Chapter 463: A Balanced Diet of Meat and Greens

Nai Ge Li Si was stunned for quite a while before he understood what Seeing Ange meant: "You mean, the Dragon God Blood can make it evolve again? Evolve into a true Gold Dragon? The kind with wings?"

Seeing Ange nodded.

"What does it need? Dragon God Blood?" Nai Ge Li Si asked.

Seeing Ange nodded.

Doroke, who had been looking forward to it, deflated the moment he heard this: "Dragon God Blood? Heh, I haven't even seen what a Dragon God looks like. We're just dragons with degenerated bloodlines—no, no, we can't even be called a subspecies. Real dragon-kin can still have their bloodline boil, awakening at least a bit of their bloodline talent. We can't do anything."

"Uh, that doesn't sound right. You use Dragon Breath pretty skillfully, and you even know your full name. Doesn't seem like someone whose bloodline never boiled," Nai Ge Li Si asked, puzzled.

Doroke sighed: "I'm a bit special. I'm the most talented one in our clan. The elder once said that if my bloodline were complete, I'd be the one most likely to become the Dragon King. But even I could only have my bloodline boil when I was young. Once I'm old, it doesn't work anymore."

Nai Ge Li Si snickered: "A little brat dragon of only two thousand years, putting on airs of being mature."

Doroke said indignantly: "No matter how young I am, I'm still much older than you, you embryonic dragon. Have you even hatched? A dragon egg is bigger than you."

"Heh heh, listen up. My name is Nefarian Uzmos Rafalet Babguli Grigori… Knowledge Nai Ge Li Si. Does it sound familiar? Count which generation I am," Nai Ge Li Si said with a smile.

By the time the first part was spoken, Doroke was already stunned, because the first part was exactly the same as his own. This meant this Bronze Dragon was his direct distant relative.

After Nai Ge Li Si spoke his full name, Doroke had already figured it out: "You… you're… great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather?"

Judging by the full name, Nai Ge Li Si's seniority was absurdly high. No wonder he had that look of regarding a junior.

Nai Ge Li Si nodded: "I'm at least sixteen generations above you. We should have branched off from the XXX generation. I never thought I'd find dragon kin of the same line here."

Although Jia Delige was a Dracolich, he was a native undead being—a new life born from a dragon's corpse. He was a lich, not a dragon, and had nothing to do with the dragon race.

This Doroke was the first dragon kin he'd seen on this plane. What a coincidence—they were both from the Nefarian family.

As for why a Gold Dragon would be a direct descendant of an ancient dragon, that would require asking Doroke's ancestors. Some ancient dragon had mated with a lesser dragon, producing a dragon-kin, which had eventually degenerated into a kind without even wings.

Doroke was just a bit special—he had atavism, which was why he could grow into his current form.

"Ancestor… my lord," Doroke called out shyly with his eyes closed. He couldn't say it with his eyes open—this embryonic dragon didn't look like an ancestor in the slightest.

"Good boy. That call of 'Ancestor my lord' wasn't a loss—at least your pile of dragon eggs that haven't gone rotten are saved," Nai Ge Li Si said with a grin.

Half-believing, half-doubting, he led Seeing Ange and the group back to the cave. Doroke went to the platform where he had originally been lying, stared at the pool below for a while, then plunged his head in. When he pulled it back out, a round, plump sea fish was already clamped in his mouth.

Doroke carried the sea fish to Nai Ge Li Si and said politely: "Ancestor my lord, please eat. You all eat too. Esteemed Archangel, do you eat fish? Should I grill it?"

"Aoo!" the little angel replied.

Didn't understand… Doroke's face was blank, and he sheepishly pulled his head back.

Nai Ge Li Si had already surveyed the entire cave. The cave had two entrances. The pool below was one entrance, leading directly to the sea, with plenty of sea creatures moving about underwater.

The other entrance was the cave toward the cliff. The dragon eggs were placed on both sides of the cliff-facing entrance, presumably for ventilation and dryness. If the air didn't circulate, these eggs might not survive even one.

Nai Ge Li Si checked them all. Out of over a hundred eggs, fewer than twenty still had vitality—exactly eighteen, to be precise. The rest had gone rotten.

Even these eighteen survivors weren't in great condition. Many hadn't fully developed due to the lack of a suitable environment.

After walking a full circle and returning, seeing the sea fish offered by his junior, Nai Ge Li Si unceremoniously breathed a puff of Dragon Breath onto it, roasted the skin a bit, and took a bite.

The Dragon Breath wasn't for roasting the fish, of course, but to disinfect the spot where he'd bite. After a few bites, he started to disdain it: "What kind of fish is this? The meat is sour. Tastes terrible."

"Sour is the authentic flavor. This is a Red-Blood Fish. The meat and blood are both red. After it dies, the blood seeps into the meat—sour and refreshing, appetizing. It's not very sour when fresh, and gets more sour the longer it sits," Doroke said.

"Uh, don't you know how to bleed it? A human pirate called Black Crow said that for red-blood fish, bleeding them before eating makes them not sour. Catch another one and try," Nai Ge Li Si said.

