We, Dragons, Are All About Losing a Point and Demanding Ten More (1)
Lu Yuanyi could not answer.
He felt the fingers around his throat tighten and although his mouth was wide open, the air was being pushed out of his lungs. His thick clothes were already drenched in cold sweat under the fear of suffocation.
Finally, just before Lu Yuanyi was about to faint, his opponent mercifully let go of his hand.
The fat middle-aged man fell heavily to the ground with a muffled thud.
He held his burning throat and coughed violently, breathing heavily and frantically.
In his blackened vision, Lu Yuanyi saw a figure slowly walking toward him.
The horrific pressure he had felt earlier was like a vast mountain weighing down on him. The feeling that his life hung in the balance was a death grip on his throat as if the hand had yet to be removed from his neck, making him gasp for breath.
Lu Yuanyi crawled backward in desperation but felt his palm being gently stepped on by the hard surface of the shoe.
“Hey, I’m asking you.” The young man’s clear voice came from overhead.
The next second, he applied force to his foot, crushing down hard and without mercy.
“AHHH!” Lu Yuanyi used his other hand to grasp the soles of his opponent’s feet, his face scrunching up, and he threatened, “Y-You don’t know who I am. If you offend me, the force behind me will make you suffer! If you stop now, I-I maybe can let bygones be bygones and let you die nicely…”
The shoe on his hand gave a slight pause, but before Lu Yuanyi could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard the other party’s slightly puzzled voice again, with a somewhat high tone, as if he was baffled. “… Let bygones be bygones?”
Suddenly, a burning pain rose from his body without warning.
There was not a single flame on his body, but his soul felt as if it was being roasted by karmic fire and the indescribable pain was almost more than every human being could endure.
“AHHH!” Lu Yuanyi’s eyes were wide with anguish as a harsh scream escaped from his throat.
No, it couldn’t be.
His body was always internally protected, so how could his magical defenses be destroyed so easily?
“Let bygones be bygones?” the other person repeated in a calm tone.
Although not much emotion was in his voice, Lu Yuanyi stiffened as he heard a hint of eerie coldness.
“Crack!”
The unmistakable sound of cracking bones rang out as the man’s short, thick palm, covered in rings, contorted and deformed in excruciating pain.
“!!!”
This time, Lu Yuanyi didn’t even make a sound, panting with his mouth wide open, his body curled up into a shrimp.
The young man’s voice took on a hint of fury.
“You guys, a bunch of shameless thieves, would unexpectedly dare to tell me to let bygones be bygones?”
At that moment, the crimson vertical pupils he had just glimpsed flashed through Lu Yuanyi’s mind.
No, it was not human.
It couldn’t be human.
Lu Yuanyi’s teeth were chattering and his body couldn’t stop shivering. Large globs of sweat seeped from his greasy forehead and trickled down his trembling cheeks, dripping onto the carpet.
Dizzy with pain in his head, Lu Yuanyi saw the bright white jewel on his thumb. It shone brightly in the light but glittered at the edge of his vision.
In that instant, as if he suddenly realized something, his eyes slowly widened, and an expression of utter horror appeared on his face.
A sinking, cold truth was laid out before him.
I-It was a dragon.
Dragons that had vanished on the continent for ten thousand years. They were considered the top fighters even among fantasy species.
The vicious desire for revenge that had just risen was replaced by boundless fear.
He immediately understood why he had been approached.
Lu Yuanyi reached out, shivering, and ripped all the rings from his crushed and deformed hand with a fierce force, and he couldn't care less about the pain as he held them in one hand and offered. “M-My lord, I-I-I-I-I didn’t know these belonged to you…”
Lu Yuanyi lied.
He certainly knew where the treasure came from.
But there were no more dragons in this world and the endless greed brought on by the unowned treasure overtook him, so he offered his help and got a share of it – a small share of the whole treasure, but enough for him to take a risk out of desperation and do something outside the rules.
Shi An did not take them.
He crouched down, locked eyes with the wretched middle-aged man before him, and asked, “What else?”
Lu Yuanyi hurriedly said, “I-I’ll take you there!”
Shi An watched the middle-aged man before him with a fixed glance and slowly withdrew his feet. “Lead the way.”
He followed Lu Yuanyi to the tower’s underground warehouse.
The other man stretched out his hand, shivering and wiping the sweat mixed with blood and mud from his forehead, before extending his hand and channeling his magic into the treasury.
Lu Yuanyi stumbled in and opened the first inner chamber, the door to the treasure vault slowly opening to reveal a room full of brilliant gold light.
“My lord, everything is here…”
Shi An said, “Not enough.”
Lu Yuanyi froze. “But, my lord, these are all I’ve gotten from your belongings…”
Shi An turned his head towards the other party, his red-gold vertical pupils narrowed slightly, and he hooked his lips to reveal an innocent and harmless smile, sounding gentle and soft.
“I said it’s not enough.”
—We, dragons, are all about losing a point and demanding ten more.
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