“Mr. Henry Sullivan, as you can see, my young daughter is in the prime of her youth, beautiful and outstanding, unmatched in both intelligence and courage. If you are interested…” the city lord said.

The dragon herder with a pale face, Henry Sullivan, glanced at the woman beside him, whose looks were above average, but he let out a contemptuous snort.

He once again unfurled the scroll in his hand, pointing at the woman depicted in the painting, his face twisted as he said, “I want her. I told you all, I want her. It seems I have been too merciful. This city truly has no reason to exist.”

“Honored one!! Honored one!!”

“The person you want was recently overthrown by my daughter, and after becoming a prisoner, she was locked in the dungeon for several nights with a little beggar. Even though she is a rare beauty, the most stunning in the world, she has now become the lowest and filthiest of women. In fact, it has been proven that aside from her alluring looks, she has nothing else to offer,” said the white-haired City Lord Lu.

Upon hearing these words, the muscles on the dragon herder’s face twitched, and his eyes flashed with overwhelming fury, making the golden-scaled fire dragon outside the hall blaze even more fiercely!

“What did you say?!” The tone of the dragon herder Henry Sullivan changed completely, from previous disdain and arrogance to a clear, icy coldness!

He, Henry Sullivan, had endured countless hardships and humiliations, crossed the Dragon Gate at the edge of despair, and achieved his current status as a dragon herder.

After transforming into a dragon herder, the very first thing he wanted to do was prove himself before her, hoping she would favor him. Never did he imagine that the woman he had dreamed of would be defiled here in Yong City, and by a filthy, lowly beggar at that!!

“Honored Dragon Herder, you are the sun in the sky, and everyone in this barren land looks up to your brilliance. Why be fixated on a woman with a ruined reputation and filthy past? My daughter is still pure and graceful, with some talent for commanding troops and managing a city. If you do not mind, she can marry you today, as a way to congratulate you on leaping over the Dragon Gate,” the woman’s voice was sharp, and as she spoke the last sentence, it carried a hint of seduction, like a clever and gentle little fox.

Henry Sullivan glanced once more at the city lord’s daughter.

The new city lord, with graying temples, looked effeminate and weak, like a puppet eunuch, nearly wetting himself at the sight of Henry Sullivan. In contrast, the woman’s every word and action remained relatively calm.

Every time the Yong City Lord spoke, he would glance at this woman’s expression. It was clear that the new city lord was merely a figurehead, while this fox-like, seductive, and shrewd woman was the true power holder.

Seeing the dragon herder Henry Sullivan sizing her up, the fox-like woman slowly raised her head, allowing him to see her face clearly.

“Heh.” Henry Sullivan suddenly reached out and grabbed the city lord’s daughter by the throat. “If she is a pearl, then you are no different from stinking mud and sand. You lowly scum born of rotten earth have no reason to exist in this world!”

As soon as he finished speaking, outside the open hall doors, a blazing fire dragon in the sky slowly opened its massive jaws, its throat burning as hot as a blacksmith’s furnace…

“Boom~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~”

Dragon fire poured down like a red river, melting the entire city mansion. All those arrogant clansmen inside were reduced to pools of blood, and not even the servants, maids, or slaves were spared.

Henry Sullivan stood amidst the flames, his hand still tightly gripping the city lord’s daughter. The dragon’s fire did not even singe a hair on his head, but the fox-like woman in his grasp…

First, her clothes turned to ash, then her flesh began to rot away, and finally even her bones were exposed—a beautiful woman transformed into a hideous specter.

The stench of burning flesh was thick in the air, the eaves of the mansion collapsed, and the crimson beams lay scattered.

In a corner, the new city lord’s armor had melted, his skin fused to the scalding metal. He was in unbearable pain but dared not utter a sound, hoping only to survive this ordeal.

He had been a valiant general on the battlefield, able to fight a hundred men alone. But faced with the extraordinary flames of a dragon, his lifelong-hardened body was still no match, and he could only hide without dignity beneath the ruins and the charred corpses of others.

“Heh, heh…” Suddenly, a laugh rang out.

The laughter came from the fox-like woman before the dragon herder Henry Sullivan.

Her face was already burned and festering, her entire body unrecognizable.

She was on the verge of death, yet at this moment she was laughing, a painful yet somewhat crazed low chuckle.

“What are you laughing at!” The dragon herder Henry Sullivan stared at the fox-like woman writhing in pain on the ground.

“I understand now, cough cough… I understand. Before you became a dragon herder, you were nothing but mud and sand in that woman’s eyes. Her gaze would never linger on you for even a moment. You… you did everything you could to win her favor, but she treated you with the coldness reserved for a servant.

“And finally, you became a dragon herder… cough, cough, you rode in on a dragon, no longer the man you once were, hoping she would finally see you differently… hahaha, but I destroyed her. The woman you obsessed over day and night, I threw her into the dungeon, where she spent an entire night with a filthy beggar from the streets!”