Chapter 466 – Establishing the War Zone, Red Mountain City Lord's Gratitude

Dragon Heaven Lord’s pupils abruptly contracted. His pre-charged movement, prepared for coordination, froze mid-air.

The enemy had already perished, their remnants swallowed by collapsing space. What coordination was there left to execute?!

Yet,

his gaze remained fixed on the seemingly harmless young girl in the distant sky, the tremors in his pupils refusing to subside.

Cold sweat even trickled faintly from his forehead.

Too terrifying, too violent.

“No wonder…”

No wonder, despite both being selected for the parade ceremony, he could only appear early as an appetizer, while Tianyuan received far grander arrangements and formations.

He had been disobedient.

Now, he had no choice but to concede.

With just this one general, she surpassed thousands of elite soldiers.

…

Dolai’s hand, holding the staff, stiffened in mid-air.

A faint cold sweat beaded on its forehead.

It seemed…

it had used too much force!

Or rather, the enemy seemed excessively fragile!

It had certainly held back; otherwise, it could have directly conjured a spatial black hole, leaving no chance for the Blood Dragon to struggle.

But it wasn’t sure if there were still hidden legendary monsters in the shadows, or if the enemy had more, stronger reinforcements on the way. Of course, it couldn’t unleash its full power.

—That was the Lord’s reasoning.

Dolai couldn’t be bothered to think too hard. Since the Lord demanded it, there must be a reason. It just had to follow instructions.

It followed them, but it seemed there was still a slight miscalculation.

It was all this Blood Dragon’s fault for being too weak.

Clearly a Dragon, yet it didn’t seem much stronger than an ordinary legendary.

These Dragons were indeed far inferior to the Peak Heaven-Earth Realm Dragons that Tianyuan’s generals had encountered in the Ten Directions Island Region.

The Domains radiated by the other three Dragons spanned radii between two thousand and three thousand meters.

Their Domains enveloped the heavens and earth in all directions, also extending to the area where Dolai stood.

Yet,

even though Dolai hadn’t expanded its own Domain, when these three Domains spread to its location, they seemed to hit an invisible barrier, unable to cross that line.

The three Dragons stared at Dolai with their golden-red eyes, shimmering with authority, bloodlust, and indifference.

Deep within their pupils was a barely perceptible panic.

Dolai forced a dry laugh, trying hard to pretend its hand holding the staff was trembling.

‘Right!’

It suddenly thought, ‘Some special Moves either come with huge side effects or have very long cooldowns. The spectacle I just created was so grand, clearly indicating it’s an extremely, extremely special super Move that can only be used once per battle!’

Seventeen, Xiliu, Sickle Moon, and Uta all had such Moves.

The more it thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.

But did its own reasoning really matter?

One of the Blood Dragons spoke, “Don’t panic! A Move like this must have significant limitations or side effects. Don’t be intimidated by this human; she’s already a paper tiger!”

A second Blood Dragon shot a glance, “Yes, yes, yes! She has no strength left. Now’s the time!”

Dolai: Yes, yes, yes, you’re absolutely right.

This monster is quite perceptive.

Dolai couldn’t help but wonder if its acting had paid off. Truly worthy of this General.

The third Blood Dragon let out a furious roar, “Charge!”

He retracted his Domain, channeling all his power into himself.His massive form swept across the sky as he condensed an incredibly refined, vividly patterned crimson giant claw.

The cloud-like giant claw blotted out the sun.

The crimson dragon noticed the human still refusing to dodge—perhaps lacking the capacity to evade—and couldn’t help but shout, “You should also quickly…”

The third crimson dragon suddenly sensed something amiss. A peripheral glance revealed only two rapidly retreating crimson dots, their auras nearly vanished.

Third Dragon: “???”

I @#￥%&#!

His attack faltered, while ahead, terrifyingly violent thunderfire energy erupted across the heavens.

His body was engulfed, incinerated within the despair-inducing scorching of thunderflames.

……

……

High above, Dolai wiped nonexistent cold sweat from its brow. “Finally over. This General is utterly exhausted.”

The Dragon Heaven Lord, astride his Legendary Realm Burning Steel Wyvern, nodded in shared understanding.

Just moments earlier, he had desperately intercepted one crimson dragon, while Tianyuan City’s other General—skilled in archery—continuously sniped another.

The Jiang City Lord had also joined the fray from afar.

Thus, they managed to annihilate all four crimson dragons here.

Though both he and his Burning Steel Wyvern sustained minor injuries from the enemies’ desperate assaults, this glorious achievement of eliminating four crimson dragons made even severe wounds worthwhile.

‘Still, we’re fortunate Tianyuan’s General intervened promptly to prevent the crimson dragons’ self-destruction. Otherwise, Burning Steel and I might have truly suffered grave injuries.’

‘Speaking of which, Tianyuan’s General has demonstrated remarkably decisive and timely interventions on several occasions.’

