Chapter 385: The Black Dragon's Nest

Aside from Lei En, each of the other two dragons was stunned, watching the wind roc fly away.

"He got away again?" Jialadelos shouted; he and Xin Dala had prepared several spells, just released a petrification ray, and the battle was over.

"What do we do now?"

Xin Dala kept a cold expression; she was already impatient. When they discussed earlier, it was Lei En's suggestion, yet it let the opponent escape, implying some accountability.

Aimilisi's complexion was also displeased.

"What can we do, chase again," Lei En shrugged. As long as the metal marker stays with them, no matter where the druid flees, they can find him.

The party mounted their phantom warhorses and set out again.

This time Heijiao fled farther, soaring over a hundred li in one go; Lei En and the others chased for two or three hours before quietly closing in, discovering that he had turned into an unremarkable small tree, only two or three meters tall, blending into a forest and fooling the eye.

Having been found last time, Heijiao became extremely cautious.

While Lei En and the others were still discussing how to act, Heijiao sensed something amiss, transformed into a dark panther, slipped into the Shadow Plane, and vanished in an instant.

Fortunately, the Shadow Plane repels non‑shadow beings, so Heijiao cannot stay long—at most half an hour before returning to the Prime Material Plane. The Shadow Plane and the Prime Material Plane overlap spatially, so even while Heijiao is inside, Lei En can sense his location.

But merely knowing the position is useless; they can't catch him.

Heijiao and Lei En's group played hide‑and‑seek, showcasing their shapeshifting abilities, almost all without repetition.

War ancient trees, giant bears, shadow leopards, wind rocs, frost giants, pegasi, owls… various forms, all of legendary‑plus power, each with different effects; they can become humans, minotaurs, elves, dwarves and goblins, crossing gender and race, and can also turn into countless species of flowers, birds, fish, insects, mingling with flocks of birds, swarms of insects, schools of fish; they can even become inanimate objects—unremarkable stones, decayed wooden stakes, a vine, or roadside weeds, and the most extravagant transformation was into a mass of gaseous wind element floating in the sky…

These all‑encompassing shapeshifts opened everyone's eyes.

Countless transformed forms, yet the true form never appeared.

If Lei En hadn't identified him as the black dragon through the Shadow Incarnation, he might not have been sure.

However, no matter what Heijiao turned into, he could not hide from Lei En's eyes; a single glance was enough to locate the opponent, even if it were a wisp of air.

Heijiao, many times in a fit of rage, demanded how Lei En did it.

But he never received an answer.

Relying on various shapeshifts and the virtually unsolvable Shadow Incarnation, he always managed to slip out of the circle formed by Lei En and the three others.

Of course, Lei En's group never dealt a lethal blow, otherwise the outcome would have been decided long ago.

Again, Heijiao used the Shadow Incarnation to leave the fight, turning into a giant eagle and flying away.

Aimilisi and the two great dragons were both very helpless.

They had experienced this situation far too many times; each time they were just a hair's breadth away, then watched helplessly as the other fled. They also tried daringly to chase in true dragon form, but the copper dragon and the frost sea dragon's flight speeds were not outstanding, making it impossible to catch up.

After several days, the two sides clashed dozens of times, without a single quarter‑hour of rest; aside from Lei En, who can absorb souls to replenish his energy, everyone else was somewhat fatigued.

"Dragon God above!"

Jialadelos, disregarding his image, plopped onto the filthy mud and shouted, "Even if that guy is a follower of the Dragon God, if he ever falls into my hands, I'll give him a good lesson!"

Next to him, Xin Dala remained silent, but her cold stare revealed her thoughts.

Aimilisi hesitated briefly, then said, "Lei En, perhaps I should sound the horn and summon him back?"

"Summoning him won't help," Lei En shook his head.

The rules of Dragon Summoning state that during subjugation the effect cannot exceed the horn's sound radius, roughly a hundred‑li diameter area; with Heijiao's shapeshifting ability, such a vast range is enough to evade combat.

Unless he disregards life or death, Lei En still lacks the confidence to capture this black dragon.

Moreover, considering the others in the swamp, it wouldn't go smoothly at all.

Aimilisi grew increasingly anxious; back at Haituoke, she was expected to return to organize troops and logistics, and could not waste too much time here. After weighing it, she said dejectedly, "Let's withdraw and keep the chance to summon him another time."

"No need for another time; we'll finish him this time," Lei En suddenly laughed, looking confident.

Both dragons perked up, looking at him.

"Did you notice any oddities about his hiding spots these past days?" Lei En asked, seeing Aimilisi and the others shake their heads, so without teasing, he casually drew on a dry patch of ground beneath his feet.

It was a crude swamp map.

Lei En used a twig to poke one point after another on the map; each point marked a place where the black dragon had previously hidden.

