Chapter 1106: Chapter 1106: These Dragon Clan Folks…
After returning from the Hall of Gathering, everyone decided to stay in the Giant Dragon Kingdom for a few days. Orelia ntioned that she still had a lot of follow-up work to complete in this space, and we were quite interested in the various mysterious ruins preserved here, especially the Forgotten Garden. It even contained a massive aerial city known as Angel City. Naturally, I was eager to see what it would look like once it was revealed.
Angel City… As Qianqian would say, just those four words are enough to make soone grin foolishly for half a minute while conjuring up 200,000 words worth of epic tales, especially since this place is Alaya’s birthplace, which makes it even more intriguing. When I first saw the Forgotten Garden, I couldn’t help but label it as “Angel City.” Now, hearing from Orelia, the true Angel City is even more magnificent than the grand and vast Forgotten Garden. Our family’s curiosity was fully piqued, and Qianqian was already planning to secure a three-bedroom apartnt in Angel City, facing the sea with flowers blooming…
Upon returning to the dragon gathering area, I discovered sothing interesting: most of the buildings here were constructed to fit the Dragon Clan’s size, with casual little doors towering at over ten ters. According to Beijing’s property prices, the balcony at Char’s place could buy out all the pedicab services within the Third Ring Road. However, interspersed among these gigantic structures were so special houses with door and window sizes clearly intended for human-sized occupants. Seeing these houses, we were finally convinced that the Dragon Clan of this world could indeed shape-shift into human form.
Yet, since arriving in this space, we had encountered countless Giant Dragons, but never once had we seen the Dragon Clan in human form. Not even Char or Tracey ever ntioned they could transform into human form. They didn’t seem to think that communicating with us in human form would be more convenient, which was truly baffling. When I couldn’t help but ask, Char’s reply was that only children like to transform into human form because they could use stones to build their secret bases in the nooks and crannies of adult houses. Those small houses that seed suitable for human living hidden among the stone castles were actually secret bases built by the Dragon Clan’s problem children!
This is quite different from the Dragon Clan I’ve known in other worlds. According to Orelia’s explanation, this might be because the Dragon Clan here isn’t “purely” natural creatures, but rather modified by the Old Empire. They differ sowhat from real Dragon Clans.
Dragon Clans that evolved entirely naturally tend to share common habits due to the influence of information interference from the Star Domain Dragon God and other Divine Races. One of these is that once they evolve to the point where they can transform into human form, they tend to habitually adopt this form when interacting with humanoid creatures, as it’s more convenient for communication. However, the Giant Dragons in this world, although they have the ability to transform into human form, seem uninterested in doing so: a consequence of a thousand years of modification. Besides their ability to perform talent recognition on the Star Domain Dragon God, they retain little of the natural Dragon Clan’s habits.
Orelia explained it like this: “To ensure these modified dragons retained their sensing ability towards the Star Domain Dragon God even in a shielded state, certain aspects of their information had to be exempted from conceptual partitioning. However, due to bandwidth limitations, very few common traits of dragons could be preserved…”
This sowhat explains why the Dragon Clan, usually considered dignified, stubborn, arrogant, and aloof, beca a bunch of cheerful, peaceful, carefree, and clueless optimistic types in this world. Of course, such a sunny disposition couldn’t be sothing the iron-blooded Xyrin Empire designed for them; naturally, these enormous creatures evolved to this state in this enclosed space after losing their common Dragon Clan traits—one-third of the Dragon Clan here are even vegetarians!
Tracey originally wanted to offer her palace for us to stay in because she believed it was the only way to show respect to the “Ancestor’s Spirit” and the “Ancestor’s Spirit’s many aunts and relatives.” However, we politely declined her kind offer, as everyone generally felt that sleeping on a stone bed occupying a hundred square ters was not very comfortable, especially with Tracey’s freshly laid eggs piled at the head of the bed… If Sandora woke up hungry in the middle of the night, it would be a grave mistake. Char had been hoping for children for over two hundred years, and his wife had only recently laid a clutch of eggs with a chance of hatching little dragons…
There’s no need to worry about housing, as I have a sister who can fit a foldable kitchen in her personal space. She carries several living pods on her, which seem to be of presidential suite caliber—so I steadfastly stuffed the Ice Sealed Castle that Qianqian pulled out back in.
