landbeastnovel Chapter 622: Awakening the Demon Dragon Bloodline
Chapter 622: Awakening the Demon Dragon Bloodline
The entire Golden Crown Mountain had transformed into a hunting ground for black wizards, filled with terrifying magical creatures of every kind.Cloud Marsh Wetland already possessed a naturally powerful ecology to begin with, and magical creature tribes could be found throughout its magical forests.
Within the forest's layered mountain ridges, large quantities of miasma formed on their own, and within that miasma, countless powerful magical creatures moved about: storm birds, thunder beasts, frost giants, lava two-headed hounds, earth-crawling dragons, sphinx colossi...
All of these magical creatures were driven nearly to madness in their scramble to seize the Dragon Viewing Peach King.
If every magical creature had its own innate talent, then humanity's talent was wisdom, a wisdom that manifested as a highly developed capacity for socialization, the ability to use language, and a more fundamental depth of thought.
The wisdom comparable to that of a human being was absolutely not as simple as merely becoming an intelligent creature.
Rather, by consuming the Dragon Viewing Peach King, one could gain the special ability to transform into human form, obtaining true humanity!
Humanity was something that all high-ranking magical creatures pursued, because the greatest benefit of possessing human characteristics was the ability to learn magic, rather than having to rely solely on one's bloodline inheritance the way other magical creatures did, or devouring valuable prey to nourish oneself, or consuming certain special plants to obtain certain special resources in order to enhance one's bloodline potential.
The Dragon Viewing Garden was a Grand Magic that had already undergone four cycles of forging, and as such its functions were many. It was almost capable of giving a community of magical creatures a chance to attain civilization and embrace it!
An early-stage Beast Tide Ecology would not yet have possessed capabilities on this scale!
As for the remaining Second Circle black wizards from the Twin Demon Realm who had not yet managed to escape, their faces were pale with fear. They looked up in terror at the Crown wizard in the sky above.
"Do you really have to hunt us all down to the last one? White wizards!"
"She strikes with far too much viciousness. All we wanted to do was steal a few things. Despicable white wizards. You drove us into becoming thieves, and now you want to wipe us out completely!"
"Who could possibly stand against this Grand Magic?"
...
Within Cloud Arena, Wizard Douglas, who had disguised himself as an ordinary wizard and spent three thousand magic stones to purchase a seat from which to watch the competition, was blending into the crowd, keeping himself concealed.
The voice of Wizard King Laghemaon arose within Douglas. "Well? The decision I made earlier, having you purchase a seat to watch the competition, wasn't wrong, was it?"
"By sitting here, you were able to see the level of Cloud Marsh Wetland's Golden Crown Mountain district. And I was able to see the level of this era..."
"Based on what I have in mind, you need to wash clean your identity as quickly as possible. Your current fake identification alone is not enough. You need to enter white wizard society without delay. The white wizard society of this era represents the mainstream of civilization."
Wizard King Laghemaon continued, "Moreover, I miscalculated earlier. My power in this era amounts only to that of a Third Circle wizard without Crown Magic."
"The strength of Crown Magic is even greater than I had anticipated. Even if I were to summon the Kingdom Domain of past Wizard Kings, it would be effortlessly crushed by that Crown Magic."
"The gap between the two is like the gap between an egg and a block of iron."
Douglas said quietly, "Teacher, what should I do then?"
The voice of Wizard King Laghemaon appeared in his ear. "You have already completed the full reversal of the Five Elements. Your next step is to prepare to become a Second Circle wizard. At the same time, I will help you with everything I have, because I also need to help you in order to understand the magic of this era."
"To transform my Kingdom Domain into Crown Magic. If my magical kingdom still existed, my Kingdom Domain might be able to rival Crown Magic... no, actually that wouldn't work, because certain fundamental rules of this world have changed. The upper limit of a Kingdom Domain in this era falls short of Crown Magic..."
