, he feared that if Kaierluosi sneezed, he would be knocked over.

The current Luoning was already an object of admiration for all the Transcendental and Magician in the Wubei Territory.

The dragon sped along, soon crossing Shanlin Town, passing through the stone forest, and arriving above Swamp Town.

Lowering its altitude slightly, Luoning saw that near the town, many of the territory's people were stooping in the swampy land to mine swamp fertilizer, while simultaneously regulating the swamp and reclaiming new farmland.

Developing swampy land involved a bit more danger compared to reclaiming wasteland in the mountains.

Even though these swamps had been treated by Luoning with Magic, there were still risks; minor ones resulted in injury, while major ones meant falling into mud pits or losing one's life to snake bites—these were all things that had happened.

But the people of the territory needed to work and needed to survive, so even if they worried about safety, they had to bite the bullet and go.

What's more, after tea and meals, villagers from several villages would compare with each other; if they fell too far behind, they would even be mocked. In this way, they worked even harder.

Fortunately, the new Lord was not as stingy as Leisen; although the work they did was heavy, as long as they worked seriously, there would be food subsidies, and eating and drinking their fill was not a problem.

For Luoning, he wanted the people of the territory to do the work well while also wanting to minimize accidents.

For this reason, he had also summoned Wilson, Sailin, and several Village Chief and Group Leader to discuss and formulate some safety contingency plans.

For example, if someone fell into a mud pit, the methods and steps for rescue, as well as rescue supplies like long poles and hemp ropes that needed to be prepared when starting work;

Or, for example, if bitten by a Duxie, how to handle it to prevent the poison from spreading, and so on.

Besides this, Aierlong also taught them some knowledge about detoxifying plants, letting them pay more attention when they started work.

The dragon flew past rapidly, soon leaving the area of the town and arriving at a region rarely visited by humans.

Compared to the landscape around Swamp Town, the environment here was more primitive and rugged, and the sky was high and vast.

On the vast land, thin and long rivers began to appear; they crisscrossed, connecting lakes of all sizes scattered like stars, forming a magnificent natural scroll.

While overlooking the beautiful scenery, Luoning knew the value of this land.

If all of it were developed, given the fertility of the soil here, this place would become a massive granary for the Wubei Territory.

"Lower the altitude a bit more, and slow down."

"As you wish, Master."

Kaierluosi's flying ability was truly superb; just by spreading its wings, it could maintain a low-altitude glide without needing to flap them.

At a distance of fifty or sixty meters from the ground, Luoning could see the situation below clearly.

Rice seedlings were the plants Luoning wanted to find this time.

The staple grains of this world were barley and wheat, and Luoning had never heard of a crop called rice.

He did not know if this crop simply did not exist here, or if it did exist but remained undeveloped due to the low level of agricultural cultivation.

The reason Luoning had such thoughts was mainly because the species resources in the Zhaoze were extremely rich.

Many birds inhabited this place, bringing all kinds of seeds with them, which led to a great variety of plants; furthermore, the environment here was very suitable for rice growth.

If he truly discovered wild rice, it would be of great help to the development of Swamp Town.

After all, growing wheat required relatively dry soil and had high drainage requirements, which increased the difficulty of land reclamation for the territory's people.

By comparison, rice preferred environments with plenty of water and soft soil, which would greatly reduce the difficulty of reclaiming land in Swamp Town.

Planting rice here would certainly yield more than wheat.

Although the taste and nutritional value of wheat and rice were different, there would always be people who liked them.

Moreover, having a food crop with a higher yield was not a bad thing for the Wubei Territory.

Of course, these were all assumptions; everything still depended on whether Luoning could find wild rice.

Kaierluosi maintained its low-altitude flight, and its speed was not fast.

Luoning did indeed see many green plants, but each time he had Kaierluosi land to observe them closely, he was disappointed; these green plants were merely weeds.

But he knew that the more this happened, the more patience he needed to have.

It was only mid-May now; even if there were wild rice here, it would still be in the seedling stage, with a height not much different from weeds, so he had to observe even more carefully.

Kaierluosi was somewhat puzzled, not understanding why its master was so interested in wild grass; compared to plants, it was more interested in meat.

It looked at the pool of water to the side, and its intuition told it there was a big guy down there, but it wasn't hungry right now.

Luoning walked along this wetland for a distance without seeing what he wanted, so he jumped onto the dragon's back.

"Let's go, let's look somewhere else." (End of chapter)