Westminster Bank

Chapter 291: Chapter 176: Edward and Yelena

The crisis was temporarily averted.

Tune stepped forward to thank his sister.

But Lucy said nervously, "Don’t come any closer."

Tune grew tense, thinking a Dragon was still hiding somewhere. He glanced around frantically.

He then saw Lucy use the Scale-Stripping Saber to pry off the Reverse Scale. Next, she formed a hand seal, summoning a blade of energy that tore a massive hole in the Thunder Wolf Dragon’s chest. The gushing blood was blocked by an Array filled with various Chinese-style runes, like watermelon juice splattering against the bottom of a glass.

Lucy then said to Tune, "Brother Tune, you can come over now."

Tune started to walk over, then seemed to remember something and grew instantly wary. "You’re trying to prank me, aren’t you, Lucy? You want to splash all that blood on me."

"Brother Tune is getting smarter."

Lucy sighed. With a casual wave, the Array that had been holding back the blood instantly vaporized it all. She flicked the Duster in her hand, and a scorching-hot heart the size of a car engine flew from the gaping cavity, hovering in her grasp.

Roy, who had been about to step forward and exchange pleasantries, froze. Lucy had just refined the Dragon Heart into a single Golden Core with her bare hands and swallowed it.

The surrounding Trial Takers were thunderstruck.

On the Inner Side, those who devoured a Dragon Heart were given a title analogous to the "Bloodless"—they were called Dragon Eaters.

And a daughter of the Beowulf Family had just consumed a Dragon Heart in front of everyone!

"A Drag... Dragon Eater!" someone cried out, and terror spread among the Trial Takers.

Tune also watched his sister nervously. The Dragon Heart represented the purest fount of a Dragon Descendant’s power, containing the purest yet most volatile Spiritual Power.

In ancient times, the Old Race could consume specially processed Dragon Hearts to rapidly increase their Spiritual Power, allowing them to meet the requirements to Promote to the next rank.

However, this practice was later abandoned when a disease called "Dragon Fever" began to spread among the Old Race.

This practice was not revived until modern times, with the emergence of an organization called the Dragon Eater Association, rumored to have been founded by the Dragon Witch.

As their influence grew, the number and variety of Dragon Descendants in every major region rapidly declined. Meanwhile, large numbers of the Old Race began to appear, suffering from "Dragon Addiction" and Dragon Fever. It was only then that the practice of the Dragon Feast was brought back into the open.

Dragon Addiction refers to the practice of grinding a Giant Dragon’s bones into "Dragon Powder" to be snorted. This produces the same early-stage effects as consuming a Dragon Heart.

The user’s Spiritual Power spikes briefly before plummeting. The momentary bliss from this surge is so exquisite that it has tempted many of the Old Race into chasing the feeling.

Over time, they develop Dragon Addiction, their Spiritual Power degenerates, and their organs, contaminated by the Dragon Powder, begin to show symptoms of Dragonification. The lucky ones merely contract Dragon Fever. The unlucky become "Dragon Attendants"—grotesque beings, neither human nor Dragon, liable to fly into a rampage at any moment.

This became another reason for the London Tower, in conjunction with several major Law Enforcement Organizations, to later issue the Red Dragon Ordinance.

"Hahaha... Just messing with you!"

Facing her nervous brother and the crowd, Lucy put on the triumphant expression of a successful prankster. She spat out the Elixir she had been hiding under her tongue and tipped it into a gourd she had pulled from thin air.

"I just wanted to see your reaction... The reason I came home this time is to collect the hearts of these Dragon Descendants as a catalyst for my Promotion to Bronze."

Hearing this, Tune and everyone else present let out a collective sigh of relief.

He had been worried that his sister, rather than becoming a Dragon Slayer, had become a Dragon Eater instead.

As for the others, they were wondering what to do about the fact they’d just seen the fifth daughter of the Beowulf Family consume a Dragon Heart. ’Should we pretend we saw it, or pretend we didn’t?’

After taking the Dragon Heart, Lucy bid Tune farewell and left.

The remaining group surveyed the carnage and, after confirming there were no more Reverse Scales to be had, planned to go their separate ways once they officially entered the mountain’s outer reaches.

But just then, someone spoke up. "Aren’t the body parts of these Dragon Descendants worth a lot of money?"

After a moment of silence, everyone, with an unspoken agreement, silently picked the closest Giant Dragon and began to practice their dissection skills.

Once the dissections were more or less complete, they had harvested all the most valuable parts of the Thunder Wolf Dragons, ready to be sold for a high price on the black market. The Dragon Bones were too large to fit in their storage spaces, the organs were poisonous and useless, and the meat was known to cause illness.

For the Trial Takers, as long as they made it off the mountain alive, this Dragon Hunting Ceremony would be a net gain.

As for the dead and seriously wounded, they were carried down the mountain by their respective Dragon Guides. The guides were essential, as only they could identify and guard against the dangers that could erupt at any moment by reading the ambient auras—this was another reason to hire one.

After packing everything up, and uncertain of the dangers that lay ahead, the group took their Dragon Guides’ advice and decided to turn back, intending to find another path into the mountain.

As it turned out, at the classic fork in the road, they ran into Jose and his equally bewildered party.

They, too, were turning back for the same reason.

The only party that hadn’t turned back was the one on the path taken by Isabella and Master Jack. It was the path that numerous Dragon Guides had deemed exceedingly dangerous, the one the two Silver Masks had personally surveyed, and the one the other guides had mocked, saying, "Anyone who goes that way, dies."

After a brief exchange of information, the two groups quickly reached a consensus: they would take the middle path to see what had become of Isabella and the renowned Master Jack.

However, some of the Black Iron Dragon Guides, sensing the overwhelmingly dense aura of the Dragon Race emanating from that path, absolutely refused to let their employers proceed.