Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Blood Pact! Dragon Descendant Body!
Inside the tent, a solitary oil lamp struggled in the damp air, its sickly yellow glow casting Caesar's shadow onto the canvas behind him—twisted and elongated, like a lurking monster.
He sat on the creaking camp bed, cradling the dragon egg in both hands.
It felt warm to the touch, and he could even sense an extremely faint pulse emanating from its core of life.
The naturally formed black scale patterns on the shell reflected a deep violet-purple sheen in the firelight, as though countless miniature dragon scales, each concealing secrets from time immemorial.
This was a miracle that could drive even the Empire's Emperor to madness.
It was also an invitation to hell that could destroy him and his ragtag band of broken soldiers.
Caesar understood better than anyone what the word “dragon” meant in this world where power reigned supreme.
It was not merely the ultimate symbol of wealth and strength—it was humanity's original sin of greed, carved into their very bones.
He, Caesar Valerius, a worthless second son exiled by his family to this land of death, a pitiful wretch who couldn't even condense Battle Energy.
Forget a true dragon—if news of even a wyvern subspecies leaked out, by tomorrow morning his “merciful” father and “loving” elder brother would dispatch their most elite knight order to “recover the family's lost treasure” and erase his existence completely.
When that time came, there would be no trial, no interrogation—only an “accident.”
He had to hide it!
This thought sprouted like wildfire in Caesar's heart.
But… how?
This dragon egg was the size of a rugby ball, heavy, and emanated a peculiar energy fluctuation that couldn't be completely sealed off.
Bury it underground? This barren land couldn't even sustain moles—any disturbed earth would stand out like a torch in the night.
Wrap it in cloth and stuff it in a wagon? The guards and servants who had accompanied him here, each with their own agendas, were not blind.
Right now he was like a child clutching a mountain of gold while walking through a crowded market—the slightest carelessness would invite utter annihilation.
Caesar cautiously tried to extend his meager spiritual power into the shell.
It vanished like vanishing without a trace, without the slightest response.
The egg was like a perfect energy insulator.
“This property that even I can't probe might be the only advantage…”
He muttered to himself, then laughed self-deprecatingly.
That advantage was as fragile as paper before absolute power.
What should he do?
He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness deep into his mind, where only he could “see” a faintly glowing interface.
“System, is there a way to completely hide this dragon egg?”
【Ding! Core requirement detected: absolute concealment.】
【Solution generated: Sign a Symbiotic Blood Pact.】
【Symbiotic Blood Pact: Using the thin Black Dragon Bloodline within the host's body as a key, transform the dragon egg's “form of existence” from matter to energy, binding it deeply to the host's life essence.】
【Pact advantages: 1. Absolute concealment—the dragon egg will become a life imprint impossible to detect by any means. 2. The dragon's essence will continuously nourish the host, subtly refining the bloodline and improving physical constitution.】
【Pact limitation: The dragon egg will enter ultra-deep hibernation. The host must advance to Grand Knight and use their own abundant Battle Energy as catalyst to reactivate and hatch it.】
Caesar's breathing caught sharply.
Transform into energy and merge with his body?
This… this was nothing short of a miracle!
As for the Grand Knight restriction, he didn't care in the slightest.
For someone who had lingered on the edge of hell for ten years, any glimmer of hope leading to heaven was worth a hundredfold patience and effort.
“How do I sign it?”
His voice was slightly hoarse with excitement.
【Pact procedure generated.】
【Step One: Pierce your fingertip and use essence blood containing the Black Dragon Bloodline as ink.】
【Step Two: On the eggshell, draw the Valerius family's primal crest—the Sword-Devouring Dragon.】
【Step Three: Using spiritual power as medium, chant the Ancient Dragon Language contract incantation.】
Lines of pale golden text flowed across the system interface, accompanied by an extremely intricate pattern—a ferocious black dragon coiled around and crushing a magnificent longsword symbolizing royal authority with its claws and wings.
Beneath it was a series of awkward, arcane words that seemed composed of wind and thunder themselves.
