"Yay! It worked!"

Sudden cheers erupted in the research lab!

The successful trial of the plague vaccine indicated that the greatest threat brought by the Black Dragon Empire’s Undead Legion to the White Dragon Empire had been removed!

"Don’t be too happy, this is just the first successful attempt. We still have to conduct multiple cross-comparison experiments, and we need to test it on primates," Mrs. Nor said with a smile on her face. Clearly, she was joyful too, but as the person in charge, she naturally understood their excitement!

"Told you so!" a scientist whispered to Mrs. Nor.

"Hmm, you’re just lucky. Be prepared to kneel and scrub the washing board when we get home," Mrs. Nor grumbled.

"Even if I need to scrub the washing board, future chores like cooking for half a year will be yours!"

Turns out, this old scientist was Mrs. Nor’s husband!

Although the trial was initially successful, it had to remain a strict secret because this was not an actual success. If the Black Dragon Empire learned about this, and they stirred up any trouble, it could lead to complications.

Nevertheless, the thing that Long Yi was most concerned about was his long-cherished ’Intercontinental Missile’.

A mutated beetle hive had been awakened. During the previous war, the hive had again produced three Beetle Missiles. Without exception, these Beetle Missiles all contained unique contract fragments, and they were continuously growing on their own.

At this time, in the warehouse, the sight of four giant Beetle Missiles made Long Yi’s heart race.

If the Sea Clan didn’t swear to stay out of all wars, Long Yi would really want to borrow some Sea Clan members to launch missiles from the sea. At that time, the gratifying sensation wouldn’t stop!

Of course, this was just wishful thinking.

At least for now, what Long Yi needed to do was to solve the problem of launching first.

Exceeding fifteen meters in length, this cigar-like Beetle Missile had no possibility to be launched by a cannon. But luckily, Long Yi had other methods.

During a previous inspection, Long Yi had discovered that these giant Beetle Missiles contained mitochondria and symbiotes, which could produce Dragon Powers. But, as the beetles themselves basically had little intelligence, making them utilize Dragon Power was too difficult.

Fortunately, the Magnificent Four from the Magic Research Institute were always reliable at such times.

Professor Ding Ge was relatively free lately. Even though the war had already started and it was time to compete for resources, the Magic Research Institute didn’t have much to do. As a result, the bored Professor Ding Ge became effeminate again.

When Long Yi had approached him, the middle-aged professor was preening in front of a mirror. Upon seeing this, Long Yi closed the door and left. The moment the door was closing, Professor Ding Ge saw Long Yi walking away and yelled, dashing to catch him by the arm.

"You are not leaving! Long Yi, you are caught by me!"

Professor Ding Ge roared, and the Magnificent Four of the Magic Research Institute simultaneously came over, firmly catching Long Yi.

"Speak! Is there a new research project?"

Professor Ding Ge demanded with red eyes.

"Yes!"

Long Yi nodded affirmatively.

Instantly, the eyes of the other three senior researchers moistened.

"Ah, Long Yi, you finally came, you have no idea how bored we were. Could you even imagine our mood facing a man who ONLY knows how to dress up all day!?"

At this, Professor Ding Ge blushed, hastily wiped his face, and loosened his grip on Long Yi: "Let’s go!"

Then, the Magnificent Four from the Magic Research Institute, Long Yi, Ai Lin, and Little Zi formed a group and began an in-depth study of the giant Beetle Missiles.

There were a few problems to solve at the moment.

Firstly, how to convert Dragon Power into Mana.

Secondly, how to allow the beetle to use Mana for flight.

The first problem was easy to solve; Long Yi already had a plan.

The second problem was the crux of the matter.

Improving the beetle’s intelligence in order to make it learn magic itself was ruled out first of all.

The only remaining method involves the Array.

By inscribing the Array, one could achieve taking off, accelerating, cruising mid-air, and accelerating while descending. This was a coordinated process. The positioning of the Array inscriptions and implementation methods were both complex.

Therefore, Long Yi did not directly implement this on the Beetle Missiles, but created a series of wooden models instead.

These magic geniuses were using all kinds of formulas to calculate the type of Array, overlapping angles, etc.

Although this seemed easy to think of, it was quite challenging to sit down and work it out. After all, the Beetle Missile was not a regular object. A few attempts later, even taking off became somewhat difficult. While magic could easily achieve some capabilities, it was very hard to achieve some functionalities. For instance, providing different thrusts in different directions according to the tilt angle. In the world of the past, this was merely an issue of a gyroscope. But in this world, laboring over magic, they could not find any suitable implementation methods.

Eventually, Ai Lin brought up this issue.

"Isn’t the beetle alive? Can’t we let it adjust its direction in the air itself?"

As these words were spoken, everyone present was dumbfounded.

Oh, right!

Long Yi was moved to tears, realizing that he had once again made a mistake due to his experiential reasoning. After all, the beetle was clearly alive and even had wings; though small, they were surely capable of making small adjustments.

