“This is preposterous!”
Yserazor watched the strange characters floating in the air and snorted a blast of hot air from his nostrils. “Do you have any idea what the consequences are of adding random things to a magic formation? And this is a restricted area of the Dragon Race! How could anyone modify them so carelessly!”
His dark green scales bristled with rage, but Lions did not back down. Instead, he continued solemnly, “Modifying the formation from the outside is certainly impossible, but if they appeared from the inside...”
“Wait!” Starlight interrupted suddenly. His pupils contracted as he stared fixedly at the flickering runes in the sky. “These characters... we’ve seen them before!”
When those characters appeared, his heart skipped a beat. Although the color had changed from the dark red in his memory to a pale blue, and there were slight differences in the script, the unique structure and shape were identical to what he had seen on Taros’s altar!
“What? Where have you seen these characters?” Everyone present immediately turned to look at Starlight.
At that moment, Moen also realized. She stepped forward and pointed a slender finger at one of the runes. “That’s right! This is the ancient script used by Taros! When read individually, this character means ‘Blood’!”
“Priestess Moen,” Lions’s voice became exceptionally grave. “I’m not questioning your judgment, but this is a matter of great importance... Are you certain?”
For ancient script that predated even the Age of Gods, there were very few even among the elves who could read it. Thus, Lions’s doubt was reasonable.
Moen nodded and continued, “While I can only recognize a few characters, I won’t mistake the overall shape of the script.”
“Ah... how did this get tied back to that old geezer Taros again? What a headache,” Po Kong muttered, appearing somewhat flustered.
Although most of those present did not yet understand the hidden meaning behind the name “Taros,” just staring at that twisted “Blood” rune caused a wave of inexplicable palpitations.
“So, someone really did tamper with the barrier?”
Yserazor’s roar shook the mountain, sending rocks tumbling down. His thick dragon tail slammed into the mountainside, leaving a fissure several meters deep.
Fury blazed in his golden pupils as he turned to the two Blue Dragons prostrate on the ground. “You useless fools! And you call yourselves members of the Blue Clan, famed for your magical prowess! You couldn’t even detect that the barrier had been tampered with?!”
The two Blue Dragons buried their heads even lower, their scales trembling with fear.
But from their blank gazes, it was clear they truly knew nothing about it.
One of them summoned the courage to look up. “Lord Dragon King, we perform routine checks every day, but we never discovered anything unusual...”
“Wait, doesn’t that mean Uncle and Sister Wu Hua are in danger right now?!” Lian looked at everyone’s faces and suddenly gazed toward the distant Dragon Nest.
“Fatty! Just go already! Getting angry here won’t solve anything!” Little Gold suddenly spoke up, his youthful voice carrying a majesty that belied his age.
This blunt form of address left everyone stunned. Even the raging Yserazor was momentarily speechless.
One of the Blue Dragons whipped its head around, its ice-blue scales bristling with anger. “How dare you! How dare you be so disrespectful to the Lord Dragon King!”
It raised a sharp claw, but froze mid-air in the next second—
“Disrespectful?”
Little Gold turned slowly, his round pupils shifting into sharp dragon slits. The golden scale on his chest burst with dazzling light, and a wave of pressure originating from the depths of his bloodline spread out like a tide.
The Blue Dragon’s claw hung in the air, trembling uncontrollably. It cried out in panic, “This... this is...”
“Aidanach.” Yserazor’s voice suddenly grew calm, the fury in his dragon pupils replaced by gravity.
He exhaled a long breath, his dragon breath condensing into white mist in the cold air. “You’re right. Now is not the time to assign blame. We must enter the Dragon Nest first and resolve this hidden threat.”
The golden scale on Little Gold’s chest shimmered with a holy light. He turned to Starlight and the others, a solemnity unbefitting his age appearing on his youthful face. “Starlight, Po Kong, Moen, Xia Duo, thank you for your assistance along the way.”
His voice was low and sincere. “But what comes next is an internal affair of the Dragon Race. I cannot allow you to be drawn into an even more dangerous situation.”
Having said that, he turned to walk toward Yserazor. But before he could take two steps, he was grabbed by the back of his collar by Po Kong.
“Hey, hey, Little Gold, don’t be so distant. We’ve come this far, and you want to leave us behind?” He vigorously rubbed Little Gold’s head, making his golden hair a mess.
“What are you doing! Stop it! I’m doing this for your own good!” Little Gold shouted in annoyance, yet he did not stop Po Kong’s hand.
“Hmph, you little brat, you underestimate us too much!” Xia Duo stepped forward and tapped him on the forehead. “Starlight, sister, tell him—are we the kind of people who give up on friends so easily?”
“Of course not,” Starlight answered without hesitation.
Moen said nothing, but silently walked to Little Gold’s side and sent her mana to the two injured Blue Dragons.
Under her treatment, the wounds on the Blue Dragons began to recover at a speed visible to the naked eye.
“Thank you...” Little Gold lowered his head, his voice so soft it was barely audible. He bit his lip slightly, a shimmer of tears appearing in his golden eyes.
Seeing this, Lian walked briskly to his side and gave his shoulder a light pat. “As a friend I’ve shared a meal with, I’ve decided to help you too!”
But upon seeing Lian’s move, not only did El and Liu Ye’s expressions change, but even Starlight frowned.
They were about to face enemies that were at least a match for a Dragon King. Under such circumstances, Lian was absolutely not suited to enter the Dragon Nest.
Furthermore, the Night Elves’ mission was to recover the kidnapped Lian. Now that the mission was accomplished, they had even less reason to remain.
“Your Highness!” Liu Ye’s voice carried a rare hint of sternness. “Our priority is to return you to Night Lotus Valley!”
“No!” Lian looked up at her with a stubborn face. “Without my bloodline sensing, how will you find Uncle and Sister Wu Hua in such a massive Dragon Nest?”
“This...” Liu Ye was momentarily at a loss for words. Although Lian’s words were somewhat forced, they indeed could not afford to lose You and Wu Hua.
“Alright, Lian.” Starlight sighed and placed a hand gently on Lian’s shoulder, intending to push her toward Liu Ye. “Stop being headstrong. Leave Senior You to us. You go with the two seniors first...”
Before he could finish his sentence, a dull rumbling suddenly echoed from deep underground, causing the ground beneath them to shake.
“What is this!?” Yserazor snapped his head up, looking toward the basin.
Everyone followed Yserazor’s gaze toward the Dragon Nest. They saw countless ancient runes, originally engraved on the edge of the basin, suddenly detach from the ground and rise into the sky like living things.
Those runes flickered with an eerie light under the moon. In an instant, they wove into a massive net of light in the sky, shrouding the surrounding mountains.
“What on earth is that!?” Po Kong cried out.
Yserazor’s pupils narrowed into thin slits. “The ultimate defense mechanism of the Dragon Nest... has actually been activated?!”
“No! This isn’t defense—” His dragon claw slammed onto the ground. “This is a lockdown! Someone is intentionally sealing off the entire area!”
He hurriedly extended a massive claw toward Lian. With a tap of his claw tip in the air, the spatial crystal tied around Lian’s neck suddenly burst with a piercing silver light.
“Wait! I don’t want to go!” Lian cried out in panic, beating against the spatial barrier that had suddenly appeared around her. But with her strength, she couldn’t even budge space magic of the Dragon King level.
Just as the teleportation was about to complete, a sudden change occurred—
“Crack!”
With a crisp sound of shattering, the spatial power gathered around Lian suddenly broke like a mirror, dissolving into countless silver points of light that vanished into the air.
The teleportation that should have been triggered was forcibly interrupted by some even more powerful force!
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