The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

A moment had passed.

It was already mid-November.

Since their arrival on the mainland in mid-October, the Pioneer Mandate campaign had been ongoing for a month, and the flames of war in the Sardine Bay Area had stretched for thousands of miles.

The Knight Order of the Duchy of Sapphire had been furiously plundering everything, in coordination with the local Mercenary Corps, to divide the land's resource output. They transported goods and people back to the homeland without cease. Liszt's first group of serf ships had already returned to his domain with many goods and had set sail again, with the second group of serf ships departing early.

Also returning with the fleet was Zambrotta, the diplomatic officer of the domain.

"My lord, before I departed, Consultant Goltai and Administrative Officers Isaiah and Blair were earnestly arranging the serfs' living conditions. The knight families who had been taken in were also well settled… The rate of serf attrition wasn't high; we lost fewer than four hundred people."

"A loss of four hundred cannot be considered low. With more careful care, we certainly could have reduced the losses further," Liszt sighed.

His conscience was troubled.

In the trade of serfs, his role was equally unglamorous. Even though he could conceal it by going with the flow, or compensate for it in the future, he still could not justify himself. He had always been a person with a healthy worldview, educated in modern civilization, and faced with the shock of a barbaric, primitive society, his thoughts were in constant turmoil.

He could not possibly be a saint.

When benefits lay before him, driving his instincts with desire, he could only align himself with the nobles, striving for his own share of benefit.

As for revolution, he lacked both the ability and the boldness—in a world ruled by Dragon Knights, where he was just an ordinary person, unable to even light up technical skills, how could he preach the red theories.

It would be better to proceed securely towards becoming a Dragon Knight and look forward to enjoying this spectacular life.

Moreover, the humans of this world were not fundamentally his kindred, so he had no obligation to liberate all mankind.

"Zambrotta, how are things in the domain?"

"Everything in the domain is well, oh, my lord, I almost forgot to mention a huge piece of good news!" Zambrotta suddenly remembered something and excitedly said, "Not long after you set off, the Corn Grass Elf Bug being cared for in the castle started showing some abnormalities, and after unanimous judgment by the town officials and Mr. Carter, it had entered the Fat Pupa Stage."

"Really?"

"Yes, by the time I was about to depart, it had grown quite large and was completely motionless. However, whether it can evolve successfully is hard to say, as we cannot see its internal condition... To prevent Jela from interfering with the evolution of the Corn Grass Bug, Mr. Carter placed it alone in a Jade Box, guarded in turns by the domain's knights."

"It's a pity I'm not by its side to see its luck, but I hope the glory of the knights will look after the domain," Liszt sighed again.

In fact, even if he returned to the domain, there wasn't much he could do.

He could help the Elf Bug collect pheromones to increase the probability of evolution, but whether it succeeded in evolving was entirely up to the Elf Bug itself.

Zambrotta reported on the situation of the Corn Grass Elf Bug before also reviewing the various constructions in the domain.

He then said, "Consultant Goltai and Sir Levis discussed and decided to use the empty ships to transport a great deal of goods for trade to the mainland. The domain also transported a batch of Fresh Flower Soap, Serpent Blood Fruits, high-quality charcoal, pottery, sweets, and other specialties... Additionally, Her Excellency Chris consigned a batch of Magic Potions."

The goods were intended for trade, and every bit of profit mattered.

What pleased Liszt was this batch of Magic Potions; he now had to feed a man and a dragon, the latter of which had a voracious appetite, being a burgeoning Magic Fire Seed.

The burden was too great.

Without a vast amount of magic potions to support him, cultivation was extremely difficult. During this idling period, he had been exploring how to cultivate in conjunction with the Magic Fire Seed. He found that to improve his control over Dou Qi again, he had to first nurture the budding Magic Fire Seed and excrete a large amount of impure magic power.

This kind of impure magic power had peculiar properties that could significantly alter the form of the Dou Qi within his body.

Transforming it into a higher form of Dou Qi.

Initially, he suspected this transformation was the shift from Intermediate Dou Qi to Advanced Dou Qi, but it didn't seem quite right. Or rather, the change in form was another level of alteration, far surpassing the shift from Intermediate to Advanced Dou Qi, which made him suspect that this might be the evolution into "Dragon Dou Qi."

Unfortunately, no one could tell him what Dragon Dou Qi was.

He could only independently explore and gradually piece together some clues, gaining many insights into cultivating with the Magic Fire Seed, and he would soon be able to start a completely new form of cultivation.

"Put someone else in this situation, and they might waste a year trying to figure out the change. But alas, they've come across me. Relying on scientific induction and summary, the changes in Dou Qi cannot escape my keen observation. The taming of the brand-new Dou Qi is just around the corner." A worldview and cognition beyond this world were his greatest talents.

...

After successively cooperating in the conquest of Scentcartleaf Stronghold and Hands Fort, Liszt then entered a state of idleness.

In reality, the Coral Island Knights, who had been in the limelight, also started to keep a low profile, no longer capturing castles but occasionally seizing some small mines and materials from small towns. Following behind Marquis Roderick, they recruited some knights and engaged in some material trading.

In the blink of an eye, it was almost December.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

After a long half-month of exploration, Liszt finally discovered a brand-new cultivation method, completely mastering the new Dou Qi inside his body.

This Fire Attribute Dou Qi faintly possessed some properties of Fire Dragon Magic Power.

It had stronger incendiary abilities, dissipated more slowly, and when deploying Dou Qi, the power was more formidable. Moreover, with the help of medications, it was easier to break through the total amount of Dou Qi. He genuinely suspected that his Dou Qi was evolving into Dragon Dou Qi—although he didn't know if Dragon Dou Qi was indeed like this.

He circulated the new Dou Qi and unleashed a set of the much more powerful "Fire Dragon Drill".

He summoned the Smoke Mission.

"Complete the mission, reward: one Bloodline Fruit."

"Phew, finally completed the mission. Next, I need to get moving and search for the Bloodline Fruit," Liszt sighed with relief, eager to leave the unnamed castle where they were stationed.

He then checked the new Smoke Mission: "Mission: It has been a month since the first Pioneer Mandate, and with the temperature gradually decreasing, the war between the Steel Ridge Kingdom and the Eagle Kingdom is also reaching its final stages this year. You may choose to end your idleness and patiently await the end of the war. Reward: Unknown."

"Another unknown reward. It seems that New Year's and wars always bring unknown rewards."

The first New Year's unknown reward was Sea Sprite Ake.

The second unknown reward from the Iron Hoof Island campaign was the revival of Dragon Bone.

Both were important rewards, which made him look forward to this time's unknown reward. Now that he could continue to idle, he still decided to devote all his energy to the search for the Bloodline Fruit. Bloodline Fruits were rarely found in human-cultivated areas; they were mostly in forests.

Therefore.

Under the pretense of hunting, he rode the landwalker bird Loki, summoned the Eight Tiny Ones, and led a Knight Squad, heading towards the forests surrounding the Nameless Castle.