Chapter 1 Uninhabited Wilderness on the Northern Border

Northern border, uninhabited wilderness.

The sky was as gloomy as ink. Snow flew in the violent wind, and the frigid air was filled with fine snow dust, covering most of the sky and earth like fog.

The blizzard obscured vision. In this bitterly cold season, even the most adventurous explorers would not travel far. Temperatures below minus thirty degrees Celsius and more than sixty centimeters of snow were enough to make anyone struggle to move.

But in the wilderness, in the central area where the snow was heaviest, there were more than a dozen warriors wearing powered armor and holding heavy machine guns, braving the wind and snow to protect several scholars in robes and a middle-aged man dressed in gorgeous clothes, his body surrounded by magical fluorescent light.

Whether it was the warriors or the scholars, or the middle-aged man who looked like a nobleman, their bodies had runes flashing with wind and cold resistance, and the hot air exhaled from their mouths and noses could even condense into smoke.

In front of this group of people, there was a thinly dressed white-haired girl. She was standing in the center of a luxurious magic circle in the snow, with nothing on her body except a white robe that had no cold protection.

At this moment, she was closing her eyes, calmly clasping her hands together in the center of the magic circle filled with gold and jewels, crossing them, chanting spells, and performing the ritual.

—With gold as the foundation, shape the perfect form.

—With mercury as blood, flow the breath of primordial substance.

—With gems as bones, solidify the roots of the beginning.

—With cold iron cast as heart, strengthen the source of power.

Finally, ignite the black diamonds, and use the most filthy, but purest fire of resentment and curses, filled with resentment and curses, to burn the green wooden branches surrounding the center of the magic circle in the blasphemous runes. This is to reproduce the ancient legend, symbolizing the myth of the dragon that hosts the curse ending the age of gods, burning the divine tree.

Then, summon the arrival of the dragon that destroys the divine tree.

In the violent wind, the magic circle lit up.

There was no pigment, as if it was a human figure outlined in black and white. The thinly dressed girl knew that this was the most critical moment of the summoning, so she spoke.

[Offspring of the Primordial Dragon, the embodiment of withering and death, the representative of despair, the leader of all snakes]

[The demon dragon that ends the gods, gnaws at the divine tree, causes the era to change, and all things to perish]

[If you can hear my words, then respond to the call of the Primordial Dragon]

[Come at my summons]

At this moment, it could be seen that in the very center of the shining magic circle, the origin point that created the core of the entire magic circle was a bead the size of a human fist, flashing with a warm golden light.

Dragon Ball.

In the Holy Kerber Empire, the legend of the Dragon Ball was known to all.

On this continent created by the 'Primordial Dragon', various races lived and multiplied. However, since eight hundred years ago, it had been the era of the Central Empire dominated by humans, and races like elves and dwarves had been driven to the southern dense forests and underground secret realms.

Only the dragon, as the offspring of the creator god, was worshiped by all races—the dragon and the subsequent gods constituted countless brilliant and magnificent mythical epics.

But one day in the distant past, the dragons disappeared. Those huge creatures with unparalleled power left this world, leaving only seven Dragon Balls.

Legend has it that obtaining the seven Dragon Balls would allow one to gain the gaze of the Primordial Dragon and obtain a wish from this creator dragon. As long as the wish was made, whether it was unparalleled power, eternally held wealth, or even the desire to conquer the entire world, it would be as easy as lifting a hand.

The existence of the Holy Kerber Empire was precisely because eight hundred years ago, the ancestor of the Kerber royal family, the founding emperor of the empire, gathered the Dragon Balls and made a wish.

However, since then, there had been no more news of the Dragon Balls being gathered. It was rumored that the Kerber Empire had been secretly hindering this in order to prevent its rule from being overthrown. But even without the empire, who in this world would give up the possibility of fulfilling a wish? But the Dragon Balls had indeed disappeared, and some people even doubted whether they really existed.

However, ten years ago, a person suspected of holding a Dragon Ball appeared in the northern border. Although he quickly disappeared into the snowy, bitterly cold Cobol Mountains in the north, he attracted the attention of everyone on the entire continent.

As the last legacy of the dragons, a creation of the Primordial Dragon, the power of the Dragon Ball itself was also extraordinary, in addition to being a condition for making a wish.

