160: Chapter 160 Earth Dragon Fish

In the early morning, the cries of winter birds echoed continuously throughout the core station of the territory.

The blizzard that had lasted all night had completely receded. Looking through the window, the territory seemed to be draped in a thick white coat.

Lister, who had risen early, was handling official business in his room, while the little ones like Christina and Bai Ze were playing and cultivating in another room.

After beheading Art and the others yesterday, Kuro did not follow him back but instead rushed back to the Black Snake Tribe.

Before leaving, Kuro and his companions expressed their sincere gratitude to him and promised that after handling the tribe's affairs, they would personally come to the Iron Thorn Territory Branch to deliver a thank-you gift.

Lister did not stop them, even though Kuro possessed the talent to become a Great Knight in the future.

Of course, this wasn't because he didn't care about Kuro's talent, but because he was certain that Kuro would return empty-handed.

According to the divination information, after Art left, the Black Snake Tribe was attacked and carved up by surrounding tribes.

By the time Kuro and the others returned, all they would see was a battlefield where several tribes were competing.

Given Kuro's status, those tribes would certainly do their best to capture him in order to gain the following of the Black Snake Tribe's remaining forces and Serfs.

Even if they didn't kill him after capture, they would imprison him to use as a bargaining chip to subdue the remnants of the Black Snake Tribe.

Therefore, there was no longer any place for Kuro and his people on that land. To survive, they could only seek help from these pioneering lords outside the Western Border, and among them, Lister was the most suitable.

After all, Lister had not only saved him but also hadn't blamed him for the crime of trespassing on the territory, and had even directly let him return to his own land.

Most importantly, the territorial strength Lister displayed was definitely the strongest among the surrounding pioneering lords.

Although it was likely a pipe dream, if possible, Kuro also wanted to take revenge on those tribes, and Lister's power could definitely help him.

So from any perspective, Lister was not worried that Kuro and his people would not return.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Young Master Lister, breakfast for you and Miss Christina is ready.”

Hearing Thomas's voice from the door, Lister responded loudly, “Come in, Thomas, it's cold outside.”

Squeak~

The sound of the wooden door pushing open slowly rang out. Thomas and Flora walked in carrying covered dinner plates.

Watching the two place the plates on the dining table, Lister showed a gentle smile: “Thank you for your hard work.”

“It's no trouble, it's what we should do.”

Thomas and Flora were already very familiar with Lister's concern and were not surprised at all.

Furthermore, they were speaking from the heart; they really didn't find it very hard to take care of Lister's daily life.

Mainly because Lister was different from those lords with bad habits; he not only had strong self-care abilities but was also very diligent in his work, so there weren't many areas that needed looking after.

After a while, Christina followed Flora, who had gone to call her, and they came into the room together.

While Lister and Christina ate breakfast, Thomas and Flora remained waiting by their side.

As for having people watching while he ate, Lister hadn't found anything uncomfortable about it since coming to this world.

After all, in his previous life, this kind of restaurant service was very common, not just in high-end restaurants but even in some hot pot shops.

While enjoying the delicious food, Lister spoke: “Thomas, if there are areas where you're too busy lately, you can recruit some new maids and handymen from among the Serfs. It can be considered solving some employment issues for them.”

“Thank you for your consideration, Young Master Lister.” Thomas thanked him with a smile and continued, “The manor is currently short of some hands, and I had the idea of recruiting people before.”

“Now that you have agreed, Young Master, I will recruit the full staff as soon as possible.”

Lister nodded and said, “Yes, you can decide these matters yourself. There's no need to specifically ask for my instructions in the future. How could I not trust you?”

“I understand, Young Master Lister,” Thomas replied respectfully, a look of deep emotion at being trusted showing in his eyes.

Lister ate quite quickly. After elegantly wiping the crumbs and traces from his mouth, he looked at Flora with concern: “Flora, I heard you weren't feeling well a few days ago. Are you better now?”

“Thank you for your concern, Lord Lister. Flora is fine now.”

“Good, that's fine then.” Lister smiled slightly and instructed, “Thomas, from now on, anyone who is feeling unwell should take the initiative to ask for leave and rest.”

