Act 4 · [Dragons · Evil Dragons]

Foreword:

A grain of sand contains a world, a flower a paradise.

[ --William Black]

[Part 1 - The Giant]

Jason remained motionless at the entrance to the Mu Yuan.

Bu Liuxing initially intended to follow the line of long snakes deeper inside, but upon catching a glimpse of Jason's reaction, he finally realized—

Mr. Jason must have sensed something.

The places he dares not go probably contain something extremely terrifying and bizarre. Judging from his pale face, he must be suffering from the effects of his Inspiration, making it difficult for him to take another step.

The moment these strange, Earth Dragon -like creatures appeared, Jason froze, muttering in a daze.

"It's a colossal thing. I can feel its pulse. It's whispering to me."

Bu Liuxing had heard this term before, from the mouth of 9527.

--A colossal object.

Outside the water tower in the Dead Puppet Agency City, the terrifying spiritual pressure emanating from the unknown behemoth forced Meteor to faint.

All the colossal creatures were extremely ancient, powerful, and incredibly enormous beings.

Jason sensed an ancient aura emanating from these Earth Dragon lizards. The blood flowing through their bodies and the malevolent thoughts emanating from their minds were like venomous worms, bore into Jason's brain, creating shocking holes.

Overwhelmed by a barrage of negative emotions, he was nearly driven mad, to the point of collapsing to the ground, tears streaming down his face.

"Oh my!" Principal Koman exclaimed in surprise, covering her mouth. "I never imagined your Inspiration was so sharp, able to sense our great deity from this position—you're truly a genius!"

Meteor rushed over and caught Jason's swaying body. "Are you alright?! Hey!"

Jason screamed and hissed, bloodshot eyes and yellow spots quickly appeared on the whites of his eyes, and his complexion suddenly became extremely poor.

"It's... it's roaring! It's in pain! It's furious! It's going to burn me! Ahhh... ahhhhhh!"

"It seems this friend is mentally fragile and cannot comprehend the beauty of the great deity." With a wave of his hand, the headmaster summoned Earth Dragon that swayed from side to side, crawling all the way to Jason, trying to get even closer.

The zoo director chuckled, "Feel it carefully! Feel its scales, feel its offspring, feel the miracle it left behind! Take a good look! Jason Megan, you've seen too much."

In an instant, the principal's expression changed from relaxed and carefree.

--Transformed into ruthless and decisive.

"A grain of sand contains a world, a flower a paradise. The clearer you see, the more you understand its beauty, which can be found in collateral bloodlines, in the bodies of these Earth Dragon offspring—"

--I felt an immense sense of power!

--Extraordinary!

--Absolutely charming!

--Scorching hot!

--Sanctification True Dragon!

Bu Liuxing waved his hand to shoo away the Earth Dragon lizard.

A foul stench emanated from that French kiss; bits of meat remained between its fine teeth, indicating it hadn't brushed its teeth properly in a long time.

Its neck was as flexible as its eyes, peeking out from all directions to give the delirious Jason a good look.

A piercing scream echoed through the valley.

Bu Liuxing could sense that the spiritual pressure emanating from this man was growing weaker and weaker, as if his mental energy was gradually being exhausted by this torment.

"I'm sorry," Meteor murmured, "I'm going to take your brilliance. If this continues, you'll probably go crazy."

Jason's cheeks were rapidly drying out, his body was drenched in sweat, and hoarse screams echoed incessantly. He looked up at the sky above the rift valley, where a gigantic shadow seemed to loom in the pitch-black valley, its wings blotting out the sun, and the scalding lava torrents at the bottom of the valley were the saliva of this terrifying behemoth.

A Xing tried to pull Jason's arm to remove the Lapis Lazuli bracelet from his wrist.

He wondered to himself—just how powerful is Mr. Jason's Inspiration?

We only have one pyroxene.

He, however, had twenty-four strings of Lapis Lazuli.

When Professor Victor observes us with his Inspiration, he needs to be extremely close. But at the first aid station, more than fifty meters away, with a thick fire door in between, Mr. Jason could already sense Ming Ge's presence.

