Chapter 372: Wanted Handbook of Sinister Dragons Across the Heavens

Lilith noted the White Dragon Lord's sheer astonishment. She thought for a moment before continuing. "Probably more than once. The blood war has raged for millions of years. During that time, Blackrock Fortress—or whatever stood here before it—has likely been destroyed dozens or even hundreds of times."

The Cat-Woman nodded in agreement. "Not just Blackrock Fortress, but the other cities as well. They are all built upon the ruins of their predecessors. As far as I know, whether it belongs to the Divine Factions, the Demons, or the Devils, no border fortress has a history exceeding 30,000 years."

The gold dragon's throat went dry. If the Cat-Woman was right, every border city was destined for total annihilation within 30,000 years at most.

"That doesn't make sense! Why haven't I ever heard of any fortress ruins?"

"Because when Abomination Rank powerhouses clash, everything is ground to dust," Lilith said, her tone grave. "And the frontline is the most likely place to become a battlefield."

"The third blood war I participated in took place over 1,300 years ago. An Arcane Empire ruin triggered an all-out war. In truth, that ruin was just a spark. Even if it hadn't surfaced, a full-scale blood war would have broken out before long anyway—the Demon population had simply swelled to the point where a purge was necessary."

"Perhaps you've already noticed that these full-scale blood wars break out roughly every two thousand years. This isn't a coincidence. Every two millennia, the Demon population in the Abyss accumulates to a critical mass. If their numbers aren't culled, they will cause a severe disaster."

The White Dragon Lord nodded in agreement. Even here on the frontline, which saw a constant influx of adventurers, the populations in the Demon cities had swelled to such massive numbers. He could only imagine the hordes teeming within the other Abyss planes.

"But this blood war broke out a mere 1,300 years after the last one. Logically, it hasn't reached the point where a purge is strictly necessary yet, which puzzles me," Lilith said. "Amos, do you know any inside information?"

"This came up during a recent Alliance meeting," the White Dragon Lord replied. "The Abyssal Lords held a gathering on the 132nd layer of the Abyss, and a few wicked gods were also in attendance. The Gods discovered this assembly. Convinced that the Abyssal Lords and the wicked gods were plotting a conspiracy, The Gods decided to strike first and preemptively ignited the war."

"Thank goodness The Gods struck first," the gold dragon said. "They brought the flames of war to the Demons' territory. Otherwise, we would very likely be standing on the battlefield right now."

"Don't assume Blackrock Fortress is safe just because the battlefield is in Demon territory," Lilith warned. "Until the Abomination Rank powerhouses enter the fray, everything remains uncertain."

"Blackrock Fortress should be safe for the time being, though," the Cat-Woman added. "Both the Abyssal Lords and The Gods usually exercise restraint until populations have been culled to a certain threshold."

Just as The Gods sought to thin the Demon ranks, the Abyssal Lords also required vast quantities of flesh and blood to empower their surviving forces. To them, it made no difference whether the slaughter claimed enemies or their own kin—the resulting nourishment was exactly the same.

...

Three days later, inside the White Tower Laboratory, the White Dragon Lord was hunched over his worktable, fully engrossed in a magical experiment.

The flames of the blood war hadn't reached Blackrock Fortress yet, but the relentless stream of reports detailing the deaths of powerhouses weighed heavily on him. Knowing that every shred of extra strength increased his chances of surviving the looming crisis, the White Dragon Lord refused to let a single opportunity for self-improvement slip by.

"A Level One authority holder has entered the White Tower," a voice chimed.

At the Tower Spirit's prompt, the White Dragon Lord lifted his head from his workbench. He received the telepathic notification: Felicia had returned from the frontline.

The Alliance and The Gods currently held the upper hand on the main battlefield. Seizing the opportunity, adventurers marched out alongside the armies, hunting Demons in territories that were previously too dangerous to enter. Some adventuring groups had even joined the vanguard directly, trading their martial prowess for hefty bounties and battlefield spoils.

The Boar's Howl Adventurer Group naturally refused to miss out on such a feast. Felicia's squad had followed the main forces and remained highly active on the frontline.

"Why are you back after only a month?"

"Don't even ask!" Felicia grumbled. "The main force marched with the army to siege a Demon city. Our Legendary squad set up an ambush outside the city walls to catch any fleeing Demons. Well, we caught some big fish—two of them, in fact. They nearly tore our net right open."

Felicia gestured at her front paw, a look of lingering dread on her face.

"If the commander hadn't arrived to back us up in time, you might never have seen me again, Amos."

Only then did the White Dragon Lord notice the damaged scales near the base of the Dragon Sister's foreleg. Healing magic had already mended the worst of the cracks, leaving them faint, but the White Dragon Lord frowned, a flash of murderous intent glinting in his eyes.

"Did the Demon escape?"

"Our captain managed to intercept one of them. The other got away."

