Shen Luolin’s raspy shout sounded as if he had used the last of his life force, sending a hollow echo through the deathly silent Dragon Temple.
“Moyin… catch it!”
The diamond-shaped Dragon Crystal suspended in mid-air was translucent, radiating a pure and pristine luster. It rotated quietly, gently illuminating the broken, silver-haired figure on the ground.
Moyin’s consciousness drifted on the edge of agonizing pain and stupor. That light forcibly dragged her back from the abyss of despair.
The Emperor was also startled by this sudden development, but only for a moment. In the next second, his lava-like vertical pupils erupted with a madness of greed and fervor more intense than ever before!
“Eternal life… this is true immortality!”
He let out an irrepressible roar. No longer caring about Moyin on the ground or his own bone-deep wounds, his massive body transformed into a bolt of distorted golden lightning. His giant dragon claw, carrying a force capable of world-ending destruction, lunged straight for the Dragon Crystal in the air!
He could feel it. The energy contained within this object was more than one hundred times purer than Rheinside’s withered heart! This was the final, and most perfect, piece of the puzzle on the path to the Realm of the True Dragon!
“Don’t even think about it!”
Driven almost entirely by pure instinct, Moyin forced her shattered body to move. She didn’t know what that object was, but her only thought was that she could never let this enemy have his way!
She gritted her teeth until they cracked, forcing down the metallic taste of blood welling in her throat. Exhausting her last bit of strength, she gathered a wisp of silver dragon flame — so weak it was almost invisible — from her fingertips and shot it toward the Emperor’s back.
To the Emperor, this silver flame was truly negligible. He didn’t even bother to block it, wanting only to seize the Dragon Crystal before the flame struck him.
However, just as he was about to touch the crystal, the faint silver flame arrived. The two did not collide directly, but Moyin’s aura as a dragon descendant instantly triggered the massive power slumbering within the Dragon Crystal!
The Emperor’s lunging figure and the silver flame Moyin had fired formed a delicate balance on opposite sides of the crystal. The Dragon Crystal suddenly erupted with ten thousand rays of light. A majestic, irresistible surge of energy exploded outward from its center. It was no longer a simple explosion, but a targeted repulsion!
The blast of air accurately sent the Emperor flying, yet it gently cradled the exhausted Moyin.
*Woooong — !*
A distant, desolate chime echoed from within the Dragon Crystal. The crystal burst with an unprecedented brilliance, and a soft yet supremely majestic barrier expanded outward from its center with a thunderous boom!
The barrier easily swallowed the Emperor’s counterattack before slamming hard into his massive body.
The Emperor let out a scream of disbelief as he was violently blown back by that force, crashing heavily into the distant stone wall. Golden dragon scales shattered and scattered across the floor.
At the same time, the soft barrier completely enveloped Moyin. The ritual had been forcibly triggered in a way no one had expected!
Inside the barrier, warm energy flowed like a tide, tenderly wrapping around Moyin and surging into her limbs and bones. The five deep, bone-exposing claw marks on her back and the old sword wound that had pierced her chest were all being repaired at an incredible speed.
The tearing pain receded, and her cold body regained its warmth. She could move again.
Once the ritual began, it could not be interrupted.
She slowly pushed herself up. The strange, warm power flowing through her body dispelled the chill of death, but it could not wash away the coldness and chaos in her heart.
She instinctively looked outside the barrier. Hatred still boiled within her as she watched the Emperor frantically attacking the curtain of light. But when she turned her head and her gaze fell upon the man beneath the stone wall — whose aura was so weak it seemed it would vanish in the next second — her hatred felt as if it were being strangled. It became entangled with a sense of panic she couldn’t understand and didn’t want to admit.
‘Why… why save me?’
Aila’s smiling face that looked worse than crying, the look of absolute determination when he stabbed her in the heart, and everything else that defied logic before her eyes… Hatred still churned in her chest, but a greater sense of confusion and chaos threatened to completely crush her sanity.
She leaned against a nearby stone pillar and stood up unsteadily. Staring fixedly at Shen Luolin through the gentle curtain of light, her voice was cold and raspy from her previous screaming, yet it carried a tremor she hadn’t noticed herself.
“Don’t think… that I’ll forgive you just because of this!”
“Listen to me, Luolin!” she screamed with all her might, but her voice carried a broken, sobbing tone. “I haven’t forgiven you yet! I haven’t… made you pay the price! So, without my permission, you aren’t allowed to die!”
“You owe me, you owe Aila, and you owe everyone… I want you to live! I want you to spend your whole life atoning, and I want to hate you for a lifetime! Do you hear me!”
Upon hearing this most vicious yet innocent curse, Shen Luolin’s eyes, which had already begun to lose focus, miraculously regained a glimmer of light. He looked at her, at the girl enveloped in the curtain of light who was roaring at him so childishly.
