Chapter 1011: Dying of Old Age
Earth Dragon remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking, "I really don't know..."
"Qi Xia split one plan into countless pieces, and even he himself doesn't know the full picture right now," Azure Dragon said. "I find it hard to understand... that all of this is for the sake of going to that blood-red world. Would you be willing to go with him?"
Seeing that Earth Dragon wasn't speaking, Azure Dragon looked her over from head to toe and added, "You would go with him looking like this... covered in scales with a lizard-like face?"
"What do you mean..."
"I don't know what's in that world. Right now, 'Heavenly Dragon' and Qi Xia both want to go and find out, but I don't. I don't want to create a brand new world anymore..."
Earth Dragon's expression darkened once more, and she remained silent.
"Earth Dragon," Azure Dragon said again, "Even if the other 'Earthly Zodiacs' haven't prepared themselves for this, you should have."
"I... prepared myself?"
"All the 'Earthly Zodiacs' are waiting for the day they can advance to 'Heavenly Zodiac' and shed that monstrous skin. But only the 'Earth Dragons' know that they can never advance to 'Heavenly Dragon' no matter what." Azure Dragon smiled faintly and continued, "You were already prepared the moment you chose this path, weren't you?"
"Yes, at first I didn't understand..." Earth Dragon let out a bitter laugh. "'Dragon' could clearly be the manager of the 'Zodiacs,' but no one was willing to take that seat... Later, I figured it out. Because everyone who joins the 'Zodiacs' wants to leave, but 'Dragon' can't. Once you choose to become a 'Dragon,' you become a permanent slave."
"So you admit it," Azure Dragon said. "Your purpose in joining the 'Zodiacs' is different from theirs."
"Yes," Earth Dragon replied. "There's no need to hide it anymore at this point. I might die, but it will have been worth it."
After saying this, Earth Dragon wore an expression of facing death with equanimity, but Azure Dragon made no move.
"Aren't you going to kill me...?" Earth Dragon asked after a moment.
"I like your frankness." Azure Dragon turned around and continued looking down below. "If you had tried to argue or deny it, you would be dead by now."
"You call that frankness..."
Earth Dragon let out another bitter laugh and simply crouched down, sitting beside Azure Dragon.
She was petite, with small horns and scales on the sides of her face. Sitting next to Azure Dragon, she looked like a little spirit pet.
"I don't understand something either," Earth Dragon asked. "If you knew everything... why did you let Qi Xia get this far?"
"I told you... I'm a little curious," Azure Dragon said. "When you find that the ants at your doorstep have started having their own thoughts and have mobilized their entire colony to plan something big... you want to see how it ends."
"Quite the 'ants' metaphor..."
Azure Dragon chuckled lightly. "How many people do you think would single out one particular ant and kill it when the ants have just started moving..."
"But you never expected the ant could turn into a human and eventually stand before you, almost as powerful as you, to the point where neither of you can kill each other anymore." Earth Dragon also looked down as she spoke. "That was unexpected for you too, wasn't it?"
"Oh...?" Azure Dragon glanced at Earth Dragon with interest. "I never realized you were such a talkative person?"
"Ever since I found out you saw through me... for some reason, I feel a lot more relaxed." Earth Dragon let out a few "hehe" laughs. "For so long, even the nightmares I had when I slept were about you tearing my head off after discovering my true identity."
"So what's with this sudden cheerfulness?" Azure Dragon asked. "You think I won't kill you anymore?"
"No." Earth Dragon shook her head. "It's just that I know I'm doomed, so pretending is useless at this point. I just want to sit and rest for a while."
"Ha, that's interesting." Azure Dragon propped his chin on his hand and looked down at the people coming and going below. "I have no intention of killing you, yet you think you're doomed."
"Yes. Ever since I became a 'Zodiac,' I've had a lot of time for independent thought," Earth Dragon said. "And I've figured out many things because of it."
"Like what?"
"Like in this game, even if you don't kill me, I'll still die." Earth Dragon smiled as she looked at the people below, speaking nonchalantly. "I have a feeling someone is going to 'bet their life' with me."
Azure Dragon listened with a blank expression and asked, "Qi Xia won't save you?"
"Qi Xia is one of the candidates," Earth Dragon replied. "He might be the one to kill me with his own hands."
"Then I really can't understand." Azure Dragon sighed. "What kind of relationship is this? You're willing to die for his plan, even if he knows nothing about it, even if he kills you himself... and you're okay with it?"
"To be honest..." Earth Dragon frowned as she smiled, "I'm very afraid of pain, and very afraid of death. But some things are like that—the more you fear them, the less you fear them. Pain is the same. The more it hurts, the more you get used to it."
"I really can't understand this 'human nature,'" Azure Dragon said.
"Qi Xia gave us a few extra decades to live," Earth Dragon said. "Isn't that enough? We came here in our twenties, fought and struggled for fifty or sixty years. Everyone here is already old enough to die of old age."
"Die of old age...?"
"That's right!" Earth Dragon's face lit up with a smile as she stared at Azure Dragon and said, "You have no idea how much I miss that gathering where we commemorated our 'dying of old age'... Qi Xia said that after we drank enough and woke up the next day, each one of us would have effectively 'died of old age.'"
Azure Dragon turned to look at Earth Dragon as she spoke with animated enthusiasm, clearly becoming interested.
"That year, we did the math. Some were in their nineties, some in their eighties, and some in their seventies. No one in this world gets to choose when they 'die of old age,' but we could. My companions, who were like family to me, and I chose to 'die of old age' on the same day. After that day, we threw ourselves into the ranks of the 'Zodiacs.' You ask why we face death so calmly? For us, we had already died of old age long ago."
"Interesting." Azure Dragon nodded. "I've never heard such a claim. Not only did each of you choose your own 'death,' but you even chose 'dying of old age'—a method unique to mortals."
"Is that so hard to understand?" Earth Dragon was still smiling. "Our bodies haven't changed, but our minds and memories are already old enough. For real 'monsters' like us, even without this skin, we could no longer blend into the real world."