The Saga:
Dragon Heart
Land of Demons
Book VII
By Kirill Klevanski
Text Copyright © 2020 Kirill Klevanski
All rights reserved.
No part of this book can be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
Introduced by Valeria Kornosenko.
Translated by J. Kharkova
Edited by Damir Isovic
Cover designed by Julia Jdanova
Illustrations by Valery Spitsyn
Prologue
Hello all!
My name is Kirill Klevanski and you are reading my adventure LitRPG wuxia saga.
The whole story is planned out and will have 2000 chapters. Now the story has almost 1500 chapters spanning 16 books.
7 books are translated into English and released.
To read from the beginning of the story (click the link):
Dragon Heart: Stone Will
Have a pleasant reading!
Chapter 534
In a hollow, hidden from the eyes of the sky pirates by overhanging trees, lay a man. His worn-out and patched clothes had turned into tattered, dirty rags at this point. Every inch of him was covered in blood or terrible wounds. His breathing was irregular. With each breath he took, an unnatural, painful whistle could be heard. Even an unskilled healer would’ve immediately known that his ribs were broken and his lungs had been punctured. He let out a soft groan. Every movement he made and every breath he took caused him terrible pain. Despite the fact he was a mid-stage Heaven Soldier, it was hard to imagine that anyone could’ve survived such a fall.
A tiger cub crawled out from the remnants of his shirt. She stretched, yawned, and looked at the poor man. The little tigress cocked her head to one side and let out a low growl. Streams of blue-white energy swirled around her. Flashes of blue fire and white lightning bolts could be seen within them. Suddenly, the vortex of power contracted and a huge tigress leapt out of it. Her fur was white with black stripes. She lowered her head. When she was almost touching the wounded man’s face with her muzzle, she frowned.
All the wild animals that had been stalking toward their potential dinner instantly scattered in all directions. They were afraid of the Ancient Beast aura that was emanating from the tigress, who lay on her belly on the cold, blood-drenched ground. As carefully as she could manage, she picked up the young man by the edges of his clothes. The man groaned again in pain but didn’t wake up as the tigress placed him onto her back. Once he was situated on her thick fur, the tigress coiled her tail. Wrapping it around the man’s torso, she held him tightly and snarled as she straightened up.
Her roar, meant to demonstrate her power, which was equal to the peak of the Spirit Knight level, reverberated throughout the valley. Like an avalanche, it swept away most of the predators that might’ve tried to fight her. The roar said: I, a mighty tiger, am coming through. Anyone who stands in my way will die to my claws and lightning bolts!
The weak beasts got out of her way. The ones that were stronger didn’t want to waste their time and energy fighting an Ancient Beast. If the core of a human Spirit Knight had been at stake, they would’ve considered attacking, but since it was just a Heaven Soldier’s core… The stronger beasts finally decided to go away and let this stranger leave their forest. The tigress didn’t intend to claim any of their territory or to hunt here, after all. She didn’t pose a threat to their power and authority. It was sometimes much easier for animals to reach a mutual understanding than it was for humans.
Making sure that her unfortunate, trouble-prone friend wouldn’t fall off her back, Azrea made her first leap. There wasn’t much time left — the Hunting Spirits would soon be coming for his soul. If she didn’t hurry, her two-legged friend would go to the eternal hunting grounds.
Lightning shrouded in blue fire raced through the forest. From time to time, one could catch a glimpse of a huge tigress within it.
***
A carriage drawn by six horses rolled steadily down the wide, well-kept Lascanian road. After a week of travelling, its passengers were sick of everything: the monotonous landscapes, the empty small talk and discussions about the way of cultivation, and, most of all, each other. Right now, they were immersed in deep meditation. They were disciples of the small ‘Red Mule’ school situated close to the border. They were heading to that very border with the Darnassus Empire to test their skills in real battle. According to their Masters and Mentors, this was the only way for a cultivator to become a true warrior and get a chance to advance further along the path of cultivation. However, none of them had warned their disciples that the journey to the border would be so boring.
“Damn it!” One of them, a young man, slammed his fist against the armrest of his seat. Fortunately, he didn’t put any power into it, otherwise, since he was at the initial stage of the Heaven Soldier level, he would’ve easily smashed it to pieces. “I’m going mad with boredom! Why don’t any sky vessels ever depart from our town?”
The two girls that had been keeping him company were roused from their meditation. They looked at each other and simultaneously rolled their eyes.
“Derek,” the pretty brunette said with a tight smile. All three were seventeen springs old. “It’s probably because our Baron can barely maintain his own schooner, so having a fleet would be too expensive for our region.”
“I know,” Derek, the Baron’s son, murmured.
He stroked the hilts of his daggers and looked out the window. The forests and fields merged into a yellow-green blur. He looked at the cloudless sky and the merciless, scorching sun.
Derek hated Lascan’s western border. Even more than that, he hated Darnassus. That’s why, the moment the opportunity to visit the battlefield had presented itself, Derek had pounced on it. Gritting his teeth, he clutched the medallion that had been left to him by his mother, who hadn’t lived to see her son get accepted into the ‘Red Mule’ school, the best martial arts school in their Barony.
