As the low-level crawlers retreated like a tide, the atmosphere in the fortress immediately eased. The dragon's attacks were intermittent, and since a B-class dragon had died this time, there would be no immediate threat.
In the center of the vast wilderness, the colossal dragon, its scales already dim, lay with its head bowed in the giant pit it had created. A group of researchers in white coats were discussing how to transport the behemoth back to the Beijing laboratory.
After centuries, humanity still knew too little about dragons. Of course, the more research subjects, the better.
Bai Cha had no mood to care about these things. She took Laura directly back to the top-floor room. Not only Laura, but her complexion was also a little pale.
Although it looked like she had resolved the giant dragon, which even ordinary dragon riders would have taken considerable effort to deal with, in reality, she knew she had gone all out. Both her attacks and the timing were meticulously calculated. The high-intensity mental exertion and爆发 in a short period left her unavoidably fatigued once she relaxed.
Laura breathed a sigh of relief. His abilities consumed quite a lot of energy, and as soon as he entered the room, he sat directly on the floor. The semi-transparent little dragon separated from his brow and landed on his knees, looking listless and lacking spirit.
Bai Cha frowned slightly, sat down on the sofa, and pulled the phone from her waist clip, starting to input a message.
[Bai Cha: Mission complete.]
[Gong Yuechen: So quickly?? It only started not long ago?]
Bai Cha couldn't be bothered to reply to her excitable superior. Leaning her head against the sofa, her developing chest rose and fell, lost in thought.
"Beep beep."
Gong Yuechen seemed to sense that Bai Cha didn't want to engage with his chatter. He did find having a capable yet willful subordinate a bit of a headache, but he still had to say what needed to be said.
[Major General Gong: Tomorrow, the national organization will resonate with dragon embryos. You are almost eighteen. Find a helper, and future missions will be much easier.]
[Bai Cha: No.]
Bai Cha's reply was concise, leaving Gong Yuechen momentarily speechless. He decided to make a video call.
A blue laser beam shot out from the phone screen, forming a blue LCD screen that flickered with a highly technological blue light, rippling with waves. Gong Yuechen's stern, almost punchable face appeared on the screen.
"I say, Bai Cha, this is not the time for you to be stubborn. The frequency of evil dragon resurgence is getting faster and faster, and technology alone can't suppress it!" Gong Yuechen persuaded her earnestly from the other side of the screen. "Isn't your Bai family the shadow of the nation, the last line of defense? You are the only one left in the Bai family. If you can't do it, what will we do?"
"Don't give me that nonsense." Bai Cha poured a mouthful of cold water down her throat and directly pulled Laura, who was resting nearby, over. "You explain to him why I don't want to resonate. It's outrageous, Gong Yuechen, do you know what it feels like to use dragon power after resonance?"
Gong Yuechen blinked. Although he held a high position, he hadn't resonated with a dragon and truly didn't know what it felt like. After all, once one resonated with a dragon, they would be incorporated into an academy for unified management and learning, and they didn't really understand the matters of Earth's major dragon rider academies.
"Uh, it's, uh." Laura looked at the Major General on the screen, his face suddenly blushing uncontrollably, and he stammered, "After resonating, if you want to use the dragon's power and merge with the dragon, you will, you will feel like you've been seduced..."
Gong Yuechen was bewildered: "...What!? Speak up, what feeling?"
"It's like your whole body is being swept! Think about it! Because it's full body energy alignment!" Laura covered his face, feeling as if his thirty years of life had been utterly disgraced. Everyone knew about this, but it was too embarrassing, and almost everyone avoided mentioning it.
However, without merging into the body, it was impossible to achieve 100% resonance, and the power gained could not be fully utilized. Therefore, even if the feeling was a bit strange, it still had to be used. The integration still had to happen as planned.
Even though they were all used to it, saying it out loud still felt strange. Laura and the dragon on his knees covered their faces, wishing they could dig two holes and bury themselves.
"Did you hear that? I don't have a fetish for being groped all over by reptiles." Bai Cha irritably placed the teacup on the table. "If I don't merge with the dragon, I can only use forty percent of its power. What's the difference from having none?"
"Ahem, who said that? If you can resonate with an Ancestral Dragon, then you don't have to merge," Gong Yuechen said, looking at the blushing Laura, somewhat awkwardly changing the subject. "A B-class dragon without full fusion is forty percent, an A-class dragon without full fusion is sixty percent, and an S-class Ancestral Dragon can reach eighty percent of its power without fusion. Perhaps you'll be lucky enough to resonate with an Ancestral Dragon..."
As he spoke, seeing Bai Cha's grim expression, Gong Yuechen's voice grew weaker and weaker, losing his confidence.
There were only fourteen S-class Ancestral Dragons discovered in the world. Seven were Light Holy Dragons, and seven were Dark Demon Dragons. The seven Light Holy Dragons, being kind and affinity-friendly, had all hatched long ago, so it was certainly not Bai Cha's turn. Of the seven Dark Demon Dragons, only two had hatched, leaving quite a few.
However, these dragon-like creatures, like demons, preyed on human souls, which were their favorite food.
