# Chapter 13: Handling Miscellaneous Matters
It wasn't until the next morning that Joshua set out for the Writhing Forest, preparing to help Baniel and William.
Why was Joshua, who was usually decisive in his actions, moving so slowly this time? There were many reasons, but the most important one was that he had too many things to do.
As one of the elusive deans of Winterfell Academy—a figure who appeared like a dragon's head but never its tail—Joshua's presence was a major reason why many students from other countries and regions joined Winterfell Academy. Especially with the newly opened departments for combat professions like the Warrior Department and Knight Department, many students desperately wanted to see the warrior in person. In response, Joshua went to give a speech, briefly demonstrating the power of a Legendary Expert, and encouraged them to continue working hard, saying that their time would come one day.
In addition, he also took the opportunity to check on the cultivation progress of his several nominal disciples—the four members of the First Squad and Second Prince Alva. It had to be said that as individuals favored by both Joshua and the Divine Calamity Mist, these youngsters' strength had indeed progressed very rapidly. In just over half a year, they had all crossed the Silver barrier and reached the mid-to-low Silver rank. If they were lucky, touching the Gold barrier before coming of age wouldn't be difficult either. This was a rate of advancement only possible during the Great Magic Tide period. After all, geniuses before the Great Magic Tide, at the same age, were still pondering how to break through the Silver barrier.
The techniques imparted to Ivan and the others were simplified versions of Joshua's own many Transcendent abilities. Ivan had his Steel Body, Amira had his Steel Force vision and energy sensing ability, the dwarf Nick had his life energy circulation system, and the knight maiden Karin had the prototype of the Fusion Core Heart furnace.
As for Alva, he had received Joshua's insights on gravity and electromagnetic force, gaining the ability to fly through electromagnetic fields and condense electric currents. Once he advanced to Gold-rank, he would be able to touch the domain of gravity and condense the most basic 'Mass Weapon Steel Sword.'
Giving speeches and checking on students took considerable time. That evening, Joshua also had a brief meeting with Nostradamus and Israel through a space-time passage, discussing information about the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground and the ancient era.
The conversation wasn't long, but the process was urgent, because the warrior and the old mage had suddenly disappeared for several weeks, putting Israel under great pressure in the Mycroft World. External prying wasn't much of an issue; it was mainly the internal undercurrents that were hard to calm. Due to the rapid surge in individual strength during the Great Magic Tide era, the power gap between ordinary nobles and commoners had become negligible. Many commoners who suddenly gained power began to retaliate against the nobles or wealthy merchants who had previously oppressed them. And those who held power and resources naturally wouldn't just wait for those commoners to charge at them in a desperate fight—they directly suppressed them.
Without a war against the orcs as a target to draw away hatred, in the impoverished southern regions of the Empire, the conflict between nobles and commoners had almost reached an irreconcilable point. Previously, the commoners had no power to resist; now that they had gained strength, they would no longer remain so docile and obedient.
Israel believed that to solve this problem rooted in the privileged classes within the entire system, there were two options: either start a civil war within the Empire, kill until heads rolled, and redistribute class interests, or engage in expansion to find new lands, transferring the conflicting population from impoverished areas and giving them their own land to cultivate. But both were merely treating symptoms, not the root cause. Only a thorough reform of the entire system would be the true solution.
However, Nostradamus believed that forced reform would cause large-scale rebellion among the traditional nobility. Even if the three of them could suppress all opposing voices in the Empire in just one day, they couldn't establish a fair and lasting national system. They needed some time for experimentation and reflection. Before that, the Empire could try exploring other worlds through the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground to find a direction for expansion.
Joshua knew that in his previous life, because Israel was gravely ill, Nostradamus had led the Empire's development direction. After the Glorious Expedition against the orcs came the Great Expansion Era, developing the major mountain ranges and the Black Forest. The Northern Empire even sent a large army deep into the Central Black Forest, and countless adventurers followed the Empire's five legions to explore those mysterious and dangerous forbidden lands, discovering countless prehistoric treasures and ruins.
The three of them had a brief exchange but set the Empire's development direction for the next decade or so. It seemed that when Eagle had wanted to meet Joshua earlier, it was probably for a similar purpose. However, Joshua's challenge had made the old Pope forget about it... Or perhaps not forget, but after sparring with Joshua, he felt that such trivial matters were no longer important.
With both public and private matters mostly resolved, it wasn't until the next morning that Joshua had time to go with the two Legendary Mages to the Writhing Forest.
"You mean that Sea Dragon lady also wants to awaken her Ancient Dragon bloodline?"
On the way to the Writhing Forest, Joshua casually told these two Ancient Dragon experts about Hill and Faina's situation. Baniel was quite interested: "I can tell that her bloodline is very pure. She's a rare intelligent Primordial Realm Dragon hybrid. For her, awakening the Ancient Dragon bloodline should be more convenient than for your little female dragon. At least in terms of bloodline concentration, Black can't compare."
"Yes, the main issue is the materials and how to tap into the power within her."
William gave a professional analysis on the side: "When you awakened Black's Ancient Dragon blood back then, it was basically reckless. You were lucky that the battle qi power used to induce Black's awakening at the time had the high-temperature characteristic of fire and didn't conflict with the Black Erosion Dragon's bloodline, and that Ancient Dragon blood wasn't of an opposing attribute. If someone with frost-type battle qi tried to induce Black's awakening using ice-type Ancient Dragon blood, the only outcome would be an explosion."
William wasn't joking; similar incidents had indeed occurred in history. A Dragon Knight wanted to awaken the ancestral bloodline for his dragon companion. He purchased a large amount of precious resources to help his partner tap into its power. But during the final stage of inducing the bloodline to manifest and replace the existing bloodline, due to attribute conflict, that Dragon Knight and his dragon companion were obliterated in a massive energy explosion.
"Is that so."
Joshua nodded thoughtfully. So, to awaken the bloodline within Faina, what was needed was power related to lightning and Ancient Dragon blood of the same attribute. People with such power were easy to find—not only were there seven or eight such instructors at Winterfell Academy, but even the three Legendary Experts present were all skilled at manipulating magnetic fields and playing with lightning. The only difficulty would be finding lightning-attribute Ancient Dragon blood.
Thinking this, the three had already arrived above the Writhing Forest. Beside this heterogeneous semi-biological, semi-plant jungle in the Great Aias Mountains, four or five white temporary research sheds had been built. A dozen or so young people and instructors wearing uniforms from the Sky-Piercing White Tower and the Imperial Royal Mage Academy could be seen busily coming and going, occasionally entering the jungle to collect biological tissue for research.
The original Writhing Forest, whether its tentacles or branches, had been lazily spread out, as relaxed and unguarded as a cat basking in the sun. But when Joshua, Baniel, and William approached it, this jungle, which might possess some self-awareness, immediately bristled like a startled cat. It retracted its branches and tentacles, and amid spreading electromagnetic fields, closed itself up like a frightened mimosa.
"Generally speaking, our presence causes great intimidation to such instinct-only creatures. So aside from studying its physical characteristics and complex bloodline system, William and I don't come here often—it interferes with the students' research projects."
Baniel shrugged, long accustomed to this. But Joshua stroked his chin and smiled.
"Magnetic fields... electric currents... I was just wondering where to find lightning-attribute Ancient Dragon blood."
"It seems there's a ready-made source right here."
As if sensing a powerful malice pressing down from the sky, the Writhing Forest, already curled into a ball, tightened even further.
Its simple instincts had a premonition: a disaster and conspiracy targeting it—or the master of the bloodline behind it—was about to descend.