Old Tropes Reappear

[Front-row note: The growth settings for Soul Beast age are referenced from Baidu Baike: Soul Beasts are divided into seven levels—ten-year, hundred-year, thousand-year, ten-thousand-year, hundred-thousand-year, Fierce Beast, and million-year—based on actual cultivation years (cultivation years ≠ lifespan).]

The thirtieth year of the Levant Era.

Thalassa, the Female Water Dragon, had been troubled lately. Logically speaking, based on her own experience, when she was twenty years old on the Old Continent, she had only reached an age of about three hundred years; she was so weak she couldn't even beat the fish in the water. Correspondingly, her five cubs should also be unable to live independently at the age of twenty-something, just like she was.

However, the rich heaven and earth energy of this new continent had overturned her understanding.

"This shouldn't be happening. Why are they growing so fast?"

Thalassa, in her human form, sat in a courtyard on the outskirts of Ravenna, the capital of the Elf Kingdom, sipping fruit juice. She held a newspaper she had bought on a whim that morning, though she was in no mood to read it because of her cubs.

Perhaps unable to watch any longer, the Dark Night Dragon Xingyue—the third strongest in the Nanshan Rainforest, who had also successfully passed the hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation with the help of Rus Wang and had been in human form for many years—spoke up from another lounge chair.

"I say, Sister Ta, isn't it a good thing that the cubs are growing up?"

"But the problem is, my five children aren't even thirty yet, and they've already reached over three thousand years of cultivation. This growth rate doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Oh."

Xingyue's reaction was flat.

"You're just going to say 'oh'? Xingyue, you have to say something."

Thalassa felt that her best friend completely failed to realize the severity of the problem. Her children hadn't even reached thirty and were already over a thousand years in cultivation; wasn't that a big deal?

"Sister Ta, when I first came here, I was only at sixty thousand years. After a dozen years, I grew by over thirty thousand years and broke the hundred-thousand-year threshold. Didn't you also break the hundred-thousand-year limit from over eighty thousand years within five years of arriving? If you just compare your cubs to us, you'll inevitably have the same reaction I do."

As she spoke, Xingyue picked up the newspaper Thalassa had bought from the table nearby, unfolded it to read, and lay back on her lounge chair.

"The Folded Ear Continent is just good at raising dragons. I can only say that your children having three thousand years of cultivation at twenty-six is a very snail-like growth speed, Sister Ta. But considering they can speak the Elvish Language without even having transformed, maybe their growth points were misallocated and they developed their brains instead."

Xingyue paused here.

"Sister Ta, I don't know if I should say this, but shouldn't your children be driven out of the Nanshan Rainforest core zone? After all, their cultivation is already over three thousand years. When my mother drove me out of the Douluo Continent Forest Mixed Zone, although I was over fifty, my cultivation was only at two thousand years."

"I don't have that intention yet. Although the children's cultivation is high, their maturity is completely lacking. My husband is also too broad-minded, daring to indulge them in playing with the elves."

"What's wrong with that? Elves aren't humans. Nowadays, the streets are full of elves with cultivation levels around level ten or twenty who just eat, drink, and play without any awareness. And Sister Ta, have you ever seen them obtain a Soul Ring? From my secret observations, it simply doesn't happen. Even when their army goes to exterminate hundred-year Soul Beasts that haven't grown their brains properly, the Soul Rings that emerge from the corpses don't enter the elves' bodies even when they stand right next to them."

"Is that so?"

Xingyue's words significantly reduced Thalassa's worry that her children might be harmed by the elves.

"Rus let Youlan (the Fear Demon Dragon) and me serve as Eagle Eye Guards, responsible for secretly supervising the behavior of officials, which naturally includes the actions of the army. How could it be fake? Besides, for cubs with over three thousand years of cultivation, the iron weapons in the elves' hands can't even break their defense. Anyway, rest easy."

Thalassa looked at Xingyue, whose sense of crisis had completely dissipated, and thought back to the past twenty-six years, during which her five children had constantly wandered around the Elf Kingdom, only to be dragged back by her and her husband with roars.

"I suppose that's true."

If the elves really wanted to harm her cubs, they could have done so during the vulnerable period when the children were one to five years old, but they never did. Even in the year the elves erupted into civil war, the elves made no move to target her children.

"Since that's the case, Xingyue."

Thalassa seemed to have made up her mind.

"What?"

Xingyue hadn't yet realized the severity of the problem.

"The plan to expand our Dragon race should also be put on the agenda."

Thalassa said this as if she were serious, though speaking seriously was unlikely for her.

"No, Sister Ta, you were just reluctant to let your children go, so why do you want to bait the wolf now?"

"Then let me ask you, Xingyue, besides Rus, have you encountered any other male dragons on the Folded Ear Continent in these past dozen years?"

"...That, I really haven't."

Xingyue fell into thought, followed by hesitation, and then the painful admission of reality.

