Liu Qian, the golden dragon, stood beside the Monster Bird's charred corpse, his chest rising and falling slightly.
Many of the golden scales covering his body were blackened. Some had even developed tiny cracks, seeping faint threads of golden blood.
Though he was badly wounded, his heart still brimmed with the exhilaration of victory.
Just then, an unimaginably vast surge of life energy poured out of the Purple-feathered Monster Bird's charred corpse and instantly sank into Liu Qian's body.
Liu Qian felt an unprecedented sense of power wash through every limb and bone, while a joyous rumble rose from deep within his bloodline.
He focused his consciousness on the Panel:
Dragon Bloodline purity: 2.03% Magic power: 254/20340
This terrifying Purple-feathered Monster Bird had actually provided 10,000 points of dragon spirit, increasing his bloodline purity by a full 1%-the equivalent of killing a hundred Scaleclaws Monsters himself.
At the same time, his maximum magic power had surged by 10,000 points, reaching an astonishing 20,340.
An even more startling transformation followed.
Liu Qian's golden dragon body began swelling and lengthening at a visible rate, as though it had been injected with growth hormones.
His bones cracked explosively, his muscle fibers bulged, and the golden scales covering his body grew thicker and broader, their edges gleaming with an even sharper, colder light.
In just a few breaths, the "hatchling," originally only three meters long, grew to six meters-doubling in size.
Though still "tiny" compared with an adult dragon, he had begun to exude a majestic presence.
His streamlined body possessed the beauty of raw power, and his golden scales gradually regained their luster beneath the faint light on the horizon.
Six meters long at just 2% purity! What if I reached that legendary 33%... wouldn't I rival Balerion the Black Dread? And at 100%? A three-hundred-meter dragon that could destroy the world?!
Endless possibilities filled Liu Qian's mind.
But a wave of weakness from within his body immediately cut those daydreams short.
Maintaining his true dragon form required a continuous expenditure of magic power.
Though the battle had been brief and fierce, transforming into a dragon had cost 1,000 points, maintaining the form consumed one point per second, and breathing dragonfire and using his passive skills had drained still more.
He hurriedly checked his magic power: 9/20340.
The number was still dropping by one point every second. In a few more seconds, he would no longer be able to maintain his dragon form.
Liu Qian dared not delay. With a thought, he deactivated True Dragon Descent.
The brilliant golden light instantly contracted inward, and his enormous dragon body rapidly shrank and transformed like a phantom.
In the blink of an eye, only a standing human silhouette remained-Liu Qian, restored to human form.
Then a breeze carrying the lingering warmth of sulfur swept past, and Liu Qian felt a chill across his body.
He looked down and was startled.
"Turning into a dragon burns up my clothes?!"
He was completely naked, with his private parts exposed to the slightly chilly air of the ruins.
Liu Qian instantly flushed crimson. Using the Purple-feathered Monster Bird's fascia and wings, he fashioned a feather skirt that barely covered the essentials.
If he transformed to fight before vast armies in the future, then changed back afterward, wouldn't he become some battlefield performance artist waving his junk around?
He had to find a way to solve this problem.
Suppressing his frustration, he returned to the Ghost Grass Sea instead of pursuing Jelena and Janice in the direction they had fled.
His magic power was exhausted, like a dried-up riverbed. He had to replenish it before chasing after the sisters.
He encountered no danger on the way back.
He stepped into the Ghost Grass Sea, which rolled like waves of green, and greedily grasped the ghost grass with both hands.
As though drawn by a magnet, the swaying blades willingly delivered their energy into his palms. Only after his twenty thousand points of magic power had been replenished did he turn and pursue the sisters in the direction they had fled.
The site of his battle with the Purple-feathered Monster Bird was littered with Scaleclaws Monster corpses. Someone had clearly fought there.
Most likely, it had been Jelena.
But even with that enormous bow capable of firing flaming arrows, she could not possibly have killed over a hundred monsters alone.
Liu Qian guessed that she must have companions nearby.
With that thought, he hurried toward the dead forest without pausing, searching for the two sisters.
Before long, Liu Qian heard the clash of metal coming from the thick fog ahead.
