Chapter 120: Only Then Did He Know There Was a True Dragon in This World

Meanwhile, on the other side.

At this moment, a fully armed cavalry unit riding tall horses—the leader, a man dressed as a general, suddenly froze, raising his hand to signal the unit to halt.

In an instant, the moment that large hand was raised, the entire unit cleanly and crisply pulled their reins and brought their horses to a stop at the same time.

Only then did the general gaze toward the depths of the great mountain, just as a distant, drawn-out dragon's roar happened to echo from afar.

In an instant, the faces of every single member of the unit changed; it was as if a row of solemn statues had returned to the realm of the living. They cried out in unison, shocked: "General, this— this is—?"

Facing the crowd's confusion, the man dressed as a general also nodded gravely, and slowly, word by word, said: "That's right. A dragon's roar."

"The 'Travels of Zhou Gaozu' once recorded a description of the dragon's roar. Unless there's an exception, we've stumbled upon the very dragon His Majesty has sought for a thousand years! And it's not far."

Saying this, the general paused, then solemnly said: "Zhou Wu, step out!"

"Here!"

The moment the words fell, a powerfully built soldier from the front of the unit rode his horse forward.

"Take five of our brothers and immediately ride back to Tiandu to report this matter to the Master of Zhangtian Mansion. Here is my token."

As he spoke, the general drew a token from the breastplate of his armor and tossed it over.

Zhou Wu caught it upon hearing the order, said nothing more, took the token, immediately picked out five soldiers, and departed without delay, galloping straight toward Tiandu the whole way.

After that, the general first looked toward the route they had been pursuing—the direction the rebel army had fled—and sighed, muttering to himself: "Consider yourselves lucky."

He then led the soldiers behind him straight toward the direction of the dragon's roar.

As for that group of rebels who couldn't stir up any real trouble, in the general's eyes at this moment, they were entirely a minor matter that could be dealt with whenever.

At this moment, only finding the true dragon was the most important thing!

……

On a dim forest path, the remnants of the rebel army, who did not yet know they had narrowly escaped a catastrophe.

Their leader, Zhang Rang, also gazed with a solemn expression toward the direction of the dragon's roar. He had already been brought back from the brink by a beauty whose medical skill was equally superb, who had spared no effort to save him.

"Leader." At this moment, Zhou Qingqing also walked over with a face full of worry.

The moment their eyes met, the two of them, already of one mind, immediately understood each other's thoughts.

Zhang Rang said gravely: "That's right, we must head there as well. The Great Zhou is already terrifyingly powerful as it is. If it now gains the power of the dragon once more, then for the common folk of this world, there may truly be no day of deliverance ever again."

At this moment, Zhang Rang gazed with deep, dark eyes toward that direction—the direction of the dragon's roar, and also where true hope lay.

If the power of a dragon that the entire Great Zhou coveted so intensely could truly be wielded by them, then truly overthrowing the Great Zhou would be within easy reach—no longer an unreachable dream!

"Qing Qing, tell the brothers to pack up and get ready to move out!"

"Yes!"

……

At this moment, Baichuan still did not know that the single roar he had made testing his new ability was about to set off a storm of unimaginable scale, because the distance the dragon's roar traveled far exceeded the range of his perception.

Having roared for the first time, he did not know that the dragon's roar could shockingly travel across the entire mountain range.

Right now he only knew that he was extraordinarily hungry—hungry to the point of nearly losing his mind.

Because his body had suddenly grown larger, the cave where he had stored food had already been buried when he broke out of his shed.

His two eyes, green with hunger, fixed upon the prey scattered across the ravaged ground. The next moment, the flood-dragon serpent flung aside the rubble burying it and lunged at the food lying all over the ground.

The flood-dragon serpent, now grown to a colossal twenty-five meters, began swallowing them down—one sika deer or one wolf per gulp.

Because he was so hungry, he barely chewed at all, only taking a few bites to tear them into smaller pieces before swallowing them whole.

Five minutes later, Baichuan, feeling the burning fire in his belly finally subside, was able to see just how terrifying the commotion he had just caused truly was.

It could only be described as utter devastation. Within a one-kilometer radius centered on him, every single large tree had toppled.

Not a single stone of any size remained on the ground—they had all been reduced to small rubble. Even closer to him, several cracks had split open in the earth.

With a single dragon's roar, its destructive power was terrifying to such a degree!

And this was the true power produced by stacking an LV1-level ability onto LV2!

Of course, this also had a certain relationship with Baichuan's body size—without such a massive frame, he could never have achieved such astonishing destructive power.

Nevertheless, he had finally obtained a large-scale attack with terrifying destructive power.

Moreover, compared to his other special abilities, this one required no great expenditure—only a roar.

Then, it was time for him to store all his energy to the limit. Once he was fully prepared, that would be the moment to leave.

Although he could still stay here for a while and grow his body to the current limit of his ability enhancement—thirty-five meters—he could not wait any longer.

Twenty-five meters in length was already enough to be invincible in this world.

That night, the flood-dragon serpent did not sleep a wink, roaming through the endless deep mountains and dense forests.

Wherever it passed, all beasts took to the air in panic, scooped up by a single ferocious claw and delivered into that dark, terrifying maw.

Perhaps this day would, countless days and nights later, be etched into the deepest memories of the animals that survived, becoming their eternal nightmare.

At the same time, that night also saw countless people staying awake through the night to rush here—the mysterious general of the Great Zhou, the rebel leader Zhang Rang, and others.

And then there was Ergou and his second uncle. The uncle and nephew had only just returned home at this point. After explaining things to their eldest brother (father), the uncle braced his injured right foot and prepared to pack up their belongings and flee.

This was not a measure taken only by them; it was what most of the herb-gatherers in the area were doing today.

Logically speaking, in this era, even when facing death, these poor common folk would not normally think of leaving their homeland—let alone over a mere rumor of a dragon's roar.

But the trouble was that in the Great Zhou, over the past thousand years, such situations had occurred many times. Every time news of a dragon appeared, regardless of whether it was true or false, a batch of people would inevitably come and wreak havoc.

And every place they wreaked havoc upon was left with broken villages and dead people, without exception.

Year after year of relentless natural disasters, combined with the occasional martial arts heroes or bandits slaughtering villages for their breakthroughs, and the torment inflicted by the soldiers.

All of this had long since taught the common folk of the Great Zhou that the moment things looked bad, they should pack up their families and flee.

As the saying goes: "A tree that moves may die, but a person who moves may live."

Because fleeing might very likely mean death, but at least there was still hope of survival—whereas not fleeing meant certain death!

The realm has suffered under the Great Zhou for far too long!

However, before he could step out the gate, a violent knocking sounded at the door.

The three of them felt a sudden knot in their hearts. They exchanged glances, knowing something bad had happened.

Sure enough, as Ergou slowly opened the gate, the person who came into their sight was none other than the village's biggest landlord—Jia the Gentleman.

Behind him trailed countless servants and soldiers.

Because this Jia the Gentleman was not only a landlord, but also the biological younger brother of the county magistrate at the local town's yamen…

Thus, Ergou's whole family and all the nearby herb-gatherers were all dragged off to serve as conscripts, and under the escort of a great number of soldiers, they began searching the mountains and fields for traces of the dragon.

At the same time, on this very day, a thin, frail figure, carrying a secret letter, galloped at full speed straight toward the Great Zhou's Tiandu…

(End of this chapter)