As the points multiplied, everyone discerned a pattern.

"He never left this vicinity, always looping around, never farther than two hundred li; why is that?" Lei En said while drawing, "Each time he hides, he subconsciously avoids this area. Do you remember where this is?"

The twig pointed to the map's center, where dozens of twig‑punctured points surrounded an obvious blank.

Aimilisi examined the map closely and exclaimed, "That's where we first encountered him."

"Exactly," Jialadelos replied.

Lei En smiled and asked, "Tell me, why does he refuse to stay in this area?"

"His nest!"

Jialadelos immediately understood, "His dragon nest must be within this area; he's afraid we'd stumble upon it, so he dares not go too far. Yet now the swamp is swarmed with people searching for his nest, and he can't stay too distant, so he keeps circling us nearby."

Aimilisi and Xin Dala both nodded repeatedly, their eyes gleaming with delight.

"Lei En, you're so meticulous!" Aimilisi sincerely praised.

The swamp's environment was complex and perpetually shrouded in mist, making navigation difficult, let alone recording every black dragon hiding spot, yet they produced an accurate map.

Even Xin Dala, who always liked to argue with Lei En, was at a loss for words now.

Lei En smiled, accepting their compliments.

In fact, he had noticed this detail two days earlier, then used his phone's distance‑measuring function to mark each location where they caught the black dragon, cross‑referencing them, which produced this crude map. After briefly sensing the metal marker, as expected, the black dragon still had not entered the area near its nest.

He stood and said, "Let's go, find his dragon nest, and see how long he can keep hiding."

Soon after, Lei En and the others returned to the forest where they had encountered the minotaur days earlier.

The forest was not large; the battle's remnants remained. The two humans and two dragons split up, thoroughly searching the entire forest inside and out, yet found no clue.

But they did not give up.

The blank area on Lei En's map spanned about seven li in each direction, covering nearly fifty square li; a carpet‑style search would not take long.

Jialadelos, being of dragon lineage, did not hesitate to betray the black dragon, stating plainly, "Black dragon nests are usually built in dark caves or grottoes, or in unflooded ruins; there must be water nearby, which masks their unique acidic scent, and the nest channels water to form a mirror‑like pool that monitors activity outside."

This information is extremely valuable; apart from the Black Dragon, very few outsiders know it, and by coincidence the Copper Dragon happens to be one of them.

Lei En memorized the key point.

He glanced at his map, seeing a winding, branching river flowing through the marsh. He rode a phantom warhorse along the riverbank, his Soul Eye piercing the mist, scanning every scene like a radar.

Hours later, on a riverbank overgrown with weeds, Lei En discovered several collapsed stone slabs.

"Ruins?"

Lei En's mind shifted, and he examined the stones and the surrounding terrain.

Despite millennia, perhaps tens of thousands of years of corrosion and weathering, the vast majority of the stones had sunk underground, only a few remained exposed, and the engraved symbols were blurred, yet he recognized that this had once been a temple built by a troll to worship some deity.

Now only ruins remain.

Lei En looked around; the ruins and the river matched the characteristics of the Black Dragon's lair, and he sensed a faint, obscure magical fluctuation, extremely weak, almost imperceptible.

"There's a problem here."

The Truth Willpower and the Key of Doors operated at full power, and the space and planes before his eyes unfolded layer by layer.

Massive, unparalleled streams of energy flowed along the temporal direction.

Suddenly, an odd energy flow caught his attention, forming a vortex that was strikingly conspicuous. Half of the vortex sank underground, clearly controlled by a rune formation, while the other half hid in an unremarkable small hill among the ruins.

The hill was only a dozen meters high, covered with several small trees and weeds.

Lei En went to the lower side of the hill, pulled aside vines, and revealed a wall built of rock, thick moss covering it as if no one had touched it for centuries.

At first glance, it was merely an abandoned stone wall, with no energy fluctuation.

Lei En stood before the wall, observed for a moment, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

He reached out and lightly pressed a stone on the wall, seemingly activating a switch; dark gray runes and lines lit up, forming a tall magical gate.

The magical gate was exceedingly intricate and profound, exuding an ancient, time‑worn aura, clearly not easy to open.

Ai Mi Li Si, Jia La De Luo Si and Xin Da La all sensed the movement, hurried over, and exclaimed excitedly, "Found it!" The Copper Dragon glanced at the magical gate a few times and cautioned, "Lei En, this is the Shadow Gate, equivalent to a Seven‑Ring Spell, very hard to open. We must study it carefully and must decipher the incantation before the Black Dragon returns."

"No need to make it so troublesome."

Lei En gave a faint smile, lifted his hand to press against the stone wall, gave a gentle push, and the overwhelmingly intricate Shadow Gate opened silently as if it were unlocked.

Behind the gate, a dazzling light shone out.

(End of chapter)