Chapman was enfeoffed with a knighthood that was close to ten thousand acres in size. This was to replace the property that was originally promised to him, and also to reward him for his contributions over the years.
Giving Gliss a knighthood was naturally to compensate for the loss of giving up on Clifford.
On one hand, giving Natasha a knighthood was to reward her for teaching Feng Chou the Steel Soul Style and helping Feng Chou train his apprentices. On the other hand, Feng Chou felt that Natasha's identity as a descendant of the Count of the Sutton Empire might be of great use to him.
The conscientious Owen was also worthy of Feng Chou using a knight's reward to express his gratitude.
As for Chorre, whether it was his loyalty to Leo's father or his contributions in protecting and developing Feng Chou's territory, he was worthy of a knighthood.
Feng Chou's generosity even caused a lot of discussion in Niklos City.
The nobles were full of disdain for his actions, thinking that only a nouveau riche would waste his territory like this. A mere Baron had actually given three knighthoods in one go. It was simply insane. Even Gliss and Chorre privately advised him against it.
However, the public opinion was the opposite. They were all talking about Baron Stellin's generosity.
However, this storm was limited to Niklos City and soon subsided. After all, although it was not common for a Baron to give three knighthoods in one go, it was not a big deal for the common people.
With the efforts of the people, the territory soon began to operate normally.
After the territory's operations were on the right track, Feng Chou began another important task, which was to build a laboratory for high-order wizards and even archmages.
To build a laboratory for high-order wizards, it would cost at least ten million crowns. Fortunately, Feng Chou was still quite well-off at the moment and could still take out ten million crowns.
After settling down the territory, Feng Chou went to Niklos Mage Academy and once again paid a visit to the dean of the academy.
When Archmage Aldrich heard that Feng Chou was going to build a laboratory for high-order spells in Stellin Manor, he could not help but be a little stunned.
It would cost at least ten million crowns to build a high-grade laboratory!
It wasn't difficult for a high-ranked mage to take out a few million crowns at any time, but the other party had spent 10 million crowns to buy a Baron level manor and then built an advanced mage laboratory that cost at least 10 million crowns. Even a Great Mage like Aldrich would find it difficult to do such a thing.
After recovering from his shock, a bright smile immediately appeared on Great Mage Aldrich's face. Building such a Mage Tower was a huge business for a small Mage Academy like theirs.
Building an advanced mage's laboratory could only be done by a Master Alchemist who specialized in Magical Architecture, which was one of the most complicated branches of alchemy. There was less than one Master Aldrich who could master this branch of alchemy. There was only one person in the entire Niklos City who could do this, and that was Aldrich.
As a unique business, Great Wizard Aldrich's fees were naturally not low. Building a wizard's laboratory that was worth nearly ten million crowns meant that Great Wizard Aldrich would earn at least two million crowns!
The other mages involved in the construction would also earn a million crowns.
After some back and forth, both sides reached an agreement on the price. Feng Chou and Great Wizard Aldrich signed a contract with the devil and paid a deposit of five million crowns.
Baron Stellin's carriage slowly drove out of Niklos Magic Academy's gates. Feng Chou, who was sitting in the carriage, gently leaned back in his seat and let out a soft sigh. He even felt like he was about to collapse.
The total construction price of 11.8 million crowns was much more expensive than he'd expected. Moreover, this price had basically squeezed out all the money he had, reducing his liquid funds from tens of millions to less than a million. He'd taken a huge risk to scam the vampires for money, and now he'd unknowingly lost his wealth and was living in peace …
A week later, Archmagus Aldrich led a team of one great artificer, three high-order artificers, more than twenty mid-order artificers and several constructs into Stellin Castle.
According to Feng Chou's request, the wizard's laboratory would be built in the stone mountain below the castle's backyard.
The team would also separate a secret magic room between Feng Chou's study and his bedroom. A teleportation formation would be built there to connect to the magic laboratory deep underground.
Even though the underground magic laboratory required a lot of work, it wouldn't take more than three months with the help of magic and large-scale magic constructs.
Of course, Feng Chou couldn't just wait for three months. Deep in the mountains behind the castle, he chose a mountain peak with excellent scenery and built a simple wooden hut at the peak of the mountain. In the following three months, he spent most of his time in this wooden hut, concentrating on researching a way to restore the Cultivation Method.
A ranger's soul wasn't sensitive enough to directly sense the laws of the world, so the ancient sages who created the ranger profession found another way. They used a special meditation technique to connect their blood essence and mental power with the laws of the world that could be easily sensed. Through this connection, the ranger's blood essence and mental power would mutate and form a brand new power called the 'force of nature'.
With the force of nature, the ranger could use it as a medium to connect with the laws of nature and sense them on a deeper level.
That was the origin of the ranger profession. Feng Chou guessed that it was also the origin of the Qi Practitioners on Earth.
However, the ranger profession in this world didn't develop further. It was probably due to the fact that the humans of this world had better aptitudes and more paths of cultivation.
However, in the world of Earth, the Qi-trainers further explored this cultivation method and eventually developed an extremely brilliant cultivation civilization.
What Feng Chou wanted to do now was to repeat the path taken by the cultivators on Earth and use the force of nature as a window to further develop this cultivation method.
But to do this was easier said than done!
The Qi Practitioners spent millions of years and countless generations of effort to develop the later cultivation civilization. What made Feng Chou think that he could do this with his own strength?
Feng Chou relied on the knowledge of this world's sorcerers.
Whether it was the perception of the cultivators or the experiments of the sorcerers, they were all for the purpose of mastering the laws of the world. Because the methods used were different, perhaps the same laws could be interpreted differently in two different ways, but this still couldn't change the nature of the laws.