Heartbeat

At some point, Dillon Adam gained self-awareness. It knew its surname was Dillon and its given name was Adam.

It was confined in a dark, cramped place, its edges bounded by a hard barrier.

Other than repeatedly swallowing its own urine and amniotic fluid, doing somersaults, flexing its claws, and bumping against the barrier, it basically had nothing to play with.

It began to enjoy listening to the sounds outside.

Most of the time, whenever the barrier grew warm, it was accompanied by a steady, deep thumping.

When the thumping vanished, other sounds would occasionally arise. Its memories told it that was Dragon Tongue.

Yet for some reason, it still could not quite understand what Dragon Tongue meant.

Sometimes, it would stretch out its tiny hands and feet and knock on the barrier in the direction of the sounds.

At such times, the Dragon Tongue outside would always grow more high-pitched, likewise knocking on the barrier in response to its taps.

At some point, terrifying thunderous booms came from outside. It had never heard such dreadful noises before, and they made it terribly uncomfortable.

It curled up.

Along with the thunderous booms came the Dragon Tongue that often spoke to it, except the familiar Dragon Tongue had become exceptionally shrill and furious.

The barrier moved. It began shaking wildly, leaving Dillon Adam dizzy and disoriented.

After an unknown length of time, the outside fell silent, but the barrier grew cold... colder and colder.

Dillon Adam did not know what had happened. It occasionally tried knocking on the barrier, but from then on, no Dragon Tongue ever answered it again.

The familiar thumping disappeared as well.

Amid utter loneliness, its thoughts gradually froze in the low temperatures, and its consciousness sank into darkness.

Much later, after an unknown amount of time had passed, it woke up. The barrier was finally no longer cold, but it had become exceedingly weak.

Its consciousness was also extremely muddled and chaotic.

The outside of the barrier grew noisy.

Yet it could not hear that familiar thumping or Dragon Tongue, and it curled up in fear.

From then on, all kinds of magical fluctuations frequently appeared outside the barrier.

Yes, its memories told it those were magical fluctuations.

Most of the magical fluctuations were blocked by the barrier, consuming a great deal of its energy. Only a small portion passed through, drifting by its side like intangible wisps of cloud and smoke.

Such days continued for a long, long time.

Even the vitality it had accumulated through sleep was gradually exhausted.

Its consciousness grew ever more indistinct;

It fell asleep, rarely waking again.

On the few occasions it did awaken, it always felt that after its next sleep, perhaps it would never wake again.

Until one moment, when it suddenly sensed a very peculiar presence outside.

Its memories told it that it was the presence of a god.

It grew restless and desperately tried to knock on the barrier.

Because it knew that if it did not want to fall into eternal slumber, only this presence could save it.

But it was too weak. Long, long, long ago, it had been able to knock on the barrier at will. Now, it could not even lift an arm.

At the slightest movement, its consciousness would reel, plunging into darkness. It would forget what it had meant to do and only regain its senses after a long while.

It realized that it was going to die.

Fragmented memories surfaced in its mind, yet it sadly discovered that among its pitifully few memories, only that steady thumping and Dragon Tongue brought it peace.

Then, within the dead silence, at the end of the darkness, countless fireflies suddenly appeared.

The fireflies swarmed over and surrounded it.

Memories originating from deep within its bloodline and soul stirred once more. It struggled to open its eyes, looked at the fireflies, and recognized them.

They were words—Dragon Script.

Dragon Script circled around it and entwined itself with its frail soul.

With its last shred of thought, it opened its soul's defenses and accepted those words.

In an instant, as the words transformed into three rays of light, a surging torrent of Vitality poured forth from an unknowable dimension.

Its withered life was ignited, and its shattered consciousness gathered into one.

Boundless joy, accompanied by drowsiness, arose within Dillon Adam's heart!

Its instincts compelled it to sleep as soon as possible, using this Vitality to replenish its long-exhausted source of life and awaken the Bloodline Inheritance of the Dragon Race!

Yet before those powerful instincts, Dillon Adam forced itself to hold on and sent a message to the other end of its source of life—"Thank you!"

"It worked!"

Yu Sheng'an sensed that the Contract had been successfully formed. Before the joy could even appear on his face, his youthful features suddenly withered, and his black hair swiftly turned white.

"Fuck—"

The curse burst from his mouth. Yu Sheng'an's pupils dilated, and terror appeared on his face.

In that instant, he actually felt the shadow of death!

He could feel his Vitality being frantically plundered by the Dragon Egg—no, it should be called shared!

Yu Sheng'an instinctively wanted to terminate the Contract, but at that critical moment, he cursed and continued the Contract anyway, instead drawing upon the Vitality of his other contracted creatures.

With his troop-spamming mindset, and with abundant Source Essence, even he had no idea how many Devils he had contracted.

Drawing just one percent of each Devil's Vitality was enough to sustain the Dragon Egg's life force.

Even so, it took more than ten breaths before Yu Sheng'an's withered appearance gradually filled out and returned to normal.

The Dragon Egg finally stopped drawing Life.

The intricate Magic Runes on the Dragon Egg emitted a faint glow as they absorbed natural energy, accumulating power for the Young Dragon's hatching.

"How terrifying. An unhatched hatchling already possesses such surging Vitality. How terrifying would it be once it grew into a giant dragon?"

Though Yu Sheng'an spoke of terror, his eyes blazed with immense excitement!

The more Vitality the Dragon Egg consumed, the more it proved how terrifying its potential was. With the Shared Contract Binding them, how could he not be delighted?

This was an ally!

"Thank you!"

A wisp of soul fluctuation interrupted Yu Sheng'an's excitement.

His smile froze slightly, then grew even brighter.

"Hatch properly. Don't be in such a hurry to come out!"

Yu Sheng'an patted the Dragon Egg and rummaged through his Space Ring. At last, he found a high-grade magical artifact from Thorne's stockpile that could store Life—a Fire Cloud Flower.

It was a magical plant resembling a lotus. Inside it were natural Magic Runes that nourished Life, and after being modified with spatial magic, it could hold an object up to three zhang in diameter.

Yu Sheng'an infused it with magic and activated it. At once, an enormous Fire Cloud Flower blossomed before him.

He then rolled the half-human-height Dragon Egg into the Fire Cloud Flower.

In an instant, the petals closed in, wrapping layer upon layer around the Dragon Egg before finally shrinking into a thumb-sized Fire Cloud Flower, hard as carved crystal.

Yu Sheng'an held the shrunken Fire Cloud Flower and pondered briefly. To be safe, he teleported it back to his Divine Palace body.

Within Divine Palace Castle.

Yu Sheng'an's main body waved a hand and, with the Ancient Castle's magical power, condensed a magical chain and hung the Fire Cloud Flower around his neck.

The crystal-like Fire Cloud Flower naturally dangled against his chest, resting over his heart and emitting faint magical fluctuations in time with his heartbeat.

Yu Sheng'an did this in consideration of an extreme possibility.

—If Divine Palace Castle were suddenly attacked, then if resistance proved futile and escape impossible, he would certainly detonate the Ancient Castle and seize the chance to survive.

Therefore, keeping important things on his person was simply prudent preparation.

Amid the darkness, Dillon Adam's consciousness suddenly stirred. It turned over and sank back into deep sleep.

The unending Vitality made it feel at peace.

Most importantly, that familiar thumping sounded outside the barrier once more.