Chapter 60

I don’t know if it was because today was the last day of the mist dispersing, but a thin fog had already settled over the Death Mountains, drastically reducing visibility.

Fortunately, two days of continuous flight had made Zhui Yue thoroughly familiar with the route, so this did not affect safety or speed.

An hour later, the familiar charred earth reappeared, and Gervas immediately ordered Zhui Yue to begin descending.

Perhaps because the battle between the two dragons had been too terrifying, no beasts or monsters had shown signs of activity in this ruin to this day.

This spared Gervas many troubles, allowing him to search without worry.

The ruin area spanned hundreds of mu; Gervas did not dare delay a moment and immediately began releasing his perception magic and detecting elemental anomalies.

Time passed second by second, but this dragon egg search was far less smooth than finding the dragon’s reverse scale—after over an hour of probing, he found nothing.

“Where the hell is this golden dragon egg? With my current perception, I can only scan twenty square meters at a time—completing a full scan of this charred land won’t be done until tomorrow!”

For the first time, Gervas felt truly stumped.

At that moment, Gervas suddenly spotted a massive pit dozens of meters away—a crater clearly carved by a dragon being slammed to the ground.

The dragon’s outline was still faintly visible on the ground.

“Could it be inside?”

Gervas’s thoughts shifted—he reasoned that burying a dragon egg underground would inevitably leave some trace.

And to conceal such traces, one must combine it with other actions!

He immediately went to the edge of this more-than-ten-meter-deep pit and carefully sensed the surroundings.

As soon as he did, Gervas shuddered, his eyes suddenly blazing with sharp light—“There’s something here!”

Without surprise, he truly sensed stronger magical and elemental fluctuations along the pit’s edge than in any other area.

This meant the dragon egg was present.

Gervas fixed his gaze on the center of the pit and leapt directly inside.

The magical and elemental fluctuations grew even stronger—there, a faint draconic pressure.

This pressure was at least dozens of times weaker than the one he’d sensed when picking up the dragon’s reverse scale the day before.

Only a highly powerful transcendent being, even with careful sensing, might miss it.

Only those with weak power could detect such subtle pressure fluctuations.

Gervas immediately began digging; less than ten minutes later, a flash of gold burst forth.

Brushing away the loose soil, a golden egg, the size of a winter melon from his past life, covered in mysterious runes and emitting a faint glow, lay right before him.

“This is the dragon egg?” Gervas moved his hand closer and immediately felt warmth radiating from it.

As soon as his palm touched the egg, it suddenly trembled.

“Has the hatchling already developed consciousness?”

Gervas was both startled and delighted.

He was delighted because dragon eggs normally take decades to hatch.

Yet this egg had already developed a faint consciousness—meaning it would soon break free from its shell.

This saved him decades of waiting.

As for the shock—having consciousness meant the dragon would likely remember everything Gervas did now.

This made future dragon taming far more difficult, with far greater uncertainty!

Still, even so, it wouldn’t change Gervas’s plan to take the egg.

Gervas pulled out a dagger and cut his finger, then let his blood drip onto the dragon egg.

The blood splashed onto the shell and was instantly absorbed by the golden egg.

He wasn’t trying to form a contract.

To form a contract with a dragon, one must either be powerful enough to force submission—like the legendary dragon knights—or convince the dragon to willingly agree, like unicorns.

What Gervas was doing now was merely letting the dragon become familiar with his scent, so it wouldn’t see him as an enemy after hatching.

From the countless human knight novels featuring nothing but dragon knights and dragon slayers, it was clear dragons were never gentle creatures.

So, whether or not he could eventually form a contract, he must at least ensure the dragon wouldn’t turn on him.

“Golden Dragon, your mother was likely slain—killed by an evil black dragon!”

“I happened upon you and couldn’t bear to let the black dragon find and destroy you, so I’m bringing you to my castle. If you don’t mind, shake three times!”

I happened upon you and couldn’t bear to see you destroyed by the Black Dragon, so I brought you to my castle—if you don’t mind, shake it three times!

The egg indeed shook three times!

Gervas was delighted—this meant communication was possible; at least he knew his goodwill was received.

“Good. Golden Dragon, let’s leave this dangerous place now!”

He threw a sack over the golden dragon egg and, without further delay, rode Zhui Yue straight out of the Death Mountains.

As Gervas departed, the mist over the Death Mountains grew denser than when he arrived, and visibility plummeted again.

“I wonder when the next mist will clear—this Death Mountain is truly a treasure trove!”

After leaving the Death Mountains, Gervas turned back to gaze at the mysterious, perilous range, reluctant to depart.

After leaving the Death Mountains, Gervas turned to look back at the mysterious and dangerous range, reluctant to depart.

“Golden Dragon, we’ve reached my castle! From now on, rest here and grow in peace—I’ll ensure your safety!”

In the underground vault of the castle, a chamber known only to Gervas and the old steward, John.

He placed the egg inside a wooden chest lined with goose down, then communicated with the golden egg once more.

Having placed the dragon egg in a wooden box lined with goose down, Gervas once again communicated with the golden egg.

The golden egg trembled again—clearly an expression of acceptance.

Gervas wasted no time, retrieved the glow pearl, and exited the vault.

As the vault was locked, Gervas hurried toward the village—the other treasures mentioned in today’s intelligence had all been secured; now he must prepare seriously for the arrival of the Scorpion Bandits.

With the chamber locked, Gervas hurried to the village; he had collected all the other treasures mentioned in today’s intelligence, and now it was time to prepare properly for the Scorpion Bandits’ arrival.

“My lord, look over there!”

Under the setting sun, the sky turned blood-red.

At that moment, a line of dark shadows appeared on the horizon beyond Wheatfield Village.

“It’s the bandits—ring the alarm bell!”

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The old bronze bell atop the watchtower was struck.

Under its sharp, urgent chime, every serf in the village trembled, their breathing quickening.

Children who had been playing moments before sensed danger in the frantic bell and ran sobbing into their mothers’ arms.

“Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid—we have our lord! Our lord will drive the bandits away!”

“Don’t fear! Don’t fear—we have our Lord! Our Lord will surely drive off the bandits!”

“Boss, we’re here—ahead is Wheatfield Town!”

“What’s going on? Did these fools get word ahead of time?”

As the Scorpion Boss arrived at the outskirts of Wheatfield Town and saw the tightly shut gates and walls lined with guards, his brow furrowed.

“Boss, our target—the dogs—only learned of it after entering Stormlord’s territory; there’s no way it could’ve leaked!” explained the Scorpion Second-in-command, Sek.

“Forget it. Even knowing those men were our Scorpion Brotherhood, they still dared send them to Iron Wolf City—that’s an insult to the Scorpion Bandits! Today, we must teach them a lesson!”

“Order the dogs to prepare—once we breach Wheatfield Town, the women and loot inside will be divided among them at forty percent!”

“Order the curs to get ready; once we storm Wheatfield Town, give them forty percent of the women and supplies inside!”

“Dogs” was the Scorpion Bandits’ term for the fleeing refugees who followed them to scavenge.

Whenever the Scorpion Bandits planned a major raid, they’d spread word in advance, and some refugees eager to share the spoils would trail behind.

During the raid, the dogs did the hardest, most exhausting, and most dangerous tasks, yet received only thirty to forty percent of the loot.

Still, the refugees flocked to them.

After all, without the Scorpion Bandits, how could they ever attack a territory guarded by a lord and knights?

True to form, upon hearing the news, the ragged, beggar-like dogs were already eager to charge.

Indeed, after hearing the news, the filthy, ragged dogs, no different from beggars, were already eager to pounce.