"Also, the teacher wants us to allocate some troops to support Cole over there."

"The city-states we captured earlier have mostly stabilized, and apart from the garrison troops, the rest can be redeployed. Let’s send those troops to provide support."

With a few brief exchanges, Sherman and Attila quickly finalized the next steps of their plan.

As orders were issued, the massive war machine quickly swung into action, advancing towards the Dark Elves.

...

Starlight Calendar 1272, Month of Dawn (March).

After nearly twenty years of refining its bloodline, the Hidden Dragon finally took the final step and evolved into a true Giant Dragon bloodline.

In Dragon Forest Zone 3, Sunan watched as the Hidden Dragon soared and circled in the sky, a pleased smile on his face.

After the bloodline transcendence, the Hidden Dragon’s body expanded once again, its length now exceeding fifty meters, and a pair of enormous wings had grown.

When coiled in front of him, it resembled a small mountain.

Besides that, its head had completely transformed into that of a Giant Dragon, with curved sharp horns standing atop its head, and its scales had turned entirely flame-like crimson.

However, unlike most Giant Dragons, the Hidden Dragon retained its lizard-like crawling habit, instead of the typical Giant Dragon posture of short forelimbs and long hind limbs, accustomed to standing.

What delighted Sunan was that the Hidden Dragon had awakened two new abilities.

The first was a unique ability exclusive to Magical Pets—Magic Sharing.

As the level of life advances, Magical Pets gradually awaken various unique abilities.

For example, when it evolved from Dragon Lizard bloodline to Sub-dragon Bloodline, the Hidden Dragon awakened the unique ability of Vision Sharing.

The effect of the Magic Sharing ability is that within a certain distance, the owner can allow the magical effects on themselves to also apply to their Magical Pet, until the magic’s duration ends or they are separated beyond a certain distance.

For instance, when Sunan casts the Light Spirit Skill on himself, he can simultaneously apply its effects to the Magical Pet.

This ability can enhance the combat power of the Magical Pet to some extent and is quite practical.

The second ability was the anticipated Flame Control ability.

As early as when the Hidden Dragon awakened its Flame Breath ability, Sunan speculated that upon evolving into a Giant Dragon, it would likely awaken the Flame Control ability too.

And indeed, he was right.

Invisibility, phase shift, and flame control—now the Hidden Dragon possessed three types of magic-like abilities.

And they were all incredibly useful abilities.

Combined with the high spell resistance, strong physique, flight capability, dragon might, and dragon breath—abilities inherent in Giant Dragons—the Hidden Dragon’s combat strength was almost on par with an Official Wizard.

Just earlier, Sunan had a sparring match with the Hidden Dragon.

Without using Engraving Gemstones or Witchcraft Artifacts, Sunan could barely suppress the Hidden Dragon.

And that was when the Hidden Dragon had just broken through and hadn’t fully adjusted yet.

Once it stabilizes its realm, without using hidden cards, Sunan estimated they would be evenly matched.

"The Giant Dragon bloodline is truly exceptional."

Sunan secretly sighed.

Unfortunately, after evolving into a Giant Dragon, the bloodline concentration of the Hidden Dragon cannot be elevated any further.

Like most Giant Dragons, it mainly relies on the long passage of time to grow its power naturally.

Even while sleeping, a Giant Dragon can gradually grow in power, although at an exceedingly slow rate.

However, this slow growth is offset by the dragon’s long lifespan.

Even a lower-level Five-Colored Dragon has a lifespan of over a thousand years.

The longer a dragon lives, the stronger it generally becomes—this is a common understanding in the multiverse.

The Hidden Dragon naturally inherits these advantages as well.

However, Sunan does not plan to have the Hidden Dragon solely rely on natural growth to enhance its power.

While its bloodline concentration cannot increase, using dragon blood for biological transformation is still beneficial for enhancing the Hidden Dragon’s power.

He can completely synthesize dragon blood and use it to strengthen the Hidden Dragon, accelerating its power growth.

Although synthesizing dragon blood requires a lot of Sub-dragon Blood, currently, Dragon Forest has no shortage of this.

