Chapter 296: Jin Gang Fort

The azure sky was as clear as washed cloth, and two wholly fire‑red flying dragons skimmed at low altitude.

Lei En looked down over the mountains on the plateau; the biting cold wind brushed his face but did not hinder his sight, his hair stood still like steel wire, and only his blood‑red great cloak rustled behind him.

He had spent the night outdoors yesterday, and now it was already the second day.

It was not far from Astat, only a little over a hundred li.

In the Makurag people's understanding, the area within three hundred li around Astat City—including most of the Makurag Mountains and the plateau below—was called the Outramu region and belonged to the tribe's territory.

After consulting with Marious, Lei En decided to build the base within Outramu.

Marious also recommended several locations.

Lei En examined the map, found that each spot was too close to Astat, and thus found an excuse to decline.

The base was crucial to his future development, inevitably holding many secrets, and could not be too near Astat.

Although the two sides were allies, there was still a need to keep distance.

Of course it could not be too far, so that Extreme Warriors could readily support Astat's battles.

Kronuan, familiar with Outramu, took Lei En to see several spots; each had one or two flaws and could not satisfy Lei En.

His requirements for the base were, first, concealment; second, easy to defend and hard to attack; finally, ample space—enough to accommodate training activities for several thousand people.

Meeting all three conditions was not easy.

The two dragons continued northwest, drifting farther from Astat, racing along the border between the plateau and the Shi Jie Shan Mai.

After three days of scouting more than a dozen sites, they barely found a few candidate locations.

But Lei En was not particularly pleased with any of them.

"Boss."

Kronuan steered his dragon closer and shouted, "Ahead is Jin Gang Peak, the northernmost high mountain of the Makurag Mountains. After Jin Gang Peak, if we fly north for half a day, we'll be out of Outramu and into Logosh Tribe's territory."

Lei En looked ahead; an unremarkable mountain rose on the horizon.

Around it were several slightly lower peaks, decreasing in height from south to north, forming the end of the range.

When they set camp last night, Kronuan had introduced Jin Gang Peak.

Its elevation ranked third among the Makurag Mountains, not especially high, incomparable to the giant peaks of the Shi Jie Shan Mai, and was obscure beyond the plateau.

Jin Gang Peak was named for its abundant Jin Gang Rock.

Jin Gang Rock is an extremely hard stone with considerable mining value, a premium building material; within the Empire it could support the development of at least a hundred quarries.

But on the Seien Plateau it was virtually worthless.

"Let's scout near Jin Gang Peak; if nothing suitable appears, we'll turn back," Lei En nodded.

It was already over two hundred li from Astat; we could not go farther.

A moment later, the dragon entered the vicinity of Jin Gang Peak.

Lei En sent the flame dragon to circle the mountain, observing the terrain below.

The peak was indeed unremarkable, its only merit being its steepness; the mountain body and strata were composed of massive rock, with crisscrossing canyons between peaks, making ascent difficult, and the surrounding ten‑plus‑mile range teemed with beasts.

Lei En's eyesight was excellent, allowing him to see great distances.

He observed while taking photos, stitching them on his phone into a complete map.

Looking at the detailed topographic map, Lei En's eyes suddenly lit up.

Jin Gang Peak was the main summit of this range, linked to three or four eastern peaks half its height, forming treacherous deep ravines with many intricate valleys.

Among those valleys lay a narrow gorge about three to four thousand meters long, its bottom very deep; even from high altitude, a wrong angle would make the bottom hard to discern.

The gorge floor was overall flat, narrowing to just over two hundred meters at its tightest, and never reaching a full kilometer in width.

At one end of the gorge lay a clear, pristine small lake.

Melted snow on Jin Gang Peak formed a waterfall that poured down, yet no overflow was seen, evidently feeding an underground river.

The entire gorge was completely enclosed, with no exit; even the lowest cliff wall rose over two hundred meters, its steep terrain impossible to climb.

However, once over the cliff wall, one could leave the mountains and enter the plateau.

Lei En immediately pointed toward the gorge and said, "We'll go down and see."

As the dragon approached the gorge, Kronuan and the three other Extreme Warriors were invigorated; the gorge almost satisfied every condition for establishing a base.

Concealment, safety, and ample space.

The flame dragon flew into the gorge, landing at the lake's edge; its imposing presence startled nearby beasts and birds into frantic flight.

Lei En leapt down, looking up to survey the gorge's environment.

Afternoon sunlight pierced the deep valley, illuminating only a small portion; most of it remained dim, cold, and damp, as secluded and tranquil as most valleys, with only the waterfall's roar echoing.

The lake‑side end of the gorge offered relatively open views of Jin Gang Peak's summit; the opposite end was narrower and darker, vines draped the top, trees flourished, and even sunlight struggled to penetrate.

Lei En walked the gorge twice and immediately decided this was the place.

He already had a preliminary layout for the base.

The surrounding rock walls were rugged, perfect for carving dragon lairs; the camp fort would be built at the dark inner end, employing earth‑elemental magic to carve space into the mountain, with a teleportation array placed at the deepest point; the bright end of the gorge would serve as the Extreme Warriors' training shooting range.

A hidden watchtower must be erected on the gorge's rock walls.

Later, if sufficient funds are available, a large rune array will be installed to shroud the entire gorge, preventing even sound from escaping.

"No need to look further; this gorge will be our base in the future,"

Lei En announced.

"Alright, boss," the Extreme Warriors replied gladly; Kronuan produced a crude self‑made map, marked the gorge's location, and asked with a smile, "Boss, this gorge has no name; shall we give it one?"

