**Chapter 712: Dragonman Civilization**

The light of the teleportation array slowly faded beneath his feet.

Jie Ming stepped out from the center of the array and landed on a metal platform suspended in mid-air.

Below the platform lay layer upon layer of endless sea of clouds, a vast expanse of white stretching all the way to the horizon.

Overhead was an unfamiliar starry sky. The starlight carried a cool tone with a faint blue hue, dyeing the entire heavens a pale cyan. The air brimmed with an astonishingly rich concentration of free elements.

Jie Ming took a light breath, and he could already feel the active elemental particles rushing into his body along with the air.

The element density here was at least three times higher than that of the Infernal Sulfur Plane.

Cultivating in such an environment—even simple meditation—would be several times faster than outside.

Yet he soon lost interest in appreciating this “superior” environment.

A terrifying oppressive force suddenly descended from above.

It was a pure, almost tyrannical sense of presence, as if an invisible mountain were pressing down on his shoulders, or as if something from a higher dimension was coldly observing him through the fabric of space.

Jie Ming’s back tensed instinctively. He raised his head and looked toward the far end of the platform.

A wizard stood there.

From his appearance, it was none other than Wizard Broadleaf.

His build was not particularly tall or imposing among wizards; one could even call it slender.

Yet when he stood quietly in place, the surrounding space seemed to tilt toward him unconsciously. Light bent slightly around him, and the elements rose and fell with his breathing.

Merely the natural overflow of his law remnants had already coated the surrounding air with a faint amber sheen.

Jie Ming had already sensed something when he first saw the name Wizard Broadleaf, but seeing the man in person still exceeded his expectations.

This… was an existence who could become a “True Name Wizard” even among seventh-ring wizards?!

Jie Ming quickly assessed the threat level within his spiritual sea.

Although the sense of danger Broadleaf gave him was far from the bottomless abyss that Instructor Clark represented, it still far surpassed ordinary seventh-ring wizards.

If they truly fought, Jie Ming was certain he wouldn’t last even a moment against him.

“Wizard Jie Ming, I presume,” Wizard Broadleaf spoke.

His voice was steady and deep, as if coming from the depths of thick bedrock, carrying a composure that was almost oppressive.

“Yes, a pleasure to meet you, Wizard Broadleaf.” Jie Ming straightened his wizard robe and performed a wizard’s salute.

“No need for formalities. I should be the one thanking you for your assistance.” Wizard Broadleaf smiled and shook his head.

“Avery and I are old friends. He has already given me a detailed account of your situation. To withstand a direct piercing attack from a Reflection Dimension channel as a fifth-ring wizard is truly astonishing. It seems the workshop has a worthy successor. This mission happens to require someone with your abilities.” He skipped further pleasantries and went straight to the point.

“You should have reviewed most of the intelligence in the mission briefing. The problem lies with a plane I subjugated over a thousand years ago. The dominant race there is the dragonmen, so I simply call it the Dragonman Plane.

“Several decades ago, a portion of the dragonmen inside the plane suddenly mastered technology capable of connecting to the Reflection Dimension. We still don’t know the origin of this technology. In any case, the result was that they formed a rebel organization and ignited war within the plane.”

At this point, Broadleaf raised his hand and swept it through the air.

A light screen immediately appeared in mid-air, displaying a slowly rotating three-dimensional projection of the plane.

It was a standard continental-type plane, with a surface area roughly equivalent to that of a star.

The plane’s surface consisted mainly of various mountain ranges—peaks crisscrossing, deep valleys splitting the land.

The ocean area was not large; compared to the land, it was more accurate to call them inland seas.

Scattered across the continents were cities and settlements of varying sizes.

“Your mission is to assist in eliminating these rebels,” Broadleaf said, withdrawing his gaze and fixing it on Jie Ming. “All technical data related to the Reflection Dimension obtained during the mission will belong to you.”

After a brief pause, Broadleaf added:

“However, I must remind you in advance: try not to cause excessive damage. The dragonman race has long lifespans and decent individual strength, but their birth rate is worryingly low. Even with the rebels, try to capture them alive once they lose the ability to resist. Capture when possible, knock unconscious when possible, and only kill as a last resort.

