Chapter 1144: 131. Foolish Things

There were many foolish things in this world.

For example, stealing the lollipop of a certain old little lady, telling a certain lofty Empress that she was amazing last night, or demonstrating in front of a certain invincible heroine how steel plates were forged.

But all of those things, most likely, were not even one ten-thousandth as laughable as the foolish thing Muen was doing right now.

Because this foolish thing would truly get him killed.

Hamreign slowly turned around, and the instant she did, Muen felt as if the entire world had suddenly gone dim and lightless.

It was not that the black night had descended again. Rather, in Muen’s perception, it was as if some black hole had appeared, swallowing every source of light into itself.

The sun was still there, and sunlight still shone across everything, but Muen felt a bone-piercing cold.

That cold did not come from the outside world.

It came from his soul.

His soul was afraid as it had never been before, screaming in incomparable terror, trembling in humble fragility.

Because he could clearly feel that the Miss Dragon before him... no, she should be called a calamity. The strongest calamity, the Dragon of Death and Doom, was angry!

“Do you know what you are saying?”

Her golden pupils radiated majesty, making it impossible to look directly at them.

“I know.”

Muen exerted himself with all his strength, but could only manage an extremely faint nod.

“It is precisely because I understand it too well that I would say something this foolish.”

Playing dumb was the simplest thing in this world, yet also the most complicated.

When you only wanted to do it casually, it was very easy to do it well.

But when you wanted to do it perfectly, while knowing perfectly well that death was right in front of you... you still could not completely deceive yourself.

“You were polluted too?”

Hamreign tilted her head slightly. Crimson hair slipped down along her cheek, and that puzzled look was, for some reason, actually somewhat cute.

“No.”

Muen raised the hand Marcie had just touched. The black night gradually faded from it, revealing skin as smooth and flawless as new.

“Pollution of this degree still cannot cause me any trouble.”

“I see... In that case, I understand what you mean.”

Hamreign lowered her eyelids, and the pressure around her seemed to grow much calmer as well.

Joy rose in Muen’s heart.

“It is wonderful that you are willing to hear me out. Regarding this matter...”

Buzz.

The premonition of death was still ringing.

The entire world shattered before Muen’s eyes.

All things sank into a deep, dark gleam, and every concrete object vanished along with it.

Muen’s pupils suddenly contracted. All he saw was a slender jade-like hand suddenly pressing down through the air.

“Damn it!”

She was attacking just like that?

No honor at all!

And to think that, for one hundredth of a second, I actually fantasized that maybe you were only cold on the surface and were actually easy to talk to!

There was no time to think further. All the magic and battle aura in his body were driven to their utmost limit, and Time Slow activated, buying Muen that brief instant to breathe.

But even after he pushed Time Slow to its maximum, that jade-like hand still moved at an inconceivable speed. Muen only had time to gather battle aura into a defense and cross both arms before his chest.

Crack.

His arms were snapped with ease, like two fragile dead branches.

Pfft.

His chest instantly caved in, as naturally as if someone were kneading clay.

Blood coughed from his mouth. Muen was sent flying backward, directly shooting an unknown distance away like a cannonball, before smashing hard into the mountains at the edge of the valley floor.

Crushed stones collapsed, smoke and dust spread everywhere, and amid pain so intense it felt as if his whole body had been shattered to pieces, Muen’s face twisted. Only after a long while did he manage, with great difficulty, to peel himself down from the cliff face.

Blackness swam in waves before his eyes. Just that single exchange had nearly shattered his consciousness completely.

“That hurts...”

Muen took a deep breath and had no choice but to directly activate his black flames for recovery. Otherwise, in his current state, he would not even have been able to stand.

But even if his injuries could recover easily, that could not conceal the shock in his heart.

She truly deserved to be called a calamity.

He had almost no strength to resist at all.

This body of his, trained until now, already unafraid of any expert beneath the Crowned, was as weak as a sheet of paper before that slender, pale palm.

It had even only been a casual strike to her. Muen could feel that, in the final instant of that palm strike, the other party had still withdrawn quite a bit of force.

How nice.

Perhaps, for Miss Dragon, managing not to slap him to death with one palm was also something that required great care.

In the valley, a cold wind blew from somewhere, scattering the smoke and dust before Muen’s eyes and revealing that crimson figure once more in his field of vision.

Hamreign had not been affected by the outside world in the slightest. The night wind blew, yet not even a strand of her hair moved. She existed here, and yet seemed not to exist here.

Transcendent above the world.

So beautiful.

Muen had to admit that no matter how the outside world described her, beauty and danger were the two most dazzling labels on the calamity dragon named Hamreign.

She was like a poisonous red spider lily, beautiful enough to steal one’s breath, yet making no one dare approach lightly.

“Miss Dragon, please hear me out.”

Muen pulled his consciousness back. Forcing himself to hold on to one breath, knowing that if they exchanged blows again he would truly be close to death, he hurriedly opened his mouth.

“Regarding Annabawei, I have a...”

“Hear you out?”

