The four were startled for a moment, then walked out after exchanging looks.
When they arrived in the hall, the sight before them made them struggle to suppress their laughter—Yserazor was donning a dark green bathrobe that was clearly a few sizes too small, his round belly exposed, and his chubby face was a mask of annoyance.
“Found you at last! Come with me, there’s a bit of trouble I need your help with!”
Hearing this, Starlight couldn’t help but feel a pang of anxiety. Had something else gone wrong in Dragon Valley? But looking at Yserazor’s comical appearance, it didn’t seem like an emergency.
The Rift Dragon King didn’t waste any time, leading them directly into the depths of the cave.
After several turns, they finally arrived before a narrow passage.
Yserazor pointed at a crack that wasn’t even half as wide as his body and said huffily, “Go in there and see what the hell is going on. I can’t squeeze into this gods-forsaken place!”
“Huh? I say, old dragon, isn’t this your own home? You need us for this too?” Po Kong said, looking utterly speechless.
Yserazor’s old face flushed, and he stomped his feet in embarrassed rage. “This cave of mine was built over a giant cavern! I usually only use the few caves for sleeping and storing my items. Who has the spare time to map out every mouse hole?”
“If I were to just use my dragon breath to blast open a path, and it happened to collapse the entire cave... wouldn’t all my precious treasures be buried underground?”
Moen blinked and asked curiously, “So, what exactly is happening inside?”
“Sigh... I can’t quite explain it.” He rubbed his sleepy eyes and let out a massive yawn. “I’ve been running around these past few days handling clan affairs. I thought I could finally come back and get a peaceful night’s sleep...”
As he spoke, his voice suddenly jumped an octave. “But not long after I lay down, I was woken up by a rhythmic clinking and clattering! I searched the cave for ages and finally found that the sound was coming from this crack!”
Starlight looked at his companions; every one of them was biting their lower lip hard, terrified of laughing out loud.
He could imagine this dignified Dragon King in his ridiculous bathrobe, wandering around his own cave like a headless fly trying to find the source of a noise.
Xia Duo had already turned her back, her shoulders shaking suspiciously.
“Uh... old dragon, don’t call me mercenary, but... does this count as a commission? We’re going to have to charge a fee~” Po Kong winked at Yserazor and said with a grin.
“Fine, fine! Just get in there and see what kind of ghost is disturbing my sleep!” Yserazor waved his chubby hand impatiently, his face darkening.
Starlight and the others didn’t actually intend to ask for anything. After a brief preparation, they climbed down through the crack.
The crack was deep and narrow, even more cramped than they had imagined. Even the tall Po Kong had to turn sideways to barely squeeze through; there was no way Yserazor could have ever made it.
After traveling for about fifteen minutes, Starlight stopped and looked around suspiciously. “Have you noticed anything unusual? I don’t feel anything at all.”
Po Kong shook his head, looking equally puzzled, but Xia Duo frowned.
She suddenly stopped, her long ears twitching slightly in the dim light, as if carefully discerning something.
“The Rift Dragon King was right. There is indeed a strange sound in here. Though it’s still quite far away, it’s very clear.”
“It’s really there? Can you tell what it is?” Po Kong asked in a whisper.
“Hmm...” Xia Duo pressed her palm against the damp rock wall and closed her eyes to concentrate. After sensing for several seconds, she withdrew her hand. “It’s a sound I’ve never heard before. It’s very dense... but also very rhythmic... I can’t imagine what it is.”
“At least we can be sure it’s not a remnant of Desdoraka, as there’s no ripple of death energy,” Moen added.
Clink—
At that moment, a clear, sharp sound—like metal colliding—drifted from the depths of the passage.
The four immediately tensed up, looking toward the source of the sound in unison.
They quickened their pace. As they delved deeper, the narrow passage gradually opened up.
When the four turned the final corner, the sight that met their eyes made them hold their breath simultaneously—a massive cavern appeared before them, its walls densely embedded with countless translucent crystals.
