Chapter 29: Withered Poison Dragon
There were only two possibilities for <Analytical Eyes> to appear “Unable to determine”; one was that Joseph’s strength was too low and the other was that Joseph’s strength was already strong enough to exceed his current maximum analysis limit. Obviously, Joseph was the latter one, and he was still in the normal state of transformation!
Despite Alan’s murderousness, in the eyes of Chen Rui, Joseph who was smiling was undoubtedly more horrifying.
“Sirs, today master asked me to buy some Wrath Grass, so I came to Joseph’s magic store to take a look.” Chen Rui calmed down. He mentioned Aldas’ name, and pointed out it was Joseph’s store to warn Alan.
“Oh, it’s Master Aldas’s command.” Joseph was still smiling, but Chen Rui could feel the arrogance and disdain in his bones. “How much does master need?”
“The Wrath Grasses here are not bad, but it was more expensive than what master remembered, perhaps the price increased. I don’t have enough money, so I’ll go back and report to master first.”
Chen Rui wasn’t afraid of Alan. With similar strength, even if he couldn’t rival, the probability of escape should still be very large. However, the two great demons behind Joseph were a different story, let alone Joseph himself. The only thing he could do now was to leave as soon as possible.
“Due to a shortage of goods, goods’ prices have inflated a little recently. However, last time master defeated Sandro and glorified the Dark Moon City. There are a total of 50 Wrath Grasses here, I will gift them to the master. Please pass it to master along with the sincerest greetings from the Alvin family. If the master has any other needs, the store will sell it at the lowest price.”
When Sandro came previously, he intended to kill Aldas, and he even used his prestige as Alvin family, they were clearly allies. Now that Sandro was dead, Joseph immediately took the opportunity to build connections to at least flatter Aldas. As the saying goes, there was no eternal enemy, only eternal interests.
Fifty Wrath Grasses, based on the price, that is at least 100 black crystal coins. Chen Rui politely thanked Joseph, received the grass and left. When he reached the entrance, Joseph suddenly spoke up, “Human, I heard that you are friends with little princess and Athena?”
Chen Rui turned around, smiled bitterly and said, “I’m not qualified for that. It’s just that little princess is very curious about me as a human. She just likes to bring along Athena to pass time with me.”
“Yet, I heard that Athena publicly admitted you as a friend; I think the little princess also values you,” Joseph said with a false smile. “I’m having a friendly match with the little princess at the arena early next month. Are you interested to visit?”
“Friendly match?” Chen Rui never heard of it from Alice or Athena. He just replied casually, “Let’s talk about it later. Sirs, I need to report back to the master now.”
After Chen Rui left, Alan clenched his teeth and said, “Joseph, you are afraid of the dark elf, but I’m not. Why not let me tear this damn human into pieces?”
Joseph sneered, not knowing whether it was for Chen Rui or Alan, “It’s not the time to go against Shea publicly, so Aldas can’t be offended. If you really want to deal with the weak human, I have an idea. Go spread the news that the human will compete on behalf of the little princess. If the human dies under fair play like Sandro, even Aldas can’t say anything.”
Alan looked like he had a sudden realization. He sneered, “Good idea! I will join you and kill this human personally.”
Joseph shrugged and looked like he expected it, “Since you decided to do it, then wait until the day before the match to spread the news so that they have no time to prepare.”
Chen Rui returned to the lab and gave Aldas the Wrath Grasses. Aldas heard that Joseph gifted them, and he thought a little and did not reject. Chen Rui knew that Aldas was an understanding person; he definitely understood the intentions of the Alvin family, so he did not say much and went back to the room to rest.
Perhaps Alice truly listened to the sales class, she didn’t come to Chen Rui for a few days, and she didn’t even claim the owed story. Instead, Athena came to listen to his story of the Three Kingdoms from time to time. The lab was always filled with their laughter.
Over the past few days, Chen Rui followed Slee to the Dark Moon City to find the source of aura, so he basically familiarized the entire city. Despite the warning with the demon last time, he still faced some trouble. Thanks to Zach from the “Guillotine” blacksmith store who was very loyal, and he had a broad social connection, he helped Chen Rui settled the problems while Chen Rui was also happy to not expose his strength.
The gain in these days was not as big as the first day, but some auras were increased more or less. At present, the total amount of aura was close to 700. Although it had reached the requirements to activate warehouse storage, if it was activated, there would only be around 200 points left. Since it was hard to find a new aura source at the moment, he decided to wait longer.
With the gradual integration into the Demon Realm, Chen Rui had a new perspective on this world that was rumored to be horrific and cruel.
It was undeniable that the Demon Realm advocated the survival of the fittest, but the human world was not different; at most, there was just a layer of gorgeous cover to the rule. Most of the demons were hideous; many of them were cruel and sinister, but after peeling off the relatively beautiful outer skin, the darkness in the human heart was comparable.
In other words, the Demon Realm was like a human world, but it advocated power more, more combative, and have a more peculiar face than the human.
Just like the one sentence he saw on the Internet in his previous life: darkness is also a kind of light but with a different shade.
