How Are You Still Alive, Then?!

I hate riddle tellers!

Lucy clenched her fists and waved them wildly at her sides, jumping up and down in a frenzy.

"Every time we get to the most crucial, core secret, this guy always deliberately leaves things unsaid, intentionally making people anxious and unable to sleep, right?!"

Jiang Bai turned around, spread his hands, and struck a pose that looked like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, utterly irritating.

"Spoilers may feel good for a moment, but they'll lead to your whole family's downfall. If you reveal the entire ending beforehand, what fun will the adventures have left?"

Wendy stood to the side, raising her hand to cover her lips, and chuckled softly with a smile in her eyes.

The enormous Fire Dragon Atlas Flame, hovering above the altar, shook its massive crimson skull, thick tongues of fire flickering incessantly at the edge of its nasal cavity.

Watching the group of young people playing around, a few strands of unresolved doubt slowly appeared on the dragon's huge forehead, which was formed from molten lava.

"To be honest, a great mystery has always been swirling in my mind."

Atlas Flame lowered his body slightly, his massive fire dragon head close to the edge of the altar, the scorching heat making the rubble on the ground crackle and pop.

"Since you young people already witnessed the Black Dragon Tyrant Acnologia in the outside world not long ago..."

"So how exactly did you escape from that monster?"

The dragon paused, its enormous fiery eyes lingering on Natsu for half a second.

"Could it be that you sensed the menacing aura from afar and hid in Hidden crevice to avoid a direct confrontation?"

"That doesn't make sense either. Natsu has pure Fire Dragon genes passed down by Igneel, and his whole body smells of dragons."

"Given Acnologia's deep-seated, extreme hatred for dragons and his brutal, bloodthirsty instincts, once he catches a whiff of Natsu's whereabouts, he will relentlessly pursue him to the death. There's no way he'll let you go easily."

Natsu put his hands on his hips and stomped his feet heavily on the steps.

"Uncle, you're dreaming."

"Back then, on Tenrou Island, our guild's sacred ground, that big black guy covered in strange blue-black patterns not only ran head-on into us, but also attacked us deadly from the moment he landed. He had no intention of letting us go from beginning to end."

The flames in Atlas Flame's eye sockets suddenly surged violently, and his massive fiery head extended halfway forward.

"A direct confrontation?! And I didn't let you off the hook?!"

"Then how have you all managed to survive until now?!"

The unspoken words were filled with shock.

It is important to know that in the primitive mythological era four hundred years ago, when dragons roamed freely, tens of thousands of adult dragons with bodies as large as mountains joined forces to build defensive lines, but in the end, they were still slaughtered by Acnologia alone, resulting in rivers of blood and almost complete extinction.

In the subconscious understanding of the dragon race, if they were to face the self-proclaimed Dragon King, the only outcome would be to be reduced to dust and minced meat.

Lucy shrank back slightly, a hint of fear in her eyes, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"To be honest... even with the entire core lineup of Fairy Tail guild assembled back then, we weren't even worthy of being considered opponents against Acnologia."

Gray crossed his arms, his right hand unconsciously touching his elbow.

Instead of using nice-sounding phrases like "we're no match" to pat themselves on the back, they should be more straightforward in admitting it.

"Faced with the monster's Black Dragon's Roar, none of us could even parry or defend ourselves. We were simply being utterly and utterly overwhelmed, with absolutely no power to fight back."

Happy flapped his little wings in mid-air, his two chubby paws on his belly, and proudly raised his big head to interrupt.

"Hey! Luckily, Jiang Bai was there!"

Atlas Flame's massive form jolted violently, and the raging flames around him rippled with intense fire due to the extreme shock.

"Lord Jiang Bai?!"

The dragon's massive jaws slowly opened and closed, its lava eyes scanning Jiang Bai's body.

Atlas Flame had indeed witnessed Jiang Bai's extraordinary and unparalleled power during the Battle of the Eclipse Gate.

Without relying on any Dragon Slayer Magic, but solely on pure, extreme physical strength and boundless spiritual power, he could treat the adult dragons that descended from the Eclipse Gate four hundred years ago like sandbags, thrashing them wildly across the capital.

Even so, Atlas Flame never dared to speculate in such an absurd direction.

Four hundred years ago, the dragon army was no match for the fledgling black dragon.

The Dragon King, who had plundered and devoured four hundred years of magical nourishment and had long since degenerated into a cataclysmic force, actually suffered a defeat at Jiang Bai's hands?!

A long time.

Atlas Flame exhaled a long puff of scorching white smoke, his enormous horn of fire, resembling a small hill, swaying in the wind.

"If it was Lord Jiang Bai who made the move... although this fact still shocks me, I can somewhat understand it."

The Hellfire Dragon's weathered, fiery eyes were filled with admiration and amazement.

"In the long river of my remaining memories, spanning four hundred years from ancient times to the present..."

"Without having cultivated or mastered any Dragon Slayer Magic, yet able to transcend the absolute restraint of the rules, and to manipulate and ruthlessly torment dragons at will, there is only one such peerless anomaly in the entire world: Lord Jiang Bai."

In the world governed by the laws of dragons, the dragon's shell is immune to all conventional magic.

Even if the Ten Wizard Saints joined forces to unleash a forbidden-level meteor storm, it would only be a scratch on the dragon's hard scales.

Jiang Bai, however, was a complete freak.

They used the most unreasonable and terrifying physical techniques, along with unsolvable spatial and mental abilities, to forcibly drag the mythical creature into the quagmire for physical exorcism.

Listening to Hellfire Dragon's heartfelt praise, which was imbued with a profound sense of history.

Standing at the edge of the torch platform, Jiang Bai, with his hands in his black trouser pockets, lazily raised his chin and casually interrupted the other person's exclamation.

"No."

"Actually, besides me, there's another person on this continent who can do it too."

The solemn atmosphere at the top of the altar instantly froze.

"What?!"

Natsu's mouth gaped open, and he hopped over to Jiang Bai's side, his face filled with an fervent thirst for knowledge.

"Really?! Besides Jiang Bai, you monster, there's actually another person in the world who can beat up a dragon without using Dragon Slayer Magic?!"