Raise Joan of Arc to be an empress, then discard her.

Aaron nodded; he also thought this was the best way to do it.

“But I didn’t expect things to escalate this much,” Elliott said. “I thought catching a few rat-eating spirit beasts would solve the problem, since we actually managed to capture a member of the Seven Deadly Sins. Although what you did was dangerous, you did a great job this time. Don’t do it again.”

“Okay.” Aaron replied obediently.

“We’ve had a lot of cooperation and interaction with the Church of Nature over the years, but what they’ve given us hasn’t been of much use to us. But now that we have you, things are different. I’ve always hoped that our church could have someone who can bless us with nature, so that the favors they owe us can finally be put to use.” Elliott had become that gentle person again.

"By the way, your blessing..."

Elliott glanced at the black arm armor wrapped around Aaron's hand. Rather than calling it arm armor, it was more accurate to say that the menacing black scales wrapped around Aaron's arm like an arm armor.

Although Elliot wasn't an expert on spirit beasts, he could roughly guess what Aaron's blessing was when he saw the arm armor.

“Yes, it’s dragons. I only found out about this thanks to them. Without them, I probably wouldn’t have made it this far.” Aaron touched his wrist.

As they spoke, they turned their heads and saw Neve and Reinhardt sneaking away from the scene.

Once they were discovered, they were like mice seeing a cat, too afraid to move.

Elliott exclaimed, "Wow, you actually managed to meet three five-colored dragons in Blackrock Street, and three pure-blooded five-colored dragons at that! Add to that the Seven Deadly Sins members you met today, you've really hit the jackpot today."

“Um…I…I…we are legal residents of Lodoren, we have residence permits issued by the church,” Neve said nervously.

"I can't drive you away, but I'm quite curious why you're here in Blackrock Street?"

"This...that...there are...there are...many complicated reasons..."

Seemingly sensing their fear, Elliot, though curious, didn't press further. Just then, the members of the Church of Nature arrived, and Elliot handed them over. The three dragons immediately fled, clearly showing how terrified they were of the Church of Nature.

“Ah… the house is completely destroyed. I don’t know how long it will take to rebuild it. Maybe we should find a new house that no one lives in.” Igorius was more concerned about the house and said, picking up bricks from the ruins.

"Rebuilding the house must cost a lot of money. Do you have the money?" Aaron asked.

“We plan to bring back some materials to rebuild the house. Things like soil and stones are easy to find, but things like metal are harder to get.”

Aaron thought for a moment and said, "Should I ask the Church of Nature to help you rebuild your house? After all, you put in a lot of effort in capturing Dastro, so they should be willing to do you a favor."

Upon hearing the words "Natural Church," they trembled like mice before a cat, shaking their heads frantically, saying, "No...no need...it's better if we don't get involved with the Natural Church..."

Why are you afraid of the Church of Nature? Aaron wondered, but he didn't press the matter.

However, upon closer reflection, he realized that the three of them were, after all, genuine five-colored dragons, yet they lived so openly in Blackrock Street. Leaving aside the reaction of the surrounding humans upon learning the truth, and whether they would still dare to live in Blackrock Street, it was less that they feared the Church, and more that the Church feared them.

However, seemingly sensing Aaron's thoughts, Neve and Egorius quickly and solemnly declared that they were not unregistered, but rather legitimate dragons certified by the Church of Nature.

Aaron also learned something that broadened his horizons: in order to manage the spirit beasts in Lodoron, the Church of Nature issued a kind of temporary residence permit to all the spirit beasts, and this policy had been in place for decades.

Neve, Egorius, and Reinhardt are pure-blooded dragons officially recognized by the Church of Nature and legally permitted to remain in Lodoron.

Looking across the entire Lodoren, there are no more than a dozen pure-blooded dragons who can legally stay, and they are three of them. When talking about this, they even seemed quite proud.

But when Aaron asked them why they had ended up in Blackrock Street, they became dejected. After Aaron asked them for a long time, Neve finally told him hesitantly that it was because they had stayed in Lodoron for too long and lost their temporary residence permits.

At first, they didn't take it seriously. Pure-blooded dragons have long lifespans, and a few decades is just adolescence for them. But they soon discovered that because they didn't have temporary residence permits, they couldn't pass the Church of Nature's inspections. Over time, they also turned legal residents into unregistered residents.

