Chapter 63: Poison Tempering

Night wind swept through the treetops, leaves rubbing together with a rustling sound, casting long shadows across the ground.

Moonlight sliced by the branches fell upon Luo Si’s scales, forming scattered patches of light.

His hard body pushed through shrubs, claws raking aside vines, sniffing the scent of blood in the air; after searching the area for minutes, he stopped.

He stared closely.

A severed segment of a Cliff Serpent Dragon’s tail lay still on the ground; green dragon blood oozing from the break had corroded all surrounding stones and broken branches, forming a pool of green liquid centered on the tail, still bubbling and continuing to spread outward.

“The blood hides poison—why doesn’t it poison itself?”

Luo Si gripped the severed tail, lifted it, then flapped his Dragon Wings and shot straight into the sky, turning back toward the Needleleaf Valley.

He had come out to scout his “neighbors.”

Luo Si originally intended to survey multiple intelligent tribes or powerful ferocious beasts at once.

But after discovering the presence of a Cliff Serpent Dragon in the Graymane Wolf Clan and fighting it, his Dragon Wing was poisoned, so he lost the will to continue scouting and returned to the Needleleaf Valley instead.

Not long after.

Luo Si flew above the Needleleaf Valley, retracted his Dragon Wings, and landed on his usual training ground—a clearing in the valley.

On the western edge of the clearing, the fairy Long Weila lay swaying atop a treetop, snoring soundly.

Luo Si’s arrival did not wake her; she sniffed the air, then suddenly thrashed as if having a nightmare, lost her balance, and crashed to the ground with a thud.

“Serpent! Serpent! Serpent Dragon! Don’t eat me!”

The fairy dragon trembled like a quail, screaming in terror.

She had just dreamed of encountering a Cliff Serpent Dragon, being captured, and about to be cruelly devoured.

But as her eyes opened, she realized she was still in the Needleleaf Valley, facing the powerful red-iron hybrid dragon—no trace of the serpent dragon remained—and her fear eased slightly.

Yet she immediately felt confused.

For she clearly smelled the scent of the serpent dragon.

Serpent Dragons eat dragons; fairies rank high on their menu, and they especially favor pikemen and flower spirits—fairy dragons, being both dragon and spirit, were practically a delicacy to them.

In short, the Cliff Serpent Dragon was the fairy dragon’s natural enemy.

In the Immortal Wilds,

the Unicorn Elder loved to scare the fairy dragon with tales of the Cliff Serpent Dragon—and it always worked.

Fairy dragons were highly sensitive to the scent of their natural enemy; their small heads turned constantly, sniffing until they fixed their gaze on Luo Si.

Yes, the scent of the serpent dragon came from Luo Si.

She fluttered her butterfly-like Dragon Wings toward him, circling his body once.

She noticed he held a green severed tail in his claw, and on the outer edge of his right wing, a patch of foul-smelling dark green had formed; several fine scales had fallen away, revealing a rotting, pus-filled membrane.

“Did you encounter a Cliff Serpent Dragon? And got its poison blood on you?”

The fairy dragon asked anxiously.

“I encountered one Cliff Serpent Dragon.”

Luo Si shifted his right wing forward, examining the dark green area corroded by the serpent’s poison.

The searing pain was gone, replaced by numbness—especially in the palm-sized rotting patch, which felt almost nonexistent.

Dragons have robust physiques, naturally possessing some resistance to toxins.

Ordinary poisons have negligible effect on dragons.

But the Cliff Serpent Dragon’s poison evolved specifically for infighting and hunting other dragons, capable of inflicting clear toxic damage to dragon flesh.

“The Cliff Serpent Dragon’s close combat skills are poor, but its poison blood is truly troublesome.”

“Unless I can defeat it with ranged attacks, if I must rely on close combat, even if I tear it apart, I risk severe injury from too much of its poison blood.”

Luo Si thought silently.

Severe injury—Luo Si had suffered it once during his hatchling stage.

He was three years old then, first realizing he possessed an adaptive evolution talent; unable to control the arrogance inherent in dragon nature, he flew excitedly to his maximum altitude and attempted his first “sun-tree” ritual, hoping to grow strong through violent means.

The result? He crashed and suffered severe injury.

It took him over half a month to gradually recover.

And afterward, his evolution talent gave no satisfying feedback.

That made him realize his evolution talent favored gradual accumulation over sudden, violent surges.

Now there was no Iron Dragon Mother to protect him.

If he suffered severe injury and encountered another danger, death risk would be extremely high.

Meanwhile, the fairy dragon flew to Luo Si’s wound and urged urgently: “Cut out that flesh immediately—then the wound will heal faster.”

Because Luo Si had promised to play with her and let the grizzly bears in his territory play with her too.

This little thing had apparently forgotten she was a prisoner held by a forced servitude contract, and now treated Luo Si as her ally.

“No.”

Luo Si shook his head, rejecting the fairy dragon’s suggestion.

He raised the serpent dragon’s severed tail, and his Dragon Wing slowly extended.

Along its edge, a metallic structure, sharp as a blade, the wing-knife, slowly scraped across the tail, letting the “blade” soak in the poison blood, emitting a hissing, corrosive sound.

Occasionally, his movements were too forceful.

Droplets of poison blood splashed onto Luo Si’s wing membrane, forming dark green patches, bringing a bone-deep pain like a thousand snakes biting.

Seeing this, the fairy dragon immediately widened her eyes.

She’d never heard the Cliff Serpent Dragon’s poison could drive dragons mad?

“W-what are you doing?!”

She frantically circled Luo Si.

On the other side, a crimson dragon shadow moved through the needle pines and approached.

It was Samantha, who had also smelled the Cliff Serpent Dragon’s scent.

“Overreacting.”

Samantha looked down at Long Weila with superiority, lifted her chin, and said: “Tiny thing, you’ll get used to this once you’ve seen more. Luo Si likes this—it’s his peculiar hobby.”

Seeing the red dragon, Long Weila shrank her head slightly in fear.

Samantha had once tried to eat her; she still feared her.

But due to Luo Si’s warning, and because Long Weila wasn’t even worth a bite, Samantha had lost interest and no longer showed any desire to devour her.

Long Weila forced herself to calm down, pretending she wasn’t so afraid of the red dragon.

Hearing Samantha’s words and recalling Luo Si’s earlier shocking “sun-tree” ritual, she vaguely understood what Samantha meant.

“It… it does seem that way. Luo Si’s tastes are unusual. When I first saw it, I saw it…”

The fairy dragon unconsciously began speaking to the young red dragon.

(End of Chapter)