Dragonblood: Book 2 of the Coiling Dragon Saga

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  The feeling he gave Linley was that he wasn’t weaker than Kaiser at all.

  “Shut your mouth.” Riding in the center of this convoy was an extremely fat man, who was wielding a giant battleaxe in his hands. It danced like a vicious blur in his hands, clearly possessing tremendous power.

  “Father? Is that the Chairman of the Dawson Conglomerate?” Linley secretly mused.

  With a few leaps, Linley reached the convoy in seconds.

  “Boss Yale, Reynolds, George!” Linley shouted loudly.

  Yale, who was in the middle of shouting, was startled, and he couldn’t help but turn to look. Reynolds and George, who had been maintaining their silence while riding, turned to look as well. Seeing the blood-splattered Linley, and that familiar-looking little Shadowmouse, Bebe, on his shoulders, the eyes of all three of them turned instantly red.

  “Third Bro!”

  All three of them cried out in joyful unison.

  71

  Fleeing in Panic

  When the Chairman of the Dawson Conglomerate, Monroe Dawson, saw what was going on, he immediately ordered, “Halt!”

  In unison, all of the riders immediately pulled sharply on their horses’ reins. The horses rose high in the air on their hooves, then came down and halted.

  “Release the young master,” Monroe Dawson instructed. The red-haired warrior of the ninth rank in charge of Yale’s protection and escort waved his hands, and the ropes covering Yale instantly split apart. Yale immediately jumped down from the horse. As for George and Reynolds, they had jumped down long ago already.

  “Third Bro, are you okay?” Reynolds was so excited that his eyes were red.

  “Third Bro, this is wonderful! I knew you would be fine!” Yale said excitedly.

  George didn’t say anything at all, just thumping Linley on the chest.

  “Third Bro, let’s go. Leave Fenlai City with us,” Yale immediately said, and Monroe Dawson also spoke out now. “This would be Linley, right? Come along with us. As long as we aren’t attacked by a Saint-level combatant, our safety should not be a problem at all.”

  Monroe Dawson desired very much to have Linley be a member of the Dawson Conglomerate.

  What the Dawson Conglomerate lacked the most was Saint-level combatants!

  “No need. I have some affairs to settle. Boss Yale, Second Bro, Fourth Bro, you leave first.” Linley shook his head.

  “Third Bro, are you actually going to…?” Yale shouted in shock. Yale already guessed at what Linley was planning.

  Linley nodded. “Right.”

  Clayde. He had to die!

  Last time, he failed because of the Saint-level Fateguard, but Linley believed that, given it was already extremely rare for a ruler of a kingdom to possess a single Fateguard, there was no way that Clayde could be in possession of a second one. Right now, the Saint-level combatants of the Radiant Temple were all focused on saving their own skins. It was highly unlikely that they would care about protecting a king at this point.

  “Boss Yale, you can leave now. I’ll go find you all later,” Linley said.

  “There’s too many magical beasts here this time. I’m afraid that the Ernst Institute is going to be attacked as well, given its proximity to Fenlai City. We won’t be heading back to the Institute. After reaching a safe location, both Reynolds and George plan to go back to their own empires. As for me…I’ll follow my father for now,” Yale replied. George and Reynolds both nodded.

  “Good. Then in the future, I’ll go looking for you all. Boss Yale. Second Bro. Fourth Bro. Farewell.” Linley stared longingly at his three good bros, nodded heavily a single time, then turned and leapt in the opposite direction at high speed, travelling over a hundred meters in three steps.

  Yale, Reynolds, and George all understood that seeing this Third Bro of theirs again in the future would be quite difficult.

  The three of them immediately mounted their horses. “Go!”

  The Dawson Conglomerate’s convoy headed out once more.

  This day, countless clans within the City of Fenlai were on the brink of annihilation, and the Debs clan was no exception. The clan leader, Bernard, had been crushed to death by the Violet-Eyed Goldfur Ape’s foot, along with the successor, Kalan. The other clan members didn’t have any time to consider who the next clan leader should be, because immediately afterwards, they suffered an even greater loss. Magical beasts began attacking the Debs clan’s manor.

