The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Mounted atop the Bone Dragon, it crawled up slowly from the metallic mine pit. The surrounding knights and serfs quickly retreated outward. Liszt issued new orders, "Count Nicholas, continue to organize the miners to dig. Strive to unearth every buried dragon bone, leaving not a single fragment behind."

"Yes, Your Highness," Nickel Bellows responded with admiration.

He found the spectacle of Bone Dragons to be inconceivable, yet even more unbelievable was his Lord Landlord whom he followed.

When the Fengxiang Family, who had crafted equipment for generations for the Sapphire Family, was given to Liszt, Nickel had harbored complaints. The family was discarded without as much as a warning and transferred like a commodity to another. But now, Nickel was immensely grateful to the Sapphire Duke. Had the Duke not sent the Fengxiang Family to Liszt, how could he have witnessed all these wonders and obtained such a bright future?

"His Highness truly is the Son of Glory, no, the worldly embodiment of the knight's honor!" he mused inwardly.

Dragons were gathering under the command of his own Lord Landlord one after another in a short amount of time, even faster than Nobles acquiring Greater Elves. Today, even in mining, a Bone Dragon was casually unearthed, and the Dragon did not resist at all, allowing the Lord easily to mount it.

It was as if it had been waiting for its Lord all along.

Watching the Bone Dragon move slowly out of the mining pit, Nickel withdrew his gaze from that majestic figure, invigorated, he shouted, "All knights, muster your spirits! Carry out the task assigned by His Highness immediately, organize the miners to continue mining and to excavate the fragments of dragon bones!"

The chaotic excavation site, under the organization of the knights, once again became orderly and well-managed.

Such organizational strength was all thanks to Liszt.

Before crossing over, as an ordinary person, Liszt could not be considered a qualified Noble Landlord, but the most significant change he brought to the management of his territory was the "Grand Battle" strategy.

Starting from Fresh Flower Town, under his whimsical command, all officials and civilians repeatedly took part in various grand battles, whether it was for logging, cleaning, road building, or spring ploughing.

After many such Grand Battles, territory officers quickly grew and developed considerable organizational abilities.

It was the intense development of Black Horse Island that led to frequent Grand Battles, rapidly enhancing the organizational skills of knights, officers, and civilians. This in turn created the combat power now used in the development of the Flame Islands, with many former base-level officers starting to manage significant projects.

The Flame People, relying on their organizational capabilities, were taming the Moon Slayers bit by bit and achieving complete control over Flame Island.

Snap!

A vine whip rose and fell on a lazy Moon Slayer serf.

A clerk holding paper and pen shouted, "Number 699-516-999, Aladuyang, on the afternoon of June 14th, at 3 PM, caught slacking off at the Dragon Pit Great Mine, one work point docked!" After speaking, he found Aladuyang's name in the notebook and diligently noted down the time, place, and incident.

The work point system was a method devised by Liszt. Each serf had ten guaranteed work points daily; mistakes would lead to points being deducted, hard work would bring rewards.

After the end of the month, supplies were distributed based on the number of work points accumulated by the serfs.

Generally, a Moon Slayer serf working diligently without absence, laziness, or brawling could earn fifteen work points each day, summing up to four hundred fifty points per month. This was enough to feed two children. If both husband and wife worked diligently, raising four children was not an issue.

The Moon Slayers loved to have children, but in the forest, the child mortality rate was too high. Since migrating out of the forest, the mortality rate had been controlled to less than twenty percent.

It has to be said.

Liszt certainly adopted unequal policies in treating the Moon Slayer serfs, but at least he did a decent job in ensuring their livelihood. Compared to the genocidal acts of European and American colonizers toward African slaves and Native Americans on Earth, his approach was more humane.

This Moon Slayer serf named Aladuyang, after being whipped by a vine, felt a burning pain on his back and had one work point deducted. His bonus work points for today were inevitably out of reach.

He cursed under his breath but didn't dare to resist the clerk.

Under the resentful gazes of the entire production group, he had no choice but to lower his head and keep working, not daring to slack off again—the work point system came with matching production groups. If a production group had several "troublemakers" who were repeat offenders, it could affect the entire group, with all the serfs having points deducted.

Thus, the serfs monitored each other. Anyone who affected the group's earning of work points would inevitably face ostracism and even be beaten by the group in private.

...

Riding the Bone Dragon to a quiet area, Liszt was ready to take his time studying this unique dragon.

He wanted to try flying, but the flapping of the Bone Dragon's wings barely stirred any wind, and it could only stumble and run along the ground.

"It seems a bit useless, not even having the breath function," he said, shaking his head as he jumped off the back of the Bone Dragon. "Ach, try and see if you can ride the Bone Dragon. This Bone Dragon is clearly just a shell without consciousness, maybe you can control it."

"Okay," Ach nodded, indeed wanting to experience dragon riding.

Magicians, as they did not cultivate magic power themselves and mainly drew free magic power from the air or the Magic Web, could not unify their minds with a dragon and thus were destined to be unable to ride dragons.

But this special Bone Dragon might offer a different experience.

Unfortunately, both Ach and Liszt were disappointed that even when Ach mounted the Dragon Tooth Platform, she couldn't infuse her consciousness into the body.

She was unable to control the Bone Dragon: "Brother, Ach is so sad."

"Don't be sad, it's just a bone dragon, after all. Dragons belong to the Knight's cultivation system, and you're in the Magician's cultivation system," Liszt consoled, rubbing Ach's hair to comfort the Little Sea Monster. "Besides, although you can't ride it, you can study it."

"Mm!" Ach perked up. "Ach likes to study dragons, and can help brother master it quickly."

The nature of the Bone Dragon's existence required Ach to study it. Liszt didn't have the energy or brainpower for that; he preferred to consider the Bone Dragon's value.

First, the Bone Dragon seemed capable of seeing a creature's soul and could readily determine soul strength, which should be quite useful. Even because it belonged to a race associated with death, involving souls, it might be similar to the Ghost Ship that Curtis Truth had once created.

Curtis hoped to rely on the Ghost Ship to travel to the Exiled Lands, to find the soul of her beloved, Annute Sapphire.

Liszt felt he might also rely on the Bone Dragon to go to the Exiled Lands, find the Immortal Dragon, and contract it for eternal life.

Secondly.

Since the Bone Dragon was so easy to control, it might become a teaching tool for dragon riding—allowing Dragon Knight candidates to mount Bone Dragons, to get used to the feeling of Mind Battles in advance.

Thinking this.

He immediately sent a message via the Magic Platform, instructing Emily, who was commanding the Mammoth Knight Brigade to build roads, to hurry to Dragon Valley City. Currently, the Dragon Knight candidate program was not yet established, and only Emily barely met the standards for Dragon Riding.