If it were me, with such keen Inspiration, my mind filled with strange voices and bizarre emotions every day, I probably would have gone insane long ago.

"Jason, you're braver than me!" Bu Liuxing reached for the lapis Lapis Lazuli: "That's enough. Your journey ends here."

But Jason firmly grasped A Xing's outstretched hand halfway through.

A Xing can hear it--

--This Dacian tough guy is still emitting a silent scream.

Even as blood and foam begin to spurt from the throat, the vocal cords tear, and the capillaries in the lungs repeatedly contract and expand with each heavy breath.

Jason seemed to want to keep watching, to see clearly what the giant creature looked like, to confront his inner fear.

Meteor suddenly turned his head and stared intently at Jason's other hand.

Despite Mr. Jason's body being thrown backward, on the verge of losing consciousness, he was nearly fainting under the pressure of Inspiration and on the verge of falling into a state of complete frenzy.

His body trembled and shuddered, and he collapsed limply beside Meteor.

He grabbed Meteor's arm with one hand, protecting the Lapis Lazuli on his wrist.

From the other arm, the radiance of the soul burst forth.

A spirit arm woven from a single thread quickly and precisely typed text on a pink phone, opened the drawing tool, made scale markings, and drew a lifelike dragon!

"Bravo!" The headmaster's face contorted with a mixture of rage and glee. "Fantastic! Well done! Jason Megan! Did you see its bat wings? Did you see its dragon snout?"

The headmaster opened his arms, urging the Earth Dragon around him to huddle together around Jason.

"--Listen, children! Listen to Mr. Jason's singing! How beautiful and enchanting his screams are! Mr. Jason has seen your mistress! This opera singer has just finished singing the first act! He should sing..."

The headmaster bowed, his fierce and arrogant demeanor turning docile yet sinister. "Who among his ungrateful, reckless, and ignorant friends will receive this message? Is it Guangling Zhixi? Is it the Lapis Lazuli Guards? Or perhaps..."

At that moment-

--Meteor embraced Jason with one arm, the red Rose Shining Stone burning.

The headmaster lowered his eyelids, revealing golden linear beast eyes. "You want to oppose us? Dare to refuse this glorious gift? Even knowing that the blood of mountain demons and dragons flows in our veins, do you still want to fight us to the death? Do you want to give up this powerful sanctification ability? Just nod your head, Bu Liuxing, and we will give you all of this, without any price! As long as you are willing, eat a piece of human flesh!"

Meteor retreated step by step, with no way back, stepping onto the shaky, unstable iron plank of the walkway.

A dozen Earth Dragon lined up in a long, straight line, and then these nimble creatures climbed the rock face like geckos. They were just waiting for the zookeeper's command to unleash their red tongues and bar their sharp teeth, ready to tear their prey to shreds.

"I know this routine." Bu Liuxing stared intently at the guns and shoes on the registration desk. His bare feet stepped onto the iron plate walkway, and several blisters immediately appeared on the soles of his feet. "Thugs guarding the door outside, teachers brainwashing people inside—it's an old routine from decades ago."

"You don't have much time left! You don't have much time left for your friends either!" The headmaster applauded Bu Liuxing's courage and composure. "What will you choose? Join us? Or become our enemy? Your physical constitution is excellent. Red Stone loves heroes, and heroes have strong physiques. That's the color that the Madness Butterfly loves most, and it's also the easiest for them to be stained with Dragon Blood and become the claws of evil dragons! You only need to take one step forward—"

Clench your fist and extend one finger.

"--You won't have to suffer this torment of being boiled in oil and fire. Just drop that piece of rotten, golden flesh in your hand, and you can become like us, blood relatives."

The principal's expression became extremely interesting, like that of an announcer trying to make the audience laugh during a stand-up comedy routine.

"Look at this pathetic fellow! He has neither the courage to become a lapis lazuli, nor the destiny to become a holy beast, nor the courage to be a villain. In your hands, he'll only be a burden—do you know why we, the Skull and Bones Society, are called the Skull and Bones Society?!"

Meteor knew it was time to promote the company culture.

