Chapter 164 - 116: The Dead Frost Giant Dragon
"This is amazing. I wonder if I’d evolve if I ate it."
Everyone but Lin Kong chimed in with their thoughts on the situation.
Only Lin Kong was staring, dumbfounded, at the corpse in the center.
"A dragon..."
"What? What did you say?" Mirus looked at Lin Kong.
"I mean, a Frost Giant Dragon! A Frost Giant Dragon!!!" Lin Kong’s voice grew progressively louder until he was finally roaring. His shout caused the surrounding mutated creatures to look over, but the scent of slaughter clinging to the team members startled them. They fearfully turned back to squeeze toward the center, hoping to get a piece of the prize.
After his outburst, Lin Kong collected himself, calmed his emotions, and apologized in a low voice, "Sorry about that. It’s my first time seeing a dragon. I got a little excited!"
"So, is that large mutated creature a Frost Giant Dragon?" Yuan Xiaobo asked, pointing at the massive creature greedily slurping up the Ice Energy Liquid.
"No, I’m talking about the corpse. I just can’t believe the first dragon I ever see is a dead one." Lin Kong pointed to the hill-like corpse in the center.
"Dragons are mythical creatures from my world. In some legends, they’re world-destroying beings. In others, they’re just background decoration for the protagonist."
"But either way, dragons are legendary creatures. They’re incredibly strong!"
Lin Yan looked thoughtful. "You mean, in your and the Liege Lord’s world?"
"Right. You should all know that I’m a relative of the Liege Lord. We’re both humans from the same world."
"So... what do we do now?" Yuan Xiaobo asked, looking at the swarm of mutated creatures below, and at the large one.
Lin Kong said without hesitation, "We take this corpse back with us, of course!!!"
Yuan Xiaobo said with difficulty, "But... a few of us sensed its power. We probably can’t beat that large mutated creature."
Rose and Dong Lin, who were standing to the side, both nodded in agreement. The three of them had taken the opportunity when the large creature was throwing its tantrum to fully sense the energy within it. They discovered that the creature possessed a vast amount of energy, far more than the three of them combined.
"Has it reached the Epic Tier?"
Hero-class creatures of the Epic Tier emit a kind of pressure that suppresses any heroes below that tier, preventing them from using their full strength. If that large mutated creature had reached the Epic Tier, they would have no choice but to turn back.
"No! The energy inside it is immense, but it hasn’t reached a state that would intimidate us."
"Tsk... that’s good. We’re all Legendary Heroes, after all. But it still won’t be an easy fight."
Lin Kong looked down into the cavern, pondering how to deal with this mutated creature that had clearly evolved into a sub-dragon.
Just then, the sub-dragon finished the Energy Liquid. Perhaps it was full, as it stopped striking the dragon’s corpse. Instead, it lumbered over to another tunnel, curled up in a recessed hollow, and started to sleep, ignoring the other mutated creatures outside.
With the sub-dragon gone, the other mutated creatures began their own assault on the Frost Giant Dragon’s corpse. Most of their efforts were futile. Occasionally, one would manage to draw out a bit of the liquid energy, which would immediately trigger a mad scramble.
"Come on, let’s go take a look. It would be great if we could just steal the corpse."
At Lin Kong’s suggestion, the team jumped down from the tunnel in the cavern ceiling. They pushed through the crowded swarm of mutated creatures and approached the Frost Giant Dragon’s corpse.
Suddenly, a faint energy fluctuation emanated from the corpse. The energy within everyone’s bodies was pulled by it, causing them to fluctuate in unison. A current of Ice Energy followed this pulse and began to forcibly bore into the bodies of all surrounding creatures.
The team members’ expressions changed. Once foreign energy entered the body and contaminated the purity of their own energy, it could trigger a series of complex changes. It would take a great deal of effort to cleanse it later. If they were in the middle of something important, such a sudden invasion of energy would most likely lead to failure.
The sub-dragon must have retreated far from the dragon’s corpse for this very reason—to digest and absorb the energy in its system. If it were force-fed more energy, it would have to go through the trouble of cleansing its entire system to get rid of the energy that wasn’t its own.
Aware of this, everyone immediately released their Spiritual Energy to resist the invasion of the foreign energy.
