Chapter 108
The Trial Cave was a peculiar place formed by the combination of various conditions caused by its geographical location. The “ghost” in the cave were not really souls, but just a natural gathering of a kind of dark elemental creatures in this place.
Even if these dark elemental creatures were eliminated, they would regroup in this cave. It was very simple to completely eliminate these elemental creatures, as long as this specific place was destroyed.
The environment of this place was found to stimulate the awakening of the dragon bloodline from a long time ago, so it was used as a trial cave by the Kesu tribe.
The sleeping baby dragon had its wings on both sides naturally close together, while its tail hung down, and its two front paws were holding the small emerald gem. When Xie Luan looked down, he could only see that the baby was breathing slightly by its undulating back.
This black dragon cub was afraid of the dark elemental creatures in the cave that were not conscious but active, so it had not yet reached the awakening of the race.
According to its grandfather, this cub was very resistant to entering the cave, but in the other world, Xie Luan had seen its pair of golden eyes when he saw the grown-up black dragon.
In the process of this transformation, he didn’t know what the black dragon cub in the other world line had experienced.
Thinking that in that world, when the old man was gone, this cub might really have lived alone, Xie Luan was more inclined to feel that it was not a good experience in his heart.
“After awakening, will Oni be able to control her power better?” This idea had no basis, but Xie Luan just thought that it might have some influence.
It’s not that Modo had not thought about this matter. He replied: “It should be better than it is now, but there is no way…”
Upon hearing this sentence, Xie Luan nodded, as long as he knew it would have an impact, it would suffice.
The place where the trial cave was located was close to the Minute Sea. After knowing that there was an awakening among the Kesu tribe today, Xie Luan went to the cave by himself the next day to investigate the situation.
Such caves were not only found on this floating island, but similar peculiar places were also formed on many other islands.
The entrance and exit of the cave were guarded by adult dragons in their humanoid forms. Xie Luan went to the guards and asked them. He learned that there were no rules forbidding outsiders from entering the trial cave. The guards were set up to prevent any accidents happening to the cubs.
Originally, there was nothing in this cave except the active dark elemental creatures. Normally, there would be no foreigners who wanted to enter, so there was no need to establish this rule.
When Xie Luan asked this, the dragon guards looked a little strangely at him.
Touching those dark elemental creatures may be nothing to other races, but it would still have a somewhat negative impact on humans who were considered by the interstellar era as having the weakest level of physical ability and were only rated as D-class species.
“Is Oni’s situation a bit like you?” Walking back from the seaside cave, Xie Luan raised the nox, who was in his arms wearing a small cloak, a little higher, and looked at the pair of light cyan vertical pupils.
Xie Luan’s words were not in a questioning tone, but like a statement. After saying this, he reached out and squeezed the little horns on the nox’s head.
When would this nox not have to avoid the eyes of others, but if he didn’t hide his identity, many people in the interstellar would cast malicious eyes on this nox, and the series of contradictions that might arise from this were not what Xie Luan wanted to see.
Combining the known information, Xie Luan believed that the nox race had not done anything harmful to the world, but it was far from enough that he believed it, it was necessary to have evidence to make others believe.
The endings of other world lines basically ended with Ya Yi’s army destroying the world, but the world line that Xie Luan reached through the huge clock and the world he was currently in would definitely not end like this.
Xie Luan had changed many things in this world, the most important one being that he made Ya Yi not hate this world.
“Huh.”
With a low whimper, the nox, whose head was pinched by his horn, moved closer to the youth, with his beautiful vertical pupils open, and his tongue stretched out and licked the corners of the youth’s lips.
It was autumn now, not long before winter, and Xie Luan remembered that he had promised that he would celebrate this nox’s birthday in January next year.
“Your birthday…” As he said this, he happened to be kissed by Ya Yi who had turned into his adult form, Xie Luan’s left hand was pulled up by him and placed on the horn on his head.
After a kiss and licking the lips of the young man in front of him for a while, the nox raised his beautiful vertical pupils, and belatedly asked Xie Luan while looking in his eyes in a low voice, “Birthday?”
The gaze of these eyes felt too focused, or perhaps the light blue vertical pupils were too good-looking, so Xie Luan’s reaction was a little slow.
The other party didn’t think of his birthday. Xie Luan thought about it and thought it would be better not to say it in advance, so he shook his head and replied in a natural tone as much as possible: “Um…nothing.” Since the youth wanted to skip the topic, Ya Yi didn’t emphasize it. He lowered his gaze to look at the ring worn by the young man on his left hand and narrowed his pupil slightly.
Xie Luan also found that this nox was slightly lowering his eyebrows to look at his left hand, so he reflexively moved the finger on which he was wearing the ring. When Ya Yi raised his eyes again, he finally could not resist approaching and kissing the corner of the nox’s beautiful eyes.
Although he wanted to explain that these eyes were too good to look at, so he wanted to do this, but the fact was that this kind of focused gaze was a foul against Xie Luan.
The corner of the kissed eye didn’t blink. Ya Yi was still watching the black-haired youth who kissed him. When he wanted to move, he stopped all his movements when he heard Xie Luan say, “Don’t move” and stood motionless.
Even the silver tail behind him endured and did not move. Because he was kissed by the young man, the nox now looked like a big cat that wanted to throw down its prey but had to be docile because of his love for the prey.
The reason why Xie Luan said “Don’t move” was of course because he knew that if he didn’t say that, the dominant power would soon be taken by the other party.
He kissed the corner of his eye, and then kissed the white cheek of the nox and the edge of the corner of his lips. After finishing these things, Xie Luan saw that Ya Yi did not move, but the vertical pupils staring at him slightly began to shrink. This made Xie Luan feel a little vain for no reason.