Once is enough for the experience of sleeping on the floor in a castle.
We suspended the living pods a thousand ters above Giant Dragon Mountain as our temporary residence, providing a perfect view of the magnificent cloud sea without worrying about being hit by the oversized flying dragons: the Dragon Clan has a rule that, unless in special circumstances, the flying height above Dragon Mountain, where the clan leaders reside, should not exceed a thousand ters. We were essentially parked within their no-fly zone.
The ti was nearing evening, and the giant dragons were preparing for a grand celebration. Down below, in Dragon Mountain, there were flocks of Dragon Clan flying by, with their enormous claws clutching impressively large packages, as if they were taking out all the good things from each household to share. They planned to celebrate the “return” of the Ancestor’s Spirit tonight. The entire Dragon Mountain and several nearby peaks were thus enveloped in an atmosphere of joyous celebration. I was sowhat surprised, not expecting that the appearance of Lin would bring such joy to this group of Dragon Clan—Lin herself looked quite composed, thinking that as a Guardian God with so integrity, such an experience likely wasn’t unusual for her. Yes, a Guardian God with integrity, although this Dragon God Girl is always clumsy, timid, shy, constantly apologizing, and easily bullied. But as soon as you compare her to the other guys in the Divine Clan’s Tiaozi Five, she seems to instantly beco the epito of justice, majesty, sanctity, and love, with a dazzling image that’s hard to look at directly. Let put it this way, even just using Bingdisi as a backdrop is enough to elevate Lin to the Saint Level, because the first thing that female hooligan did after hearing there was a feast tonight was to drag 123 outside to practice boxing for three hours, with the purpose of digesting so she could eat more tonight…
You call that having sha?
Sister and Lin Xue were resting in the room, and no one was disturbing them. The day’s events were indeed quite shocking, even the usually composed sister and the always insightful Miss seed a bit flustered. So, once they returned, they announced they needed to “sort out their thoughts” alone. In contrast, Qianqian was much more domineering. This young lady, whose nerves were already unimaginably tough, had gathered all the naughty kids at ho and was now telling them stories of the past, as if she had truly experienced them:
“Back in the day, I was a senior officer on the Mysterious Side of the Old Empire, much more formidable than today. Leading a fleet of two hundred thousand to sweep across the Sky Zone was just daily life. When the Abyss ca, I pulled a trendous effort, fighting hard for over thirteen hundred years…”
“And then? And then?” Little Crow asked chirpily, being one of the only innocent ones left among the rowdy kids. Unlike nearby rcury Lamp, who was bored and dozing off, she was completely captivated by the glorious deeds Qianqian was brain-storming.
“And then? Then I died, heroically sacrificed, blood staining the vast sky, possibly turning seven or eight mother rivers red, or maybe just three or four, the blood quantity might not have been sufficient… don’t bother with the details,” Qianqian’s eyes sparkled as she recounted her illustrious exploits, “Anyway, I had several million troops under my command at the ti, and they were all roused and eager to fight to the death with the Abyss. But Sister Chen Qian—she was the Emperor back then—didn’t allow it, because my sacrifice couldn’t be in vain, right? So she led a group to the depths of the Void to find Ah Jun. By the way, Lin Xue also went along, but unfortunately, I died. Otherwise, I’d definitely have gone too. How could I not join in on the fun?”
“Wow—” Little Crow’s eyes also lit up, and she let out a long exclamation. Then she stuffed a handful of shelled hazelnuts into her mouth, crunching noisily while mumbling, “And then? And then? Shouldn’t the master make an appearance now? Why hasn’t the master shown up yet?”
“Oh right, you an Ah Jun, right? Ah Jun was even more formidable back then, Monina said that a Void Creature was more powerful in the womb than after being born… eh? Ah Jun, what are you doing… oww oww oww, it hurts…”
I finally couldn’t take it anymore, pinching Qianqian’s cheeks and pulling them hard to the sides: “Is there anyone like you, huh? Is there anyone like you!” This girl was actually energetically telling little kids about how she died in her past life. Could there be anything more bizarre than that?
