Chapter 170: The Fairly Tale World

Ge Xiu stared restlessly at the old book opened in front of him.

The words on it unwounded into meaningless lines on the yellowed and old paper, twisting and winding, making one’s dizzy.

“Patter.”

A drop of water fell from the tip of his half-dried hair, sinking onto the brittle paper, leaving a small dark wet mark.

Ge Xiu was startled for a moment, and then, as if suddenly waking up, he swiftly widened the distance from the book.

He took a deep breath, raised his hand and squeezed the space between his brows.

Indeed, that stupid dragon’s words he said just now had an impact on him, making him so thrown off track that he couldn’t even concentrate.

This situation was very unusual for Ge Xiu.

Usually, regardless of the surrounding environment, as long as he begun working, he would automatically adjust to the most focused state, with all external influences and interference having no impact on him. Not even the changes of sun and moon could pull him out of that state.

But today, he couldn’t calm down and devote himself to work at all.

Ge Xiu closed the book with a snap irritably, cloud of dust rose up, dancing in the rays of light from the top of the cave and it scattered away in a few seconds.

He raised his head and swept a glance at the empty cave in front of him.

Gold coins and jewels were piled high into high shiny mountain, those gold coins that would jingle as soon as they were touched laid quietly at the bottom of the dark cave at this moment, and the back covered with pitch-black scales that was originally buried among them was no longer there.

After reconfirming that the other party wasn’t nearby, Ge Xiu felt slightly relieved for some reason.

In fact, when he was in the water just now, his thoughts were already thrown into chaos.

This was the first time in a very long time that he felt so powerless and embarrassed.

Fortunately, he was a silly dragon in this world, so that he was able to distract him quite easily and made him fly to a distant place to help him find another out-of-print book, which gave him a chance to breathe.

He really wouldn’t know how to face the other’s so pure they were scorching eyes.

Ge Xiu let out a breath slowly, raised his hand to wipe his face, after absorbing water his dark golden locks fell in front of his eyes, blocking his eyes with deep thoughts hidden in them.

——Even now, he could still see that pair of golden-red vertical pupils staring at him fixedly from the void, as he was the whole world in these eyes. That extremely intense stare that was on the border of paranoid, made him unable to look straight at him and unsure how to respond.

At this moment, his peripheral vision inadvertently swept across a corner of the cave.

A shiny thing caught Ge Xiu’s attention.

In the dragon’s cave full of treasures, there was never a shortage of shiny things, but for some reason, the thing that shone strangely in the dark gave Ge Xiu a very strange feeling——it didn’t belong here.

Ge Xiu frowned suspiciously.

He stood up and walked towards the place where the light was shining.

To his eyes came a depressed on the ground, where a huge ruby laid quietly among the cold and damp rocks, shimmering with an almost devilish light in the dim cave.

Ge Xiu remembered that he had seen it on a ring placed on the spell-casting black-robed mage’s withered finger.

Perhaps the ring fell off by accident during that fight.

However that wizard knew magic spells.

And because of the style of the dress, he wasn’t wearing it right now.

Thinking of this, Ge Xiu immediately became vigilant.

He stepped back slowly, trying to slowly distance himself from the ruby.

However, before he could move, he felt that his legs moving forward uncontrollably, now no part of his body obeyed his command.

Ge Xiu’s heart tensed up.

Too late.

He was afraid that the moment he saw this gem, he had already fallen under the spell of that wizard.

No matter how hard he tried to break free from the influence of the spell, it was of no avail. He could only watch himself approaching step by step, then slowly bend down, stretch out his hand and catch the ruby that shone with a strange luster.

The surface of ruby was cold and smooth, with sharp edges and corners.

Ge Xiu watched helplessly as he held the gem in his palm.

The next moment, a deep and hoarse voice sounded beside his ears: “Beautiful princess, you finally heard my call.”

Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes slightly and asked in his heart,

“Who are you?”

“I believe that we met already a few days ago.” The voice of the black-robed wizard reached his ears clearly, as if he was whispering right next to him: “You have been charmed by the evil dragon. You think you are in love with him, love blinded you and I will do my best to free you from the curse cast by the dragon…”

Following his voice, the ruby in his hand slowly melted and deformed, and gradually elongated into an oblate shape, resembling a thin mirror, clearly reflecting Ge Xiu’s face.

