Incomplete Figure

Smoked cod, rice, eggs, cream, curry, and a few vegetables, all mixed together, made a serving of fish-and-egg risotto.

In his memories, Fluorite Castle's breakfast buffet had never lacked fish-and-egg risotto.

"Liking fish-and-egg risotto is a kind of happiness, isn't it?" Russell ate roast meat and fried eggs with jam, occasionally scooping up a mouthful of risotto from his bowl as he idly lamented, "At least I get to enjoy happiness every day. Unlike me, who can't even get a bite of stir-fried food."

His good mood diminished somewhat because of a mouthful of fish-and-egg risotto, but Russell was still in high spirits because Little Dream Dragon had been recovered.

That also meant a steady stream of spirits in the future.

After breakfast.

Russell bid his parents farewell and, unsurprisingly, received a batch of supplies as sponsorship. It was not much, merely three large carts' worth.

Including the five large carts of supplies the baron had given him earlier, he had now received eight large carts of supplies from his parents.

"Father, Mother, thank you for your generous gifts. I will work twice as hard to govern Wuyou Snake Manor well, raise a knightly force as soon as possible to protect Guangguang River Valley, and head to the snowfields to slay Snow Ghosts, doing my part for humanity's restoration!"

The Snow Demons had frozen the entire Dragon Sleep Continent.

But after the dragons awakened, humanity began riding dragons to strike back against the Snow Demons and restore its rule over the once-warm continent.

Meryl was proud of her son's lofty ambitions. "Dragon's Gaze is upon you, Russell."

The baron merely waved a hand. "Hurry back to your fief. Come a few more times, and you'll have moved Fluorite Castle to Wuyou Snake Manor."

Russell laughed. "That is because of your generosity, Father."

"Russell, when exactly are you taking me to Wuyou Snake Manor to play?" Laura covered her mouth as she asked in dissatisfaction.

"I'll definitely take you when I have time!"

After rubbing his sister's head, Russell mounted his horse and galloped toward his territory with the three carts of supplies.

The journey went smoothly, and Lord Ross did not come looking for trouble either.

By the time the carts stopped outside the gates of the manor's secondary residence, Charles, who had been supervising the construction of Windmill Mill, had already ridden over.

"Haha, I knew it. The Baron Lord dotes on you. As long as you take the Birch Worm and show your face, you're guaranteed to bring back a generous gift."

"Sadly, days like this can't come often," Russell replied.

"Who knows? Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow, you'll pick up another Spirit Worm. You can never tell."

"Let's hope so."

The two walked one after the other into the manor's secondary residence.

Charles rambled on, "The building materials for Windmill Mill are straightforward enough when it comes to stone. We can just chisel out a few pieces from Curved Blade Mountain. But timber is rather difficult. We certainly can't cut down the birch forest, and there are no other trees in the territory."

"Even if there were, we couldn't cut them down, especially the trees serving as boundaries along the field ridges. They must be properly protected," Russell said.

"Then we can only go into town to buy timber now."

"Go buy it from Red Falcon Manor. I remember Lord Ertlas likes planting trees the most. Much of Fluorite Castle's timber was purchased from Red Falcon Manor."

Lord Ertlas was one of Baron Gloomlight's vassals, granted Red Falcon Manor at the foot of Dagger Mountain on the eastern side of Guangguang River Valley.

As one of the baron's capable assistants, Ertlas was also a Phantom Beast Knight. When Russell was young, he had even taught him martial arts for a few days.

Russell could take this opportunity to build a good relationship with Ertlas, so they could watch out for each other when hunting ghosts in the snowfields later. "Teacher Charles, I'll write a letter. Deliver it to Red Falcon Manor and purchase enough timber while you're there."

"Very well. Happy to be of service."

The weather refused to cooperate. It had been cloudy, but by afternoon, a drizzling rain suddenly began to fall.

Construction on Windmill Mill had to stop, and Charles was in no hurry to buy timber. He hid in the manor's secondary residence with Russell, tasting Black Pearl Wine.

Eric was unwilling to sit around doing nothing. "My lord, I'll take Tom and the others to patrol the borders."

"You're still going out on patrol in this weather?"

"The more it is like this, the more we need to watch for danger. If the serfs encounter danger, they may not even be able to raise an alarm."

Eric was devoted to his duties, so Russell naturally did not stop him.

"Put on your rain cape before you go."

"Yes, my lord."

Hooves clattered away along the wet Cinder Path.

Looking out from an upstairs window, Charles sighed. "The arrival of this rain means the Ice Age has completely receded. The Glimmering River will rise."

"I had wanted to keep watch over the Worm Grass at night," Russell said unhappily.

With Little Dream Dragon back, he had originally planned to camp outside for several nights in a row and search the area around his territory for every Spirit Worm that might be present.

Now, he could only put that plan aside for the time being.

When night came, the rain not only failed to stop, but grew even heavier. Unable to camp in the wilderness, Russell could only hide in his bedroom and enjoy his comfortable, warm bed.

"Caw!"

In the Dark Dreamscape, Little Dream Dragon arrived as promised.

This made Russell even more certain that Little Dream Dragon's absence over the previous three days had been because a mouthful of dragon flame had severely drained its vitality, forcing it to rest.

Now that it had recovered, it naturally showed up punctually every day.

"Come on, let's fly. Let's see whether we can find any new gains near the manor's secondary residence." Russell rode Little Dream Dragon, wandering around with the secondary residence as their center. One moment, they looked at the rising Glimmering River; the next, they flew high into the sky before diving down.

There were no new discoveries, so they simply played around.

"Ice Cream, tell me, what can we do to expand the Dark Dreamscape? That way, even while sleeping at home, I can grasp everything happening throughout the territory."

"Caw, caw." Little Dream Dragon only cared about playing.

Russell could only play music to a cow.

Yet at that moment, he suddenly spotted a dim, incomplete figure rushing in from the boundary of the Dark Dreamscape, emitting an extremely faint blue glow.

"Hm, someone!" Russell immediately rode Little Dream Dragon toward the glowing figure. He discovered that the figure was sneakily approaching the manor's secondary residence. It was not Eric, Charles, or any of the others, but a stranger.

"Battle Aura. This is a knight. Judging by the intensity of the glow and the outline, he should be an Armored Knight!"

Russell swiftly judged the intruder's rank.

Only the incomplete figure's torso and hands glowed; there was no light from his legs. This was a very typical characteristic of an Armored Knight. Because he had not yet opened all his meridians, Battle Aura could not circulate to his legs, and naturally they did not glow.

Russell rode Little Dream Dragon straight up in front of the Incomplete Figure.

He watched as the figure kept looking back every few steps, using the rain as cover to sneak up to the outer wall of the manor's secondary residence. Then, using both hands and feet, he began climbing toward the second floor.

"Damn it!"

Russell frowned tightly. "Who is it? Who actually snuck into my manor's secondary residence! Could it be someone from Xiangshui River Cave?"

An Armored Knight was absolutely a major figure among the free folk of the cave.

Before Russell could think any further.

Little Dream Dragon opened its mouth. "Caw."

It was already tired, so it did not intend to keep maintaining the Dark Dreamscape and wanted to leave.

"Don't... Ice Cream, think of a way to wake me up! Someone is plotting against me right now!" Russell quickly begged for help.

But Little Dream Dragon had no idea what he meant. It tossed him off, then flapped its wings and vanished around a corner.

"Fuck!"

"Stupid Ice Cream!"

Helpless, Russell could only shout a suggestion to himself as the Dark Dreamscape collapsed. "Wake up, wake up, someone is trying to assassinate me!"