"Huh?"
Looking at the plant bubbles emitting poisonous smoke, it was Seraphina Benlong who was the first to voice a question.
Such potent toxicity and corrosiveness were undoubtedly within the Green Dragon's Authority, and the Dragon Girl knew that she had just touched a fragment of a Green Dragon scale a dozen minutes earlier.
She stared intently at her right hand, trying to find the change within it.
Although this body is currently formed through shapeshifting, Seraphina's eyes can see through the surface disguise and perceive her true nature as a dragon.
Her hands, or rather, her dragon claws, should be exactly the same as before, except that a deep green shimmer flashed between her scales.
After thinking for a moment, the Dragon Girl went to another large tree and gently pressed her hand on it.
A dark green poisonous mist instantly rose from the surface of the tree, and with a hissing sound of the poisonous mist corroding it, the tree slowly collapsed.
Seraphina frowned slightly. This feeling was somewhat strange. Although she could not sense the changes in her own body, she could feel a different kind of Psionic Energy fluctuation when she touched the tree.
She tried several times, and the large trees in front of her fell one after another, turning into a sticky, toxic, viscous substance. However, this result was not always consistent.
The rate at which the toxic substances corroded the trees slowed down significantly. At first, Seraphina barely had time to react before the transformation of the trees in front of her was complete.
However, now, after corroding and felling more than a dozen large trees, she even needs to press down on the trees in front of her with a little force to transfer the poison to them.
After killing a few more trees, Seraphina finally realized that she had completely lost the part of her abilities that belonged to the Green Dragon.
She looked at the Dragonborn Village that was faintly visible at the edge of her field of vision, thought for a moment, and then chose to turn around.
To gain greater movement speed, Seraphina revealed a portion of her true form.
Her body still resembled that of a young girl, but a pair of enormous wings had already spread out behind her. The proportions of the two were not like those of a traditional dragon, but rather more like an oversized butterfly whose wings were disproportionate to its body.
"Call!"
The dragon's wings whipped up the half-melted snow, carrying it with them in a cold wind that swept across the surrounding area.
After a brief snowstorm, only a large, circular, snow-free area remained on the ground.
Seraphina herself had absolutely no idea what to do about this, but she knew that someone else would have a solution.
Just like that person often said—leave professional matters to professionals.
"So you've come to me because you want to leave professional tasks to professionals?"
Ed looked at Seraphina in front of him, a slightly helpless expression on his face.
He was reviewing confidential documents that outside professionals had collected, packaged, and sent into the "tree hole" when he suddenly heard a rapid gust of wind outside.
The low, howling wind even gave Ed the illusion that a typhoon was approaching, and the fragments of the ancient castle he was in even began to change the direction of their floating and moving.
After a series of clanging sounds, there was a knock on Ed's study door.
He opened the door and saw Seraphina with her dragon wings still open, which led to the brief exchange that followed.
Recalling the details Seraphina had just described, Ed looked at the dragon girl whose face clearly said "I want to know" and asked in return:
"I'm wondering if it's possible that you're the expert in the field related to dragons?"
Seraphina shook her head:
"I was born at an inopportune time and have never met my parents, so I haven't actually received a proper dragon education and am not a professional in this field."
Ed was shocked, but upon reflection, Seraphina seemed to have never mentioned her parents at all.
Even so, Ed couldn't help but exclaim in surprise:
"You're illiterate? But you can speak and write the royal language."
Speaking of this, Seraphina's expression turned somewhat indignant:
"That's because the humans who hired me can't speak dragon language, otherwise it wouldn't be so troublesome... They're so rude, they don't even want to learn dragon language when they need a dragon's help, or even bring a translator. Luckily, most of them are in a hurry, which allows me to raise the price as much as I want."
Listening to Seraphina's complaints, Ed recalled her main business before the Demonic Tide —fusing stolen goods, destroying evidence, kidnapping, assassination, counterfeiting, and being a mercenary...
It's perfectly normal for people who have these needs to be anxious.
However, Ed was somewhat curious:
Are there any humans who can speak the language of dragons?
No, as far as I know, no, I don't know why.
"I can probably guess why..." Ed thought to himself, a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
Based on current information, the relationship between dragons and humans before the Demonic Tide was far from friendly; they were practically the type to fight on sight.
Against this solemn backdrop, both dragons that can speak human language and humans that can speak dragon language are extremely rare and precious.
Thinking of this, Ed asked with great curiosity:
"So, who did you learn your Mandarin from?"
"Those who are self-taught, plus the hostages I've brought in, I'll ask them some grammar and spelling questions."
Upon hearing this unexpected and outrageous answer, Ed wasn't too shocked. Instead, his brain entered an overclocked state, his thoughts Spread and pondering answers to meaningless questions.
So the truth is that ever since she met Seraphina, the dragon girl has been speaking a foreign language the entire time. Ed couldn't help but be amazed by Seraphina's eagerness to learn.
Recalling how focused she was while listening to the economics mini-lecture, Ed's understanding of Seraphina was updated once again.
He thought about it for a moment and finally shook his head:
"After all, I've never been a dragon, so I can't take many things for granted."
"So I think we can synchronize our intelligence and then discuss the underlying logic together."
Dragon Girl nodded and sat down opposite Ed. The next second, she extended her right hand, but Ed deftly dodged Seraphina with a sidestep.
"What you do?"
The two said in unison.
After a moment of eye contact, the two spoke again:
"You were the one who said you wanted to share intelligence."
"You treacherous dragon, do you intend to harm me?!"
After a moment of silence, Ed sat back down in his chair and said in a deep voice:
"You should understand that, in a sense, I am also a tree. You just poisoned a small grove of trees, so it's normal for me to react."
Seraphina curled her lip in disdain at Ed's cowardice and looked at him quietly, saying:
Ask me anything you want to know.