Chapter 270: Shadow Dragon Alvarez

Xia Nai shook her head and erased the thought from her mind.

Shadow Dragons are the most jealous and hostile toward the True Dragons of the Prime Material Plane. Because they were once noble True Dragons, they were betrayed by Ying Ying Ming Jie and turned into Shadow Dragons, endlessly seeking victims like themselves.

Whenever a Shadow Dragon sees a living survivor, it lures them, using all sorts of tricks to deceive residents of the Prime Material Plane into entering Ying Ying Ming Jie, where they succumb to shadow corruption.

Only when it sees these humans of the Prime Material Plane twisted by shadow power into unrecognizable shapes does the Shadow Dragon feel a fleeting joy.

Therefore, members of the Shadow Alliance find it far from easy to forge an alliance with a Shadow Dragon.

The black city is vast; Xia Nai and her two companions walked for a long time before finally nearing the temple.

But in despair they discovered that, around the temple's perimeter, a wall had risen at some unknown time.

"What on earth is happening?! Have they discovered us?" Kai De said in a frantic whisper, while anxiously scanning the surroundings.

Xia Nai furrowed her brow; she too was unsure whether they had been spotted.

The group invisibility spell had not dissipated; had they passed through an area equipped with True Knowledge Technique, the invisibility should have been instantly shattered.

Moreover, if they truly were discovered, she doubted that the three of them would merit the opponent erecting defensive walls. The roaming assassins in the city alone should be enough to deal with them.

Could it be

that the Shadow Dragon and the Shadow Alliance have clashed?

Xia Nai suddenly considered that possibility; in the next instant, the black wall shot black pillars of light toward the sky, linked by a black veil, forming a bowl that completely enveloped the temple.

Sure enough, such a massive disturbance must stem from the control of the half‑plane nexus; the Shadow Alliance members had only just acquired the scriptures, so they hadn't yet mastered the nexus nor needed to trigger defensive measures.

It really must be that Shadow Dragon.

Just as she was pondering, a coarse, low dragon roar suddenly echoed from within the temple.

——

Shadow Dragon Alvarez wondered if his handsome draconic visage had once drawn the gaze of the Goddess of Misfortune, causing his string of bad luck today.

At dawn, the Death Heart sounded two alarm blasts, alerting him that another clueless adventurer had intruded into the half‑plane.

That was tolerable; ever since two hundred years ago, when that damned Skeleton Frame trapped him here, these wayward adventurers had been his sole amusement.

Alvarez usually sat upright in the temple, upholding the dignity of his draconic lineage, awaiting challengers and then easily crushing those ants.

To ensure the adventurers wouldn't meet their end before reaching him, Alvarez swept the entire half‑plane of Monsters, leaving only the weakest Undead.

The essential path to the mountain does host a rather thorny obstacle for those adventurers, but the unknown lifeform—still a mystery to Alvarez—that the Skeleton Frame cherishes has forced Alvarez, before he can leave, to swear to the gods not to move it an inch.

Of course, the shrewd Alvarez would not be tripped up by such petty problems.

He used a spell to dig an underground tunnel, allowing entry from outside that creature's territory straight into the city.

Some clever adventurers noticed his modest assistance and arrived at the temple full of hope. Whenever this happened, Alvarez would laugh at the terrified expressions those adventurers wore upon seeing his snarling form.

He would intimidate the cowards with a commanding voice, then turn them into frost curses with his all‑corroding shadow breath, tossing them onto the plain as foot soldiers.

Originally, this little game was an entertainment that constantly accompanied him.

Until a group of freaks appeared. In the secret passage he left, suddenly over a hundred humans emerged, each wielding the power to control shadows.

Normally, this would be his moment to display his might.

Provided he was stronger than those uninvited guests.

As a Shadow Dragon in the Extreme Elder Dragon Stage, on the verge of breaking through his life cycle to ascend into an Ancient Dragon, Alvarez would normally be the dominant side.

But some damned deity, displeased with him, hurled a group of elites into this half‑plane!

Alvarez's power neared the Legendary threshold, almost touching the edge of Level 20. His Strength and Constitution each hit the 99‑point cap, and he also wielded potent shadow secret arts and shadow dragon breath.

Yet despite his might, he now found himself being pressed down by a group of humans!

"Roar!!!"

In the cavernous temple, Alvarez let out a thunderous roar, slamming his dragon claws onto his chest; the Death Heart deep within him quivered inexplicably, and only then did he turn his gaze to the twenty‑some humans before him.

The Shadow Curtain Wall had been activated, temporarily blocking any reinforcements from reaching the humans, though they were still hard to deal with!

Alvarez stared at the twenty‑plus humans before him, silently lamenting. Almost every one of them was a professional assassin of rank 13 or higher, especially the leader.

Alvarez cast a wary glance at a man cloaked entirely in a black hooded cape, wielding a black crescent blade, feeling a faint pain where the opponent's strike had grazed his winged claw.

His strength, even for a Shadow Dragon, demanded careful handling.

The man with the crescent blade lifted his head; the hood covered half his face, revealing a sharply angular jaw and a slash scar across the left side of his face. His pallid lips curled into a smile: "Alvarez, are you sure you want to fight me to the end? Let me tell you, even if you survive today, the elder will only send even stronger assassins after you."

!

"Unless you instantly ascend to Ancient Dragon now, you won't be able to hold this half‑plane."

The man's leisurely tone sparked a blaze of fury in Alvarez's eyes; a mere human, a lowly race, daring to threaten the great True Dragon!

He hadn't intended to guard this place for that Skeleton Frame; without the oath binding him, he would have fled long ago.

But now, the unwilling Alvarez truly harbored murderous intent.

"Foolish humans," Alvarez said gloomily, "Do you know who this half‑plane belongs to?"

"A professional who hasn't even crossed the Legendary threshold, daring to claim the quasi‑god's legacy?"

Alvarez's inner rage boiled over; had he not yet transformed into a Shadow Dragon, he could have easily suppressed these idiots.

He should recall that he was once the ancient blue dragon known as "Flashing Thunder."

Unfortunately, the shadow energy that transformed him also completely regressed his life tier.

For True Dragons, a chasm of life and death separates the Extreme Elder Dragon Stage from the Ancient Dragon stage; only a True Dragon that has crossed the Ancient Dragon phase can refine its bloodline and transcend the Legendary path.

Shadow Dragons, being post‑natally created True Dragons, are essentially a remade race; thus even a True Dragon that has passed the Ancient Dragon stage is forcibly reverted to the Extreme Elder Dragon Stage upon becoming a Shadow Dragon.

During these two hundred years, Alvarez has been striving to regain the Ancient Dragon stage; he was on the brink of success, but then he ran into a group of humans!

He still couldn't defeat them!

Truly a tiger fallen to the plain, bullied by dogs.

(End of Chapter)