Three Iron Dragons

Asking about killing techniques from another's inheritance was obviously presumptuous. Even with Hidoriwei's composure, he was left at a loss for a moment.

In the end, he refused.

Xilong did not mind. After nodding in acknowledgment, he turned and left.

Only after returning to his lair and fully relaxing did Xilong's expression finally change. The tiny bone spikes unique to a Chrome Dragon trembled faintly all over his body, and every scale opened and closed, wisps of heat seeping out like the profuse sweat of a human.

He released, one by one, the shock and pain he had forcibly suppressed during the battle.

Thinking back on the fight, although Xilong had appeared to handle it with effortless ease, he had not truly been in complete control.

After half a year, this was his second challenge against one of the powerful members of the dragon flock. Hidorivi's offense had been as invasive as fire; both his strength and physique were extraordinarily formidable, and the pressure he had placed on Xilong had been anything but small.

The reason Xilong had been able to win was not entirely because his strength surpassed Hidoriwei's. He had exhausted Hidoriwei's stamina until he could no longer hold on.

There had also been a measure of luck in Xilong's ability to evade that terrifying killing move at the end.

"Hah..."

The Chrome Dragon drew in an enormous volume of air with a long breath, then exhaled as slowly as possible.

Even so, he did not belittle himself. Compared to his crushing defeat half a year ago, whether he had won or lost this time, he had fought Hidoriwei until the very last moment.

That was progress.

Growth was not a game of the tortoise and the hare. Hidorivi would not wait in place for him. Half a year had passed, and that fellow had already become the second strongest among the Iron Dragons, every movement carrying the bearing of a Higher Species.

Yet Xilong had still caught up head-on.

Through this battle, he had also successfully established his position in Ochre Valley, formally rising into the ranks of the dragon flock's powerful members.

"...These Iron Dragons really strike hard."

Xilong let out a low hiss as he felt the pain in his right wing.

It looked unharmed on the surface, neither broken nor bleeding, but after Hidoriwei had grabbed it, twisted it, and snapped it, the entire wing bone had been broken. Xilong kept it tightly pressed against his back.

Even with a Heavy-Metal Dragon's regenerative ability, it would probably take a week to heal.

Still, he was ultimately in pain and happy at once. Defeating Hidoriwei had been a goal Xilong set half a year ago. Now that his wish had been fulfilled, he naturally felt both exhilarated and satisfied.

"Now it seems that simply burying my head in training won't do. I still need to fight other powerful opponents more often."

Xilong curled up in his lair and pondered slowly. "Strength and reaction can be trained, but combat awareness, intuition, and instinct cannot be cultivated by climbing cliffs and wading through rivers."

Jelierion coiled in the shadows of an abandoned mine shaft, thinking slowly.

He had not gone to watch the battle. Jelierion never watched other dragon hatchlings fight. The gap between dragons was too vast; as the strongest among the Iron Dragons, most hatchling battles looked like playfighting in his eyes.

Rather than waste energy on playfighting, Jielilong preferred to coil up and spend his time studying and pondering his inheritance.

He had an excellent brother, Hidoriwei Embermark, the strongest hatchling after himself.

This brother would carefully select opponents for him. Only those who defeated Hidoriwei earned the right to challenge Jielilong, but until now, not a single hatchling had accomplished that.

Yet today seemed to be an exception.

Jelierion stared at his brother's body. Hidorivi looked as though he had undergone a judgment of blades, wounds crisscrossing his body like ravines. No one knew what kind of violence had cut through his iron scales, leaving cracks deep enough to expose bone.

Those upturned muscles and tendons stabbed at Jielilong's eyes like daggers. The scales on his face twitched slightly, revealing a measure of genuine anger.

Yet although Hidoriwei was somewhat listless, his expression remained calm. He had frankly admitted his defeat earlier, and now he seemed to think nothing of these injuries.

"How did you lose?"

Jelierion asked bluntly. Iron Dragons had no need for comfort, nor did brothers need empty courtesies between them.

Hidorivi leaned back beside him, licking the blood from his body as he recalled and recounted the battle. His voice was calm and slow, offering as many details as possible, from beginning to end, without a single omission.

Jelierion narrowed his eyes in thought, as though those exchanges were replaying upon his own body.

Only when he heard that Hidoriwei had used his killing move, only for his opponent to teleport away without warning, did the scales on Jielilong's brow gradually furrow. His expression turned grave, as though he had glimpsed a puzzle he could not solve for the moment.

"By the end, the outcome was already decided. Then he suddenly said he wanted to learn the Wedge Form, and that really stumped me."

Hidorivi thought for a moment, then smiled. "These Chrome Dragons are rather lively."

Jelierion smiled too, but his smile was noticeably colder. "Dream on."

"I refused at the time as well, but thinking about it now, I don't see why not. If he wants to learn it, then teach it to him."

Hidorivi plucked the broken scales from his body himself, then raised his head toward the corner. "Leijie, you go."

"I..."

Leijieduole, crouching in the corner, hesitated. After that battle, Hidoriwei was covered in wounds, as though he had been sliced by countless blades. He himself had also been beaten up by Mochi in return, and the thought of it left him feeling stifled and furious.

Yet Hidoriwei now seemed completely unconcerned about the defeat, directly saying that he would deliver the killing form to the chrome dragon's doorstep. Leijieduole naturally could not understand it; he was both unwilling and unconvinced.

But his two elder brothers had been strong from birth, mature and wise beyond their years. Over their daily interactions, they had long established enormous authority. Before them, Leijieduole had no room to speak at all.

