Under the Red Dragon.

Chapter 495 The Colorful Prince and the Parasite

The mountains are thousands of feet high, standing upright like knives, with towering peaks stretching endlessly. Among them, ancient pines and cypresses cling to the lonely cliffs and high mountains, lush and verdant, reaching tens of meters in height. The shadows they cast twist in the wind, as if demons and ghosts were lurking in the shadows.

A massive waterfall cascades down the cliff, with enormous serpent lizards lurking among the turbulent waters. Occasionally, when a huge eagle or vulture flies over the edge of the cliff, these lazy serpent lizard monsters will suddenly pounce with unprecedented speed.

The occasional howls of wild beasts and cries of fierce birds echoed through the mountains, and powerful, extraordinary monsters were often found among them, making these mountains a place rarely visited by humans.

Even the most powerful warriors among the Skull Tribe living on this continent dare not venture alone into this wild forest. The Skull Tribe hunters only dare to hunt for food and capture wild animals on the outskirts of this forest.

However, this area welcomed many unprecedented guests today, causing the wild beasts and monsters in the jungle to howl and flee, abandoning their nests.

snap,

Two rough, heavy hands gripped the protruding rocks on the cliff tightly. With just a little force, the veins on the back of their hands bulged out.

Using the protruding stone slab on the mountaintop as a fulcrum, the two blue-skinned, tall cloud giants climbed up from the near-vertical cliff and onto the narrow mountaintop.

The everyday clothes worn by these two cloud giants are woven from a mixture of spider silk from extraordinary species such as the Ets, possessing extremely strong extensibility and flexibility. Even during a cloud giant's daily combat training, it would be difficult to tear or wear out such clothing.

After being given a simple enchantment on the assembly line set up in the magical textile factory of the Golden Empire, this seemingly thin and extremely comfortable garment not only has the effect of keeping warm and keeping away dust, but also provides basic magical protection. It is the standard equipment of the elite legion warriors of the Golden Empire.

However, the emblem embroidered on the chests of the two cloud giants is a black dragon crawling on countless skulls, its appearance exactly the same as that of the Empire's Black King, Rossani.

This means that these two cloud giants belong to the Dragon King Guard, a legion directly under the command of the Black King of the Empire.

Two cloud giants stood atop the mountain, gazing left and right, and then each took out a fist-sized, jade-like disc from their bosom and held it in their palms.

This jade-like disc is crystal clear, with a few stars twinkling within it, making it look extremely mysterious and exuding an aura that resonates with the entire world of Lyponos.

“We’ll walk side by side, one on the left and one on the right,” the slightly older cloud giant warrior said to his companion, carefully holding the jade plate in his hand.

"If the Dragon Jade senses anything, the two of us will get together and determine the exact coordinates."

The other cloud giant nodded, and, holding the Dragon Jewel in its palm, began to carefully explore the mountaintop with its companion.

The Dragon Jewel was created by the true dragon emperor and the dragon kings of the empire from the scattered star ring artifacts that were found after the death of Lipnos, the ruler of this world.

The remaining power and aura of Lyphonus were sealed within the jade by magic, giving it the ability to sense the creations left behind by Lyphonus. Therefore, these giants called it the Dragon Jewel.

If any living being were to look down from the high heavens at this moment, they would discover that beneath countless lush ancient trees in this vast, desolate wilderness, various giant species roam.

Frost giants, hill giants, cloud giants, wood giants, and stone giants roamed the mountains, each carrying the Dragon Jewel and sensing and exploring along the way.

Aside from the Storm Giants, virtually every giant race from the Golden Empire can be found here.

As the private retinue of the Dragon Emperor of the Empire, the Storm Giants hold a slightly higher status within the Golden Empire than other giant races. Even the Cloud Giants, who consider themselves the only superior giant race, cannot compare to the Storm Giants' status.

However, because many dragon kings in the empire preferred to select giants as their guards, the giant race has become increasingly dominant in the Golden Empire over the past few decades.

The giant races of other races were more prosperous than the cloud giants.

The Frost Giants, in particular, are different from the original species because giants, like dragons, are prone to various mutations caused by environmental changes.

Because frost giants, like many of the five-colored dragons, have the characteristic of clustering and changing the environment, although the effects produced by these frost giants cannot be compared with those of powerful dragons, the Golden Empire often chose to settle these frost giants in severely saline-alkali areas that were unsuitable for planting and development.

Under the influence of the Empire's environment, these frost giants also began to mutate, just like the Empire's golden goblins and golden kobolds.

