Enter the Corpse Dragon's Mouth

Tusk Appraiser was an offshoot profession of the Bone Mage. Unlike traditional bone mastery, Tusk Appraisers focused more on the sharpness of tusks.

It was precisely because of this specialized research that they could often distinguish the sharpness of all kinds of tusks.

Only top-tier slave corps and mercenary groups could afford to hire such a profession. To ordinary people, there was little difference between placing a dragon and a human tooth side by side.

The appearance of a professional Tusk Appraiser made Li Ziran understand at once that this job was not so simple. Karen had clearly concealed something important from him.

Even now, he could not figure out why the Corpse Dragon project, which was so rigorous, had let him join for no reason at all.

A project like this should have been highly classified.

Even if the two of them were blood brothers, they had not met for ten years. They should not have trusted each other so much.

Simple-minded?

That was merely fooling himself.

He needed to see what kind of person this Cannon Corps commander was. When dealing with such a wily old fox, the thing that died most often was definitely brain cells.

Following behind Karen with doubts in his heart, he soon met the commander of the Cannon Slave Corps.

It was a towering Giant Cannon Fire Elephant. Its cannon-barrel-like trunk was longer and thicker than any other Fire Elephant's, while waves of flame constantly trembled across its four thick, fiery-red legs. Before he even approached, a vast surge of fire element rushed toward him.

This was the manifestation of a great power. Li Ziran dared to guarantee that the other party's Cannon was definitely no ordinary one.

Beside the Fire Elephant stood a saber-toothed tiger, with two tusks as long as an elephant's. They had been polished until they gleamed brightly.

The instant Li Ziran appeared, it began sizing him up.

"A human?"

The moment Tago opened his mouth, his words carried deep hostility and rejection.

Li Ziran paid no attention to Tago. On the contrary, he rather hoped this Tago would make things difficult for him. Perhaps he could stir up some trouble and see exactly what kind of whirlpool he was caught in.

Clearly, Karen gave him no such chance. He stepped directly between them, grabbed Li Ziran, and introduced him to the Fire Elephant commander. "Commander Xiang Ben, this is Li, the Organ Witch I recommended!"

Those few words immediately drew everyone's attention. The Cannon elephant named Xiang Ben rose directly to his feet, forcing a smile onto his wrinkled face. "Welcome. I have waited for you for a long time, Li, right?"

His universal language was somewhat halting, mixed with quite a bit of highland flavor.

Only when the other party stood up did Li Ziran truly understand the difference in their heights. The elephant was practically a truck several stories tall.

The other party clearly realized the gap in their size. His black trunk curled around Li Ziran, lifting him up with a gentle flick and depositing him on that fan-like ear. The fuzz on the ear gave a slight shake, then wondrously wove itself into a soft railing.

Such a practiced sequence left Li Ziran dumbfounded, not because it was comfortable, but because of the other party's meticulous control over his fuzz.

As a Witch Doctor, he understood the finer details of how living creatures controlled their bodies.

Every creature was controlled by nerves, yet those nerves completely ended once they extended to the surface of fur and skin. This meant that things outside the body could not be controlled, such as hair and body hair. No one could make their own hair spin in circles.

Yet the giant elephant before him had done it. This was not the work of nerves, but because elemental power had been completely tempered into his fur.

He was definitely an extraordinary warrior.

"Did I scare you?" The other party's voice was very kind, nothing like that of a powerhouse.

"No, it's very comfortable!" Li Ziran replied. He felt as though he were sitting atop a crane. Looking up, the outline of the giant dragon five stories tall in the distance was fully revealed before him.

Its head was like a mountain, and its open mouth was a volcanic crater ready to erupt at any moment. Layers of dark green spots spread along the edges of its lips, and in the cracks between those spots stood slender, spear-like fangs. Looking through the gaps between its teeth toward the Corpse Dragon's throat, all he could see was pitch-black darkness, like a bottomless abyss.

Li Ziran had never seen anything so enormous. If this thing were alive, one light breath from it would be enough to send him tumbling several times over.

"Sit tight. I'll take you to see the teeth that need to be modified!"

As he spoke, the giant elephant commander carried Li Ziran toward the Corpse Dragon's mouth.

The closer he got, the more he discovered the terror of this colossal creature. Its spear-like dragon teeth gave off a chilling gleam, like a meat grinder. Now he understood why they had to be completely replaced. Once the Corpse Dragon swallowed someone, even a crocodile warrior would be ground into powder in moments.

"Li, you can take a close look!" The giant elephant commander stood up directly, pressing his fan-like ear against the edge of the fangs. The tip of one dragon tooth was less than half a palm away from Li Ziran's face.

If he had not known the commander bore him no ill will, he would have suspected the other party of trying to assassinate him.

This was his first time seeing a dragon's teeth at such close range. Canines crisscrossed, densely packed and chilling, as though he had entered an ice cave that had stood for a thousand years.

He was somewhat afraid, but even more excited.

In the field of Witch Doctors, who knew how many people spent their entire lives searching for dragon organs, only to perhaps never find such an opportunity even once. Li Ziran had come to the Wasteland for just four years, yet he had encountered his first chance.

