Chapter 836: The Flame King’s City

The Endless Volcano Cluster was the name Liszt gave to this stretch of nine connected active volcanoes, with the largest one dubbed the Doomsday Volcano.

It always felt like if this volcano erupted, its power would likely be cataclysmic.

So when summoning Rio, he specifically instructed the fire drake to relentlessly siphon the volcano's excess magic, striving to reduce the risk of an eruption.

Having finally found such a suitable island to establish his kingdom, he had no intention of letting it be destroyed by a volcanic eruption.

"This Endless Volcano Cluster is the perfect dragon nest for Rio. The next step is to find a suitable location for Ethan to establish his own dragon nest," Liszt mused silently as he stood atop the rim of the Doomsday Volcano.

The Lightgreen Gem Dragon was a gemstone dragon, a production-oriented dragon, requiring an early establishment of a dragon nest to develop gemstone deposits.

As for the Invisible Dragon Bard, it didn’t need a fixed nest—setting up more Magic Teleportation Circles like the Great Whirlpool would likely suffice to keep it comfortable.

"Let’s go, Bard. We’ll continue scouting Flame Island!" Summoning Bard, the man and dragon set off once more.

Aside from the Endless Volcano Cluster, the northwestern part of Flame Island also featured numerous undulating mountain ranges, dominated by high peaks, though there were also many livable valleys and basins. Overall, the northwest was rugged and mountainous, the central region dry and flat, while the southeast was humid and laced with rivers.

Judging purely by terrain, nearly all of Flame Island was suitable for cultivation, with no excessively harsh or barren land.

By the time the entire month of September had passed, the calendar flipped to October of the 154th year of the Sapphire Era, and the topographic map of Flame Island was finally completed.

Studying the map, he roughly formed an overall plan for developing Flame Island.

He also had two preferred locations for establishing the capital.

One was the central Great Plains, geographically positioned at the heart of Flame Island, offering easy access to all regions and adjacent to a massive lake, ensuring no water scarcity. However, the plains lacked geographical defenses, making them exposed to attacks and difficult to defend—the capital would always be under threat.

The other was a mountain range in the southeast, near Whirlpool Mountain. The capital could be built in a valley at the mountain’s base, boasting excellent hydrology and geography. By blocking the valley’s two exits, no number of knights could break through. The palace could also be constructed on the mountain, forming a mutual defense with the capital.

"Honestly, with dragons, whether the capital has natural defenses isn’t crucial. The benefits of building on the Great Plains are obvious… but for now, I don’t have the means to develop the plains. It’s better to establish the capital in this valley, close to the Great Whirlpool for easier development."

After weighing the options, he settled on the capital’s location, then named the mountain range Flame Mountain and the valley Flame Valley.

The future royal capital was tentatively named Flame King City.

Given the Flame family’s pride in their Fire Dragon heritage, the naming was fitting—though it was only provisional. After all, Liszt already commanded three dragons, and how many more he might acquire in the future remained unknown. Since he dared to establish a kingdom outright, he clearly wasn’t afraid of other dragons being exposed. The question of which dragon the kingdom would ultimately be named after remained uncertain.

Rolling up the map, Liszt and Bard crossed the material boundary, swiftly flying toward Whirlpool Mountain. During this period of continuous topographic surveying, their synergy had grown increasingly seamless, achieving not only perfect mental harmony but also the creation of three techniques for the *Invisible Dragon Knight - Dragon Aura Manual*:

1. *Ghost*—a lateral pull emphasizing the concept of "erasure."

2. *Shadow*—a spear-tip upward flick emphasizing the concept of "lifting."

3. *Snow Mountain*—a point-to-surface strike emphasizing the concept of "shattering."

*Ghost - Erase, Shadow - Lift, Snow Mountain - Shatter*—these three powerful combat techniques were stealth-oriented, aligning with his vision for the Invisible Dragon.

