Chapter 114: The Secret of the Slumbering Dragons

In a single day, countless scanners ran, collecting mountains of data.

Now, the Elven language has been fully decoded.

Lin Yu, wearing his auto-translation device, could finally understand every word the girl in front of him said. Whatever he spoke would be automatically conveyed in Elven as well.

“I can answer your questions, but you might have a hard time understanding my answers.”

“First of all, I’m not an Elf—I’m human.”

“Actually, this place is the Zhulong, a warship serving the Human Federation Fleet.”

“Lastly, the reason you’re here is because I brought you. We never meant any harm and once we’re done talking I’ll send you back so there’s no need to be afraid.”

Human? The girl had never heard of such a thing.

She understood what a warship was—Elves had those too—but this thing didn’t look anything like what she knew.

Elven warships were built like ancient vessels from humanity’s age of cold weapons—a bit like the ships the Greeks used long ago.

As for Lin Yu’s promise to return her after this conversation, she remained skeptical.

But now that Lin Yu had spoken so openly, she wasn’t as scared. She left the corner and came to the barrier, sizing up the so-called human only a meter away.

“So, what do you want to talk about?”

“Let’s start with the basics. What’s your name? Mine’s Lin Yu. And you?”

“Selena. I’m Selena from Emeraldshade Forest.”

“Selena from Emeraldshade Forest, huh? What about the other tribes—what are their names?”

“Silverleaf Clan, Azurecloud Clan, Dusklight Woods, plus our Emeraldshade Forest. That makes four main tribes. There are dozens of smaller tribes as well but they’re tiny, usually just a few hundred members each.”

Selena didn’t seem guarded about these questions at all. She answered them all without a second thought.

Maybe to her this was just common knowledge—something even the Black Dragons all knew. Why would she bother to keep it secret?

“How much do you know about those Black Dragons?”

“Black Dragons? Oh, you mean the Xuanming Dragons?”

“Xuanming Dragons? So that’s what you call them. Alright, let’s talk about the Xuanming Dragons.”

Lin Yu nodded.

“From everything I’ve learned so far, those Xuanming Dragons are preparing for a large-scale attack. They intend to wipe out every Elf.”

“That’s impossible! The Xuanming Dragons are powerful, yes, but there aren’t that many of them. If their territory wasn’t so cold, we’d have cleared them out ages ago.”

Lin Yu hadn’t even finished before the Elven girl shook her head.

“Well, what if their numbers doubled?”

“Even less likely. We can’t enter the Xuanming Domain, but every time those dragons come out to hunt, we record it and track their numbers. There’s nothing else to eat in their land anyway.”

“See, that’s where your people got it wrong. There actually is other food in the Xuanming Domain. Plus, the Xuanming Dragons have evolved to hibernate. When needed, they can survive on very little for a long time.”

“That’s nonsense!”

Selena didn’t believe a single word Lin Yu was saying.

If there was other food in that frozen place, why would the Xuanming Dragons risk their lives searching for food outside?

As for hibernation—Selena had never heard the term, she had no idea what it meant.

Because…

Tidal locking on Proxima II meant there were no seasons—no cycle of spring, summer, autumn, or winter.

Everywhere on the planet, the climate and temperature never changed.

Of course, Lin Yu had expected Selena to doubt him. He quickly tapped away at the smart computer strapped to his left wrist.

Dozens of virtual screens sprang into the air.

In one video, a massive Xuanming Dragon curled tightly into a ball. If you didn’t spot the faint rise and fall of its chest every few minutes, you might think it was already dead.

Another showed an ancient Xuanming Dragon lying on the ground, letting its young rip into its flesh.

Eventually, the old dragon went completely still, life gone.

A horde of well-fed hatchlings then settled in, beginning their hibernation.

There was another video, this time deep inside a vast underground cavern.

Here, at least a thousand Xuanming Dragons were hibernating together.

“What is this…”

Selena was stunned.

She’d never seen more than one or two Xuanming Dragons in the same place at once.

By Elven estimates, there were probably four to five thousand Xuanming Dragons total in the entire domain.

But since they were scattered across half a planet, that never looked like much.

Yet seeing a thousand packed together in just one place was terrifying.

So even though the sight rattled her, she didn’t think too much of it—at least not yet.

Until Lin Yu showed twenty more sites just like it. In every one, the numbers were the same.

That meant, right now, there were more than twenty thousand Xuanming Dragons in hibernation.

And that’s not even counting the ones still awake and active—a true total close to thirty thousand.

“This is what you Elves could never have known. The Xuanming Dragons have spent more than a century preparing to wipe you out.”

“Once they get old, they willingly feed themselves to the next generation. They’ve even developed the ability to hibernate—one meal is enough to keep them alive for many times longer than before.”

“This is how they’ve grown their numbers right under your noses. While you’ve all been oblivious, their tribe has secretly multiplied several times over.”

“So just imagine, one day tens of thousands of Xuanming Dragons surge out—can your Elven race really stand against them?”

“And if you can’t, where would you even run?”

Seeing all those images, combined with Lin Yu’s words,

Selena was in total panic.

If everything Lin Yu said was true—if the Xuanming Dragons had bided their time and multiplied up to thirty thousand—

Then even all the Elven tribes joined together wouldn’t be enough.

After all, it took over a dozen Elven warriors to fight just one ordinary Xuanming Dragon.

And the Elves only had a little over ten thousand warriors with that title.

There were over a hundred thousand regular Elves too, but their strength was nowhere near the same.

If there were only four to five thousand dragons, there’d be nothing to worry about. But thirty thousand? That’s something else entirely.

Selena could almost see it now—the massacre of the Elven race at the claws of the Xuanming Dragons.

What should she do?

Was there any way out of this?

Suddenly, an idea struck. Selena snapped her eyes up at Lin Yu.

“If you’re telling me all this, then you must have a plan, right?”

“Please help us!”