Chapter 35: False Illusion, Gao Daweimeng

The hall doors stood wide open, and the members of the Giant Scorpion Bandit Gang hurriedly scrambled aside.

Pate and Harris followed closely behind.

The bandits weren't without brains; such a voluntary opening of the door clearly signaled something was amiss.

If they didn't quickly dart to the side, the first to suffer would be them if anything unexpected occurred.

But the hall doors were too large; even though everyone had moved away, the scene inside remained visible.

A colossal creature eighteen meters long lay crouched upon the high platform within the hall.

It resembled a lizard with a slender neck akin to a snake, its bare head alone reaching a height of one meter.

Except for the neck, its entire body was covered in gray-brown stone clusters, layered and stacked like actual stones.

It looked like a statue carved from stone.

"This... is... the... young... dragon... you... spoke... of!" Pate's voice trembled.

On paper, a head one meter tall didn't seem particularly large.

But consider this: a head reaching halfway up your waist, yet longer than your own height.

With a single open of its massive jaws, it could swallow you whole; how could such a creature not inspire terror?

Harris was also trembling; he had never seen such a gigantic creature.

Especially when it crouched atop the high platform, it resembled a divine statue within a temple.

"I... don't know; they... clearly... said... it... was... a... young... dragon..."

The other bandit gang members were even worse; trembling legs were the best they could manage.

Some were even dripping from their crotches.

"To hell with the young dragon!" Pate shouted, briefly dispelling the fear in his heart.

He turned to flee, disregarding whatever ranked expert might be present; was anyone mightier than this giant dragon?

Slaying a dragon? Slaying what dragon? Could anyone survive a single claw strike from this giant dragon?

With one such claw strike, an entire building would surely collapse.

"Whoosh!"

Fang Shi suddenly appeared before Pate, blocking his path.

"Where are you going?"

Pate didn't know what madness had seized his mind, yet courage suddenly surged within him.

"Get lost! If we don't run immediately, we will all die!"

"Swish!"

The fine steel sword flashed like lightning; Pate felt only a chill on his head.

He instinctively reached up to touch his head, but felt only bristly short hair.

The headscarf wrapping his head had vanished without a trace.

"Are you calm now?" Fang Shi asked coldly.

"Calm, calm."

Pate hurriedly replied; he didn't know what foolishness had overtaken him just now to dare offend my lord.

The giant dragon could take his life; could my lord not?

"Hurry and organize these people to attack the giant dragon."

What! Hearing Fang Shi's words, Pate was shocked; this was asking for their lives!

No, they must flee immediately.

As he spoke, he quietly reached for the knife at his waist.

Fang Shi saw everything and said indifferently, "Do you still wish to be calm?"

Pate gave a bitter smile: "My lord, you must give us a path to live; this giant dragon is so large, to speak bluntly, even my lord might not be able to defeat it."

"Hmph, you are all a bunch of fools, unable to see through an illusion. Do you truly believe this dragon is that large?"

An illusion? Hearing Fang Shi's words, Pate was completely stunned.

What... what exactly is going on here?

Fang Shi continued to sneer: "Your vision is short; do you not know that giant dragons possess Dragon Aura?"

"The older and stronger the giant dragon, the more formidable its Dragon Aura."

"This giant dragon appears tall and mighty, Gao Daweimeng, but its Dragon Aura is nothing but bullshit."

"It cannot even shake my spirit, let alone others; moreover, I possess a rare artifact inherited from my family that can pierce through illusions."

"Lying on the high platform is clearly just a tiny young dragon; it is merely frightening you."

Pate suddenly understood; no wonder he had felt something was wrong just now.

He had dozens of lives under his command.

How could he be so cowardly?

Fear was normal, but he shouldn't have been so terrified he could barely walk, nor should he have needed to shout to dispel his fear.

"Heh, you lack even the knowledge to deal with giant dragons, yet you dare to slay a dragon; truly you are bold."

Now calm, Pate did not mind Fang Shi's mockery; instead, he flattered, "My lord, may we briefly borrow your rare artifact?"

"It is not that I distrust my lord, but my subordinates are too foolish; without proof, they may not obey."

Fang Shi sneered, "Your bloodlines are too lowly to use a rare artifact."

Before Pate could ask further, he added, "Of course, exposing this young dragon's little trick is simple; look."

Fang Shi drew out a short bow he had prepared beforehand and shot an arrow at the tall and mighty, Gao Daweimeng, giant dragon.

The arrow did not fly fast; it was far from the short bow's maximum speed.

Logically speaking, the giant dragon could even be ignored entirely, because its attacks couldn't break through the defense at all.

Who would have thought, when the arrow approached the giant dragon, the dragon, which had been crouching, slightly tilted its head and breathed a breath toward the arrow in the air.

The breath was an earthy gray color, and upon contacting the arrow, the arrow instantly slowed, as if frozen, plummeting straight down.

"This…" Pad couldn't quite make sense of it.

The rest of those present couldn't make sense of it either; such a slow arrow could even be dodged by them.

What was Fang Shi's purpose in firing this arrow—to tickle the giant dragon?

Most people thought Fang Shi had gone mad, not fleeing quickly but instead provoking the giant dragon.

If they weren't barely able to move, they would have long since escaped the underground palace.

"Don't rush."

Fang Shi unhurriedly fired two more arrows, both deflected by the giant dragon's breath.

This behavior seemed to anger the giant dragon, as it rose from its crouching posture.

