Chapter Summaries

Zheng Yichen accepted that he had hatched as a black dragon, ate his fossilized eggshell, and grew rapidly in the wilderness. Two months later, he ambushed a group of humans in the forest and began robbing them.

• Zheng Yichen woke as a dragon hatchling, inspected his claws and wings, and decided to sleep before accepting his transformation.
• Zheng Yichen woke hungry and ate the fossilized eggshell left from his hatching.
• Sander led a group of noble youths into the forest near the Tot Mountains to seek the dragon, while warning them to stay alert.
• Zheng Yichen trapped Sander with a vine noose and emerged before the group, startling the youths with his size and Dragon Aura.
• Zheng Yichen knocked aside a guard's sword, took a girl by the collar, and began stripping her of valuables while speaking Chinese.

Zheng Yichen continued robbing poorly skilled dragon-slaying parties while growing rapidly, and the Mercenary Guild began investigating his size and supposed mother. When he spotted furtive figures near his cave, he charged at them, but his furious roar ended in a hiccup.

• Zheng Yichen counted thirty-one tally marks, sorted the loot from another raid, and chose to keep hiding in his cave.
• Bina and Judy returned to town embarrassed and vowed to train so they could someday defeat the dragon who had taken their underwear.
• Sander completed the party’s commission and learned that the Guild still classified Zheng Yichen as a five-month-old hatchling.
• The Guild offered a lucrative commission to investigate Zheng Yichen’s growth and find out whether his mother existed, but Sander declined for a few days off.
• Zheng Yichen spotted several furtive figures near his hidden cave and charged at them, roaring before hiccupping.

Zheng Yichen drove off a group of black-clad intruders, then worried that growing human activity near his lair might force him to move. As he chose to wait, people began verifying reports about the apparently unguarded dragon hatchling, and greed drew them toward him.

• Zheng Yichen recalled that he had robbed earlier visitors for valuables and wondered why, as a dragon, he still could not fly.
• He pelted a fleeing black-clad figure with a pebble, remembered the group that had collected his droppings months earlier, and stripped the intruders of their clothes before leaving.
• Zheng Yichen returned cautiously to his lair and considered moving because humans had become active nearby.
• He decided to wait rather than abandon his home, reflecting on his encounters with local animals and doubting whether Dragon Aura existed.
• People gathered information about the unguarded hatchling and began checking its reliability, tempted by the value of every part of a dragon.

Zheng Yichen discovered that a more capable group was searching near his lair and decided he needed to move. Meanwhile, the Mercenary Guild Branch President and vice president concluded that the adolescent dragon had no mother guarding it and pushed the town’s powerful residents into a dangerous plan to capture it.

• Zheng Yichen watched stealthy prowlers approach his lair, then saw them withdraw after finding no trace of a mother dragon.
• The vice president told the Mercenary Guild meeting that the dragon was a rapidly growing adolescent purebred, likely abandoned and unguarded.
• The town’s influential residents recognized that capturing the dragon could bring them great wealth, though an adolescent dragon would be difficult to defeat.
• The Branch President offered to provide contraband heavy crossbows, forcing everyone in the room to become complicit in the operation.
• The Branch President declared that their plan to capture the dragon could not fail.

Zheng Yichen fled his lair with his treasure to avoid a group plotting to ambush him, but his pursuers shot him down and attacked him in the forest. He fought back in anger, and the chapter ended with three warriors struggling to withstand his next strike.

• Zheng Yichen packed up his treasure and left his lair at night, but intruders arrived soon afterward and pursued him when they found it empty.
• Zheng Yichen glided from a cliff to escape the riders, but a barbed crossbow bolt and rope struck his wing and sent him crashing into the forest.
• Zheng Yichen severed the rope and assessed the roughly two hundred attackers, spotting heavy crossbows and a ballista among their weapons.
• Zheng Yichen struck at the charging attackers, and three swordsmen blocked his blow together but were driven waist-deep into the ground.

Zheng Yichen discovered he could catch and redirect a mage’s fireball, but he was badly wounded when hunters struck him with a ballista. He escaped while the hunters collected his scales and discussed the weapon’s power.

