Brass Dragons in the Dragon World

"Can I borrow your hammer?"

"It's a staff!"

Ander was clearly unhappy with the way Angers addressed him and took off the staff he was carrying.

He didn't want to use his spatial bag in front of so many people; it would be too conspicuous. So, he had been carrying the "staff" he had taken from the Lu family all this time.

The staff was much heavier than Ander had anticipated, and he had to use magic to lighten its weight so that the horse wouldn't collapse from exhaustion.

Angers, staff in hand, redraws the patterns that have been covered up on the ground.

Hexagram

太阳

moon

Tue

Wed

Ground

wind

Angers drew a series of complex alchemical symbols, which were then combined into a complex array on the open ground.

"Is this alchemy?"

Looking at these symbols, some familiar and some unfamiliar, Ander could sense that they were a completely different system from magic.

At least with his abilities, he couldn't decipher this formation.

"We're in trouble."

Angers slammed Ander's staff into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Ander stared resentfully at Angers, who was carelessly throwing things around, then ran over, picked up the staff, and secretly used a mage's trick to clean it before holding it in his hand.

"Foreign scholar, what's the trouble?"

Angers ignored the nickname Chu Jie had given him, and instead pointed to the magic circle on the ground, saying:

“Look at this moon symbol that dominates the main part.”

Angers pointed to a huge crescent moon, which took up a third of the magic circle.

"The moon represents the feminine aspect, and also death."

He then pointed to the lines next to the symbol.

"Gathering, praying, offering sacrifices..."

Angers' fingers moved continuously, explaining the meaning and function of each symbol.

"This is a door symbol; all the lines converge towards it, meaning that this door is what is to be transformed."

Angers composed himself and delivered his final conclusion:

"This magic circle can transform a door through the power of the moon and death sacrifices. What's behind the door is very likely related to the dragon vein."

The group immediately erupted in excitement; after so long, they had finally seen something related to the dragon vein.

"The Tartars are hiding quite well. Foreign scholar, how do you suggest we open the door?"

Angers quickly reassured the excited members of the Heaven and Earth Society, and said somewhat hesitantly:

"Alchemy is the process of killing real matter and then bringing it back to life. This magic circle is the process of reviving a door that has already died."

But Ender recognized it: dead matter—it sounded so...like...

Angers continued:

"The gates of death naturally connect to the realm of death, which is... Nibelungen."

Here it comes! Just what I wanted has come to pass. The door to the dead leads to Nibelungen, a city composed of dead matter.

The members of the Heaven and Earth Society looked completely bewildered. Too many of the mixed-race heritages of China had been lost, so they naturally didn't understand these things.

"Foreign scholar, stop with the nonsense about life and death, just tell me directly: how to get there, and how many thunderbolts are needed."

Ye Tao was a straightforward person. He didn't care about life or death; as long as the dragon vein could be destroyed, that was good.

Looking at the bewildered eyes of the people in front of him, Angers made up his mind for the first time to build a school after this matter was over, throw these illiterate people in there for a good training, and then pull them out.

"Just wait, we'll be fine once the moon comes out."

Angers told the members of the Heaven and Earth Society to set up camp and rest, then walked over to Ander, who was studying the magic array, squatted down, and asked:

Do you have any ideas?

Ander used his fingers to dig into the furrows that Angers had just drawn, and picked up a dark red clod of earth.

"You've also discovered that this thing requires human blood?"

Ander held up the dark red clay and asked Angers.

"Yes, given the energy consumption of this alchemy array, I'm afraid the few of us simply can't keep up with it."

Ender pondered the spells in his memory and discovered that he actually had a spell that could do such a thing.

"Planetary Collapse, a level 5 spell, can disturb the gap between two planes and create cracks."

Ang nodded, he didn't want to use his own blood to activate the formation.

"Please, I'll take care of diverting everyone else's attention."

Ander looked at the array on the ground and nodded excitedly.

Chapter Thirty-Two: Baichengzi Under the Moonlight

As night fell, Angers reinforced the alchemical array left by Friedrich alone, while Ander and a few others set up their tents and quietly awaited the arrival of night.