"Furthermore, a Kingdom Domain is more like a primitive version of Crown Magic. My Kingdom Domain required a ley line network and the faith of a kingdom, whereas Crown Magic represents a wizard reaching an extraordinarily excellent level of magic within a single sub-field, allowing them to dominate all similar magic in the surrounding area, standing as the crown above all magic of its kind."
Wizard King Laghemaon seemed to covet Crown Magic enormously, repeatedly emphasizing its power. "My Kingdom Domain cannot even rival a Grand Magic that has undergone four cycles of forging. In our era, there was only the Eternal Defensive Force Field. There was no Grand Magic, and no Crown Magic."
"In the Era of Stars, a Third Circle wizard was already a powerful Wizard King. But in your era, even in Cloud Marsh Wetland, an ordinary Third Circle wizard is only considered mid-to-high level. It is the Third Circle Throne wizard who represents the upper level. And the ones who truly dominate are the Fourth Circle wizards..."
"The ones who command the fate of the wizard world are even higher-circle wizards than that. I only don't know whether the Black Sun Tower, which was so terrifyingly powerful in the old days, still exists today. I have not dared to lower my guard to this day, but it seems the Black Sun Tower has vanished."
Wizard King Laghemaon said, "I never expected that I would awaken during a golden age of magic. What good fortune for me. Douglas, as long as you trust me, I will make you a dazzling new star of this era. I will let you stand alongside those geniuses and compete with them on the same stage."
"You also want... to stand alongside those geniuses, don't you?"
Douglas recalled the battle between Locke and Antoine that he had just witnessed, and a fire ignited in his heart, alongside a quiet sense of inadequacy.
Could he truly compete alongside those geniuses?
To enter that circle and pursue truth together with them?
The voice of Wizard King Laghemaon appeared in Douglas's ear. "With my help, you can do it. And not only joining that circle, but becoming its leading force, the one who defines what excellence means."
"Become the most dazzling star of this era. Douglas, you must keep moving forward. The higher you climb, the more I will come to understand, and only then will I know whether or not the Black Sun Tower truly exists in this era. So our interests are bound together."
Douglas gave a small nod.
He had always been deeply troubled by the fact that a spiritual entity had taken up residence inside his body, and that he was completely powerless against it.
During the times when Wizard King Laghemaon had been dormant, he had secretly tried many methods, hoping to find a way to actively seal Wizard King and truly take command of his own fate.
But all of them had failed.
And each time Wizard King Laghemaon woke from dormancy, he never brought up the matter, as though he had never noticed.
Douglas regarded Wizard King Laghemaon as his teacher and benefactor, yet as a wizard, he also could not afford to leave himself without a measure of defense against him.
What if Laghemaon's ultimate purpose was to use his body as a vessel for resurrection?
In that case, everything he had done to cultivate Douglas might have been nothing more than the grooming of an exceptional physical vessel.
Douglas asked quietly, "Teacher, why did you tell me not to act earlier? If I had killed some of the Twin Demon Realm's wizards, I could have claimed military merit from the demon realm war. That would have made it much easier for me to clear my name."
"I haven't committed that many offenses in the past. With military merit, I might have been able to directly clear my original identity."
Wizard King Laghemaon said quietly, "The reason I told you not to act was because the Twin Demon Realm's wizards just stole certain qualities from wizards of the same type as you."
Douglas was taken aback. "The same type as me?"
The voice of Wizard King Laghemaon appeared in his ear. "Yes. As things now appear, it is not only I who has awakened from a tomb of the Era of Stars. Many of my former colleagues have also awakened from the eternal darkness for reasons I do not yet understand. The force that buried the entire Era of Stars seems to be weakening, and many existences I once knew are stirring back to life."
"These existences have entered a state like mine, parasitizing the bodies of certain wizards. On the very first day you participated in the Sports Festival, I sensed their presence in a number of wizards. And I noticed that the Twin Demon Realm's primary targets just now were those very same wizards."
