The sky here was a hazy color.
It seemed to be bright, yet there was hardly any light, and there didn’t appear to be much change between day and night—basically, it always looked like this, similar to an overcast, rainy day.
Around were small patches of shrubs with some withered leaves, as if water was lacking here; the grass on the ground was rather dry, rolling over it could raise quite a lot of dust and bits of straw.
Looking further away, a few long pillars stood upright, resembling jade in appearance, with some writing on them that Chu Zao couldn’t make out from this distance.
They looked like the remnants of some towering structures.
There were some sounds in the surroundings, but a bit distant. The little white ball had fallen from mid-air, rolled around several times here, and ended up covered in dust, turning a bit grimy.
A completely unfamiliar place.
Chu Zao hadn’t changed back to human form in time.
A pair of big, round, honey-colored eyes swirled around, observing the surroundings.
He stood up, spread his little wings, shook his six small wings vigorously to scatter off the bits of straw, and incidentally shook off the dust stuck to his white fluffy fur.
For Chu Zao, this really was his first time alone in such a completely unfamiliar place. He looked around alertly, a little nervous.
Brother Mu should have fallen in with him and seemed to be hurt; he didn’t know where he ended up. Damn bad thing—
Remembering that scarlet eye that had appeared behind him, and the force dragging him into this space, he even seemed to hear a voice full of malice—”Let those who have already gone mad kill you, that’ll be interesting.”
Chu Zao stretched out his small plush paw, flashing his sharp claw—if he could poke that thing blind, that would be even more interesting.
The little furball ground his teeth angrily, his small body shaking hard, with the tiny crown atop his head wobbling as well, expressing his dissatisfaction.
Yet, what had previously annoyed little Chu Zao—unwilling to show his original form—actually turned out to be a good thing here, because he was especially small and very easy to hide—
Chu Zao looked down at his small body; maybe because he was born at the Angel Spring, even at this age, his original form hadn’t grown much. Normally, with plenty of nutritious food, a Crown Clan’s original form would grow explosively before adulthood, eventually maturing into a giant like his family.
But he had hardly grown at all, his original form always stayed in a cub’s state, only seeming fluffier than before—Chu Zao flicked his fluffy little dragon tail—gosh, the fluff was almost covering the tip of his tail.
Still, all previous check-ups had shown everything was normal, proving there was no issue at all with his development. It was just that, because of this little original form, his Baba had many times been doggedly deemed a child abuser by the strict medical AI.
Owoooo—Baba—
With no guardian by his side, the little one about to face his coming-of-age ceremony was very nervous.
Chu Zao’s little dragon tail swayed a few times behind him.
But now—
Little Chu Zao hid into the shrubbery, concealing his presence, his pointy ears twitching, with the little crown sinking down almost flat against his head.
It really was easy to hide—who could spot him here!
Imagining if he was grown-up and huge, that would really be the time to get tense.
Although he still wanted to look like a mighty giant.
But—much appreciated.
With no one else around, the dusted little furball finally began to calm down and think—he had to first figure out what was going on here.
And just like in the Angel Realm, to get out, he’d probably need to find something like a Stone of Divine Grace.
He also needed to find Brother Mu.
Brother Mu couldn’t die, right?
Chu Zao propped his chin with both paws, thinking hard.
He shouldn’t, right?
Even if nothing else, Brother Mu was a long-lived race, also a top player—
And he hadn’t even asked Brother Mu what that look and that kiss meant—
Brother Mu wouldn’t die.
Little Chu Zao suddenly stood up—he was the future king of Holy Cas, and Brother Mu was also his subject; he’d bring Brother Mu back!
So now—
Little Chu Zao’s ears twitched, hearing something suddenly—
Little Chu Zao hurriedly shrank back into a hiding spot and quietly crouched, his big eyes peering out through the gaps.
It seemed something in the sky had heard the sound and landed.
Chu Zao faintly heard heavy breathing, then a low growl like a monster.
From the gap, Chu Zao saw the thing that had landed—
Ash-grey skin, looking somewhat bird-like but more grotesque, with innumerable fine stone fragments glowing faintly red embedded all over its flesh, not quite like a Stone of Divine Grace, more like small eggs set into its body.
Chu Zao stiffened slightly as he watched.
What, do these things just grow any old way when no one’s watching? Why did each look so shocking—
And what exactly were these things?