Even if he was unwilling a hundred times over, he did not dare utter a word at this moment.

"Just a Chrome Dragon. So what if he defeated you? Must you turn around and try to win him over?"

Fortunately, the eldest, Jielilong, spoke up. "Rest for a while. Let that chrome dragon rest for a while too. After some time, I'll go find him and pin him to the ground to vent your anger."

"That isn't quite it."

Hidorivi shook his head. "That technique of his is excellent. It is clearly also a secret art from his inheritance, and it follows the path of explosive strength. It holds great value for our reference. Trading the Wedge Form for it would not be a loss."

Jelierion, who was coiled there, narrowed his eyes and was just about to speak.

But Hidoriwei continued, "We are still far from Radon. That monster can no longer be described as a hatchling. If Eldest truly wants to challenge an ancient progenitor species, then he must think of every possible way to increase his strength."

"Since we have discovered that the Chrome Dragon possesses such a secret art, and it can be exchanged for, then we should not let the chance slip by."

Jelierion fell silent. Leijie in the corner did not dare say anything either, and the scene went quiet for a time, leaving only the faint sound of teeth grinding and sucking.

After a while of silence, Hidoriwei finally turned his head and looked at Leijieduole, who had been quietly grinding his teeth. "Leijie, I told you to find Xilong. Do you have something to say?"

"...Yes."

Leijie finally received a chance to speak and gathered his courage. "I... I don't want to go."

"Why?" Hidorivi asked.

"Brother's reason is that he has a secret art worth exchanging for, so we should contact him and draw him in. But while there are not many Heavy-Metal Dragons with secret arts in their inheritances, there are still quite a few. Are we supposed to seek them out one by one to make exchanges?"

Leijie objected, "If we give away the Wedge Form now, will we have to give away the Chain Form and Axe Form in the future as well?"

Hidorivi tilted his head, seemingly finding the question baffling. "So what?"

"The hatchlings of Ochre Valley are all members of the Lineage. In the future, they will become our arms."

Even Jielilong, the eldest, said, "As long as they are loyal to the Lineage, there is no need to hoard such things."

Leijieduole thought for a long while, then lowered his head.

"But I still don't want to see that Chrome Dragon..."

He said softly, "Although that guy spoke in a flat tone, I feel that he looks down on me a little. I don't want to humiliate myself."

"Heh."

Jelierion gave a cold laugh. "Do you think we think highly of you?"

"That's different."

Leijie argued, "We are all iron dragons. My two brothers are overwhelmingly strong, and both bear the Embermark name. If they look down on me, I accept it. But he is a chrome dragon, a lower species that does not even know where its parents are, born to serve as a blade for us. What gives him the right to look down on me?"

Jielilong and Hidoriwei exchanged a glance. Their bodies were much larger than Leijieduole's, and the mine's shifting light and shadow made their faces shift between brightness and darkness as well.

A wordless silence.

After a long time, Hidoriwei finally spoke. In an exceptionally chilling tone, he said slowly and clearly, "You truly are an incurable idiot."

Leijieduole was completely stunned. Though they had all come from the same clutch, due to the differences in talent, personality, and strength, his two elder brothers had always thought little of him. Leijieduole knew that.

But he had never heard his brothers judge him like this before, their words carrying immense disappointment, disdain, and contempt.

"Our god is dead. The Heavy-Metal Dragons' ability to pass down the Dragon Legacy to their descendants is rapidly degenerating. As a result, much important history, knowledge, and secret arts have been lost. Perhaps in a few hundred years, we will completely lose the Dragon Legacy and become an inferior breed of Lesser Dragons that merely resemble metal."

"The Chromatic Dragons and Exotic Dragons fear our resurgence. Even now, they continue hunting powerful Heavy-Metal Dragons across the realms of the Astral Sea. The Metallic Dragons are no longer our allies either; they watch coldly as the Heavy-Metal Dragon race suffers its catastrophe."

Hidoriwei looked at Leijieduole, nearly enunciating every word. "As iron dragons, we are born with the mission of reviving our race. Every iron dragon across the realms rolls through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, climbing upward step by step with their own claws and fangs, hoping to become the new supreme one, to grasp the authority of the gods once more, to turn the tide with peerless power, and forge anew the supreme glory of the heavy dragon race."

His gaze was sharp as a blade. Leijieduole avoided his brother's eyes, not daring to meet them.

"What we discuss is strength, and what we pursue is also strength. It is the only thing that can save the Iron Dragons, save the Heavy-Metal Dragon race. Yet when we speak of how to obtain strength, you come to us talking about your bloodline."

"You are indeed a pure-blooded iron dragon, and you indeed bear the Embermark name, but so what? Once you reach the outside world, you will find that chromatic dragons and iridescent dragons do not care who you are. They only want to skin you and drink your blood. Even those short-lived species would dare slit your throat with a blade while you slept."

"You say that Chrome Dragon looks down on you. Why should he think highly of you? If that had not been playfighting just now, but a fight to the death, you would already have died twice at his hands, reduced to a lump of flesh rotting in the earth. Should he think highly of a corpse lying on the ground?"

"Look at what you have been doing, Leijieduole Embermark. Every day, you mingle with those nickel dragons, climb to the mountaintop, and roll down like pigs. You march about in a crowd to bully lesser dragons. You have disgraced us iron dragons completely, yet you are still agonizing over whether a chrome dragon thinks highly of you."

Hidorivi's face twitched again and again, revealing a savage, violent expression. "If I hear you say such idiotic things again, I will crush every bone in your body."