Starting with watering the World Tree for otherworldly survival

Page 206

This man once clashed with Long Qun and managed to prevent his bandit gang from being completely wiped out. He's a capable individual and should not be underestimated.

However, Black Skull was not in the hundred-man team. The target of this hundred-man team was precisely that unfortunate caravan that was also being targeted by the Red Dragon.

"Since we're going to be robbed anyway, we might as well let the caravan's gold coins end up in our hands."

"Once the Red Dragon and Blue Dragon have collected their loot, and the Black Dragon and White Dragon have dug up the Assassin Scorpion's nest in the ground, we'll deal with these bandits right in front of the caravan."

With Qin Xinru and Zhong Xiling present, the Red Dragon couldn't just kill someone directly. Although they were relatively lenient about it, the Red Dragon itself understood that important human figures didn't really like seeing blood.

"How do you plan to solve this?"

Qin Xinru wanted to get to the bottom of things. Although she didn't object to the dragons killing people, it was best to avoid using inhumane methods.

"Your Majesty, Dragon King, please look. The place I'm pointing to is the lair of a horned dragon. That slightly concave sand is actually a quicksand trap above the horned dragon's lair."

In this desert, there are other dragon species besides the blue and green dragon tribes. As the king of the desert among flying dragons, the horned dragon is the rival of the blue dragon.

They possess exaggerated horns and axe-like tail clubs, along with monstrous strength that even dragons find troublesome. Although their flight ability has degenerated, horned dragons can still dig into the sand and burrow underground to avoid the magic and breath attacks of dragons.

Even in the tribe where Mulberry lived, there was an extremely powerful horned dragon called "Ao Mo" and several divine blue dragons that were on par with it.

This place is no exception. The horned dragons occupy another part of the desert, and generally, no dragons will come here on their own initiative.

"When the other dragons return, the caravan will likely encounter the bandit gang. Then we dragons will step in and save the caravan."

With its ten dragons, even a bandit gang of a hundred men would have to avoid its sharp edge.

"After driving the bandits like cattle and sheep and trapping them in the encirclement of ten giant dragons, the bandit gang will fall into the lair of the horned dragons during their escape."

At this point, Qin He had already understood Green Dragon's plan.

With the blue dragon stabilizing the situation, the red dragon shouldn't cause any casualties to the caravan. Once enough gold is collected, they will allow the caravan to pass.

The red dragon, the blue dragon, and the black and white dragons who went to subdue the killer scorpion returned to this place, waiting for the bandit group to encounter the approaching caravan.

Before any conflict or negotiation can take place, the dragons will swarm in to "help" the caravan drive away the bandit gang, who will then "accidentally" end up in the horned dragon's lair.

Falling from the quicksand roof above the horned dragon's lair can be fatal. Even if you survive the fall, being buried in the quicksand and being hunted by the horned dragon makes the bandit group's chances of survival extremely slim.

The task of killing the bandit gang was entrusted to the horned dragon, and then ten dragons fought against one horned dragon.

The dragons are almost certain to win, especially with the two matriarchs, Wolper and Qin Xinru and Zhong Xiling, backing them up.

If this battle succeeds, we can obtain the bandits' weapons and money.

The lair of a horned dragon may also contain the remains of monsters it has killed, as well as the relics of other adventurers who have fallen into quicksand, making it a sure-fire way to make money.

It was a horned dragon that tried to escape by burrowing underground, and there were also giant dragons here that were equally good at digging in the sand.

If Qin He or the two mistresses are interested, they can also capture that horned dragon.

After that, you only need to collect enough cacti in the desert to keep the horned dragon by your side.

"Good plan, Green Dragon~ But we'd better check on the condition of that horned dragon first, shall we?"

Volper dropped a spider down, a method she used for remote observation and surveillance.

Soon, Volper produced a mirror adorned with gold and silver. It displayed the image of a spider rapidly approaching the horned dragon's lair—

The spider-like monster leaped into the quicksand pit and quickly arrived inside the horned dragon's lair.

Surprisingly, this ceratopsian was not the usual yellowish-brown, but a striking black! The fact that the ceratopsian had such a coloration proves that she was incubating her own ceratopsian egg.

Black horned dragons are more ferocious than ordinary horned dragons, and they usually store their eggs in their nests. This particular black horned dragon was quite beautiful, and Qin He even saw a human figure behind its dragon body.

"Wolper, Noyas, how difficult do you think it will be to capture this Black Horned Dragon?"

Unlike its previous encounter with the Electric Dragon Jade Blade, the current Black Horned Dragon is ridiculously ferocious. Even if its opponent is far stronger than itself, it will fight to the death.

