Conspiracy? Conspiracy √

[Note: In this book, the Silver Dragon King and Gu Yuena are two separate dragons.]

"The time has come, Zi Ji. Stop playing with my granddaughter and get over here."

Rus Wang looked at the Paperclip Plan schedule submitted by the Grey Feather Division. After confirming that every detail—save for the sea route—had been staffed with his own people, he looked toward the manor lawn, where Zi Ji was playing with his granddaughter Toriya, who had shifted into her true dragon form.

"Huh? Coming. Child, go find some other dragonets to play with; your grandfather needs me for something."

Hearing Rus Wang call her, Zi Ji set Toriya, whom she had been holding in her forelimbs, back onto the lawn. Under Toriya's dissatisfied, pouting gaze, she shifted into human form, waved her hand, and sat down in an empty chair among the garden furniture.

"Did the Grey Feather Division help get everything arranged? I thought I'd have to wait a few more months."

"What are you thinking? While you were busy learning rune arrays from our predecessors, I wasn't just sitting around. The best way to defeat an enemy is to understand them completely."

The words the Silver Dragon King said in the Dragon 3 manga were indeed correct: know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. However, a tactical error shouldn't be handled by the boss herself.

Rus Wang shook his head as he watched Zi Ji's reaction.

"Over a dozen six-star and seven-star agents from the Grey Feather Division have already been planted on the Douluo Continent. Although the distance to the Dragon Valley Forest is vast, we can still manage written communication thanks to our enhanced, high-security codebooks."

Unlike the way Sunset Shimmer in My Little Pony would simply return to Equestria to ask Twilight Sparkle for a new book, these books were specially developed by Barus according to the requirements of the Grand Mentor of the Grey Feather Division. They were equipped with a blood-binding mode, requiring two different people to each drip a drop of blood onto the pages.

Once the blood-binding was complete, the contents of the book could only be seen by those two individuals; to any other elf, it would look like a book of gibberish. It was, arguably, the perfect tool for a spy agency to conduct single-threaded, confidential operations.

"Aside from some of my own dragon-related secrets, there are several even more important encrypted communication books here. The white one, which has already had a drop of blood dripped onto it, contains the blood of the Light Dragon King. Once it has been blood-bound by the Silver Dragon King, your master will be able to communicate across space with the Light Dragon King we have here."

"Doesn't the Light Dragon King senior lack a physical body?"

I couldn't very well tell her that when Barus was building the Light Dragon King version of the Dragon Ascension Pillar, he had kept five drops of blood. I had reported the use of three drops to the Light Dragon King, one drop was used for calibration with my own blood, and the last one was still sitting in a cryogenic storage tank kept by my son, Barus.

Rus Wang spoke up: "Rest assured, this is blood given personally by the Light Dragon King. Do not question it; the senior has all sorts of marvelous ways to preserve flesh and blood."

"Oh."

Zi Ji took the plan schedule and the first-class ship ticket provided by Rus Wang, the corners of her mouth curling slightly.

"Is this arranging an official identity for me? Very well. Let me experience the luxurious treatment of the human upper class again after twenty years and a few months."

...Time passes...

At the docks of Dongjiang City in the Star Luo Empire, the sounds of whistles, sirens, and Soul Guidance broadcasts announcing the departure readiness of various ship hull numbers never ceased. This was a world where the men of the empire fought day and night; it was also the coldest, most efficiency-driven place in the entire Star Luo Empire, where not a single trace of rot was permitted to exist.

"Work hard! Seek survival! Protect the empire! For the new world!"

This had become the common slogan for the dockworkers and the shipbuilders in the dry docks of Dongjiang City.

There were skilled workers here from all corners of the Star Luo Empire. Some were Soul Masters, but most were commoners without Soul Power. With the Limit Douluo of the Douling Empire having exhausted their lifespan, and with Shrek Academy and the Star Luo Empire failing to produce new Level 99 Limit Douluo to succeed them, any literate Star Luo citizen could see that their motherland was destined to be conquered by the evil Sun Moon Empire.

How could they stand for that? Every Star Luo citizen, from top to bottom, knew of the horrific massacres described by the refugees who had fled the Heaven Dou Empire—which had been wiped out by the Sun Moon Empire—to the Star Luo Empire shortly after the Lingbing Douluo ascended to godhood. They spoke of rotting flesh crawling with maggots, black and white earth piled high with bleached bones, and blood-red lakes!

