Chapter 103

"Hahahaha, I suppose the Shinigami that Miss Erza understands is probably not quite the same as me."

"Strictly speaking, I should be a dead man by now. It's been probably several hundred years since I died."

Aizen Sōsuke looked at Erza and naturally sensed some of her strange thoughts, so he let out a light chuckle and said, "I still remember some of my memories from before I died."

"I remember that back then, it was still an era ruled by the dragons."

"I was probably killed by some dragon whose name I don't even know."

Aizen Sōsuke put on an expression as though he were earnestly trying to recall his memories from before his death.

According to the character setting, Aizen Sōsuke is someone who died several hundred years ago, and for the sake of explosiveness, in Lin Cheng's script setting, the year of Aizen Sōsuke's death has to be at least over four hundred years ago.

And as Aizen Sōsuke's words fell, Natsu, who had originally been knocked to the ground by Erza and was lying face-down, suddenly jolted. With an excited look, he stood back up and threw his arms around Aizen Sōsuke.

"Really?"

"You died several hundred years ago, and before you died it was still the era ruled by those dragons or whatever?!"

Natsu hugged Aizen Sōsuke and asked with some anticipation, "Then do you know a fire dragon called Igneel?"

"Igneel is my old man. I was raised by Igneel ever since I was little."

From the day he left Fire Long Wang Igneel seven years ago, Natsu had been constantly searching for his adoptive father Igneel.

In the original work, if not for the Mingfuzhi Sect arc, Natsu probably would have gone his whole life without ever knowing that the adoptive father he had been searching for all along, Fire Long Wang Igneel, was actually inside his own body, watching him grow up the entire time.

However, it's a great pity that in the original work, not long after Fire Long Wang Igneel and Natsu recognized each other, he was killed by the Black Dragon Acnologia — quite a significant regret.

"Igneel?"

"Igneel is actually your old man?"

Aizen Sōsuke looked at Natsu, who was hugging him, and said with some 'surprise': "Igneel is no ordinary dragon. He's a Long Wang among the dragon race — you could say he stands at the very pinnacle of the world."

"However, it's a great pity — the dragon race was wiped out four hundred years ago."

Without anyone noticing, Lin Cheng had quietly dropped a depth charge through Aizen Sōsuke.

Because of certain peculiarities of four hundred years ago, in the history of the Tail World, the history from four hundred years ago had a break in continuity. The vast majority of people simply had no idea what exactly had happened four hundred years ago.

The only thing they could somewhat know about was the three words 'Long Wang Festival.'

However, not knowing these things doesn't matter — Lin Cheng can slowly toss out all the hidden secrets from four hundred years ago, bit by bit.

For example, right now, Lin Cheng was subtly revealing some small pieces of information to Erza and the others, and then the cannon-fodder puppet Lin Cheng had arranged in advance, who was currently working at the newspaper office, would publish these things.

If the story is realistic enough and shocking enough, how could there be any worry about not earning emotion points?

If it weren't for the fact that each person has an upper limit on the emotion points they can contribute per day, Lin Cheng could just toss out all the hidden little stories at once and there wouldn't be any problem or issue at all.

"The dragon race was wiped out four hundred years ago?!"

"That's impossible!"

"Seven years ago, when Igneel hadn't disappeared yet, I was still living together with Igneel!"

After hearing Aizen Sōsuke's words, Natsu said in disbelief, "Igneel is super strong — how could the dragon race possibly have been wiped out? You must have gotten something wrong, Aizen Sōsuke."

Although it was already something from seven years ago, the memories of living together with his adoptive father Igneel were still among Natsu's most precious and treasured memories. At the same time, Natsu also knew exactly how powerful his adoptive father Igneel truly was.

The burst of power Aizen Sōsuke had just displayed was indeed extremely terrifying and powerful, but Natsu still felt that compared to his adoptive father, Fire Long Wang Igneel, he probably still fell short by quite a bit.

However, Natsu's feeling this way was actually not wrong.

Without awakening the Hōgyoku mode, in terms of pure destructive power, Fire Long Wang Igneel was indeed quite a bit stronger than the current S-Class one-star Aizen Sōsuke.

"The dragon race being wiped out is indeed true, but that doesn't mean there were no survivors……"

"The fame of Fire Long Wang Igneel — even when I was in the Soul Society, I had heard of it in passing."

Aizen Sōsuke looked at Natsu, whose expression was slightly agitated, and his smile on his face didn't change as he said, "Given Fire Long Wang Igneel's strength, even if he survived, it wouldn't be an impossible thing."

"However, Mr. Natsu, there's a strange smell on you……"

As he spoke, Aizen Sōsuke seemed to have smelled some strange scent from Natsu's body. With a slightly odd expression on his face, he leaned in close to Natsu.

"Huh?"

Watching Aizen Sōsuke lean in close to him, Natsu said somewhat strangely, "I took a bath at Vacation Paradise earlier."

"But I got into fights with some people before that, so there's a lot of dirt on me……"

"No, Mr. Natsu."

Aizen Sōsuke seemed to have confirmed something. Looking at Natsu, his brow furrowed slightly, and with some hesitation he said, "What I smell on you is not that kind of ordinary smell — it's the smell of time."