He did this without letting the other party move, which seemed a bit too much…
Because of this vain feeling, Xie Luan thought for a second, and decided to reach out and touch the obedient silver tail that didn’t move at all.
Xie Luan now knew the meaning that a touch to the tail represented among the nox race, and so after the finishing touch, seeing the beautiful pair of vertical pupils slightly tighten, Xie Luan coughed loudly and said: “Let’s go back.”
The words clearly meant to bring an end to this matter, then Xie Luan stretched out his hands after speaking, and signaled Ya Yi to jump into his arms in his cub form.
And when the nox really obediently followed his words, Xie Luan’s guilty conscience inevitably increased a bit more.
Holding the nox wearing a little cloak and walking back, Xie Luan thought in his heart, when he celebrated this nox’s birthday, he should prepare enough gifts for the other party as compensation…
Xie Luan had just returned to the house where he was temporarily staying these few days with the nox in his arms. From a distance, he saw the black dragon cub flapping its dragon wings at the door of the house and looking around.
Xie Luan remembered that when he went out today, the cub hadn’t woken up yet. Maybe his behavior made the young dragon think he had left.
“Oni.” Before the black dragon cub could see him, Xie Luan first called out the other’s name and put the nox in his arms on his left shoulder.
“Hey.” All of a sudden, the dragon wings flopped from the door of the house and hit the young man’s arms. The black dragon cub raised the dragon wings only after being hugged by Xie Luan and lowered her body to nest in Xie Luan’s arms.
“I said you were just going out for a while, and Oni wanted to wait for you at the door.” Modo glanced at the cub flying into the young man’s arms and walked over with his cane.
The wound of this cub was bandaged by the young man in front of him. It was the first time she met someone other than him who was willing to be so close to her and take care of her, and the young man’s attitude was also very meticulous and gentle towards her. So, the cub wanting to get close to him, such a development did not surprise Modo.
The cub should have been waiting for a while.
Xie Luan nodded lightly to the old man who had told him about the situation, raised his hand to touch the chin of the young dragon in his arms, and got a response from the black baby dragon lowering her head and rubbing his palm.
After exploring the situation of the trial cave, Xie Luan went in and stayed for more than ten seconds, feeling the probable negative effect this cave would have on humans.
Even being slightly touched by those dark elemental creatures would give him a stiff freezing sensation, and the cave environment itself made ordinary humans feel chilly.
After Xie Luan came back, he told the old man about this, saying that he wanted to take Oni to the trial cave tomorrow.
“I won’t force her in.” With a general plan in his mind, Xie Luan first promised the elderly dragon in front of him.
Hearing what Xie Luan said, Modo’s biggest worry disappeared, so he nodded and said, “Okay.”
On the next day, Xie Luan, went out with a black dragon cub, but did not tell his destination to the cub. When they reached the vicinity of the trial cave, the young dragon who was in Xie Luan’s arms reacted.
The dragon’s wings moved slightly nervously, but because of being held by the youth, the black dragon cub’s reaction only stopped there.
Xie Luan patted the young dragon’s back until he had calmed the black dragon cub and walked to the entrance of the cave. Xie Luan placed the little cub beside the two giant dragon guards who were in charge of guarding the entrance.
“Oni wait for me outside, I will come out after going in a while.” After Xie Luan finished speaking, before the black dragon cub could react, Xie Luan stood up and walked into the cave.
“Huh?”
The black dragon cub who was gently placed on the ground raised its head and made a sound after reacting, but the figure of the young man had gradually submerged into the dim entrance of the cave and disappeared from her field of vision.
She knew what place it was. This was a place where this black dragon cub would never go close to. The dark elemental creatures that were active like black shadows in the cave made this young dragon very scared. And afraid of going in a second time.
The cub waited outside for a while, but did not see the young man coming out, which made the young dragon shake its tail anxiously.
The youth was a human, and humans were very weak without any natural weapons.
Even if she had never learned such knowledge, from its prolonged contact, this black dragon cub knew this matter by her own ability.
“You say that a human being entering this cave can do nothing. It’s really a pity for him.” This was the second time they saw Xie Luan going in the trial cave. One of the guards at the entrance couldn’t help but tell his companion this matter, “If we don’t go in, he would be frozen into a popsicle. We have to be bothered to save him.”
But speaking of it, these guards seemed to have no obligation to save the human. They only needed to check this trial cave daily and ensure that the cubs in the cave can pass the trial without any accidents.
Entering the cave, Xie Luan carefully avoided and tried not to let the dark elemental creatures here touch him, but there were too many, and he would still accidentally come in contact no matter how much he avoided it.
Although these dark elemental creatures couldn’t think, they would choose to move closer to the life forms entering the cave. After Xie Luan hid for a while, more and more shadow-like elemental creatures approached him.
The longer it took, the harder it would be to hide, but if it was really impossible, the nox on his shoulders could transfer him out through space, so Xie Luan was still prepared enough.
With the passage of time, Xie Luan was finally forced to a corner by the elemental creatures that had surrounded him in a limited space. There was a hole beside him that could allow one person to drill through so it was not a dead end.
When the group of elemental creatures got closer, Xie Luan waited intently, but when the group of black shadow-like elemental creatures were about to approach him, a voice rang in this dim cave.
“Hey—-“
The black dragon cub flopped its wings and rushed towards the young man surrounded by black shadows. According to the fighting instinct of the race, it used its front claws to tear the enemy apart.
But ordinary physical attacks did not have much effect on these shadow-like elemental creatures. After finding that several attacks were invalid, the black dragon cub quickly expelled the dragon’s breath during the battle, and the blazing color of the flame suddenly appeared and illuminated this dim cave for a moment.
Although it was only a young dragon, the black dragon cub’s posture to protect the young man behind was also like a giant dragon.