These scenes had been filmed and recorded by hundreds of Star Luo exploration teams and private organizations; even specimens of the victims were displayed in museums. The evidence was ironclad!

How could the Star Luo people dare to think that the changing of flags on the city walls had nothing to do with them? I refuse to be a subject of a conquered kingdom! I want to live!

"To ensure more people in the empire can board ships and head to the new continent, everyone is working with such great enthusiasm on the shipbuilding."

A manager wearing a white hard hat, who had come to inspect the progress of the shipyard, looked at the busy workers with a gratified expression before speaking to the college student beside him.

"Xiao Liu, bring an extra large lion's head meatball for every worker at noon. I'll pay for it, but remember to go to that shop at the eight-way intersection in the east of the city."

"Understood, sir."

The college student assistant took the bag of gold coins from the manager, hopped on his bicycle, and set off toward the canteen at the eight-way intersection in the east of the city to order the extra meal for the shipyard workers.

Once the tag-along was gone, the leader in the white hard hat walked back into his office, which contained only a Soul Guidance fan rather than a Soul Guidance air conditioner. Do not mistake this for a sign of integrity; on the contrary, a shipyard manager sitting in an office with a fan was considered a luxury in the Star Luo Empire.

Now that the Star Luo Empire was executing the Mountain Relocation Plan ahead of schedule, every location suitable for artificial deep-water ports was covered in shipyards and loading docks. While ensuring the supply of raw materials for the Star Luo Continent and the quality of the ships, they pursued the ultimate production speed for ocean-going vessels, meaning the working environment at the shipyards was squeezed as much as possible.

The manager confirmed that no human would suddenly enter his office in the short term. He then took out a book, his expression heavy, and began to write on the pages with a quill.

[Lepidolite has arrived, time consumption is only half. I note that the ocean currents at this time are not heading west, but east. The time consumed on the journey should have increased the variables, yet it has decreased; this is very strange. Please be aware.]

Within the core area of the Star Dou Forest, because of Zi Ji's sudden disappearance, Bi Ji, as her close friend, had been frantically searching for a long time, only to find no news. Even checking the Spirit Pagoda of the humans yielded no trace of Zi Ji's aura.

As time dragged on, aside from Di Tian, who suspected that Zi Ji might have left the Star Dou Forest without authorization to try and make contact with the dragons on the other continent, Bi Ji had already erected a wooden statue for her friend.

However, today, Zi Ji returned. She brought back a vast amount of heavenly treasures and rare materials, enough to compensate for the loss of the Auspicious Beast in the Star Dou Forest, as well as three types of Dragon Clan Secret Techniques.

"Zi Ji, how did you get these three Dragon Clan Secret Techniques?"

Di Tian set down the herbs and various high-energy-density ores—which were considered precious even within the Star Dou Forest—and looked at the techniques Zi Ji had recorded, unable to help but ask.

"I learned them from the Light Dragon King in the Dragon Valley World. During that time, the senior taught me intermittently for twenty years. Come to think of it, it's quite embarrassing for a dragon."

One speaks differently depending on the dragon's temperament. Because the Light Dragon King and Rus Wang were angry that Di Tian had failed to protect the Auspicious Beast, leading to the schemes of the gods in the God Realm, they naturally spoke ill of Di Tian. But back in front of Di Tian, Zi Ji instantly reverted to her former self.

"You learned them from the Light Dragon King senior... wait? The Light Dragon King senior is still alive? Zi Ji, how did you manage to do that without being discovered by those guys up there?"

That was one of the Nine Great Dragon Kings under the Dragon God, the husband of the Black Dragon clan leader. He was still alive? This was incredible news! Finally, he wasn't the only one bearing the pressure.

"At the time, I saw that you, Di Tian, still hadn't decided whether to send an envoy, so I acted on impulse. Regardless of whether there was surveillance from above, I went off on my own. Although the four-month sea voyage nearly killed me, I eventually succeeded in making contact with the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus over there."

"I originally thought it would just be a routine exchange and that it wouldn't take too long before I returned to the Star Dou Forest. I never expected to attract the attention of the 600,000-year-old Water Dragon King, Rus, and the Light Dragon King hiding within the Dragon Valley World. After that, I just followed the Light Dragon King senior and learned Dragon Clan Secret Techniques, back and forth for twenty years."

