Evil dragon has a warm heart
Chapter 572 - 572 570 Thunder Sound Machine

Chapter 572: Chapter 570 Thunder Sound Machine Chapter 572: Chapter 570 Thunder Sound Machine Dragon Calendar 5585, October, was filled with abundance and joy for the Shadowflame Duchy.

Under the leadership of the new Grand Duke Russell, the Cabinet quickly established an industrialization strategy for the Volcanic Oasis. The industrial saplings cultivated on the Blackflame Plains were all summoned by Russell to the Volcanic Oasis, where, together with Industry Minister Roland, many factories were opened.

Lord Charles was appointed by Russell as the assistant to the Industry Minister, becoming Roland’s deputy, and took charge of industrial production.

“Railways, trains, highways, cars, these are the most urgent infrastructural developments,” Russell commanded Roland and Charles.

He deeply understood the truth that to get rich, one must first build roads.

Only by resolving transportation issues and increasing the mobility of the population could the benefits of technology be brought anywhere, even to a remote small manor. By using transportation to bridge gaps and facilitate mutual thriving, could commerce be promoted to flourish.

When commerce boomed, it could digest industrial products and feedback into industrialization.

Of course.

Russell could not provide much assistance in the development of industrialization; he could only offer concepts, such as telephones, mobile phones, computers, air conditioning, washing machines, and then let scholars ponder and invent.

“Humanity on the Dragon Sleep Continent is divided by numerous snowfields, making communication most inconvenient, but what if mobile phones existed?”

Mobile phones could not be made quickly, and landline phones also required a period of exploration.

But Russell thought of another point, immediately convened several Grand Scholars and a group of scholars to come to Red Castle for a meeting: “Have you ever considered why sound can travel through the air… If we find a medium similar to the one through which sound travels to relay information…”

He was instilling the concept of electromagnetic waves and radio into the scholars.

Telephones and mobile phones were challenging to create, and even once made, they would require extensive infrastructure to maintain communication.

However, the telegraph should be achievable.

The scholars were very excited about the concepts Russell provided and immediately announced plans to form a “Thunder Sound Machine” project team.

The so-called Thunder Sound Machine was a machine that harnessed the magic power of thunder elements for long-distance audio transmission—the abstract description of electromagnetism by Russell.

After the Thunder Sound Machine project team was established, Russell immediately allocated a large sum of research funds from Red Castle. He even arranged for several Phantom Beast Knights with thunder-attributed Contracted Phantom Beasts to join the Thunder Sound Machine project team, specifically to collaborate with the Grand Scholars in researching “thunder sound.”

The Industrial Age was unfolding grandly.

The Flying Dragon Group also had been busy; upon arriving at Red Castle, Baron Roman immediately organized multiple Knight Regiments, entering the snowfield from the direction of the Fire Ant Swamp to clear the trade route between the two countries. Then at the Black Horse Snow Forest, he built a Shadowflame Spire.

To suppress the trade routes with the Shadowflame Spire.

The Shadowflame Dragon, having regained its full strength, no longer feared Shuang Da’s threat, and after all, behind it stood Russell.

“The climate of my Duchy has returned to the splendor of thirty years ago, when Duke Quentin III was… The Dragon Blood Knights were invincible, the Snowfield was our minefield of honor taken at will…” A Phantom Beast Knight stationed at the Black Horse Snow Forest, standing atop the Spire, was filled with emotion.

“Sir, all of this is brought to us by Grand Duke Russell!” an accompanying Great Knight said with a tone laden with profound admiration.

The elderly Phantom Beast Knight, squinting his eyes, shielded them from the wind and snow: “Yes, since Grand Duke Russell ascended the throne, everything has come back!”

And him.

He had also accepted the arduous task of stationing at the Black Horse Snow Forest, precisely because he saw the renewal of the nation’s energy. He hoped that through several years of service, he could accumulate enough merits to catch Russell’s eye and be ennobled as a Lord of the Duchy.

“Guar!”

Suddenly, a clear cry came from the sky.

Then a large bird that resembled a Bipedal Flying Dragon, yet also seemed like an owl, flew across the sky and into the depths of the Black Horse Snow Forest.

“Sir, is that… is that Your Excellency Hape?” exclaimed the Great Knight.

