Chapter 59: Epilogue

"What a familiar ceiling."

Looking again at the luxurious crystal chandelier, Li En felt much more comfortable and relaxed.

The heavy pressure and threats that had weighed on him were gone; even the same scenery looked far more comfortable.

"Miss Miss Lana, don't run! Why do you always like running around without clothes!"

That familiar voice from outside also lifted Li En's spirits, though he feared he'd have to wait a while before opening the door to go out.

"Truly exaggerated," Li En said, looking at himself; now he was bound up looking quite like a mummy.

It seemed that when he had come out, the continuous bleeding from too many wounds had pushed his physical condition to the brink of death from hypothermia.

Healing divine arts have their limits; the human body cannot be catalyzed to heal infinitely.

And the journey of return was not smooth either.

While Li En was in a life-or-death struggle, the battlefields in other areas had not stopped.

Even Hek could call for reinforcements; when Maria and the Great Antler Deer went berserk, the small beasts were naturally called over to rescue them.

They had been trying to interfere in the battlefield between Li En and Maria, but were held back by others.

When Li En walked out of the battlefield, Damon and Talia, who was in very poor condition, were still fighting a bitter battle.

To prevent the surging beast tide from affecting Li En's life-or-death fight, they could only block the door and fight to the death; Damon, who had originally been the only one not seriously injured, had by then become a man covered in blood.

The second wave of reinforcements, considered official hired personnel, arrived at a rather subtle time; intercepted and sniped by the frenzied beast horde, their journey was very difficult.

Without guides, they spent most of their time going in circles in the underground world's labyrinth, fighting to the death with those frenzied small beasts, essentially having come for nothing.

But it seemed the death of the Great Antler Deer marked the end of everything; after Li En went out, those monsters became much more gentle and weak.

Even so, the knight squad's journey back still required fighting all the way.

And on the road, Li En also met Larry, who had changed into a shinier set of armor and come to support riding a Great Sword Spider; to be honest, seeing the Great Sword Spider directly block the passage was truly a disaster.

The big spider blocking the passage, brandishing its claws and fangs at their group, made Li En extremely uncomfortable; he almost overreacted and drew his sword immediately.

Fortunately, Larry behind him shouted in time, preventing the battered knight squad from suffering another life-or-death crisis for no reason; it's normal for knights to be unable to defeat their mounts, and the Great Sword Spider is a powerful fourth-tier magical beast.

After exiting the cave, Li En also met Miss Miss Shaliman and the Radiant Guards holding the cave entrance.

Their appearance meant the authorities had directly intervened, and the situation had escalated completely.

What was once a serial killer case was now the authorities cracking down on cults and evil forces rebelling!

Once these people started intervening, what happened inside actually had nothing to do with Li En's group.

The remaining beasts were naturally cleaned up completely; reportedly, the Radiant Guards and the City Guard had sealed off that underground cave, and whatever remained inside would be thoroughly cleaned up after some time.

The previous speculation was correct; indeed, there was a smuggling underground river leading to a group of underground ruins.

If Maria had truly followed that underground river, there would have been no hope at all.

And that river, along with the small boat on it, also conveniently solved a major problem for Li En.

"Fortunately, the gems of Hero's Blood were stored in the space of the Codex. The whereabouts of that bag of 'gems' should be left for the Beast Cult to take the blame!"

When a person dies, debts rot; anything can be dumped on Maria and the others.

Those cultists who came to aid were, from all angles, very suitable scapegoats.

Reportedly, Miss Miss Shaliman and the others also happily set a quite high bounty on them.

That lost bag of "Hero's Blood" could also conveniently become motivation for some people to hunt down evil-doers.

Of course, the fact that this matter could be settled so quickly also lay in Li En's willingness to sacrifice.

He tore off a small piece of Hero's Blood and threw it into Hek's corpse. Isn't it only natural for cultists to take a kickback? They aren't fearless Paladins.

It was a layout made casually before, but when cleaning up the battlefield after the war, it could become decisive evidence.

"Anyway, the Ancient Beast worshippers won't stand up and speak, saying they didn't take it."

The knight group's empty-handed exit completely cleared away the suspense; under normal circumstances, no one would suspect a Paladin of lying, let alone here with three Paladins.

And Li En himself, reportedly, had a face as pale as a corpse when he came out.

Some even suspected he might die at any moment.

He didn't even know when he had fainted.

But now, Li En touched his chin, feeling his condition was quite good, with none of the weakness after massive blood loss.