Lei En looked up at the rugged mountains, thought for a moment, and said, "Since the base is at the foot of Jin Gang Peak, let's call it 'Jin Gang Fort.'"

"We'll source materials on site, using the Jin Gang Rock here to build our training fort,"

He added another sentence.

Kronuan whispered 'Jin Gang Fort' twice, feeling the name was conventional; the Empire had many places called Jin Gang Fort, nothing remarkable about it.

Since it's the boss's idea, let's settle on that.

An Extreme Warrior asked, "Should we go back to A Si Ta Te to transport the teleportation array materials?"

"We don't need to rush that," Lei En shook his head. "The materials are heavy and numerous; moving them with two Flame Dragons would take many trips. We'll tame a few flying dragons, and when Xi Ka Liu Si and the others return to A Si Ta Te, we can transport everything in one go, without back‑and‑forth hassle."

Upon hearing about taming flying dragons, the three Extreme Warriors without mounts lit up.

They had come out with Lei En precisely to capture flying dragons.

These past days they'd been busy selecting a base site and hadn't specifically searched for dragon nests, but now the chance finally arrived.

"Boss, I once encountered two flying dragons in the western Shi Jie Shan Mai; there may be a nest there," an Extreme Warrior hurriedly said.

Lei En leapt onto a Flame Dragon and laughed, "Alright, you lead the way."

It took only half a day to reach the spot where that Extreme Warrior had seen the dragons, yet Lei En searched the surrounding dozens of li several times and found no trace of them.

In fact, there are quite a number of flying dragons on the Sai En Plateau.

But the plateau is vast—its area nearly matches half the Empire—so locating dragons in such a sprawling region remains quite difficult.

Moreover, different dragons have differing habits.

Some dragons build nests and travel in small groups, like Flame Dragons; others live solitarily without fixed territories, wandering and hard to encounter, like Ice Wind Dragons; still others are highly intelligent and extremely wary, lurking like seasoned hunters and rarely showing themselves, such as Silver Frost Dragons.

After two consecutive days of searching, Lei En only discovered two Venomous Flying Dragons.

They are a pair of dragon spouses; their strength is far below that of Flame Dragons, barely qualifying as high‑tier dragons, and crucially, Venomous Flying Dragons lack Affinity Element.

They cannot grant Extreme Warriors casting potential, which is needed for using Soul Spears.

In Lei En's expectation, Flame Dragons are of course the most suitable mounts. If there are no Flame Dragons, other dragons with Affinity Element would do, since dragons are hard to find; having them is better than having none.

But Venomous Flying Dragons are a different story.

Lei En originally intended to let them go, but these two low‑intelligence dragons unexpectedly launched an attack, and they couldn't be driven away, so Lei En casually eliminated them and extracted their soul cores.

The soul cores of the two high‑tier dragons could fetch three thousand Gold Shields.

Besides flying dragons, Lei En also discovered some powerful birds of prey, such as Dragon Eagles.

Dragon Eagles are a diverse branch of draconic descendants, though their draconic blood is thinner, so they are classified as birds of prey; they range from low to high tiers, and high‑tier Dragon Eagles fly even faster—sometimes the Flame Dragons can't keep up.

There are also various Griffins, Rift‑Cloud Raptors, Pegasi, and countless ground‑dwelling beasts.

Many of them would make fine mounts, but either they're too small to carry an Extreme Warrior, or they lack Affinity Element and can't provide casting potential.

Only if they're ferociously aggressive and attack first will Lei En kill them to extract their soul cores.

Usually he lets these birds and beasts live.

Unwittingly, Lei En and the four Extreme Warriors had already left the Ao Te La Mu Region, traveling farther and farther, until they finally found a nest on the outskirts of the Shi Jie Shan Mai, which happened to house Flame Dragons.

The nest contained four Flame Dragons; Lei En seized the moment while they were out hunting, splitting his forces to strike them one by one.

In just half a day he tamed them all.

Each Extreme Warrior who emerged received a mount, and there was even one left over. Lei En appointed them as Flame Dragon tamers; they quickly grew familiar with their dragons and mastered the techniques for controlling flight.

"Boss, we've been out for five days; should we return?" Ke Luo Nu An counted the days, noting that Xi Ka Liu Si and the others should also head back to A Si Ta Te.

Lei En nodded.

Suitable flying dragons are hard to find; taming four Flame Dragons is already lucky. Allocating a dragon mount to sixty Extreme Warriors could take a year or more.

He was about to decide to return when he turned his gaze westward, looking far into the distance.

His Soul Eye opened to the extreme, his sight piercing the clear sky; faintly he saw the outline of an enormous, majestic peak on the horizon, its grandeur and sheer cliffs perceptible even from hundreds of li away.

"Ai Lun E Si's world's second highest peak, Ka Er Feng."

Lei En opened his personal library to search records; many books contained illustrations of Ka Er Feng that matched exactly the silhouette he saw before him.

"I can't believe we traveled this far."

Ka Er Feng is not close to A Si Ta Te; it's at least over two thousand li away.

Lei En's mind sparked, recalling the information he bought from Minotaur Ha Bu for five hundred Gold Shields, that Storm Giants had been spotted near Ka Er Feng.

He had already planned to hunt Storm Giants, perhaps to obtain Lightning Affinity Element.

"Since we're already here," Lei En thought, "we might as well trek to Ka Er Feng, saving us from having to fly back next time."

(End of Chapter)