Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 376 Preparations for Contact with the Wood Elves

The produce from the purple spiritual field, whether it's ghost vines, star dew sweet oranges, or various fruit trees, can only be harvested at the end of this harvest season. Su Li and Fandall strolled around the orchard in their holy land for a while before entering the monastery.

This is the most important silk production base in the Hessian Territory. After a spring of breeding, summer silkworms have begun to be cultivated on a large scale.

As the guards opened the door, Su Li and Fandral entered the room. The two priestesses in the monastery, wearing the crown of Leia, rose at the same time and curtsied slightly to Su Li: "May the morning light forever grace your robes, my lord."

Su Li smiled and nodded: "We meet again, Sister Katrina and Sister Lolita."

Every time Su Li saw them, she felt proud of her own aesthetic sense. Since they were nuns who spun silk, they did not wear linen, but rather long, azure-colored chiffon robes. The silver threads rippled subtly with their bowing movements, and their beautiful legs beneath the high-slit skirts were as graceful as the waves of a clear lake. Their breasts, revealed by their slight bowing, were dazzlingly white, with full and alluring curves.

They are nuns of the Church of the Dawn's Daughters, who place great emphasis on love and procreation. In addition to weaving, they also officiate at weddings. It can be said that seeing them is like seeing the beauty of a territory.

Su Li was also in a good mood, and then walked over to look at the summer silkworms in the cocoon. Since the summer silkworms were still in the feeding period, rather than the cocooning period, the environment here was not as quiet as last time, and she could hear a rustling sound, which meant that the silkworms were eating mulberry leaves.

Don't let their small size fool you; they have huge appetites and can quickly devour a pile of mulberry leaves in a flat basket.

"How are the summer silkworms doing this year?" Su Li asked with concern.

Sister Katrinia stood beside Su Li and said, "My lord, we are working hard to cultivate these Moonlight Silkworms, and the current scale has reached more than 200."

"Summer silkworms are not as good as spring silkworms in terms of quality, but they have the advantage of producing more silk, which will further enhance their value."

There are already over 200 Moonlight Silkworms? That's a really fast breeding rate!

Sister Charlotte was quite adorable. Her eyes crinkled with laughter as she presented a treasure, and she asked, "My lord, would you like to see the silkworms? They're plump and very cute."

"Can I see?" Su Li was genuinely interested. In families that raise silkworms, children often can't resist taking out a few silkworms to play with, and he was quite envious. After all, a man is a boy until he dies, and he had never played with this toy before, so he wanted to give it a try.

Charlotte immediately took out a mulberry leaf and placed a plump silkworm on it. The Moonlight Silkworm was whiter than ordinary silkworms, and its skin was as round and smooth as a pearl. After being placed on the mulberry leaf, it continued to eat with a soft rustling sound, completely ignoring the stares of others.

Charlotte eagerly presented it to Su Li, saying, "My lord, you may touch it. Although it is an extraordinary silkworm, it has almost no offensive power."

"No need to touch them," Su Li waved his hand. After observing for a moment, he turned to Sister Katharina and asked, "How is the yield of the summer silkworms? When will we be able to produce our first set of silk clothing and banners?"

The price of this silk garment is immeasurable. Its greatest effect is to greatly enhance the charm and influence of nobles and priests, while also significantly increasing their resistance to the corruption of chaos.

For example, the divine spell "Divine Revelation Leader" of the Church of the Goddess of the Sun can become even more powerful under the influence of this silk garment.

Without a doubt, this high-end specialty is suitable for nobles and high-ranking clergy. Su Li believes that once this Rainbow Silk is produced, it will definitely sell like hotcakes in Flash Spear City, the city of faith.

Sister Katharina immediately replied, "My lord, our summer raw silk production will reach more than 4 catties, and we estimate that we will be able to produce the first batch of clothing in the fall. However, Dean Oliver has not yet resolved the shortage of embroiderers for us."

Su Li still remembered this problem. Before their Glory Festival, they were short of embroiderers and designers. Although Oliver was God's chosen one, he was not omnipotent and could not solve all of this in a month.

Fandall suggested, "Embroidery and design talent isn't limited to the Eastern Zhen Dan Dynasty; the artists in the cities and among the elves within the empire are also quite remarkable. We don't need them to be top-tier; as long as they possess elite-level skills, combined with rainbow spider silk, our silk garments will sell extremely well."

Elites from cities within the empire? Su Li pondered. These people are generally the main citizens of the empire's large cities. They have reached a level of production capacity close to that of the early stages of industrial society and generally do not easily leave the empire's highly urbanized large cities.

As for the elves, Su Li felt he could devise a plan. The two great artistic races of this world were dwarves and elves.

