Chapter 117

Shameless! Both Lu Se and Lightning flashed the same thought in their minds: if Nai Aili hadn’t died, she’d be thirteen thousand years old now—older than any Huang Tong dragon—and yet she’s pretending to be someone else’s child?

Several elderly people widened their eyes in shock: “Does Nai Aili have a child? Didn’t she say she’d gone through menopause? Oh oh, dragons say ‘ovulation cessation,’ but how can a child be this small?”

“Nai Aili? That name sounds familiar… let me think… dragon names are long, hundreds of syllables; they pick one syllable as a name, translate it into human speech—I’d have to run through the full name to know which one Nai Aili refers to.” Nai Ge Li muttered to himself, taking a long while before he remembered.

“Her?! Good heavens, is this a coincidence?” Nai Ge Li’s heart trembled, but then he hesitated: “No, if it really is her, then strictly speaking, she’s over ten thousand years old now—does she live longer than I do?”

Huang Tong dragons normally live about ten thousand years, but in reality, those who reach eight thousand are already rare; those who reach ten thousand are exceedingly scarce.

If this Nai Aili truly was the one he knew, she’d be over ten thousand and a few decades old now—longer-lived than Nai Ge Li.

Though uncertain inside, he spoke aloud: “Yes, yes, that’s her! Where has she gone? I’ve been searching for her.”

Upon hearing Nai Aili’s child had arrived, the elderly felt a surge of warmth and responded enthusiastically: “Nai Aili doesn’t come here often; we don’t know her whereabouts, but she occasionally visits. If you wait here, you’ll likely meet her. Oh, Nai Aili’s child is so adorable.”

Nai Ge Li was mortified—he was a thirteen-thousand-year-old ancient dragon, being called “adorable” by a few fifty- or sixty-year-old children, and Lu Se and Lightning had heard it too; if they were skeletons, they’d have laughed their heads off.

He quickly changed the subject: “Why are there only you old folks and children? Where are the adults?”

One elder replied: “They’re working. This is the best time to work—after sunrise, it’s too hot to labor.”

“Oh oh, very reasonable. Early morning and evening are indeed better for work. Please rise up—the ground is cold. How’s your daily life? Do you eat enough? How was this year’s harvest?” Nai Ge Li asked in a casual, chatty tone.

This tone instantly bridged the gap with the unworldly elders; combined with Nai Ge Li’s appearance as a young Huang Tong dragon, he easily won their trust, and soon they spilled everything like beans from a bamboo tube.

From these elders’ words, Nai Ge Li realized he’d misunderstood: this wasn’t a rigidly hierarchical place, but rather these elders had mistaken them for outsiders of high status. Hearing outsiders were cruel, they’d been fearful and thus acted so timidly.

“So we scared them.”

Hope Oasis was enormous, centered around a great lake, with a total population of thirty to forty thousand, primarily cultivating green jujube trees—their main food source.

Oases like this, with water and food, self-sufficient, were the favorite targets of desert raiders—but Hope Oasis was protected by a Huang Tong dragon, so no raider dared approach.

Huang Tong dragons loved shiny things; beside the oasis ran a vein of magic crystals and crystals growing together, producing them year-round. The oasis people traded magic crystals with passing caravans, offered crystals to the Huang Tong dragon, and raised thousands of camels and tens of thousands of sheep for riding and offerings to the dragon.

The oasis’s own military strength was also formidable: thirty to forty thousand adults, all soldiers, easily mobilizing over ten thousand warriors—but due to too few camels, they could only organize around five thousand camel cavalry.

Yet in the desert, this was already an extremely powerful force; combined with the protection of a Huang Tong dragon, Hope Oasis had remained peaceful.

Living in pit-huts wasn’t due to abuse, but because resources were scarce—brick and tile were lacking; pit-huts were the most suitable dwellings for this natural environment, warm in winter, cool in summer, with no major flaws except being low and dim.

Hope Oasis wasn’t a single oasis, but a cluster of oases—dozens of kilometers around the central lake, with over a hundred small and large oases; wherever plants could grow, people lived there. The place they now stood was a small settlement on the outermost edge of this oasis cluster.

As they chatted, voices came from afar—some adult men and women returned, all slumped, listless, until they saw Ang and the others.

The sudden appearance of strangers made everyone alert; they emitted unclear warning cries and rushed over, some instinctively gripping their weapons.

But when they saw Nai Ge Li, their running steps unconsciously slowed.

“Looks like Nai Aili has great prestige here,” Nai Ge Li thought, and decided to greet them directly: “Hello everyone, I’m Nai Aili’s child—I’ve come to find my mother.”

Shameless! Lu Se and Lightning mentally cursed.

“Ah? You’re Nai Aili’s child? Nai Aili has a child?” Everyone erupted in excitement—could their protector really have a child?

In a place where dragons were worshipped, the sudden appearance of a young dragon claiming to be a dragon’s child caused an unimaginable uproar. Someone spread the news rapidly; by noon, the entire oasis was packed with people come to gawk.

Nai Ge Li didn’t care about the crowd—most carried no weapons, and few were experts; even if they had ill intent, Lu Se could protect everyone’s escape. Once they entered the desert, with Lightning’s speed, only a true dragon could catch them.

Wasn’t that exactly his goal?

A dragon with no offspring, hearing its child had come calling—whether out of curiosity or to preserve its reputation—would come out to see, unless it was lying on its deathbed.

Soon, the people in charge of the oasis arrived.

“Born of Storm, Queen of the Oasis, Dragon Speaker Sha Fei Ya arrives!”

A squad of elite soldiers in leather armor escorted a young, beautiful girl through the crowd, pointing at Ang and the others and shouting: “Arrest them! These frauds—Nai Aili has no child!”

The onlookers erupted in uproar—some stunned, then furious; the elite leather-armored soldiers pushed through the crowd and charged toward Ang and the others.

But Nai Ge Li remained calm, shouting loudly: “Then ask Nai Aili—does she remember the dragon egg she buried in sorrow on Zero-Degree Ocean Island? That egg didn’t die—it hatched successfully under the catalysis of elements and temperature.”

“Huh? Zero-Degree Ocean Island? I think I’ve heard of it.” Dragon Speaker Sha Fei Ya’s face showed hesitation.

But then she thought again and firmly declared: “Impossible. Nai Aili said dragons have bloodline resonance—if you were truly her child, you’d feel it.”

Nai Ge Li smiled slightly: “Look at my current state—I’m smaller than a dragon egg, born prematurely and underdeveloped. Do you think I can awaken bloodline resonance?”

“Ah? This… don’t move yet, let me think.” Sha Fei Ya was successfully fooled, her little face twisted in deep doubt.

Lu Se and Lightning were laughing inside—this was no god of knowledge, this was a god of deception; in three sentences, she’d made their Dragon Speaker doubt herself. Hey, with this skill, why couldn’t it fool Ang?

“What’s there to think about? Why not ask Nai Aili directly? Tell her my name is ¥%#@—the name she gave me herself.”

¥%#@ was Nai Ge Li’s name in Dragon Tongue—the Dragon Speaker should understand it.

Sha Fei Ya hesitated, wavered, struggled, tormented herself—and finally made a decision that defied her ancestors.