Caesar didn't hesitate for a moment.
He drew a sharp combat dagger from inside his military boot—the only valuable thing he owned, and the “parting gift” his cheap older brother had “generously” bestowed when he was exiled.
He took a deep breath, no longer dwelling on those humiliating memories, and focused all his attention on the dagger's point.
Pffft.
A soft sound. The tip of his left index finger was cut open with a small wound.
A bead of blood slowly seeped out, appearing under the sickly lamplight as a bizarre deep purple-black color, as though flecks of gold dust floated within it.
This was the Valerius family's thin yet supremely proud dragon bloodline.
Caesar extended his finger, held his breath, and placed that drop of faintly warm essence blood onto the cool eggshell.
He began to painstakingly draw according to the pattern the system had provided.
His movements were slow, his concentration unprecedented.
With each stroke, the deep purple blood seemed to come alive, instantly absorbed by the shell, leaving behind dark crimson traces like blood vessels.
Inside the tent, silence reigned, broken only by the occasional pop of the lamp wick and Caesar's own heavy heartbeat.
When the final stroke fell and the Sword-Devouring Dragon crest manifested perfectly on the eggshell—
HUMMMM!!!
A low hum from primordial antiquity—not transmitted through air but detonating directly in the deepest depths of Caesar's soul!
His vision went black and he nearly collapsed.
“Now!”
He forced himself through the spiritual shock, desperately maintaining clarity of mind, and following the system's guidance, gathered all his spiritual power into a single stream and began chanting the ancient incantation.
Each syllable was like a heavy war drum pounding against his spiritual core.
As the chant progressed, the blood-colored crest on the shell suddenly blazed to life, radiating an eerie and domineering crimson light.
The entire dragon egg lifted from his hands on its own, suspended in midair like a dark red star with its own heartbeat.
CRACK… CRACK…
Fine fissures appeared across the shell's surface, but strangely, what split open was not the shell itself but the space around it!
No egg white, no yolk, and no infant dragon form emerged.
What surged wildly from those spatial riftures was pure liquid life energy like molten gold, and an overwhelming dragon's might that froze Caesar's very soul!
Before this pressure, he felt as insignificant as an ant gazing up at an entire collapsing sky.
The next second, that mass of golden life energy wrapped around the egg's core and transformed into a blinding stream of light that gave him no time to react before slamming viciously toward his chest!
There was no imagined impact or sharp pain.
The stream of light passed through like a phantom through air, ignoring his leather armor, penetrating skin and muscle, and branding itself directly onto his heart!
BOOM—!!!!
An indescribable searing heat, like a sun detonating inside his chest, sent a violent torrent of energy flooding through every corner of his body in an instant!
“GAAAAHHHH—!”
Caesar's body jerked backward, crashing heavily onto the camp bed.
The agony made every muscle in his body instantly tighten as he convulsed and thrashed like a fish thrown onto shore.
He bit down hard on his own arm, tearing through fabric, teeth sinking into flesh, a beast-like suppressed howl escaping his throat to prevent any screams that might alert the outside.
Pain!
Soul-rending pain!
He felt like he'd been thrown into a forge for crafting divine weapons.
Every inch of bone was being forcibly shattered, every muscle savagely torn, every blood vessel bursting from that golden magma surging through them!
Yet after the tearing and destruction, an even more powerful, more vital force was reassembling everything broken within him in a way bordering on miraculous—mending, reconstructing!
Amid this inhuman torture, Caesar's consciousness was clearer than ever before.
He could distinctly “see” inwardly how that golden dragon life force was domineeringly devouring and merging with the thin, weak, almost negligible thread of Black Dragon Bloodline within him.
His body—weakened from years of playing the fool, neglecting training—was being frantically strengthened and reforged at a speed defying all logic!
He didn't know how long passed—perhaps a century, perhaps only an instant.
That heart-tearing, lung-splitting agony finally receded like a tide.
In its place came a sensation of overwhelming strength, as though he could punch a bull to death with one blow.
