Chapter 241: The True Master

"Senior, between the Dragons and the Titans, who came to the Madilan World first?"

In the distant ancient era, the declining bloodlines of newborn Dragons and Titans could no longer adapt to the chaotic energy environment of the Star Realm.

Led by their respective faction leaders, both great races migrated to the material plane.

However, material planes were not easy to find, and high-quality ones that could catch the eye of the Star Realm's two great overlords were even rarer.

As a result, both races often set their sights on the same material plane simultaneously.

But the two great races were blood enemies who absolutely refused to coexist under the same sky. And so began the war for supremacy between the Dragons and the Titans, a conflict that swept across countless material planes.

Moreover, neither the Dragons nor the Titans minded snatching control of a plane from the other's hands, which was why the White Dragon Lord had asked the question.

Such history was recorded in the Dragon Inheritance, so the Ancient Gold Dragon answered.

"The Titans came first. Why? Is there a problem?"

The moment the words left his mouth, the Ancient Gold Dragon understood the White Dragon Lord's implication: Titans might have settled in this plane long before the war for supremacy between their races even began.

The Gold Dragon beside them realized this as well. The three Dragons looked at the relief on the door together. The battlefield depicted in the carving was the Star Realm...

It seemed the history of this door was far older than they had imagined.

After observing for a while, the three Dragons found no further information. The Ancient Gold Dragon began digging into the rock around the doorframe, attempting to bypass this sturdy Gate of Steel.

The White Dragon Lord picked up a piece of rubble excavated by the Ancient Gold Dragon and gave it a light squeeze. The stone around the doorframe had clearly been reinforced by magic, but it still could not withstand the sharp claws of an Old Dragon who had lived for tens of thousands of years.

After all, digging holes was a Dragon's specialty.

Before long, a massive pile of rubble had accumulated in front of the Gate of Steel.

Fifteen minutes later, the Ancient Gold Dragon's excited voice rang out.

"I broke through!"

Peering through a small hole, Adelaide looked into the passageway behind the Gate of Steel and prepared to widen the entrance.

Clink, clink!

Suddenly, a sound like sharp claws striking metal reached the White Dragon Lord's ears.

"Huh?!"

Hearing the Ancient Gold Dragon's confused voice, the White Dragon Lord asked:

"What's wrong?"

The Ancient Gold Dragon replied in astonishment:

"There is actually a Magic Barrier here."

The White Dragon Lord was also extremely surprised.

Maintaining a Magic Barrier required energy. The more powerful the barrier, the higher the energy cost. If it relied entirely on an internal energy source, even the vastest reserves would eventually run dry.

Therefore, the vast majority of Magic Barriers relied on absorbing external elemental energy to maintain their operation.

The magic elements in the Madilan World had been gone for thousands of years. Logically, the Magic Barrier here should have either failed completely or weakened significantly.

Yet, not only had this Magic Barrier not failed, but it could actually block an Ancient Gold Dragon at Creature Level 29.

Although a high level did not strictly guarantee immense combat power, someone at that level could not be weak, either.

Moreover, Adelaide was a Dragon. No matter the material plane, Dragons were a powerful race. Against ordinary beings of the same level, taking on two at once was absolutely no problem.

The Ancient Gold Dragon felt a bit embarrassed. As a senior who had lived for tens of thousands of years, losing face in front of two juniors stung. He gathered his strength and thrust his dragon claw forward, swiping viciously at the barrier.

Screech!

The claw struck the barrier, but the Ancient Gold Dragon felt his appendage being deflected by an invisible force. It instantly slid off, emitting a harsh screeching sound of friction. The Ancient Gold Dragon could hardly believe it.

"This! This barrier actually deflects force!"

"Widen the hole a bit. Let's try attacking it together, all three of us."

The three Dragons began to widen the opening. Before long, they successfully carved out a massive space large enough for all three to maneuver. They launched their attacks simultaneously, but the result was exactly the same.

