Chapter 319: The Dust Settles

Inside the Floating Tower, the White Dragon Lord, the Cat-Woman, and the Ancient Gold Dragon stood together, watching Hogger return to Nordhill with the final batch of resources.

"Alright, our mission is basically complete. We'll head back to the base now and wait for the Holy Sanctuary to finish up."

Over the past month, the Rodoro Plane's magical mineral veins had been stripped bare by raiders and the Nordhill forces, who had swept through like a plague of locusts. Of Nordhill's three Floating Towers, only the Holy Sanctuary had a little cleanup work left.

There was no point in staying in a depleted wasteland. The White Dragon Lord activated the teleportation array, sending the Floating Tower back to the Outpost Base at the center of the plane.

The Floating Tower descended from the sky. Having received prior notice, the garrison personnel had promptly warned everyone else to clear the area. As the tower touched down in the reserved clearing, the time came for the White Dragon Lord's first squad to disband.

In the tower's great hall, the White Dragon Lord handled the final accounting while over seventy legendary powerhouses listened to his closing remarks.

"Everyone, it has been a pleasure working with you this past month... Your excellence is unquestionable... Should you ever visit the Overseas Archipelago in the future, the doors of White Castle will always be open to you."

Clap, clap, clap. Applause echoed through the hall.

The vast majority of these seventy-plus legendary powerhouses belonged to established factions, but a small fraction had yet to pledge their loyalty anywhere. The White Dragon Lord was attempting to recruit these lone wolves.

However, Nordhill was filled with massive factions, and the newly established White Castle lacked strong appeal. Thus, the White Dragon Lord's recruitment approach was rather passive: Jiang Taigong fishing—those who are willing take the bait.

"Without further ado, let's verify the contribution records to ensure nothing was missed. First up, Middel Hamtra!"

A tall, thin mage stepped forward and approached the White Dragon Lord, who brought out the Memory Crystal used to record their merits.

"Mage Middel, on the second day of conscription, you followed the third squad and discovered the number three Mithril vein, a medium-sized Mithril deposit. Reward: 500 points... On the seventh day of conscription, during a skirmish while executing a mission, you saved your heavily wounded companion, Simhar. Reward: 200 points... Your total comes to 8,230 points. Please review it for any omissions."

"That is correct. The total is accurate."

"Then please sign to confirm."

After Mage Middel signed, the White Dragon Lord took the pen and paper, wrote down "8,230," and signed his own name. This served as the voucher the legendary powerhouses would use to exchange for points with the Council. Since the Memory Crystal holding the original records would also be sent to the Council, forging these vouchers would be pointless.

"Next, Laplace..."

"..."

After over an hour of busywork, the White Dragon Lord finished processing the records. The legendary powerhouses' support mission was over, and they dispersed.

Most returned directly to Nordhill, with only a small number choosing to stay behind. Those who remained possessed absolute confidence in their strength. The massive battle that might soon break out was not something an ordinary legendary powerhouse could participate in.

The White Dragon Lord exited the Floating Tower and walked toward the center of the Outpost Base. He sensed the auras of four high-tier legends inside, three of which were highly familiar: the Silver Dragon Scholar, the Cat-Woman, and the Ancient Gold Dragon.

Before the White Dragon Lord could even offer a greeting upon entering, the Silver Dragon Scholar spoke first.

"Amos, you're just in time. We are discussing how to deal with the Cult of the Dragon."

The White Dragon Lord nodded to the four of them in greeting and sat down.

The Silver Dragon Scholar resumed analyzing intelligence on the Cult of the Dragon. After listening for a while, the White Dragon Lord felt a bit confused, as the Scholar had not mentioned Little Finger at all.

"Wait, Senior Jetesla. Are we not taking Little Finger into consideration?"

Beside them, the Orc wizard, Sadom Deadeye, gave a slight grimace.

"Lord Amos, Little Finger is a raider organization, not an occupying force."

The Silver Dragon Scholar picked up the thread.

"Little Finger is essentially a band of roving bandits. They only ever plunder; they never occupy a plane. They simply have too many enemies. If news of them taking over a plane were to spread, someone would inevitably take the lead, and hordes of people would show up at their door seeking revenge."

"I see."

The White Dragon Lord realized his oversight; he hadn't factored that in.

"But the Cult of the Dragon's situation is entirely different," the Silver Dragon Scholar continued. "The Rodoro Plane is a Necromantic Plane. If they take it over, they can use it immediately. The allure this plane holds for them is obvious."

He added, "Furthermore, the Speaker of the Council recently taught one of the Cult's higher-ups a severe lesson, publicly slapping them in the face. It is highly likely they will try to cause trouble for us on their way out. We must be on guard against this."