Doroke, half-believing, half-doubting, caught another one and hung it up to bleed. During the process, Nai Ge Li Si kept patting and tapping it to let the blood drain more cleanly. This was something Black Crow had taught him—any kind of knowledge, he remembered it clearly.

Then he used Dragon Breath to roast the fish skin until it curled, separating it from the meat. A single pull and it came right off.

Eating it again, the taste was indeed much better.

Doroke ate a few himself. After Seeing Ange's round of healing, some of his old injuries had benefited from the misfortune and been healed along with everything else. Now his appetite was much better.

After eating his fill, he finally asked expectantly: "Ancestor my lord, can you really accelerate their hatching? Is there anything you need me to do?"

"Move farther away," Nai Ge Li Si said.

With only one or two months left to live, if he stayed within the range of the Quick-Death Halo, the eggs wouldn't have hatched and he'd already be dead.

Sort the eggs by different attributes, set up different growth environments, purify the eggshells, knock open small holes, inject nutrient fluid, then purify and disinfect again.

For some damaged eggs, Seeing Ange cast Purify, healing them through the eggshell.

Finally, he took out the Quick-Death Halo Stone and activated it.

Nai Ge Li Si's current body was alive, so he quickly retreated far away, hiding with Doroke in the depths of the cave, watching from afar as Seeing Ange worked there.

Doroke asked worriedly: "Ancestor my lord, can this really work? Won't poking holes in the eggshells ruin the eggs? We've tried poking holes in eggshells before, but they went rotten within days."

"As long as you pay attention to disinfection and sealing, it'll be fine. Don't worry—we've processed who knows how many dragon eggs. If they really go rotten, at worst we'll compensate you with a few," Nai Ge Li Si said dismissively.

"Alright then," Doroke believed him easily.

"Huh? You believed me that easily?" Nai Ge Li Si was a bit surprised.

Doroke had always been wary of them. If he could beat them, he would have thrown all of them into the sea long ago. And he believed his words this easily?

Doroke smiled bitterly, helpless: "What can I do even if I don't believe you? I can't beat you. This is their last hope. If I don't believe you, they won't even have that little hope left."

"You see things pretty clearly," Nai Ge Li Si laughed.

"I'm not an idiot. Forget it, let's not talk about this. Ancestor my lord, why did you become like this? Were you cursed?" Doroke asked curiously.

"No, I was reborn," Nai Ge Li Si said, not mentioning that he was a projection—that form of existence was hard to explain.

"Then these humans and angels, are they your attendants?" Doroke asked.

"Pfft, don't say that, don't say that. Companions, companions, we're companions," Nai Ge Li Si was so startled he wanted to jump up and cover Doroke's mouth.

It didn't matter if Seeing Ange heard this, but if the little angel heard it, she'd definitely come over every day to pull out Nai Ge's scales to determine who ranked higher.

Luckily, luckily, the little angel didn't hear—she was still playing by the pool. Nai Ge Li Si breathed a sigh of relief.

Doroke gave him a suspicious glance. That reaction didn't seem like a companion's—it seemed more like the one being bullied.

Just then, one of the eggs moved. The shell cracked, and a wingless hatchling crawled out, squeaking and trying to pounce on Seeing Ange.

Seeing Ange held it up, casually rolled up the eggshell, and ran toward Nai Ge Li Si's position.

Arriving at a clean, flat spot, he set it on the ground, took out the eggshell, and stuffed it into its mouth.

The hatchling gnawed on the eggshell like it was a biscuit, its round, bead-like eyes fixed on Seeing Ange.

Seeing Ange set the remaining eggshells beside it, then turned back to continue incubating the eggs.

"Eep eep eep…" the hatchling called out in a milky little voice, dropped the eggshell, and chased after Seeing Ange.

Seeing Ange tilted his head, then scooped it back again. Though just born, this little fellow was already two sizes bigger than Lord Nai Ge Li Si — no wonder everyone called Lord Nai Ge an embryonic dragon.

The hatchling thought Seeing Ange was playing with it; the moment it was set down, it propped itself on its two stubby legs and chased after him again.

"It seems to think you're its parent — that shouldn't be happening," Lord Nai Ge Li Si flew over, held back the hatchling, and said in confusion.

This instinct of treating the first living thing it sees upon opening its eyes as a parent is common in many birds and reptiles, but it shouldn't appear in true dragons or sub-dragons.

Because the moment they break out of the shell is not the first time they 'open their eyes' — inside the egg, they have already begun to perceive the world outside. By the time they hatch, they are already several hundred years old; if their parents believed in prenatal education, the hatchling would have been in school for several hundred years already.

The only possibility is that these wingless sub-dragons never formed consciousness inside the egg; the moment they broke the shell was the first moment they perceived the world.

The hatchling turned its head and saw Lord Nai Ge — smaller than itself, but a winged member of the same kind — holding onto it. Thinking it was competing for affection, the hatchling immediately swung its head over.

"Ouch, you little brat, you dare hit me?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si lashed its tail, ready to teach this snot-nosed little dragon a lesson.

