On the Brink

"You can find those Deep Sea Golden Dragon?" Many mages didn't believe it. When facing such high-level Magic Creature, the Alliance usually has specialized methods to deal with them.

As for rarer Magic Creature like the Deep Sea Golden Dragon, there is no clear search plan within the Alliance yet.

So what they just discussed were all tentative measures, many of which were not thoroughly researched and were simply methods they had seen in some Paper.

"You all really don't need to go to such trouble. Before this journey, I had already figured out exactly what to do. Just follow my steps, and you will find the Deep Sea Golden Dragon."

' Lai ' emphasized it again.

At this time, many monks still did not believe it, and they had good reasons to do so.

"That's impossible. Although the Deep Sea Golden Dragon is considered a high-level Magic Creature, there are very few cases of using materials from such Magic Creature even within the Alliance. How could you possibly have methods related to that?"

Lewis stood up; he was an elderly mage with a face full of skepticism about ' Lai's ' method.

Just as he stood up, several monks placed their hands on his shoulders, their eyes filled with terror, as if to say, 'How dare you stand up and talk back to him?'

Although the Legendary isn't here right now, they can't afford to be disrespectful to this Legendary disciple just because the Legendary is temporarily absent; that would be too much...

Seeing that his ideas seemed to be unsupported, Lewis became angry and said directly:

"Have you all lost even the most basic judgment? Tell me, what do you know about the Deep Sea Golden Dragon?"

The group of mages looked at each other, not understanding what Lewis was up to, but ultimately no one stood up to refute his words.

As Lewis said, the Alliance's understanding of the Deep Sea Golden Dragon is likely based on a combination of eyewitness accounts and speculations; to say they have a complete understanding would be an overstatement.

"The Alliance currently knows nothing about the Deep Sea Golden Dragon, so this is a rare opportunity. I think it's time to let all the mages test their methods," Lewis said, offering his opinion.

And ' Lai ' probably understood what Lewis was up to here—he was a bit stubborn, and what he said made sense: everyone should try it together.

However, ' Lai ' thought that she could find the Deep Sea Golden Dragon quickly by herself, so there was no need to waste time.

Lewis seemed dogmatic, believing that if the Alliance didn't have the relevant methods, then ' Lai ' wouldn't have them either. Plus, he didn't seem to understand the context, which is why he jumped in when ' Lai ' made the suggestion.

Many of the mages present wanted to cover their faces, seemingly wondering how this guy had gotten up here. Did he really think that although the mission was supposed to be to hunt the Deep Sea Golden Dragon, it was actually this mage named ' Lai ' who gave the order?

Unfortunately, a Second Order Mage agreed, saying Lewis had some merit and that they could all submit their proposals, discuss them overnight, and try again tomorrow...

This was really taking up too much time, but Fran didn't want to drag things out with this mage Lewis any longer, so she said directly:

"Then you guys discuss it, and tomorrow we'll go in order... Can I go first?"

She had a better method and didn't want to argue with these monks, partly because her method was impossible to explain.

While in White Dragon Port, Fran spent some Gold Coin to brutally massacre the Dragonkin ranch of the former lord of White Dragon Port.

Although Nolan had already eliminated the approaching Tier 3 Dragonkin and the stronger Dragonkin during his escape, many precious Dragonkin remained.

This gave Fran's Spirit Realm Talent a chance to shine. She killed these Dragonkin, although the abilities she gained were mostly things like Dragon Breath, which required a long preparation time and were completely useless to her.

However, those rare species also gave Fran Talent similar to the one she received when she killed the Deep Sea Golden Dragon dragon hatchling.

[Draconic Instinct: When you use this ability, all creatures within range will clearly recognize that you are a dragon, even if you currently look very much like a human... For the Dragon Clan, their innate Draconic Instinct cannot lie or fake.]

Fran has also tried the parts not mentioned above. This can actually be applied in reverse, that is, it can be used to sense where the Dragonkin present are.

With her third-tier Mental Power, Fran's perception of Dragonkin is like a vast radar, allowing her to easily detect Dragonkin tracks and traces.

She had carefully verified this at the Dragonkin ranch of the former city lord of White Dragon Port, and the effect was excellent. Now she estimated that she could sense this Deep Sea Golden Dragon even if it was two thousand meters underwater.

' Lai ' left almost without saying goodbye, leaving the mages present to stare at her departing figure for a while.

Her behavior was somewhat impolite. If a mage can't even verify a plan with other mages, then that mage's reputation certainly won't be very high.

' Lai ' didn't care because although she knew this, she simply couldn't bring herself to spend an entire night communicating with these mages.

This caused a slight change in the attitudes of many mages.

The next morning, when their ship officially entered the Bottomless Sea, all the mages except for Harbos, who was hiding in the cabin, went up to the deck.

Who is the first?

A monk, perhaps having talked all night, rambled on and on, which led him to utter this statement, which was clearly inappropriate in this context.

"You forgot, according to our discussion last night, it was decided that Oinrich's disciple, the winner of the Gold Alchemy Award, would go first."

These words made the monk who had started it regretful. This was originally the job of the monk Lewis, but now that he had spoken, he had stirred up hatred.

