Mr. Dragon Knight, the dragon girls are chasing you!

Serafina's voice carried a hint of the inherent weight of a dragon as she slowly recounted secrets passed down for hundreds of thousands of years.

"As long as the Heart of the Silver Moon exists, the Moon Dragon Vein of Silver Moon Peak will never run dry, and the spiritual energy of the entire territory will always be abundant and vigorous."

"But once the Silver Moon Heart is lost, the very essence of the Silver Dragon Clan will decline year by year. Within a thousand years, their bloodline will wither, their spiritual energy will be cut off, and their clan will die out."

"Over hundreds of thousands of years, the power of one dragon king after another has been accumulated within it, and its energy has long surpassed that of any single divine artifact."

Luo Ye listened quietly without interrupting, but the shock in his heart grew stronger with each passing moment.

Serafina continued speaking, her tone still grave.

"The Heart of the Silver Moon operates tirelessly day and night in the core of the mountain range. The Moonlight Grass, the Cloud Sea Moon Fish, the Floating Spirit Spring that you have seen on Silver Moon Peak, and all the creatures and landforms that carry the spiritual energy of the moon depend on it for their nourishment and survival."

"The innate lunar bloodline, self-healing ability, and innate spiritual power of all silver dragons in my clan all originate from this core."

"It has protected the entire Silver Dragon Clan for hundreds of thousands of years, without interruption or cessation."

She paused briefly, then lowered her voice, her tone becoming so serious it was almost suffocating.

"Luo Ye, think this through carefully."

"What you are borrowing is the lifeblood and foundation of our entire Silver Dragon Clan, the source of our clan's survival for hundreds of thousands of years."

At that moment, Luo Ye almost stopped breathing.

When he heard Elder Eldron of the Night mention the Heart of the Silvermoon before, the entire introduction was in the style of a mission.

He was only told that this was the second key relic to break the curse of eternal night, and the only medium that could neutralize the backlash of the shadow source and protect Eluvia's body.

He naturally assumed that this was just a slightly more advanced quest item, perhaps a bit more valuable, and that at worst he would owe Serafina a huge favor, which he could repay later.

And you're telling me this is the entirety of the Silver Dragon Clan's wealth?!

Luo Ye suddenly understood why Eldron's expression was so subtle when he talked about the Heart of the Silver Moon—the old dragon probably held back the whole time and didn't dare to tell him the truth, for fear of scaring him away.

How could something that can withstand the ultimate curse of an entire dragon race and restrain the primal power of the Eternal Night Abyss be just an ordinary high-level sacred object?

Serafina's voice regained some of its coolness as she continued to press:

"So tell me, Luo Ye. What do you intend to do with the Silver Dragon Clan's lifeblood that you've come to me in the dead of night to borrow it?"

Luo Ye opened her mouth, but swallowed the words back.

How should he bring it up? Should he say, "Hello, sister, I'm planning to borrow all your family's wealth to save Old Wang's daughter next door?"

The words of the Grand Elder and Serafina echoed alternately in his mind.

"The Silver Moon Heart is the only medium that can neutralize the backlash from the Shadow Origin and protect the Dragon King's body from collapsing during the unsealing process."

"The combined power of successive Dragon Kings has protected the entire Silver Dragon Clan from the very beginning to the present day without interruption."

One is a necessary quest item, and the other is the lifeblood of the Silver Dragon Clan.

Luo Ye gave a bitter smile to himself. Did he even have the face to ask?

The difficulty of the main questline for the Dragon Clan far exceeded my expectations.

A human who had just signed a contract with her a few days ago, tormented her all night, and ran back to the dragon's lair at dawn, now found her through a soul link in the middle of the night and said, "I want to borrow the most core sacred object of your Silver Dragon Clan because I want to save another Dragon King."

Even after saying this, Luo Ye himself felt it was outrageous.

But what will Eluvia do if he doesn't bring it up?

Her image involuntarily surfaced in my mind—the little black dragon curled up on the base of the dragon's nest, basking in the sun, squinting and snoring softly.

The little black dragon who poked his forehead with the tip of its tail when he was injured, scolded him for being stupid but secretly applied medicine to him.

The little black dragon who stood before him, covered in blood on the battlefield of the Rift Valley, yet still holding its head high.

The Grand Elder's words echoed in her ears once more: "Her Majesty has grown up alone since she was a thousand years old. Her parents left behind a message and disappeared at the edge of the continent. Every year, she would go to the place where they left, stand on the edge of the cliff and look into the distance, without saying a word."

Four thousand seven hundred years old.

There are only a little over a thousand years left before the six-thousand-year curse of the Eternal Night Dragon Clan comes to an end.

