The Greedy and the Obsessed

Blood splattered everywhere, flesh and bones shattered, and Kang De watched as these ancient men fought and retreated.

Under the relentless attacks of the Void Spirit, they continued to shed blood and make sacrifices as they ventured deeper into the realm of the undead.

Along this path of death, people constantly suffer fatal mutations due to the overuse of energy elements, either rushing into the Black Beast in the last moment before losing their minds, or silently accepting the end of the flag bearer.

Those who didn't have time to end their lives attacked everything around them in endless pain and madness. Their bodies swelled, their armor shattered, their backs were covered with mutated eggs, their arms became incredibly large, and they spewed out thick venom from their mouths, whipping their tentacles and whips. In this terrifying mutation, they lost their original appearance and glory, becoming incredibly hideous monsters, and finally died from exhaustion.

... Just Long Yi.

Kang De gazed at those who were marching into the darkness.

Amidst the flashing purple light and the brandishing of weapons, these warriors showed no fear, even as the gruesome deaths of their comrades threatened to become their own future. The dazzling purple light shone as brightly as ever, without the slightest hesitation or retreat.

A thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

These people... are different from those dragons who wandered into this place out of greed.

Why did they come here? Are they willing to pay such a price to keep going? Are they hiding from something, searching for something, or... waiting for something?

Kang De stood up, wanting to chase after it, when suddenly, a dazzling blue light flashed before his eyes, the surrounding scenery faded instantly, the world changed, and light and shadow flowed away like a stream of light, revealing a dreamlike crystal world.

A deep blue light, magical luminescent plants, and countless crystal clusters.

The scenery seen in the Time Flashback is not what it is now.

Lily returned, and she and A Xing had been watching him anxiously. They only breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Kang De's eyes move and his expression return to normal. Lily asked, "Again?"

Kang De nodded.

He glanced at the twisted dragon corpse on the ground and told the dragon girl what he had seen.

"These ancient people didn't master the techniques to neutralize the mysterious elements; they only mastered the ability to forge and utilize them. It's like a bottle of poison that can quench thirst."

Recalling the earlier scene, Kang De felt a little heavy-hearted.

"By absorbing and forging mysterious elements to enhance their extraordinary power and create exquisite weapons and armor, they gain formidable combat strength, but this comes at a price."

He said silently, "Using mystical energy will corrode oneself. They may have the skills to suppress and slow down the process, but once they exceed a certain limit, they will lose control. Their bodies will undergo accelerated mutation and their minds will degenerate and be lost, eventually turning them into out-of-control beasts, and then they will die from exhaustion."

"Just like him."

At this point, the Fire Thief glanced at the dragon corpse on the ground.

"This devil's gift is not free."

Lily remained silent for a while, processing the news.

"Then..." she asked, "These ancient people willingly accepted this mysterious element and sacrificed themselves to achieve a certain goal, thus losing control and becoming monsters, but he..."

She looked at her compatriots lying on the ground.

Starting with Aocheweier, the second dragon to fall, died an even more gruesome death, which only deepened her unease. What had this dragon experienced in its life? And where were the other dragons?

Kang De understood what she meant.

"Then we'll have to investigate ourselves," he replied. " In the Space-Time Flashback, individuals who have undergone complete mutation and aberration unleash their power violently before death, transforming into bloodthirsty beasts that attack everything. In other words, this dragon must have engaged in some brutal destruction and destructive behavior before its death. Since it's not here, it must be somewhere else. Let's look around and see where it came from."

Lily pointed in a direction, to a far, deeper area beyond the reach of the shimmering crystals and azure willows, where a cold, eerie light emanated, half light and half darkness.

"The traces were obvious: blood, purple slime, and shed scales and flesh."

The Dragon Girl said softly, "By the way, it's not an illusion. When the polluted and corrosive dragon blood drips onto the ground and is absorbed by the soil, the glowing plants nearby become even more dazzling and radiant. Moreover, I've tested it with my own blood, and the cause of this phenomenon is not the blood of a giant dragon."

She looked around. The brilliant crystal flower sea surrounding the dragon corpse, the ferns radiating an icy blue glow, and the magnificent glowing flowers were all thriving and shining brightly. It was because this glowing flower sea was so dazzling that she noticed the dragon corpse lying on it at first glance.

