Collecting ore and other supplies.
The Blood Ghosts kept making progress, joining forces with the Demon Race to create better weapons.
They produced simpler rimmed cartridges.
Small artillery was still in the development stage, with technology being gradually accumulated.
Just as the world's attention was fixed on the various conflicts on the Northern Continent,
a major conflict also broke out among the Dragon Race.
The Dragon Race's central Royal Family had formed a new army.
It was equipped entirely with standard-issue Northern Alliance gear.
The conflict had been sparked when those Dragonkin were incited to rebel.
They believed they could become independent.
The Dragon Race had split apart. Why couldn't they do the same?
Besides, they had weapons—not just weapons, but something entirely new.
However, their hopes were lofty, while reality was cruel.
The separatist forces numbered roughly a hundred thousand Dragonkin and controlled a single province.
The location was Jiangbei, in Dragon territory.
The Dragonkin in the separatist forces carried all sorts of weapons.
But among them were a few old friends.
Weapons from the Demon Race.
Single-shot shotguns.
Twenty-round machine guns.
Bolt-action Rifles, developed successfully.
Bolt-action Rifles jointly produced by the nations of the Central Lands.
Twenty-round machine guns.
Different calibers, different models.
Some Recoil Cannons had also appeared, all with calibers under fifty millimeters.
And some traditional Magic tools.
There were even Magic Puppets.
But facing these rebel forces,
the True Dragons were nowhere to be seen.
There were no Five-colored Dragons, and certainly no Metal Dragons.
This was a Dragonkin-on-Dragonkin slaughter, with the board set by a higher power.
The Metal Dragons had not shown up, and the Dragonkin armed with Northern Alliance rifles had not gone anywhere near the rebellious city-state, either.
They were waiting—waiting for the artillery.
But their actions were taken as a