The Silver Dragon Guard
"The supply of this mountain spring water—" Zijin mentally calculated the Silver Dragon's daily water consumption and came to a conclusion that made her heart sink, "The Jade Sea and Tang Valley might—be entirely filled with Silver Dragon!"
"If they're all Silver Dragon, is there a problem?" Su Ming asked immediately.
Zijin began to explain to Su Ming in detail the characteristics of the Silver Dragon race.
Similar to the Gold Dragon, the Silver Dragon is also a powerful dragon species that prefers close-quarters combat. They have sharp claws and strong bodies.
At the same time, they can unleash beams of light attacks, such as scorching white beams or rainbow rays that can cut through anything, precise and deadly.
"But what's most troublesome is that annoying layer of silver scales on their bodies," Zijin said with a hint of resentment. "It can reflect a large proportion of magical energy! Ordinary magical attacks are greatly reduced in effectiveness, or even completely nullified, when they hit them."
"Wouldn't that be a natural counter to magic-based systems?" Su Ming frowned.
"Ordinary mages have no chance against them!" Zijin confirmed. "Personally, I can concentrate Magic Power to a high degree, exceeding the scales' limits, and break through the Silver Dragon Guard's defenses. Ruixiuli's dark magic cut can also do that—but we can't defeat the Silver Dragon Race's Grand Elder, Yinfei. Her domain, ' Arcane Prism,' can refract and scatter magical energy over a wide area."
"Yinfei, is she really this difficult to deal with?"
"Of course, she's the type of enemy I least want to face." Zijin sighed helplessly. "Even if I manage to penetrate her domain, I'll still have to confront her tough dragon scales. Yinfei herself is considered to be the strongest among the three Saint Rank Dragon Race."
"With its formidable melee combat, extremely high magic resistance, and ranged beam attacks, the Silver Dragon is so well-rounded. Are there any significant weaknesses that can be exploited?" Su Ming asked.
"If we have to point out a weakness, it's that they lack large-scale destructive capabilities and are afraid of top-tier warriors using Dou Qi aura," Zijin replied.
"We can't use these places."
The entire Final Bone Mad Machines consists of mages, so it's clearly not feasible to use them directly against the Silver Dragon.
****
Zijin continued to peruse the intelligence piled on the table. The most numerous items were detailed supply lists collected by Princess Dafulin. As the host of the Northern Lands, her intelligence team knew exactly what was going on with all the goods shipped through the Northern Lands ports, down to the color of the wooden crates used to pack them.
Zijin suddenly noticed something and checked it carefully again.
"Elder Yinfei is not in the fleet!" she concluded with certainty.
"Why?" Su Ming pressed.
"Because Elder Yinfei has an extreme fondness for red foods!" Zijin explained, pointing to the list. "But in this supply list, the only prominent red foods are sweet potatoes and carrots." She paused for a moment, then continued, "Normally, the Northern Lands should have red dates, red rice, peanuts, goji berries, and other red ingredients available this season, but none of them are on the list!"
"Is it possible that Tai'ao'duo did this intentionally to conceal the existence of Yinfei?" Su Ming asked.
"Given Yinfei's personality and temperament, she wouldn't care about any of this," Zijin said decisively. "If you dare to try to fool her with carrots and sweet potatoes, without giving her something more refined, believe me, she'll smash the Jade Sea and Tang Valley to pieces first!"
Su Ming couldn't help but sigh, "This Elder Yinfei is also a picky eater with a terrible temper."
"Also?" Zijin raised her head and glared at Su Ming with hostility.
"No!" Su Ming immediately said, "I meant—something like Jielusi who's out of control!"
"Hmph." Zijin continued to look down, flipping through the other documents on the table.
Su Ming touched his chin; the troublesome Yinfei was nowhere to be seen?
"The elderly Dragon King Gelie will not personally attend the battle, and Lanmo of the Ice Dragon Race will not interfere—can we say that we have absolutely no need to worry about the Dragon Race's Saint Rank combat power appearing in this battle?" Su Ming deduced.
"Exactly." Zijin nodded firmly. "The chances of those two appearing on this battlefield are far slimmer than the chances of Yinfei being willing to only eat carrots."
"That's good news." Su Ming leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh of relief.
****
It is located 1,200 kilometers off the Giant Horn Peninsula, where the Pansy is located, in the open sea of Grodno region.
The flying beast mothership belonging to the Temple of Light, now the Jade Sea and Tang Valley, a carrier of dragon motherships, is docked here.
In the ship's operations command center, Admiral Tai'ao'duo had just received a report that the White Bone Train had gone missing.
To be precise, the target they had been tracking turned out to be a carefully orchestrated disguise.
When the scouts finally got close, they discovered it was nothing more than a crude model made of ice and snow. The mage squad that had been guarding the area was gone, and all the defensive magic arrays they had set up had been removed.
"How did that ' Bone King ' manage to deceive us for so long?" a staff officer asked, puzzled. "The tire tracks, the camouflage and movement of personnel, the construction of decoy targets on the ground, and the interception of the reconnaissance troops—every step was flawlessly executed!"
