Even though a huge number of gnolls had escaped from the Youyue Mountains, compared to the sparks inside the magma pillar, they were still pitifully few, like a drop in the ocean.

Faced with such a massive natural disaster, even the mighty gnolls are nothing more than this! It's just a question of which of those sparks belongs to Alda, the gnoll king.

The massive magma column in the distance suddenly froze, as if a giant object had blocked part of the magma vent.

The city lord of Jinling City's eyes narrowed instantly, wondering what had happened there. But before he could even think about it, the magma pillar with the power to destroy the heavens and the earth had already given him the answer.

The magma column remained stagnant for only a moment before becoming unobstructed. At the same time, a white object larger than the spaceship was carried by the magma column and flew rapidly into the sky.

Because it was moving so fast, the city lord of Jinling City couldn't even see what it was.

The lava, which had surged tens of thousands of meters into the air, finally began to fall. The spaceship, which had been rapidly retreating, still had several holes punched into its bow by pieces of cooled lava.

The city lord of Jinling was terrified and broke out in a cold sweat.

Fortunately, the spaceship's propulsion system was located at the stern, and the spaceship, busy retreating, had no time to turn around. If it had struck the propulsion system, the chain reaction of explosions would likely have resulted in no survivors on board.

The cooled lava rocks fell, smashing deep craters into the ground. Those gnolls who had transformed into wolf-like forms and were running across the land were instantly crushed or wounded, with most killed or injured. Only a few powerful individuals managed to dodge and weave as they fled, until massive swathes of lava, like the giant palm of a god, slammed down, annihilating all the fleeing gnolls.

Flames, accompanied by lava, rolled rapidly across the surrounding land, engulfing nearly half of the Youyue Empire in flames. The sky was completely obscured by mountain ash, and the entire Youyue Empire was plunged into darkness.

The city lord of Jinling was drenched in cold sweat. If he were in Jinling's shoes, he would have thought that if a fire dragon of this power had struck, the entire human race of the Eastern Kingdom would have been annihilated.

Just as the spaceship was about to escape the ash-covered area, a massive white object descended from the sky, passing over the ship and plunging straight into the earth below, splashing up countless pieces of lava and rocks. The already trembling earth began to shake violently once more.

The city lord of Jinling was startled again. If he had been hit by that thing, he probably would have said goodbye to this world.

Upon closer inspection, the city lord of Jinling City immediately recognized the enormous white object.

Teleportation array!

Moreover, it's a cross-domain teleportation array from the Gnoll Empire!

Judging from the enormous size of this teleportation array, it is probably a teleportation array that the gnolls restrict from being sold and that can span several realms!

In an instant, the city lord of Jinling City understood the whole story and, disregarding the dense dust in the air, laughed loudly.

Before he could even laugh twice, a large amount of mountain ash was poured into his mouth and nose, choking him so much that he quickly bent over.

"Cough cough cough... Hahahaha... Cough cough cough... Hahahahaha..."

The city lord of Jinling covered his mouth and nose, tears streaming down his face, coughing and laughing at the same time, looking very strange.

A guard had already brought a water jug ​​from the cabin. The city lord of Jinling laughed and coughed for a while before finally taking the jug, wiping away the thick layer of fine dust from the rocks on the lid, and then began to rinse his mouth.

Why would the sight of a cross-realm teleportation array belonging to the Gnoll Empire cause the City Lord of Jinling to lose his composure so much? It turns out that this teleportation array is the one that the Gnoll Empire is actually building.

The one that was destroyed earlier was just a decoy set up by the gnolls. You see, the larger the teleportation array, the more energy it requires to activate and operate. The city lord of Jinling City had already become suspicious when he couldn't find the energy source of the fake teleportation array.

Seeing another teleportation array being spewed out from the fire dragon, he immediately knew the gnolls' scheme.

The gnolls must have built the teleportation array underground in Ghost Moon City.

More likely, they already knew about the fire dragon underground. They wanted to rely on the fire dragon's power to maintain the enormous energy required for the teleportation array.

The reason I dare to make this speculation is that the city lord of Jinling City knows that the jackal people can indeed use formations to extract energy from the fire dragon and use it for the teleportation array.

Two hundred years ago, the gnolls built a mountaintop teleportation array in the 8325th realm. It was able to continuously bring a massive number of allied forces from the five races to the battlefield without any energy replenishment, making a great contribution to sealing the skeleton army.

It was from this battle that the gnoll teleportation array became famous throughout the world.

After this battle, Prince He finally uncovered the secret of the teleportation array at the cost of a generation of military intelligence personnel.

It turns out that there is an energy transmission array below the teleportation array, through which the energy in the fire dragon can be continuously supplied to the teleportation array above.

This secret was known only to a few trusted confidants of the Prince. The city lord of Jinling only learned of it when his superior inadvertently let it slip while they were drinking and boasting.

However, many years had passed since then, and the city lord of Jinling had long forgotten about it. Only now, seeing the jackal-man's interdimensional teleportation array being spewed out by the fire dragon, did he finally remember this story.

It must have been a mistake on my part, that I accidentally ordered the cannons to fire, or that I damaged the teleportation array or the energy transmission array that was under construction, which caused the fire dragon to erupt.

The city lord of Jinling City is more inclined to believe that the explosion of the dark gold-grade cannonball caused the underground teleportation array to vibrate, which in turn affected the energy transmission array and disrupted its energy, leading to the outbreak of the fire dragon.

If I had arrived earlier, before the energy transmission array was set up, even if I fired hundreds of shots, I certainly wouldn't have been able to trigger the fire dragon's eruption.

If you arrive too late, the energy transmission array will already be completed. The teleportation array, the energy transmission array, and the fire dragon will have become one. Even if the dark gold-grade cannonball has a lot of energy, it will never cause the fire dragon to erupt.

It has to be at this exact moment, with perfect timing, location, and circumstances, that a few hundred cannon shots can trigger the miracle of a giant fire dragon erupting.

It was only after understanding this that the city lord of Jinling City was able to laugh without any restraint.

Seeing that the lava on the ground had covered most of the Youyue Empire, and the smoke and ash from the fire dragon had enveloped the entire Youyue Empire, the city lord of Jinling City, disregarding whether the natural disaster would continue to expand and affect the Eastern Kingdom, thought to himself with pride: "With one shot, I destroyed a level four kingdom of the jackals! This battle is enough for me to brag about for the rest of my life!"

"You all return to Jinling City and await orders. I'll go to the northern ice plains to check on the situation first."

"Remember, without my order, the Eastern Kingdom is not to move a single soldier!"

After saying this, the city lord of Jinling City plunged into the teleportation array beside him.