“Look!” The third member of their group suddenly exclaimed — a tall, slender girl with cloud-white hair.
She was gesturing toward the path that led into the forest. At first, Derek and the brunette didn’t understand what their friend was pointing at. But, a moment later, they grabbed their weapons and jumped out of the carriage. As soon as the door opened, the six horses stopped and energy shields flashed around the carriage. Magic hieroglyphs and runes swirled over its roof. The light they radiated thickened and covered the trio. The girls both held whips in their hands. Energy that was as red as blood flowed through their weapons. Derek, armed with daggers, clenched a long needle between his teeth. It was an artifact given to him by his father. It could launch an attack equal to that of a peak Spirit Knight’s.
“By the demons and gods!” The white-haired girl gasped. “It’s an Ancient Beast!”
“What’s a monster like that doing so close to the Darnassian border?”
The girls looked at their friend, but said nothing.
“And why isn’t it attacking us?” Derek added.
The tigress that radiated the aura of an Ancient Beast was standing at the edge of the forest and looking at the trio. She wasn’t growling, beating her tail against the ground, or showing any signs of hostility at all.
“By the gods, look at what’s on its back!”
As if hearing the girl’s words, the tigress turned sideways.
“Is that a person?”
Chapter 535
Derek was the first to recover from his shock. Without lowering his weapon, but still trying to project respect and friendliness, he approached the tigress. Up close, the beast looked even more menacing. As soon as Derek reached for the man on the monster’s back, she let out a low growl.
“By the forefathers,” Derek whispered, trying to conceal his sudden fright, “I’m not going to hurt him. I only want to help.”
Unconvinced, the tigress continued to growl, baring her sharp fangs, lightning running up and down her snow-white, black-striped fur. Nevertheless, she moved her tail aside after carefully lowering the wounded man to the ground.
“Alea, Irma, help me!” Derek shouted. “Bring some medicine!”
The girls looked at each other. Irma, the white-haired one, ran to the trunk attached to the back of their carriage. Taking out a few bundles wrapped in rags, she ran over to the tigress. Alea had already joined Derek there, and had just finished pulling her thick brown hair into a tight bun.
“We need to adjust his ribs first or he’ll die,” she said.
“I see that your healing lessons are paying off, sister.” Irma smiled.
Ignoring the compliment, Alea pulled a long, curved dagger from her boot. The tigress, upon seeing the weapon, growled louder, and her pupils became narrow slits.
“Calm down, venerable beast,” Alea said, carefully cutting away the rags on the wounded man’s chest. “I’m planning to save his life, not take it.”
The tigress seemed to calm down at that. The trio had no doubt that if she’d wanted to, she could’ve already taken their lives. The fact she hadn’t had to mean that she trusted them.
“By all the demons and gods!” Derek exclaimed as he laid eyes on the man’s exposed torso. “He has more scars than Mentor Noise, and he served on the border for well over a century!”
“And tattoos,” Irma whispered, mesmerized. She reached for the mysterious symbols, but pulled her hand back, scared away by the tigress’ menacing smile. “That one is a Name,” she said, pointing at the man’s forearm and shoulder. “I don’t know what the black one on his chest means.”
They were all certain that the tattoos were more than mere decoration. A cultivator’s body was special — no ink would stay on their skin for more than a day. Any tattoo that didn’t have a bit of energy in it would simply disappear. Of course, there were those who liked to draw meaningless patterns on themselves, but there were only a handful of such people in the world. Each tattoo directly affected the cultivator’s energy body, after all.
“Stop talking and help me!” Alea hissed. “Derek, boil some water. Irma, I need ‘Strong Spirit’ and ‘Boundless Sky’ pills!”
The two nodded and rushed to carry out her orders. Why were they so eager to save a dying stranger? Just because their honor demanded it? Actually, yes. There was no honor in allowing a dying person to reach the threshold of their forefathers’ home if you could help them. As long as he couldn’t take care of himself, they’d treat him like their own dying brother.
“I just hope he isn’t a Darnassian spy,” Derek grumbled, boiling water right in his hands. “I don’t want to fight him later.”
The tigress snorted and thumped the ground with her tail. She lay quietly, her tongue hanging out, observing what was happening with great interest. She didn’t look like a dangerous predator anymore, but like a kitten. A very large, muscular, and incredibly strong kitten.
“A Darnassian spy that doesn’t have any weapons or armor?” Alea soaked some bandages in boiling water, then uncorked several jars of fragrant ointments. “Your paranoia sometimes gets on my nerves, Derek.”
After soaking the bandages, she began to carefully wrap them around the deepest wounds. Every time the bandages touched his skin, the man would let out a pained groan.
“Here you are!” Irma took two pills out of the bundles.
“Thank you.”
Alea snatched the alchemical substances out of her sister’s hands. After placing them in a mortar, she looked around and plucked some herbs, then cut off a lock of the stranger’s hair with her dagger and splashed some water into the mortar. She channeled energy through her palm and turned the ingredients into a mass that had an odd, brownish color. Gently lifting the man’s head, she pinched his nose and poured the medicine into his mouth.
