Chapter 98: The Dragon Clan's Patriarch's Resentment

  "You can't either?" Du Wei took a deep breath.

  "Me?" The old magician chuckled: "I'm not up to it, at least in this world, I only think there are two guys whose magical powers may surpass mine. One is the Pope of the Temple, and the other is the President of the Magic Guild."

  Du Wei didn't understand what the old magician meant.

  However, the old magician smiled bitterly and said: "The two guys I mentioned earlier are the ones I think 'might' surpass me. But this dragon clan leader is someone I know for sure has surpassed me! Because 200 years ago when I came here, I had a fight with it once, and that time it almost killed me with just half of its strength. I think if I didn't have that contract between Aragon and the Dragon Clan in my hand, I would have died here 200 years ago!"

  Just then, the voice of the Dragon Clan's patriarch came from within the cave.

  "You're too modest, my friend."

  The tribal elder has returned, holding a long, narrow box in his hand. He walks slowly and smiles slightly: "I want to correct two mistakes you made. First, I don't know about others, but I think the president of the human world's magician guild is absolutely not as powerful as you. Second, the actual power of the temple's high priest is not 'possibly' above yours, but definitely above yours."

  "How did you know?" Du Wei asked.

  "Because I have been to the human world... taking on this form, traveling through the human world, learning about your culture and civilization... because I was curious, what is it about the human world that can produce a strong person like Aragon! I go to the human world every hundred years, but each time I am disappointed! Because it seems that even among the most numerous species: humans, there hasn't been anyone as strong as Aragon. The dragon tribe's leader said calmly: "The head of the magician's guild, the pontiff of the temple... I have secretly challenged them before. So, my old friend, you don't need to be modest, I think that among the magicians in the human world, your strength is absolutely first-rate... if the pontiff doesn't leave the temple."

  After finishing, he casually threw the box on the table, his tone gradually cooling down: "Alright! Take the key and go! My old friend. You know where the secret room is! Open it, take away what's inside, and leave my territory! At least you said one thing right: I still hate humans! Especially that despicable Aragorn!"

  After finishing speaking, the dragon tribe's leader grunted and turned around to leave.

  Just as it let out that one "hum", Du Wei suddenly felt a thread of sound drilling into his ears, as if an invisible giant hand had tightly grasped his heart, and then it seemed like all the blood in his body surged up!

  That sound is just like a heavy hammer!

  In an instant, Du Wei's face turned deathly pale, and his vision went black as he nearly fainted! Luckily, the old magician grasped Du Wei with a serious expression, his palm pressed against Du Wei's back, and a thread of light from the magic spell enveloped Du Wei. Du Wei took a deep breath and slowly came to.

  But then, suddenly, Hussein's face changed. This proud knight opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood!

  The knight's face was shocked. Looking at the hole where the dragon tribe leader disappeared, he gritted his teeth and said: "This... what is this."

  "It's Dragon Speech magic." The old magician sighed: "It has already shown mercy."

  "But why is she okay?" Du Wei pointed at Medusa who was standing quietly over there.

  "Because this clan leader is just a human." The old magician smiled wryly. He glanced at Hussein's angry face: "Hussein! Don't expect to challenge him now! Believe me, even if you are a Holy Knight, your strength is still far from his!"

  The dragon tribe's patriarch had indeed cast a powerful dragon language spell before leaving, and it wasn't until the old magician's light magic calmed him down that Du Wei's mind gradually settled. The surging blood in his chest also slowly subsided. As for Huisen, after spitting out a mouthful of blood, he felt extremely humiliated. If not for the old magician's warning, this proud and arrogant knight would have probably gone to duel the dragon tribe's patriarch by now.

  "It seems that the Dragon Clan's dignity isn't great either." Du Wei sighed and said: "It's because Aragon suppressed the Dragon Clan back then, making them lose face. So this clan leader hates Aragon so much, but as a result, we're also being hated?"

  The old magician frowned and said in a low voice, "I told you, this tribal leader is a complex guy. He says he hates Aragorn the most, but I think he not only hates Aragorn but also has a subtle respect for him. After all, Aragorn is the only human who has ever defeated the dragon tribe's leader in a fair fight. It's precisely this complex mindset that makes him sneak into the human world to travel around."

  "Alright, no more wasting time! Let's get down to business! Follow me, we're going to take a look at the secret chamber Aragorn left behind!"

  Immediately, the crowd followed the old magician out of the grand hall. The old man seemed to be very familiar with the roads here, and after passing through a tunnel entrance, he faced countless forked paths inside, but he led several people left and right without hesitation.

  All along the way, what surprised Du Wei was that they saw some strange "things".