"I actually don't think there's any need to worry too much, meow."

"What are your thoughts, Master Hajir?"

Everyone shifted their gazes to the Cat-Woman, who scratched her cheek.

"We can look at this in reverse, meow. Even if the Cult of the Dragon wants revenge, what can they actually target? Ownership of the plane? Unless the Cult plans to go to full-scale war with Nordhill, it's impossible for them to contest our claim over the plane."

"Retaliate against us directly? We have a combat group made up of three Floating Towers. Even facing the Cult's twenty-something high-tier legends, it's impossible to say who would come out on top."

"On top of that, the Cult of the Dragon sent so many high-tier legends, yet they didn't bring a single Spirit Tower. This proves there is no internal consensus within the Cult. They likely intend to act just like Little Finger: pull off one big heist and run."

"..."

The Cat-Woman's analysis was extremely sound. The three dragons and the Orc nodded in agreement.

...

A day later, the Holy Sanctuary finished their work. At the same time, the White Dragon Lord and the others received news that Little Finger had withdrawn, and the Cult of the Dragon was also showing signs of retreating.

Another day passed, and the Cult of the Dragon finally pulled out.

With the Cult's departure, the month-long feast officially came to an end.

At the center of the plane, the three Floating Towers gathered. Eight high-tier legends sat in a circle to conduct their final settlement.

Based on the value of the resources harvested by each Floating Tower and their individual contributions, the eight high-tier legends were to receive corresponding points as rewards.

Ultimately, the White Dragon Lord earned nearly 1 million points, and the others received similar amounts.

Once the points were settled, Sadom Deadeye and the Silver Dragon Scholar piloted two of the Floating Towers back to Nordhill.

For security reasons, however, the Council left one Floating Tower behind to guard the Rodoro Plane while it underwent construction. It would return only after the Mage Tower was built; after all, Floating Towers were scarce combat resources and couldn't remain stationed in the Rodoro Plane forever.

As the owner of the Rodoro Plane, the White Dragon Lord handled the final accounting alongside Priest Sinod. According to their tallies, this operation had yielded resources worth over 26 million points from start to finish.

After deducting the compensation paid out to the legendary and high-tier legendary powerhouses, and subtracting the taxes owed to the Council, resources worth over 15 million points remained.

Because the Holy Sanctuary had internally absorbed the Flowing Silver Gems, the White Dragon Lord ultimately walked away with resources worth 8.5 million points. Of course, he wouldn't convert all these resources directly into points, but he now had just about enough to upgrade the White Tower.

Joy refreshed a dragon's spirit. The White Dragon Lord felt as though his flying speed had even increased slightly.

Though the dust had finally settled on the Rodoro Plane, the White Dragon Lord did not leave. He intended to stay and accompany Elena for a while.

After all, the Rodoro Plane had just hosted a massive gathering of factions. There was no guarantee someone hadn't secretly left behind a spatial beacon, planning to return and stir up trouble. He needed to wait until the Mage Tower's preliminary defense systems were established and Elena's safety was fully guaranteed before heading back to White Castle.

Since the White Dragon Lord stayed behind, he naturally took control of the remaining Floating Tower.

Inside the Floating Tower, the White Dragon Lord sprawled across the floor alone, reviewing the gains and losses of this operation.

First were the material profits. With nearly 1 million points in contribution rewards, 8.5 million in his profit split, and the total value of all his spoils of war, the White Dragon Lord calculated his overall gains to sit somewhere between 12 and 13 million points.

Prior to this, factoring in the lands of the Overseas Archipelago and all his other assets, his total net worth had been around 10 million points. Now, it had more than doubled. It was a true overnight fortune.

Second was the combat experience. During this massive conflict in the Rodoro Plane, he had piloted a Floating Tower and crossed blows with high-tier legends from every corner of the multiverse. He had witnessed a vast array of unique magics and secret techniques, making this experience invaluable.

Finally, there was his newfound proficiency in operating a Floating Tower. Although he had read about it in books many times, this was his first practical, real-combat operation. He owed his rapid mastery of the controls entirely to the Gold Finger's powerful computational abilities.

Having summarized the lessons of this battle, the White Dragon Lord took out his hard-won spoils of war. The most valuable among them was undoubtedly the failed Divine Artifact: Sadolina's Bracelet (Pseudo).

In truth, the combat boost provided by Sadolina's Bracelet (Pseudo) wasn't nearly as high as he had initially imagined—at least, it didn't elevate him to the sheer terrifying heights he had reached back when he used the Skull of the Caucasus.

This was because the White Dragon Lord himself was no longer the dragon he used to be. It was like a game character with a base combat power of 500 receiving a weapon with 500 attack damage; their overall power would naturally double. But if that same character's base power was 5,000, then a weapon with a mere 500 attack would feel ordinary.

