The Red Dragon Whelp looked at Xiluo, his face twitching slightly as he remembered more.
He thought of the gold coins the other hatchlings seemed to have lost because he had lost the match.
He remained silent.
Xiluo continued speaking on his own:
"Do you think there's a huge gap between you and me?"
Gordon said nothing, but intense self-doubt had already appeared in his eyes.
"There really isn't... Our strength is still extremely close..."
Gordon frowned, doubt and disbelief in his eyes.
"You don't seem to believe me? But it's true. Do you know how much thought I put into dealing with you?"
How much thought? I spent far longer training than you did!
"You did spend longer training than I did, but our strength is close. A few days of training wouldn't make either of us vastly stronger.
"So the biggest difference between us is that you spent most of your time training, while I spent most of mine thinking about how the fight would unfold and how to beat you!"
Hey, hey, hey! Do you know a mind-reading spell or something? Why do you know everything I'm thinking?
Confusion appeared in the Red Dragon Whelp's eyes, but he still listened carefully to Xiluo.
"Because we know each other very well, I knew all your moves. Aside from the Molten Earth Armor you used, I'd thought of everything.
"But you never imagined my strength would be almost equal to yours, and that my claws would be incredibly sharp, did you?
"You could call that coincidence and luck, too. Your Molten Earth Armor was a bloodline ability you'd only awakened these past few days, and the same went for my sharp claws.
"What I said earlier about my organs was meant to lull you into letting your guard down.
"During the fight, your carelessness led to us attacking each other with our hind legs.
"Your claws aren't sharp, so how could you have truly wounded me badly? Yet when you saw me pretending to be in pain, you foolishly believed I really was badly hurt...
“Then you even lost your head and pitted your Breath Weapon against mine... All of that led to the terrible reality of your defeat in just over four minutes.”
"If you'd handled even one step of that more sensibly, it wouldn't have come to this.
"If you'd seen through my intentions completely, the outcome between us would have been uncertain.
"Rather than saying I beat you through strength, wouldn't it be more accurate to say I won through intelligence?"
Xiluo spoke earnestly, at great, great length.
The Red Dragon Whelp listened calmly enough at first, but when Xiluo mentioned them kicking each other, he could no longer control himself! Fury surged through him! His body temperature began to soar!
Streams of sparks flickered over his body.
The Red Dragon Whelp roared:
"Damn you, Xiluo! You despicable Blue Dragon! How can a Blue Dragon possibly be as despicable as you?
"You're a powerful dragon, just like me! Why do you always resort to underhanded tricks in battle?
"Because of my carelessness? No! It was all because you, you bastard, deceived me with your dirty tricks! Otherwise, how could I possibly have lost to you?"
He struggled to rise and fight Xiluo to the death, but the instant he moved, the pain in his body made him bare his teeth in a grimace.
"Don't get so angry. We're Chromatic Dragons!
"Being despicable and cunning, using plots and schemes-those are all proof of our strength!
"Though we're friends, you're my greatest rival! Just as you're always trying to keep me down, I'm always trying to keep you down, too! To truly defeat you!
"So don't blame me for being despicable! Blame yourself for being too strong! You put too much pressure on me."
Xiluo defended himself.
S-so that was it!
He only feared me because he recognized my strength! He knew he was no match for me in a straightforward fight!
The Red Dragon Whelp kept cursing in anger.
Xiluo listened calmly beside him.
He was comforting the Red Dragon Whelp.
Without using plots and schemes, the fight would have lasted a long time, but he still firmly believed victory would inevitably have been his.
But that sort of victory was not what he wanted.
After cursing for a long time, the Red Dragon Whelp seemed to recover. He looked at Xiluo with eyes full of fighting spirit and said:
"We'll fight again next year!"
Xiluo's face twitched.
Who would fight you with nothing to gain?
"One year is far too short for us dragons. If you want to fight me again, wait until we're both young dragons."
Xiluo spoke after a moment's thought.
He knew how persistent the Red Dragon Whelp was. Refusing outright was impossible; at most, he could postpone it.
"...Fine! Then we'll fight again when we're young dragons!"
Gordon stared into Xiluo's eyes and finally nodded after seeing his serious expression.
"Oh, right! As agreed, I'll teach you the Bloodline Refinement Technique now that the fight is over!"
At this point, the Red Dragon Whelp glanced at Little White Dragon beside them. Seeing the other hatchling gazing blankly at him, he frowned slightly.
"Whatever. It doesn't matter if you listen in. You're just useless trash anyway... Xiluo! Listen! To use the Bloodline Refinement Technique, you have to enter the Mindscape World and follow the Bloodline Stairway..."
The Red Dragon Whelp spoke slowly, taking nearly half an hour to finish explaining everything.
Dragons had highly developed brains and excellent memories. Though the Red Dragon Whelp explained it only once, Xiluo firmly memorized the Bloodline Refinement Technique. After carrying the Red Dragon Whelp back to his lair, he returned to his own lair as well, lay on the ground, and closed his eyes.
Then he began using the Bloodline Refinement Technique.
At that instant, his consciousness gradually sank, falling downward.
He had no idea how much time passed.
He stopped and saw a strange world filled with all sorts of peculiar things.
There were furry, irregular spheres covered in tiny tentacles, as well as oddly shaped little monsters.
These strange creatures drifted about, seemingly operating and working according to some strange pattern.
Occasionally, a pitch-black creature intruded, only to be swarmed, killed, and devoured.
Enormous floating ribbons twisted constantly, crisscrossing and stretching across the world.
Xiluo examined his surroundings. He discovered that he had landed on one of the enormous ribbons and was being forced steadily forward as it twisted.
"Is this the Mindscape World mentioned in the Bloodline Refinement Technique? According to the description, I should go to the end of the Bloodline Stairway and search for the gateway at the source of the mutated bloodline?
"Scientifically speaking, this should be the microscopic world inside a dragon's body, right? Are those strange things cells? Is the ribbon beneath my feet a genetic chain?
"But how am I supposed to find the end of the Bloodline Stairway and locate the mutated bloodline?"
Xiluo murmured, then suddenly glanced at the stairway-like ribbon beneath him.
"Could this be what the Bloodline Stairway refers to?"
Xiluo guessed.
"Then does that mean I just have to wait like this until I reach the end?"
He waited silently as the position of his consciousness kept shifting.
Occasionally, things that might have been cells floated past him, and he even "touched" them out of curiosity.
These little things showed no unusual reaction after Xiluo "touched" them, as though he did not exist.
He tried several different targets in succession, all with the same result.
Xiluo gradually lost interest.
The ribbon beneath his feet moved extremely slowly, and little by little, he began to grow impatient.
His entire consciousness suddenly seemed to take flight, speeding in the direction the stairway was moving.
The strange surroundings rushed backward.
Until he reached a fork.
This made Xiluo hesitate for a moment before heading left. Another unknown stretch of time passed.
At last, he reached the end.
He saw an enormous, bizarre gateway.
Ribbons and dark-red, irregular objects wound around it.
Was this the source of bloodline mutation? The bloodline gate?
(End of chapter)
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