Chapter Forty-Four Temporary Farewell

  Xia Ya smiled dryly and didn't speak, but in her heart she recalled the old man's words when he was still alive.

  "People who are actually foolish but like to pretend to be clever often die quickly. Those who appear foolish but are actually clever will live a long life."

  "When others think you're a fool, they'll ignore you. If everyone knows you're smart, then everyone will make you the focus - and it won't be so easy to stab you in the back later."

  Xia Ya thought of this, shook his head hard, and a harmless smile appeared on his face again: "Who says I'm smart, I'm just a rustic from the mountains."

  If Duo Luo saw Xia Ya's sincere smile, he would definitely twitch at the corner of his eyes. Ada just smiled slightly and didn't mention this topic again.

  He gazed at the dying Dora, seemingly lost in thought for a moment before finally speaking: "Actually... if you had known that harming me would lead to this outcome, you must have regretted it."

  Ada's face wore a smile: "The so-called blessing of the Dragon God is actually very simple. I am the lucky one chosen from within the tribe, and the special gift that the Dragon God has bestowed upon me is... the first person to harm me will suffer a backlash! Anybody who is the first to harm me will lose half of their power, vitality, magical energy, physical vigor... all reduced by half! And they will also remain at that level forever!"

  His smile grew more gentle: "Dora, you were also very young back then. In our dragon clan, magic and strength only reach their peak after coming of age. But you acted too early, and as a result, I became human and couldn't recover my dragon form. And you lost half your power, which was already at its weakest in its 'youthful state'! The noble and proud Dora has become the weakest among all dragons! Don't you think this irony is wonderful?"

  Xia Ya's mouth twitched, this damn dragon god's blessing - where is the blessing, it's actually a curse!

  "The eternal tears of the Elf tribe, only the person who cast the poison can lift the curse. You wouldn't help me lift it anyway, but I won't help you lift the Dragon God's curse either... Actually, I'll tell you, it's not that I don't want to help you lift it, it's just that I can't! The Dragon God's curse is simply unbreakable! Knowing this result must be frustrating for you."

  Ada stood up, her fingers gently stroking Dora's neck, the movement soft and delicate, like a lover's gentle caress, but her eyes, her voice, were icy cold.

  Under Ada's caress, Dora's breathing grew weaker and weaker. She opened her eyes with great effort, but they were dull and lifeless. A faint whimpering sound came from her nostrils, and she no longer had the strength to speak.

  Ada gently placed the amber crystal in her hand on Dora's forehead, then smiled and said: "Do you know what this thing is? I've been traveling in the human world for many years to find this thing. Hmm, this is a soul contract stone, don't worry, I won't turn your soul into my slave because I don't have that magic, but your soul will be forever absorbed into this stone, never able to return to the grave.

  "Die now."

  Dora, although her eyes couldn't see, felt a deep sense of fear. She opened her mouth in vain, as if she wanted to roar, or perhaps spit out dragon breath to kill the enemy, but only let out a low, mournful cry.

  "Get to it, Demon Hunter." Ada turned her head and gave Xia Ya a cold glance: "Use this sharp weapon of yours to stab into her forehead! Your weapon is too short to directly pierce her heart, but its sharpness is enough to penetrate her hard skull."

  Xia Ya didn't hesitate, took big strides forward, grasped the fire fork with both hands, and arrived in front of the dragon's head. However, he muttered to himself: "Hey! Injustice has a beginning, debt has an owner. It was Ada who made me stab you, you died at his hands, I'm just an executioner carrying out the deed, don't hold it against me."

  After finishing speaking, he closed his eyes with force, jumped onto the dragon's neck, and stabbed the fire fork heavily on the dragon's head!

  A dull cracking sound, the fire fork pierced through the dragon's bones and into its brain with a "plop" sound, all the way to the hilt!!

  Dora let out a wail, her head seemed to lift slightly, but finally fell down powerlessly, and she spat out her last breath, with a puff of green smoke emerging from her nostrils...

  Xia Ya's spear pierced the dragon's brain, and suddenly he smelled a strange fragrance that hit his nose. He didn't know that the dragon's brain fluid naturally had a peculiar scent, which made Xia Ya's mind suddenly dizzy, feeling as if the fragrance rushed directly into his brain from his nostrils. Suddenly, he felt comfortable all over his body, and the pain of multiple injuries on his body instantly disappeared.

  On the dragon's body, a greenish-blue semi-transparent misty light ball quickly emerged. Ada narrowed her eyes and raised the amber crystal high, chanting a strange song in a word-by-word manner.

  This was not a magical spell, nor the language of dragons, but a kind of dirge-like ballad, only with an ancient and awkward pronunciation. Although it sounded like human voices, it seemed to be an ancient lost language. Xia Ya listened, and out of ten sentences, she couldn't understand seven or eight of them.

  That lightly floating cyan semi-transparent mist is the dragon soul. After each dragon dies, this soul will leave its body and drift away to a very mysterious place, which is the tomb of the dragon clan!

