Chapter 24: Heartbeat

No one knows exactly when Dillon Adam became self-aware, but he knew his name was Dillon Adam.

He was confined in a dark and cramped space, surrounded by a hard barrier.

Besides swallowing his own urine and amniotic fluid, flipping around, and playing with his claws, there wasn’t much for him to do.

He began to enjoy listening to the sounds outside.

Most of the time, when the barrier heated up, a steady and deep thumping sound accompanied him.

When the thumping ceased, other sounds would occasionally take its place. His memory told him it was Dragon Tongue.

But for some reason, he couldn’t quite grasp what those Dragon Tongue words meant.

Sometimes he would reach out with his tiny hands and feet, trying to knock on the barrier in the direction of the sounds.

At these times, the Dragon Tongue sounds outside would become more intense, and they would knock back on the barrier, responding to his taps.

At some point, a terrifying rumble came from outside. It was a sound he had never heard before, and it made him feel very uncomfortable.

He curled up tightly.

The terrifying rumble was accompanied by the Dragon Tongue that often spoke to him, but this time, that familiar Dragon Tongue was sharp and angry.

The barrier moved. It shook violently, making Dillon Adam dizzy.

He had no idea how much time had passed, but eventually, everything outside went quiet. The barrier began to grow cold…colder and colder.

Dillon Adam didn’t know what had happened. He periodically tried to knock on the barrier, but from that moment on, there was no response from the Dragon Tongue.

The familiar thumping sound was gone too.

In the silence, his thoughts began to freeze from the cold, and his consciousness drifted into darkness.

Later on, he didn’t know how much time had passed, but he woke up. The barrier was no longer cold, but he was incredibly weak.

His consciousness was faint and chaotic.

Outside, it became noisy again.

He could no longer hear the familiar thumping or the Dragon Tongue. Fear made him curl up once more.

From then on, waves of magic constantly fluctuated outside the barrier.

Yes, his memory told him these were magic fluctuations.

Most of these magic fluctuations were blocked by the barrier, consuming a lot of his energy. Only a small portion passed through, like intangible clouds, drifting near him.

These days continued for a long, long time.

The vitality he accumulated by sleeping was gradually drained.

His consciousness grew increasingly muddled;

He fell into a deep sleep and seldom woke up.

On the rare occasions when he did wake up, he felt as though he might never wake again after the next sleep.

But then, at some moment, he suddenly sensed a strange aura outside.

His memory told him that it was the aura of a god.

He became restless, desperately trying to knock on the barrier.

Because he knew that if he didn’t want to fall into an eternal sleep, only this aura could save him.

But he was too weak. Once, long ago, he could knock on the barrier as he pleased. Now, he couldn’t even extend an arm.

A slight movement caused his consciousness to blur, plunging into darkness. He forgot what he wanted to do and took a long time to regain his composure.

He realized he was dying.

Fragmented memories floated in his mind, but to his sorrow, he discovered that in his meager memories, only the rhythmic thumping and the Dragon Tongue gave him comfort.

And in that deathly silence, at the edge of darkness, suddenly, countless fireflies appeared.

The fireflies swarmed around him.

Hereditary memories from his bloodline and soul stirred once more. He struggled to open his eyes, recognizing these fireflies.

They were words—Dragon Script.

The Dragon Script words encircled him, entwining themselves around his frail soul.

He used the last of his thoughts to open his heart and soul, accepting the words.

In an instant, as these words transformed into three beams of light, a surge of boundless vitality roared forth from an unknown dimension.

His depleted life force was reignited, and his shattered consciousness reassembled.

An overwhelming joy, mingled with deep sleepiness, was born within Dillon Adam’s heart and mind!

His instincts urged him to sleep quickly, to use this vitality to restore his dried-up life force and awaken his dragon bloodline inheritance!

But even under this strong instinct, Dillon Adam clung to his will and sent a silent message to the source of his life force—”Thank you!”

…

“It worked!”

Yu Sheng’an, feeling the success of the Contract, was just about to smile when his youthful face suddenly shriveled, and his black hair rapidly turned white.

“What the—?”

A curse slipped from his lips as his pupils dilated, fear quickly overtaking his expression.

In that instant, he actually felt the shadow of death looming!

He could feel his life force being crazily siphoned by the dragon egg… No, rather, it was being shared!

Instinctively, Yu Sheng’an was about to terminate the Contract. At the critical moment, he cursed one more time but chose to continue, instead redirecting the life force to his other Contracted creatures.

With his soldiering mentality, and a sufficiently abundant source, even he wasn’t sure how many demons he had Contracted.

By siphoning just one percent of life force from each of these demons, it was enough to sustain the dragon egg’s vitality.

Yet, even so, it took more than ten breaths for Yu Sheng’an’s withered appearance to gradually return to normal.

The dragon egg finally stopped absorbing life force.

The intricate Magic Seals on the dragon egg emitted a faint glow, absorbing natural energy to accumulate strength for the dragon’s hatching.

“Terrifying… Such a vast amount of vitality from an unhatched wyrmling—how terrifying must it be if it grows into a dragon?”

Yu Sheng’an spoke of terror, but his eyes shone with excitement!

The more life force the dragon egg devoured, the more it proved its frightening potential. Under the shared Contract, how could he not be pleased?

After all, it was an ally!

“Thank you!”

A slight ripple of soul energy interrupted Yu Sheng’an’s excitement.

His smile briefly froze but then brightened even more.

“Hatch slowly, no need to rush!”

Yu Sheng’an patted the dragon egg, rummaging through his spatial ring. Finally, he found a high-grade magical artifact capable of storing life—a Fire Cloud Flower from Tang En’s collection.

This magical plant resembled a lotus flower and contained naturally nourishing Magic Seals. After being modified by spatial magic, it could store objects up to thirty feet in diameter.

Yu Sheng’an infused it with magic to activate it, causing a massive Fire Cloud Flower to bloom before him.

He then rolled the waist-high dragon egg into the Fire Cloud Flower.

In an instant, the petals closed, wrapping the dragon egg layer by layer, until it shrank into a thumb-sized, crystal-hard Fire Cloud Flower.

Yu Sheng’an held the shrunken Fire Cloud Flower, pondering for a moment, and decided to send it back to the main Shrine for safekeeping.

Inside the Shrine’s ancient castle.

In a swift motion, Yu Sheng’an’s true body used the castle’s magical power to conjure a magical chain, hanging the Fire Cloud Flower around his neck.

The crystal-like Fire Cloud Flower naturally dangled over his chest, emitting faint magical fluctuations in time with his heartbeat.

Yu Sheng’an did this as a precaution for an extreme situation.

That is, if the Shrine’s ancient castle were to be attacked suddenly, and if resistance proved futile, he would undoubtedly detonate the castle to escape with his life.

So keeping important items on him was just being careful.

…

In the darkness, Dillon Adam’s consciousness flickered for a moment. He turned over and fell back into a deep sleep.

The endless stream of life force reassured him.

But most importantly, the familiar thumping sound once again echoed outside the barrier.