Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 472 – Long Ye Takes the Bait

The ten-thousand-pound steel gate swung fully open.

Heavy footsteps echoed through the empty underground cavern.

The newcomer wore a black robe patterned with cloud motifs, a pair of dark-gold dragon horns atop his head. His face was grim and sinister, his gaze utterly cold.

The oppressive aura of a mid-stage Level 8 expert poured out without restraint.

Long Cang and the other Level 7 guards on duty felt their legs give way and dropped to their knees, prostrating themselves without daring to raise their heads.

The mutated beasts that had just endured a bloody battle and were still in a frenzied state now cowered trembling in their cages, not daring to breathe too loudly.

Lin Fan, mixed in among the guards, knelt on one knee with lowered eyes, perfectly playing the role of a reverent collateral dragonkin.

Second Elder, Long Ye.

Lin Fan sneered inwardly.

She remembered the debt from that strike at Border Dragon City all too clearly.

Long Ye paid no attention to those kneeling on the ground. He strode straight through the blood-soaked floor to the edge of the central spatial teleportation array.

He stopped, his golden vertical pupils fixed on the dark-red runes on the ground. His immense Mental Strength spread out like liquid mercury, sweeping inch by inch across every corner of the array.

Lin Fan kept her head lowered, her breathing steady.

She understood the nature of Spatial Ability well.

Spatial laws possessed an inherent absolute concealment. Unless one was also a space-based ability user, it was impossible to detect residual Spatial Fluctuations.

Zhou Ming’s tampering had been a substitution carried out entirely on the spatial dimension—the physical rune patterns on the array remained completely unchanged.

A full minute passed before Long Ye withdrew his Mental Strength.

The array was intact. The Energy Circuits of the ten bone pillars were functioning normally.

Long Ye turned, his gaze landing on Long Cang.

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Smack!

A slap delivered across empty space.

Long Cang, a mid-stage Level 7, was sent flying backward, slamming heavily into the rock wall and spraying a mouthful of blood.

“A tidal wave of a million beasts, and you nearly destroyed the teleportation array.”

Long Ye’s voice was utterly flat, yet carried a bone-piercing chill.

“Long Cang, this is how you manage the beast pens?”

Long Cang didn’t bother wiping the blood from his lips. He scrambled back to his original position and knelt, his voice trembling: “Second Elder, please calm your anger! The Wind-blade Wolves in the west sector somehow bit through their locks and charged into the north sector, triggering a riot. Then the Earth-walking Lizards rammed into the Venom-Fang Pythons in the south sector…”

“Enough.”

Long Ye cut him off.

His cold gaze passed over Long Cang and locked directly onto Lin Fan, who stood at the edge of the west sector.

“Four sectors, three explosions. The south, north, and east sectors all fell into chaos.”

Long Ye walked slowly toward Lin Fan, his leather boots making sticky sounds as they trod through the blood water.

“Yet your west sector, the one you’re in charge of, only lost a few hundred Wind-blade Wolves?”

The air instantly froze.

The gazes of Long Cang and the others snapped over as well.

Indeed—why had this woman’s sector suffered the least damage?

Lin Fan raised her head, meeting Long Ye’s scrutinizing gaze.

Her eyes held three parts reverence, seven parts calm—perfectly matching the bearing expected of a collateral genius.

“Reporting to the Second Elder.”

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Lin Fan’s voice was cool and clear.

“When I took over the west sector, I noticed the beasts were emotionally unstable. During my patrols, I used my Level 7 pressure to intimidate them three times over. When the riot first broke out, I immediately used Spirit Energy to seal the weld points of the Earth-walking Lizards’ iron cages. As for those few hundred Wind-blade Wolves—they were too fast, and I couldn’t stop them.”

Half truth, half falsehood—watertight.

Long Ye turned to look at Long Cang: “Is what she said true?”

Long Cang gritted his teeth. Though jealousy gnawed at him, he dared not lie before Long Ye: “To answer the Elder, it is indeed so. When Long Ningshuang was on patrol, the western district was noticeably quieter than the other areas.”

Long Ye turned his gaze back to Lin Fan.

His golden vertical pupils narrowed slightly as he studied this unfamiliar face.