The surrounding mutated creatures, however, wore expressions of pure bliss. Some that were on the verge of evolving even began the process right then and there.
These low-level Extraordinary Creatures didn’t care whether the energy was pure or not. As long as they could evolve to a higher rank, they could worry about cleaning it up later.
A minute later, the energy fluctuation vanished.
No one looked particularly pleased. A mere flicker of energy fluctuation had left them in such a state. They couldn’t imagine how powerful the dragon would have been if it were still alive.
"Let’s go, keep moving. While that sub-dragon is still digesting, let’s examine this dragon corpse."
"Watch this. I’ll get rid of these mutated creatures first." Rose released all the death energy stored in his body, setting up a perimeter around the dragon’s corpse.
Under the effect of the death energy, the mutated creatures around the dragon corpse began suffering from a series of abnormal conditions like hemorrhaging and energy disruption. Before long, some of them collapsed and died from continuous blood loss.
Mutated creatures on the outskirts saw the opening and immediately jumped in, only to be afflicted with a pile of debuffs by the death energy as well.
As more and more mutated creatures died, the accumulated death energy grew stronger. Gradually, the creatures started dying the moment they approached the dragon’s corpse.
Some creatures in the swarm had previously escaped a joint attack from Rose and Dong Lin. They let out terrified roars, sharing their experiences with their comrades. Hearing that this invisible attack could spread, the mutated creatures scattered in a panic, hiding in the surrounding tunnels.
Only a few of the bolder mutated creatures remained, pacing back and forth outside the range of the death energy.
"Alright, now that we won’t be bothered by those mutated creatures, let’s hurry up and investigate."
The team took out various instruments and began to inspect the dragon’s corpse.
...
The test results came back quickly. This dragon was a hero of the Epic Tier, and a high-level one at that.
"Hehehe, Rose, any regrets? You used to be Epic Tier yourself. If you could have become a hero without dropping a tier, you’d be as strong as this thing," Lin Kong teased.
"Nothing to regret. Becoming a hero sooner meant I could contribute more to the territory."
Rose’s sense of duty was impressive. Lin Kong didn’t say anything, just silently gave him a thumbs-up.
"This dragon corpse is so huge, how are we supposed to take it with us? We can’t!"
"The key problem is that we can’t even get through its defenses." Dong Lin took a large chopping knife and hacked at the dragon’s corpse with all his might. Though the dragon was dead, its skin and the Scale Armor covering it were still incredibly tough. The powerful strikes didn’t even leave a mark.
Lin Kong also tried attacking the corpse. The powerful rebound force split open the web of his hand, drawing blood. He gritted his teeth and said, "If we can’t get through the outside, let’s find a way in. This Frost Giant Dragon was killed in a fight. I refuse to believe it doesn’t have a single wound!"
The others also tried using their skills to attack the dragon corpse, but none of them could break through its defenses. Helpless, they could only circle the body, trying to find a wound.
"I don’t see any wounds up here!"
"I don’t see any wounds over here either!"
"I don’t see anything."
...
After circling the dragon corpse several times, the team members still hadn’t found a single wound. They were all completely dumbfounded.
"This isn’t right. How can there be no wounds?"
"How did it die?"
"I have no idea!"
"How does a creature die in battle without a single wound on its body?"
"Could it be that its soul died, but its body didn’t?"
"That’s impossible!!!"
"Rose, why don’t you try to sense it?"
"Yeah, we’ve got Rose! Quick, see if this dragon corpse has any death energy."
...
Amidst everyone’s expectant gazes, Rose planted his feet firmly on the ground and focused all his effort on sensing the aura within the dragon’s body before him.
In his perception, the dragon’s entire body was enveloped in a massive aura of Ice Energy. This energy was so dazzling that it prevented him from sensing any other aura within the dragon’s body. There was no death energy! And no life force!
Just then, the Frost Giant Dragon’s body pulsed with another wave of energy. For an instant, the pulse pierced through the Ice Energy surrounding the body, creating a tiny crack in the barrier.
In that instant, Rose detected a sliver of death energy within the Frost Giant Dragon. He immediately used his ability to pull that sliver outward.
The death energy tried to come straight out but was blocked by the Ice Energy. It twisted and turned inside the dragon’s body before finally emerging from the ground beneath it.
Rose’s eyes lit up. "Found it!!"