Jinyan Province, Shining City.
As the central city of the barony, Glitter City is actually more prosperous than many central cities of the viscounty.
Among the seven baronies in the Golden Rock Province, the Arnest Family's Shining Territory deserves to be ranked first.
Whether it is territory area or economic strength, it is not much inferior to the viscounty territory.
It's a pity that this also attracted the covetousness of big shots, making the position of baron easy for him to grasp.
Inner castle, bedroom.
After getting dressed under the service of the young and beautiful maid, Owen Arnest then came to the restaurant. As soon as he sat down and took a sip of warm milk, he saw the clerk walking in hastily.
"Lord." The secretary bowed and saluted.
Owen nodded and said, "Looking at how hurried you are, what's the emergency?"
"There are a few things I need to report to your Excellency."
"explain."
Owen spoke concisely and to the point, and his hands did not stop making elegant eating movements.
Since he 'inherited' the position of baron, he has paid more attention to the noble manners in daily life and worked hard to integrate into the circle of noble lords.
With his efforts, and more importantly with the support of Marquis Jinyan, many noble lords have shown goodwill to him.
As time goes by, his position in the circle of noble lords will only become more and more stable.
And when everything settles down, it's time to free up your hands to completely solve your worries.
"Lord Zolf sent someone to deliver a letter, making it clear that he would participate in this year's harvest celebration in Glitter City," the secretary said.
Hearing this, Owen paused slightly, and a knowing smile appeared on his fat face.
"It seems Zolf finally understands the situation. Very good. What do Norwood and Devon say?"
"They haven't agreed yet, but they haven't explicitly rejected it either. They're probably still waiting and watching."
A trace of contempt flashed in Owen's eyes: "Wait and see. Humph, do they think those two little guys can return to Glitter City? Ridiculous idea."
The secretary smiled flatteringly and said: "What your Lord is saying is that sooner or later the two lords will realize that you are the true master of the Shining Collar!"
'The true master of the glitter collar'.
This title made Owen's expression calm down a little, and he felt much better.
"Speaking of which, what are my two nephews doing recently?"
The secretary hesitated and said, "I heard that they plan to restart the black stone mining area."
"Blackstone Mining Area?" Owen was slightly startled.
He had heard about what happened in Black Rock City back then, and naturally knew about the situation in the Black Rock mining area, so he couldn't help but show a puzzled expression.
"Do they have a way to deal with the monsters in the mining area?"
"I don't know much about this." The secretary glanced at Owen and explained cautiously, "Blackstone City has blocked the mining area, and my people cannot detect the specific conditions there."
Seeing Owen frowning, he quickly added: "Don't worry, sir, if the Black Stone Mining Area is really restarted over there, my people will definitely get the news."
When Owen thought so, he stopped holding on to this matter and asked instead, "Is there anything else?"
The secretary hurriedly said: "One more thing. Just yesterday, Lord Storm was attacked by the Spark Cult while he was out hunting. He was seriously injured. The Storm Territory is now in chaos."
when!
The clear sound of the knife and fork touching the porcelain plate was heard.
After hearing the news, Owen suddenly lost his elegant demeanor. He put down his knife and fork and stood up. He asked with a solemn expression: "Seriously injured? How many injuries?"
The clerk hesitated and said: "I have been in a coma for a day and a night, and I haven't woken up yet."
Owen's face changed slightly.
From this point of view, the situation of Earl Storm is not optimistic.
Owen sat back in his chair, his expression changing.
He didn't care about the life or death of Lord Storm, he was more concerned about the subsequent impact of this incident.
The Earl of Stormwind is one of the two most powerful earls in the Golden Rock Province, second only to the Marquis of Golden Rock.
Unlike Earl Winterfrost, who has a close relationship with Marquis Jinyan, Earl Storm has never been close to the former, and can even be said to be somewhat indifferent.
For the Marquis of Gold Rock, who was trying to control the entire Gold Rock Province, the presence of Earl of Storm was quite an eyesore.
Others may not know it clearly, but Owen knows that the relationship between Marquis Jinyan and the Spark Cult is not simple.
When he was able to win the position of Flash Baron, the Spark Cult was also behind it.
Behind the attack on Lord Storm, there may be the shadow of Marquis Jinyan.
After a long silence, Owen said: "Continue to pay attention to the situation in the Storm Territory. Any information must be reported to me as soon as possible. In addition, let Farid take people to the edge of Norwood and Devon's territory to suppress them. In the name of bandits."
Jinyan Province is becoming increasingly unstable, and Owen no longer intends to wait any longer.
He needs to fully control the Flash Collar as soon as possible.
If Norwood and Devin still don't know each other, don't blame him for using other methods!
Time flies and it's the month of recovery (March).
More than ten days have passed since Ange McLean's laboratory was discovered.
Key sold the black stone iron in the warehouse through a secret channel and received nearly 7,000 gold coins.
Except for the remaining part to purchase military equipment and improve the condition of the territory, he invested the rest in the reconstruction of the Blackstone Mining Area.
Everything is developing in an orderly manner.
Sunan didn't care about these things.
After returning to Black Rock City, he devoted himself to study and cultivation as always, paying little attention to external matters.
After reading the books brought back from the laboratory, Sunan successfully triggered the learning progress of [Puppet Refining].
Compared with biological transformation and potion making, puppet refining involves a wider range and has a higher threshold.
This skill not only includes enchantment knowledge, but also covers some areas of biological transformation and magic item manufacturing.
Therefore, the learning progress of puppet refining skills is slower.
Even with the bonus of secondary active potions, after more than ten days, the learning progress has only advanced to just over 10%.
Sunan estimates that he will have to wait until the month of flowing fire (July) to fully master the puppet refining skills.
On the contrary, meditation practice is very smooth.
After returning from the Black Stone Mine, Sunan used the synthetic magic cube to fuse three pieces of soul grass on the same day.
[Star Pattern Soul Grass, purity 15.33%, can greatly increase mental power after swallowing. The specific effect depends on the mental power of the user. The higher the mental power, the weaker the effect. It is ineffective for those with mental power of 20 or more (inclusive). ]
As expected, the effect of the Star Pattern Soul Grass synthesized by the synthetic magic cube is stronger than the simple three pieces of Soul Grass superimposed together.
After taking the Star Pattern Soul Grass, Sunan's mental power soared by 1.87.
It is almost equivalent to the results of two months of meditation.
Thanks to this, his mental power soared to 5.77.
The benefit of the surge in mental power is that the proficiency of the Star Ring Meditation Method increases faster.
Meditation increases mental power, and the increase in mental power will in turn increase the efficiency of meditation.
The two are complementary.
Now Sunan can increase the proficiency of the Star Ring Meditation Method by 10 to 12 points in one day of meditation.
At this rate, at most seven or eight months, the second star ring should be constructed.
"But it can actually be faster."
"The financial pressure in Black Stone City is not very great now. I can draw more gold coins to buy materials to make secondary active potions, and then I can use the magic cube to synthesize better potions."
"In this way, the efficiency of meditation can be further improved."