Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Dragon Monsters
The next day.
In a crimson red mountain range, streaks of lava flowed across the valleys while continuous puffs of fiery hot steam could be seen at the top of the mountains.
Fang Ning was hiding in the System Space. Gathering the frog in his left arm, the macaw in his right arm, and the Heavenly Book baby in between them, he hugged them to himself as he looked outside through the System View.
This was a world where Ancient Dragons existed!
Compared to the immensity of the World of Spirits and Souls, the magnitude of this world’s risk factors was significantly higher.
At least when they first entered the World of Spirits and Souls, it took them quite a while to encounter any powerful spiritual creatures.
As for this world, as soon as they entered, they could already sense the presence of some unknown beings from time to time.
‘Could we have come to a place where Golden Cores are worth nothing, and where Nascent Souls could be found roaming all around?’ Fang Ning thought in fear for some time.
Then, they encountered a fire lizard that was emitting a strong presence of an Ocean-level powerhouse!
The size of this fiery red lizard was no longer than half a meter, and it was blazing with flames all over. Despite its small build, it stared directly at the fire dragon that was floating in mid-air. It did not show any hints of wanting to turn around and escape at all.
Instead, it lay flat on its stomach amidst the flowing lava in one of the valleys while its pair of icy-cold eyes seemed to reveal a ruthless intent to kill.
In contrast to the lizard, its surrounding vitality was extremely thin and almost undetectable.
This reminded Fang Ning of the conditions in the World of Spirits and Souls, where most of the places there were also as such. Only a few would still have an abundance of vitality.
The Azure Dragon did not make any attack, but it remained in a confrontational position with the lizard. The lizard did not attempt to attack as well but it kept its cold glare at the Azure Dragon.
Around five minutes passed by.
Sir System was most likely analyzing the other party’s combat capability and its attributes from all aspects, to theorize and infer the power levels in this entire world.
However, what could this fire lizard be thinking about?
In the face of a True Dragon, did it have no sense of fear at all?
Fang Ning was intrigued.
After a long time, the fire lizard finally opened its mouth in impatience. “%￥￥@#@”
Fang Ning could not understand what the other party was saying. However, he probably should not turn to the two gods for help with this interpretation work too, should he?
Thus, he went to Anderson again. Unfortunately, even Anderson expressed helplessness about this.
“This must be a noble form of dragon language, but given that we haven’t collected sufficient corresponding information, there’s no way of interpreting it,” Anderson said warily.
Fang Ning nodded, and did not blame them as till this day, the System Prison had never been used to detain any dragons before.
‘Uh, I suppose I can only ask if that fellow who only eats without working knows this form of language then…’ he thought frustratedly, not bearing much hope.
He came to the Draconic Arcane Realm and found the great green insect crawling back and forth in the herb garden as if it was looking for something.
Fang Ning did not bother to ask what it was looking for. In any case, it was probably looking for something to eat…
He projected out an image of what had taken place earlier and asked with slight hope, “Daqing, do you know what this fire lizard is saying?”
Chong Daqing tilted its head to the side for a moment as it studied the projection. Then, it instantly said, “That’s simple. This lizard that’s almost starving to death is saying, ‘What, even the True Dragon family is also left with no surplus food now? When you True Dragons used to go around and inspect the Dragon World, didn’t you always scatter some food for us? Anyhow, we’re still considered relatives.’”
“…” When Fang Ning heard this, he became dumbfounded.
“You should’ve told us earlier. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have needed to stare each other down for so long,” Sir System said in annoyance. “It didn’t seem like a bad guy anyway, so I didn’t want to lash out at it.”
“However, what it wants to eat isn’t the kind of food mortals take, but the type of ores that are full of vitality.” Daqing was obviously very well-informed.
This piqued Fang Ning’s curiosity very much, and he could not help but ask, “How do you know all this in such detail?”
“Oh, regarding anything that can be added into my cookbook, I must, of course, study it well,” Chong Daqing said it in a matter-of-fact way. “This type of creature that’s raised by eating stones is not edible.”
Fang Ning was horrified to learn this.
Soon after, another crucial point had occurred to him. He quickly asked, “In that case, have you come to this place and seen similar creatures before?”
“Of course, I’ve been here before.” Chong Daqing stared at Fang Ning as if he was mentally retarded. “Isn’t this the Dragon World? My old Dad used to bring me here all the time to get food, because the creatures here are bigger, and eating one can help us withstand a few days of hunger.”
“Uh…” Fang Ning finally conceded.
With that, he continued urgently, “Then, hurry up and tell me what strong creatures are there in this place. What is the topography of this place? Do you know anything about the Ancient Dragons?”
He asked a few questions in a row, and Chong Daqing managed to give answers to all of them.
This made him realize that perhaps the level of difficulty for this place would not be too high after all with Daqing as his guide.
In the meantime, Sir System had already tossed out a vitality ore to the fire lizard.