“Long Ningshuang.”

Long Ye suddenly let out a cold laugh.

“A collateral bloodline managing to break through to the seventh rank. Fifteen years ago, there was also a collateral prodigy who threw the Council of Elders into complete chaos. I despise nothing more than you self-important collateral kin.”

The moment his words fell, a tangible pressure—that of a mid-eighth-rank expert—descended like a crushing weight, bearing straight down on Lin Fan.

This old fox is suspicious as ever.

Lin Fan cursed inwardly, but her body reacted instantly.

She controlled every bone in her body to emit strained, groaning sounds of protest. Her legs bent slightly, fine beads of sweat broke out on her forehead, and she clenched her jaw so hard her teeth ached—yet she stubbornly withstood the pressure, refusing to collapse entirely.

A flicker of surprise passed through Long Ye’s eyes.

To withstand half my pressure without kneeling—this woman’s foundation is more solid than I imagined.

“The genetic ceiling of collateral bloodlines is the peak of the sixth rank.”

Long Ye withdrew his pressure, his tone icy.

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“Speak. How did you break through?”

Lin Fan gasped for air, putting on a show of lingering terror.

“To answer the Elder.”

She lowered her head, her voice carrying a slight tremor.

“Half a year ago, I entered a Rift connected to Blue Star. There, I killed several high-level Evolved beings from Blue Star and devoured their flesh and blood, along with a kind of transparent bone. After I returned… I broke through to the seventh rank.”

At these words, Long Ye’s pupils abruptly contracted.

“All of you—get out.”

Long Ye barked coldly without turning around.

“Anyone who sets foot below ground without my command will answer for it.”

Long Cang and the others fled as if pardoned, scrambling and crawling out of the underground passage.

The heavy steel gate boomed shut once more.

At the edge of the empty formation, only Long Ye and Lin Fan remained.

Long Ye clasped his hands behind his back, staring fixedly at Lin Fan, his breathing unconsciously growing heavier.

Devouring Blue Star humans.

White bones.

Those were the “Crystal Bones” unique to Blue Star Evolved beings.

The Ancestor’s ultimate plan—he was one of the very few within the Dragon Emperor Hall who knew of it.

The Ancestor regarded Blue Star as a breeding ground, his purpose being to harvest those humans and thereby shatter the shackles of the ninth-rank peak, ascending to the legendary tenth-rank divine throne.

Long Ye had always assumed this was merely a convenient excuse for conquering Blue Star.

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But he never imagined that merely a few high-level Blue Star humans could allow a lowly collateral Dragonkin to break through the bloodline genetic barrier that had stood insurmountable for tens of millions of years!

“What rank were the Blue Star humans you devoured?”

Long Ye lowered his voice, a barely perceptible urgency creeping into his tone.

“Roughly… equivalent to our Dragon Clan’s fifth rank.”

Lin Fan answered honestly.

Long Ye turned away, gazing toward the deep underground vault above, a tempest raging within his heart.

A few fifth-rank Blue Star humans could shatter the bloodline limit of the sixth-rank peak.

If he—a mid-eighth-rank—were to devour several seventh-rank or even eighth-rank Blue Star powerhouses?

The poisonous weed of greed began to spread wildly in Long Ye’s heart.

Within the Dragon Clan, hierarchy was strictly enforced. Grand Elder Long Zhan held a position above him, and the Dragon Emperor was unfathomably deep.

He had been stuck at the mid-eighth rank for thirty full years, unable to advance a single step.

If he could secretly enter Blue Star before the Ancestor descended and devour those top-tier human powerhouses in large numbers… wouldn’t he be able to break through the peak of Level Eight, or even touch the threshold of Level Nine?

By then, it would be anyone’s guess whether he or Long Zhan would have the final say in the Council of Elders!

Lin Fan kept his head lowered, catching from the corner of her eye Long Ye’s clenched fists and rapid breathing.

He’s taken the bait.

She understood the psychology of these self-serving individuals all too well.

As long as there was enough profit at stake, even the most tightly-knit organization would crumble from within.

Long Ye’s greed would become the blade she wielded to stir chaos among the Dragon Clan’s upper echelons.