On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

Shock quickly turned into awe. Although Tago didn't know how they did it, he knew just by thinking about it that the process must have been extremely dangerous and arduous, as evidenced by the appearance of the human girl.

Many of the Watcher clans turned their attention to the limping Irene. Looking at the girl's battered and tattered appearance, her clothes covered in claw marks and tail marks from various monsters, one could only imagine the brutal battles she had endured to defeat, or even conquer, this Swamp King.

Tago wasn't sure whether to use the word "conquer" to describe it, because now this calamity incarnate, the terrifying dragon species, actually started rubbing its head towards another dragon-human demi-human after the person on its back jumped off. When the dragon-human demi-human ignored it, it even stuck its tongue out into the air, trying to lick it like a lapdog.

After being kicked again by that impatient dragon-human demi-human, Tago wondered if he had seen wrong. But the Calamity Dragon's face, which should have been ferocious, actually showed an expression of enjoyment.

With the Calamity Dragon tamed, the expansion of the Wild Swamp for the Watcher Clan came to an end, and it truly signified the end of their generations-long duty to protect the Southern Frontier.

Long Niang silently watched the many clan demi-humans embracing and weeping, without disturbing the revelry before her. Later, after reuniting with Liao Ji, Jiu You shook her head when Liao Ji looked at her questioningly.

She told Liao Ji that the source of the polluted swamp was far from the work of this earth dragon. Rather, the earth dragon was also a victim. However, through the information conveyed to her by this earth dragon, she learned that the "high priest" of the ancient wolf clan in the orc plains was secretly carrying out a certain ritual, which was the real source of the pollution. The desolate swamp was merely a byproduct of its massive pollution.

"Radiation alone can mutate the entire swamp into an expanding pool of filthy black mud?" Liao Ji frowned, finding it hard to believe such a massive, turbid force.

The turbid calamity does not appear out of thin air, especially after it is destroyed. Theoretically, it can only be produced through negative emotions, just like the bloodstains left by the jackal Loba on the feudal system.

But how did that high priest of the ancient wolf clan accumulate such terrifying turbidity?

Sudden.

Liao Ji seemed to have thought of something, and his brows furrowed even more deeply.

At first, he wondered where in the Dragon Kingdom there was such a huge source of negative emotions, but then Liao Jicai quickly realized that it wasn't that the Dragon Kingdom had such a source, but that the entire Dragon Kingdom had been turned into the best collection site.

The rigid class system, which oppresses people to the point of no breath, and the demi-human slaves constantly oppressed by wearing collars, with just these two blows, the Dragon Kingdom is probably the most fertile and corrupt soil among the five powers.

Could this be the real reason why Charlotte is part of an old alliance, and what's behind it all?

Liao Ji didn't tell Jiu You what he was thinking. Anyway, it seemed that the answer to everything now lay with only one person: the high priest of the Ancient Wolf Clan.

"By the way, Lord Liao Ji, I also found these deep in the Wild Swamp. They should have been left behind by Karl."

As she spoke, Long Niang took out several rune-like stones from her bosom and handed them to Liao Ji.

The stones were engraved with complex and incomprehensible symbols. Jiu You recognized them at a glance. These were some of the tools that Lord Ash used frequently five hundred years ago. Although she didn't know how to use them, they were valuable items, so she brought them back to Liao Ji.

This is a legacy stone for professionals!?

After receiving these stones, Liao Ji immediately saw a series of related prompts. These stones all contained information about the special professions associated with the subhuman race.

After quickly searching through them, Liao Ji's eyes lit up, and he took out one of the stones, which clearly had twice as many runes as the other inheritance stones.

This is the heritage stone for the professional Shaman!

Demi-humans are generally dominated by the two major classes of Guardian and Archer, with the Guardian class also being quite common. Unfortunately, these combat classes are not very beneficial to the current demi-human races because they require a large number of people to achieve quantitative change.

However, due to the curse, Liao Ji had already investigated the curse, which exists in the form of something like "experience points gained reduced by 95%". Therefore, the level of all demi-humans is extremely low, let alone the ability to acquire professions on a large scale.

However, the current [Shaman] profession is different. It is a rare "psychic" profession among demi-humans, and it is not combat-oriented but more supportive. Having a "Shaman" can be of great help to the clan, including but not limited to healing diseases, summoning wind and rain, and even directly promoting the growth of natural vegetation.

Chapter 119 The Empress's Training Manual

"Relax, Xue, it will be quick, it won't hurt at all."

"Um, I... I believe in Master. Ah! No, I believe in Mr. Liao Ji!" Ah Xue blurted out the name without thinking, and the cat girl blushed deeply, clutching her collar tightly with both hands.