The headmaster, fiddling with his ten nimble fingers, was about to scratch the chin of an Earth Dragon beside him, doing the gentlest thing while uttering the cruelest words. "We devour our companions, absorbing their power. The honor on our bodies belongs to all our closest kin. We are one! We are the Madness Butterfly! The Madness Butterfly that unite all things!"

"Are you finished drawing?" Meteor asked softly.

Jason abruptly ripped the Lapis Lazuli from his wrist, exhaling a breath of foul, bloody air. Bloody tears streamed from his eyes, and thick blood clots sprayed from his nasopharynx. These were symptoms of a ruptured capillary caused by a nervous disorder.

He was terrified, but he remained conscious.

This was the most ruthless and ferocious creature he had ever seen in his life.

He couldn't accurately describe the dragon's appearance in words, but the image on his phone's drawing board had already revealed its true form.

"I need water! I need water!"

Jason's eyes were filled with immense fear, and his dehydrated body was driven by instinct to find water.

Bu Liuxing took out a Universal Elixir from his belt.

"Oh! You've made a choice?!" The headmaster exaggeratedly covered his mouth, offering earnest advice. "Such a rash, such a decisive choice? You're still young. If your body were bathed in Dragon Blood, you'd definitely be stronger than us! Think about it carefully, how much money can you earn working for that despicable black cat at the station? You're working yourselves to the bone, risking your lives in the underworld, building railways for it."

[Part ② - Facing Imminent Death]

The Universal Elixir suddenly fell, about to pierce Mr. Jason's carotid artery—

--The Earth Dragon monsters on the rock face pounced down like rocks collapsing from a mountain.

In a short while--

--Meteor bore four more wounds inflicted by the sharp claws of the Earth Dragon.

He roared, forcefully pushing the entire vial of the Universal Elixir into Jason Megan's body, like a bull shaking its body, trying to push the blood-sucking beasts on its back off a cliff.

These serpentine worms had flexible and powerful limbs. Following the meteor's momentum, they swung their waists, and their huge horned heads immediately straightened up, like a battering ram, and slammed into the meteor's shoulders, arms and waist.

They are very clever--

--Without opening its mouth, without exposing the weakness of its jawbone, and without attacking the meteor's head, it entered the attack range of his strong upper limbs.

These beasts are like cooking a dish, like a meat tenderizer. To subdue Bu Liuxing, this ferocious beast, you must first weaken his fighting power, making the soft flesh in his waist, abdomen, knees, and armpits swollen and powerless.

But--

--The principal was about to continue reading his lines.

I can't help but think of that line: "What a pity that yet another brave Red Stone People will perish here, turning into a pile of useless dung."

I only managed to utter the three words, "What a pity."

A burning hot head flew past his face, and he stared wide-eyed, almost bursting out of his eye sockets.

Before he could even see whose bright red head it was, the foul-smelling blood, hot and scalding, burned blisters onto his cheeks.

The fierce battle cries sounded like Viking pirates singing a high-spirited ship's song.

The burly young man, who should have been torn to pieces, grabbed a headless snake carcass with just one bare hand and dragged it through the cliff face, leaving a trail of blood.

The kindergarten director panicked and pulled out an exquisite pistol from his pocket. The pistol was finely carved and meticulously crafted.

The weak and powerless nine-millimeter bullets were fired, A Xing used all his Earth Dragon and beast forms to block them.

He was like a small tank; the moment he stepped onto the solid obsidian corridor, he transformed completely.

--Becoming more ferocious and savage.

The headmaster only realized how outrageous and terrifying this kid's physical constitution was after he had used up all his bullets.

A Xing fought his way through a bloody path.

Like a dump truck equipped with a steel-toothed front shovel, after dropping Jason, he freed his hands and plugged the nostrils of these supple beasts, risking having his arm bitten off the moment the Earth Dragon opened its mouth to breathe, pulling out its bright red tongue.

If any cunning beasts came to his rescue from the side, his blood-soaked charge would stir up a crimson rain, his knees and elbows lashing out like cannons, instantly shattering the bones of these underground monsters.

