Chapter 63: Flying Dragon Beast

Xie Sen was afraid of soft-bodied creatures, especially when not far from a python with a body diameter of more than one meter, and a body length estimated at more than ten meters. It was very intimidating.

He subconsciously held his breath.

“Chirp!” Tuan Tuan, who was standing on his shoulder, had the exact opposite reaction. Its round eyes were suddenly full of extremely bright light, as it excitedly shouted, waved its wings and rushed towards the python.

Xie Sen hurriedly shouted, “Tuan Tuan, come back!”

Tuan Tuan hesitantly stopped in mid-air, turned half of its body to look at Xie Sen, as his right wing raised and pointed at the python, his tone light, “Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!”

Xie Sen had seen this reaction many times before, but the things it pointed its wings at before were all melon skins! He looked at Tuan Tuan with incredulous eyes. It was too daring to think! Its whole body was only the size of a hand, and it was trying to eat a giant python?

“It’s too dangerous.” He shook his head disapprovingly.

The python continued to move toward the foot of the mountain. Its body pressed against all kinds of low plants, its tail swung haphazardly, the thinner trees were easily snapped by it, and the road was like a gale.

Fortunately, the foot of the mountain was round, and the direction the python was moving was to the left side of Xie Sen. The direction of its nearest point and Xie Sen’s location was about seven or eight meters apart, so even if the python went to the foot of the mountain, it wouldn’t find them for a while.

Xie Sen whispered, “Shall we leave first?”

Maine nodded and took him to the right side of the mountain. After a few steps Xie Sen noticed that Tuan Tuan wasn’t following him, and looked back to see Tuan Tuan was still looking at the python with a mouth-watering look.

Xie Sen called out in a low voice, “Tuan Tuan, come!”

Tuan Tuan reluctantly took a last look at the python, then flew down to Xie Sen’s shoulder.

After Xie Sen and Maine walked for a while to the other side of the rocky hill, and made sure the python would not see them, Xie Sen nudged Tuan Tuan’s head and whispered, “That’s a contract beast. You can’t eat it! Besides, you are still a young bird, and you can see at first glance that its skin is very hard, so you can’t eat it.”

“Chirp…” Tuan Tuan looked disappointed.

Maine said, “There is something wrong with the python, a python is huge, but has a docile personality, while that one looked manic.”

Xie Sen touched his burning right shoulder. “It should be affected by the energy.” He stopped to look at the stone wall of the mountain, “We just walked quite a distance around the foot of the mountain, but the position of the energy hasn’t changed.”

Maine immediately understood. “In the center of the mountain?”

Xie Sen nodded. “That’s the only explanation. The foot of the mountain is a circle. We walked along the edge, so only the position of the midpoint has remained the same,I  just don’t know if it is in the mountain or underground.”

Maine, “According to what you said before, the energy wasn’t on the surface, but it could only be brought inside by creatures, so wherever it is, there must be an entrance.”

Xie Sen nodded, “Let’s walk around the side of the mountain, and see if there is a cave entrance anywhere.”

The two continued on. They walked for a while, halfway along the base of the mountain, to a location opposite their initial spot at the foot of the mountain. Along the way, the two looked around. They focused on the mountain wall, but didn’t see any entrances. Now they were in a spot where it connected to another mountain which was very high, with many tall trees and dense vegetation.

“If we don’t find an entrance after walking around this rocky mountain, we’ll have to start with the next mountain,” Xie Sen mused, as he looked down at the ground. “Maybe there’s a connected path under the ground.”

Maine, “Well, it’s still early today. If we don’t find anything before we go back tonight, we’ll have someone come over tomorrow to open up the mountain.”

The two were talking when Tuan Tuan suddenly called out excitedly, “Chirp!”

Xie Sen looked up and saw the giant python not far ahead of him. He couldn’t help but lament that he actually ran into it face to face! When he looked at the direction the python was heading, it was clear that they and the python were drawing two complete circles around the foot of the mountain.