“It's mid-winter now. If a small ailment isn't attended to, it could very likely turn into a major illness.”

“I would rather you rest more than have you lying on a sickbed.”

This wasn't Lister deliberately cultivating his image as a lord; rather, according to Odinton's reports, many Serfs had indeed fallen ill recently.

Although after examination none were major illnesses—just some common colds—

This meant they needed to recuperate at home, spend money on medicine, and it would also affect their work.

Furthermore, the territory was in a period of rapid development, and having fewer people in certain positions would have a significant impact.

So whether for the sake of the Serfs' health or the development of the territory, Lister did not want them to get sick.

Thomas nodded in agreement, fully concurring with Lister's statement.

Beside him, Flora and Christina couldn't help but feel great respect upon hearing Lister's words.

After breakfast, Lister still had some official business to handle, so he was left alone in the room again.

Actually, there wasn't much business that required his attention; Odinton could handle most of it. He mainly finalized some of the more important territorial development matters.

Lister was now quite adept at being a hands-off manager; he knew perfectly well what he should handle and what he didn't need to.

If he was slightly naive before, he was now an experienced lord, very familiar with various affairs.

Accompanied by the slight clamor coming from outside the window, Lister quickly finished all his official business.

After organizing the relevant documents, Lister summoned the white ancient book in his mind to perform the new day's divination.

【Divination 1: The Purple-Eyed Magic Lion, Bai Ze, will successfully break through today at noon to a strength equivalent to a silver first tier knight.】

【Divination 2: Your act of capturing Daniel for colluding with foreign races on the spot has been praised by the responsible officials of the Kingdom's Northwest Region. You will be given a reward of two thousand gold.】

【Divination 3: Martin, the newly appointed Baron lord of the Black Bear Territory, plans to ask the Kingdom's officials to list the Black Bear Territory for sale at a price of two thousand five hundred gold coins.】

【Divination 4: Recently, the pioneering lord Primo Defoe and the Giant Elephant Tribe from outside the Western Border simultaneously discovered traces suspected to be Earth Dragon Fish in a lake within the forest at the southwestern border area.】

Lister's eyebrows rose slightly, feeling very satisfied with the information provided by the four divinations.

First was the first divination; Bai Ze's strength was finally equivalent to a Silver Knight.

Moreover, because the Purple-Eyed Magic Lion's bloodline was powerful, its combat power could not be viewed as merely silver first tier; its actual combat power would be very strong.

Therefore, his forces had another significant boost, providing more benefits for future plans.

Then was the second divination information——

After waiting so many days, the matter of capturing the traitor Daniel finally had a result.

Although two thousand gold coins wasn't a huge amount, Lister was already very satisfied; after all, he had already gained so much wealth and resources for free.

And he believed those Kingdom officials couldn't possibly be unaware that he had obtained benefits from Daniel.

So overall, it was unlikely they would give him too much of a reward.

Next was the third divination, the content of which was similar to the beneficial outcome he had previously envisioned.

He wasn't sure of this Martin's specific background, but clearly, he wasn't very interested in the remote land of the Black Bear Territory.

The asking price of two thousand five hundred gold coins also matched the expectations he and Brutus had before, which was a relatively normal price.

Of course, Lister knew Brutus would definitely try to lower the price; as for how much, he could only wait for Brutus to send word.

As for the final divination, it actually piqued Lister's interest quite a bit.

Earth Dragon Fish!

If Lister remembered correctly, the Earth Dragon Fish was a mutant magic beast creature shaped like an earth dragon, and its probability of appearing was very low.

Within its bloodline was the blood of the magic beast Earth Dragon, but that wasn't the most important part.

The most important thing was that the pure mutant fish bloodline in its body had the ability to stimulate the potential power of a transcendent's bloodline.

For instance, the Silver Wolf bloodline power in Lister's body was obtained by his ancestors merging with the bloodline of the magic beast Silver Wolf.

It was then passed down generation by generation, finally reaching him.

And stimulating the bloodline's potential power had a chance of causing bloodline atavism; furthermore, this ancestor wouldn't be the Silver Wolf, but the Silver Wolf's ancestor.

After all, before Silver Wolves became magic beasts, most were just ordinary wild beasts that needed to stimulate the bloodline in their bodies to become magic beasts.

