"Leave this place or die!"
The voice rolled slowly through the underground fault, making the dark gold veins in the rock walls light up, then dim again inch by inch.
Linley did not move.
It was not that he did not want to. Ever since that golden-brown slit pupil had opened, the gravity around him had kept increasing. At first, Edgeless on his back had merely grown several times heavier. In the blink of an eye, even the blood inside him seemed to turn to molten lead, pouring madly toward his legs.
He had already sunk ankle-deep into the black rock beneath his feet.
Bebe crouched beside him, all four claws dug deep into the ground. Even with the powerful body of a Level Nine Magical Beast, he could barely raise his head.
"We didn't mean to intrude." Linley suppressed the suffocating pressure in his chest, his voice carrying clearly into the darkness. "The ground above collapsed, and we fell here. If this is your territory, please give us a way out."
The slit pupil remained several dozen meters away.
A moment later, the heavy scraping sounded again.
In the darkness, it was as though an entire mountain range had begun to move.
The white glow of the magic crystal could illuminate only a limited area. The first thing to emerge from the shadows was an enormous claw, its five talons gripping the ground, each longer than Linley's body. Layers of jet-black scales covered its upper surface, their edges tinged with the faintest dark gold, as though they had been cast directly from this black mineral stratum rather than grown from flesh and blood.
Then came a lowered head.
Mo Ers had no wings, yet its massive body was more heavily built than most dragons Linley had seen. Its back nearly touched the ceiling. As its thick limbs supported its body, all the dragon bones embedded in the nearby walls seemed tiny.
Those eyes first examined Linley, then settled on the Coiling Dragon Ring at his chest.
The previously calm slit pupils suddenly narrowed.
"Human." Mo Ers's breath swept loose stones from the ground. "You have dragon blood."
Linley's heart sank.
He had not transformed, and he had completely concealed his Dragonblood Warrior aura. Yet the Black Armored Earth Dragon before him had detected the draconic power hidden deep in his bloodline with a single glance.
"I'm a descendant of the Dragonblood Warrior Clan," Linley said. "This bloodline has been passed down for five thousand years. I didn't obtain it here."
"Dragonblood Warrior."
Mo Ers repeated the name, its voice betraying neither anger nor pleasure.
Its gaze remained on the Coiling Dragon Ring.
"And that."
Linley raised a hand and covered the ring.
"It belongs to me."
"It has been touched by an aura more ancient than the dragon blood within you." Mo Ers stepped forward, making the strata tremble. "You carry dragon blood, wear a draconic relic, and have fallen into this burial ground. I do not believe in such coincidences."
Linley did not immediately argue.
From Mo Ers's position, all of this was indeed too coincidental.
He glanced around. Behind him was the fissure blocked by the collapse. Dragon bones littered the left side, and only a narrow passage of black rock remained to his rear right. There were no bones there. It might lead to the outskirts of the ancestral grounds.
"I can leave the burial ground." Linley met those slit pupils. "But the ring isn't a draconic relic. I'm afraid I can't hand it over."
Mo Ers fell silent.
This time, even the rock beneath it ceased making a sound.
The next instant, the gravity beneath Linley's feet surged.
Boom!
The ground instantly sank half a foot.
"Then die here, just like the others who intruded."
The enormous claw swept toward him.
Mo Ers was massive, yet its speed defied all reason. Linley saw only a jet-black afterimage sweep across half the cavern before a violent blast of air struck him.
"Bebe, right!"
At Linley's thought, dense wind essence surged toward both him and Bebe. Azure currents coiled around his legs, forcibly counteracting part of the gravitational pressure.
Man and beast lunged to either side at the same time.
The enormous claw grazed Linley's back. A talon struck Edgeless's sheath with a teeth-grating screech of twisting metal. Linley was sent flying sideways toward a huge dragon bone embedded in the wall.
He forcibly twisted at the waist and kicked off the wall with his right foot, choosing to slam into a nearby black stone pillar rather than touch that bone.
Bang!
The pillar exploded. After landing, Linley staggered back seven steps, his chest tight.
Mo Ers's second claw was already descending.
Linley hesitated no longer.
Black battle qi erupted from his body, his muscles and bones changing in an instant. Black dragon scales pushed out from beneath his skin, covering his chest, shoulders, arms, and face. Sharp bone spikes sprouted from his forehead, elbows, and spine, and an iron-hard dragon tail nearly two meters long lashed out from behind his waist.
