Chapter: Chapter 454
“This fight’s really intense.” While the two tribal chiefs were locked in a life-or-death duel, a certain black-haired young lady was sitting cross-legged on the clouds, nibbling on a roasted sweet potato.
The girl’s cheeks were puffed out, her voice muffled by the food in her mouth, making her sound rather cute.
“Linglong is in some danger, something’s off about that chief’s strength.” Beside the black-haired girl, the white-haired maiden was also eating a roasted sweet potato, though her movements were much more unrestrained, devouring half a sweet potato in a single bite.
“Heh, burning his life force, that guy won’t live much longer.” Swallowing the sweet potato in her mouth, the black-haired girl’s voice finally became clearer. She watched the little dragon girl below being beaten by the golden flaming figure, a slight upward curve on her lips. “Don’t mind that Linglong looks like she’s in grave danger right now, I’m telling you, she’s completely stable, no need to worry at all.”
Before she finished speaking, the long spear burning with golden flames grazed Linglong’s scalp, burning away more than half of the girl’s beautiful white hair.
Bai Ling looked at Leticia speechlessly. Is this what she meant by “no need to worry at all”?
She almost got impaled to death!
“Do you really not need to help?”
“I think it’s better if Linglong solves this herself. If we intervene, it loses its meaning.” Leticia spread her hands, holding the half-eaten sweet potato, and began to explain. “This chief is a hurdle in Linglong’s path of growth. If Linglong can overcome it with her own strength, she’ll truly grow into someone who can stand on her own.”
“But I think this hurdle might be a bit too difficult to cross.” Watching Linglong who was already struggling to hold on, Bai Ling frowned slightly and slowly raised her right hand, only to freeze mid-air, seemingly in a dilemma.
She had a grudge against that Lion Tribe Chief. Her relationship with Linglong was quite good. Watching someone she was on good terms with being thrashed by her enemy made her feel quite uncomfortable.
If Leticia weren’t around, Bai Ling might have already intervened to help Linglong.
But now, with Leticia by her side, and Leticia not wanting to provide support to Linglong, that was the reason for Bai Ling’s hesitation.
“…Indeed, this kind of enemy is a bit beyond Linglong’s capabilities.” After her gaze lingered on Bai Ling’s face for a moment, Leticia suddenly chuckled. “If it were the original Lion Tribe Chief, Linglong would definitely not be able to defeat him. But this current one… it’s a bit of an overreach.”
The long spear and the armor both had energy fluctuations similar to divine blood. Leticia had reason to believe that these two pieces of equipment were of the same origin as divine blood.
Despite Linglong’s exceptional talent, she didn’t have the strength to defeat such an enemy by punching above her weight class.
Since her opponent had the blessings of a god, it was only fair that they should offer some help as well, wasn’t it?
“Your attitude is turning very abruptly.”
“Fine, then I won’t turn. We’ll just sit here and watch Linglong get beaten to death.”
“…However, I like this kind of abrupt turn, so it’s too late to regret it now.” Ms. Bai’s face showed a faint smile. She swung down her raised right hand, and a beam of starlight descended from the heavens at her direction.
The starlight was incredibly dim. Neither the combatants nor the tense onlookers noticed this beam of starlight falling from the sky.
Bang!
The long spear, riddled with cracks, finally let out a creaking cry of unbearable burden. Accompanied by scattering fragments, the battered Linglong was sent flying backward again.
Her face showed a hint of regret and helplessness. She hadn’t expected her opponent to be so powerful. Even using all her skills, she had only managed to last this long.
The Lion Tribe Chief’s burst of combat power was simply too strong. Even Linglong, who possessed the strongest combat power in the Bone Wing Tribe, could only be battered and forced to flee, and she couldn’t even escape.
Having lost her weapon, Linglong’s chances of winning had plummeted to the bottom. It wasn’t that the long spear had much attack power, but at least it was sturdy enough to block the Lion Tribe Chief’s attacks.
Now, Linglong could only use her own body to resist the raging golden flames.
‘Using my body to resist such a weapon would result in a tragic end, wouldn’t it?’ Linglong thought bitterly.
But then, a strange thought surfaced in her mind. Why did she need a weapon?
Wasn’t the most powerful weapon of the Dragon race their nearly invincible physique?
‘No, I’m not a dragon, I’m just a beastman.’
The scorching heatwave rushed towards her. The Lion Tribe Chief didn’t give Linglong a chance to react. He had already closed in on Linglong with his spear, the tip pointed directly at her chest.
