Chapter 20: The Dragon Crystal Transformation
Even Dellinger, who had reached the peak of the Saint Domain back then, had no other way to preserve his life once his ** was destroyed.
If the ** was destroyed, death was certain.
If one could easily repair the **, that would be the power of a god.
** vitality disappeared, and the Saint Domain Violet-Striped Black Bear also felt its soul being drawn by the underworld. It believed that within a few seconds, its soul would enter the underworld: "Sadieus!!!" In its final moments on the Yulan continent, the Saint Domain Violet-Striped Black Bear madly clawed at the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon's head with both bear paws.
One of the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon's eyes was clawed blind, and the scales on its neck and head were torn to shreds, blood flowing continuously.
But the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon didn't resist at all, because it too was in its final moments of life. Having fired that crucial row of spikes, the vitality within its body was slowly fading away.
"I won't accept this!!!"
A roar of fury rang out.
"Boom!" The massive twelve-meter-tall body crashed to the ground, slamming into the earth, while the soul of the Saint Domain Violet-Striped Black Bear was irresistibly drawn and devoured by the underworld, vanishing forever from the material plane of the Yulan continent.
Linley,
"Mutual destruction?" Linley looked at the fallen Violet-Striped Black Bear and the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon still biting its arm. The Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon was on the verge of death; blood flowed endlessly from both its tail and neck, and its eyes were quietly closed.
Suddenly—
The Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon opened its one uninjured eye. Its dark golden pupil held nothing but cold, emotionless ruthlessness, fixedly staring at Linley, who was in the passageway.
"Ah." Linley's heart twitched violently under that gaze.
Both the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon and the Saint Domain Violet-Striped Black Bear had long noticed Linley but simply couldn't be bothered with him.
But—
The Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon didn't want its body to be defiled by this human after its death. The dragon race was proud, and the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon was the most arrogant and conceited clan among them. Even in death, it wouldn't let its opponent have an easy time, let alone allow a human to desecrate its corpse.
"Not good." Linley didn't hesitate; he turned and charged deeper into the passage.
"Even on the verge of death, you still want to kill," Linley thought, his heart burning with rage.
The Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon's dark golden eye locked onto Linley. Then, with the most passionate roar of its life, it turned into a black lightning bolt, reaching Linley in an instant. Its dragon claw swung at him without mercy.
Feeling the gust of wind behind him, Linley instinctively wanted to drop to the ground. He knew that one swipe of that claw could kill even a rank 9 magical beast, let alone him. The jade armor on his body was no match for the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon's sharp claws.
"Whoosh!"
A piercing shriek rang out as Bebe's small body collided fiercely with the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon's claw.
"Bebe!" Linley, whose soul was linked to Bebe's, sensed Bebe's movement instantly, and his heart trembled with fear.
"Crack!"
A crisp impact. Bebe's body was sent flying by the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon's claw, rebounding at even greater speed and smashing into the wall dozens of meters away, deeply embedded in the stone.
A splash of vivid blood stained the stone wall.
"Bebe's blood." At this moment, Linley felt a wordless agony, a thousand times more painful than Alice's betrayal.
Scenes of Bebe with him flashed through his mind.
He remembered their first meeting, when Bebe hid behind a broken stone in the dilapidated ancestral house, fearfully watching Linley.
He remembered Bebe's smug look, wrinkling its nose in that adorable way.
He remembered Bebe curled up in his inner pocket, sleeping peacefully and sweetly.
...
From the age of eight to this year.
The one who had truly been with him the longest was Bebe. Though it liked to brag a little and was a bit of a glutton, it had indeed taken a very important place in his heart.
"Gulp!" The Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon opened its massive mouth and lunged at Linley's head.
"Ah!" Linley let out a low, guttural roar. His eyes were bloodshot. As the dragon's mouth came at him, Linley moved with unprecedented speed, opening his own mouth wide and biting down on the dragon's neck.
"Crunch—" A chunk of muscle was torn from Linley's shoulder.
But Linley's teeth clamped down on the dragon's wound.
"Die, die, let's die together!!!"
Scenes of him and Bebe kept replaying in his mind. Tears streamed uncontrollably down Linley's face as he madly chewed and bit into the tough neck muscles of the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon, swallowing large gulps—
"Gulp, gulp, gulp~~~"
The Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon's eyes dimmed. Its soul could no longer control its body; it flew out and was forcibly taken by the underworld. The massive body collapsed powerlessly.
"Die, die!"
In a state of frenzy, Linley madly swallowed the dragon blood and tore at the neck muscles.
"Ahhh~~"
The dragon blood splashed onto Linley's body. He felt as if his skin was being scalded by boiling water, the pain excruciating. But that was secondary. The dragon blood he had drunk into his stomach caused his entire body to convulse and tremble.
Pain, intense pain!
The pain of dragon blood pouring over his body was something Linley could still endure. But the dragon blood entering his abdomen, where the internal organs were far more delicate than the skin, was like being pierced repeatedly from the inside.
Pain, yet Linley forgot the pain at this moment.
