Chapter 178: Implore the Dragon Spirit to Descend!

"Oh, my precious, when has grandpa ever deceived you?"

The kindly-faced old man with a great flowing white beard leaned back, faced his well-behaved, adorable granddaughter's questioning and strange gaze, and chuckled as he reached out a thin, withered hand to pat her head and reply.

At this moment, his gaze grew somewhat dazed — he hadn't expected Time to pass so quickly; in the blink of an eye, had he already grown this old?

But the matter of the Dragon Spirit's descent… still seemed as vivid as yesterday.

That day, the Dragon Spirit leaned right before his eyes — those sharp, majestic pupils, that scorching breath beating against his body — he could still feel it even now.

Time and again in his dreams, it woke him in the dead of night.

At some point he couldn't quite recall, the Dragon Spirit became an obsession of his — an obsession shared with his son-in-law.

Since the Dragon Spirit could grant his son-in-law such tremendous power, surely, given that they had today offered up countless believers in its name, it could take pity on this wretched old man and grant him a little — a very little — more lifespan.

Even now, this old man was still kept in the dark by his son-in-law, believing that his tremendous power truly came from the Dragon Spirit.

Of course, it couldn't be called a complete deception — at the very least, Abel's terrifying ability to reproduce came from Baichuan.

It was simply that Abel had chosen to reveal only part of the truth.

"Oh, my father, my lovely daughter, what are you two chatting about here?"

At that moment, a sturdy man walked over gently from afar.

"Father!"

Upon hearing the voice, Princess Ai Qi immediately lifted her head from grandpa's embrace in delight, looking toward the source of the sound.

Then she scrambled out of the old king's arms and ran toward the blond, blue-eyed man.

The man — Abel — timely lowered himself to catch her, intimately nuzzling his bearded cheek against his daughter's delicate little face.

"Father, grandpa seems to have gone senile — he's trying to trick me again."

The moment she was in her father's arms, Ai Qi couldn't wait to look up, eager to share with him this hard-won secret.

"Oh, my dear Ai Qi, how did grandpa trick you?"

Abel subtly played along with his daughter's act, while the old king in the distance could only shake his head helplessly.

In this age when the Dragon Spirit had not appeared for far too long, the new generation seemed to have already stopped believing in the Dragon Spirit's existence.

This was most obvious among the royal family itself; the common subjects below, having no access to the inner secrets, could still continue to trust in the Dragon Spirit's existence.

But as members of the royal family, they had to be involved in everything within the church no matter what — only this way could the enormous church not slip from their control.

Yet perhaps precisely because of this, knowing too much had bred distrust instead. No matter how much they were told, no matter how they were taught from childhood, the results never seemed to amount to much.

After all, they ultimately had not a single shred of evidence — not even a hint of any special, mysterious power. And on top of that, the Dragon Spirit had never once descended to perform a miracle. How could anyone be made to believe?

If he himself had not once come close to it, he might not have believed either.

Lost in thought, his granddaughter's tattling drifted over from afar: "Grandpa said dragons really exist, but my brothers and sisters all told me it's fake — if there really were dragons, why hasn't there been a single miracle?"

Hearing this, Abel merely smiled gently, ruffled his daughter's brilliant golden hair, and patiently said in a soft, warm voice: "Grandpa is telling the truth, you know. The great Dragon Spirit truly exists — it's just that the divine one has too many believers and hasn't had time to attend to us here. Look at where my power comes from? It was given to me by the divine one."

"Hm? Really?" The girl first cast a skeptical glance at her father — she seemed a little tempted — but the sister who had spent the most time with her had also said…

"Father, grandpa, are you two tricking little Ai Qi again?"

A pleasant yet forceful voice rang out, and a short-haired woman in a sharp, capable outfit stepped forward.

She came over with her hands on her hips and her delicate brows furrowed, first offering a courteous bow and greeting.

Then, looking at her father and grandfather's behavior, she couldn't help feeling a bit helpless — did they think their older brothers and sisters were too hard to fool, so they'd come fool the youngest sister instead?

She had no idea what kind of potion that dragon had given them, making them believe so firmly in this mystical nonsense. Could it be that, over all these years of playing the part, father and grandfather had ended up fooling themselves as well?

Dragons, in the end, were nothing more than creatures a little stronger than ordinary fierce beasts. If there truly were some Dragon Spirit, why had it never shown itself or performed a miracle?

No — perhaps dragons weren't even real creatures to begin with; otherwise, why had they searched the entire Empire and not a single person had ever seen the Dragon Spirit?