  Guards, servants, maids, clan members… they all died, one after the other. The people of the Debs clan all went wild, grabbing what valuables they could get their hands on and fleeing in all directions. By now, nobody would think about helping others.

  “Big sister Alice, what should we do?” Rowling was stunned.

  Alice was stunned at first as well, but now she recovered. “Come with me,” Alice immediately shouted. Alice was a magus of the fourth rank, after all, while Rowling was a warrior of the fourth rank. Considering their ages, this was actually quite impressive. But in a situation where magical beasts of the fifth rank were everywhere, they didn’t have the ability to resist at all.

  Leading Rowling, Alice rushed into Kalan’s room and grabbed two magicrystal cards from a drawer.

  “Little sister Rowling, each of these two magicrystal cards have a hundred thousand gold coins in them. They’ll be enough for us to survive on. We can go now.” Alice handed Rowling one of the magicrystal cards, then they rushed out of the manor together. One of them was a magus, the other was a warrior.

  They were in fairly good physical condition, and were able to run quite agilely.

  “Save me! Ah!”

  A maid frantically ran past Alice and Rowling, while behind her a Windwolf was in hot pursuit. The Windwolf viciously charged directly to her, then snapped directly at her throat. Staring at Alice and Rowling, the maid’s eyes were filled with the desire to keep living. But then, her eyes grew dim and faded.

  Rowling stood there, staring stupidly at the spectacle.

  “Hurry, let’s go!”

  Alice pulled at Rowling’s hands. To try and be benevolent right now was to court certain death. Right now, even combatants of the ninth rank didn’t dare to be too self-sacrificing, much less them. In the City of Fenlai, there was currently more than ten Saint-level combatants, and nearly a hundred magical beasts of the ninth rank.

  The lower ranked magical beasts were even more plentiful, especially the fifth- and sixth-ranked magical beasts such as the horde of Windwolves, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands alone. There were only a million or so denizens in Fenlai City to begin with, and most of them only possessed strength at the first or second rank. They had no chance of fighting back.

  “Rip!” Alice and Rowling, these two weak girls, ripped off the dress part of their wedding gowns, so as to allow themselves to run faster.

  “Big sister Alice, there are magical beasts up ahead,” Rowling suddenly called out.

  “This way.” Alice pulled Rowling by the hand, rushing towards a small alleyway.

  But after crossing through the alleyway, they saw that the other side also had magical beasts. Alice and Rowling were forced to stay in the middle of the alley, between two manors. But suddenly, from the other side of the alley, a Vampiric Iron Bull charged towards them.

  “Let’s go!” Alice pulled strongly at Rowling’s hands, and they rushed out of the alleyway. They ignored the magical beasts up ahead. There were many people up ahead as well, after all. Those magical beasts might not necessarily target the two of them. They continued to charge forward as frantically as they could.

  Their breaths were hoarse and ragged. This life and death juncture had increased their anxiety to the highest level.

  “Howl!” “Howl!” Suddenly, from behind them, over ten Windwolves suddenly charged forward at high speed. Windwolves were simply too fast, possessing more than double the speed of Alice and Rowling. Very soon, the ten Windwolves would catch up to them… and at the same time, up in front of Ali
ce and Rowling, an enormous Landwyrm appeared.

  The Landwyrm was large enough that just by standing there, it blocked off almost half of Greenleaf Road. And with that draconic tail… there was nowhere for Alice and Rowling to flee.

  “Big sister Alice…” Rowling felt somewhat hopeless.

  Alice looked at that enormous, two-story-tall Landwyrm, then at the ravening pack of Windwolves charging in their direction. She couldn’t think of any way to escape at all.

  “Am I going to die?” Alice couldn’t help but tightly embrace Rowling. At this moment, she too felt that all hope was lost. From behind, the ten Windwolves were about to arrive, their white fangs gleaming with a cold light…

  A beautiful flash of violet light.