“I will show you the true face of the evil dragon.”

There were slight ripples on the dark red mirror and the blurry picture gradually became clear.

Ge Xiu recognized that the scene in the mirror showed the Kingdom of Esther.

The king and queen sit in the quiet palace.

The king’s face was full of sorrow and the queen’s face was washed with tears. They looked up to the sky from time to time, as if they were looking awaiting something from the clear blue sky, praying, and waiting for their daughter’s return in sorrow and despair.

“This is your country.” The hoarse voice said: “In order to make you accompany him on the island forever, the evil dragon returned to the Kingdom of Esther again today—”

At this moment, a fiery gust of wind came from the distant sky and the banner outside the palace was almost torn from the current.

In the next second, the sky was suddenly covered by shadows.

It was a huge and terrifying figure. When it spread its wings, the shadow it cast could cover the entire palace.

The king and queen supported each other and stood up tremblingly, looking towards the sky in horror.

Violent flames fell from the sky, like an extremely cruel punishment from heaven, quickly dyeing the field of vision into a fiery red.

The trees and flags set on fire in moments and were burned into pitch-black ashes in the blink of an eye. The sea of fire spread along the street, swallowing all the people who were fleeing in all directions in panic. All the buildings were swallowed by the a scorching sea of fire and the howling wind resounded through the sky, like scene from hell on Earth.

The king and queen hugged each other desperately in the flames as the tears in the corners of their eyes were quickly evaporated by the surrounding heat.

“The king and queen shed tears every day after you were taken away and posted a generous reward announcement hoping to bring you home, but unexpectedly, they incurred the revenge of the evil dragon.”

The bright red hot dragon’s breath ignited the entire kingdom, instantly turning the whole land into scorched earth.

The pitying voice of the black-robed wizard rang in Ge Xiu’s ears: “The dragon’s nature is to plunder and they will burn everything that stands in their way. Haven’t you noticed that no warrior ships approached the Dragon Island recently?”

“That’s because the Kingdom of Esther has been destroyed and all your citizens have died in this disaster.”

One by one, humans fell down and howled in the flames as they were burned to charcoal by the scorching fire in seconds.

“No one dares to go to Dragon Island at the risk of offending the dragon.”

“The reward order has disappeared.”

The scene in the mirror fixed on the raging fire that painted the entire sky into blazing red, the scorching temperature felt as if it had gone through the mirror and branded deeply on Ge Xiu’s palm. The wizard’s voice came again: “I swear to you, these pictures were not faked in the slightest, this mirror is a two-way communication tool, as for your future, I hope you can consider cooperating with me—— Farland’s king still hasn’t given up on bringing you back, however my purpose is to slay the dragon.”

His voice was low and hoarse, like the whisper of a devil: “I hope you can consider it.”

Ge Xiu watched blankly as the scene in front of him gradually disappeared.

The blazing flame that had just been reflecting on his pupils stayed like a brand deeply engraved on his retinas.

The almost real burning sensation and the scorching air seemed to be blowing directly on his face and he could even detect the smell of burnt flesh in the air in his nasal cavity.

It was as if…as if he had really experienced it himself.

In his mind, a long period of blurred memories seemed to had been awakened and it emerged from the depths of my mind little by little.

Alike to a mirror that had been covered with a dust ever since, now being wiped clean little by little, revealing a smooth surface without the obstructing dust.

Ge Xiu saw fierce flames rushing towards him and the heat almost smoldered the tip of his nose.

He backed away sharply, dodging away.

The vision disturbed by the strong light gradually became clear— in the dimly lit room, stood dilapidated dust-ridden furniture, the ground and walls were covered with dried black blood splatters and the seriously injured man barely held on with his back against the wall, his gloomy eyes stared at him fiercely, as if wishing to savagely tear off flesh from his body.

… so familiar.

Ge Xiu was struck in place.

