Near Seas, Starfall Island.

The silhouette of the Golden Dragon materialized in the sky, its massive wings eclipsing the sunlight, casting an enormous shadow over the land. Countless monsters within the dragon’s shadow bowed in excitement, celebrating the return of the King of the Near Seas.

The news of Saga’s return to the Near Seas spread like a storm, quickly sweeping through the region.

Emissaries from the Near Seas nations brought gifts of congratulations, and a grand feast was held on Starfall Island, lasting seven days and nights to celebrate the return of their ruler.

Inside the Emperor Dragon Palace.

With eyes half-closed, the Golden Dragon listened intently to the report of the Black Shark, a creature with the stature of half-shark, half-tiger, standing before him.

Through the telepathic command with his Psychic Guard, although he was on Yar Continent, he had some awareness of the changes in the Near Seas, though not in great detail. Now that he was back, he needed to understand more personally.

The Black Shark’s report was succinct and to the point.

After it finished, Saga nodded thoughtfully.

“The Shark Empire and the Mermaid Empire.”

In the years Saga was absent from the Near Seas, chaos rarely ensued due to the scarcity of powerhouses and the presence of the legendary Shark King, Saga’s own legion, and the guardianship of the Near Seas nations.

Worth mentioning is that the Dragon Vein Storm Giant, Addison, had also ascended to legendary status.

Already a peak ninth-tier Caster and having successfully created a legendary spell before his death, he easily stepped into the legendary realm with the more potent body of a Dragon Vein Giant.

The only variable in the Near Seas came from the war between the two great ocean empires.

Especially in the past year, skirmishes between giant sharks and mermaids occasionally erupted in the Near Seas, causing many ripples in the once calm waters.

As time passed, their appearances became more frequent.

For now, the armies of the two empires only appeared on the fringes of the Near Seas, without real impact, but the future was uncertain.

“Your Majesty, if the war between the Shark Empire and the Mermaid Empire continues to encroach upon the Near Seas, how should we respond?”

“Do we choose to ignore it and let them battle in the Near Seas, or do we intervene and expel them?”

Before the more majestic and powerful Golden Dragon, the Black Shark bowed slightly, asking.

“The Near Seas are my territory.”

“I won’t allow those sharks and mermaids to run wild here.”

“They can fight all they want outside, but they can’t cause trouble on my turf.”

After a few seconds of silence, the Black Shark heard the Golden Dragon’s deep response.

Saga lifted his chin, his faceplate calm, and said, “Next time the Shark Empire and the Mermaid Empire’s armies fight in the Near Seas, warn them first, then see if they comply. If not, send in the troops to expel them.”

The Near Seas were quite distant from the main battlegrounds of the Shark Empire and the Mermaid Empire.

The imperial troops that appeared here were not large in scale and were not the main force.

Saga would not allow them to wreak havoc in his territory.

Meanwhile, upon receiving Saga’s orders, the Black Shark nodded vigorously, eyes sparkling with determination.

“As you wish.”

No one wants other powers to wreak havoc on their own territory. Previously, due to the absence of their king, Saga, and lacking a backbone, the Near Seas could only swallow their grievances in the face of the two empires’ war intrusions, pretending not to see.

Now, the King of the Near Seas had returned.

The confidence of the Near Seas surged.

The Tiger Shark, having endured for so long, also wished to bare its fangs.

“Tig, you’re not far from reaching legendary status now, are you?”

Saga looked down at the Tiger Shark, its black body covered with silver-white stripes like lightning.

“Your Majesty, thanks to your blessing, I have also been growing. I have now reached the ninth-tier limit.”

As Saga’s Psychic Guard, the Black Shark grew with Saga’s advancement.

After Saga stepped into the legendary realm, his Psychic Guards generally reached the ninth tier, with formidable combat power far surpassing ordinary ninth-tier creatures.

While Saga was away from the Near Seas.

The Black Shark and the Yellow Crystal Earth Dragon created many shocking feats for the citizens of the Near Seas.