Volper remained confident, but Noah spoke up:

"It won't be much more difficult than the original Diablos, except that the enraged Black Diablos won't be afraid of a pack of dragons... The battle will take some time."

“Mistress, we may suffer some casualties. Capturing this Black Horned Dragon alive may require traps set by human hunters.”

Being injured by the Black Horned Dragon's massive horns is no joke.

Inside the ceratopsian lair, relying on air superiority to suppress the black ceratopsian is unrealistic. The ceratopsian may have lost its flight ability, but that doesn't mean its pounce can't reach the giant dragon on the lair's ceiling.

Using the paralyzing traps and tranquilizer balls that the hunters had used before, they could subdue the Black Diablos when she was exhausted.

"Okay, we get it."

Qin Xinru and Zhong Xiling had already grasped the basics of setting traps by researching the tree species.

Next, they would prepare to trap the newly-minted Blackhorn Dragon in its nest and take her and her eggs with them.

……

Caravan Office —

"Roar—! Listen up, all humans! You now have a chance to offer treasures to the great red dragon Soth Hellfire!"

"If you refuse, the great red dragon will not hesitate to burn you and this entire desert to ashes!"

As the caravan was traveling, the red dragon announced its name and crashed to the ground, its massive body creating a crater in the melting sand.

The appearance of a red dragon in the territory of the horned dragons immediately caused panic throughout the caravan.

They made sure they knew that the tribes of the blue and green dragons and the horned dragons kept to themselves before daring to take this route to transport goods.

The middle-aged woman at the head of the caravan had a face full of wrinkles and appeared to be the caravan leader.

She took the lead, trying to stabilize the red dragon.

"Eighth-tier lower level, perhaps we can find a way. Red dragons don't easily use their breath or large-scale fire magic when raiding caravans; they won't want to burn these treasures."

The middle-aged woman immediately uttered some polite words, complimenting the red dragon's powerful physique and strength. But in reality, she was making hand gestures behind her back.

"Madam, our dragons have no intention of slaughtering a caravan. Please understand."

As soon as he finished speaking, two blue dragons, not much smaller than the red dragon, flew over and crashed to the ground.

Upon seeing the three lower-ranking eighth-level dragons, the woman completely lost her will to fight back. The appearance of the blue dragons also confirmed that this raid was indeed an operation launched by the blue and green dragon tribes.

"I am the Blue Dragon Moya Tingyao, and this is my sister Mona Tingyao. Those of you doing business here must have heard of the 'Azure Jade' tribe."

Azure is the name of the united Blue Dragon and Green Dragon tribes. The two Blue Dragons directly shifted the blame onto their "former employer".

"No need to be nervous. Your goods this time are fine silk fabrics, magic scrolls and materials, as well as a batch of weapons to be transported to the snowfield."

"The Azure Jade Tribe has no interest in seizing these goods for the time being. You all know what the dragons need."

Mo Ya slowly approached the middle-aged woman, whose brows immediately furrowed, making her appear more than ten years older.

"Name your price, great dragon..."

Unable to suppress the fear deep in her bones, the middle-aged woman feigned weakness towards Mo Ya.

Red Dragon Soss knew she wasn't good at negotiation. So she opened her blood-red maw and scorched a two-meter-tall cactus next to her into ashes.

"Ma'am, would you like to give me a number?"

Mona, the younger sister, spoke up. Although her dragon body was smaller than her sister's, it was still quite robust for a blue dragon.

The three-headed dragon had no idea what kind of financial resources the caravan had, and could only make a preliminary estimate based on the specific value of the goods that followed.

But as the leader, this middle-aged woman couldn't possibly be unaware of how many gold coins the caravan could offer.

Based on her quote, we can ask for an additional portion. That should be the loss the caravan can afford.

“Thirty-five thousand gold coins… Great dragon, this is the most we can offer.”

The middle-aged woman gave a number and then knelt respectfully before the three-headed dragon.

The middle-aged woman was subtly manipulating them by not quoting a round number, trying to get them to raise their asking price to 40,000 gold coins.

Seeing this, Mo Ya said:

"Forty-five thousand gold coins. If you can't afford it, we can take some of your goods with us?"

As they spoke, the blue dragon sisters, Moya and Mona, spread their wings and flew towards the goods being pulled by the camel caravan. After roasting two camels until they were charred, the blue dragons said:

"Oh! I'm so sorry, we seemed to have succumbed to our appetites and burned your camels. How about this?"

The two blue dragons used the summoning scroll to summon the Great Thief Dragon, a familiar that Nomis had previously subdued, from the spatial scale.

