The Natural Empire of the Oceanic Dragon

The Old Rascal, as expected of a master in the elemental domain, keenly sensed the powerful energy contained within the potion in the glass bottle, capable of dispelling the distracting thoughts within the power of faith eroding his brain.

The Old Rascal's fingers couldn't help but tremble, taking a deep breath to calm his chaotic thoughts, still in the mood to joke with Artlan.

"Kid, work hard to improve your mental perception abilities. If you reach my level, you'll be able to sense the energy fluctuations of potions through your mental power and discern their effects!"

Artlan gave a thumbs-up in agreement.

"As expected of you. It seems this potion holds no secrets in your eyes. Since that's the case, hurry up and drink it."

The Old Rascal took the bottle, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp. The moment the golden liquid entered his mouth, he felt his oral cavity begin to burn, followed by his throat, internal organs, and even his entire body being scorched by flames.

Of course, in Artlan's eyes, the Old Rascal was simply glowing with golden light, looking radiant, like a Buddha.

"The shimmering golden appearance, anyone who sees it would think he's a messenger of the Sun God. This rich solar aura faintly reveals a sacred power."

"Mixed together, it gives the feeling of receiving divine power bestowed by the Sun God."

Vine Woman glanced at him indifferently.

"You feel like it's divine power only because my concentrated and enhanced Solar Purification Light is burning away the impurities within the power of faith. You can regard the solar energy burning within Robert's body as a imitation of divine fire."

"Although solar fire doesn't have the powerful effects of divine fire, it can initially temper the power of faith and remove its impurities. If you don't mind the time, constantly tempering with solar fire, the quality of the remaining power won't be much different from divine power."

"It can increase the success rate of igniting divine fire, and perhaps after failing to ignite divine fire, a bit of soul fragment will remain, giving you a chance to reincarnate as a spirit and try again."

Artlan's eyes lit up, rubbing his hands excitedly as he asked:

"Since the effects of solar fire are so good, and we've successfully collected a lot of power of faith, we can completely collect solar fire to temper the power of faith and enhance Master's strength."

"Wouldn't that increase the chance of obtaining natural sacred objects? At least Master and Mistress, you can safely return from the Moon Glade."

Vine Woman shook her head helplessly.

"At most, we can cultivate the Solar Fruit Tree into a sapling. It will take at least another hundred years for the Solar Fruit Tree to grow to the point of bearing fruit, and the Solar Fruit Tree has a very important characteristic."

"The longer the Solar Fruit Tree lives, the higher the purity of the condensed solar energy, and the better the effect of the Solar Fruit it bears. The Solar Fruit you brought back came from a tree that has lived for at least several thousand years."

"Without it, how could we condense such high-quality Solar Fruit with just the little energy you provided? Naturally, such high-quality Solar Fruit isn't needed to temper the power of faith."

Vine Woman sternly refused him.

"No way! The reason I'm using this internal medicine method to remove the pollution is to avoid alarming those strange Divine Aberrations in the Moon Glade."

"Your Purification Lightning can't kill the filthy evil spirits without leaking any aura. As for helping us heal, I estimate that at most you can use Purification Lightning to beat us to death."

"You can't even use Purification Lightning to purify powerful evil spirits, let alone heal."

Artlan curiously asked:

"Mistress, can you tell me about the monsters entrenched in the Moon Glade?"

Vine Woman rubbed her temples and said:

"Actually, your master and I have already explored the periphery of the Moon Glade once and discovered that the monsters inside seem to have mutated again. It should be a kind of undead tainted with divine power and demonic power."

"But they are in a state of neither life nor death, and they also possess the power to reproduce and evolve. Originally, the undead magic, divine power, and demonic power mixed in their bodies were integrated to form a new evil power."

"In short, these evil spirits are very difficult to kill, and they also have the ability to pollute the surrounding environment. It seems that everything around the Moon Glade is normal, but in fact, it is very likely that it has already been polluted by the power of the evil spirits."

"If the Natural Council can't quickly grow in strength to clean up the Moon Glade, the Emerald Dream will sooner or later be destroyed by those filthy evil spirits."

