Dragon Clan: Starting with the Azure Dragon Fruit

Deep underground.

The severely wounded dragon sensed that drop of blood.

In the long, lonely centuries, the little glimmer of light He had managed to have was now being devoured bit by bit by the raging fire.

This pain surged within the dragon's chest, eventually transforming into a furious rage that shattered the heavens.

Lin Yuan saw those originally dim golden eyes suddenly open, burning with a savage ferocity that could destroy everything.

Despite his severe injuries, he roared and tore through the rocky tops of the earth, bursting forth from the depths of the earth to the surface. His terrifying figure, which blotted out the sky, blocked out the torrential rain.

The revelry in the square came to an abrupt end.

The authority of the king of the earth and mountains has descended.

Words of Power. Royal Authority.

Under the gravity field, the secret service's hounds, civilians with pitchforks, agitators, and those agitated were all pinned to the spot at this moment.

Immediately afterwards, the dragon spewed flames that burned everything in the still-sparkling plaza.

The scorching dragon flames washed over the earth, the wailing cries were instantly evaporated by the high temperature, and all living things were reduced to ashes in the raging fire.

Those below the mountain could see flames shooting into the sky in the direction of Broken Peak, and a huge, terrifying black shadow tumbling and dancing amidst the blazing fire.

Later, people called this night "Walpughis Night," meaning a festival where devils and witches reveled around a bonfire.

But it wasn't a celebration at all; it was just a sad funeral.

After the massacre.

Exhausted, the dragon carefully lifted the carbonized remains of Walpuga with its claws amidst the scorched earth and ashes.

He turned and returned to the earth, using his broken dragon body to wrap the remains, and used all the remaining power within him to form a giant cocoon.

He wanted her to come back.

It can revive a hybrid, a taboo that even the first generation of beings might not dare to easily touch.

Even with the best efforts of a third-generation animal, it was impossible to bring back the soul that had vanished in the flames.

Ultimately, she did not wake up.

The dragon, having exhausted its power, fell into a deep slumber underground for hundreds of years.

The scene in front of Lin Yuan began to fast forward wildly.

The old wooden houses were decaying, while stone buildings rose from the ground.

Coal-carrying horse-drawn carts were replaced by roaring trucks, and the originally muddy and steep mountain roads were replaced by smooth asphalt roads. Modern university research institutes and teaching buildings gradually filled the streets of Clausthal.

While the outside world undergoes dramatic changes and human civilizations rise and fall, in this sunless underground realm, it is but a fleeting moment of prosperity and decline.

Until a month ago.

The rapidly flashing images stopped abruptly, and time resumed its normal flow.

A young man with arched eyebrows and a haggard appearance scraped his hand on the rock wall, and a few drops of blood were absorbed by Him.

Those few drops of blood contained the authority of the "King of Bronze and Fire".

The dragon's bloodline underwent a terrifying leap, and the ancient magic array, which had been dormant for hundreds of years, was rekindled under the catalysis of the king's blood!

The resurrection array from years ago has been activated in reverse. At this moment, the thick white fog that permeates the city is the tentacles of the array extending outward.

He will use the people of this city as sacrifices to complete his dragon body and take revenge on humanity once again!

Chapter 77 He only ate a few pork knuckles, why risk his life like that?

Lin Yuan slowly opened his eyes, his gaze refocusing on the ceiling of the guesthouse.

The long "spiritual vision" felt like an incredibly real dream; the dragon's despair and rage from hundreds of years ago still surged deep within his mind.

He understood the pain, but compassion could not supersede the lives of thousands, and allowing this sacrifice to continue was absolutely out of the question.

Moreover, this resentment, after hundreds of years of fermentation and the stimulation of the blood of the "King of Bronze and Fire," has left the underground dragon with nothing but pure savagery, making communication impossible.

In this situation, the only mercy Lin Yuan could offer Him was to end that long period of suffering.

He rolled out of bed, pushed open the door to the living room, and prepared to wake Fingel.

Unexpectedly, the useless senior brother who always slept until noon was already dressed.

He was sitting at the table, looking seriously at his laptop, his brows furrowed.

