Under the Red Dragon

Armor shone in the sun, cold scales gleaming; the Golden Empire's legion advanced like an unyielding wall of steel.

The centaur legionnaires of the Death Knights moved with four hooves, each strike upon the ground synchronized with the rhythm of the entire army's march.

The golem legion's towering figures were not clumsy; their steps also resonated with the army's rhythmic pounding, creating a vast echo of the legion's advance.

At the forefront, the five hundred strong War蜥 heavy armor blade unit, intermixed with heavy armor battle groups, served as the starting point and center of the entire legion's resonance.

The heavy armored warriors marched with powerful and measured steps, the distance and timing of each step almost perfectly synchronized.

Thump, thump, thump.

The continuous friction of steel armor and weapons created a metallic symphony; the thousand-man legion possessed a mountain-toppling presence.

Among those observing the two armies from afar, some were intelligence scouts under the guise of adventurers, probing the Golden Empire's strength, while others harbored various intentions.

In this world, ordinary people and fools make up the vast majority, but there is certainly no shortage of intelligent individuals.

After five kings rose successively in the Northern Continent, the major powers in what other regional civilizations considered a barbaric area had long been given increased attention by most forces.

Apart from the two hegemonic empires of the Central Continent, no power could afford to ignore this.

This was not only because the Five Kings of the North each commanded formidable legions and occupied vast territories, seemingly possessing great potential for development.

More importantly, each of the rising Five Kings of the North was rumored to be ambitious; in fact, apart from Charal Caesar, the human monarch of the Hobbes Empire, the other kings were evil in the common sense.

Although every mature person knows that the truth of the world cannot be judged by superficial impressions, the so-called evil and good alignments are merely stereotypes propagated by those in power and those who benefit from the status quo.

However, not only are the vast majority of people influenced by the ideas propagated by a minority, but even those who grasp the truth and wield power begin to believe these stereotypes themselves after repeating them thousands of times.

After all, there truly are races inherently evil to the core, in their bones and blood, although when humans, who pride themselves on being good, turn evil, even the devils in the Nine Hells and the demons in the Abyss must concede defeat.

However, the fundamental identity of a race is determined by the majority of common examples and shared characteristics of that race.

This is why the Golden Empire, the Dragon Kingdom, has been given such high importance.

Because the Dragon Emperor of the Golden Empire seems to have the ambition to unify all chromatic dragons in the world of Aikania, as evidenced by the Empire's promulgated 'Dragon Code' and its subsequent effects.

And this ancestral red dragon seems to be on the path to success.

Disorderly people are disorderly everywhere, but among dragons, the vast majority are passively disorderly.

Some dragons are not only influenced by the blood of evil dragons; their nature seeks not freedom, but a freedom disguised as absolute control over everything in the world.

This pursuit of freedom also implies disorder, because an orderly world does not want dragons or any other race to gain absolute freedom.

However, the order established by the ancestral red dragon's Golden Empire allows both dragons who yearn to escape the influence of chaotic blood and dragons who seek absolute freedom to find their place within this order.

To encompass disorder with order, to accommodate disorder with order.

Reform means disorder, change means disorder, but the empire created by the ancestral red dragon and the dragons is promoting continuous reform and change through order.

People are always pursuing external freedom, freedom related to social structures, so they are always rebelling against society, rather than rebelling against the internal psychological structures that create that society.

However, it is because of the existence of order that people become aware of so-called freedom and perceive the state and concept of freedom, which also means that disorder does not represent true freedom.

So, what people need is not freedom, but change, constant change.

People rebel against society under the guise of pursuing freedom, constantly demanding that a new order replace the old order, endlessly.

However, under the consciousness and system of the Golden Empire, they will always have the opportunity to achieve the freedom they seek by promoting the reforms and changes of the Golden Empire.

Every race, under the dragons, can seek itself in order, build order upon disorder, and ultimately break through itself with its own ability to obtain relative freedom.

Thus, whether dragons or other races, they are gradually assimilated by the order of the Golden Empire, their wills coalesced by this cultural inclusiveness and enterprising spirit, becoming the Golden People of today.

These are the views expressed by several famous scholars in the world of Aikania, who studied and analyzed the growing strength and influence of the Golden Empire.

These scholars openly stated that the success of the Golden Empire is inevitable; if the Dragon Kingdom is allowed to develop, it will be unprecedentedly powerful.

