Chapter 414: Scammer

Translator: imperfectluck  Editor: Pranav

Perhaps it was thanks to their cruel environment, where they were tempered through numerous battles and baptized by unforgiving nature, that the Northlanders didn’t know of despair or giving up.

I didn’t show only certain people the scenes of the battle between the Titans and the dragons. Instead, I showed everyone.

“They’ll have to face these almost undefeatable enemies sooner or later. They might as well learn the difference between themselves and the enemies so that they can start working hard as early as possible to surpass them.”

Seeing such high-level battles astonished the young Northlanders, but it also ignited the fire within them.

In the battleships, I could see passionate training scenes everywhere. No matter if the person was a cannoneer or a mage, they appeared to have imaginary enemies and training goals.

Only by knowing one’s insufficiencies would one be able to make up for them. Those who’d shout out loud about how they were already the number one in the world would be killed off by a dark horse.

Meanwhile, my research team arrived at a conclusion about the situation on that battlefield, especially thanks to the Myth-rank earth element archmage Kaid. He had joined them as he had too much free time on his hands. I trusted in his judgement.

“This entire world is the seal on the Titans. In that case, if the Titans want to break free from the seal, there’s only one method: to cause the entire world to collapse. And if I’m right the imbalance of the Elemental Tide on the Ash Plains was caused by the Titans.”

Evelyn’s information served to confirm this hypothesis with more circumstantial evidence.

“…You want to know when the Elemental Tide started becoming unstable here? It started suddenly a few decades ago. Everything here was normal before that. In fact, I even heard that before this was one of the most popular places for dragons to go on dates because of those statues.”

Should I be astonished about how the dragons were so care free, not even thinking about any potential danger? They actually treated the Titans’ bodies as excellent dating scenery? Perhaps they even did various types of censored actions right under the Titans’ eyes. Treating others’ bodies as a hotel bed? No wonder the Titans weren’t able to take it anymore… Cough—cough—I seem to be going off topic yet again.

Anyhoo, no matter if the Elemental Tide was high or low, it would normally be balanced. This was like how water in a cup would always be level. Even if you shook the cup or tilted it, the water would still return to a level position.

But right now the problem wasn’t only about the Elemental Tide. The fact that this place was losing its very color meant that the world’s natural laws were collapsing. The dimensional tears were the best evidence that even the most foundational Concepts of Space and Time were being shaken. That was the biggest problem.

It was just like drilling a tiny hole into a dam. Perhaps the water leakage wouldn’t be significant at first, but eventually it would cause the collapse of the entire dam. The Elemental Tide’s unpredictable fluctuations here was only a side effect of the true core problem.

Of course, forcefully going against the world’s natural laws was no different from fighting against an entire world’s dimensional will. This was, most obviously, a foolish idea. Easier methods definitely existed out there, but evidently the trapped Titans didn’t have any available to them.

The dragons had to have noticed what the Titans were doing. The bigger problem was that there was no effective way to stop the Titans.

Actually, there was a relatively easy method to delay the Titans’ revival: continuously send veteran Supreme Immemorial Dragons to attack the giants, which would force the Titans to act and save their giants. Naturally, the Titans would no longer have the free time to destroy the natural laws of this world. But, first of all, this would only be a band-aid cure—it didn’t address the foundational problem. And the bigger issue was that the dragons weren’t united in the least. The matter of which Supreme Immemorial Dragons went and who went when would be a huge problem.

“Helping the Bardi Empire fight against the Holy Church? I’m sorry, you can see our current situation for yourself. Our own combat strength is already insufficient. How can we possibly send combat strength to the outside world?”

As I expected, the moment I made this request to Halos during our discussion the Gold Dragon unhesitatingly refused.

And so I nodded and shrugged.

“How regrettable. Since I can’t accomplish the duty the Mage Country sent me here for, let’s talk about personal matters.”

“Personal matters?”

“Right now, your biggest hurdle is of course your lack of combat strength. And if you know anything about me, you should know that I have some combat strength under me that’s not suitable for seeing the light of day…”

I smiled as I casually pointed at the sky, as it happened to be dark outside. I also mouthed the word “Yongye,” not saying it out loud.

I didn’t need to do anything more except hint at things as Halos’ eyes instantly lit up.

“You’re referring to Undead Emperor Yongye. But… how much combat strength do you have on your hands, and can they really be used…?”

“Xiluo is a mega empire. You should know just how powerful mega empires can be. It’s not too convenient to use undead armies in the mortal plane of Eich, and it’s also time that I give them something to do. This is an excellent location that makes even me want to settle down here.”

“…I will never open up our dragon graveyards to you.”

From a certain standpoint, even a justice-loving Gold Dragon would become tainted by the dark occupation of a politician. It was inevitable. Since he mentioned dragon graveyards without me even bringing it up, he meant that it was something he was willing to give me—at least in secret.

If I was still Yongye, the countless number of dragon bones and dragon corpses in a dragon graveyard would have greatly attracted me. But the current me had no interest in creating a Bone Dragon army.

“I didn’t intend to ask for such a thing. I don’t lack undead fighting forces under me.”

“How can you promise that your undead armies won’t attack us?”

