I will eventually become a god through sheer hard work.

Her delicate features were reflected in the water, and on her left shoulder sat a tiny figure less than ten centimeters tall, swinging its little feet and looking up at the sky.

Just now, she met this magical creature living in the reflection of the stream.

This magical creature calls itself the 'Mirror Man'... Renia considers it a very special, talking, human-like Daruka.

"Indigenous?"

For some reason, even though the person in the mirror was speaking a language that Renia had never learned, she could understand the meaning of their words.

She thought for a moment, then hesitated, somewhat uncertain, before speaking:

“That person… shouldn’t be one of our ‘natives’.”

"But they are outsiders."

The person in the mirror perked up: "Outsider?"

"Hmm? From what you're saying, you know him?"

The person in the mirror asked in confusion.

Renia scratched her head: "I'm not sure if the one on the Flame Cry Dragon's back is him, but I do know a stranger, just three days ago."

The person reflected in the water immediately stood up on Renia's shoulder, grabbed her hair with their small hand, and hurriedly said:

"What's his name? Is it Xue Jing?"

Renia was taken aback: "Huh? His name is Xue Jing, that's right. How did you know?"

A look of joy appeared on the childlike face reflected in the mirror: "Break the iron... oh, not broken yet, it came to me without any effort!"

"Is that Xue Jing on the back of that dragon? Take me there to see him!"

Renia pointed to herself, puzzled, and asked, "Huh? Me?"

She gazed at the Flame Cry Dragon, far away on the horizon, its roar shaking the heavens and earth.

Even from such a distance, Renia could still feel her bones trembling with the roar.

Her lips twitched.

How... do we get across?

……

Xue Jing straddled the fire dragon's neck, gripping the reins on its head and twisting it left and right like a dragon rider.

The fire dragon began to rampage wildly, sometimes crashing into the ground, sometimes hitting mountain peaks, and sometimes breaking large trees.

The clanging and banging sounds continued incessantly, and Xue Jing was having quite a bit of fun, thinking that he had probably gained a lot of experience in riding.

However, he did not forget his original purpose and was about to continue pouring Shadow Flame into the fire dragon's wound.

"Ok?"

But then he was stunned to find that the wound he had inflicted with the spiral spear had already healed.

"What the hell is this vitality and recovery ability?"

Xue Jing frowned.

"Roar--!!"

The fire dragon, unable to shake off Xue Jing for a long time, let out a roar, then flapped its wings and its huge body soared into the sky, flying straight upwards. In no time, it had reached a height of several thousand meters.

Then, it adopted a posture similar to a peregrine falcon to reduce air resistance, fully activated its innate dragon bio-field, and began to dive vertically towards the ground at a frightening speed, with a faint white aura already appearing on the tip of its head.

That is—the sound barrier.

"You beast, you've got some ideas, trying to play Earthball with me, huh?"

Xue Jing narrowed his eyes slightly.

The fire dragon actually wanted to defeat him by diving to the ground at top speed, a method that would inflict eight hundred damages on the enemy but also a thousand damages on itself.

But I must say, this trick actually works.

At near-sonic diving speeds, once he actually hits the ground, the immense kinetic energy impact might be enough for the fire dragon to survive, but he would be doomed.

If you don't want to die, you can only leave the fire dragon's back, and in that case, the fire dragon's goal will also be achieved.

During the high-speed dive, Xue Jing endured enormous air resistance and wind pressure, and was only prevented from being thrown off by the Shadow Flame tentacles that held him firmly to the fire dragon's body.

A height of several thousand meters can be traversed in just a few dozen seconds at near-sonic speeds.

The swooping fire dragon was getting closer and closer to the ground.

Xue Jing was at a loss for a moment, so he could only release the bindings of the Shadow Flame tentacles, push off with his feet, and leap off the fire dragon's back ahead of time.

Upon realizing that the annoying 'bug' on its back had left, the fire dragon quickly came to a stop and tried its best to activate its bio-field to halt its dive. However, due to its excessive speed, it was unable to stop and ultimately crashed into the ground.

"boom--!!"

A deafening explosion erupted, sending sand and dust billowing into a massive mushroom cloud that obscured everything.