  The heads of the ten Windwolves instantly flew apart. A human figure descended from the heavens, then charged directly towards that enormous Landwyrm.

  “That is…” Alice and Rowling stared stupidly at the person who had suddenly saved them.

  Alice could clearly see who it was.

  “A long, long time ago, something like this happened as well.” A lost look in her eyes, Alice stared at that figure. It was Linley. In truth, Linley’s own residence was located right across the street from the Debs clan’s manor, and right now, Alice and Rowling were only a few dozen meters away from Linley’s manor.

  Linley wouldn’t just watch someone die without helping, after all.

  “Haaaargh!”

  Twisting his waist, Linley applied power to his legs, kicking out forcefully like the snapping of a whip. Like an iron whip, Linley’s leg snapped out, piercing through the air with a shriek as it landed against the skull of the Landwyrm.

  And as this was happening, Linley’s legs suddenly became covered with black scales.

  Demidragon form!

  “Bam!”

  This kick was simply too fast. Caught off guard, the Landwyrm was unable to react, and its skull exploded from the force of Linley’s blow. The enormous body of the Landwyrm collapsed, slumping to the ground.

  Linley landed on the ground. Rowling and Alice, watching all of this, were somewhat stunned.

  “Big… big brother Linley…” Alice said softly.

  Linley turned to look at them, a frown appearing on his face. Linley didn’t have the spare time to lead these two girls around, but if Alice and Rowling were to be here by themselves, they would definitely die. But then, Linley suddenly saw a squad of knights charge over at high speed. Within this squad of knights was an old man riding a handsome stallion. It was Managing Director Maia of the Proulx Gallery.

  Under this assault by the magical beasts, the collections within the Proulx Gallery were essentially finished. Director Maia was only able to collect the most important pieces within his interspatial ring of holding.

  These ‘interspatial rings’ were extremely valuable and rare. Even Director Maia only had one because his clan had passed one down.

  “Director Maia,” Linley shouted loudly.

  Seeing Linley, Director Maia was extremely excited. “Master Linley, you are here!” The people Director Maia admired the most were those master-level sculptors, so naturally, Director Maia greatly admired Linley, this young man who was able to so easily carve out a sculpture that was almost on the same level as Proulx and Hope Jensen.

  There were actually very few people who knew about Linley’s attempted assassination of King Clayde. In the outside world, the story was that a demon had attempted to kill King Clayde. Naturally, Director Maia didn’t know the truth.

  “Master Linley, come along with us.” Director Maia was very confident.

  The martial force of the Proulx Gallery was quite high. As long as they weren’t attacked by a Saint-level magical beast, they definitely wouldn’t find surviving to be a problem.

  “Director Maia, no need. But I hope you can help me. These two girls have some ties to me, and I hope you can take them to a safe location,” Linley instructed.

  “No problem. But Master Linley, Fenlai City is not safe right now,” Director Maia hurriedly said.

  “No need. I have affairs to settle. I entrust these two girls to you.” After he spoke, Linley immediately disappeared into his manor. Alice and Rowling exchanged glances, and then were immediately ordered by Director Maia to mount a horse and integrate into the convoy.

  “He… actually didn’t say a single word to me.” Alice suddenly felt a little heartsick.

  The sound of hoof steps unabated. Director Maia’s convoy, along with Alice and Rowling, departed.

  Only now did Linley emerge from his manor, bearing a black parcel on his shoulders. This parcel contained several magicrystal cards, some of the remaining Bloodrupture poison powder, and Blueheart Grass.

  “Bebe, now we head to the palace.”

  “Boss, let’s go have ourselves a slaughter.” Bebe was excited as well.

  Linley immediately led Bebe and moved at high speed towards the palace.

  Quite a few people had already fled, but Clayde had gone into the royal treasury instead. How could Clayde abandon the riches of the royal clan which had been accumulated for countless years? The wealth of a royal clan was an incredibly large figure.

  The Debs clan, at its prime, was worth perhaps a hundred million gold coins.

