181: Unexpected news

Ryan lay comfortably on the lawn, watching the beautiful rainbow beside the Rainbow Spring.

The Rainbow Spring was previously a Mana Spring, which was transformed into the current Rainbow Spring by Dora after Ryan brought it back.

Ryan was very happy that the water from the Rainbow Spring had a stronger nourishing effect on magic plants than the previous Mana Spring; as for the added aesthetic appeal, he didn't care much about it.

Right next to the Rainbow Spring was that Gold Rank rosy cloud tree; both this small tree and the Rainbow Spring were protected by a natural magic circle set up by Dora.

Dora's current strength had also reached High Gold Rank, jumping across two ranks.

This was all thanks to Ryan; in fact, the high-level magic plants Ryan had scavenged from the Holy Lords Palace weren't just those five rosy cloud tree leaves, but also several other gold grade magical plants.

Since the quantity was small and attempting to make potions might lead to waste, and the effect of Ryan eating them himself was mediocre, he ended up feeding them all to Dora, causing little Dora's strength to skyrocket.

Dora, whose strength had greatly increased, immediately brought surprises to Ryan; besides upgrading the Mana Spring to the Rainbow Spring and creating the top-tier Magical Plant Garden, Dora's Garden.

Dora also blessed all the magic plants in the Magical Plant Garden, promoting a large number of Bronze Rank magic plants and dozens of Silver Rank magic plants.

Among those thirteen Bronze Rank wind spirit sacred trees, three were promoted to Silver Rank wind spirit sacred trees, and while the remaining ten were not promoted, their effects far exceeded what they were before the blessing.

In addition, Dora and Kapdo joined forces to upgrade the magic circle of the Magical Plant Garden; the new circle, which incorporated Dora's innate spells, was tested by Ryan and found to be unbreakable by anyone below the Legendary rank—only a Legendary could have the strength to break the Magical Plant Garden's magic circle.

Furthermore, the magic tools for maintaining magic plants brought back from the Holy Mountain were also nourished by Dora with her innate spells, enhancing their effects by another level.

Finally, Dora selected several children from the group who had been learning and helping in the Magical Plant Garden who were more attuned to nature and gave them a blessing, making their perception of magic plants sharper and making them more adept at using magic tools to tend to the magic plants.

The enhancement of abilities brought by Dora's strength increase was a huge boost for the entire Magical Plant Garden; essentially, Dora's power alone had raised the Magical Plant Garden by a whole level.

In the end, Dora also gave a blessing to the fairy Ariya, who had always been following her like a little tail.

Ariya's strength had already reached Silver Peak, and according to Dora's estimation, she might break through to Gold Rank in just a few days.

The fact that Dora could even bless a Silver Rank fairy was beyond Ryan's expectations and gave him a deeper understanding of Dora's abilities.

On the other side, Kapdo, enjoying his food, squinted at Dora, whose strength had greatly increased; Kapdo saw all of Dora's sudden surge in power and understood it was Ryan's doing.

He was extremely happy about Dora's strength increase, even feeling that the speed of her improvement was a bit slow; it would be great if she could break through to the Legendary Realm even faster.

Thinking of this, Kapdo thought of the two complete law crystals in his spatial ring.

One of them was reserved for his precious granddaughter Cecilia, and he no longer had any use for the other one.

A person only has one chance to comprehend a law crystal; if they succeed, they break through to the Legendary Realm, but if they fail, they have no second chance to use another law crystal to comprehend the power of laws.

Therefore, Cecilia wouldn't need a second law crystal; if Ryan didn't have any law crystals, Kapdo would have given this law crystal to Ryan, but since Ryan had some as well, Kapdo planned to give this law crystal to Dora.

Rumor has it that a Spirit of Nature naturally understands the laws of nature and doesn't need to comprehend laws like humans do to break through to the Legendary Realm; if that were true, then Dora wouldn't actually need a law crystal.

But Kapdo had never encountered a Spirit of Nature and didn't know if a law crystal would actually be useful for Dora.

"Dora is wary of me, so I should have Cecilia go and ask. I'll find an opportunity to give the law crystal to little Cecilia and have her hand it to Dora to see if it's useful for a Spirit of Nature."

Kapdo made up his mind; as long as Dora broke through to the Legendary Realm a step sooner, the curse he and Cecilia carried could be removed that much earlier.

Kapdo didn't want the power of the curse to stay on Cecilia for even a moment longer; every moment it existed was damaging to her. He didn't care about himself anymore, but Cecilia absolutely could not be so damaged by the curse that she couldn't break through to Legendary.

Having obtained a law crystal and with Cecilia practicing a Legendary-level meditation method, Kapdo became increasingly confident that she could break through to Legendary, and for this, he was willing to give up everything.

"Grandpa, eat some more! Little Cecilia spent a long time making these snacks!"

After playing with Ariya and Dora for a while, Cecilia returned to Kapdo's side and started promoting the snacks she had made.

Dora landed on a tree branch and started swinging; Ariya was behind her, pushing her like a little lackey.

After receiving Dora's blessing, Ariya's attitude toward Dora became even more attentive than before, wishing she never had to leave her side for a moment.

Melissa watched the fawning Ariya and the playful Dora with a beaming smile.

The trip to the Sub-plane had benefited Melissa greatly; she was now only half a step away from breaking through to the Legendary Realm, and with the help of a law crystal, she was very confident she could cross that final half-step.

Once she crossed that threshold, many of her problems would be solved, and she could finally return to the home she had left years ago.

"What exactly is Dora's bloodline? To have such powerful abilities, she's definitely not ordinary royalty. Could it be an ancient remnant bloodline, the Ancient Fairy King lineage?"

Melissa grew increasingly curious about Dora's powerful abilities, but she just couldn't identify her origin.

When she was at the Holy Land, she wasn't a good student, and she later snuck out before finishing her studies, which meant the inherited knowledge in her mind wasn't very complete; Melissa didn't know much about her clan's ancient history.

"The Great Elder must know Dora's origin; I'll find out when I go back and ask!"

Melissa turned her head and saw Alistair elegantly sipping hot tea, looking every bit the noble lady, which immediately reminded her of her once-dearest friend.

"Alistair, you were raised as a boy since you were little, and yet after only a few days of revealing your true self, you have such an aura—you really are exactly like your mother."

Alistair's memory of her mother was very vague, so she usually enjoyed listening to Melissa tell stories about her.

"How am I exactly like my mother?"

"When she went wild, she was reckless, but normally she was incredibly elegant. I used to say she was being pretentious, but she'd say a woman must be elegant and would mock me for ages."

Melissa got all huffy talking about it, while Alistair laughed happily.

Happy times are always fleeting; after spending a joyful day in Dora's Garden, Ryan returned to Red River Fortress to resume his busy schedule.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he returned, Ryan received a piece of news that shocked him greatly.

"What did you say?"

"The Grand Duke led a large army and started fighting with the Stag Territory?"

"That's impossible, right?"