DADH Chapter 17

⌈Weekend update: 0/2⌋

Jing Nian ran along the edge of the field, turned a corner, and, utilizing his height advantage in reverse, summoned the sand sculpture hidden in the grass.

The sand sculpture, who seemed to be enjoying himself and hadn’t had enough fun, still had a deadpan expression. He glanced at Jing Nian with a hint of dissatisfaction but obediently crouched down.

Jing Nian sneakily climbed onto the sand sculpture’s back, only to realize that he had underestimated it. The sand sculpture was over two meters tall, much taller than the nearby crops in the field. It stood there like a proud rooster!

Having been subjected to the penetrating gazes of the giant dragons, as if feeling the prying eyes, Jing Nian looked around suspiciously. Yet, he saw nothing, prompting him to mount the sand sculpture and fly toward the nearest teleportation point.

–

After Jing Nian left.

Huo Yi emerged from behind a tree, his gaze even more perplexed than before. He wondered, wasn’t this type of little dragon supposed to have wings?

And yet… riding a… vulture¹Yeah, it was vulture all along ~.~ Let’s just pretend the dragons regard it as sculpture. But I’ll be using vulture in future chapters.?

Flying spirit pets were quite common in the world of cultivators, with immortal cranes and other birds being essential short-distance flying companions for many sects.

Huo Yi had seen people who kept golden vultures as spirit pets before, but he had never seen anyone ride one directly.

However, when he recalled the feeling of the little dragon cub nestled in his arms, as well as its wobbly gait when it walked, an image of a one or two-year-old human baby automatically surfaced in Huo Yi’s mind.

In addition to the small and tender wings he had touched under the cloak earlier, this chubby little dragon probably couldn’t even fly.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Huo Yi’s lips. Out of habit, he thought of summoning a flying sword to catch up. However, just as he was about to take the final step, he hesitated. Remembering the instability of this “pseudo-small world” and considering the setting of the holographic game world, which was somewhat similar to the primordial world of the Western deity who had revealed his origin to Huo Yi, he stopped.

He closed his eyes and attempted to use the “magic” he had learned from the Western deity — of course, the Western deity referred to it as grand magic.

After a moment, the wind above Huo Yi’s head began to gather into small whirlwinds, and the elemental essence of wind swiftly condensed in front of him.

Finally forming a sword-shaped wind vessel, Huo Yi’s gaze showed a hint of satisfaction as he stepped onto it.

Guiding the wind sword, Huo Yi then attempted to condense spatial elements and succeeded almost immediately.

Utilizing the power of spatial elements, he concealed himself without any reservation, closely trailing the giant vulture ahead.

–

The giant vulture gradually decelerated and swooped into a small grove before coming to a halt at the teleportation point.

Puzzled, Jing Nian lay prone on the vulture’s back. Throughout the journey, he felt as though something was following him. He looked around, but besides a gentle breeze, he found nothing unusual. Thus, he activated the teleportation.

After the teleportation column shimmered, Jing Nian and the giant vulture vanished together within the light.

Two seconds later.

Huo Yi, who had been floating and concealed before the teleportation column, reappeared. A hint of amusement appeared in his dark eyes. He realized that this little dragon was quite vigilant, unlike his own silly dragon that could continue sleeping even with enemies lurking behind it.

Suppressing his smile, Huo Yi dissipated the elemental wind sword and landed on the ground. Taking a couple of steps forward, he raised his hand and imitated Jing Nian’s gesture of touching the teleportation column. To his surprise, his hand met empty air.

He discovered that while the teleportation column for the little dragon worked just like the semi-transparent mission prompt in front of the dragon hatchling, he could only see it and couldn’t physically interact with it.

This was somewhat unexpected. Huo Yi withdrew his hand, then opened a portion of his consciousness to examine the data of the teleportation array on a small scale. However, the moment he attempted to penetrate the data with his consciousness, he encountered interference from the “Creator.” Although this level of interference was insignificant before his powerful consciousness, Huo Yi still retracted his awareness.

Well, the dragon hatchling would be back tomorrow for another mission. The data for an NPC was much smaller in scope than that of an entire map. He could examine the dragon hatchling’s data tomorrow and probably figure out how to activate the teleportation array.

–

«Dragonslayer» Game Studio.