Artlan gritted his teeth and said:

"Those damned guys above and below, aren't they afraid of cultivating monsters that they can't eliminate? If they eliminate the Natural Council, they will instead create an enemy that they find more troublesome."

"Shooting themselves in the foot, do you think they will scold themselves for being idiots?"

When Vine Woman thought about them going to the now evil spirit-filled Moon Glade to explore for natural sacred objects, she felt a headache. She didn't know if these filthy evil spirits could kill gods and demon lords, but they could definitely kill their group of ordinary legendary druids.

"Artlan, you may need to enter the Emerald Dream more often to clean up the monsters that are sent in by the dark hands targeting the Natural Council."

"Not only the demonic beasts formed by the pollution of demonic power, but the power of the gods entering the Emerald Dream through the dream world will also give birth to many dream behemoths that destroy the ecological balance of the Emerald Dream."

"Those dream behemoths are easier to deal with. Although the dream energy after the god's transformation will also cause some negative effects, it is still barely controllable compared to demonic power."

"Your Purification Lightning is suitable for purifying and eliminating demonic power, which is precisely what other druids are not good at dealing with, so you may need to eliminate more demon spirits."

"If you find a gap where power has infiltrated the Emerald Dream, don't think about repairing it yourself. Be sure to immediately send a signal to notify the surrounding druids to come and gather."

"If more people know that something is wrong with that location, then the possibility of you being silenced won't be too high. Don't overly trust the druids' immortality in the Emerald Dream."

"The enemy can not only pollute your mind but also truly kill you. The current Emerald Dream is still not real enough, even after generations of archdruids and legendary druids have repaired it with their lives and souls before their deaths."

"In short, you need to pay attention to this continent under your feet, the Emerald Dream, and even the crisis facing the entire Natural Council. You also need to pay attention to it, after all, you have already been listed by the Natural Council as a key focus object."

That's right, Artlan suddenly remembered that White Deer's assessment of him had already passed. Why has it been so long, and his subsidy hasn't arrived yet?

“A Grand Druid talent enjoys the lowest level of subsidy, a Legendary Druid enjoys a level 2 subsidy, and someone like me should enjoy a level 3 subsidy just like a Child of God.”

“At the very least, I should get a level 2.5 subsidy, right? Why haven't I even seen a Grand Druid level subsidy after all this time?”

Vine Woman smiled and said:

“Although the Council of Nature is just an organization composed of mortals, its efficiency is a bit faster than that of divine organizations, but there is a significant drawback: we don't have the rapid transfer speed of gods.”

“Sacrifice and bestowal only require the consumption of divine power. A round trip can be completed in less than an hour, and the cost is just some ordinary materials.”

Attilan gasped.

“Our material transfer wouldn't involve handing it over to a Druid to carry in a spatial bag, taking the Emerald Dream's quick teleportation channel, and facing the risk of being robbed halfway, would it?”

Vine Woman nodded.

“That's right. And if the destination doesn't have a quick teleportation channel, the transportation envoy can only slowly fly over.”

Attilan clapped his hands.

“I think I understand why White Deer has been building roads between 952 and 527 since completing the inspection mission.”

He suddenly widened his eyes.

“My subsidy won't have to wait until this quick teleportation channel is opened before the higher-ups send someone over, right?”

Vine Woman nodded with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

“You also know that the further out you go in the Emerald Dream, the heavier the pollution, and the higher the risk of being robbed. Therefore, those responsible for transportation in remote areas must not only be strong in combat but also stick to the main roads.”

“Countless examples have taught the Council of Nature that rushing doesn't solve any problems. Druids have long lifespans; waiting and patience are things we must learn.”

“Exploring Moon Glade is something your master has wanted to do since the first day he took root in this forest, but he patiently waited for a full two hundred years.”

“It wasn't until you appeared, a Druid who could take his place in guarding this forest, that he chose to take a slightly riskier approach.”

Attilan stroked his chin and asked:

“Is this world very important? Does it require three Legendary Druids and one Grand Druid to guard it?”

Vine Woman shook her head and said:

“No, only the three of us are guarding the stronghold. As for Bloodstained, he's not performing a guarding task but a transformation task.”