Its neck rose high, a full 8 meters tall, like a three-story building.

It spread its wings, over 20 meters across, and let out a great roar toward the sky.

"Roar!"

Everyone present was terrified beyond measure, trembling like sifted chaff.

Pad, who had barely escaped the dragon's might's influence, found his hands trembling once again.

"M-my… lord… wh-what… do… we… do… now?"

He had already begun to suspect that Fang Shi was deceiving him.

Fang Shi ignored him this time; completely unaffected by the dragon's might, he drew the shortbow again, as smooth and fluid as flowing water.

"You have felt the dragon's might."

"Your will has exempted you from this instance of dragon's might; for a period of time henceforth you will not be affected by the dragon's might."

This time he fired two arrows in succession, the first slightly slower, the second slightly faster.

Just as the first arrow was about to be blocked by the dragon's breath, the second arrow caught up with the first.

It knocked the first arrow off course, dodging the dragon's breath.

Then the first arrow shot straight into the giant dragon's body, the arrowhead buried completely.

"Did you see clearly?" Fang Shi turned his head and asked Pad.

Pad said in astonishment: "A shortbow can pierce the giant dragon's scales? And why isn't it bleeding?"

Fang Shi said lightly: "Don't you understand yet? An illusion is an illusion; this dragon is very small, the arrow simply shot right in."

"Logically speaking, you all should have been able to exempt the dragon's might to some degree."

"But when you saw the giant dragon's enormous size, you instinctively felt fear, so your will check failed."

These words answered Pad's doubts and also confirmed that the giant dragon was merely an illusion.

He turned and felt a surge of anger: "I understand, my lord, I'll organize the brothers to attack the giant dragon right now."

Having said that, he ran to the center of the great hall and shouted at the bandit group: "Brothers, don't be fooled by this juvenile dragon, it's just a juvenile dragon."

Then, following Fang Shi's method, Pad exposed the giant dragon's illusion.

Of course, he didn't possess Fang Shi's skill, but the bandit group had many members; if each person threw one object, it would be easier to verify.

Seeing this scene, a faint smile appeared on Fang Shi's face.

In fact, he had seen through this juvenile dragon's trick the moment it appeared.

The dragon's might was one aspect; another was the Mystical Realm key.

The restrictions of the Mystical Realm key determined that he would never face enemies above level five.

How could a mature dragon possibly appear?

Fang Shi had already recognized it—this was a stone dragon.

And a mature stone dragon's creature level was at least level 16.

That was third-tier strength; needless to say, the current Fang Shi.

Even the Fang Shi from before his rebirth, facing a mature dragon of creature level 16, would be a matter of being one-shot killed.

If he were facing such an enemy now, he might as well just kill himself and be done with it.

He might even be able to reincarnate once more.

So this could only be an illusion.

Although there are indeed true illusions that turn the false into the real.

But this too exceeded the Mystical Realm key's restrictions.

To avoid the cannon fodder being scared out of their wits by the giant dragon's dragon's might,

Fang Shi decided to proactively reveal the giant dragon's true nature.

He first used a single arrow, exploiting the stone dragon's fear of being exposed.

This exhausted the stone dragon's breath uses.

After the stone dragon grew angry, he employed some techniques of rapid-fire arrows, shooting arrows into the stone dragon illusion's body.

These shoddy techniques of his, if seen by rangers, would absolutely be sneered at.

But facing this situation, it was already enough.

A gentleman does not stand beneath a crumbling wall; rather than facing the giant dragon alone, it was better to let the bandit group serve as cannon fodder.

Once the stone dragon's true nature was exposed, under his command, the bandit group would surely dare to fight the stone dragon.

Pad's demonstration was still persuasive, and he gathered the Giant Scorpion Bandit Group together once more.

One by one, they began to fight without honor, using bows and arrows to attack the stone dragon from a distance.

Those without bows grabbed whatever throwing objects they could find and started hurling them over.

Shi Long was no fool; seeing these humans' actions, he knew his trick had been seen through.

He no longer pretended, retracted the illusion, and revealed a sphere one meter in diameter.

"Damn it! How dare you offend the great King of Earth and Mountains, Turs!"

"I will definitely kill you all."

A low, childish voice rang out, and the sphere stretched itself out.

A miniature version of a full-grown stone dragon appeared.

Only its head was proportionally larger; it was a true baby dragon.

"Haha, it really is a baby dragon!"

"Shoot quickly, shoot quickly, finish it off right now."

"Damn, a baby dragon dares to act so tough, making me look like a fool."

Curses rang out among the bandit gang; they didn't care at all about the baby dragon's threats.

Instead, they felt the previous behavior was extremely embarrassing; being scared into wetting their pants by a baby dragon the size of a calf was truly a huge joke.

Shi Long Turs was furious; these weak ranged weapons couldn't break his defense at all. Where did these people get the courage to kill him?

The bandit gang also realized this problem.

Turs didn't dodge at all; arrows struck his scales, making bang-bang sounds, yet not a single one penetrated.

Thus, under Pade's command, the bandit gang began to advance toward Turs.

They decided to defeat the giant dragon through close-quarters combat.

"Alright, alright, since you are so crazy, then I won't be polite."

A flash of heartache crossed Turs's eyes; he gritted his teeth and spat out a ring.

After he muttered a phrase in Dragon Tongue.

Four beams of earth-yellow light appeared inside the great hall.

Immediately after, an earth elemental nearly five meters tall rose from the ground out of the light.