After a night of discussion, the monks were somewhat dazed. They had debated all night, with various viewpoints clashing, and finally came up with several seemingly feasible ways to find the Deep Sea Golden Dragon.

But in the end, all of this couldn't overcome their different statuses; they had to let ' Lai ' go first.

Lewis understood this as well. He narrowed his eyes and didn't respond, because he no longer needed to speak; the mages present had already begun to side with him.

If ' Lai's' next attempt fails, or is highly likely to fail, then this trend will continue to intensify.

This wasn't something he wanted to do; he just couldn't stand ' Lai ', a mage who was unwilling to discuss solutions.

"I originally thought you were incredibly talented to win the Gold Alchemy Award. But a mage who doesn't even interact with other mages—it seems you got the award by sheer luck."

He shook his head and waited to see how things would unfold.

However, in his mind, there was no need to look into it anymore; such an untested solution was very likely to be completely unworkable.

Moreover, as far as he knew, all of ' Lai's ' previous award-winning Paper were theoretical and likely lacked reasonable insights in practice, so he believed that ' Lai's' failure was inevitable.

Even during last night's discussion, he directly shared this idea with the mages present, believing that ' Lai ' had only gotten the Gold Alchemy Award by luck and had no practical ability whatsoever.

These words received a great deal of approval, which pleased Lewis greatly.

After all, he was an Alchemy School, and had reached the third rank, but his best achievement was only a Silver Alchemy Award, which he received a hundred years ago.

This made it difficult for him not to feel hostility towards this suddenly appearing winner of the Gold Alchemy Award.

' Lai ' didn't think too much about it; she merely gave a brief notification to the helmsman, Caleb, and then addressed the assembled mages.

"Remember to be prepared for battle. We might very well run into a Deep Sea Golden Dragon, or Deep Sea Golden Dragon might attack us."

Although ' Lai ' is stronger than all the Third Order Mage present, it's best if she doesn't display her third-tier combat power right now. So, if a real fight breaks out, she'll still have to rely on these mages.

As for how she actually did it, it's simple. To track Magic Creature, besides using efficient methods like divination when you have enough clues, there are only a few simple tracking methods left.

It generally involves scattering bait to attract the target, or tracking based on traces, smells, or other methods; these are the main approaches.

To avoid appearing overly troublesome, ' Lai ' pretended to be prepared and took out a piece of gold-dyed scales from his pocket. Of course, these were not scales from Deep Sea Golden Dragon.

It was a scale left behind by the ' Gray Dragon ' she encountered in the Spirit Realm. Although it was a dragon transformed from a human, under the rules of the Spirit Realm, it was still considered a Dragonkin scale.

Moreover, ' Lai ' underwent special treatment, dyeing its entire scales golden yellow, making it look very similar to the real thing.

"Strange, this doesn't look like the markings a sea dragon should have. Why are the scales like this?"

"What if Mage ' Lai ' did something special? Just the scales of Deep Sea Golden Dragon certainly aren't enough to track down a living Deep Sea Golden Dragon."

"Exactly, if you don't understand, don't talk nonsense. Alchemy School, what's wrong with refining some Magic Creature materials?"

Lewis's expression turned grim after seeing ' Lai ' produce the scale, as it clearly indicated that ' Lai ' hadn't acted on a whim, but rather had come prepared.

Then everything he said earlier becomes somewhat untenable. Having the corresponding scales of a living Magic Creature would greatly increase the probability of finding the Magic Creature.

"She actually has scales of Deep Sea Golden Dragon! How is this possible? The last time the Alliance witnessed Magic Creature like this was probably over thirty years ago. How can we still find one..."

Lewis felt he was a bit unlucky; how come ' Lai ' just happened to have one of those scales on his hand?

Then ' Lai ' used her Mental Power to circle around the scales, and then she pointed in a direction.

There were no instruments, no complicated spells.

No mage had ever seen such a tracking method before, but they wondered what if the Alliance had actually developed it? This was a blind spot in their thinking.

Finally, they found a bloodstained corpse floating on the surface of the sea. The corpse showed signs of feeding, and all its internal organs had been eaten. On the wounds of the corpse, they could see some golden fragments.

Clearly, they have found concrete traces. Now, even a professional Adventurer, without the need for mages, can find traces of a Deep Sea Golden Dragon.

Since the body appeared directly in front of the ship and the result was obtained in just three minutes, the mages present all believed that it was ' Lai's ' doing.

"' Lai ' mage, you truly deserve the Gold Alchemy Award. If you had such skills, you should have told us sooner, and we wouldn't have spent the whole night discussing it."

"I feel like none of the solutions we discussed all night are as simple and quick as yours."

Several mages who had been to Lewis's liking the previous night were now flattering ' Lai,' which made Lewis very unhappy.

A golden figure, swimming beneath the water, raised its head to look at the surface, sensing a strange fluctuation.

"Similar?"

"Not of the same kind, but of those ' Dragon Clan ' who claim to be of the same kind as them," it corrected.

Upon sensing this, it quickly moved upstream, causing the seawater to ripple.

It must drive the other side away, because this is the territory of the Deep Sea Golden Dragon, and other Dragon Clan are not allowed to intrude.