Beneath the Red Dragon

In the thirteenth year of the Giant Dragon Calendar, on the last day of deep winter, Year-End Day.

The slumbering Floating Cloud Dragon hatchlings have yet to awaken, but the fog encompassing the Dragon Court has already receded.

The Ancestral Red Dragon, who has assimilated the authority of Thunder from the Storm Titans, now no longer needs to use spiritual power to influence the weather’s effects, something that for Karon, is merely a thought away.

The warm sunlight, like an old friend long missed, evenly spills over every corner of the Royal Court Garden, casting a gentle light atop the mountain peak.

Apart from the cloud walls and small nests built by the Floating Cloud Dragons, the entire mountain range is now fully revealed to the citizens of the Golden Empire, as if the dragons residing at the summit were celebrating alongside millions of citizens in this manner.

Many outsiders without such a festival as the Year-End Day came in admiration, wanting to experience the Year-End Festival, which stands alongside the founding celebration as the most important holiday within the Golden Empire.

This has led to the empire’s ports operating at nearly full capacity in these few days, with numerous nobles and wealthy merchants bringing their families, choosing the empire as a place of leisure and vacation, to appreciate the empire’s spectacular architectural culture and unique aesthetic displays.

The Moonlight, spreading throughout the entire empire, has become a distinctive landscape on the Northern Continent, and the existence of the Tree of Life allows travelers who have long resided within the empire to relax from fatigue, even curing some chronic minor ailments with its therapeutic effects.

This implies that the lands of chaos dominated by the Five-Color Dragons have in many minds officially become recognized and included as a realm of order, with the empire’s stable order providing these people a sense of security.

Those outsiders, gazing over the mountains, could see countless flying dragons rising and falling between the mountains, heading to various cities of the empire.

They know, this is a unique Bat-winged Flying Dragon species of the Golden Empire, far more intelligent than other Two-legged Flying Dragons, faster, and more powerful than the Two-legged Flying Dragons.

These increasingly robust Flying Dragon Corps are the empire’s routine security support reserve force, able to quickly reach places needing military suppression.

Although since the founding of the Golden Empire, no rebellion requiring assistance has occurred, these Flying Dragon Riders always fulfill their duties.

As for the rare Two-legged Demon Dragons, they are in the hands of the Valerians, loyal to the empire.

These gifted Valerians have begun systematically learning the knowledge of Druids and Mages, attempting to cultivate and improve these peculiar Two-legged Demon Dragons, rarely appearing in the public eye.

Within the empire, every household has its own Year-End Day atmosphere, and among the dragons, there is also the dragons’ Year-End feast.

Under the increasingly thick trunk of the World Tree Ovo, dragons gather here as usual.

On this special holiday, there’s no need for Karon to invite dragons to feast; these giant dragons have habitually come to this place spontaneously.

The dragons with varying scale colors sit or lie on the soft carpets laid on the ground, completely at ease.

Thick and long sandalwood tables emit the fragrance of the wood itself, mixed with the scents of those foods and spices, and the abundant feeling naturally blooms from these mingling aromas.

In addition to common river and sea delights such as the White-horned Wild Ox, giant-horned antelope, Mountain Deer, Seven-Gilled Eel, River Sturgeon, Grey Heron, Swan, there are also many creatures with potent active nutrients laid out as food on the gold and silver dishes of the dining table.

Among them are the Deep Sea Demon Whale and Hundred-legged Sea Serpent from the depths of the sea.

There are Peng Birds and Winged Serpent Dragons from the Divine Forsaken Mountain Range.

There are Ice Dragon Lizards and Long-haired Treasure Elephants from the Extreme Ice Frost Plains.

And there’s Giant-toothed Elephant Mastiffs and Multi-eyed Serpent Dragons from the Western Border Jungle of the empire.

These monsters, neatly dissected by Halfling chefs, still retain the wild aura and potent vitality energy even after death, making White Dragon Camid relish every bite.

However, these formidable creatures were not specifically captured by the Dragon Lords; they were seized and collected by the empire’s legion warriors, offered as tributes to the Emperor of the Golden Empire.

Even Frost Giant King Ragnar Heg, witnessed the frantic self-driven actions of the empire’s legion warriors.

The Centaur Corps, dubbed as Death Knights, roamed like wild dogs on the prairie, hunting the fiercest beasts and monsters.

Only then did he personally lead his people to stake out for nearly half a month in the Extreme Ice Frost Plains, hunting the extremely rare Ice Dragon Lizard and Long-haired Treasure Elephant to tribute to the empire’s Emperor.

These loyal warriors have nothing more to offer this wealth-laden Dragon Emperor, only through such actions can they express their love and support for the Emperor.

Decked in long skirts, the Royal Court Maidens carried barrels of wine and heaps of food. These barrels, equivalent to a water tank in an ordinary family’s eyes, seemed like lightweight baskets easily carried in the hands of the maidens.

If a dragon looked closely, they could see the skin beneath the maidens’ skirts covered with tiny, dense scales.

The edges of their eyes also featured scale-like dots, spreading towards the back of their ears.

Many maidens, though they serve dragons in the Royal Court after a period, are replaced by Chief Maid Charlize according to the will of the Ancestral Red Dragon, but over the years, many maids are retained for their unique qualities to continue working in the Royal Court.