Di Tian's mouth opened slightly, then closed. After listening to Zi Ji recount her twenty-year experience, which sounded like a fantasy story, he lowered his head in shame and said, "Because of my grave mistake, you suffered, Zi Ji, having to perform before the Light Dragon King senior and our fellow clansman, Rus."

"It's all fine. The senior and Rus were just angry at your negligence, Di Tian, but as members of the Dragon Clan, they will help whenever they can. Look at these good things I brought back; they stuffed them into my hands when they helped me secure my return ticket."

After Di Tian and Zi Ji embraced for several minutes, they finally broke their transformed hug and began to sort through the small gifts Rus Wang had sent.

As the manager of the Star Dou Forest, Di Tian naturally recognized the utility of the Encrypted Communication Book. At the same time, he felt deeply excited that his fellow clansman, Rus Wang, had dispatched the Grey Feather Division to infiltrate the Douluo Continent and had left contact information for him.

The senior and his fellow dragons might have been angry, but they understood the situation. The items they sent were extremely precious and useful to Di Tian, who was practically living with the word "prisoner" branded on his forehead.

However, this also brought doubt to Di Tian: during Zi Ji's twenty-year diplomatic journey, were there really no gods from the God Realm pulling strings behind the scenes?

"According to the senior Light Dragon King, because of the distance between the God Realm and the Douluo Planet, even if the gods in the God Realm stare at the God Realm every second of every day, it is impossible for them to precisely monitor every single dragon. As long as one is not a target of focused attention, and as long as there are no divine spies tracking them, one can get away with small actions."

"Moreover, on the continent where the Dragon Valley Forest is located, the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus I first encountered there quickly taught me a secret technique that allows one to disappear from the vision of the gods in the God Realm. Di Tian, have you really never learned this useful Dragon Clan Secret Technique?"

Di Tian couldn't exactly tell Zi Ji that when the Dragon God had him by his side, he never taught him any Dragon Clan Secret Techniques, but instead groomed him as a secretary for the Dragon Prince, right? That would be too damaging to his own status. Besides, as the number one prisoner currently under the watch of the God Realm's gods, would he dare to play hide-and-seek? A few hundred years ago, some shameless god had just descended to interfere.

"Oh, right, the senior Light Dragon King gave me a good item to strengthen the spatial connection between the Star Dou Forest, the Dragon Valley Forest, and the Zheer Continent."

As she spoke, Zi Ji took an Ultra-Distance Spatial Teleportation Rune Array Tablet out of the storage Soul Guidance Device given by Rus Wang.

"This is a 50,000-kilometer spatial teleportation array. It requires a being with at least 650,000 years of cultivation to use it safely. Although the distance isn't enough to reach directly into the Dragon Valley Forest, our fellow dragons have already purchased the land rights for 30 square kilometers around the hidden location of the teleportation rune array on the other side, so we can guarantee safety."

"Really?!"

Di Tian was pleasantly surprised; this was a true treasure.

"But Lord Di Tian, you are different from me. You said yourself that you are inevitably a target of focused attention from up there. If you were to suddenly go to the Dragon Valley Forest..."

Looking at Di Tian's darkened face, Zi Ji didn't dare to finish the second half of her sentence: "What if the God Realm notices?"

"..."

Damn it! The prying eyes of the God Realm were truly a nuisance to dragons at every moment.

Di Tian was furious, but he could only be furious. Facing those top-tier gods of the God Realm, he had absolutely no strength; he couldn't even manage to slap them twice.

Considering that Zi Ji had made such a great contribution, after arranging the location for the teleportation array tablet, Di Tian decided to report this matter to the Silver Dragon King.

"Zi Ji, wait here. I will go and report this great news to the Master."

"Mm!"

The Silver Dragon King looked at the Dragon Clan rune secret technique presented by Di Tian. The drowsiness she had felt after being woken up by him dissipated completely at this moment.

Huh?

This was indeed Dragon Script, but after the characters were combined into various runes, why did she find them increasingly difficult to understand? And as for such a magical thing as a rune secret technique, why was her mind a complete blank on this subject? It seemed the power and wisdom the Dragon God gave her didn't include this part.

"Perhaps I should ask the Light Dragon King for guidance on the use of Dragon Clan rune secret techniques?"

