“Gun” meowed several times, curiously reaching out a paw to the “cat,” grabbing it by the scruff of the neck and holding it up in front of her: “Which neighborhood are you from? What breed? Hey, that pattern on your head is pretty cool, how come I don’t have one?”

She was learning on the spot from the data terminal.

The big yellow cat clearly hadn't been force-fed Golden Apples. Faced with this creature that looked like him with cat ears but didn’t seem like kin at all, he seemed bewildered. But soon he recognized the silly cat’s kinship through scent and language, and showed a look of awe—well, it might not have been scent and language, but who the hell can figure out a cat’s worldview? Hao Ren still hasn't figured out how those stray dogs in the southern suburbs became so close to Lily.

"This cat isn't afraid of you?" Nangong Wuyue reached out and stroked the big yellow cat's chin, looking up at Gala卓尔, "Where's your dragon might? Ordinary animals should be shaking with fear in front of a dragon."

"I don't know what's going on," Gala卓尔 shook her head. "Ever since I picked him up, this cat hasn't been afraid of any dragons. He runs around my palace and dares to snatch food from the dragon guards—so he's very famous here. The dragons think he's an interesting creature and often come to feed him."

Hao Ren suddenly began to suspect that Inspectors had something in common, that they would all encounter such odd special cases: this big yellow cat was even more gifted than Gun before he became a spirit. He patted the big yellow cat's head: "Could it have some special ability?"

The cat girl immediately lowered her head and meowed to the big yellow cat, then looked up: "No special ability, it's just too stupid to know fear."

Everyone: "..."

At this moment, Gala卓尔 looked up at a golden disk hanging from the top of the hall: "Alright, enough chatting, it's time to get out and about. I'll take you to Thunder Mountain—it's quite a distance from here. I'll fly you there, and before we go, I can give you a tour of my kingdom."

In a clear and majestic dragon roar, Gala卓尔 transformed into a golden dragon. At the same time, the heavy stone doors of the palace opened to both sides. The dragon soldiers guarding outside the palace saw the Dragon Queen appear and immediately bowed their heads respectfully.

"I must leave for a time, to attend to matters with these outsiders," Gala卓尔 said majestically, her voice echoing in the mountain, showing no trace of her earlier appearance of eating braised pork knuckle and spiced meat until her mouth was full of grease. "Seal the palace, and do not let anyone enter until I return."

A dragon guard saw the "outsiders" at the Dragon Queen's feet: Hao Ren and the others were busy climbing onto Gala卓尔, and the young dragon was immediately shocked: "My Queen, these people..."

Gala卓尔 glanced at the guard majestically: "They come from beyond the sky, and I have known them for a long time. Do not ask more about them, this is an order."

The dragon guard immediately bowed respectfully and carefully retreated.

Gala卓尔 used her tail to help Hao Ren and the others climb onto her back, and took off in the huge open space in front of the palace, circling and flying into the air.

Lily clung to a dragon scale, looking down from the Dragon Queen's shoulder, and saw a row of halls and buildings, all far larger than those used by humans. Gala卓尔's palace was the most magical: the oval-shaped giant nest seemed to float in the center of a large cave inside the mountain, supported by a hazy light, with only a few thin aerial bridges connecting the nest to the distant mountain walls. And below all these halls was a vast expanse of chaotic clouds.

Gala卓尔 introduced the place, telling everyone that the lower half of the Gypsum Mountains was connected to a different dimension, and human wisdom could not fathom its secrets. Bards liked to repeatedly describe this place in their poems, saying that beneath the clouds lay all the treasures collected by the dragon clan over thousands of years, a treasure trove of unprecedented size, with enough gold to cover the entire land of a human kingdom—and half a meter thick. Bards, after all, are a bit neurotic.

"Actually, that's where we store dragon eggs and hatch young dragons," Gala卓尔 deliberately circled a few more times to let the guests see her kingdom. "Dragons don't put gold and jewels in treasure vaults or anything like that—we can't bear to let these treasures out of our sight. We just use them to make beds, or directly embed them in our bodies."

