Chapter 466 - 464: Dragon Island
"Generally speaking, when a city faces a pagan disaster, it means there’s a pagan stronghold nearby, much like the ’cockroach’ in dreams. Once the stronghold is removed, the disaster naturally disappears."
Hilia hummed a tune and left.
The matters in Fanar City were quickly forgotten by her.
Not long after she left, Rose’s shadow reappeared near the Tower of Descent’s stronghold, watching the girl below.
The other party had disguised herself simply, but it couldn’t escape Rose’s eyes.
The girl was none other than the Holy Court’s candidate for Holy Daughter — Encore.
Hilia was unaware of what happened, but Rose knew very well.
The one poisoning and the one providing the antidote were not the same person.
The witch at this stronghold was the one poisoning, and the antidote came from the candidate for Holy Daughter, Encore.
Very interesting.
Through scanning the entire city, Rose had roughly pieced together the truth of the matter.
The Tower of Descent issued a death threat to Fanar City, not as a joke, but as a real death threat.
But coincidentally, Encore knew about it, and she infiltrated silently, investigating in the dark.
She soon discovered what the Tower of Descent was using for the ’death threat’.
The Tower of Descent was skilled in alchemy, and coincidentally, so was she.
Therefore, each time the Tower of Descent secretly poisoned, she quickly refined the poison and reverse-engineered the antidote.
As long as the Tower of Descent didn’t become enraged and directly release instantly fatal poison, she could rely on her rich experience to deduce the antidote and quietly resolve all the ’death threats’.
This is also the reason why everyone discussed the ’death threat’, wondering why it still hadn’t arrived after so long.
While solving the issue, she was secretly investigating the source of the potion.
Last night was the last day, and today, she successfully found the source of the potion, which was the stronghold just destroyed by Hilia.
Encore looked at the stronghold in front of her, which seemed to have just undergone a battle, with a puzzled expression.
She adjusted her glasses and thought for a moment, then walked into the stronghold.
"Could it be that besides me, there’s someone else investigating? How impressive, being able to discover and destroy the stronghold before Encore."
The girl circled the stronghold, finding nothing but those half-dead pagan followers, lying powerless after purification.
She entered the tower and saw many empty bottles, with the potions inside already destroyed.
"Forget it, notify Fanar City, then I can leave."
Encore walked out of the tower, pondering, "Where to go next?"
"Hmm, why not go to Dragon Island? Dragon Island must be a key target for the Tower of Descent."
...
Hilia soon reached the second city.
This city wasn’t on a direct route, and she had to detour a bit.
Upon entering the city, she immediately went to places selling magic materials, such as the Mage Guild and the Mercenary Guild, to see if there were any leftover materials for sale.
"The Blue Dragon Empire is located in the southern part of the Starfall Continent, extending further south, the farther south you go, the hotter it gets. It’s said that the southernmost tip has hot weather in winter and only cools down in summer."
After purchasing potions, Hilia checked the map and found that Dragon Island wasn’t at the southern tip of the Blue Dragon Empire; instead, it was in the middle of the elongated map, near the coast, east of the empire.
"Dragon Island seems to be hot all year round. Let’s see what special materials it has."
"Flame Spirit Grass, Magma Stone, Phoenix’s Tear... what? Star of Ice?"
Hilia rubbed her eyes, carefully examining a comprehensive book of material specialties she’d bought, ensuring she hadn’t misread.
The Blue Dragon Empire indeed produces the Star of Ice, although the yield is very low.
Rose chuckled and said, "Although the Star of Ice is cold and has the Ice Attribute, it really only appears in hot areas, usually condensing in particularly hot regions."
"Why?"
Hilia, clueless about high-grade materials, asked.
"Because during the condensation process of the Star of Ice, it releases heat and absorbs cold air."
"Then shouldn’t it be born in the Land of the Far North, absorbing the cold air there and releasing heat, creating a hot zone in the Land of the Far North...?"
"Theoretically, yes, but the Star of Ice is actually an accompanying product of another high-grade Spiritual Object, called Bathing Fire Essence. The condensation of Bathing Fire Essence absorbs a large amount of fire elements, which makes the surrounding area cold, thus birthing the Star of Ice. The cold air the Star of Ice absorbs complements the Bathing Fire Essence. If you find the Star of Ice, it’s almost certain that Bathing Fire Essence is nearby."
Hilia realized, "So that’s how it is."
Rose laughed and said, "Though substitutes for the Star of Ice exist, you might as well specifically search for it to see if you find any. Then you won’t have to go to the Land of the Far North."
Hilia nodded, "I’ll give it a try."
If high-grade materials were as easy to spot as pagan strongholds now and then, that would be great.
Hilia thought.
This dream is somewhat wild.
After taking a lap around the city and buying several materials, Hilia quickly continued towards Dragon Island.
Along the way, she destroyed another Tower of Descent stronghold.
After that, she finally arrived smoothly at the capital of the Blue Dragon Empire, Dragon Island, having encountered no incidents.
Hilia landed outside Dragon Island, looking from the coast towards the city built on the island in the distance.
The entire Dragon Island city is at sea, with the ocean not far from the coast, less than a kilometer at the closest point, where they built a floating bridge, becoming one of the two roads into Dragon Island besides the water route.
Hilia landed at the nearest floating bridge end, on a specially constructed viewing platform, gazing at the Dragon Island city on the sea.
"This city is entirely built on the island; why doesn’t it expand towards the shore?" Hilia wondered aloud in amazement, "Aren’t there any tsunamis or Deep Sea attacks here?"
Someone nearby heard Hilia’s murmurs and laughed, "You’re not a Blue Dragon, are you? Dragon Island has the confidence to resist the disasters you mentioned by building the entire city on the island."
Another person also laughed, "Yeah, Dragon Island is a symbol of Blue Dragon strength. There was a tsunami like you mentioned before, but a hundred-meter-high tsunami in the hands of the great Legendary Mage — Erina, was nothing more than an ice sculpture."
The first person agreed, "That’s right, not to mention the Deep Sea Demon’s assault. Erina led the Dragon Rider Corps to fend off demons from the Deep Sea twenty kilometers offshore from Dragon Island, preventing them from approaching it."
Hilia curiously asked, "Then why doesn’t Dragon Island expand onto the mainland?"
"Because Dragon Island is large. Legend has it that this was once the habitat of giant dragons. It’s huge on the inside; we can’t see it from here because of the angle. If you look from the side, you’ll find Dragon Island stretching endlessly into the sea, its borders unseen."
"Thanks for the information." Hilia said politely.
"You’re welcome. You came from another empire, so you probably don’t know Dragon Island’s various rules, right? Dragon Island isn’t a place anyone can just enter freely. How about this, we accompany you in?"
"No, thank you." Hilia immediately declined, decisively fled, refusing to give them a chance to profit.