Chapter 569: New Magic of a Special Kind

The Dragon Knight appeared, exuding an overwhelming aura.

The descending sunset, infused with powerful advanced fire-attribute Dragon Aura, slammed into the Advanced Magic Beast, the Shoebill Stork. The attack was so sudden that the Shoebill Stork barely had time to react before the devastating Dragon Aura attack hit its body.

But, at that very moment,

The Shoebill Stork instantly released an advanced magic spell—the Resisting Fire Ring.

Boom!

A massive burst of flames erupted from the Shoebill Stork, attempting to deflect Liszt's attack. However, the resisting force quickly crumbled upon contact with the Dragon Aura released by Liszt. Immediately after, the Sky-Splitting Great Sword struck the Shoebill Stork, severing a large patch of its feathers.

The Shoebill Stork's body was violently thrown into the swamp mud, its large head letting out a guttural cry as it plunged into the water.

"It feels weak!"

Liszt felt a surreal sense of disbelief. He had attacked an Advanced Magic Beast, so rare that even the Sapphire Duchy could hardly find a few, yet he sent it flying with a single move. It was pathetically weak.

"Squawk!" Pulling its head out of the mud, the Shoebill Stork roared in fury, spewing out a chain of fireballs that shot forward like a string of pearls.

This was the advanced fire magic—Fireball Chain.

Liszt swung the Sky-Splitting Great Sword, with Dragon Aura surging, creating a barrier. All the fireballs smashed into the barrier and quickly dissipated, unable to hit Liszt.

"This magic is pathetic!"

"Is this the overwhelming power of Dragon Aura over ordinary magic...?" Liszt felt exhilarated; the battle was far simpler than he had anticipated. Ever since his combat energy had advanced to Dragon Aura, every fight had been completely one-sided.

Count Lee William was no longer his rival.

The Shoebill Stork was nothing special, only slightly stronger than a low-level magic beast.

Scorching Sun Pierce!

Liszt lunged forward, driving the Sky-Splitting Great Sword directly, knocking down the Shoebill Stork once again before it could steady itself. He then tore a charred, gaping hole in the chest and abdomen of the large bird.

"Squawk!"

In pain, the Shoebill Stork stopped casting magic and instead desperately beat its wings. The massive wings whipped up a gale stronger than wind magic. Most importantly, the splattered mud and water were scattered everywhere. The Dragon Aura released by Liszt then vaporized the water, creating a mist.

This didn't faze Liszt at all.

He used the momentum, pushing off the Purplesand Crocodile's corpse, soaring into the sky before diving back down. Another Descending Sunset, transforming into a crimson sun, roared down. The surging advanced fire-attribute Dragon Aura turned into a sky full of flames, crashing down on the Shoebill Stork.

Boom!

The Shoebill Stork, like the Purplesand Crocodile before it, was completely powerless. Its speed, attack power, and magic nature were no match for Liszt.

Its fate was sealed. Ten minutes later, the Shoebill Stork breathed its last.

Liszt stood on its corpse, gasping for breath—though it had been a one-sided slaughter, the Advanced Magic Beast was still tough. The back-and-forth struggle for ten minutes had drained a significant portion of his mana reserves—such strength was roughly equivalent to a peak-level Sky Knight.

"The Purplesand Crocodile consumed a wave of magic power, and I didn't let it take flight. As an avian magic beast, its strength was probably halved... But even if it had fought at full strength, it wouldn't have been my opponent. The overwhelming nature of Dragon Aura over ordinary magic power is just too strong."

After reflecting on the details of the battle and summarizing his shortcomings, Liszt looked at the corpses of the Shoebill Stork, the Purplesand Crocodile, and the Thunder Fang Boar, feeling a bit troubled.

"What should I do with these corpses? I can secretly take away the Shoebill Stork, but the Purplesand Crocodile is from the Count's territory, part of his private property... Forget it, I'll take them all. After all, it was the Shoebill Stork that killed the Purplesand Crocodile. I'll make up for the Count's loss of the Purplesand Crocodile from somewhere else later."

Liszt was unwilling to give up the meat of the Advanced Magic Beast, but handing over the Purplesand Crocodile to the Earl would obviously expose the existence of the Shoebill Stork—the wounds could not be concealed, and only an Advanced Magic Beast could hunt an intermediate magic beast.

"Let's make up an excuse, saying that Seagull Island was invaded by an Advanced Magic Beast, which I killed... The Earl should understand that the Purplesand Crocodile was hunted by an Advanced Magic Beast... I'll send some Shoebill Stork meat for the Earl to taste, and this matter should be over."

"After all, if I hadn't stepped in, the Earl wouldn't have been able to handle the Shoebill Stork. He should be thanking me!"

"Who made me the son, so I have to take some losses?"

After pondering, he looked at the Shoebill Stork's corpse and sighed faintly: "It's a shame I fought so fiercely at the time. If I could have endured, tamed it, and used this Advanced Flying Magic Beast as a mount, it would definitely be cool... But it's no big deal. I've got the intermediate dragon beast Loki now, and I'll have a dragon in the future. Who needs the ugly Shoebill Stork anyway!"

The Shoebill Stork was an adult Advanced Magic Beast, difficult to tame, and keeping it in the territory was very dangerous. Most importantly, Liszt was not short of mounts, and they were all dragon beast mounts. It was rare to encounter an Advanced Magic Beast, so it was better to kill it for meat—the meat of an Advanced Magic Beast was definitely very nourishing.

The gem's space was limited and couldn't hold such a large magic beast.

So he had to leave the three corpses there for now, return to the seaside first, take out the conch horn, and blow it rhythmically.

"Jiyou!"

After a while, a response came from the sea—it was Rainbow Whale Rosi, who hadn't left and had been waiting for Liszt.

He hopped on and commanded, 'Rosi, let's move!'

A few hours later, they returned to Flower Town.

He got the crew together overnight, set sail with two cargo ships, and headed for the beach at Coral Island's southwest end. When the sky was slightly bright, the ships finally reached the beach. The water was too shallow to dock, so they had to lower the sampan and send serfs to drag the three corpses to the sea—themagic beast corpses decayed slowly, but they attracted a few Windblade Wolves to gnaw on them.

These Windblade Wolves quickly became meals for the territory.

With Liszt personally overseeing the dragging of the corpses, no magic beast could snatch the benefits.

"Sir, the corpses of the three magic beasts and the Windblade Wolves are now on the ship."

"Let's set off," Liszt told Isaiah, who was in charge. "Once we're back, keep it under wraps. I don't want tonight's events leaking out."

"Don't worry, sir. The serfs we rounded up before leaving are all honest, quiet newbies. They barely speak, let alone know much serpent tongue. Plus, we're heading straight to Black Horse Island. These serfs will help build Black Horse Island on-site, and the crews of both ships will be reassigned to work there."

"That's good."

Although exposing the secret wouldn't be a big deal, this matter wasn't exactly honorable, and Liszt didn't want to cause misunderstandings.

...

The ships sailed.

The Advanced Magic Beast meat was almost ready to eat.

The smoke mission was done: 'Mission complete. Reward: various Abandoned Insect Mushrooms.'

Getting the Abandoned Insect Mushrooms, which were already his, as a mission reward made Liszt pretty unhappy. He preferred the unknown rewards from the smoke missions over getting what he already had as a reward. It felt like moving candy from one pocket to another.

But he didn't linger on it. The new mission had him frowning.

"Mission: The Potion Seeds are thriving, but you're clueless about how to cultivate them. You suspect the info might be hidden in those Sun Script books. Why not dig into these books and figure out how to cultivate Potion Seeds? Reward: Special type of magic."