Chapter 105: The Corpse

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This enormous corpse did not belong to a bird. It was the remains of a demonic creature with horns.

More than three kilometers in length, it had presumably been dead for countless years. Its flesh had long since vanished, leaving only that colossal skeleton planted there in silence, bearing mute testimony to its former majesty.

“My word, this fellow must weigh at least several hundred thousand—perhaps several million tons…”

The Black Dragon could not help clicking its tongue. It had never imagined that creatures from beyond the Material Plane could grow to such a size. This single carcass would be enough to feed it for several hundred years!

If demonic creatures beneath the earth could grow this large, then the deities in the heavens probably were not much smaller…

The Black Dragon suddenly felt a little less confident. It had originally been thinking that, once it reached the heavens in a few days, perhaps it could visit a few divine realms, learn about the gods’ standards of living and working conditions, and convey the Xia people’s concern and regards on their behalf. At the same time, it might see whether it could buy a few shares in their ventures…

But now that it thought about it, perhaps it was better to forget the idea. If it really encountered those gods, it would count itself lucky if they did not buy shares in it first!

The Black Dragon noticed that the temperature in the Abyss was clearly much higher than in the Material Plane. The air seemed to be thick with some sort of pollution—or perhaps radiation—and remaining there for too long easily made one feel irritable and unsettled.

Of course, that was mainly because the Black Dragon’s true body had not come along. With its strength, it should still have been able to withstand the environment.

Besides the enormous demonic remains, the Black Dragon also noticed that this place had once been an altar of some kind. Something was buried beneath the ground as well. It had wanted to dig down and take a look, but the Flame Tree Spirit refused. Sleeping beneath that earth was their ancestor—the great King of the Undying Phoenixes!

What?

The King of the Undying Phoenixes had been buried long ago?

The Black Dragon was somewhat astonished. If that was the case, then how had the king managed to run into its mind and lay an egg there? Had the king suddenly returned as a spirit?

In truth, the Black Dragon had never understood the purpose behind the King of the Undying Phoenixes’ actions.

Had the king simply wanted to use the Black Dragon’s mind to incubate an egg and help ensure the continuation of the bloodline? Or was there some deeper scheme at work…? The king refused to explain and had insisted on playing the riddle-master!

One thing was certain, however: the king definitely knew that treacherous heart of its.

…………

The Black Dragon wandered around the Abyss for more than half an hour. Once it had mostly adapted to the environment, it felt that the place was not so terrifying after all, and returned by the way it had come.

It had originally planned to pick up a few demonic bones to take home for examination. Failing that, it could at least collect some soil and air samples. After all, it was not every day one got to travel between worlds; one ought to bring back a few souvenirs.

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The Flame Tree Spirit, however, plainly declared that there was nothing it could do. The roots it could extend into the Abyss were extremely slender and could not carry anything substantial on the physical level.

A small amount of soil could indeed be collected, but the Flame Tree Spirit was unwilling to do even that. This particular region of the Abyss was a sacred land of the Undying Phoenixes. Every gram of soil and every wisp of air there was a state secret. If any of it leaked into the Material Plane, was discovered by hostile forces, and allowed them to track down the place where the King of the Undying Phoenixes slept…

The consequences would be unimaginable!

Hearing this, the Black Dragon could not help grumbling inwardly. If the place was truly so important, then why had the Flame Tree Spirit been willing to bring it there in the first place? Was it merely because there was one of their eggs inside its head?

…Were they not being a little too confident? How could they be so certain that it would never stab them in the back?

Of course, that was only how things sounded in theory. At the present stage, the Black Dragon would probably keep their secret. After all, they trusted it so completely, and had even taught it the consciousness-projection technique it urgently needed. If it turned around and sold them out, that would be terribly immoral.

………

“You’re not going to have a chat with your mother?”

The Black Dragon severed the connection. Seeing the Undying Phoenix waiting nearby, it could not help asking out of curiosity.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

The Undying Phoenix rubbed its claws together.

“Even if you hadn’t brainwashed me, and even if I hadn’t accepted Xiafication, my mother and I would still have nothing in common to discuss.”

“Besides, it has been awake for so long this time that it has expended a tremendous amount of energy and vitality. The most important thing now is for it to hurry back and rest.”

“…All right.”

The Black Dragon had no grounds to say more. What occupied its thoughts most at present was undoubtedly how to create its alternate body.

………

The Black Dragon did not hurry back. Instead, it began constructing the account right there on the spot.

“I never imagined that a black dragon as enormous as me couldn’t even squeeze out a hundred or eighty pounds of flesh. I’m taking professionalism a little too seriously…”

The Black Dragon sighed inwardly.

Previously, for the sake of its “domesticated dragon” persona, it had been steadily losing weight. According to the filming schedule, it should now have been gorging itself, rapidly regaining all the weight it had lost. This would demonstrate how Xia Country’s sweet air and abundant material conditions had such a positive effect on a dragon’s physical and mental health!

With such a vivid example standing before them, those impoverished dragons overseas would surely be unable to resist drawing closer to Xia Country!

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After all, dragons would never become slaves—unless food and lodging were provided. What was more, Xia Country had never intended to make dragons into slaves. It merely wanted to attract them over to work. Their basic human rights and draconic rights would still be guaranteed.

However, with the dragon-carrying space voyage only a few days away, the Black Dragon had no choice but to postpone its weight-gain plan. It would have to wait until it returned from the heavens before putting it into action.

After two months of meticulous bodily management, the Black Dragon’s body was now extremely compact. The brain had suppressed the allocations for all its major organs and tissues to the absolute limit.

Consequently, when the brain tried to scrape together a hundred or eighty pounds of flesh and blood as raw material for molding an alternate body, the task proved unexpectedly difficult. It dragged its feet for a long while and issued more than twenty formal directives before it could barely force the various departments to complete their assignments.

Once the materials were ready, the Black Dragon immediately used Mage Hand. Recalling its former appearance, it began molding a human figure and creating its alternate body.

“Something seems to be wrong…”

As it gazed at the gradually taking shape of the human body, the Black Dragon suddenly stopped.

It realized that it had oversimplified the matter. The alternate body created in this way clearly had quite a few problems.

After all, this was not three-dimensional printing, nor was it like a necromancer simply harvesting ready-made human organs from a corpse. The Black Dragon’s method was more akin to shaping a clay figure: it could mold the exterior, but it had no way to construct the internal workings.

The human body was extraordinarily complex. Not only was the Black Dragon no medical student and therefore not particularly familiar with human anatomy, but even if it had understood the structure perfectly, replicating it piece by piece would have required an absurd level of technical skill and an immense amount of labor. The Black Dragon simply did not have the time or energy to devote to such painstaking work.

Thus, the alternate body it created would probably be all appearance and no substance. It might look like a human being, but its internal organs, nervous system, and endocrine system would essentially not exist.

“Forget it. If it’s only skin-deep, then so be it. As long as it works.”

The Black Dragon soon came to terms with it. This was only version 1.0. As long as it could function and be taken back to Xia Country for use, that was enough. Even if it had one flaw or another, patches and upgrades could be added gradually in the future.

Once it had made up its mind, the Black Dragon’s movements grew faster. Before long, it had molded the alternate body to resemble its former appearance by roughly seventy or eighty percent.

Then only one final problem remained:

Convincing its heart to establish a branch mine inside the alternate body.

I Really Don’t Want to Be a Dragon

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