Jason hid on the boardwalk bridge, half of his body lying on the scorching hot iron plate. He was completely stunned, and the fabric of his clothes was also on fire. For a moment, he forgot the pain and forgot that the cloth covering his body was already on fire!

He analyzed it carefully and thought it through thoroughly.

They couldn't fathom what emotion, what intense anger, could have enabled this kid to unleash such astonishing power.

He looked down at the painting of the dragon.

--The dragon's body was badly damaged, as if it had been ripped apart by a battle with a legendary hero. The wounds were being repaired by the Skull and Bones Society and Bones followers, with pieces of human skin filling the gaps.

This is why Jason felt terrified and his scalp tingled.

These human skins, these victims, they seem to still be alive, even if only skin remains, clinging to the decaying body of the dragon, achieving another realm of immortality and transcendence.

No matter how many times Jason watched it, he would recall the unease rooted deep in his soul. His Inspiration could hear the thousands of dead souls, some weeping in sorrow, others leaping with ecstasy, and still others simply waiting calmly, as if awaiting the day when the dragon would spread its wings and he too could ascend to heaven with this great being.

The enormous bat wing membranes, and even the bone rings on the sharp claws, were repaired from countless pieces of human bone, skin, and flesh.

God knows how much bait the Skull and Bones Society has provided to this dragon, and God knows how much blood this dragon has given to the Skull and Bones Society.

In an instant, countless wails and howls, the bizarre and extreme emotions of these undead, surged into his head once again, threatening to drive him to madness.

At that moment, Jason's pupils suddenly contracted—

He finally understood why Bu Liuxing was so angry, like a bomb that unleashed all its energy and light in an instant.

"These beasts... how dare they!"

Among the dragon's limbs and skin, between the scales, were infants, children, and women in labor with their umbilical cords and bloodstains protruding from their lower abdomens!

--As long as they are human, as long as they possess the three elements that can be offered to the dragon, regardless of gender or age, the Skull and Bones Society has not spared a single one!

Jason was brought back to reality by intense anger.

A Xing's eyes gleamed.

His chest was covered in disgusting flesh and blood. His pink shirt was torn to shreds by the limp, unconscious Earth Dragon. With a wave of his hand, his bulging pectoral muscles and shirt ripped apart, turning into tattered strips of cloth that fluttered in the wind and were instantly blown into the sky by a scorching mountain breeze.

His muscles emitted billowing smoke. His punches were like bullets, like STG44 rifles firing!

The tough dragon scales tore through his skin, and even as his fists exposed bare white bone, he didn't stop.

The fists were as swift as thunder, like a fierce and uplifting drumbeat.

Their figures are like drifting clouds, like the strings of a musical instrument played on flowing water and towering mountains.

The moment the enemy tried to retaliate, raising its weak claws and head, its attack intentions were already seen through—and shattered by the dense and powerful fists that rained down like a shower of sparks.

The headmaster momentarily forgot to run away.

It was too late to escape. He moved with light, nimble steps, like a ghost, his body like weightless smoke, drifting into the cave!

A Xing took a deep breath, and a pair of crimson eyes shone from his dirty, disheveled hair—

--The chest cavity throbbed, and the diaphragm and abdomen suddenly expanded.

The trouser seam at the thigh ripped, making him look like a hunting leopard during the ejection.

That moment--

Time seemed to slow down.

You can see Wild Wolf ACE raising a bright red arm again.

You can smell the gunpowder and sulfur.

I can hear the breath of Death God.

"As long as I can withstand these two bullets, as long as I can... as long as I can tough it out," the headmaster had already made the worst-case scenario plan. The last bit of survival instinct burst forth from his body, and his body seemed to twist and writhe as if it were supple and boneless. Two thin, cicada-wing-like appendages sprouted from his spine as he tried to escape deeper into the Mu Yuan.

The gunshots were like the roar of a dragon!

A second passed--

--Koman Sullivan seemed to have seen an angel.

He felt a tremendous impact on his body, but it wasn't fatal!