"They induced those wizards into a resonance state, then used that state to extract the past spiritual entities that were parasitizing their bodies. Of course, in doing so, they also inflicted certain lethal damage on those wizards, damage that will likely prevent them from ever advancing again."
Douglas felt a quiet shock deep within him.
So that was what had happened just now. He had been in that much danger without even realizing it.
"However, you need not be afraid. The spiritual entities that were cohabiting with those captured wizards should only have been Second Circle wizards of my era, either Wizard Grand Earls or Wizard Earls."
"In any case, those from the Twin Demon Realm were unable to detect my presence just now."
Douglas asked with concern, "But why does the Twin Demon Realm know of your existence? Could it be that they are the Black Sun Tower?"
Wizard King Laghemaon said, "Absolutely impossible. The Black Sun Tower does not engage in theft. Perhaps the Twin Demon Realm simply discovered a secret from the ancient era and wanted to claim that secret for themselves and extract power from it. In any case, we must work together in unity, or neither of us will obtain what we desire."
"Douglas."
Douglas said quietly, "I understand, Teacher."
Learning that the Twin Demon Realm's target was people like him, Douglas felt an enormous weight of pressure settle upon him.
He needed to become a Second Circle wizard. He needed to make those who had once looked down on him understand how to show him respect.
So he could not be captured by the Twin Demon Realm and reduced to a pawn in the black wizards' schemes.
Wizard King Laghemaon said, "I want you to find a way to join Golden Crown Mountain. That way, you will be able to access many things, and you will also be able to use Golden Crown Mountain's protection. Oh, and right now, that young fellow needs your help. Go ahead and help him directly."
"It will plant a seed of goodwill."
"He has the bloodline of a Three-Eye Tiger-Eye Cat. I came into contact with wizards of this type in the past and know that the Three-Eye Tiger-Eye Cat requires a special kind of stellar power in order to become a Three-Eye Tiger-Eye Cat King, gaining the potential to become a Second Circle level creature."
"Take this emerald cat's eye stone. Bring it to that young fellow."
Wizard King Laghemaon said quietly, "I have also confirmed that a secret treasure I left behind long ago is right here in Golden Crown Mountain. Only by joining Golden Crown Mountain will you have any chance of obtaining that very important treasure."
"Building a good relationship with the one who publishes about the five-headed serpent will be of great personal benefit to you. Especially because... his teacher holds a very strong position at Golden Crown Mountain. If at all possible, you should try to make Throne Yekaterina your teacher."
Douglas was deeply anxious. "Is that even possible?"
Wizard King Laghemaon said quietly, "Under ordinary circumstances, no. But with my help, it becomes possible. And the first step you need to take is to build a good relationship with that young fellow. I have observed the way Throne Yekaterina looks at him. He may not have realized it himself, but he is extremely important to that Throne."
...
Just as Locke was devoting all his energy to letting his Forest Sanctuary absorb the starlight, he heard a wizard call out to him.
He then saw a young wizard standing beside Arena No. 1, dressed in many layers of clothing and wearing a hood.
Locke paused for a moment, quickly noticing within the wizard's appearance something that felt vaguely familiar.
The wizard tossed something toward Locke, an emerald stone that resembled a cat's eye.
Locke looked at the cat's eye stone in his hand.
He felt a tremor stirring from deep within his own bloodline.
Wizard Douglas said to Locke, "Let's be friends. I'm Douglas. This is an emerald cat's eye stone, and I think you might have need of it."
In that instant, Locke sensed a constellation within the Night Meteor casting its stellar power down upon him. It was the power of the Leo Minor constellation.
After his Three-Eye Tiger-Eye Cat bloodline received this ancient constellation power, it was as though a lock had been opened by a key, and certain shackles within him fell away.
Leo Minor was situated between Ursa Major and Leo.
At the same time, another bloodline within Locke, one that had already taken shape during the previous battle, was similarly unlocked under the stimulation of Leo Minor's constellation power, and began greedily absorbing constellation energy, continuously elevating its own bloodline level.
