CH 7

The Heavenly Thunder Dragon was confused. Why did Wuuth look so upset? He didn’t dare to ask more questions, his tail changed direction and curled around the bottom of his feet.

Wuuth looked up with a collected expression, returning to normal, “You haven’t seen him, so what makes you think he’s back?”

The Scarlet Flame Dragon and the Heavenly Thunder Dragon both mentioned ‘Ning’, but Scarlet Flame mentioned meeting a human who looked a lot like ‘Ning’.

After Wuuth calmed down, he became aware of some clues. He had always been cautious, not to mention that ‘Ning’ had been gone for so long that he once thought he would never see him again.

The Heavenly Thunder Dragon told Wuuth about the events of the last few days, the hay and the food that had appeared at the entrance of the cave, and the dragon climber outside.

Wuuth asked, “Not a single footprint or scent?”

Seeing the Heavenly Thunder Dragon shake his head, Wuuth was silent for a moment, “Guard Dragon Island these next few days, no need to go out again for now. Wait for his next appearance. If it’s not ‘Ning’,” Wuuth’s face turned cold, “don’t let him leave Dragon Island alive.”

If it was him… 

Dragon Island’s location was hidden, so without a dragon’s guidance, outsiders would never be able to find it. Although Wuuth’s words were harsh, he had actually already guessed the answer. But he also didn’t understand why ‘Ning’ didn’t reveal himself.

Thinking of what the Scarlet Flame Dragon had said to him in Enigma Forest, Wuuth couldn’t resist and immediately wanted to go back and ask him again. However, he had business to attend to and wouldn’t be able to return to Lance Academy until at least three days later.

Since he had promised his teacher to come to this exchange, he would never give up halfway.

“Go back and protect the young dragons on the island,” Wuuth said, “I’ll be out of here in a few days, and you can come find me in a north-to-south direction.”

Once the Heavenly Thunder Dragon responded, he flew high into the sky, transforming back into his adult form the moment his form disappeared into the clouds, his purple light looming in the dark clouds. After he left, the raindrops that had been piling up for a long time finally fell, and Wuuth was no longer in the same place.

The Heavenly Thunder Dragon flew at great speed, he came out to find and wait for Wuuth, spending a lot of time, and had to get back before the early morning.

The clouds were dense now, and he traveled between them, the residual magic elements on the dragon’s horns scraping through. The clouds tumbled and coalesced, showing a sign of imminent rain. So he passed behind the strip, causing more or less rain.

The rain stopped quickly, but the vision in the air still attracted some people’s attention.

The Heavenly Thunder Dragon finally disappeared over a desert, and his aura came to an abrupt end.

The group of people following him from far behind searched the area in vain, and one of them took out the magic communicator on his body, “My lord, we lost it again.”

The other side of the communicator was silent for a long time and sighed, “Where’s the other one?”

“There are many traces of the fire dragon in Enigma Forest, but… It has most likely left.”

“Keep looking.”

The communicator hung up, and several people couldn’t find any useful information, so they had to return without success.

—

It was almost dark when Ning Chu returned to the Academy and brought his storage bag to Crow Market. The staff was relieved to see him there, “Good work.”

If Ning Chu hadn’t returned… He was going to assume that he had met the magic dragon in the forest.

Ning Chu’s jacket was in his hands, but he didn’t hold it properly, and a small bunch was in the cook of his arm, but he didn’t intend to tidy it up. He handed over the storage bag, “This is all I found today, take a look.”

The clerk still led him to the inner room, took out the things in the storage bag to check them one by one, and his eyes became more and more excited. He was really right! The roots and leaves of these medicinal plants were intact, not receiving the slightest damage, and the probability was that they were meticulously plucked in an absolutely safe environment.

There were countless high-ranking magical beasts in the depths of Enigma Forest, so Ning Chu either had a powerful helper or he was hiding himself.

Whichever one it was, he wasn’t an ordinary student.

While accounting for the amount of these medicinal plants, the staff member cautiously said, “With a status like yours, why did you come to a place like this to receive an assignment?”

“…” Ning Chu didn’t know what story the clerk had made up in his head and answered politely, “I’m… I’m rather short of money.”

The jacket on his hand moved a little, but Ning Chu didn’t change his expression, only raised his other hand to protect it, and quietly patted it.

The staff wanted to get on good terms with Ning Chu and immediately offered, “Then why don’t I pay you 100 purple gold coins in advance? It saves you from waiting once a day for the reward.”

Seeing that Ning Chu didn’t answer for a moment, he cautiously added, “What do you think?”

Ning Chu was actually dazed by the sudden surprise and hadn’t recovered yet.

100 purple gold coins, that was… 1000 credits! Not only could he immediately resurrect Fifth Cub and buy many, many supplies, there was also that contract service… 

Ning Chu could hardly believe such a good thing, and coughed lightly, “That much? 100? Purple gold coins?”

The staff laughed, “These brought back today are worth a total of twelve purple gold coins, 100 in advance to you isn’t too much, with my authority… That’s all I have, if you don’t mind.”

