In the process of the Morningstar Goddess's growth, besides directly purchasing slaves, the church would also spend a lot of money to directly recruit monks from monasteries in other territories and cities.
This led to the emergence of different monastic orders within the Morningstar Goddess Church.
Vandal explained in detail: "Currently, after a period of recovery and recuperation in our territory, the scale of the Morningstar Church has grown somewhat. We currently have a total of 36 druids and nuns."
"These nuns currently belong to four orders: the 【Green Watchers Order】, the 【Tree of Life Order】, the 【Circle of Fertility Order】, and the 【Fury of Nature Order】."
"What are the abilities of these orders?" Su Li asked with great interest. His memory was still quite good, and he remembered that Vandal belonged to the 【Green Watchers Order】, whose abilities were to create 【Vitality Potions】, 【Purification Potions】, 【Healing Potions】, and 【Blood of the Earth】.
Vandal immediately replied: "The Circle of Fertility Order is the Morningstar Goddess Order that creates the 【Love Elixir】 for our territory. They piously believe that Rhea's blessings can bring many children and much happiness to mankind. They usually preside over weddings and fertility ceremonies, providing assistance to infertile couples and using small tricks to increase the territory's birth rate. This order currently has 4 novice nuns and 2 formal nuns. The leader of the order is the elite nun, Lady FLS Hege. In addition to rescuing civilians, their order also participates in taming animals and clearing stone circles for Rhea worship and promoting animal breeding."
Nun FLS Hege? This is a key figure. The territory's future love elixir depends on her.
Moreover, the territory cannot always rely on foreign immigrants and must have its own internal driving force. Before he knew it, a year had passed, and Su Li would soon be able to see the territory's newborns reach adulthood.
For a territory to take shape, it takes the efforts of at least two generations. Therefore, the territory needs to increase the birth rate.
"The Tree of Life Order is mainly led by Sister Isabella, and the order has 2 elite nuns, 1 druid, 3 formal nuns, and 4 novice nuns. They are mainly responsible for cultivating the territory's extraordinary plants, such as the Sanctified Wisteria Fantasy Garden, the maintenance of Extraordinary Spikes, and the promotion of economic crops such as spices, herbs, and amethyst grapes."
Hearing this, Su Li's eyes lit up.
If the Tree of Life Order is responsible for so much, then the scale of their order is relatively too small and needs to continue to increase manpower.
At least double or triple the size! In fact, they originally had this level, but after a war with the Green Dragon, the Morningstar Church also suffered heavy casualties among the nuns, so the scale has not been restored.
Su Li's emphasis on them is of course extremely necessary, it can be said that this order determines at least half, or even close to two-thirds, of the territory's agricultural tax revenue!
Sanctified Wisteria Tree, Star Dew Sweet Orange, and Moon Crown Tree Flower, these are the territory's three extraordinary spiritual plants. Although they are not yet fully mature, even at the current stage of valuation, the value is no less than 20,000 gold crowns!
Even for these 20,000 gold crowns, it would not be an exaggeration to form a nun group with 30-50 people to specialize in cultivating and caring for these three spiritual plants.
In addition to these three spiritual plants, they are also responsible for three other directions: more than one hundred square meters of Extraordinary Spikes, expanded Amethyst Vineyard, and a larger Vanilla Orchid.
No matter how you calculate it, their manpower is stretched. No wonder the territory wants to attract investment from merchants. If the territory had more funds and recruited more extraordinary nuns, the territory's development level would really improve significantly.
While Su Li was still calculating, Vandal continued: "The Fury of Nature Order is led by Lord Edmond, and they are responsible for maintaining Rhea's teachings. They believe that all priestesses and devout believers of this goddess are sacred and inviolable. The happiness and well-being of families, children, crops, and livestock are the most important things, as is the sanctity of life and love. Therefore, they will maintain the church's sanctity and authority, and punish those who disrespect the gods and are ungrateful. However, the scale of this order is relatively small, with only three people."
"We currently have more than 1,300 registered believers in our order, most of whom are civilians working on the land, including farmers, herbalists, midwives, food merchants, lovers, and hedge witches—they all hope to receive the blessings of the Goddess of Fertility, Life, and Morningstar."
"And the goddess is extremely generous. After the believers hang flowers, fruits, and wheat ears on the goddess's wooden statue, the goddess bestows generous divine grace."
"Our territory's farming business is booming. Currently, under the blessing of the Rhea Goddess, the scale of the territory's vanilla orchids has expanded to 40 acres! And under the careful guidance of the nuns, the water of the Spring of Life can irrigate all the vanilla fields, and the yield per acre of vanilla pods has climbed to 3 pounds!"
3 pounds per acre?
A burst of exclamation came from the conference hall, and everyone showed surprised smiles.
This is a precious spice! It usually needs to be transported from the distant East. The sea route is known as both the Silk Road and the Spice Road.
Among the territories within the empire, only one in a hundred, or even one in a thousand, can grow spices! These spice-growing areas all have special springs and rivers passing through them.
The territory also uses the water of the Spring of Life in Hot Spring Village to cultivate this expensive spice.