Warmed by the White Dragon Lord's murderous intent, Felicia offered a reassuring smile. "I got off easy, honestly. Our captain nearly lost his life. He's been sent to the rear to recover, which leaves our squad with some free time."

"But enough about that," she said. "I ran into a green dragon from Evil Scale Fortress out on the battlefield. Guess what I got?"

Without waiting for a response, an excited Felicia pulled out a small booklet and handed it to the White Dragon Lord.

The White Dragon Lord accepted the booklet from the Dragon Sister. Emblazoned across the cover in the dragon language were bold words: Wanted Roster of Sinister Dragons Across the Multiverse. Glancing further down toward the corner of the booklet, the White Dragon Lord spotted a line of fine print: An Official Publication of Evil Scale Fortress.

"Uh..."

The White Dragon Lord flipped the cover open. Below the cover was a table of contents, listing the names of various dragons and their corresponding page numbers.

"Dragon of Calamity — Claudius Augustus.................... Page 1."

"..."

"Crazy Wing — Baihe.................... Page 121."

"..."

"God-Blasphemer — Eze Dumbledore Thor Targaryen.................... Page 154."

"..."

Skimming past the wanted list, the White Dragon Lord casually flipped through the booklet, landing exactly on page 154. The page featured a portrait of a ferocious red dragon with exceptionally thick horns, and an introductory profile was printed beside the image.

"Name: Eze Dumbledore Thor Targaryen."

"Strength: Demigod Realm (High-Tier Legend)."

"Current Plane: Elbaf, Planar Coordinates (64563222, 88786214, 369412)."

"Crimes: Slaughtering kin, destroying temples, blaspheming deities..."

"Intelligence: The target is a ruthless lord dragon who commands a massive number of minions. His personal magical abilities are too vast and diverse to catalog. He has ignited divine fire to become a demigod and has a proven track record of defeating opponents of the same tier... Recommendation: Form a multi-dragon team for the hunt."

"Bounty: Evil Dragon Points — 3.8 million."

"Hm? Evil Dragon Points?!"

The White Dragon Lord was thoroughly surprised. The Five-Headed Dragon Queen's method of rewarding her followers had always been traditional blessings, or, for higher tiers, a direct bestowal of divine power. Since when had she learned to keep up with the times?

"When did Her Majesty the Dragon Queen introduce this system?"

"I heard from the green dragon that it was a recent rollout," Felicia explained. "It's still in a trial period. These Evil Dragon Points work similarly to the Council's point system. Any member of the Chromatic Dragon Clan can pay a certain amount of Evil Dragon Points to request blessings from Her Majesty the Dragon Queen."

"Can they only be exchanged for blessings?"

"Uh... If you have enough points, you can also exchange them for a bestowal of divine power."

The White Dragon Lord curled his lip in disdain. A dog cannot change eating shit. Expecting Tiamat to hand out actual gold coins or tangible treasures as a reward was pure wishful thinking. Still, a transparent point-buy system was an improvement over her old method of dispensing arbitrary rewards.

"This is perfect timing. We can exchange them for a bestowal of divine power and directly elevate your priest rank to the Legendary Rank."

The White Dragon Lord stroked his chin.

"What are the ways to earn these Evil Dragon Points? Can I just buy them with money?"

If he could just pay his way through, things would be much simpler.

"I don't know!" Felicia said.

The White Dragon Lord handed the wanted roster back to Felicia.

"Alright, head to Evil Scale Fortress and ask around."

The White Dragon Lord pulled out a Dimensional Bag as he spoke.

"If it's possible to buy Evil Dragon Points with money, just use this to advance directly to a Legendary priest before coming back. If not, we'll sit down and study this wanted handbook properly."

Felicia nodded and made her way toward the White Tower's Teleportation Chamber.

Half an hour later, Felicia returned. The aura radiating from her body hadn't changed in the slightest.

"Uh... Has Her Majesty the Dragon Queen really not realized the business opportunity here?!"

The White Dragon Lord felt frustrated. He mentally debated whether he should send Tiamat a reminder.

But after a moment's thought, the White Dragon Lord realized the truth of the matter. Across the vast multiverse, apart from himself and a tiny handful of eccentric oddballs, there probably wasn't a single dragon willing to sacrifice their gold coins to Tiamat.

To the Dragon Race, the saying, "You can take my life, but you cannot take my gold," wasn't just talk.

"Forget it. Let's honestly just study the wanted roster."

The White Dragon Lord and Felicia sat down together and began studying the wanted roster. They discovered that apart from High-Tier Legends, there were quite a few Legendary Rank Level dragons on the roster as well.

"Name: Chamask Ikovanov."

"Strength: Legendary Rank."

"Current Plane: 56th layer of the Abyss."

"Crimes: Treason against the Dragon Race, theft of Dragon Race secrets, blaspheming deities."

