Chapter 170: The Demon Baron

Not long ago, Donald summoned the mountain giants. After the construction of Winterfell and Moonlight Lake was completed, these giants were no longer suitable to stay in Dusk Town, so he sent them to the elves in the Moonlight Woods.
The appearance of the mountain giants brought great joy to the druid elves in Star Town. In ancient times, such creatures were friends of the druid elf tribes, often living together. Along with the mountain giants, there were several other powerful creatures, which was the main reason why the druid elf tribes were able to survive through those times filled with strong beings.
Under Donald’s command, the mountain giants became neighbors of the elves. Strictly speaking, mountain giants were not traditional giants but rather elemental puppet creatures similar to earth elementals or stone puppets. They only needed to absorb earth elements and magic from the earth, did not require food like ordinary creatures, and due to the inertness of earth elements, they could stay in one place for years without moving. If enemies attacked, they would help the elves defend themselves. Thus, such mountain giants were undoubtedly excellent neighbors.
Elder Ilyas, who had both elven and druid identities, greatly appreciated Donald’s design for artificially created landscapes that blended seamlessly with nature, which he called “gardens.” He even planned to adopt this approach in Star Town.
In the past, the architecture of their tribes merely relied on or imitated nature, without any structures that, though man-made, still gave the impression of being integrated into nature.
Seeing that Ilyas and Kelthas were busy, Donald did not disturb them. Instead, he went downstream by himself to admire thepreliminary formed scenery of Silvermoon Manor.
Halfway there, a human-shaped creature made entirely of water suddenly emerged from the stream and greeted him.
It was an water elemental, similar to those summoned by human archmages in games. But in the real world, water elementals were entirely composed of transparent water, with human-like body shapes, moving forward by dragging water behind them—far more beautiful than the blue water beings in games.
The news that the genius mage had created rivers and lakes, providing high-quality water sources for Dalaran, had caused a sensation throughout the Northlands. It was said that even other parts of the kingdom were paying attention to the developments in this new territory.

For over a month now, not only have the residents of Dalaran and Redmaple Town been drinking water from the River of Winter and Moonlight Lake, but many people from Stonehold have also come to fetch water, turning the water of the River of Winter into something almost sacred. Thanks to the dual optimizations implemented by Donald, the water in the River of Winter and Moonlight Lake is of excellent quality, highly suitable for human consumption, and even beneficial to health. To ensure this, Donald spent more time setting up two additional purification arrays in the underground water storage systems surrounding his manor and lord’s residence, thus achieving complete purification of the water he used daily, so that he wouldn’t drink water worse than that of ordinary citizens. To protect the safety of the region’s water sources, Donald permanently summoned five level-four wild units—water elementals—and placed them in Moonlight Lake. These water elementals possess bronze-level strength, are largely immune to ordinary elemental attacks, can shoot water arrows and control water currents, and see a significant boost in combat power wherever there is water. Most importantly, they have long lifespans, do not need to eat, and can sustain themselves by absorbing magic and water elements from their surroundings; they can survive anywhere there is a water source. Unless their core is damaged or their magic is exhausted, they will not perish for hundreds of years. At that time, Donald had no idea that this arrangement would become a famous attraction in Dalaran years later, with large numbers of tourists coming each year to admire the beauty of Moonlight Lake, enjoy its cuisine, and witness these amazing elemental creatures. With the divine power derived from the idol of the evil god and the energy provided by elemental crystals, Donald took advantage of this opportunity to carry out extensive construction. Aside from some large-scale buildings that were difficult to create directly, he produced large quantities of equipment such as arrow towers, trebuchets, and firearms, arming to the teeth the three settlements in his domain: Dusk Town, Windchime Village, and Ashwood Village. Even if underground creatures or demons attacked, they would surely not fare well against them. Additionally, he built five goblin airships, one of which was sent to the Ansel family in exchange for a large amount of materials and dozens of craftsmen from various fields who were lacking in Dalaran. The arrival of these craftsmen resolved some of the shortages in the region, and Donald happily settled them and their families in Dusk Town according to the original standards.

The entire territory of Dalaran has a population of just over a thousand, and its core town, Dusktown, can currently accommodate no more than five thousand residents, making it appear rather sparsely populated. This situation changed only after merchants from various places settled there and the Adventurers’ Guild was established; now the town is at least much livelier, though most of its inhabitants are transient.

