That Year I Transcended, the Great Dragon Died

A roar...

A dragon's roar pierced the nine heavens, sounding like thunder, stirring the winds and clouds into a rolling, surging torrent.

Beyond this dragon's roar, there was no other sound in heaven or earth; the land was deathly silent, as if all things in existence had bowed in submission to that cry.

Looking out, the towering green mountains were all shattered, the deep, desolate valleys were filled in, and the sky-supporting giant forests had toppled one after another. It was a scene of utter devastation, riddled with holes and scarred beyond recognition. If one were to look down from the drifting clouds, they would see that this ruin stretched for tens of thousands of miles.

A young man suddenly appeared on a green mountaintop. Feeling a bit of difficulty breathing, he wore a look of bewilderment, then burst into loud laughter, and finally leaped up with all his might, as if to soar straight into the clouds.

But he only jumped a few inches high before falling back down.

Hmm? What is this? I can't even fly in my own dream? That's going too far! Fly for me...

He jumped again, but the result was still only a few inches high; he couldn't even jump over a soda can.

He froze for a moment, then slapped his own thigh.

Smack...

The sound was crisp, and his thigh stung.

Not a dream?

He slapped his thigh again, then frowned and gasped in pain.

After steadying his nerves, he secretly pinched his thigh, his expression filled with doubt and fear. Finally, he took out his phone to check, but there was no network signal; he couldn't even make an emergency call.

His name was Wu Chu, an ordinary, lucky working-class man.

Recalling a minute ago, he had been running and shouting wildly on the street, overjoyed because he had won a thirty-million-dollar jackpot and had actually received the money, leading many to mistake him for a madman.

He never expected that in the next moment, while running, he would end up in this desolate wilderness.

Wu Chu originally thought he had been so happy that his memory had become disordered, and that he had already gone home to rest and was currently dreaming of this bizarre scene.

Now that he thought back, the scenery that had flowed backward while he was running on the street seemed somewhat unusual.

But how could this be?

How could such a supernatural event happen in this world?

Could it be that as he ran, he had truly run into a time tunnel?

At this moment, Wu Chu's brain was buzzing.

He reached out to look at his hands, then looked at his feet: a pair of ordinary black canvas shoes, familiar black jeans, and on his upper body, the same white T-shirt with a thin black jacket over it—a typical spring outfit.

He couldn't help but slap his other thigh.

The stinging pain remained just as sharp.

Realizing that he might have truly entered some time tunnel and arrived in a strange world, Wu Chu suddenly became uneasy.

He had twenty-four million of the thirty-million-dollar prize in hand, and he hadn't even started spending it yet!

He had even felt that he wouldn't have to worry for the rest of his life, with luxury cars and beautiful women in his future.

But now...

Of course, the key wasn't whether the money had been spent, but the instinctive fear brought on by the anxiety of being in an unfamiliar environment.

What kind of hellish place was this?

And what kind of monster had made that sound like a dragon's roar earlier?

Looking again at the giant trees toppled around him, only one word came to his mind... it was a type of hardy green plant.

How could there be such massive trees on Earth? And they were in vast, continuous stretches. In the distance, there was even a sky-supporting giant tree without a crown, like a massive spear thrusting straight into the firmament.

Distraught, he couldn't help but slap his thigh a few more times. He didn't know how many times he had hit himself subconsciously, but when he realized this was an unchangeable fact, he could only sit dejectedly on the ground.

Life's ups and downs happened too fast; the grievance made him want to cry.

With a blank mind, Wu Chu sat foolishly on the ground for a while before standing up anxiously. He paced back and forth on the barren mountaintop, the words 'what do I do, what do I do, what do I do' seemingly spinning on his forehead.

He found that he couldn't calm down no matter what. His usual easygoing nature was of no use at this moment; it couldn't soothe his frantic emotions.

Thinking that he might be far away from modern society, or even far away from Earth, his body began to tremble uncontrollably. It wasn't excitement; it was fear and panic.

Transmigration?

How could that be possible?

That was nothing more than the delusions of literary and film authors!

But seeing this desolate wilderness, with no chirping of insects or birds in the surroundings—it was terrifyingly quiet—an anxious feeling quietly crept into his heart. The suppression made him feel like he was on the verge of a breakdown, and he had to face this terrifying reality.

Sitting dejectedly on the ground, after a while, he reached out to pat his face, adjusting his breathing and emotions while building his mental fortitude.

After a long time, Wu Chu finally noticed the anomaly beneath him.

The bare, green boulder beneath him looked like it was pieced together from green stone scales the size of washbasins. The scales were uniform in size, arranged in an orderly fashion, and their texture wasn't rough; they even had a jade-like, polished feel.

Under the sunlight, the surface didn't feel hot; instead, it had a cool sensation.

After examining it carefully, he jumped up from the ground, but halfway through the jump, he fell back onto his rear. He seemed to have thought of a terrifying possibility, his heartbeat skipping a few times, and then he crawled forward cautiously to verify his guess.

As he crawled, when he saw the massive, Ferocious, and jagged head hanging halfway down the mountainside, he was scared witless.

He shrank his neck, tucked his head down, and after taking a few deep breaths, carefully pulled his phone from his pocket. He zoomed in on the massive head.

It was the head of a mythical creature worshipped by countless people in China: a cyan ox-like head with white deer antlers, staring with enormous golden eyes. Two long, slender whiskers, like giant whips, hung limply to the ground beside its lips.

A scarlet tongue hung weakly from the corner of its mouth. Beneath this formidable head, a crimson stream trickled down the mountain.

This was an Azure Dragon, a creature that could only exist in myths. Its body lay sprawled across the mountainside, and by the looks of it, it seemed dead, simply hanging there on the peak.

