Chapter 461: Peeping and the Dragon

Rod turned his head and saw a young blond human man.

Though he couldn't compare to Rod's looks, the man was still fairly handsome—fair-skinned and clean-cut, with a bit of a pretty-boy air about him.

The man didn't look at Rod either, casually draping an arm over his shoulder.

With his other hand he raised his drink, smiling at Lily across from Rod:

"A toast to you, Lily. Thanks for your Glass Transformation and the Wraithfire spells—without you, the dragon-slaying wouldn't have gone so smoothly."

"Mr. Kennan? You're too kind. And thank you as well, adventurers, for your active role in this dragon-slaying commission."

Lily's smile shifted from warm to polite.

Cool and a touch aloof, putting a bit more distance between them than she had with Rod.

The two each took a sip.

Mr. Kennan grew a little bolder, pointing to a table surrounded by several people:

"They're playing Rock cards over there—want to go join them?"

"Sorry, I don't gamble."

"Oh, what a shame, it's a fine bit of fun! Hey, who's that—Miss Lai La Starling! Deepwater City's most famous bard, let's go take a look, shall we?"

Hearing his tone rise, Rod followed his gaze.

He saw a beautiful lady with a slender figure and a light, graceful bearing appear at the tavern door, tiptoeing in as if ignoring gravity, drifting in lightly.

The lady had long, pointed elven ears; her silver-white, silky long hair was partly woven into exquisite braids, resting quietly on wings soft and rounded like clouds.

She was a cloud elf.

A faint white glow seemed to emanate from her, giving her an otherworldly air.

A gentle, warm smile on her face, she waved to the crowd.

The moment she entered, she instantly drew the attention of some of the younger patrons in the tavern; after a brief daze, they suddenly burst into cheers!

Swarming toward her.

But they were held back by several bodyguard-like figures, and beside her followed a middle-aged woman with a look of distaste on her face, like a manager.

Rod raised an eyebrow.

It seemed this Miss Lai La Starling was something of a celebrity here in Deepwater City.

But not everyone was excited by it—most were seasoned old hands who simply smiled as they watched the youngsters make their fuss.

And Lily, though young, wasn't much interested in celebrities either.

She declined Kennan once more: "No need, my friend and I are just chatting here."

"Alright then."

Kennan was a touch unwilling; with an unfriendly glance at Rod beside her, he slunk off.

Watching his retreating back.

Rod smiled: "Pretty popular, huh."

"Hmph, that guy didn't pull his weight during the dragon-slaying—hid in the back watching the show. If it weren't for the other adventurers being decent, I'd have kicked him out long ago. Cloud elves live up in the sky in Cloudweave City, but some of them just have to come down to play, don't they? This big sister is really good-looking."

"She's not bad, sure, but she's not as cute as you, Lily."

"Thanks, you're quite handsome yourself!"

Lily beamed, generously returning the compliment.

Her two snow-white little short legs swung even more happily beneath the table.

"Now that the Deepwater City dragon case has wrapped up, what's next? Where are you planning to go?"

She gave Rod a cool little wink: "Shi Ying Town. The dark elves over in Coral Cove have summoned two chromatic dragons—it's way out on the far western frontier, nothing like Deepwater City with all its heavy hitters. I've been wanting to come help you for ages, but the dragon-slaying here held me up too long."

Rod had been thinking the very same thing.

Lily had not only just gone through a dragon-slaying, but her rank was nothing to sneeze at—she'd actually reached the middle of seventh tier.

That was a bit over the top.

Rod and Lily had advanced to sixth tier together in Jade City, and now they were the same rank!

Keep in mind, he had cheats, and had popped over a dozen Spirit Seeds.

He'd known Lily was talented before—even the Bahadur Academy of Magic, to keep a human from firmly holding the top spot in the year, had resorted to underhanded tricks to revoke her enrollment.

He just hadn't expected it to be this outrageous!

"I was just thinking how to ask you for help."

"We're all friends, right—stepping in when you see injustice on the road is the very creed of our Chivalrous Alliance."

Rod smiled, about to speak.

Just then, Spider Sense sent him the prickle of being watched.

He snapped his head around, immediately locking onto a palm-sized crystal ball used as decoration on the stage backdrop where the cloud elf Miss Lai La Starling was singing.

Utterly unremarkable—he couldn't even see any magical fluctuation from it.

Rod frowned, and activated his Insightful Demon Eye.

The next instant, the crystal ball in his sight changed.

A faint magical haze slowly dispersed like mist, revealing a pale purple crystal ball filled with wondrous magical circuits.

Not only that, the Insightful Demon Eye delved deeper, plunging straight along the magic into the crystal ball's interior.

And through it, Rod saw the scene on the other side of the crystal ball:

A massive dragon's head.

Dense olive-green dragon scales, a raised horned crest, and a jaw packed with teeth.

There seemed to be something in its mouth; it chewed a few times absently.

A vicious, battle-hungry, sinister dragon eye was coldly watching everything the crystal ball projected.

"Green dragon?"

Rod couldn't help being surprised—a green dragon was spying on this place?

Before Rod could figure it out—

Suddenly.

The green dragon on the other side of the crystal ball raised its eyes in horror.

Meeting Rod's gaze in the void, its evil slit pupils contracted sharply.

The image cut off abruptly—the other party immediately severed the scrying.

Crack!

At the same time, a crack running through its entire body split open across the crystal ball.

Frenzied magic surged wildly from the inside out, the crystal ball humming and trembling, then visibly shifting from pale purple to a dangerous deep red.

All of this was drowned out by Layla Xingyu's singing on stage.

Lily's face suddenly changed; she turned to look at the corner of the stage—she had also noticed something was wrong.

But the change came too fast, too sudden.

The moment she noticed, the raging torrent of magic inside the crystal ball was already on the verge of erupting.

Thud—

The ear-piercing sound of a tall chair about to topple and scrape against the floor came from beside her.

Squeak!

The next moment.

A shadow beside her suddenly exploded outward, flashing past in an instant.

Lily blinked instinctively, and when her vision refocused, Rod was already on the stage.

She saw his thick right hand, like a vise, plunge into the solid-wood backdrop of the stage with a squelch, then yank hard—carrying splinters and other broken decorations—ripping out the embedded crystal ball that was about to explode.

Lily's eyes went wide, but her mind worked fast.

She seized the moment, raised Yao Shang De Fa at her waist, and instantly fired a 【Magic Missile】, blasting a large hole in the ceiling above Rod and revealing a star-studded, firefly-bright night sky.

At the same time, Rod had already hurled the crystal ball upward, and it passed neatly through the hole Lily had blasted open, flying into the sky.

Their coordination was lightning-fast—done in the blink of an eye.

"Hey! What the—"

That haughty middle-aged woman who looked like a manager spotted Rod, her face changed, and she jabbed a finger at him, about to start berating him.

Boom!!!

Firelight shot skyward!

The violent shockwave and blast shattered every piece of glass in the tavern, the explosion drowning out all other sound in an instant!

(End of chapter)