Chapter 424: The Abyssal Lord on the Hellfire

The White Tower of the Yafiavi Kingdom Royal Palace.

Inside the laboratory, the White Dragon Lord was studying the spoils of his journey into the Abyss—the soul of the Lord of the Corrosive Marsh. To him, the greatest harvest of the trip was not his numerous trophies, but this very soul. Or, more accurately, the memories stored within it.

The Lord of the Corrosive Marsh had existed for an untold number of years. As a witness to the ancient era, the knowledge, forgotten secrets, and countless years of combat experience accumulated in its memories were all priceless treasures to the White Dragon Lord.

Therefore, after handing the Lord of Putrid Silt over to Merlin Heavenly Principle for imprisonment, he had immediately returned to the White Tower to begin his research, eager to pry out the secrets hidden within the abyssal lord's soul.

Since spells like Soul Search carried a degree of danger and could cause a large portion of memories to be lost, the White Dragon Lord opted for a safer approach: making the Lord of the Corrosive Marsh speak of its own accord.

Naturally, the Lord of the Corrosive Marsh would not willingly cooperate. Thus, the White Dragon Lord employed an ancient, crude, yet highly effective method: torture and interrogation.

Following the murloc Old Jimmy, Morodin's Musical Candlestick welcomed its second guest. Amidst the surging, blood-red Soul-Forging Fire, the soul of the Lord of the Corrosive Marsh wailed in agony.

According to abyssal lords, the Soul-Forging Fire was also known as Hellfire—a mandatory tool for torturing souls. The Lord of the Corrosive Marsh had probably never imagined that it, too, would one day suffer its agonizing burns.

When the Soul-Forging Fire previously burned Old Jimmy's soul, the goal had been to strengthen him, so the White Dragon Lord had lowered the intensity to an endurable level. Now, however, the objective was to force a confession and pry out secrets. Naturally, the level of pain inflicted was worlds apart.

"Resistance will only multiply your suffering. You might as well speak. Speak, and you will be free." The White Dragon Lord's soul-voice, dripping with temptation, echoed into the captive's mind like a devil's whisper.

"Never! I will never yield!" Even while roasted by the Soul-Forging Fire, the Lord of the Corrosive Marsh refused to give in. The White Dragon Lord cranked up the heat. The flames turned such a vivid red they seemed to drip blood, and the abyssal lord's screams grew even more excruciating.

The White Dragon Lord continued his temptations.

Finally, under the intense torment, the Lord of the Corrosive Marsh's soul showed signs of collapsing. The White Dragon Lord hurriedly snuffed out the Soul-Forging Fire and stared at the unconscious soul, falling into deep thought.

He needed to add a little something extra.

However, the White Dragon Lord could not spend all his time on the Lord of the Corrosive Marsh. Through their contract, he summoned the lich Jimmy Blue Scale.

Old Jimmy had endured endless agony upon the Soul-Forging Fire, ultimately achieving his wish and transforming into a legendary lich with the White Dragon Lord's help.

Because undead creatures could not walk openly in the sunlight, the White Dragon Lord had dispatched the newly advanced lich to work alongside White Castle's partner, the lich Philidel. Old Jimmy became the alchemical grandmaster's laboratory assistant, simultaneously serving as the liaison between White Castle and the necromantic factions.

Receiving the White Dragon Lord's summons, the lich teleported into the White Tower and approached his master.

By now, not a single trace of his murloc origins remained on Jimmy Blue Scale. The skeleton hidden beneath his robes stood over two meters tall—a new vessel he had forged for himself using wyvern bones. Soul-fire danced within the skull, which sported curved wyvern horns.

"My sincerest greetings to you, respected master." The terrifying skeletal monster bowed to the White Dragon Lord.

The White Dragon Lord appraised his former dependent. Under his "teacher's" guidance, Old Jimmy had developed quite well and was now a Level 22 Mage.

Right now, the lich was looking at him in confusion. Ever since his conversion, the White Dragon Lord hadn't actively summoned him in decades.

"I summoned you this time because I have a task for you." The White Dragon Lord led the lich toward the laboratory.

Old Jimmy's gaze immediately fell upon Morodin's Musical Candlestick on the experimentation table. His soul-fire violently flickered. He had spent decades trapped within that candlestick; the taste of its torment was still fresh in his memory. He quickly noticed that it had a new guest.

"This is a demonic soul I brought back from the Abyss—a former abyssal lord. I want all of its knowledge, but it refuses to cooperate," the White Dragon Lord said, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness.

Old Jimmy's soul-fire flickered even more intensely.

An abyssal lord?!

That was an entity on par with a deity!

He had no idea how the White Dragon Lord had managed to capture such a being, but it only reinforced his judgment of his master's strength. His posture grew even more humble.