A second later, the wounded man gulped it all down instinctively. He jerked and then stilled. His breathing gradually steadied, and the wound on his chest began to disappear. His bones creaked as they popped back into place, and the pained whistling turned into steady breathing.
“Crisis averted,” Alea wiped the sweat from her forehead.
“Do you really think it-”
A low growl interrupted Derek. The tigress, after glaring at the young man, turned back to Alea.
“Seems like it does understand us,” Derek whispered, his face suddenly pale.
“We have to take him to Fort Boltoy,” Alea continued, “Otherwise, I’m afraid he’ll die from the injuries that have been inflicted on his energy body. I can maintain his meridians and nodes for some time, but he needs more help than I can give him.”
The trio stared at the tigress. She lay on the ground for a while, and then, rising, she growled and covered the thirty feet that separated her from the carriage in a single bound. The horses reared and neighed at first, startled by the presence of such a powerful predator. The tigress snarled and the horses froze. Seemingly bound by crippling terror, they decided that the only way to survive was to submit.
“I wonder if we’re any different from them…” Derek murmured.
Nobody answered him. They made a stretcher out of their cloaks and sticks they found nearby, then placed the man on it.
“Why is he so heavy?” Derek whined, causing the girls to roll their eyes again.
The wounded man was rather tall, but he didn’t seem to have a lot of muscle. He was lean like most swordsmen, but he had no sword, no armor, no insignia or recognizable marks, only a ring on his finger and some rags that served as his clothes.
Passing by the tigress, the trio laid the man down on the wide sofa inside the carriage. Alea covered him with a blanket, put a rolled-up raincoat under his head, and then moved to close the door.
“Oh crap!” The trio shouted in unison.
They watched as the tigress kicked off with her hind legs and leapt into the air. Irma even closed her eyes. When she opened them, she found herself not on the threshold of her forefathers’ home, but still sitting opposite the injured man. None of them had been mauled by the Ancient Beast. Actually, the beast appeared to be gone. Instead, a white cub was curled up on the stranger’s chest and snoring peacefully.
“Oh, gods help us!” Derek said wearily.
Chapter 536
Derek, Alea, and Irma, the disciples of the ‘Red Mule’ school, had been traveling with the wounded stranger for two days now. He was a quiet and pleasant companion. He didn’t ask rhetorical questions like Derek did, didn’t admire the monotonous views like Irma, and didn’t philosophize like Alea. He just slept, sometimes groaning in pain. Whenever he did that, Alea, welcoming the chance to stop arguing with Derek and Irma for a bit, would treat him. She kept him alive, not allowing his severed meridians to stay without energy for long, lest he end up going to his forefathers before nightfall.
“So… You think,” Derek drawled, casting yet another curious glance at the injured man, “that he fell from somewhere?”
“Yep. He fell from somewhere high up in the sky, and then, apparently, rolled down a rocky slope.”
“Are you sure that’s even possible? A Heaven Soldier wouldn’t have survived that, even if they had an Earth level Technique for Strengthening the Body.”
“Perhaps someone tried to turn him into a sack of flour, so they tossed him into a giant mill,” Alea teased.
“I’m serious!” Derek snapped, angry that she wasn’t taking him seriously.
“And I seriousl
y don’t understand why you care so much about how this man ended up in this situation!”
While those two were arguing, Irma was playing with the cub. She seemed to have forgotten that, just recently, the Ancient Beast had made her blood run cold with terror. Now she was watching the cub trying to catch the sunbeams.
“He could be a Darnassian spy.”
“Of course!” Alea moved her hand away from the injured man’s arm. He began to breathe more evenly. “It’s common knowledge that all Darnassian spies have an Ancient Beast as their companion, are always dressed in rags, and travel without any weapons or armor on them.”
Derek gritted his teeth, but he let the insult go. Commoners like Alea and Irma normally had no right to offend a noble like himself, but their difference in social status was offset by the fact that they were all disciples of the inner circle, and that after graduation, both Alea and Irma would receive the same noble title that his father had now. On top of that, the two of them were just as strong as he was.
“His ring,” Derek almost growled.
Alea glanced at the simple signet ring on the injured man’s right index finger.
“It might just be a family heirloom,” she shrugged dismissively.
“I don’t know why you’re so determined to believe that he’s a good guy.” Derek’s eyes shone with malice. “That ring is a spatial artifact.”
“What makes you say that?”
“My father and I went to see our Duke when I was a child. One of the Viscounts there boasted about buying a similar ring. I memorized its energy structure. This ring has a similar structure, only…”
Alea looked interested now. In their Duchy, which was neither rich nor poor, only the Duke and his children, the Viscounts, could afford simple spatial artifacts. It was hard to imagine just how much such a ring could cost, but she was certain that, for that much coin, a person could buy the entire Barony and the ‘Red Mule’ school as well.
Dragon Heart: Land of Demons. LitRPG Wuxia Series: Book 7 Page 1