Maine’s footsteps jerked. He took Xie Sen back a few steps, then he moved forward to block Xie Sen, as he took his dagger out of his backpack and looked at the python warily.

This was a mountainous area. If the python attacked them, there was no way to escape, but it was better to resist. The python felt their presence, and suddenly stopped moving. Its head abruptly lifted, and its gaze fell on Maine.

The next moment, it twisted its body towards Maine and approached.

“Chirp!” When it saw the python approach, Tuan Tuan cheerfully flew to the python and landed on it, then lowering his head and pecking at it with it’s beak.

“Chirp!” The python’s skin was as hard as iron, and when it pecked, it screamed out in pain as a reaction to the pain in its beak. Its round head suddenly raised, while its right wing covered the beak, its claws tried to grab the python.

The other side didn’t notice the slightest pain, and advanced steadily and quickly approaching Maine, then finally stopped two meters from Maine.

As it got closer, the oppressive feeling from its size became stronger.

Maine gripped the dagger in his hand, and didn’t make any rash moves. Contract beasts usually wouldn’t actively attack humans, but if humans did, they would definitely not hesitate to fight back.

Tuan Tuan waved its wings angrily, and landed directly on the python’s head. It stomped its paws while it yelled, “Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!”

“Hiss…” The python tossed its head, as if in response to something.

Tuan Tuan tilted its head, and it yelled back and forth. It was talking when a loud sound came from the ground. The sound was thick with great pressure, so that the people instantly couldn’t breathe, while the ground shook with it.

Maine hugged Xie Sen, covered his ears and looked warily at the ground.

The python’s head instantly raised higher, and the next moment it fell towards the right, and undulated towards the right side of the mountain at high speed. Its body was more than ten meters, so as the tail twisted around it swept right into Maine and Xie Sen.

Maine held Xie Sen back, and they were brushed by the tip of the tail, but neither was hurt.

The python’s rapid undulating speed suddenly stopped. It twisted its head and body backward. The tail swiftly swept over their calves again, then eloquently wrapped around Xie Sen’s ankles.

Maine’s face was cold, he held his dagger and quickly started towards its tail, but Xie Sen hurriedly said, “Don’t do it.” Maine stopped and stared at his foot. Xie Sen said, “It’s not pushing hard, and the feeling it’s sending to me is kind.”

The python twisted its head, then its head quickly scurried to a meter away from them, at exactly the same height as Xie Sen’s. “Hiss…”

Goosebumps erupted over Xie Sen’s entire body. Although he knew it wasn’t malicious, he still couldn’t help but be afraid.

“Chirp!” Tuan Tuan claws grabbed Xie Sen’s sleeve, and pulled it toward the python, while it pointed its wings at it.

Xie Sen asked, “Are you asking us to go with it?”

Tuan Tuan nodded his little head.

Xie Sen looked to Maine. “It’s affected by the energy. Maybe it knows where the energy is. I want to follow it.”

Maine said, “Let’s go together.”

The python rubbed Maine’s ankle before it let go and led the way, while it glanced back every now and then to make sure that Xie Sen was following.

It climbed the high mountain to five meters above the ground and then turned left. It skirted around half of the mountain before it stopped by a double-hugging tree. Then it coiled its body into a ball to take up less space. Xie Sen looked at the hole hidden behind the tree and was stunned.

The python let out a soft cry, and slithered into the hole.

Maine took out lighting equipment and led Xie Sen in after it. Inside was a wide road, like a modern culvert. It filled the whole underground in every direction, and there were many bifurcations.

The deeper they went, the brighter the light became. There were all kinds of fluorescent ores stacked in the corners, and many inlaid on the walls, which were very shiny and beautiful. After walking for about half an hour, when the heat of the peony on Xie Sen’s shoulder was almost too extreme, the python stopped.

In front of it was a huge circular area, very high and large, which shone with gold and was piled with golden ores that could easily blind the eyes.

On top of the ore, there lay a black dragon. It was huge, nearly one and a half meters in diameter, and covered with golden phosphor armor that reflected the bright light from the surrounding golden ore.