The Phantom Beast Knight nodded: “No need to make a fuss, that is indeed Your Excellency Hape, one of the princess’s companions.”

“Your Excellency Hape, what brings you to this place?”

“I was stationed here when Lord Welchi told me that Your Excellency Hape was training here and asked me to keep an eye out,” the Phantom Beast Knight said. “Clearly, Your Excellency Hape is here to comprehend the land where Phantom Dragons advance, hence your residence in this place.”

“To comprehend the land where Phantom Dragons advance, ah, does Your Excellency Hape also wish to become a Phantom Dragon?” the Great Knight exclaimed again.

“What is so surprising about that? In the beginning, Your Excellency Hape was considered a counterpart to Princess Polly among the Pseudo-Dragon prodigies!” The Phantom Beast Knight lamented, recalling how in the past, the names of Unicorn Polly and Harpies Hape echoed throughout the entire Shadowflame Grand Duchy.

He stroked the beard on his chin and continued, “Now that Princess Polly has broken through the Pseudo-Dragon’s ceiling, Your Excellency Hape naturally wouldn’t want to be outdone and aspires to become a Phantom Dragon.”

“Is it practicing on its own? Grand Duke Russell isn’t accompanying her?”

“The companion of a princess naturally matches the princess’s character and temperament. Her Highness rose from obscurity by relying on relentless effort and struggle. It’s apparent that Your Excellency Hape has inherited Her Highness’s will, honing herself amid the bitter cold as well!”

“Amazing,” the Great Knight praised. “If only I could someday contract a Phantom Beast capable of cultivating on its own.”

“Capable of cultivating on its own? Without a dragon’s gaze, how could one encounter such a Phantom Beast!” The Phantom Beast Knight glanced nearby at his Contracted Phantom Beast that was licking its groin, a canine Phantom Beast known for loving ease and hating labor.

For many years, it hadn’t shown the initiative to practice even once.

It was for this very reason that he and his Phantom Beast couldn’t cultivate a perfect synchrony of spirits and had no chance to unlock the second turn.

In a daze.

Two months passed, and the new year arrived amidst the joyful atmosphere of the Dragon Birth Festival.

However, in the garrison outpost of Black Horse Snow Forest, the knights merely ate some heated canned food, drank some ice-burned wine, offered prayers toward the southeast where Shadowflame Volcano lay, and thus concluded the grandest festival of the year.

“Quack!”

The cry of Hape came once again from the sky.

“Your Excellency Hape really is hardworking,” the Phantom Beast Knight remarked, holding the ice-burned wine jug. “Every morning she goes out, and by evening she promptly returns. The rest of the time, she’s either comprehending the land where Phantom Dragons advance or hunting on the Snowfield.”

Plop!

An Ice Soul Pearl landed precisely at the entrance of the camp.

A knight picked up the Ice Soul Pearl and said with a smile, “Sir, this is the twenty-fifth Ice Soul Pearl that Your Excellency Hape has brought back from hunting. With Your Excellency Hape’s help, our garrison duty has become much less of a burden.”

The Phantom Beast Knight smirked, “But we can’t earn much glory in battle. Two months have passed, and I’ve only collected three Ice Soul Pearls.”

“Sir, if there were more Snow Demons, we wouldn’t be able to handle them anyway,” another knight laughed.

The Phantom Beast Knight rolled his eyes and asked the knight who picked up the Ice Soul Pearl, “How’s the weather outside now, has the blizzard stopped?”

“It has stopped, the sky is clear, and the sunset is casting a dazzling light on the clouds,” the knight replied. “Sir, would you like to go out and see the sunset glow?”

“Let’s go!”

The Phantom Beast Knight took his wine jug and stepped out of the camp, gazing toward the sunset in the sky.

Suddenly, he pointed at the sun and said, “Come over and look, is there a little black dot on the sun?”

The knights all looked in the direction indicated.

Those with good eyesight noticed the little black dot on the sun, flickering slightly, turning faint and then darkening again.

As the knights were all abuzz, discussing what this little black dot might be,

All of a sudden, the ground began to tremble, and the entire Black Horse Snow Forest rustled as countless snowfalls dropped, while the warhorses neighed anxiously in their enclosures.

“An earthquake!”