The only thing now left to do was to make the Array propel the beetle along the direction of its center of gravity at high speed.

The Array would draw air from the front of the beetle’s head, compress it, and then explosively expel it from the three Array nozzles at its tail!

A group of people finally finished making the Array, and the task of engraving the Array was given to Little Zi.

Yes, the Array was to be engraved not on the beetle’s body, but in its memory. According to the original understanding, the capacity of the beetle’s brain was limited and could not accommodate too much. But this beetle was different; its body had grown larger, and its brain had grown significantly as well. Little Zi was able to slowly imprint the entire Array in its memory without any simplification or optimization. Also stored in the beetle’s memory was a simplified world map, sufficient to ensure the beetle missile’s flight direction was accurate.

Once everything was set up and it was time for the first test, everyone was a bit tense. Long Yi also felt a little nervous as he had never played with an intercontinental missile himself. Even during the war years, it had never been used.

Of course, whether this Beetle Missile could travel as far as an Intercontinental Missile was another question. After all, an Intercontinental Missile that couldn’t fly four thousand kilometers would be laughed at.

"I really want to shoot something!" exclaimed Long Yi, his eyes glowing red as he looked at the sky.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Launch!"

Long Yi finally indulged in the thrill of a rocket launch countdown. The erected Beetle Missile, covered in glowing runes and flowing with magical power, emitted a powerful jet stream from three nozzles near its tail. The force was so strong that a nearby tree was instantly uprooted and sent flying.

Then, the giant beetle began to slowly ascend, accelerating!

Xiaoyou also took off, carrying a few people along the path of the beetle’s flight. The beetle spread its tiny wings, adjusting its position in the sky. As Long Yi had envisioned, the Beetle Missile could fly naturally, adjusting its position in mid-air was like second nature!

Quickly, the beetle steadied its body and the jets intensified, already prepared for acceleration.

Boom!

The Array was running at full capacity with the runes circulating and changing, the Beetle Missile suddenly accelerated!

Xiaoyou’s body was also glowing with runes and it shot up in hot pursuit. Although protected by magic so that people wouldn’t fall off, the sudden acceleration still made the Four Kings of the Magic Academy feel slightly dizzy.

As a Shadow Dragon, Xiaoyou was one of the top in terms of explosive power and speed among the Dragon Clan. Yet, even so, it still couldn’t catch up to the Beetle Missile! All it could do was watch as the Beetle Missile sped up and ascended, disappearing without a trace.

At this point, the missile had travelled twenty kilometers.

At least it travelled farther than the previous missiles.

Long Yi consoled himself.

Now, it was time to check the response from the target area.

In his madness, Long Yi had positioned the target area near the border of the Black Dragon Empire.

Even though it was just an experiment, Long Yi didn’t plan on wasting this precious missile.

According to the plan, the missile would continue to ascend into the stratosphere, where the air was thin, the drag was minimal, and the air flow was stable. The area was well beyond the reach of any dragon, making it impossible for the enemy to detect.

Unfortunately, the satellites couldn’t send back real-time images. Otherwise, Long Yi could have monitored the missile’s flight in real time.

But Long Yi had a contingency. He had installed a small device on the beetle that could record the flight and fall off automatically after crossing the stratosphere. This ingenious device was provided by the Crystal Core Research Institute, which Kirei had once used to discover secret information about Isrile.

Some time later, Long Yi spotted the location of the recording device on the giant’s tablet while in fast flight. Xiaoyou landed on the ground, only to find that the device had broken upon impact, making it impossible to play back the footage. However, the crystals that recorded the images were intact and could be viewed later.

"Let’s go, there might be news by the time we get back."

Long Yi packed the device carefully, and everyone climbed onto Xiaoyou’s back to return.

Meanwhile, at the Black Dragon Empire border.

After several days, Yake Black, the Emperor of the Black Dragon Empire, now fully transformed into a pure Black Dragon, once again appeared on the forefront of the battlefield. Despite his recent misfortune, which was etched in everyone’s memory, nobody dared to question the emperor’s instructions and stayed silent while Yake gave his speech.

The Undead, of course, didn’t need speeches, so Yake’s primary target were the Dragon Knights. Every Dragon Knight felt odd about being lectured by a Black Dragon, but nobody dared to say anything.

Yake felt he was successful, especially after he brushed off his recent debacle as a part of Long Yi’s scheme, which greatly improved his mood.

His speech continued, but suddenly, he heard a faint noise coming from the sky.

And the sound was getting louder!

What was happening?

Some people started to look up and then Yake saw a small white dot in the high sky, trailing a long stream of smoke and plummeting down. The dot was falling very fast and, within moments, Yake’s keen dragon eyes identified it as a huge object a dozen meters long. Its landing point was right where the massive Undead Legion was assembled on the border! (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)