War

"Karajiege was the father of the other two Iron Dragons in the valley, right? They had always been suppressed by the Ashmark siblings and seemed pretty disgruntled about it, so they kept mocking Leijieduolei for being an idiot, then picked fights with Hidorivi."

Moqi pondered for a while. "On Dragonbirth Day, I heard Nurturer say that the Lineage had seven Great Dragon lords in total, but I didn't know exactly who they were."

The mine tunnels twisted and turned as they made their way downward, about to enter the deepest excavation zone.

"First was Taigo Ashmark. He was the strongest, with a Disaster Level as high as twenty-three. Then there was Viluoya Ashmark. Not only was she Taigo's younger sister, she was also Taigo's mate, and the most influential lord in the Lineage."

In Tas explained to him, "Next were the adult dragon Vिक्स Karajiege mentioned by the dwarves, along with his mate Ingrid. They ruled Gray Mountain Black Lake. Counting Nurturer from Ochre Valley, that made five Iron Dragon lords."

"Huh?"

Moqi froze. "How did you know that?"

"Nurturer mentioned it while teaching us. Learning was the most important thing for Lesser Dragons. Everything she said, useful or not, I remembered it all. I didn't forget a single word."

In Tas thought for a moment, then shook his head. "But the remaining two lords are beyond what I know."

"There are also the two Tungsten Dragon lords, the Nolantel brothers."

Xilong said, "There are nine Tungsten Dragons in the valley altogether, the largest number. The brothers gathered every one of them by every means they could."

Moqi was even more astonished. "Xilong, don't you rarely deal with other dragons? I wander around the valley every day and didn't know any of this. How did you?"

"On the night of Dragonbirth Day, the Tungsten Dragons drank themselves happy and sang over there. I listened to them talking among themselves and learned it."

Xilong answered.

Moqi looked at Xilong, then at In Tas, and slumped. "The two of you make me seem like an idiot."

"Nonsense."

Xilong rubbed his head in consolation. "What do you mean, 'seem like'?"

"Are we still going forward, young lords?"

The Gray Dwarf raised his oil lamp and looked around. "The excavation zone is almost at its end. Beyond it is the warning zone. Usually, when we work, we have to station guards there. The lord said there were no major disasters, but there could still be some danger."

"Take us to see it," Xilong said.

The young dragons who had come seeking adventure were brimming with excitement. The moment they stepped inside, the scorched, rusty smell of the mine tunnel was left behind. A cold, damp breath seeped up from deep underground in fine strands.

"Two Tungsten Dragon lords."

In Tas filed away the information. Seeing Moqi's sullen expression, he changed the subject. "I thought there would be Chrome Dragon lords. There are four Chrome Dragons living on the cliffs in the valley. It seems they aren't with you."

"Indeed, they aren't. But our parents were all hired by the Ashmark Lineage back then, coming from the Great Glacier to fight the Chromatic Dragons. Their parents had bad luck and were killed outright in the war."

Moqi said.

In Tas silently nodded. This way, the origins of all the Heavy-Metal Dragons in the valley were basically clear. They had names, histories, and roots. Unlike the thirteen Lesser Dragons, whose origins were unknown, who did not know their parents, and who even had to be given names by Nurturer.

"Ah, looking at it this way, few Dragon Hatchlings in the valley are easy to mess with. The Iron Dragons and Tungsten Dragons have Great Dragons watching over them, the Cobalt Dragons come from Marsh Abyss, and only us and the Nickel Dragons are alone and helpless. We're the pitiful ones."

Moqi shook his head as he spoke.

"More nonsense."

Xilong turned back and gave him a glance. "Isn't Nurturer the Great Dragon over our heads?"

Something stirred faintly in In Tas's heart.

"This is the end of the warning zone, young lords."

The Gray Dwarf looked hesitant. "See, the lord's scale hangs there. As for whether there is a path beyond it, or what might lie ahead, even the Gray Dwarves don't know. It might even connect to the underground and other mountain ranges."

Xilong looked at the scale hanging from an iron chain. It was a reverse-grown scale from beneath a Great Dragon's neck, its scent savage and vicious, its dark-black surface gleaming.

It was a predator's primal proclamation. It needed neither words nor sound, yet it could unmistakably declare the boundaries of its territory. Any living creature that knew to seek fortune and avoid disaster would certainly understand that language.

"It actually smells pretty nice," Xilong said.

"Clatter, clatter—"

A broken, intermittent sound suddenly came from below, as though something was striking the rock layers.

"That's... that sound."

The Gray Dwarf panicked and instinctively edged closer to Xilong, as if he wished he could hug the Chrome Dragon's tail. "My lord, listen. That's it. It wasn't much when we heard it in the excavation zone, but here, it's incredibly loud."

"You should leave."