A complete Dragonform transformation.
The strength of an Eighth-level Warrior in human form surged through his bloodline, reaching the early ninth rank in the blink of an eye. At the same time, a layer of earthen-yellow light rapidly spread over his black scales, forming a thick Earth Element defense across his body.
Gripping Edgeless with both hands, Linley swung upward to meet the dragon's claw.
There was no intricate swordplay, nor any borrowed might of heaven and earth. There was only the rising slash he had repeated tens of thousands of times over nearly a year, and the full, instantaneous eruption of his eighth-level Dragonblood Battle Qi.
Edgeless struck the black armor.
Clang!
The tremendous crash shook the entire fault.
Linley's arms first went numb, then agony followed, as though his bones were about to shatter. The Black Jade Heavy Sword was forced back against his chest, and most of his outer Earth Element armor immediately broke apart. His feet slid backward over the rock for dozens of meters, plowing two deep furrows before he slammed heavily into the cavern wall.
Mo Ers's foreclaw had also been knocked a foot off course by the heavy sword.
Just one foot.
Where Edgeless had struck, only a faint white mark remained on the jet-black scales.
"Early ninth rank." Mo Ers looked down at him. "You have some strength, but it is still not enough!"
Linley swallowed the blood rising into his throat and tightened his grip on Edgeless again.
The gap was too great.
The ninth rank and the Saint Realm seemed only one level apart, but in reality, a heavenly chasm separated them. Not only did Mo Ers far surpass him in strength and defense, its Saint Realm soul power enveloped the entire battlefield. His movements, his sword strikes, even the slightest fluctuations as he gathered magical power-none could escape its perception.
But Mo Ers was not without constraints.
After its claw had been knocked aside by the heavy sword, it could have continued pressing down and smashed Linley into the wall. Instead, it had forcibly withdrawn its strength before touching a dragon bone jutting out at an angle.
Every bone here was something it refused to damage.
"Boss, the left eye!"
Bebe's voice rang out in his soul.
A streak of black light skimmed over the ground.
While Mo Ers's attention was on Linley, Bebe circled around its right side to the back of its head, sprang off a protruding rock, and lunged straight for that golden-brown eye.
Mo Ers jerked its head sideways.
Bebe moved so fast that only a string of black afterimages remained, but before Saint Realm soul perception, even such a surprise attack had nowhere to hide. Mo Ers shut its eyelid, a jet-black layer of hardened tissue dropping like a shield.
Screech!
Bebe's sharp claws left three faint marks on the outside of the eyelid.
They did not break through.
But this attack truly enraged Mo Ers.
"Rodent!"
The long, thick dragon tail swept silently through the darkness, lashing sideways from an angle Bebe could not see at all.
Linley had time to roar only one word through their souls.
"Dodge!"
Bebe forcibly twisted in midair, avoiding the direct sweep of the tail, but the fierce wind whipped up by its tip still caught him. His tiny body slammed into the rock wall as though struck by a giant hammer, and falling rubble instantly buried him.
"Bebe!"
The composure in Linley's eyes shattered in an instant.
He did not charge at Mo Ers. Instead, he lunged toward the rubble and swept away the rocks on top with a slash.
A black shadow wriggled out through a gap, his four limbs buckling slightly as he landed. Blood had already matted a patch of black fur on Bebe's back, but he immediately turned and licked the fur around the wound, forcing the bright red down into his dark coat.
"Boss, I'm fine." His voice was much faster than usual. "That one hit couldn't hurt me. I'm Bebe! Its tail is too big, and it can't turn easily. Let's try again. I'll go from below, and you go from..."
"Shut up," Linley said.
Bebe froze for a moment.
Only after confirming that Bebe's soul aura had not weakened did Linley turn around.
Mo Ers had not taken the opportunity to attack. It remained where it was, slowly drawing its tail back behind it while avoiding the dragon bones.
"You protect each other," it said. "Thieves protect their companions too."
"We aren't thieves."
"Then stay!"
"Impossible."
Mo Ers raised its foreclaw.
Linley began chanting a spell first.
Earth essence seethed within the black rock, and three thick stone walls rose in succession. They were not meant to stop the Saint Realm earth dragon, but to wedge into the gaps between the dragon bones, forcing Mo Ers to narrow its range of attack.
