Dragon Bloodline Inheritance

The next day, after resting for the night, Lucia felt he had adjusted his mental state to its peak.

He entrusted all outside affairs to Lansseax, tossed the little fox to Malenia, who had come over to play, and then plunged into a quiet room in Valeria Hall used for meditation and cultivation. He closed his eyes, calmed his mind, focused his spirit, and entered the Memory Battlefield.

The instant his mind sank into stillness, the boundless starry sky replaced the darkness before his eyes like an unfurled scroll. From the moment he entered this space, that sense of power—the feeling of having everything under his control—returned to him once more.

Lucia sat cross-legged beneath that shattered starry sky. This time, he did not summon his old friend Samuel. Instead, he sank his mind completely into the depths of his soul, allowing his tide-like mental power to spread toward the deepest seal.

At that moment, it was as though he were strolling through an illusion woven from flowing light. Beneath his feet stretched an endless, long road, while on both sides lay vast stretches of chaotic, barren void. Strange and dazzling phantasms and illusions flashed past everywhere—some were experiences that had truly happened since his transmigration, but far more were scenes he had never heard of or seen before—

A white dragon sweeping across the sky like a shadow, a crimson giant raising its head and roaring upon a snowy plain, a meteor shower dragging rainbow-colored tails of flame as it tore through the long night... It was as if he stood at the origin point where life first began and all things were newly born, personally witnessing the birth and fall, the prosperity and extinction of countless races and civilizations since time immemorial.

Lucia felt as though he had walked for a very, very long time, yet also as though only an instant had passed. Suddenly, for one brief moment, he stopped. All the illusions before his eyes scattered away, and a Bronze Gate that reached from earth to sky emerged at the end of his vision.

Legend said that in the distant ancient age, the Ancient Dragons were the first to master the techniques of casting and smelting. They forged the first weapons from bronze, drove the giants, who likewise possessed mighty power, into the boundless snowy plains, and led countless races that had submitted to them to kindle the first flame of wisdom at the rich and fertile center of the Lands Between. This was the beginning of the Ancient Civilization Era.

In truth, back in Sky City, Lucia, who had long coveted those two legendary abilities of his, had once tried to enter the depths of his soul and probe the mysteries contained in his inheritance. But often, before he could even reach this bronze gate, he would lose himself in the endless stream of illusions. Even the closest attempt had only allowed him to glimpse the outline of the giant gate from afar.

He had not expected that this time, with the power of the Memory Battlefield, he would make it here so smoothly. Lucia could not help feeling rather excited. He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, then strode toward the giant gate.

Because the bronze gate was simply too enormous, when Lucia saw it, there was in fact still a long distance between them. He walked for a long while more before arriving before the gate. From this position, he could no longer distinguish the shape of a "gate." In his vision, there was only a mottled, ancient bronze wall extending endlessly in every direction.

His slightly trembling palm gently stroked the cold, rough bronze surface, and Lucia instantly felt a resonance from deep within his bloodline. At this moment, he was absolutely certain that the knowledge and power engraved in his soul were hidden behind this seal.

Deep within the soul of every pure-blooded Ancient Dragon lay such a bronze gate. It was just that the strength of the seal and the inheritance contained behind it differed according to the Ancient Dragon's identity. The Ancient Dragon royals who bore the name Sanx possessed a more powerful bloodline and greater potential, and at the same time carried the mission of leading and protecting dragonkind in the new era. Thus, the power they inherited far surpassed that of their peers, and they also had to face a seal countless times sturdier than that of ordinary Ancient Dragons.

The meaning of the seal's existence was not restriction, but protection. Because vast knowledge inevitably required an immense vessel. Even Ancient Dragons, who were born with great power, found it difficult to withstand the pressure of the Dragon Bloodline Inheritance before they had fully matured. If the Memory Battlefield did not exist, even if Lucia had luckily broken the seal, his soul would have been crushed in an instant by that ocean of knowledge!

"Now, let me see exactly what kind of power Father and Mother left me," he said softly.

Lucia bent his body slightly and placed both hands on the bronze gate. Silver-white scales that shone like glintstone covered his body amid shifting streams of light, and the slowly swelling lines of his muscles were filled with a beauty of power!

