Chapter 188: The Eerie Temperature

At dawn, a wisp of transparent golden light pierced through the morning mist like a sharp sword.

A new day had begun.

And Zhang Rang and the others, who had already rested for the night, began packing up their things, preparing to step into Tiandu.

"Hoo~"

Gazing at the towering city gates of the empty Tiandu just ahead, Zhang Rang slowly drew in a deep breath to calm his excited and nervous mood, then turned back to look at the countless soldiers behind him.

At this moment, countless soldiers cast their expectant gazes upon him—eyes filled with both nervousness and eagerness, yet not a trace of fear.

These are all fine sons of his Great Qin!

Zhang Rang sighed inwardly. For a moment he said nothing, simply walking forward while carefully scanning every soldier's face, as if to deeply etch those youthful and mature visages into his own mind.

He knew well that after this journey, many might never return.

Time slowly drifted by. A long while passed.

Only then, under the gaze of the many soldiers, did he return to the front, raise his hand, and declare in a loud voice: "Fine sons of my Great Qin, let us go!"

At this moment, there was no need for more words. All preparations that needed to be made had been made, all words that needed to be spoken had been spoken. There was now only one thing—

Advance! Slay the dragon!

"Boom!"

As his words fell, a unified sound of footsteps suddenly rang out, causing the earth to tremble faintly.

Upon this flat land, a fully armed troop filed in through the city gate one after another, with massive humanoid weapons—Dragon Machine Soldiers—looming above them from behind.

At the same time, the very moment Zhang Rang and his party stepped through the gates of Tiandu—in the deepest part of the entire empty city, within the Tiandu Feixu—

A pair of majestic eyes, burning like raging flames, slowly lit up within a land of flowing, searingly hot crimson magma.

……

As the great army truly began entering Tiandu, this force of over a thousand led by Zhang Rang saw countless members slowly and orderly detach themselves from the ranks, remaining in place.

This was not desertion before the battle—rather, they had another task of their own: to lay out and install along the way the large quantities of dragon-hunting equipment they had brought.

These were all large-scale killing weapons that Great Qin had verified over many years through repeated use by countless hunters to be especially effective against giant beasts.

Although the target of this expedition was a true dragon, unlike the ordinary giant beasts of the past, these devices might not necessarily be effective.

But what if they were?

They didn't ask for them to be highly useful—only that they produce even the slightest effect. Perhaps at a critical moment they could hinder the true dragon's movements, allowing General Wang, who piloted the Dragon Machine Soldier, to seize the opportunity and potentially have a tremendous impact on the overall situation.

Thus, countless Ancient Dragon Humans, holding these thoughts, began busily installing the dragon-hunting equipment they had brought.

……

And at this moment, on Zhang Rang's side.

After leaving behind large numbers of support soldiers who could play no part in direct combat against the true dragon, the remaining force's speed suddenly began to accelerate.

The area within Tiandu was, in a sense, both large and not large.

At least for these Ancient Dragon Humans, whose physical fitness far surpassed ordinary people and could essentially be called superhuman on average, it took them no more than a single hour to easily cross the Outer City of Tiandu and enter the Middle City.

"Ugh, it's so hot."

Yet they had not been advancing through the Middle City for long when a somewhat uncomfortable voice suddenly rang out from within the ranks.

Though this voice was not loud, within the quiet and solemn marching column it appeared so jarring.

"Hot? What hot?"

In an instant, Zhang Rang at the very front heard it, and a flicker of doubt crossed his mind.

Once doubt arose, Zhang Rang turned back from the front.

But upon looking, he discovered that dozens of Ancient Dragon Human soldiers within the ranks had their clothes soaked through, their faces streaming with what seemed an endless flow of sweat.

And besides them, although the large numbers of surrounding soldiers did not show such exaggerated signs of being drenched all over and sweating continuously, they too appeared somewhat panting, as though their stamina had been excessively drained.

This was an extremely abnormal phenomenon—one had to remember they were Ancient Dragon Humans, the new humans who commanded the power of giant beasts. This distance absolutely could not have drained their stamina so absurdly.

"What is going on?"

This discovery made him hastily halt the marching column.

Zhang Rang, who could not allow the slightest mishap at this critical moment, hurriedly ordered the soldier who had spoken up earlier to step out of ranks and questioned him carefully.

And only after hearing the soldier's account did he make a startling discovery.

It turned out that ever since entering the Middle City of Tiandu, the surrounding air had somehow begun to slowly grow scorching hot.

At first those soldiers hadn't thought much of it, but as they advanced further and inhaled more of the searing air, they naturally began to feel waves of exhaustion-like weakness.

The reason he himself hadn't noticed was that the source of his own power was the king of flames—the Red-Scaled Dragon.

And Zhou Qingqing, who was closest to him, likewise commanded the Blue-Scaled Dragon of flame.

As kings of flame, so long as the surrounding temperature did not exceed their own tolerance limit, the hotter it was around them, the more comfortable they naturally felt—which was why they failed to notice the temperature anomaly at first.

But the soldier who had just spoken, and those whose clothes were soaked through and whose faces streamed with endless sweat, were different—their giant beast form was the Ice Frost Wolf, famed for commanding the power of ice frost.

These soldiers who commanded the power of ice frost were naturally more sensitive to temperature changes in this high-temperature environment than the kings of flame.

Because within this scorching environment, they were expending stamina in great quantities every moment.

They hadn't even caught sight of the enemy, yet their own side was already beginning to have people unable to adapt to the sudden environmental change the enemy had brought.

This discovery instantly caused Zhang Rang's heart to grow heavy.

Without a doubt, this abnormal temperature was absolutely caused by the true dragon, for flame was one of the powers most familiar to it, and the formation of the Great Zhou's Tiandu Feixu was itself due to a Burst of flame.

He knew the true dragon was powerful, but he had never imagined—

That the true dragon, which once could only destroy Tiandu Neicheng through a Burst, had now grown so powerful that merely the faint power radiating from its body alone was enough to alter the surrounding environment.

One had to remember that this place was only the Middle City of Tiandu—there was still a very long distance from the Inner City, that is, the Tiandu Feixu……

No, that's not right!

Suddenly, it seemed something surfaced in Zhang Rang's memory.

His earlier speculation seemed to have overlooked one point—the True Dragon was injured!!!

Perhaps he had guessed wrong before.

The sudden change in the current environment was not necessarily caused by the other party's unintentional strengthening.

One must remember that the True Dragon was in a state of severely depleted vitality.

……

(End of this chapter)