It was the day to learn Dragon Inscription from Paglio again. It seemed that Athena had something going on, so she didn’t appear for two days. Chen Rui used the excuse of gathering herbs, rented a tri-horned rhino and went to the blue lake early in the morning.
Upon reaching the familiar blue lake, Chen Rui initially prepared to deal with the poison dragon’s amnesia, so he specially brought the hot pot material to let Paglio try. Yet, Paglio disappeared. The only thing left was a set of a chessboard that was dried-up, even the pebbles were scattered all around.
Chen Rui was taken aback. What happened? His life was now connected to Paglio’s. If the poison dragon had any accident, he would be doomed too.
Just when Chen Rui was looking for Paglio around the lakeside, a whirlpool suddenly appeared in the lake and a huge head slowly rose up. This yellow-brown head looked somewhat like a carnivorous dinosaur; short horns on its head; two fin-like structures at its cheeks; ferocious look; sharp teeth; dark-golden eyes flashing with scary lights staring at Chen Rui.
This… should be Paglio!
Chen Rui’s had goosebumps all over for he feared that the poison dragon in this terrible state would attack Chen Rui due to amnesia. The <Aurora Shot> in his hand was ready to be released at any time.
“Damn Chen Rui!” The poison dragon suddenly spoke, but that calmed Chen Rui. At least Paglio still remembered him.
“Paglio, change your form. If not, it’ll be easy to be discovered.” Chen Rui took a sigh of relief. “I have something to tell you.”
Paglio swayed his head angrily and a large wave of lakewater was splashed over, intending to wet Chen Rui. Chen Rui reacted very quickly. He jumped about 6 meters to the back and avoided it.
“Eh?” The voice of the poison dragon seemed a little surprised. Before Chen Rui got proud, the dragon head disappeared, and a figure suddenly appeared mid-air and kicked Chen Rui. Chen Rui couldn’t dodge. As he was about to block with his arms, the hammer kick suddenly turned with an incredible angle, then it appeared behind his waist.
“Pow!” Chen Rui was kicked hard at his butt. After flying around in mid-air, he reenacted the classic fall down pose with hands and legs in the air, and his body was covered in mud.
“Paglio, WTF!” Chen Rui felt an intense pain on his butt. Luckily he was not injured; he stood up and scolded.
Who knows Plagio was even more furious, he rushed forward and held his collar. He said with anger, “What happened to you? You almost got me killed!”
“How did I harm you? I’ll die too if you die!”
The poison dragon snorted coldly and let go of him. Chen Rui then realized that the original yellowish-brown face of the poison dragon became pale and withered.
“What happened to you?”
“I am the one who wants to ask!” Paglio said impatiently, “Around the second night after you took the venom, the symbiotic contract suddenly changed; it frantically swallowed my vitality and strength. Now my life span is halved! My power is greatly weakened!”
“How could this be?” Chen Rui recalled carefully. It was the day the Master Challenge ended, and the Super System started, and then… body cleansing… Yes, it was the initial evolution!
At that time, the prompt found high-purity life energy, then it was converted into aura for promotion. It turned out to be the power of symbiotic contract. No wonder I became Star Holder so soon! It seems that brother poison dragon really suffers a loss this time.
“Let’s make some food first and talk while we eat.” Chen Rui was guilty, so he decided to stuff Paglio’s mouth with good food. He then immediately got the material at the place where the tri-horned rhino was tied and started preparing a simple hot pot at the fastest speed.
“This thing is so delicious!” Paglio tasted a few pieces, and he praised it immediately, then he began to devour the food quickly.
Chen Rui noticed that the poison dragon’s mood was getting better and said, “This is the case, the inheritance of my grand master was officially activated…”
Chen Rui “blamed” the grand master’s inheritance for part of the function of the Super System. He said that something happened to the inheritance, so it gave him the corresponding power. Moreover, this power would continue to increase.
“It was actually you who swallowed up my strength, damn guy! If this continues, my life will be shorter and shorter!” Seeing that Paglio was going to attack again, Chen Rui quickly explained it to him that the symbiotic contract’s power was only needed to activate the inheritance; it was not needed anymore, so the poison dragon shouldn’t feel any strange change from the contract again in these days.
Chen Rui was initially sad about why the”high-purity life energy” at the initial evolution didn’t appear again. He could’ve got some aura. Now it seemed that even if there was a prompt, he wouldn’t dare to simply agree. Staying alive was the most important foundation for strength. If he could only live for one second, what was the use of invincibility?
After listening to Chen Rui’s explanation, Paglio felt calmer. The dragon’s life span was really long. Even if it was halved, there was still at least a few million years. If he was sealed at such a place for a few million years, he might not be able to survive for a few thousand years and get killed if he was unlucky. In terms of strength, he could also be slowly recovered and cultivated it back. The key was that Chen Rui’s strength could be truly enhanced. Not only it could help Paglio get out of trouble as soon as possible, but also reduced the possibility of unexpected death; it was kind of worthy.
The two had signed a symbiotic contract; there was no need to look into it anymore.
Soon, poison dragon who was slightly resented was calmed down by the scent of the hot pot. When he heard that Chen Rui had an attack skill that was passed down from the grand master, he could not help but become interested.