Chapter 164: Heading to the Serpentshrine Cavern, the Outland Dragon

This made the other tribal races envious — the Horde's tauren, trolls, and orcs, and even the Alliance's dwarves, gnomes, and humans all coveted these soul weapons.

But an eleven-year lifespan is far too long for some short-lived races — after all, not everyone has the longevity of elves!

However, the Night Elf race was very interested in Luode's soul weapons. Some Night Elf druids, moon priestesses, and female sentinels chose to have Luode help craft these soul weapons.

But their payment wasn't ten years — it was a hundred years, which is a very short span for Night Elves; some druids even sleep for centuries in the Emerald Dream.

For the Night Elves, Luode charged the same fee — a one‑tenth handling fee — and their souls let him accumulate a wave of soul energy with nature and moonlight attributes.

On the Horde side, the tauren, and on the Alliance side, the dwarves — whose lifespans are several hundred years — also had some bold individuals who came to Luode to have him craft soul weapons.

An eleven‑year lifespan was not unacceptable for them; among them were some dwarf paladins and tauren Sunwalkers, which once again brought some holy souls into Luode's hands.

These holy souls are precious, so Luode did not use them to forge weapons; instead he chose ordinary soul energy.

Anyway, when crafting weapons, infusing them with strong holy light lets the soul weapon wield holy light, and ordinary professionals can't notice any flaw, so Luode gladly accepted large amounts of paladin soul energy.

What a pity! Some human paladins and draenei paladins never came to Luode for soul weapons, even if he brought his floating fortress down and made it a truly neutral zone.

In the Beasts Pirates, Luode gave his father‑in‑law Kaido and Yamato's spiked club some frenzied worgen soul energy, upgrading their weapons.

This made their weapons more ferocious, slightly boosting their power.

"So you've been busy making these soul weapons lately?" Sylvanas, who had just returned from Nagrand, looked at Luode and spoke.

"Exactly! But these soul weapons aren't suitable for you Forsaken, since pulling out your soul power would basically get you killed outright." Luode said.

There's no way around it — the Forsaken are undead; extracting their soul power is like sucking out their essence, which could kill them on the spot.

Therefore the Forsaken are the least able to use soul weapons — unless Luode is willing to pay out of pocket, it simply won't work.

"That's really a shame; I wanted you to make me one of these weapons!" Sylvanas said.

Her man was making all kinds of soul weapons for others, yet she had none — what's that called?

"Ordinary Forsaken can't use them, you can't either, and you're actually the bane of these soul weapons." Luode said.

Sylvanas, who wields the Yellow Spring Fruit ability, could, if she wished, use her Exorcise the Dead skill to instantly kill some weak Homies.

Even her soul is immune to Luode's soul extraction, and some Homies fear her greatly, so the queen simply can't obtain a soul weapon.

"Never mind, I don't need that strength anyway — after all, I have you by my side! You can fully serve as my melee bodyguard." Sylvanas said.

"Hmm! How's the Horde's operation in Nagrand going this time?" Luode asked.

During this period, Luode has been holed up in Netherstorm, while the Alliance and Horde have each entered Blade's Edge Mountains, and the campaign in Zangarmarsh has begun — though they still can't enter Serpentshrine Cavern.

"Thrall personally made a trip; all the brown‑skinned Mag'har orcs in Nagrand, under the leadership of someone called Garrosh, have already joined the Horde."

"There's also a relative of Thrall's — likely his grandmother, named Geyah — and the Horde hero Rexar has returned to his homeland." Sylvanas said.

Now the Horde's strength has greatly increased; these Mag'har orcs have vastly boosted its combat power, especially the orcs' strength.

"Hmm! I see — what are the Horde and Alliance planning next?"

Looks like the young hero Hao has already appeared!

"The newly joined Alliance draenei, along with some native residents of Zangarmarsh, are asking the Alliance to help them remove Vashj and her Serpentshrine Cavern."

"They've set up large drainage pumps there, wrecking Zangarmarsh's already fragile ecological balance; I expect the Alliance will soon launch an assault on Serpentshrine Cavern." Sylvanas said.

"Hmm! Are you interested in going with me to the Alliance side for a trip?"

The killing of Lady Vashj is something Luode doesn't want to get involved in — the other side are die‑hard fans of Illidan, even willing to betray Azshara for him.

The real key is that the pre‑quest to open Serpentshrine Cavern requires a trip to Karazhan, and some bronze dragons will show up.

The famous Battle of Mount Hyjal, the opening of the Dark Portal, and the Ancient War tourism group — tickets will also go on sale.

Luode is quite unsure what he is in the eyes of these bronze dragons after crossing over into the Azeroth world.

Early on, Luode kept a low profile, never thinking of changing history, but after gaining power he brought the Beasts Pirates over to join the Horde.

He even altered the fate of Kael'thas's death.

He did greatly alter the course of history, but Luode has Azeroth backing him, so he wasn't afraid of those bronze dragons.

"You want me, a Forsaken leader, to go to the Alliance?! Are you kidding? The Alliance really hates orcs, trolls, and the Forsaken!" Sylvanas said.

Even though I've been reborn, the Forsaken on the Alliance side are essentially no different from the Scourge undead.

If you were a wild demigod, the Alliance would surely welcome you enthusiastically, but I'm not the same.

"All right! This time I'll take Bulin and Yamato over there for a trip, and you stay here." Luode said.

Sylvanas's identity really isn't suited for appearing in the Alliance camp.

Over the next few days, Luode arranged for his clone to stay here, continuing to craft soul weapons for profit. Whether blood elves, night elves, tauren, or dwarves — as long as they can pay the price, he accepts everyone.