【Creature Grade: Raw Stone, Status: Strength 8, Constitution 9, Agility 6, Spirit 8 (18)】

It seemed it wasn't an illusion; during sleep, he had seemingly completed a qualitative transformation.

He flipped through the records above, yet felt it was even more subtle.

【Evolution of Long Mian activated; main material Dragon Soul digested; searching for auxiliary evolution materials...】

【Bai Yin-grade material Tears of the Lion King (Sun) confirmed; Bai Yin-grade material Dragon Soul (Volcano) confirmed; Dragon-attribute materials decomposing and fusing; Sun-attribute (Flame) material fusing...】

【Racial Talent, Dragon Flame, completed enhancement.】

【Long Mian has ended; current creature grade is Raw Stone.】

It seemed some materials placed in the Codex had been consumed.

"Sorry, Miss Miss Lana, it seems your dowry was used by me..."

During this Long Mian, the Hero Codex consumed some materials, helping Li En completely break through the Raw Stone grade.

Then, as a Dragonkin, having base attribute values a cut above ordinary Orcs seemed normal.

After all, Dragons are famous for their superior base attributes; reaching Bronze or even Bai Yin standards at Raw Stone grade is normal, right?

And Li En subconsciously touched his chin again; he just felt something was wrong.

"Uh, scales?!"

Now, touching the hard object under his chin, Li En was completely stunned.

He found a mirror and noticed that on the lower side of his cheeks, pale red scales had actually appeared!

"... This, it seems I can better disguise myself as a Lizardman... But, a Red Dragon?"

Dragonborn are the descendants of great dragons, but dragonkind has too many branches; the pale red dragon scales that appeared when the dragon claws deformed earlier also hinted at Li En's bloodline origin.

"No wonder awakening the Dragon Flame was so easy, and there's the Holy Flame Halo."

A profession's path often has a direct relationship with that person's talent.

Since Li En is now a Fire-attribute Red Dragon Dragonborn, it is only natural that he awakened rare Fire-attribute divine arts among the Paladin's divine spells.

"Uh, Dimon's first awakening should have been Cure Light Wounds. Does he have the talent to become a Healing Knight? Or does it hint that he is actually a good person who dislikes fighting?"

And precisely because it is the Red Dragon bloodline, digesting Fire-attribute Dragon Soul, Volcano, and Sun-attribute materials during evolution seems normal as well.

He nodded, feeling everything was normal. But whose Original-Stage eats Bai Yin-Stage materials?! Which young dragon dares to consume high-tier Sun materials of the Fire attribute?!

Without relevant knowledge, he merely sighed in relief at the advancement and didn't think too much.

He looked at himself in the mirror for a long time; this scale would surely be very helpful for his disguise.

"Next time I see that dragon-hunting little girl, I'll find a chance to ask her how she conceals her Dragonborn identity. Does she also walk the path of the False Dragon?" If he remembered correctly, that girl also seemed to be a Red Dragon Dragonborn.

The Red Dragon breed truly lives up to being the dragon among dragons, the fighter jet among evil dragons, sowing seeds everywhere in the world without the slightest hesitation.

"Crack."

And at this moment, the door opened.

Li En looked up. Ha, the people are really all here.

Talia walked hurriedly at the very front, Dimon followed, and Larry was there too.

"Hi, did you sleep well last night?" Before he finished speaking, Li En saw three faces filled with surprise.

Li En hadn't even had time to react when a burst of fragrant wind rushed at him, and he was embraced.

Talia hugged him directly; Li En even saw tears of joy glistening at the corners of her eyes.

"Hey, is it really necessary?" Li En was somewhat confused. Wasn't it just sleeping for a night?

"... Lie down quickly." The woman wiped the corners of her eyes, said no more, and acted directly.

Without a second word, Li En was directly carried back to bed by Talia. From his angle, he happened to see outside the door: the Snake Woman was staring coldly at him, then snorted and walked away.

"You slept for at least thirty hours. Your breathing stopped several times in between. The doctor said you might be gone," Larry said, recounting yesterday's situation with considerable unease.

At that time, the doctors were just about to say they couldn't save him, and the priests directly stated that their healing divine arts had long since reached their limit.

So this was the reason Talia and the others were so excited.

Li En hadn't slept for one night; he had slept for a whole day and two nights!

After pondering for a moment, Li En still managed to prop himself up into a sitting position and spoke with a smile.

"Thank you, and please rest assured. Just as I promised before, I have returned safely."

(End of this chapter)