As for dwarves, there's not much to say. Their craftsmanship favors brass patterns, focuses on jewelry, minerals, and anything shiny, and they especially love magnificent statues of dwarf kings. Overall, they are somewhat similar to dragons.

Elves, on the other hand, are undoubtedly more similar to humans. The High Elves, who call themselves Asur, established the most glorious and magnificent civilization in the world on Ulthuan. Their army is also an elite force, standing on the front line against Chaos and other evil forces.

Their art emphasized luxury, complexity, and intricacy. Nobles wore robes embroidered with silk and silver thread, primarily in blue, white, and gold, adorned with rune embroidery and gemstone inlay, symbolizing their status and magical talent. Warriors' armor was lightweight yet extremely defensive, etched with runes or family crests, and their helmets were often decorated with wings or dragon horns.

In the previous era, the civilizations and arts of both races reached their zenith, brilliant and dazzling, captivating and inspiring the entire world with their beauty and artistry.

The former leader of the High Elves, King Kaledor the Phoenix, fought alone against the four great demons on the island where he seized the Bloodhand Kain's Demon Sword in order to combat Chaos. On that desolate land, the elven army was almost completely wiped out, and dragon carcasses were scattered all over the land. King Kaledor the Phoenix challenged the four great demons alone to buy time for the mage to complete the final ritual.

After that, as the force that repelled Chaos, the High Elves ushered in the most glorious Golden Age in their history, expanding into worlds they had never been before and establishing colonies across the globe. At this time, Melkith, the son of the first Phoenix Lord, slowly grew into a great warrior and explorer. He was appointed as the Elves' goodwill ambassador to the Dwarves.

The two sides should have lived in harmony. The high elves were aware of the dwarves' strength and were willing to engage in friendly relations with them.

But later, a rebellion broke out among the high elves, the infamous dark elves. Coincidentally, the then-Phoenix King Khaldor II was a foolish, arrogant, and incompetent leader. He inherited the glorious name but not the wisdom and magnanimity of the leader.

When the Dark Elves, posing as High Elves, raided a Dwarven caravan, the Dwarven High King Gotrik the Starbreaker, unaware that the Elves had split into two factions, sent an envoy demanding an apology, punishment of the offending Elves, and double compensation for the lost goods. The foolish King Gotrik, completely unwilling to clarify the situation, took it as a provocation by the Dwarven King and ordered the ambassador's beard cut off and his return to the Dwarven kingdom. For the Dwarves, losing their beards was the greatest humiliation, igniting a years-long war between the powerful Dwarves and Elves. The Elves called this war the "War of the Beards," while the Dwarves generally referred to it as the "War of Revenge."

The war severely weakened both sides. The Phoenix Lord was killed, and the Dwarf King Gotrik seized the Elven Crown as a spoil of war. What followed was the long War of the Longbeard, which lasted for thousands of years.

This battle caused both sides to decline from their peak glory. The dwarves lost their mountains and were surrounded by the vast ocean of greenskins, beastmen, and ratmen, and could only communicate with each other by helicopters and airships.

The elves completely withdrew from the Old World, abandoning almost all their colonies and disappearing from human sight.

Thinking of elves, Su Li actually recalled a piece of information: "Contact with the Wood Elves." The Bone Merchant, Frostwood, was a descendant of noble bloodlines from a small Wood Elf community left behind in the Blackpine Forest after the High Elves' retreat. For thousands of years, this bloodline had guarded a batch of ancient relics of unknown purpose. After a fire rife with intrigue, these relics all vanished.

Meanwhile, Shuanglin worked tirelessly, building a black market empire centered around her, distributing bounties for any stolen artifacts that occasionally appeared in various places.

Recently, this merchant appeared in the territory of Hessen, attempting to contact the nobles and knights of Hessen and obtain their assistance.

Su Li felt it was necessary to contact this notorious crime boss and black market dealer to find out what kind of help she could provide.

So Su Li replied to Sister Katharina, "Don't worry about the embroidery artist; it will probably be resolved soon."

After finishing his sentence, Su Li looked at Fandral and asked, "How many elves, half-elves, and druids do we currently have in our territory? I remember that the Grand Steward's greatest ambition is to establish an elven community or town?"

“Yes, my lord.” Fandral smiled. “I am delighted that you remember our wishes. Steward Edmund’s grand ambition is to cultivate an ancient tree of life and then establish an elven town, so that the druids and elves scattered across the border princely territories can have a home. Although there are few elves and half-elves in our territory, there are actually more than a dozen of them. For example, Lady Luna Deshan and Lady Sylvanas both have elven blood. If we add the druids, it is not impossible to establish an elven community.”

