Chapter 492: Are you here to be buried with me?

"Griffini, that sounds like a giant dragon's name, way better than your Abuk or whatever, Griff—ini, Nai—Ge—Li—Si, the 'Ge' syllable sounds so good in our dragon tongue, gawu-guli—" Lord Nai Ge Li Si said as he demonstrated how to roll the sound through his long throat to produce it.

On the bone dragon's back, Seeing Ange reached into his dimensional space to farm; the little dragon wight, its mother, and John had all been stuffed into the space and were currently dazed inside.

The little angel and the little zombie were playing games, playing them in all sorts of ways—for instance, rock-paper-scissors, where the loser got punched in the eye socket, and before long the two brutes were sporting matching black eyes and giggling foolishly.

Anthony and Niven were whispering back and forth—mostly Anthony talking while Niven listened intently, occasionally letting out a string of "heh-heh-heh" laughs, his smile gradually turning perverted.

If some history book were to record this scene, it would be ironclad evidence of Niven's descent into darkness.

Only Abuk floated there, listening awkwardly—he wasn't a true dragon, so who would care what sounds he made; he had already accepted reality and resolved to be an undying dragon soul.

He hadn't inherited the black dragon's advantages, and without casting spells or stealth he had effectively given up the dragon soul's advantages too—both sides' strengths lost, he couldn't beat anyone.

And so, with no one paying him any attention, Lord Nai Ge Li Si could only grab Abuk and chat awkwardly there; two hours later, the bone dragon finally landed at the Spirit Dragon Knights' main base, the Spirit Dragon Mountain Range.

When preparing to land, the "Long Wang" called out, and Niven quickly said: "Everyone sit tight and hold on, the Long Wang's landing is a bit rough."

A bit rough? How rough could a giant dragon landing be? The thought had barely formed in everyone's mind when they saw the Long Wang fold up its left wing and dip downward.

Clack! Tap! Clack! Tap! Clack—two different sounds alternated as the Bone Long Wang, like a lame duck, twisted wildly to decelerate; its right wing caught the wind, its right wing tapped the ground, and it forcibly drifted, swung its tail, and spun a wide circle before successfully touching down.

Only then did Lord Nai Ge Li Si notice that a protruding wooden stick was tied at the joint of the Bone Long Wang's folded left wing, used in place of the left leg, alternating with the right foot for landing.

"Now I remember—your bone dragon is the one whose leg was crushed by that round chubby one, right? What's going on? Why is the leg still lame? Why not replace it?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si suddenly realized, looking toward the giant dragon's leg, and sure enough, the left leg bone was missing entirely.

When they had boarded the bone dragon earlier, the Bone Long Wang had already been lying on the ground; once everyone mounted, it took off on the spot, so no one had noticed its leg was broken: "I didn't even notice just now—why not replace it?"

Niven said with a bitter smile: "We can't find a suitable one. The Long Wang is already the biggest one in our Spirit Dragon Knights, and there aren't many that fit its size. The two we barely found had been stored too long and became osteoporotic—if we swapped one in and it snapped the moment it bore weight, it could break the other bones too."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si scratched his head; truthfully, he really didn't have any knowledge of raising bone dragons. In the main plane's Undying Empire, bone dragons and corpse dragons were rare, mainly for two reasons.

First, giant dragons have the habit of returning to the Dragon Tomb before death, so ordinary people can't get their hands on a giant dragon's corpse. Second, out of respect for him, Your Majesty would never actively reincarnate any dragon kind.

After all, he is one of the four vice-palace masters of the Resting Palace—that much face he has. All the giant dragons in the main plane are his juniors; would he be happy if they were reincarnated?

"Don't you guys do any maintenance?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked.

"We do—we bury them in breathing earth, but too much time has passed and they've still rotted away," Niven said.

Breathing earth cannot prevent material decay; otherwise Seeing Ange wouldn't have failed to find bones to use back in the Resting Palace. Even the grain in the cellar was preserved with breathing earth, but anything over eight hundred years old had all turned to powder.

But before eight hundred years ago, his farming techniques hadn't improved yet, so there wasn't much stored grain; besides, powdered grain is still grain—at worst you mix it into flatbread and eat it.

Bones are different though, especially for a large skeleton like a bone dragon—if a rotted bone breaks and makes the bone dragon fall, that would be a disaster; if the neck bone or wing bone breaks, there's nothing to replace it with.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said: "Fair enough, you don't have things like the Breath of Rest or Resting Liquid anyway."

Niven blinked and asked: "my lord, what are these things you're talking about? Can they preserve bones?"

"No, nothing, I was just talking nonsense—let's go, let's go, let's go find Griffini." Lord Nai Ge Li Si felt explaining would be too troublesome and quickly changed the subject.

Niven shrugged and didn't press further; they didn't need anything to preserve bones right now—unless they could repair the bones, no amount of maintenance would change the fact that it was still a "porous bone."

Although the Spirit Dragon Knights called themselves a "corps," they were actually a very massive faction, with a total personnel of over three hundred thousand, scattered across more than a hundred villages and settlements throughout the Spirit Dragon Mountain Range, half of whom lived in the largest city—Dragon Nest.

But Dragon Nest wasn't the core of the Spirit Dragon Knights; their core lay deep in the mountain range behind Dragon Nest, in a mountain valley with an open expanse, which they called the Dragon Tomb.

Between two mountain ridges lay a valley of several dozen square kilometers; the terrain inside was gentle, capable of being cultivated into vast farmland, with crops grown to feed the valley's residents.

Several small streams from the mountain ridges converged into the valley, forming a river that cut through it; abundant water sources met the valley residents' drinking and irrigation needs.

The valley had only two entrances at its front and back ends, with treacherous terrain; as long as defenses were built at both valley mouths, the valley could be tightly held—unless the enemy could fly, there was absolutely no way to breach it.

This kind of terrain was simply a dream come true for a turtle-king wannabe—easy to defend, hard to attack, safe for development, connected in all directions, unafraid of being blockaded by enemies; if there were also some mineral resources, it would be perfect.

"You guys have a pretty nice place here." Even Anthony couldn't help but praise.

"Yeah," Niven said: "Thanks to great-grandmother's wisdom, we have a safe foothold in this chaotic world."

"Great-grandmother?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si's heart stirred—could it be another hereditary undying grandma?

Sure enough, Niven said: "That's Grandma Griffini, we all call her great-grandmother."

As the leader of the Spirit Dragon Knights, Niven wielded nearly the greatest authority, and brought Seeing Ange's group straight into the valley, arriving at a cave halfway up the mountain ridge.

Just entering the cave, Anthony noticed a boulder at the entrance that probably weighed several hundred tons; this boulder was supported by a row of one-time-use pillars, each with an explosive formation on it—blow up these pillars and the boulder would roll down, sealing the cave shut.

"It really is a tomb? This is the layout of a human emperor's mausoleum—the Soul-Severing Stone Seal, once it falls, to open it you'd have to dig up the entire mausoleum. This kind of physical seal is more practical than any other seal—it doesn't consume any energy, and even after thirty or fifty thousand years it won't fail." Anthony said in surprise.

Anthony's words seemed to have startled someone; a wave of consciousness swept over, circled everyone once, and then a voice slowly rose: "You are one of the few who recognized the Soul-Severing Stone Seal at a glance, child. So many people coming—are you here to be buried with me?"

PS: Oh, it's daylight—posting one chapter first.