Subconsciously extending her right hand, Linglong looked at the unusually slow black spear in her eyes and a bold idea popped into her mind. This spear didn’t seem that hot.
Sizzle…
The Lion Tribe Chief’s eyes widened in disbelief. What was he seeing?
His full-power attack was easily caught by the girl in front of him?
Was this golden flame fake? Wasn’t this girl afraid of the heat?
“What is this…” Looking at the right hand blocking his attack, the Lion Tribe Chief’s pupils contracted again. That wasn’t a hand, it was clearly a ferocious claw!
The jade-white scales blocked the high temperature. The golden flames left no trace on the white claw. The immense force emanating from the claw made the Lion Tribe Chief tremble with fear.
Shifting his gaze to his opponent, the Lion Tribe Chief couldn’t help but swallow.
The white-haired girl’s eyes were unfocused. The golden dragon pupils seemed to flow with molten gold, and a terrifying pressure slowly emanated from within her, making the Lion Tribe Chief uncontrollably want to prostrate himself.
This is strange!
Pulling his spear back forcefully from the sharp claws, the Lion Tribe Chief retreated several steps. This was the first time he felt fear since the battle began. What terrifying entity was hidden within this girl?
He didn’t know, and he didn’t want to know. He just wanted to leave quickly before the girl fully woke up.
But when he tried to turn and flee, he was surprised to find that his body seemed to be out of his control. Golden flames continuously surged from the spear, and searing energy flowed through his body, granting him far greater power than before, but also causing him to lose control of his body.
What did this spear want to do?!
The Lion Tribe Chief desperately issued commands to his body, but his body completely ignored him.
A bird’s cry, laced with anger and resentment, exploded in the Lion Tribe Chief’s ears, and then his body moved.
With a speed and power even more terrifying than before, he lunged at the white-haired girl who stood frozen in place.
The spear pierced the air, carrying a sharp hum, and attacked the girl’s head. This attack was faster and stronger than all previous ones. If the Linglong from before were here, she definitely wouldn’t have been able to dodge such an attack.
But the one standing here now was not the Linglong from before.
Her hands, now fully transformed into dragon claws, reached out and easily caught the attacking spear.
The flames burning on the spear seemed to be suppressed, becoming much more ethereal. The unfocused golden dragon eyes gradually regained clarity, and Linglong finally recovered her senses.
Terrifying power surged within her, but this power held no malice towards her. On the contrary, her body was cheering and celebrating.
This transformation was something to be happy about, Linglong’s intuition told her.
With a powerful swing of her arms, the Lion Tribe Chief, engulfed in golden flames, was flung away. Linglong stared blankly at her hands, which no longer resembled her original form, somewhat confused about what had happened to her.
But one thing she was becoming certain of was that she was now very strong, much stronger than that lion-head!
Didn’t you enjoy beating me up just now? Now it’s time for you to pay!
As a beastman, Linglong was not good at thinking. Empowered by such immense strength, she had only one thought in her mind: to destroy this disgusting lion and avenge herself for being beaten.
As a noble giant dragon, being beaten by a lion was a matter of extreme shame. She had to wash away this disgrace, and the enemy’s blood was the best material for it.
“Die!”
A white meteor streaked across the sky. In the blink of an eye, Linglong was already beside the Lion Tribe Chief, thrusting her claws towards the flaming beastman who had just regained his footing.
The claws flashed with a faint white light. The Lion Tribe Chief’s heart was filled with dread. If this claw landed, his armor would probably shatter!
This was an attack many times more powerful than that flaming spear!
I must dodge!
But now, his body was not controlled by him, but by an unknown consciousness within the black spear.
This unknown consciousness showed no fear towards Linglong’s attack. Instead of dodging, it directly thrust the weapon towards Linglong, as if intending to trade blows.
Linglong’s eyes narrowed. In the past, she would never have accepted such an exchange, but she was different now. Her thoughts became incredibly chaotic, and the terrifying power within her drove her to make a choice she would never have made before.
Her claws tore through the black armor, leaving three deep gouges on the Lion Tribe Chief’s waist.
No blood flowed from the wounds. Instead, golden flames emerged, sealing them and preventing Linglong’s attack from achieving much effect.
The spear struck Linglong’s left shoulder. The moment it hit, dense white scales appeared on Linglong’s left shoulder, blocking the spear’s thrust like armor. That unbreakably sharp black weapon had finally met its match.
A series of sparks flashed on the scales. In the end, the Lion Tribe Chief’s spear failed to penetrate Linglong’s body’s defense. These scales were even stronger in defense than the Lion Tribe Chief’s armor.
