Chapter 414: Regret of the Wood Dragon - Part 1
Miaomiao had a long dream.
In his dream, he found himself as a little lizard inside a large cave. Several of his lizard siblings had just been born from several eggs, and they started making noise.
Miaomiao looked around in confusion. He forgot everything that he had done before he became a lizard. Moreover, the memory of when he was living in the modern world vanished.
He thought of himself as one of the newborn lizards.
"SQUEAK!"
Like other siblings, Miaomiao started crying, trying to get the attention of someone.
A minute later, a massive lizard with green scales approached them.
Miaomiao looked back at his mother. It was a massive dragon with two luster brown antlers. Silver maple leaves grew from the dragon's horns.
The dragon carried a dead human body to the small lizards with her mouth. She tossed it to them.
"Eat."
SQUEAK!
Six lizards rushed to the corpse and began tearing the limbs apart, fighting for the best juicy meat. Even Miaomiao instinctively joined the fray and snatched the dead human's head.
Strangely, the human's head was smaller than his jaws. Miaomiao easily crushed the skull with soft teeth.
The brain, blood, and meat on the skull were oily and soft. Though the hair pricked his throat and its foul smell annoyed him.
Seeing how her children managed to fight for the food, the dragon nodded in satisfaction. She looked at the weak ones, who failed to get the meat.
The weak lizards wailed and tried their best to scavenge for some leftover. However, the three siblings, except for Miaomiao, had monopolized the treasure trove.
SQUEAK!
After eating the dead human's brain, Miaomiao's conscience and memory slowly came back. He started to remember who he was, but everything was still hazy.
Again, his body moved by itself. He turned to the weak siblings, who only got a small chunk of flesh.
"…"
Miaomiao pushed the strong siblings and pulled out the long intestines of the dead human. Then, he dragged them to the other three weak lizards.
SQUEAK!
He didn't know why, but his instinct told him to share some of the food with the guys.
The three weak siblings gazed at Miaomiao with their bright eyes before they began chowing on the precious food.
The mother stared at Miaomiao with a deep frown.
"Compassion will get you killed, Cernun. Don't give away your food or help your siblings. Let them fight for it. Otherwise, they will grow weak, and they will eventually be? hunted down by those vile immortals."
"…"
Miaomiao looked at his mother and tilted his head to the side. Then, he shook his head and squeal as if he disagreed.
"You're too kind, way too kind to be a respectable dragon, Cernun. I wonder if you get that from your father, or someone's soul has reincarnated as my child."
Squeak?
Although Miaomiao partly remembered who he was, he couldn't control his body. He lowered his head and his sight, sulking from getting scold.
"Remember, your siblings will eventually turn against you when you all grow up. You all will compete for territory, mates, and food. Don't be afraid of killing your future? competitors now and get stronger by eating their flesh and blood. We, Wood Dragons, must always strive for greater strength and make use of nature's Life Essence. We are gifted for having the highest affinity with Heaven and Earth Qi, so our potential surpasses other dragon races. We must get stronger and rule over other dragons! Remember that, children."
…
Miaomiao lost count of how long he had been stuck inside the baby wood dragon's body. Many years passed by while Miaomiao and other siblings slowly grew up.
At first, there were seven siblings, including Miaomiao.
He didn't know when it started, but the eldest brother kept bullying other siblings, such as stealing food, kicking them out of the nest, hoarding treasures to himself, and physically beating. Even Miaomiao was attacked in his sleep sometimes.
One day, the bully dragon bit Miaomiao's antler horns and tried to break them for fun. However, Miaomiao's body automatically fought back by seizing the bully's neck.
During the bullying period, Miaomiao regained all his conscience and his memory. By the time that he realized that everything was a dream, Cernun, the owner of the dragon's body, snapped the bully's neck with his powerful front legs.
Just like that, the first sibling died by Cernun's hands.
Cernun gazed at the dead sibling with sad eyes. Then, he cried.
"Cernun, are you crying again?"
The mother returned and found the corpse of her child. Instead of getting angry, she smiled as if she was proud of Cernun.
"He tried to break my horns."
"He did what he has to do. You are stronger, so you are the victor."
"But I didn't want to kill him."
"The weak die, and the strong lives on. That's how nature works."
