Beneath the Red Dragon

The black mist between the scales of the Unicorne Snake Lizard suddenly thickened, as if attempting to freeze and corrode the incoming copper coin like a chill.

But in the next second, the copper coin, with a sharp whistle, quietly turned in the air, directly embedding itself into the beast’s eye of the Unicorne Snake Lizard, piercing through its skull in one strike, leaving a mess of red and white.

This was a magical technique Karon developed himself by trying to combine Exorcism Magic with spiritual power, and he named this magic Exorcism Magic.

Now it seems that while the power of this magic has not yet shown its full limitations, it is quite convenient for clearing out such small fry.

Karon even imagined during his research that if one day he were surrounded, perhaps he could launch all the gold coins hidden within his scales to strike his enemies. In that case, this spell should be renamed ”Heaven and Earth Toss.”

The blood-stained copper coin flew back in front of Karon, and Karon looked at it with a bit of disdain. He felt like throwing away this copper coin tainted with the stench of blood, but the instincts of the Red Dragon ’controlled’ him.

A spray of water sprinkled from Karon’s fingertips, cleaning the copper coin. This was a refined version of the Cloud Mist Skill after analysis by the sub-brain cluster.

An average mage could only gather a cloud of mist with this spell, but in Karon’s hands, the Cloud Mist Skill could gather surrounding moisture, then extract it to use as clean water.

Karon hid the cleaned copper coin into the crevices of his scales, a technique every giant dragon could easily master. Some not-so-wealthy giant dragons would store their entire fortunes this way, like that pauper Red Dragon, Kaidelos.

Then Karon walked to the Unicorne Snake Lizard with a pierced head but still twitching body, lifted its tail, and dragged it back toward the forward camp.

Although he wasn’t very hungry, this Unicorne Snake Lizard had entered the ranks of magical beasts, and its flesh essence was quite beneficial for the young dragon.

Moreover, he could share some of the meat with his beloved soldiers; each beloved could have a sip of meat soup, which wasn’t bad. After all, Karon didn’t kill the Unicorne Snake Lizard simply because he found it too ugly.

Before leaving, however, Karon glanced unintentionally at this jungle. Deep within the forest, on a tall pine stands an owl with a white beak, yellow claws, and dark brown feathers.

This owl appeared quite ordinary, just like any usual owl, without any magical power fluctuations or unusual aura, but its eyes were particularly lively, as if a wise soul was hidden within the owl’s body.

When Karon’s gaze came over, the ordinary owl quickly concealed the spirituality in its eyes, pretending to be an ordinary owl, spreading its wings and hooting softly.

Karon turned his face expressionlessly, but he felt like laughing inside. Owls typically do not spread their wings when they hoot, and when they do spread them, it’s usually facing an enemy or prey, during which their calls are not as calm.

”Seems like a novice druid? Obviously inexperienced,” Karon dragged the Unicorne Snake Lizard’s body and slowly disappeared into the forest.

The strange owl didn’t find itself odd at all. Seeing Karon’s figure vanish, it leapt down from the treetop, transforming on landing into a beautiful jungle leopard, then disappeared back into the forest.

However, this beautiful big cat had some balding fur on its rump, like a wound that had healed but not yet grown new hair.

Long after, Karon’s figure reappeared in this forest, sensing the heart energy he left on that female leopard.

Karon now habitually took heart energy protection and using heart energy to strengthen his attacks as instinctive. Naturally, the jungle leopard he scratched carried this unique energy belonging to him.

As the sensed location became more distant, Karon couldn’t perceive the specific position of the heart energy anymore, but he could still sense its general direction and range.

Some two hundred miles west from here, the jungle leopard finally stopped, evidently marking a range likely being the tribe camp of these druid creatures.

Unfortunately, though druid’s spells resemble transformation skills, they are ultimately not the transformation skills from giant dragon heritage.

Transformation skills belong to magical application category, but druidic transformation is more akin to a superpower derived from communicating with nature for a wild transformation; Karon’s true sight couldn’t yet penetrate this creature’s true form.

Although Jackal-Wolf Men once fabricated tales that this plane was filled with busty, long-legged white-skinned damsels to lure out the Red Dragon Kaidelos, Karon wouldn’t believe that coincidence.

Mages only identified this plane’s natives as a variant of elves, possibly wild elves.

But with the gathering locations of these native creatures in hand, it’s easy to say. Karon only needs to wait to complete exploration with the mages before attempting contact with, conquer, or incorporate these native inhabitants.

Karon’s cheek, fine and prickled, curved in a grin, treading the dusk, then vanishing into the jungle once more.

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A jungle leopard with beautiful markings flitted agilely through the forest; along its path, thick vines and obstructive branches parted consciously as if making way for this pretty creature.

Each spot where this jungle leopard appeared, a shadow flashed with its body; many beasts only felt a breeze sweep by, never guessing a creature lurked in the shadows.

The jungle leopard, with rapid speed, soon covered over two hundred miles, arriving before a camp encircled by towering ancient trees.

These towering ancient trees sensed the aura of shadow stealth, revealing faces like human faces on their trunks, twisting thick branches, seemingly vigilant and alert.

The jungle leopard leapt out from the shadow, rolling forward, transforming into a female elf with green hair, tall stature, glowing with a faint moonlight.

”Oh, it’s Little Aya,” one particularly tall ancient tree guarding the camp’s perimeter spoke with an old voice, ”Go on in, the Grand Elder is worried about you right now.”

As it spoke, these tall ancient trees retracted their human-like faces into their trunks, as if they never appeared.

The elf named Aiya nodded at the surrounding ancient trees and then replied to the tallest one, ”Alright, Elder Anbu, I have something to report to the Grand Elder too!”

The tallest ancient tree, having received a response, also retracted its face into the trunk, while Aiya stepped into the tribe.

Within the tribe, many tall trees stood, some green-haired elves with white skin tinged with emerald wandering beneath these trees.

The largest among the trees had branches tens of meters wide, and looking up, its canopy almost blocked the entire sky!

All the trees within the tribe grew under this giant tree’s shade; it clearly bore the sanctified aura the Elf World Tree once held in legendary times on the Main Plane.

On this giant tree’s trunk, these elves followed the naturally formed tree hollows and branch paths to build wooden homes of varying sizes.

Layer upon layer of wooden stairs spiraled up the giant tree’s body. Elf Aiya greeted no one of her kind but followed the spiraling stairs, reaching the top of this giant tree.

There stood a simple yet spacious wooden house. Clasping her own bottom, Elf Aiya pushed open the door of the tree house.

Inside the tree house sat an elf who appeared very young.