"Lord Lucas, this tea tree might be unique to the Forbidden Mountain Range. It probably doesn't exist outside," Elisa offered her opinion.
"Oh?" Lucas raised an eyebrow. No tea trees on the outside? To him, this was absolutely a good thing, a very good thing.
Lucas knew how important tea was just by comparing it to the situation in ancient Earth. Tea accounted for a significant portion of tax revenue, and some dynasties even used it to control their borders, manipulating the lives of surrounding ethnic minorities by controlling the tea sales channels.
The saying, "firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea," explained a great deal.
In ancient Earth, tea and salt were important economic and strategic resources.
Not to mention in this era, the nobles loved to eat meat and also loved to drink tea, although it was a bitter tea, the kind that was very bitter and disgusting.
Drinking tea was a kind of physiological need. The diet of the nobility consisted mostly of meat, goat's milk, and other heaty, greasy, and hard-to-digest foods. Tea, on the other hand, was rich in vitamins, tannic acid, theophylline, and other fruit and vegetable nutrients that the human body lacked.
The corners of Lucas's mouth turned up. The vast expanse of tea trees before him, if produced into tea leaves, could earn a lot of money. Even if sold at a high price, those nobles would buy it. This was a monopoly business; he was the only one in the world with tea trees.
He had originally planned to transplant tea trees from Earth and had even memorized the order hotline for a tea garden. He never expected to find tea trees from this other world.
Perhaps tea trees existed in this era, but no one knew how to process the leaves into tea, or even what a tea tree was, simply treating it as an ordinary leaf.
"Master, what are you thinking?" Annie asked curiously, her fox tail swishing. She hadn't expected that the Master's tea actually came from the leaves of the trees in front of them.
"I'm thinking about how to promote tea," Lucas said calmly. The tea forest before them could produce at least 532 lbs of tea, and one lb of tea could be valued in gold coins.
"Master, there's no need to worry about selling tea," Annie's fox ears twitched as she said in a crisp voice, "The nobles will definitely love it."
"Annie, send people over here to clear up this area. Transplant the tea trees that are too dense," Lucas certainly knew that tea would sell well, but what he was thinking about was how to promote a tea culture, which in turn could boost the ceramics business.
"Master, we don't have enough manpower," Annie reminded him in a small voice.
"Uh..." Lucas was taken aback and sighed helplessly, "Soon. There will be people soon."
Downstream of the Whispering River, a major flood was bound to happen in all likelihood. He just didn't know where it would start.
This crater, Lucas planned to transform it into an experimental site for things like seed breeding. The climate here was too good; he suspected that grains and the like could be harvested three times a year here. Perfume production could also be moved here. This would become another secret base.
The most important thing was the experimental field. Lucas could bring seeds from Earth, but he was afraid of genetic mutations. If one day the grain's genes mutated and produced toxins, it would be a disaster.
The purpose of the experimental field was to cultivate grains suitable for this era, or what could be called native grains. Of course, this was just a thought from Lucas; it was always good to be prepared.
Besides these, there was another very important matter: firing glass. In the past, Lucas hadn't dared to sell a large quantity of glass products for fear of attracting the prying eyes of interested parties. At that time, he had little power, but things were different now. He could start selling some glass products.
Moreover, it was about time to resolve Elisa's situation. Glass was the bait Lucas was going to put out to trap and kill those bounty hunters and the people from the Black Iris organization. Others had always been making the moves; this time, it was Lucas's turn.
"Tony, have the air force soldiers keep an eye out for a place like this," Lucas beckoned for Tony to come over and said, "I need a place with sheer cliffs and a large cave."
"Yes," Tony replied respectfully.
"Master, are you going to start that plan?" Mina asked in a deep voice.
"Yes, it's about time to settle Elisa's matter," Lucas's lips curved up. Some unstable factors needed to be resolved in advance. At the start of the new year, no one could stop his great development.
"Ah?" Elisa was stunned, looking at Lucas in astonishment. My matter? Could it be? Her expression turned serious, and she said in a low voice, "Lord Lucas, is there anything you need my help with?"
"No, I don't need you to act just yet," Lucas waved his hand, picked a tea leaf from his palm, and put it in his mouth. It was sweet with a hint of bitterness.
"This..." Elisa opened her mouth and nodded helplessly. She had come to understand Lord Lucas over these past few months and knew that he always had a plan for everything he did.
"Master, do we need to notify those other city lords?" Annie asked in a low voice. She also knew about that plan, the plan to rule the western lands.
"No, it's not time yet. We'll talk after we've dealt with the people coming from the Capital," Lucas shook his head. The Capital would definitely send people to Sedona City. As for who they would send, he could more or less guess.
"Understood," Annie nodded, her brown eyes flashing. The Master's plan was truly grand.
"Pick some of these tea leaves to take back," Lucas stretched. They could prepare some tea first for a trial sale.
"Yes."
"Okay."
Annie, Mina, Elisa, and Amelia took out linen sacks and began to pick tea leaves. They had all drunk tea before but had never made it, so they were very interested in the process.
In the group, more than half of the people went out to explore the surroundings. The rest, apart from those on guard, all began to pick tea leaves.
"Huh?" Mina put down her tea leaves and turned to look towards the forest to her front left.
"Lord...!" A figure came running out of the forest at a very high speed, as if something was chasing him from behind. Before he even got close, he shouted, "A major discovery! A huge, major discovery!"
"What discovery?" Lucas put down his tea leaves and looked at the gasping War Wolf squad member. Two members of the squad had stayed behind, while the rest had been sent out to explore the surroundings.
"Lord... gulp..." Number Seven swallowed hard, took a breath, and said in a deep voice, "Lord, we found the bones of a monster. They're very, very big."
"A monster's bones?" Lucas was surprised. He waved his hand and said, "Go, take me to see."
"Yes," Number Seven immediately led the way.
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