Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 472 The Blue Dragon Erebus is Actually a Material Storage

The blunt, heavy sword swung down with what appeared to be a slow but actually swift motion.

Under Frilian's dumbfounded gaze, a towering sword aura ripped through layers of crimson clouds, forcefully creating a wide crack in the blue sky leading south.

Sunlight streamed through the gaping crack in the crimson clouds, making the swirling snowflakes even more beautiful.

But no more snowflakes were falling around Shazo and Frilian.

It took Frillie a while to recover from her shock. Her voice trembling with tears, she said, "Mr. Shazo, it's just a little snow, and you've practically broken the sky! Isn't that going too far?"

Xia Zuo now realized that he had been too quiet and was now restless, and that he had acted impulsively and gone too far, but how could he possibly admit it?

So Xia Zuo stubbornly retorted, "Nonsense, how is that going too far?"

"I ensured my own convenience while not inconveniencing others, and that's not excessive at all!"

"Besides, I didn't break the sky; I just opened a hole in the clouds to let the snow fall."

"Let's go, little girl!"

"Although it's stopped snowing on our way, it's still very cold. Let's hurry south; it will be warmer when we get there."

Xia Zuo scratched his cheek, put away his greatsword, picked up his suitcase, and strode south.

It has been a year since Frilian was entrusted to Xia Zuo by her master. The two have completed the initial adjustment period and have gained a deeper understanding than they appear on the surface.

She sensed Mr. Xia Zuo's embarrassment, so she didn't press him further, picked up her briefcase, and quickly followed after him.

The world at this time was largely undeveloped, covered in dense forests teeming with black bears, leopards, and wolves.

Wild boars and other ferocious beasts.

The roads at that time were very rudimentary. Even in the bustling town, the roads were dirt roads, and if you went a little further away from the settlement, the roads would be overgrown with weeds.

As for the more distant places, those roads are actually animal trails made by large wild beasts. Walking on such roads, it is easy to come face to face with wild animals.

However, it is not an option to avoid such paths, because leaving the often-trampled animal trails makes it easier to encounter highly venomous insects and snakes in the undergrowth.

Those things are even more deadly.

Therefore, ordinary people basically could not travel far, and merchants could only complete limited transactions by forming large-scale caravans.

But for Frilian and Shazo, roads, wild beasts, and insects are not problems.

As a mage, the first magical principle that Frillian learned from her teacher was to conceal her magical power, and her first spell was [the spell to banish malevolent creatures].

By using this magic, you can warn those large beasts that an even more deadly and powerful being is approaching, and they should all get out of the way!

Poisonous snakes and insects will also be deterred by the magical fluctuations and quickly driven away to a distance of 50 meters, so there is no need to worry about being ambushed.

However, with Xia Zuo around, there's no need to use magic at all.

He could simply unleash his aura and power to terrify all the animals into fleeing in panic.

When he releases the natural balance of druidic magical fluctuations, all animals will regard him as a god and grant him whatever he desires.

Xia Zuo also possesses the magic of "Three Rooms and Two Living Rooms," allowing him to live in a beautiful wooden house anytime, anywhere. Therefore, the wilderness offers no restrictions to the two of them and instead provides them with plenty of food.

Xia Zuo and Fuli Lian traveled at an extremely fast pace, reaching the southern desert from the snowy northern forest in just one month.

Upon entering the desert, Xia Zuo was warmly received by the blue dragon Erebus Busen.

The dragon, covered in blue scales, was a truly colossal creature, exuding a terrifying aura as it flew through the sky.

It opened its gaping maw, filled with fangs: "Xia Zuo! You bastard!!"

"Give me back my scales, teeth, and horns!!"

When Frilian saw the giant blue dragon charging towards her, she was so intimidated by the terrifying magic emanating from it that her body trembled involuntarily, and her magic became severely disordered.

Just as the elven girl was filled with despair because she couldn't use magic, she suddenly heard the blue dragon's aggrieved howl, and her despair vanished instantly.

Frillie's body stopped trembling, and the magic within her returned to calm.

[So my earlier guess was right; this was a dragon that Mr. Xia Zuo had bullied.]