The dragon's deformed and swollen body was so ugly and twisted, but the surrounding dreamlike sea of flowers was so splendid and dazzling.

Beauty and ugliness, life and death, vitality and decay—the stark contrast is deeply unsettling.

The withered life turns to dust, merges into the earth, and becomes nutrients for plants. This is the natural cycle. However, the splendor of this sea of flowers does not come from the Dragonfall. This is the source of the Dragon Girl's unease.

Lily slowly exhaled. "Now you understand, right? The strange ecology of this underground world, the glowing plants that have never appeared on the mainland, the magical and magnificent dreamlike landscape... what exactly is it nourishing? You also said that many years ago, this place didn't have such beautiful scenery."

Kang De remained silent.

He recalled the ancient people who had fallen here, their bodies completely corroded and about to undergo utter mutation. They perished here, unknown to anyone. Their comrades were still fighting, their chances of survival slim. Their remains were left unburied, the entire underground world their tomb, until many years later, when it was filled with a magnificent sea of azure flowers.

"Let's go." He stood up. "We need more answers."

The Dragon Girl was somewhat surprised; the giant dragon was still in a corroded and twisted state, and had not returned to normal.

She asked, "So... we're just going to leave it at that?"

"It's incurable, beyond our control, let's go," Kang De said calmly. "There's no difference."

If righteous men can only be buried in the green hills, then what virtue does the traitorous dragon possess to die with a mausoleum?

It is your honor to leave your body lying here.

He followed the direction Lily had pointed.

That road was also the path that people in ancient times braved bloodshed to forge ahead.

The scenes he witnessed in the Space-Time Flashback made him increasingly concerned and obsessed. He felt that the encounter with the Space-Time Flashback was not a coincidence, and the flag bearer also gave him a strange sense of familiarity and intimacy.

It felt like we'd known each other for a long time.

Just like he told Lily... he needed answers too.

He wanted to know why these ancient people went to such lengths to venture into this place, making enormous sacrifices and facing the pain and despair of mutation.

"See that? The signs of movement."

As Lily continued on her way, she kept an eye on the ground. The dragon was enormous and had crawled all the way to the sea of flowers before collapsing and dying. It should have crushed countless flowers and plants along the way, but there were no obvious signs of it. It wasn't that there weren't any, but rather that the dragon's blood had been flowing through the area, causing the glowing plants to grow at a visible speed, thus obscuring the traces of the dragon's movement.

But the deeper they went, the harder it became to conceal these traces.

As the dragon crawls, its strength gradually diminishes. In more distant places, it has more strength and vitality, making the traces left by its movement more obvious.

In this blue crystal labyrinth, they searched in reverse, following the direction the dragon had come from.

The traces were easy to notice, because the glowing plants were more lush and radiant in the direction the dragon had crawled, as they were nourished by the dragon's decaying flesh and tissue.

Lily bit her lip as she walked, because they had been walking for a long time.

This long journey is proof of the dragon's tenacious vitality and extraordinary memory.

It was only just now that the Dragon Girl realized that the giant dragon had returned along the same route.

This was the same path they had taken, traversing the stone forests and riverbeds of the underground world, arriving at this collapsed cave entrance, clearing away the rubble, and following the long passageway to the azure crystal world, before continuing onward.

The dragon is now returning along the same route.

At first it flew, but then it could no longer support itself, so it landed and walked. When it could no longer support itself, it crawled and moved until it reached the sea of flowers. It had no strength left, and could only helplessly look up at the cliff that was tens of meters high. The distance that it could reach with a single flap of its wings in the past was now like an insurmountable chasm. It could no longer cross it and could only close its eyes in regret.

Kang De said that a completely mutated creature would lose its mind... but this is a dragon, isn't it?

But why did he turn back?

In a rocky landscape dotted with clusters of crystals, Kang De's Phoenix Vision discovered a stone.

Lily rushed forward, her eyes trembling slightly.

"Echo Stone."

She said, "This is a secret method used by dragons to imprint their roars onto solid objects, preserving sound and memories. It's usually used to commemorate unforgettable memories, fleeting inspirations, and special insights from a particular period, using a sound and a wave of the soul to imprint the feelings of that time..."