• Zheng Yichen caught the mage’s Flame Burst and hurled it at the three grounded warriors, killing one and injuring two.
• Zheng Yichen realized he could control the captured fireball and challenged the mage to throw another.
• A ballista bolt struck Zheng Yichen, tearing scales from his claws and badly hurting his chest.
• Zheng Yichen swung the fallen bolt at approaching hunters, then threw it aside and fled under a volley of shots.
• The branch vice president collected Zheng Yichen’s scales, while the president praised the ballista and condemned the family that had supplied it.

Zheng Yichen was overwhelmed by the hunters’ drugged bolts and captured, but a mysterious girl appeared whom only he could initially see. After she touched his head, Zheng Yichen lost consciousness, and the hunters realized she was standing among them.

• Zheng Yichen tried to escape the hunters but was pinned down by barbed bolts and ropes.
• Zheng Yichen fought off a man who struck him with a Spiked Club, then succumbed to the drugs coating the bolts.
• The Branch President approached Zheng Yichen and wondered why a dragon with such a remarkable constitution had been abandoned.
• A mysterious girl appeared behind the Branch President and Vice President, unseen by everyone except Zheng Yichen.
• The girl stroked Zheng Yichen’s head, called him a useless dragon, and watched him lose consciousness.
• The hunters noticed the girl after she put her glove back on, and the Branch President demanded to know who she was.

A mysterious little girl took Zheng Yichen from the people who had captured him, then tried to communicate with him after he woke in an emptied town. She realized he could not understand Dragon Language and was intrigued by his unusual lack of Dragon Aura and his resistance to her dangerous nature.

• The little girl declared that she was taking Zheng Yichen, and the Branch President surrendered him after she threatened the group.
• Zheng Yichen woke in the town with the bolts removed from his body and found the little girl trying to speak to him.
• Zheng Yichen wondered where the town’s inhabitants had gone and could not understand any of the languages the girl tried.
• The little girl explained that dragons inherited Dragon Language and observed that Zheng Yichen had no Dragon Aura.
• The little girl became especially interested in Zheng Yichen because her dangerous nature did not affect him.

Zheng Yichen stayed with the mysterious little girl in an empty town, where her interest in his blood and strange marks made him wary. She studied his unusual ability to seize and alter magic, while wondering what kind of power he possessed.

• Zheng Yichen noticed mottled red marks appearing on the little girl's arm whenever she moved it, though they vanished when he tried to focus on them.
• The little girl pressed a finger into Zheng Yichen's healing foreleg wound and tasted his blood, leaving him disturbed by her reaction.
• The little girl examined Zheng Yichen's rapid healing and considered the possibility that he lacked a Dragon Aura and inherited memories.
• The little girl recalled how Zheng Yichen had physically caught and compressed a Flame Burst Fireball, severing its connection to its caster and the world.
• The little girl wondered whether Zheng Yichen's unusual power was an innate ability tied to both his body and soul, while Zheng Yichen edged away from her suspicious gaze.

Zheng Yichen cooked a wild boar that a mysterious little girl drove toward him, while trying to make sense of her extraordinary strength and the deserted town. After she rejected his oversized serving and drew blood from between his scales, he wondered whether she was a vampire.

• A terrified wild boar charged toward Zheng Yichen as the little girl followed it without letting it gain distance.
• Zheng Yichen killed the boar with one claw, and the little girl pointed at the carcass and the fire.
• The little girl carried over an enormous water vat, then hurled it down the street after Zheng Yichen tested the dark-tinted water and splashed droplets onto the ground.
• Zheng Yichen found water in the empty town, prepared and seasoned the boar meat, and offered the first cooked piece to the sulking little girl.
• The little girl gestured for Zheng Yichen to put the oversized piece back, flicked between his scales, and collected half a cup of his blood.

Zheng Yichen dreamed of his former life and found the little girl inside his dream, where they could understand each other. As they began exploring the dream and its recreated objects, Zheng Yichen discovered that his beloved computer still worked.