Using it as a source, one could summon mythical legends, or even powerful dragon souls from another world, and condense them into entities with powerful magic—although they could not exert their full power from the myths, they could be considered absolutely powerful in the human world, a power close to that of the gods.

Moreover, the holder of the Dragon Ball could temporarily obtain part of the power of the dragon they summoned. After the wish was made, the dragon blood would even remain on the holder of the Dragon Ball, passing on that power—it was said that the royal family of the Kerber Empire held the power of the powerful sun dragon blood, which could control terrifying light and heat.

Therefore, if there was a chance, no one would ever let go of the Dragon Ball.

"What's going on? Did the ritual fail?"

At this moment, as the white-haired girl chanted the spells that hosted magic and summoned legends, the luxurious summoning magic circle lit up with dazzling brilliance—but when the light dissipated, no dragon soul appeared.

This scene immediately made the middle-aged nobleman in gorgeous robes and cloaks in front of the magic circle frown. He looked at the scholars beside him with a questioning gaze: "I need an explanation."

"Your Excellency, we are just copying the formations and spells from the ancient books. In theory, it is perfect..."

The scholars whispered to each other for a while, and the result was also very helpless: "We copied the records collected by the Maya family—and you are unwilling to personally preside over the summoning, so you naturally cannot obtain the knowledge of the Dragon Ball, and we are also powerless."

"Waste..."

The Maya family's lord cursed in his heart. Of course, he knew that the scholars were right. He could not personally preside over the summoning ceremony, so he could not know the knowledge inherited in the Dragon Ball. If the magic circle went wrong, he should not blame the scholars for perfectly reproducing it according to the records in the classics.

But he spent a lot of money to hire them in the first place to solve the problem!

Frowning, the gray-haired Maya lord turned his head and looked at the white-clothed girl who was still chanting the summoning spell in the magic circle: "Do I really have to do it myself?"

The Dragon Ball held by the Maya family was naturally not the one that appeared in the north more than a decade ago, but the support he received from some unspeakable channels.

And his ambition, of course, was to try to collect the Dragon Balls, imitate the Kerber royal family eight hundred years ago, make a wish to conquer the continent, replace the current empire, make his family the new royal family, and make himself the new emperor.

Some time ago, the Dragon Ball had already reacted, which proved that all the Dragon Balls were now gathered in the north. The tide of fate had been set off, and the opportunity to gather all the Dragon Balls was today, a once-in-eight-hundred-years opportunity.

However, Maya was still a little hesitant—those nobles and forces who had once obtained the Dragon Ball were eventually eliminated and討伐 by the royal family. If he failed, then the destruction of the family was undoubtedly inevitable.

Therefore, he entrusted the Alchemist Association to create a homunculus with a lifespan of only one month, so that she could summon the dragon as his substitute. If it failed, there would be no evidence on the surface, and the imperial royal family could not do anything to the Maya family, who were the local emperors of the north.

At this moment, the homunculus girl was still repeating the orders she had been given. She mobilized her magic power, responding to the power of the Dragon Ball, summoning the existence from the distant other side.

"Is there something wrong with this homunculus?"

The Maya lord's voice sounded again, and the scholars were also helpless: "It shouldn't be, Lord, we deliberately increased the dosage of dragon blood in her body, and even used the saplings of the Tree of Life as the core of life. If the magic circle is correct, we can completely summon that legendary demon dragon."

The white-haired girl opened her eyes. It could be seen that in her blood-red eyes, there were vertical pupils like dragons and snakes, and on the sides behind her ears, there were also dense scales.

It was already the fourth time she had chanted the spell, and she was not discouraged at all—a tape recorder could tirelessly repeat the same work thousands of times, and so could she.

But suddenly.

With a silver flash suddenly lit up, cyan spiritual light fell from the sky.

Then, it was an extremely bright light burst.

The Dragon Ball lit up with striking brilliance, and Su Zhou appeared directly above the summoning magic circle.

"What's going on, Yala!"

Su Zhou, who had finally re-entered the world, was now full of inexplicable thoughts. He raised his hand and said to the little snake wrapped around him in confusion: "I won't talk about the 99% deviation value, but the barrier of your world is too thick, right? The Celestial Scale took me to crash into it, and I almost didn't get in—if it wasn't for encountering a force that seemed to be responding to me..."