Xie Sen was stunned, he even suspected that he was blinded.

“Flying dragon beast.” Maine’s voice was tinged with barely-disguised surprise.

The black dragon’s huge eyes blinked, and it opened its mouth to let out a dragon roar. Then a curious and unexpected voice rang out in Xie Sen’s mind, “Human?”

“Right here!” Adam’s excited voice also sounded in Xie Sen’s mind.

Xie Sen looked at the golden ore under the right forepaw of the black dragon, and touched his hot right shoulder. He felt it. The earth energy was in that extremely bright ore.

He soothed an emotional Adam, “Mn, I feel it.”

He looked at the black dragon and asked, “Can you understand me?”

The black dragon’s tail waved, and ore scattered everywhere, “So what if I can understand? You can’t understand me.”

Xie Sen breathed a sigh of relief, it was good to be able to communicate, “I can.”

“Huh?” The black dragon’s huge head lifted up, and looked at him in surprise. “You’re strange, why can you understand me?”

Xie Sen pointed to the golden ore under its claws. “There’s energy belonging to me in there, and since you’re holding onto it, we can communicate.”

The black dragon clawed the ore closer, “I’m not going to give you the shiny glitter.”

Xie Sen looked around the golden cave, and at the black dragon who looked like a treasure, and suddenly remembered a rumor. Dragons like shiny things, so it seems that the rumor was true.

Maine saw him glance around and explained, “These are all gold crystal ores.”

Xie Sen stared. “The gold crystal ore that Huo Feng is purchasing?”

Maine nodded. “The missing ore is probably right here.”

The black dragon suddenly let out a loud dragon roar, exactly like the one Xie Sen heard at the foot of the mountain, but this time it was closer and the impact was stronger. “It’s all my treasure, don’t take it away!”

Xie Sen grabbed Maine’s arm, and looked up at him worriedly. “How are you?”

Maine shook his head, Xie Sen put his anxiety aside and looked at the black dragon. “There’s no way we can leave you and the python here. You are too close to the energy, and you will be affected. How do you feel now?”

The black dragon put its head flat on the ore, “I’m sorry, I don’t want to hurt you guys, I’m just emotionally out of control. Lately, I’ve been very unstable mentally. Looking at these gold shinies calms my emotions, so I can’t give them to you.”

Xie Sen couldn’t help but think. The flying rhinoceros beast’s way to control its emotions was drenching, while the flying dragon beast was actually to look at bright shiny things. Was this based on their hobbies?

“I don’t want these ores, I just need to retrieve the energy. The energy is non-physical. Even if I retrieve it, the ores will still be here.” Xie Sen said, then added, “The longer you are close to the energy, the stronger the impact will be. In the future, even if you look at bright things, you won’t be able to control it.”

The black dragon understood that he was right. It could feel that as it spent more time near the energy, its mental condition was getting worse and worse. It blinked its big eyes. “You’re not lying to me? If you take back the energy, none of these things will disappear?”

“No.” Xie Sen affirmed.

The black dragon hesitated for a moment, then raised his head. His tone was fierce, “If you lie to me, I will kill you.”

Xie Sen was helpless. This black dragon still knew how to threaten people. “I won’t lie to you.”

The black dragon lowered its head, and used its claws to push out the golden ore. Its chin rested on it for a while. “Come here.”

Xie Sen smiled at Maine. “Don’t worry, I’ll recover the energy.”

Maine said, “I’ll come with you.” He followed behind Xie Sen to make sure that he could do something in time in case of an emergency.

As Xie Sen approached, the black dragon’s head was so close that Xie Sen saw himself in its eyes, as if in a mirror.

He reached out and put his hand on the golden ore. The black dragon tilted its head, and its whiskers brushed against his arm. It said in surprise, “Hey, that’s nice! You make me feel more comfortable than looking at the gold glitter.”