The new generation of frost giants should now be called salt frost giants.

The true Frost Giants have gray-blue hair, skin, and even eyes, and usually exude a chilling aura.

Even the weakest frost giant can use their bloodline power to coat their body with a sufficiently hard frost armor during battle, and slightly stronger frost giants can even use some simple frost-based spells.

This is also why the Frost Giants were able to become the dominant race in the Frost Plains of the Northern Lands of Ekania.

While the Salt Frost Giants have a slightly reduced ability to control frost to some extent, their overall quality is still higher than that of the native race.

Because these salt giants have skin covered in white frost and cracks, they are no longer as easily affected by the scorching environment as the ice giants, which would cause their combat power to drop significantly. They can also manipulate the salt and alkali in the earth to turn into armor and heavy spears.

These salt-frost giants hurled heavy spears that could not only pierce through battle shields, but also carried a unique poison that was deadly upon contact with blood. Their exceptional strength made them highly sought after by the dragons of the empire.

Besides these giants chosen by the Dragon King of the Empire to serve as the Dragon King's Guard, there are also many mages of the Empire in this mountain forest who manipulate levitation spells and also possess the Dragon Jewel, detecting and exploring every inch of this space.

"The coordinates are not here,"

On a mountaintop, two salt frost giants signaled with flags while roaring.

This immediately drew roars from countless giant warriors, echoing in waves.

These giant warriors had not been able to utilize their strengths and advantages in the battles of space. Landing operations and bloody battles were the domain in which these giant warriors excelled, so they felt extremely frustrated. After landing on the world of Lyponos, their energy was almost limitless.

The colossal body of the ancestral golden dragon Obirash stood atop a solitary cliff, resembling a golden vein of gold, its golden pupils scanning the surroundings, constantly watching the movements of the giant warriors.

Rosani, the black dragon, flapped its wings and soared through the sky. Under its powerful hind claws, it gripped a 20-meter-long serpent lizard monster. The serpent lizard monster was still struggling, but its strength was like an ant trying to shake a tree to the exceptionally strong black dragon.

Obirash's eyes were drawn to the serpent monster. He immediately spread his wings and took flight, meeting the black dragon Rosani. His huge golden claws grabbed the serpent monster's tail, and together with Rosani, they tore the serpent monster in two.

boom,
Two dragon kings landed simultaneously on a flat cliff, which was the empire's temporary base in this area.

This outpost is not only home to many mages and giants, but also a considerable legion of golems standing ready for battle.

The two dragon kings did not speak, but simply tore at and enjoyed the food in front of them.

The elemental magic in the world of Lyponos is even more concentrated than in the world of Ekania. Therefore, many extraordinary species and even ferocious beasts that grow in this world contain more life energy and nutrients in their flesh and blood than many species in the world of Ekania. To dragons, this is considered an exceptionally delicious food.

The surrounding mages and giants did not find anything wrong with the fact that the Dragon King of the Empire still maintained such a primitive lifestyle.

A true dragon is a true dragon. Only the true dragon of the empire defines others, and there is no reason for others to define the true dragon of the empire.

Only after chewing and swallowing the last bone did the black dragon Rosani turn its fierce head to look at Obirash, who had also finished eating.

"Has the coordinates of Lipnos's half-plane not been determined yet?"

Rosani, the black dragon, frowned slightly at the fine scales on his forehead. "Could it be because the demiplane of Lipunos has already collapsed, which is why it has taken so long to find the exact coordinate space?"

Each of the Imperial Dragon Kings has their own duties, but because the treasure left by Lipunos is too important, the two Dragon Kings of the Empire are jointly in charge of this matter. The legion warriors they bring are also the Dragon Kings' direct guards, which makes them easy to control and prevents information from leaking.

Obirash gently shook his head, licking the blood from his fangs as he spoke.
"Charon locked onto the soul aura of Lypunos before his death, and redirected the demiplane Lypunos created in the rest of space to the material world where Lypunos exists,"

"The demiplane created by Lipunos certainly won't completely collapse and be destroyed; at least some remnants will remain before they sink into the void,"

"However, the connection point of this demiplane in the material world could exist on the ground, inside a mountain, or even somewhere in the sky,"

"We've determined that its coordinates are roughly within this range. We just need to spend time searching slowly, and sooner or later we'll find the link coordinates of the Lipnos hemiplane."

Rosani cleaned the blood off his hands and then slowly nodded, squatting on the cliff and looking out over the vast wilderness.