The entire studio’s programmers had panda eyes, but there was a passionate gleam in their tired eyes. It was evident that everyone was exhausted to the extreme, yet they found joy in their work.

From time to time, someone would take out a vial of advanced nutrient solution, hold it in their mouth, take a muffled gulp, and then precisely spit out with a “ptoo” into the nearby recycling bin without even looking. These individuals never let go of their energy keyboards with both hands except for that brief moment of consuming the nutrient solution. They were all passionately immersed in the realm of code.

After several days of non-stop work, the construction of the complete holographic world was nearing its conclusion. This was a crucial step, and nobody dared to let their guard down. Once this was completed, there would be one more run, and the game would be entirely finished.

Suddenly, one of the programmers responsible for the firewall jolted, his half-closed tired eyes suddenly widening. He noticed an anomaly detected by the protective wall and was about to address it manually, but then realized the protective wall had resolved the issue on its own.

Rubbing his eyes, the programmer looked again and found that everything was back to normal with the data in front of him. He checked the firewall logs, only to discover that there was no record of any processing.

“Ah, my eyes must be playing tricks on me!” The programmer blinked and quickly grabbed an advanced nutrient solution from the side, gulping down two sips. After finishing, he indeed felt refreshed, and his eyes were no longer blurry.

In a self-conversation, he contentedly said, “Thanks to Daddy Jing’s generous sponsorship. The advanced nutrient solution truly makes a difference. I should’ve had the money to buy this earlier. Our little game would have been developed more than two years ago…”

Speaking, he immersed himself back into his work wholeheartedly.

–

Jing Nian and the sand vulture returned to the Lost Forest teleportation point.

As soon as they landed, Jing Nian noticed something peculiar about the Lost Forest. It seemed like a catastrophe had struck, with various creatures he had never seen before frantically escaping the forest with their belongings.

Jing Nian was a bit bewildered. He had only left for a short while, so what had happened here?

The creatures in the Lost Forest were generally of a higher level than the sand vulture, so Jing Nian didn’t dare to act recklessly. He directed the sand vulture to carry him to a relatively tall tree, allowing the animals to flee from the ground below.

As a result, the sky was also filled with a group of advanced creatures flying in chaos.

Just as Jing Nian and the sand vulture shivered, hiding in the treetops, Jing Nian finally heard a voice he could understand.

“Help! Help! Help! Help!…”

The cries for help continued from below, and the sound happened to come from underneath the tree where Jing Nian and the sand vulture were hiding.

Jing Nian patted the sand vulture’s wing, signaling it to grip onto the tree trunk tightly. Then, he cautiously peeked out, looking down through the tree trunk.

He saw a dwarf, circling around the tree trunk. As the dwarf circled, he incessantly shouted, or rather, he was muttering the words “help me.”

With each round, he would crawl down from where the tree roots intertwined with the ground, retrieve something, circle around again, then crawl back in to fetch something else.

Jing Nian was utterly baffled by what he saw: …?

Even the sand vulture, which was also looking down, was completely baffled. It didn’t even roll its eyes, but instead extended its head downward, even blocking Jing Nian’s view.

Jing · Little Dragon · Nian, who already had a short neck to begin with, was quite frustrated! He commanded the sand vulture to retract its neck!

However, the sand vulture refused and simply moved its neck aside, allowing Jing Nian’s line of sight to clear.

That works too. Jing Nian continued to watch. But at this moment, a sudden “crack” sound occurred, causing both him and the sand vulture to slightly sink downward.

Startled, Jing Nian turned his head, only to see that the tree branch beneath the sand vulture’s foot had cracked where it connected to the main trunk. Apparently, the sand vulture had surreptitiously shifted its position outward to get a better view of the spectacle.

By the time he realized what was happening, it was already too late.

“Crunch!” The broken branch, stepped on by the sand vulture, snapped off and plummeted forcefully. As a result, Jing Nian, riding on the sand vulture’s back, also fell down.

A “thud” echoed as the sound of the sand vulture and tree trunk colliding with the ground filled the air. Thankfully, Jing Nian remained unscathed, having stayed securely seated on the sand vulture’s back.

However, as he slid down from the sand vulture’s back and stood up, he was met with a pair of round, bulging eyes.

It was the dwarf from beneath the tree, the one who had been circling around and muttering to himself while moving belongings. Somehow, without a sound, he had appeared right in front of Jing Nian. In one hand, he held an impressive-looking large iron hammer, and he stared at Jing Nian vigilantly.