"Do you still do that now?" Hao Ren remembered something and asked with a smile.

"Of course not anymore," Gala卓尔 shook her huge head. "My worldview collapsed in my fourth year as an Inspector—I encountered a planet made entirely of diamonds on a business trip, and I crashed into it headfirst, and my worldview has been turned upside down ever since. Now I no longer collect jewels, but collect delicacies. I don't believe there can be planets formed of spiced beef and cheese grilled meat in the universe!"

"How do bards know about the Dragon Kingdom?" Lily was quite logical. "I heard you say that humans are forbidden from entering here."

"The dragons spread it, of course," Gala卓尔 said a little helplessly. "Young dragons are always restless and often transform into human form and run out to play...you can call it training, and they spread the word about the Dragon Kingdom. They like to transform into bards the most, because they think it's romantic, and..."

"And they can brag in the first person, right," Hao Ren shrugged. "I understand, I know someone with that problem too."

Gala卓尔 made a muffled sound, as if she was laughing, then her body rose and flew from the exit at the top of the Gypsum Mountain peak into the sky.

She carried the group higher and higher, until she had left all the clouds below her, and then rushed towards a certain direction. Lily nervously clung to a bumpy bone band on the Dragon Queen's shoulder, looking as if she was afraid of falling, while Nangong Wuyue felt the Gala卓尔's flying ability was wonderful: "You must be relying on more than just the power of your wings when you fly, right? This speed...and the surrounding airflow are very strange."

"The power of magic, a dragon's talent," the dragon's rumbling voice came from ahead, "With special training, we can even fly in a vacuum, so dragons are currently the only race on this planet capable of entering space, but unfortunately we can't withstand cosmic radiation, so Planet Sangtu Suiv's spaceflight domain is still blank. But we'll take it slow, this planet is still developing."

Gala卓尔 flew very high, relying on the clouds to hide her figure along the way in order to avoid causing panic among the ground races. After all, the Dragon King flying over their heads was no small matter for any race in this world, and if they encountered a few nervous mages, they could easily be hit in the face with three Greater Fireballs with increased casting speed as anti-aircraft fire, which wouldn't be pleasant.

Soon, Hao Ren saw the scenery ahead change.

A large mass of dark clouds like a pillar of smoke appeared at the end of the line of sight, and a large number of clouds were swirling together as if stirred by a vortex. Inside that magnificent and strange cloud, one could see huge flashes of light from time to time.

There was no doubt that the "Thunder Mountain" that Gala卓尔 mentioned was ahead.

"It took me a lot of effort to catch that Wraith. It formed in the vast space between Planet Sangtu Suiv and the Suha Satellite Station, and somehow took a fancy to this gravitational balance point. I discovered that someone was interfering with the signals between Planet Sangtu Su and the Satellite Station in space, and I caught this guy when I rushed over to check the situation," Gala卓尔 slowly descended, rushing towards Thunder Mountain. "That thing is very difficult to deal with, and I had several scales burned off at the time. I tried many methods to restrain it, and then I thought of using a strong magnetic field."

The dragon carried the group through the heavy clouds, and a majestic black "mountain" appeared in front of everyone.

It was thousands of meters high, formed by a series of regularly shaped cylindrical megaliths. Halfway up the mountain, one could see several floating stone rings emitting blue light, rotating around the entire Thunder Mountain, and the strong electric light emanating from them repeatedly scoured the black stone pillars on the mountain. Hao Ren watched for a long time, unable to help himself: "This thing isn't a mountain, is it..."

"The humans and dwarves of Planet Sangtu Su call this place Thunder Mountain, because they can't think of any other name," Gala卓尔 chuckled in a muffled voice, "But of course it's not a mountain—it was left behind by the last civilization, a super-giant fusion generator. It's been nearly 20,000 years, and it's still running. This thing used to provide energy for the entire planet, but now it's just a pile of megaliths that constantly cause thunderstorms."