The White Dragon Lord continued, "This is why I called you here. Liches are experts at toying with souls. I don't care what methods you use; pry its mouth open and make it spit out everything it knows."

A flash of joy crossed Old Jimmy's mind. Interrogating an abyssal lord—just thinking about it was thrilling! Moreover, he himself would gain endless benefits from the process. This was Abomination Rank knowledge!

"You can take it down to the dungeon on the second basement level of the White Tower. No one will disturb you there."

"I will give it my all. I absolutely will not disappoint you, master." Having stated his devotion, Old Jimmy picked up Morodin's Musical Candlestick and excitedly headed toward the White Tower's dungeon.

With Old Jimmy taking away the soul of the Lord of the Corrosive Marsh, his clone busy with magical experiments, and Merlin Heavenly Principle handling everything regarding the celebration, the White Dragon Lord found himself with nothing to do.

After a moment of thought, he stepped onto the Teleportation Platform and transported himself to the former Necromantic Plane: the Rodoro Plane.

The Rodoro Plane was the safe haven the White Dragon Lord had prepared for the underage dragons of the Nordhill Plane. It was the most crucial link in the Dragon Race's revitalization plan, so he cared deeply about the progress of its purification.

He walked out of the Magic Tower and looked up at the sky. The once-dusty clouds of death energy had completely vanished, replaced by an azure expanse and wisps of white clouds. The White Dragon Lord sniffed the air.

The necromantic power in the air had already faded significantly, though it was still a bit too high for a material plane. This place remained unsuitable for living creatures to survive.

The White Dragon Lord took flight, heading in Elena's direction.

Along the way, he saw the fruits of Elena's ecological management—patches of moss, and occasionally, tufts of green grass. Due to the excessive necromantic power, however, these plants looked rather grey and dull.

But the appearance of vegetation was a good sign. It meant the vitality of the Rodoro Plane would soon return.

The White Dragon Lord found Elena and her teacher, the Cat-Woman. Currently, the master and apprentice were deep within the planet's core, working together to purify the Rodoro Plane's Heart of the Plane.

Amidst a sea of fiery red magma, a dazzling gemstone hovered in midair. The brilliant power of laws radiating from it pushed the lava back, forming a spherical void within the molten rock. This power of laws revolved naturally around the Heart of the Plane, resembling a flawlessly formed three-dimensional magical array.

However, wisps of ominous grey energy within the Heart of the Plane ruined the overall aesthetic. Indeed, after falling to become a Necromantic Plane, the Rodoro Plane's Heart of the Plane had also been contaminated.

Standing within the void shaped by the power of laws, Elena and her teacher were injecting life force into the Heart of the Plane to erode the grey death energy. Although there wasn't much death energy inside, it was exceedingly pure and incredibly stubborn, clinging like maggots to the bone. Thus, the pair's progress was agonizingly slow.

The White Dragon Lord tried to move closer, but was blocked by the outer barrier of the laws. He had no choice but to poke his head out from the surrounding magma and observe, studying the operational rules of the Heart of the Plane.

Because their power was continuously being depleted, Elena and the Cat-Woman's auras were growing weaker and weaker.

After a long time, the two stopped pouring their life force into the Heart of the Plane. They opened their eyes and looked over at the waiting White Dragon Lord.

"This is no place to talk. Let's head up first."

As if they were swimming, the three floated up through the magma toward the surface.

Soon, they met solid bedrock. The White Dragon Lord transformed into an elemental body and dove straight into the stone, while the Cat-Woman and Elena used a far more miraculous method: the rocks seemed to actively yield, opening a path for them to pass through smoothly.

Before long, the three breached the surface and flew toward a nearby Magic Tower.

The White Dragon Lord asked, "How is the progress? Roughly how long until the purification is complete?"

"Hmm, we aren't entirely sure of the exact timeframe," Elena replied. "Counting the purification of the Heart of the Plane, seeding the flora, and waiting for those plants to establish a viable ecosystem for animals... it will probably take a little over ten years."

The White Dragon Lord nodded. A decade or so was nothing to a dragon. He had plenty of patience.

Returning to the Magic Tower, the White Dragon Lord ordered the resident mages to fetch a map of the Rodoro Plane. He spread it flat across the table.

The Rodoro Plane was a medium material plane. Its surface area was vast—four or five times the size of a Small Material Plane, and nearly a hundred times the size of the Yafiavi Kingdom.

Because of the devastation wrought by Abomination Rank monsters, all the mountain ranges across the plane had been leveled. Scattered across this endless flatland were 182 Magic Towers. These 182 structures formed the Rodoro Plane's Magic Tower Defense System—the core pillar through which the White Dragon Lord controlled the entire realm.