Xie Sen didn’t reply. The moment he touched the golden ore, the raging energy ran down his arm and into his shoulder. The energy was too strong for him to open his mouth for a while.

Soon, Adam shouted energetically, “Sen, you’re great, the earth energy is recovered!”

Xie Sen breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to withdraw his hand, when the black dragon rubbed its head against his arm and wrapped its whiskers around his wrist. “You’re amazing. I want to be next to you. It’s very comfortable.”

Xie Sen reached out, and touched its chin. “It’s because I have a natural aura. Look, the ore is still there.”

The black dragon rubbed its chin against his hand, while its eyes squinted slightly in comfort, “Hmm.”

“Bang!” The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground suddenly came from behind the black dragon.

Xie Sen took a step to the side and looked over, startled. A dinosaur?

Only to see that there was also a wide passage in the position opposite to the way they had come. A creature with a body size of more than three meters long, with a small head and a long tail and a strong middle, similar to the shape of a dinosaur had come in from there at some time, and was tilting its body, as it flung a piece of gold crystal ore down from its back.

That’s where that loud sound came from.

The black dragon sounded delighted as turned its head. “Aoshi’s great! So much bright Shiny!”

After the ore was flung down, Xie Sen realized that it was covered with golden scales. It wasn’t a dinosaur.

Maine explained, “It’s a giant armored beast, it’s good at making holes in the ground.”

Xie Sen immediately remembered the pangolin 1 and looked at the beast, which was an enlarged version of that animal.

The beast barked and turned its head to go out through the passage, when the black dragon said, “Aoshi, no need to look for Shiny again.”

The beast turned around, got down next to the black dragon, then stared curiously at Xie Sen and Maine.

The black dragon continued to rub its head against Xie Sen’s hand, while Xie Sen asked, “Can you slowly recover from your mental condition by looking at these ores?”

Black Dragon, “No, I can only barely control it, I can’t have mood swings, and I can’t fight either, I’ve been fighting with the python lately, and all those beasts want to grab my Shiny.”

It said that while dragon whiskers curled around Xie Sen’s wrist. “Staying with you may be useful. My ancestors said that the beast master and we have a common sense after the bond, can calm our spirit, really strange, I do not feel your beast master breath.”

“I’m not a beast master,” Xie Sen said, then thought of Long Teng. “Do you want to bond? I know a dragon beast master.”

“I don’t want one if it’s too weak.” The black dragon disdained.

Xie Sen said, “He is very strong, why don’t you give it a try? It will be good for your spiritual condition.”

The black dragon pondered for a moment, “I can try, but I don’t want to leave here. I have all my shiny Shinies here.” It was in a circle, as it tried its best to keep the ore within its borders.

Xie Sen felt a headache. It was so obsessed with these bright things, it won’t want to leave even if the contract was successful, right?

He thought about it and said, “Why don’t we take the brightest one so you can see it all the time? Anyway, there are so many of them, most of them you can’t see.”

“How can I see it all the time?”

Xie Sen looked at its dragon horn and suddenly the forehead ornaments worn by beautiful women in ancient costume dramas came to his mind, and he had a flash insight, “I’ll use a string to tie a bright ore so it will hang a little above your nose. You can see it whenever you want, and you don’t always have to grab it with your claws.”

The black dragon’s eyes glowed, “Really can?”

“Mn, I’ll make one for you to try first. If it’s okay, would you like to leave here?” Xie Sen asked.

The black dragon looked around, “I’m willing to leave if I can see Shiny at any time, but it would be nice if I could take some away.”

Xie Sen smiled and relaxed. He measured the size of its forehead, found a suitable ore and handed it to Maine. “Can you smooth out the rough edges?”

Maine nodded and took the ore. He quickly ground down the protruding spikes and returned it to Xie Sen.

Xie Sen took the ore into his hand, flattened his palm, summoned the rice, exchanged it for the sharpest rice, and ordered, “Attack the middle. Penetrate the middle.”

The next moment, the rice silently shed its husk on the ears, to reveal the glittering white rice, then one rice quickly flew to the middle of the ore, and came out from the other side of the ore in the blink of an eye.

