Chapter 20: Little Dream Dragon Fails to Appear

The horses in the outhouse of the manor were in for a treat. The young wheat, barley, and broad bean sprouts, still fresh with dew, were brought by the servants to feed the horses.

Under the direction of the serf overseers and technicians, the cultivation of the three magical herbs was carried out in an orderly fashion.

The first group of workers for the windmill was also easily assembled by Old Hans.

Thus, as the lord of the manor, Russell didn’t have much to do, and he had plenty of free time to inspect his domain.

He didn’t go to Fluorescent Castle for lunch again.

A round trip would take four hours, and even if he could practice on the way, it was still a waste of time. So, Russell sent one of his retainers to deliver a message, deciding to return to Fluorescent Castle once a week from now on.

The time saved was all used to practice the Radiant Sword Technique.

“My talent is lacking, but my perseverance can make up for it!” After drinking a vial of magic potion and feeling his martial arts energy begin to boil, Russell immediately devoted himself entirely to repeatedly swinging the fine steel longsword, using the techniques of martial arts energy to open his meridians.

Just one move, a thousand hammers, and a hundred temperings.

Russell didn’t find it boring at all; instead, the more he practiced, the more he felt it. He felt as if this one move, once practiced deeply, could generate the power to split the sky in two, or even the concept of a single sword cutting through all things.

“It seems that in my past life, I was a martial arts prodigy who was delayed by the 996 Blessing!”

Whoosh!

The fine steel longsword was steadily slashed three feet in front of him, forming a 75-degree angle with his body. A drop of sweat from his hairline, flung out due to the forward momentum, landed precisely on the tip of the sword, then split into two by the blade.

His nostrils, cheeks, and forehead were covered with sweat.

Russell, however, felt no fatigue at all, nor did he feel any physical tiredness.

Practicing something he wasn’t interested in would make him more and more tired, but practicing something he was interested in always made him wish he had more time.

“My lord, you should rest,” Eric came over.

“Did you sleep well, Teacher Eric?” Russell didn’t stop swinging the fine steel longsword. “I’ll stop after a moment.”

“I’ve slept enough,” Eric replied, then drew his fine steel longsword and began practicing on his own.

He was already a great knight, with his entire meridian system integrated, and his martial arts energy could no longer be increased. The next step was to contract a fantasy beast to break through the bottleneck.

“Teacher, is your martial energy chain fully tempered?” Russell asked.

“Thoroughly tempered.”

“Then all Teacher needs is a Fantasy Beast.”

“Contracting a fantasy beast is as difficult as ascending to heaven, my lord.” Eric slashed fiercely, and the Martial Arts Energy Sword’s glow extended three meters.

It was difficult to contract a fantasy beast, but it was even more difficult to obtain a fantasy beast.

Without Russell’s help, he might only be able to reach the level of a Great Knight in this life, unable to touch the realm of Fantasy Beast Knights.

He turned his head to look at Russell, with some expectation.

Russell casually said, “There will be an opportunity.”

As the lord, he naturally understood what Eric wanted. A great knight with martial arts energy at its peak willing to serve him had two goals: one was to be ennobled and join the ranks of the nobility; the other was to contract a fantasy beast and advance to the level of fantasy beast knight.

But he wouldn’t make promises easily.

Some big dreams didn’t need to be drawn; they would come true naturally when the time was right.

After a moment, Russell stopped. The male servant immediately handed him a towel to wipe away the sweat, and the female servant brought him a cup of tea to quench his thirst.

“My lord, shall I prepare a bath for you?” the steward Morris asked.

“No need, if I bathed every time I sweat, wouldn’t I have to bathe three or four times a day?” Russell hadn’t gotten to the point where he was obsessed with cleanliness.

Before he knew it, it was night.

After dinner and a bath, Russell once again chose to camp in the magic herb field, citing the need to guard the wormgrass.

No one could dissuade him; they could only let him toil. What left Russell quite baffled, however, was that he couldn’t enter the Dark Dreamscape that night, and he slept until dawn.

“Good morning, my lord.”

“Good morning, John.”

After exchanging greetings with the armored knights, Russell walked to the Dusklight River and scooped up some water to wash his face. As the water settled, he looked at his handsome reflection in the water and frowned deeply, puzzled.

“Why didn’t the Dark Dreamscape appear?”

Ever since he had crossed over, he would enter the Dark Dreamscape every night and explore it with Little Dream Dragon.

In recent days, thanks to the Dark Dreamscape, he had discovered the pearl in the clamshell and the sprite grubs in the birch tree. One could say that Russell had already preliminarily understood and acknowledged his golden finger.

Who knew?

The Golden Finger suddenly disappeared.

“It can’t be gone for real, can it?” Russell’s expression became increasingly serious, the value of the Dark Dreamscape was immeasurable.

To possess the Dark Dreamscape was to possess limitless resources. Just the ability to discover wild sprite grubs was enough to propel him to the peak of his life.

Without the Dark Dreamscape, Russell couldn’t guarantee that he could still soar.

After all, in this magical world, it wasn’t one’s vision that limited development, but dragons and elves. Without dragons or elves, no matter how much essential knowledge a crosser possessed, it would be of no use.

Besides.

In his past life, Russell was just an ordinary person.

“Or has Little Dream Dragon left me? It shouldn’t be, the past few days we got along quite well and I didn’t offend it”. The Dark Dreamscape came from Little Dream Dragon, that was undeniable, even if Russell didn’t know Little Dream Dragon’s origin.

It is unknown whether it was the last Magnum ice cream he ate before his death, or some kind of unimaginable Dream Dragon.

“Could it be that…”

Russell thought of a possibility: “Little Dream Dragon breathed dragon breath and then got tired?”

In the past, in the Dark Dreamscape, Little Dream Dragon would also breathe, but it seemed that the dragon breath, which was as light as mist, would be sucked back by it.

Only this time, to help the birch tree nurture the sprite grubs, Little Dream Dragon’s dragon breath couldn’t be recovered.

“If that’s true, then Little Dream Dragon is too weak… No, that’s not true. Little Dream Dragon has four limbs and two wings, which are the characteristics of a great dragon. What it should breathe is dragon fire…”

Dragon breath was the breath of a two-legged dragon, while dragon fire was the breath of a great dragon.

A two-legged dragon, as the name implies, had only a pair of powerful hind legs, while the forelegs had turned into flesh wings.

A great dragon had four limbs and a pair of independent wings.

Apart from being small, Little Dream Dragon perfectly matched the characteristics of a great dragon, but Russell didn’t dare confirm what it was.

In short.

Russell lifted his head, revitalizing his spirit: “Don’t rush, wait and see if Little Dream Dragon will appear tonight!”

Suppressing his worries, he once again became the elegant noble lord.

He busied himself inspecting his domain, overseeing the cultivation of magical herbs in the field, receiving stonemasons and carpenters from town, and discussing the blueprints of the windmill mill…

Until night fell.

Russell still chose to camp in the magical herb field, hoping that the Little Dream Dragon would bring the Dark Dreamscape, but after a night passed, the Little Dream Dragon still didn’t appear.

“Does a dragon fire really take that long to recover, Snowcone?”

Russell sighed, feeling a bit deflated.

The only good news was that on the thickest birch, at a height of three meters, a branch-like bud had grown. Sensing carefully, he could feel a rhythmic magic energy within, as if a small life was breathing lightly.

The birch bug was about to form.