The fire lizard immediately pounced on it and swallowed the vitality ore whole, reminding Fang Ning of the way Black Dog ate its bones.
Following that, the fire lizard savored the taste by licking its lips before saying, “Oh, thank you, but this doesn’t seem to taste of a local flavor.”
Thanks to the great green insect’s interpretation, Fang Ning understood it this time.
Nonetheless, although they could understand it now, neither Fang Ning nor Sir System knew how to speak this noble type of dragon language. Meanwhile, the great green insect did not have the interest to carry a conversation with this fire lizard.
Therefore, the Azure Dragon did not reply. Instead, it turned away and flew eastward by following the answer Daqing gave.
Based on what the great green insect said, this Dragon World was just as vast and expansive — it was the dwelling place of the most superior creatures belonging to the Dragon species.
All creatures that were capable of becoming top-notch beings among the Dragon species in the Primary World would have the chance to enter into this world.
In fact, this place was once a rich and populous land with plentiful vitality. Its world order allowed immortality to be the norm. So, whoever managed to enter into this place could be considered to have succeeded in their cultivation.
However, looking at its current conditions, this world had also become a remote and desolate place.
As for the locations where the Ancient Dragons might be found, these would include the easternmost oceans, the southernmost and highest volcano, the northernmost glaciers that were as old as a hundred million years, and the westernmost deserts.
In any case, they would not go wrong by searching these locations. Moreover, since the Celestial Clan had once entered this world to try looking for the Ancient Dragons, and after fruitlessly searching all other areas, these were the only four locations that eventually remained unsearched.
Naturally, they were looking for the Ancient Dragons with the aim of inquiring into how the Heavens could be saved.
As for why they did not continue with their search, it was because these four locations were extremely dangerous. With the power possessed by the Celestial Clan right now, they were already incapable to go on with their exploration.
In this case, the last part of an endeavor was indeed the hardest to finish.
Meanwhile, for some reason, the fire lizard was running after them on the ground.
It seemed like one vitality rock was not enough to quell its hunger.
This time around, their flight lasted for three days.
After what felt like an eternity of flying, they finally saw a boundless ocean.
At a glance, the ocean seemed very smooth and flat with a view that stretching into a far distance. It was unlike on Earth, where one’s view would be limited by the horizon.
Nonetheless, Fang Ning did not puzzle over this matter, for he knew that in the Upper Realm, the sky would be round while the earth was square 1 . Thus, it was different from a cosmic body like the planet Earth.
“Keep flying. You need to fly until the end to be able to see the deepest ocean. That may be where the Ancient Sea Dragon is residing.” The great green insect was holding onto the Azure Dragon’s horns while demonstrating its qualifications as a guide.
Meanwhile, the fire lizard that had been trailing them finally came to a halt upon seeing the ocean.
Nonetheless, it had received quite an amount of food provision over the past few days, so it should be able to survive for some time.
Now, the Azure Dragon was flying above the ocean.
Although it could frequently sense the presence of many powerful creatures below the surface of the ocean, none of them tried to attack it. Instead, like that fire lizard, many of them were jumping out of the ocean to ask for food.
“Hey, we must’ve gotten a lucky hit,” Fang Ning said happily. “We haven’t been harassed by any monsters at all. Seems like we’re back on home ground.”
“Damn it, I was still planning to farm for a few trillion experience points, but they’re all running over and calling themselves family instead. How am I supposed to attack them now?” Sir System seemed contrastingly discontented.
“There’s a problem with your way of thinking. As a heroic system, you should choose peace as your ideal instead of thinking about fighting and killing all the time,” Fang Ning scolded. “Even if you have such thoughts, you shouldn’t be saying them out loud.”
“I know. I should be a hypocrite like you.”
However, Fang Ning had clearly spoken too soon.
In this barren Dragon World, a foreign dragon had suddenly appeared. It appeared to be an immensely well-off foreign dragon that had been scattering quite a lot of foodstuff along its journey…
At first, some powerful dragon monsters of this world had been watching it closely.
As they waited until this Azure Dragon was flying above the ocean, these dragon monsters finally thought that they were able to ascertain the background of this foreign dragon.
As for what type of dragon monsters these were, they belonged to a cannibalistic Dragon species.
When these creatures, under the pressure of their changing environment, decided to start feeding on their own kind to maintain their power and longevity, they had already degenerated into monsters.
Fang Ning only knew that the fire lizard that had trailed them until the oceanfront was very strong and an Ocean-level powerhouse, but he was completely unaware how powerful the other party had been before. In fact, it used to be only a step below a True Dragon.
Nonetheless, under the pressure of its rapidly changing environment, it chose to sacrifice its power and lifespan to reduce its vitality ingestion, thus devolving into a lizard.
When the Azure Dragon had been flying eastward for as much as three days and three nights, a nine-headed dragon monster suddenly emerged from under the ocean and blocked its way!