The Golden Empire represents advanced productive forces, advanced social systems, and advanced cultural ideologies, and ultimately represents advanced order, which will naturally replace the old order and become the dominant civilized order in the world of Aikania.

Perhaps those hegemonic empires did not care, but in the Northern Continent, other forces, including several major empires and the various noble duchies and kingdoms in the south of the continent, have begun to notice the seeds of this trend.

The territories of these nobles are gradually becoming dumping grounds for the Golden Empire's products and processed goods, and under some economic policies of the steel dragon Midir, that bad seed, the vast economy of the entire empire is being mobilized, turning other noble territories into fields for the Golden Empire to harvest.

The Golden Empire's advanced productive forces are sufficient to produce large quantities of cheap goods, crowding out the markets within these noble territories.

This includes weapons, ordnance, armor, arcane materials, magical items, cheap scrolls, clothing, and even ordinary household goods.

They cannot directly refuse trade relations with the Golden Empire, because their interests, and their neighbors, are also trading with the Golden Empire; as one declines and the other rises, refusal means weakened strength, loss of benefits, and ultimately annexation.

Those nobles can, of course, raise relevant taxes and tariffs to effectively curb this one-sided trade deficit and flow of benefits, but this is only a temporary solution.

Unless all the nobles unite to form a force to oppose the increasingly terrifying economic entity of the Golden Empire, or a vast war in the future to divide the strength and benefits of the Golden Empire.

Because once this ancestral red dragon succeeds, the Gogmora dragon swarm will be almost comparable to the dragon lords who ruled the world in ancient times; the chromatic dragon race, unified, plus incredibly abundant wealth and legions, no one wants to see this happen.

Therefore, almost no one who came here was purely curious; in the months of the Golden Empire's confrontation with the frost giants, even the wandering wild dragons watched the changes in this conflict with their own purposes.

"The legionnaires of the Golden Empire are not only powerful monsters, but also good sons who protect their families; their fighting will is as different as heaven and earth from the sons of farmers recruited by nobles and the thugs and vagrants who only dare to show off their bravery. There is no possibility of comparison,"

Leia Caesar stood on a hill, gazing at the Golden Empire's orderly military appearance from afar, lost in thought.

A shimmering green crystalline light appeared in the noblewoman's pupils; it was the power of the void, the power of void psionics, mastered by Charal Caesar, the monarch of the Hobbes Empire, after successfully slaying the void evil god consciousness attached to him.

The princess of the Hobbes Empire had actually come here from afar.

But judging from her somewhat worn armor and the style of an ordinary mercenary Valkyrie, Leia Caesar was clearly no longer the spoiled girl she once was, but had experienced the hardships of life.

Nali, the butler who had always followed the princess, was also dressed as a warrior mingling with ordinary people, but his somewhat gray hair was still neatly tied behind his head.

"The Golden Empire's military strength is now even stronger than the Empire's psionic legion, but fortunately, with the barrier of the Godforsaken Mountains, there is no substantial conflict between the Empire and the Dragon Swarm for the time being,"

Nali's still strong body stood straight, two heads taller than Leia Caesar, but always standing behind the princess.

"But the multi-armed giant king, Mogyes, in the Godforsaken Mountains has become a great enemy of the Empire. I wonder if this multi-armed giant king will go north or south after unifying the Godforsaken Mountains."

"And will this king among dragons have the ambition to annex the Zhuhai Islands, as rumored?"

Leia Caesar sighed softly; the hardships of life had not stained her beautiful face, but years of training had caused the former innocence to disappear from her eyes.

Nali did not know either; although the butler was knowledgeable, he could not guess the signs of the future from the never-before-seen appearances.

"It seems that not only are we concerned about these issues, but other people are also very curious," Nali's gaze swept towards those who were watching the confrontation between the two forces from afar.

"Giant God Spear" Lemond, the famous orc warrior, rose to fame in the Dragon Swarm territory, competing with strong individuals of other races for the crown of a thousand undefeated victories.

But this orc warrior only came here after the war between the Orc Empire and the Dragon Kingdom ended; undoubtedly, there were hidden forces behind him.

"Dawn Divine Sword" Kairo, the sword saint who enjoys a reputation in the human kingdoms, sometimes wins and sometimes loses in the Golden Empire's arena, but no one can deny his exquisite swordsmanship; after all, many factors determine victory or defeat.

