Dragon Clan: Starting with the Azure Dragon Fruit

The high priest gritted his teeth: "If our Lord were not trapped in the Nibelungen and temporarily unable to unleash His power upon the world... how could a blasphemer like you be allowed to run rampant here!"

"Well said!" Lin Yuan said sincerely.

"So you should open the door for me and let me in to see the god you speak of. If He is really as powerful as you say, He can take revenge for you inside. Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?"

The high priest was speechless. After thinking about it, he actually felt that what Lin Yuan said made a lot of sense.

Inside the sarcophagus lies Nibelungen, constructed by the gods with supreme authority; it is His domain.

Sending this arrogant monster in isn't betrayal at all; it's actually offering a sacrifice for the awakening of the gods.

Once he understood this, the resistance on the high priest's face faded.

He stopped resisting and began to chant the dragon script in a low voice.

Although Lin Yuan had awakened the power of words, he still did not understand the meaning of the dragon script, which sounded no different from a celestial book.

As the high priest chanted, the black stone coffin slowly slid open to one side.

The inside of the stone coffin was empty, with only a bottomless, dark void.

The high priest weakly raised his hand and pointed to the darkness: "Please, the passage to the Lord is right before you."

Lin Yuan didn't rush to jump in. He turned around, found a priest, and threw him into the darkness of the stone coffin.

His body disappeared from Lin Yuan's sight as soon as it touched the edge of darkness.

The features of this spatial fault are very obvious, and it is indeed the entrance to the Nibelungen.

With the entrance to Nibelungen now found, the priests on the ground lost their value.

Word of Power: The gravity field of the King's Authority is super-amplified.

Inside the entire underground palace, all the priests, believers, and death servants who were lying on the ground died instantly under the influence of this gravity.

The high priest was deliberately spared because he was closest to Lin Yuan.

Looking at the bodies lying dead all over the ground, he stared wide-eyed: "Why? I opened the passage as you requested."

"Yes, you did a good job," Lin Yuan affirmed his actions.

"But I didn't say I wouldn't kill you if I opened the passage."

As soon as he finished speaking, the high priest was crushed by the force of gravity.

After confirming that there were no more survivors in the underground palace, Lin Yuan dispelled his incantation.

Manipulating the fiery clouds high in the sky, they slowly guided Nono down.

He planned to bring Nono in with him.

Having experienced Nibelungen before, he understood that the laws of physics governing this miracle created by pure-blooded dragons differed from reality.

The third-generation species last time could fold space; what if the time flow in Nibelungen this time is different from the outside world?

If you're only inside for ten minutes, but several days and nights have passed outside, that would be terrible.

Chapter 105 Chinese People Can Fly

After the battle ended, Lin Yuan reverted from his half-dragon form and returned to his original human appearance.

Flame Cloud carried Nuonuo down into the underground palace through the gap in the sky.

As soon as she landed, the strong smell of blood made Nono instinctively cover her mouth and nose. She looked around and saw that the floor tiles were covered with spider web-like cracks, and the black-robed priests and the linen-clad believers were all lying in pools of blood.

Those golden jackal head masks seemed to have been squeezed and deformed by some terrifying force, embedding themselves into the flesh and bones of the priests.

"What happened here?" Nono's voice trembled slightly. Nearly two hours had passed since her first injection of adrenaline, and the effects of the first dose were gradually wearing off.

"It's just getting rid of some annoying bugs." Lin Yuan could hear the weakness in Nuonuo's voice.

He led her to the open stone coffin in the center of the underground palace: "The entrance to Nibelungen is here. I will take you in, and the curse will be lifted immediately."

Nono stood at the edge of the stone coffin, looking into the thick darkness inside, her steps hesitant.

She is in very poor condition right now, and all her physical functions are declining. If she goes in with Lin Yuan, she will not be able to help him.

"How about... I wait for you outside? I'm afraid if we go in together, I'll just hold you back." Nono thought about her current state and didn't want to be a burden.

"Besides, all the cultists here are dead; it's safe to stay outside..."

Lin Yuan firmly rejected the proposal.

“No, you have to come in with me. I’ve seen Nibelungen, which was built by pure-blooded dragons. The laws of physics inside are different from those in the real world, and I’m worried that the flow of time might be different too.”

Nono was slightly taken aback. She didn't really know much about Nibelungen, only that it was a miracle built by pure-blooded dragons.

But she understood Lin Yuan's gaze; if she didn't go in with him, he would definitely not let it go.