As both the Three-Eye Tiger-Eye Cat bloodline and the Mysterious Dragon bloodline continued to rise, his magical pressure was rising with them unceasingly.
The Mysterious Dragon bloodline grew from the vaporization stage of the First Circle to the liquefaction stage, then from the liquefaction stage of the First Circle to the crystallization stage...
The dragon silhouette behind Locke grew increasingly solid, and it had transformed into a three-headed golden demon dragon. The silhouette seemed unable to restrain itself, continuously destroying everything around it, even destroying itself.
This caused Locke himself to spiral into a state of self-destruction, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Douglas was alarmed. "Teacher, something seems very wrong. What's happening? You only told me to give him the emerald cat's eye stone. Why does he look like something has gone wrong?"
Wizard King Laghemaon seemed to grow very tense. "Leo Minor is an ominous star, and it also has the special effect of unlocking bloodline potential. The combination of the two seems to have caused a mutation in that young fellow's bloodline. We may have done harm while meaning to do good."
"And furthermore, his bloodline... carries the aura of the Black Sun Tower."
"I am absolutely certain in my judgment. One branch of the Black Sun Tower carries exactly this kind of spiritual aura. The Demon Dragon clan has always been the... imperial family of the Black Sun Tower."
"He carries an incomplete Demon Dragon aura. So indeed, the Black Sun Tower does exist in this era. Damn it all, I have been doing everything I can to avoid the Black Sun Tower, and yet I have been dragged into this anyway!"
"The Black Sun Tower will never permit Demon Dragon bloodline to flow freely in the outside world. In my era, any Demon Dragon bloodline that fell outside the Black Sun Tower's control was immediately put to death. Demon Dragon descendants with impure bloodlines were immediately eliminated as well. I just can't understand why no action has been taken against this young fellow... has he simply not been discovered yet?"
"Or is the Black Sun Tower currently in some kind of unusual state?"
Wizard King Laghemaon seemed caught in turmoil. "How could he possibly carry Demon Dragon bloodline? Could he be a trap that the Black Sun Tower has set for me..."
"Douglas, perhaps we should leave Golden Crown Mountain..."
The next moment, a surge of magical pressure came crashing toward Douglas. Wizard King Laghemaon, not wanting to be exposed, had no choice but to feign disappearance.
And then Witch Yekaterina descended upon the scene.
She furrowed her brow and looked at Locke, who had fallen into a state of spiritual self-destruction, then cast a cold glance at Douglas. "What did you do to him?"
"A black wizard in disguise?"
Douglas's body went rigid, and in that instant he felt the cold call of death. "Lady Throne... I gave him an emerald cat's eye stone. I had no intention of harming him. I heard that an emerald cat's eye stone could help wizards with the Three-Eye Tiger-Eye Cat bloodline activate it and gain the potential to step toward a Second Circle bloodline."
"I have absolutely no hostile intentions."
"I was a black wizard once, but I have turned over a new leaf for a long time now. I want to join Golden Crown Mountain..."
Witch Yekaterina looked at him with cold indifference. Just as Douglas had no idea what fate was about to befall him, Witch Yekaterina suddenly spoke. "Given your circumstances, joining Golden Crown Mountain will not be easy. If you wish to join, you will need to take an examination."
"I will arrange an entry exam and a dedicated interview for you. If you pass, you may come work under me. If you fail, I will hand you over to the wizard prison. That is all."
Douglas felt like he was on the verge of tears. He had only meant to do Locke a favor, and he never imagined things would turn out this way.
All Douglas could do was allow the demon hunters to take him into custody, while forcing himself to say to Witch Yekaterina with a stiff expression, "Lady Throne, I will pass Golden Crown Mountain's entry examination."
Witch Yekaterina then turned and looked with concern toward the bloodline mutation that was happening to Locke at that moment.
The golden dragon's surprised voice appeared in Yekaterina's ear. "That is actually the World-Annihilating Demon Dragon clan."
