Chapter 216: The Emerald Dream
In addition to the enhancements in spells and divine arts, the strength of the Earth God itself also increases significantly due to acquiring a totemic divinity and the support of a realm. For example, although Nozdorm is still at the Golden rank, within the Sea of Falling Stars, he can exert the power of a legendary realm with a true domain. Once he advances to the legendary rank himself, he will be able to confront demigods in his territory!
For an adult Bronze Dragon at the Golden rank to normally advance to the legendary realm, it would take at least a hundred years. Although dragons are inherently powerful, each step upward in strength is a very difficult process that requires a long time to accumulate and achieve. This is why so few dragons can break through the lifespan limit of old dragons and live to become ancient or primordial dragons.
Nozdorm’s greatest breakthrough in strength lies in his legendary domain. With the help of his divine status as an Earth God, he acquired a legendary domain and finally awakened the ancient bloodline talents of Bronze Dragons, creating a domain related to time. This is his own power, not the divine arts or supernatural abilities granted by those divine statuses.
Tracing back to their origins, the earliest ancestors of Bronze Dragons were likely the powerful ancient Time Dragons, who roamed through the river of time in legends. They were ancient beings on par with the current Platinum Dragon King, the God of Good Dragons. It is said that the first Metal Dragons were born from the Platinum Dragons and the Time Dragons.
Nozdorm named his domain “The Land of Aging.” As the name suggests, any enemy who enters his domain—especially those with a lifespan of less than a hundred years—will rapidly deteriorate within three breaths, becoming so aged that they can barely function. Not to mention fighting, even a breeze could knock them over, and their lives might end at any moment.
Even species with a lifespan of three hundred years will rapidly age after five breaths. Even descendants of high elves, with lifespans of eight hundred to a thousand years, cannot survive in this domain for more than a minute.
Apart from the effect being ineffective on divine beings, as their divine bloodline already allows them to maintain their peak condition permanently, all creatures affected by the rules within the Land of Aging suffer permanent damage. In other words, once you suffer damage from these rules and your body ages within the realm, you cannot recover through normal means after leaving it, unless you use divine power to reverse it or take medications containing immense vitality to restore it. Of course, there is a prerequisite: the enemies in the Land of Aging must not be stronger than the realm’s master, otherwise the aging effect will be greatly weakened or even ineffective, and the pressure from the rules on opponents of the same strength will also be reduced. So, although the power of this realm seems strong, upon closer consideration, it can only be used against opponents weaker than oneself, offering little advantage against equals. Yet Donald values the power of this realm, Nozdormu, even more than the divine status he obtained as the Lord of the Seas. Although it only utilizes a weak and superficial branch of the power of time rules, the Land of Aging is essentially far stronger than the realms of ordinary legendary warriors. After all, realms related to time, space, and soul are among the highest forms of rule power, and even true gods rarely possess such formidable rule-based forces. “Master, now I can observe every corner of the Fallen Star Bay with just my thoughts, including the creatures in the sediment at the bottom of the water. Moreover, within this realm, I can teleport to any place with a mere thought!” This is the supernatural ability of the Earth God in his own realm, which requires no energy to use and is extremely convenient. “Not bad. It seems the Earth God also has great potential. I should create a divine status for him in Dalaran as well, so as not to let some natural spirit take advantage of him in the future. It’s better to keep him under control now. This way, even if the Church of the Gods decides to oppose Dalaran, the glory of the Merlinna lineage will forever shine over that vast land!” After saying this, Donald asked again, “How did this totem appear? Can it be carried around?”
Nozdorm recalled and said, “No, a totem can only be created on its own after it has been recognized by the will of nature and granted divinity. It incorporates the rules and domains one masters, as well as the mark representing an earth god. Although I can choose to place a totem anywhere after becoming the Lord of the Seas, moving it requires a significant expenditure of divine power. Yet, for us earth gods, totems are also a weapon—used only when enemies are too strong. This necessitates an additional investment of faith power; otherwise, my current divine power isn’t enough!”
“I see. It seems creating an earth god’s divinity requires one to understand it on their own!”
Donald nodded and planned to summon some lower-tier water elements to clean up the clutter on the island. But Nozdorm stopped him and released a divine spell for cleaning, effortlessly erasing all the mess left by the merfolk and the traces of battles. Now, the merfolk island was as beautiful as a pristine natural island. Adding some green plants would likely make it even more beautiful.
As soon as Donald thought this, Nozdorm took action. Under the glow of the divine spell, the larger islands, including the main island, seemed to suddenly come to life. Plants began to grow, quickly covering the previously bare areas, leaving Donald in awe.
These were two divine spells granted to earth gods by the will of nature—natural restoration and plant growth—though they couldn’t be used in battle and required considerable energy. The former could erase all signs of unnatural human destruction, while the latter could revitalize a certain area in one’s domain, causing plants and animals to grow rapidly.
After completing these tasks, even the dragon Nozdorm felt somewhat exhausted.
“I didn’t expect restoration to be so much harder than destruction. I can destroy an island with just a few moves, but to fully restore one, I’m afraid even my divine power would run out! I’ll have to use the backup faith power stored in the totem!”
Donald smiled and said, “It’s okay. Take your time. Destruction is always harder than creation. Besides, you’ve just become a god and need some time to grow.”
In fact, Donald had already noticed that the totem contained a considerable amount of faith power. With the help of the Book of Truth, it could be transformed into at least hundreds drops of divine power.
Without the faith power of its master, the Book of Truth could be stolen at any time. However, with the previous 3,000 units of divine power and the faith crystal given by the Abyssal Demon Fish, this faith power didn’t seem that significant. It was better to leave it for Nozdormu, the lord of the seas!
Additionally, Donald found the temple built by those merfolk to be rather unsightly—resembling a shabby hut made of stones and shells. Though it appeared large, it lacked any sense of grandeur or majesty. Donald ordered Nozdormu to sweep the temple down with a single tail swipe, leaving only some stone materials to be used in Retton Port to hire craftsmen and build a new temple worthy of Nozdormu’s status as the sea lord.
After completing these tasks, Donald gave the archipelago a more dreamy name: Emerald Dream. After all, calling it “Merfolk Island” over and over wasn’t very pleasant. The name came from the fact that, viewed from above, the archipelago appeared lush and green amidst the blue waters, looking exceptionally beautiful under the sunlight, like a dream.
Without using teleportation, Donald and Kelthas were directly teleported by Nozdormu to the sea near Retton Port—on the edge of Nozdormu’s domain. The busy scenes in the port could already be seen, with a straight-line distance of no more than three kilometers. For Nozdormu, such teleportation didn’t consume much energy; it was more like an instinct.
Nozdormu didn’t follow Donald back to Retton Port. He had just taken up his position as a deity and needed time to familiarize himself with and strengthen his divine powers. Now, as a true legendary Bronze Dragon King, he stayed on the island to use his divine power to build a home for himself in the future.
According to Donald, he intended to relocate all his dragons to Starfall Bay, so that Nozdormu, the most powerful Bronze Dragon, could take care of them. As for those who had escaped by diving into the water during the previous purge of the merfolk tribes, Donald and his companions didn’t care about them. With their numbers, they shouldn’t pose much of a threat. If they didn’t return to retaliate, that was fine; but if they did, with Nozdormu here, death awaited them.