In Jing Nian’s heart, he had already placed Huo Yi firmly within the category of trust, so he didn’t press for more information regarding Huo Yi’s cryptic words.
Because he knew that this person was generally straightforward and didn’t hide much in what he said. The current reluctance to speak might be due to the so-called “rules” preventing him from doing so. However, as long as the issue could be resolved, it wasn’t a big problem.
With these thoughts in mind, he suddenly locked eyes with a pair of black pupils that seemed to ripple with unusual colors. Jing Nian looked at Huo Yi in confusion, but soon realized it was his own illusion.
After scrutinizing Huo Yi, he didn’t discern anything particular.
He shifted his gaze back and was about to contact his brothers to convey the opinion from the dragon leader when he heard several excited roars from the sky not far away.
Jing Nian raised his head to see several injured dragons returning from the horizon. Their exhilarated demeanor didn’t seem like they had just returned from the battlefield but rather as if they had encountered something fortunate and returned with abundant gains. In reality, they had not gained anything; in fact, they had lost a few scales.
For the dragons, opportunities to unleash their full strength were limited, and the betrayal of the Temple of the Light God had come as good news to them. At least now, they didn’t have to hold back.
Without waiting for the “injured” dragons to touch down, the dragons in the canyon waiting in line to join the battle were already eager to take flight. They flapped their wings and howled excitedly as they rushed toward the distant battlefield.
Noticing this scene, Jing Nian felt both amused and resigned. He recalled Huo Yi’s earlier cryptic hint. Although the Grans continent and the worlds within the holographic game had merged, it seemed that as long as they were separated, even the beings assimilated into the roles of sub-bosses wouldn’t be harmed. This realization eased his earlier concerns.
Now, the important thing isn’t the turmoil on the Gransis continent, but how to separate it from the game world.
Jing Nian pondered for a moment and then looked at Huo Yi, asking with curiosity: “Isn’t it true that the person who tied the knot should be the one to untie it? So, should we find the substitute for the God of Light first to be able to separate the Grans continent and the game world?”
Huo Yi: “…”
He could say that the substitute for the God of Light was the culprit, right?
Seeing Huo Yi’s silence, Jing Nian tilted his head back slightly, leaning against a clean rock. His azure eyes revealed a hint of understanding. It seemed he had been a bit presumptuous. Why had he assumed that Huo Yi would stand with him on the same front, protecting the Grans continent?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt a pang of guilt. It was as if he had promised to help others, but he had been causing trouble without any progress on his side. Even if they were friends, it should be a two-way street.
Jing Nian blushed and looked at Huo Yi, asking sincerely, “About your dragon egg, can you tell me more?”
The words “dragon egg” immediately caught the attention of the young dragon who had been sulking in the corner because he had been ignored by Jing Nian. It perked up and turned its head towards Jing Nian and Huo Yi.
Taking the opportunity to explain, Huo Yi said, “It used to be my pet in the mortal realm. Before I ascended, I was ambushed by my enemy, and it sacrificed itself to save me.”
The tone was overly concise and straightforward, but Jing Nian could imagine the hardships of relying on each other, especially when the pet gave its life to protect its owner. It was indeed a good egg.
Jing Nian assessed inwardly.
Huh?
He suddenly felt something was off. How could an egg be so closely connected to its owner?
With that thought in mind, he asked about it. The little dragon, who had quietly crept up behind Jing Nian to eavesdrop, nodded vigorously.
Indeed, how could an egg protect a person?
Under the gaze of these two pairs of curious eyes, Huo Yi’s expression softened.
“I forgot to mention, at that time, it was a black dragon.”
As he spoke, he looked at the little dragon cub, which had its tail wrapped around Jing Nian’s wrist. He went on to sit cross-legged in front of Jing Nian, taking the little dragon’s tail off his wrist and coiling it around his own wrist.
“The tail looks like this, and it likes to wrap around me like this.”
The little dragon cub, with sunflower seeds in its mouth, dropped them.
Huh?
There’s a dragon like it?
