Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 336 Hela's Hidden Identity: The Perfumer Priestess and the Unparalleled Value of the Incense Burner

Hela's steps faltered before the fragrant garden in the corridor. A breeze swept through the clusters of lilac blossoms, scattering a few snowflakes that clung to her temples, much like the pear blossoms that fell on the hair of a witch in her homeland in March. Her raised finger hovered in mid-air, and upon closer inspection, it trembled almost imperceptibly—the lilac trees planted in such a scattered manner were exactly like the scenery of her homeland, even the way the petals of the blossoms were tinged with the color of crystal goblets under the sunlight was so similar.

The sunlight stretched her shadow long on the cobblestone path, momentarily overlapping with her figure from when she was twelve. Back then, she always loved to sway her slender waist as she passed through the spice rack, letting the sun-warmed grass cling to her skirt. At this moment, the lilacs swaying in the wind suddenly took shape: the lilacs to her left exuded the cool plum fragrance that her mother often used when blending perfumes, while the rosemary spikes hanging from the trellis to her right still retained the seven-inch length that her older sister loved most.

She crouched down, her skirt brushing against the freshly loosened soil. The damp earthy scent mingled with the familiar aroma of fungi, wafting up—so much like the smell her father used to share with her when identifying underground fungal growth after the first thunderstorm of the rainy season in the south. Her fingertips touched a moss-covered pebble; the dew that had accumulated in the recessed area of ​​the stone was just as cool as the rainwater in the stone mortar in the courtyard of their old house.

Most deadly was a wisp of delicate fragrance. A half-empty bottle of perfume, forgotten by some nun at dawn, lay by the fence, exuding the scent of incense burned at her coming-of-age ceremony. As the wisps of smoke climbed her loose hair, the sound of the jeweled pool seemed to transform into the gentle tinkling of copper bells from the eaves of her old garden. She had to press her palm against her rapidly heaving heart, where the half-piece of the peacock hairpin lay hidden, seemingly resonating with the entire fragrant garden, burning intensely.

Hela suddenly burst into tears. Her fair right hand tightened, gripping the trunk of the lilac tree with all her might, as if she were trying to find a sense of home in the tree.

Then, with her left hand on her chest, she staggered and swam into the Fragrant Garden of the Corridor, and soon found the thing that made her heart burn – the second treasure created by the territory, the Perfumer's Incense Burner!

This treasure was created by the Chosen One Oliver after sensing the intense divine grace of the Goddess of Justice. It was a gift from the Goddess of Justice after Su Li helped her stabilize her largest parish and sent her a Surand Elector.

This treasure, created under such circumstances, can be considered one of the most precious artifacts in the entire territory, and also one of the most renowned treasures in the Church of the Goddess of Justice.

Hela carried the treasure slowly out, then bent down and picked up the herbs that grew along the way behind her, placing them into the incense burner.

The incense burner suddenly emitted a soft, lilac-colored light, the overflowing light making Hela's delicate chin and face seem to glow.

Soon the light faded, and the constantly beating incense burner returned to calm. Hela opened the lid, and a burst of golden light erupted, releasing a fragrance even richer and more exquisite than flowers and spices, making everyone around feel refreshed and happy.

Hela opened the incense burner, and all six golden, amber-like crystal-clear fragrant herbs flowed out onto her fair and slender palm.

Hela then took Su Li's hand and placed all the fragrant herbs in his palm, saying, "My lord, this is Heart-Protecting Amber, which has a miraculous effect when a knight charges. It will only shatter after withstanding a fatal attack."

Su Li lowered her head in shock, first examining the clearly textured incense in her hand—it was indeed Heart-Protecting Amber! Then she turned to Hela's gentle face and said, "Isn't this perfumer's incense burner only able to gather its effect once per cycle? It requires a large amount of magical wind to activate. And the effect for this cycle has already been used up, so how could you forcibly activate it?"

Hela lowered her head slightly and said, "The Ramsay family actually deceived you. But they were also kept in the dark. The spices produced behind me can no longer be grown; that is a manifestation of divine grace. How can mortals spread divine grace? Wouldn't that be an act of usurping divine authority?"

Su Li immediately clenched his fist in his sleeve. The Ramsey family was indeed not so kind as to fully support the spice industry in Black Forest Territory.

He said, "How could Zoe possibly give away the entire seed bank of Eastern spices to the Black Forest for free?"
"However, there is one more thing that the Ramsey family was kept in the dark about. In the distant Tiger People's Kingdom, the Snake People are not only gardeners who tend to spices, but more importantly, perfumers. The status of this profession in the Spice Kingdom is comparable to that of various priests and clerics in the Empire."