Qianqian and I were playfully roughhousing, while we were surrounded by a bunch of little girls each engrossed in their own daily routines. Little Baobao was still obediently playing with her pile of shiny glass marbles, occasionally exchanging few words with Ji Shanshan behind her; Lilina was explaining all sorts of odd knowledge to rcury Lamp, who wore a disdainful expression but couldn’t help pricking up her ears. That’s the main reason why she gets tricked by Lilina from ti to ti; in terms of bad intentions, this combative doll is absolutely no match for Lilina. Little Crow was very interested in Qianqian’s story, but when she found out the story was over, she switched targets and was now lying on the table looking at Little Baobao’s elentary school textbook. Of course, she only looked at the illustrations, and even those upside down…
“Carefree folks really make people envious,” Xiao Xue suddenly appeared and sprawled lazily across my back, “Don’t you think so, Dad?”
I casually pinched the nose tip of this overgrown naughty kid: “So things you knew a long ti ago, right?”
“If you an the outco, I know a little, but not the process,” Xiao Xue wrinkled her nose a bit, her face bearing so resemblance to Lin Xue, with a faint smile, “A lot of things were secrets between you and Mom. When I was little and asked, you’d always say, ‘Kids shouldn’t ask too many questions, go play on your own,’ so eventually I didn’t bother asking.”
I uttered an “oh” and remained silent for a few seconds before I couldn’t help but speak up, “You say… how could Lin Xue end up being a Commander of the Old Empire? And then there’s Qianqian… Sister even beca the Emperor of the Fifteenth Day Zone. I still can’t believe all of this.”
“What’s the big deal,” Xiao Xue said comfortably, lying on my back like she didn’t care that she’s past the age of cuddling her dad, “When I was little, I heard you say so people believe in soul reincarnation. Just think of this as a reincarnation, although it seems my mom and Mother Qianqian’s situations are a bit different. They… rather than reincarnating, they’ve rely inherited so powers. Didn’t Orelia say it herself? She didn’t feel any trace of the soul from back then. Dad, listen to my thoughts on this?”
I gently stroked Xiao Xue’s long hair that hung down to my chest, “Go ahead.”
“Let it go, don’t think about it, the deceased have passed. Even if there’s really sothing like a ‘past life,’ the life you’re living is ‘this life,’ isn’t it? The Sky Zone Emperor and Imperial Officer from back then, they don’t sound familiar at all,” Xiao Xue pressed her face against the root of my neck, “Dad, you and mom are just alike, you both like to keep things bottled up for a long ti. Being your daughter is really worrying~~”
I raised my hand and patted Xiao Xue’s head, and this silly girl stuck out her tongue and laughed cheerfully at , “Dad! The group of dragons wants to find Aunt Lin! Let’s go and get a free al!”
I: “…” Clearly, this personality ca from Bingdisi!
Xiao Xue’s prediction ability is as accurate as her mom’s. Basically, as soon as we got riled up by this kid, the Silver Dragon Char arrived, and Bingdisi, brimming with exuberance, swung her arm and dragged Lin out the door, “Off we go! Today we’re getting a free al from Little Fool Dragon!”
I couldn’t help but glance at Sister and Lin Xue’s rooms, and as if sensing sothing, the doors slid open almost simultaneously, revealing Sister and Lin Xue looking vigorous once more behind the doors. Lin Xue walked out while beckoning with her finger, “Let’s go, Wood, get a free al!”
This gesture made pause in surprise and then chuckle relievedly: it seems this girl wasn’t too affected by those matters.