Dalaran is very strict regarding applications from its subjects, and noble lords in this world also enforce strict control over their people. Unless there is war and refugees scatter, few lords would easily allow their subjects to move to other territories. Of course, exceptions exist for those like adventurers and mountain dwellers.

While Donald was busy with territorial affairs, in underground caves a hundred miles away from Dalaran’s territory, a large demon with muscular build and a height of over fifteen feet led hundreds of smaller demons in searching for their target.

Two hundred years ago, Jadril was just an ordinary bronze demon, without the title of Demon Baron or the powerful strength of a gold-tier being. At that time, he represented his father, the great Lord of Strength, Skullcrusher Ahaz, in patrolling the area at the boundary between the eighth and ninth layers of the Abyss. Their party was attacked by a suddenly appearing bone dragon, forcing Jadril to flee to the Bone Wasteland of the ninth layer in desperation.

That place was the domain of his father’s long-time rival, the Duke of Bones, a home for undead creatures. Stranded without his guards, Jadril had to take refuge in a natural underground cave. By chance, he stumbled upon an unstable spatial passage that led him out of the Abyss and into the main material world.

There, he encountered an old black dragon on the verge of death. The spatial rift happened to be located within this black dragon’s territory—caves within a hundred miles around were all under its control, with no other intelligent beings present.

For Jadril, a dying black dragon represented a vast fortune, not to mention the treasures it had accumulated over its life. If he could absorb the dragon’s soul and the power from its dragon crystals, or offer them to his father, he would surely gain immense strength and rich rewards.

However, an adult black dragon was at least at the gold tier, possessing the advantages of being a dragon. Even three or five ordinary gold-tier strongmen might not be enough to defeat it. Although that black dragon was nearing the end of its life, it still had enough strength to kill this bronze demon with a single slap—even if its strength was only 30% of its peak.

So Jadri patiently observed and memorized the terrain around him, then returned to the Abyss through a portal, carefully diving back to the Eighth Layer of the Barbaric Demon Realm. Having learned of a black dragon and its treasure, Jadri kept this secret deep in his heart, not even revealing it to his most revered father—after all, there was no such thing as loyalty or family bonds in the world of the Abyss. After Cranioclast Ahah became the lord, he had over a dozen descendants, and Jadri was the youngest among them. As descendants of a demi-god, Ahah’s children faced great pressure—they had to compete not only with other powerful demons under Ahah’s rule but also with each other, ready to kill at the slightest opportunity. Jadri was one of the smarter ones among his brothers, but also the weakest. It took him hundreds of years of effort to gain a foothold. Knowing that his brothers would surely take advantage of him if he encountered trouble and offer no help, he sought opportunities after becoming a noble demon, aiming to return to the main world and claim that black dragon and its treasure for himself. It was not until recently that he broke through to the peak of Silver rank and became a Gold Demon. With the conflicts between the King of Force Demons and the Duke of Boneless Ones having subsided somewhat over the years, he finally dared to find an excuse to leave his domain, dive back to the borders of the Boneless Wasteland, and locate that portal. However, this time the portal was not open as it had been two hundred years ago—the entrance was too small for him, who now possessed Gold-level strength. So he had to return to the edge of the Eighth Layer, ordering two of his Firewing Demons to secretly capture and drive over 200 minor demons. Using his power, he created a crack in the portal, sending these demons into the main world, then commanding them to build altars to capture creatures around the portal for sacrifice. In this way, with the help of Cranioclast Ahah’s power, he maintained a stable spatial portal for himself and two of his Silver-ranked subordinates to enter. As for the issue discovered by his father? Normally, a powerful being like an Abyss lord wouldn’t pay much attention to how the sacrifice was carried out unless the sacrificed item piqued his interest. And since it was just about expanding a small spatial portal, as long as Jadri didn’t reveal it, even Cranioclast Ahah, no matter how powerful, wouldn’t notice what his son was doing in secret. So Jadri wasn’t worried that his father would discover the black dragon and its treasure.

Returning to this underground world, Jadril found that some changes had taken place here. The dragon’s power that had once surrounded the area had long dissipated, indicating that the black dragon had been dead for at least a hundred years. Fortunately, the main passages hadn’t changed much. Eager for the black dragon’s corpse and treasure, he immediately took half of the imps to search for the exact location of the dragon’s tomb, leaving two of his subordinates and the remaining half of the imps to continue capturing creatures to sacrifice on the altar and maintain the open space passage.