Aberrant Beasts? Not really. Monsters?
And where was this, anyway?
Were these things strong?
Could he handle them?
With no references around.
Chu Zao thus pondered more, becoming all the more alert, wanting to observe these things first.
Still, his hiding spot was good; the creature clearly hadn’t noticed him.
Chu Zao didn’t move nor act rashly, still observing, when he suddenly heard another sound from a different direction—it sounded like rapid footsteps?
At the same time.
A few people rushing toward the source of the sound were squinting from afar and quickly approaching.
“Who knows what that was, what do you say, Desmond?”
Desmond looked at the person beside him.
Coldly smiling, a bit arrogantly defiant, he still looked quite young, his black hair slightly curled, no crown atop his head, and with none of these guys bearing wings behind them.
Yet they were still full of oppressive presence.
“If it’s not those crazy dragons, then it’s those monsters. What else could it be?”
His eyes glinting with a sunset gold, just tinged with a hint of scarlet, drifted lazily: “Or do you think you can find your lost memory and a past that’s left no traces except your name?”
“I never said that—how many years has it been, can you remember any of it? I can’t, haha. Even those mad ones wouldn’t make such an optimistic guess, would they?”
The man laughed, looking dazzling, but his warm-toned eyes were icy cold.
His whole person seemed very dangerous, with an extreme sense of dissonance.
“Dan, can’t you see Desmond’s already annoyed? Don’t provoke him right now.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll shut up, okay?”
Dan laughed, making a zipper motion across his mouth.
He then turned to look ahead, spotting those nauseating monsters in the distance.
His gaze turned colder, just like Desmond’s.
From the moment they’d appeared here in confusion, they’d been fighting these monsters, as well as the crazed dragons. Other than a name, they knew nothing of how they came to be here, just that their batch, having lost their past, seemed to be the same race, yet they didn’t know what kind.
They had lost their past, surviving here, slowly going mad, from a team of about twenty or thirty, now only a handful remained sane.
But so much time had passed.
They had tried to search for their past here, but found nothing, like duckweed suddenly appearing here, gradually collapsing as their power spiraled out of control.
How much longer could their little group——even last?
What was their race, exactly?
Such painful existence, why did their race even exist?
No answers could be found——
Perhaps when they finally went completely mad, they still wouldn’t have any answers.
“Monsters—get ready.”
Desmond spoke with lazy ease, his eyes glinting, movements swift, features sharp and handsome, bearing a kind of wanton arrogance.
There wasn’t a shred of youthful greenness to him—the blood-soaked violence carved out from endless battlefields, ruthless and heartless. Though weaponless, trees and stones around them shattered upon contact, as if they themselves were the ultimate weapons.
Individually intimidating enough, now three or four together exuded a murderous air that froze the monsters, which then let out furious roars.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world.
A pitch-black giant dragon was relentlessly crashing into another, producing muffled sounds. Around these two dragons, others—dragons and people—were clamoring, raging, hollering for one another’s death.
The entire clan was engulfed in uncontrollable madness and violence, flesh flying, only inciting those watching to get even more excited. It was easy to see that this was a cruel, insane, unstable race, with no right or wrong, only craving chaos.
It was in this place that the youth woke up.
He held his head—his body covered in wounds, brows tightly furrowed, looking dazedly around.
Behind him, his manifested psionic power was slowly surfacing, like a black dragon. Here, it began to merge closely with Chao Huangmu, instead of acting as a dark force trying to seize his power.
But the youth was clearly confused.
He watched the blood rain fall overhead, utterly unafraid. These things seemed so commonplace to him; they didn’t distract him, but—
Where was this…?
He…was…
The youth frowned deeply, vaguely remembering someone whispering by his ear—”Erase everything, your mission…”
Who was that?
Who was he?
His name…his name…Mu?
The youth bowed his head, black hair partially covering his forehead, shading eyes that betrayed no emotion, his face expressionless, looking empty and numb. A faint black dragon scale pattern stretched from the outer corner of his eye to his ear.
“Those monsters seem to be clashing with those outsiders again, damn it! All these invaders of our territory are foreigners, enemies of the dragon clan—they need to be eliminated!”
A dragon spread its pitch-black wings and swooped over the youth’s head.
“Eliminate…”
Apparently hearing the keyword, the youth looked up.