The most famous was when a legendary sea monster with three heads came to the Near Seas, causing trouble, only to be killed by the Black Shark and the Yellow Crystal Earth Dragon, both ninth-tier creatures, at the cost of severe injuries.

Nowadays.

The Black Shark and the Yellow Crystal Earth Dragon were respectively known as the Shark King and the Subdragon King by the creatures of the Near Seas.

But the two of them, infinitely close to legendary status, were actually not the strongest of Saga’s Psychic Guards.

Saga now had three Psychic Guards.

The composed Black Shark, the Resolute Skeleton, and the tyrannical Earth Dragon.

Among them, the little Skeleton with Saga’s Resolute Personality was still on the Blackland Continent.

Saga occasionally checked in on the little Skeleton’s experiences in the Blackland Continent through telepathic command.

This Psychic Guard, raised outside and developing on its own, brought him many surprises.

In the realm of the undead, the little Skeleton quickly advanced by plundering the soul fires of other undead creatures, becoming a legendary being and a lord on the Blackland Continent, gathering many powerful undead creatures under its command. As it continued to wage war, its power grew.

Recently, to Saga’s surprise.

The little Skeleton’s rapid rise caught the attention of the Great Tomb, and it was invited to become a member.

The Great Tomb—an undead organization at the pinnacle of the pyramid on the Blackland Continent, the Undead Empire refers to the countless undead led by the Great Tomb.

Under Saga’s guidance, the little Skeleton had now joined the Great Tomb.

Although currently only a peripheral member and not reaching the core of the Great Tomb, it had received some resources from the Great Tomb, allowing it to grow faster, surpassing the Black Shark and the Yellow Crystal Earth Dragon, becoming the best and fastest-developing Psychic Guard under Saga’s command.

Back to the matter at hand.

Saga looked at the Black Shark before him, his dragon claw brushed over the scales on his neck, a spark flashed, and he pulled out a multicolored fungus from the space crystal within, tossing it to the Black Shark.

The Black Shark instinctively caught it.

The size of a human head, the fungus body surrounded by a halo of multicolored light was dazzling.

Most importantly, the Black Shark felt a fatal attraction to it, as if every cell in its body was screaming, urging it to devour it, which would be greatly beneficial.

For a ninth-tier creature, the allure of the multicolored fungus was incredibly strong.

Suppressing the desire within, the Black Shark looked towards the Golden Dragon.

“Your Majesty, what is this?”

“This is a reward for your service to me, the multicolored fungus from a large mushroom colony, which can assist you in breaking through to legendary status.”

For those who had followed him and grown stronger, and who had also witnessed his own rise step by step, Saga was generous with rewards.

After a brief shock, the Black Shark was immensely grateful:

“Your will is my heart’s direction, I will serve you loyally until death’s end!”

It was rare for a Tiger Shark to become legendary.

Becoming legendary was once an unrealistic dream for the Black Shark, but now that dream was about to become reality.

This made it recall the chance encounter with the Golden Hatchling Dragon while hunting in Moon Bay over twenty years ago, and it was very glad it had made the right choice.

“Your Majesty.”

“What else?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to say, meeting you is the greatest honor of my life, Tig.”

The Golden Dragon lifted its eyelids and said:

“Are you a Tiger Shark or a sheep? Less sentimentality, I need a composed and rational Black Shark who can manage affairs on my behalf.”

“I will heed your will!”

The Black Shark nodded earnestly, its expression becoming solemn once again.

At that moment, Saga pondered for a while, then mused:

“Go and review all the monster tribes in the Near Seas that are loyal to me, then select a group suitable for living and fighting underground. I want to station a group of my followers in the subterranean world.”

As he spoke, Saga conveyed the information about the subterranean hollow and the mushroom society to the Black Shark through telepathic command.

After understanding the specifics, the Black Shark nodded and immediately said, “There should be quite a few tribes that meet the requirements for the subterranean world. I’ll confirm it right away.”

Next, the Black Shark left the Emperor Dragon Palace and selected suitable followers according to Saga’s orders.