Jing Nian pondered for a moment, and he mentally reviewed the tails of the adult dragons. He looked puzzled and asked, “Are you sure you’re not talking about Ao Ao?”
Huo Yi nodded. “I won’t mistake a little dragon’s soul. Besides, even though they look alike, their personalities are entirely different. The little dragon’s temperament is more like that of a regular dragon.”
Understanding Huo Yi’s delicacy, Jing Nian was left speechless.
Yes, the crybaby Ao Ao might be one of a kind among the dragon kind.
“Why did it turn into an egg?” Perhaps because Huo Yi had become unusually approachable, Jing Nian also relaxed. He propped his elbows on his knees, resting his chin on his hands, and tilted his head as he asked.
Huo Yi’s fingers twitched but then restrained themselves. He stared at the messy golden hair cascading down the side of the young man’s face and began to speak slowly.
“After ascending, I found a way to reshape its soul. However, everything had to start anew, from a new egg, cultivating and growing…”
Huo Yi paused and continued, “During one of my seclusions, the egg disappeared. I traced its traces, following it to the Interstellar and eventually to here.”
Jing Nian blinked, “It disappeared?”
Seeing the faint hope in the young man’s eyes diminish, Huo Yi, rarely recognizing his lack of linguistic talent, couldn’t think of a better explanation. He simply said, “Yes.”
Even Ao Ao, who had hoped to hear a story, was disappointed. However, the child wasn’t as understanding as Jing Nian. Ao Ao gave Huo Yi a disdainful look, and its round eyes had “just” written on the left eye and “this” on the right eye.
Huo Yi, once again, moved his fingers and desperately restrained them.
Other people’s dragons were not to be scolded.
Because Huo Yi’s provided clues were lacking, Jing Nian had to take matters into his own hands. “Does it have a name?”
Huo Yi froze for a moment, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed.
He hesitated for half a second before whispering, “Little Black.”
Jing Nian: “…”
“A dragon named Little Black?” Even Ao Ao looked down upon it, saying, “Tsk, what a lousy name!”
It was at this moment that Huo Yi finally understood how Ao Ao felt when protesting its name. He thought for a moment and offered a clarification, “Later on, we usually just called it Little Dragon.”
Seeing the man earnestly trying to salvage the situation, Jing Nian suddenly felt like laughing. He found Huo Yi’s behavior quite cute, of all things.
Noticing the hint of amusement in the young man’s eyes and his struggle to suppress his laughter, Huo Yi said, “You can laugh, no need to hold back.”
“Pfft… Little Dragon, well, that’s better,” Jing Nian replied with a grin, pushing down Ao Ao, who seemed to think he was called. He then looked at Huo Yi and continued, “Little Dragon does sound better than Little Black. Do you have any other clues? As far as I know, there haven’t been any new dragon eggs in the Dragon Clan except for Ao Ao in recent years.”
With that, Jing Nian paused, thought for a few seconds, and couldn’t help letting his mind wander, “Could there be differences in time… after all, the timelines of different worlds like the divine realm, the interstellar, and other parallel dimensions can be different, right?”
Huo Yi nodded, “You’re right, but the dragon egg won’t be affected because it has already left the mortal realm.”
Jing Nian pondered, “Are you saying that the lifespan in the divine realm is constant? Only our ‘mortal realm’ experiences temporal shifts… Ouch…”
Does this mean that if his time travel went smoothly and didn’t get messed up, he couldn’t even imagine the consequences if it did?
Seeing the shock in the young man’s eyes, Huo Yi felt even more guilty because he was the one who brought this danger to him.
“Don’t be afraid, even if your time gets messed up, I’ll bring you back,” Huo Yi said sincerely.
He believed that since it was fate arranged by the heavens, no matter how time and space might go awry, they would eventually meet again.
“Roar!”
Their conversation was interrupted by a series of roars from the distant sky. Both of them, along with the little dragon, turned their gaze in that direction, where an invisible barrier had risen in the far-off heavens. It seemed to be causing hindrances to another round of dragons swapping in.
Jing Nian furrowed his brow and leaped off the ground, taking to the skies. With his new body, he had already mastered the ability to fly.
