Forced to Be a Villain: Starting With My Brain Extraction System-Chapter 148: Extracting the Brain of a Dragon!

"Damn... how unlucky. I almost lost my life."

As Lian Yue thought the figure was reduced to cinders by the black flame raging around him, a faint voice suddenly echoed, proving her wrong.

"But still... a bone dragon? In such a secret realm, nonetheless. Who would have thought?"

The figure mumbled yet again, completely ignoring Lian Yue’s injured and battered form behind him.

Rather, he seemed more interested in the behemoth that was hovering right in front, roaring in anger.

Even though it was dead and had no feelings, Lian Yue could feel the deep anger of the dragon resonating through its pitch-black flame. It didn’t like Zhira treating its attack as if it meant nothing.

’Who is he? How can he be uninjured by such attacks?’

Lian Yue was so shocked that she even forgot to activate the teleportation talisman on her hand.

The attack, which even she could barely withstand with the help of her bloodline, was endured like nothing by the figure in front.

One had to remember that the being before her was a dragon, even though it was undead.

Its black flame had the true property of a dragon’s breath. It was a higher-level energy that could not be stopped by normal means.

That’s why even someone at the Peak of the Foundation Realm would have a hard time defending themselves, let alone remaining unscathed.

Even she managed to save herself because of her Phoenix flame.

"Roar!"

While Lian Yue was shocked and Zhira was busy dusting off his clothes, the bone dragon only grew angrier.

Its body seemed to writhe with dark energy, black flames licking its skeletal frame and glowing from deep within its cracks.

The air around it shimmered and hissed as the flames twisted and coiled, casting eerie shadows across the room. Every movement of the dragon made the ground tremble beneath them.

Maybe, because of a stronger intruder, it was beginning to go all out from the start, intending to kill him with the speed of thunder.

’Crap!’

The heat grew so intense that Lian Yue’s face visibly paled as she tightly poured her remaining mana into the talisman.

She was absolutely sure that if the dragon unleashed that attack, she would die from the aftermath alone.

"Tch... so annoying. Can’t you give a chance to catch some breath?"

But even in this situation, the dark-robed figure seemed nonchalant, showing only slight annoyance.

Then, just as Lian Yue wondered what he would do, she saw him disappearing from his place suddenly.

’Where did he go?’

The disappearance was so fast that her divine sense couldn’t even pick up his figure. Still, she felt that she had seen that technique before.

"Let me help you find eternal sleep. As a dragon, it doesn’t suit you to become a slave of others, does it?"

Lian Yue snapped out of her reverie as she heard the voice once again. This time, she saw the figure floating atop the giant bone head of the dragon, right beside its blazing eyes, his hand resting atop its skull somehow.

"What?"

The situation only grew more absurd when she saw the bone dragon abruptly stop its body.

It was as if the figure had lightly halted its trajectory with just the casual swing of his hand.

But... how was that possible?

Lian Yue wanted to deny her own eyes as the fiery black flame surrounding the bone dragon shrank rapidly, then disappeared completely.

Then, to her surprise, even the blazing eyes in its sockets went out, as if someone had blown on a candle. The massive body of the bone dragon, floating just moments before, plummeted to the ground with a deafening sound.

"Thud!"

The scene before her was just too unreal.

...

---

[A fresh brain with a damaged level of 82% is detected.]

[Do you want to perform extraction?]

---

A robotic prompt landed in Zhiran’s ear the moment he placed his hand atop the massive skeletal head.

The reason he wasn’t afraid of the bone dragon was because of this.

His system was unusual. Although it was called the Brain Extraction System, it could extract the consciousness of even an undead with no real brain in sight.

Well, he wasn’t about to complain.

’System, extract!’

Zhiran immediately gave the order, unwilling to endure another attack from this beast.

Before, he had survived unscathed only because of the remaining power of Elder Xueyin, conveniently stored inside the Jade Array given to him by Elder Yan Yue.