Su Li nodded and said, "Then it seems we really need to make contact with Nayadarin Frostfore. Perhaps through her we can obtain a lot of items to increase orchard production, since elves are best at dealing with trees."

The scale of agriculture in the territory has increased and is on the right track, so Su Li basically doesn't need to worry about it anymore.

Today, he and Fandral's trip to the Holy Land was mainly to increase the yield of various spiritual plants, trees, and orchards.

Fandral was also very interested in this matter, not only because it would benefit the agricultural production of their Church of Dawn, but more importantly, because they had a high probability of obtaining some extraordinary tree species from them.

As the heir to a long-standing elven power, no one could imagine what she possessed.

So Su Li said, "If you wish to make contact with her, Lord, I can introduce you. After all, as druids, Edmund and I have a natural affinity with the elves."

"That would be the best, of course." Su Li glanced at the time; it was almost afternoon. After meeting the elf, her work for the day would be finished.

So he said, "Then go and invite her over. I'll wait for her at Bjorn Bay." After Fandral left, Su Li went to Lake Lovelyn and started fishing in his spare time.

It's unimaginable how many enormous fish live in this lake, making fishing incredibly enjoyable.

But he had barely sat down when a woman came to his side.

To his astonishment, this woman was actually Luna Deshan, Tal's handmaid and high priestess.

She rode gracefully across the embankment on her exceptionally tall and majestic silver-horned giant stag.

Su Li raised an eyebrow and asked, "Ms. Luna Deshan, what are you doing here?"

It's not the summer solstice yet, so there aren't any knights showing off their abs to see by the lake.

Suddenly, a possibility occurred to him, and he asked, "You're not here to cause me trouble, are you?"

"Are you looking for trouble?" Luna Deshan jumped off the giant stag, patted its rump, and the silver-horned giant stag leisurely went to the side to drink lake water and chew on roadside grass. Behind it, the nuns of the Church of Dawn followed, harvesting the magically powerful moonlight alfalfa with skull scythes.

This extraordinary forage cannot be harvested with iron tools, otherwise its quality will be greatly damaged, and it may even cause mutations in the warhorses that consume it.

Therefore, it was always the nuns of the Church of Dawn who harvested the crops using special skull sickles. This also demonstrates the close relationship and frequent collaboration between the two churches.

However, the two churches were not always harmonious.

Luna Deshan raised an eyebrow and retorted, "Why would I want to cause you trouble? Are you referring to the matter of you hunting down a mutated deer king?"

"You need not worry about that. Thar is the king of nature, who governs the wilderness, hunting, wild beasts, and the changing seasons. In our doctrine, Thar is often depicted as a burly hunter clad in animal skins, wielding a spear or hunting bow, wearing deer antlers or a wolf's head, and accompanied by wild beasts such as wolves, bears, and eagles. His holy sites are mostly megalithic altars, ancient trees, or hidden caves deep in the forest, and his followers are mainly hunters, forest rangers, knights-errant, and remote villagers."

“We do have some conflicts with the Church of Dawn regarding hunting and domestication, such as when wolves hunt poultry. But if you don’t forcibly tame the mutated deer king as a mount, we will not vehemently oppose hunting.”

Hearing this, Su Li breathed a sigh of relief and leisurely continued to cast her line. That's good; at least they're not here to cause trouble.

Then he remembered that, although they were both ancient gods, the Church of the Dawn Goddess in the Black Forest Territory had a lot of monasteries and holy sites springing up one after another, but the Church of Tar, to which Luna Deshan belonged, seemed to have no important facilities and even a weak presence!

Su Li then asked curiously, "What are the doctrines of your church? How come I've never seen your holy site?"

Luna Deshan immediately replied devoutly, "The core of our doctrine is closely related to the temperament of Tal, advocating the survival of the fittest, emphasizing the cruelty of natural laws, and believing that humans must prove their worth through hunting and survival tests."

"At the same time, we respect the wilderness, oppose excessive urbanization and industrialization (such as the steam and artillery technology of the dwarves in Blacksem City), and advocate for harmonious coexistence with nature."

"It places greater emphasis on the seasonal cycle, with believers celebrating the spring hunt, autumn harvest, and winter storage through rituals, and praying for the protection of Thar from famine and wild beasts."

"As followers of Tar, they can use Tar's divine magic to enhance their combat power."

"For example, [Nature's Wrath] can summon nature spirits or wild beasts, such as driving packs of wolves, giant bears, and flocks of eagles to attack a target."

"【Hunter's Mark】, a blessing bestowed upon believers or weapons. Priests smear weapons with animal blood, which can inflict extremely powerful and lethal damage on the minions of Chaos."