When they tried to renew their documents, they discovered that the bishop who had introduced them to the bishop had turned to ashes, and the policies established decades ago were clearly not very standardized. With the death of the bishop, the policies ceased to exist, and they suddenly lost everything that could prove their identity.

Actually, regaining certification isn't difficult. It's just a pity that, as dragons, they don't even know human writing, let alone how to interact with the people of the Church of Nature. As a result, they gradually became unregistered and were often chased around by the church. Over time, the Church of Nature instilled a deep fear in their hearts.

Then, here comes the key point: they discovered Blackrock Street, an unregulated place. They found that no matter how long they stayed in Blackrock Street, they wouldn't attract the attention of the Church of Nature, so they made it their paradise and their home.

The real reason is that Blackrock Street is the lower city of Lodoron. The mounted police would stop when they patrolled the bridge and would not enter Blackrock Street. Naturally, the church's superhumans would not want to come here, and no one would chase them away. In a sense, their arrival in the city's Blackrock Street was an inevitable result.

Fearing the Church of Nature, they decided to take Aaron to their secret base.

Igorius also mysteriously told Yaren that rebuilding the house was no big deal for them, as they had collected a lot of materials and hid them all in that secret base.

The words "treasure trove of the dragons" excited Aaron, and he immediately followed. But when he arrived, he found himself in a place that resembled a junkyard, piled high with scrap metal and garbage that Igorius and Neve had collected from all over the city.

Aaron suddenly remembered when he first saw them, how they sneaked into the crowd grabbing for wine, picked up broken wine barrels and carriage wheels, and made their escape.

So when Aaron looked at the "magnificent" garbage heap before him again, he was suddenly filled with awe and shame. This spectacular "mountain of garbage" was something they had painstakingly collected bit by bit, just like collecting wine barrels and car wheels. Judging from the sheer scale of this garbage mountain, it was impossible to know how many years they had spent collecting it. In a sense, this was truly their treasure trove; they had collected so much that they no longer knew what the world was like.

Egorius was excited as soon as he arrived at the garbage mountain. He entered the garbage mountain with ease, saying, "I remember it was here," as he searched through the garbage heap like a human searching through his own storage room.

He dug around inside for a long time and actually pulled out several pieces that looked like building materials. Because they were building materials, they weren't damaged much even though they had been there for a long time. Igorius patted them, blew the dust off them, and said with satisfaction:

"Look, they're in perfect condition, with no damage whatsoever. I always thought they would be great materials for building houses, and I never imagined I'd be using them myself today."

Igorius was delighted, humming a song softly. Sensing Aaron's gaze, Igorius told Aaron that he could pick whatever he wanted here and take whatever he liked.

Aaron touched the pile of trash, but his hand bounced off as soon as he placed it. He was surprised because he discovered that the pile of trash was actually protected by a huge ritual magic.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot to dispel the spell. Normally, humans can’t see these things when they come here. You can only see them because you came in with us, but you’re still repelled by the ritual magic. I’ll dispel it for you right away,” Igorius said.

Aaron remained silent. They were actually using an entire ritual magic to protect these garbage mountains, a level of ritual magic that even many churches couldn't afford.

Seeing how much they enjoyed themselves, Aaron realized that they were actually residents of the city, but they were unknown to most people and had always been hidden from the mainstream.

"After staying here for a while, we realized that this place is also a huge forest, except that this forest is made of steel and steam. Otherwise, it is no different from a forest. Therefore, we feel that living here is not so bad, except that we often go hungry," Igorius said.

"If we were in the forest with plenty of food, we could handle an opponent like Dastro ourselves. But because we are currently starving, we can only maintain a low-power state and use some very basic abilities. We feel like we've become stupid because we've been hungry for so long, and we've forgotten some of our abilities because we haven't used them in a long time."

Aaron stroked the mountain of garbage and said thoughtfully, "Then why do you stay in this steel jungle and not go back to your own forest? After all, that's where your real home is."

“Because we still have a mission to complete, we can’t go back,” Igorius said, scratching his head.

A mission? Aaron thought to himself, you guys actually have something like a mission? I just don't know what kind of mission it is.

But they stopped there and began sifting through their mountain of trash, a process that felt like a nostalgic treasure hunt to them. Several times, Aaron saw them excitedly pulling something out of the junkyard, showing it to those nearby or to themselves, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Aaron was called over to look several times, but each time they found nothing more than some old chessboards and dusty glass bottles. It was clear that they really liked glassware and shiny things. Their happiest moment was when they found a funhouse mirror. They would turn into people and dragons in front of the mirror for more than ten minutes. It was more like they were playing than picking out materials.