"Immediately notify the landing forces that the original operational plan is canceled," Tai'ao'duo ordered.
He did not dwell on the negative emotions brought about by his mistake, but quickly got up and walked to the huge chart table. Soon, his gaze was firmly fixed on the outline of the Giant Horn Peninsula.
"Jishou Tidal Flats," he murmured, staring at the contour lines on the map. "They also have flat, open landing sites there. The White Bone Fortress should be there now!"
Jishou Tidal Flats are closer to the Arctic Circle and have lower temperatures than Grodno. However, the biggest problem is that if they choose to land there, the route to the heart of the Northern Lands will pass through the core military outposts of the Northern Lands lords' noble army.
Previous strategic analysis suggested that "Bone King" and his party would avoid these local strongmen entrenched in the Northern Lands no matter what.
Even if he and Liya are powerful, they shouldn't be able to break through the Lords' Alliance on land, right?
However, recently, the entire Northern Lands has been like an information black hole—intelligence transmission has been severely delayed, the informant who was originally planted has disappeared without a trace, and the newly dispatched spies have also quickly lost contact.
Tai'ao'duo knew that something major must have happened in the Northern Lands. But these questions could only be answered by the intelligence services as they worked to verify them.
The most urgent task is to take remedial action; we must immediately change course and head to Giant Horn Peninsula to carry out an interception operation!
With the order issued swiftly, the Temple of Light's naval fleet weighed anchor, adjusted their course, and headed toward the Giant Horn Peninsula.
The ships responsible for supply and support also moved along with it, and the massive fleet began to carve new paths on the sea.
****
Even after deploying air and sea reconnaissance forces and carefully planning the entire fleet's route and formation toward the Giant Horn Peninsula, Tai'ao'duo's nerves remained on edge.
He led the adjutant along the internal staircase into the completely renovated lower deck of the Jade Sea and Tang Valley ".
To accommodate the Silver Dragon Guard, almost all the internal partition walls had been removed, creating a vast, open space resembling a giant palace.
At this moment, in this slightly dim lower deck, eleven enormous silver dragons lay prostrate. They resembled sleeping silver mountains, their scales gleaming with a cold luster in the limited light, and each long breath carried a deep, oppressive sound.
Tai'ao'duo's gaze swept across the dragon herd, finally settling on one of the darker-colored dragons. Its scales possessed a deeper Mithril hue, a symbol of power honed by time. Tai'ao'duo walked up to this dragon, named Yin'er, maintaining a respectful gaze, and asked in a clear voice:
"Honorable Sky Observer, Great Dragon Yin'er, I apologize for the intrusion. Did Elder Yinfei mention to you when she would return to the fleet before she left?"
The giant dragon Yin'er slowly opened its enormous eyes, its golden vertical pupils shining like molten gold, scrutinizing the tiny human general before it with the majesty unique to dragons.
"Oh, it's you, Tai'ao'duo— " Yin'er's deep voice was like rolling thunder. It seemed to ponder for a moment, "When the Grand Elder left, he only said, 'I will return as soon as possible,' and that was all."
"Return as soon as possible? Isn't that obvious! "Tai'ao'duo cursed inwardly, an indescribable anxiety rising in his chest. More than ten days had passed since that promise was made! Now, the decisive battle with "Bone King" and "Chestnut" was imminent, but Elder Yinfei was still nowhere to be found!
Tai'ao'duo pressed on, "Then, did Elder Yinfei explain where she went, or why she left?"
Yin'er merely shook its enormous dragon head slowly and dramatically, the heavy movement creating a faint gust of air. "No."
Tai'ao'duo could only barely suppress his turbulent emotions. Although the eleven Silver Dragon before him were also extremely powerful, their targets this time were, after all, the infamous "Bone King," who had caused the temple to suffer repeated defeats, and the cunning and tenacious "Liya"!
At this crucial juncture before the decisive battle, Elder Yinfei's departure without saying goodbye is extremely irresponsible!
Combat strength is secondary; the key issue is that there is a top-secret agreement between Elder Yinfei and the higher-ups of the Temple of Light!
About half a year ago, during the siege of Cui'an Sea Cliff, when the Temple Knights of Light completed their final encirclement of Li, the Dragon Race King Gelie suddenly intervened forcefully.
The aged yet still majestic Dragon King not only dispatched a powerful dragon squad to "assist" him, but also announced that the Dragon Race would personally "kill" the controller of Liya and bring Liya Raven back to the Dragon Race's sacred land for trial.
No one naively believed that the Dragon Race's so-called "trial" would actually execute Lijuan. Dragon King Gelie's attitude was unusually firm; he openly declared that he would spare no effort to save Liya's life!
Gelie issued an extremely stern, almost final warning to the Temple of Light. It was this immense pressure from the top of the Dragon Race that forced the temple to delay its encirclement operation for a few days, giving Liya a chance to catch his breath.
But to everyone's surprise, this slight delay led to Li's miraculous encounter with Su Ming, the Bone King "fell from the sky." The two joined forces and staged a series of unbelievable escapes, gradually developing into the powerful force they are today!