Chapter 238 Three Years
The wind and snow in Anzeta howl in every year, covering the earth with a layer of white. The tenacious people living in this "land without spring" have long been accustomed to the cold winter, even though they migrated from the warm south just to survive.

Similarly, for the sake of basic survival, they will gradually get used to the rule of the Burning Kingdom and adapt to this new order.

Ice and snow cover the earth again and again, and melt again and again.

In the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

For a dragon, this is not considered long, and can even be regarded as an ordinary deep sleep. After all, there are many dragons that sleep for decades or even hundreds of years.

But this hibernation is of great significance to Cassius. He will usher in the biggest leap in history.
With a slight snoring sound, the red dragon's body rose and fell. The energy overflowing from his body surface had been greedily absorbed by him, while the ancestral dragon blood in his body was still releasing more turbulent and primitive power through the basal blood vessels - that was the original dragon power bestowed by the ancient nine-faced dragon god Io.

During these three years, wrapped in the giant egg, the red dragon's form was transformed by this power at a speed visible to the naked eye. When he fully awakens, he will be closer to the ancestral dragons of ancient times that only existed in mythological epics, rather than an ordinary five-colored dragon that has been weakened and restrained several times in this era.

The red dragon's might was growing day by day, and just its occasional whispers and roars could make the birds and beasts miles away flee in panic.

Even the battle-hardened Tiefling guards were often overwhelmed by the pressure that was released unintentionally, and even developed mental problems, so that they had to take turns to stand guard.

Even the two-legged flying dragons living on the stone pillars often shivered and lay on the stone surface, curled up like pitiful little chickens, without showing any of the majesty they showed when facing outsiders. After all, these descendants with thin dragon veins felt the most instinctive suppression from the depths of their blood.

When he fell into deep sleep, Cassius often had dreams - that was actually the inheritance from the blood of the ancestral dragons. In his mind, he often saw the spectacular scenes of the ancestral dragons fighting those evil gods and ancient beasts. Whenever this happened, he would roll, growl, and roar as if he were personally in the battlefield, and unconsciously release his strength wantonly.

The influence of the real dragon on the environment is also continuing to play a role.

And unlike last time, with the transformation of the ancestral dragon bloodline, its scope of influence and destructive power are increasing day by day.

At first, the ground inside the palace would often gush out hot magma, and the hard steel would be easily melted into red, boiling molten iron. The entire main hall was like a hot steamer, and even the heavy iron door was red and hot under the high temperature, making the guards stationed at the door miserable.

However, this was only the first year of the Red Dragon's slumber.

In the second year, the influence of the sleeping King of Burning Ashes on the environment further expanded, and the extremely high temperature gradually enveloped the entire palace. Then, in a winter that should have been cold and windy, hot magma suddenly gushed out from the ground outside the main hall, like a volcanic eruption, the ground turned into dark black lava, and the sky was filled with ashes that almost covered the entire palace.

Twelve tieflings were killed in the accident, some burned to death, others suffocated in the ashes.

And this is merely the result of the power accidentally leaked by the Red Dragon.

After that incident, Medrash gave up the garrison mission around the main palace, arranged the tieflings to the outermost perimeter of the palace, and regularly sent spellcasters to monitor the magic network around the palace to prevent accidents and unnecessary casualties. Fortunately, such a tragedy did not happen again, because from the third year on, the impact of the red dragon on the environment was no longer in the form of disasters, but was transformed into a deeper impact on the extensive climate system.

Under the influence of Cassius, not only the area around the palace, but even the North Wind Castle several miles away became warmer, and gradually became a holy place to cope with the harsh winter of Anzeta. It was even called the "City of Neverwinter" by the people of the North who did not know the truth.

——Many poor people with nowhere else to go would flock to North Wind Castle in winter. Even if the guards tried to stop them, they would gather outside the city and enjoy the hard-earned warmth.

No matter in terms of life level or individual strength, the Casius who had experienced slumber has completely surpassed the middle-aged red dragon of the past. And this has only been ten years, which is just the time for an ordinary dragon to take a nap.

And what changes have taken place in the vast territory of the Burning Kingdom during these few years?
It’s actually not very obvious on the surface.

After all, during the years when the red dragon was sleeping, the Kingdom of Burning Embers changed its former aggressiveness. Although there were still inevitable frictions and conflicts, the kingdom had never had any war with its neighbors. It developed steadily for several years, and some northern nobles even began to write articles on current affairs.

They believed that the red dragon was satisfied with the status quo and would sleep for decades or even hundreds of years, and that the North would return to long-term order and peace, so the countries did not need to worry.

Duke Leo scoffed at these claims. He did not believe that the greedy dragon would stop. In the past few years, he did not disrupt the Burning Kingdom, but had been secretly contacting the northern countries, hoping to form a closer "anti-red dragon alliance."

However, even though he was cautious enough, his small actions were inevitably discovered by the kingdom's intelligence department. Medoraash quickly sent out "Nocturne" to counter, sabotage and disrupt it, and this so-called alliance was never formed in a practical sense and remained only a verbal agreement.

In fact, the dormancy of the Kingdom of Burning Ashes has made many principalities relax. Until the last critical moment, their short-sighted rulers do not want to be tied to Bosk's chariot and provoke this terrifying behemoth.

Inside the kingdom, people's lives have undergone tremendous changes.

The promulgation of the Kingdom Code has made all aspects of people's lives restricted by law, the gaps in power have become narrower, and those forces floating between black and white have lost their place. People don't know whether this is better or worse, but they have to adapt to such a restricted life.

The reform of the land system has made the past serfdom system a thing of the past. The former northern nobles and landlords have colluded with each other and want to take advantage of the red dragon's slumber to rise up in resistance - this may be their last chance.

However, they did not wait for the kingdom's compromise, but only waited for the long-planned brutal suppression. Under Doro's command, the lead bullets of the Earth Elite Line Soldiers ruthlessly tore apart the private soldiers who had been trained for many years. The heads of the nobles rolled to the ground, leaving only one voice in the kingdom.

This so-called "rebellion" ended quietly, although it was heavily criticized and condemned by the northern nobles, which sparked a public opinion frenzy. Some scholars even claimed that it was a "bloody tragedy" and a "brutal massacre."

But in fact, this rebellion did not have much impact on the kingdom. The so-called resistance was simply a joke and was instantly extinguished as soon as the spark appeared.

(End of this chapter)