“Join the team if you’re coming, those outsiders aren’t far—”
The dragon smirked wickedly as he spoke, glancing down at the youth.
“If you’re not coming, hurry back and curl up in your lair. Maybe beg a mate for a bite of food—we don’t need any useless ornaments, haha!”
Pollution, monsters, strange races suddenly appearing in their world, creatures that didn’t really die but went insane—all enemies of the dragon clan and needed thorough cleanup.
But speaking of which——
They glanced at the youth, still thinking—who was this guy?
But dragons mostly liked to act alone, often fought over territory, had chaotic private lives, and barely any goodwill for their own kind, let alone monsters or outsiders. Yet none of them could truly cleanse these things at the core.
So it wasn’t strange to have unknown dragons in the clan—
Probably just some useless dragon hidden away by their family, haha!
Upon speaking, they were about to fly off while the youth was in a daze.
Yet the next moment, a formidable force yanked the speaking dragon down.
With a boom, he crashed to the ground.
The surroundings seemed to fall silent for an instant.
The dragon hadn’t even reacted, pinned by someone stepping on his tail, who then walked up onto his chest.
The giant seemed embedded into the ground, helpless before being trampled by such a “tiny ant.”
The youth looked down, his face shrouded in shadow. The power behind him fully condensed into a giant dragon; as he moved forward step by step, his spiritual power grew even larger. The youth’s eyes, rimmed with black scales, suddenly flashed a brilliant smile: “Eliminate…?”
It did seem so, maybe if he eliminated everything, he could recall all those forgotten things?
After smiling, the youth suddenly turned blank and thoughtful, his expressions switching somewhat unnaturally, appearing a bit twisted and eerie, his emotions extremely unreal.
The dragon, its tail curling up under his trampling, stared in fright at this guy.
Clearly, the guy was still in human form, but the dragon seemed to see a mighty dragon looming, ready to bite his throat.
Cunning and equally ill-disposed toward his own kind, the dragon quickly caved.
“Your power—who are you…you…”
“Me?”
The youth paused, then smiled again.
“Mu, my name is Mu.”
The smile shone with sunlight, but combined with everything before, was rather unsettling.
Probably so——
His head hurt terribly, some urge to tear apart everything before him—so irritating, so unbearable.
Chao Huangmu’s smile instantly vanished.
He thought with gloomy impatience.
So strange.
Why was he smiling?
And outside this space.
Holy Cas’s army was streaming in endlessly. The humans here were no longer a threat, and the Crown Clan began to take the field, doing what they knew best—clearing Aberrant Beasts.
Anya and Lien happened to encounter the Aberrant Beast Hurricane at the shield defense line. Anya, after all, was a Crown Clan member who had dealt with an Aberrant Beast Commander before and had studied this area’s situation. Not long after, they reached the comm range to speak with Amos.
And immediately asked, Where is Zao Zao? Why hadn’t he commed his little uncle?
Feeney was listening nearby, nearly having a heart attack, bristles standing on end—Don’t ask, don’t ask, still raising the pressure in the “pressure cooker”?
All because Amos was standing atop the remains of a Hymn Organization battleship he’d pulverized with his psionic power, having single-handedly destroyed all aboard. He looked calm, making no move to leave.
Thankfully, Chu Zao’s arrow had made the area’s contamination retreat, quieting the pollution—but this wasn’t good news, and Feeney knew it.
It was known this contamination was devouring the galaxy’s power, orchestrated by that “god,” always targeting the long-lived kinds. Since they’d come, the pollution had been restless. Now that it was quiet, it probably meant its attention had shifted, and given Zao Zao’s disappearance—what had drawn that dangerous thing elsewhere was all too obvious.
Amos looked ready to explode.
He was looking down at all the Crown Clan’s sealed archives.
The records were ancient—many even before the pollution started, or when it had only just begun, or before the force was called pollution at all.
There was no psionic power left in them, but Amos found some lingering sense awfully familiar.
Until he got to a certain page, and paused.
“Desmond Dwight.”
“What?”
Feeney looked over.
“Desmond Dwight, gone even before you were born, confirmed dead with a shattered crown after Anya was born—our grandfather, Emperor Desmond.”
Amos was so young when it happened, maybe just born, he might have seen Desmond once. Since then, Desmond had led a batch of Crown Clan to investigate when things began to go wrong and vanished.
