A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"Go up Dragon Mountain to find a dragon? What good would it do if we found one?" The elder squinted his eyes.

Does finding the dragon mean the empire will have a way to solve the problem?

However, it's not hard to guess what the Empire is thinking—the unknown is the most terrifying existence.

"How large is the Imperial army that went up the mountain?" the elder asked.

"There were probably a few hundred people, and if I'm not mistaken, it was just one battalion that went to explore Longshan."

"Heh, do you think you can explore Dragon Mountain by sending only a few hundred people?" The elder said with a hint of disdain.

"Elder, what should we do?" Any action must be approved by the elder.

If the elders don't take action, the followers won't act rashly.

After all, Dragon Mountain is a certain danger to the Dragon Claw Sect.

Even if the Dragon Claw Cult has mastered the means to tame wyverns into combat power and avoid wild wyverns, it doesn't mean they can run rampant in Dragon Mountain.

If the elder is not mistaken, there is still a real dragon in Longshan.

The now-declining Dragon Claw Cult is powerless to contend with yet another dragon.

"Let me think about it." The elder pondered deeply.

Allowing the imperial army to explore so recklessly is not a good thing.

What if those guys don't find the dragon, but happen to find their own base?

The Dragon Claw Cult did not want to be exposed so quickly, nor did it want to have a large-scale conflict with the Imperial Army.

"Send out our dragons to kill those Imperial soldiers," the elder ordered.

"Just let some of the soldiers escape; don't kill them all."

The elders wanted the surviving Imperial soldiers to return home.

In this way, the army will only receive intelligence such as "Longshan is dangerous" or "Longshan has nothing".

It's far better than annihilating the entire battalion.

If the entire battalion is wiped out, the Imperial military will certainly send in new teams to investigate.

"Understood." The passerby bowed and left.

Watching the departing believers, the elder had to start thinking about another matter: the new sacrifice needed to be brought in as soon as possible.

Where did the offerings come from? They were captured from nearby towns, of course.

In order to avoid attracting attention, the offerings were always taken from different places.

The continuous disappearances of people in the same town will attract attention.

Sometimes, even if the journey is long, they will bring people from other cities.

---

And on this night, new visitors arrived at this Dragon Mountain.

A man in a trench coat walked forward, stepping on the dry leaves on the ground.

Behind him followed a stunningly beautiful blonde woman.

"Heh, Beatrix, why aren't you wearing sunglasses anymore?" The blonde woman was Afrena, who had folded her wings.

These are the angels who were corrupted and fallen in the Empire.

Since Aphrena is here, the identity of the man in the trench coat is obvious.

“You can’t see the road at night if you wear sunglasses.” Betley touched the ring on his finger, completely unconcerned about Aphrena’s mocking tone.

"As expected, it's weak in every way, a Black Iron type." Afrena's golden eyes could see clearly even at night.

Betley was used to Avrena's sarcastic remarks.

Aphrena is definitely an angel with a terrible personality.

"This time, you actually chased a cult all the way into the mountains. You really are a madman." Afrena shrugged, somewhat speechless.

Since Beatrix didn't answer, Avrena had to change the subject.

"Only a madman can punish another madman." Betley didn't mind being called a madman at all.

This time, Betley came to pursue the Dragon Claw Cult.

If it were simply about worshipping dragons, that would be one thing, but the problem is that this sect members capture people for blood sacrifice.

This alone is enough for Beatley to classify the Dragon Claw Cult as a cult.

“There are more and more dragons around here, let’s clean them up,” Betley said to Afrena.

"Hmph." Afrena snorted coldly, but did not refuse.

"Commander, it's time to get up." Snake kicked Garrett, who was still fast asleep.

"Call me... Commander." Garrett, who was still unconscious, said instinctively.

"Just how obsessed are you with the title of captain?" Snake was speechless.

"Get up! The whole battalion is waiting for you! Can't you set a good example?" Snake was utterly unceremonious with the battalion commander, who was younger than him.

"I understand." Garrett struggled to his feet.

Snake was speechless. If Garrett, as the battalion commander, acted like this, the soldiers below would probably follow suit and start sleeping in late.

This battalion commander still has a long way to go.

Strength is secondary; there are more important things Garrett needs to learn.

---

The Dragon Claw cult members in the shadows watched the Imperial soldiers gradually taking their positions with mixed feelings.

Originally, the attack on this battalion should have been carried out last night.

But no one expected that the dragon horde that the Dragonclaw Cult had trained for a long time last night would be inexplicably wiped out.

Before they even reached the camp, they were all slaughtered by some unknown people.