Regarding Ice Elemental affinity, the White Dragon Lord was a member of the Winter Legion and carried a permanent buff—the Blessing of Winter. His affinity had already reached its near absolute limit, so the bracelet only served as icing on the cake.

However, the two enchanted defensive spells on the bracelet did grant him an extra layer of life-saving insurance.

Aside from the bracelet, his most valuable spoils were undoubtedly the two high-tier legendary souls. They were absolutely essential materials for crafting high-level puppets. Even within the Council, the lowest-quality high-tier legendary soul would cost at least 200,000 points.

Pinching a radiant Soul Crystal that twinkled like the starry sky between two fingers, the White Dragon Lord raised it to his eye level. Within the crystal, the hazy, struggling soul of a Titan was barely visible.

Ignoring the Titan's wildly flailing arms and its continually opening and closing mouth, he slowly rotated the crystal in his grip, falling into deep thought.

The mysteries of the soul were infinite, much like a gargantuan Treasure Vault.

The most direct manifestation of this was the intense competition among The Gods for believers, and the fundamental goal of fighting over believers was ultimately to claim their souls.

Living believers provided faith, which served as the raw material for divine power. Faith was born from the spirit, and the spirit was the outward expression of a soul combining with a physical body.

The souls of deceased believers could be transformed into divine servitors and other helpers to manage a deity's Divine Kingdom or even battle their enemies. After a believer's soul died completely, their ethereal form would decompose and become pure nourishment for the Divine Kingdom itself.

None of these processes could happen without the soul. Thus, deities were the true masters of manipulating souls.

Yet, the White Dragon Lord guessed that the vast majority of deities didn't actually possess a deep understanding of the soul. They merely exploited souls using the authority granted by their divine portfolios and godhood—just as everyone knew how to use a mobile phone, but very few understood its exact internal mechanics.

Naturally, the White Dragon Lord didn't fully comprehend the essence of the soul either. However, as a practitioner of Soul Magic, he understood it far better than most and could actively leverage his knowledge to manipulate souls directly.

"Who should I choose?"

To forge a Soul Crystal, one first had to obliterate the soul's consciousness. This was an incredibly simple task for the White Dragon Lord. His true dilemma was deciding which soul to keep for his research.

Intact high-tier legendary souls were insanely rare, and the White Dragon Lord simply couldn't restrain his burning desire to study them. But when conducting research, one had to account for a soul's ability to resist.

Advancing to the Legendary Rank tempered a soul once, and advancing to High-Tier Legend tempered it again. Having undergone two full baptisms by universal laws, a high-tier legend's soul was remarkably robust. Once they adapted to their ethereal state, they could unleash terrifying combat power, making their soul-form attacks even harder to deal with than they were in life.

Generally speaking, after capturing a soul at or above the legendary level, the very first step was always to wipe away its consciousness to prevent any resistance.

But the White Dragon Lord excelled in Soul Magic. Bolstered by his immense skill, he hadn't done that yet. His primary reason was his desire to preserve a fully intact soul for thorough study.

Frost Titans were highly intelligent creatures; their emotions were vastly more complex, making their soul quality superior and their resulting spiritual power significantly stronger. In contrast, the soul of a high-tier legendary magical beast was relatively weaker.

The weaker one would be easier to control, while the stronger one would be vastly more beneficial for his research. Hence, the White Dragon Lord felt somewhat conflicted.

After agonizing over the choice for a moment, he realized there was no need to decide at all. He would simply keep both of them for research.

As for souls to use in puppet crafting? He could just buy them.

And so, the matter was happily settled. An ethereal, almost imperceptible chanting of esoteric incantations filled the air. If anyone else had been present, they would have been shocked to find that neither the White Dragon Lord's throat nor his abdomen was vibrating.

That was because the voice wasn't coming from his physical body, but from his soul.

Soul-Beguiling Whisper!

"Sleep."

Within the two Soul Crystals, the Titan's soul—which had been roaring and slamming against the crystal walls—and the frantically jumping beast soul found their eyelids growing heavier and heavier. Gradually, they both collapsed and fell into a deep slumber.

Using Soul Magic to deal with souls was even more effective than he had imagined. The White Dragon Lord stored the crystals away in a special box designed to suppress soul power, and only then did he finally close his eyes in satisfaction to rest.

His subordinates operating outside could need support at any moment. As the controller of the Floating Tower, the White Dragon Lord was ultimately responsible for their lives and safety.

Because of this, even when he rested during the past month, he had remained in a half-asleep, half-awake state of light meditation. Now, he could finally afford to sleep peacefully for a while.