Dragon Nest Interior

Hearing Cao Xiaochun's words, everyone nodded lightly. They helped up the unconscious students, stopped the bleeding from their wrists, then took healing potions from their backpacks and poured them down their throats.

They found the confiscated teleporters in He Taier's backpack. Once they were done, they teleported the students out of the dungeon. As for why they returned to school unconscious, that was no longer something Cao Xiaochun and the others needed to worry about. After all, anything could happen inside a dungeon.

Due to the lack of time, Hong Jianjun did not get another chance to show off his cooking. Everyone casually ate a few mouthfuls of rations before heading toward the altar.

Thanks to the destruction caused by Zhang Heng's group, the altar had now been shattered. After clearing away the rubble, they found a deep pit before them.

A long flight of stairs ran through the pit. Looking down, they could not see what lay at the bottom.

"Be careful on the way down. I'll have Binuoxiu provide light. You all follow behind her."

Looking at the bottomless pit, Cao Xiaochun slowly exhaled and said calmly.

After all, this had once been home to a dragon. Even though it had been sealed for many years, no one could guarantee what unknown things might still be lurking inside. It was never wrong to be cautious.

Without further hesitation, Binuoxiu and her sister took the lead. Cao Xiaochun followed them down, while Li Hanyi and the other two stepped into the endless darkness behind them.

The stone stairs looked man-made, though they might also have been part of the seal. The entire staircase spiraled along the stone walls, with a bottomless abyss in the middle.

After walking for nearly an hour, they finally reached the bottom of the abyss along the stone steps.

With Binuoxiu's Giant Fireball, Cao Xiaochun finally saw the full surroundings clearly.

The bottom of the abyss was roughly the size of five football fields. From the murals around them, which had nearly corroded away, as well as the grooves left by various weapons, it was clear that this enormous dragon nest had once contained gold, silver, jewels, and powerful weapons.

"Looks like it's already been cleaned out. There isn't even a hair left inside."

Xu Laoba quickly made a round of the place and found the entire Dragon Nest empty. He could not even spot a speck of gold, leaving him somewhat disappointed.

Thinking about it, that made sense. Three hundred years ago, people had paid such a huge price to seal Skasa and even built an altar here. How could they possibly have spared the treasures inside?

Even with a dragon soul guarding the place, it was ultimately a dead thing. As long as someone held it off, the rest could empty the place without any trouble, right?

Li Hanyi was not as obsessed with treasure as Xu Laoba and the other three. She carefully examined the nearby murals and recorded them one by one.

She paid particular attention to the dragon script. That stuff had immense research value in the outside world.

To her, treasures were important, but if there were none, she would not force the issue.

"Do you think Zhang Heng and the others, knowing there was a seal here, wouldn't also know that the treasures had already been taken away?"

Cao Xiaochun looked over the enormous Dragon Nest, touched the stone wall beside him, and spoke calmly.

From the moment he came down, he had not held any hope for things left out in the open. They should not treat the people of the past like fools. After paying such a heavy price to seal Skasa, did they really do it just to rid the people of a menace? What a joke.

Even if dragons died, they did not truly perish. Instead, they turned into dragon eggs, waiting until they had accumulated enough power to be reborn.

If there was anything most valuable in this Dragon Nest, it definitely was not the so-called treasure. It was Skasa herself!

For wild creatures in dungeons like dragons, there were only three ways to tame them in this world. The first was to awaken the hidden class, Dragon Tamer!

This class was the natural bane of dragons. Even if a Dragon Tamer was two ranks below a dragon in strength, with the class aura's enhancement, the dragon would still have to submit!

The second method was to crush it with absolute strength and forcibly enslave it. However, this was not guaranteed. Every creature had its pride. Some dragons, even after being defeated, would rather dissipate on the spot than submit to human enslavement.

Besides, a powerhouse with such strength would probably have no interest in enslaving a dragon anyway.

For ordinary people, gaining a dragon's aid was almost impossible. But there were always exceptions—the third method was to possess an unhatched dragon egg!

Whether it was a young dragon or a powerful dragon that had turned into an egg after death, they were unconscious before hatching. As long as one found a dragon egg and carefully raised it, there was a high chance that the hatchling would recognize its caretaker as its master the moment it emerged!

Even if that dragon had once been a powerful being!

The reason such a method existed was because of that famous legend.

And that legend was still alive!

A rookie who had initially awakened only the Warrior class found a dragon egg in a Black Iron-rank dungeon. Relying on the dragon that hatched from it, he rose in one leap to become a great general of the Nine Provinces!

Cao Xiaochun believed that when Skasa had been sealed, those experts must have searched for her dragon egg. Yet they had not found it, since the dragon soul had remained here until recently.

"Xiaochun, you mean Skasa's dragon egg, right? But does something that elusive really exist?"

Xu Laoba truly was the one who understood Cao Xiaochun best. He could tell what his brother intended just from his tone.

But if they actually found that thing, what a tremendous stroke of luck that would be. If he really saw it today, he would kneel down and call it Daddy on the spot!

"Whether it's here or not, we'll know once we look. After paying such a huge price, are we supposed to leave empty-handed?"

Since Zhang Heng was so certain, there had to be something here. Whether it was a dragon egg or not, Cao Xiaochun was going to turn this entire place upside down today!

"Big Brother's right. Any fool knows that a thief never leaves empty-handed. Since we're already down here, we should search carefully. If there's really nothing in the end, we'll tear down these murals and take them with us!"

Hong Jianjun nodded in agreement. Although he did not expect to find a dragon egg either, they had to take something back with them, didn't they?

It was like when his father went fishing. If he could not catch fish, he would steal a dog. If he could not steal a dog, he would catch a chicken. If that did not work, he would pick vegetables. And if there was absolutely nothing, he would still take a sip of pond water before leaving!

"What do you plan to do?"

At that moment, Li Hanyi finally shifted her attention away from the dragon script and looked at Cao Xiaochun as she spoke calmly.

This man was now the core of the team, so she greatly respected his decisions.

Cao Xiaochun looked around once more. Since Skasa was a dragon born from ice and snow, she would need to rely on ice elements to restore her strength.

And if a dragon egg was absorbing the ice elements of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Mountain, it would definitely leave traces behind. What they lacked now was a mage capable of precisely detecting those traces.

Thinking of this, Cao Xiaochun turned his gaze toward Krah.