I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

Ji Tian wanted to answer "yes," but just as he was about to speak, he suddenly sensed something. His Nascent Soul stage intuition told him that the other party might join a sect. After thinking it over, he finally spoke.

"Fine, I trust you won't make things up."

Mia's eyes widened slightly, as if she hadn't expected this answer.

She nodded vigorously, her voice solemn: "Yes! I won't tell."

Ji Tian unconsciously felt like he was deceiving someone who was naive to the ways of the world, so he stopped talking about it and turned to walk towards the Aurelius family.

Marcus Aurelius was next to the wreckage of the wagon, using a shovel to bury the bones of the ponies: the skeletons had been completely stripped clean, and even the hooves had been boiled twice to make soup.

Hearing footsteps, he looked up and gave a bitter smile:

Ji Tian glanced at the pile of dismantled carriage wreckage, then suddenly remembered that he hadn't asked the family where they were going. He smiled and asked:

Where are you planning to go next?

Aurelius's wife stepped out from behind him, having already packed up the remaining items using the storage ring the hero had given her earlier, and replied upon hearing this:

"My father owned a machine shop in Horiton in the North, and we were planning to go there to stay with him."

"Horleyton?"

Mia leaned over from the side and warmly invited, "Perfect timing! I'm also heading to the Adventurers' Guild headquarters in Horiton to report on a mission. I can give you a ride."

It's clear that she was very happy to have gained the trust of Ji Tian, ​​who was both a hero and her savior, and she even overcame her usual social anxiety.

Aurelius was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, and said with a mixture of surprise and hesitation, "Horrington is at least several days' journey from here, you—"

"Little Flower flies very fast, it will arrive in half a day at most."

As Mia spoke, she turned her head and glanced at the golden dragon not far away, which was sweeping away rubble with its tail. "Right?"

Xiaohua lazily raised her eyelids: "You decide."

Marcus Aurelius and his wife exchanged a glance and finally nodded.

They looked at their daughter, who was looking up at the golden dragon with a "so cool" expression on her face.

Lila tiptoed, trying to touch the tip of Little Flower's tail. Little Flower sensed her intention and gently flicked its tail to avoid her touch, without showing any hostility.

"Let's get on the dragon's back first." Ji Tian took the lead and walked towards Xiao Hua. He lightly touched the ground with his toes and landed in the center of the dragon's back.

People climbed up the back one after another.

Marcus Aurelius and his wife were a bit clumsy in their climbing, so Ji Tian helped them up one by one; Lila, on the other hand, was lifted up by Mia and placed in front of her, where she sat steadily.

The golden dragon stood up, spread its wings, and the resulting airflow swept up the pebbles and dead leaves on the ground into the air.

It took two quick steps in place and then took off.

The ground shrank rapidly beneath their feet, and the charred outline of the Flower Sea Mountains, repeatedly struck by lightning, unfolded in their field of vision like a crumpled map.

Lila lay on the edge of the dragon's back, her short, silvery-white hair whipping backward in the high-altitude airflow, and she couldn't help but exclaim, "So high!"

"You'll get used to it," Mia's voice came from ahead. "I felt the same way the first time I rode Little Flower."

"Are you used to it now?"

"I'm used to it, but she still occasionally turns to the side to scare me."

The little flower at my feet retorted:

"I was just reminding you not to let your guard down too easily."

Ji Tian sat on the back of the dragon's back, with Elena leaning against him, flipping through a book of northern geography that she had casually taken out of her spatial ring.

Lilith leaned against Ji Tian's other side, occasionally pointing to a town passing by below and clicking her tongue in amazement.

Ophelia sat near the dragon's tail, her eyes closed, her breathing steady.

The landscape below gradually transitions from continuous mountain ranges and river valleys to a flatter, more open plain, with the outlines of farmland and pastures clearly visible.

About an hour later, a dark gray outline appeared on the horizon.

A huge city.

From the air, its style is different from anything I've seen before.

The city wall has a grayish-black, cast-iron-like metallic appearance. Dozens of towering chimneys stand above the wall, emitting thick white steam that trails long tails of clouds in the afternoon sky.

Between the chimneys, countless gear-like structures slowly rotate, emitting a low, rhythmic hum, and even from this distance, one can feel the industrial power in the air.

Lilith peered out from the edge of the dragon's back, her purple eyes reflecting the gray-black outline of the city:

"Is this Horington?"

Mia didn't know much about it, but Dean, who had helped the disaster-stricken residents here several times, spoke up:

"Horrington, the steel city, is the largest mechanical manufacturing center in the North and the location of the Adventurers' Guild's Northern Headquarters."

"Wow, it's huge!"

Lilith returned to Ji Tian's side and poked him, exclaiming in admiration, "It's even bigger than the capital city, isn't it?"

Ji Tian glanced at the city below and made a judgment:

"The capital is larger, but Horiton has more factory districts than the capital, so it looks denser."

As the distance closes, the details of the city gradually become clearer.

The streets are wide and paved with alternating cast iron plates and stone slabs, with colorful signs hanging above the shop doors on both sides.

Selling mechanical parts, repairing gears, peddling steam valves... all sorts of things.

The air was filled with the smells of coal smoke, rust, and machine oil, mixed with the distinctive burnt aroma of some kind of metal after it has been heated.

High in the air, the group saw a dense mass of people gathered on an open ground outside the city.

Lilith was the first to point out, "Why are there so many people there?"

Following the direction she pointed, everyone saw a large number of figures dressed in leather armor, cloaks, and standard robes gathered on a flat grassy area on the outskirts of the city.

A quick glance reveals at least a thousand people.

They stood silently and orderly around a wooden platform in the center of the open space, like wheat fields blown by the wind, each one a stalk of straw in the wind.

Mia looked down and examined it for a moment, her tone becoming somewhat uncertain:

"Logically, only when something major happens in the Adventurers' Guild will so many adventurers gather. The last time I saw this was eight years ago when the previous guild leader passed away, and more than three thousand people spontaneously came to pay their respects."

Elena also noticed the solemn atmosphere among the crowd, and her brow furrowed slightly.

"This doesn't look like a good thing. Let's lower it and see."

Little Flower began to descend, circled once above an open area on the outskirts of Horiton, and then slowly landed.

The adventurers on the ground quickly noticed the shadow overhead. Some of them looked up first and then exclaimed in surprise.

"That's—the dragon of the Dragon Knight!"

"They're still alive?!"

After a brief silence, the crowd erupted into a boiling uproar, and the once orderly and solemn procession instantly broke into chaos.