After speaking, she emptied the ashes from the incense burner and placed them in a brocade pouch she carried with her, saying, "This is [Harvest Embers] produced by Jilun's magic. It can be buried in the soil to greatly enhance soil fertility, easily doubling the yield per acre. It can also improve the nutritional value of fruits and even increase the probability of extraordinary fruits appearing. It also works on spices and herbs. My suggestion is that you scatter these Harvest Embers in your spice fields. Because in the hands of a perfumer, this incense burner can not only utilize the energy of the Eight Winds of Magic, but can also directly produce various precious items from spices."

After hearing Hela's introduction, Su Li was overjoyed. The Ramsey family had really messed things up, giving the Black Forest Territory the biggest surprise! However, even so, it wouldn't stop Su Li from settling scores with their family in the future.

Although the final execution went well, there's no doubt their original intention was bad. Every single detail needs to be clarified.

Then Su Li looked at the [Heart-Protecting Amber] in his hand. As a masterpiece of the perfumer, it was surrounded by a faint light. As long as it was carried by the knight, it could help the knight resist a fatal attack.

The value of this item is beyond doubt. Previously, the territory was able to produce a small amount of Heart-Protecting Amber using the Wind of Jilun. Its value was higher than that of a top-quality warhorse and dwarven armor, amounting to more than 30 gold crowns.

It is said that warhorses and armor are a knight's second life, and countless knights are willing to pay high prices for this guarantee of safety.

The current production volume is barely enough to meet the needs of a few high-ranking knights. Su Li couldn't even distribute them to the main knights of his territory. He used them entirely as a means to win people's hearts and win over the great knight families.

But things are different now. With Hela's ability, the output of the incense burner can be greatly increased.

Su Li couldn't even imagine how tough the Sun Knights would be if they were equipped with the Steel Sun Banner and carried this Heart-Protecting Amber! If an enemy wanted to kill a Sun Knight, they would first have to face the Steel Sun Shield on the knights. After finally breaking the shield, they would have to shatter this Heart-Protecting Amber, and then they would have to face the knights' powerful healing potions.

It means that you have to deal several fatal blows and empty the Sunfire Knight's health bar several times before you can actually kill a tough and resilient elite knight.

This doesn't feel like fighting an elite monster; it feels like fighting an insanely powerful lord-level boss.

Seranville, however, thought of something else. She gently tugged at Su Li's sleeve, looked up at him, and said, "My lord, if we could create various fragrant dews, it would enhance your strength in every way, allowing you to make a stunning impression at the upcoming Glorious Arena. Ordinary knights simply cannot contend with your combat power enhanced by so many fragrant dews."

There is no doubt that the various enhancements to life, defense, and attack provided by these fragrant dews alone will significantly increase Su Li's combat power.

Su Li immediately asked Hela with concern, "If you don't use the magical wind, what can you make with this incense burner?"

Everyone gazed at Hela with concern, which somewhat eased her homesickness. Humans are like that; they need a certain level of social value and recognition. When their needs rise, when they feel needed by more people and that their value can help more people, they experience great satisfaction.

Therefore, labor is the most valuable and brings the most pleasure. Of course, repetitive and meaningless involution is not included in this category.

True labor is when you can immerse yourself in it and enjoy the value it brings.

Hela smiled faintly and explained to Su Li, "Perfumers aren't as mysterious as you think. Although we come from the faraway land of spices in the East, we are also a kind of wizard and priest. Like perfumers within the empire, we need to use magical winds. However, we prefer to use spices, gems, and other items to replace the magical winds that slowly gather in the incense burner."

"So what we can produce depends on the materials we put into the incense burner. For example, putting in wood-attribute spices like cloves and vanilla can replace the Wind of Jiren and produce Heart-Protecting Amber. Putting in fire-attribute spices like Sichuan pepper and Sichuan pepper can replace the Wind of Aksha and produce the Ring of Blazing Flames. Once activated, it can make knights and officers immune to fire damage, and at the same time, it can apply a layer of fire enchantment to weapons. Its ash is ember fuel, which, when added to the forging furnace, can increase the temperature of the flames, allowing the blazing Aksha flames to seep into the weapon. This will also imbue ordinary weapons forged by master blacksmiths with a layer of magic, turning them into powerful magical weapons."

Wouldn't this be a miniature version of the Fiery Forge? It directly upgrades the weapon's grade by one level, turning a fine-grade weapon into a superb-grade weapon with a layer of runes!
Unfortunately, this effect only works on weapons and not on armor. Otherwise, if a large number of exquisitely crafted armor pieces were made, the Black Forest Army's combat power would skyrocket.

Even so, this powerful effect was enough to make the Black Forest Armory famous throughout the empire. Armories capable of mass-producing top-tier weapons were all renowned.

