When Feicui Long goes out to greet Mariane, she runs toward him and hugs him saying: "Master look at what I brought!"
Feicui Long, without pushing her away, looks behind her and is surprised… because entering the cave are his personal guards, Annie and her nieces, who are escorting with them a total of 15 extra wind lizards, 15 breeze lizards, 8 giant wood scale lizards and 15 lizardmen with two of them being two alpha females!, as well as other less important beasts.
Feicui Long could not help but smile like before while patting Mariane's head and tells her: "You did very, very well, your master will give you whatever reward you want when we return to the barony."
He is amazed by these new mounts, now he had a total of 30 wind lizards and 30 breeze lizards and 5 giant wood scale lizards, although in reality they are 10, since Feicui Long plans to use the lizards to establish a small satellite village of them with these 5 alpha females, because he will not take away their mounts and also because they are very loyal to their owners since they have an almost symbiotic relationship.
Of course one of them lost her mount, so he has to give her a new one, this in order to give more legitimacy to that satellite village, based on what he learned from seeing the past of Valtoe and Zathare'k is that the Mataki or the alphas are intrinsically related to these lizards, losing their lizard is almost like losing their honor or their arms and legs.
Feicui Long, who was lost in thought, is pulled out of that state by the eyes of everyone who is looking at him confused, and he realizes that he has not announced the plans, embarrassed he says: "Sorry, I forgot to say it, we are going to strategically withdraw to the barony."
Everyone looks at him in shock, especially Mariane who had become almost a killing machine, she had even killed an alpha female lizard in the ascending kingdom grade 3 to obtain all of this.
Isabella then steps forward and quickly explains to everyone: "The situation has changed a lot, but to summarize it, we are in the middle of a war between two powers outside our current league, thousands of troops between the fauns and lizardmen are expected to clash, although we do not doubt our strength, my dear has decided that the most sensible thing is to withdraw."
Everyone looks at Isabella, but they are not surprised, Isabella was gaining more and more courage and also determination, she has been learning a lot from Feicui Long and combined with her political, diplomatic, military and administrative education in the now Skylion county, it is not strange that she takes the initiative.
Isabella then, seeing the worried faces of everyone, continues explaining: "But do not worry, we will not lose the hunt, on the contrary, my dear has already created a plan, so you can eat and rest for today, tomorrow we will leave."
Feicui Long nods and says: "Isabella is right about everything, tomorrow we will leave, although of course not all of us, 25 of you will stay with 25 of the wind lizard mounts and before you worry more, it will not be for combat, your mission will only be to collect all our loot from the other 14 hideouts and bring it back to the village."
Everyone's faces looked like they were on a roller coaster, at times their hearts would rise and then calm down, in the end everyone was still intrigued, Feicui Long knows that this can be very negative for morale.
So he immediately says who will stay: "For this mission, Emma will stay as the leader and the commander, you must obey her in everything, also Ada and her entire squad will stay to cooperate with Emma, obviously the troops previously assigned to Emma in the dragon ambassadors team will be part of this team due to their experience with Emma."
Then deciding who would be the last four members, Feicui Long says it clearly: "The last members will be Caroline, Freja and my two nieces, as I said your mission is not to fight, you must avoid it at all costs and not separate, collect all the loot and transport it to this central hideout and from there return to the village, for this I will make sure to send Irina and the scouting team with the carriages to bring everything."
Everyone calmed down a bit, at least they could free themselves from the anxiety of not knowing who it would be, well at least all the regular troops who were the only ones worried about all of the above.
Mila, a bit worried about leaving Emma alone, approaches Feicui Long and he shakes his head saying: "I cannot Mila, I need you to return to manage the temple and I also need Lily, Clara and Haru to resume all the alchemy, refining-smithing and the formations and other inscriptions."
Mila then sighed and Feicui Long patted her head telling her: "Trust your best friend, she is more capable than you think."
