Chapter 187: The Spoils
The dust settled around the collapsed temple as Damon stood at the edge of the crystal forest with his women.
Ariel coughed and waved away the remaining debris. "Is everyone alright?"
Mio nodded, still catching her breath. "We made it."
Mia brushed dust from her robes and glanced back at the rubble. "That was close."
Seraphina leaned against a crystal formation, her chest rising and falling.
"What happened in there? One moment we were searching, the next the whole structure started shaking."
Damon turned to face them.
"I found something."
He pulled the Azure Dragon’s Scale from his storage ring.
The black scale shimmered in the light, its iridescent surface shifting through colors that didn’t seem to belong to this world.
Ariel stepped closer. "What is that?"
"A piece of the Azure Dragon’s true body," Damon said.
"It’s a fragment of his original power."
Mio’s eyes widened.
"That’s what called you to the temple?"
"Part of it. The techniques we collected were the other part." Damon stored the scale back in his ring.
"But this is worth more than everything else combined."
Mia whistled softly.
"The sect leader said the captain would be decided by the greatest treasure or cultivation improvement. That scale alone should win you the position."
Damon shook his head.
"I’m not worried about the position. I’m worried about what else is in this realm."
Seraphina pushed off the crystal and walked toward him.
"The Azure Dragon Spirit said this realm was his resting place. There’s probably more than just one temple."
"Then we keep moving," Damon said.
"We have time. A hundred days inside for every day outside."
Ariel looked at the sky. The sun hung at its peak, casting long shadows through the crystal forest.
"Where do we go next?"
Damon activated his Incubus Celestial Eyes.
The world shifted.
He could see the spiritual energy flowing through the realm like rivers of light.
The crystal forest pulsed with earth and wind affinities. Further east, a concentration of fire energy rose like a beacon.
And beyond that, something darker.
A patch of shadow that didn’t move with the natural flow.
"There," Damon said, pointing east.
"Something’s there."
Mio followed his gaze.
"What is it?"
"I don’t know yet. But it’s worth investigating."
They walked through the crystal forest for another hour.
The formations grew denser as they moved east, the crystals taking on sharper edges and deeper colors. Some pulsed with stored energy, ready to release if disturbed.
Mia moved ahead, her Shadow Queen Physique allowing her to sense threats before they appeared.
"Stop," she said.
Everyone halted.
"There’s a formation ahead. A trap."
Damon stepped forward and examined the ground. Faint lines traced across the crystal floor, barely visible to the naked eye.
But his Incubus Celestial Eyes caught them.
"Trigger formation," he said.
"Steps on the wrong spot and it releases a concentrated blast."
Ariel frowned. "Can we go around?"
Mia shook her head.
"The formation extends in both directions. We’d have to backtrack for miles."
Damon studied the pattern.
The lines formed a web, each intersection connected to the next. One wrong step and the whole thing would activate.
But the Azure Dragon Bloodline in his inventory pulsed.
He reached into his spatial ring, fingers closing around the cool, smooth surface of the Azure Dragon scale. The moment his skin made contact with it, he felt a subtle pulse travel up his arm — not painful, but unmistakable, like a heartbeat that didn’t belong to him.
He crouched and pressed the scale flat against the crystal floor, directly above the nearest trigger line.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the faint inscriptions carved into the crystal ground began to flicker, their pale glow stuttering like a candle caught in a sudden wind.
One by one, the interconnected lines dimmed, the intricate web of the trap unraveling from the point of contact outward, spreading across the entire formation in a slow, silent wave.
Then they faded entirely, leaving the crystal floor blank and still.
Ariel blinked. "What did you do?"
"The bloodline recognized me," Damon said. "Or the scale did. Either way, the path is clear."
They continued east.
The crystal forest gave way to rocky terrain, then to a desert.
Sand stretched as far as the eye could see, dunes rising and falling like frozen waves.
And in the distance, a structure rose from the sand.
A pyramid.
Black stone, its surface covered in ancient inscriptions that glowed with a dull red light.
Seraphina shielded her eyes. "Another temple?"
"Different style," Damon said. "This one’s older. Much older."
They approached the pyramid.
The heat grew more intense with every step, the sand burning through the soles of their boots.
Ariel summoned a thin layer of water around her body to cool herself. "How are you not sweating?"
Damon smiled. "Incubus Lord constitution. Temperature doesn’t bother me much."
Mio wiped her brow. "Show-off."
They reached the base of the pyramid.
A massive door stood before them, carved from the same black stone as the rest of the structure. The inscriptions on its surface formed a pattern Damon recognized.
A seal.
"Someone locked this place," he said.
Mia ran her fingers over the inscriptions. "Can you break it?"
Damon studied the seal.
It was complex. Ancient. Designed to keep something inside rather than keep intruders out.
That changed things.
"Whatever’s in there," Damon said, "someone didn’t want it getting out."
Ariel looked at him. "And you still want to go in?"
Damon turned to her.
The Chaos Devourer hummed in his storage ring.
The Azure Dragon’s Scale pulsed against his chest.
He smiled.
"More than anything."
The seal required blood to open.
Not just any blood.
Dragon blood.
Damon pressed the Azure Dragon’s Scale against the inscriptions.
The stone absorbed it.
The seal glowed brighter, then cracked.
The door swung open.
Darkness poured out.
Damon stepped forward.
Behind him, Ariel drew her trident.
Mio nocked an arrow.
Mia vanished into the shadows.
Seraphina summoned wind around her fists.
They entered the pyramid together.
The door slammed shut behind them.