Chapter 474: Together?

Chapter 474: Together?

The introduction of the skin feature went relatively smoothly overall. Even Augusta, who had first brought it up and enlightened Zheng Yichen, showed little interest. There was no particular reason; he was still in a state of discouragement. He had tried contacting Zheng Yichen yesterday but couldn’t get through, and he thought he was being looked down upon too, which made him even more… dejected.

Although Zheng Yichen later replied to his message, letting him know the reason for the delayed response, by then he had already been troubled by low spirits for a long time. Even with the reply, his mood didn’t improve much. It wasn’t all his fault…

Feeling this way, even after learning about the skin feature’s launch and related details on the Magic Weapon Forum, Augusta’s mood didn’t get any better. Even though he had previously thought about many skin designs—most themed around his own image—he now had no mood to work on skins at all.

Skins… This dragon urgently needs comfort right now. It would be nice if any of his clansmen said he wasn’t wrong. But why was it like this? He felt almost abandoned. Even when seen by humans, Augusta felt as if they looked down on him. Even the number of visitors was far less than for the Black Dragon and the Green Dragon!

Lord Augusta seemed to have been completely forgotten!

It hurt!

“Madam Proprietress! Why can’t this wine get a dragon drunk!?”

“Oh? You want wine that can get you drunk?” Qin walked over to Augusta. She lightly glanced at the surrounding onlookers and brought over Augusta’s now-empty cup. “That won’t come cheap.”

“This dragon has money!”

Qin smiled lightly and poured a full cup of wine from her own into Augusta’s. Under the bar’s lights, the wine in the cup shimmered with a hazy glow. “Even though it’s what you asked for, with a body like yours, getting drunk is impossible no matter what.”

“Tch, this dragon knows.” Augusta grabbed the cup and left. He went to where his true body was. Narrowing his eyes, he looked at the wine in the palm-sized cup, then poured it directly into his dragon mouth. Tasting the wine that couldn’t even fully cover his tongue, he smacked his lips. “Doesn’t seem to have much flavor either… Intoxicating? Pah, you really are a braggart… Hu~man? Humans… Ahhh~”

Augusta shook his dragon head. The view before him rapidly split into double images. A strong wave of dizziness surged into his brain. In this state, he felt unusually excited. Thoughts he had never dared to consider before came to mind. He even felt a strong sense that he could overpower that Black Dragon Sister. An impulse to fight her and win was utterly unstoppable.

“Roar roar~ Hic!!” Augusta howled at the sky. As the dizziness accumulated to a certain point, the entire dragon went limp and collapsed on the ground, letting out heavy snores.

In the bar, Qin continued to move about casually as if unaware of what happened to Augusta. The wine was certainly capable of making him drunk—not just drunk, but completely unconscious. After all, given Augusta’s current state, as the Witch of Emotions, even using an Alchemical Avatar, she could sense Augusta’s emotional condition.

His emotional state seemed low, but it was actually very unstable. A slight external stimulus could cause it to erupt. Moreover, he also had soul damage. For the Dragon Clan, soul damage could recover, but that took time; it wasn’t an instant fix. Besides, soul damage could affect a person’s self-control.

So Augusta’s current condition was very unstable. Excessive stimulation would only make him do impulsive things. Therefore, the cup of wine Qin gave Augusta not only made him drunk but also caused him to pass out completely. Sleeping soundly was actually good for him.

Augusta’s deep sleep was noticed by the Sanctuary Church. After a brief investigation and confirming the dragon had no issues, they let the matter go. The bar’s Madam Proprietress was the boss of the Purple Vine Guild; it was normal for her to have good stuff that could knock out a dragon. Besides, it was good for Augusta to sleep now. His abnormal state had already caused Kaja’s covert guards to increase their vigilance, worried the dragon might suddenly go mad and cause trouble.

A dragon’s destructive power should never be underestimated. If he rampaged in Kaja, just one Dragon Breath could cost hundreds of lives—and that’s in a less populated area. In a densely populated place, casualties would be even greater.