The Silver Dragon King remained silent for a long time. She looked at the communication book beside her that could transmit information across dimensions to the Light Dragon King, then looked at the one Di Tian had brought, and immediately used the quill attached to the communication book to contact Di Tian outside the Life Lake.

[How were these retrieved?]

[Reporting to the Master, it was the junior Fear Demon Dragon King Zi Ji who, at great risk, made contact with our fellow dragons on another continent and learned them from the Light Dragon King, who is hiding in the Dragon Valley World.]

"..."

This made the Silver Dragon King even more puzzled. She knew of the Dragon Valley World; she could even sense it drifting in the universe, slowly approaching the Douluo Planet. But as an injured dragon who could only stay in the Life Lake, she truly had no idea that there were still many dragons alive on other continents, or that the Light Dragon King was still alive inside the Dragon Valley World.

[It is a good thing to have made contact with a survivor of the Nine Great Dragon Kings. But Di Tian, I ask you, why did you never tell me before that there were still surviving dragon clansmen on continents outside the Douluo Continent?]

Di Tian broke into a cold sweat immediately, as if a red "DANGER" sign were flashing above his head; he didn't know how to answer.

Fortunately, after not receiving an answer from Di Tian, the Silver Dragon King wrote another sentence.

[Never mind. I know that these past twenty thousand years have not been easy for you, Di Tian, with the God Realm's surveillance on you at every moment. Go and call Zi Ji, who has made such a great contribution. She speaks and you write; I want to talk to her and learn more about her experiences as an envoy.]

[Yes.]

Under the gaze of the Silver Dragon King, the tone of the text changed as if it were a different dragon.

[Master.]

[Tell me your experiences, that continent, and the major events you encountered. Be precise and concise.]

[Yes.]

As lines of text appeared on the pages of the communication book, the more the Silver Dragon King read, the more she felt something was suspicious.

If, before Huo Yuhao—who ascended to godhood within the last five hundred years—was born, three Heavenly Sun Dragons, Lightning Tyrannosaurus, and Crimson Fire Dragons, all over 500,000 years of age, died on the same day under a heavenly tribulation in the Dragon Valley Forest, didn't that mean the Dragon Valley Forest was also under the gaze of the gods of the God Realm?

The Silver Dragon King couldn't help but become alert.

And when Zi Ji spent four months traveling by ship across the sea to the continent where the Dragon Valley Forest was located, did the God Realm really have no reaction at all?

Thinking of the unbelievable way the Spirit Beast fell in love at first sight with Huo Yuhao—a human with whom she had never had any intersection, even willing to sacrifice herself for his life regardless of the Star Dou Forest—and the earlier precedent of that Soft-Bone Rabbit traitor ascending to godhood with a half-breed...

[Zi Ji, wait a moment. I am going to ask the Light Dragon King something. I feel that your ability to travel safely between the Star Dou Forest and the Dragon Valley Forest is not as simple as it seems.]

On the other side, the Light Dragon King looked at the report urgently sent by Rus Wang regarding the Grey Feather Division lurking on the Douluo Continent. He was also grim-faced after seeing the suspicion regarding the huge time difference between Zi Ji's two-month return journey and the nearly four-month journey it took to reach the Dragon Valley Forest.

It was at this moment that the Silver Dragon King sent a message through her corresponding communication book, asking if there were any Dragon Clan secret techniques targeting the soul, as she wanted to compare the effects of such techniques against the bizarre situation of the Spirit Beast suddenly falling in love with a human.

The Light Dragon King was shocked and immediately replied, requesting that the Silver Dragon King immediately follow the contents he had written to carry out emergency remedial measures.

Afterward, the Light Dragon King looked at the sky of the Dragon Valley World, as if he had seen something extra, and gnashed his teeth in hatred.

"You really know how to wait..."

A pair of eyes high above the Star Dou Forest were forced to shift away due to some irritating noises, but this time, unlike the annoyance of pests returning, there was also a hint of satisfaction...

Deep in the night at Herundis Manor, the soul-guide lamp in the bedroom was still glowing. Toriya, who was struggling with mathematics, looked at the transparent orb of light she had suddenly pulled from her head while scratching it in frustration, her face full of confusion?

When did this thing get into my head? Eh? It disappeared after I crushed it? What on earth was that.

Forget it, I still have to study differential and integral calculus, I can't afford to fail the monthly exam.

[World News: Conspiracy? Conspiracy√]