But this first chance was not as wonderful as he had imagined. His accumulated knowledge concerning dragon organs was nearly zero, and he could not afford to be optimistic.

Since he had no experience, Li Ziran would proceed according to his own ideas. He had studied neural networks the most. As long as he could find the Corpse Dragon's neural network, he would be entering a field familiar to him.

Li Ziran stood up, as though standing at the edge of a five-story building. He looked down and saw Karen waving at him.

Was it starting already?

Li Ziran silently pondered it. He needed to observe these people's reactions.

Was he really the chief surgeon?

It was too strange. The closer he got to this place, the stranger it became.

If Karen respected him, that was one thing. But the Cannon commander's respect was a little too excessive.

In his view, when a high-ranking commander encountered a greenhorn Witch Doctor like him, should he not show some contempt and test him a little? Yet all Li Ziran could feel was respect.

Why?

Why would a little Witch Doctor with no achievements to his name receive such respect?

This inexplicable respect kept burning in Li Ziran's heart like a flame. He wanted to probe them, yet he could not take a single step.

It felt as though he were living in a world of masks.

On the contrary, Tago, the Tusk Appraiser, had given him the slightest sense of reality, but it had only been a fleeting glance.

What exactly were they plotting against me for? Could it really be that only I could modify these teeth?

Nonsense!

They could even establish spatial magic arrays. What did transplanting two teeth amount to?

"I need a rope!"

Li Ziran wanted to test them. The longer this went on, the less he could feel anything in his heart.

Very soon, a rope was thrown up. It went far too smoothly.

Li Ziran tied the rope into a knot and tossed it upward, hooking it around the root of a tooth. After tugging hard to make sure it was secure, he deliberately stepped on the giant elephant's tusk and began climbing.

Teeth were the Elephantfolk's pride. Anyone who violated their teeth would face an Elephantfolk challenge.

Li Ziran was taking a great risk. He was offending the honor of an Elephantfolk commander.

Unfortunately, he heard no angry roar.

Instead, the giant elephant raised himself, sending Li Ziran another stretch upward.

That abnormal reaction nearly made Li Ziran fall. He had already stepped into the trap.

Li Ziran steadied himself. With the Cannon commander's assistance, he slipped into the rear tooth socket of the Wyvern.

It was an open space like a balcony. Along its edge was a layer of tender pink membrane. This was a protective membrane, something every creature possessed to defend against invading bacteria.

Once he passed through the membrane, he would be able to clearly locate the neural network in the gums. After finding the neural junctions, the transplant surgery could begin.

He needed a difficult problem, preferably one that would bring that Tago appraiser into the process.

He was a breakthrough point.

Very soon, a problem appeared. The dragon's protective membrane was much thicker than he had expected, and exceptionally tough. His surgical knife struck it as though it had hit cowhide.

"I need an assistant, someone with a sharp blade, preferably someone knowledgeable about teeth!" Li Ziran shouted downward, his intention already extremely obvious.

He was calling for Tago by name.

This time, it did not happen as quickly as he had expected. Xiang Ben instinctively looked toward the Tusk Appraiser of the Tago tribe, but ultimately turned his gaze to Karen.

Things did not go as Li Ziran had wished. Instead, a mantis slave covered entirely in emerald green came up, followed by Karen.

The moment he arrived, Karen asked anxiously, "Can it be transplanted? Li, there won't be a problem, right?"

This flustered appearance was completely different from the confidence he had shown on the way here. Li Ziran suspected he was seeing two different people.

He smiled and replied, "I don't know. We need to cut open this protective membrane first. If everything is as I imagine, it should be possible."

"That's wonderful!" As he spoke, he urged the mantis slave, "Hurry up! If you delay something important, I'll skin you alive!"

Mantis were creatures of the forest, considered a vassal race of the Elves. Their bodies were slender and their combat strength was not particularly great, but they were genuine masters of the blade. The Crescent Scimitar created by the strongest among their race could tear open a stretch of space in an instant.

Whoosh!

A streak of light flashed past.

The troublesome protective membrane split open at once. The tender membrane pulled apart on both sides like a spring flower bud, and behind it, a thick silver line like a hemp rope gradually appeared. At the end of the line hung a bud-shaped lump of flesh.

Karen moved with swift eyes and quick hands, grabbing the line as it rapidly retracted. He gave it a pull and yanked it out, then twisted it with the motion, forming a cross-knot. He asked Li Ziran, "Is this what you need?"

Li Ziran frowned slightly. This technique was far from ordinary.

He was troubled. He had intended to find a difficult problem, but it had been solved so easily. What was he supposed to do now?

And it was even better than he had estimated. The Wyvern's neural network was not as thin as that of other creatures, but remarkably thick. Just as Li Ziran was worrying over how to find another problem, he took a proper look, and his expression changed instantly.

"What is it?" Karen immediately sensed something was wrong and asked with concern.

"Why does this nerve have no luster?" Li Ziran asked with feigned urgency.

"What happens if it has no luster?"

"No luster means the nerve has necrosed. How could the nerve be dead?" Li Ziran suddenly came to his senses, and delight immediately rose in his heart.

What he was handling was not a living creature, but a Corpse Dragon!

How could a corpse have living nerves!