Venerated Venomous Consort

A sudden realization struck. The pink candle dragon looked at Di Hao with its curious, big round eyes. “Hey, you are still alive!?”

Di Hao did not quite get the hint.

With clenched fists, he asked sternly, “Should I be dead?”

The pink candle dragon gave him an honest nod. “To be frank with you, I tried to save many lives before, but all of them ended up suffocating to death underground.”

Surprised, Di Hao felt lucky that he knew about Ground Drilling too. Otherwise, his life would be dependent on the irresponsible candle dragon.

He found a place to sit and got comfortable. “Come. Tell me more about your life in the desert, be as detailed as possible.”

The pink candle dragon had no restrictions on privacy. It told Di Hao everything that he wanted to know.

The candle dragon had been living in the desert for more than thousands, or even tens of thousands of years by now. It had been in existence for a very long time. The desert was originally only a small piece of barren land that was a few hundred miles wide. It could easily run from one end to another. The desolate area used to be covered with a little vegetation back in the day; at least there used to be some greens in a wide canvas of yellow. The sun was much less scorching as well as it rose from the east and set in the west.

However, the emergence of the lady had brought about great changes to the place.

As far as the candle dragon recalled, the sky was only a little gloomy the first time she showed up. The sun was not entirely obscured behind the thin, dark clouds as it was now. The lady was obviously afraid of the cold, so she opened up her arms to get as much sun as possible.

It was very rare for the candle dragon to meet anyone in this empty land, so it was excited the first time she showed up. It raced towards the stranger for a brief chat, but she soon disappeared before it got close enough.

After some time, the candle dragon finally managed to approach her up close, only to realize that she was just an illusion. Its claws had penetrated through her body like a phantom. Also, the illusion was extremely cold. The candle dragon almost became frozen just by approaching it.

The more she showed up, the colder the place became. It was so bad to the point where the candle dragon could feel the frost before the illusion even appeared. To survive, it had to drill into the depths of the earth to keep warm.

The pink candle dragon was very lonely and had always wanted a companion.

However, its presence was unnoticed by many occasional visitors. They could not see or hear it at all. Even if it were standing in their way, they would bump into it, thinking that they had come across an invisible spirit. Shocked, the next thing they did was to run for their lives.

There were a few times where people came to patrol the desert just when the lady was about to show up. The pink candle dragon did not want to see them being frozen to death, so it brought them all to the underground. However, they ended up dying from suffocation.

This place was a hopeless place. Whoever entered would never be able to make it out. No matter how powerful the visitors were, they would either die from heat, hunger, thirst, or the cold.

All in all, the pink candle dragon was the only being that managed to stay alive in the vast desert. Its wish for a companion finally came true. Di Hao was here at last.

The candle dragon was very grateful for his presence. Like a chatterbox, it would not stop talking.

Di Hao learned about many things from its generous sharings. There was only one thing that he did not quite understand. “I know that the candle dragons live in the high mountains and marshlands. They love to be in the shade and not the sun. Moreover, their eggs can only hatch in specific pools of water, not at room temperature. On the whole, none of the living conditions here can sustain your survival. How did you keep yourself alive so far?”

The pink candle dragon was just as confused. “I do not know, really. I have been here for as far as I can remember.”

“Have you always been this big?”