Generally, when dragons and humans resonate, they achieve spiritual connection and mutual support, with a wondrous telepathic bond that makes them dependent on each other. For Demon Dragons, it was uncertain whether emotion or food was more important.
The higher the class of dragon, the lower the chance of resonance. The good ones like the Light Holy Dragons had already been taken by others. However, if she resonated with a Demon Dragon, to ensure the Demon Dragon's safety around others, they would likely have to send people to monitor her, which was one of the reasons Bai Cha didn't want to try.
After all, once a Demon Dragon consumed its master's soul, it would become an independent entity. If it lost control, it would be a catastrophe.
"In short, Bai Cha, just go try it, consider it a mission." Gong Yuechen spread his hands helplessly. "Perhaps you'll contract an A-class dragon. Sixty percent of the ability is also better than nothing. Dragon Calamity is very useful, believe me."
"Of course I know Dragon Calamity is useful..." Thinking of Laura's move just now, it was impossible not to want it. After all, such an ability that transcended human limits was somewhat aspirational.
Although this still didn't change the fact that Laura couldn't defeat her, she also had her own abilities, but it was somewhat against heavenly principles.
It was just...
As if recalling something, Bai Cha leaned back on the sofa with annoyance, not even looking at Gong Yuechen's face, and directly hung up the phone.
Gong Yuechen stared at the suddenly darkened screen, speechless for a while, and decided that next time he would give this brat a good lecture.
"Let's go." Bai Cha stood up, walked past the slumped Laura, opened the door, and stepped out into the night without regard for Laura's calls behind her.
She was just a support force. The battle was over, so naturally, she had to leave. As a shadow, she could never contend for fame or fortune.
Besides, she didn't care.
The night receded the color of blood, and the stars shone particularly brilliantly in the dark night sky, as if countless eyes were in the firmament, silently looking down upon the earth.
Sensing the surrounding wind, Bai Cha stopped, leaned against a lamppost, and sighed. A hint of weariness finally flickered in her indifferent, starlike eyes.
Yes, Gong Yuechen was right. She was the only one left in the Bai family. If she was gone, what would everyone else do? So she had no reason to refuse, and no reason to stop.
From when she was young, from when she could first undergo intensive training, she had no room to refuse. She couldn't even prevent her parents' sacrifice, because she was from the Bai family, the shadow of this country.
"Mom, can I not go?"
Under the bloody sky, Bai Cha was only eleven years old.
She held her mother's hand, and her mother, this gentle as water woman, was covered in solid scales at this moment. Even so, she was covered in wounds.
This was the manifestation of over-activating dragon blood. Once dragon blood use exceeded the body's capacity, it would cause irreversible damage. The body would gradually dragonize, its power would increase, but it would also gradually become a beast. At the moment of complete dragonization, the brain would explode due to the inability to withstand the surge of dragon blood.
"No, my darling, Mom is from the Bai family." The gentle as water woman, even with ferocious scales covering her face, her eyes were still so beautiful, like the soft and bright light reflected on the water's surface.
But why was this battle so fierce? The report said there would only be three A-class dragons here, but there were three times as many.
Even so, this gentle woman displayed her sharp, knife-like side. The weapon in her hand shone with a cold light like water, reflecting the blood and shooting straight into the sky.
[Dragon Calamity • Beidou]
Bai Cha would never forget that night. Under the crisp and difficult incantation from her mother's mouth, the bloody sky was forcibly parted, revealing a dark firmament.
That faint, illusory star, symbolizing the dead, suddenly appeared in the sky and landed on the Big Dipper. As if propelled by something, it moved down from the first star along the Big Dipper's handle, one by one, illuminating the Big Dipper like a miracle.
With Polaris as the central axis, the Big Dipper inverted, and the dim starry sky suddenly lit up, this dazzling light even surpassed the bright moon.
Blood mist, stars, merged together at this moment.
The Bai family was the last bottom line of Z-country. Everyone was behind them, so they could not fail. As long as they were deployed, they had to be the first to die, even if it meant death.
Therefore, her mother could not fulfill her plea to stay, even knowing she would die, even knowing this operation was suspicious, she could not fulfill her daughter's request. Even if there was a trap, she had to jump in. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
"Sigh..."
Under the lamppost, a soft sigh escaped Bai Cha's thin lips. She gently stroked the necklace around her neck. At the bottom of the delicate silver chain was embedded a crimson crystal, like a teardrop of blood, which seemed to weep and mourn under the light. This was the memento left by her parents.
Sometimes Bai Cha could faintly sense the vitality within this crystal, as if a heart was beating.
Time flew by. Who in the world could remember people like them from the Shadow faction? They lived their lives in obscurity, their souls scattered, their dust settling on the earth, without even a cenotaph left behind.
Although she had long been accustomed to it, accepted it, and understood it, yet, on a certain night, when she suddenly remembered, she still felt a sense of desolation.
Bai Cha was silent for a long time. In the desolate outskirts, by the dim lamppost, she sat down, buried her face in her knees, and her shoulders trembled slightly as she leaned against the cold tombstone.
For centuries, in the struggle between dragons and humans, in the whirlpool of human hearts, countless sacrifices had been made. What could sever that bloody chain and break through that bloody firmament?