A few days later, Luode took Yamato, Bulin, the newly added Liadelin, and the female deputy astromancer Caponia.

Together they rode Luode's remodeled new mount — a huge flying carpet — heading for Zangarmarsh.

Originally, the two blood elf girls' goal was to go to Shattrath City to see what the Astrologer troops who had surrendered to the Naaru were saying.

But Luode suggested they first accompany him on a trip, and when they return he'll help bring back the blood elf units in Shattrath City that have been deluded by the Naaru.

Those holy‑light old charlatans are top‑tier at deceiving people, and Luode worries that Liadelin will be straight‑up fooled by the Naaru once she gets there.

In the original timeline, after clearing out Kael'thas, Liadelin came to Shattrath City and was immediately bamboozled by the Naaru.

"Lord Luode, do you mean that the Holy Light isn't what we thought — selfless and righteous?" Liadelin said.

"Exactly; the Holy Light's essence is basically the same as Shadow's — both aim to turn targets into light‑forged beings, just as shadow life tries to corrupt you into shadow."

"Only the Holy Light's methods are more refined, while Shadow's are more brutal and forcible." Luode said.

Others don't know the Holy Light's nature, but Luode does — before version 7.0, all players thought the Holy Light's Seven‑fold Board was just selfless benevolence.

But in a certain alternate timeline, Iridi wanted to light‑forge all Draenei life, and the Holy Light's Mother Zela sought to forcibly transmute Illidan, showing that the Holy Light's essence really isn't that different from Shadow's.

Only its methods are more easily accepted by mortal races, who may even see it as a boon — you can use the six primal forces, but you must never become their slaves.

This is what Azeroth told Luode, and he firmly believes it.

"I agree with Lord Luode's words; when we studied arcane magic we were told that arcane is merely a force."

"The power that can be controlled, and even the other six primal forces are the same; we mages will absolutely not become slaves to a primal force." Kaponiya said.

It is precisely because of the help of these arcane mages that the holy light creature can be provoked to release holy light energy, granting the blood elves a blood knight unit.

Upon hearing this, Liadelin nodded thoughtfully; the power of the Holy Light can indeed be forcibly used. Lord Luode created that flame Holy Light creature for him, allowing perfect use of Holy Light power, even more perfect than hers.

'The Holy Light creature in your Silvermoon City, when you draw its energy, you'd better be careful and give it time to recover; otherwise, the extreme of Holy Light becomes shadow, and it will transform into a Shadow Entropy Demon.' Luode intended to remind the blood elves that they need to pursue sustainable development.

If Murlu is drained of Holy Light energy, it will transform into the utmost darkness, its personality twisted directly, from a Holy Light lifeform into the strongest Shadow lifeform; by then, those who imprisoned him will be in trouble.

Luode also hopes that this Naru can continuously provide some Holy Light energy; then he can use that Holy Light energy to create a powerful Holy Light lifeform.

By then, Luode could even artificially train some paladins, and the skills of the paladins will naturally be brought by his two subordinates; even the blood elves' blood knight combat style can be referenced.

'I understand, Lord Luode; I will inform His Highness the Prince.' Liadelin spoke.

'Lord Luode's side, that combination is so strange—is it a blue dragon? A human is riding on it.' Bulin pointed at the strange combination before everyone's flying carpet; a huge blue dragon's neck actually had a human paladin riding on it.

As everyone knows, Aizelasi has no dragon rider profession; not even the great Lord Makusi can manage to hook up with a dragon.

'Greetings, I am of the Blue Dragon Legion, Tailigosa, and this is my companion, the human paladin Qiaolade.' The huge blue dragon flew to Luode's magic carpet and spoke.

'Is this the soul weapon that's been all the rage lately? You must be the Azure Dragon demigod, right?' Human paladin Qiaolade asked.

'Let's go down and chat, you two; I'm very interested in your combination!'

This is an Outland dragon! Luode suddenly recalled that, indeed, some human paladin had hooked up with a blue dragon! And it's a pretty blue dragon lass, he said.

On a certain floating island in the Outland Void Storm, in the game back then, these two NPCs could be found.

In their novel, the male and female leads of the Outland dragon are this Taileigosa. It is not the one killed at the Sunwell, nor the one sacrificed in the World Tree quest, but another blue dragon.

That blue dragon lass never appeared later, and it's unknown whether the two eventually achieved consummation, but Qiaolade does show up in the paladin class hall of version 7.0.

'Good day, exalted demigod, I am of the Blue Dragon Legion, Taileigosa.' After the blue dragon lass landed, she transformed into a female high elf with blue hair, then bowed to Luode and said.

'Hello, great demigod lord, I am Qiaolade of the Silver Hand Knight Order; when we attacked Outland back then, I personally witnessed you unleashing divine might to annihilate those demons.'

'Lord Luode, greetings! What are you up to?' Luode asked.

'Lord Luode, I and my companion are investigating two void dragons; this is a kind of dragon we have never seen in the Aizelasi world, but they are not native to Draenor, for I sense a familiar aura on them—they likely belong to the bloodline of the Five-Colored Dragon Legion.' Taileigosa said.

'Void dragon?'

'Yes, demigod lord, I discovered them when I came here on orders to investigate.' The blue-haired lass Taileigosa nodded.

'Void dragon?' Come to think of it, that's the final plot of the Outland dragon.

It was precisely the void dragon attempting to usurp a nest that led to the Blue Dragon King Maligosi absorbing them, then returning to normal and deciding to fully reclaim Aizelasi's magic net, which caused the War of the Magic Nexus.

But these aren't the most important; the most important is that a great host of void dragons is beckoning to me!

As a great demigod, saving these void dragons is an obligation I cannot shirk!

(End of chapter)