[She looks so pitiful————]

Xia Zuo never expected that the ruler of the Southern Desert, the Blue Dragon Erebus, would expose his past and make him lose face in front of Little Frilian.

He grinned maliciously at Erebus: "Well, Erebus, you're really brave."

"You think you can control me just because I brought a junior along?"

Erebus roared, "You think I'm afraid of you? Come on!"

Xia Zuo retorted without backing down, "Erebus, you slippery eel, come on!"

The next second, the man and the dragon were locked in a fierce battle.

However, the blue dragon doesn't use its lightning breath because it would make Shazo's hair stand on end, which would quickly lead to the slaughter phase.

In return, Xia Zuo didn't take out his own longsword from the box, but fought the blue dragon Erebus with his bare hands, and they ended up fighting to a draw.

Frillie soon discovered that Mr. Shazo and Mr. Erebus were indeed friends; although their fight was loud, they posed no real threat to each other.

The ping-pong game went on for a long time, and Xia Zuo's clothes were torn to shreds. He was wrapped in strips of cloth, and his dignified image was completely gone.

But the blue dragon Erebus was badly beaten by Shazor; the desert was littered with broken scales, broken teeth, and torn whiskers.

Xia Zuo was deeply disappointed: "Tch, I couldn't take off your horn this time."

Erebus covered his swollen eye socket with his claws and complained, "You bastard, how did you get stronger again?"

After stopping, Shazo called Frilian over to clean up the battlefield. Magic was extremely efficient in this regard, and they quickly collected all the debris dropped by the blue dragon.

As agreed beforehand, half of these materials belonged to Frilian, and she worked with great enthusiasm, completely forgetting that the huge and terrifying blue dragon was watching her.

Feeling the materials radiating intense magic in her hands, Frilian couldn't help but swallow hard, desperately wanting to possess them all.

Fortunately, she restrained her greed and carefully processed all the materials, storing them in her suitcase in different categories.

At this moment, Erebus said in a muffled voice, "Not bad, Elven mage. Seria has taken on a very good apprentice."

Shazo shook his head and said, "Frilian is not Celie's student, but Flame's disciple."

Erebus nodded in realization and asked, "That human girl with the orange-red hair, how is she doing now?"

Frillie lowered her head and replied, "Ms. Flame has passed away."

"Ha, that's great!" Erebus happily wagged its tail. "One less person to strip me of my scales."

Frilian slowly raised her head, her eyes calm and expressionless as she looked at Erebus, but Shazor caught a glimpse of the anger in them.

He stepped back with interest, watching the interaction between the elven girl and the blue dragon.

Erebus flicked its tail like a puppy for a while, then suddenly noticed the wound on its tail where scales had been knocked off. It looked down and saw the scales in Frilian's hand.

After a long, stunned silence, Erebus sighed deeply, "One Flame has died, and now another elf has come, trying to pluck my scales. Alas, when will this ever end?"

Xia Zuo laughed and said, "Alright, we've left you such a large territory. All we want is a few scales and teeth that can grow back. You should be content."

Erebus was furious. Pointing to the severed spot on his left horn with his claw, he asked, "Here... can it grow back here too?"

Xia Zuo's smile remained unchanged as he continued, "There are still five left, what's wrong—don't you want them anymore?"

Erebus shuddered, shut his mouth in frustration, and his eyes revealed an uncontrollable fear.

After gathering its strength for a moment, it shouted loudly, "This is the last time! If you come to the desert again, I will definitely kill you!"

Erebus shouted as it leaped and flapped its wings, flying away in a panic, like a stray dog ​​that had been hit with a stick.

After Erebus said it was good that Flame died, Frilian remained silent, but her eyes were fixed on the blue dragon Erebus.

Following Xia Zuo's instructions, she observed every detail of Erebus, analyzing the blue dragon's weaknesses and movement habits.

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After the blue dragon flew away, Frilian took out a small notebook and recorded her observations.

Xia Zuo asked with a smile, "You want to kill Erebus?"

The little elf nodded: "Yes, it said it was good that the teacher died, which I really dislike."

"Haha, there's no need, really no need," Xia Zuo said with a laugh. "I heard from Celia that your teacher often comes to steal Erebus's scales."

"Moreover, Flame is not strong enough to defeat Erebus; she only bullies the blue dragon because of Seria's name."