Under the light of the orb in Starlight’s hand, the entire cave sparkled like a starry sky, refracting dreamlike, seven-colored light.
“Whoa~ The old fat dragon has a place like this under his home?” Po Kong marveled.
Xia Duo carefully touched the nearest crystal. “It’s a natural crystal mine. While crystals aren’t exactly rare, finding such a massive quantity is quite uncommon.”
While they were marveling, the rhythmic clinking sound rang out again, echoing clearly within the crystal cavern.
“Look over there!”
Following the direction of Moen’s finger, Starlight narrowed his eyes toward the depths of the cavern.
Surrounded by countless brilliant crystals, a strange figure was crouched on the surface of the largest crystal.
The silhouette looked exceptionally eerie in the crystalline light: a disc-shaped body with a metallic luster, supported by six slender, jointed limbs. The ends of its two forelimbs were sharp drill bits, which were currently rotating at high speed against the crystal’s surface.
The “clinking” sound they had heard earlier was exactly the noise made when the drills met the crystal.
“What the hell is that thing?” Po Kong frowned, instinctively assuming a combat stance.
The monster seemed to sense the movement behind it. Its six legs suddenly contracted, and its entire body spun around like a spring.
Under the light reflected by the crystals, everyone finally saw the monster’s head. Between two large, bright yellow eyes was a diamond-shaped crystal glowing with blue light.
“Isn’t it a spider?” Moen’s face was full of confusion. “It has no life signs at all...”
As they wondered, the blue crystal atop the monster’s head suddenly began to flash, emitting a series of rapid “beep-beep” sounds.
“Hmm? What’s it doing? Wait... it seems to be sounding an alarm!”
Starlight keenly sensed the anomaly and immediately raised his hand to fire a blast of ice-blue water element at the monster.
The magic condensed into ice in mid-air, accurately freezing the machine in place.
However, the piercing alarm didn’t stop; instead, it became even more rapid. The blue crystal inside the monster flashed frantically through the ice, its frequency increasing by the second.
“Oh no... is this some kind of self-destruct mechanism!?” Xia Duo’s ears twitched uneasily as she drew her weapon from her waist.
“Let me dismantle this damn thing! Little Star, give me the goods!” Po Kong reached out toward Starlight, his eyes flashing with eagerness.
Starlight understood immediately and summoned the Sacred Wood Phantom from his storage space. The giant scythe traced a graceful arc through the air before landing firmly in Po Kong’s hand.
Po Kong’s legs suddenly exerted force, and he soared into the air like an arrow released from a bow. The Sacred Wood Phantom transformed into a golden crescent in his hands, its sharp blade-light pointing directly at the frozen, strange machine.
“Stop right there!”
A crisp, sharp shout suddenly exploded from the depths of the cavern. Almost simultaneously, dozens of sharp crystals condensed out of thin air, shooting toward the mid-air Po Kong like a torrential rain.
“Wh—” Unable to dodge in time, Po Kong hurriedly changed his move in mid-air, spinning the Sacred Wood Phantom into an impenetrable barrier.
In an instant, a flurry of clanging and clashing sounds rang out. Flying crystal fragments splattered around him, leaving deep gouges on the cave walls.
Using the force of the impact, Po Kong performed a backflip and landed steadily, holding the scythe across his chest on guard. He narrowed his eyes toward the direction of the attack and barked, “Who’s there?!”
The moment the rain of crystals ceased, two small, slender figures slowly emerged from the shadows deep within the cavern.
Starlight looked closely and discovered that the newcomers were actually two children.
Leading them was a young girl. Her grey hair was tied into two upward-pointing pigtails at the back of her head, and a strange, seven-colored light shimmered within her strands of hair.
She wore a dark brown travel cloak and tightly gripped an almost transparent crystal short staff, watching everyone warily with her amber eyes.
Rate on N.U.