"Alright then, I'll go with you and try not to cause you any trouble."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Yuan grabbed Nuonuo's wrist and pulled her closer to him.

Before Nuonuo could react, she felt her body lighten and her feet leave the ground. Lin Yuan put one hand under her knees and the other around her back, carrying her in a princess carry.

"Hey, what are you doing!"

Nuonuo's screams were swallowed by the darkness. Lin Yuan, holding her, leaped into the bottomless void of the stone coffin.

In the instant she fell into darkness, Nono felt as if all five senses had been stripped away.

Immediately afterwards, a dizzying sense of disorientation overwhelmed her; the concepts of up, down, left, and right lost their meaning, and the scene before her eyes constantly distorted. One second she felt herself falling rapidly, the next she felt a tremendous upward force pushing them both upwards.

It felt like the Black Pearl capsizing at the end of the world in Pirates of the Caribbean, where the entire space was flipped 180 degrees, and the abyss turned into the sky.

Just as Nono felt her brain was about to explode, the darkness faded, and the violent throbbing stopped in the blinding white light.

They landed on a rough sandy area, and Lin Yuan put Nuonuo down.

The two looked up at the same time, their eyes filled with shock.

Above the sky, several enormous pyramids hang upside down in the depths of the clouds, and around the pyramids, one can vaguely see the phantom of a withered giant tree that blots out the sky.

Lin Yuan recognized it as the World Tree he had seen in his spiritual vision before, with rusty steel bridges wrapped around its branches.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be the Chicago River Bridge, and further on the horizon, skyscrapers and ancient obelisks could be seen standing side by side.

The remnants of civilizations from different eras and the ruins of different mythological systems are mixed together under this sky.

It exudes a bizarre and insane sense of distortion.

The ground beneath their feet was an endless, dark red wasteland, the cracked soil emitting a pungent smell of sulfur.

A wide, black river meanders from the depths of the wasteland, its waters churning with murky foam. Every now and then, pale arms rise to the surface, only to be swept back into the abyss by the undercurrent.

"This...this is the Nibelungen?" Nono murmured to herself, her gaze shifting from the broken skyscrapers in the distance to the River Styx at her feet.

The textbooks at Kassel College describe Nibelungen as a “twisted, desolate place.”

But the scene before her completely overturned her understanding; it was clearly a complete and independent other world.

Lin Yuan was also shocked by the Nibelungen before him. If the Nibelungen in Clausthal was a maze, then the territory of the Nibelungen before him was so vast that it seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance.

Faced with this unimaginable power, Nono was momentarily at a loss. She instinctively moved closer to Lin Yuan, looking up at him: "Where...where are we? Which way should we go?"

Lin Yuan did not answer him immediately, wanting to first use his Observation Haki to explore the area.

But soon he discovered that his Observation Haki was far from sufficient to cover this space.

He changed his approach. Since the curse was called "Duat's Dream," this place must be the legendary Duat. The materials Fingel had given him before contained information about Duat.

The Book of the Underworld records the complete process of the dead entering Duat, where the souls of the deceased must undergo a long test lasting twelve hours.

From the western entrance, Achth bids farewell to the mortal realm, boarding the night boat of the sun god Ra and traversing fertile waters. Then, they enter the dark desert ruled by the falcon-headed god Minsokal, where the boat can only be dragged across the parched sands by giant serpents. Next, they pass the Lake of Fire, where the tomb of Osiris is buried, facing the extreme danger of the sun's rebirth at midnight. Following this, they encounter Apophis, the chaotic serpent attempting to devour the sun, and with the help of the gods, slay it. Finally, they pass through the Gate of Fire, returning to the waters to complete their rebirth.

Each level is fraught with danger, filled with traps and monsters from ancient Egyptian mythology used to test the dead.

Lin Yuan had no intention of accepting Duarte's challenge. He wasn't there to play a level-based game.

Moreover, Nuonuo couldn't hold on for that long. Thinking of this, Lin Yuan's figure rapidly expanded in the light, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed into a green dragon tens of meters long, coiling in mid-air.

A cloud of orange-red flames reappeared beneath Nono's feet. With her previous experience, she navigated the situation with ease, using the flames to lift her onto the Azure Dragon's broad head and grabbing its horns.

"This should be the Duat from ancient Egyptian mythology. Once we find the final Hall of Two Truths, we can find the 'Feather of Mayat,' and then we can lift your curse."

Lin Yuan's deep voice echoed in the air.