Hamreign directly interrupted Muen and smiled coldly.

“Why should I hear you out?”

“I have...”

“Whatever you have has nothing to do with me.”

Her jade-like bare foot stepped onto the ground mixed with blood, without being stained by the slightest filth. With one step, Hamreign crossed several hundred meters and arrived before Muen.

She lowered her eyes and looked down at Muen on the ground, gazing at him from high above. Her golden pupils were blazing and bright, like ancient, solemn brass searchlights shining down, making Muen feel as if he had been drowned in the deep sea, unable to breathe... and even more unable to speak.

Muen mobilized his mental power, wanting to break through this pressure.

It had no effect at all.

Even though his mental power had been tempered little by little through repeated brushes with collapse until it had become incomparably tough, how could it possibly withstand a dragon that had lived for thousands of years?

A firefly was ultimately still a firefly.

No matter how strong a firefly was, it could never compete with the bright moon.

“I know what you want to say. It is nothing more than that you want to save this place, save the pitiful people here... How wonderful. Humans, you are never lacking in this hypocritical goodwill.”

Her blurred face made it impossible to see her expression clearly, but Muen always felt that she was mocking him.

“Gentle, kind, self-righteous, overflowing with pity, thinking that you are doing a good thing, thinking that you are saving those pitiful people, thinking that you are becoming a hero... But what is the result? Weak as you are, can you truly rewrite anything? All you do is push matters toward another irreversible extreme.”

“In order to satisfy that tiny, laughable vanity of yours, you do not care in the slightest about the consequences of doing so... Who do you think you are? Do you think you truly understand much about this world? In the end, you do not even have the qualifications to see the world’s cruelest side.”

“You were merely chosen by that one because of a little luck. What right do you have... to tell me to stop?”

Her pale jade-like foot lifted lightly, and the scales on her ankle glittered with rainbow light beneath the sun.

That small... foot, utterly unrelated to the words “giant dragon,” stepped onto Muen’s chest and pressed down little by little.

For some people with special preferences, this clearly would have been an incomparably wonderful scene, yet Muen could not feel even the slightest joy. That jade-like foot was like a mountain. Not only did it press him, who had just gotten up, back down bit by bit, but it also suppressed all of his battle aura and magic along with him.

His battle aura, tempered countless times and far surpassing ordinary warriors of the same rank in quality, could not even be drawn outside his body. His magic was even more disgraceful, as if it had been frozen and blocked inside his meridians, unable to be mobilized at all.

Without magic, the alchemy core could not be used either. Besides, even if he could use it, in this suppressed state, it would basically be impossible for him to escape through the power of time.

Unable to move.

Wretched to the extreme.

“Look.”

Hamreign gazed at Muen with contempt and disdain. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“Did you think you were very special? Laughable. In my eyes, you are merely a weak little ant.”

Weak.

Helpless.

Powerless.

He could not even save himself, let alone save others.

“Cough, cough...”

As that jade-like foot gradually pressed down, Muen felt his chest, which had only just recovered slightly, cave in once more. Blood mixed with air was coughed out continuously, and his heart felt even more like someone had seized it in one hand and was slowly tightening their grip...

Suffocation.

Pain.

Powerlessness.

This was the consequence of challenging a calamity. This was the ending of saying those foolish words and attempting to do some foolish thing.

In stories, the old knight charged at the windmill.

But the windmill did not actively kill people.

Dragons did.

Not only did they kill people, they could also stomp you into a meat paste.

“Do you understand now?”

Seeing that Muen’s face had turned blue and his breath was weakening rapidly, Hamreign’s expression eased slightly, and the strength in her foot lessened a little.

“If you understand how laughable the words you just said were, then stay quietly to the side. You are still useful to me. If you truly like to advertise yourself as noble and pure, those dirty jobs do not need you to do them.”

Seeing that Muen did not react for a moment, Hamreign prepared to withdraw her hand... no, her foot.

But at that moment, she felt warmth coming from her ankle.

Hm?

“Cough, cough... I know what I am doing right now is stupid beyond saving...”

Within that extreme weakness, Muen’s battle aura and magic were condensing again, little by little.

He suddenly reached out and grabbed Hamreign’s ankle.

“I also know... that with my strength, it will be very hard to persuade you.”

That ankle was cold and smooth. The few scales decorating it felt even more jade-like to the touch. Above it was the hem of her thorn-edged dress, and beneath that hem lay something mysterious and deep, concealing profound secrets that no one would ever dare rashly try to glimpse.

Unfortunately, the current Muen had no time at all to feel any of that.

He lifted his head with difficulty and forced himself to meet those golden pupils, even though his skull ached terribly under the pressure of dragon might.

“But everything, in the end, has to be tried, doesn’t it? If you do not try, who would know whether it can work or not? The problem is right there. The best method should be to solve the problem, not to solve the people who created the problem. I have also cruelly killed many people before, but those people were guilty... Now, with so many innocent people pleading and crying before me... I cannot just do nothing, can I?”

Muen grinned, revealing white teeth stained with blood.

“That would be way too lame.”