At this point, no matter how much they tried to cover it up, Aya was bound to figure out the truth. The princess, who was certain of her complete defeat on this matter, buried her head in Aya's chest and dared not lift it to see Aya's reaction. Her arms were wrapped around Aya's neck, and she clung to Aya like a koala. The atmosphere became extremely awkward in an instant.

"Um, Princess Tiran?" Aya's voice sounded somewhat strange.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Don't talk to me!" Tiran's face buried, muffling her words.

"No, if you keep this posture, you're going to slip..."

Due to the angle she had thrown herself at, Tiran's hold on Aya was not secure, and she was slowly sliding down. If this continued, the position would be quite ungraceful.

"Tsk, can't you lend a hand?" Tiran muttered softly.

"Oh!" Aya hurriedly reached out. While certain regions of the princess were indeed unfortunate, her thoroughly exercised buttocks were remarkably resilient, surprising Aya with their texture.

"Eek!"

However, just as his fingers made contact, Tiran's body shuddered and emitted a suppressed trembling sound.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing..."

Tiran raised her head, sporting a slightly stiff smile. Aya, unfortunately, adjusted his hand slightly to exert more force.

"Oops!"

To his surprise, Tiran's upper body, which had just propped up, slumped back down under this stimulation. Eventually, she grabbed Aya's shoulders with both hands in frustration, glaring at him fiercely. "Don't move recklessly, you dim-witted dragon! Don't you know it hurts?!"

"Huh... hurts? Why?" Aya was puzzled.

"What nonsense! This lady is a first-timer! And it's so... so... big..."

Not only her cheeks but her entire face turned red in embarrassment and anger. She punched Aya's chest, nearly knocking the wind out of him. How could he ask such a question?! The princess was now so embarrassed and outraged that she wanted to kill someone. She sacrificed so much to save him, and he was still here asking questions! Was he trying to mess with her mind? Despite outward appearances resembling a girl, why was he so exaggerated? Was he some kind of Angel Kalem from that guidebook?

Of course, much later, the princess suddenly recalled some biological knowledge, like how reptiles didn't have certain membranes, and Dragons... can be considered a type of reptile.

Aya, even if slow on the uptake, finally understood what Princess Tiran was getting at.

"I'm... sorry?" the dim-witted dragon scratched his head and long pause, feeling a sudden stabbing pain in his chest.

Tiran let go of her teeth and buried her head again. "Anyway, from now on, you are my dragon, understood?"

"Ah? Oh, okay..." Aya nodded repeatedly, looking foolish, which actually amused Tiran.

"Alright, put me down." Tiran patted Aya's head.

"Aren't you still... hurting?"

"It doesn't mean I can't move; this lady is not that fragile." Tiran pursed her lips. "But even so, girls need to be taken care of, understand?"

"Understood." Aya felt like an emotionless nodding machine. To be honest, he still hadn't fully recovered from the shock. Waking up to suddenly being told he was Princess Tiran's dragon...

It seems like that's what it was originally? But isn't this all too sudden? Most importantly, I didn't even feel it happen, which makes me feel a bit shortchanged...

While lost in thought, Tiran had already jumped off Aya, despite still feeling some pain. However, given Tiran's physical strength, he could recover quickly.

"Um... if it's too big, I can actually alter it with Magic," Aya whispered.

"Can you do that too?" the princess was immediately shocked, her tone slightly rising.

"Well, it's actually simpler than full-body transformation, just some minor adjustments to certain parts..." Aya felt her face heating up; is it really okay to use Magic for this kind of thing?

Tiran probably also thought about this, coughed a couple of times, then silently turned his face away. "N-no need, it's fine the way it is now."

Why do I have to deal with this kind of question! The princess almost covered her face and squatted; this is just too embarrassing, damn it!

"Let's not talk about that for now," Tiran forced down his embarrassed feelings and tried to shift back to a normal expression. "How do you feel now? Kongming said the Dragon Knight contract can forcibly bind your soul, but what about Minglin's spirit?"

"Kongming? That guy is here too?"

"...Can't you focus on the main points?" the princess sighed, pressing her forehead.

Aya stood at attention. "Feeling fine, Minglin won't go wandering off, right? Holy crap?!"

Just when they both breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the matter was settled, a hand suddenly protruded from Aya's chest, like a terrifying monster in a sci-fi movie.

...

"Is it... over inside?"

Outside the Xing Star Tower, several people noticed the anomaly first. The light that was originally receiving the city's earth veins energy suddenly dissipated from bottom to top. This wave spread like dominoes, breaking through the small-scale magic arrays scattered throughout the city, eventually completely destroying the large-scale magic formation that covered the city.

