novelraw Chapter 258
Chapter 258
Chapter 258: The Brave Hero’s First Time, Ruined for Life by the Silver Dragon
“You’re still hiding something from me?”
The evil dragon’s mischievous smile was imprinted in Xia Li’s eyes.
Xia Li looked at the young girl sitting on his lap, and after a brief pause, a rare look of astonishment appeared on his face.
Even when facing the army of millions of undead, Xia Li’s face had not shown the slightest bit of panic; he knew the situation was always within his control.
However, this calm and composed state of mind was now churning with turbulent waves under the evil dragon’s faint smile.
It was already suspicious enough that Lucia could make those jokes about topics she hated the most.
Moreover, ever since they arrived at this ruined battlefield, Xia Li had a faint feeling.
This evil dragon was lying.
There were many loopholes in her words. Clearly, she was a dragon who feared the Demon Repelling Sword, but suddenly one sleepless night, she started playing with Xia Li’s sword.
Not only did she discover the missing teleportation magic on the Demon Repelling Sword, but she also thought of a corresponding solution. Then she planned to ‘escape’ and go to the Dragon Homeland to ask the old dragon for an explanation.
This was all too clever.
Whether it was her far-sighted wisdom or her decisive and courageous judgment…
These did not match the way ‘Lucia Sivana’ the dragon handled things.
It was too strange.
Putting aside the premise that she was being controlled by some mysterious force.
Unless Lucia had a corresponding plan long ago, she couldn’t have made a decision in such a short time.
Xia Li lowered his head, carefully pondering the many possibilities.
He was about to manipulate the silver scale to retract the white fog surrounding them when Lucia grabbed his hands, interrupting his thoughts.
“Why are you so nervous!”
The Brave Hero was squatting on the ground, lost in thought. Lucia patted his arm with her small hand, bringing him back to his senses.
Perhaps because the carrier came from Lucia, she discovered that even if she deliberately touched the divine artifact, the silver scale, it wouldn’t show any intention of harming her.
This was the opposite of the Demon Repelling Sword.
Lucia grasped Xia Li’s large hand with both of hers, slowly wrapping it into a fist. Inside the fist, the silver dragon scale emitting white light was clenched tight.
“Xia Li, you don’t understand the magic of this world well enough… I’ll explain it to you slowly.”
“This new artifact… let’s call it ‘Silver Scale’ for now. Its ability is indeed summoning, that’s right.
Summoning magic is divided into physical and spiritual. Physical summoning can summon living beings like demons or elves, while spiritual summoning awakens the souls of those who have died but haven’t disappeared from this world…”
“Summoning is only responsible for teleporting the summoned creature here. This single magic can’t control these creatures. To use their power, you need another kind of magic ━ that is, ‘Contract’.”
“As long as the conditions you offer satisfy the summoned creature, the contract will be established. You pay them the reward they want, and they are responsible for fulfilling your wish. This contractual relationship can be understood as ‘mercenary’ and ’employer’ in the human world.”
Lucia hugged Xia Li’s hand, her voice gentle and soothing.
Her gaze swept across the scorched earth.
The mountains of corpses were all taken into her eyes. She looked up at Xia Li again and continued speaking patiently.
“‘Summoning’ and ‘Contract’ are the abilities of this artifact…”
“But, making individual contracts with such a large number of undead would be too inefficient.
So, it used its power to open a passage.”
“‘Sacrifice’.”
Lucia said these two words in a very light tone.
“As long as the undead pass through this passage, they will sacrifice themselves and be controlled by the artifact.
Those undead who still harbor resentment are already dead. Being able to ‘revive’ themselves is already a good deal for them.
So, they don’t ask for anything in return, willingly offering their power… This is sacrifice.”
The young girl finished speaking in a very gentle tone.
Her slowed voice was like a lullaby, soft as melting snow, revealing the green shoots of spring beneath the icy cover.
It carried a peculiar power that seeped into one’s heart.
After hearing her finish, Xia Li’s consciousness wavered.
When he opened his eyes again, the young girl in front of him was gone.