Startled by suddenly facing the round, bulging eyes, Jing Nian took a step back subconsciously after realizing the hostility in those eyes.

Seeing Jing Nian retreat, the dwarf’s wariness didn’t lessen. However, he showed no intention to attack. He appraised the fallen sand vulture, now resembling a bird pastry, and Jing Nian wrapped in black cloth. It suddenly dawned on him, “Are you refugees too?”

Once he spoke these words, the enmity in his demeanor completely vanished. He didn’t put away his large iron hammer, instead casually hooking it at his waist. He gazed at Jing Nian and the sand vulture with a less ferocious expression.

Observing the dwarf before him, who was about the same height as him but substantially bulkier in build, with muscles richer than the little dragon cub’s plump flesh, and with the dwarf’s dazzling Lv70 displayed above his head.

He was a full 20 levels higher than the sand vulture!

Moreover, even a child could tell with their toes that the typical behavior of the dragons meant they definitely had no friends! They must have offended many races. There was no way the vulture king beside him, who had his crown removed, could be an exception!

But he absolutely couldn’t let this dwarf figure out he was a dragon cub.

Jing Nian’s survival instincts kicked in, and he quickly tightened his cloak while nodding vigorously.

After experiencing being lifted by Uncle Pipilu with a cloak, Jing Nian adjusted his cloak to fit more closely to his body. After the fall, only his eyes were exposed. He guessed the dwarf might mistake him for some other creature.

Therefore, he didn’t dare speak and was planning to let the sand vulture carry him away to safety.

However, the dwarf seemed to be more sociable. Seeing that Jing Nian only nodded without speaking, he didn’t force the issue. Instead, he sighed, turned around, lifted his foot, and walked back to the pile of luggage near the tree. While continuing to pack his belongings, he began to chatter away.

“The dragons have gone mad again! Gone mad again! Gone mad again!…” After muttering this several times, the dwarf suddenly remembered Jing Nian and the sand vulture behind him. He stopped and glanced at them, then explained, “Sorry, been alone for too long, forgot how to chat.”

“Ahem, ahem, ahem,” the dwarf cleared his throat heavily and then gave a glance at the sand vulture behind Jing Nian. His gaze wavered, and he awkwardly praised, “The vulture isn’t bad.”

Jing Nian was still pondering what the dwarf meant by “the dragons have gone mad again.” Could it be because they realized he was missing?

A sinking feeling filled Jing Nian’s heart. He was just about to urge the sand vulture to quickly carry him back to the Dragon Abyss, but he unexpectedly met the round, bulging eyes of the dwarf. He vaguely recalled the dwarf saying something and quickly nodded in a frenzy.

As he prepared to bid farewell and make a quick getaway.

Unexpectedly, after seeing him nod, a wave of excitement surged within the dwarf. His two incredibly wide and thick short arms came together with a loud “thud.” He let out a slightly awkward chuckle and gazed at Jing Nian with round, fiery eyes, probing.

“Um, could you give me a lift?”

As he spoke, the dwarf, who had been living alone for too long and had developed a touch of social anxiety, clenched his fists with a slightly stiff posture. He found that his hands didn’t cooperate, so he shook them forcefully. Accidentally, his fist slammed into a nearby tree, causing the sturdy trunk to shake and the entire treetop to sway.

He quickly pulled back his hand, rubbing them together behind his back in embarrassment.

After being threatened by the terrifying clasped hands and then threatened by the tree hammer, Jing Nian was left dumbfounded in place.

“Thud!” An unidentified wild fruit fell from the tree and hit Jing Nian on the head, jolting him back to his senses.

Facing the dwarf’s threatening gaze, Jing Nian and the bewildered sand vulture both instinctively shrunk their necks and nodded stiffly.

The author has something to say:

Today’s achievement for Jing Nian: Dwarf friend +1

Jing Nian: Ever since I made a friend with social anxiety, I’ve been on edge every day!

Thanks to the little angels who watered with nutritional fluid: Ye Qi, Ran – 10 bottles; Not Tired Despite Sleepiness – 5 bottles;

• 1
  Yeah, it was vulture all along ~.~ Let’s just pretend the dragons regard it as sculpture. But I’ll be using vulture in future chapters.