His gaze pierced the mist, and he saw Jelena leading a group of Red Copper Armored Soldiers in a circular formation. They protected dozens of wooden carts laden with ghost grass at the center while fighting Scaleclaws Monsters that blanketed the surrounding hills.
The scrape of steel, the monsters' roars, and the humans' battle cries mingled together.
Blood and shredded grass flew through the air, while human and monster corpses littered the ground.
Liu Qian stopped hiding and strode openly out of the thick fog.
Dragon spirit from the Scaleclaws Monster corpses on the battlefield immediately flowed into his body.
Of course, some of the monster corpses yielded no dragon spirit.
His appearance immediately drew the attention of the warriors and monsters on the battlefield.
Wearing only an ugly purple-feathered miniskirt that exposed his lean, muscular body, Liu Qian looked utterly out of place among the soldiers armed to the teeth and the savage, scale-covered monsters.
At the sight of Liu Qian's bare chest, one monster drooled from its gaping maw, then kicked off the ground and lunged straight at him.
Liu Qian seized his steel sword and drove it back. Then he opened his mouth, spewing a mass of scorching flames from his throat that abruptly engulfed the monster. It screamed in agony within the fire, but fell silent a few seconds later, reduced to a charred corpse.
Seeing this, the other monsters immediately fixed their venomous gazes on Liu Qian.
Several abandoned the encirclement, leaving the enemies before them to attack Liu Qian instead.
In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen monsters had gathered in front of him.
The monsters exchanged glances, then opened their hideous maws and lunged at him.
Unruffled, Liu Qian instantly activated his skill, [Wildfire]!
In an instant, the air around him thickened like glue, turning murky and heavy as though subjected to tremendous pressure.
The temperature soared. Blazing golden streams of fire erupted from the void, forming a meter-thick suit of armor around Liu Qian.
The monsters stopped warily, afraid to touch those flames that could sear through flesh and bone.
But Liu Qian had no intention of stopping.
He aimed ahead and breathed a stream of scorching fire, sweeping it across the monsters.
Before they could react, the flames engulfed them all and burned them to charcoal.
The battlefield abruptly fell deathly silent.
Soldiers and monsters alike froze.
They stared blankly at the figure bathed in flames, who had killed over a dozen monsters with a casual gesture, momentarily lost in a daze.
Seeing Liu Qian display his fire sorcery, many soldiers felt their morale soar. They took the initiative and attacked the monsters, instantly tipping the balance of the deadlocked battle toward the humans.
Jelena bore the brunt of the assault, with the greatest number of monsters gathered around her.
Yet her violet eyes remained calm throughout. She protected Janice with one hand while fighting several monsters with the other, wielding a silver-white broadsword whose blade was covered in dim spiral symbols.
The broad blade formed an impenetrable wall, holding the vicious monsters back and preventing them from approaching. Its sharp edge gave off a piercing hiss as it sliced through the air.
Jelena's sword flashed as cold as ice, cutting through iron as though it were mud. The monsters' iron-hard scales might as well have been paper; a flick of her blade could take a monster's head off. Their corpses had already piled into a small mound at her feet.
Her swordsmanship deserves to be called the Sister-Protecting Divine Sword!
Liu Qian marveled inwardly. Jelena's seemingly slender body concealed such precise killing techniques, every stroke calculated to strike a monster's joints or vulnerabilities.
Jelena might not have been as strong as he was, but her control of the sword and skill in wielding it showed far more artistry and ingenuity than his brute-force dragonfire.
After marveling for a moment, Liu Qian plunged back into the raging battle, his entire body wreathed in flames.
With [Wildfire] empowering him, it was as though he wore a layer of invisible armor. The monsters did not dare come close enough to hurt him. Instead, he burst their eyes and churned their brains with his steel sword, or breathed fire from his mouth to burn them to death.
Although he did not need to kill the monsters personally to obtain dragon spirit, hastening the monster army's destruction could only benefit him.
Finally, as the last monster fell, Liu Qian deactivated [Wildfire] and ravenously absorbed the dragon spirit released across the battlefield.
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