"But that's wrong…"
BOOM
The mother dragon stomped on Miaomiao's back.
"Listen here, Cernun. If you keep whining, I'll kick you out of the cave. If you think you can survive the harsh world with your so-called "Kindness", how about you go out there and live alone for 1,000 years?"
"… I'm sorry, mother."
"Hmm!"
...
After that fateful day, Cernun no longer showed mercy to his siblings. The next day, he killed every remaining sibling in the cave when they were sleeping.
After taking down the last sibling, he turned to his mother, staring at her with bloodshot eyes.
The mother simply smiled at Cernun and gave him the approval nod. Then, she flew from the cave and never returned.
After the mother left him forever, Cernun just sat there in the middle of the cave alone, wailing.
He didn't want to do this.
He felt bad.
He regretted being born!
…
'This is too depressing.'
Miaomiao observed the event from the perspective of the dragon. Now, he realized that he had been experiencing someone's past in his dream.
It was a weird experience. He could feel the overwhelming sadness in Cernun's heart, and he instinctively shed tears as the dragon's emotion affected him as well.
While Miaomiao was observing the dragon child, he started hearing the deep voice of someone.
[At that time, I thought that the world was too harsh for me. I also wanted to commit suicide right away.]
"!!!"
Miaomiao wanted to look around to find the source of the voice, but his dragon body refused to move. After all, he was experiencing the memory of someone else.
[But I was a coward back then. I didn't even have the courage to smash my head against the wall. I simply abandon all hope and lived my life as a coward dragon.]
"…"
The voice ceased. However, Miaomiao could tell that it might be the voice of the dragon, who had been watching his old memory.
…
The memory dream went on for 10,000 years.
The Wood Dragon, Cernun, kept holing himself in the cave and only relied on eating plants to survive. He eventually got stronger as he grew.
5,000 years later, Cernun finally got a grasp on his bloodline, dragon Qi, and his power. He started cultivating after wasting 15,000 years of his life doing practically nothing.
It took him only one year to advance from the first-stage to the immortal realm. He evolved into an elder dragon and came up with various unique cultivation techniques.
Miaomiao kept on taking notes. He had many enlightenments after watching how Cernun experimented with many kinds of cultivation methods by using his body as a test subject.
99% of the techniques were useless. However, the rest of them could be considered divine-grade techniques as they could transform a commoner into an immortal expert within less than a year!
However, the techniques required Cernun's bloodline and Wood Element Qi as its core. After all, they were tailored for the creator of the skills.
Furthermore, Cernun even came up with compound elements.
Chloro of Life
Holy Terra
Holy Chloro
The three compound elements were Cernun's proud creation as these powers synergized with his ideal lifestyle. He sought peace and tranquility, a world without bloodshed and conflict.
One day, as Cernun kept experimenting with his power, an archangel visited his cave.
The archangel had a similar appearance as Uriel. However, his eyes, demeanor, and aura were malicious and sinister.
The gas form of the archangel terrified Cernun. The dragon shrunk back in fear as he had never encountered a strange being like the angel.
Seeing how timid the dragon was, the angel sneered, "Hey, brat. How did you cultivate Holy Element!? This element belongs to our race! A dumb dragon like you has no right to use it!"
The angel was rude, overbearing, and unreasonable. Even Miaomiao had the urge to punch him in the face.
But Cernun was too cowardly and timid. He simply gazed at the visitor and nodded.
"Okay. I won't cultivate Holy Element anymore."
"Good! Don't let me catch you using that element again!"
The archangel left after threatening the innocent dragon.
10,000 years later, the cultivation base of Cernun had transcended the immortal stages and ascended to the Divine Realm. However, as he had no mentor, he had no idea how divine beings cultivated to get stronger.
For the first time in his life, he decided to leave his cave for longer than a day. He went out for an adventure, hoping to find a solution to get stronger.
One day, as Cernun was enjoying his journey and scenery of the world, various immortals surrounded him, trying to hunt him down.
Because of his timid nature, the dragon didn't want to fight back. He fled back to his cave.
But the human immortals simply laughed and pursued. They shouted.
"Don't let that rare dragon escape! Kill him and take his core, his heart, and his bloodline! We can become deities or dao gods if we have his blood!"