The White Dragon Lord looked at the rubble on the ground thoughtfully. He picked up a stone and threw it at the barrier. The stone struck the surface and bounced off.

"This is a perfect-type barrier. Not only does it restrict living organisms, but non-living objects cannot pass through it either."

The Gold Dragon reinforcement frowned.

"This is troublesome. Not only can we not press our advantage to pursue them, but even the plan to channel in seawater won't work anymore."

The White Dragon Lord spoke resentfully:

"Let's just take turns bringing the Dragons here to bombard the barrier with dragon breath. We'll accelerate the depletion of its energy. I refuse to believe this barrier can defy the laws of energy conservation and possess infinite power!"

The two Gold Dragons exchanged a helpless glance. Aside from this, there really were no better ideas.

The three Dragons quickly reached an agreement. After cremating the corpses of the three fallen Dragons, they flew out of the sinkhole and landed on the City Wall.

The Ancient Gold Dragon addressed the flock of Dragons.

"We've run into a problem. There is actually a barrier down below. Starting today, we will take turns attacking the barrier with our breath!"

Just then, the frigid air billowing out from the cave caused a soldier on the City Wall to sneeze.

The Ancient Gold Dragon glanced at the lingering frigid air in the sinkhole and added:

"We will begin once the cold air dissipates."

The White Dragon Lord grabbed Duke Shingesa and flew toward the interior of the fortress.

"Where are the Elemental Crystals?"

Under Duke Shingesa's guidance, the White Dragon Lord arrived at the fortress's Treasure Vault. Ignoring the crates of gold coins, he went straight to the depths of the vault, pulled out a chest of Elemental Crystals, and swallowed them all like beans.

The Elemental Crystals were broken down in the White Dragon's stomach, converting into streams of pure magic power that his starved body eagerly absorbed.

Casting legendary magic in a normal world usually meant using one's own magic as a catalyst to stir the elemental forces of nature, so the actual mana consumed wasn't considered too excessive.

But in a magic-less environment like the Madilan World, spellcasting drained entirely from one's own internal magic reserves. If the White Dragon Lord didn't possess such vast mana, he likely wouldn't have been able to cast even a single spell of legendary magic.

After devouring a full half-chest of Elemental Crystals, the White Dragon Lord felt his internal magic replenish. Satisfied, he returned to the ranks of the Dragon Race.

At this time, the Dragons were resting around the City Wall. The bottom of the sinkhole saw no sunlight to begin with, so waiting for the chilling air to drop to a level ordinary Dragons could withstand would take at least a day and a night.

Originally, the Dragons could have chosen to dispel the cold air with their dragon breath, but after a long journey and a fierce battle, they were already exhausted.

Thus, they simply opted to rest and wait for the chill to dissipate naturally. Besides, the massive engineering project of excavating a canal to channel seawater couldn't be finished in a day or two anyway.

Meanwhile, the two Gold Dragons were discussing the division of labor, and the White Dragon Lord joined the conversation.

Ultimately, the three Dragons decided to put the White Dragon Lord in charge of the continent's affairs and the canal project, while the two Gold Dragons would stand guard underground to prevent the Life Titan from charging out and slaughtering the ordinary Dragons.

With the tasks assigned, the White Dragon Lord began to contemplate the situation across the continent.

Currently, the Orc army was advancing with irresistible force, marching triumphantly through the Luonan Empire and seizing cities and strongholds along the way. The Luonan Empire, having lost more than half of its elite forces to the White Dragon Lord's trap, lacked the strength to mount a counterattack. They could only concentrate their forces to defend a few vital cities.

Although the so-called grand cities of the Luonan Empire looked like toys on a sandbox to the White Dragon Lord, he had no desire to personally step in and flatten those stumbling blocks for the Orcs.

After all, he was the master, and the Orcs were the servants. If the master turned around and solved every difficulty for the servants, then what use were they?!