The Dragon Heaven Lord glanced at Tianyuan’s General, who appeared equally drained nearby. Somehow, he sensed this General still retained hidden reserves.

Almost like fishing for prey.

‘An illusion. It must be an illusion.’

‘Her 2,900-meter Domain is fully deployed. She even unleashed multiple large-scale offensive techniques worthy of being called killer moves consecutively… Such terrifying energy output would have drained any ordinary Legendary multiple times over. How could Tianyuan’s General possibly have reserves remaining?’

……

After eliminating the four crimson dragons, no further Legendary Realm monsters appeared.

The Dragon Heaven Lord no longer proposed conducting deep reconnaissance, instead dutifully garrisoning Red Mountain City while awaiting additional reinforcements.

Nearly ten Lords gathered together.

Jiang Cheng spoke first, “The crimson dragons likely represent the Dragon’s Slumber Valley monster faction. If the Tide truly originates from Dragon’s Slumber Valley, this matter exceeds our capacity to handle. We should consult official stances from Boulder City and Tianze City.”

The Dragon Heaven Lord stroked his stubble. “Dragon’s Slumber Valley… I’ve long heard of this monster faction. A top-tier hegemon force—and an unforgivable monster faction that defiles dragon remains!”

Mu Yuan: “…”

Speaking of defiling dragon corpses, we’re quite proficient too. Deadbone has collected countless dragon carcasses.

He stated, “Dragon’s Slumber Valley’s core forces are creatures that occupy dragon remains and regrow Flesh upon them. I’ve examined the fallen crimson dragons—their Flesh and bones aren’t homologous… And from my knowledge, many Legendary Realm crimson dragons indeed haven’t achieved complete Fusion between body parts.””There’s a 98% probability that the enemy is Dragon’s Slumber Valley. It’s highly likely that a passage leading to the Deep Wilderness, or even the Land of Red Mist, has appeared west of Red Mountain City.”

Dragon Heaven Lord glanced at him.

How are you so proficient… no, how are you so familiar with this?

No matter how powerful you are, you’re still just a rookie in the Pioneer Group, right?

Mu Yuan was indeed a rookie in the Pioneer Group – a rookie commander in the Great Warzone, commander of a special warzone, old friend of Dragon’s Slumber Valley, and a newly established Lord with just over a year of experience.

However, when Xiliu fought the Blood Dragon, she discovered that these dragons’ souls and bodies weren’t completely fused.

Xiliu inherently counters dragon types. Her ‘Dragon Banquet’ talent gives her the ability to directly damage the souls of all dragon-type lifeforms.

When battling the Blood Dragon, her ‘Soul Special Attack’ was further enhanced, making her practically a Blood Dragon slayer.

This serves as evidence that the Blood Dragon’s body and soul weren’t completely fused.

If they had been completely fused, Xiliu’s Dragon Banquet talent wouldn’t have produced such exaggerated effects.

…

In the following period, the intensity of the monster wave slightly subsided.

No Legendary Realm monsters appeared anymore, nor did any war machines emerge. Under these circumstances, with several Legendary Realm experts stationed there, Red Mountain City could be described as impregnable.

Before long,

The first batch of reinforcements from Boulder City arrived – the Peak Heaven-Earth Realm expert ‘Celestial River Sword Saint’.

He came ahead alone.

Another Peak Heaven-Earth Realm expert ‘Boulder Great Venerable’ was leading a military corps and currently en route via steel train.

“I heard the enemy has retreated, and that a Blood Dragon appeared?”

Celestial River Sword Saint arrived stepping on a mighty river of swords.

He resembled a sword immortal in the mortal world, the very embodiment of elegance and power.

As a publicly known expert from Boulder City, Celestial River Sword Saint had quite illustrious battle achievements, with countless fallen enemies beneath his sword.

Mu Yuan was familiar with Celestial River Sword Saint.

The Sword Saint had also participated in the ‘Surprise Attack on Dragon’s Slumber Valley’ campaign, having briefly stopped at Tianyuan City for supplies at that time.

Even earlier, Mu Yuan had seen Celestial River Sword Saint before.

From a distance.

Once when Deadbone saw Celestial River Sword Saint pursuing the Goblin Prince in the wild;

Another time in the Interdimensional Zone, when Celestial River Sword Saint forcefully repelled foreign experts.

At that time, Celestial River Sword Saint was still an unparalleled powerhouse that he couldn’t hope to match.

But now,

Celestial River Sword Saint was rumored to have reached the ‘Peak Heaven-Earth Realm,’ showing significant improvement.

Tianyuan City had improved even more.

Even disregarding combat power increases and just looking at Rank and Domain radius, Tianyuan City already had four Peak Heaven-Earth Realm experts: Deadbone, Dolai, Isloria, and Tree Spirit Grandma.

“Without realizing it, we’ve accumulated quite a substantial force.”