Speaking of this, Su Zhou, who had not had time to think much because of the tense situation, could not help but stall: "Wait, why is there a force in this world calling me?"

In response, the scarlet little snake was also quite annoyed: "What does it have to do with me? The Celestial Scale has a problem—of course, the most essential reason should be the Pioneer. The first thing that guy did after waking up was to resist the Great Seal, which affected part of the void structure... In the future, if you want to travel to a new world, you will probably have to suffer like this."

"Tsk, it seems that I can only get stronger quickly..."

Su Zhou's face was very ugly, but the faces of everyone around him were even uglier—except for the white-haired girl who stayed in place without moving after completing her task.

"Who is this guy? Why did the magic circle for summoning the divine dragon summon a human?!"

In the wilderness, the cold wind was bleak, and the snow was flying. Su Zhou turned his head and looked in the direction of the voice.

It was a frustrated gray-haired middle-aged man, several scholars with helpless expressions, and warriors wearing powered armor and holding heavy machine guns.

The young man in front of him had messy black hair, a cold expression, and cyan-purple eyes. Although his appearance could be called perfect, Maya did not want a face. What he wanted was a powerful, sharp-clawed dragon!

"What do these people mean?"

For some reason, even though it was a different world's language, Su Zhou could understand it directly. A mysterious force was blessing him with the gift of language, allowing him to understand all the languages in this world.

"They were summoning a divine dragon before? Oh right, I did hear the summoning words."

Recalling the summoning words he had heard when he entered the world, he suddenly realized: "Offspring of the Primordial Dragon, the embodiment of withering and death, the representative of despair, the leader of all snakes—the demon dragon that ends the gods, gnaws at the divine tree, causes the era to change, and all things to perish... Well, although there are some subtle differences, I unexpectedly fit the description!"

The Primordial Dragon was referring to Yala, right? He had a direct bloodline from her. The Eater of Evil was indeed an ability that could only be gained by killing people, and was a representative of the despair of evildoers. As for the leader of all snakes, it probably referred to his group of sea beast fans in the sea?

As for who they originally wanted to summon, Su Zhou guessed that they wanted to summon Nidhogg—the despairing demon dragon in Norse European mythology that gnawed at the World Tree and guided the Twilight of the Gods.

However, due to various coincidences and corresponding elements, it became Su Zhou, who had also killed gods and cut down trees.

"Wait."

Just as the Maya lord's anger was accumulating, suddenly, one of the scholars seemed to have thought of something. He took out a rune crystal screen electronic tablet from his arms, and then slid it on the screen, retrieving data: "I found it—yes, in addition to the demon dragon Nidhogg, in the ancient legends of another world, there is also a dragon that has killed gods and defeated the divine tree!"

Then, he shared this information with others.

—The emperor of the human world, in pursuit of immortality, rashly moved the divine tree from the sacred mountain in the South Sea, causing the mountain god to be furious and send down a curse. He punished the emperor's offspring, turning everyone in their capital into undead monsters, invading the human world.

The classical myth of offending the heavens naturally also had a hero who answered the mandate of heaven and slew the undead—the divine dragon slumbering in the sacred mountain in the northwest was born to help, assisting the hero of the mandate to kill the undead demon emperor.

And this divine dragon, its name is 'Xi', also known as 'Zhuzhou'. Legend has it that its tail contains a divine knife that can kill all undead, and its mouth can spew lightning and flames that can destroy the divine tree. It uses light and fire as its wings, and is a divine dragon symbolizing daylight and fire.

In addition, there are other similar images in other myths and legends, which are praised as the 'immortal' divine dragon. It assisted the human king to manage the great flood that swept the world and almost overturned it,斩killed the evil water god, and with the human king and the god, reopened a new era.

"If it is really that divine dragon..."

Speaking so softly to the Maya lord, the mage's tone carried a trace of comfort: "Then this result is not bad—the demon dragon Nidhogg is indeed a world-destroying demon dragon, but in the legends, it has not fought many times, and its combat power and experience are very questionable... But 'Zhuzhou' is different! This one in the legends has experienced hundreds of battles and has fought all the way!"