“Contracts. You should know about the soul contracts between an Undead Emperor and his undead armies. I can sign contracts with you as well—the Devil Lords’ ultimate contracts. I will promise that not a single undead soldier under my command will attack a single dragon. I recommend that all agreements we end up making be guaranteed by the devils’ ultimate contracts.”

Although devils had terrible reputations, their contracts were renowned and valued by powerful individuals in all the planes. Halos nodded, but then had another doubt.

“Roland, since you’re making such great efforts, what do you hope to gain?”

“Heehee!” I immediately chuckled.

“Everything… sorry, I accidentally used the wrong word. Yep, I’m not that greedy. I just want a permanent residency permit for my people. Of course, for my own safety’s guarantee, I also need one of the four Foundational Elemental Items. Don’t look at me like that—it’s not like the Seal of the Four Elements is a top-level secret. I know that all four Foundational Elemental Items are in your possession. It’s not like I can do anything much with just one. And how am I supposed to open up a permanent Dimensional Door to summon reinforcements here without a Foundational Elemental Item? Were you intending on using the Bardi capital’s Dimensional Door which has a random teleportation point to here?”

This world was complete and was crafted out of the Seal of the Four Elements. When I used the same spell, I needed to use four high-level elemental items—one of each element—as the core and catalyst for the spell. Once the seal was complete, these high-level elemental items would become the control panel for the new, sealed-off world.

If the Titans obtained the four Foundational Elemental Items of Dragon World—no, they only needed two items since the elements naturally countered each other— they would be able to instantly destroy this entire world. This was the much smarter idea I was referring to when I said that the Titans could only resort to a foolish idea. But since the dragons had ruled this plane for so many eons, they had obtained all four Foundational Elemental Items that had been used to create this world.

Short-term Dimensional Doors didn’t have high requirements. However, permanent Dimensional Doors, especially teleportation points that went between dimensions, would need to obtain “recognition” from some type of dimensional will, just like how you would need to be invited before entering someone else’s house. Otherwise, a tremendous price would have to be paid—like a major blood sacrifice. And the fact that the Bardi Empire had a zero-cost Dimensional Door to Dragon World confirmed my suspicions that the dragons must have possession of all four Foundational Elemental Items.

“Even if I obtain one of the four Foundational Elemental Items, I will only get the powers of ‘arriving any time I want’ and ‘leaving whenever I want.’ At most, it’s useful for self-protection. Are you dragons worried that I’m going to bring people here to mess up your world? This plane is gigantic, and there have been no clashes between us. It will be truly troublesome to both of us if the Titans destroy this world. Besides, I already have a solution that can foundationally solve the problem of the Titans.”

Halos was astonished to hear this. However, his dragon instincts told him that I wasn’t lying, that I really could solve the problem of the Titans.

“Let me consider it.”

Although we hadn’t come to a final agreement, I was satisfied with the outcome. After all, the dragons were ruled by a council leadership with many leaders, so overall authority was very spread out. It would have been impossible for Halos to make any decisions by himself even if he was nominated as the overall leader. He would still need to consult the others.

Indeed—the moment Roland left Dragon City, Halos immediately went to contact a Scroll Dragon leader who had been spying on their entire conversation. The Scroll Dragon leader informed Halos that his lie detection magic determined that Roland hadn’t made a single lie. Only then did Halos feel reassured enough to convene a meeting of the dragon leaders.

At that time, I was walking on the streets with an icy expression, but inside I was trying my very best not to laugh out loud.

“Are you that proud of yourself for fooling him? Hah! He’ll probably become known as the stupidest dragon leader who ever lived. Perhaps he’ll even become a part of some future famous saying, like ‘Halos invited Roland to Dragon World.'”

“I didn’t lie at all! He simply had his own misunderstanding.”

That’s right—I didn’t lie at all. It was almost impossible to lie to ancient dragons, so I only told Halos the truth—a carefully worded truth, that was.

I only mentioned that I was Emperor Yongye in the past, and that I had some combat strength under me that couldn’t see the light of day. It was his own fault for misunderstanding that I was referring to my undead armies. As for signing the devils’ ultimate contract with him promising that my undead would never attack the dragons? Of course that was fine, as I wasn’t planning on bringing any undead here in the first place.

“However, you made a trade with the devils. Let’s not even mention your reputation here, but aren’t you afraid of playing with fire? Even with Ayer backing you up, a Devil Lord isn’t someone easy to deal with.”

Compared to the evil, vicious and sly devils, even the undead would seem like honorable knights. If I told Halos that I intended to invite a group of powerful devils into this dimension, negotiations would have instantly stopped. And the only way to possibly invite existences on the level of Devil Lords here would require me to obtain one of the four Foundational Elemental Items of this world, which would allow me to send out the cross-dimensional invitation.

“Who cares? No matter what the end result is, things will still be better than now. Rather than two major countries competing with each other and treating us as cannon fodder, I much prefer a three-faction situation where we can gain advantages from playing each faction against the other. Besides, this was all part of our ‘grand scheme’ to begin with. I just activated it slightly earlier than originally planned.”

“I keep feeling more and more like this grand scheme of yours is unreliable. Can I ask if I can withdraw from this plan?”

“You’ll be killed off to keep the secret if you do, dear. I’ve been recently feeling like I lack a pair of cat-skin gloves.”

“Stop joking around. I’ve been feeling a chill recently, as if some major calamity is soon to be upon us…”

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