I had been cooped up inside and didn’t know what was happening outside. It wasn’t until I reached the sky above the mountain peak with its vast plaza that I marveled. In less than half a day, that group of bored dragons had turned this place into an unprecedentedly grand bonfire party venue. At the center of the plaza is a bonfire with a radius of over thirty ters, and around the plaza are symtrically distributed more than a dozen slightly smaller bonfire piles. The air was filled with a bizarre, slightly burnt sweet scent, which I learned was emission from the bonfire fuel; the dragons habitually used a fast-growing woodland that grows on the mid-slopes of Boundary Mountain as barbecue fuel. This fast-growing wood is highly burn-resistant and emits a fragrant aroma at high temperatures. As for the so-called Boundary Mountain, it is essentially a peak at the very edge of the Floating Land Group, because beyond that mountain, there isn’t any land. The dragons call it the boundary of their world.
These dozen or so bonfires aren’t the thing that truly surprises; although they are built to the dragons’ habitual size and do look pretty large—instead, what truly astonished was the extrely lively scene of thousands of dragons gathered together before my eyes.
The summit plaza of Giant Dragon Mountain is undeniably vast; back then, the Builder here directly carved out one-fifth of the mountain to construct this grand plaza, but when thousands of massive creatures with an average length of ten ters jostle for space, even such a big plaza appears cramd. There are dragons of all scales in sight, these giant beasts are squeezed together on a plaza like humans at a temple fair, pushing and shoving, with the earth shaking. So are stepping on others’ heads, so are flapping their wings in the air unable to find a place to land, while others have been pushed off the edge, flying back only to have stones and shattered tree trunks perched atop their heads. Occasionally, “humans” can be seen darting about among the dragons, these are dragons that can’t stand the crowding turning into human forms they find unnatural, at least that way they can find a place to stand—though they must be cautious not to be trampled.
The plaza was bustling and noisy, with several loud voices clearly audible even from mid-air:
“Mom, don’t push, don’t push! I was here first, who’s stepping on my foot!”
“Coming through, coming through—I’m late, am I late? It hasn’t started yet, right? Please tell it hasn’t started yet? Good thing I skipped lunch!”
“Second brother, have you seen my wife? I ca with her, turned my face and now I can’t see her.”
“Your wife? Oh, she got overwheld by the crowd, transford into human shape, and the big-eyed lady under your foot is her—good luck, I’ve got so ointnt for bruises at ho, I’ll bring it to you tomorrow.”
“Oh, thanks, farewell, I might be busy soon—wife, please don’t hit my face!”
“Why hasn’t the Ancestor’s Spirit arrived yet? Isn’t she already notified by the Clan Leader?”
And so on, just general bustling scenes. By now, the sky had darkened, and the vast plaza, aside from the dozen bonfires and the nearby piled offerings by the various households, was filled with Dragon Clan mbers swirling like black tides. Their numbers far exceed the capacity of this plaza; with the current state of pushing and shoving, let alone hosting any celebratory activities, even a re movent seems impossible for these beasts. Char was hanging beside us, his tail held by Lin (mainly because Bingdisi found his wing flapping too windy), and since he arrived he maintained this state. As for Lin, she was ordered to use her human form—due to obvious reasons, Char tilted his head to explain at this mont, “Everyone’s gathered to see the Ancestor’s Spirit, considering the limited space, many dragons actually headed to other mountains. Once the Ancestor’s Spirit shows herself, only the clan elders and children can stay on this plaza, while others will go to other mountains to party. To be honest… if the Ancestor’s Spirit doesn’t mind, I’d really hope she’d take a lap around every dragon mountain, we’ve all been waiting for this day for tens of thousands of years…”
Lin held Char’s tail tip floating mid-air, slightly dazed by his words, then hesitated before looking over, “Hey, can I transform into dragon form for a lap?”
We were also in a bit of a dilemma, Lin transforming into her dragon form and flying the lap had obvious issues, but we couldn’t ignore the fervent desire of the Dragon Clan mbers, so after so consideration, Bingdisi nodded, “Sure, you go ahead, but rember to return to human form for landing, even if you crash it’ll be a smaller ss—if you really fear forgetting, just crash into an empty Sky Island.”
Lin smiled happily, making a victory gesture to us with both hands.
Char: “Oh my, how did you loosened…” The last word beca inaudible.
A clamor rose from the plaza below: “The Clan Leader appears! The Clan Leader appears head-down!” (To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, you are welco to co to Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndation and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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