An hour later, Xiao Lin’s saliva had run dry. More importantly, he basically said everything he could from what little information he heard from history lessons. In fact, he was quite surprised that he could continue fooling the dragon up until then.
After an embarrassing silence, the black dragon sighed, “So it seems that far too many years have passed. Heh. How lonely.”
‘Just tell us how many years it is exactly!’
Xiao Lin felt helpless, but he would never dare to say that out loud. After ruminating for some time, he cautiously asked, “Can we leave now?”
“Oh? Aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to know a little bit about all this?” The black dragon suddenly switched to a tempting tone. It would have been pleasing to the eye if it was a beautiful woman, or perhaps even a mysterious old woman that resembled a young girl. Unfortunately, a seductive tone coming from the mouth of a ferocious dragon would only give off a creepy vibe.
Xiao Lin’s guard was up and he took two steps back, after which he shook his head and said, “I’m not at all interested. All I want is to leave this place.”
“Why?”
“If none of this is a secret, you could’ve just told me if you wanted to. If all of this was a secret, our death is probably close at hand if we end up knowing too much.”
“Hmff!” The black dragon seemed somewhat dissatisfied as it exhaled some flame from its nose. “Cunning human. You’re half-right.”
Xiao Lin’s heart trembled and he said helplessly, “I hope it’s not the latter half.”
“The existence here is itself the greatest secret to the world. Those who came here never want to leave unless they crack open the secret here. Do you see the bones under your feet?”
The black dragon said slowly in an indifferent and majestic tone, “Those are the people who entered this world over countless years. Among them are cowardly humans, arrogant elves, and irritable orcs… Ignorant adventurers who overestimated their strength, as well as individuals who were world-renowned legendary powerhouses at the time. It’s such a pity that all of them were trapped here and even lost their lives.”
After a while, the black dragon’s tone gradually became mocking. “You’re not the strongest among the humans I’ve met, but you’re not the weakest either, although you certainly are down there. On what grounds are you leaving this place?”
Xiao Lin’s heart sank to rock bottom and he glanced at the mountains of corpses and armor on the desolate ground. Regardless of how powerful they were during their lifetime, all of them became the soil that Xiao Lin stepped under his feet.
Lilith did the same and looked around the ground under her feet. It had long turned dark brown after being stained with blood, and her expression was so complicated that she did not know whether she felt pity or regret. As a battle fanatic, her goal was to challenge those powerhouses. In a similar way, she had a great deal of respect for them too. However, those very same people lay before her eyes in the form of skeletons, prompting a rare silence from Lilith.
“Then choose a method.” The black dragon returned to its lazy tone.
“What method?” This time, Lilith was the one who asked.
“A method for the challenge. You can either choose the method of resistance or non-resistance, although both of them are practically no different for a human of your level. As the first humans who have stepped into this place for the first time in these past few centuries, I’ll give you two a bit of special treatment. Tell me your battle conditions.”
The black dragon’s tone was more like that of a kid who was ready to play with their new toys. In light of the fact that the dragon had been there for tens of thousands of years, Xiao Lin could more or less understand how it was probably driven to madness by the feeling of loneliness and emptiness.
“Are we the first people here?” Lilith frowned.
If the girl in white colluded with Red Beard, used Silverlight Lake’s rumored treasure to attract countless adventurers there, then sucked them into the realm of that mysterious long sword, then Xiao Lin and Lilith could not possibly have been the first to arrive there.
Xiao Lin smiled bitterly, then suddenly thought of something and asked, “Then, Old Black…”
He really could not think of a better way to call the black dragon before him and simply called out Old Black, though it seemed that the other party had no objection. Xiao Lin continued, “Old black, have you heard of oracle bone script before? ”
“Oracle bone? Is it edible?” Black Dragon asked, licking its lips, “Is it some kind of marine species?”
“Oh, forget I even spoke…”
Xiao Lin and Lilith looked at each other again, and Lilith opened her mouth to ask, “What about the Perfect Clone Technique? What’s up with those two independent realms that we had to go through before entering this world?”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about?”
Xiao Lin and Lilith briefly explained the contents of the previous two levels, though it went without saying that they omitted the fact that oracle bone script originated from Earth. All they said was that it was a language which had long been lost since ancient times.
The black dragon was silent for a few seconds before suddenly letting out a thunderous roar. “Who! Who did this! I’ve been telling myself that no one has been here in a few years. Someone is deliberately causing trouble! Damn, how boring!”
In other words, did the dragon really treat everyone who came there as toys?
Xiao Lin felt aggrieved when he looked at the corpses on the ground. He had the sudden thought that perhaps their successful completions of the first and second levels were not the right choice. Could they have been able to leave if they were deliberately defeated?
Fighting one’s own clone was actually very difficult during the first level. It was difficult for most people to defeat oneself, especially since the clone might understand one’s own potential better than oneself and copied everything almost perfectly.
That Xiao Lin and Lilith were able to win the battle in a short time, was—to put it bluntly—reliant on their SS-level talent, as that was the only aspect which the clones were unable to replicate.
Although the second level went by without a hitch, it was much more difficult than the first one. In fact, it could even be said that any non-Earthling—specifically that which was not born on Chinese soil and had no knowledge of oracle bone script at all, would find it absolutely impossible to complete the second task.
The significance of those two levels was not so much to bring trouble to an intruder, but was more like a kind of warning that prohibited any intruders from continuing onward, lest they find themselves unable to return after entering that blood-colored land.
On careful thought, the fight against the clone was real and Xiao Lin did not think that the clone had any intention of showing mercy. If they died there without being in range of the resurrection tower, they would have died for real.
At the very least however, Xiao Lin understood that all three levels were much more difficult than the previous one, but none of the three levels were set by the same person. The dragon’s world of blood and despair was the only one that existed, but someone later added another two checkpoints before it.