Obirash slowly walked to Rosani's side and sat down next to the exceptionally strong black dragon.

"Less said that someone was watching us,"

Obirash bared his fangs and lowered his voice, saying, "The 'Boron' detector on Les has reacted, proving that there is indeed a similar person around. Rossani, should we capture him?"

"Oh? Such things exist in this world too? It seems that not only in the world of Ekania, but many material worlds with civilizations also have the same problem."

Rosani, the black dragon, had a fierce look in his eyes that twitched slightly upwards.

People like Les and Redo, born from ancient souls, threw themselves into the orderly civilization of the Golden Empire for freedom and the future, and many of its secrets were gradually explored and discovered by the Golden Empire.

The things that parasitize these ancient souls are collectively referred to by the empire's mages as Spirits of Law.

Whether it is an ancient soul, a chosen one born in a certain world, or the soul of an outsider, the spirit of law hidden deep within the soul will read the knowledge, experience, and cognition of the parasite and adapt accordingly, unfolding in a form that the parasite can understand.

For example, the various systems seen by the otherworldly visitors under the command of the alien god Bo Rong are one of the manifestations of the Spirit of Law.

In most cases around the world, victory or defeat depends on the amount of prior information available.

Since learning that a hidden force had been lurking in the world, the Golden Empire has devoted a great deal of effort to this field, even iterating the 'World Devourer'—a creature that parasitizes other beings—nearly a hundred times.

If it weren't for the alien god Borong's unusual resistance to Kalon Gogmora's harassment of his various subordinates, perhaps the Empire's mages would have already achieved many important results.

After these ancient souls were born and joined the imperial order, the empire gained a clearer understanding of beings existing in this form.

The spirit of the laws of parasitism often drives the parasite to experience extraordinary events, thereby integrating into the world's spacetime, leveraging the weight of fate, and deepening its imprint of existence in the material world's spacetime.

And in doing so, they obtain the miraculous power that is as powerful and rare as the power to reverse the world with one's will after ascending to legendary status, which is also called the power of truth by the empire's archmage Morvanred.

Among the many different kinds of Law Spirits, there is a protective mechanism that triggers a regression once the parasitized Law Spirit dies, returning to the original spacetime anchor point with the soul information imprint of the parasitized person, or returning to a space detached from reality.

The various spirits of law have different effects, but the final result is the same: those with strong potential who are parasitized will be taken in as henchmen by the mastermind behind the scenes and will never be freed.

Most creatures with average potential become cannon fodder.

The Golden Empire utilizes these ancient souls who have defected to the Empire, using hounds against hounds. Thanks to the cooperation of Les, Redo, and others, the Empire, based on the characteristics of these beings and in conjunction with the 'World Eaters,' developed the 'Boron Detector' to better detect and eliminate hidden individuals within the Empire.

Les is the hound in the Imperial Legion that performs these functions.

"Well, it just so happens that we are quite lacking in materials for this kind of experiment,"

Rossani, the black dragon, flicked his tail and said indifferently, "Capture him. Let Les do it himself. Don't let this guy escape!"

……

The scale on the ground caused Kalon's precognitive abilities to bloom wildly, to the point that even the Dragon Emperor, who had never tried to observe the future, could passively see the enormous dragon floating in the starry sky.

It was a giant three-headed dragon, with physical features almost identical to Tiamat after she became immortal; it was a combination of all the colored dragons.

Its terrifying and ferocious head and upper body are a gray-black color mixed with blue-green and purple highlights, while the lower body is a gradient of bluish-white, gradually darkening into gray along the tail of the body.

“That is, the Colorful Dragon Prince,” Karon said softly, his fangs opening and closing.

All the five-colored dragons in the world are descendants of Tiamat's creations, but the Rainbow Dragon Prince is a powerful creation that Tiamat truly created herself.

This evil dragon, known as the Rainbow Dragon Prince, does not usually enter the Prime Material Plane unless it is in support of some of the largest hellish campaigns.

But in this mortal realm, there are no hellish battles; only the kingdom left behind by the Dragon God can attract this colorful dragon prince.

Moreover, both his intuition and his ability to foresee fragments of the future told Karon that there existed something Tiamat desperately craved in the Dragon God's Kingdom, as well as something Tiamat desperately feared.

That's why Tiamat didn't personally descend to this place after becoming immortal, not even as a projection, but instead sent her most loyal dragon warriors.

(End of this chapter)