Anya was the youngest of their generation; after Desmond’s crown shattered, the habitat was polluted, and the Crown Clan’s nightmare began.
All this was in sealed records, known only to the kings. Feeney and others had no idea.
“So this mass of Crown Clan remains is——?”
Amos lowered his gaze, staring at where the “Stone of Divine Grace” had once been.
This was probably one of the pollution’s sources; back then, Desmond had led the Crown Clan to investigate, only to have their power completely suppressed by the pollution’s force, all crowns broken and sacrificed here.
“Speed it up—handle the Aberrant Beasts, and the other Hymn Organization locations.”
Amos turned, expressionless.
At the very least, they needed to find a similar “Stone of Divine Grace” first.
Amos thought—Tempering? Letting go?
Letting Zao Zao tag along on such a journey—was another grave mistake he made with Chu Zao.
Feeney looked at everything around, troubled about the missing cub—he was anxious, the locator couldn’t find the cub at all, but anyone who saw Amos like this would be scared witless.
“I understand.”
*
A boom—a resounding crash——
In a very short exchange, that disgusting monster was smashed down.
Sliced into many pieces, especially those stones embedded in its skin, which were crushed beyond repair.
All of this fell in the eyes of the little furball hiding in the distant shrubbery as he watched the strangers appear.
Chu Zao nervously tightened his wings—even though he hadn’t fought the monster before and didn’t really know the details, these guys looked strong.
And seemed like walking weapons.
If it came to a fight—he probably couldn’t beat them. With Baba not here.
Chu Zao grew even more tense, holding his breath.
The group had landed, three or five, all listless, with bad mental states.
“That noise just now must’ve come from this thing?”
Dan kicked at the monster’s overly dismembered body with obvious disgust.
Another person nearby wiped blood from his fingertips and spoke casually.
“Probably? There’s nothing else here.”
“Haha, I thought it was those equally maddening dragons. These monsters don’t know how to run, but whenever the dragons lose, they scatter quickly.”
“Desmond, you’re getting more and more irritable these days. If this goes on, you’ll wind up with those mad ones—you can’t soften up a bit?”
Dan spoke again, pausing midway, then added.
“Are you feeling all right? Honestly, we can deal with those things, but if you start going crazy, spare us, will you? We might not die, but if you half-maul us all, we probably still couldn’t rein you in.”
“Why so much nonsense?”
The tall, arrogant, sharp man looked over—their clothes were actually pretty ragged, looking rather shabby, the whole lot with an air of slackness and ennui.
“Desmond, soften up? Impossible. Not in this life.”
Desmond just sneered at the suggestion, not denying it, even showing some agreement.
Chu Zao, hidden, watched the situation outside—Was this the race of this world?
Chu Zao thought—even in these little worlds, the local races seemed very strong.
Except——
Desmond?
Chu Zao’s breath hitched for a moment when he heard the name, then he quickly composed himself, seeing the other party apparently hadn’t noticed. Chu Zao was somewhat relieved—after all, aside from Baba and Third Uncle, hardly anyone could spot him when he hid.
He didn’t know the other deceased Crown Clan members personally.
But Chu Zao did remember every king of the Dwight family, though he’d never seen pictures.
The Dwight family never liked taking photos, leaving few records.
So strange——
The little furball looked over carefully, twice.
Same name as my great-grandfather.
If it weren’t for the lack of Crown Clan features on the other, Chu Zao might well have suspected the situation.
Probably just a coincidence, right?
Chu Zao still hid every bit of his presence.
Little wings pressed flatly against his back.
The sound of lazy footsteps drifted away, and from here nothing more could be seen.
Little Chu Zao curled into a ball, thinking hard about this dangerous world.
Until the shrubs were suddenly flung aside, Chu Zao jumped up with fur bristling, nerves taut to the limit, darting into mid-air.
—The man sharing Zao Zao’s great-grandfather’s name stood at a high crotch in the branches, leaning on the trunk of a distant tree, gazing down from above.
And the clear, mocking voice with a twisted smile rang in Chu Zao’s ear—from the one called Dan: “Haha, so there’s a ‘little bug’ hiding here, a sneaky little creature… huh——?”
Halfway through, Dan locked eyes with the little furball that had darted up into the air.