"The Destruction Dragon clan, one of the true dragon lineages."
"No wonder I had such an instinctive dislike of a certain aura on that young fellow before. The ancestor of the Destruction Dragon clan was a golden dragon, but from that ancestor onward, all descendants became members of the Destruction Dragon clan. I just don't know which variety of the Destruction Dragon clan this young fellow belongs to."
"Three heads? That is truly rare."
Witch Yekaterina said, "Leo Minor can indeed stimulate bloodline potential. Many Second Circle bloodline wizards use the power of that constellation to strengthen their own bloodlines. But what exactly is happening to him?"
Golden Dragon Fafnir said, "Leo Minor is an ominous star to begin with, and it also carries the special effect of stimulating bloodline potential. The two combined have awakened the power of his bloodline. But the Demon Dragon clan is malevolent by nature and carries an inherent characteristic of self-destruction."
"So his spirituality is trying to destroy itself."
"What's more, this bloodline of his doesn't seem to have been innate at all. It very likely took shape through effort acquired after birth, possibly even through his own efforts alone. It is currently incomplete and even disorderly. That it would attempt self-destruction at this moment is entirely natural."
"If he cannot get through this, forget gaining the Demon Dragon bloodline. He himself will be destroyed. The bloodline of the Demon Dragon clan is not something to be lightly contaminated."
"I advise you not to meddle unnecessarily."
Witch Yekaterina said, "Locke is my last accepted disciple. How could I possibly ignore him? He has perfectly inherited my Sacred Dragon inheritance. This matter has nothing to do with the dragon clan's bloodline affairs. There is no way I will leave him to his fate."
"Fafnir, you are of the dragon clan. In your view, is there any good method right now to help him break free from this state?"
The golden dragon furrowed its brow and looked at Witch Yekaterina. By this point, Yekaterina had nearly completely resolved the problem of the bloodline body-seizing.
She had spent half a year living alongside Locke Augustine day after day, stimulating the bloodline.
Then, the moment she came to regard Locke Augustine as a truly important student, and that feeling merged with the red dragon bloodline's protective instinct toward its kin, she achieved complete mastery over the dragon bloodline within her own body.
She truly was a fearsome witch.
In only half a year, she had overcome the final flaw of a true dragon bloodline.
The golden dragon said, "The most important thing is to awaken his qualities as a wizard. To let those wizard qualities suppress and subdue the qualities of the Destruction Demon Dragon clan."
"Shoot an arrow at him with Peach Bow Thorn Arrow and see if it works. However, doing so will mean you can no longer maintain your Grand Magic at full force. Are you willing to let some of the black wizards escape?"
"Witch Yekaterina, under your planning, you were going to become the Vice President of the Academic Committee this time around, and gain significant influence over Golden Crown Mountain. Is it worth suffering some loss to your power for the sake of a single First Circle wizard?"
Witch Yekaterina did not hesitate. "Fafnir, you truly are ridiculous. There is no need to test me. The source of power is people, not positions. Locke himself is part of the foundation of my power."
Witch Yekaterina let out a quiet sigh. "If that former black wizard who just gave Locke the emerald cat's eye stone hadn't shown a decent level of magical pressure, marking him as someone with talent, he would have already been dead, killed in my burst of fury just now."
"If he passes the entry exam, I will expose his identity and send him to the wizard prison. If he fails but comes close enough to passing, I will show him grace and allow him to join anyway."
Witch Yekaterina dissolved part of her Grand Magic, giving a number of black wizards an opening to escape. At the same time, she diverted a portion of her focus and formed a Peach Bow Thorn Arrow, shooting it toward the center of Locke's brow.
Witch Yekaterina looked at Locke and said, "A mere Demon Dragon bloodline is nothing more than a tool. Locke, wake up. Do not forget how you got to where you are today, step by step."
"Are you going to let yourself be destroyed by the mere spirituality of a Demon Dragon, and forget everything you have gained along the way?"
"Wake up, and let the Demon Dragon bloodline truly take form."