As for higher-level perfect and rare weapons, although they cannot be directly upgraded, increasing the flame temperature will undoubtedly give the territory's blacksmith masters a higher probability of crafting equipment with a grade of +1.

With so many effects, she couldn't possibly describe them all, so Su Li immediately asked with concern, "Then what treasures can be produced from cloves and vanilla pods, which are the main spices in our territory?"

“It should be Heart-Protecting Amber.” Hela was clearly very experienced; her thousands of refinements had allowed her to memorize almost all the recipes. She immediately replied calmly, “In our Eastern culture, we believe that spices and herbs also have their own magical wind attributes; some are cold, and some are hot. Vanilla orchids and cloves are both wood-attribute spices, so they are most likely to produce Heart-Protecting Amber.”

Su Li frowned, realizing a crucial problem: "The cost-benefit ratio doesn't seem high. The value of Heart-Protecting Amber is 30, while both lilac and vanilla orchid are more valuable than gold. If we use vanilla orchid and lilac to synthesize Heart-Protecting Amber, wouldn't the efficiency be too low?"

It's hard to say exactly how much benefit this will bring, but it will definitely be a case of getting twice the result with half the effort.

If each profit after deducting costs is only a few gold coins, then even if Hela worked herself to death, she wouldn't create much wealth. It's like a farmer who can only produce one gold coin a year; even if he worked for 10,000 years, it wouldn't be enough to cover the monthly expenses of Su Li's territory.

Hela immediately said, “My lord, it’s not like that. Your calculation overlooks a very important matter, which is the increased scale and reduced cost of spices brought about by the Harvest Embers. In fact, the Harvest Embers are the most important harmonizing factor in our Spice Kingdom. I don’t know if this analogy is appropriate—in our Spice Kingdom, the spice gardens covered by the Harvest Embers are equivalent to the land blessed by the gods in the Empire. We are doing our best to increase the area of ​​this blessed land.” Su Li immediately understood. Although Hela’s analogy was indeed very inappropriate, if she were to promote it like this within the Empire, she would likely be sent straight to the stake.

However, in the Black Forest Territory, a territory that places great emphasis on farming, the spice garden covered by the Embers of Harvest is like a blood sacrifice farm, capable of greatly increasing yield per acre.

The only difference is that the farmland used for the blood sacrifice was sacrificed by the Poleviks.

The bountiful fields of these spice gardens were cultivated using fertilizers made by perfumers.

If we also consider the benefits from Harvest Embers, then this perfumer's incense burner produces a very high output of spices. In addition to continuously producing Heart-Protecting Amber to enhance the knights' combat power, it can also use Harvest Embers to increase the output of the spice garden.

Currently, the yield of vanilla orchids is only a little over 1 jin per mu. Even with various buffs and territory characteristics, it can only yield a little over 2 jin at most.

But if you spread fertilizer like Harvest Ashes on every acre of land, the yield per acre will double!

Moreover, spices can be planted on ordinary farmland sprinkled with the ashes of a bountiful harvest, and spice farms will spring up one after another in the territory!

It's fair to say that this perfumer's incense burner, which uses spices to blend precious materials, isn't consuming resources at all, but rather expanding production! You could think of it as a fertilizer-making machine.

In the distant land of the tiger people, it was the tireless work of priests and perfumers, day and night, that produced a large quantity of Harvest Ashes, continuously expanding the scale of the spice garden.

Over thousands of years, these spice gardens have been destroyed and rebuilt in wars, burned and rebuilt. The trampling of the Greenskins once turned the fragrant fertile land into a scorched swamp, and the chaotic and corrupting miasma once swallowed the fragrant life of spices. The burning swords of the raiders turned the hard work of generations of artisans into towering columns of smoke. But whenever the drums of war cease, there are always perfumers and descendants of the snake people who pick up the remaining seeds from the ashes and rebuild the spice gardens with a will more stubborn than war itself.

Su Li felt a surge of excitement. The aspirations of farming races were always so similar. He was greatly encouraged and said, "Very good. We must have this kind of unwavering determination to grow stronger little by little. Through farming day after day, we will develop our spice garden."

"I will support you in using these spices and putting them into full production. Let the first batch of Harvest Ashes be here in the Corridor Herb Garden. Right now, there are only 10 acres of lilac and less than 50 acres of vanilla orchids in total. I hope that with your incense burner, the area of ​​the herb garden in the territory can be increased to more than 100 acres as soon as possible."

The upgrades to this spice garden will accelerate, as more spices mean more Harvest Embers that Hela can produce. More Harvest Embers, in turn, further increase the size of the spice garden. This creates a positive feedback loop that will pave the way for growth.

As soon as Su Li finished speaking, Vidag, who was standing next to her, hurriedly said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You only mentioned the treasures produced by spices, but you haven't mentioned gemstones yet. I remember you said that the perfumer's incense burner can also be made with gemstones."