Huo Yi, who had been about to lift the young man into the air, found himself with his hands empty. He was about to take off when a chubby claw suddenly gripped his thigh. He looked down to see the little dragon looking up at him expectantly.
Huo Yi: “…” He scooped up the plump little dragon and caught up with Jing Nian.
Jing Nian was currently flying near the edge of the Lost Forest, which was also the edge of the barrier. Inside the barrier, several injured dragons who had returned from outside were lying on the ground, along with several unscathed dragons, all of them falling in the same spot. Judging by their landing positions, it seemed they had collided with something.
Jing Nian flapped his wings and approached the barrier, extending his hand to find an extremely hard, thin membrane.
He looked through the transparent barrier at the forest beyond. Everything appeared normal. Birds freely flew through the barrier, and even ground squirrels hopped through it as if it were nothing.
Jing Nian turned to look at Huo Yi, who had caught up with him, and said, “It seems like it’s just to stop the dragons.”
His player identity didn’t seem to work this time.
Huo Yi understood his meaning and flew outside the barrier.
“Snap – Boom!”
The little dragon in Huo Yi’s arms was stopped inside the barrier and slid down to the scattered pile of dragons.
The little dragon whined, feeling upset about being dropped.
Jing Nian: “…”
He lowered his head and gave the little dragon a reassuring look with his eyes, then turned his attention back to the barrier.
The object seemed very familiar to him, somewhat resembling…
Jing Nian suddenly realized and saw tiny bear-like creatures with fluffy yellow fur bouncing back and forth through the barrier on the ground not far away.
Huh?
Jing Nian flapped his wings and swooped down.
He arrived in front of one of the fluffy creatures, curiously asking, “What are you doing?”
The fluffy creature, immersed in its bouncy back-and-forth movements through the barrier, looked up and was delighted to see Jing Nian.
With great enthusiasm and unclear words, the little creature invited Jing Nian, and Jing Nian struggled to piece together their language.
Fluffy said that there was a soft, bouncy membrane here, and jumping over it back and forth felt like encountering an obstacle, which was a lot of fun.
The little bear-like creature thought Jing Nian was puzzled and insisted on pulling Jing Nian to jump together. But as they kept pulling, they suddenly realized that Jing Nian was stuck inside the barrier.
The little bear-like creature was baffled.
“See? I can’t seem to get out. You go ahead and play by yourself,” Jing Nian said, rubbing the soft head of the little bear-like creature.
He contemplated going back.
He felt that this barrier was somewhat similar to the edge of the time-space chaos he had encountered before, but that was something that happened after players entered this area. Besides, not even the Temple of the Light God could reach here; it had become a territory of dragons in the heartland of the continent.
How could a situation like what seemed to be the opening of a dungeon occur?
Suddenly, Jing Nian heard a rustling sound behind him. He turned around and saw a patch of grass swaying.
“Who’s there?”
The voice from the grass fell silent, and the field returned to calm.
Jing Nian squinted his eyes, turned around, and pretended to move forward but kept an eye on what was happening behind him.
As expected, the sound from the grass came again.
He turned around.
Once more, the grass appeared to be moving. But when he looked at it, it gradually returned to stillness.
After repeating this twice, Jing Nian became certain that there was a rather cunning presence behind him.
‘It.keeps.following.me’
Jing Nian sighed, “Come out, I’ve found you.”
The grass rustled slightly, then immediately stopped moving.
Jing Nian raised an eyebrow, “Do you want me to pull you out of the grass?”
“…”
Jing Nian said, “I’ll count to three, and if you don’t come out, I’ll attack. Three…”
“Whimper!” With a whimpering, tearful cry, a disheveled little figure emerged.
The little figure was wearing tattered clothes, looking like a lost child.
Jing Nian was taken aback. He lowered his voice, “Can’t you find your mom and dad?”
As he spoke, he slowly approached, lifting the child’s face.
He met a pair of teary eyes gleaming with golden light.
![The Strongest Auxiliary[Holographic]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-Strongest-Auxiliary.jpg "The Strongest Auxiliary[Holographic]")
