Chapter Sixty-Nine
We only asked you to pretend to be a dragon cursed by an evil god—it couldn’t possibly be such an uncanny coincidence… But you really have been tampered with by an evil deity?
Everyone was thrown into turmoil; what they’d assumed to be the greatest gift the heavens could bestow upon their nation might, in fact, be a poisoned chalice, a sugar-coated bullet hiding a vast conspiracy behind it!
No wonder the black dragon’s behaviors and habits were so drastically different from normal dragons. It wasn’t just troubled in mind—its very heart was compromised!
“…So what do we do now?” the black dragon asked at last, breaking the silence. “I don’t want to become some traitor. If we want to get to the bottom of this, maybe you should dissect me and take a good look at this heart—find out what’s really going on.”
“Of course, if possible, I’d much prefer a heart transplant. This kind of wild, uncontrollable heart—it would be a relief to have it out as soon as possible!”
“Mr. Huang, you’re joking again,” Ding Xuewen replied with a wry smile. He knew the black dragon’s body was almost invulnerable, its pain response dulled; even if they cut it open, it would hardly suffer any real damage or pain.
Still, hearing the dragon bring this up so often left everyone feeling both baffled and amused. Helplessly, he continued, “Leaving aside the fact that, with our current technology, we can’t even dissect your draconic body… even if we could, what if your heart suddenly erupted again, releasing the energy of dozens or even hundreds of tons of TNT? How could we possibly survive that?”
“And as for a heart transplant, that’s even more impossible—where would we find a heart strong enough to replace yours?”
“So you’re saying this ticking time bomb can’t be defused?” the black dragon sighed. Without clarity about its heart, its entire existence would be overshadowed by suspicion and doubt, no matter how willing it was to devote itself to the nation.
Why am I tainted? Damn it, it’s infuriating. Just when my life was getting back on track, who the hell is plotting against me?
Frustration welled up inside the black dragon.
“Mr. Huang, don’t be so pessimistic!” said Gao Ying, the attentive psychological counselor, quickly sensing the shift in the dragon’s mood and hurrying over to comfort him.
“We shouldn’t only dwell on the negatives. Think positively—it’s possible your heart is a treasure left to you by your predecessor. Maybe they experienced some extraordinary event, consumed some rare artifact—cosmic essence, a divine shard, something so heavy the soul couldn’t bear it, and so it fell to you.”
“Just now, didn’t you say you can still exert your own will to forcibly restrain your heart? That means, for now, you’re still in control of this body!”
“So the most important thing now is to maintain a positive mindset. Don’t let yourself spiral into fear and anxiety—that would be far more dangerous!”
“Exactly!” Ding Xuewen chimed in, realizing that safeguarding the black dragon’s mental health and humanity was the team’s top priority.
How could they allow themselves to wallow in gloom just because of a setback?
He reflected, then braced himself and smiled, “Mr. Huang, Xiao Gao is right. We face problems head-on and overcome them—we mustn’t give in to despair.”
“Even if your heart is an ambush set by some god or devil, we’ll do our best to resolve it!”
“Though we can’t yet deal with or replace it, we can certainly prepare a few auxiliary hearts for you to reduce your dependence on the original.”
“Didn’t you say you wanted some nuclear-powered backup hearts? No problem—I’ll apply for a national project right away, mobilize all available resources to tackle this for you!”
“And since you can reshape your body with your will, we can capture other dragons or powerful supernatural creatures, study their hearts and physiology, and draw on their strengths to craft an even stronger heart for you!”
“Great idea!” the black dragon exclaimed, his eyes alight, leaping up as his spirits soared. “If this heart won’t behave, I’ll just ignore it and make myself new ones!”
The ability to reshape his body with his will—this was, in truth, the black dragon’s greatest trump card.
As long as energy was sufficient and technology advanced enough, he could even suppress immune rejection and forcibly graft the hearts of other supernatural beings into himself!
And he had good reason to believe that many powerful creatures possessed more than one heart, with several auxiliary hearts enhancing their strength and vitality.
“No matter who’s plotting against me in the shadows, I have the backing of 1.4 billion people. I won’t—can’t—fall so easily!”
“Theology may be formidable, but science is no pushover either!”
The black dragon steeled himself, his gaze growing resolute—if my body can operate a nuclear fusion reactor, isn’t that practically the same as igniting the divine fire?
…
“How is Yu Xiaomin doing? Is she any better?”
With his worries set aside for now, the black dragon’s mind cleared, and he remembered the urgent matter at hand.
“…It’s not looking good,” Ding Xuewen sighed. “Mr. Huang, we need to carry out the transformation ritual for her as soon as possible, or she may not make it through the night.”
“Alright… If there’s anything I can do, just tell me,” the black dragon nodded, then added, “By the way, Academician Ding, that Eye of Truth—what is it made of, and why did it provoke such a violent reaction in my heart?”
“…We don’t know,” Ding Xuewen replied, shaking his head. “All we know is that only mages above the sixth ring can craft such an artifact. Its main component seems to be of extraterrestrial origin, but we have no details and can’t analyze it.”
“Something from beyond this world… No wonder,” the black dragon mused.
“By the way, Mr. Huang, did you fail to merge with the Eye of Truth?” Ding Xuewen couldn’t help but ask. “We managed to buy it for less than two million from that nomadic tribe, but as a sixth-ring artifact, it’s exceedingly rare. So far, we’ve only acquired this one. If you failed to merge with it, we’ll have to find another seller.”