After they got tired of playing, they started moving things again. When they saw Neve carrying a large stone slab on her head and struggling to move it out, Aaron went over and helped her.

After helping Aaron move a few things, Neve invited him to rest on the city wall for a while. So Aaron followed Neve up a small hill. At first, Aaron thought it was just an inconspicuous little hill, but when he got to the top of the city wall, he found that he could see the entire Blackrock Street from there. At the same time, the black reflection of the huge urban forest of Wordanron appeared in front of him, and the huge setting sun was sinking into this steel forest.

At that moment, Aaron felt that what he was seeing was not the urban landscape that humans usually see, but rather the steel jungle as seen by a bird or an animal. To humans, this city has a lot of wealth and opportunities, but it also hides a lot of evil. All kinds of people live in the city, but to animals, this city is different.

In their eyes, although there are many people, they are all the same and there is no difference. In addition, there are many strange things in the city, many places to take shelter from the rain, and food in both summer and winter.

So Aaron slowly sat down and leaned against Neve.

Neve pulled out a string of what looked like jerky from somewhere and asked Aaron, "Do you want something to eat?"

"no need."

“Then I’ll eat it myself.” Neve put the jerky into her mouth.

Aaron looked at Neve, who was engrossed in chewing jerky, and then at Reinhardt and Igorius, who were having a great time playing in the funhouse mirrors below the city wall. He couldn't believe that they were actually three noble five-colored dragons who had been living in the city for decades.

“Actually, in Lodoren alone, we have at least several dozen dragon companions. They live in human society just like us, and the people around them can’t tell that they are dragons. The only problem is that ordinary humans have too short a lifespan. They have to change their identity and move to a different place every few decades,” Neve said while chewing on jerky.

Aaron wanted to learn more about dragons because his blessing was related to them.

"Why did you come here?" Aaron asked.

Aaron soon learned that they had indeed come with a mission. Their original purpose was to set out from the forest to pay homage to the nature goddess of Lodoren. To tell Aaron this story, Neve even explained a passage from the "Nature Bible" to him, but halfway through, she realized she had forgotten the original text and Aaron had to explain it to her instead.

"All creatures that walk on the ground, whether on two or four legs, that fly in the sky with wings, or that swim in the sea, should trust in and worship the goddess of nature."

Chapter 212 A Chance Encounter

Aaron was deeply impressed by this passage in the Natural Bible, because in mythology, creatures that walk on the ground with feet, fly in the sky with wings, and swim in the sea were not created by the Goddess of Nature, but rather conquered by her. Because the Goddess of Nature conquered them, they trusted in her.

In the story of the Natural Bible, the Goddess of Nature is a being similar to the God of War. It is said that the Goddess of Nature conquered the earth, the sky, and the sea in a few days and obtained the authority over the earth, the sea, and the sky, thus becoming the Goddess of Nature today, and able to distribute a wide variety of blessings to her believers.

Logically speaking, He had already conquered the earth, the sky, and the sea; He had conquered nature. However, there was a group of extremely unruly beings that He did not completely subdue until thousands of years ago—the dragons.

The history of the dragon race's struggle against the goddess of nature is not written in the Psalms of the natural bible, but in the chapter on war, which is enough to prove that it was an extremely magnificent war history. Moreover, the powerful progenitor dragons in the history of the dragon race all have their names in the chapter on war. They were a race that could contend with the gods.

However, even today, not all dragons have submitted to the Goddess of Nature. Dragons are an extremely unruly race, and even after a thousand years of war, the Goddess of Nature has not been able to completely subdue them.

It is said that even today, some dragons do not fully trust the Goddess of Nature. They are accumulating strength, waiting for the day when they can overthrow her rule. This makes people realize that the war history in the Bible of Nature may have really happened.

The dragons seem to have been hiding a powerful force capable of overthrowing the rule of the goddess of nature, and many people worry that they will launch another war as described in the Bible of Nature.

However, Nef has nothing to do with these lofty matters. Nef's clan is the branch of the dragon race that worships the goddess of nature. As a direct descendant of the progenitor dragon, a noble pure-blooded dragon, Nef's mission is to set out from the forest, cross the vast forest and sea, and come to the sacred natural city of Lodoron to pay homage to the goddess of nature.