However, he could still provide the Orc Race with some assistance to accelerate the unification of the Madilan World.

The White Dragon Lord rubbed his chin. Looking at the ring of Dragons resting below the City Wall, he randomly selected five of the stronger ones and roused them with a telepathic message.

"You lot, go inform the Orcs to speed up their offensive and strive to finish off the Luonan Empire as soon as possible. Also, once you go, there's no need to return here. Stay and help the Orcs crush a few tough nuts."

Receiving their leader's command, the five Dragons stood up, flapped their wings, and flew away.

Pushing off the ground with his hind legs, the White Dragon Lord also spread his wings and took to the sky. Following the intelligence provided by the Ancient Gold Dragon, he set out to locate the ruins of the ancient canal.

Back when the canal was only halfway excavated, the Titans had launched a counterattack, forcing the Dragons and the Orcs to retreat together to the Great Orc Prairie. The canal project was subsequently abandoned.

Now, the White Dragon Lord naturally intended to restart the canal project and resume this grand endeavor.

Before long, the White Dragon Lord found the remains of the canal.

Over the passage of thousands of years, this canal had long been overgrown with vegetation, evolving into a lush, primeval forest.

As the White Dragon Lord flew, he calculated the canal's length and trajectory. To his speechlessness, he discovered that the canal was a perfect straight line. It seemed the canal's designer had intended to connect the sinkhole straight to the ocean with a single line.

The idea itself wasn't bad, except there were mountain peaks sitting right on this straight line.

The White Dragon Lord looked down at a low mountain peak that had been forcefully split in half and felt thoroughly speechless. Looking at the excavation marks left on the mountain, it was clear that the workers who dug the canal had executed the Dragons' orders to the absolute letter.

Due to the need to observe, calculate, and record, it took the White Dragon Lord an entire day to fly the full length of the canal. As he designed a logical route, he also calculated that the remaining length of the canal left to excavate was nearly three thousand kilometers.

This was no small project. One had to know that the longest artificial canal on the Blue Star was only a little over seventeen hundred kilometers long.

However, the physiques of the humans and Orcs in this world were far superior to those in his past life, not to mention the presence of giant beasts with astonishing brute strength, like the clefthoof.

Hovering in the sky, the White Dragon Lord calculated internally. Without the participation of Dragons, digging a canal like this would take at least two years.

He thought back to the human towns he had seen along the way. Perhaps he could put these nearby resources to good use.

But this would have to be built on the premise of a unified Madilan World.

Otherwise, if he just let the Orcs use violent coercion, laborers fleeing would be an inevitable occurrence.

According to the White Dragon Lord's original plan, he had intended to let the Orcs occupy the territory of the Luonan Empire and split the Madilan World evenly with the humans of the Kingdom Alliance.

Then, right on the border between these two races who were as incompatible as fire and water, he would place down a Portal, establish an academy similar to a holy land, and continuously harvest Elemental Crystals and outstanding talents from the Madilan World through the competition between humans and Orcs.

But now, in order to stabilize the Madilan World as quickly as possible, his plans needed a slight adjustment.

"It seems I'll have to make a trip earlier than expected."

The White Dragon Lord beat his wings and flew toward the border between the Luonan Empire and the Kingdom Alliance.

The Kingdom Alliance consisted of twelve kingdoms, headed by the top three. Under the leadership of these three major kingdoms, the many nations worked together to resist the Luonan Empire's encroachment.

But a flock of sheep was still a flock of sheep. Even united, they were still at a disadvantage facing a hungry wolf like the Luonan Empire. However, if they hadn't united, the kingdoms would have been destroyed even faster.

This was the sorrow of the weak.

Now, the Kingdom Alliance—which had huddled together for warmth—no longer had to worry about the Luonan Empire's invasion, but they were about to face an even greater trouble.

Through the destruction of the Luonan Empire, the White Dragon Lord announced just who was the true master of the Madilan World.

(End of Chapter)