Xue Jing, who was in the air, was also blown more than a hundred meters away by the huge airflow generated by the fire dragon falling to the ground.

He adjusted his posture, stopped his movement, and then walked on the Shadow Flame Plates in the air, approaching the place where the fire dragon had fallen.

The dust in the air gradually dissipated, revealing the scene.

The enormous fire dragon lay in a huge pit, its scales shattered and blood overflowing. Most of the skin on its head was gone, revealing a skull covered in cracks. One of its eyes was gone, and its claws and feet were broken and hung limply on the ground.

"Tsk, I'd call you a veteran driver in the Dragon Realm... the kind who drives a hearse."

Xue Jing clicked his tongue in amazement.

Even in such a terrible state, the fire dragon was still alive.

When it saw Xue Jing, its only remaining vertical pupil revealed extreme anger and hatred.

"Roar--!!"

With a roar, its wounds began to writhe and heal at an extremely fast speed, while its mouth opened and blazing dragon breath began to gather.

Xue Jing raised an eyebrow: "Aren't you going to obediently face your death? Fine, then let's have a head-on battle."

From the shadows cast by the sunlit trees and mountains, a dense, black current, visible to the naked eye, was drawn out and flowed toward Xue Jing.

He was engulfed in black flames, and the Shadow Flame Armor Giant, towering over ten meters tall and with an even darker and deeper color, reappeared.

Then, a series of loud banging sounds continued for a long time.

……

Nearly three hours later.

[Slaying a special creature possessing divinity grants +233 divinity]

Xue Jing, slightly out of breath, looked at the fire dragon corpse lying on the ground opposite him, its body tattered and torn, with a wound on its waist that almost severed it in two.

At this moment, the surrounding ground was a mess, with deep pits and broken trees everywhere, as well as large areas of lava. The temperature was so high that the air was visibly distorted.

The pitch-black giant covering Xue Jing slowly transformed into black flames and dissipated.

He reached up and wiped the black grease off his face, looking rather disheveled.

"What kind of bullshit vitality is this? The health bar is way too thick."

Xue Jing let out a soft breath.

Fortunately, it was finally resolved.

The harvest was pretty good, over two hundred points of divinity, which is equivalent to half a divine relic.

"How many are left? If the later dragons are just as hard to kill as this one, then we'll have to come up with a strategy..."

Xue Jing waved, summoning the Shadowflame Crow, which was hovering at a great distance and clutching its backpack, to fly closer.

He then reached into his backpack and took out the map showing the distribution of dragon species to look at.

"Hmm... there are two more in the same circle as this fire dragon, and the remaining three are located around the 'Roaring Waterfall'."

Xue Jing reached out and brushed his hand over the three large red dots in the center of the map.

"These three are probably even stronger than the fire dragon. We need to think of a way..."

Xue Jing looked thoughtful.

Do you want to use it? The Serpent Slayer Vanguard that Teacher Wan gave me...

He believed that this conceptual level of otherworldly divine power, if used properly, would definitely have a tremendous effect.

Even he himself, who only practiced a martial arts style related to dragons, could feel the great threat posed by the Serpent Slayer Vanguard.

It's a kind of vigilance etched deep in the soul, like an animal encountering its natural enemy.

"If we really can't handle these three, then we'll have no choice but to use them..."

"And there's that last pureblood dragon..."

While thinking about things, Xue Jing used his mental power to ignite the flame of life, completely healing all the wounds on his body.

Her hair, which had been curled by the fiery dragon's breath, was restored to its original smooth state under the nourishment of life force.

After reaching Level 6 of [Contemplation - True], his use of mental power became much more refined.

He tidied himself up, burned off all the dirt on his body with Shadowflame, and took out a new black tactical uniform from his backpack to put on.

Xue Jing opened the panel and took a look.

First came a row of experience points, but he didn't look at them closely, focusing his attention on the last one.

[Health Enhancement Upgraded to Lv9 (118/8000)]

[Military attack upgraded to Lv8 (255/6000)]

[Riding skill upgraded to Lv5 (569/2000)]

Another great success.

"Fighting is fun."

Xue Jing nodded in satisfaction.

During these past few days in the border region, I've been either slaughtering dragons or on my way to slaughter dragons.