The Dragon Emperor Emerges
Shen Mo returned on the afternoon of the third day after crossing the ridge. When he entered the stone house, he didn't sit down for a drink as usual. Standing at the door, he said, "News has come from Spirit City. Meng Changyuan has laid three supply lines between the academy and the mines: two supply routes targeting the stone house, and one targeting Bluestone Town."
Long Tian sat on the threshold. He didn't stand up after listening, his hands resting on his knees, his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him, illuminated by the midday sun. Yu Jin came out of the house and stood beside him, the faint light of the dark gray bead seeping from his collar, almost invisible in the sunlight but palpable when standing close to him.
"Oh my god." As Long Tian stood up, the Dragon Shadow appeared on its own behind him. It hovered about a person's height behind him, its wings not spread, its four eyes half-closed, and the vertical line on its forehead still closed, but the edge of the closure was clearer than a few days ago, like an ink line that had been repeatedly drawn.
Shen Mo glanced at the Dragon Shadow, then at Long Tian, and said nothing more. He stepped back to the door, clearing the way.
Long Tian walked to the center of the open space. Previously, he always went to Spirit City at night, taking detours and hugging the walls. This time, he didn't wait for dark, nor did he take detours. He started from the open space in front of the stone house and followed the nearest hunter's path down the mountain, heading straight towards Spirit City. Yu Jin followed about three steps behind him, maintaining a small, consistent distance from his shadow, neither ahead nor behind. Dragon Shadow hovered in the air above Long Tian's shoulders and back, always maintaining the same height, like a flag carried on his back.
As they reached the outskirts of the city, the line indeed appeared. Three men emerged from behind the low slopes on either side of the official road, blocking the way. They wore the standard grey uniforms of the Iron Guard, and their Soul Ring glowed, ranging from three to four rings. The one in the middle, the leader, spoke, "Captain Meng said that if you want to enter the city, you have to meet him first."
Long Tian didn't stop. He continued walking forward, each step maintaining the same distance as before. The Dragon Shadow moved in sync with him in the air, all four eyes opening wide when the leader spoke, their pupils burning with tiny particles of light. The leader's gaze involuntarily shifted towards the approaching gray-gold silhouette behind Long Tian; his lips moved slightly, but no sound came out.
When Long Tian was still a few steps away from them, he tilted his head slightly. The Dragon Shadow behind him followed suit, but in the opposite direction—the right head turned to the left, and the left head turned to the right. Both heads swept over the position where the three people were standing, like beams of searchlight simultaneously sweeping across the same area from different angles. The three people simultaneously felt their Soul Power rotation speed suppressed by half a beat the instant the Dragon Shadow's heads turned, like a millstone being tentatively pressed on the edge from the side. Their Soul Ring dimmed for a moment during that half beat and then recovered, but after recovering, their rotation speed was about ten percent lower than before.
Long Tian walked past them. The three men stood still, neither turning around nor giving chase. On the official road behind them, the gray-gold Dragon Shadow, after passing them, retracted its two heads and hovered side by side above Long Tian's shoulders and back. Yu Jin didn't pause as he passed the three men; his Power of Origin formed an extremely thin protective layer around his body, the edge of which almost touched the outside of their arms as he passed by—the layer brought a very light, warm breeze as it passed by, and as the breeze brushed against their skin, their Soul Power rotation was each slowed down by half a beat. The three men stood still until Long Tian and Yu Jin's figures disappeared around the bend in the official road before they moved. The leader in the middle looked down at the back of his hand—the hairs on the back of his hand stood up and didn't fall back down.
After entering the city, Long Tian walked along the main street for a while, then turned into the narrow alley in the south of the city that he was already very familiar with. Old Chen's Blacksmith Shop was still hanging at the entrance of the alley, the shop door was open, and the fire from the furnace shone through the door, illuminating a small patch of ground in front of the threshold. Old Chen was squatting next to the anvil, holding a hammer in his hand but not striking it, as if he was waiting for someone to walk to the door so that they would look up and see him.
Long Tian squatted down at the doorway, took the token from his robes, and placed it on the brick surface inside the threshold. The token's gray iron surface shone with a thin layer of light from the streetlights, making the embossed sword star emblem exceptionally clear in the shadows. He squatted down to secure the token on the brick before standing up, turning to walk out. In the limited space of the narrow alley outside the shop, the Dragon Shadow automatically adjusted the angle of its wing membranes as it passed sideways through the door frame. The edges of its scales brushed against the wood, leaving a thin layer of grayish-gold powder floating in the air. When it fell, it resembled fine dust blown out of the wood cracks by the wind. The powder lingered in the wood grain of the door frame for a long time, and no one went in to wipe it clean.
After leaving Old Chen's Blacksmith Shop, Long Tian crossed the main street of the southern city, heading north along a road he remembered walking only once. Along the way, the bluestone slabs over the wells at the old vegetable market were still covered, and new grass had sprouted from the cracks in the broken walls of the old brick kiln site. He stopped in front of the main building of the Iron Guard camp in the north of the city. The iron gate of the main building was closed, and there were no guards at the entrance. He stood outside the gate for a moment, and the Soul Power array patterns on the side of the door frame sensed the approaching presence—a layer of gray-gold light seeped from Long Tian's body and spread towards the door frame. The array patterns paused briefly upon contact with the gray-gold light, then retreated from the center to both sides, like a window being pushed open a crack from the inside.
The iron gate slid open. Behind it was a downward staircase, leading to the underground space his father had traversed, the place where Yu Jin had stayed, and the place he himself had visited. Meng Changyuan stood on the third floor, his back to the entrance, before the wreckage of the now-dormant Reverse Fusion Device. The machine was empty—most of the conduits between the rings had been removed, leaving only a few supports standing. He didn't turn around when he heard the iron gate slide open behind him, but after a few breaths, he turned around and saw the gray-gold Dragon Shadow hovering above the man's shoulders, its two heads and four eyes wide open, the vertical line on its forehead continuously glowing in the dim underground space.
Long Tian stood on the last step at the bottom of the staircase, facing Meng Changyuan across the width of the entire basement. The six Soul Ring beneath his feet lit up simultaneously, the Origin Return Pearl spun steadily in the middle of his chest, and his new core maintained a consistent connection with the Dragon Shadow at a fixed frequency. The Dragon Shadow behind him slowly unfurled its wings the instant his Soul Ring lit up. The gray-gold luster at the edges of its wing membranes covered the ceiling of the entire basement, like an open umbrella casting a gray-gold reflection inside. It hovered there, like something that had waited a long time for its moment to shine, its head slightly raised, its four eyes wide open, and the closed edge of the vertical line on its forehead twitched slightly—like an eye that had been closed for a long time finally opening.
The vertical line opened up under everyone's gaze.
A vertical pupil appeared in the center of his forehead, its pupil a deep gray-gold, like a flattened ray of sunlight solidified inside Shitou. The instant the pupil opened, all the Soul Power array patterns in the entire basement dimmed for a moment, like all the lights on the same wire being flipped by the same switch and then returning to their original positions. When the two purple Soul Ring under Meng Changyuan's feet lit up again after that momentary dimming, their rotation speed was half a beat slower than before, like two Shitou that had been rubbed together needing a little more time to regain their original heat when rekindled. He raised his eyes and looked at the Dragon Shadow behind Long Tian, which had already opened its third eye. In the gap between their gazes, he remained silent for the first time.