Chapter 50
Can’t beat them, join them. "Hehe, fair enough, there aren’t many this dragon admires, master counts as the second."
"Who was the first?"
Orathis’s face darkened with anger. "The Lower-Tier Spirit Ancestor who sealed me here, obviously!"
"That villain, a whole realm’s difference between us, and they still pinned this dragon down for over a hundred thousand years!"
You ate billions of Spirit people and you have the nerve to call them the villain... I’ve seen shameless before, never like this.
"I don’t care how many you ate in the past, I’m no good person myself, I’ve no right to lecture you."
"But from now on, before you eat anyone, you first consider whether eating them serves my interests."
"Of course, of course."
Frivolous as Orathis was, unreliable as it sounded, it had a sincere side. Like now, the entire dragon went solemn.
"Frankly speaking."
"Master may be the second person this dragon has ever admired."
"But compared to the shock that Spirit Ancestor gave me, the fear and psychological trauma Master has inflicted on this little dragon run far deeper."
"It’s simply damnable."
"Even without my Dragon Pearl, degraded to Middle-Tier Spirit Emperor, I still carry the experience of the Ancestor realm, and through that entire beating, I found no room to fight back."
"I’m certain Master’s strength surpasses the vast majority of the Upper-Tier Emperor realm."
"Otherwise it would be impossible to beat me that badly."
It finished by sucking in a long breath of cold air.
Then it snapped right back to frivolous.
"There’s one thing I still can’t figure out."
"How did Master guess I hid my Dragon Pearl in my pupil?"
"Even that Spirit Ancestor never noticed!"
Soren stood with hands clasped behind his back and decided to tease it. "Hm? You told me yourself, just now, in your sleep."
Orathis petrified on the spot.
Then it genuinely couldn’t take it, and slapped itself full across the face, regret! How could I blurt something that important in my sleep? I dug my own grave!
Watching it strike itself, Soren smiled faintly and came clean. "I lied, you didn’t talk in your sleep."
"I have my own ways of finding a hidden Dragon Pearl."
"Master, you played me?" Orathis looked deeply wronged, which drew a mocking snort out of Lysara.
Soren moved to remove the barrier, only with it gone could Orathis leave with him, he laid a hand on it and searched the Strategy Encyclopedia for the key.
Not difficult, he needed only to go up first and pause the seal within the Dragon-Suppressing Stele for a few seconds.
In those seconds, the fox cry pouring off the blood essence would cut out too, the window was short enough that no one could slip into the mountain through it.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Orathis beat its wings, gliding high through the sky with Soren and Lysara on its back, for all its bulk, it flew with startling agility.
"I am out."
"I am out!"
"Gwahahaha!"
It ran through a whole routine of high-difficulty maneuvers, rocketing vertically into clouds from level flight, plunging into a dive only to wrench back up, drifting down like a falling leaf, floating up like a rising one.
Only Soren stood steady on its back, arms crossed, unmoved by an inch, face blank, Lysara had long since dropped her center of gravity and gone to half-kneeling.
Orathis was beside itself with joy, it had been freer once, more than a hundred thousand years ago, and the seal that swallowed those years had genuinely terrified it.
It had forgotten what freedom tasted like, it shut its eyes, savoring the wind screaming past, and couldn’t stop its eyes from swelling red as it wept in mid-air.
Tears the size of human heads sailed past Soren and Lysara and crashed below, snapping ranks of towering ancient trees.
When it had played itself out, it turned toward the Ice Heaven Alluring Fox clan territory at Soren’s command.
"Master, stand firm!"
"This dragon flies for the thrill."
Boom! Orathis hammered its wings and its speed leaped.
Bang! Crash!
It became a bolt of lightning, everywhere it passed looked like a shattered eggshell, spatial fragments raining down, some hundreds of meters across, some the size of fingernails, clattering like hail.
The speed was too much, Lysara was flung off three or four times, and each time Soren’s demonic energy reeled her back, in the end she buried herself in his arms, hugging his powerful waist for dear life.
"Compared to Master, I’m really... so weak."
"I never realized how useless I was."
"I’m supposedly a Lower-Tier Human Emperor, and I can’t even manage standing upright." She hung her head in shame, perhaps she truly felt her inadequacy, or perhaps it was for his benefit, either way, her voice dripped self-reproach.
"If you know you’re useless, then make yourself useful."
"That’s the only way to demonstrate your value."
"Do I really have to spell it out?"
Soren stared straight ahead, arms crossed, eyes slowly narrowing.
Orathis roared with excitement, piercing clouds and chasing the moon like a lunatic, gradually it noticed the silence on its back, why isn’t Soren talking? Even Lysara stopped screaming, is my speed not fast enough?
Just as it began turning its head, a surge of demonic energy stamped down from Soren’s foot into its spine, Orathis let out a wretched aow and, like a whipped horse, flew dead straight.
Soren could have torn through the void to return, but void travel burned a great deal of demonic energy.
Besides, this was his first ride, master and mount needed a breaking-in period, it would hardly do if, some day when he needed it, he didn’t even know how Orathis flew.
Having experienced it, he had to admit the speed was real, a round trip by void-tearing would cost several incense sticks, Orathis needed only about two hours.
He kept Lysara wrapped in demonic energy the whole way, so the climbing speed wouldn’t shake her apart.
As the clan territory drew near, Orathis abruptly turned fawning.
"Ahem, master, think carefully, Isn’t there something very important we haven’t done yet?"
"That... dragon thing..."
"That... pearl thing."
It twisted its head around and caught Soren looking entirely unbothered, while it clawed at its own head and cheeks in agony.