Way of the Devil

“Praise be to the dragon god Ayka. You’ve given us food, sunlight, and a healthy body. Praise be to the nine-headed serpent dragon Dishta. You’ve given us a strong body and beautiful wings.”

Within a grayish-black and deep cavern.

A dozen seven-colored dragons with body length of more than 10 meters slowly lowered their heads. They bent low and prayed loudly to two deity statues.

Even though the seven-colored dragons had been abandoned by the dragon god and the nine-headed serpent dragon god for several thousand years, they had never given up on trying to regain the two dragon gods’ favor.

Throughout the millennia, the Seven-colored Dragon Tribe’s numbers had been greatly reduced to a dozen dragons from their initial numbers of several thousands.

They had been forced to migrate for food and territory. Although they had great arcane arts and talents, against the other Dragon Tribes with powerful resistances, the Seven-colored Dragon Tribe only had very few leaders and elders who could actually put up a fight against their primordial dragons.

The arcane arts of the other seven-colored dragons could not even break through the immunity dragon skin of the enemy Dragon Tribe.

They were shunned because they had been abandoned by the dragon gods.

Because of their arcane talents that were far superior to the humans’, the seven-colored dragons were deemed the best familiars by many legendary experts and demigods. They were often captured.

The seven-colored dragons could not even find a place to lay down their heads in this vast Bosente Continent.

They could only migrate from one underground cavern to another and feed on underground wolf spiders and other wild beasts.

The seven-colored dragons had thought about regaining their glory through their own efforts. However, their extremely low fecundity and the natural upper limits of their strength had left them powerless to change their situation.

The seven-colored dragons could only grow to the rank of high legend. That was the limit of their most powerful primordial dragons. Compared to ordinary humans, they were powerful. However, compared with other Dragon Tribes, they were a far cry.

With an individual strength like this, it was only considered below-average among the Dragon Tribes. On top of that, their fecundity was way lower than the other Dragon Tribes.

Within the cavern, there was a female dragon that was a head taller than the other seven-colored dragons. She looked on at her fellow tribesmen who prostrated themselves before her with a gentle and compassionate gaze.

“Today’s a day worthy of celebration.” Her cool voice resounded throughout the cavern.

“Out of the 13 dragon eggs we, seven-colored dragons, have produced over the century, four of them have finally hatched.”

Nobody made a sound in the dragon cave. However, all of the seven-colored dragons had a look of great joy in their eyes.

For the seven-colored dragons, who were almost as insignificant as specks of dust, the addition of four new members was an incredible feat.

“Our tribe has worked hard for the past 100 years, and we’re finally being rewarded… Four new members… They should be taken care of by the dragon queen,” one of the seven-colored dragons spoke loudly in joy.

He was Keboye, a male dragon who was the sharpest and most unkind in the tribe. However, at this moment, he displayed a look of deep delight, which was a rare sight.

“That’s right. These children have lost their parents. We’ve lost too many of our tribesmen in the consecutive battles before this. Their hides had been stripped to make armor, their eyeballs made into arcane Artifacts, and even their brains were made into magicubes that stored dragon souls!” said the female dragon, Xindi, who was in charge of incubating the eggs. She had always been determined and had always carried out her duty with the same determination. “But, we will never give up!”

“Yes! We will not give up, even if the dragon gods have given up on us!” said a male dragon in his deep voice which brimmed with a vicious tone.

“No! It’s just that the dragon gods have yet to see our efforts! They haven’t seen our piety. They’re testing us, they’re testing the Seven-colored Dragon Tribe!” the dragon queen chided.

The few seven-colored dragons who did not agree with this lowered their heads. Although they had lowered their heads, this did not mean that they agreed with what the dragon queen had said.

“Enough. Send the four hatchlings to my cave. I’ll do my best to teach them everything I know,” said the dragon queen, Eernie, slowly.

“Understood,” the other seven-colored dragons hastily replied.

***

Lu Sheng exerted force with the back of his neck. With a firm kick, the eggshell which bound his body was broken.

He forcibly kicked open a human head-sized opening on the top of the one-meter-tall dragon egg.

This was a wonderful experience. He had Arrived in an unhatched dragon egg. The hatchling in the dragon egg had already formed its own consciousness; hence, it had extremely strong wishes as well.

Before the hatchling even had a name, it already had a strong urge to avenge its parents’ death and turn the Seven-colored Dragon Tribe’s fate around.

‘To restore the Seven-colored Dragon Tribe and keep it from vanishing in the dust of history.’ Lu Sheng sat within the eggshell and looked up at the dim light which now reached the inside of the egg.

‘Although this karma is generic, it’s not something an ordinary child can come up with… Looks like this high Dragon Tribe is unlike the other tribes.’

He could sense the powerful energy which coursed through him naturally.

The energy was like Spiritual Power and True Essence. It flowed along his meridians and blood vessels. However, unlike Spiritual Power and True Essence, the energy was divided into many attributes. They also possessed the potential to corrode another being’s body.

‘In other words, this body possesses great resistance to corrosion. If the bodily constitution is slightly weaker, it’ll be difficult to be optimistic about the outcome.’ Lu Sheng scanned his own body and immediately understood its key features.