“Through destruction and rebirth, we'll make this world's natural energy more in line with the Council of Nature's standards, so that if a great battle to seize this plane occurs…”

“Our people will be able to unleash twelve times their power upon landing, while the enemy will be suppressed to eighty percent. Who do you think will win?”

Panther Woman, who had somehow squeezed in, excitedly waved her arms.

“Of course, it's us!”

Attilan turned his head in surprise to look at Panther Woman.

“When did your stealth become so strong? You actually got so close to me without me noticing?”

Panther Woman smiled confidently.

“I've been working hard too, okay!”

In reality, it wasn't that her stealth ability using shadow power was strong, but that she had spread the ocean wyrm magic power she obtained after absorbing the Sea Dragon Blood Wine throughout her body.

When Attilan was deep in thought, this power, which was eighty percent similar to Attilan's own magic power, would be mistaken by Attilan's passively sensing mental power as one of his own.

Then, Panther Woman could easily sneak up on Attilan.

Vine Woman tapped Panther Woman's head and looked back and forth between Attilan and Panther Woman.

“Just right, Sandrine is almost at the strength to enter the Emerald Dream for training. You can take her in for a practice session and see if White Deer needs any help.”

Attilan nodded.

“I understand.”

Vine Woman waved her hand.

“I'll keep an eye on Old Prankster here. You guys go train.”

Watching Attilan's departing figure, Old Prankster's originally calm face suddenly twisted, and he kept sucking in cold air.

Vine Woman couldn't help but laugh.

“Why don't you continue acting? Aren't you supposed to be able to sense everything?”

“In order to maintain the scorching effect of the solar energy, you actually placed an energy-suppressing magic circle on the bottle. It's clearly a transparent bottle, so why didn't I see anything?”

Vine Woman shook the bottle in her hand.

“This isn't an ordinary glass bottle; this is an inner-layer rune concealment secret technique that I spent a full hundred years researching.”

Old Prankster widened his eyes.

“When we went on an adventure in the Great Southwest Desert, the apple orchard we encountered, you've already cracked the magical plant planting rune array used by the Solar Dragon Mother!”

“Then can I eat a golden apple that preserves youth forever?”

Vine Woman looked Old Prankster up and down.

“You do need a golden apple. If you restore your youthful appearance, how could you possibly tolerate wearing such dirty clothes? Robert, some things really should be let go.”

Old Prankster fell silent, and finally, he suppressed the pain in his body and squeezed out a smile.

“Don't worry, I'm fine now.”

The more he thought about his past love affairs, the more the solar flames burned him, and his emotions stirred up impurities in the power of faith, magnifying the power of the impurities.

“The power of the solar flames is limited; you'd better control it a bit for me, or I'll whip you with my whip. The Fairy Thorns Long Whip also has the effect of whipping the flesh and dispelling distracting thoughts.”

“Of course, the Thorns Long Whip isn't as easy as the solar flames.”

The solar flames feel like being burned, but in reality, it's just burning in the mind. The Thorns Long Whip is really whipping the body, tearing the skin, and dripping with blood.

On the other hand, Attilan's side was comfortable.

As soon as she returned, the big-mouthed Panther Woman told everyone about Vine Woman allowing her to go to the Emerald Dream, looking at everyone with her head held high.

“How is it? Who still dares to say that I'm not a qualified Druid?”

In the end, the honest Big Horn told the truth.

“Panther Woman, actually… we all got permission a long time ago and have been to the Emerald Dream once or twice. Although we're not like Little Dragon and Eagle King, who can freely enter and exit the Emerald Dream.”

“But…”

Panther Woman was dumbfounded.

“So you've all been, and I'm the only one who hasn't.”

Attilan was so excited that he almost laughed.

“It's okay. Being last doesn't mean your potential is the lowest. Let's take this opportunity to have a team-building exercise in the Emerald Dream.”

Shiniang is right. To get rich, build roads first. Without that road, the headquarters can't transport rare resources to him, and once the war starts, the headquarters' support can't arrive quickly.

He certainly can't go to the Emerald Dream to build roads alone. Since everyone has built a magical farm, I believe their skills must have greatly improved, and building a natural energy meridian, which is what everyone often calls a dragon vein, will definitely not be a problem.