Neither side gained much from this exchange, but Linglong felt no disappointment. On the contrary, she felt as if her blood was boiling, and her desire to fight was rapidly expanding. There was only one thing she wanted to do now: fight the enemy in front of her.
Defeat him, kill him!
Driven by this thought, Linglong lunged at the Lion Tribe Chief again.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Consecutive sounds echoed from around them. Unlike the previous chase and escape, the current battle was extremely violent. Neither side had any intention of retreating, only wanting to send their weapons into the opponent and destroy them completely.
In this fierce battle, the forms of the two individuals on the battlefield underwent huge transformations. The Lion Tribe Chief had completely turned into a fire elemental, with raging flames burning on his body. Now, his original appearance could no longer be discerned.
As his opponent, Linglong’s form also gradually transformed into something non-human. Her entire body was covered in fine silver scales, her limbs had turned into beast-like claws, and her cute face had transformed into a somewhat delicate silver beast face.
If the former Linglong was a human girl with some dragon characteristics, then the current Linglong was a humanoid dragon, albeit slightly smaller, with the ability to stand.
And it seemed her transformation had not yet reached its limit…
Boom!
A giant bird formed of golden flames crashed into Linglong, slamming the dragon girl, whose original appearance was completely unrecognizable, into the ground. Dust and smoke filled the air, completely obscuring the vision of the onlookers.
“Caw!!!”
The flames gushing from the Lion Tribe Chief’s body transformed into a fiery bird with a wingspan of nearly forty meters. The bird flapped its wings, its flame-composed eyes fixed on the knocked-back Linglong, with hatred flowing in its gaze.
The Bone Wing Cavalry forming the encirclement had to retreat due to the terrifying temperature. The battle between the chiefs had now completely surpassed their understanding.
If the Lion Tribe Chief with the steel spear had turned into such a terrifying large bird, then what would their Goddess become?
“What will I become?” The energy within her seemed to break through a certain limit. Lying in the large pit, Linglong felt her body slowly disappearing, but it didn’t seem like a bad thing.
Her body felt lighter, and strength even greater than before began to flow through her body. Ancient chants echoed in her ears.
The starlight that fell from the sky landed on Linglong, bringing her a sense of coolness and allowing the girl to perceive the changes in her body more clearly.
Her body transformed into a pure energy form, as her original body was no longer sufficient to contain such terrifying power. She was rapidly evolving towards her perfect form.
As if the sound of breaking glass echoed from deep within Linglong’s body, the pure white energy, which still barely maintained a human form, suddenly began to expand as if freed from shackles.
Ten meters, twenty meters, thirty meters…
Pure light took form. A snow-white behemoth dragon raised its head from the dust and let out a deafening roar towards the golden firebird flying in the sky.
“ROAR!!!”
A beam of snow-white light erupted from the sky.
The golden great bird, not to be outdone, flapped its wings vigorously. Golden flames transformed into a wall of fire, pressing towards the snow-white dragon.
Immediately after, the attacks of the two behemoths collided. The entire world seemed to lose its color, with only the radiance surrounding the golden and white behemoths remaining.
…
“You did this? You have this ability? How did she turn into this monstrous form?” Watching the two intensely battling monsters below, Leticia, sitting in the sky, widened her eyes. Frankly, she had never seen a scene like this.
She had originally thought that after Bai Ling sneakily buffed Linglong, the battle would end quickly, and Linglong should be able to defeat the Lion Tribe Chief with ease, solidifying her position in the frontier grasslands.
But after that beam of starlight struck, the situation escalated like a wild horse breaking loose, galloping in a direction Leticia could never have imagined.
Am I on the set of a fantasy novel, or the set of Ultraman?
The two giant monsters fighting down there would fit perfectly into the set of the “Giants of Light” without any incongruity.
“I… I don’t know.” Bai Ling, the main contributor to this scene, was looking at her right hand with disbelief. All she had done was cast a very ordinary starlight blessing, one of her few amplification skills.
Normally, she would cast this spell on herself, and the effect would only be increased stamina recovery and damage resistance. There was no way it could turn a youthful and beautiful girl into a giant white dragon dozens of meters tall.
“Did she activate the gene lock?”
“Isn’t that a novel setting?” Leticia retorted reflexively, then continued to watch below. “I’ll tell you a ghost story… that dragon seems to be the real deal, not a fake transformation.”