The hatchling refused to back down in the slightest and got into a brawl with Lord Nai Ge Li Si. Seeing Ange took the chance to run back.

After a bout of mutual pummeling that left both with bruised faces and swollen noses, the hatchling got hungry, dropped Lord Nai Ge Li Si, and went back to gnaw on eggshell.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si let out a breath of relief, but when it looked up, it was met with Dorok's expression of an almost-smile. Lord Nai Ge Li Si hurriedly explained: "I was afraid of hurting it, so I didn't dare use any real force."

Dorok quickly said: "Yes, yes, yes — Ancestor my lord was only afraid of hurting it, not unable to beat it."

The hatchling nibbled a few bites of eggshell, then wanted to run off again to find Seeing Ange. Dorok's two big claws swept in a circle and gathered it into the crook of his arm.

Unable to find a way out, the hatchling grew a little anxious and went "eep eep eep," then headbutted Dorok's hand.

Seeing how lively it was, Dorok finally said: "So it's already hatched? Hard to believe."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si put its paws on its hips and stuck its tail up: "Piece of cake, piece of cake — standard procedure. If I showed you anything non-standard, I'd scare you out of your wits."

It couldn't help being proud. Even before its death, the dragon race had the problem of difficult reproduction, and it had never been solved. It was it who brought Seeing Ange back to Dragon Island and thoroughly resolved this problem.

Dorok did not argue back. He was already a little shocked. The only dragon egg he had set his mind at ease about — he had thought it would, along with his own death, end up rotting and stinking — had been casually resolved by a companion of Ancestor my lord. It was too incredible.

Just as he was sighing in wonder, another cracking sound rang out. The second dragon egg hatched, and Seeing Ange came running over carrying the second hatchling.

Seeing Ange tossed the second hatchling into the crook of Dorok's arm, then poked his head in to take a look at the first hatchling.

The first hatchling excitedly went "eep eep eep," scrambling vigorously up Dorok's arm, trying to climb out of the circle.

Seeing Ange dug out a pile of rapeseed cakes and tossed them in front of the hatchling, then ran back again.

Both hatchlings were hungry and couldn't resist the smell of the rapeseed cakes. They buried their heads and gnawed away. After a few bites, they dragged the eggshell over and ate it together with the cakes.

"Meat and veg, balanced nutrition, is it? Are you breeding livestock?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si complained.

The glance Seeing Ange had poked in to take was clearly to observe the hatchlings' growth. If they weren't growing well, he'd add more feed — the same idea as top-dressing when he was farming.

Dorok didn't understand what the complaint meant and blinked blankly.

Eight or nine hours later, all eighteen dragon eggs had hatched. These eggs had almost reached the late stage, but without a suitable incubation environment, the hatchlings couldn't grow and develop inside.

Seeing Ange poured in nutrient solution to provide ample nutrition, then modified the incubation environment to suit. With the accelerated-death halo speeding things up, they all successfully hatched.

Eighteen hatchlings — the cave erupted into unprecedented chaos. Dorok fumbled about, gathering the hatchlings into the crook of his arm, laughing so hard his eyes disappeared.

"Hahaha, hahaha — we've never had so many hatchlings born at once here. Too lively, too fun."

"Not fun at all!" Lord Nai Ge Li Si roared, pinned under a hatchling that was licking him all over.

Dorok laughed loudly: "Haha, Ancestor my lord, you need to eat more meat — even a little fellow just out of the shell is sturdier than you."

"Now I believe what my lord Seeing Ange said — Dragon God blood can let me evolve. What a pity we've never seen the Dragon God. I really hope we can get some Dragon God blood to use on these little fellows. That way they can grow into true dragons, instead of huddling in the sea to survive like us. They should be dragons soaring across the sky." Dorok sighed regretfully.

Dragon God blood! Dorok's words reminded Seeing Ange. He raised his hand, signaling everyone to wait a moment, and pulled his consciousness back to his main body.

He transformed into the Dragon God, pricked his finger, forcefully squeezed out ten drops of fresh blood, put them into a bottle, stuffed it into the Resting Palace, then immediately projected over.

After projecting over, he took out the blood bottle from the Resting Palace at once. One drop was flicked onto Dorok's forehead; the rest, in half-drop portions, were smeared onto the foreheads of the eighteen hatchlings.

"Dr-Dragon God blood?" Feeling the familiar aura contained within the blood, Dorok asked in a trembling voice: "Wh-what exactly are you people? How could you…"

Before he could finish, Dorok felt a searing hot current welling up from where the drop of blood on his forehead had sunk in, spreading down his neck and through his body.

Dorok instinctively tensed his whole body, trying to resist the hot current, but a roar that seemed to come from ancient times immediately sounded in his heart. His heart trembled, he relaxed his resistance, and the hot current surged through his entire body.

Dorok stood dumbfounded for a long while, not knowing what to do. His vision went black, and he crashed headfirst to the ground.

PS: May Day holiday — but look, it's Labor Day. Isn't Labor Day meant for laboring? How can we take a holiday? Labor, labor! Monthly tickets, monthly tickets!