Tall mountains looking like a group of metal giants filled the whole horizon, but that wasn't the thing that amazed Bella the most. It was one of the mountains which was clearly special.
"Is that a palace? No, it's much bigger… It must be a whole big City!" Bella called out in wonder as she scanned the enormous building in the distance.
It reflected the last rays of sunlight, making it shine with gold. It was built inside the largest mountain range in the area, surrounded by hundreds of smaller warehouses. The closer they got, the more precise look they got, making them realize it was more like a factory rather than the palace with the rest of the city hidden inside the mountain range.
"Welcome to the Dwarf Kingdom," Drakos introduced, confusing Bella.
"Didn't you say you will take me to your stash? You said you have once gathered a lot of Fate Stones and hid it in one place. Why are we visiting some Dwarf Kingdom?" Bella questioned before squeezing his horns. "You are not lying to me, right?"
Her palms burst with a colorful flame that even Dragon of his stage couldn't handle.
"No, no! I'm not lying! I promise!" Drakos cried out in panic, and thankfully, Bella stopped her flames. "You better not lie to me, or else I will burn you."
Oof…
Drakos sighed in relief, quickly regenerating the burn on his horns. Even if he was a Dragon, who was supposed to be fire-proof, Bella was a Celestial Stage Phoenix. Her flames were much stronger than what his current body could withstand.
He was once a Celestial Stage Beast just like her, but after an unavoidable accident, he was forced to abandon his old body and create a new one, entirely from Fate Qi. This move allowed him to jump stages much quicker compared to other beasts who had to slowly accumulate Qi instead.
When Bella heard about this method, she immediately forced him to help her achieve the same. Despite reaching the Celestial Stage, which allowed her to create her own Humanoid body, it was still more efficient to begin from the start once again, using the Drakos method of cultivating with Fate Qi.
"I'm not lying. There really is a massive stash of Fate Stones inside the Dwarf Kingdom that I still didn't collect. All we need to do is get inside and collect it," Drakos explained vaguely, but Bella saw through his plan right away.
"Do you think I'm stupid? Just because I'm new to this world, doesn't mean I'm dumb. You never had any stash, and those Fate Stones are not yours. What you wanted to do this whole time was rob them, am I right?"
"Cough… We are not robbing them… It's such a strong word," Drakos cleared his throat and corrected, "We are simply borrowing them… for now. When we have more Fate Stones in the future, we will return them."
Bella rolled her eyes at such insincere words. Knowing Drakos, there was no way he would return anything.
"Also, it's not just me, but you are involved too. I need your help to get the Fate Stones," Drakos added.
"Alright," Bella agreed casually. "What do I need to do?"
Drakos paused for a second.
"You are not against it?" Drakos asked confused.
"Why would I be? It's just robbing. I don't really care much about others, so I don't mind," Bella replied. "The only difference between us is I admit to what I do while you hide behind your lies, trying to act innocent. If you are a bad guy, you might as well own it pussy."
Oof…
Bella's bullet struck him hard.
He was about to counter her when she burned him harder, "I thought you are the Legendary Dragon Drakos, but it seems like you are just a spineless flying lizard. I don't know who gave you the guts to call yourself Legendary."
"…"
Drakos didn't comment at all, continuing to fly forward while lowering his altitude. A minute later, Bella couldn't stand the silence anymore and bashed him on the back.
"Hey, why are you silent? Say something."
Still no answer.
"Did you get mad or something? You can't be this sensitive, can you? It was clearly a joke," Bella tried to reach him, peeking to see his eyes, but he kept turning his head away as if he was pouting.
"Okay, okay, I admit I might have gone too far. Don't be mad. I won't burn you for a whole day in return," Bella pleaded, trying to act sincere, and Drakos finally replied.
It was a much different answer than what she expected.
"Call me a pussy or a lizard one more time, and you can forget about your Fate Qi body. If you think I'm helping you because I'm scared of you, then you are deeply wrong. If you kill me, so what? I will just create another body, and you will be left alone, struggling to cultivate forever."
His tone was stern and cold, making Bella shiver. That was the first time she saw Drakos act like this.
"I apologized already… What else do you want me to do?" Bella questioned with guilt, realizing force wasn't the right approach to tame him anymore and swiftly changed it. "Do you want me to scratch your belly later as an apology?"
Cough, cough!
Drakos almost choked at the offer.
He seemed really tempted to accept it as he hesitated for a moment, but ended up rejecting it. "Just listen to me, and we are good."
"Okay~" Bella called out sweetly, turning her attitude by one hundred and eighty degrees without any hesitation. "This good girl will listen to Daddy~."
Drakos had another series of breathing problems.
"Cough! Who taught you that…?" Drakos questioned, almost falling down the sky from the shock.
"Oh, I overheard it from Xuefeng's bedroom. Tianshi called him like that one night. Is it bad? Xuefeng seemed happy," Bella replied innocently.
"Ehem, I mean… If you want to call me that, I don't mind…" Drakos muttered, to which Bella complied immediately.
"Okay, Daddy~."
"Stop, stop, stop, stop, I take that back. Do not call me Daddy." Drakos halted that before his heart exploded, suddenly diving. "We are landing!"