Each rice became very thin because the sharpness was so high, and the hole punched through by one rice was particularly small. It was good that there was a large amount of rice. When the hole was almost one centimeter in diameter, Xie Sen ordered it to stop.

He exchanged a meter of watermelon vine, threaded the vine through the ore, and then tied the two ends of the vine to the black dragon horn, so that the ore fell to a position slightly above the black dragon’s nose. It didn’t even have to lower its head, the right eye could always see the ore.

The black dragon’s fierce appearance was destroyed by the ore and it looked a bit comical.

The black dragon didn’t notice at all, and gave a brisk cry of surprise, “Amazing! why didn’t I think of that before!”

It pushed the golden ore which had been the carrier of the earth energy. “I want this one. This one is brighter.”

Xie Sen did the same thing again. He drilled the golden ore, then removed the ore that hung from the black dragon’s horn, and replaced it with the other golden ore.

The black dragon was even happier, its tail wagged joyfully from side to side, it cocked its head and said, “To thank you, I’ll give you a hole in the ground! Follow me.”

The black dragon flew in mid-air and led the way. Xie Sen pulled Maine to follow, while the python and the giant armor beast followed them. Tuan Tuan still stomped on the python’s forehead, and since the python didn’t notice any pain, it good-naturedly let it stomp on it.

Not long after, the black dragon turned its head, and scurried to Xie Sen. “When I move the spirit fluctuates..also watching the ore I cannot,” It landed. “You sit on me. Next to you I will feel comfortable, and …You’re too slow!”

Xie Sen was suddenly disliked, but he shook his hand holding Maine’s, “Can we sit together?”

“Yes.”

Xie Sen and Maine sat together on the dragon’s back. Maine held him tightly from behind, Xie Sen looked at the slick dragon’s back and touched the phosphorus armor. “Don’t go too fast, I’ll slip off!”

The black dragon said, “No,” Under Xie Sen’s hand, the phosphorus armor suddenly buckled and the black dragon said, “You hold on to it.”

Xie Sen grasped the raised phosphorus scale, and was a bit worried. “Will it pull off?”

The black dragon’s reply was a light hum, and Xie Sen knew that he was being disliked again.

Once they were seated on the black dragon, the forward speed became extremely fast. It skillfully flew around the four-way underground passage, Xie Sen looked back, the giant python and giant armor beast followed closely behind, they weren’t left behind.

He had, indeed, dragged his feet before.

After about twenty minutes, the black dragon stopped at another large underground space. It was very similar to the location it had stayed in before. It was full of gold crystal mines, but in smaller quantities.

“This is my former territory. The last time I went out to play, I accidentally saw this ore,” it shook its head, and the ore between its eyes followed. “I didn’t want to put it down after I grabbed it, and my spirit would fluctuate if I moved, so I stayed there. After that I became very bad-tempered. Only when I looked at the bright Shiny would I be calm. Aoshi then found a lot of bright Shiny to put next to me. There are many beasts attracted by the bright Shiny and want to fight. They are being handled by Python.”

It dawned on Xie Sen, he now understood why the gold crystal in the mine had suddenly decreased. Sotoko had to carry the big pot made by the black dragon.

He conveyed the words of the black dragon to Maine, then looked at the ore and smiled, “Do you think we should let him take the blame for this?”

The Sotoko they mentioned just happened to be thinking of them at the same time. After half a month of military investigation, Sotoko was cleared of suspicion that morning and officially released.

Although the decrease in gold ore coincided with his arrival, to hide so much ore wasn’t an easy task, and such a big movement would always reveal the horse, and the investigation showed that Sotoko couldn’t do so.

As soon as Sotoko was released, he received a communication from Soria, who had been in touch with him from time to time over the past few days. When Soria finally got through, he cried out before Sotoko could speak, “You must avenge Julos!”