As rulers of the entire world, why should they bow and scrape to any other creature?

The woman was suddenly reminded of her friend's words — that friend whose thinking was full of deep logic, who believed that everything in the world followed its own laws of development, and that if they could find them, they could master the power within.

Apparently, he had recently succeeded in researching another special powder — one that, when loaded into a special device, could let ordinary people unleash tremendous force.

Too bad she hadn't been free lately, or she would have gone to visit and continue their research — what, in essence, was the nature of their power?

That mysterious, special fluctuation — how exactly did it alter the brains of animals, letting all kinds of creatures understand their meaning?

Soon — very soon.

Once she and her friend had thoroughly parsed the essence of their power, everyone would be able to communicate with all living things, and there would no longer be any barriers between brothers and sisters.

Lost in thought, just as she was about to pick up her younger sister to speak—

At that moment, a sudden burst of lively commotion rang out from outside.

This immediately startled everyone inside the palace — this was the imperial palace, the most solemn and heavily guarded place in the entire Empire; how could such a tremendous uproar arise here?

What had happened?

After exchanging glances, the woman picked up her young sister and followed her father and grandfather as they walked out of the palace.

As they began to move, a massive dark figure standing a full 3.5 meters tall and a sleek, agile shadowy figure over two meters long followed along.

It was none other than a giant brown bear whose size was nearly beyond limits, and a jaguar!

And unlike their dim-witted kin, perhaps because they often came into contact with the abilities of each member of Abel's family—

Affected by this, they were far more spirited than others of their kind, with the light of intelligence glinting in their eyes.

That was the true mark of a creature possessing real intelligence!

Now, as Abel strode out of the palace in the lead, the expression on his face gradually shifted from gentle to solemn and commanding.

In this moment, his gaze was sharp, his bearing majestic and domineering — truly worthy of the supreme king of a nation.

He had just stepped outside the palace and was about to speak to the panicked soldiers—

But just then, the clouds in the sky above suddenly began to churn violently.

"Look? What's that?"

"There's something in the clouds?!"

"Th-this, is this a snake?"

"N-no, that's not right, a snake couldn't be flying in the sky!"

……

Accompanied by the faint traces of some creature surfacing within the clouds, countless people below began to cry out in alarm.

And this, too, caused the words that had been about to burst from Abel's mouth to halt, after which he too raised his head to look.

"Father, what's happening outside?"

At this moment, the young woman following behind also spoke up to ask.

But Abel had no time to attend to her question, because at this instant he had frozen.

Along with the violent churning of the clouds, the creature hiding behind them finally revealed a glimpse of itself—a mysterious being with an elongated body covered in fine, hard metallic scales.

That was a dragon!!!

It was the dragon Abel was most familiar with!!!

At this moment, countless people cried out, but Abel no longer had eyes for anything else; in his gaze, there was room for nothing but the creature above the clouds.

Even though the creature above the clouds no longer had those massive wings, as someone who had been in close contact with dragons—

He declared that even if he could forget his own descendants, he could never forget his faith, the great Dragon God.

In an instant, he stumbled straight to his knees and loudly proclaimed:

"Abel, King of the Dragon Empire, humbly beseeches the great Dragon God to descend!"

Following right behind Abel was the previous generation's old king—the human besides Abel who had come closest to a dragon, and also the only one who had truly offended the Dragon God.

But by now he had long since repented; at this moment he only wished that the great Dragon God, considering his many years of toil, would pardon his sins and grant him a sliver of divine mercy.

One saw his tears streaming down, his expression a mix of tension and release, as he too simply dropped to his knees and, in a quavering old voice, cried out:

"An Bai, the one who offended the gods, pays respects to the Dragon God, and implores the Dragon God to descend."

As the two highest-ranking figures of the entire Empire knelt, the soldiers beside them one by one panicked, finally realizing what was happening.

They too began to kneel. In an instant, like a chain of dominoes, soldier after soldier dropped to their knees; within a few breaths the wave spread beyond the castle, and then large numbers of ordinary commoners understood as well and began to kneel too, pleading together:

"We humbly beseech the great Dragon God to descend!"

At first the voices were sparse, but as Time went on, they slowly merged into a uniform wave of sound, spreading far toward the horizon, toward the clouds.

Seen from afar, the countless worshippers looked like an endless golden sea.

Watching such a bizarre and exaggerated scene, the young woman who had just stepped out of the castle was also stunned.

She widened those beautiful emerald-green eyes, one slender hand incredulously covering her slightly parted little mouth, as if she found the scene before her utterly unbelievable……

(End of Chapter)