"Of course, the most powerful divine spell is [Storm Howl], which summons localized thunderstorms, gales, or hail to disrupt enemy formations or extinguish fires."

"In addition, our advanced divine spell, Beast Taming, can temporarily control a giant beast (such as a forest dragon, a manticore, or a demon bull) and force it to fight for the believer. However, this is extremely risky. If the caster's will is not strong enough or their faith is not devout enough, there is a high probability that they will suffer a backlash."

After listening, Su Li couldn't help but gasp. She felt that the Church of Tar was indeed not very compatible with the development of the Black Forest Territory. No wonder their presence had always been weak.

They will be of great help in our upcoming exploration of the Black Pine Forest and our contact with the Wood Elves.

After all, they are well-suited to operating in the forest and can greatly help the people establish themselves in the Black Pine Forest.

And that is indeed the case at present. If Rhea's faith is mainly in the countryside and rural areas, then Tar's faith is mainly in the forest strongholds, fortresses, and hunting grounds.

Luna Deshan also explained, "In fact, our church does have holy sites; we have two wild holy sites in the Black Pine Forest."

"One place is the Ancient Giant Oak, located under the oak tree where the green dragon Eliria built her nest. After Eliria moved to our Blessed Wisteria tree, Marshal Orstein and Gilles (the then-commander) of the Blacksteel Knights of Atonement cleared this place three or four times, driving away all the beasts and monsters below. Now, it is guarded there by the monks and paladins of our Church of Tar."

"This giant tree is covered with claw marks from all kinds of wild beasts. It is like a natural prayer for the Church of Tar. The giant tree witnesses everything and knows everything. Therefore, the wolf head mask made from the trunk of this giant tree can give believers the [Eye of the Wilderness]. As long as they wear this mask and eat raw meat, they can share the vision and intuition of the wild beasts around them."

kindness?
This was the first time Su Li had heard the news that Luna Deshan had mentioned in detail.

So there are no more Familiars under Ariria's tree?
But thinking about it, it makes sense. How could the territory allow such a large army of green dragons to exist among so many human settlements?

These monsters are uncontrollable, and the green dragon Eliria is in a long-term dormant state. If these monsters act foolishly, a stronghold could be overwhelmed by hordes of monsters.

What will happen to the territory then?
Just because they are Ariria's retinue, should we not respond and allow those subjects and villagers to die innocently?

Or should a war break out immediately, with the green dragon in a daze, and a bloody battle fought with its minions beneath the dragon's lair?

Putting aside the losses, given the dragon's vengeful nature, this will only exacerbate the conflict between the two sides.

Therefore, the best approach is to eradicate them completely from the outset, leaving no future troubles.

For those monsters who don't want to die, the best outcome is to join the green dragon and be thrown into the mines. After all, kobolds are born to mine.

The Green Dragon Eliria is not without followers. Her followers are mostly deployed to important resource points, and these locations are relatively remote. They are generally mining fire spikes, iron ore, or mithril ore.

There will be no conflict between the two sides as long as they remain in the mining area.

Once they escape the mining area, they are hunted like prey. This kind of hunting happens every moment in the forest; it's simply a matter of the strong preying on the weak.

This is an important part of the job of the Green Knights, Rangers, and priests of the Church of Tar: they patrol the forest, hunt monsters, and maintain the security of their strongholds.

"Another stronghold of our Tal Church is also related to the large-scale elimination of monsters in the forest. This holy site is Bloodfang Cave, located in the southwest of the Black Pine Forest, close to Wolf Fang Peak on the edge of our territory."

"This place was previously occupied by a large number of kobolds. The entrance to the cave is shaped like the gaping maw of a giant wave. The walls inside the cave are covered with symbols and signs that look like fangs. The kobolds say that this is the response of Tal to the howling of the wolf pack. At its peak, this place was the center and holy site of the kobolds in the western Bloodpine Forest, where more than 4000 kobolds gathered."

"That was after the Green Dragon War. Eliria took a large number of kobolds and gnolls away from here. When we found this place, there were still thousands of gnolls and kobolds here. The Blacksteel Knights of Atonement fought a bloody battle here before they took it."

"And the rewards are immense. Hunters' hounds, knights' war mastiffs, and even the white wolf knights' frost wolves, after sacrificing here, will receive Tal's blessing, gaining hunting instincts, becoming more coordinated with their masters, and attacking enemies with even greater ferocity. Of course, there is a small price to pay: once they're in a killing frenzy, their masters might not be able to control them. But that's always been the way of this world; while gaining massive benefits, there's always a price to pay, isn't there?"

(End of this chapter)