And the bloodlines they stimulated all came from the ancient ancestors within their blood.

Although Lister didn't know what the Silver Wolf's ancient ancestor was, its strength certainly wouldn't be weak; otherwise, it couldn't have been passed down for so long.

After all, for a creature to be passed down through long history, its ancestors must have been wealthy and strong.

So to some extent, the preciousness of the Earth Dragon Fish was even higher than that of the purple soul fruit.

Of course, stimulating bloodline power involved probability, so Lister didn't feel particularly excited; his mindset remained very steady.

As for the area where the Earth Dragon Fish was suspected to have appeared, it was very close to his Iron Thorn Territory Branch.

The territory of the pioneering lord Primo Defoe was on the other side of the Tianping Mountain Range; his overall strength wasn't too great, but it wasn't weak either.

Among his subordinate knights, there was still a Silver Knight.

He had sent people to scout intelligence on these surrounding lords after arriving in Coridinglo.

However, he didn't have much information on the Giant Elephant Tribe; he had no idea whether their strength was strong or weak.

Since the Earth Dragon Fish was such a rare creature, Primo and the Giant Elephant Tribe would certainly not give it up, so he had to prepare in advance to compete for it.

Lister spent the entire morning handling official business and cultivating.

Bai Ze, who successfully broke through at noon, arrogantly showed off to him how powerful he was.

But seeing Lister's calm expression without a hint of surprise, Bai Ze suddenly felt bored.

However, in view of Bai Ze's recent hard work, Lister still gave it some rewards, making it happy again.

At the same time, because of their contract, Lister once again received feedback from Bai Ze's magic power, and his own strength increased significantly.

Although he hadn't broken through yet, he had reached the threshold of the silver third tier and would soon break through to the Silver Fourth Rank.

This benefit of receiving magic power feedback from a contracted beast was something only Red could enjoy besides him in the territory.

Currently, the griffon Raymond already had the strength of a Bronze Rank Intermediate knight, and its growth speed was much faster than Bai Ze's.

Its current size was about the same as Bai Ze's, and it had no problem carrying Christina on its back.

Therefore, Raymond was now assigned a new task: patrolling the Tianping Mountain Range and the Blackwood Forest every day.

For these two high-risk places, sending ordinary Soldiers to patrol wasn't safe enough, but with Raymond, there was no need to worry at all because it could fly.

After lunch, Lister took Odinton to inspect Blackwood Town.

Blackwood Town was the name Lister gave to the core station of the territory.

Currently, the scale of Blackwood Town was rapidly approaching that of a small town, but only in terms of population and housing.

In terms of other important buildings and industries, Blackwood Town was still quite lacking.

After discussing with Odinton, Lister had decided to transfer some talent from the Ironthorn Territory to accelerate the development of Blackwood Town.

Walking on the flat ground diligently paved by the Serfs, Lister asked, “Odinton, how is the living situation of the Serfs lately?”

“In response to Lord Lister, currently every Serf has been allocated corresponding housing on a family basis,” Odinton responded seriously.

“In addition, the winter clothing brought from the Ironthorn Territory has been distributed to all the Serfs.”

“The missing parts were partly made from the furs of prey caught by Soldiers from the Blackwood Forest and the Tianping Mountain Range.”

“Others were purchased from surrounding territories by people I arranged. If nothing unexpected happens, the Serfs can spend this cold winter safely.”

“As for work issues, the territory is currently in the stage of reclaiming land, so most Serfs are engaged in farming.”

“Other industries are also developing in an orderly manner. Everyone can be assigned to a job position, and wages are strictly implemented according to your requirements.”

“When spring arrives next year, the territory's farming matters can proceed as expected.”

“You've done well,” Lister nodded in praise.

Since Odinton came to the Iron Thorn Territory Branch, his abilities had begun to be fully unleashed.

Although he had a lot to do by himself, he was full of energy every day.

Whether it was the construction of the territory or the living issues of the Serfs, he could effectively coordinate and arrange everything.

It could be said that in terms of governing a territory, he was not at all inferior to Brutus.

This also made Lister increasingly long for talent from the Royal Academy and the Church Academy.