According to the Dragon Tribe’s inherited memories, this energy was called magic power.

Magic power, in itself, contained extremely powerful destructive power and corrosive power.

It did not corrode the seven-colored dragons alone. It was even capable of corroding and tainting any living being on the continent.

‘This magic power aside, according to my inherited memories, it seems that this Seven-colored Dragon Tribe is in quite the dire straits…’ Lu Sheng removed an eggshell shard from atop his head and lost himself deep in thought.

Judging from the sounds of the daily prayers outside, it was highly possible that there were gods in this world.

He managed to move his body. He extended his fleshy claws and broke more of the eggshell.

Then, he squeezed out of the egg with all his might.

The eggshell was as crisp as could be. He had basically depleted the nutrients stored within it already.

Lu Sheng tried hard to climb out. He had just stood still when he felt a huge shadow coming over him. A huge dragon nudged his back gently with its head.

“I’m so happy to meet you, my brethren. I am Eernie, your foster mother and the dragon queen of the Seven-colored Dragon Tribe.” The giant dragon stared at him with kind and tender eyes.

Lu Sheng moved his limbs. A seven-colored dragon newborn could already move about and stand still. However, they could not walk straight just yet.

He raised his head and looked at this huge colorful dragon who was a dozen meters tall.

“What’s your name?” asked the dragon queen Eernie.

Lu Sheng paused for a while and recalled his memories. The youngling before this had come up with a name for itself, Omis.

However, he did not like this name.

“Rargh!”

He opened his mouth to let out a roar.

‘So this is why the dragons have the surname Ao.’ He suddenly understood why the dragons in the Chinese legends all had the surname Ao.

Lu Sheng gave his answer some thought before he adjusted his vocal chords, and answered, “I’m Delin Anka, which means hope and salvation.”

The seven-colored dragons spoke the Dragon Language as well. This was the most important part of his inherited memories.

Besides that, most of his memories contained the basic knowledge and understanding of this world.

In the Drago Language, Delin Anka meant hope.

The dragon queen was slightly stunned. Then, she nodded with a smile. She bit the skin behind Lu Sheng’s neck lightly and placed him down in a pool filled with thick liquid.

“Plomp!”

Lu Sheng was directly dropped into the pool.

The pool was filled with a thick purple liquid which shone with a mysterious luster.

“Take a nice, long bath. This is magical enlightenment liquid. It can enhance your arcane constitution and has a certain possibility of raising your arcane talents,” Eernie instructed gently.

Lu Sheng instinctively struggled. However, he quickly noticed that three other lizard-like young seven-colored dragons were dropped into the pool as well.

The three younglings exchanged glances. They quickly gobbled down the magical liquid around them.

Lu Sheng gave them a few glances and decided to ignore them.

Although the younglings inherited the memories which enlightened them, their experiences and minds were a far cry from his.

‘This magical liquid… doesn’t seem to be pure liquid. It seems to be half liquid, half liquified, high concentration magical power. There should be some kind of art around this pool that’s keeping the magical power liquified,’ Lu Sheng guessed.

His extremely immense spirit could already sense the dense energy contained within the liquid.

The energy contained an extremely powerful corrosive and invasive property. In a dozen seconds, he felt itching and pain all over his dragon skin.

The magic power seeped through his skin and began corroding his internal organs as it coursed along his muscles and bones.

‘This so-called magic power resembles the magic power told of in the Western legends back on Earth. It’s very corrosive. I don’t think a youngling’s constitution can withstand this corrosion for more than a few minutes.’

Lu Sheng turned to look at the other three younglings. They were displaying looks of pain.

He carefully felt about in his body. His internal organs were being corroded by the magic power.

There were pros and cons to this corrosion.

The benefit was that after being immersed in magic power, his affinity to the elements and arcane arts would be heightened. The longer the process was, the greater his arcane talents would become.

The downside was that his own constitution would be weakened. His body’s strength, agility, and regeneration powers would be diminished.

The decrease was irreversible.

Lu Sheng could not influence this corrosion for the time being. He could not control this dragon body perfectly with his spirit. This world’s rules suppressed him greatly as well. There was even the existence of gods here.

He gave it some thought. He did not use the Qianshen Method’s Soil Qi to nourish himself and increase his talents.

For him, these talents could be made artificially and were not rare or precious. Hence, he would not risk exposing his uniqueness over this.

‘The difference in time flow of this world is about 150. The normal growing phase of a seven-colored dragon is about 300 years. I have ample time to slowly grow up here, to learn and improve myself at the normal pace. This way, I won’t be exposing any abnormalities about myself.’

Soon enough, Lu Sheng came up with a plan. The moment everything about this world was sent into his mind, he knew that this place would most likely be his next source of Mental Energy.

There were primordial dragon tribes which lived up to 100,000 years here. There were also high and mighty gods who were unshakable since time immemorial.

With such long-standing life forms and such a long history, it was completely possible for items storing vast amounts of Mental Energy to be produced.

Other items aside, the inherited relics and regalia were surely terrifying objects that had accumulated countless Mental Energy.