Escape in the Opposite Direction

For chives to grow thick and lush, a steady supply of fertilizer was absolutely essential.

You couldn't just harvest crop after crop while skimping on fertilizer. If you did, the chives would only grow more sparsely, and the plants would become weaker and thinner.

Only by promptly spreading some chemical fertilizer and plant ash after every harvest could you keep them growing lush and strong.

The more intelligent and powerful a creature was, the stronger the emotions it naturally emitted, and the more spiritual power essence those emotions could be converted into.

Sol had shared the dragon crystals with Xisitana and Kalpu precisely to "fertilize" them, so they could produce more spiritual power essence.

Naturally, he couldn't allow his two not-so-stupid younger siblings to collect the dragon crystals like gemstones. He had to force them to eat the crystals.

As for whether this would make them hate him even more, Sol could only say: let the "storm" rage harder.

The crystals, which were almost solidified energy, contained a vast amount of energy. Once digested by a true dragon's stomach juices, they turned into streams of warmth that flowed through the entire body.

The fatigue from their earlier run had long since vanished, and their hunger had quietly faded as well. The three wyrmlings set off once more.

Sol had no clear destination. To be honest, he still felt somewhat lost.

For now, he could only take things one step at a time. Ideally, he would find a mountain range or a forest. Their complex terrain was clearly better suited to a wyrmling's survival than this endless wilderness.

Before they knew it, they had traveled for most of the night, yet the scenery around them remained much the same, as though the wilderness had no end.

A breeze blew toward them from ahead, carrying a faint stench of dung and a distinctive musky, gamey smell.

Sol's heart sank, and an inexplicable sense of foreboding rose within him.

"Damn it! My luck can't be this bad. I picked a direction at random, and I actually..."

He hurriedly looked back and signaled to Xisitana and Kalpu, sternly putting a stop to their bickering. His lips moved slightly as he spoke in a low voice.

"You two idiots, shut your mouths! We might be in trouble."

Under the threat of his fists, the two wyrmlings obediently shut up. Then they copied Sol, lowering their bodies until their bellies nearly touched the ground and inching forward like three great crimson snakes.

After they crawled up the tall dirt slope ahead, the view suddenly opened up.

It was probably around four in the morning. By the light of the stars, Sol saw more than a dozen yellowish-brown tents on the flat ground in front of the slope.

The tents looked somewhat like the yurts of his previous life, supported by wooden frames and covered in animal hides. Numerous stakes had been driven into the ground around them, with cattle and sheep tethered to them.

This was undoubtedly a settlement of intelligent beings. Without realizing it, they had wandered into another race's territory.

Fortunately, the other side probably hadn't discovered them yet. The three wyrmlings quietly crawled back down the slope and slowly made their way around it.

Only after putting enough distance between themselves and the settlement did they break into a run, racing dozens of kilometers in one breath.

Seeing that the sun was about to rise, they dug a hole in a dense thicket of bushes and squeezed together inside it. Then they used their flexible tails to gradually cover themselves with the loose soil piled nearby.

Almost all true dragons were perfect creatures capable of living in the sea, on land, and in the air. Even red dragons, which were fire-aligned, could breathe underwater.

The exchange of air through the tiny gaps between the layers of soil was enough to meet the three wyrmlings' physical needs.

Before long, Xisitana and Kalpu gradually fell asleep beside Sol, but his mind was crowded with all sorts of jumbled thoughts, and he couldn't fall asleep.

He had never expected that after getting a second life and becoming a noble true dragon, he would have to experience a life of hiding here and there before he even had the chance to throw his weight around. It was simply...

As the rising sun began to shine across the land, the cold night air condensed into sparkling droplets on the tips of the grass.

A rapid clatter of hooves suddenly came from the distance. The vibrations of iron-shod hooves striking the ground broke the surface tension holding the droplets to the grass tips, and they fell one after another, like a light shower.

A troop of powerful centaurs was galloping toward them from afar. At their head was a male centaur with a silvery-white horse body, clad in a long white linen robe.

Bright sunlight shone on his long hair as it fluttered in the wind, as though gilding every strand. In his right hand, he held a long chain that dragged a red creature behind him.

It was a red dragon, only about six feet long. It looked as though it had hatched not long ago.

Its body, covered in bright red scales, looked somewhat scrawny. The wings on its back hung limply like two underdeveloped flaps of flesh. Broad streaks of blood had appeared where its body scraped against the ground, and it let out a continuous series of weak roars.

The centaurs who had stayed behind in the tents below the hill rushed out at the commotion. When they saw the wyrmling being dragged along the ground, they immediately shouted in excitement, repeatedly calling the name "Lunaris."

They crowded around and discussed the wyrmling curiously.

"Lunaris, did you catch that big red dragon?"

"Is this its young? It looks so tiny."

"That damned evil dragon finally got what was coming to it!"

Lunaris, the silvery-white centaur, waved for everyone to quiet down. Then he handed the chain to a guard beside him and said with some regret:

"That crafty red dragon got away with its young. This one is only an abandoned dragon beast, a defective specimen without a dragon's inheritance.

"Even so, it's still very valuable. Whether it's the dark elves or those mages who live in towers, they'd all be willing to pay a high price for it."

"More than that, I'd rather kill it, right in front of those reptiles..."

A somewhat petite centaur with a rouge-red horse body and full curves at her chest walked out of the largest tent and voiced a different opinion through clenched teeth.

Lunaris, however, shook his head and gently urged her:

"Aira, I know the pain in your heart, but you can't let hatred control you.

"The war has already begun. Those blue dragons keep expanding their territory, and we need more armor and weapons to equip our warriors. We can trade this dragon beast to the humans in the south for those things."

"I understand. I'm just a little unwilling to let it go..."

Aira gave the red wyrmling on the ground a resentful look. Her fingers were clenched so tightly into fists that her knuckles had turned pale.

Just then, a steady voice suddenly rang out, interrupting their conversation.

"Excuse me, I think I've found something new!"

The speaker was a middle-aged centaur with a brown horse body, long hair, and a thick beard on his chin.

He wasn't carrying many weapons and wasn't even wearing armor. He held only a simple spear, and his eyes were glowing with a soft white light.

"Screech-!"

A piercing bird cry suddenly cut across the sky. It came from a peregrine falcon circling a thousand meters overhead.

Its eyes glowed with the same soft white light as the middle-aged centaur's, as though the two were sharing their vision.