Free Web NovelThe translucent light screen rippled like water, and then three pieces of intelligence quickly appeared:
Daily Intelligence Update Complete
1: Today, a large-scale growth of Frostleaf Vine was discovered in the North Ridge of Rock Valley, northern Red Tide Territory. The optimal harvesting window will last for one week.
2: Ernst August, Emperor of the Iron-Blood Empire, has officially issued a new Northern Territory Reclamation Order.
3: The evil nurtured by the Snowsworn is stirring. This crisis will sweep across the entire Northern Territory this winter, no less severe than the Great Rebellion two years ago.
“Frostleaf Vine?!”
Louis, who was lying in bed, sat up directly, causing Sif in the covers to hum and roll over.
He didn’t care much, his eyes already sparkling with excitement.
Frostleaf Vine was no ordinary herb.
It was a rare plant with the characteristics of “calming beast emotions” and “stabilizing the agitation of low-level beasts.” Once properly harvested and successfully compounded into medicine, it could become a dream treasure for beast tamers!
“This stuff is a godsend,” Louis murmured, his mind quickly flashing through the difficulties of taming beasts.
Magical beasts were not mere brute beasts that relied purely on muscle; they were supernatural creatures that maintained their physique, perception, and various abilities through trace amounts of magic within their bodies.
Precisely because of this, they were so difficult to tame.
Magic circulated extremely unstably within magical beasts, often leading to disturbances in their mental centers, causing them to become agitated, anxious, or even fall into a state similar to “mass madness,” severely reducing taming efficiency.
Some magical beasts, once subjected to stimuli like confinement, starvation, or drastic changes, could experience “magic-induced self-detonation,” instantly exploding to death.
Moreover, if one of their kind lost emotional control, it could trigger a collective rampage due to magic resonance, known as the “Rage Tide Effect.”
“So high magic affinity means low controllability—”
This had almost become an impasse in the field of magical beast taming, which was why Louis had no intention of breeding some magical beasts he encountered; he simply killed them for meat.
And plants like Frostleaf Vine were a glimmer of hope to break this deadlock.
As for the Turtle Charm Incense concocted by Silco, at most it only made Fireback Turtles “not want to move.” How could that be considered taming? freeweɓnøvel.com
It was merely taking advantage of the Fireback Turtle’s mating season.
As for the Icefield Wolf he had previously subdued, while it was strong, its magic content was not actually high. It merely relied on its own powerful physique to serve as an excellent mount.
But in the future, if he could stabilize high-magic beasts and # Nоvеlight # tame them into controllable breeding stock...
Whether used as ingredients, alchemical items, or directly as combat power, that would be truly taking off.
“If I had Frostleaf Vine—those magical beasts that I only dared to kill and eat, never raise—I could try to purify and stabilize them, and even make them exclusive war beasts of our Red Tide Territory.”
At the thought of this, the corners of his mouth could not help but curl upwards.
However, rare items like Frostleaf Vine often attracted a large number of magical beasts to grow around them, making harvesting somewhat troublesome.
Although the intelligence did not mention such dangers, Louis never took such matters lightly.
He kept this piece of intelligence in mind, and Louis then looked at the second one:
Ernst August, Emperor of the Iron-Blood Empire, has officially issued a new Northern Territory Reclamation Order.
“Oh, this thing is finally out?” he muttered softly.
Louis was not too surprised by this intelligence.
As early as before winter, Yoen had hinted at it to him.
After all, Yoen’s father was a favored figure by the Emperor, so it was not surprising for him to hear some inside information in advance.
“But even if it’s truly implemented, I doubt many young noble masters from the South will be able to endure this.”
Louis propped his chin, pondering. The Northern Territory was not a place where hothouse nobles from the South could easily intrude.
Here, there were harsh winters, barrenness, warfare, and the local powers who had already taken root.
No matter how stringent the selection criteria for the Reclamation Order, most of those who actually came would likely be soft-bodied idlers who talked tough. Southern nobles would certainly not send their true elites here.
They might be slightly better than his own batch of nobles, but most would probably suffer from acclimatization issues.
“After all, there aren’t many pioneering lords as excellent as me,” Louis boasted a bit.
He smiled, and instead felt this might be an opportunity.
If a few of these pioneers could barely hold on, Louis would be willing to see if they could cooperate.
If not, well, letting them spend some gold in Snowpeak County and incidentally “contribute” some resources or territories left behind by failures would also be a kind of gain.
He turned his gaze to the third piece of intelligence:
The evil nurtured by the Snowsworn is stirring. This crisis will sweep across the entire Northern Territory this winter, no less severe than the Great Rebellion two years ago.
Louis’s pupils constricted slightly at this piece of intelligence, and his heart tightened involuntarily.
The words “the Great Rebellion two years ago” were by no means a light-hearted phrase for anyone familiar with that period of history.
That year, the Snowsworn suddenly allied with the northern barbarians and traitors hidden within the Northern Territory, instigating a turmoil that shook the entire empire.
Several cities fell overnight, defenses collapsed, and the Imperial Army was forced to retreat step by step.
The entire Northern Territory almost lost a third of its land. Several once prosperous earldoms became scorched earth, refugees surged, and starvation spread everywhere.
It wasn’t until the Duke fought fiercely for three months, holding out until the main Imperial forces arrived and forcibly cut off the barbarian supply lines, that the disaster was barely contained.
But from then on, the Northern Territory never recovered, and wars became frequent.
If this crisis was “no less severe than that one”?
“...This isn’t a small skirmish.”
Louis narrowed his eyes, the relaxed smile on his face quietly faded, and his gaze gradually deepened.
He leaned against the headboard, looking at the translucent intelligence interface, his thoughts churning.
“The evil nurtured by the Snowsworn”—
What kind of disaster was it? What exactly were they sacrificing?
He often saw in the intelligence that knights and nobles were frequently captured by the Snowsworn for sacrifice.
Unfortunately, he still hadn’t figured out what the Snowsworn were sacrificing. Even if he caught a lone Snowsworn, they refused to answer.
The intelligence system described it so seriously, yet it was vague, and it was the first time there was such a far-reaching prophetic intelligence, which was what made him most uneasy.
“This winter—that is, about another year.”
He muttered softly, sighed lightly, then stretched, leaning against the headboard wrapped in the quilt.
He still had time, at least to make some preparations in advance.
The worst-case scenario... just pack up the people, take the food, seal up the earthen fort, and run away.
He wasn’t the type to defend a city to the death. In a place like the Northern Territory, nobles who weren’t afraid of war reaching their doorstep would only become a joke on scorched earth.
“Hmph, truly troublesome.”
Thinking these thoughts, Louis waved his hand, and the Daily Intelligence System interface dissipated like mist.
He turned his head to look at Sif, who was still sound asleep beside him, and reached out to pat her bottom, his tone filled with a smile: “Lazybones,
Time to get up.”
