novelraw Chapter 197-2: Shell – Knowledge-Seeking Primordial Hermit (2)
Chapter 197-2: Shell – Knowledge-Seeking Primordial Hermit (2)
[The Battle Angel, Valkyrie emerged, striding forth from the void…]
[Your body lurched sideways. The bones of your feet had already been dissolved. You were moments away from toppling into the festering black water…]
[With a beat of her wings, the Valkyrie lifted you into the air, carrying you away from the poisonous pool below.]
[You looked down at your feet. The bones of your soles had melted away completely. The exposed shin bones and calf muscles still dripped with corrosive fluid.]
[The ancient, gentle voice echoed once more…]
[“Child, why do you still refuse to come forward?”]
[“Could it be you wish to deny service to Omniscient True Knowledge? Child, do not let the fear of death blind you. Come closer. What awaits you will be perfect rebirth…”]
[The voice suddenly cut off. When it spoke again, it carried deep surprise and disbelief.]
[“No… you are not my child!”]
[“This form of yours… Could it be you are a messenger of the True God?”][The entire mountain of flesh trembled faintly, as if thrilled and trying to squirm toward you. But after struggling for a long while, it failed to advance even an inch.]
[The Hermit Progenitor’s voice rose again.]
[“You must be a True God’s messenger. I can sense the residue of Omniscient True Knowledge’s divine power clinging to you!”]
[“Of course… it has been so long since I birthed an offspring capable of fighting in the God War. The war cannot lack the strength of my Hermit lineage. No wonder a True God’s messenger has come to hasten me.”]
[“Please, messenger, wait but a moment. I shall now birth an offspring to form a pact with you…”]
[The mountain of flesh quivered with excitement. It drew in three more offspring corpses, then labored for a long while before finally squeezing out a newborn dragon, slick with black slime.]
[Yet this hatchling was even more grotesquely deformed than the others you had seen. Apart from the still-unfolded wings, nothing of its body resembled a dragon at all.]
[To call it a hatchling was too kind, it was more like a winged mass of meat.]
[The misshapen creature did not stir, utterly lifeless, dead before it ever took a breath.]
[The ancient voice grew harsh with rage.]
[“Why! Why is it still like this!”]
[“It must be the vile gods of the stars who have cursed me, cursed my children so they can no longer fight in the God War! That must be it, yes, that must be it!”]
[The Hermit Progenitor’s furious roar shook the cavern, sending rocks tumbling everywhere.]
[It repeated the same words over and over, compulsively devouring more corpses, yet only birthing ever more grotesque lumps of flesh.]
[You watched the raving Hermit Progenitor, and despite everything, a trace of pity welled up in your heart.]
[Will you tell it the truth you know?]
The Hermit Progenitor seemed to have forgotten you entirely, continuing its futile cycle.
Lin Xun had no other choice. He could only select ‘Yes’.
[You spoke aloud, telling it that the God War had long since ended, that the stars had been defeated and gone into hiding…]
[The mountain of flesh abruptly fell still, ceasing its production of malformed offspring.]
[For a long moment, time itself seemed frozen. The Hermit Progenitor made no sound.]
[Then, all at once, the mountain of flesh contracted in on itself. In the blink of an eye, it transformed from a monstrous mass into a stooped elder clad in a black robe.]
[The elder’s face was covered in deep wrinkles. Where its eyes should have been were only two empty sockets.]
[It seemed to wish to step toward you, but the flesh of its legs remained fused with the corpses of hatchlings. It had no strength to move.]
[From outside the cavern came the distant, thunderous roar of the Corrupted Leviathan. The sound was so loud it felt only a hair’s breadth away…]
[The black-robed elder tilted its head to listen. At last, it sighed.]
[It told you that everything you had said, it already knew. But Disorder had long since devoured all its thoughts.]
[This moment of clarity could last only the briefest instant. Therefore, you must listen to its words carefully.]
[At the very dawn of Disorder, when it was still lucid, it had used a secret art to preserve a single strand of pure bloodline.]
[Since being tainted by Disorder, all the blood in its body had become irredeemably corrupted, only that one remaining trace remained unsullied.]
