18 – 1/2,500,000,000 Probability
Dragonhorse.
Liszt was no stranger to this concept.
Because his father, the Count of Coral Island, Leewilliam Tulip, his current ident.i.ty in the court was that of the court"s groom, responsible for raising the Sapphire Grand Duke"s beloved mount, a precious horse with dragon bloodline.
There were dragons in this world.
Unlike the eastern divine dragons and different from the western evil dragons, they were the matchless and magnificent essence of the world. This kind of dragon essentially had no gender, nor did it mate to leave offsprings; just like it could produce gems and metals, it could also influence other species to posses dragon bloodline.
There were busybodies who had cla.s.sified dragons, sprites, and magic beasts based on the degree of preciousness.
The most precious, of course, were dragons, who were symbols of states.
The second most precious were dragon sprites, representing the power of greater aristocrats.
The third most precious were greater sprites, representing the power of intermediate aristocrats.
The forth most precious were dragon type magic beasts, who were magic beasts with dragon bloodline.
The fifth most precious were lesser sprites, representing the power of lesser aristocrats.
The sixth most precious were dragon type beasts, who were ordinary animals with the dragon bloodline.
The least precious were sprite worms, who were representatives of basic productivity.
In fact, there was still a kind of sprite, whose degree of preciousness was equal to that of dragons, the sprite king, the legendary final evolution of dragon sprites. Its true body, the worm stalk, was infinitely large, it was a tree that could breed a forest, with countless amounts of magic beasts, sprites, and even dragons living inside its true body, the worm stalk.
However, most people treated the sprite king as a legend.
Sprite worms evolving into lesser sprites, nearly one in several dozen might succeed; lesser sprites evolving into greater sprites, one in one hundred might succeed; greater sprites evolving into dragon sprites, one in several hundred might succeed; dragon sprites evolving into sprite kings – so far, there was not a single case reported.
When Liszt was bored, he had calculated the probabilities.
He conjectured that the probability of sprite worm evolution was 1/50, the probability of lesser sprite evolution was 1/100, the probability of greater sprite evolution was 1/500, the probability of dragon sprite evolution was 1/1,000. Then, the probability of a sprite worm evolving into a sprite king was 1/2,500,000,000.
With a 1/2,500,000,000 probability, which was close to zero, no wonder there have been no sightings of sprite kings.
Looking at the smoke Serpentines in front of his eyes.
Ardor once more rose inside Liszt. In theory, dragonhorses were more precious than sprite worms. Perhaps in terms of skill, because it did not possess magic, a dragonhorse could not defeat a magic beast, but because it possessed the rare dragon bloodline, its worth was not low.
In this world, anything related to dragons was in great demand.
And besides, the dragon bloodline improved the attributes of other species. Taking an inferior horse as example, with dragon bloodline, it would promptly turn into a fine steed.
Dragonhorse was definitely an excellent breed of war-horses.
Why did the Sapphire Grand Duke cherished its dragonhorse so much, to the point that even the Count of Coral Island would compete for the position of its groom? It was of course because this dragonhorse was a Blueblood Horse, which was the standard mount of the Blueblood Knights – Sapphire Grand Duchy"s most elite knights with a 240 years long history.
It was partly thanks to the great contribution of the Blueblood Horses that the Blueblood Knights had garnered brilliant achievements in the the Sapphire Family"s campaigns.
The Sapphire Grand Duke, of course, had to ride a Blueblood Horse to win over the knights and show that he was one of them.
“Dragonhorse, ah. If I have a dragonhorse and then it multiplies in numbers, will I be able to establish an order of knights alike the Blueblood Knights?”
Just imagining it would make one very excited.
However, Flower Town only had Liszt, Marcus, and Gort with qi; therefore, even if he got large numbers of dragonhorses, an order of knights would still be nothing more than a pipe dream.
A long way to go.
