Just now, the enthusiastic citizen Ethan witnessed an incident of domestic violence, and the black dragon hatchling who saw the same scene was so frightened that it trembled and hid half of its head in his arms.

This concluded the task from the single-parent dragon mother, but it didn't match the touching scene Ethan imagined when father and son would meet. This looked more like a research facility than a hatchery, used for some unspeakable studies.

The dragon hatchling that burrowed into the body of the azure dragon sensed the commotion outside, and in a panic, buried itself in the flesh and blood of the azure dragon. These magical creature cubs instinctively sought the shelter of a mother, even if it had long since lost signs of life, leaving only a gradually decaying shell. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

With cold eyes, Black Steel raised his right hand, and more dark red energy surged up.

Just as this aura of destruction was about to fall, he suddenly turned back to look in the direction he came from.

After a moment of hesitation, he extinguished the energy orb in his hand and quickly walked towards the stairs above.

A commotion spread through the Royal Capital.

Some rumors swiftly spread among the populace. The "Cuckoo Bird Daily" published the latest news from Fog Forest County: the night before, a plague broke out there, and all the infected exhibited symptoms similar to those of mechanical creatures. Simultaneously, some news regarding the royal family stealthily spread.

A writer named "Musashi" revealed the scene within the Royal Palace — while the Kingdom faced a crisis of survival, the royalty and ministers indulged in pleasures, ignoring the summoners suffering in the border city. She also discovered from within the Royal Association that the quartermasters had embezzled beast eggs originally meant for the volunteer army, passing off inferior goods as legitimate.

Another journalist, going by the alias "Grimer", managed to infiltrate the Royal Capital's black market and discovered that in recent days, a large number of high-quality beast eggs had flooded the black market, indirectly proving the authenticity of Musashi's information.

This series of intelligence caused panic among the people in the Royal Capital. When the new issue of the "Cuckoo Bird Daily" reached the Royal Palace, the King's beard curled up in anger.

Unruly people!

A group of unruly people!

But this group of unruly people did not matter, as long as Chairman Black Steel remained, the situation would still be under their control.

Whether the enemies were mechanical beasts, plagues, or rebellious unruly people, none could shake their rule.

While Black Steel was busy handling the sudden public relations crisis in the Royal Capital, Ethan also completed his exploration of the "Underground Research Facility", holding the Kingdom's dragon species atlas which Rowena had stolen from who-knows-where, carefully comparing the baby dragons' features one by one. Despite having a hunch, the numbers from the investigation still left him stunned.

27 dragon species characteristics, covering almost all the types in the dragon species atlas.

What kinds of dragons were these?!

In this light, the single-parent spiky dragon mother wasn't the only victim; it seemed that one of Black Steel's hobbies was copulating with different female dragons to produce offspring, and then using these dragon eggs for research.

The research project should be related to the changes in the dragon hatchlings.

This batch of newly hatched azure dragon babies already exhibited traits of mechanical creatures, but judging from how Black Steel treated them just now, it still didn't satisfy him.

Ethan inspected the altar's azure giant dragon carcass, and the fatal wound on the abdomen was brutally gouged out by some immensely destructive energy, nearly instantly taking this giant dragon's life.

The azure giant dragon's eyes were still wide open, gazing in the direction of the dragon eggs.

These dragon eggs had already hatched, with several azure dragon hatchlings crawling out, stumbling as they did.

Ethan didn't know what kind of dragon lineage Black Steel wanted to create, but he saw the dragon hatchlings' fearful and uneasy eyes, including the baby entrusted to him by the single-parent dragon mother.

At this moment, he suddenly understood Bucciarati's feelings when facing his boss.

"What about them?"

Rowena asked.

The dragon hatchlings' attitude towards these uninvited guests had shifted from initial curiosity to dependence; she suspected that dragons might also have the instinct akin to chicks, as they had already regarded Ethan as a new father.

Over thirty newly hatched dragon hatchlings gathered on the altar, craning their necks and softly chirping towards Ethan.

While Rowena was fond of these dragon hatchlings, the surviving ones posed a huge problem; her invisibility cloak couldn't accommodate so many dragon hatchlings, nor could they bring them to the streets.

But leaving them in this hellish research facility wasn't a solution either.

Black Steel had never intended to care for these dragon hatchlings from the start, leaving most to fend for themselves here, with shriveled bodies lying near the eggshells. Some famished dragon babies barely survived by gnawing on their deceased comrades' corpses.

Worse, a ghost father occasionally barged in here, pinching the dragon hatchlings to death for amusement whenever unhappy.

These dragon hatchlings seemed to understand human language; when Rowena asked, they simultaneously stopped their cries and looked at Ethan with pleading eyes.

Miss Keroy naturally couldn't bear such looks, stooping to cover a few of the nearest dragon hatchlings under her wings, providing them a temporary haven with her warm feathers.

"Rowena's worries are correct; we can't take so many dragon hatchlings along on our mission."

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