For dragons, whose lifespan can easily reach tens of thousands of years, a thousand years is but a fleeting moment.

If he doesn't speak, this little black dragon will only have a little over a thousand years left.

Luo Ye closed his eyes and sighed inwardly—this silly little dragon didn't even know he was about to die, and every day he would foolishly hang on his neck and ask, "Are you going to grill meat again tomorrow?"

For this reason alone, he couldn't let her only live to be six thousand years old.

"...I plan to use it to save people."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the soul connection.

Immediately afterward, Seraphina's voice, carrying a hint of clear understanding and cutting to the chase, rang out softly: "Save people? I think you're planning to save a dragon. Dragon Knight, lying isn't something a good child should do."

Luo Ye closed his eyes; he was numb.

Sure enough, as neighbors and mortal enemies of the Eternal Night Dragon Clan, how could they not know about the Eternal Night Dragon Clan's curse?

"Yes," he admitted frankly, his tone extremely serious.

"The Eternal Night Dragon Clan has been bound by the curse of the Abyss Covenant for generations. Every Eternal Night Dragon King does not live past six thousand years old. Eluvia is now four thousand seven hundred years old, and she only has a little over a thousand years left."

"And the Silver Moon Heart is the only medium that can neutralize the backlash from the Shadow Origin, protect her body, and prevent her from collapsing from the source and being destroyed during the process of breaking the curse."

He told Eldron the whole truth without missing a single word.

"This is a secret of the Dragon Clan, how do you know about it?"

"It was Elder Eldron of the Eternal Night who told me," Luo Ye answered truthfully, his tone sincere.

"He found me and told me the whole truth, all the risks, and all the costs."

He paused slightly, his tone tinged with a genuine helplessness: "That's why I contacted you so late at night. Looking across the entire continent, you're the only one who can help her, dares to help her, and has the ability to help her."

After saying this, Luo Ye had already made full preparations to be completely rejected.

No one would agree to that.

Sacrificing the very foundation of one's own race's survival to save the Dragon King of the rival dragon race is, by all accounts, an absurd and extremely unprofitable deal.

Serafina did indeed refuse.

But her reason for refusing was completely different from what Luo Ye had expected.

"Do you know what kind of place that is?" Serafina's voice suddenly lowered, all her composure and languor vanishing.

Luo Ye was stunned for a moment before realizing that she was referring to the Shadow Source Core Rift.

"The Grand Elder told me that it is the most forbidden area in the core of the Eternal Night Mountains. Its spatial structure is unstable, and its internal environment changes constantly with the day and night tides of the Shadow Origin."

"A guardian of the abyss guards the area, estimated to be at least level 50. Moreover, the forbidden zone's restrictions target the dragon's true form; if a dragon enters in its true form, it will trigger an instant-kill mechanism. I am the only human on the entire continent who can enter."

Seraphina softly repeated those words, her tone carrying a hint of cold sarcasm, yet concealing an unconcealed worry: "The only human who can get in."

"Eldron makes it sound so easy."

"The restriction on the Shadow Source Core Rift only means it doesn't target humans, not that it's lenient towards them. The spatial rifts inside are densely packed and crisscrossed. One wrong step and your physical body will be torn apart, and your soul will be destroyed, leaving you no chance for reincarnation."

"The Abyss Guardian you speak of is the ultimate ferocious beast left over from the ancient wars of the gods. The first Eternal Night Dragon King exhausted half of his essence to barely seal and suppress it. LV50 is merely its minimum level after being sealed and weakened for hundreds of thousands of years."

Her speech quickened, and her pent-up worries finally erupted, her tone revealing obvious urgency and reproach:

"The three high-ranking Elders of Eternal Night joined forces, fully armed, and stepped into the rift, but they could only barely advance a hundred steps before retreating with injuries all of them."

"You're just an ordinary human, with low cultivation and a weak body. What's the difference between you going in alone and deliberately courting death?"

Luo Ye interrupted her directly, his tone calm yet incredibly firm, without the slightest hint of backing down: "I am not an ordinary human, I am the Dragon King's Dragon Knight."

The moment those words were spoken, a brief, eerie silence fell over the other end of the soul connection.

Then--

Serafina's voice rang out again, but it was completely different from before.

She deftly concealed the trace of urgency and worry, replacing it with a languid, hooked smile.

Her voice rose slightly at the end, like a silver dragon's tail slowly coiling and tightening around his heart.

"Oh? A dragon knight?"

"Then tell me—"

Her voice suddenly dropped half a octave, carrying a sticky, moist breath, as if her lips were right next to Luo Ye's ear.

"—How do you ride it?"