Chapter 52: Targeted Training for the Little Dragon

"Too light. Use your mana and keep going."

Luo Si encouraged.

Seeing no anger from Luo Si, and spurred by his constant encouragement, the bears gradually loosened their restraint, increasing their strength and channeling mana to reinforce their bodies.

At first, they feared injuring Luo Si and provoking his wrath.

But soon, they realized they had overthought it.

One bear’s paw, covered in thick rock, swept through the air with vicious force and slammed into Luo Si’s Dragon Scales.

Boom!

As shards of scale flew outward, Luo Si didn’t even stagger; beneath the bursting scales, a few black-red Dragon Scales flickered into view.

The bear simultaneously felt a thick, explosive recoil strike its body, hurling it backward several steps, its arm now embedded with razor-sharp scale fragments that tore through its rocky armor and lodged in its flesh.

Bears are inherently fierce and warlike.

This chance to attack without restraint—with a Dragon as a training partner—was rare.

They viewed Luo Si’s demands as a gift, a privilege in their training, and each one clenched their fists, exhilarated.

Ignoring the pain in their arms, the bears strode forward again, raising their paws to strike.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Muffled thuds echoed endlessly, reverberating across the needleleaf valley.

Beyond the recoil and cuts, the bears sensed Luo Si’s scales growing hotter; the already crimson hues on his body were slowly spreading toward his spine.

A few minutes passed.

Boom—Crack!

The bear’s paw struck Luo Si’s body; this time, the bursting scales struck the bear, exploding into a burst of flame and a powerful shockwave that flung the unsuspecting bear through the air, its skin and flesh torn open.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Several bears were all blasted backward; Luo Si’s outer layer of bursting scales had turned a searing crimson, radiating heat so intense it warped the surrounding air.

"Even without fire-based attacks, they can explode."

"This layer of bursting scales now absorbs kinetic energy and converts it into heat—reducing impact damage to me while delivering counter-strike damage."

Luo Si flicked his tail in satisfaction.

His gaze swept over the few bears cowering, their fur charred and falling off, and he urged: "I didn’t tell you to stop. Keep attacking me. Don’t forget your pseudo-magical abilities—use them too."

His words jolted the bears awake.

Circling Luo Si, the bears activated their pseudo-magical abilities; each swipe of a paw summoned thick, solid boulders that roared toward him—only to be shattered by his bursting scales.

Some bears remembered Luo Si’s instruction to spare no means to hurt him, and stomped the ground.

Sharp earth spikes erupted from below, piercing at cunning angles toward Luo Si’s lower abdomen, the genital cavity.

Luo Si instinctively sensed danger, shifted his stance, and brought his foot down hard, crushing the spikes inch by inch.

Though the genital cavity was covered in scales, their hardness paled compared to the chest or back scales, and if an attack carried vibration or penetration effects, the scales couldn’t fully block the damage.

"This is a weakness. I’ve been negligent before."

Luo Si thought, and resolved to train his little Dragon specifically, just in case.

Time passed slowly, gradually slipping into night.

The bears lay sprawled like mud, their bodies covered in explosion wounds, faces etched with utter despair; at first, they had thought being allowed to attack him was Luo Si’s way of encouraging them, and their hearts had been thrilled.

Now, that thrill had been entirely replaced by exhaustion.

Alongside exhaustion, they felt shock and deep, genuine awe.

Luo Si had endured countless blows without flinching, still radiating energy—while they were nearly dead from fatigue.

Scanning the bears, Luo Si nodded in satisfaction and said: "Rest well. Continue in a few days when you’ve recovered."

With more bears, the training effect was better than ever before.

Self-training methods like Rishan and Ridi were too crude—they couldn’t target the whole body precisely.

Unlike other Dragons, Luo Si didn’t take followers to wage war for him or satisfy his innate desire to dominate and enslave other beings—he did it primarily to refine and strengthen himself, to become more formidable.

Luo Si always believed.

In a world teeming with supernatural life, only personal strength mattered.

Wealth, beauty, power.

These were merely byproducts of personal strength.

Samantha silently thought, Luo Si’s habits were growing increasingly perverse, and she edged backward, keeping her distance, afraid he might turn his attention to her.

She didn’t know his strength stemmed from this “habit.”

She only felt Luo Si was deranged—enjoying being beaten, yet so strong that he remained unharmed while those who struck him were left half-dead.

He didn’t let Samantha continue assisting his training.

Under cover of night, Luo Si took to the air, landing at the edge of the needleleaf valley, choosing a spot devoid of other life, then walking toward a protruding rock pillar.

He stepped closer.

After a few seconds of contemplation, Luo Si stood upright, thrust his waist forward, and slammed into the pillar with full force—Boom! The rock pillar snapped clean in two; he felt a jarring recoil, a faint ache.

The scales covering the genital cavity were not bursting scales—they lacked kinetic absorption.

The little Dragon itself was fragile; even with scale protection, impact to this area inevitably caused damage.

"It’s a major weakness. Too vulnerable. I can’t ignore it."

Luo Si took a deep breath, steeling his resolve.

Since the act seemed strange, he didn’t want attention or misunderstanding, so he scanned his surroundings, confirmed no other life was near, then began true Rishan, Ridi training—gritting his teeth, enduring the pain, slamming into the pillar again and again, Boom! Boom! Boom!

This astonishing will and determination had no audience.

Only the twin moons in the night sky, like a pair of eyes, silently watched all that unfolded below.

Meanwhile.

In the Balar Black Oil Field—the oil territory guarded by the Third Heavy Cavalry Regiment of the Black Rock Duchy—

The dwarf alchemist Groni picked up a shard of scale, entirely gray-black with faint crimson edges, and carried it to his alchemy workshop.

"Use it as material to forge a Tracker, to trace the young Dragon’s whereabouts."

He thought, then focused his mind on the shard.

"Melt into liquid matrix, extract essence, activate vitality, alchemize into shape."

He murmured the basic alchemy process as was his habit.

Before a stone table cluttered with tools, the dwarf alchemist traced runes in midair; they landed on the crucible and ignited into flame, then he placed the shard inside for the first step: melting.

But to his surprise,

The metallic shard did not melt under the flame—instead, it gradually turned a glowing crimson, brightening further.

"Does it react specially with fire?"

"Could it be due to hybrid blood altering the Dragon scale’s properties?"

Having never seen or heard of such a change, the dwarf alchemist thought this might be a groundbreaking discovery—capable of supporting an alchemical treatise, elevating his status among alchemists.

Excited, he leaned closer, eyes wide, observing the shard’s transformation, while intensifying the flame.

(End of Chapter)