  But a corrupt major official such as Duke Patterson had also managed to accumulate around a hundred million gold coins. As for the wealth stored within the palace treasury, that was worth far more.

  Within the treasury.

  “This is the wealth that has been accumulated by countless generations of rulers of Fenlai over thousands of years.” Staring at the treasures within the treasury, Clayde didn’t have too much time to ponder. He grabbed the most valuable items and directly absorbed them into his interspatial ring. As a king, Clayde had been lucky enough to procure an interspatial ring as well.

  “And these 32 magicrystal cards.” Clayde looked at the magicrystal cards in his hands.

  These 32 magicrystal cards were all un-bound, and they represented thousands of years of wealth that had been accumulated by the kingdom. Each card contained within it a hundred million gold coins. The 32 magicrystal cards, in total, represented a wealth of 3.2 billion gold coins. This was a terrifying sum. Perhaps even some of the major clans of the Four Great Empires didn’t have such a large sum of gold.

  A popular saying was that the easiest way to make money was to become a king. The wealth that had been accumulated by kings over thousands of years was naturally astonishingly high.

  “The capital, Fenlai City, is finished.” Clayde turned to give the remaining treasures one last look, then ground his teeth and left.

  But what Clayde didn’t realize yet was that it wasn’t just the capital which was finished. The entire Kingdom of Fenlai had now become the territory of magical beasts! He, Clayde, was no longer a king! What’s more, it wasn’t just the Kingdom of Fenlai that had been destroyed; a huge amount of the territory belonging to the Holy Union was being rapidly devoured and claimed by magical beasts.

  72

  One Hand

  In a secluded courtyard within the palace, the most important members of the royal clan of Fenlai were gathered, including Clayde, his wives, and his many children.

  “The entire City of Fenlai is swarming with magical beasts. We definitely cannot all travel together in a large group, as that would attract some extremely powerful magical beasts,” Clayde said solemnly. This reasoning was something everyone understood, and was the reason why Director Maia and Monroe Dawson were travelling in small convoys.

  Convoys of a few dozen people were everywhere in Fenlai City, and weren’t remarkable at all.

  But a convoy of several hundred people would draw the attention of magical beasts of the ninth rank, and perhaps even result in an attack from a Saint-level magical beast.

  The most dangerous thing one could do right now was to attract attention from magical beasts.

  “Carre, you and your mother shall lead a divi
sion of the Wildthunder squad soldiers. Here are five un-imprinted magicrystal cards. Remember, this represents thousands of years of wealth accumulated by our clan!” Clayde looked solemnly at his son.

  There were too many people in the royal clan. They had to go in separate packs.

  Clayde didn’t want for his clan to be annihilated. By going in separate packs, the chances of at least some surviving would be greater.

  “Yes, father.” Carre was overjoyed.

  Thousands of years of accumulated wealth… how much would that be worth?

  “Shaq, you, your mother, and your younger sister will also lead a division of the Wildthunder squad soldiers. Here are five magicrystal cards for you as well.” Clayde withdrew another five magicrystal cards and handed them to his second son. Both of the princes were extremely excited.

  Clayde’s face was very solemn. He said, “The elite soldiers of our clan will be divided into these three divisions. Carre’s, Shaq’s, and my own. No matter who manages to survive in the end, at least our clan will continue. Enough, let’s head out!”

  “Kaiser, as the instructor for the Wildthunder Regiment, you will come with me.” Clayde looked at Kaiser.

  “Yes, your Majesty.” Kaiser nodded.

  The Wildthunder Regiment was the most powerful defensive regiment within the Kingdom of Fenlai. The entire regiment, including Kaiser, only consisted of a hundred people, giving each squad only 33 soldiers. But although they were small in number, they were high in quality. Even the weakest member of this regiment was a warrior of the seventh rank.

  Divided into three squads, the royal clan immediately began to flee in three separate directions.

  “Swish!” Linley leapt up at a high speed. At the same time, there was a violet flash of light, and the Thunderwing Pegasus that was harassing Linley suddenly split into two halves. Linley continued to run forward, making his way towards the palace at high speed.