Isabella, a bit worried, tells him: "Are you sure about leaving Melina and Callista?, they are still very young, they are 16 years old and have barely participated in two major battles."
Feicui Long hugs her and tells her: "I know, I know, but that is precisely why I am leaving them, I want them to gain experience."
Feicui Long then approaches the twins and after patting their heads he hugs them, he remembers when he found those 11 and a half year old girls who claimed to be his nieces and how he saw them grow over these 5 years and he feels a bit proud of his upbringing.
Then while they hug him back he tells them: "I know you are probably a bit nervous, but… I want you to know that I will never stop protecting you, you are my precious nieces, but I want you to understand that even so I want you to gain strength by yourselves, experience to survive, because of everything I have learned…"
Feicui Long stops before saying something while nostalgically remembering his first life: "It is that as my master told me that not only in this universe but in all of existence, the only thing that can truly protect you, is your own strength and that is more true than ever."
The twins hug him without saying a word, they have never been very talkative, but with this they convey their feelings and their thoughts, be strong… those are the words of their father…
Feicui Long is not obsessed with strength, with power, but as a Supreme God of power and with all his experience of 35 billion years, he knows better than anyone… that in the end the only thing that matters is absolute strength, nothing else, and only by obtaining it is when you can rest and he definitely will not make the mistakes of the past again.
That night everyone celebrated with a great banquet…
…
The next day Feicui Long and Isabella mounted Windy, while the rest mounted the remaining wind lizards and breeze lizards, carefully they tied the carriages and the horses, everything was loaded.
At their sides followed the other beasts, from afar they almost look like a horde of beasts, because in total there are 20 hound lizards, 20 harasser lizards flying in the skies, 7 poison spitting turtles, 10 shadow lizards, 9 stalking serpents, 5 armored lizards and 10 flying ember lizards and 10 wood lizards.
As for the prisoners they are riding in the carriages, Feicui Long had not made them sign anything yet, he plans to do it in the village where they cannot attempt to escape.
Making sure everyone is prepared Feicui Long says: "Forward, the Skydragon barony awaits us!"
And so they set off…
The march was calm since to avoid hidden dangers Feicui Long allowed Mariane to use the dragon fear skill of the racial abilities of dragons that she obtained when he helped her integrate her bloodline with hers.
This aura not only allowed the captured beasts to calm down but also kept all outsiders away and in turn other creatures, after all it is a skill designed to suppress, overwhelm and dominate the enemies of dragons.
Thus he ensured that under no circumstances they would have to stop.
…
After 12 hours of travel they finally saw the barony on the horizon, the captured lizardmen, especially Valtoe, were left surprised, she herself says out loud: "What the hell where did an entire village come from here!?, had the mortals not been exterminated in this area by the sect of the thousand poisons!?"
Valtoe looks at a lesser shaman and tells her: "You tell me, did the intelligence not say that the only threat were the fauns?, or are they so useless as to let this detail pass?, that is why we are here trapped."
The shaman becomes trembling although she has a status equivalent to that of an alpha, Valtoe is different, she is the heiress of a great clan, soon a Mataki'la, therefore her status is higher than hers, so a bit annoyed she answers: "That is impossible miss Valtoe'ktek, do not dare to slander the chamber of observers!"
Valtoe looks at her with disdain, but soon the carriage begins to slow down and she can see humans, elves, dwarves, all mortal races coming out who heard the sound of the carriage wheels and came out to see what was happening.
Valtoe angrily clicks her tongue saying: "Damn it, all mortal races gathered here…"
The worst for her is seeing how everyone celebrates the arrival of her people…
The carriage stops and the one driving the carriage, that human named Alexei, without a shred of delicacy gets off the carriage and approaches her and lifts her placing her on his shoulder while mockingly saying: "I hope the princess is not bothered by how I am carrying her."
Feicui Long jumps down from Windy and helps Isabella get down from the carriage and stops to wait a moment for the guards stationed in the village to arrive…