Currently, the spice grown in Black Forest Territory is one type—vanilla orchid. The main part of this spice is the pods it produces, which can be widely used in cooking, baking, desserts, and beverages.
Currently, the Morningstar Church nuns in the territory can make vanilla pods. When making drinks, fruit teas, and milk teas, they cut the vanilla pods in half, scrape out the vanilla seeds inside, which are the main source of flavor, and then scrape these seeds into the brewed hot black tea.
The shell of the vanilla pod also has a fragrance and can be immersed in hot black tea to increase the aroma. Soak for about 5 minutes and then remove. The vanilla pod shell can be reused 2-3 times until the fragrance disappears completely.
Through this cooking method, you can know how expensive this natural spice is. The price of one pound of vanilla seeds can be as high as 1,000 gold crowns.
The territory's caravan currently mainly transports vanilla pods with shells to Maleburg, with a selling price of between 57 gold crowns and 65 gold crowns per pound.
Even if calculated at 57 gold crowns, the profit is as high as 56 gold crowns!
This thing is completely super profitable. 99% of the sale is profit.
The territory currently has 40 acres of vanilla pods, and next year's output will be 120 pounds.
In addition to leaving a few pounds as seeds and expanding the vanilla area, the remaining profit is also 6,000 gold crowns!
6,000 gold crowns! If you raise elite knights, you can supply 120 elite knights for a whole year.
This means that just these 40 acres of vanilla can maintain exactly one company of elite knights for the territory.
Spice is indeed a lucrative industry.
Su Li immediately asked with concern: "How much revenue did vanilla bring to our territory this year?"
Vandal did not avoid this question and replied frankly: "After our accounting and the Provincial Council's audit, the total revenue from vanilla this year is 873 gold crowns. This is mainly because the vanilla cultivation area is not achieved overnight, but is cultivated little by little by the druids' catalysis, and most of it has not yet matured."
"Moreover, many of the harvested vanilla pods have been kept as seeds to expand the vanilla planting area next year, so the revenue is very limited."
Of course, there is another problem that Vandal did not say directly, that is, a considerable part of these vanilla pods were enjoyed by Su Li.
This spice was originally a luxury item liked by nobles, used to satisfy the enjoyment of nobles.
When Phyllis was around, she liked to make fruit tea for Su Li to taste.
It was also after Phyllis left that these things were taken out of Su Li's treasury area and sold directly in the territory.
The territory now has no shortage of wealthy merchants and large farmers. A few pounds of vanilla pods can easily be snapped up.
These knight families and large farmers are actually quite rich. As long as the territory prospers, all industries flourish, and products are abundant, selling them things can earn a lot of wealth.
Vandal said confidently: "The revenue from spices this year is indeed not large, but after the spring rebirth ceremony next year, vanilla will grow vigorously, and next year alone it can generate at least 6,000 gold crowns. Then, based on this, we may even cultivate an industry with profits exceeding 10,000 gold crowns the year after that."
"However, at present, it seems that the scale of this industry should only be limited to 10,000 gold crowns. If the lord does not give us new guidance, it will be difficult for us to continue to break through."
"One limitation on all of this is the number of Morningstar Church nuns in the territory, and the other is the scale of the Spring of Life. The water flow of the spring in Hot Spring Village is not large, at most it can only irrigate more than 100 acres of vanilla fields. If we want to continue to increase the scale of vanilla, unless Hot Spring Village becomes Hot Spring Town."
The others in the territory are really powerless to solve this problem. They can only rely on Su Li's information guidance to either increase other hot spring strongholds, allowing the vanilla fields to expand from this area to other places.
If there are three or five hot springs, irrigating hundreds of acres of vanilla fields near each, then the territory's vanilla industry can have further development.
But Su Li felt that this was not so easy. Although Black Forest Territory is under the Black Forest Foothills, it can't be an earthquake every day, right?
Moreover, even if it shakes a few times a year, it will not produce a hot spring every time.
If the vanilla industry wants to develop further, the territory still has to find a way to increase the flow of the Spring of Life in Hot Spring Village, turning the small pipe into a big fountain or waterfall.
So Su Li pondered and said: "I will pay attention to and follow this issue. I remember that Duin Claw has similar abilities, doesn't he?"
Vandal nodded and said: "Yes, Lord, after Duin Claw nests, it can form a magic spring in the bottom of the lake, but its main function is to improve water quality, and it does not increase the water flow much."
This problem is not big. Since there are creatures that can improve water quality, there must be creatures or gems, pearls, or even water element crystal cores that can increase spring water flow.
Even if it can increase the flow of the Spring of Life by 20% at a time, the scale will eventually be very considerable with continuous expansion.
However, since he was paying attention to this issue, Su Li simply solved all the problems, and he continued to ask with concern: "Are there any other problems with vanilla planting?"
Vandal thought for a moment and said: "There are not many problems with planting, but we have encountered some obstacles in terms of doctrine and theory. That is, whether constantly using divine magic to catalyze the growth of seeds and vanilla will cause backlash."
