Why Hurt Each Other?

"What are these people trying to do?" Zheng Yichen narrowed his dragon eyes as he spotted the sneaky figures in black again. This time, they weren't causing trouble near his lair. They were searching the surrounding area for something.

Planning more trouble?

Forget it. Time to move. Whatever they were planning had nothing to do with him anymore. He returned to his lair, stuffed all the treasure he had collected into a large hide, and tied it into a bundle behind his wings. His wings couldn't get him airborne, but they were still handy in other ways.

As for leaving those "burdens" behind? He had worked hard to rob—collect them, after all. Letting someone else pick them up for free didn't sit right with him.

Under cover of night, a dragon slipped out of his cave. Not long after he left, another group crept inside.

"Where's the dragon? I thought it didn't go out at night." The intruders stared at the strangely empty cave. There was nowhere inside for it to hide.

One of them scooped up a handful of dirt, his expression turning odd. "Our plans didn't leak, did they? It looks like it ran."

"Ran?!" The others froze, then examined the cave more closely. Apart from the spot where the dragon had slept, nothing remained. The place had been cleared out. If it had only gone hunting, it wouldn't have taken a heavy load with it.

Everything the dragon had stolen was gone. Clearly, it had fled!

"Its scent is still in the cave. It can't have gone far."

"Then after it!"

Their plan had been to lure the dragon out of its cave and into an ambush. It had never hurt anyone, but that didn't matter. Its mistake was being a dragon valuable from head to tail.

"Will you people give it a rest?" Hearing hoofbeats behind him, Zheng Yichen glanced back irritably. The darkness did nothing to hinder his sight. He could see the riders perfectly, and they were chasing him.

He looked around. If he remembered right, there was a cliff ahead. He shifted the bundle from behind his wings into his hands, shot the approaching pursuers an annoyed look, and leaped off the edge. His wings spread wide, carrying him away like a glider. "Hah! Didn't see that coming, did you? I can fly!"

"Go join the others. That dragon won't escape," one of the pursuers said, watching Zheng Yichen recede into the distance. They had prepared for the possibility that he could fly. But he was still a dragon that hadn't reached adolescence. Even if he could fly, he couldn't keep it up for long.

Zheng Yichen pulled a large piece of dried meat from his bundle and chewed as he gazed into the dark. He sighed. In the end, he couldn't bring himself to kill them. His way of thinking wasn't so easy to change. With his strength, he could have held on to this place. If anyone objected or caused trouble, he could simply kill them all. But no matter how powerful his body became, deep down he still had the mindset of an ordinary person.

Seriously, what was wrong with leaving each other alone? Why go looking for trouble?

A sudden stab of pain in his wing jolted him from his thoughts. "Awooo!"

He turned his head. A metal crossbow bolt had lodged in the wing he was using to balance, with a sturdy rope attached to its end. The pain and the force tugging at him threw him completely off balance. Instead of landing, he plummeted into the forest below.

Grimacing, Zheng Yichen stared at the bolt in his wing. Its design made him want to curse. You bastards even put barbs on it? How am I supposed to pull it out? Then he heard more bolts cutting through the air. Ignoring the pain, he rolled, smashing through several trees and narrowly dodging the next volley.

A few bolts still struck him, but none hit a weak point like his wing. They barely pierced his scales.

Even that shocked him. Zheng Yichen had tested the toughness of his scales long ago. His claws could tear through steel, but unless he jabbed with all his strength, they left only shallow marks that healed within days.

Once he saw what was attacking him, he understood. His scales could withstand automatic rifle fire, but more powerful heavy crossbows were another matter. He even spotted a ballista!

A chill ran down his spine to the tip of his tail. I cannot let that thing hit me!

He shook his wing and bit through the rope attached to the bolt. The people surrounding him had wound its other end around several large trees. Unless he severed it, his movements would be severely restricted. As for the bolt, its barbs meant he would have to push it through rather than pull it out.

He couldn't do that now. His wing had relatively few blood vessels, so removing the bolt wouldn't cause massive bleeding, but tearing the wound open would make matters worse.

Zheng Yichen was also grateful that combat in this world still revolved around cold weapons. There weren't guns, cannons, or other firearms to worry about.

He counted roughly two hundred people. Most carried bows, whose arrows he could ignore. Ordinary melee weapons posed no threat either. The heavy crossbows were dangerous, but what worried him most was that ballista!

"Huh?!" He stared in disbelief at the people charging toward him. Were they insane? They dared rush an enraged dragon?

Being attacked for no reason had left Zheng Yichen too furious to think of holding back. As they charged, he swung his claws without mercy!

Three greatswords caught his claws as they sliced through the air. The swordsmen's timing was flawless, spreading the force of the blow evenly between them. Even so, the ground cracked beneath their feet, and their lower bodies sank into the earth.

"That dragon is... strong!" The three warriors exchanged looks, each seeing the shock in the others' eyes. That was no hatchling's strength. It would rank among the strongest adolescent dragons. Fortunately, all three had blocked together. If one or two of them had hung back, whoever took the blow would probably be dead.

Even with all three of them there, they were in trouble. Buried waist-deep in the ground, they had no choice but to brace themselves for Zheng Yichen's second strike.