"Intelligence: The target is a green dragon born in Evil Scale Fortress. Formerly a high-tier priest loyal to the Dragon Mother, he betrayed the Dragon Race for no reason. After stealing classified intelligence from Evil Scale Fortress, he fled to the 56th layer of the Abyss. He received the protection of that layer's lord, the Prison Soul Demon—Trollope Campbell, and transformed into an Abyssal Demonic Dragon."

"Bounty: 1.2 million Evil Dragon Points."

"Tsk, tsk. It seems this green dragon really pissed Her Majesty the Dragon Queen off," the White Dragon Lord remarked. "Normal Legendary Rank dragons only have a bounty of three to four hundred thousand points, but it is worth 1.2 million."

Felicia nodded in agreement.

"It's a shame it is tied up with an Abyssal Lord. Otherwise, it'd be a fantastic target. One hit would be enough."

The White Dragon Lord deeply agreed. Felicia's trip to Evil Scale Fortress hadn't been entirely fruitless. At the very least, she had managed to confirm the required Evil Dragon Points to elevate to a Legendary priest—elevating to the Legendary Rank cost one million Evil Dragon Points.

The methods for earning Evil Dragon Points had also been clarified. Aside from hunting wanted criminals, completing missions posted by Evil Scale Fortress could also earn Evil Dragon Points. However, the missions posted by Evil Scale Fortress were few in number and highly competitive, making it completely unworthwhile.

After studying the handbook a while longer, the two dragons found that the wanted criminals with known locations possessed immense strength, making the mission risks too high. Meanwhile, the Legendary Rank Level criminals had either defected to some faction or simply hidden away. Finding them would depend purely on luck.

"It seems the only reliable method is to hunt Titans."

Tiamat harbored an extreme hatred for Titans. Hunting Titans would please the Dragon Mother, and now she had explicitly priced Titan heads in the Evil Dragon Point reward system. A Legendary Titan head was worth 50,000 points, a High-Tier Legend Titan head was worth 500,000 points, and particularly famous Titans carried extra rewards.

However, Tiamat also set a condition: she would only accept fresh Titans that had died within the past year. This eliminated the possibility of the Dragon Race scavenging corpses, and it also dashed the White Dragon Lord's idea of making up the numbers with the specimens in the Dragon Beast Academy.

Should he take a trip to the Madilan World to kill a few Titans? Even if they were stunted, they were still Titans after all.

The White Dragon Lord thought it over and abandoned this tempting idea. After all, there was the constraint of the contract, and the Life Titan, Delisve, still held an Abomination as her trump card. The White Dragon Lord could only shift his focus to other Titan strongholds.

Just like the Dragon Race, the Titans also had three major strongholds. They were Glory Fort in the Seven-Layered Celestial Mountain, created by the Luminous Titan Augustine; the Gloomy Sanctuary on the 87th layer of the Bottomless Abyss, created by the Dark Titan Astraeus; and the Rootless City in the Star Realm, created by the Star Titan Sinzela.

But unless it was absolutely necessary, the White Dragon Lord did not want to step into the Titans' dens, because being discovered would mean a dead end.

"Looks like I need to look for planes where Titans survive."

In the Nordhill Plane, the Dragon Race had defeated the Titans and driven them out of the plane, but in some planes, the result was exactly the opposite: the Titans had driven the Dragon Race out. Such planes were exactly what the White Dragon Lord wanted to find now.

That evening, the White Dragon Lord brought up this issue while reviewing the frontline battle reports with the other four High-Tier Legends.

"Amos, you're looking for a plane where Titans survive?"

"Yes. Do you know any information?"

The Cat-Woman, Priest Sinod, and the gold dragon shook their heads. Lilith pondered for a moment.

"I don't have any news regarding planes where Titans survive. But I heard that a while ago, when the Raven Council was exploring alternate planes, they discovered one that the Titans had beaten them to. As for the specific intelligence, I don't know," Lilith said.

"Thank you for the information."

After thanking Lilith, the White Dragon Lord went to the core castle's control room and initiated a communication request to Riverrun.

Just as the Cat-Woman and the others had reinforced Blackrock City, Riverrun's reinforcements included a High-Tier Legend from the Raven Council. Furthermore, the White Dragon Lord had crossed paths with this High-Tier Legend once before; it was exactly Hegel Samo, who had been tricked by Lilith.

A half-body projection of Sular Grey Dove appeared before the White Dragon Lord.

"Ah, it's you, Amos. What's the matter?"

"It's been a while, Sular."

"..."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the White Dragon Lord stated his purpose.

"I'm looking for His Excellency Hegel to ask about some information."

"Hold on a moment."

Before long, Hegel Samo appeared in front of the White Dragon Lord, and the White Dragon Lord got straight to the point.

"Your Excellency Hegel, I heard that the Raven Council recently discovered an alternate plane occupied by Titans."

Seeing Hegel Samo's furrowed brow, the White Dragon Lord added, "Please don't misunderstand. I have no designs on the plane itself, but I am interested in the Titans inhabiting it."