Many people are looking forward to a match between this Dawn Divine Sword and Reilly, the rising war蜥人 sword saint of the Golden Empire.

However, Nali knew that this Kairo was a strong individual cultivated from a kingdom in the Central Continent, and perhaps also had unspeakable purposes for this Golden Empire.

There were also several dwarf warriors standing far away on the dwarf hills of the grassland, but under the gaze of the power of the void, Nali could clearly see the faces of these dwarves.

These dwarves, who were good at mining iron ore and forging weapons and armor, were covered in armor that looked no less impressive than the heavy armor worn by the legionnaires of the Golden Empire.

However, the metal mesh on the knee armor of these dwarf warriors riding gray goats and spiky boars, the style of the other armor, and the weapons they carried exposed the identities of these dwarves.

The main weapon was a pickaxe, and the secondary weapons were a short, wide sword and a round shield; as far as Nali knew, only the dwarves of Gray Hills liked this equipment.

There were also those wild dragons who seemed to be gathered around the Golden Empire; Nali, as a human nobleman who had lived for nearly a century, knew very well that those few seemingly ordinary blue dragons were the only remaining blue dragon family in the Central Continent—the Helaika Blue Dragon Family.

Human civilization in the Central Continent has almost controlled all places, except for the boundless desert in the west—the Saraka Desert.

This desert is very dangerous because of the ancient ruins left everywhere; even the human kingdoms around the Saraka Desert would not easily set foot in this place.

Thus, this desert, whose area is difficult to explore, has become the gathering place for all the remaining chromatic dragons in the Central Continent; there are some dragons of each race, among which the Helaika Blue Dragon Family is the most powerful and is the overlord of the Saraka Desert.

Interestingly, in this vast and boundless desert, no human or dragon has ever been able to find the traces of the most powerful red dragon among the chromatic dragon species.

In addition to these forces, Nali also discovered traces of the Aikania elves who rarely showed their faces, as well as traces of the vampire species.

However, the aura and faces of some of these people were obscured by the shadows of magic, and even Nali could not distinguish the origins of those people.

However, Nali suspected that if this place were not too far from the sea, deep inland, the nagas who were at war with the deep-sea fishmen would also come.

The changes in the situation in the Northern Continent have affected the hearts of countless people.

But Nali swept over the frost giant army and felt from the bottom of his heart that if there were no frost giant king, would these seemingly powerful races be able to withstand even one full charge of the Golden Empire's legion?

In the eyes of those onlookers, the three thousand warriors dispatched from the frost giant army were pushing and shoving in chaos; from time to time, monsters would wave whips and scold and whip the warriors to arrange themselves and advance in an orderly manner, comparable to herders herding ducks.

Even the white dragons, such as Sacris, seemed to feel a little ashamed and were just circling in the high sky, without any intention of landing.

Woo-

The legion horn of the Golden Empire sounded, but it was not the sound of attack.

Thus, the forest of steel stopped neatly, like a silent iron wall.

"Stop where you are, those who advance die!"

The Empire's herald roared loudly, but not at the Empire's legion, but at the monster army running towards them in a scattered manner.

The two armies were separated by two or three miles, and a stream full of green moss and brown algae separated the two armies, but the frost giants' three thousand monster army, under the unclear orders of the commander, began to try to cross the stream and charge the Golden Empire's army formation.

"Give these guys a lesson,"

"Kill them,"

"Charge over and kill these bastards,"

The monsters' howls were endless, bustling like an early market, while the Golden Empire's army formation was as silent and calm as a deep pool.

The blue dragon Akxz didn't speak, its cold eyes merely glancing at the lizardman Reilly, the meaning self-evident.

Clang!

A flash of bright light appeared, the lizardman Reilly raised his long sword, radiating a chilling light, and announced in a low, powerful voice: "Golem Legion, Alchemy Legion, all prepare!"

Standing within the Golem Legion, the tall golems painted with blood-red markings had their eyes light up; these were the heroic spirits of warriors who had descended from the Dragon Temple, serving as the brains and commanders of the Golem Legion.

They possessed the authority to command all golems and temporarily destroy any golem root consciousness links that might exhibit rebellious behavior due to external interference.

