Lin Yan Saw Through the Foolish Dragon's Identity: The Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena's Parallel-Time Counterpart

Gu Yue lay sprawled on the ground, seriously contemplating a philosophical question.

What exactly was she hoping to gain by following this lunatic?

His poverty?

His mushroom-eating habit?

His tendency to hack at her with a kitchen knife?

But she had no choice but to admit a cruel reality.

With her current cultivation—having fallen to a state weaker than even a Ten-Year Soul Beast—

if she wandered around outside, she might be caught and made into a Soul Spirit the very next day.

Eastsea City might not be some top-tier metropolis, but it had no shortage of Soul Masters.

A living, uncontracted wild Soul Beast wandering the streets was practically seventy thousand Federation Credits on legs.

She might as well stick with this human.

At least this human... well... at least he... well...

Gu Yue thought for a long time, only to realize she could not find a single virtue in this human.

But her intuition told her that following him was the right choice.

Not because she trusted him, nor because of any emotional attachment.

It was because she had personally seen that figure drifting above the River of Time.

And this era... should have been the era before she traveled through time.

She had not spent last night doing nothing, either.

While Lin Yan slept, she flipped through the copy of the Donghai Daily that he had crumpled into a ball on the table.

The date was printed on the front page, along with an article about Eastsea Academy's admissions.

She was certain that she had traveled back in time.

She had simply become far too weak.

As for whether another version of herself existed in this era along another timeline, she had no time to think about that now.

Whether one existed or not, with her current strength, she could not do anything.

"Then let's begin."

Lin Yan's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

He was already sitting cross-legged on the bed, his expression restored to that inscrutable calm from before.

Honestly, he did not want to form a contract with this foolish dragon either.

Opening his mind was too dangerous—the events of last night had fully proven that.

Nor had he failed to recognize Gu Yue's true identity.

Silver-white scales, absolute control over the elements, sovereign of Soul Beasts.

Put those traits together, and there was only one possible answer.

The female lead of this era's original story, Gu Yuena, the Silver Dragon King.

Or rather, one of her avatars, a projection from some timeline.

After all, what he had opened up was a parallel time-space.

That the River of Time contained information about the Silver Dragon King was as natural as the sea containing water.

That was why, after materializing her, he had tested her in every possible way.

From threatening her with a kitchen knife to pretending to open his mind for a contract.

Every step had been a test of her limits and capabilities.

That included last night's contract.

He had appeared to lower his guard, but in reality, he had mobilized all the authority of the Genesis God Incubator.

The powers of time and space had laid an inescapable net at the entrance to his Spirit Sea, waiting for this foolish dragon to bare her fangs.

As expected, she had harbored malicious intent, only to be so terrified by the projection at the end of time deep within his Spirit Sea that she had nearly lost her soul.

That sci-fi blockbuster scene had been carefully designed by him.

He did not care whether she truly wanted the contract or not. He would teach her a lesson first.

No matter how powerful she had been at her peak, here, she was only a newborn little dragon.

But he was still not confident that such a move alone could tame this dragon.

For now, he still had to create a new era first.

The incubator world from last night had already collapsed after materializing Gu Yue.

The residue in the pot remained, but it had lost the ability to evolve through time and space.

He needed a new world, a larger one, a more stable one, one that could produce more energy.

Then, whether this foolish dragon betrayed him or not, he would have a way out.

Gu Yue felt Lin Yan's gaze sweeping over her body.

That gaze was cold and sharp.

She shrank her neck, the flesh beneath her scales tensing involuntarily.

"I... I really didn't lie to you."

She swallowed with difficulty, her voice somewhat weak.

"As long as I accumulate enough divine power, I really can grant Divine-bestowed Soul Rings."

"Although the divine power I have right now is only enough to condense a Ten-Year Soul Ring, later on, you can use the Spirit Pagoda's Spirit Ascension Platform to raise your Soul Ring's level."

She spoke with great sincerity, her tone carrying an anxiety to prove herself.

But Lin Yan's attention was clearly not on that.

"How do you know the Spirit Pagoda has a Spirit Ascension Platform?"

His voice was soft, but Gu Yue heard a blade-like chill in it.

Gu Yue's body stiffened.

Damn it.

She had let something slip.

The Spirit Ascension Platform was a top-secret core facility of the Spirit Pagoda, specifically used to raise Soul Ring levels. Ordinary people had no right to access it.

Let alone a baby dragon that had just crawled out of an incubator—how could she possibly know about such a thing?

Her astonishing wisdom began working at full capacity once more.

"...I took the opportunity to learn about this era while you were sleeping last night."

Gu Yue tried her best to make her voice sound natural.

Her tail swayed lightly behind her, giving her an easy, casual air.

"I'm the Silver Dragon King, the sovereign of Soul Beasts, the World-Devouring Dragon. I'm very smart."

"I just flipped through the newspaper and sensed the world's elemental energy, and all that information automatically entered my head."

As she said this, she raised her chin slightly.

She tried to squeeze a trace of pride onto her chubby dragon face.

But her heart was pounding wildly in her chest, and no matter what she did, she could not hide the trembling at the tip of her tail.

Lin Yan stared at her for three seconds without saying anything.

During those three seconds, Gu Yue felt as though she had been deep-fried in hot oil for three hundred years.

Then Lin Yan withdrew his gaze, stood up, and headed for the kitchen.

He tore open the remaining two packets of instant noodles, filled a pot with water, and set it to boil, his movements smooth and practiced.

Once the water boiled, he tossed in the noodle cakes and cracked in an egg.

Gu Yue lay beside the bed, watching his busy back and secretly letting out a sigh of relief.

She had passed this hurdle.

The aroma of instant noodles soon filled the entire room again.

Lin Yan divided the cooked noodles and gave Gu Yue a bowl.

Smelling the food, the little chubby dragon leaped off the bed. Her four tiny legs moved at lightning speed as she shot over to the bowl, plunged her head in, and began slurping noisily.

You had to admit, this foolish dragon might look small, but she could really eat.

She finished a bowl of instant noodles and an egg in three minutes.

Then she raised her head and looked pitifully at the half-bowl still left in Lin Yan's bowl with her watery silver eyes.

Lin Yan expressionlessly shielded his bowl.

Gu Yue pursed her lips and let out a wronged "Aang," then lowered her head to lick her claws.

Over the next few days, Lin Yan took Gu Yue out of the city again and again.

There was a vast stretch of wild forest outside Eastsea City, filled with all kinds of mushrooms.

Blue-Staining Bolete was the most abundant, growing densely across the ground.

Others would take one look and detour around them, but Lin Yan's eyes lit up at the sight.

He brought a shovel and burlap sacks, digging them up shovel by shovel and stuffing in the dirt, dead branches, and rotting leaves along with them.

Gu Yue lay on a rock nearby, staring at the mountain-like pile of Blue-Staining Bolete, her dragon face full of despair.

"Why do we have to eat this stuff?"

She lay flat on the ground without even wanting to move. Her tail drooped limply over the edge of the rock like a salted fish that had lost all its dreams.

"Even though it is delicious, I want meat more. And I'm still a newborn baby! Making a young dragon suffer like this will bring divine punishment upon you."