"How about we use these two instead of camels to transport your goods and defend against the enemy?"

They force you to buy or sell, but you can't refuse.

If you offend the Zhanbi tribe, it's not something that can be resolved by spending tens of thousands of gold coins.

"Yes... Great dragon, please follow me to collect the gold coins."

After handing over the gold coins, Soss, Moya, and Mona quickly flew away from the caravan.

"It's been a pleasure working with you, madam. Your journey through the desert will proceed very smoothly."

Chapter 302 The Ferocious Hot Mom Black Horned Dragon (Part 2)

After negotiating a price with the caravan, the red dragon Sos and the blue dragon sisters Moya and Mona turned back together.

In the desolate desert, the only forces that collect "tolls" are the dragons of the Azure Tribe and the bandits of the Black Skull Gang.

Once these two forces are overcome, the goods can safely reach the snowfield.

On the other side, three black dragons and a white dragon are dealing with the Killer Scorpion's lair.

In this world, the Assassin Scorpion, capable of wielding multiple magical elements, is a frequent choice for the Blue Dragon's familiars. It possesses the ability to dig burrows and will proactively ambush adventurers.

Even if they are simply left to roam freely and unattended, a single Killer Scorpion nest can generate considerable profits.

"This is a wild den, unmarked by the tribe. And it's quite large!"

The white dragon searched the lair, confirming that there were no tokens belonging to the dragon tribe in the assassin scorpion's lair.

“Indeed, let’s use the teleportation scrolls to command them to the spatial scales of the two matriarchs.”

I asked Qin Xinru and Zhong Xiling beforehand, and they said they could accept the killer scorpions as their servants. These giant elemental scorpions, ranging from half a meter to a meter in length, will soon become the first force of the dragon horde.

There are nearly two hundred assassin scorpions of rank three or higher, and countless scorpion eggs. The scorpion king of the assassin scorpions has just reached the middle of rank four, which is perfect for slow and steady cultivation.

"Oh, Qin He, they brought back the kind of scorpion you mentioned."

With a flick of her wrist from within her spatial scales, Zhong Xiling pulled out a water-attribute assassin scorpion.

Grabbing the scorpion's stinger-like tail with one hand, Zhong Xiling, who was originally afraid of insects, lifted the killer scorpion up. It seems that with the protective barrier, she has perfectly overcome that little bit of fear.

"Yes, Aunt Zhong. These killer scorpions can adapt to all kinds of extreme climates. In real desert areas, their attributes tend to be water-based. Once the snow season arrives, they will switch to ice-based attributes."

"In regions with a mild climate, the Killer Scorpion will transform into a more aggressive elemental type."

Capable of adapting to harsh environments, easily deployed in large-scale warfare, and possessing edible value approaching that of a fine lobster, the Killer Scorpion is indeed an excellent companion for a group of dragons.

They put the water-type killer scorpion back into their spatial scale. Since then, they have filled the desert with large areas of yellow sand and cacti to raise killer scorpions.

Besides the killer scorpion, the black horned dragon that will soon join the team also likes to eat cacti.

……

Soon, Black Dragon and White Dragon also resolved the matter of Killer Scorpion and returned to the rendezvous point.

The Black Skull bandit gang of a hundred men quickly crossed over from the other side of the sand dunes. The gaunt woman leading the gang was a confidante of the gang leader, "Black Skull."

"Second Master, it's just ahead."

The caravan approached, but stopped immediately upon seeing the bandit group, standing ready for battle.

Dragons might be interested in spoils like weapons, but what if the bandit group knew that their cargo included weapons and armor...?

"Friends ahead! I am Sapno, the captain of the second battalion of the Black Skull Gang. Please pay a toll... and leave behind any illegal military equipment among your goods. Those are illegal items!"

The caravan's only purpose this time was to transport weapons, equipment, and magical materials to the snowfields to profit from the war in the distant kingdom.

If the Black Skull seizes all their weapons and equipment, how will they do business?

The middle-aged woman, barely suppressing her anger, said:

"Captain Sapno, we regret to inform you that we cannot grant your request. We have already paid the gold coins at the insistence of the Azure Dragon Clan—"

"—Do you wish to become an enemy of dragons?"

They tried to test Sapno, but the second captain didn't take the dragons seriously at all.

"To hell with it~ Fighting against dragons? We've long maintained a non-aggression pact with the Azure Dragon Clan. Even if they want to unilaterally break the agreement... it won't be for the benefit of your caravan."

Sapno knew very well that the dragons couldn't take down their leader. The Azure Clan also knew that going to war with the Black Skull was definitely not worthwhile.