Transforming into a dragon was something Leticia could do a little, but the giant dragons she transformed into were only superficially impressive; they were essentially just clumps of energy within.
However, the white dragon below was clearly not like that. In the battle with the golden great bird, several wounds had appeared on the dragon’s body. Through those wounds, Leticia could clearly see the heat-seared muscles, which indicated that this giant dragon was a true physical entity, not a fake created through some transformation spell.
“Why can Linglong transform into a dragon? I’ve never heard of beastmen being able to transform into their beastly primal forms before.” Curling a lock of her hair with her finger, Leticia’s curiosity grew heavier. She wished she could fly down and capture the white dragon to study it thoroughly.
In terms of strength, Linglong was not very strong. If the prerequisite for such a transformation was strength, then such beastmen would have appeared in large numbers during the world wars years ago. But according to the information Leticia possessed, the beastman tribe did not have such a talent.
Therefore, Linglong’s transformation was a unique one.
So, where was the problem… What did Linglong have that those other beastmen didn’t?
As she thought, Leticia’s gaze involuntarily drifted towards Bai Ling. It seemed that this was the only possible reason!
Initially, Linglong was being overwhelmed by the Lion Tribe Chief and showed no signs of a power surge. Everything became strange only after Bai Ling cast the starlight.
So, the culprit is you!
Bai Ling!
“Why are you looking at me? I really don’t know what’s going on!” The meaning in Leticia’s eyes was so obvious that even Bai Ling immediately guessed the thoughts of this Demon Lord.
Shaking her head and hands frantically, Ms. Bai tried her best to distance herself from this matter. She dared to swear by her feelings for Leticia that she truly didn’t know why Linglong had turned out this way.
“I believe you, really.” Leticia patted Bai Ling’s shoulder with a solemn expression, indicating that she believed in Bai Ling’s intelligence. “But Linglong’s transformation is definitely because of your starlight. You just don’t know that your starlight has such an effect.”
Such a thing was not uncommon. Even Leticia hadn’t fully grasped the omnipotence of the Dream God yet.
As for Bai Ling’s starlight ability, it was even more so. This Sword Saint lady probably only knew that it had immense attack power and hadn’t researched any other effects at all.
This time, it was probably a lucky shot that directly led to Linglong’s super evolution, transforming her from a human form into a giant dragon.
Uh, transforming from human to beast form, should that be considered evolution?
In any case, her combat power had doubled, so let’s call it evolution!
The girls in the sky chatted, while the monsters on the ground fought. White light and golden flames clashed, and the two giant beasts couldn’t determine a winner for a while.
But as time passed, the golden flames gradually dimmed. Ultimately, it lacked sustainability. Compared to Linglong’s almost effortless transformation, it had inflicted too much damage on the Lion Tribe Chief.
These ten-plus minutes of battle had completely depleted the chief’s body. Having lost its most important energy supply, the golden great bird let out a cry of unwillingness before dissolving into sparks and disappearing into the air.
The Lion Tribe Chief, engulfed in golden flames, finally reappeared in everyone’s sight. Unlike his majestic posture at the beginning, the Lion Tribe Chief was now gaunt and emaciated, with no muscle left on his body. From afar, he looked like a scarecrow.
He still tightly gripped the black spear in his hand, and the armor that had once fit him perfectly now looked incredibly comical on him.
His lion eyes, once bright, were now vacant. Everything about him had been burned away by the golden flames to support the battle just now.
This included his life, and his soul.
Bang!
The Lion Tribe Chief fell from mid-air to the crystallized ground. The moment he touched the ground, his body, which had still managed to maintain its human form, immediately collapsed into a pile of gray debris.
This powerful warrior, who had roamed the frontier grasslands for many years, ultimately met a fate of utter annihilation, which could only be described as just deserts.
The giant dragon looked down at her enemy. Her bulb-like golden eyes blinked, seemingly unsure of what to do now.
Who am I? What should I do?
Questions after questions popped into the dragon’s mind. She had been too focused on the battle to contemplate these matters. Now that the battle was won, she naturally fell into confusion.
“Little Linglong, do you remember me?” a very pleasant voice sounded in her ear.
The dragon looked towards the direction of the voice and saw a black-haired girl bathed in starlight suspended above her head. The girl held a black staff in her hand. Her intuition told the dragon that this staff hitting her head might hurt a little.
“Ao?” She tilted her head, letting out a confused roar.
“It seems you’ve lost your mind. I’m sorry, get some good sleep!” The girl raised the black staff in her hand, and a flash of colorful light instantly passed.
Bang!