Xingjian looked solemn, while Xiangling quietly breathed a sigh of relief. The small dragon cub temporarily perched on her shoulder flapped its wings and urgently shouted:

"Hey! You guys, retreat quickly! Below—"

Before the voice could finish, a shockwave erupted from the Xing Star Tower's center, even more powerful than the pressure generated when the divine formation was activated with the city's earth veins and the souls of the sacrifices. It was like a super-bomb going off.

This is bad!

Xiangling immediately realized the danger. If this explosion spread, it would at least affect more than half of the imperial city. Her soldiers, the royal family, countless court officials, and servants were all still in the palace. The consequences of the explosion spreading were incalculable.

The flow of time suddenly slowed down, and the shockwave's spread elongated as if in slow motion. Frame by frame, slow-motion.

Xiangling glanced at Xingjian next to her, also manipulating the time rules with her extended hand. Whether her or herself, even from different standpoints, both chose to act immediately to protect the palace.

Even Xingjian, while trying to free herself from Xingjian's duty, also considered the country. Perhaps Xiangling, once in power, would boldly reform the current court, but regardless, to prevent the Empire from falling into division and chaos, important figures at the top of the imperial hierarchy must not die at this moment, at least for the sake of Xichu's future.

The spreading of the shockwave slowed down, prompting the two to not slack off in the least. The law of time exacted a great toll on their energy, even if they were only to slow down time in this area, they wouldn't be able to maintain it until everyone in the imperial city was evacuated.

The law of space? Use spatial fissures to swallow the entire explosion? But the explosion had already expanded to encompass the entire top of the Xingxing Tower. To cleave off such a large area, not even a Holy Rank could accomplish it in one go. If Xingjian's Starry Sky The Realm were still present, there would have been a chance to unleash The Realm, but now she was just a senior Holy Rank, and even after viewing numerous futures with the Starry Eye, she found no way to completely eliminate the explosion with Xiang Ling.

But Xingjian was not discouraged.

If the two of them couldn't do it, there was someone else who could.

Or maybe that someone didn't count as a person?

"What a stingy fellow...!" a cute little dragonling, which moments ago had fluttered from Xiang Ling's shoulder, let out a clear dragon roar reminiscent of the clashing of gold and iron. The scenery around them underwent a dramatic change.

Azure, cerulean, deep blue.

The sea and sky became one, turning into a world of ocean. Xiang Ling and Xingjian stood on the only island in sight, immediately realizing where they were. Their gaze towards the baby dragon also changed significantly.

They had thought this fellow was just Kongming's pet...

[Ancient Land]

In that instant, Xiang Ling and Xingjian both had an illusion. The baby dragon, adorned with beautiful scales akin to amethyst crystals, seemed to suddenly transform into a kilometer-long dragon, if only for a moment.

But the subsequent changes in their surroundings were indeed real. The once gentle sea water suddenly turned violent and ferocious, water walls rising sharply on both sides as if to engulf the world. The slowly spreading explosion shockwave appeared minute before this raging torrent.

The seawater finally engulfed the sky, and Xiang Ling and Xingjian found themselves in an endless abyss, on the brink of being crushed by millions of tons of water from above. Plunged into absolute darkness.

Then, the darkness receded.

The surroundings returned to the initial Xingxing Tower plaza, as if everything had been a dream. The only difference was that the ancient Xingxing Tower in the center, along with the explosion, had vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a massive crater.

"Tsk, you're really not generous at all. Hey, can't you give a bit more? Aren't you afraid I won't be able to handle it?" The demonic dragon shouted with a hint of fear still in his voice. He knew the true nature of that explosion better than the other two. It was a completely unreasonable disintegration, turning everything it touched into Yin and Yang energies dissipating. If he hadn't sent that shockwave into the chaotic space currents with Ancient Land, not even a speck of the imperial city would have remained.

If it weren't for Kongming requesting him to protect the people, he wouldn't have taken on this thankless and exhausting task.

"What is that?" Xingjian asked in suspicion, looking upwards.

Above the center of the explosion, a semi-real, semi-ethereal figure floated there. Clad in light, flowing robes, with auspicious clouds beneath their feet. Despite the great distance, they exuded an air of disdain towards mortals.

"That, is the immortal you speak of... Well, more like a half-immortal... or perhaps a celestial being? Stripped of the essence of the mundane, yet not truly a god." Another figure appeared behind the two and the dragon, wearing a somewhat helpless expression - it was Kongming, who had been missing for quite some time.