…

After Celestial River Sword Saint’s arrival, more reinforcements kept coming.

Blazing Flame Lord, Behemoth Lord, Oak City Lord…

One powerful Lord after another arrived in the small Red Mountain City. The Red Mountain City Lord was so busy he couldn’t keep his feet on the ground.

By this time, the emergency rescue mission for Red Mountain City had long been canceled.

However, some experts still came from thousands of miles away.

A middle-aged Lord riding a Red Dragon arrived at the location.

This was Red Mountain City’s backer – the chairman of the Red Dragon Group.Before long, Boulder Great Venerable, leading a thousand-strong legion, finally arrived at this location. The legion entered Red Mountain City to begin defensive cooperation and clear out the already thinning hordes outside the city walls.

Boulder Great Venerable stated, “We will conduct a thorough investigation of this incident, which may require the assistance of various Lords. The star rating and merit rewards for the investigation mission will be assessed based on the investigation results.”

After all, this involved Dragon’s Slumber Valley, and various official cities of Taixuan were contributing efforts one after another.

The Pioneer Group was also preparing to send powerful reinforcements.

The investigation proceeded without unexpected incidents.

In fact, it went more smoothly than imagined, quickly yielding preliminary and direct findings.

“An underground cavity.”

Celestial River Sword Saint said, “The cavity is strangely peculiar, leading to another realm. Although this realm isn’t the Land of Red Mist, it still contains considerable drifting crimson mist in its Heaven-Earth Realm. It’s possible that Dragon’s Slumber Valley has already established an outpost for their vanguard forces in the opposite realm.”

“We must eliminate this outpost, though this isn’t something we can accomplish with just our current forces. This will be a large-scale pioneer mission that will summon numerous Pioneer Lords.”

“This area will also be temporarily designated as a warzone.”

What he left unsaid was that if they, Taixuan, failed to eliminate Dragon’s Slumber Valley’s vanguard outpost and the war reached a stalemate, this warzone might have to become permanent.

After all, they had lost the initiative this time, and no one knew how much preparation Dragon’s Slumber Valley had made.

This was rather unfavorable news for Taixuan.

Fortunately, present-day Taixuan was much stronger than before. In the past, the appearance of such a passage might have caused the entire Taixuan defense line to collapse, potentially leading to the disappearance of both Boulder City and Tianze City.

“War has arrived once again.”

…

“War has never truly disappeared.”

Mu Yuan murmured, gazing beyond the city walls.

He had only been in the Eternal World for just over a year, yet he had already encountered and witnessed countless disasters.

Therefore, he must become stronger.

Their Tianyuan City must grow powerful enough to remain unshaken no matter what calamities they faced.

And currently, they weren’t strong enough.

Facing the powerful Dragon’s Slumber Valley, their Tianyuan City was far from qualified for direct confrontation.

Isloria approached and said, “Lord, the Red Mountain City Lord just sent a gift of gratitude. Thinking you might refuse out of excessive modesty, I took the liberty of accepting it on your behalf.”

Mu Yuan: “?”

“Let me see.”

She brought over a storage ring and added:

“Inside are two pieces of equipment of Excellent grade, along with eleven land deeds.”

“Ten of them are deeds for properties in Red Mountain City, including one manor, one tea plantation, and two taverns.”

“The remaining one is a land deed for Boulder City. I examined it – the property is located on Boulder Street in Boulder City, covering a considerable area with significant value.”

Currently, all the offices, shops, and outposts that Tianyuan City maintained in various cities were leased properties.

He couldn’t afford to buy them.

At least not all of them.

The Red Mountain City Lord’s gift of a land deed in Boulder City’s core district showed considerable sincerity.

As for the other Red Mountain City deeds…

Although they included businesses like taverns, their value still paled in comparison to the Boulder City deed.

The real estate market in the Eternal World was extremely polarized – the expensive properties were exorbitantly priced and fiercely competed for, while properties in some territories couldn’t be given away even at bargain prices.”But in the future, Red Mountain City will also become a warzone frontline. Who knows, maybe the industries here will appreciate in value?”

Mu Yuan didn’t care.

Whether the Redrock City Lord offered thanks or not, Mu Yuan was indifferent. He hadn’t come for gifts, though he wouldn’t refuse them either.

He had also guessed the Redrock City Lord’s thoughts.

“Once the warzone is established, sending some elites here won’t be a problem.”

“Fighting monsters is the same no matter where you do it.”

…

At this moment, an emergency meeting of the Pioneer Group had already been convened.

“We can be almost certain that the enemy this time is from Dragon’s Slumber Valley. They’re trying to bypass the Dragon Mountain Pass defense line.”

“To be safe, let’s first establish a temporary warzone to stop the enemy’s advance.”

“Then the question arises—how many Lords should be summoned for this temporary warzone, and who should command them?”

(End of Chapter)