Hah… hah…
Caesar gasped for breath, sweat having soaked him completely as if he'd just been pulled from water.
He shook his still-dizzy head and struggled to sit up on the bed.
Slowly he looked down, trembling hands tearing open his tattered shirt.
At the center of his chest, right over his heart, a Sword-Devouring Dragon crest identical to the one on the eggshell—formed from countless dark crimson mystical patterns—was quietly branded there, rising and falling faintly with his heartbeat as though alive.
【Ding! Symbiotic Blood Pact successfully signed!】
【Host has gained permanent passive state: Dragon Descendant Body (Initial Stage).】
【Dragon Descendant Body (Initial Stage): Your constitution, strength, recovery speed, and sensory acuity have been comprehensively enhanced. You possess weak resistance to all fire-type energies.】
【Dragon egg has entered hibernation. Hatching condition: Host must advance to Grand Knight.】
The system notification was cold yet pleasant.
Caesar clenched his fist, feeling the explosive power surging between his muscles.
He could even clearly hear the extremely faint footsteps of patrolling soldiers outside the tent, could smell the peculiar burnt odor from the burning oil lamp.
The entire world had become unprecedentedly clear in his perception.
Just then, a new notification sounded again.
【Detected: Host's bloodline shackles have been preliminarily broken, physical foundation meets requirements.】
【Knight Cultivation Module officially activated!】
【…Reverse-engineering optimal Battle Energy condensation method based on host constitution “Dragon Descendant Body”…】
【Calculation complete!】
【Method: Dragon Blood Awakening Technique. Please guide the newly born dragon descendant power within your body to strike the dantian Qi Sea, using dragon blood as catalyst to awaken the source power imprisoned by bloodline and condense your first strand of Battle Energy!】
Caesar's heart clenched violently.
Battle Energy!
This nightmare that had plagued him for ten full years and made him the family's disgrace!
He didn't hesitate for a moment. Immediately sitting cross-legged on the bed, he closed his eyes and followed the system's guidance, sinking his consciousness inward.
In his “inner vision,” a weak but extremely tenacious golden warm current coiled at his heart—the dragon egg's life essence.
Guided by his intent, this current flowed like an obedient golden serpent, slowly traveling downward through once-dead meridians, finally reaching the area called the Qi Sea in his lower abdomen.
Here lay nothing but deathly silence, barrenness, devoid of vitality.
A normal warrior's Qi Sea, even without Battle Energy, should be an active energy field.
His, however, was like ground cursed by the gods—salted earth dried for eons where any external energy entering would be instantly assimilated and dispersed into nothingness.
This was the root of his inability to condense Battle Energy—he was born a “Battle Energy insulator.”
“Ten years…”
Caesar's jaw clenched until it creaked, ten years of suppressed unwillingness, rage, and humiliation transforming in this moment into a sky-piercing roar.
“OPEN FOR ME—!!!”
That golden warm current, under his will, instantly condensed into an invincible sharp golden awl that carried resolute determination and slammed viciously into the core of that deathly barren “salted earth”!
BOOM!!
A soundless explosion, as though heaven and earth were splitting apart, detonated violently within Caesar's dantian!
The earth dried for eons was forcibly torn open by this power from beyond the world!
The next moment, a source power imprisoned for eighteen years—like a volcano compressed to its limit—erupted violently from that opening!
This power appeared as deep black, carrying innate pride and dominance, instantly entangling, merging, and spiraling with that golden warm current!
Finally, at the very center of the Qi Sea, the black and gold forces fused perfectly, condensing into a strand finer than a hair yet radiating an eternal, inextinguishable aura—a black-gold energy stream.
Battle Energy!
Caesar Valerius's own Battle Energy!
【Ding! Congratulations, host has successfully condensed Battle Energy, broken bloodline shackles, and officially entered Squire Knight rank!】
The instant the system notification sounded, Caesar's eyes snapped open, two terrifying beams of light flashing through the dim tent before vanishing!