Instead, a silver dragon stood before him, lowering her head and gazing at him cautiously.
The dawn light of the east had broken through at some point.
The first rays of warm light fell on the silver dragon’s massive and beautiful body.
Every hard silver dragon scale was enveloped in a soft and comfortable orange-red glow, outlining her proud and magnificent silhouette.
The dragon lay half-reclined, deeply burying her long and beautiful neck.
She lowered her head, rubbing her nose against Xia Li’s face, nuzzling him affectionately.
Xia Li was pushed back by the gentle yet domineering force of the dragon’s nose.
He went from a half-squat to sitting directly on the ground.
Beneath him was a bottomless pile of white bones. Xia Li supported himself with one hand behind him, while the other slowly rose, gently stroking the relatively delicate and soft scales on the dragon’s nose.
“Lucia?”
Xia Li called out the dragon’s name, somewhat uncertain.
There was a sense of unease in his heart…
Combining Lucia’s actions and the complete story she had just confessed to him.
Xia Li only vaguely sensed the power of the new artifact; he hadn’t had time to try anything with it yet.
But the word ‘sacrifice’ that came out of Lucia’s mouth gave birth to an unspeakable fear in Xia Li’s heart.
“Whoosh…”
The dragon’s nose, which had been stroked by Xia Li, took two breaths on him.
Then, the dragon’s nose slowly lifted, awkwardly touching Xia Li’s lips, as if trying to kiss him.
Xia Li was in no mood to enjoy this kiss; he only felt his heart beating violently, as if something he didn’t want to see was about to happen.
“Rustle…”
Xia Li moved his feet, preparing to stand up.
The pile of bones under his feet collapsed due to his movement, and Xia Li lost his balance, getting nudged hard by the dragon’s nose again.
The silver dragon looked at the human beneath her with her golden-red eyes.
Even though these were fearsome dragon eyes, they became incredibly gentle when looking at the person in front of her.
‘All coincidences are not coincidences.’
‘These are all destined.’
Lucia suddenly remembered what the black dragon, Neer Hulk, had said to her.
From the moment Xia Li was summoned to this world, to their bickering relationship, the accidental teleportation during their duel, and then returning to this world at the wrong time…
None of this was a coincidence.
In Neer Hulk’s words, it was…
This was the decision she had made in countless past reincarnations.
Humans always like to talk about ‘winning’ and ‘losing’.
If the cost of something outweighs the gain, they will re-evaluate whether it is worth it.
Lucia looked down at the young man in front of her…
Because Xia Li always said ‘a man is a boy till he dies’ in her ear, Lucia always thought that her young man would always be a young man.
Lucia couldn’t help but start weighing what she was about to do in terms of human thinking, whether it was a ‘win’ or a ‘loss’.
But as long as she thought about it this way, she realized that the result didn’t matter to her.
Dragons have their own way of thinking.
The thought of sixty years later, Xia Li withering like an old tree, lying in that cold coffin with a regretful but perhaps happy smile, while she could only watch from afar as he was buried by handfuls of yellow earth, was unbearable for Lucia.
No matter how many times she tried to think about it, she couldn’t face such an outcome.
No wonder, in countless parallel universes, countless versions of herself would make the same choice…
Even if she had to choose ten million times, her choice would never change.
The so-called ‘multiple-choice question’, in front of her, had always been a single-choice question!
“Xia Li, if you die first, I will definitely be sad.”
“So, you are not allowed to die anymore.”
Lucia took a step forward.
She slowly spread her folded dragon wings, and the huge wings seemed to cover even the sky at this moment.
She nudged her nose hard again.
Xia Li, sitting on the pile of skeletons, was flipped over by her.
As Xia Li’s body went airborne, he instantly realized what Lucia was going to do.
Ignoring the fact that he was about to land, Xia Li grabbed the silver scale in his hand as fast as he could.
He was about to seal all the powers of the new artifact when he suddenly realized…
The silver scale in his hand was gone.
It had been stolen by Lucia!
…The passage!
At this moment, Xia Li could only hear his own strong heartbeat. His thoughts were racing, and he quickly connected the keywords ‘sacrifice’ and ‘passage’ that Lucia had just told him.