"By our lord's call, sweep away the alien enemies, fire without limit!" The tall heroic spirit golem commander commanded in a muffled voice, the command instantaneously transmitted to all golems and the Alchemy Legion through the golem's communication links.

Clack, clack, clack.

The Golem Legion arrayed themselves in a long, serpentine line, pairs of eyes carved from magic crystals lighting up, uniformly raising their arms, the magic-condensing light conversion devices on their wrists activating instantly.

Two thick cannon barrels also rose from the backs of these golems, mounted on their shoulders, which were cast from clay, rock, and steel.

The Biological Alchemy Legion, in the form of wolf beasts, stood in formation between the legs of the golem warriors, the cannons loaded on their backs automatically rising, three inches above their backs, angled upwards.

No sound could accurately describe the roar that erupted at that moment; the surge of magic rays and the bombardment of Vulcan cannons, in that instant, unleashed intense flames and surging, compressed magic power.

Each golem's two magic rays from their wrists, plus the two main cannons on their shoulders, and the magic rays from their eyes, formed a dense, indiscriminate barrage.

The Alchemy Legion's twin-barreled Vulcan cannons on their backs were also mobile turrets.

The massive Vulcan cannons, designed for dense mobs, were made using high-energy gunpowder developed by the goblin 'Bang Bang,' their power lying in the explosive shockwaves they produced.

The magic rays and magic piercing beams were the Golem Legion's dedicated weapons against commander-level strongmen within the enemy legions.

The Vulcan cannon bombardment was comparable to heavy artillery; a single shot would leave monsters in the center of the impact zone with shattered bones and torn limbs scattered everywhere, many winter wolf cavalrymen crying out as they fell into the stream.

Some orcs were even shaken internally by the shockwaves of the Vulcan cannon explosions, blood seeping from the corners of their eyes and ear canals, their vision blurring as if under a hallucinatory spell, a buzzing sound filling their ears.

The magic rays and magic piercing beams could directly penetrate the thick fur defenses of snowmen and long-haired ogres, piercing their hearts.

The dense barrage not only halted the monster legion's attempt to cross the stream but also directly blasted the stream, filled with green moss and brown algae, until it ran dry.

And at that moment, the monsters' blood and minced meat filled the gaps in the stream, flowing torrentially.

Everyone was silenced, even the frost giant legion, tens of thousands of monsters arrayed in the rear, ceased their demonstrative howls, cold frost hanging on the frost giants' faces.

No one could have imagined that the charge of three thousand monsters would be annihilated by nearly half before even approaching half a mile of the Golden Empire's legion, and this was merely the Golden Empire legion's first demonstrative strike.

"Where is the Frost Giant King?" The blue dragon Akxz stretched its wings, stepped forward, and shouted loudly, the dragon's voice echoing, "Since you requested a meeting with the empire, why do you not appear? If you desire war, then the empire will not hesitate to grant you a glorious death."

"I also want to know if the bones of frost giants are harder than those of orcs."

This blue dragon, with a violent aura like thunder, had reached a length of eighteen meters, its massive azure scales intricately covering its body, displaying a color like the deep sky under the sunlight.

Its slender and thick neck was raised high, the huge horn beginning to gradually change with growth, starting to grow forward and upward, then winding backward, the two short horns beginning to change toward a bone structure like a faceplate, looking like a dragon king wearing a horned crown.

Its huge wings spread out, covered with patterns of lightning and light spots of thunder.

The white dragon Sacreles, circling above the sky, was furious, not only because the slaughtered were the white dragon's last remaining slaves and followers, but also because the other party actually regarded him as nothing.

So Sacreles swooped down from the sky, the true dragon majesty of an adult dragon enveloped, like a prison.

"Arrogant blue scale, are the dragons of the Golden Empire all as arrogant as you? I, 'Ice Hell' Sacreles, stand before you, and you dare ignore me?"

Sacreles' giant claws swooped down, wanting to directly crush the arrogant blue dragon's neck; with the size and speed of the adult dragon, hundreds of meters were only a moment away.

But the pressure of the adult dragon not only failed to suppress the blue dragon Akxz, but even the Golden Empire's legion stood firm, the legion's will, manifesting as a spiritual substance, firmly resisting the dragon's pressure.

Crack.

