Chapter 229: Chapter 224: Bountiful Harvest, Taking Stock of the Dragon Fleece

[The Great Black Heaven Dragon will transition from light to deep sleep in 3 minutes.]

[The dreamscape is about to dissipate.]

Hm?

Shi Ming, who had just finished adapting to this new body, was stunned.

’Didn’t it say it would be over twenty hours?’

’I’ve only been experiencing this for about twenty minutes!’

’I haven’t even had my fill of piloting a Gundam! How is time up already?’

In a flash, as if tumbling out of a dream, Shi Ming’s consciousness returned to his own body.

His eyes snapped open. He scrambled up from the hard obsidian ground, warily scanning his surroundings. The Great Black Heaven Dragon still slumbered there, just as it had for the past ten thousand years. This tiny, usurped dream seemed to be just one insignificant episode among its countless others.

’What time is it now...?’

’Has it really been twenty-six hours?!’

It was easy to lose track of time in a dream.

What felt like a mere instant to his consciousness could have been an entire night gone by.

After spending a full day with the Great Black Heaven Dragon, his body showed no abnormalities or adverse effects, but he did feel a pang of hunger. His energy reserves were all but depleted.

It felt like he had just woken from a dream. Shi Ming returned to the spot where he had been collecting blood.

The decaying wounds on the Great Black Heaven Dragon’s claws had now completely healed, leaving only visible scars. The containers he’d placed to catch the dripping blood were only a third full, holding about 1.2 liters. Yet, when he lifted them, they were incredibly heavy. ’Probably around fifteen kilograms?’

Its density was comparable to mercury.

’The Twelve Stars’ requirement is 1,000 grams. In that case, I only need to part with about 100 milliliters to fulfill my end of the deal.’

But Shi Ming had no intention of making the entire 1,000-gram quota consist of just blood. The blood was certainly far more valuable than the other tissue samples. Since the Twelve Stars wanted the materials for research, a mix of keratin, flesh fragments, and blood would provide a richer variety and a higher chance of yielding results.

’I’ll sort out the portions when I get back.’

Shi Ming carefully stored the precious, heavy blood.

Before leaving, he cast one last glance at the Great Black Heaven Dragon, an entity suffused with an aura of destruction. He moved to the edge of the nest-like cocoon of obsidian and lava, broke through the obsidian layer that had already sealed itself shut, and slipped into the magma-filled passageway, swimming toward the surface.

The expedition had been a complete success, and his gains were substantial.

He quickly took stock of his haul.

1. A large, palm-sized dragon scale.

2. A small piece of the Great Black Heaven Dragon’s shed skin.

3. Keratin and decayed flesh scraped from its claws, along with the small, broken-off tip of one of the Great Black Heaven Dragon’s claws. It weighed about four or five pounds in total.

4. Approximately 1.2 liters of Holy Hall-level blood, weighing about fifteen kilograms.

5. Three remaining sections of the Sea-Rising Cherry Root, which were very light, just like the roots of an ordinary plant.

6. And a novel experience of inhabiting the body of a Holy Hall-level Sea Beast?

’I wonder if the experience of occupying its consciousness in the dream will allow my body to resonate with the Great Black Heaven’s destructive source, lowering the risks of my future Awakening... If it really works, could I satisfy the second condition for the blood bath even without the Sea-Rising Cherry Root?’

’Probably not. If it were possible, the Eye of the World would have given me a prompt.’

’I’ll just ignore it for now and chalk it up to a strange experience.’

Shi Ming swam upward through the magma, moving like a fish.

He was still unaware that his thrashing about in the dream had triggered a series of tsunamis, with very real consequences for the outside world.

...

...

...

The battered ships of the Black Society and Renhuang, two general-class drifters, had managed to survive the intermittent Celestial Calamity.

Because Vortex Country had considerable experience in dealing with tsunamis, corresponding risk-avoidance strategies had been fully integrated into the construction of these two general-class drifters. As a result, the hulls themselves had not sustained any serious damage. However, the equipment and crew inside were devastated by the violent shaking and turbulence.

Renhuang lay pale-faced in a medical bay, his stomach long since empty.

Even the storm-hardened Yan Dao Lin had never witnessed a Celestial Calamity of such frequency.

Meanwhile, Princess Meijia and the recuperating Tatasta, who had been "driven away" from the Black Society ship long ago, had managed to avoid this ordeal entirely.

Inside her room, the S-rank Awakened from Lighthouse known as "Virus" retracted the tensile fascia that had been supporting her body and glanced at her beeping communicator.

It was a new mission.

[...]

A flicker of anticipation crossed her eyes. She deftly shed her ordinary Vortex Country navy uniform, pulled a sturdy little test tube from her pocket containing the exuvia of the Immortal Evil Eye, and brought it close to the seven slippery, gurgling eyeballs of her Flesh-Eye Roulette.

A-rank skill: Flesh-Eye Roulette.

By devouring the flesh of a sea beast, it could reproduce that beast’s skill one time. It was somewhat similar to the Star Lamp, but fundamentally very different. The Star Lamp did not diminish a skill’s power, whereas any skill deployed by the Flesh-Eye Roulette was limited by the user’s own strength.

The "lucky eye" at the very top of the wheel devoured the piece of refined Holy Hall Flesh.

It grew agitated. The eyeball, which was already quite sanity-draining to look at, became even more bizarre and sinister.

A long, muffled groan echoed softly. "Huuu... urgh..."

Virus put her navy uniform back on.

She fastened the buttons, her cold, glamorous facade falling back into place. Pushing the door open, she stepped out into the long corridor.

The *Renhuang* was in a state of chaos.

Many of the surveillance systems were down. It was the perfect time to make her move.

Even though both sides had agreed to cooperate, Renhuang wouldn’t necessarily hand over everything in good faith. In situations like this, special measures were necessary. The initiative could not be left in the hands of a "partner"—that was always Lighthouse’s way.

...

「Aboard the *Renhuang*, in a secret data room.」

"Jia Ming! Is the decryption complete?"

"Twenty more seconds."

Aboard the general-class drifter, which had been infiltrated so thoroughly it was like a sieve, two Awakened from Kunwu were also carrying out a secret mission. Their objective was to back up all intelligence on the Great Black Heaven Dragon and delete any information not suitable for Lighthouse’s eyes.

Sometimes, problems that couldn’t be solved with guns and diplomacy required other methods. For a thousand years, it had always been so.

"Ten more seconds!"

"Someone’s coming!"

"Five more seconds!"

Jia Ming watched the progress bar on the screen, his fingers flying across the portable decryption device he carried. The bar crept steadily upward, about to cross the 99% mark and complete the mission.

SHINK—

An object formed from fascia shot through the crack under the door and, with a sickening THUMP, pierced the young Awakened’s abdomen.

A spray of blood followed.

Of the two, Jia Ming’s eyes quickly lost their focus, while his companion was so stunned by the sudden attack that his face contorted in a mask of horrified rage.

His life force was draining away rapidly, but his hands never stopped moving...

100%!

Jia Ming pulled the data drive out, then slammed a black button, instantly formatting the terminal.

His companion knew exactly what he had to do.

He snatched the square drive from Jia Ming’s hand, gritted his teeth, and activated his ability, his body shrinking. He then deftly leaped out through a tiny window—a pre-planned escape route—and plunged into the sea below.

CREAK.

The door was sliced open.

Virus stepped in from the hallway. Seeing the corpse slumped over the console, she frowned.

The screen glowed with a single blue word: ERROR.