“This might be troublesome for other wizards, but I believe it should be no difficulty for you. With your resistance to dimensional channel disruption, you should be more than sufficient for this task.”

Jie Ming nodded. “Understood.”

Most of the information Broadleaf mentioned was already known to Jie Ming beforehand. The only surprise was the request to capture as many alive as possible, but it was not a big issue for him.

“I would like to ask, what exactly counts as ‘alive’ for this standard?” Jie Ming inquired.

“As long as they are alive. Of course, if you truly encounter a dangerous situation, killing them is also acceptable, though their value will drop significantly.” Hearing this, Jie Ming immediately nodded in understanding.

Wizard Broadleaf did not linger on the topic. He led Jie Ming to the center of the platform.

There stood a large teleportation array dozens of meters in diameter. The array patterns followed the standard cross-plane teleportation structure, with several additional layers of spatial stabilization runes overlaid at the edges.

Clearly, these were added as insurance against spatial disturbances caused by Reflection Dimension channels.

“The other wizards have already gone ahead,” Broadleaf said. “Once you enter, you may act freely. There are no fixed team requirements.”

“Understood.”

Jie Ming asked no further questions and stepped directly onto the teleportation array.

Silver-white light flared once more. Space twisted violently for an instant before rapidly reassembling.

In the next moment, an extremely thick aura of high-level creatures washed over him.

Though the aura was of a very high grade, it felt somewhat diluted.

The aura permeating the air now was more like the lingering echoes of true dragon bloodlines that had been continuously diluted and settled over countless years. Flames, sulfur, lava, and an ancient noble dignity hidden deep within the blood mixed together, spreading evenly through every inch of the plane’s air.

Jie Ming landed on a massive stone platform. Neat rows of dozens of greeters stood along its edges.

At the head was an exceptionally robust dragonman. He largely maintained a humanoid form, but his entire body was covered in dark-red scales whose edges gleamed with a metallic chill.

His pupils were vertical, with irises of molten orange-red that even glowed faintly on the relatively dim platform.

Two dragon horns curved backward from his temples. Their length and patterns perfectly matched the description of “Dragonman Elder” in the files. Yet his posture was completely at odds with the status of an elder.

When Jie Ming saw him, the dragonman was kneeling on one knee beside the teleportation array, holding up a heavy treasure chest with both hands. The pair of dragon wings covered in deep-red scale membranes on his back were folded perfectly straight, not daring to lift even the tips by a fraction.

Behind him, dozens of dragonmen knelt in unison. Each held a tray or treasure chest, their dragon wings pressed tightly against their backs in uniform posture.

At the outermost edge of the group stood a being that looked almost identical to the dragonmen.

Jie Ming recognized its true nature with a single glance.

It was a governance-use android, standard model from the Star Ring Federation.

Its outer shell had simply been fashioned in the likeness of a dragonman. The texture and temperature of the scales were simulated nearly perfectly, and even the angle at which the dragon wings were folded strictly conformed to dragonman social etiquette standards.

“Lord Jie Ming.”

The dragon-shaped android stepped forward and performed a standard diplomatic salute with fluid grace.

“I am the administrative governor arranged by Wizard Broadleaf for the Dragonman Plane, serial number 001. These individuals are representatives elected by the various dragonman tribes. They have brought some meeting gifts. The items are not particularly valuable—merely some rare local ores and medicinal herbs.”

Jie Ming glanced at the treasure chests.

The ores were of excellent quality, and the medicinal herbs carried sufficient energy fluctuations. By external standards, they were indeed decent resources.

However, Jie Ming only politely picked out one ore from the side as a token gift. He then looked at the administrative governor and asked directly, “Tell me about the current situation.”

“The situation is somewhat more optimistic than Wizard Broadleaf initially estimated,” the administrative governor chose his words carefully. “The rebel force does exist and has indeed mastered methods to connect to the Reflection Dimension. However, the number of people who have responded to them is surprisingly low.

“According to statistics up to yesterday, the total number of rebels across the entire plane does not exceed three thousand. Among them, fewer than fifty have truly mastered the dimensional channel connection technology. The rest are mostly ordinary dragonmen who were incited, coerced, or bribed. Their combat effectiveness is limited.” He thought for a moment and continued:

“Furthermore, the dragonman race itself has organized a united army to carry out encirclement and suppression. The dragonman alliance has already cut off most of the rebels’ supply lines and compressed them into several remote mountainous regions. If not for the rebels forcibly holding on with the localized destructive power of their dimensional channels, they would have been wiped out by the alliance long ago.”