Hearing the noise, Fingel looked up.

“Junior brother, this mission is beyond our scope.” Fingel turned the computer screen around, which displayed photocopies of medieval texts and fragments of secret society documents.

“I felt uneasy when I got back last night, so I hacked into the academy’s database and investigated this place carefully.” He pointed to several records highlighted on the screen.

"Several hundred years ago, a third-generation species was suspected to have revived in the Hearts Mountains. If we are going to face the same dragon from back then, then the two of us going down there will just be delivering takeout to it."

When he initially asked EVA to put him on this field mission, he never imagined the situation would be so complicated.

In Fingel's original plan, even if the Gattuso family wanted to do something bad to Lin Yuan, they would at most send some assassins to take sniper shots from the shadows.

Based on this judgment, he didn't delve into the details of the mission and simply followed along without much fanfare.

Who would have thought that those lunatics would actually tamper with the mission evaluation of the Execution Department, attempting to push Lin Yuan into the lair of the third-generation species.

Fingel stared intently at Lin Yuan: "I suggest we call the Academy immediately and have the Executive Department send a real specialist to take over. This is your first field mission, and I don't want to see you die here."

Lin Yuan walked over, picked up the "Awakening of Insects" blade from the side, and slowly pulled it out, running his fingers along the blade to check its condition.

"It's too late."

He pointed to the thick white fog outside the window: "You guessed right before. The fog is an anomaly caused by the revival of an ancient alchemical array, but its real function is to drain the life force from all living things in this city."

"If you can convince all the residents to evacuate Claustal before sunset, we can sit here and wait for reinforcements. Otherwise, we'll have to go down into the mines and deal with it now."

Fingel stared into Lin Yuan's eyes, seemingly wanting to ask, 'Where did you get this information?', but ultimately chose to trust his roommate with whom he spent every day.

He didn't say anything more, but silently grabbed the trench coat from the back of the chair and put it on.

"Damn it," Fingel said with a wry smile.

"After seven years of hard work in Kassel, today I'm risking my life."

The two pushed open the door of the guesthouse and plunged into the thick fog.

The fog is even thicker than yesterday, and visibility has been reduced to an absurd ten meters.

Fingel took out his phone and glanced at it. An emergency text message from the city hall popped up on the screen, announcing a citywide shutdown of work and classes, and urging citizens to keep their doors and windows closed and stay indoors.

The streets were deserted, and the pointed-roofed wooden houses on both sides were only vague outlines in the white mist, and the whole city exuded an eerie quiet.

The two of them trudged along the wet cobblestone path, making their way quickly toward the edge of the mine.

As they traveled, Lin Yuan's Observation Haki detected that four malevolent auras were following them from the depths of the thick fog dozens of meters behind them.

After a moment's thought, Lin Yuan realized that it was most likely the assassins who had come seeking revenge after he had taken down the Sackler family branch in Chicago.

However, there are more important things to do right now, and I don't have time to stop for them.

These small fry can be easily crushed when I have a free moment.

Lin Yuan withdrew his senses and arrived at the entrance to the abandoned Ottilia mine.

The rusty barbed wire was faintly visible in the mist, and the tunnel ahead gaped open, silently waiting for its prey to come to it.

Without hesitation, the two went inside. The white mist outside seemed to be aware of its own existence and did not spread into the cave.

As soon as he stepped into the mine tunnel, Fingel keenly sensed the eerie distortion around him.

He stopped, shining his flashlight beam at the rock wall in front of him. The slope of the tunnel was clearly downward, but the water under his feet defied gravity and flowed slowly upward along the rock wall.

"Holy crap... Don't they even do a site survey before assigning this academic mission? This is clearly a Nibelungen region in the making!"

Fingel felt a chill run down his spine and instinctively wanted to pull Lin Yuan away to discuss the matter further.

Lin Yuan, who was walking ahead, didn't turn around, but simply asked indifferently, "What is Nibelungen?"

Looking at his resolute back, Fingel understood that this S-rank junior brother didn't care whether the road ahead was a dragon's den or a tiger's lair. As long as he had a knife in his hand, he would not hesitate to kill his way through even hell.

