The world was quite small when compared to The Final Land and one could see the border at a glance. On the contrary, The Final Land was a place of boundless chaos, as the world that lay beyond it was past anyone’s ability to find out.
As Xiao Lin and Lilith’s guards were up, a black spot suddenly appeared from the blood-colored sky, circling towards them at lightning-fast speed. It was accompanied by a howling that was low-pitched but loud, and an intense pressure descended from the sky. The force was so immense that it felt as though a sharp, unsheathed sword was pressed on top of their heads.
Lilith immediately took out her scythe to guard herself, but Xiao Lin seemed to remember something as his expression changed drastically. He shouted, “Get out of the way!”
BOOM!
Almost as soon as Xiao Lin said that, the black spot had hit the ground heavily. Xiao Lin and Lilith were fortunate to be some distance away, and after the dust had been gradually dispersed, the giant dragon appeared in front of them. Xiao Lin’s face was very ugly, and the familiar Long Yin had already made him guess the answer.
A colossal giant dragon covered in pitch-black scales appeared. Its two nostrils continued to spew crimson flames, and the hot waves made them feel as though they were about to burn.
“Dragon! A black dragon!” Lilith narrowed her eyes and had an expression that was rife with fighting spirit.
Before Lilith lost herself in her lunacy, Xiao Lin seized the moment to grab her tight and whisper a reminder, “We cannot handle such an enemy!”
“I know. Black dragons and gold dragons are the most powerful of their kind. Judging from the color of this dragon’s scales, I estimate him to be more than ten thousand years old,” Lilith’s calm analysis allowed to Xiao Lin to breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Lilith still had some sense in her.
A couple of moments later however, Lilith licked her lips and said, “I’m dying to fight it!”
Xiao Lin’s eyes twitched. Was her earlier sense of reason nothing more than an illusion?
“Does someone want to challenge me? Who? Who the hell is that person!” To their surprise, the Black Dragon suddenly spoke. Its voice was sonorous and loud, and since Xiao Lin and Lilith were just next to him, his voice was as unbearable as a thunderbolt ringing past their ears.
The black dragon took a good look around before finally laying eyes on Xiao Lin and Lilith. It narrowed its eyes and leaned its huge head closer, forcing the two humans to back off and avoid coming into contact by the black dragon’s scorching hot breath.
“Oh? Are you humans?” the black dragon asked, unsure.
“Yes.”
“Well then, will you be coming at me together, or one by one?” The black dragon raised his head again.
“Of course, it’ll—”
“Shut up!”
Lilith was halfway through her sentence when Xiao Lin covered her mouth tightly. Red-faced, the latter stared at him in disbelief.
After feeling the wetness in his palm and realizing what he had touched, Xiao Lin could not help but feel slightly embarrassed, especially when a killing intent appeared instantaneously in Lilith’s eyes. Xiao Lin withdrew his hand quickly and pretended as though nothing happened. He shifted his gaze to the black dragon and said with a wry smile, “Ahem, we’re not here to challenge you. We just entered here by mistake. I’m sorry to disturb you. Please allow us to leave if it’s convenient for you. I promise I won’t come here again.”
Since the black dragon had earlier spoken Normese, Xiao Lin responded in kind. Having Lilith attack was out of the question, or else the black dragon might be forced to strike back even if it was not originally hostile. Should that happen, it would be a disaster that would most certainly result in collateral damage.
Black dragons were on the same level as golden ones, and even someone who thinks with their toes could know such levels of strength were presently unreachable no matter how much effort Xiao Lin and Lilith put in the fight.
The black dragon taunted them, “Deceiving a supreme being like me is no easy feat. Don’t act as if I don’t know anything. Aren’t you here to retrieve that shard and save that little girl, Silverlight?”
The girl, Silverlight?
The mysterious girl in white fluttering clothes appeared in Xiao Lin’s mind. Apparently, her name was Silverlight, and Silverlight Lake was named after her. On further thought, it was surprising that an old woman from tens of millions of years ago was referred to as a little girl by the black dragon. Even if she still maintained the appearance of a girl, it was still rather chilling if one connected the dots a little.
“Shard? What kind of shard?” Lilith’s focus had always been on a different wavelength as Xiao Lin’s and she had no interest in mysterious girls at all.
The black dragon’s huge eyes rolled around and it huffed in a mocking, sarcastic tone, “I’m not used to this kind of interrogation. Why don’t you tell me how you got here first? Was Silverlight spooked out of her mind? Oh no, no, no, is that girl still grief-stricken until today after being cast aside? Alright, I think you ought to tell me what year it is now!”
Xiao Lin and Lilith exchanged glances. His initial thought was that the black dragon might be an acquaintance or friend of the mysterious Silverlight. Judging from the dragon’s tone, she might be an acquaintance, but it would be too far-fetched to call them friends. It was more likely that they were enemies.
That was the best moment for Xiao Lin and Lilith to understand the identity of the girl. Before Lilith could challenge the dragon again, Xiao Lin seized the opportunity and immediately spoke. Moreover, he realized that the black dragon must not have been able to leave that place for a long time, or to put it more bluntly, the dragon was probably unable to leave after being sealed there.
Xiao Lin gave a cursory explanation about the general situation in Planet Norma, but the fact was that he did not really know that much about it. He basically explained everything that had been taught in his history lesson, and at the time, Xiao Lin could not help but be reminded of Gu Xiaoyue. That his knowledge of history could reach such a high standard was all thanks to Gu Xiaoyue’s notes in class.
As he was both unsure yet curious about what age the black dragon and the girl came from, Xiao Lin deliberately paused before explaining each period of history and carefully observed the black dragon’s expression in an attempt to judge whether it knew what he was talking about.
It did not take long for Xiao Lin to abandon such unrealistic thinking. Discerning expressions from a dragon’s face was impossible, but he noticed that the black dragon’s violent aura was slowly beginning to settle down during the course of his explanation. The saunlike temperature began to drop slowly too, indicating that the big creature really was listening intently to his words.
Planet Norma had a rather long history, much longer than that of Earth’s. Intelligent beings appeared much earlier in Planet Norma too, but Xiao Lin knew increasingly little about everything that was too far back. There were also a lot of things which he could not speak in normal Normese, necessitating Lilith’s help to occasionally correct his pronunciation problems.
The black dragon listened quietly from the very beginning and seemed to do so with great interest. Xiao Lin poked fun at the dragon deep inside his heart but he did not dare to stop talking.