"This is a tribulation you must pass through."
At that moment, within Locke's mind, everything was darkness. Locke looked at the terrifying demon dragon before him and felt at a loss for how to handle it.
"I never expected that the Mysterious Dragon bloodline, having progressed to this point, would turn out to be a dead end."
"This is actually a path of self-destruction. At this point, I can't even be certain whether this dragon bloodline comes from the Augustine family at all. Shouldn't the Augustine family's bloodline be that of a golden two-headed dragon? Could it be that one of my ancestors once had a romance with such a terrifying existence?"
At this moment, Locke even felt a twinge of regret. He shouldn't have used archaeological magic to strengthen and accelerate the formation of the dragon bloodline, and as a result he had pushed himself into this desperate situation.
Just now he had tried to destroy the demon dragon before him, only to find that every spell he cast at it had absolutely no effect.
Yet just as Locke had no idea what to do, he suddenly looked up and saw a beam of light appear in the darkened sky.
That light was a falling arrow.
"Peach Bow Thorn Arrow... wait, this isn't the real world, is it." Locke looked at the terrifying demon dragon before him and saw that its draconic body was enormous. It was making the same movement he was, looking back at him.
Yet the demon dragon seemed to be in great pain. Its body was incomplete, only about one-third of what it should be. It wasn't just that half the body was missing, even its wings were ragged and uneven.
This was what drove the demon dragon to want to destroy itself.
Only then did Locke realize that this was his own inner world.
The demon dragon before him was himself, and he too was himself.
Which of the two was the real him?
Both of them were, and neither of them was.
Locke recalled the key teaching of the advanced meditation method: no-self, yet not no-self.
The self within the mind is not the true self, but even the state of no-self that is not the true self is still incorrect.
The true self exists at the deepest point of this mental abyss, within the essence that lies behind all illusions.
At this moment, Locke once again transformed into the gravitational wave of the Natural Plane, and at the same time, gripping Peach Bow Thorn Arrow in hand, he reached out and caught the arrow that Witch Yekaterina had shot toward him as it came falling from above.
He drew the bow and nocked the arrow, aiming it directly at the demon dragon self before him.
The demon dragon self was furious, as though it believed that Locke's refusal to self-destruct alongside it, his refusal to destroy this incomplete and ragged Demon Dragon bloodline, was the gravest of wrongs.
The demon dragon let out roar after roar at Locke, demanding that Locke destroy himself.
Locke looked at it with cool, steady eyes. "I am a wizard, not a demon dragon."
"The Demon Dragon bloodline is nothing more than my tool."
"I am who I am!"
The next moment, the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow, imbued with the spirituality of the Sacred Dragon, was released. It pierced straight through the demon dragon's spirituality, and the demon dragon collapsed naturally.
And in that instant, Locke seized back full control of his body, suppressed the self-destructive spirituality, and instead allowed the Demon Dragon bloodline to accept its own incompleteness.
This allowed the Demon Dragon bloodline to begin evolving further.
What he had done, in essence, was use Peach Bow Thorn Arrow together with the advanced meditation method's teaching of no-self yet not no-self to undo one of the Demon Dragon bloodline's mechanisms of self-annihilation, which was the mechanism that forbade any bloodline that approached but did not fully embody the Demon Dragon bloodline from existing.
Because of this mechanism, in nature, any bloodline that came close to the Demon Dragon bloodline without being complete was supposed to self-destruct without exception.
But Locke had used the achievements of wizard civilization to successfully break free of that restriction.
Back in the real world, Locke was on his knees, breathing in heavy gasps.
That had truly come close to being a successful suicide. His magical power was in utter disarray.
But he had succeeded.
Locke looked up at Witch Yekaterina as she walked over to him. "Thank you, Teacher. If not for you, that demon dragon would have succeeded in killing me."
Witch Yekaterina curled the corner of her lips slightly and gave a small shake of her head. "A mere dragon clan is not capable of killing you or me."