"Hajir, Elena, the entire terrain of this plane is flatland. I don't really like that. I plan to construct some mountain ranges, which means I need to understand the flow of the ley lines. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Let's draw out the ley lines," Elena said. She and the Cat-Woman took two pens and began tracing the deep subterranean flow of the ley lines across the map.

Just as mages needed to build Magic Towers on ley line nodes, shaping mountain ranges to follow the flow of ley lines would gather magical elements and alter the local climate, creating what was known in legends as a treasured land of excellent feng shui.

And Elena and the Cat-Woman were undoubtedly the two who understood the Rodoro Plane best. A druid's process for purifying a plane was divided into three major stages:

First, banish the necromantic storm clouds looming above to let sunlight bathe the earth once more.

Second, comb through the ley lines, expelling the death energy within to create a pincer attack from the inside out alongside the sunlight, allowing the surface to slowly regain its vitality.

Third, and only then, purify the Heart of the Plane to completely save the world.

The second step was exceptionally crucial. Cleansing the ley lines earned the plane's blessing, making the planar will treat the druids as its own people. Only by achieving this could the pair bypass the blockade of the planar laws and directly purify the contaminated Heart of the Plane.

Soon, a complete map of the ley lines was drawn.

The White Dragon Lord examined the map. The ley line flows of the Rodoro Plane generally formed a web-like structure. Though they appeared meandering and chaotic, they actually contained some profound, hidden law, much like a naturally formed magical array.

With a general grasp of the Rodoro Plane's subterranean energies, a grand design began to take shape in his mind.

Naturally, the White Dragon Lord wouldn't expend so much effort just to find a safe home for underage dragons. He had far deeper intentions.

After observing the Ten Thousand Dragon Island Dragon Beast Academy, the White Dragon Lord noticed that compared to their wild counterparts, "academy-trained" dragons lacked the courage to put their lives on the line. They were less cunning, and their practical combat abilities were weaker. This was undoubtedly bad news.

What the White Dragon Lord wanted to raise was a legion of dragon guards excelling in warfare, not a swarm of incompetent maggots.

Therefore, when conceptualizing his plans for the Rodoro Plane, he took this lesson to heart.

He planned to use the center of the Rodoro Plane as an origin point, dividing the world into a central zone and four concentric rings. These four rings would correspond to Wyrmlings, Very Young Dragons, and both phases of Young Dragons. These four distinct residential zones would be separated by magical arrays. Once a dragon broke threw to the next age stage, they would feel an oppressive pressure in their current zone, forcing them to migrate to the next.

Only upon reaching adulthood would they be able to reach the Portal at the center of the plane and return to the Nordhill Plane.

Throughout their upbringing, the dragons would face fierce competition—battles over territory, skirmishes over treasure. Combat would accompany them every step of their growth.

And the 182 Magic Towers of the planar defense system would play an enormous role. First, they would monitor the growth of the dragons to ensure their safety. Second, they would maintain species balance, ensuring the dragons had prey to hunt while preventing the ecosystem from collapsing. Third, they would distribute treasures such as gold coins and magical trinkets to give the young dragons an incentive to fight, and regularly hold various tournaments where the victors received rewards to spur their growth. Fourth, and finally, they would provide professional education.

Each Magic Tower would offer training for various professionals, teaching the knowledge of Mages, Warriors, priests, and more. This would allow the young dragons to develop smoothly along their chosen professional paths.

Bullied by another dragon?

Not a problem! Come to the Magic Tower, undergo professional training, boost your combat prowess, and fight back!

But, of course, professional education wouldn't be free...

The White Dragon Lord was confident that in such a competitive survival environment, the dragons' combat prowess would skyrocket. And since the dragon god strictly forbade dragons from slaughtering their own kind, there wouldn't be any fatal incidents.

Surviving to adulthood and crossing through the Portal meant that the young dragons had finally graduated from the massive Dragon Academy that was the Rodoro Plane. Then, it would be time for them to experience the harsh beatings of society.

First, they would be caught by the seniors guarding the Portal and forced to hand over all the wealth they had amassed in the "academy." Aside from tournament rewards, which they could keep, everything else would be confiscated and sent back into the Rodoro Plane for recycling.

Second, it would be time to pay the tuition for their professional education. The newly adult dragons would face two choices: either serve the Yafiavi Kingdom for a century to work off the debt, or carry the debt and pay it off within a strict time limit. Furthermore, every scrap of knowledge in the Magic Towers would be clearly priced, ensuring fair trade with absolutely no deception.

Finally, during their period of servitude, they would witness the immense power and prosperity of the Yafiavi Kingdom. This would inevitably sway the dragons' decisions on whether to stay or leave once their terms expired.