Ever since staying on the Folded Ear Continent, although life had been very comfortable due to the lack of human hunting, she was a dragon after all. Without the threat of death, the things she had been forced to suppress in the past could no longer be held back.

"That's more like it."

Thalassa then looked toward the solitary peak surrounded by the city, which featured numerous magnificent marble buildings. It was the most important administrative hub of the Elf Kingdom, which was constantly relocating people and reclaiming land on the Central Plateau of the Folded Ear Continent.

Her husband, Rus, was in one of the buildings there, listening to the Prime Minister, who acted on his behalf to rule the kingdom, report on the kingdom's governance over the past half-year.

At this moment, in the throne room of the palace-cum-Prime Minister's office, a dragon and an elf were reviewing the Elf Kingdom's year-end summary document.

"This year's national tax revenue was 14,000 silver coins, 549,200 copper coins, 41,000 sheep, 38,000 pigs, and 3.12 million tons of various grains, spices, and salt. Including the elves you sheltered from the south of the continent, the total domestic elf population is 2.8342 million."

As the second Prime Minister of the kingdom in sixteen years, Light could be said to have approached this task with the greatest enthusiasm. As someone who had served as a tribal leader during the tribal era, this busy work was, while demanding, ultimately comfortable.

Moreover, as Prime Minister, he could have more audiences with Rus Wang, which was a rare opportunity.

"In other words, the average grain output per elf is over a thousand kilograms?"

As a Seer Elf capable of using Soul Power, Rus Wang had the ability to transform, but he believed that his transformed appearance would lose its majesty. Therefore, he usually shrank his body to two meters before sitting on the throne to listen to his Prime Minister's report, just as he was doing now.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Thanks to the state-owned cattle farms planned by the former Prime Minister Evans and the policy of distributing heavy iron plows to every farming household for free, agricultural production is our most dazzling achievement."

"Very good, Light. Now, report to me on the development of entertainment."

Rus Wang looked at the eye-catching data on the paper, compared it with the various values on his system screen, and after confirming there were no errors, he began to inquire about things that were not on the system but were equally important.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Thanks to your proposal, we have deepened the mobility of people across various regions through large-scale events that require organized management, such as soccer leagues and horse racing leagues. Small games like Monopoly and Othello are also being gradually introduced to the bathhouses in every city-state and town."

"Hmm, not bad. This is also a good way to occupy those young people who are bored out of their minds. If they spent all day burrowing into the Nanshan Rainforest seeking thrills and provoking soul beasts that haven't yet gained sentience, they would be completely disregarding their own lives."

Suddenly, the doors to the throne room were knocked upon, and Rus Wang and Prime Minister Light looked toward them.

"Enter."

Following Rus Wang's permission, the doors were opened by the imperial guards, and the person who entered was Lingyi (Azure Abyss Holy Dragon). A few years ago, with the help of Rus Wang, she had survived her hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation. Now, in her human form, she held a document in her hand, intending to report to Rus Wang.

"My King, there is a private matter for you."

Upon hearing this, Prime Minister Light, after receiving a look of permission from Rus Wang, quickly took his leave. As the doors closed, only Rus Wang and Lingyi remained in the throne room.

"Speak, what trouble has my brood caused this time?"

Rus Wang didn't even need to guess; it was certainly his five children again, sneaking off to his good friend Osuen's place to play with his children and accidentally tearing their house apart.

"That is not the case, Your Majesty. To be more precise, it concerns you."

"?"

"Lady Thalassa says she has raised a cat in the courtyard and requests that you go over to take a look."

Lingyi said this with a straight face, devoid of any emotion.

"A cat? What is there to see about that? But fine, I'll head over now."

Rus Wang immediately flew to the courtyard on the outskirts of the city, where his wife, Thalassa, had already been waiting for some time.

"Xiao Ta, I heard from Lingyi that you've raised a cat? Did you learn that from the Elves?"

Seeing his wife had been waiting for him, Rus Wang didn't dwell on why her best friends weren't in the courtyard, instead asking about the matter Lingyi had informed him of.

"Indeed. It just so happens to be inside the room. Rus, come and take a look."

"Of course."

Rus Wang had no reason to doubt her. He and his wife had been together for twenty-seven years; how could such a trivial matter be a trap for him?

As Rus Wang walked into the room on his four feet, he saw, aside from the usual furniture and a multi-person bed that was a bit excessively large, Xingyue and Youlan, who were gathered there for some unknown reason.

"So, where is the cat?"

Before Rus Wang could realize that something was wrong, Thalassa and Lingyi—who had just told him in the throne room that his wife had raised a cat—blocked his path of retreat, surrounding him completely along with Xingyue and Youlan.

"Meow~"

The synchronized cat calls from the four humanoid female dragons right beside his ears, combined with the pheromones they were actively releasing, immediately made Rus Wang break out in a cold sweat. He knew that if he didn't produce some dragon life today, he probably wouldn't live to see tomorrow's sun.