Angers judged that the gates of the Nibelungen would only approach the real world when the moon rose, and that would be the best time to open them.

After setting up his tent, Ander didn't really want to rest. He was more interested in seeing the ancient city, even though all he saw were some broken stones.

Strolling leisurely through this wasteland, the sun was setting, and the ambiguous red light shone on the withered yellow grass, creating a unique and charming scene.

The sound of his feet crunching on the withered grass reminded Ander of the sound of bones breaking when he broke a human trafficker's leg years ago.

Wait, something's not right with that sound?

Ander lifted his foot and saw that he had stepped on a yellowish-white thigh bone, breaking it into two pieces. It turned out that he had really stepped on a bone; he had thought it was grass.

Ander apologized to the owner of the leg bone. He hadn't learned any necromancy and couldn't help the man get up and chat with him; it was a terrible sin.

"These bones aren't right; they don't look like old bones."

Looking at the texture of the bone, Ander realized that this leg bone was not one of those old bones that had been buried for hundreds of years and were too hard even for dogs to chew on. Instead, it looked more like the remains of someone who had recently died.

Remembering what Angers had said about the alchemical array requiring a large amount of blood to function, Ander had a guess in his mind: this was probably someone sacrificed by Friedrich.

Ander silently placed the leg bone back in its original position, and with his mage's hand dug up some soil to give the poor man a proper burial.

"Sorry, bro, once I find that guy, I'll definitely take care of him for you, and then I'll break his legs too."

Back at the camp, Ander found something to put on the ground and lay down by the campfire.

"Uncle De, where have you been?"

Chu Jie walked over, carrying a knife, and asked curiously.

"I found someone to chat with, and he told me to break that Friedrich's legs."

"There's no one here."

"There aren't many living people, but there are quite a few dead."

Chu Jie was startled by Ander's words and replied somewhat nervously:

"Uncle De, please don't bother me."

"You're overthinking things. Get to work."

After dismissing Chu Jie, Ander gazed at the distant stone wall and fell into deep thought.

I am still too weak and lack my own strength, such as a few loyal followers, a group of willing underlings, and a few helpful allies.

The situation of mixed-race people in China is not good right now. Perhaps I could consider staying in China and developing my own power base.

For example, the Chu siblings are a good option. After the adventure ends, we'll find a way to turn them into our own people.

He took out a glass bead and used it as a medium to cast the third-circle Evocation spell: Leomon's Hut.

A hemispherical passport enveloped the small camp, making the climate more comfortable and secretly protecting the teammates in the camp from harm.

Ander took off his cotton coat, leaned against it, and admired Tongwan City under the night sky.

The walls of Tongwan City have a peculiar white color, which appears even whiter as the sun sets and the moon hangs in the sky.

The moonlight casts a silvery glow over the ancient city, giving it a beautiful appearance. Because of this, the locals call the place "Baichengzi" (White City).

If it were Japanese, they would probably call this place something like: "The Imperial White Sanctuary".

As time passed, the white walls of Tongwan City grew ever whiter under the moonlight, radiating a wondrous, silvery metallic luster.

It was nearly midnight when the members of the Heaven and Earth Society crawled out of their tents and walked with Ander toward the alchemical array drawn by Angers.

"This ceremony is very important. Do not look or listen. Cover your eyes with cloth and plug your ears."

Angers, using his status as a foreign scholar, fooled several primary school dropouts from the Heaven and Earth Society into closing their eyes.

Arriving beside Ander, Angers took his hand and said:

"I will try to summon the door and do everything I can to open it with magic."

Ander raised an eyebrow and calmly replied:

"Don't worry, this delicate door can't withstand my violent blasting in."

Angers stood in the middle of the magic circle and cut his wrist without hesitation.

If someone has to sacrifice, let it start with me.

As red blood dripped down, streaks of moonlight shone onto the magic circle, and under the influence of unknown alchemy, the scalding blood was tinged with a silvery-white hue.