Evil dragon has a warm heart
Chapter 286 - 286 285 Patrolling the Territory

Chapter 286: Chapter 285 Patrolling the Territory Chapter 286: Chapter 285 Patrolling the Territory Returning to Wuyao Snake Manor from Fluorescent Castle, Russell arranged for the two grand scholars, Robert and Alexis, to stay in the officials’ dormitory.

The escort knight squad was also accommodated in the officials’ dormitory.

Luckily, the dormitory building was large, and there weren’t many officials in Wuyao Snake Manor, so it was barely able to accommodate everyone.

“Catherine, Robert and Alexis will be inspecting the retting fertilization skill on the estate, and you are responsible for entertaining the two grand scholars,” Russell, who had no time to waste accompanying the grand scholars himself, tasked the health officer Catherine with this duty.

Knowing the high status of the grand scholars, even higher than that of a lord baron, Catherine became very respectful.

“Yes, Sir, I will take good care of the two grand scholars.”

“Eric.” Russell then called out the name of his own knight captain. “If Lord Buskuk’s knight squad gets bored, you can take them to the snowfield to hunt some snow ghosts… It just so happens that there have been frequent snow specter invasions recently.”

Eric nodded and gruffly acknowledged, “Understood.”

At that moment, Charles asked with a smile, “Sir, on your return this time, the lord baron successfully rode a dragon, which is cause for celebration. Moreover, Grove has become a Phantom Beast Knight after his outing and brought back a Wind Blade Brown Bear—also a cause for celebration.”

“Let’s forget the celebration, now is a time of prohibition on revelry; no one is allowed to touch alcohol,” Russell refused the suggestion to hold a banquet.

But he quickly added, “However, there is something I need you to handle.”

“Please give your instructions, Sir.”

“Do you remember Mrs. Fanny?”

“Of course, I remember; Fanny’s father and I had old ties,” Charles caught on immediately and exclaimed in surprise, “Sir, you can’t mean that Grove has taken a fancy to Mrs. Fanny? I recall he explicitly rejected Fanny before, which left her going back home and crying her eyes out.”

“Times change; Grove has overcome his emotional barriers, and he’s taken a liking to Mrs. Fanny again, so I need you to help make the connection.”

“Haha, Sir, I’d be happy to help!” Charles took off his hat and gave a dashing bow. “I’ll head to Yuanguang Town right away and see Mrs. Fanny… Ah, but first, I should see Grove and have him show some genuine interest.”

“Go ahead.”

Russell waved his hand, then suddenly remembered something, “Oh, right, when you’re in town, have old Hans come back for a bit. Yesterday at Fluorescent Castle, I was only focused on sipping tea and forgot to ask him about the cigar factory.”

Upon hearing this, Charles gave Russell a look of mock distress, then replied, “Yes, Sir.”

Having issued his instructions,

Russell then began to tour his estate with three knight attendants. Since the Dragon Birth Festival in January to nearly April now, he had mostly been wandering outside and hadn’t had the chance to thoroughly inspect his own estate.

The coldest part of the ice season had passed, and this year’s Grand Scholar Roundtable was expected to end around late April to early May, just like last year.

By this time, Wuyao Snake Manor was enveloped in gleaming snow.

The crops in the fields had all been harvested, but under the snow in the wheat and barley fields, green sprouts were still growing.

In the leafless Birch Forest, large clusters of Glowing Mushrooms struggled to grow through the bitter cold, continually producing magical medicine.

“Chirp chirp!” The mushroom bird Rosy landed on Russell’s shoulder.

“Little one, you’ve done a great job.” Russell handed some breadcrumbs to Rosy, “Keep up the farming, let more Glowing Mushrooms grow, and provide me with even more magic elixirs.”

On his other shoulder, the Tobacco Sprite Niko was getting annoyed, “Eek goo, eek goo!”

Russell quickly made amends, offering it some breadcrumbs as well, “You’ve also done a great job; the Rain Dragon cigars are becoming famous throughout the entire Shadowflame Duchy, and orders will soon be flying in like snowflakes.”

Niko, not understanding what orders were or what cigars meant, didn’t let that stop it from puffing its chest out with pride.