• The little girl seasoned the roast wild boar with her blood, ate ravenously, and then covered herself with Zheng Yichen’s wing to sleep.
• Zheng Yichen fell asleep and dreamed he was back in his old apartment, but the darkness beyond the window revealed he had not returned home.
• The little girl appeared in the dream and explained that they could communicate through a mental connection, though neither knew the other’s language.
• The little girl examined Zheng Yichen’s dream objects and recognized that he remembered his bedtime storybook particularly well.
• Zheng Yichen turned on his dream computer and nearly cried when its familiar boot screen appeared.

Zheng Yichen learned the Common Tongue from a mysterious girl in a dream and woke able to speak it, though exhausted. The girl called him a forbidden, cursed dragon, leaving him confused about what he was.

• Zheng Yichen tried to use a computer in his dream while the little girl watched, then asked what she wanted.
• The girl said he was special and gave him a book that taught him the Common Tongue; Zheng Yichen memorized it with unusual ease.
• While Zheng Yichen studied, the girl found indecent material on the computer, and he shut it down and gave her headphones.
• After finishing the book, Zheng Yichen woke in his dragon body with the Common Tongue in his mind and asked the girl if she could understand him.
• The girl said everything about Zheng Yichen attracted her and called him a forbidden, cursed dragon, leaving him asking if he was cursed.

Lolise explained why the Dragon Race hunted Cursed Dragons and warned Zheng Yichen that his unusual soul could attract powerful enemies. She made him stay with her for lessons and experiments, leaving Zheng Yichen anxious about his future but trying to rest.

• Lolise told Zheng Yichen how people once stole dragon bodies by erasing hatchlings' souls, prompting the Dragon Race to hunt them down.
• Lolise explained that Zheng Yichen's perfectly matched soul made him difficult to identify as a Cursed Dragon, but his lack of Dragon Aura and his soul's unknown origins could expose him.
• Lolise said she had taken a liking to Zheng Yichen and ordered him to stay by her side, then introduced herself as Lolise while he gave his name.
• Lolise said she would teach Zheng Yichen and conduct experiments on him, insisting they would benefit him.
• Zheng Yichen worried that exposure would bring a relentless Dragon Race hunt, then eventually let his eyes droop as he tried to rest.

Zheng Yichen hunted fresh meat for Lolise and discovered more strange things about her, including her lethal touch and unusual hunger. When he asked what she would teach him, Lolise said it depended on what he could learn, then dismissed his assumption about magical aptitude.

• Zheng Yichen searched the roads around town for signs that its many people had left, found none, and went into the forest to hunt.
• Zheng Yichen returned with several animals and began roasting fresh meat while Lolise read a cookbook she had pulled from a black rift.
• Lolise collected a little of Zheng Yichen's blood and demonstrated that her passive touch reduced the wolf's head to ash, explaining that the effect did not work on him.
• Lolise ate the meat Zheng Yichen prepared, said she would not treat him like a tool because she was fond of him, and told him his lessons depended on what he could learn.
• Zheng Yichen guessed that magical aptitude determined what he could learn, and Lolise told him he was overthinking it.

Lolise explained magic and dragon inheritance to Zheng Yichen, then told him that his unusual birth and growth made him an anomaly who might be better suited to the name Cursed Dragon. Zheng Yichen began studying a children’s primer on magic, while Lolise kept her concerns about his soul to herself.

• Zheng Yichen asked Lolise whether magic depended on natural aptitude, and she explained that most dragons could cast spells using knowledge from inherited memories.
• Lolise gave Zheng Yichen a children’s primer after learning he lacked the Dragon Race’s inherited knowledge.
• Lolise explained that Zheng Yichen had grown unusually fast and might have hatched from an egg that had lost all signs of life.
• Lolise called Zheng Yichen an anomaly and suggested that the name Cursed Dragon might suit him, but withheld her concerns about factors in his soul.
• Zheng Yichen studied the primer and compared magic aptitude to how easily people learned subjects in his previous world.