Cernun heard the remarks. Strangely, he was overwhelmed by a new emotion.
He was angry. For some reason, he felt like these weak immortals were too arrogant, and they messed with the wrong person.
He was obviously stronger than them, yet they thought they could kill him?
Being offended and mad, for the first time after he had slain his siblings, Cernun decided to retaliate.
It only took him two seconds to wipe out the party of 20 human immortals. With just one dragon breath, everyone was detonated into dust. Even their souls were destroyed.
After killing the immortals, Cernun recalled his mother's teaching.
[Show no mercy to your rivals, enemies, or other beings. Think of yourself as the strongest entity. Never bow your head to anyone.]
Finally, Cernun understood what his mother had taught him.
The world was cruel to him, so there was no reason for him to be kind to others.
His mindset, behavior, and principle about life was warped. From that day on, he proactively hunted for food. He even ate many immortals of various races, such as humans, beasts, and demons.
During the time, Cernun's Holy Element grew weak as he pursued the dao of slaughter. After killing over 500 million immortals from his mother planet, he could no longer use the Holy Element.
Also, he found himself alone in the big world.
All immortals migrated out of the planet in fear. Only a small number of plant-type creatures remained as they couldn't leave.
Again, Cernun hunted them for fun.
During the hunt, Cernun met a young plant creature, who had just gained sentience.
The little dryad confronted the dragon with just a stick in her hand. Her arms and roots were trembling, and she couldn't stop crying.
Cernun sensed that she couldn't even use an elemental essence. He found her amusing.
The little dryad smacked Cernun with the weak stick, "You evil dragon! You killed my family, my friends, and everyone. Even if I'm a weakling, I won't forgive you!"
"Hahahaha! You won't forgive me? Sure. What are you going to do with that stick?"
"Die! Die! Just die!"
The dryad cried as she knew that the stick in her hand was useless against the mighty dragon, who killed almost everyone on the planet. Yet, she kept hitting him, praying that a miracle could happen.
The dragon could read her mind. He kept laughing, letting the little girl hitting him for a few minutes.
After the dryad was tired, Cernun raised his feet and stomped her to death.
…
Miaomiao tried to close his eyes as he didn't want to keep watching the terrible experience of Cernun. However, the memory dream went on.
He heard the mysterious voice again.
[I made irreversible mistakes over and over again because of my vain pride, anger, and insanity. I wish I had someone to stop me back then, but it was too late.]
"I can tell," Miaomiao sighed as he was tired of experiencing every emotion that Cernun had. Fortunately, he wasn't influenced by Cernun's madness.
…
The dragon continued slaughtering all plant-based creatures for 1,000 years. Many small creatures banded together to fight back against him. But in the end, no tree in the world survived after confronting the dragon.
After the trees and creatures were gone, Cernun searched for other dragons like him.
But he found no one.
He sensed no one.
The planet without a tree slowly crumbled. Once a beautiful planet with green trees and blue oceans was reduced into a lifeless inhabitable plane.
Being left alone, Cernun was bored. He started gazing upon the stars and space.
Before Cernun could start a new adventure to another planet, a new archangel visited him.
This time, Miaomiao recognized the angel. He was Uriel.
Behind the archangels, an army of 50,000 ancient dragons followed him. Among them, Cernun's mother was there.
Delighted by the reunion, Cernun pointed at the wasteland planet to show off to his mother.
He didn't notice the shackles and the choker on her neck. She was their prisoner.
"Mother, look! This is what you've always taught me! I showed them no mercy! I never bowed down to anyone! I'm the strongest dragon in the world!"
Many dragons peered at the mother of Cernun in disgust. They spat at her.
"Not only you violated the Dragon Code and betrayed our council, but you also taught your son to follow your path? How many children you have abused, you damn traitor!?"
"Huh?"
Cernun heard the remarks. He didn't understand what the other dragon was saying.
The archangel suddenly appeared on the head of Cernun and placed his palm on it. He injected his divine Qi into Cernun's soul and sighed, "Cernun, the son of Clem. You're under arrest for multiple instances of mass genocide and soul destruction. You shall be sealed in a mortal world, and all your power will be used to nurture the planet for the rest of eternity."
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