At the same time, a Gravitational Field enveloped its forelimbs.
Several times the normal gravity suddenly descended.
An ordinary Level Nine Magical Beast caught off guard would certainly have had its movements distorted. But Mo Ers's foreclaw merely paused slightly before the nearby rock actively supported its body. It was an Earth Element Saint Realm magical beast to begin with, and its control over the earth far surpassed Linley's.
The sharp claw descended, pulverizing the first stone wall.
The second shattered immediately afterward.
Using the flying stone dust as cover, Linley and Bebe rushed toward the passage to their rear right.
"Go!"
Mo Ers shattered the third stone wall with a swipe but did not pursue them directly. It merely pressed its foreclaw against the ground.
The entire passage abruptly closed in.
The walls on either side squeezed inward like living things. Linley swung Edgeless, smashing apart the rocks falling overhead one after another, while Bebe darted along beside his shoulder. With less than two meters left open at the exit, man and beast lunged out together.
A thunderous crash came from behind them.
The passage was completely sealed.
They had burst into another, narrower cavern.
There was no exit ahead.
There was only a rock wall covered in cracks from the pressure of the surrounding strata. At its base was a narrow crevice less than half a foot wide. Bebe might be able to shrink and squeeze through, but Linley had absolutely no chance of passing.
"Boss, the ground on the left is thin," Bebe said quickly. "Use Earth Element magic to break through, and we'll..."
He stopped.
The rock wall ahead trembled gently.
Mo Ers had not pursued them through the sealed passage. It had moved directly through the strata on the other side and lowered its head from above the cavern. Its golden-brown eyes looked coldly down at them, its Saint Realm soul power already sealing off every route of retreat.
Linley made no further attempt to use magic.
Burrowing into the earth before an Earth Element Saint Realm magical beast would only place his life in its hands.
"Bebe," he said through their souls. "Do you see that crevice?"
"I see it."
"When it attacks, get inside."
Bebe immediately understood what he meant. "What about you?"
"I'll hold it off."
"Bullshit!" Bebe was almost screaming through their souls. "Boss, you're only at the early ninth rank in Dragonform! It's in the Saint Realm! How are you going to hold it off?"
Linley did not answer that question.
"Once you're through the crevice, keep heading north. Go to the O'Brien Empire and find Wharton. The Dawson Chamber of Commerce can help you find him."
"I'm not going."
"Tell him, Father's revenge..."
"I'm not going!"
Bebe landed on Linley's shoulder, all four claws clinging tightly to his damaged Earth Element armor.
"You want me to find Wharton, and then what? Tell him you're dead too? Tell him I watched you stay behind to die again?"
Linley's sword hand tightened.
Mo Ers's foreclaw had already risen above the cavern. Jet-black scales blocked the magic crystal's white glow, and shadow completely enveloped man and beast.
"Human, this is your last chance."
"Leave behind the thing bearing the draconic aura, and I will allow that rat to leave."
Linley slowly raised Edgeless.
He knew he could not block this strike.
Eighth level in human form, early ninth rank in Dragonform. Such strength was already enough to make countless warriors in the human world look up to him, yet before a Saint Realm earth dragon, it could buy him only a brief respite.
But a brief moment was enough.
As long as Bebe was willing to leave.
"Bebe, let go."
"Not a chance."
"That's an order."
"We signed an Equal Contract. You can't order me around." Bebe pressed himself closer, his voice suddenly dropping. "Boss, Grandpa Doehring is already gone. You can't make me leave too."
The moment that name was spoken, the Coiling Dragon Ring at Linley's chest suddenly grew scorching hot.
It was not the warmth stirred by battle qi during combat, nor the faint response when magical power passed through it. The heat seemed to ignite in the deepest part of the ring, passing through his dragon scales and searing directly into his flesh.
Linley's body jolted.
Over the past year, he had sent his spiritual energy into the ring countless times and called that name countless times in the silence. All he had ever received was empty darkness.
This time, something seemed to stir in the depths of that darkness.
Mo Ers's enormous claw came crashing down.
Linley raised his sword, and Bebe simultaneously sprang upward from his shoulder. Before the violent pressure truly touched his body, an exceedingly faint voice reached Linley's ears, as though it had traveled through five thousand years.
"Linley..."