Saga was not idle either. He first took out many cubic-shaped white crystals from the space crystal, which seemed to contain layered spaces within.

—Dimensional stones.

These were rare ores excavated from the subterranean world, also key to constructing long-distance teleportation arrays, providing spatial energy for the arrays.

Without dimensional stones.

Long-distance teleportation arrays could still be constructed, but with increased limitations, only usable by powerful beings who could teleport through space by expending their own energy.

Saga stared at the dimensional stones, his spirit gradually becoming focused.

Crack.

With a slight exertion of his dragon claw.

The dimensional stones turned to powder.

The dragon’s eyes lit up with psychic energy, and the dimensional stone powder moved without wind, gathering under the control of psychic energy, slowly forming various rune shapes that flickered in the air, elusive and faint.

After some time.

Saga collected all the runes and then left the Emperor Dragon Palace, choosing a suitable spot on Starfall Island. With will as the pen and psychic energy as the ink, adorned with these dimensional stone runes, he began to inscribe the long-distance teleportation array.

Before long, a teleportation array gradually took shape.

During its formation, there were clear spatial fluctuations, and more importantly for Saga—fluctuations of gravity.

In Saga’s vision, with the spatial fluctuations, there were also strange natural changes of countless gravitational arcs.

He had noticed this scene in his previous construction of teleportation arrays.

Throughout the process of building teleportation arrays several times, Saga committed all the changes to memory.

The teleportation array was soon completed.

But Saga did not leave. The massive dragon coiled in place, eyes half-closed, quietly recalling the changes in space and gravity, confirming an inseparable relationship between the two.

“I’ve heard that the essence of gravity is space, no, the curvature of spacetime.”

“What I’ve seen also confirms this.”

“If one day I can deeply understand and grasp the relationship between gravity and spacetime, I might not need any spark to perform inter-universal space teleportation, or even travel to different spacetimes.”

Saga thought quietly.

A few minutes later, Saga soared into the sky and flew towards Thorn Isle, passing by Moon Bay on the way, transforming the Great Slime guarding Gem Peak into a Psychic Guard, bestowing it with a fragment of the Coward Personality.

Before becoming legendary, a Mind Warlock could only have up to three Psychic Guards at the same time.

After ascending to legendary status, this number increased to nine.

With the existence of Psychic Guards, there was a very effective compensation for the mental shortcomings of Mind Warlocks, making their spirits gradually flawless. Under the premise of proper control over the Psychic Guards, the more Psychic Guards, the better.

With Saga’s current speed, after leaving Moon Bay, he quickly arrived at Thorn Isle.

From high above, Saga looked down and saw that Thorn Isle was covered with traces of war, a sight of devastation, with even the palace of the Red Dragoness atop Yakan Volcano in ruins.

“There has been a war here.”

With a focused gaze, the Golden Dragon retracted its wings and dove from the clouds, sweeping over Thorn Isle, the tremendous wind pressure from its body sweeping across the mountains and forests with a grand momentum.

At the same time, the legendary Dragon Might, like a tsunami, was oppressively terrifying, causing the hearts of the monsters on Thorn Isle to sink.

Each of the Red Dragoness’s followers lifted their heads, nervously watching the golden figure sweeping across the sky.

At first glance, seeing the gleaming scales and the three pairs of majestic, winding horns on the dragon’s body, the monsters here felt a familiar sense amidst their nervous vigilance.

Meanwhile.

At the foot of the mountain.

A towering bear, standing over ten meters tall like a tower, stepped out of a cave, its red fur fluttering in the wind like flames, as it fixed its gaze on the Golden Dragon soaring in the sky.

After a brief surprise, the ferocity on the bear’s face dissipated.

“Saga, welcome back.”

As the Golden Dragon approached, the fearsome bear bowed its head and spoke with a respectful attitude.

“Julius, it’s been a while.”

Saga landed, his claws gripping the rocky mountainside, speaking to the bear.

“Congratulations on reaching legendary status. If the Queen were still here, she would be delighted at your rapid growth.”

The bear sighed softly, murmuring.