Although she could be calculating at times, she was considerate in moments like this.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason he remained unharmed. Without his Physique, he might still have been injured.

’It seems my Heaven’s Devouring Physique isn’t weaker than a dragon’s.’

Zhiran felt a surge of excitement at this discovery, just as the system issued him a prompt.

---

[Extraction successful!]

[Congratulations! You gained a deep memory of the Shadow Dragon, Yuheng: Oblivion Flame (Master)]

---

The moment he heard the prompt, Zhiran felt a strong suction coming from his hand, touching the bone dragon.

Then, to his astonishment, all the black flame surrounding its body quickly traveled through his hand into his dantian.

Not even the flaring black inferno around it spread.

In no time at all, Zhiran felt the flames condense, finally settling in his dantian as a seed, right beside his Solar Essence, making it twitch unconsciously.

Come to think of it, after Zhiran’s realm increased to the Foundation Realm, the Solar Essence he absorbed from the Blazing Heart Lantern before had also grown a bit.

But it was clearly not yet ready to sprout consciousness and become a spiritual companion of Zhiran. In fact, it seemed quite afraid of the Heaven Devouring flame within him.

’Maybe I should search for ways to make it grow. It could be a big help after all,’ Zhiran thought as he heard the deafening thud echo through the chamber after the bone dragon’s fall.

Its massive body was scattered into pieces of bone everywhere.

With this, such an ancient dragon, who knew how old, finally found its peace.

The only mark it left in this world was the black flame seed in his dantian and the strange Oblivion Flame technique, now at the Master Proficiency rank.

’Well, now that this guy is done for, it’s time for another one.’

Zhiran thought as he looked at the figure seated on the throne in the far corner of the hall.

From its attire and the way it had controlled the bone dragon, he was certain the person in front was a demonic cultivator with knowledge of necromancy.

But...

’Why do I feel like it’s just a husk with nothing inside?’

Zhiran had a keen sense, after all. He felt something odd about the figure on the throne.

For one, it hadn’t even flinched when he killed the bone dragon so easily, as if it didn’t matter at all.

But... how was that possible?

He could see that the person had no more summons left, with the bone dragon being the last one.

’Well, no matter what it is, I’ll find out once I get closer.’

When it came to undead and spirits, Zhiran was invincible. He had even extracted the brain of a dead immortal, let alone this pipsqueak.

He wasn’t afraid at all, just a little cautious.

"Wait... senior. Be careful!"

Just as Zhiran left the vicinity of the bone dragon’s corpse and headed toward the throne, he heard an urgent voice behind him.

’Oh, crap... I almost forgot there was another person here.’

Only then did Zhiran remember someone else was with him.

Of course, that someone was a person he knew: Lian Yue, the daughter of the sect leader.

’It seems she overexerted her Phoenix Bloodline today. It might take her a long time to recover.’

Zhiran thought this as he observed Lian Yue cautiously approaching with his divine sense.

In his previous life, the Divine Cauldron Sect had suffered its first setback after exploring this secret realm.

As far as he remembered, after this expedition, the sect suffered huge losses. In anger, it clashed more and more with the Black Lotus Sect.

The situation worsened when news arrived that Elder Yan Yue had killed the young sect leader of the Divine Cauldron Sect.

Such an unbelievable feat, at first, nobody believed it. But when the sect was pushed to collapse, and the leader didn’t appear, everyone realized the news was true.

The youngest Nascent Soul cultivator had died at the hands of a Gold Core cultivator.

Bizarrely, it was true.

As for his daughter, Lian Yue, nobody had spotted her. Many assumed she had fled the sect to save her life.

Although Zhiran suspected that might not be the case.

"Why do you say that? Do you know anything about that figure?"

Well, his past was just a past, and this was his present. He didn’t care what had happened before, but this time, the future would be made by him anyway.

So he put aside his thoughts and asked Lian Yue lightly, finding her use of the word "senior" a bit amusing.

If she knew who he really was, she might be shocked to her core, right?

Well, too bad Zhiran had no intention of letting her know.