Ye Chuxue ruled the empire as empress. Her younger sister, Ye Chuxue, stood at her side as a knight, supporting her elder sister from that position.

Aside from this old rule, there was one more detail, nearly the same as before.

Even after several generations, the blood of other races had never completely vanished.

As a descendant of the younger sister’s line, true dragon blood really did flow in Ye Chuxue’s veins.

Wang Xiaole had studied some history. He knew that among the knight-princesses of the past, there had been masters who could transform themselves into “dragonkin.”

By deliberately controlling it, they forced the dragon blood in their bodies to suppress their ordinary blood for a short time.

If they could do that, then while maintaining a basically human form, they could temporarily gain some traits of a dragon—like growing dragon wings or dragon scales.

Normally, the more generations passed, the weaker the bloodline became.

From that alone, Wang Xiaole concluded that Ye Chuxue couldn’t possibly turn into a full “dragonkin.”

At best, the girl could draw out her blood, letting a dragon manifest here in this place.

Only dragonborn could summon dragons, and they could only call a dragon of their own race—like how a descendant of a red dragon could only summon a red dragon.

Her blood wasn’t pure enough, so the dragon that appeared here wasn’t complete. It had bones and flesh, but no scales, no claws, nothing of that sort.

Even so, Wang Xiaole still felt a crushing pressure.

If the White Bear had been here, he would’ve felt a terrifying sense of oppression as well.

For the beastkin king known for slaying dragons, the dozens of dragons he had killed before were nothing compared to this incomplete monster in front of him.

It was obvious that this dragon must have stood at the top of its own kin.

Mottled dragons couldn’t compare to it. At the very least it had to be a gold dragon, maybe even…

Roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar!

The dragon’s roar shook heaven and earth. It whipped Wang Xiaole’s black hair up, and the ears exposed outside his hair stung as if pierced by needles.

The ruins of once-standing houses lay below. Overhead, the sky was a heavy, overcast gray.

“Little thief, go all out.”

After their intense battle earlier, Ye Chuxue had relied on her sharp eyes to discover a fact:

No matter how dangerous things got when the boy fought her, he had never truly fought with everything he had.

His holding back was not what Ye Chuxue wanted. She demanded that he use his full strength.

“I can’t go all out against you, Xiaoye.”

Apparently dissatisfied with that answer, Ye Chuxue shook her head in disappointment.

In the boy’s eyes, the girl slowly descended, dropping from the dragon’s head down into its body.

Right after that, those empty pupils flashed with blood-red light, and then became bright again.

Ye Chuxue couldn’t summon a dragon in its complete form, so she could only control this massive creature with her consciousness.

Using its own bulk as a weapon, the dragon swung its tail forward. That tail was far longer than it looked.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Carrying destructive weight, the tail slammed down. The ground all around shattered the moment it struck.

That single blow was on par with a group-wide grand spell cast by a mage—and it skipped the chanting entirely.

Wang Xiaole had already leaped into the air the instant before. Whirling winds wrapped around his feet, letting him jump again in midair without any foothold.

After two quick jumps higher, he got out of the range of the tail’s area damage.

Down below, the dragon attacked again. It raised its forelimbs and hammered them down, blasting several shattered slabs of ground upward, sending them whistling toward their target.

The attack still wasn’t over. The dragon then raised its head high, jaws lined with interlocking fangs opening toward Wang Xiaole.

A beam of light, hissing with a “chi-chi” sound, formed rapidly in its mouth.

At the same time, Wang Xiaole spun in midair, sword in hand, slashing out a ring-shaped arc of sword light around himself.

The broken chunks of ground hurtled toward him, then struck the ring of sword light. A series of cracking sounds rang out.

An instant later, the dragon snapped its head violently to the side. The beam condensed into a silver pillar of light that blasted diagonally upward from the ground.

Facing an attack that could literally erase an entire section of the city, Wang Xiaole had no intention of countering with magic.

To avoid going too far, he’d already given up on ending the battle instantly with a grand spell.

He intended to rely only on the sword in his hand and the power in his body.

With that thought, he poured holy power into the blade, gripped it in both hands, and pointed the tip forward.

In a split second, crimson light from his sword dyed a large patch of night sky red.

The condensed pillar of light crashed with a boom into that mass of red.

Clang!

Like the toll of a giant bell at dawn or dusk, a deep, massive roar spread outward, wrapped in a surging shockwave.

The city wall in the distance trembled nonstop under the impact of the blast.

Brick chunks the size of human heads fell from the wall like heavy rain, striking ground with one muffled thud after another, rattling the eardrums.

The line of buildings beneath Wang Xiaole took a truly devastating hit. Scorching heat swept out in all directions.

A bright red halo shot straight into the sky, almost lighting this section of night as if it were day. The glare could be seen from very far away.

Wang Xiaole didn’t even glance at any of that. His eyes stayed locked on the dragon.

After blocking the light pillar, his brows knit together. He flipped his wrist, tightening his grip around the black sword.

