Evil dragon has a warm heart
Chapter 186 - 186 185 One-Armed Great Knight

Chapter 186: Chapter 185: One-Armed Great Knight Chapter 186: Chapter 185: One-Armed Great Knight The outcome of the fight was as expected, Eric sent Russell’s fine steel longsword flying, marking the end of the battle.

In terms of pure swordsmanship, Eric was far from being Russell’s match.

But after all, he was a Phantom Beast Knight, and his Battle Qi combined with the Phantom Beast’s Prime Breath formed a far more powerful Prime Breath. The enhancement that Prime Breath provided to physical fitness, and the sword light it produced, could easily overpower Battle Qi.

“Phew!” Russell, looking at his empty hands, felt the sense of superiority that came with his rapid increase in strength quickly fading away.

This was a good thing.

It was also the reason he had rashly challenged Eric, to temper his inflated ego through the tremendous strength of a Phantom Beast Knight.

Only in this way could he properly face Transcendent Power and understand that he was still at the starting phase.

Without lingering on his loss, Russell smiled frankly, “Compared to Mr. Eric, I am still far behind.”

Eric wasn’t good at comforting people and simply responded gruffly, “Sir, your strength has already surpassed that of Jack and Tom, and your swordsmanship is even sharper, it’s just that your Battle Qi is not solid enough.”

“Of course, compared to you, my Battle Qi is definitely not solid.”

“Sir, your strength has improved by leaps and bounds, what is the reason?” Eric voiced his inner curiosity.

“Nothing special, a flying dragon in my grandfather’s house took a shine to me and gave me a puff of Origin Dragon’s Breath to aid my training,” Russell explained briefly, “That’s why I was able to swiftly let my main meridian channel through, and release Battle Qi externally.”

“Origin Dragon’s Breath?” Eric’s eyes widened.

“Shh, don’t be so surprised, it was just a light puff,” Russell gestured not to make a big deal of it.

But the look Eric gave him clearly had a hint of envy.

He himself had to practice tirelessly, day and night, enduring unknowable hardships to connect his main meridian channels. Yet, with a casual mention of receiving a puff of Origin Dragon’s Breath, Russell… had connected all his main meridian channels.

When compared, it was enough to make one laugh or cry.

However, the envy lasted only a moment, and Eric soon cheered up, “With such a fortuitous encounter, Sir, I believe you will be promoted to Great Knight very soon!”

“Maybe in three to five months, by the beginning of next year, I should be able to carve through all the subsidiary meridian channels in my body,” said Russell.

“Congratulations, Sir!”

Russell reflected, “Being promoted to a Great Knight is just the start of practice; I still need to work on refining the Battle Qi chains quickly, and then I can contract a Fantasy Beast.”

“Sir, are you planning to contract a Fantasy Beast as soon as possible?” Eric asked doubtfully, “You received a puff of Origin Dragon’s Breath… Don’t you want to wait and, perhaps, ride a dragon?”

“Ride a dragon, ride what dragon? It’s not that easy to ride a dragon,” Russell shook his head, “How shall I put it, I am not considering the matter of dragon riding right now. I will first become a Phantom Beast Knight as quickly as possible to ensure I have some means of self-defense.”

Riding a dragon was not his ultimate goal.

Fighting in the snowfields, raising the Little Dream Dragon—that was his most pressing concern.

After his duel with Eric had just ended, Jack, Tom, John, and James, the four Knight Attendants, also arrived one after the other.

Russell did not let them off and sparred with each of them in turn, then roundly beat them.

Now, not only had he carved more meridian channels than the Knight Attendants, but the quality of his Battle Qi also surpassed theirs, and with his extremely sharp swordsmanship, his strength could brutally overpower these four Knight Attendants by several grades.

“Sir is mighty!” Jack and the others, feeling dejected after losing to Russell, were overtaken by a strong sense of defeat.

Even their coveting of the Red-eyed Rat King faded.

However, Russell comforted them, “Work hard in your training. The Red-eyed Rat King is out of your reach, but there are more Fantasy Beasts in the domain than just Kevin and the Red-eyed one. Whoever gets promoted to Great Knight will have their chance to contract.”

“Yes, Sir!” The Knight Attendants perked up slightly.

Once Charles arrived, Russell set out for Glowing Valley Town with the Red-eyed Rat King and Charles.

Two hours later, they arrived at Yuanguang Town and first visited the Black Waist Snake Brick Kiln Factory nearby.

