Chapter 5: Why Hurt Each Other

“What exactly do these people want?” Half-squinting his dragon eyes, Zheng Yichen once again noticed the movements of those sneaky figures in black. This time, they weren’t causing trouble near his lair anymore, but were instead investigating something in the vicinity.

Planning to make trouble again?

Never mind. Move, move. Whatever these people were planning to do had nothing to do with him. He returned to his lair and stuffed all the treasures he had collected into a large animal hide, bundling it up. He then tucked it under his wing. This thing wouldn’t help him fly, but it wasn’t bad in terms of flexibility for other purposes.

As for leaving these ‘burdens’ behind? He just felt that, no matter what, these were things he had worked hard to steal… collect. It didn’t feel pleasant to just leave them for others to pick up easily.

Under the cover of night, a dragon secretly left his cave. Not long after he left, another group of people arrived at the spot.

“Where’s the dragon? Isn’t it supposed to stay in at night?” The person who had infiltrated the cave couldn’t help but freeze for a moment upon seeing the somewhat empty interior. There was nowhere to hide inside.

Another person grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground, his expression turning slightly strange. “Our operation wasn’t leaked, was it? It seems to have run away.”

“Ran away?!” The others were stunned. They looked carefully at the situation inside the cave. Aside from the area where the dragon slept, there were indeed no remnants left. Everything had been cleaned out thoroughly. If the dragon had gone out to hunt for food, it definitely wouldn’t have taken a huge load with it.

Now, all the things that dragon had previously stolen were gone. Clearly, it had fled!

“The dragon’s scent still lingers in the cave. It hasn’t been gone for long.”

“Then we chase!”

The goal of their operation this time was to lure the dragon from the cave to a pre-arranged ambush spot. Even though this dragon had never hurt anyone, its mistake was being a dragon whose entire body was valuable.

“Will this never end?” Hearing the sound of galloping horses behind him, Zheng Yichen glanced back irritably. The pitch-black night could hardly affect his vision, so he saw the pursuers behind him with abnormal clarity. They were definitely chasing him!

He looked left and right. If he remembered correctly, there was a cliff ahead. He shifted the bundle tucked under his wing into his claws. Giving a rather displeased glance at the pursuers getting closer and closer behind him, he leaped off the cliff ahead, spreading his wings wide and gliding like a glider into the distance. “Hahaha, suckers! I can fly!”

“Regroup with the others. That dragon can’t get away.” The pursuers stared at Zheng Yichen’s figure fading into the distance and immediately spoke up. Being well-prepared, they had naturally considered the possibility of the dragon flying. But after all, it was just a dragon that hadn’t even reached its Juvenile Dragon stage. Even if it could fly, it wouldn’t last very long.

Pulling a large piece of dried meat from his bundle and chewing on it, he looked at the dark night sky and let out a slight sigh. In the end, he just couldn’t bring himself to kill. Changing one’s mindset wasn’t that easy. Otherwise, with his power, he could have just continued to forcibly occupy this place. Even if some people opposed him or caused trouble, he could have just eliminated them all. But no matter how strong his body was, deep in his soul, he still had the mindset of an ordinary person.

Really, how nice it would be to live peacefully without trouble. Why go looking for trouble…

As he thought this, a sudden sharp pain in his wing jolted him awake. “Awoo~!”

Turning his head to look, he saw a metal crossbow bolt embedded in the wing he was using for balance. The tail end of this bolt was connected to a sturdy rope. The pain, combined with the pulling force, completely threw Zheng Yichen off balance. He went from a controlled descent into a full-on fall, crashing into the forest below.

Gritting his teeth, Zheng Yichen stared at the crossbow bolt stuck in his wing. Its design made him want to curse. Damn it, it even had barbs! It wouldn’t be easy to pull out. Not only that, the sound of more projectiles cutting through the air made him ignore the pain from his injury. He rolled, smashing through several trees, narrowly dodging the subsequent bolts.

Even though he didn’t manage to avoid all of them, the ones that hit didn’t strike his wings or other weak points. They only just managed to pierce his scales.

This was enough to shock him. Zheng Yichen had long since tested the strength of his own scales. His own claws, capable of tearing steel, could only leave relatively shallow marks on them unless he used full force to stab. Those marks would heal in a few days.

After seeing what was attacking him, Zheng Yichen understood. This layer of scales could withstand automatic rifle fire without a problem. But when faced with the much more powerful heavy crossbows, it seemed somewhat insufficient. Zheng Yichen even spotted a ballista!!

Seeing that thing, a chill ran from his spine all the way to the tip of his tail. He absolutely must not get hit by that!

He shook his wing and bit through the rope attached to the crossbow bolt. The other end of the rope had been tied by his attackers around several large trees. If he didn’t break it, his mobility would be severely limited. As for the bolt, the barbs meant it could only be pushed forward through the wound, not pulled back out.

But he couldn’t do that right now. Even though the area on his wing had few blood vessels, and pulling it out wouldn’t cause major bleeding, tearing the wound further would undoubtedly make things more serious.

At the same time, Zheng Yichen felt a bit relieved. Combat in this world was still primarily with cold weapons. There weren’t many thermal weapons, guns, cannons, or things like that.

Counting them, there were about two hundred people. Most of them were equipped with bows. Aside from the heavy crossbows that could pose a threat, he could ignore the regular bows. Cold weapons? He could ignore those too… The thing he really had to worry about was that ballista!

“Huh?!” He looked somewhat startled at the few people charging towards him. Were these people crazy? Daring to charge at an enraged dragon?

Zheng Yichen, who was being inexplicably besieged, was now completely overwhelmed by anger, overriding his reason. He wasn’t thinking about holding back anymore. So, facing these charging attackers, he naturally swung his claws without mercy!!

His claws, easily slicing through the air, were blocked by three greatswords. The placement of the three weapons was perfectly coordinated, evenly dispersing the force of Zheng Yichen’s swipe. Even so, the three men didn’t have an easy time. The ground beneath their feet cracked, and their lower halves were driven into the earth.

“This dragon’s strength… it’s really strong!” The three Warriors exchanged glances, each seeing the shock in the others’ eyes. This kind of power was not that of a Young Dragon. It was top-tier even among Juvenile Dragons. Thankfully, all three of them had worked together to block it. If they had been overconfident, with one or two fewer people, the ones responsible for blocking would probably be in Hell right now.

Even though they weren’t overconfident, they were still suffering. Now, facing Zheng Yichen’s second slap, with their lower bodies stuck in the ground, they could only brace themselves and take it.