Gu Yue Meets the Original Silver Dragon King: There Could Only Be One Silver Dragon King in the World!

Just then, Lin Yan sensed a gaze fixed firmly on him.

Without showing any reaction, he tilted his head slightly.

Through a gap in the crowd, he caught sight of a girl standing in a corner of the Spirit Pagoda lobby.

She wore the Eastsea Academy uniform.

Her looks were ordinary.

The kind that would disappear completely if thrown into a crowd.

But her eyes were not the eyes a girl should have.

Something ancient and cold churned in the depths of those pupils.

It crossed layer upon layer of people and nailed itself to him.

No.

It was not fixed on him.

It was fixed on the foolish dragon at his feet.

Lin Yan's brow twitched slightly.

He lowered his head and glanced at Gu Yue.

The World-Destroying Dragon, who had been strutting arrogantly and wagging her tail moments ago, now looked as though someone had seized her by the throat.

Her tail froze in midair.

Even her breathing stopped.

Those violet dragon eyes stared straight at the girl in the crowd, her pupils shrinking into vertical slits.

"Leave."

Gu Yue's voice exploded in his mind, urgent and clipped, as if forced through clenched teeth.

"Leave now."

Lin Yan did not ask why.

He bent down, scooped up the fat dragon who had gone stiff as a stick, and stuffed her into his arms.

Gu Yue's body was ice-cold.

Her four claws clutched tightly at his collar, wrinkling his faded school uniform in several places.

He raised his head and gave a slight nod in the girl's direction.

A polite, perfunctory gesture devoid of emotion.

Then he turned around, pushed through the crowd still chattering questions at him, and strode toward the Spirit Pagoda's entrance.

Someone called after him.

Footsteps pursued him for several paces, but quickly stopped.

The glass doors closed behind him.

The afternoon sunlight of Eastsea City beat down with scorching intensity.

Holding Gu Yue, Lin Yan hurried through two streets and turned into a quiet alley before finally slowing down.

He looked down, pulled the stiff bundle from his arms, and held her up before his eyes.

Gu Yue's eyes were still darting wildly about, occasionally glancing behind him.

Her entire body looked as though she had just been hauled out of an ice cellar. Even the tip of her tail was trembling.

"Who was that woman just now?"

Lin Yan's voice remained calm.

Gu Yue said nothing.

Her two front claws twisted together unconsciously.

"You know her."

It was not a question, but a statement.

Gu Yue's body stiffened further.

Her brain spun madly at thirty thousand revolutions per second.

Another me.

The real Silver Dragon King Gu Yue from this timeline.

Why was she here? Wasn't she supposed to be at Eastsea Academy?

It's over, it's over, it's over.

Gu Yue's heart pounded frantically in her chest.

She was the ruler of the Soul Beasts.

She was half of the Dragon God.

Her world-shaking intelligence told her that there could only be one Silver Dragon King in the world.

Just as she and Na'er were destined to merge, there was absolutely no possibility of peaceful coexistence between her and another version of herself.

If it were her, what would she do upon seeing herself weakened into such a miserable state?

Devour her.

Devour her without hesitation.

There was no second choice.

She could read the same thing in that girl's eyes.

That cold, scrutinizing gaze, assessing the value of prey.

Gu Yue broke free from Lin Yan's hand, scrambled up onto his shoulder, and poked half her head out from behind it to look back the way they had come.

People flowed back and forth through the street.

The sunlight was blinding.

There was no sign of the girl in the school uniform.

Gu Yue let out a long breath, then collapsed limply across Lin Yan's shoulder like a snake with all its bones removed.

"I don't know her."

Her voice was soft and thin as she tried to put on an innocent expression.

Her violet pupils blinked at Lin Yan.

"I just felt like that woman was really scary."

Lin Yan's eyes narrowed slightly.

Didn't know her?

He knew Gu Yue's background perfectly well.

Everything about her origins and experiences had been created in that broken pot of his.

By all rights, she should not have known anyone in the real world.

Yet her reaction just now clearly showed that she had seen someone who knew her, and whom she knew as well.

And she had been afraid.

The World-Destroying Dragon who spent every day plotting rebellion in her heart.

A single girl's gaze had frightened her until she trembled all over and could barely speak properly.

Eastsea Academy.

The uniform belonged to Eastsea Academy.

Someone capable of terrifying the Silver Dragon King so badly—

The corner of Lin Yan's mouth twitched.

He remembered the ruler of the Soul Beasts from the original story.

Gu Yue of this spacetime.

His steps did not stop.

But his heart had already sunk.

He had already manifested Gu Yue from the cultivation vessel.

Yet now, an original Silver Dragon King had appeared.

He did not know what relationship existed between the two.

A projection? A clone? The same person from a parallel timeline?

But there was one thing he was certain of: the disappearance of Destiny Power had probably alerted something that should not have been alerted.

This variable was not part of his plan.

He hated things beyond his control.

"Foolish dragon."

He suddenly spoke, his tone as casual as if discussing the weather.

"Hm?"

Gu Yue was still looking around, her tail swishing anxiously.

"You should lose some weight. You've made my shoulder sore."

"..."

Gu Yue lifted her head from his shoulder and widened her violet eyes.

She glared at him with an expression that said, Are you even human?

"I'm not losing weight! Who says I'm fat? I'm not fat at all. This is called being well-rounded."

Angrily, she smacked his back with her tail.

Lin Yan ignored her protest.

He left the alley, crossed two streets, and entered Eastsea City's job market.

There were not many people in the market that afternoon.

Several drooping parasol trees swayed in the hot wind.

A few day laborers waiting for work sat sparsely beneath their shade.

Across the street stood a fried chicken shop.

The greasy aroma drifted over on the hot breeze, making stomachs churn with hunger.

Gu Yue's nose suddenly twitched.

She turned her head and stared fixedly at the fried chicken shop.

Golden fried chicken was piled into a small mountain behind the glass display window, gleaming with oil.

Drool spilled from the corner of her mouth, dripping onto Lin Yan's collar and stretching into a shining strand.

She tugged at Lin Yan's ear with a claw, then pointed at the fried chicken shop.

"Human... I want fried chicken. Buy it for me."

"You're already thinking about eating before we've even made any money."

Lin Yan raised a hand and flicked her on the forehead.

There was a crisp bonk.

Gu Yue covered her head and shrank back onto his shoulder with tearful eyes.

"Wuwu... beast, abusing a dragon, you'll die a horrible death."

She buried her head between her two front claws, her tail hanging down weakly.

Like a salted fish that had lost its dreams.

At that moment, her stomach let out a long, loud growl.

She really was hungry.

Ever since she had been manifested into this real world, the consumption of this body had been absurdly high.

One meal could devour hundreds of thousands of living beings from a Small World.

The biomass of an entire world would not even be enough to fill the gaps between her teeth.

But as the ruler of the Soul Beasts, even if she starved to death, she could not use her own people as food.

Yet she could not go without eating, either.

This juvenile body was burning through calories madly every day.

Instant noodles, mushrooms, eggs—the little energy they provided was not even enough to sustain basic activity.