He saw the blazing flames rising from the man’s palm as the surrounding air was instantly distorted from the high temperature. Then, as if a stone fell into calm waters, the face in his memory became blurred and distant. With an earth-shaking sound of explosion, violent flames shot up into the sky, sparks fell on the dry clothes, spreading like in a chain reaction, the flames burned clean the rotting bodies fuelled by the dirty cloth. Then, in a blink of an eye the entire block was engulfed by the flames and the black sky was reflecting red—— the next second, the flames suddenly went out, countless charred bodies fell down and bright crystals glimmered in the ashes.

A small flash of light reflected on the crystal attracted Ge Xiu’s attention.

He looked in deeply.

That sparkling spot flickered on and off, appearing a little erratic in the dim compartment, caught in the man’s slender fingertips with well-defined joints, a a bit of white smoke rose slowly, spreading out like mist.

There was a warm and soft touch on the lips.

The smoke with a faint smell of nicotine was lightly sent into the mouth, sliding ambiguously along the crevices of the teeth, covering his senses lightly.

Through the hazy smoke, the man’s eyes drooped slightly, a scarlet flaming heart was reflected in the pitch-black pupils.

In the next second, the raging fire swallowed the darkness, dyeing the narrow rooms and corridors scarlet.

Several figures struggled and wailed in the raging fire. The well-controlled flames melted their flesh little by little, causing it to flow down from their bones like some kind of liquid. The mournful howling spread and echoed in the room, cutting people’s eardrums like with a sharp razor.

Ge Xiu felt a soft touch on his forehead.

The other party’s deep voice sounded above his head: “Let’s go, find something to eat.”

He raised his head and looked at the man who was hugging him tightly.

The other party stared at him steadfastly, a bit of terrifying paranoia engraved at the bottom of his dark eyes.

The blue ice cone slowly condensed in the void, aiming straight at his temple, the sharp and cold tip sliced through the flesh, as if it could pierce the skull in the next second.

But no matter what, it couldn’t move any further.

The man didn’t seem to expect such a development, he lowered his eyes and stared at him blankly.

Ge Xiu saw the other person’s face gradually enlarged and his lips touched the warm skin. He heard himself say:

“Mine.”

In the next second, he felt that his eyes gradually darkened and his consciousness was fragmented, being pulled away from his body little by little.

In the blur and chaos, the scorching flames warmly embraced his body, purifying and devouring everything.

Sight and perception were stripped away.

In the darkness, Ge Xiu felt a drop of lukewarm water falling on his cheek.

Before it slipped down, the drop of water was evaporated by the high temperature.

At this moment, a man’s deep voice sounded in his ears, piercing through the darkness to his ears:

“…Wake up…”

Ge Xiu was startled, raised his head subconsciously and looked in the direction of the sound.

The man with golden-red vertical pupils was looking at him anxiously, scarlet lines meandering on the robust honey-colored skin, the scorching body temperature, even if he didn’t touch him was still clearly being transmitted through his bare skin for a long time.

“Are you okay?”

It took a while for Ge Xiu to recover—he found himself sitting on the ground, the ruby fell from his hand, falling into the nearby dark dent between the surrounding hills of gold coins.

And the giant dragon was squatting in front of him, staring at him anxiously, with reflecting panic and worry in his deep eyes.

——The rationality came back little by little and Ge Xiu finally found his own sense of existence little by little.

So, could it be that what he saw just now…

was the last world?

Could have those incomplete, even somewhat blurred pictures, all afterwards he turned into a zombie in the last world… really happened?

Still feeling confused and foggy in his head, a strange sense of unreality enveloped him.

Ge Xiu blinked a little dully.

Drip.

A teardrop fell on the back of the hand and slowly slipped down.

Ge Xiu stared at the transparent water drop half in a daze, half in astonishment, gazing at it without saying a word, as if he couldn’t understand what it was.

The dragon’s heart twitched violently, the intense pain spread through it in an instant.

The pain was worse sharper than a stab in his heart, making him feel suffocated.

Regardless, he still stretched out his arms and hugged him tightly into his arms, urgently, stumbling a little clumsily, as he asked:

“…You, what do you want?”

He was so anxious that he couldn’t even express clearly what he wanted to convey, thousands of words were blocked deep in his throat, feeling so choked that he could not speak out at all.

Whatever you want, I’ll find it for you.

And snatch it away.

No matter what it is, I am willing to offer it and hold it in front of you.

…don’t be sad.