Chapter 788: Chapter 84: Moonlight Celestial Silkworm and the Silk Industry (Part 3)
Vandar extended his hand and pointed toward the Maiden’s Ring, saying, "The breeding site of the Moonlight Celestial Silkworm is at the top of the Maiden’s Ring, where there is a monastery, and our nuns take care of the clusters and silkworms on top."
"Then let’s go and take a look." Su Li was immediately interested: "I haven’t actually been up there since this Maiden’s Ring was built."
The Maiden’s Ring itself is not very tall, only 27 meters, and even with the artificial mountains, trees, monastery, and spires above, it doesn’t exceed 40 meters.
In fact, Su Li had inspected it many times riding on a Griffin, but this was the first time he climbed up there.
Being part of the Dawn Goddess Church, this place had a pastoral and countryside charm, with all dirt roads lacking stone paving.
Around it lie tens of thousands of acres of golden wheat fields, where more than 3,000 slaves are fully engaged in harvesting. Bundles of harvested wheat stalks are laid out at the field edges, heralding an impending bountiful harvest on this fertile land.
As the most important and core holy land of the Dawn Church, this place has been blessed a few times with the rare "Sunset" divine magic by Vandar. The hillsides are covered with a plethora of irises, violets, cornflowers, calendulas, and lavender.
Several patches of shrubbery, including the Three Saints Heather, display pink, white, and light purple hues, making it breathtakingly beautiful.
Following the clear stream up to the top of the hill, one encounters the Ogham Stone, the iconic symbol of the Reya Church, covered in Evergreen Ivy, making it green year-round. The sunlight forms a play of light, enhancing the visual appeal and the solemn mystique of the religion.
Su Li immediately noticed an open patch amidst the flowerbeds beside the stone. This space, across over a hundred square meters, was meticulously tended but barren of any plant.
"Is this flowerbed prepared for the Rainbow Hail Crystal by the Monastery?"
Vandar nodded, "Our Dawn Church still hopes to plant an extraordinary spirit plant at the most important holy land of our territory. Ideally, it would be a large spiritual plant like the Holy Purple Vine Tree or the Moon Crown Tree."
Vandar deliberately emphasized this point to implicitly reject the possibility of planting Ghost Vine there.
However, Su Li could understand, as their Dawn Goddess Church placed great emphasis on vitality and hope, which did not match the style of the Ghost Vine.
Planting a dark and frightening Ghost Vine on the spectacularly beautiful top of the Maiden’s Ring could even frighten the priests who came to worship.
Moreover, in this world where divine spirits exist and their influence is evident everywhere, planting Ghost Vines here might even anger Reya.
What spiritual plant to plant here truly requires careful search by the church members.
From what Vandar implied, it seemed they desired to cultivate a spiritual plant belonging exclusively to their church.
By then, this spiritual plant would be church property rather than secular lord property.
Naturally, this was not easy. Not only because extraordinary spiritual plants are hard to find but also because the Rainbow Hail Crystal was provided by Su Li. Even if the Dawn Church finds a spiritual plant in the future, they must surrender at least 2/3 of the earnings to Su Li, as only Su Li can find and supply the Rainbow Hail Crystal.
However, the territory has yet to gather much of the Rainbow Hail Crystal. This year has indeed been a bountiful one with little hail, and the limited pieces of rainbow hail have all been placed by Su Li under the Moon Crown Tree to nourish this spiritual plant more abundantly.
The Moon Crown Tree is the territory’s second extraordinary spirit tree. During the day, only the trunks and branches are present, but after sunset, the tree blossoms abundantly, filling the night with fragrance and perfume.
Once planted in the territory, this tree is entirely linked with it, symbolizing the royal power and the country’s prosperity. As long as the Moon Crown Tree exists, the territory will thrive. Should the Moon Crown Tree perish, the country would decline.
In this flourishing spring, it continues to bud and grow robustly. Now, it has grown to about 68 meters high, towering over the castle walls like a white umbrella over the castle courtyard.
The name truly suits it, as the previous owner of such a tree surely saw it bloom in the skies like a half-moon crown, enveloping the entire territory and manor with its glorious blossom.
The growth of this Moon Crown Tree naturally reciprocates to the entire territory, making the land more fertile and the population more thriving. From last year to this year, more than 300 children have been born in the territory, many being twins or mixed twins.
At this growth rate, the natural population of the territory is expected to surpass 5,000 in less than ten years.
And there is one thing that especially excites the Knights: just by being part of the Hesse Territory, even if the Knights themselves do not train much, as long as this tree grows healthily, their physique and endurance will gradually improve. Just from this effect alone, over 20 Knights have joined the territory.
Moreover, in this spring, the Moon Crown Tree successfully provided numerous flowers for Hesse Territory, used in forging weapons.
Blades quenched with the flowers of this Moon Crown Tree emit a divine golden glow when demons and Chaos Knights approach. In this state, the weapons easily slice through demons’ swords and pierce their armor like cutting through mud.
The followers of the Redema Church are most fervent about these weapons, as they are enthusiasts in hunting demons, purging chaos, and sometimes even targeting wizards.