Half of his body was blasted apart by the single bullet, his flesh and blood turned to mush, but as long as he could withstand this blow, he could use the enormous kinetic energy of the shotgun to drift deeper into the distance!

As long as I can get back to my comfort zone! As long as I can get back to my comfort zone!

He can be reborn with the help of the tri-elemental essence of the Earth Dragon bloodline! Even a cup of White Lady's coffee can restore his virility!

Bu Liuxing's voice followed him like a shadow, as unpredictable as a snatcher of souls.

"You wandering ghost! You're about to die!"

Koman stared in horror at Bu Liuxing, he could still see that bright red and romantic Rose Shining Stone. The great lock— the Fusou Wannian— had been unlocked, and the young beast was no longer bound; it had grown up.

Koman's champagne-colored hair was suddenly grabbed by a tremendous force!

He then pressed himself firmly to the ground.

Meteor stepped on Koman's head, raised his gun, and aimed. "Too bad! You don't have a lower body anymore, otherwise I would have started shooting from your toes all the way to the top of your head!"

Wild Wolf ACE spews out scorching gunfire--

--The scalding iron rained down Koman's thirty-three spines all the way up!

Gunfire continued incessantly.

--The Earth Dragon reinforcements that arrived shortly after took one more look at the cave entrance and were immediately terrified and wept bitterly, vomiting up a pile of filth, from which one could even see fingers.

Wild Wolf ACE has fired all twelve bullets.

--Ah A Xing's reloading speed is like divine intervention, a superpower he gained through repeated brutal drills under Jiang Xueming's special training.

Another twenty-four fierce hailstones rained down, like precise chainsaw blades, slicing open Kaman's central spine.

Four of the bullets caused trouble for the spectators watching the Earth Dragon.

They intended to help the headmaster.

Or it could help the kindergarten director get out of trouble.

Or help the headmaster escape this cruel torment as soon as possible. One of the Earth Dragon bared its fangs and claws, trying to rush forward and bite off Koman's head, bringing the flesh and blood of its beloved relative back to its warm bed. But in the blink of an eye, it turned into a pile of minced meat.

"I will kill your little darling, all the deformed freaks in your Mu Yuan, and even the dragon you worship—all of them." Bu Liuxing lifted Koman's head. "You should regret accepting Dragon Blood. It must be very difficult to kill you, right? Even if you only have a head left, you can still glare at me with such fierce eyes. Feel the pain. Ming Ge taught me how to deal with vicious bastards like you. I'm more ruthless, more ferocious, and more cruel than you!"

Koman lost his jaw, his vocal cords, and his nose was crooked to one side. He could not speak, could not breathe.

He truly regretted it.

--I only regret not bringing enough Earth Dragon soldiers, and not preparing more powerful weapons.

My biggest regret is believing that idiot woman at the Boke Grand Hotel! What does "precious guest" even mean? What does "excellent chef" even mean?

Is this how a watchdog guards the gate? She let a living devil into the Mu Yuan!

This powerful fighting spirit, this humanoid freak who controls his emotions and fights with rage—he could absolutely kill the Big Leader. Not to mention the Big Leader, even the great deity who is currently resting and sleeping would probably fall into eternal slumber in the face of these people's surprise attack.

Only--

--I, Koman Sullivan, am a great scientific researcher in human history, a creator of new life.

The brain's thought process came to an abrupt halt.

A shooting star shot out from the brightly lit passageway.

It was Koman Sullivan's head, shot towards the hard obsidian cliff.

A towering, dark wall stood there, and the meteor, suspended in mid-air, was scorched by the molten lava and began to burn.

It smashed the stained glass windows inside the high walls and deep courtyard.

It landed beneath the organ, rolling along as if flying, leaving a burnt stain on the bright red carpet.

The mural below the large clock face depicts a hero slaying Dragon Blood, a scene of both holiness and evil.

The twenty-two courtiers and ministers seated on either side of the hall knelt down, begging for mercy, clutching their heads in terror, and stealing glances at the enormous shadow in the main red chair.

Sullivan's head struck the black iron boots, finally ending his long life and turning to dust.

This head--

--It's a declaration of war.