As if remembering something, the Dragon Girl's gaze dimmed as she spoke.

She paused for a moment, then whispered, "The price is high... it requires a small piece of a soul."

The Dragon Girl gently stroked the stone, and then the round stone shattered, revealing a hollow cavity. Inside the cavity, the dragon's power bound a smaller stone, which then floated suspended within.

Lily gently blew out a breath, and the stone vibrated with a buzzing sound.

The obscure Dragon Language emanated from it clearly.

The Dragon Girl listened intently, and after a moment, her expression changed drastically.

Kang De asked, "What are you talking about?"

"It is the murmuring and delirium of someone on the verge of death, filled with regret and lamentation..."

Lily turned to look at Kang De, paused for a moment, and softly replied, "He said, 'I was wrong, we were all wrong. The scenes Cuixisi saw were not the will of the Space-Time Dragon God, but a conspiracy of the Unknowable One. What fell upon Cuixisi was not Akatum's favor, but the malevolent gaze of the devil. Space-Time Flashback are vicious traps, just like those recorded in history, all omens and beginnings of disaster. The greedy and the obsessive often fall into them. Unfortunately, I realized it too late. Forgive me, forgive us, Father, Your Majesty, and Mother, I want to go home, I want to go home...'"

Her voice trembled as she spoke.

Space-Time Flashback.

The dragon Cuixisi... also experienced Space-Time Flashback.

The dying dragon's last words were. "It was a trap, a vicious trap."

It ensnares every greedy and obsessed person.

Kang De paused for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "Anything else?"

Lily shook her head, her voice bitter. "No, if we didn't miss it, this was the last Echo Stone he left behind. From his tone and the fluctuations in his soul, we could tell that he was extremely weak at that time, and his soul was on the verge of dissipating... This should be the last message he left behind."

Kang De took a deep breath. "So, there might be more ahead?"

Lily hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"Then let's keep looking."

"... Kang De," Lily suddenly said, "You..."

Kang De raised an eyebrow and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I mean, should we... continue?" Lily asked anxiously. "I have a bad feeling. If, as he said, the Space-Time Flashback is a trap, then what you saw might also be some kind of ulterior motive or hint. Shouldn't we reconsider?"

Kang De glanced at her and nodded, "Alright, you and A Xing go back the way you came. I'll find the Echo Stone and use my spatial abilities to teleport to your side so you can solve the problem. It'll be safer that way. If we encounter any danger, I can use my teleportation ability to leave..."

"That's not what I meant!"

Lily said urgently, "It's not that I'm scared or want to leave. The point isn't about me and A Xing, it's about you, Kang De. Are you going to continue?"

Kang De frowned and said, "Cuixisi has gone much deeper than we have; he might..."

"The Echo Stone clearly states this is a trap. Cuixisi is probably doomed. Even in the worst-case scenario—if he's corrupted and controlled by some demon, surges to the surface, and causes disaster—the entire world will handle it. You don't need to fight this alone!"

The Dragon Girl's face flushed slightly, her usual calm and indifferent demeanor gone. She whispered, "Think of that saying! The greedy and the obsessed will become deeply entangled. You desire that mysterious element as power, and you are obsessed with making the nation of Goth strong—you have both!"

She grabbed Kang De's arm and advised, "Think about it carefully. It's not about monopolizing everything. This situation is beyond our current capabilities. Why not seek the help of other nations? The news has already leaked, and we have to get a piece of the pie. You said you cast Forbidden Spell on the Broken Isles and possess the ability to neutralize mystical Element, so you still have a huge advantage. Proposing cooperation to other nations at this time isn't bowing down. Isn't that what politics is all about...?"

Kang De listened to her advice, remaining silent and his eyes shifting uncertainly.

He instinctively looked at A Xing, only to find that A Xing was staring straight ahead. The underground world was deep and vast, winding and layered. What A Xing was looking at was a passage leading down a low slope. Before Kang De could speak, he suddenly heard A Xing say, "There's something there!"

Suddenly, the ground shook, and a painful roar came from the depths of the distance.

It's a dragon's roar.