[And it was precisely this single trace that had allowed it to linger on so long, to regain fleeting moments of clarity. But in the end, Disorder would consume it as well…]
[It had decided to give this untainted bloodline to you, to one favored by the True God.]
[It had only a single request, and that was…]
[Unless the True God could free itself from Disorder, you must never set foot in the Temple of Knowledge again!]
[This was its sole request of you, and the final advice of an elder on the brink of oblivion.]
[Will you agree to the Hermit Progenitor – Ancient Black Dragon’s request?]
Lin Xun was stunned.
Never set foot in the Temple of Knowledge… but now, Omniscient True Knowledge slumbered, and in the Temple of Knowledge, only one person remained.
The kindly smile of the Servant of Knowledge flashed across his mind.
[In your inventory there was still the half-finished Incomplete Star Map. If you could collect the remaining pieces, you would be able to enter the Temple of Knowledge and once again read the Divine Book of Favor.]
[But somehow, as if driven by some unseen force, he pressed ‘Yes’, agreeing to the Hermit Progenitor’s request.]
[The black-robed elder smiled with relief. It bit the tip of its finger, and a drop of pitch-black blood welled up, drifting toward you…]
[You absorbed the bloodline of the Hermit Progenitor – Ancient Black Dragon!]
[Your Shell, Pureblood Half-Dragon Who Gazes Upward, has been upgraded!]
[As the last trace of untainted blood left its body, the black-robed elder’s face suddenly twisted and contorted, filling with madness.]
[It opened its jaws wide, straining so far the corners of its mouth tore all the way to its ears…]
[A final, life-consuming torrent of pitch-black dragonfire gathered in its throat… and then erupted in a searing blast!]
[You watched helplessly as you were engulfed in an endless inferno of black flames.]
[Your sturdy body dissolved into a pool of vile fluid in an instant, then evaporated entirely…]
[The black dragonfire surged through you, incinerating everything it touched, melting the mountains of piled dragon corpses, incinerating the oathbreaking descendants who slumbered in their dreams, and even annihilating the starborn monstrosity that had shattered the Dragon Nest…]
[The entire Dragon Nest, the whole Hidden Canyon, was reduced to ash beneath that black conflagration!]
[You have died!]
[…]
[An ordinary wandering soul has respawned within the Multivision Association…]
Lin Xun stood there dazed for a long while before finally regaining his senses.
The Hermit Progenitor had given him the last untainted fragment of its bloodline, and at the cost of its own life, buried the entire foul Hidden Canyon in oblivion.
As the final believer within the canyon who had remained loyal to Omniscient True Knowledge, it had chosen to cleanse the countless oathbreakers in its own way, all for the sake of that last sliver of devotion, buried beneath endless madness.
Lin Xun knew he could not judge the Hermit Progenitor’s actions solely in terms of right or wrong. For within that canyon had also been countless miner slaves, who were merely ignorant rather than traitorous.
He shook his head, no longer wishing to dwell on it, and opened the Shell Panel.
The Pureblood Half-Dragon Who Gazes Upward had not only undergone a transformation in attributes, even the Shell’s name had completely changed. It was as if he now possessed an entirely new form.
[Shell: Knowledge-Seeking Primordial Hermit]
[True Name: Hermit]
[Compatibility: 83% (+45%)]
[Shell Quality: Epic]
[Shell Level: 55 (+5)]
[Shell Equipment: None]
[Shell Skill: Dark Dragon Breath (Epic): A power inherited from the Hermit bloodline, granting the descendant a venomous breath. Any foe touched by this breath will be inflicted with deadly poison. When you activate this skill, you will unleash a powerful draconic breath imbued with toxic properties.]
[Shell Skill: Hermit’s Descent (Epic): By virtue of the mighty Hermit bloodline, you can now awaken a trace of the ancestor’s strength. When you activate this skill, you will briefly transform into a dragon form at the cost of your own life force.]
[Shell Skill: Hermit Bloodline (Mythic+): The pure and mighty bloodline of the Hermit Progenitor, brimming with limitless potential for advancement. Though your Shell has inherited only a single trace of this bloodline, so long as you continue to feed this spark, you will one day restore the glory of the Hermit lineage.]
[When you activate this skill, you may devour the bloodline power of any dragon species to upgrade the Shell’s quality and skill ranks.]