  The dragon clan has a strange tradition, they don't care about the body after death, but must be buried in soul! The dragon's soul will return to the dragon clan's tomb, and can get eternal rest.

  That green dragon soul seemed to be drifting away, but under Ada's chanting, it suddenly slowed down a bit. Then, as if attracted by the melody, it slowly floated towards Ada, suspended in mid-air, constantly changing shape, transforming into a green mist that finally wrapped around Ada's palm, seemingly drawn to the amber crystal and gradually absorbed into it...

  Ada seemed to be in great distress, with beads of sweat on his forehead and his voice growing hoarse. Although the requiem was not magic, it was extremely draining for him spiritually, and his eyes soon showed signs of fatigue. When the dragon's soul began to absorb into the crystal, Ada finally let out a sigh of relief, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over him, and he stumbled forward, his legs giving way beneath him as he fell onto the dragon's corpse.

  The dragon's soul had been absorbed by more than half, leaving only a few strands of faint residual cyan mist, but it had not yet entered the amber crystal. Ada had already fainted first, and those remaining strands of soul did not have the guidance of the soul melody, and suddenly lost their direction, vaguely seeming to disperse.

  Xia Ya looked at it with curiosity, couldn't help but stretch out her hand to grab the air, but how could she catch something that had no shape? Xia Ya grabbed a handful of air, her hands were empty, but the green mist seemed to suddenly change its shape, as if startled by Xia Ya's movement. Then, with a whoosh, a wisp of lingering smoke swirled around Xia Ya's palm, rising up, and suddenly gathered at Xia Ya's neck!

  His neck was hung with a dull gray pendant, but it seemed to have become the target of this wisp of residual soul. The wisps of smoke that were about to disperse suddenly found a place to go and accelerated rapidly, before Xia Ya could exclaim in surprise, they all rushed in!

  Xia Ya opened his mouth, and saw that wisp of green smoke drill into the pendant on his neck. He couldn't help but reach out to touch it, and the pendant was still icy cold, with clear edges in his hand, looking as dull as before. However, for some reason, upon closer inspection, there was a subtle feeling that something was off, yet he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

  Ada leaned against the dragon's corpse, panting for a while before regaining her composure. She stood up and looked at the crystal in her hand, which had changed from its original lake-blue color to a cyan-green hue. Ada felt relieved and opened her mouth to swallow the crystal. Afterwards, she glanced at Xia Ya: "What about that lingering soul just now?"

  "Uh..." Xia Ya thought for a moment, and for some reason, the words that came to her lips weren't the truth. It was as if she had unconsciously made a decision in her heart: "It's gone."

  "It's gone..." Ada nodded, not suspecting anything else, and smiled faintly: "It's good that it's gone, I've already absorbed most of its soul, the remaining soul can't return to the dragon's tomb, and disappearing into thin air is also its fate."

  Ada seemed to have a hint of melancholy in his expression, although he had finally completed the things he had been thinking about for many years, but suddenly felt a sense of emptiness. He looked at Xia Ya, thought for a moment, and then said quickly: "Alright, my business is done, I've taken what I wanted to take, now everything here belongs to you."

  "...... I......" Xia Ya hesitated for a moment.

  " Demon Hunter." Ada looked at Xia Ya, her eyes slightly softened: "After all, I have to thank you, otherwise, I would have been buried alive outside the mountain. Now I am human and have no power. In any case, I owe you one!"

  As he spoke, he stopped talking to Xiayaro and turned around to walk away. He walked a few steps before Xiaya couldn't help but call out: "Hey! Ada, where are you going?"

  Ada turned around, frowned and looked at Xia Ya: "I will naturally leave."

  Xia Ya opened her mouth and said in a low voice: "You still owe me one gold coin!"

  Ada smiled and glanced at Xia Ya: "Just owe it for now, you can calculate the interest."

  As he spoke, he strode out, never looking back. Xia Ya hesitated for a moment, but ultimately didn't chase after him, letting Ada leave just like that.

  After Ada left, Xia Ya jumped to the ground and sat down with a thud. She quickly took off the pendant and looked at it repeatedly in her hand, but she couldn't find any problem with it no matter how many times she looked.

  Dragon Soul? What's its use after all?

  "Hmm, for Xia Ya's grandfather, what's most important is... are there any benefits?"

  And... this thing won't be dangerous or anything, right? Thinking of this, Xia Ya's mind moved, and she simply threw it away.

  It's worth thinking about, after all, this is one of the few things left by the old man for himself, wearing it on his body, always a thought.

  "Damn it! When she was alive, I wasn't afraid of her, but now that she's dead and turned into a ghost, I'm actually scared?" Xia Ya glared fiercely at the dragon's corpse to boost his own courage.

  After all, he was a rustic and simple-minded person. The worries in his heart came quickly and went away quickly. After figuring it out, he let out a whoop of joy and jumped up.

  "Skinning and cramping!!"

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