Rosy gave it a glance and scoffed disdainfully twice.

Niko immediately stared over at her.

Rosy was timid and did not like to start conflicts, so she quickly turned her head away to avoid Niko’s gaze.

“Sir,” Knight Attendant Jack said with a smile, “The scale of the Birch Forest has expanded rapidly. It now stretches along both banks of the Glowing River, forming a large area that will soon reach two thousand acres. However, it will take another year for the trees to mature.”

Birch trees are excellent symbionts for Glowing Mushrooms, but if the birch trees are too small, the mushrooms have difficulty surviving.

Birch trees influenced by Birch Forest Spirit Insects, as magic materials, are an exception; even a slender stick can meet the growth conditions for the Glowing Mushrooms. But for ordinary birch trees, they must be as thick as a wrist to support the growth of these mushrooms.

Therefore, the production of Glowing Mushrooms is constrained by the expanse of the birch forest.

After a pause, Jack continued with a smile, “After the birch forest area increased, many small animals came to forage, which occasionally allowed everyone to have an extra meal.”

He was the White Birch Forest Grass Guard Captain, often leading people to patrol the area around the birch forest to protect the fungi.

In the midst of their conversation,

a yellow-furred fox darted out of the woods ahead, seemed to look curiously at Russell and his group for a moment, then disappeared back into the forest as quickly as it had appeared.

The Glowing Valley is vast and sparsely populated, with many areas still unclaimed wastelands, where animals outnumber people.

Of course,

it is precisely because of so many wild animals that there is a steady stream of Phantom Beasts being born; livestock raised by humans rarely evolve into Fantasy Beasts. Pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese—there are almost no examples of such animals evolving into Phantom Beasts.

Wildness seems to be an important condition for the evolution of Fantasy Beasts.

After inspecting the Magical Medicine Field in Magic Medicine Tun, Russell visited several other hamlets, conducting a tour of each to fully grasp the state of his territory.

Due to the season, the tobacco fields, dill fields, and rain-year flower fields in Magic Medicine Tun and the dandelion fields in Lentil Hamlet were all empty; it was not yet the time to plant. Only the Glowing Mushrooms and the Bloodfang Fungi fields in Grotto Village were still growing.

Besides,

the Bear Honeybee Farm in Magic Medicine Tun finally expanded its scale, growing from two to now ten queen bees.

Beekeeper Kenny with his big beard and his wife were busy all day long and had recruited ten adolescent children to help as beekeeping apprentices. However, Russell still couldn’t taste the honey produced by the Bear Honeybees, as new colonies needed to continue being cultivated.

After all, when the warm season arrived, a group of Bear Honeybees would have to be sent to his young nephew Kuso Tian Purplegrass.

Of course, the Black Gold Pig Farm in Lentil Hamlet also welcomed the harvest season: the Dark Gold Pig, bearing great expectations, had successfully impregnated all of the golden black mother pigs sent from Golden Top Castle, and they just awaited the birth of the piglets.

At that time, it would be possible to determine whether the new breed of livestock, the Dark Gold Pig, could stabilize.

In fact, Russell already knew the result; the Dark Gold Pig breed would definitely stabilize. He had used Gloomy Dreamland to see the golden black mother pigs’ bellies contained piglets with a dim Magic Light.

In short, all was well with the development of the territory.

However, there were some areas that fell short of expectations, such as the greenhouse vegetables that Russell had asked Mrs. Sharby, the head of Lentil Hamlet, to manage.

Without suitable materials to construct a proper greenhouse, they had to use wooden houses to build the warm sheds, but the wooden houses needed to be light-permeable and couldn’t provide enough warmth. As a result, the vegetable seeds sown during the ice period either did not germinate or froze to death.

“Sir, I’m sorry, my husband and I truly didn’t know how to grow vegetables during the ice period,” Mrs. Sharby said, earnestly apologizing to Russell.

Although Russell felt some regret, he still reassured her warmly, “No matter, it was just a trial… This failure is not important, next time you will sum up the experience and continue to explore. At least the sprouts you tried to grow were a success, right?”