After a pause, the bear slowly said:

“Prince Saga, before the Queen left, she instructed me that if you became legendary and returned to Thorn Isle, and if she had not yet returned, we would recognize you as our lord, seeing you as we would the Hell Queen, obeying all your commands.”

The bear’s expression was calm, but his words were somewhat somber, tinged with a hint of sadness.

Entrusting Thorn Isle and her followers to the now-legendary Saga.

To the bear, this seemed like a foreboding act of entrusting her legacy in case she could not return. Under normal circumstances, what dragon would give away their territory and followers?

“Prince, will the Queen return?”

After a few seconds of silence, feeling that Saga would know more about the whereabouts of the Red Dragoness, the Dragon Vein Bear couldn’t help but ask.

“She will.”

“Believe in your Queen.”

Saga gave a simple yet powerful answer.

“Give me a count of the existing creature tribes on Thorn Isle.”

The Dragon Vein Bear pondered, then slowly recounted the creature tribes still present on Thorn Isle. After listening to its account, Saga’s brow furrowed slightly.

Compared to when the Red Dragoness was still there.

The number of creature tribes on Thorn Isle had decreased significantly.

Then, the Dragon Vein Bear explained, saying:

“When the Queen had just left, Thorn Isle was still stable, but as time passed, the Queen’s disappearance was slowly noticed by the outside world.”

“After a few probes, the Rosen Kingdom began another campaign to conquer Thorn Isle, launching attacks.”

“In the war with the Rosen Kingdom, we suffered losses.”

The strongest forces on Thorn Isle were the legendary Dragon Vein Bear and two legendary giant stone golems left by the Red Dragoness before her departure, totaling three legends.

On the other side, the Rosen Kingdom, having been devastated by the Red Dragoness, had not yet recovered.

Facing the three legends guarding Thorn Isle, their several attempts to capture the island were unsuccessful, but they also caused significant losses and destruction to the Red Dragoness’s followers.

“This Rosen Kingdom doesn’t learn its lesson.”

“It seems they need some teaching.”

The Rosen Kingdom was not a very strong kingdom, at least not compared to the Lionheart Kingdom on Yar Continent. With Saga’s current strength, he did not need to fear this kingdom.

Immediately, Saga thought of the soft and beautiful snake woman.

He opened his perception, but did not sense the snake woman’s presence.

“Where is Iyeona? I can’t feel her presence.”

“Prince, due to the previous war, the snake people’s leader Iyeona was severely injured and on the brink of death…”

Before he could finish.

The Dragon Vein Bear suddenly felt a terrifying and dreadful threat. The air around seemed to solidify in that instant, filled with the threat of death, causing its fur to stand on end involuntarily, its heart chilling.

A breath later, the terrifying oppressive feeling receded like a tide.

Looking up, the Dragon Vein Bear saw the silent Golden Dragon, feeling the suppressed volcanic force in the calm facade, ready to erupt at any moment with world-destroying power.

“Iyeona is on the brink of death?”

Saga asked slowly.

“Prince, it’s not as bad as that. She’s gradually recovering and has left the brink of death.”

The snake people possessed a snake slumber ability similar to dragon slumber, which allowed Iyeona to survive her near-fatal injuries.

…Saga breathed a sigh of relief, but thinking of the heavily damaged Thorn Isle and the snake woman who had nearly died, his inner rage surged like a tsunami and storm, not diminishing but growing more intense, unable to be quenched without burning something down.

Boom!

The Golden Dragon flapped its wings, stirring up a fierce wind as it soared into the sky.

“Prince, where are you going?”

The Dragon Vein Bear watched the Golden Dragon moving away from Thorn Isle and asked, looking up.

“To the Rosen Kingdom.”

The deep and powerful reply carried on the wind, and at the same time, the Golden Dragon in the sky gradually moved further away, soon disappearing from sight.

Not long since the last devastation by the Hell Queen, the Rosen Kingdom was about to repeat the same mistakes, welcoming the son of the Hell Queen’s even more tumultuous wrath.