The revolutionaries sighed helplessly, and Hu Jiu turned his head away as if there was no hope left.

Dragon Girl glanced at Ah Xue, her face expressionless.

"Ahem, I'll begin then." Liao Ji quickly steered the conversation back on track, placing his hand on the catgirl's head.

They have now returned with the six clans from the border, and what Liao Ji is doing now is trying to make A Xue the first shaman professional demi-human.

In his other hand, he held the [Shaman] Inheritance Stone, which was covered in complex and profound runes. Ordinary demi-humans would need to spend countless days and nights studying it to comprehend it, but Ah Xue, as her contractor, had such a cheat code, so she didn't need to go through these tedious steps.

The inheritance stone in Liao Ji's hand began to glow, and lines of runes on it lit up continuously. Then, as if they came to life, they began to surround Liao Ji's body, like a ring of knowledge. Finally, guided by Liao Ji's will, all these runes flowed into Ah Xue's head through Liao Ji's other hand.

With her eyes tightly closed, Ah Xue felt a sudden influx of obscure and difficult knowledge and sounds into her mind. However, as the contract emblem behind the cat girl's neck began to flash, these profound runes began to change. Suddenly, Ah Xue felt that they were not so difficult to understand. Many of them were even easy to comprehend and firmly memorized, as if this knowledge had always belonged to her.

The whole process didn't last long. While Ah Xue was still savoring the magical and infinitely mysterious knowledge in her mind, Liao Ji's voice pulled her back to reality.

"How was it, Xue? Did you get anything?" Actually, Liao Ji could already see from the character list that Xue's profession had changed to the "Special Ability" branch, [Shaman], but he asked again to confirm.

It's also worth mentioning that Ah Xue was originally only a three-star character, just like Irene, but after being passed on by Karl, the catgirl jumped directly to four and a half stars.

"Yes, Mr. Liao Ji, I feel like I've gained a lot of new abilities. I... I'll give it a try!"

The black-eared cat girl nodded and quickly arrived in front of a seedling that had just sprouted a tender green shoot from the soil. After taking a deep breath, Ah Xue closed her eyes and connected her mind with the new knowledge she had acquired. Then, amidst the exclamations of the surrounding clan members, dark green light began to rise from around Ah Xue, gathering towards the seedling like fireflies.

A surge of vigorous life force gathered on the tender bud, and in the blink of an eye, the seedling, which was just the size of a little finger, became lush and mature, even growing wildly to the size of Ah Xue's chest before stopping.

Following Ah Xue, Liao Ji found six or seven more demi-humans with shamanic talents within the revolutionary army, which has now absorbed more than a dozen clans. However, all Liao Ji can do for these demi-humans is to use "Holy Healing" to remove their bloodline curses. After that, Ah Xue, the "shaman mentor," will pass on the skills. Their abilities certainly won't be as powerful as Ah Xue's, but as apprentices, they can assist Ah Xue and temporarily help with the clan's food supply.

into the night.

Tonight, the Tribal Forest under the night sky is no longer the same dark and silent place it used to be. Instead, it is unusually lively. Around the clusters of blazing bonfires, the demi-humans of various clans are dancing in circles. For the demi-humans, after hundreds of years, they have once again demonstrated the power of their ancestors. There is nothing more worthy of celebration than this. Even though the future is still a long road ahead, at least they can see the path under their feet, instead of struggling in the dark.

"Old Liao Ji, please tell me, what's Xiao You's background? Could it be...?" While everyone was eating and drinking, Yilin secretly slipped up to Liao Ji's side.

A day later, the girl was lively and energetic again. She was now very curious about the dragon girl's identity, and even had a frightening guess in her heart. She whispered nervously in Liao Ji's ear:

"Could it be that Sister Xiaoyou is like that Mamaria from last time?" After her "two-person trip" to the wild swamp with Xiaoyou, Irene had completely given in and was now suspicious of the dragon girl's terrifying power. In addition, there were indeed precedents in the Holy Kingdom, which is why she was so nervous now.

"Don't worry, it's different." Liao Ji shook his head at this. After all, Maria was a substitute for Styutia, while this dragon girl was the Empress's true form, so of course they were different.

"Phew! That's good, that's good, then I can rest assured!" After receiving Liao Ji's affirmative reply, Yilin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, the girl's little mind started to race, and many melodramatic plots she had seen before began to surface in her mind. Could it be that Xiao You, who was also a member of the dragon race, was a member of a collateral branch of the empress's clan, and was expelled from the clan by the empress because she was ostracized?

Now, Sister Xiaoyou and the others are fighting back as part of the revolutionary army, not for anything else, but to take back what they lost from the Empress!