The corners of his mouth actually curved into a weak, yet incredibly tender smile. That smile carried the relief of someone who had finally achieved his goal. There was even a hint of self-deprecation, as if he could finally lay down all his burdens.
In the next second, starting from his raised fingertips, his body began to turn into specks of shimmering white light without any warning. Like dandelions scattered by the wind, he slowly dissipated into the air. Those particles carried a warmth like the hearth fire of the Snow-Returning Cottage.
“A lifetime… that’s too much trouble.”
His voice was as light as a sigh, yet it clearly pierced through the barrier and fell upon Moyin’s heart.
“Besides… I’ve always been the type of person who hates loose ends.”
He weakly raised his vanishing hand, pointing toward the Dragon Crystal in the air from a distance.
“So, let’s leave it at this. Paid off… all at once.”
A long-buried memory crashed brutally into Moyin’s mind along with those warm particles of light.
It was in the warm study of the family castle. Her younger self was leaning against her tall, burly father’s knees, curiously fiddling with his dragon-clawed hands.
“Dad, what is the most important thing for us Dragonbloods?” She looked up, her silver eyes full of innocent curiosity.
Rheinside let out a hearty, loving laugh. He retracted his sharp claws and used his broad, warm palm to gently stroke his daughter’s soft silver hair.
“It’s the Dragon Crystal, my dear little Moyin,” his voice was deep and gentle. “It is like the sun for our dragon kin, the source of all our strength and life.”
“Then… can the Dragon Crystal be given to someone else? To the person I like best!” Little Moyin waved her fists, looking entirely serious.
The smile on Rheinside’s face faltered slightly before becoming incredibly solemn. He picked his daughter up so they were at eye level. His majestic golden vertical pupils were filled with tenderness and gravity.
“The Dragon Crystal is tied to one’s life. It cannot be transferred, nor can it be seized.”
“Unless… its owner is willing to give it to the next successor at the cost of their own life.”
Seeing his daughter’s confused gaze, Rheinside sighed and pulled her into a tight embrace. Resting his chin on her small head, he whispered softly, “So, if you meet someone in the future… someone willing to entrust their most important thing to you, you must treasure them well, Moyin.”
“No…”
The coldness and stubbornness on Moyin’s face shattered completely at that moment.
She finally understood where that Dragon Crystal had come from. It wasn’t some holy relic that had appeared by chance!
‘It was Master’s life source… something he had been nourishing inside himself with his own life essence!’
The moment that thought arose, the shimmering white particles surging toward her were no longer just warm energy. Each particle carried a broken frame of imagery, a silent memory, flooding into her mind!
She saw it! She saw the bloody battle in the North, where her father, Rheinside, entrusted a dim crystal to that young Frost Wolf Knight.
She saw his lonely silhouette trudging through the wind and snow to find her.
She saw his silent, cold profile when he faced the exclusion and misunderstandings of his colleagues.
She saw the resolve in his eyes to keep his promise when he pierced his own chest!
Finally, she saw her father’s eyes before he died, filled with entrustment and love, and heard the words he spoke to her across time and space:
“…If you meet someone in the future… someone willing to entrust their most important thing to you, you must treasure them well, Moyin.”
*Boom — !*
All the images and voices converged into one cruel truth at this moment!
He wasn’t the enemy who had exterminated her clan. From the very beginning, he was the guardian chosen by her father, entrusted with the last hope of the dragon race!
He hadn’t pierced her dragon heart to seize power, but to use the power of the Dragon Crystal to rebuild her foundation! From the moment he accepted her father’s request, he never intended to walk out of this Dragon Temple alive!
Surging energy poured frantically into her body, repairing her wounds and elevating her power, yet it also acted like shackles, pinning her to the spot, unable to move.
She could only watch. She watched as the man’s form became more transparent and illusory amidst his gentle smile.
“No… No!!”
She let out a piercing cry that didn’t sound human. She lunged toward the curtain of light, reaching out to grab the vanishing specks of light, only to grasp at cold nothingness.
“Master — !!!”
Amidst Moyin’s heart-wrenching cries, Shen Luolin’s figure finally transformed completely into a shower of shimmering white light. The light rain circled for a moment, as if saying a final goodbye, before all of it merged into the translucent Dragon Crystal.
Finally, the entire Dragon Crystal turned into a streak of light and sank into the space between Moyin’s eyebrows.
Outside the barrier, the Emperor watched this miraculous scene in shock. After a brief moment of stunned silence, his lava pupils revealed a gaze that was even more pathological and feverishly greedy.
A living vessel that had perfectly inherited the Dragon Crystal! As long as he killed her and absorbed her… he would become the only True Dragon in this world!
Inside the barrier, Moyin felt the majestic power within her, a mixture of grief and love.
She slowly raised her head.
After absorbing the Dragon Crystal, Moyin successfully underwent a dragon transformation. Behind her, a pair of massive and magnificent wings tore through her flesh and suddenly unfurled.
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