Richest Rag-picker

The creature that suddenly flashed into his mind gave Fang Chenyi a huge shock.

’A snake’s body and an eagle’s talons! Could this be a legendary dragon?’

’That can’t be right. If it were a dragon, how could it have a snake’s head? And if it really were a dragon, why are there no horns?’

One question after another surfaced in Fang Chenyi’s mind. It looked a lot like the dragons of legend, but there were some distinct differences.

’But with this massive body over ten meters long, a skull the size of a millstone, and these two Bone Claws... if it isn’t a dragon, what else could it be?’

Suddenly, Fang Chenyi remembered that he seemed to have a set of ultra-high-power rechargeable light bulbs in his woven bag. Now seemed like the perfect time to use them.

At that thought, he immediately started rummaging through his woven bag. A moment later, he had taken out several large light bulbs and placed them in the various corners of the great hall.

With the light from these powerful bulbs, the entire hall was instantly illuminated.

After finishing, Fang Chenyi dusted off his hands, raised his eyes, and began to examine the skeleton before him once more.

He took a few steps back to the very edge of the hall. As he looked at the skeleton before him, Fang Chenyi couldn’t help but gasp.

At the same time, a single word for a creature popped into Fang Chenyi’s mind: Jiao.

’A hornless dragon is called a Jiao. The Jiao has the form of a snake and possesses a pair of claws.’

The thought came to Fang Chenyi in an instant. It was from an article he had stumbled upon while doing research some time ago.

Now, looking at this massive skeleton, it matched the description perfectly.

Over ten meters long, a skull like a snake’s head, and two claws growing from its abdomen.

Not only that, but now under the bright lights, Fang Chenyi could see that the creature also had a pair of bone wings on its back, spanning over five meters!

’This thing not only has claws, but it has wings too!’

’Even though it’s just a skeleton, I can still feel a heart-pounding pressure lingering in the air. This thing must have been seriously badass when it was alive!’

"Looks like this really is the skeleton of a Jiao! This is incredible. If a creature like a Jiao actually exists in this world, does that mean dragons are real too?"

As he mulled this over, Fang Chenyi continued to search the skeleton.

Even with the hall lit up, Fang Chenyi didn’t turn off his tactical flashlight. He walked forward again, focusing the powerful beam on the two thick Bone Claws.

As the flashlight beam landed on it, a dazzling glint of light suddenly flashed from a gap in the Bone Claw.

This immediately energized Fang Chenyi. He hastily drew the dagger from its sheath on his leg and scraped it against the Bone Claw.

"Hehe, let’s just see what kind of treasure was so important that you’d keep clutching it even after you became a pile of bones."

CLANG~

However, when the special-steel dagger in Fang Chenyi’s hand struck the Bone Claw, it produced the sharp sound of metal on metal.

"Whoa, now that’s one tough bone!"

Muttering to himself, Fang Chenyi inserted the dagger into a crevice in the Bone Claw. He found a leverage point and applied a bit of force.

The next moment, however, Fang Chenyi was speechless to find that a little bit of force wasn’t nearly enough to pry the Bone Claw open.

This left Fang Chenyi, who hadn’t wanted to damage the skeleton’s integrity, with no choice but to apologize to the bones before increasing the force he was applying.

’No matter what this creature was or how badass it had been in life, it’s just a pile of bones now. Even if it doesn’t shatter on contact, it can’t be *that* tough.’

As he increased the pressure, Fang Chenyi quickly realized his assumption had been a bit hasty.

This wasn’t just "hard." Even prying with the special dagger and using all his strength, he couldn’t get the Bone Claw to budge even a millimeter.

SNAP~

Just as Fang Chenyi was focusing all his strength into his hands, he heard a sharp SNAP! Immediately, the resistance vanished. His hands felt light, and his entire body, thrown off balance by the sudden lack of force, stumbled and fell to the side.

Though it was an awkward fall, Fang Chenyi paid it no mind. He scrambled up from the ground and immediately looked toward the Bone Claw.

He had to see what kind of treasure it was clutching!

But the next moment, he was stunned to find that the Bone Claw was completely unharmed. Instead, wedged in one of its crevices, was half of a broken blade!

"Holy shit, my knife broke?!"

He’d thought the sound was the Bone Claw cracking open, but who would’ve guessed it was his own dagger that had snapped!

This left Fang Chenyi dumbfounded. His dagger wasn’t some shoddy piece of junk you could buy off the shelf; it was a special forces dagger that Qi Xiaotian had procured for him.

According to Qi Xiaotian, it was forged from the world’s top-ranked specialty steel for blade-making, and now it had just snapped against a pile of bones!

That just went to show how unbelievably sturdy this skeleton was!

He slid the remaining half of the dagger back into the sheath on his leg, then turned his gaze back to the Bone Claw before him.

For a moment, Fang Chenyi was at a complete loss.

’The hardest thing on my body, aside from... *that*... was the dagger that just broke. And of course, *that* wasn’t meant for this kind of job.’

Sighing in resignation, Fang Chenyi flopped onto the ground beside the Bone Claw. He took a bottle of water from his woven bag and drank, his eyes scanning the surroundings.

He was looking for anything else in the hall, anything at all that he could use to pry open this Bone Claw.

But to his disappointment, a full scan of the area revealed nothing.

"Heh, this feeling really sucks."

The feeling was as frustrating as pinning down a beautiful woman and, just as you’re about to get to business, finding out it’s her time of the month. The thought made Fang Chenyi thoroughly dejected.

He drained the water bottle and subconsciously moved to toss it back into his woven bag.

But just as the bottle was about to go into the bag, Fang Chenyi froze. He hurriedly tossed the bottle aside as a flash of excitement lit up his eyes.

’Perhaps the solution to opening this Bone Claw can be found in my woven bag after all.’

With that thought, Fang Chenyi looked toward the enormous skeleton before him.

"Heh, I think I still have one use of my special reward left, right? I just wonder what it will give me this time..."