The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. So, Irene's little brain raced, and she came up with a perfect way to please Xiaoyou.

After deliberately attracting everyone's attention, she began to steer the conversation toward envisioning the future after the victory. Since they had already won, the topic of envisioning the future was inevitably going to be discussed.

"So, what do you think we should do with the empress after we storm the capital and actually bring her down?"

When Irene said this, many people were taken aback. Because of the Empress's fearsome reputation and aura, they had never really thought about it before. No matter how much they rebelled, they only planned to go to the Empress and ask her to abdicate according to their opinions. Who would have thought that they would "dispose" of the Empress?

"Hey, hey, hey, the battle hasn't even started yet, at least you should raise your morale! The Empress has done so many evils, don't you want to punish her severely! Take revenge on her! Humiliate her!" the girl coaxed.

"The Empress has simply been blinded by treacherous officials."

“Shut up, Ta-go!” Irene glared at the centaur.

Perhaps it was the effect of the fruit wine, but the bear-man tribe's Dashan was the first to speak: "I want to be able to fight her without using the power of the Chaos, relying solely on combat skills!"

"Uh, next one, next one, Xue, where are you?"

"Oh, me? I... I hope that Her Majesty the Empress can hear our voices. Let's leave it at that."

"Uh, Tiger Nine, what about you?"

"Of course, we need the Empress to pay us reparations! She needs to pay us lots and lots of money, so we'll have endless meat to eat and wine to drink, hehehehehe."

Irene: "Uh"

Why are the conditions these people are offering so mundane?

Just when Yilin felt that this was not enough to satisfy Xiaoyou's "revenge thrill" who was also listening in, no one expected that the next person to speak up would be Xiyun, who was usually calm and collected.

The fox-woman, smiling in the firelight, said, "If it were possible, I'd like to tie up that empress and then whip her to taste the pain we suffered as slaves."

The fox spirit licked her lips, while Irene's eyes lit up. Yes, yes, yes, that's the kind of stimulation that gives you a sense of revenge!

She immediately nudged the maid next to her with her elbow.

"Based on the most popular training terms on the dark web, I will first blindfold her to block her vision, then place the gag, and finally assist Miss Xiyun with wax from the side," said 86, who was being prepared by Miss Yilin in advance.

Cough

Irene coughed twice to ease the awkwardness. The main event was about to begin. After asking around, Irene deliberately brought up Sister Xiaoyou, whom she had already imagined as a character with a deep grudge against the Empress.

Even if a character with such deep-seated grudges doesn't show it openly, they must secretly be quite pleased to hear their target being verbally punished like this, right?

"Sister Xiaoyou, what about you? Feel free to say whatever you want, don't hold back."

The Dragon Lady calmly glanced at Irene, who had an expectant expression on her face.

Then stand up and turn around.

"Hey? Where are you going, Sister Xiaoyou?!"

"I'd like to cook you a meal," the Dragon Girl replied calmly.

To cook?

Irene was taken aback at first, but she quickly became happy inside. You see, she was right, Xiaoyou was definitely happy inside, otherwise why would she take the initiative to cook for them as a reward? Isn't that a sign of her being very pleased with herself?

Unfortunately, if the girl had turned her head again and seen the catgirl Ayumi's pale face filled with "fear" after hearing that the dragon girl was going to cook for them, she probably wouldn't have thought that way.

But it won't be long before everyone realizes this.

Less than ten minutes later, the Dragon Girl returned, carrying a large pot of bubbling soup.

As soon as the Dragon Girl slammed the large pot down in front of everyone, Irene, who was excitedly running over to be the first to flatter her, had only gone halfway when she twitched her nose and noticed an indescribable stench of decay. It was even worse than the filthy black mud she had smelled in the Wild Swamp, emanating from the Dragon Girl's pot of soup.

With a casual, tentative tone, Irene asked timidly, "Sister Xiaoyou, what are you making?"

"chicken soup."

chicken soup?

Irene glanced through the loosely covered pot lid and saw a grayish-brown broth with all sorts of strange things floating on top. There was even a pair of chicken feet that weren't quite dead yet and were still twitching, sticking out from the surface of the broth. Only then did Irene realize the seriousness of the problem.

Unfortunately, it was too late when she tried to run away.

The dragon maiden pulled her back abruptly, and at the same time stared at the many people who were also trying to slip away, and said very seriously:

"Everyone gets a share."

"Including you, Lord Liao Ji."

Liao Ji, who had been secretly taking out his diary to record everyone's brainstorming ideas for "The Empress's Training Manual," obviously couldn't escape Jiu You's notice.

Chapter 120 Ba'er

Dressing table.