The biggest problem is that when all the dragons were wiped out at night, there was no sound at all.

This left the Dragon Claw Cult members completely bewildered.

They discovered during their morning investigation that all the wyverns they had tamed had been slaughtered.

Although this is not all of the dragons in the Dragonclaw Cult, it is still a significant portion.

The entire sect collapsed, another heavy blow to the Dragon Claw Cult.

"Do they have some hidden powerful figures among them?" one of the cult members whispered to his companion.

"A hidden powerhouse?"

"Yes, I don't think the battalion commander of this battalion is particularly powerful. He can't possibly deal with our sub-dragons."

"That's true. Dozens of sub-dragons are not something this battalion can handle in a short time."

"Right, that just means they have a powerful figure protecting them in secret."

Upon hearing this, all the believers fell silent.

Their mission was to kill most of the soldiers and allow only a portion to escape.

But now it seems that this job is quite difficult.

Didn't you see how many dragons have died? Our fighting strength is even weaker than that of the dragons; going up there would be suicide.

The believers kept imagining what happened last night, but unfortunately, it was completely different from the truth.

Actually, last night, Betley and Afrena just happened to run into a large group of dragons from the Dragon Claw Cult and wiped them all out.

Both of them were quite skilled in dealing area-of-effect damage, and almost all the dragons fell upon sight.

By a twist of fate, these soldiers were saved.

However, neither the camp nor the Dragon Claw Cult knew anything about these things.

All I know is that the Dragon Claw Cult's own dragons were all killed last night.

"So what should we do now?" The believers began to discuss among themselves.

The most urgent task is to discuss how to complete the elder's mission.

If we fail to complete this task, we might have to be sacrificed.

"Shall we go ourselves?" one believer tried to ask.

"Are you an idiot? If we go up there, wouldn't that just be telling those imperial armies that we're on Dragon Mountain?"

The reason for attacking these armies in a roundabout way was simply to conceal the existence of the Dragon Claw Cult.

The Dragon Claw Cult is not yet ready to emerge; it needs to continue accumulating strength and resources.

“We have spells that can enrage wyverns.”

"But that spell has a very large range."

"It doesn't matter as long as we leave in time."

"No, what I'm worried about is whether any of those soldiers will survive."

"No, the raging wyverns are not that much of a threat to these soldiers."

When a dragon goes berserk, its attack methods become simple.

A little sacrifice and a slight shift in formation would be enough to keep these Imperial soldiers alive.

Let's do it this way.

Having said that, the Dragon Claw cult members disappeared into the woods and vanished into the shadows.

Making a wyvern go berserk is significantly simpler than taming it.

The manifestation of magic is sound.

---

After Garrett was forcibly pulled out of bed by Snake, the entire battalion marched smoothly.

Apart from the deep mountain areas, the outer perimeter of Longshan has been explored, and there is no trace of the so-called dragon.

Among the current clues, the most powerful being is the documented sub-dragon.

"Do dragons really exist?" Garrett began to doubt.

"The point is to prove the truth or falsehood, so it's not surprising if we don't have it," Snake replied casually.

"It would be better if it didn't exist."

"Hey, I have this urge to fight a dragon," Garrett fantasized.

"Please don't say that, sir. You're not even strong enough to deal with the strongest sub-dragon in Dragon Mountain, let alone a true dragon that should be even stronger than a sub-dragon." Snake raised his hand, dispelling Garrett's unrealistic idea.

Admittedly, Garrett is strong, but he's not quite S-rank.

Even S-class dragons can't be said to have much of an advantage against the strongest dragon in Longshan, and Garrett would probably die if he faced it.

Youthful exuberance is a good thing, but Snake thinks it would be even better if he were a little more composed.

"Commander, there's some strange grass on the ground." Snake noticed that he had unknowingly wandered into a place where there was purple grass everywhere.

"Call me Commander!!!" Garrett roared like a white cat with its fur standing on end.

“Do we need to go around this meadow?” Snake asked.

These herbs smell like roasted wheat.

However, as good as it smells, Snake is confident that it is safe.

“I’ll give it a try.” While Snake was considering whether to avoid the grass, Garrett picked up a purple blade of grass and began to chew it.

"..." Snake suddenly thought it wouldn't be bad if this guy was poisoned to death.

"The smell of bread," Garrett said, his eyes lighting up in surprise.

After being up in the mountains for so long, eating all sorts of random things, being able to taste bread was pure bliss.

"Why don't you try some?" Garrett plucked another purple blade of grass and handed it to Snake.