"Backlash?" Su Li raised his eyebrows and looked at Vandal cautiously. This world is an extremely dark and desperate world, which means that there is a price to pay for doing anything.
That classic question—so what is the price?
On Earth, it may be nitpicking, but here in the empire, it is a real problem to face.
Of course, it may also be because the institution asking this question is in an environment similar to that of the empire.
So they can always come up with angles that ordinary people cannot think of.
Vandal said cautiously: "This question was not raised by our church, but by the Mor Church's priest, Elite Knight Autus Scizi. When he passed through Hot Spring Village, he had a fierce debate with our nuns on the issue of 'life and death'."
"They disagreed on whether the rebirth of crops from the land is similar to necromancy."
Hearing Vandal's narration, the people in the room also reacted differently. Some sneered, with a contemptuous arc at the corners of their mouths, and a flash of disdain in their eyes: "This is simply absurd!"
But some people were deeply shocked, their brows furrowed, as if trying to digest this seemingly absurd but profoundly philosophical question.
Su Li belonged to the latter. His mind was also greatly shocked. The world is so big, there are always such guys who can find some strange angles that ordinary people can't think of.
Would a normal person really think about whether the rebirth of crops from the ground is similar to necromancy?
Under normal circumstances, Su Li would definitely scoff at it. Crop rebirth is a natural law, how can it be considered necromancy?
But now, the Kiran mages are constantly accelerating the growth of plants with the divine magic 【Vitality Growth】, isn't it really necromancy? Maybe, if this continues, the magic wind in the ground will be too strong, which will cause distortion, leading to all the vanilla orchids to be twisted and fallen, becoming chaotic plants.
This kind of philosophical thinking is obviously not suitable for the current meeting in the territory. Su Li couldn't think of a result for a while, so he directly asked: "Does your church have any relevant creeds and explanations in history?"
Vandal spread out his palms and said: "Our church's creeds are relatively loose, and each priest uses different etiquette to teach Rhea. The first creed presented in text form is "The Sacred Dialogue", published in Imperial Calendar 1782, and is immortal. The creed says that grains are tamed by Rhea for us humans and are the law of nature. Even if humans do not cultivate them, the plants in nature will still have four seasons and the grass and trees will recover. But the creed really does not explain in detail whether such large-scale use of 【Vitality Growth】 is different from necromancy."
"Our church urgently needs a chosen one to plan and guide the territory."
Chosen one?
Of course, Souli also wanted a Chosen One, but it wasn't that easy.
Just look at the dwarves; guarding the Gray Mountain Province, which is inhabited by a massive number of mountain dwarves, the arrival of a dwarven jewelry master in Souli's territory, even at the Champion level, caused a sensation.
Under such circumstances, where could he find so many Chosen Ones?
Even with the guidance of his intelligence system, Souli hadn't recruited any Chosen Knights. The only two Chosen Knights in his territory were painstakingly cultivated by him personally.
And the only Chosen One who joined the territory was Oliver, the dean of the Provincial Affairs Council, but he was a genius from the Royal Griffin Military Academy of Audenheim.
This shows how rare Chosen Ones are. Generally, these talents would not come to a border principality; they would be treated with courtesy by various dukes within the Empire.
So, Souli simply waved his hand and said, "I will pay attention to information about Chosen Ones. What's the matter with the Knight of Morr's Church, Ortus, you mentioned?"
Vandal was also clear that a Chosen One from the Church of the Morning Dawn was not easy to find. After mentioning this, he continued to report: "Our territory has just experienced a large number of famous and tragic wars, so a group of Morr's Ravens came to the territory. Ortus is the leader of this group. However, they are not interested in politics and only want to comfort the dead, so they have not joined the archdiocese of the territory and appear to be relatively low-key."
Morr's Ravens, also known as the Knights who guard the God of Death, Morr.
Many gods have their own symbols and sacred beasts. For example, Taal's sacred beast is the Great Elk, Ulric's symbol is the White Wolf, Verena's symbol is the Sun and Golden Eagle, and Morr's symbol is the Scythe and Raven.
His followers can enlighten the dreams of the living, and preside over funerals, giving blessings to the dead so that they are not tormented by necromancy, and their souls are filled with resentment, thus peacefully entering the realm of death, successfully dying, and obtaining rest.
The arrival of these people in the territory is undoubtedly a good thing for the territory. It can bring peace of mind to more residents.
But their low profile was beyond Souli's expectations. Otherwise, he could have talked to these people about forming a Black Watch cavalry regiment of Morr.
Among the church knightly orders of the many gods in the Empire, in addition to the White Wolf Knights, the Knights of the Blazing Sun, and the Knights of the Hammer of Sigmar, the Knights of Morr's Raven, the Knights of the Black Rose, and the Black Guard Knights of Morr are also very outstanding legions. Because they are in contact with death all year round, they are more indifferent to death, so they are usually immune to fear, and their combat power is not even lower than those of the church knights of the war gods.
Souli felt that after the meeting, he could take the initiative to talk to these Black Forest hermits and subsidize them. It wouldn't hurt to have them build a few more churches in the territory, which could always attract more Morr's Ravens.