As for the Black Dragon and the Green Dragon, these two were quite normal. The Green Dragon was skilled in recovery. With her soul damaged, she clearly knew what she should do: stay quietly in her temporary nest to recuperate. Running around offered no benefits. While resting, she fiddled with the Alchemical Puppet she had picked up earlier… Hmm, the one left behind by Zheng Yichen.

After being pierced by the grey blade, all traces left by Zheng Yichen in this Alchemical Avatar were forcibly severed. It was now just an empty shell with no bindings. But in the Green Dragon Sister’s hands, it became a large-scale figurine.

The Green Dragon Sister also had normal aesthetic tastes for a dragon, so she didn’t find the Alchemical Puppet’s appearance particularly attractive. She played with it because she saw it as an interesting little toy, like a doll a little girl might play with. As for returning it? She had already come here, and Zheng Yichen hadn’t come to ask for it back. He probably didn’t plan to take it back, right?

Hmm, hmm. Speaking of which, she hadn’t seen this clansman’s current form yet. Although she could find some old pictures of Zheng Yichen’s true form on the Magic Weapon Forum, those were from before. What did he look like now?

Oh? Was she overthinking? That was a Little Dragon, and she was an Adult Dragon… Hmm, the gap was a bit… small!

Well, matters among the Dragon Clan didn’t have that many restrictions. Even among current dragon couples, some had age gaps of over a hundred years, or even longer. So age really wasn’t a big deal. And although Zheng Yichen was a Little Dragon, he had a great advantage: strength!

That’s right. For a dragon, fundamental strength was a must. The Dragon Clan wasn’t barbaric, but they still valued certain rules. For example, those with bigger fists definitely found mates more easily. Then wealth, looks—these could all be factored into a comprehensive evaluation. The least important factor was age!

For humans with only about a hundred years of lifespan, age was important. Setting aside the Nobles, for ordinary people, an age gap of over thirty years was hard to consider unless there really weren’t many choices. But the Dragon Clan? Honestly, age gaps of over a hundred years weren’t uncommon; gaps of several hundred years were possible too.

So if she got the chance, she really wanted to meet Zheng Yichen. Sigh… Putting down the ‘figure’, the Green Dragon Sister decided to go out for some activity. Since Augusta had gotten himself an Alchemical Avatar, why not make one herself?

If he could get one, she could get one easily too, right?

“Hmph! Where exactly is he hiding?” The Black Dragon Sister sat on a rocky hill, casting an unfriendly glance at those secretly watching her. These people didn’t have much ill intent; they just wanted to make contact, establish a connection or something. The Black Dragon Sister found them quite unappealing. If they wanted to connect, why not just come over directly? What was the point of hiding and observing?

Did they really think their hiding skills were so brilliant? Didn’t they know this sneaky approach was like flies buzzing around in front of her? They were worse than the bolder merchants!

She wanted to find Zheng Yiren. Her thoughts weren’t like the Green Dragon Sister’s. She wanted a spar. The Black Dragon Sister believed she wasn’t the strongest among her dragon peers, but she could still rank high. One or two ordinary peer dragons couldn’t beat her.

As for those older ones, also in the Adult Dragon stage, what she lacked was just the accumulation of time. But all this was shattered when she met Zheng Yichen. The magic that bound her, hard to break free from, was casually broken by Zheng Yichen. More importantly, Zheng Yichen did it using just an Alchemical Avatar. Using that, his full strength definitely couldn’t be displayed.

So was his true body already that powerful? The Black Dragon Sister was very competitive…

She wanted to find Zheng Yichen for a match to see just how big the gap between them was. But Zheng Yichen acted just as seen on the Forum. For a dragon, he couldn’t be more low-key. That’s right, considering his identity as a dragon, Zheng Yichen’s behavior was low-key…

Well, that was her thought based on having a favorable impression of Zheng Yichen. If someone didn’t know him well, they’d think he was just cowardly. She couldn’t find him in person. She tried contacting him through the Magic Weapon Summoning Book by tagging him, but he didn’t reply. Who knew what he was busy with now? Tch, she’d go to Kaja. Didn’t he have a house there? She could just block the door if needed.