The summoned creature quickly forms a contract with the controller through the passage opened by the artifact.
This contract is a one-way choice; the summoned creature only needs to completely sacrifice itself without asking for anything in return to be completely bound to the controller.
Once the contract is formed, it cannot be broken unless the controller dies.
Lucia now, wanted to sacrifice herself!
Now, immediately.
Close the passage!
Xia Li was anxious. He couldn’t use the artifact without being in contact with it.
In desperation, he could only pull out the Demon Repelling Sword behind him.
“Clang—”
The Demon Repelling Sword, which had just fallen into slumber, instantly awakened.
Xia Li held the long sword, and his mouth moved as fast as chanting a spell, reciting a string of numbers.
“Three, four, five, six, seven… eight, nine…”
Every layer of unsealing required him to swing the sword.
◈◈◈
Although the Demon Repelling Sword was light in his hand, its size was not small. Every time Xia Li swung the sword, he needed to use a large arc of his arm.
Not enough time…
He couldn’t keep up!
To fully unseal the Demon Repelling Sword and eliminate all the magic power in the space within this split second, it would take at least half a minute.
Xia Li didn’t dare to actually stab the Demon Repelling Sword into Lucia’s body, so he could only watch helplessly as Lucia pressed down on him.
The dragon’s body blocked the rising sunlight.
Xia Li widened his eyes, watching her descend from the sky. The moment she touched him, the silver dragon’s majestic body shrank rapidly, her terrifying claws turning into the slender, white arms of a young girl.
She cupped Xia Li’s head and kissed him deeply.
◈◈◈
◈◈◈
◈◈◈
“Drip,”
“Drip,”
A fine drizzle washed over the scorched earth.
As if God wanted to cleanse this land of its sins, it always rained on the northwestern border of the Lyon Empire.
Perhaps in another ten or a hundred years, after a heavy downpour, new shoots would sprout from the cursed, blackened soil.
But that would take a long time to settle.
“Splash…”
Waves of rain fell tirelessly.
Water droplets gathered together, sliding down the young man’s peaceful face.
The young man’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, then he slowly opened his eyes.
He lay on the ground, gazing at the falling rain, the scene that had just happened flashing before his eyes like a revolving lantern.
Finally, he sat up, his eyes red.
The young girl slept soundly beside Xia Li, her legs curled up, her silver tail curled up from behind her, wrapped around her belly.
“…You can still fall asleep anywhere.”
Looking at her peaceful sleeping face, a wry smile appeared on Xia Li’s lips.
Taking a deep breath, Xia Li felt his chest tremble.
He took off his last piece of clothing and gently covered Lucia with it.
Then, carefully and gently, he took back the soft silver scale that Lucia was clutching tightly in her small hand.
Xia Li withdrew all the powers of the silver scale.
But, as he had judged…
Once this one-sided contract was established, it was a permanent bond.
Even as the master of the artifact, Xia Li couldn’t change this rule…
Just now.
Lucia had given half of her power to Xia Li.
This half of her power included half of her own life.
If a pureblood silver dragon could live for ten thousand years.
Then now, Lucia only had five thousand years left.
To be precise, it was the result of ten thousand minus one hundred, divided by two.
Four thousand nine hundred and fifty years.
This was also Xia Li’s remaining lifespan.
This kind of sacrificial magic was usually only used between similar species, or when the lifespan of the sacrificer was lower than the recipient.
This way, the recipient of the sacrifice could withstand the power of the sacrificer.
If a pureblood dragon were to sacrifice its life to a human…
There would be only one outcome.
The sacrifice would fail, the dragon would perish, and the human’s mortal lifespan would be overwhelmed by the dragon’s power, leading to sudden death.
However, this rule only applied to ‘humans’ on the Azure Continent.
Xia Li wasn’t a ‘human’ at all.
He was a transmigrator.
Therefore, when Lucia sacrificed herself to Xia Li, the rules ignored the upper limit of Xia Li’s life force.
So the sacrifice was successful.