Soria told him about Julos in a voice full of hatred, “I’ve been watching Maine’s whereabouts. He went to Mining Planet A yesterday with someone from Guangyao Robotics. Maybe he went there for you. You must strike first, don’t let him come back alive!”

Sotoko was shocked. “How dare he be so bold?”

Soria screamed, “I told you before, he is the devil! He killed Julos, and now he wants to kill you. He is taking revenge!”

Sotoko’s eyes flashed with ruthlessness. “Don’t worry, I won’t let him come back alive. It’s useless even if he is an S class beast master. He hasn’t formed a contract yet, so he’s not my opponent.”

He ended the communication and walked out of the room. He looked for his men to ask about the movement of the new group of people from Guangyao. When he heard that Maine and Xie Sen both went into the mountain, the corners of his mouth showed a smile. What a heavenly opportunity.

“Transfer the flying machine, I’m going to the mountains to take a break, and go to the bad luck.”

Huo Feng had taken Xue Yue to play in the mountains closest to the safety zone. Xue Yue got excited after entering the mountains, rubbed Huo Feng, then got down and turned its back towards him, Huo Feng rubbed the side of its neck and sat on its back.

After he sat down, Xue Yue ran wildly in one direction. Huo Feng was surprised and asked, “What is this about?”

“There is a powerful energy that attracts me.”

Huo Feng looked around, and suddenly realized something. He opened his bracelet and clicked on the map. He soon found out that the direction Xue Yue was moving was exactly Xie Sen’s destination for the day.

As they got closer and closer to their destination, a flying machine flew over their heads, Huo Feng looked up and frowned. This wasn’t the flying machine that had picked up Xie Sen and the others.

Suddenly, there was a dragon roar. Even the ground shook. Xue Yue’s footsteps paused, and then it continued to run.

Not long after, it suddenly stopped in its tracks. “It disappeared.”

“Disappeared?” Huo Feng wondered. “How could it suddenly disappear?”

Xue Yue waved its tail, “It must be A’Sen retrieved it. Hey, I had thought to stay for a while, and maybe I will be more intelligent. Anyway, now with the contract I do not have to worry about my spirit.”

Huo Feng was even more puzzled, “Smarter?”

Xue Yue told him about the red energy. “Luckily A’Sen helped us, otherwise we would have been mentally confused and might have ended up killing each other.”

Huo Feng said, “So that’s what happened.” He opened his bracelet to contact Xie Sen, but found that neither he nor Maine had a signal. He rubbed Xue Yue’s neck. “Go walk around. He must be nearby since he just recovered the energy.”

The people on Sotoko’s craft also heard the dragon roar. The pilot’s hands started to shake. “Major, there are beasts in the mountains. It’s too dangerous, and it’s not a good place to land.”

Sotoko looked out the window. “It’s better if there are beasts. Hopefully we can swallow them into our bellies.” He considered the situation for a moment. “We won’t land. We may not find anyone down there. We’ll fly slowly, and keep watch nearby. If they want to get out, there must be a flying machine to pick them up.”

“The major is wise!” The henchmen who came along immediately praised.

Sotoko and his inner circle kept watching the ground as the craft flew slowly around the area. Suddenly there was movement in their field of vision, and one of his inner circle said, “Major, there’s someone.”

Sotoko took out his binoculars. “It’s not Maine, it’s Huo Feng. What’s he doing here?”

“Oh my God!” Sotoko was staring at Huo Feng in deep thought, when the pilot suddenly made an astonished sound.

When Sotoko heard the voice and turned his head, he saw a huge black dragon was flying up into the air from below. It flew to the side of their craft’s ground window in the blink of an eye, stared curiously at the window, and then nimbly flew away.

“Ohhhhhhh, there’s someone in there,” The black dragon was excited. “Hahahaha! It feels good to fly! I was dying of depression from staying in the cave!”

“Major, Major…” A henchman gulped nervously. “That was a flying dragon beast, right?”

Another follower also gulped, “There seemed to be two people on its back.”

The pilot shivered, “The one behind seemed to be Maine.”