He just didn't know if it was truly dead; after all, this was a mythical creature.

Wu Chu clicked his tongue in secret, feeling terrified and uneasy as he recalled the dragon's roar from earlier.

He couldn't help but reach out and secretly pinch his thigh.

The pain made him gasp and stick out his tongue, his features twisting involuntarily. He hissed as he drew in a cold breath, which left him feeling a chill deep in his bones.

What kind of miraculous world was this?

Wu Chu felt like crying but had no tears. Panicked, he looked around again. He definitely couldn't stay on this mountain peak for long; who knew if this great dragon was really dead?

Seeing a massive lake of unknown expanse near a giant tree in the distance, he chose to leave this place and head toward that destination.

After subconsciously snapping a few more photos, Wu Chu carefully crawled along the dragon's spine toward its tail. Although the dragon's back was wide, it sloped downward, meaning there were no obstacles other than the dorsal fins on its spine to cushion his descent.

He was being extremely cautious.

By the time he reached the dragon's tail, he had arrived at the foot of the mountain.

Fortunately, this shattered mountain wasn't steep, so the downward slope of the dragon's back wasn't too sharp; otherwise, it would have been impossible to traverse.

Only when his feet touched the ground, churned up by the collapse, did he feel a sense of stability.

Looking back, the massive dragon body looked as if it were hanging on the mountain. On either side of the carcass lay fallen giant trees and rubble, with occasional patches of green visible between the stones.

Wu Chu took a few more photos with his phone, then turned and headed toward the distant lake.

As he walked, he discovered a problem. He hadn't noticed it while crawling carefully on the dragon's back, but now that he was walking, he realized the gravity in this world seemed different from Earth's. No wonder the height of his jump earlier hadn't even cleared a soda can.

The result of stronger gravity was increasing fatigue. The distance, which looked to be only about five or six kilometers, took him over ten hours to cover with frequent stops. Blisters had already formed on the soles of his feet, his entire body was soaked as if he had been dunked in water, sweat drenched his back, he felt dizzy, and his lips were cracked. His black pant legs and shoes had turned a dusty yellow; he was in a wretched state.

He had originally thought that since this world could produce such large trees, the oxygen concentration might be higher than on Earth and his body might not adapt, but after walking for a while, he realized that worry was unnecessary.

Moreover, whenever he rested from exhaustion, his strength recovered at a speed that surprised him. Plus, the large lake in the distance waiting for him allowed him to quench his thirst just by looking at it.

Of course, the most important thing was that the mountain peak had collapsed, leaving no shrubs on the path, which made walking easier. If he had been walking through a primeval jungle, he probably would have died of misery.

When he encountered giant trees with trunks ten or even dozens of meters in diameter blocking his path, he could only squeeze through the gaps between the trunks and branches.

Ancient giant trees with diameters of several meters were nothing but little brothers here.

On those fallen giant trees, the leaves had softened under the scorching sun, swaying listlessly in the wind.

The different gravity, the dragon corpse hanging on the mountain, the fallen ancient trees everywhere, and the various strange plants he couldn't identify all made him realize that this was no longer the Earth he once knew.

Walking and stopping along the way, he felt as if his feet no longer belonged to him. Wu Chu didn't know how many times he had muttered a certain resilient green plant's name during this journey.

From thinking it was a dream to facing reality, from triumph to dejection, from calm composure to panic... he realized that the clown was actually himself!

I really didn't want to transmigrate!

Wu Chu sighed silently.

When he finally reached the edge of the giant lake after a difficult trek, stepping heavily with every stride, he truly understood the wonder of the Creator when he saw how massive that giant tree really was.

In his view, this Sacred Tree with its grayish-white bark was at least two or three hundred meters thick. The trunk was as straight as a spear, and he had no idea how tall it was, as the crown had already vanished.

Standing beside it, a person was as tiny as an ant.

There were fragments of giant trees by the lake, scattered everywhere like purple jade mountains. The broken crown lay tilted in the vast lake; the crown was so massive it looked like a small forest standing in the water.

The lake surface was calm and ripple-free, appearing boundless. The distant shore looked very blurry, at least dozens or hundreds of miles away.

Such a primitive world made him feel that his life could be lost at any moment.

He looked at everything around him in a daze, then subconsciously pulled out his phone and snapped a flurry of photos, even taking a selfie with the giant tree as a background.

Beside the giant tree was a wide valley filled with all kinds of strange flowers and grasses. Their stalks were huge, with some leaves thicker than he was.

This valley must have been submerged by the lake water; the flower fields tilted toward the depths of the valley, looking somewhat like they had been ravaged by wind and waves.

However, even though those vast fields of strange flowers were in a ruined state, their rich fragrance still drifted through the valley, intoxicating and refreshing.

Yet, there were no bees or butterflies in this flower field.

Wu Chu wandered around the edge of the field and discovered a circular pool about two or three meters in diameter in the depths of the valley behind the flowers.

The pool looked as if it were embedded in a rock. It was exceptionally clear, and water bubbled up from the crevices in the stone, yet strangely, it did not overflow the pool.

Although he was very thirsty, Wu Chu didn't go to the large lake to fetch water. It was only after finding this pool that he hesitated.

He checked the surroundings of the pool and found no hoofprints of wild beasts, so he licked his lips while staring at the water.

A long while passed...

Wu Chu silently lay down by the edge of the pool.

Regardless, he had to quench his thirst first. Such clear Rock Spring water surely wouldn't have any terrifying parasites! He could only comfort himself with that thought.

And just after he drank a mouthful of the sweet, clear spring water, he felt as if he were being watched by some kind of giant beast, which made his scalp tingle involuntarily.

PS: Starting a new book on April Fools' Day, happy April Fools' Day everyone! The new book is on the road, please support it!