The Black Dragon Sister initially didn’t want to do this. She had been saved by him before. Coming now to block his door seemed ungrateful. But since she couldn’t find Zheng Yichen anyway, she reconsidered that step. In any case… After stating her purpose, it shouldn’t be a big problem, right?

Before heading out, the Black Dragon Sister took an extra look at a post from the Sanctuary Church. This post was mainly for their communication with the Church, containing a lot of real-time information. There was also news about the Derivative Witches. Currently, the exposed Derivative Witch was still being tracked by Deya, and the Sanctuary Church was stepping up efforts to investigate the remaining Derivative Witches or other related matters.

They had leads now, and the direction of the investigation was clearer. It was confirmed that remnants of the Undying Witch could produce special entities if they went out of control, but there was too little time, so not much information had been gathered. Additionally, the Sanctuary Church had investigated the Stone Forest area and found major issues!

Probably because the Undying Witch had truly perished, a series of collapse phenomena had appeared at the Stone Forest. Currently, this collapse wasn’t severe, but according to some Spellcasters’ calculations, as time passed, the collapse would gradually intensify. During the collapse, the Stone Forest would attract a large number of Necromantic Creatures.

The Stone Forest itself might even generate entities like ‘spirits’—not Souls, but aggregates of Grudge. Calling them Souls would be giving them too much credit. But these things were even more dangerous. Cultists were very interested in them, as were some Dark Forces. Currently, the Sanctuary Church had heavily fortified the Stone Forest area and had the troublesome task of periodically clearing out the negative ‘spirits’ generated by the collapse.

As problems left behind after the Undying Witch’s ‘death’ gradually increased, the Black Dragon Sister frowned slightly after reading the post for a while. She wanted to participate in the Sanctuary Church’s operations too—not because the Church had a good reputation, but for personal reasons. She had suffered so badly at the hands of that Derivative Witch before. She wasn’t soft like the Green Dragon Sister, who, after recovering, thought everything was fine. Nor was she aimless and ambition-less like that fat dragon Augusta.

Having gone through such an ordeal, she naturally wanted payback. The best way was to fight back!

But her suggestion was temporarily rejected by the Sanctuary Church. They told the Black Dragon Sister, who had soul damage, to recuperate first. Once the situation became clearer, they would definitely call on her. For a combatant like the Black Dragon Sister, the Sanctuary Church wouldn’t shut her out; that would be a waste.

However, her injuries were truly severe, far worse than the Black Dragon and Green Dragon’s conditions. If she continued to participate in battles against the Derivative Witch being tracked by Deya, she might really die from severe damage to her Dragon Soul, which would undoubtedly cause significant trouble.

If she were to participate in combat, it would be better for her to fight Derivative Witches that didn’t directly harm the soul. Of course, the prerequisite was that her soul recovered fully. Rest was the best way, and this was an important reason to keep her from stirring up trouble for now. As for the Green Dragon, she was the most worry-free one. Even the assigned personnel thought, if only all dragons were like the Green Dragon…

Well, it was nice to think about. Dragons had many personalities. The Green Dragon Sister was probably an exception, and not necessarily always like this. Personalities could change. As she lived longer, even if her nature remained soft, she’d become more like a true dragon.

She’d just lack that excessive arrogance.

When the Black Dragon Sister went out, she ran into the Green Dragon, who also planned to go to Kaja. She raised an eyebrow slightly and looked at the somewhat surprised Green Dragon. “Are you going to Kaja too? Let’s go together.”

“Oh, oh… okay.” The Green Dragon Sister replied somewhat flustered, earning an extra glance from the Black Dragon Sister. Was her reaction that big? Was this clansman thinking about something? Come to think of it, in the few meetings since coming here, the Green Dragon had seemed a bit absent-minded…