This tradition has lasted for over a thousand years and has become a historical tradition. According to the dragon clan's records, Nif was in the thirtieth group of dragons to come to pay homage. In theory, they were nothing special and did not bear any particular mission. Generally, the homage only takes a few years, which is like a short trip for the dragons. Most of the time is spent crossing the vast forests and seas, and then they stay in Lodoron for a few days to pay homage to the Goddess of Nature before returning home to await the arrival of the next group of homagers.

As for Neph, as the pilgrim of that dragon clan, she was still a young dragon who had only lived for a few decades when she came out of the forest. Although she was of noble blood, she had no experience. In order to ensure her safety, the dragon clan arranged for Reinhardt, who was in charge of protecting her, and Igorius, who had a wealth of knowledge, to accompany her to Lodoren.

According to Neve herself, she doesn't remember much from that time. She feels like she's always been a city dragon, and she's worried that she won't be able to adapt to life in the forest if she goes back...

In short, they spent several years crossing forests and seas to reach Lodoren, and nothing went wrong along the way. The problem arose only when they arrived in Lodoren. Simply put, they came, but the goddess of nature did not see them.

"Not here?" Aaron was taken aback.

"Hmm... I don't know why, but starting about several decades ago, the Goddess of Nature stopped responding to prayers and stopped approaching those who came to see her. When we asked the Church of Nature why, they just told us to wait..."

“At first we didn’t pay attention. Since they said we had to wait, we just waited. At first we thought it would only take a few days, and then we waited and waited… A year passed… Two years passed… and then decades passed…”

“We’re still waiting today, not knowing when the Goddess of Nature will receive us…” A look of bewilderment appeared in Neve’s eyes.

Aaron was surprised. The Goddess of Nature had not received an audience for decades. Could it be that something had happened to the Goddess of Nature?

He suddenly thought of the seven statues of gods he had seen in that place, and his heart sank.

Neve shook her head: "The last time the dragons paid homage to the Goddess of Nature was more than a hundred years ago. I don't know the specifics, but they should have met the Goddess of Nature, or at least received a response from her. We don't know when the Goddess of Nature stopped receiving homage."

“Actually, over the years, since they haven’t seen us return, the dragons have sent dragons every ten years or so to check what’s going on. After receiving news, they go back and leave us here to continue waiting. At first, when they came, they would bring us food and forest specialties, but they haven’t come for the last ten years or so, and we’ve lost our temporary residence permits during that time…”

“At first, we lived in the accommodation provided by the Nature Church, but after we lost our temporary residence permits, we were forced to move out and began to wander around. Those were truly miserable days at first…”

"Because we couldn't produce temporary residence permits from the Church of Nature, we were being chased around the city... We were also hesitant to go to places where people gathered, afraid that if they knew our true identities, it would frighten them..."

"Because we can't hunt like we do in the forest, we can't find food in the city, so we have to go to the nearby mountains to find food..."

"Because we were afraid of missing the chance to pay homage to the goddess of nature, we didn't dare to go too far, so we could only go to a few nearby mountains to find food... Because we hadn't prepared in advance, we ate fruit for several months... We felt like we were turning into herbivores..."

Listening to Neve's story, Aaron felt that their lives were far too miserable... How did three pure-blooded dragons end up like this...?

“But things got better after we found Blackrock Street, and we started living like this.” Neve’s tone became calm again.

"Although we sometimes can't find food here, we found an uninhabited house. No one will kick us out if we stay here, and the church people won't come here either. Most importantly, the people around us don't care about our identity or where we came from, so we settled down there."

As she spoke, Neve took a big bite of the fruit. Seeing how much she enjoyed it, even Aaron thought the fruit must be delicious, and even thought the life she described seemed pretty good.

But thinking about it carefully, considering that they usually live in such houses, wear only dirty black robes, live in abject poverty, and occasionally go hungry, with three dragons always together, is their life really good?

But they never worry about tomorrow, living a carefree life every day, eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating, every day is a brand new life, the three dragons together, never feel bored.

And because the three of them are all fools and have no particular thoughts, they can be happy for a long time if they find a piece of fruit on the mountain or something unwanted on the road.

The three's biggest worry was when the Goddess of Nature would see them, but Aaron doubted whether they were really worried about it... Judging from their expressions, it seemed that what to eat and where to go for fun tomorrow were more important.