The blue dragon Akxz's pupils suddenly became bright and white, the lightning patterns on its wings instantly flowing, as if lightning flashed; in that instant, the blue dragon's body became almost transparent.

Countless surging currents appeared within its body, allowing the blue dragon Akxz's speed to break the limits of sound, like a flash of lightning.

Although the blue dragon Akxz did not have the knowledge of the ancestral red dragon, and could not fully understand the knowledge of the ancestral red dragon, even if it possessed all the knowledge of the ancestral red dragon, the abilities it mastered could not be exactly the same as the ancestral red dragon.

What the blue dragon Akxz had currently comprehended was to use its own innate bloodline; although it could not achieve elementalization, it could also rely on lightning to shuttle through the void.

It was as if the blue dragon Akxz regarded its own body as the work to be done in an electromagnetic field; Akxz was the work done by the force within it, and could use the electromagnetic field to accelerate its own work.

Thus, the blue dragon Akxz mastered a speed comparable to lightning.

"Get down, you are not worthy to speak to me like that, let the true Frost Giant Legion Lord come out to see me," the blue dragon Akxz's bright eyes flashed with lightning, instantly appearing on the white dragon Sacreles' back, taking over as the aggressor.

The huge blue dragon claws pressed down, in an instant, a huge amount of electric current and the chaos and violence condensed into its own power from the evil dragon's blood simultaneously impacted into the white dragon Sacreles' body.

Lightning and thunder paralyzed its body, chaotic poison paralyzed its mind; the white dragon Sacreles, who looked stronger than the blue dragon Akxz, was actually knocked into the dust by the blue dragon's claw in that instant.

Boom, the unexpected white dragon Sacreles flew out diagonally, its huge body plowing a deep pit in the wilderness.

Although this adult white dragon's powerful body was not damaged in the slightest, Sacreles could feel the boiling violence, unparalleled darkness, cruelty, and chaos in the evil dragon's blood were impacting and guiding the roots of his bloodline.

He would soon become insane; a crazy dragon was a fatal danger to other creatures, but in front of his own kind, it might be a fatal flaw.

The opponent could not instantly break through his scales, but facing a crazy him, they could easily find weaknesses that were not covered by scales.

"I must defeat this blue dragon before I become completely chaotic," a thought flashed through Sacreles' mind, and then he let out a strong roar.

"Roar," he stomped the ground and flapped his wings.

"Enough, Sacreles, stop embarrassing yourself."

The faint voice, however, carried an irresistible majesty that instantly cleared up the white dragon's somewhat chaotic mind.

The dense Frost Giant Legion warriors split apart like receding tides, opening a path in the middle.

The Frost Giant King, clad in armor, slowly walked out, tall, strong, yet calm, firm; this was everyone's first impression.

"It seems that the Golden Empire's emperor did not reject this appointment because he could not resist my strength, but because he felt that I was not worthy of his coming?"

The Frost Giant King stepped forward and said indifferently.

But as the Frost Giant King's voice fell, the time of the entire world seemed to pause and slow down, the whistling of the grassland wind drifted away from everyone's ears, and an indescribable pressure descended upon the grassland.

Everyone was silenced, as if a spiritual shackle of heaven and earth enveloped their heads.

"Then let you see the price of despising me."

The Frost Giant King raised an ordinary spear, and that vast will firmly locked onto the blue dragon Akxz above the sky, and the spear slowly rose.

An indescribable fatal threat deeply enveloped Akxz's heart.

"Even if I transform into lightning, I will die!"

Akxz's mind flashed with realization, so he roared angrily, the majesty of the true dragon spreading out, the authority of spirituality resonating with the will of the legion.

So above the sky, like spreading dark clouds enveloped, an invisible field and aura enveloped everything, covering above the sky.

Even the Frost Giant King's five fingers holding the spear were instantly affected by this immense will, and with a click, snapped the ordinary bone spear in his hand.

Above the sky, is that a phantom?

No, that's not a phantom, that's a projection.

Tens of thousands of Frost Giant Legion, thousands of Empire Legion, and countless onlookers could see.

Above the sky, in the projection, a red dragon was guarded by many tall storm giants in the royal palace.

And this dragon, enthroned on the throne, slowly turned its head, casting its gaze here.

Dark golden eyes, calm, indifferent, and stern.

"Do you want to die?"

The dragon emperor on the throne said.

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