  As he passed through the tunnel in the cave (to be honest, Du Wei even suspected that he had entered a mouse hole. The dragon's lair was full of forks in the road.), there were some high and short rock pedestals. Those rocks were the black iron rocks unique to the divine mountain, and on top of the pedestals, sharp pyramidal protrusions were inserted with large and small... skulls!

  They are skulls, and they come in all shapes and sizes. What's even more baffling is that none of these skulls seem to belong to humans!

  These jagged edges were sharp as knives. Those skulls were of different shapes, some still wearing strange helmets, but the common point was: Du Wei saw that these skulls seemed to have been twisted off alive!

  It's unknown how many years have passed, fortunately the dry and cold air has preserved these skulls, although they are dried out, they haven't rotted, and you can still barely make out their original appearance!

  So, Du Wei saw these things: ?

  Those things with heads three to four times larger than ordinary people, judging from the shape of their facial features and skeleton, seem to resemble some kind of feline creature, and there are faint patterns on their dried skin... Flat mouths and noses, and ears on top of their heads... What's terrifying is that the sharp corners below pierced through the lower part of their necks and then extended out from their mouths. Making this scene especially frightening!

  And in some other places, the mouth protrudes long and far, but no obvious nose can be seen, only two small holes above the mouth, probably the nostrils for breathing. The ears are particularly small... From the shape, it looks more like a certain kind of cattle or horse.

  What's more, the skull has a long, crocodile-like jaw that occupies two-thirds of the entire skull, with teeth distributed on both the upper and lower jaws, extremely sharp... anyway, humans can't possibly have such teeth.

  Seeing these skulls, Du Wei couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart as he thought of the headless corpses he had seen at the foot of the mountain. These skulls had been weathered for who knows how many years, their skin shriveled up, and although they hadn't rotted, they still looked incredibly eerie. Especially those with eyelids that hadn't fully closed, revealing empty, dazed eyes...

  Of course. There were also some that looked quite human, with skulls slightly smaller than normal, and even more slender than those of ordinary humans. Judging from the size of their skulls, Du Wei guessed that this race was probably shorter and weaker than ordinary humans, but "they" were the most pleasing to look at among these skulls. Even though they had been weathered and dried up, the faces of these guys still looked vivid, with delicate features and proportionate facial contours. The only thing was their long, pointed ears...

  "These are the Elves." The old magician reminded him properly behind his back, his tone was very low: "Those bigger things are Beastmen."

  "Do you know?" Du Wei turned his head to look at the old magician.

  "These are they, the banished race." The old wizard said in a low voice.

  Expelled races. Du Wei muttered this phrase to himself, seemingly having some sort of epiphany, as he slowly walked past these sharp rocky peaks with skulls embedded in them.

  He went all the way forward, and what surprised him was that after walking out of this passage, it turned out to be a bottomless deep abyss!

  This abyss is right in the middle of the Shenshan Mountains, and the edges around it are very narrow. However, from Du Wei's location, looking far away to the opposite side, one can see a huge cave entrance, and then there is a protruding rock that stretches all the way up to the top of the abyss, forming a massive platform.

  Deep beneath, a faint wind howls, entwined with a deadly black aura. The wind seems to carry a mournful cry that sends shivers down one's spine!

  "This is the offering altar." The old magician pointed to the protruding rock on the opposite side of the abyss, laughing: "That's the altar. The dragon clan will put the heads of the killed and captured prisoners around the abyss, inserting them into those jagged rocks, and then every hundred years, they will hold an offering ceremony. They will take down the heads from the jagged rocks, hold a ritual, and then throw the heads into this gorge. Then... waiting for the next century, in the next century, they will continue to kill the strong ones of the expelled races who try to return from the north, insert their heads on the jagged rocks, wait for the next offering ceremony, and throw them into the abyss again."

  "What's the point of doing this?" Du Wei was puzzled.

  "The mission of the Dragon Clan is to guard this place! But for how many years has this mission existed?! Even before the era of Aragon, the Dragon Clan was already here! You think, such a mission, said to be guarding, but in reality, isn't it also a kind of imprisonment for the Dragon Clan? Isn't it just like forever restricting the Dragon Clan to this place? What's the difference between this and being a prisoner? So, when the Dragon Clan accepted the mission bestowed by the gods back then, they didn't do so willingly. Therefore, the gods left them with a glimmer of hope... a glimmer of hope to escape this mission. A condition for completing the mission."

  "What conditions?"

  The old magician's eyes were very strange, he looked down at the bottomless abyss under his feet, listening to the wind coming from below, he said in a low voice: "The gods and the dragon clan have an agreement: if one day, when they throw away the heads of those sinful races, enough to fill this abyss, the mission of the dragon clan will be completed! Then, the dragon clan can live freely! No longer bound by this mission!"

  Fill this abyss with skulls...... Du Wei took a glance forward, looking at the dark and bottomless underground - how many skulls would it take to fill it up!!!??