After finishing the Primer, Zheng Yichen learned how magic arrays worked and compared them with chant-based casting. Lolise encouraged him to study magic rather than rely on her protection.

• Zheng Yichen read the Primer and learned that casters activated spells by filling mental magic-array patterns with mana.
• Zheng Yichen told Lolise he had expected magic to require chants and materials, and he proposed that chants might combine sound, mental power, and mana.
• Lolise explained that chant-based casting was possible but less adaptable than pattern magic, which skilled mages could adjust and transform.
• Zheng Yichen said he preferred pattern magic because learned arrays could be inscribed in his mind and used again.
• Lolise told Zheng Yichen to study hard because staying by her side did not guarantee his safety.

Zheng Yichen learned how magic-power warriors, mages, and War Qi warriors differed, then wondered whether he could pursue all three paths. Lolise explained that his unusual growth might affect his lifespan and suggested he had not yet experienced the Dragon Race’s first growth slumber.

• Zheng Yichen read that warriors and mages both used magic power, but warriors channeled it through their bodies while mages relied on mental strength and array patterns.
• Lolise explained that War Qi was violent, difficult to master, and devastating against single targets, but it also injured its users and shortened their lives.
• Zheng Yichen considered training as a mage, a magic-power warrior, and a War Qi warrior, while Lolise noted the difficulty of pursuing every path.
• Lolise said Zheng Yichen had grown dozens of times faster than a normal dragon and suggested his growth might come at the cost of a shorter lifespan.
• Lolise wondered whether Zheng Yichen had experienced the Dragon Race’s first growth slumber, but he said he had never felt like sleeping for a long time.

Lolise taught Zheng Yichen about dragon dormancy, magical training, and the threshold for mastering a profession. She set him three days to memorize and master a basic Magic Array Pattern, leaving him to begin studying the fundamentals.

• Lolise explained that dragon dormancy brought transformation and strength, while Zheng Yichen’s body kept growing stronger without it.
• Lolise told Zheng Yichen to master a basic Magic Array Pattern within three days and said he had the ability to do so.
• Lolise explained that reaching the threshold meant gaining enough command over one’s power to alter its patterns, techniques, or flow.
• Zheng Yichen learned that practitioners accumulated power through practice and that he would need to memorize and understand a spell pattern before imprinting it on his mind.

Lolise forced Zheng Yichen through gravity-weighted training and explained that he might be able to cultivate Battle Qi because of his unusual dragon constitution. When a giant, electric-horned python attacked, Lolise killed it instantly and stored its horn, leaving Zheng Yichen lamenting the loss of its meat.

• Lolise increased Zheng Yichen's weight and ordered him to run ten laps around town before hunting.
• Zheng Yichen questioned the training, and Lolise explained that he could learn Battle Qi despite being a dragon and might avoid its side effects.
• Lolise rode on Zheng Yichen's back and made him continue despite his exhaustion.
• Zheng Yichen encountered a giant python with an electric horn, and Lolise told him to go around it.
• The python charged, so Lolise sliced it in two with her energy whip and took its horn through a rift.
• The python's body decayed before Zheng Yichen could salvage its meat, and Lolise pointed out that its blood remained.

Zheng Yichen struggled through intensified training while learning about magic items and their Magic Array Patterns. After admitting he enjoyed tinkering, he received Lolise’s permission to study magic-item crafting during his daily lessons.

• Zheng Yichen struggled to fight a wild boar and drag it home, while Lolise explained that her Area Charm Formation had drawn creatures into the forest.
• Lolise made Zheng Yichen prepare and roast the boar despite his exhaustion, and he continued his physical training and magic lessons.
• Zheng Yichen learned how mass-produced magic items used standard Magic Array Patterns and how skilled mages refined patterns to suit their own mental energy.
• Lolise increased the gravity on Zheng Yichen’s limb bands, and he accepted that adapting would be harder this time.
• Zheng Yichen examined a bracelet and told Lolise that he had enjoyed making things before coming to this world.
• Lolise said magic-item crafting properly began after he entered the ranks, but allowed him to study it during his daily lessons.