First encounter

The thought put Lister in a wonderful mood. After all, his future looked bright now. He continued on his way in search of Mist Canyon.

Countless trees blotted out the sky in the Magical Beast Mountain Range. Silence lay all around, danger lurked everywhere, and battles broke out often. In those dense woods, a venomous snake might be waiting on a thick branch to deliver a fatal strike. Eagles and flying magical beasts searched the skies for prey. Danger was everywhere.

"My God! How much longer do I have to walk? I can't fly, so all I can do is use the sunrise and sunset to figure out which way is north and keep walking. I don't even know where I am. If only I had Gaode Maps! With navigation on, I wouldn't have to worry about not finding the place," Lister complained.

Another two months had passed since his battle with the Thunder-Winged White Tiger. Lister had kept heading north, judging his direction by the sunrise and sunset. After two months of travel, he still had no idea where he was, and he had strayed somewhat from the correct route. The magical beasts he had encountered lately were all low-level ones, which meant he had reached the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range. This left him rather troubled.

Just then, the repeated clash of weapons and fluctuations of elemental energy came from ahead.

"Those fluctuations don't seem like magical beasts fighting. Could it be... humans?!" The thought piqued Lister's interest. After all, he had been on the Yulan Continent for over a year without meeting a single person from it. Today, he should finally meet his first.

With that, Lister hurried toward the source of the elemental fluctuations. As he drew near, he crept into the bushes. An adult Spined Iron-Armored Dragon stood three meters tall and over ten meters long. Although Lister was already two meters tall and around ten meters long, he could still hide in the bushes. His kind certainly lived up to being a relatively petite breed of the Dragon Race.

Any other Spined Iron-Armored Dragon or dragon of another kind would certainly not have hidden in the bushes. It was not because they were too large to fit, but because proud members of the Dragon Race would never do anything so sneaky. Fighting head-on was what the Dragon Race did.

But Lister was no ordinary Spined Iron-Armored Dragon! His soul belonged to a promising young man from the twenty-first century. This was mere child's play.

He crept into the bushes and looked toward the clearing ahead. Corpses lay strewn across the ground, and four people remained standing. He could tell that those four and the bodies on the ground belonged to two groups. One group consisted of men in black; the other was a young man in luxurious clothing and an old man.

"Young Daidai! You'd better surrender. I can still give you a quick death. I never expected you to kill so many of my brothers. Luckily, I took precautions, or you really would have escaped. But this is as far as you go. Surely you don't think a fifth-level mage like you and your seventh-level warrior of a butler can take on two Eighth-level Warriors?" the man in black standing opposite the richly dressed young man said coldly.

"Big Brother, stop wasting words on them. Let's kill him and go back to report," the other man in black said. With that, he raised his saber and charged at the richly dressed young man.

"Young Master! Hurry and go! I'll hold them off." The old man in coarse hemp clothing stepped in front of the richly dressed young man to protect him and engaged the man in black.

"Grandpa Ente, how could I abandon you and leave? At worst, we'll die fighting!" the young man whom the man in black had called "Young Daidai" shouted. He raised the wand in his hand, looking ready to cast a spell.

"Young Master, hurry and leave! It doesn't matter if I die, but the Douyacai Family's bloodline must not end! Go, or even in death, I won't be able to rest in peace! Go!"

"Grandpa Ente!" The richly dressed youth's eyes reddened, and tears spilled out. Gritting his teeth, he cast the fifth-level wind spell Extreme Speed, then turned and ran.

"Damn it! That brat's actually a dual-element mage! After him!"

Seeing the richly dressed youth flee using magic, the leader of the men in black immediately tried to give chase, only for the old man in hemp clothing to risk his life to stop him. Though merely a seventh-level warrior, the old man's reckless fighting really did hold off the two Eighth-level Warriors for a while.

"Big Brother! We can't waste any more time. If that brat really gets away, we won't be able to report back. The madam might..." the other man in black said.

The leader thought about it and grew furious. "Old man, you're courting death!" He had only wanted to get past the old man and pursue the richly dressed youth, but the old man's desperate efforts had held both brothers up for a time. Both men in black unleashed their battle aura. Under their all-out pincer attack, the old man exhausted the last of his strength and could no longer hold on. A saber cut him across the waist, killing him.

"Big Brother! That old man really was tough," the man in black said.

"Forget him. After the boy!"

"Yes, Big Brother!"

With that, the two men in black chased in the direction the richly dressed young man had fled.