He gritted his teeth and abruptly exerted his strength. Mountain-and-sea-like might instantly filled his body, and the mental power from the Memory Battlefield completed its materialization within his soul, sweeping toward the tightly shut Bronze Gate before him like an overwhelming tidal wave!

All at once, an earth-shaking roar exploded, like mountains and rivers splitting apart and rivers reversing their flow!

At the center of the two tightly shut doors, a line of light brilliant to the extreme suddenly lit up, like a sword beam sublimated to its utmost, cleaving this chaotic heaven and earth down the middle!

Lucia heard countless dragon roars ringing beside his ears. The instant he stepped through the bronze gate, it was as though he had passed through the fog of a thousand years of history, stepped across that brutal and mysterious Forbidden War, and arrived directly in the glorious, flourishing ancient era of the Ancient Dragon race.

Beyond the giant gate was a vast, desolate world.

He seemed to be standing upon an extremely high sea of clouds. Yet here, he did not see the Erdtree that almost covered the entire world. As far as the eye could see, there was only a broken golden-red tree stump growing crookedly at the center of the land.

That tree stump was likewise as massive as a mountain, yet it had shattered and split open down the middle, exposing countless seeds of bizarre and varied shapes within its core. Golden-red leaves grew across the ragged surface of the stump, then drifted outward with the wind, carrying the seeds in every direction like wings.

Suddenly, Lucia caught sight of several animals running past together. When he looked closely, he saw that those animals were actually all different from one another as well—one had the head of a lion, yet a pair of wings grew from its back; one was shaped like a lizard, but trailed a bird's tail covered in feathers behind it; and another was clearly in the form of a bird, yet it naturally flapped its wings and swam freely through the air like a fish!

"Misbegotten creatures?" Lucia widened his eyes—but why were these creatures so different from the Misbegotten of today? They looked as though the organs of all kinds of animals had been randomly stitched together!

Could it be that this was what the earliest Misbegotten creatures were like? Was this the form the beings of the Lands Between had taken just after they differentiated from the Crucible of Life?

If that was truly the case, then what exactly were those Misbegotten said to have been punished for coming into contact with the Crucible, born to be treated as slaves and defiled beings?

Were they scum intolerable to the gods, or kin who had fundamentally originated from the same place as humanity?

A sudden gust of fierce wind swept over his head. He abruptly looked up, only to see several dark, indistinct dragon shadows flying past.

His gaze chased after the dragon shadows, extending into the chaotic sea of clouds. Then, suddenly, he froze.

Countless rays of brilliant starlight wove two vast nebulae above the sea of clouds. In a daze, Lucia perceived the full picture of those nebulae—they were dragons, two primordial dragons formed from nebulae!

The one on the left resembled a Misbegotten creature newly born from the Crucible. Its body, black as night, flowed with mighty power like ancient mountains. Its boundless, broad wings were like dark clouds pressing down upon heaven and earth before a thunderstorm. It raised five dragon heads and let out a tyrannical roar toward the world!

The one on the right was almost identical to the Ancient Dragons of today—no, perhaps it should be said that she was more perfect than any Ancient Dragon Lucia had ever seen. Silver-white stone scales outlined the graceful streamline of her dragon body, four outstretched wings refracted radiance like starlight, and her ice-blue eyes quietly watched all things, containing endless wisdom and gentleness.

"Father... Mother?"

His murmured words drifted into the sea of clouds, and countless rays of light abruptly lit up within the nebular phantasms of Placidusax and Hlaris!

Rainbow-colored radiance interwove across their dragon bodies into complex, profound patterns, then further linked together into ancient, solemn runes. The next second, thousands upon thousands of runes transformed into a sea of light, and vast knowledge, guided by mental power, poured into his memories like a hundred rivers returning to the sea!

No one knew how much time passed before the surging waves deep within his soul finally calmed.

Lucia slowly opened his eyes. He was still within the Memory Battlefield, but at some point, the starry sky above his head had undergone a strange change. The nebulae representing the Dragon King and the Dragon God had appeared in the depths of the firmament, higher and more distant than all the stars.