“Nibelungen are high-ranking dragons…” He stopped halfway through his sentence and suddenly swore.

"Damn it! Didn't the files say it was a third-generation species? Since when did third-generation species become capable of establishing Nibelungen?!"

Lin Yuan didn't react much, but curiously asked, "What happened to the high-level dragons?"

He was curious about any dragon-related terms he didn't understand, after all, he had been studying for a month and there were still things he hadn't heard of.

"Advanced dragons used alchemy and the power of words to reflect an independent space from the real world, which is the so-called Nibelungen. Now the physical rules here have been completely rewritten by the power of the dragons."

Fingel looked at the bottomless pit ahead: "If we take a few more steps forward, even if we want to back out, there's no way we can. Unless we fight our way to the very end and kill the monster in the depths, we'll be trapped here to die."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yuan realized that this was just like running a dungeon. The maze wouldn't open its exit until the final boss was defeated.

Things actually became simpler. He had come here to slay the dragon, and since there was no way out, he could just fight his way through.

Lin Yuan quickened his pace.

Seeing his stubbornness, Fingel could only sigh helplessly and follow closely behind.

The mine was dimly lit and the path was difficult to walk. In order to conserve their strength, no one spoke and they just silently moved forward in the darkness.

As he walked, Lin Yuan suddenly realized that the surroundings were unusually quiet.

The footsteps around us had disappeared at some point.

"Senior brother?" Lin Yuan stopped and called out twice.

In the silent cave, only his own echo remained. He raised his hand and tapped the walkie-talkie beside his ear; only a harsh buzzing sound filled the radio channel.

Recalling Fingel's explanation of the Nibelungen characteristics, Lin Yuan understood that they had probably been separated by the disordered space.

Staying where you are is pointless; once you kill the dragon deep underground, everything will naturally return to normal.

He walked alone into the deeper darkness.

......

On the other side of the mine.

As they went deeper, the sense of oppression around them grew heavier and heavier.

Fingel, who was walking ahead, seemed to have finally made up his mind. He took a deep breath and spoke without turning his head.

"Junior brother, I need to discuss something with you."

He abandoned his usual carefree attitude, his voice unusually serious: "If we really encounter a genuine pure-blooded dragon down there, don't rush to show off. I'll go up and draw their fire first, while you stay in the shadows and strike when the opportunity arises, aiming straight for their vitals. Don't let my usual useless appearance fool you; I'm actually quite resilient..."

Fingel was giving a long, detailed explanation of the tactics, but the mine tunnel was eerily quiet.

"Did you hear that, junior brother?"

Fingel stopped, raised his voice a few decibels, and shouted again.

There has still been no response.

He turned around abruptly, but there was nothing behind him; Lin Yuan's figure had vanished without a trace.

As if sensing Fingel's loneliness, darkness surged in from all around.

Normally, the useless senior brother would have already cried for help, but at this moment, Fingel, who was all alone, turned off his flashlight.

That face, which had always looked haggard, was gradually losing all its expression. All the cowardice and folly of the past had vanished.

In the lightless abyss, Fingel's grey-blue eyes were gradually replaced by dazzling molten gold.

Alone, he ventured deeper into the tunnel.

As they went deeper, the surrounding temperature began to rise at an abnormally high rate, and even the rock walls on both sides faintly showed a dark red color like branding irons.

The sweat evaporated instantly as soon as it seeped out of the pores, and the scalding air was inhaled into the lungs through the trachea, bringing a burning, stinging pain.

Fingel was so hot he could hardly breathe, so he simply ripped off his trench coat, along with the already soaked shirt underneath, and threw it onto the rocks nearby.

In just a moment, the fabric made a sizzling sound and a wisp of black smoke rose from where it touched the rock.

Feeling the terrifying heat around him, Fingel frowned. This was not just geothermal heat, but one of the rules rewritten by Nibelungen, the domain of power belonging to that pure-blooded dragon!

He immediately thought of Lin Yuan.

My junior brother's Word of Power is "Thunder Pool," which is indeed powerful in terms of explosive force and destructive power, but in this high-temperature environment, lightning cannot play any effective defensive role.