After a moment, he came back to his senses and the smoke Serpentines in front of his eyes vanished. Looking at Tremblingwoods about to fall asleep, he suddenly felt like an order of knights was too distant of an image, but strolling about while riding a dragonhorse and leading a magic beast dog, this image was still easy to achieve.
“Tomorrow, Teacher Marcus will leave for Coral City, and then visit Falcon Town. He will return roughly three days later. By then, I will be able to complete the mission – practice cultivation according to a qi secret manual.” Liszt got up and left the recreation room.
……
Marcus once more left Flower Town.
Liszt would not sit around and wait in the castle; therefore, after he got up, he had busied himself. He had arrived at the flower farm early in the morning; the tulip sprite worm on top of the Black Tulip had nearly finished the a.s.similation.
“There are still about two hours left.” After taking a look at the tulip sprite worm, Liszt mounted his horse and made a beeline to the peanut settlement. His peanut sprite worm was still gestating.
Karl Eisenhammer was standing guard: “Sir!”
“How is my peanut sprite worm doing?”
“It is still asleep. Every day, Old George sends people over with a lot of manure and water. The peanut sprite worm is growing very well.”
“Guard the peanut sprite worm well, I do not want it to have any accidents.”
“Sir, please rest a.s.sured!”
Leaving the peanut settlement, he returned to the flower farm. After waiting for half an hour, the tulip sprite worm had successfully finished the a.s.similation. Once he retrieved the tulip sprite worm, Liszt could detect its merry mood as well as the extra trace of aura on its body. This trace of aura was the aura of the Black Tulip, signifying that the tulip sprite worm was already capable of influencing the Black Tulip.
From the moment they were born, the Tulip Castle had arranged all of its sprite worms to a.s.similate as many types as they possibly could to increase their strength.
Liszt"s tulip sprite worm had already a.s.similated all of the tulip types cultivated by the Tulip Family.
“After a.s.similating the Black Tulip, is it ‘excitement" that I detect from the tulip sprite worm? Is it because you feel like evolving?” This brazen thought bubbled up inside his mind.
He quickly rejected it.
The tulip sprite worm he had gotten was the weakest among the Tulip Family"s few tulip sprite worms, with the possibility of its evolution being exceedingly low.
The new type of magic ingredient was still not enough to let it evolve.
After retrieving the tulip sprite worm, he handed it to the butler Carter to raise. With its worm stalk already planted, the sprite worm would not die even if it did not drink or eat. It was very easy to raise.
Before long, Liszt arrived at the milk farm together with Gort.
“There are a lot of alfalfa seeds. I plan to gradually replace the two-leaf clover with alfalfa. When the time comes, the worm stalk of the alfalfa sprite worm can be planted. The cows can adapt to the new pasture, and the horses can be brought here to be raised.”
The surroundings of a worm stalk have to contain plants of the same type as it was; otherwise, it would not be capable of absorbing nutrients and would die.
With the issue of planting the alfalfa sprite worm"s worm stalk solved, Liszt had nothing more to add: “Then let"s just execute Teacher Gort"s plan. However, what about the maize sprite worm and the thorns sprite worm?”
“Regarding the maize sprite worm, I think that we should first clear a tract of wilderness, plant maize, and see whether the crops can survive. Regarding the thorns sprite worm, I can only think of the Thorns Ridge"s thorns woods. Liszt, I do not think that there is any use to the thorns sprite worm.”
Thorns were a kind of th.o.r.n.y shrub.
They were usually used as fences. A lot of aristocrats liked to plant thorns on their estates to act as hedges. Liszt also felt like there was no use to the thorns sprite worm. At most it could cultivate th.o.r.n.y shrubs to be used as the castle"s fences, protecting the manor from the invasion from small animals. As for magic beast, the Windblade Wolf"s windblades could cut down large tracts of thorns.
Fierydragon leisurely ate the two-leaf gra.s.s.
Liszt looked at the few extremely skinny cows grazing not far away and said: “Anyhow, the sprite worms have major production capabilities, it is crucial to find suitable places for them to plant their worm stalks.”