"Erebus was furious about this, but he always got beaten up by Celia. He was holding back his anger, and saying a few unpleasant things after Flame's death couldn't be considered a fatal crime, could it?"

Frillie blinked, unable to continue writing in her little notebook.

This blue dragon seems quite pitiful; it was brutally beaten by its master, bullied by its teacher, and even had its scales stolen.

The blue dragon Erebus Buson is actually a source of materials for the strongest swordsman and archmage of the elves.

It's not unreasonable for it to complain a little.

However, the little elf still felt unhappy.

Xia Zuo suggested, "When you're strong enough in the future, come and beat it up, but don't take its scales."

Frillie thought about it seriously, then nodded earnestly, accepting Shazo's suggestion: "Mr. Shazo is right, I'll only attack it, I won't steal its scales!"

Then the little sprite happily continued to record the information she observed about the blue dragon, but she "thoughtfully" highlighted several fatal weaknesses.

After crossing the desert, Shazo led Frilian south.

"Mr. Shazo," Frillie asked. "Where are we going next?"

Xia Zuo replied, "I remember 400 or 500 years ago, when I was traveling to the southern coast, I met a strange human who claimed to be the chosen one of the goddess of magic, the spokesperson for the human world, and to spread the goddess's faith."

Frillie was stunned: "Mr. Shazo is referring to His Excellency the Patriarch of the Church?"

Xia Zuo shrugged and said, "It's him, the Patriarch you mentioned. I made a bet with him."

"We're betting on whether his teachings will be distorted after his death, and whether the church he founded will transform from an organization that shelters the poor into an organization that provides cover for darkness and desire."

"Frilian, you should know that I won the bet."

"Although the Church of Goddess still maintains its vigorous vitality, its doctrines have become unrecognizable, and the church's supporters have changed from the poor to the nobles."

"So, I'm going to go get my bet back now."

Frillie asked curiously, "Mr. Shazo, what are your stakes in the bet?"

"If I lose, I will serve as the chief knight of light for the church for 500 years; if he loses, he will give me the longsword that the goddess bestowed upon him."

Frillie asked in surprise, "Mr. Shazo, this bet is extremely unfair. How could you accept it?"

Xia Zuo replied, "This is a sure-win gamble, so why would I be afraid of betting a large sum?"

Frillie's eyes widened: "You predicted the current state of the church 400 years ago?"

Xia Zuo nodded: "This is not a prophecy, but a certainty."

"Humans are a race with strong desires, which makes them maintain a strong curiosity and persistent efforts, but also means that human organizations will decay and deteriorate within a short period of one or two hundred years."

Frillie exclaimed, "That was indeed very fast—"

Xia Zuo laughed and said, "Actually, elves also decay and deteriorate, but our life rhythm is very slow, and the rate of generational renewal is even slower, which creates the illusion of stability."

"Human beings decay within a hundred years because they go through five generations of replacement during that time."

"If you trace back five generations of the Elven race, you'll find that it was almost ten thousand years ago when the Elven race ruled the entire world."

Frillie nodded in realization. Although she didn't understand the true meaning behind Xia Zuo's words, she kept them in mind.

The reason Shazo told her all this was because Frilian's generation of elves would grow up in an era of great change, an era in which the relationship between elves and humans would change.

All the elves will grow up in human society, and will have to re-understand the world according to the generational pace of humankind, and gradually get used to the new rhythm of civilization.

If it weren't for Shazo, it would have been Simmel, the first human to defeat the Demon King and bring 70 years of peace to the world, who taught Frilian this lesson.

But by then, Frilian was over a thousand years old, and the impact she felt was too intense; the pain she experienced was heartbreaking.

Moreover, she missed the opportunity to get to know Simmel because of this, which is a great pity.

In Xia Zuo's view, Simmel was an extraordinary human being who was able to suppress the Demon King's army for 70 years while still being human.

It wasn't until the 29th year of the Yongbi calendar that the demon race resurfaced and wreaked havoc on the world.

This is a miracle!

It's a miracle that even the invincible Xia Zuo couldn't achieve.

He hoped that Frilian could realize the difference in time in advance and gain a deeper understanding of this human hero.

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