Xia Li gained half of Lucia’s life.
That proud, long-lived species who could have enjoyed a lifespan of ten thousand years, witnessed countless human histories, and roamed the long river of time… had given up her privilege as a dragon.
She abandoned her freedom and bound herself to a human forever.
Even, as long as Xia Li was willing to use this power, he could order Lucia Sivana to do anything, complete any task.
“You won’t order me to do bad things in the future, will you?”
Lucia opened her eyes tiredly, looking at the man beside her with his upper body bare.
She blinked, raindrops still clinging to her long lashes.
“…”
Xia Li shook his head without a sound.
He was afraid that he would cry if he spoke at this moment.
With red eyes, Xia Li rummaged silently through his backpack.
This hiking backpack was prepared by Fang Xia.
It had to be said that Mrs. Fang was thoughtful and prepared for everything. Xia Li not only found various outdoor supplies in the bag, but even a sewing kit.
Carefully threading the silver scale with needle and thread, Xia Li used his clumsy knitting skills to barely make an ugly necklace.
Xia Li knelt down and put the silver scale necklace on Lucia.
He didn’t want this artifact anymore!
He would leave it to Lucia to keep from now on.
Although Xia Li had complete control over ‘Lucia’, if he gave the power to her, it would be another way of giving her back her freedom.
“Just wear this for now, I’ll go back and buy you your favorite gold neck… Woo.”
Xia Li couldn’t hold back anymore.
The thought that Lucia had made all these meticulous plans to scheme against him, to sacrifice everything she had, touched Xia Li deeply.
He thought his emotional control was top-notch.
But after seeing Lucia’s gentle eyes and the sweet smile on her face, Xia Li’s emotional control went haywire.
“Sigh~”
Lucia sighed and reached out to hug the crying Brave Hero.
‘Brave Hero’ was the bravest person among humans… How could he cry so much?
However.
Being able to see the Brave Hero’s tender side, Lucia felt secretly delighted.
“It’s okay, I’m not dead!”
Lucia comforted Xia Li softly.
The word ‘sacrifice’ was a bit too much.
But this was what the black dragon, Neer Hulk, had said to her at the time, and Lucia couldn’t think of a better word to replace it for the moment, so she could only repeat it verbatim.
“Just half dead, but not completely dead!” Lucia added.
Losing half of her lifespan, in a sense, was like being half dead, right?
Thinking of this, Lucia counted on her fingers.
She wanted to calculate how long she could still live, but she got herself confused after counting back and forth.
Oh well, in short, she could still live for a very, very long time…
She had only lived for a hundred years, and she still had a lot left to share with Xia Li!
Even if it was only half, it was still a terrifying number!
Xia Li was not allowed to die anymore!
On the surface, it seemed that Xia Li had gained her nearly five thousand years of lifespan, but in reality, she had made Xia Li stay with her for five thousand more years.
She had made a huge profit!
“Hee hee hee~”
The evil dragon lay on the ground, calculating, then revealed a mischievous, silver-gradient smile.
After Xia Li put the necklace on her, he bent down and hugged her.
“What kind of comfort is that… You’ve only comforted me half-heartedly.”
Xia Li’s tone was full of grievances, and he simply buried his wet face in the soft curve of the evil dragon’s chest.
Lucia was tickled by his head rubbing against her, pushing his head away and exclaiming with a giggle.
“The contract has only just been completed, and the Brave Hero can’t help but want to do bad things to me!”
“No, I won’t,” Xia Li said firmly.
“I will never do anything bad to you without your consent.”
“Are you an idiot?”
“Really.”
“…”
Looking at the Brave Hero’s serious expression, Lucia’s expression was complicated, unsure whether to cry or laugh.
How could he expect a girl to take the initiative?
This stupid Brave Hero was indeed an idiot!
With a sullen face, Lucia muttered something to herself.
She patted her clothes and stood up, looking at the curtain of rain in the distance, her playful expression returning to seriousness.
“Hmph, I’m not messing with you anymore…”
“Now, we’re going to do the last thing ━ set up the summoning magic and summon you from fifty years in the future.”