The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

The King of Shadows' tongue had long been severed, rendering him speechless.

Liszt had no interest in interrogating him and simply eradicated him, while fiddling with a wine cup-shaped Ancient Artifact, sensing the effect of the equipment.

Regrettably, he could discern nothing: "The Knowledge Ancient Book is in Ach's hands; I can't identify it. Never mind, I'll just put it away and wait for Ach to return." To this day, he no longer needed any Ancient Artifacts to augment his strength, ensnared by the Power of Destiny, and as a Half-Step Barrier Knight, there were no rivals in the vast world.

"Your Majesty, are you alright?" On the next day, Emily returned to the palace castle.

Liszt smiled lightly: "Of course, I am unscathed."

Emily earnestly agreed: "Yes, you are the most powerful Dragon Knight in the Legendary Continent, no petty thief or conspiratorial tactic can harm you."

"Emily, since Emperor Jupiter has already made his move, and it was such a feeble attempt, I think we can accelerate the pace of unifying the northeastern corner of the Legendary Continent. Why don't we start with the Knight War? You can oversee this war between Knights; we shall first campaign against the Steel Ridge Kingdom."

"What are your requirements for the Knight War?"

"At least half of the active Knights must be eliminated."

"Understood."

Thus, the Knight War unfolded grandly, with large numbers of Knight Orders from the Flame Kingdom galloping to the frontier, battling with the Knight Orders of the Steel Ridge Kingdom.

Bard discovered several natural nodes in the border area, allowing Liszt to support at any moment and expel the Dragon Knights of the Steel Ridge Kingdom. Protected by the Dragon Knights or Dragons of the Flame Kingdom, the Knight Orders voraciously besieged and conquered territories, with many Knights falling, but even more joining.

Liszt's renown also penetrated deep into the hearts of every Knight through each battle.

The war, starting in August, continued until December before temporarily concluding with the Flame Kingdom acquiring three thousand kilometers of territory. However, the greatest gains were not the robbed lands and resources, but rather three of the six subordinate nations of Steel Ridge Kingdom which had covertly submitted to the Flame Kingdom.

Maple Leaf Duchy, Azure Sapphire Duchy, and Honeysuckle Duchy.

Had the other three Duchies not been nonadjacent to Flame Kingdom, perhaps all six would have covertly communicated with Flame Kingdom, as anyone could see that Liszt's momentum in sweeping through the northeastern corner of the Legendary Continent was unstoppable.

As the year-end festival approached.

The teams purifying the oceans finally completed the comprehensive cleansing of the Devil's Sea, pulling out every single Devil Tower, and the devils' corpses piled up like mountains on Anchor Island. The Arcanists were incessantly busy collecting the power of the Cursed Dragons and sealing it in enormous glass jars.

Glass is a specialty of the Flame Kingdom, and though it lacks the magical properties of crystal, its effectiveness in sealing Magic Power is quite admirable.

A large quantity of Cursed Dragon power accumulated, placed in section after section, condensing into one ferocious Magic Form Cursed Dragon after another.

For now, Liszt did not know how to deal with this Cursed Dragon power, he wanted to attempt resurrecting a Cursed Dragon but was extremely cautious about the nature of Evil Dragons. Moreover, the complexity of the operations needed to resurrect using merely some Cursed Dragon power was immensely challenging.

Thus, he put it aside for the time being.

"Father, for this year's year-end festival of the Flame Kingdom, you shall take my place hosting it." Liszt, having presided over several year-end festivals consecutively, felt weary.

Li Weiliam curiously asked, "Aren't you hosting this year?"

"I'm thinking of taking a long trip, taking advantage of this break in the war to fully enjoy the scenery of this world." These words were half true, half false.

Actually, after Ach led the mermaids to purify the Devil's Sea, the route to the Mafa Continent had already been cleared.

Li Weiliam shrugged noncommittally: "If that's the case, go and enjoy yourself outside. I will take care of the daily affairs of the kingdom for you. However, don't be away for too long. After the New Year's festival, the Steel Ridge Kingdom might react quite fiercely."

"Don't worry, father. With Bard's help, even though I am millions of miles away, I can return to the Flame Kingdom at any time."

After finishing the kingdom's affairs, Liszt left the Sun Moon Star Palace quickly, crossing the Devil's Sea with Ach and many mermaids, heading towards the Mafa Continent. Every day Ach would use the sextant to position and chart the route, while determining their current location.

The area of the Devil's Sea is far larger than that of the Legendary Continent. After crossing the Devil's Sea, it took nearly two more days before they finally saw land.

The landscape of the land was not much different from the Legendary Continent, and they even discovered Elf Bugs.

However, there were no traces of either the Little Minor Elves or Greater Elves.

"The Mafa Continent must not have been polluted by the power of the Moon Dragon. Here, ancient magic rules still apply, and the plants can only nurture Elf Bugs," Ach caught an Elf Bug and said, "Ach doesn't feel any evolutionary power from this Elf Bug, it's different from those on the Legendary Continent."

Liszt also caught an Elf Bug and made a pact with it, guiding the Power of Destiny to surround the bug, but then shook his head in disappointment after a moment: "Indeed, I also didn't feel it has the potential to break its own destiny; perhaps this type of Elf Bug was just a material used to make magic dust in ancient times."

During the era of the Moon Empire, magicians were not kind to Elf Bugs at all; they were captured to make magic dust to help magicians break through.

He ordered the Elf Bug to gather the cordyceps, then placed them into a jade box to carry with him, taking Ach's hand, "Let's go further into the depths of the Mafa Continent."

Bard flapped his wings and flew.

From high in the sky overlooking the boundless wilderness, Liszt soon spotted the remains of a civilization hidden under the cover of a forest.

After landing and investigating, although the buildings were ancient and their original appearances had faded, there were many traces of the Child of the Sun civilization, such as some of the characters, which were similar to the Sun Script that Liszt knew, indicating that this was a relic of the ancient Sun Empire.

While the two were carefully examining the ancient buildings, the earth suddenly shook, followed by the soil beneath the forest being pushed up.

Skeletons, flickering with ghostly fire, crawled up from below the ground, surrounding them.

These skeletons were humanoid, animal-shaped, and even Liszt saw a dragon-shaped skeleton. Unlike Bone Dragon Vinnie, which flickered with a pale blue flame, this dragon-shaped skeleton, like the other skeletons, had only crimson ghostly fires flickering in its eye sockets, looking ferocious and terrifying.

"So many skeletons, brother, these must be creatures contaminated by the Shadow Dragon after its death, right?" Ach casually set up a Water Wave Shield, isolating them from the surroundings.

Liszt quickly captured a humanoid skeleton and returned to Ach's side: "Indeed, there's a special power surrounding the skeletons that is not within the magic rules we know, it must be the power derived from the Shadow Dragon breaking through the barriers, already involving the rules."

"Could it be the mental rules, material rules, or magic rules?"

"Not sure, better leave it to you to research. Let's leave this place first." Liszt stuffed the skeleton into a Space Ring, then carried Ach before mounting Formless Dragon Bard.

With a loud cry of "Wuu Yi Ya," they burst out from the circle of skeletons, flying higher and higher, and saw more and more skeletons crawling out around the entire ruins, forming a sea of white skeletons. Without making any sound, they just flickered with crimson ghostly fires, watching the two leave.