Sunan turned his gaze towards the direction of Zone 2.

The transformation and Sub-dragon species bloodline enhancement plan for Dragon Forest Zone 2 had already been implemented, with initial preparatory works completed.

Zone 2 has now been reactivated, with nearly a thousand High-tier Sub-dragon Species dwelling within.

Because they are not true Giant Dragons and the biological population is relatively small, the energy circulation ratio occupied by Zone 2 is not high.

The optimal energy circulation ratio is only 28.33%.

Currently, Dragon Forest has less than 10% energy overflow, but Sunan does not plan to use this portion, as it may be crucial for future experiments.

Every day, High-tier Sub-dragon Species are brought to the laboratory for bloodline refinement surgery.

Though not a drastic change, the overall bloodline concentration of the Sub-dragon species group in Zone 2 is steadily increasing.

Sunan estimated that, in four or five hundred years, perhaps a true Giant Dragon may emerge from among them.

Compared to the slow progress of transformation evolution, another incident recently drew much of Sunan’s attention.

Three days ago, the Cangjin Empire declared war on the neighboring Snow Lion Duchy, launching a massive invasion across the border.

This act immediately elicited strong reactions from surrounding countries.

Although the Cangjin Empire only attacked the Snow Lion Duchy, it was akin to poking a hornet’s nest, provoking the resistance of almost every country in the southeastern domain.

These countries unhesitatingly united to resist the Cangjin Empire’s aggression.

An extensive war broke out across the southeastern domain of the continent.

The scale was even larger than the previous war between the Cangjin Empire and Starlight Empire, with nearly every country involved.

After all, it was evident to anyone with discerning eyes that Starlight Empire’s target was the entire southeastern domain of the continent.

If allowed to defeat countries one by one, eventually all would be annexed.

No country wanted to witness this eventuality.

They understood well the principle of ’lips chill and teeth perish’.

However, there was one exception among them.

Simultaneously with the outbreak of war, the Thorn Flower Duchy announced its submission to the Starlight Empire, becoming yet another duchy within the vast empire’s territories.

Thorn Flower Duchy’s move caught many by surprise, but only Sunan seemed to have a knowing look upon hearing this news.

"Is it Rose stirring things up behind the scenes?"

Only Rose could possibly persuade the Thorn Flower Duchy to surrender.

Perhaps after joining the Star Alliance, she recognized the immense foundation the Alliance possessed, and thus convinced the Thorn Flower Royal Family to surrender and preserve their bloodline.

Only those truly within the Star Alliance, possessing a certain status and access to deeper information, would understand the terrifying power and development potential of this behemoth.

Sunan had asked Rose about this matter, and her reply was that she merely made the right choice.

"Indeed, the right choice."

Sunan slightly smiled.

The current Starlight Empire already possessed enough power without summoning the Star Alliance’s Golem Legion; it could clear all obstacles and unify the southeastern domain with its strength alone.

From the moment the conflict erupted, the outcome of this war was already determined.

"Roar!"

A resonant dragon roar interrupted Sunan’s contemplation.

Looking up, he saw the Hidden Dragon spreading its wings, soaring rapidly overhead the academy.

The resounding roar and the cast of a large shadow quickly drew the attention of many students, causing excited exclamations to resound throughout the academy.

After a few circles showing off, the Hidden Dragon seemed to have finally satisfied its vanity, leaving the skies above the academy and descending back beside Sunan, raising its head and calling out a few times.

Sunan chuckled, "I know you’re delighted, but try to take it easy; otherwise, it’ll take a long time to recover later."

As a high-level lifeform comparable to a Wizard, the Hidden Dragon was naturally influenced by the environment of the Starlight Continent. Not only was its power noticeably weakened, but its recovery also became quite slow after excessive exertion.

Even in the comparatively richer energy particles abundant in Dragon Forest, the effect was not entirely negated, just somewhat alleviated compared to outside.

The Hidden Dragon let out a low sound, indicating its understanding.

Sunan smiled but said no more, teleporting back to the laboratory in the Dragon Remains Tower.

By the looks of it, the next Spider-Elf corpse should have already been delivered.