The administrative governor offered a final summary.

“Looking at the current situation, those dragonmen who have mastered the dimensional channel technology are less like a rebel army and more like… a cult.” Jie Ming raised an eyebrow slightly. This differed considerably from his expectations before departure.

He had originally thought he would be facing a plane-scale armed rebellion. From what he was hearing, it was actually closer to a small extremist organization armed with dangerous weapons.

The dragon-shaped android handed over a recording crystal.

It contained known rebel strongholds, activity frequencies, the scale and duration of dimensional channel openings during each attack, as well as detailed battle reports between the alliance and the rebels.

Jie Ming accepted the crystal, sent his spiritual power into it, and quickly scanned through the contents.

The data was recorded in great detail. In addition to the approximate locations of various strongholds and corresponding battle reports, it also included statistics on the opponents’ dimensional channel activations.

From the data, the dimensional channels the rebel dragonmen could open were not particularly large—the maximum diameter was only half a meter, and the duration was on the order of nanoseconds.

Compared to the intangible attacks he had encountered in the Tentacle Tree Plane that could directly pierce seventh-ring black giants, these were not on the same level at all. Jie Ming put away the crystal, lingered no longer, and soared into the sky.

His figure vanished from the horizon almost instantly.

Several days later, Jie Ming appeared in the skies above a continuous mountain range.

This mountain range was called the “Iron Spine Mountains” in the Dragonman Plane.

Viewed from high altitude, the arrangement of the ridges closely resembled the spine of a giant dragon lying prone on the earth, hence the name.

The mountain range spanned more than tens of thousands of kilometers. Its highest peaks pierced the clouds, which only dared linger around the mid-slopes and never truly pressed upon the summits. According to dragonman historical legends, this mountain range should be the oldest origin site of draconic life.

The ecosystem within the mountains was astonishingly complex.

Besides the dominant dragonmen, the Dragonman Plane was also home to numerous secondary creatures carrying draconic bloodlines. Many high-grade draconic bloodline creatures lived within the Iron Spine Mountains.

Creatures such as the massive dragon lizards with bony plates on their backs that spat corrosive acid when hunting and were larger than blue whales, or the flying dragon beasts with wingspans exceeding ten meters that hunted using echolocation, were commonplace here.

Even creatures of this level could only be considered the bottom of the food chain within the Iron Spine Mountains and had to live in groups. It could be said that every living thing in these mountains—including plants—retained certain traits of the true dragon race to varying degrees.

These traits, however, had been diluted to the extreme, like faint echoes of bloodlines diluted infinitely.

According to the research materials provided by Wizard Broadleaf, true dragons had indeed existed in this plane long ago.

These beings worthy of being called true dragons varied in form, but every single one was at least a seventh-rank existence.

For unknown reasons, the true dragon race completely withdrew from this plane at a certain point in time, leaving behind only these descendants with thinned bloodlines to continue multiplying over the long ages.

“According to the intelligence, the rebels should have a stronghold in this area, but it’s hidden quite well…”

Jie Ming spread his spiritual power to cover the entire mountain range but naturally found no trace of the so-called rebel stronghold.

“After all, I arrived rather late. The strongholds that could be clearly identified as rebel bases have mostly been cleaned up. The remaining ones are naturally well camouflaged.”

“There are quite a few villages inside. They should be hiding within these villages…”

If they had simply dug tunnels or entered some special stronghold, it would have been easy to detect under his spiritual coverage. Only by using villages as camouflage would they evade immediate discovery.

After thinking for a moment, Jie Ming opened the vertical pupil on his forehead and activated the Fate Subsystem.

After carefully observing the flow of fate across this plane, Jie Ming nodded in satisfaction. “It’s simpler than I expected. Very well, then I’ll wait another couple of days…”

With that thought, he activated the Great Void Step within the clouds above.

His aura was completely erased in an instant, and his figure vanished silently into the cloud layer.

Jie Ming maintained his body in this ethereal state as he arrived at the core region of the Iron Spine Mountains.