With a wingspan of only fifteen meters (twenty at adulthood), the Invisible Dragon had little advantage in direct combat aside from its reality-rending breath. Thus, the Invisible Dragon Knight was best suited as an assassin—striking suddenly from the material boundary to deliver a decisive blow.

Only an Elemental Dragon like the hardy Fire Drake Rio, whose juvenile size surpassed the adulthood of other dragons, was suited for direct melee combat.

Unfortunately, his recent progress had stalled—the *Fire Dragon Knight - Dragon Aura Manual* still only had five moves: *Dragon Slash - Cleave, Skyburn - Sweep, Swallow the Sun - Thrust, Boil the Sea - Twist,* and *Shake the Earth - Hammer.*

As for the Lightgreen Gem Dragon Ethan, its corresponding *Lightgreen Gem Dragon Knight - Dragon Aura Manual* had been developed by past dragon knights, featuring seven techniques: *Moonlight, Green Shadow, Wrath of Thunder, Spiral, Stone Shatter, Forest,* and *Phantom.* Liszt had only dabbled in these with Ethan, making no improvements.

He never intended for Ethan to be a battle dragon.

"It’s a shame I’m just one man. Allocating time among three dragons is a troublesome dilemma." Too few dragons were a problem, but many dragons brought just as many. Gazing at the glistening white void before him, he let out a quiet sigh. "Perfection doesn’t exist."

With his mind in perfect harmony, the invisible dragon sensed his true thoughts and let out a response that could either be approval or mockery: "Woo-ee-ya!"

...

When they returned to Ember Plain again, it had undergone a completely different transformation compared to a month ago.

Not a single tree remained on the entire Ember Plain—all had been felled and leveled into flat open ground. Mage towers, windmills, irrigation waterwheels, and city water towers rose one after another. A gravel road stretched east to west across the plain, leading directly to the distant, still-uncut forest.

Horse-drawn carriages rolled along the road, transporting loads of timber, wild game, and fruits back to Ember Town.

Ember Town itself had changed even more dramatically. Neat stone buildings lined both sides of cross-shaped streets, with smooth flagstone roads bustling with traffic. On the town's outskirts, rows of stilted wooden houses had sprung up—temporary dwellings for the growing numbers of knights and serfs.

The town was growing into a proper small city.

Further upstream along the Whirlpool River, architects busily directed craftsmen in digging foundations. A proper castle with its own name would soon rise here, serving as Liszt's palace. As the master of the Flame Islands and future king, his personal living quarters took priority over developing the Flame Islands.

Countless stacks of timber and stone lay nearby.

Timber could be sourced locally and was inexhaustible, while most of the stone came from the Blizzard Beast Squad, with a small portion sourced from widening the Whirlpool River.

The upper reaches of Whirlpool Mountain had ample water flow. Simply widening the riverbed would allow small sailboats to navigate directly to the Ember Town section. Only with sailboat navigation could the settlements along the middle and lower Whirlpool River be swiftly connected. At that moment, groups of dark-skinned serfs toiled along the riverbanks, laboriously digging the channel.

They were all Moon Killers tribespeople, captured by the knight corps and trained into serfs for this work.

"Your Highness, due to resistance from the Moon Killers tribes, although few knights fell in the capture operations, many natives were killed in the fighting, wasting valuable labor," reported Duert Hongxingguo, the chief overseer of the slave acquisition operations, who had hurried over. "But once the natives adapt to serf life, they rarely flee. So I was wondering if we should change our approach to capturing them."

"Share your thoughts," said Liszt, reclining in a rocking chair, enjoying the shoulder massage from a maid's delicate hands while leisurely sipping freshly prepared Half-Slope milk.

During the last shipment of the framed ship, he had specifically transferred a group of footmen and maids from Thorn Fort to Ember Town. The footmen, led by Thomas, were assigned to supervise the castle construction, while the young maids, led by Little Lily, stayed at the temporary villa in Ember Town to attend to Liszt's daily needs.

Life demanded hard work, but that didn't mean foregoing pleasures.