The brick kiln factory employed many workers, and a large pile of slag earth bricks were stacked in the open space.

“Sir, what brings you here?” William, the person in charge of the kiln factory, hurriedly came out to greet them. “It’s a bit chaotic in the factory right now. During the day, the master craftsmen are all working at the pottery factory, and the workers are still not adept.”

Russell followed William and inspected the kilns that were currently being fired but couldn’t make out anything significant.

He then said, “I’ve seen the slag earth bricks, and the quality of the recent batches has been quite good, far stronger than the rocks mined from the mountains. Still, we should continue to research quality and energy consumption to see if we can improve further and also increase production.”

William said with difficulty, “Sir, the coal shared by Fluorescent Castle is insufficient; we simply cannot expand production.”

“Hasn’t Mountain River Trade Route started using thunder beasts to pull carts? Isn’t there enough coal?”

“Still not enough.”

“Hmm, I’ll think of another solution.” Russell was also helpless about this; Glowing Valley could not produce its energy and had to transport it from outside, greatly restricting production efficiency.

He thought to himself, “If only the dragon that my great-grandfather picked up back then had been a Black Coal Dragon or a Black Oil Dragon… Unfortunately, he picked up a Clay Dragon. Clay needs to be fired, which consumes a vast amount of coal…”

Had it been a Gem Dragon, the demand for energy would have been much lower.

Russell then wandered around a corner of the brick kiln factory, pointed out several safety hazards, requested William to rectify them, and then left.

This time, he went to the nearby Cigar Factory.

The Cigar Factory was originally a tobacco factory, but after cooperating with Russell, Baron Roman turned the entire tobacco factory into a cigar factory, responsible for producing Merlin Rain-Longflower cigars.

“Mr. Russell, welcome to inspect the Cigar Factory,” greeted the person in charge of the cigar factory, a Great Knight missing an arm, who obviously could not fight and had been assigned by Baron Roman to manage the place.

“Lord Sosko, am I not disturbing you?” Russell asked with a smile as he squinted his eyes.

Sosko laughed and said, “How could you? Mr. Russell is always welcome here. Speaking of which, the Merlin Rain-Longflower cigars produced by the Cigar Factory are the result of your innovative sun-cured tobacco invention, which Lord Baron takes very seriously.”

“Not only did I invent the Merlin Rain-Longflower cigar, but you all make them on my behalf,” said Russell as he toured the factory with a furrowed brow.

His expression became serious, “Lord Sosko, please answer me, why doesn’t the Cigar Factory accept my Chancellor of Records to oversee quality control management?”

“Your Chancellor of Records, are you referring to Lord Charles?” Sosko frowned. “I apologize, Mr. Russell, but the Cigar Factory belongs to Lord Baron, and though Lord Charles may be your Chancellor of Records, he doesn’t have the authority to oversee us.”

“You are manufacturing on my behalf, don’t you understand that?”

“Perhaps, but I am only responsible to Lord Baron,” Sosko said stiffly.

“Do you need me to accuse you of dereliction to my father, Sir?” Russell said coldly.

“I haven’t been negligent, Mr. Russell. Let’s stick to facts; I have always served Lord Baron faithfully and diligently!” Sosko said, standing tall and swinging his empty sleeve. “I have fought for the Baron and never slackened, even when I lost my arm!”

As a Great Knight who had lost an arm, Sosko had established military merits for the Fluorescent Fungi Family and thus did not fear Russell, the second son of the family.

Fundamentally, Russell was already a vassal of Baron Roman, with no distinction of hierarchy between them.

Looking at the defiant Sosko, Russell was aware that if the other didn’t give him face, he indeed would have no way to deal with him.

However, he quickly pointed at the production line where cigars were being rolled and seriously accused, “Sosko, you claim to serve our family, to serve my father with all your heart, but is this how you repay my father’s trust in you?”

Sosko was taken aback: “What?”

“Merlin Rain-Longflower cigars are meant to be presented to the nobility, with the first batch to be given to my grandfather, Count Flo Pot, the former Chief Executive of the Council of Elders, and to be enjoyed by Merlin Rain-Longflower himself, and later intended for the Duke!”

Russell took a newly rolled cigar, quickly unraveled it, and shook several tobacco leaves in his hand: “There’s a clear requirement for Merlin Rain-Longflower cigars, each one must be rolled with a single, whole tobacco leaf!”

He pinched the fragmented leaves between his fingers and scolded, “This is the result of your so-called diligent service to my father, whom are you trying to fool!”