Hela's gentle face showed a troubled expression: "It's not that I don't want to tell you, but I really don't know either. I used spices as raw materials before. Our homeland is not rich in gemstones, so I don't know what it will produce."

“No problem.” Vidag puffed out his full chest, which looked like a small bun, and said, “My gem pool is full of gems. You can give it a try.”

As she spoke, she waved her hand, and a piece of jade floated over from the pool. Then she reached out again, and a handful of water, along with a large amount of lilacs that had fallen from the pool, landed in Hela's hand.

"These two things are the most abundant here. Try them out and see what effect they produce."

Su Li couldn't help but glance at her sideways. Was she using jade as a material?

This is a high-grade gemstone worth up to 200 gold crowns.

Honestly, this value is enough to buy an elite knight. If this jade stone is used as a material to make perfume, how high-level would the product have to be to generate profit?

Seeing that Vidag was so eager to see it, Hela had no choice but to try it out, placing a jade stone and some lilac flowers into the incense burner.

Fortunately, the properties of these two materials are quite suitable, both belonging to the direction of Jilun's Wind and Emerald Mage, so there will not be too much risk or problem in the production.

As Hela gently placed the jade stone and cloves into the perfumer's incense burner, a misty vapor quickly rose from the burner lid, displaying a dreamy light green hue, much like the color of tender leaves just sprouting in early spring.

Immediately afterward, a soft yet bright light emanated from the incense burner, spreading outwards from its center and illuminating a small area, making it appear like a fairyland. As time passed, the light within the burner grew increasingly dazzling, and the outlines of the jade stone and lilac flowers that had been placed inside gradually blurred, merging into a shimmering play of light and shadow. The light and shadow continuously rolled and shifted, seemingly nurturing something wondrous.

Finally, with a crisp "pop" sound, the lid of the furnace suddenly sprang up, and a beam of emerald light shot out from inside the furnace, shooting straight into the air.

Su Li had excellent eyesight; before the gem even hit the ground, he could see its appearance clearly. He rested his chin on his right hand and asked curiously, "Why does it seem like there's no change?"

When the gem fell into Vidag's hands, she looked down at it. The gem's appearance hadn't changed much; it was still an emerald gem, the only difference being the addition of some lilac tree patterns.

But Hela's face lit up with joy: "Excellent! It's an Emerald Tree Ring. I've only ever heard of such a powerful treasure in the legends of my hometown. You can plant it in a field, and it will guard the area like a loyal oak guardian. Or you can regard it as the avatar of the mage Jiren, capable of casting Emerald Spells and summoning earth spirits."

“A powerful guardian?” Vidag smiled. “That’s great. My gem pool does need a powerful guardian to fight against the goblins, thieves, and human adventurers who are constantly encroaching.”

As he spoke, Vidag ran to the edge of the gem pool and planted the jade rings there.

As the water from the Gemstone Pool was poured in, the Emerald Tree sprouted and grew rapidly from the ground, as if it were a magical creation. It truly resembled a summoned creature conjured by the mage Jiren.

In just a short while, it grew into a large plant guardian about three meters tall, with a thick stem covered with layers of armor that looked like dry tree bark, and a crown formed by overlapping branches on its head, making it look very majestic.

Its weapon is a bladed wheel covered in thorns and barbs, which gives it a very long range of attack capabilities. When the monster appears, even if it cannot move, it can still launch the bladed wheel and riddle the enemy with a storm of bullets.

Vidag excitedly shouted to it, "Emerald Ring Guardian, launch a blade and try it out."

The next moment, a blade shot towards Su Li! The blade, covered in barbs, cut through the air, glowing with emerald light, and its power was like that of a magic missile!
Seranville immediately stepped in front of Su Li: "Blazing Blood - Embrace of Winter!"

As her bloodline energy erupted, three solid ice shields, gleaming with icy light, instantly appeared and blocked the magic wheel.

The moment the impeller pierced the ice shield, a piercing, teeth-grinding shriek filled the entire space. The frosty-white shield exploded into a shower of prisms at its incredibly high speed, each fragment shooting in all directions, shredding countless trees and plants. Then came the second shield, which too was pierced, emitting a roar like a glacier avalanche. It wasn't until the third shield that the magical missile was finally stopped, but it was already riddled with cracks.

Ariana's eyes widened instantly. This was a shield that the Ice Valkyrie had created using her bloodline abilities!

Even if she is a champion-level fighter, she probably wouldn't have this much damage output with a normal attack without using her bloodline power!

Su Li was overjoyed. If Vidag had dozens of Emerald Rings, wouldn't he be able to easily defeat a large number of invading monsters in a strategically important defensive location?

(End of this chapter)