The Azure Dragon transformed into a streak of azure lightning and hurtled toward the depths of the horizon.

The powerful airflow was pushed aside by the fiery clouds around the dragon's head. Nono lay on the warm scales, looking down at the rapidly receding earth.

According to the Book of the Underworld, they were supposed to travel by night boat down the River Styx to experience the trials set by the gods.

But Lin Yuan can fly.

When the Egyptian gods created Duat, they did not expect that mortals would be able to fly.

The trials that were originally meant for the two of them became background story, flashing by below.

Nono looked down at the ground and saw the sun boat, emitting a faint glow, pass through the fertile waters shrouded in mist, sail into the dark desert, and then pass by the lake of fire, Osiris, where lava churns.

As the sky sank into the deathly silence and darkness of the sixth hour, the sea of ​​sand exploded with a deafening roar, and the colossal chaotic serpent Apophis burst forth from the sand, biting down on the sun ship.

Immediately afterwards, several fully armed Egyptian gods descended from the sky and fought with the giant serpent.

The battle was incredibly realistic, but the azure dragon soaring through the sky didn't attract their attention in the slightest.

Whether it's the world-destroying serpent or the gods fighting bloody battles, they are all like a group of NPCs with pre-programmed routines, tirelessly repeating this fateful battle on the stage called Nibelungen.

What should have been a near-death experience for the undead turned into a holographic movie thanks to Lin Yuan's way of traveling. However, due to the viewing angle, it didn't seem particularly exciting.

After flying over a long stretch of twisted terrain, a grand building with a completely different style appeared at the horizon.

It was an ancient temple so vast it was breathtaking, like a mountain range lying between heaven and earth.

Its top pierces the clouds, almost touching those upside-down pyramids.

The Hall of Trial of Two Truths.

The Azure Dragon landed in the wide square in front of the temple. After Yan Yun put Nuonuo down, Lin Yuan transformed back into human form.

The two walked towards the interior of the temple, where each step of the outer staircase was several meters high.

Lin Yuan wrapped his left arm around Nuonuo's slender waist and stomped his right leg down hard.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Several explosions rang out.

Six Styles: Moon Step

As if stepping on an invisible ladder to heaven, the two traversed the long and steep divine steps in just a few steps and entered the temple.

This is the final destination for every soul that enters Duat.

Stepping into the hall, a solemn and quiet atmosphere immediately envelops you. The space here is ridiculously large, with the ceiling painted with dazzling stars, as if the entire universe has been brought into this grand hall, connecting the celestial realm and the earthly realm.

The ground beneath our feet is paved with seamless malachite and turquoise, reflecting a cold luster under the starlight.

Hundreds of massive, towering stone pillars stand on both sides of the passage, arranged in neat rows like the ribs of ancient giants, supporting the endless dome.

At the far end of the temple, on stone thrones on both sides of the circular hall, forty-two gods sat in neat rows, but these gods did not possess the holiness and radiance one might imagine.

Wrapped in yellowed shrouds, they stood motionless like withered tree trunks, their forty-two empty eyes turning to them the instant Lin Yuan and Nuonuo appeared.

In the very center of the hall, on a throne made of gold and obsidian, sat a male god draped in a white linen robe, wearing a crown, and holding a scepter and flail with his hands crossed.

It was Osiris, the king of the underworld and the judge in ancient Egyptian mythology.

On either side of him stood Isis, the goddess with the mark of a throne on her head, and Nephthys, the goddess with the mark of a house on her head.

Directly below the throne stood a towering golden scale, with Anubis, the god of death with the head of a jackal, standing in the center of the scale, reaching out to adjust the balance of the trays. On the right side of the scales, in the tray, lay a dragon scale that emitted a pure white glow.

Seeing his target right in front of him, Lin Yuan instantly transformed into a half-dragon form, protecting Nuonuo behind him.

At the same time, the majestic temple erupted with a powerful tremor. The starlight flowing across the dome vanished instantly, plunging into endless darkness.

On the main seat, Osiris slowly opened his eyes, which had been tightly closed, and two dazzling golden lights suddenly shone in the darkness.

A grand echo reverberated through the temple: "Dead men... declare your names... be judged!"

Chapter 106 The Path to Godhood

As Osiris's majestic voice fell, blue lightning appeared out of thin air above the left tray of the golden scales, intertwining and condensing into the phantom of a beating heart.

The illusory light gradually solidified, and each heartbeat coincided with Lin Yuan's own pulse frequency.