After thinking it over, Xilong said, "We haven't found what I was looking for all this way, so we still need to keep exploring downward. If there really is danger, you won't be able to help, and you won't be able to protect yourself either. Take your lamp and go back."

Taota was stunned at first, then actually showed the expression of someone relieved of a heavy burden. He knew perfectly well that following three dragons into danger would not only be of no help, but would make him deadweight.

When Taota introduced himself at the beginning, he said he had volunteered. That was not the case at all. It was simply that the lord had given the order, and someone had to serve as a guide. If this old fellow did not come, could they really send the young children of his clan instead?

After turning it over and over in his mind, what he feared most was that dragons did not take dwarven lives seriously and would force him to keep walking ahead with the lamp. If his foot slipped then, he might die on the spot. He did not even know whether the lord would offer any compensation.

To his surprise, these young dragons actually understood reason. With such an offhand remark, they were letting him go.

"Ah, ah!"

Taota hurriedly saluted and bowed deeply to the three Dragon Hatchlings. "Then I'll withdraw to the excavation zone and wait for you. If anything happens, just call out loudly. I... I'll immediately report it to the lord."

He did not dare linger. After thanking them, he turned and hurried back. The swaying lamplight gradually became a point of light, then vanished completely around the bend in the tunnel.

The surroundings fell into darkness, leaving only the faint glow in the Dragon Hatchlings' eyes.

"Clatter, clatter, clatter."

The strange sound came again from below.

"Heh, Nurturer already said there was no disaster, yet the dwarf got scared like this. These humanoid races really are too weak."

Moqi shook his head, trying hard to make himself seem unconcerned, but as he listened to the sounds below, his clawed toes tightened without his noticing.

"Why aren't you walking forward?" In Tas asked him.

Moqi ground his teeth. "I..."

Xilong did not speak to either of them. His expression grew serious as he stepped into the deeper darkness.

The farther down they went, the fainter the scorched smell of the mine became, and the rocks along the walls quietly changed shape.

All traces of artificial excavation had long vanished. In their place were natural, jagged contours. The slope beneath their feet grew steeper and steeper, and Xilong could feel himself advancing step by step into the true belly of the mountain range.

But strangely, the farther down they went, the lighter the darkness became.

At first, the Dragon Hatchlings thought it was an illusion. Yet as they followed the slope downward, light truly seeped up from the darkness in wisps, soft and hazy, like moonlight sinking beneath water.

"Something really isn't right."

The color in Moqi's pupils shifted slightly as he adjusted his darkvision. He no longer joked around. "Where would light come from underground?"

Xilong silently swept his gaze around, maintaining the utmost awareness as he moved forward steadily.

The light grew brighter and brighter, and the slope finally came to an end. The three Dragon Hatchlings passed through a narrow crack in the stone one after another, only to find the view suddenly opening before them.

Not just In Tas and Moqi—even Xilong was slightly stunned by a scene none of them had anticipated.

Beyond the crack lay a vast underground space, as though a piece had been hollowed out of the mountain itself. It was flat and open. Fluorescent mushrooms with broad caps grew in clusters from cracks in the rock walls, their blue and purple caps glowing and dimming like breathing.

Swarms of fireflies carried their own ghostly lights as they flew over underground pools, like schools of luminous fish in the deep sea—fantastical and magnificent, their falling radiance like rain.

"Clatter, clatter."

The nerve-rattling sound rang out once again.

Following the sound, the Dragon Hatchlings discovered that an "unprecedented" war was underway in the center of the underground space.

One side consisted of the Mushroom People Moqi had once failed to capture. With short arms and legs and broad mushroom caps atop their heads, they charged with little plopping sounds, constantly launching themselves forward with mushroom-cap headbutts.

Their hard mushroom caps struck the ground with loud clangs.

The other side was the Little Stone Spirits Jiazhuosa had mentioned. Each was about the size of a dwarf's fist, round-bodied and armed with little stone clubs, arranged in dense formations.

That clattering vibration was the sound they made as they rolled forward together in a collective charge.

The two sides were already locked in an all-out brawl, completely unaware of the unexpected intruders. All of them charged toward the stone sphere in the center.

The stone sphere was tightly bound in fungal threads, and corpses lay scattered all around it.

A Mushroom Person was sent flying and rolled to a stop beneath Xilong's claw. It had only just swayed to its feet when Xilong grabbed it and lifted it before his face for inspection.

Upon seeing the monster, clear panic and fear appeared in the Mushroom Person's little eyes. It braced itself against the scales on the Chrome Dragon's claw, struggling to push itself up and using every ounce of strength to pull itself free.

After Xilong looked at it for a few moments and released it, the little thing did not report the situation to the other Mushroom People. Instead, it went plopping back into the battlefield and tangled with the Little Stone Spirits once more.