[The Saints are not even suffering the worst fate. The ones in the most miserable state are the descendants of the Pale Sage…]

[Human heretics discovered that eating the flesh and blood of the Sage lineage grants knowledge. So they raise, no, force-feed, the Sage descendants, penning them up and overfeeding them until their bodies grow bloated and enormous. Then they slaughter and carve them up, serving their bodies at nauseating feasts for people to gorge on.]

[Where do you think all the dragon eyes circulating on the market come from? They are the eyes of one dead dragon after another…]

[By this point the Emerald Half-Dragon is sobbing too hard to speak.]

[You have gained knowledge. Knowledge amount +3000. Current knowledge: 35,800 / 37,800.]

Lin Xun fell silent.

Back when he had first entered the fourth chapter, he’d once wondered where the eyeballs of the Ancient Sage – Pale Dragon in Bennett Clinic had come from.

He had never expected that aside from the Hermit and the Lawgivers, the fates of the other dragon clans would be so tragically miserable.

“High bloodline dragons imprisoned inside paintings… Is it similar to that starry mural I just saw?”

“So either the painting contains a unique space, or it connects to some other space as an entrance.”

“These starry evil gods really are like rats hiding in the dark… No, if the dragons who remained loyal to Omniscient True Knowledge ended up like this, why didn’t the Knowledge Envoy step in to help?”

If the Knowledge Envoy was truly what it claimed to be, a loyal servant of Omniscient True Knowledge, there’s no way it would watch the meritorious heroes of the Divine War die without lifting a hand.

Unless the Knowledge Envoy was actually a thief who had usurped authority, intending to become the main god itself.

New emperor, new court. Whether devout believers of Omniscient True Knowledge or oath-breakers who betrayed the True Lord, their lives and deaths would have nothing to do with it anymore.

Lin Xun had no idea how close his guess was to the truth, but it was indeed the most reasonable explanation for now.

[The time for the auction is drawing near. Will you leave this place immediately, or will you rescue the Knowledge-Seeking Emerald Hybrid Half-Dragon?]

Lin Xun took a deep breath and summoned the Valkyrie and the Nine-Tailed Fox in reality.

He ordered the two of them, “Aside from the slaves in the warehouse, clear out the entire manor. Don’t leave a single one alive. Break that Viscount’s arms and legs and bring him to see me.”

After thinking a bit more, he summoned the Snow Woman and added, “You follow behind them and pick up Spirit Essence and dropped items. Don’t miss any. And don’t rush up front by yourself, or I’ll have to waste soul strength reviving you…”

The three acknowledged the order, and with a wave of Lin Xun’s hand, he sent them back into the game.

As a temporary stronghold, the manor’s strongest combat power was the Legendary grade Star-Favored.

The rest were just small fry, ‘trash mobs.’ Even the Star Cantors were only epic+, not to mention the lower-tier Star Perceivers.

For the Valkyrie and the Nine-Tailed Fox, sweeping the map together was an easy task.

[…]

[The Nine-Tailed Fox holds a spell orb wreathed in violet lightning, thunder serpents howling and surging around her. She floats off the ground and is the first to leave the warehouse. Snow Woman closely follows behind…]

[The Valkyrie beats her refined copper wings, smashing through the stone above her head, breaking through roofs layer by layer until she reaches the outside. From her vantage point, she nocks an arrow to the bow, ready to shoot down any escaping fish that slip through the net.]

[At your command, Nurarihyon stretches out his arms as if for an embrace, expanding the illusion’s range to cover the entire manor…]

[Soon, the booming roar of thunder and the whistle of piercing arrows, along with a chorus of screams, echo through the manor.]

[You possess the Shell of Desire Primordial Fire Child of Evil.]

[You swing your crimson greatsword and cleave through the chains and shackles on the Half-Dragon’s hands and feet in one stroke…]

[She stares at you blankly when she sees you’ve changed appearance again.]

[The many slave girls around you are still trapped in the illusion with no way to extricate themselves and have noticed nothing unusual.]

“Saving one is still saving. Saving a group is also saving. Might as well do a good deed to the end and send the Buddha all the way to the west…”

Controlling the Shell, Lin Xun proceeded to free each of the slave girls one by one.

However, these people could not leave the manor yet, at least not until news of the manor’s fall had spread outside.

[You lead the Emerald Half-Dragon out of the warehouse, stepping over the charred corpses of guards in the corridor and returning to the Star-Favored’s office on the first floor of the main residence…]

[…]

[You point at the enormous mural that covers the whole wall and ask the Emerald Half-Dragon whether the high-blood dragons are imprisoned in similar paintings.]

[She nods and tells you that, yes, the high-blood dragons are also imprisoned in giant paintings, but the images on their surfaces are different.]

[Those are paintings of the deep, underground abyss, dark, gloomy, terrifying scenes that you’ll never forget once you’ve seen them.]

[But she doesn’t know where that painting is now…]

[As she speaks, the Valkyrie and the Nine-Tailed Fox knock on the door and come in. The Valkyrie is holding a flabby-limbed, pot-bellied middle-aged nobleman by the scruff of the neck.]

[Behind them, the Snow Woman wears only her inner kimono, her outer robe already removed and wrapped into a big bundle full of shining objects.]

[She proudly spreads the kimono open like an offering, handing over all the Spirit Essence and items inside to the Dragonborn Lord.]

[You have obtained Indomitable Large Chunk of Spirit Essence x18.]

[You have obtained Fading Trace Spirit Essence of Insight x9.]

[You have obtained…]

Lin Xun glanced over it all and saw the drop rates were nothing special and the loot was nothing great, so he turned his attention to entertaining the manor’s master, Viscount Dexter.

To his surprise, this guy turned out to be a tough nut, his faith extremely firm. No matter how Lin Xun tried soft and hard tactics, he refused to talk.

Lin Xun had no choice but to take out the Time Prison and grant him a few days in a little dark room.

The Time Prison truly was a torture artifact.

Barely a few seconds after being thrown in, when he came back out, Viscount Dexter was snot-nosed and tearful, eager to spill even the color of his underpants.

The Star-Favored was the temporary stronghold’s controller, in charge of the military side, while this Viscount, on the surface, ran the auction. In reality, he was responsible for intelligence gathering.

He knew quite a lot of information, most of it from the mouths of nobles. But in terms of key info related to later plot developments, there wasn’t much.

After a long interrogation, what Lin Xun learned was that there were many giant paintings like the Polar Star Society Branch scattered across various small cities of the Empire, and that from each stronghold’s giant painting, one could enter the Polar Star Society branch.

As for where the painting imprisoning the high-blood dragons was, perhaps some clues could be found in the Branch.

Lin Xun promptly killed Viscount Dexter and possessed his Shell to verify the accuracy of the information.

[…]

[You hold the Teleportation Badge. Do you want to step forward and touch the starry painting to teleport into the Polar Star Society Branch?]

Lin Xun knew that a temporary stronghold was not the same as a Branch. There would definitely be powerful star believers in the Branch.

After thinking for a bit, he decided to leave the Emerald Half-Dragon and several summoned creatures in the manor first.

The summoned creatures were not a big concern. He mainly worried the Half-Dragon would die if she followed him and got caught up in a fight.

If he could find the painting imprisoning the Saints, this Half-Dragon would be the perfect guide.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep