Chapter 565 Lion, Dragon

Just as no one had ever produced concrete evidence proving the existence of a wolf-like creature such as the [Battle-Hardened · Blade Lord], this fantastical entity only appeared in ancient epics and rumors. It lacked even a universally agreed-upon appearance.

A young, sickly, introverted swordmaster claimed it was an elderly, heavy-breathing silver wolf. A grizzled veteran returning from the hell of war believed he had seen a massive red wolf covered in shattered armor and scars.

An enlightened martial artist, living in seclusion deep in the mountains to single-mindedly pursue the art of the sword, had glimpsed a pair of profound wolf eyes hidden within the phantom arcs of his swinging blade during a state of extreme focus.

Many people claimed to have seen this legendary creature, including Legendary rank figures who had left their names in the history of the kingdom and even the Aifala Continent. However, every description of the wolf varied so drastically that it was difficult to draw any cohesive conclusion.

As time passed, the creature became much like an urban legend from Xia Nan's past life—a conceptual existence that people no longer took seriously.

It eventually reached the point where ambitious individuals trying to make a name for themselves would deliberately fabricate such encounters to boost their own prestige, even if they had never experienced anything of the sort.

Having transmigrated into this world nearly two years ago, Xia Nan had never heard of the creature before entering the Secret Realm. All his knowledge of it came from his Attribute Panel, so naturally, he had no idea what it actually looked like.

In reality, after confirming his evolutionary path, the changes to his body vastly exceeded his expectations.

The metallic carapace that had adhered to his body after his Fourth Evolution quietly melted away. His cyan-gray mane, which had once radiated a cold, hard luster, was dyed a familiar pitch-black.

His frame expanded once more, yet he didn't appear bloated in the slightest. His streamlined body and slender limbs gave his overall form an air of sharp, agile grace.

In just a few seconds, he transformed from a hideous war machine into a giant black wolf that felt inexplicably familiar to his senses.

He looked somewhat similar to Kalosh, the uniquely colored Winter Wolf he had seen in the dream of the [Dream Weaving Corridor]. Yet, the way his mane swayed when the fierce winds swept across the plains made him look like the blurry wolf shadow formed by pitch-black Qi when he unleashed [Fang Hunt].

Xia Nan didn't think the so-called [Battle-Hardened · Blade Lord] actually looked like this, but combining it with the information about the creature he had gleaned from his Attribute Panel, he immediately understood the changes to his body.

'So—from my perspective, is this what this legendary creature is supposed to look like?'

The changes to his outward appearance and the reasons behind them were worth exploring in depth. At the same time, being in the Ritual Secret Realm meant the changes to his combat strength were equally crucial.

First, Xia Nan could feel that the physical strength of his current wolf body had surpassed his Fourth Evolution state in every aspect.

Whether it was Strength, Agility, or his control over his own body, everything had received a massive boost.

Next was his combat style.

He had previously worried that he might lose his wolf-wielding-sword combat ability after his evolution, interrupting his chance to use the precious opportunity within this Ritual Secret Realm to master his combat technique combinations in wolf form.

In reality—

"Buzz!"

With just a slight shift in his thoughts, a stream of pitch-black Qi, like ink, condensed beside the wolf's head.

His Wolf's Maw bit down in a fluid motion, and a pitch-black longsword—formed from pure gaseous energy, its outline blurry yet radiating an indescribable sharpness—was caught in his jaws.

Both its length and weight perfectly suited his current body.

He opened his Wolf's Maw slightly, and the gaseous blade instantly dissolved into a flow of energy that scattered into the air. It was incredibly convenient.

Xia Nan breathed a sigh of relief.

Beside him, Sarissa, Lorraine, and Sasha had patiently waited for him to finish his evolution.

Since he couldn't expose his Attribute Panel, he naturally didn't give them any specific details about his current form.

Yet, just from his outward appearance and their instinctive animalistic sense for powerful entities, they could feel the massive leap in power he had achieved after his Fifth Evolution.

"I wonder how Dodd is progressing. He might have already completed his sixth evolution," Lorraine said cautiously, her brows slightly furrowed, unaware that the Fifth Evolution was the limit. "If we want to stop the ritual, we have to pick up the pace."

The giant wolf nodded, agreeing with the captain of the Blade of Vengeance.

In Xia Nan's view, even with the help of his Attribute Panel and Sarissa, there was likely still a significant gap in progress compared to Algae Scale Dodd, who had probably spent years preparing for this ritual.

Leaving aside any unknown advantages Dodd might possess, the sheer information gap regarding the ritual's mechanics was probably enough for the pirate to completely eclipse the other adventurers.

If Xia Nan were in Dodd's shoes, just relying on this wave of airdrops and the monster deployment, preparing early would yield enough life energy to leave every other participant in the Secret Realm entirely in the dust.

He didn't believe for a second that Dodd would waste those two precious opportunities.

"Rumble—"

Having just met up with Lorraine and finished absorbing the life energy, Xia Nan had been in the middle of discussing their next plan of action with his teammates.

Suddenly, a massive booming sound echoed from his side.

He instinctively turned to look. In the direction he had come from, right at the border between the plains and the forest, the previously transparent boundary of the map had taken on a faint red glow that instilled a sense of sheer urgency in anyone who saw it.

The speed at which it was shrinking inward had also visibly increased several times over.

The airdrops and the Fire Elemental that had just crashed down from the sky were fundamentally ways to accelerate the ritual's process.

Whether the number of remaining adventurers on the map had reached a certain threshold or the ritual's timer had hit a specific milestone, the accelerated shrinking of the Secret Realm's boundary clearly meant that this massive ritual orchestrated by Algae Scale Dodd was nearing its end.

The wolf's eyes subconsciously swept over the teammates standing beside him.

The current intelligence he had gathered was that the twin warrior brothers, Ryan and Gordon, had never been pulled into the Secret Realm. The barbarian Aken, the druid Hein, and Lorraine's older brother Ellison had all already exited the ritual. Adding in Lorraine, Sarissa, and Sasha beside him...

Out of their entire allied camp, the only one whose status remained completely unknown was the halfling Alton, the chosen of the Goddess of Luck.

'What kind of state is that little guy in right now?'

Xia Nan wasn't entirely worried about him, however.

After all, given the impression the halfling had left on him, if he were to put it bluntly—even if the entirety of Stodd Island sank to the bottom of the sea right now, the little guy might just be saved by a randomly passing dolphin and safely escorted to land.

"Huff— Huff—"

Rapid panting echoed through the forest.

An adult male lion with bizarre, rock-like skin and a dull, coarse gray mane dragged his heavy body, sprinting frantically through the dense woods with immense effort.

On the surface of his skin, which looked like solid stone and boasted incredibly strong defensive capabilities, large numbers of bloody, gaping wounds remained.

They were clearly fresh. Blood oozed uncontrollably from some of the injuries due to his intense movements. Paired with the shredded leaves and grass clippings sticking to him, this lion—who should have looked majestic and fierce—appeared exceptionally miserable.

The gleam of sapience flickering in his eyes made it highly probable that he, too, was an adventurer swept up in the Secret Realm.

Tieg felt his luck hadn't been very good lately.

As the captain of the Raging Tide Warband, even if their encounters on Stodd Island had been somewhat within his expectations, everything had spiraled completely out of control after being pulled into this ritual supposedly held by Algae Scale Dodd.

With incredible foresight, many years ago when he had first founded the Raging Tide Warband, he had made detailed plans with his members for all sorts of unexpected emergencies they might encounter on their adventures.

That included scenarios exactly like this one, where the team members lost their original bodies and were scattered everywhere, unable to easily identify one another. Tieg's countermeasure was for everyone to adapt to their environments, use the Raging Tide Warband's secret identifiers to regroup as quickly as possible, and then leverage their numerical advantage to secure a favorable position.

Naturally, one couldn't call it a bad plan.

In fact, in many instances, such a rally would be entirely feasible and highly effective.

Unfortunately, the core mechanic of Algae Scale Dodd's current ritual was slaughter and evolution. What's more, direct competitors who held deep grudges against them—like the Windforged—were also present.

Tieg only came to this stark realization after he killed a venomous snake—possessed by some adventurer attempting to ambush him—and absorbed its life energy to complete an evolution.

Regrettably, the elite adventurers of his squad had already entered the Secret Realm, and he could no longer communicate with them. Thus, from the perspective of his physical body in the real world, Tieg could only watch helplessly as the fluorescent blue lights in his peripheral vision—symbolizing the survival of his teammates—snuffed out one after another.

Limited by his perspective, he didn't know how many of his teammates were still alive behind him, but it was clear that the Raging Tide Warband had suffered heavy casualties.

To some extent, the fact that he still hadn't encountered a single teammate despite the Secret Realm's shrinking boundary was enough to prove the point.

Fortunately, he was fairly adaptable, and the combat strength of his initial species was above average compared to the other adventurers.

After a bout of exploration, he had already completed his Second Evolution. He figured he belonged to the first tier of power among all the adventurers in the Secret Realm.

Similarly driven to accelerate his progression by the shrinking Secret Realm, he had recently been drawn to a mass of life energy falling from the sky, mistakenly believing he could profit from it.

But when he dragged his heavy, boulder-like body to the drop point of that fluorescent blue light, the site was already a total mess. Mangled beast corpses were scattered everywhere, and life energy—representing dead adventurers—floated above them.

In the center of the battlefield stood an Air Elemental with a Challenge Rating as high as Level 5.

The good news was that after Tieg's Second Evolution, this unfamiliar monster with a lion's form and rock skin largely countered the Air Elemental.

Whether it was wind blades or lightning bolts, they could only leave ordinary wounds on his skin.

The bad news was that the Air Elemental was an energy being, completely immune to physical attacks. Tieg possessed absolutely no means of attack other than biting and clawing.

Weighing it all, he had no choice but to flee in miserable defeat.

Since his movement speed was far inferior to his opponent's, making a clean getaway was nearly impossible. For every two steps he ran, he had to tank two wind blades or get zapped by lightning.

Under these circumstances, no matter how strong his defense was, the accumulation of countless minor injuries would eventually snowball into severe, life-threatening wounds.

'I can't keep going on like this!'

As a veteran with rich adventuring experience, Tieg knew that continuing on would only result in a slow death. A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

Just then, a small cave appeared in an earthen slope in the forest ahead.

Without a shred of hesitation, he practically crashed straight into it.

Although the Air Elemental was an energy being capable of freely phasing through obstacles like crevices, its ability to control whirlwinds and lightning required a certain amount of space to deploy. The cramped environment of the cave would severely restrict it.

At the same time, overly compressing its body to fit through the cave tunnels would affect its movement speed to a degree, completely neutralizing its aerial advantage. Moreover, the relatively thinner air inside the cave compared to the outside world would naturally suppress the elemental itself.

This was the best countermeasure Tieg could come up with in such a rush.

As for what to do if he hit a dead end, or how to handle the Air Elemental if it relentlessly pursued him even after being restricted—

At this point, the dwarf-barbarian half-blood could no longer afford to worry about so much.

"Bang!"

As Tieg charged into the cave, the originally bright light abruptly dimmed, and the surrounding rock walls amplified the howling winds of the Air Elemental trailing behind him, making them pierce the ears even louder.

Unexpectedly, for some unknown reason, the cave tunnel that he thought would grow increasingly narrow and claustrophobic as he went deeper actually began to widen at a visible rate.

Its diameter expanded from just a few meters to over a dozen meters, and then even wider.

As a result, the Air Elemental behind him was not weakened in the slightest. Instead, it became even more frenzied in the spacious environment.

Wind blades and lightning bolts crashed into Tieg one after another.

Just as the adventurer was about to be pushed into absolute despair, he suddenly felt as though his foot had tripped over something.

His center of gravity instantly slipped. His body, hurtling forward at high speed, was launched into the air, and then plummeted.

One second, two seconds—

In the darkness, Tieg felt like he had fallen into an abyss. He plummeted endlessly, unable to touch the ground no matter what.

It might have been ten seconds, or perhaps even longer.

A dazzling light, like the exit of a tunnel, suddenly appeared far below. It steadily expanded as the distance closed, and finally swallowed Tieg completely.

His eyes instinctively squinted, unable to adapt to the sudden burst of light. When he opened them again, he was completely stunned by what he discovered.

The space below was no longer a pitch-black void where he couldn't see his own fingers. Instead, it was an incredibly massive cavern of unprecedented volume, illuminated by numerous light sources.

The ground seemed to be paved with a special yellow carpet that sparkled under the glow of the lights—wait! That didn't look like a carpet, but—

Gold coins!

It was an ocean of gold coins, shimmering with an expensive luster, stacked into literal hills that almost covered the entire cavern floor!

"Crash!"

For the first time in his life, Tieg experienced the exhilarating sensation of being buried in gold coins.

Overhead, the howling of the Air Elemental had completely vanished.

He breathed a sigh of relief and struggled somewhat to crawl out from the hill of gold coins.

Before he could even properly observe his surroundings, a pair of crystalline, vertical pupils filled with curious wonder entered his line of sight.

It was a red dragon wyrmling that looked like it had only recently hatched; the horns on its head were merely two bumps, and its scales were still tender and immature.

Tieg's breath hitched abruptly, and his entire body went completely stiff.

It wasn't because he feared the dragon whelp before him, which had obviously broken out of its shell not long ago and was likely only a few years old.

It was simply because he had realized something in an instant.

A lair hiding a massive hoard of wealth. A recently hatched baby dragon.

It was certainly possible for both to appear at the same time.

But at the same time, apart from those two things, there ought to be an even more crucial element present.

Namely—the master of this lair, the parent of this dragon wyrmling.

Suddenly, a blast of scalding air reeking of thick sulfur washed down from above, accompanied by a shadow that instantly engulfed him.

In that moment, Tieg felt as though even his heart had stopped beating.

Wearing an unprecedented expression of profound humility, he moved as slowly and carefully as he possibly could, gradually tilting his head up.

Reflected in his eyes were a pair of massive vertical pupils that blazed like the sun, along with terrifying fangs and a gaping maw that blurred into a phantom image as they moved far too fast.

"Crunch."

On the coastline in the real world, the blue light scattered from the body of a muscular man suspended in the air. His face instantly turned ghastly pale as he slowly and weakly descended to the ground.

Within the Secret Realm, the young dragon wyrmling blinked gently at the mother it had only just met, its curious gaze falling upon the glowing ball of blue light now floating in midair before them.

It tilted its head.