Then, without a hint of hesitation, he thrust the blade forward, stabbing down at the dragon below.

Right now his sword light flowed like water, and the ringing sword cry that echoed out sounded like the murmur of a stream.

The dragon didn’t defend at all. It simply took the incoming blade head-on.

Just as the tip drew close, the thrust suddenly stalled halfway.

Wang Xiaole looked down and saw the dragon’s jaws snap shut, clamping firmly down on the sword.

The crushing force contained in the blade was suddenly locked in place, like a full-force punch smashing into a sponge—unable to display its true power.

In this world, there were fewer than five beings who could use flesh alone—or even a part of their flesh—to clash head-on with this black sword.

The dragon in front of Wang Xiaole just happened to be one of them.

On reflex, Wang Xiaole tried to pull the sword back.

Only when he moved did he realize that his body wasn’t as flexible as before. His strength felt constrained as well.

His brow twitched. Something felt off. Before he could let out a breath, his entire body suddenly tightened.

It felt as if some invisible force in the air had bound him in place.

With just a moment of thought, he knew what it was: the dragon was using one of its innate abilities.

Regardless of race or strength, every dragon possessed “three great abilities”:

Dragon’s Roar:

This covered pure sonic attacks, as well as beam blasts like the one just now.

Dragon’s Ward:

In the narrow sense, it meant the scales covering its body. Strictly speaking, it referred to its absurdly high, innate defensive power.

Dragon’s Might:

The dragon’s own aura of majesty, able to affect or even harm a target on a real, physical level.

The more powerful and noble a dragon was from birth, the stronger the Dragon’s Might it released.

If this dragon had been facing a weak opponent, that person would’ve instantly lost the ability to resist the moment they felt the Dragon’s Might, maybe even blacking out on the spot.

“You’re amazing, Xiaoye.”

Wang Xiaole praised the girl as he felt a tearing force pouring into his body, spreading bit by bit from his hands and feet to the rest of him.

A few seconds later, ripping pain surged up from every part of his body.

Right now, he could practically hear his bones and tendons grinding out of place.

That was enough. Considering what he was about to do next, he felt he needed to endure a wave of pain first.

It wasn’t about seeking any kind of fairness. At best, it was his way of easing his own guilt—a personal little indulgence.

Once he’d tasted enough pain, a smile touched his face. His eyes grew a little more serious, and a vast divine power exploded out of him.

Crack, crack, crack, crack!

The formless Dragon’s Might shattered completely like glass. Faced with a god-level pressure, even a dragon couldn’t stand against it.

The black sword trembled again. A streak of blood-red light cleaved through the air, erupting from the dragon’s mouth.

Razor-sharp sword energy pierced through its supposedly impenetrable defense, slicing off several of its fangs and blasting them to pieces. The sword’s path was no longer restrained.

Tilting its head back, the dragon condensed a new light pillar even faster than before, brighter and more blinding. It opened its jaws toward Wang Xiaole again.

Roar, roar, roar, roar!

With a bellow, the pillar burst forth, firing at point-blank range. The boy didn’t even try to dodge.

When the searing heat finally faded a little, his figure reappeared.

He was completely uninjured. Only his upper garment was torn to shreds.

In the next instant, the black sword in his two-handed grip gave a sudden jolt. A vermilion radiance shot upward, then, after rising to a certain height, dropped straight down toward the dragon below.

Bang!

The dragon was blasted away by the impact of that light. The silver halo surrounding its body shattered into pieces and dimmed in an instant.

On top of that, much of its flesh was ripped apart. Blood trickled from wounds all over its body.

Its draconic form could no longer hold. The moment the massive body burst apart, Ye Chuxue’s figure appeared from within.

Her face was tilted toward the sky as her body began to fall.

Before she hit the ground, she raised her magic rifle, now reloaded, and with trembling hands pointed the barrel at Wang Xiaole.

Chunks of broken stone, shattered by the sword light from a second earlier, briefly flew up into the air.

In midair, Wang Xiaole twisted his body, turning to face the opposite direction from Ye Chuxue as he dropped, ready to attack.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Six rounds fired from the dark muzzle of the magic rifle.

Right then, Wang Xiaole stepped backward with both legs, using the flying stones as footholds, bounding back and forth high in the air.

After changing direction several times, he dodged every single bullet, then controlled his descent, accelerating straight down.

The sharp click of the gun signaled that Ye Chuxue was about to fire again.

At that moment, Wang Xiaole dropped right in front of her. He opened his mouth and spoke five words:

“Thank you, Xiaoye…”

Then he swung his blade down.

Black radiance extended from the sword’s edge, turning a slash that shouldn’t have been possible in a single second into reality in the span of a blink.

Crack!

Facing the dark barrel of the gun, he swept his weapon all the way through, knocking the magic rifle clean out of her hands.

A faint sound followed. In those pupils framed by a fox mask, a clear line suddenly appeared across its surface.