The dying strike of this rank 9 peak Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon was unimaginably powerful. The sharpness of its claws was legendary; even a rank 9 magical beast would be torn apart by one swipe. And Bebe?
Linley remembered the vivid blood on the wall.
If Bebe's small body had been torn open, could it still survive? Most importantly, Linley felt that Bebe's vitality had weakened to the point of being almost imperceptible.
"Ahhh~~" A fierce unwillingness in his heart drove Linley to madly tear at the dragon flesh and drink the dragon blood. He let the blood boil inside him, let his body ache to its limits, his nerves trembling in agony, but he didn't care.
"Linley, stop, stop." Dellinger roared, "Use the Blueheart Grass, quickly, use the Blueheart Grass. Like this, your body will collapse."
But it was useless. Linley kept swallowing the dragon blood. Suddenly, a cold, crystalline object slid down his throat into his stomach. The pain intensified, and Linley's entire body trembled uncontrollably.
Pain?
Linley wanted to feel pain. This pain could slightly distract him from the sorrow in his heart.
"Linley." Dellinger didn't know what to do either.
"Boss, boss." A faint voice echoed in Linley's mind.
Linley froze, suddenly stopping. He stopped tearing at the dragon flesh and swallowing the dragon blood.
"Bebe?"
The passage fell silent. Linley stared blankly at Bebe, embedded deep in the wall. He sensed that Bebe's vitality was beginning to strengthen. He saw Bebe's figure slowly crawling out of the deep hole in the wall, and a surge of joy filled him. But then, a terrifying pain directly assaulted his nerves.
"Quick, eat the Blueheart Grass." Dellinger roared.
Linley snapped back to reality. He tore open his pack, grabbed the Blueheart Grass, and stuffed it into his mouth. There were at least ten stalks. A cool sensation spread through his body, and the burning, stabbing pain sharply diminished.
But Linley felt a spot in his stomach where the pain remained strong. Especially as the burning pain elsewhere faded, this spot became more pronounced.
Without hesitation, Linley grabbed another handful of Blueheart Grass, shoved it into his mouth, and swallowed it quickly.
He immediately sat down cross-legged. The secret method from the "Dragon Blood Codex" for using dragon blood to awaken the Dragonblood Warrior bloodline automatically surfaced in his mind. He began to channel the dragon blood within him. As the method progressed, the "Dragonblood Warrior" bloodline hidden in Linley's blood finally began to manifest.
"Success."
The success rate of using live rank 9 dragon blood was lower than that of Saint Domain dragon blood. But the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon was at the peak of rank 9 and the strongest dragon clan among rank 9s. Its smaller size also meant the potency of its dragon blood was even better.
"Sizzle~~" The dragon blood in Linley's body was refined one by one, eventually turning into streams of dragon blood battle qi.
But when it came to refining the spot in his stomach that still ached—the one that even the Blueheart Grass couldn't soothe—Linley didn't know that when he had been swallowing, the dragon crystal from the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon's brain had flowed out with the blood and entered his stomach.
Normally, a dragon crystal entering the stomach was ten thousand times more dangerous than dragon blood. Even with the Blueheart Grass weakening the crystal's effect, the pain would be enough to make one's blood boil to death.
But the Dragonblood Warrior bloodline was no ordinary bloodline.
The Dragonblood Warrior bloodline originated from the first Dragonblood Warrior, "Baruch." When Baruch had achieved mastery in his cultivation, he could even slay a peak Saint Domain Nine-Headed Serpent Emperor. His unparalleled martial might across the Yulan continent was terrifyingly powerful.
Even the mighty dragon clans, upon learning that the Baruch family captured Saint Domain dragons to bleed them for their clan members to practice the "Dragon Blood Codex," were unwilling to truly clash head-on with the Baruch family.
Such was the terror of the Dragonblood Warrior bloodline!
As for the records in the Baruch family's inherited books, which claimed that no one had become a Dragonblood Warrior using live dragon blood, that was merely a concealment due to the dragon clans' influence. In reality, the Baruch family had used this method to create quite a few Dragonblood Warriors.
The unique Dragonblood Warrior bloodline was far more precious than the noble dragon blood!
Just a tiny amount latent in the body was enough to make a human a match for a Saint Domain dragon. From this, one could imagine the power of the Dragonblood Warrior bloodline!
Now, as the Dragonblood Warrior bloodline circulated and came into contact with the Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon's "dragon crystal," a peculiar change occurred! The dragon crystal was the essence of a dragon's energy. This was the energy essence of a rank 9 peak Spiked-Back Iron-Armored Dragon. But Linley's Dragonblood Warrior bloodline was still too thin...
"Sizzle—"
Intense pain spread throughout Linley's body. He threw his head back and roared in agony. Strangely, black scales began to emerge on his skin, the sharp scales piercing through his clothes.
Black scales slowly appeared on his thighs and arms. This inhuman pain made his veins bulge and his expression terrifyingly fierce.
An even more intense pain erupted as a sharp spike slowly protruded from Linley's forehead...