Ning Chu underestimated the danger of the depths of Enigma Forest and the value of these supplies, so he hurriedly agreed, “Of course I don’t mind, I have to thank you.”

After both sides came to an agreement, the staff really took 100 purple gold coins and handed them to Ning Chu with a heavy heart.

Ning Chu had never seen so much money before, he took out 2 purple gold coins and left them on his body, the rest he put into his jacket pocket and blocked it with a corner of his jacket, when the pocket instantly flattened. He thanked the staff again and headed back to the dormitory with a quick pace.

Bowen was getting his clothes and going to take a shower when he saw Ning Chu pushing in the door, so he held up his glasses, “What took you so long to get back? I ordered you some food, it’s almost cold.” He turned around to look at the bathroom, while muttering, “You’ve been running around a lot lately…”

Ning Chu clutched his coat, “Thanks, I’ll eat later.”

When the bathroom door clicked and locked, Ning Chu lifted the jacket off his arm. Third Cub, who had been hiding under his clothes all the way, finally got some fresh air and sneezed a little, looking around.

This was where Ning Chu lived as a human, along with Wuuth.

It didn’t look like much, the space was too small and not as large as the area of his adult form with his wings open. Third Cub looked around with a critical eye and flew to Ning Chu’s pillow. He pressed his paws on the pillow to see if it was soft enough, and was suddenly wrapped tightly by Ning Chu.

Ning Chu lowered his voice, “Cub, I have money! I can revive Little Five!”

Third Cub moved stiffly, his paws hooked around Ning Chu’s clothes, and his eyes were filled with the same excitement and anticipation as Ning Chu’s. The 98 purple gold coins had already been charged, so Ning Chu opened the system prompt of whether to resurrect Fifth Cub, and couldn’t wait to choose to deduct 500 credits.

【Data verification in progress, please wait.】

【Checking completed, starting character reconstruction.】

【Progress: 1%】

Ning Chu stared at the progress and waited for about ten minutes, but it was still 1%.

From Third Cub’s perspective, it could only see Ning Chu sitting quietly, staring blankly somewhere ahead. Anxious and worried, he tugged at Ning Chu’s sleeve.

Ning Chu looked back and stroked its head soothingly, “It’s okay. She’s coming back to life, but it’s just a little slow…”

The progress was still 1% when Bowen came out of the shower.

Bowen took a towel to wipe his hair and saw that the dinner on the table hadn’t been touched, “Why aren’t you eating?”

Ning Chu had just hidden Third Cub and was tidying up the blanket, “I’ll eat right away.”

He was afraid that Third Cub would suffocate under the blanket, so he quietly left a ventilation opening and got up to eat at the table. After eating and showering, Bowen had already fallen asleep and the bed curtain was tightly drawn.

Ning Chu asked, “Bowen, shall I turn off the light?”

Bowen answered, and the dormitory was plunged into darkness.

Ning Chu lifted the blanket and laid down on the bed. Third Cub jumped on his chest and rubbed his chin in the darkness.

Ning Chu had been watching the progress in the game and it had just finally reached 3%.

At this rate, it may not even be full by tomorrow morning… 

He knew Third Cub was also anxious and quietly said, “It’s okay, don’t worry.”

Third Cub gradually calmed down and went to Ning Chu’s pillow to lie down. He could guess that there was probably some problem with the resurrection of Little Five. But he believed Ning Chu, and Ning Chu must have a solution.

The progress of resurrection was too slow, so Ning Chu turned off the prompt bar for the time being and entered Dragon Island through the map. He was in the place where he had just gotten offline during the day, and he saw that the word “Ning” on the ground had been blown around by the wind.

So Ning Chu went to get some more branches and set up a new one next to it, using a stone to hold it in place.

Just after he finished, he turned around and was ready to go to the cave to see the little dragon cubs, when he turned his head he saw a purple little dragon cub crouching on the ground, looking at the branches on the ground in confusion.

The Heavenly Thunder Dragon had just returned. He first went around to see if there were any new anomalies. When he arrived here, he witnessed branches and rocks rising up in the air and “flying” to the roadside.

The marks on the ground looked familiar… The Heavenly Thunder Dragon carefully recalled, and his eyes suddenly brightened.

This was the mark that ‘Ning’ used to wear on his head! It was ‘Ning’!

He flew forward excitedly and circled around several times, trying to find Ning Chu.

Ning Chu was equally anxious, it was his Fourth Cub! The Heavenly Thunder Dragon! He was right during the day, the Fourth Cub did return to the island, but they just missed each other.

Ning Chu tried for a long time, but couldn’t touch Fourth Cub, nor could he speak directly from the game as before. He could only break a branch and waved it in his hand.

Fourth Cub noticed the branch in mid-air and stopped to approach. He looked down and rubbed his horns against the green leaves at the top of the branch and gave a soft, “Aowu.”

‘Ning’ was here, although he couldn’t see or touch, he really came back. Fourth Cub opened his eyes and looked ahead, trying to catch the scent in the air.

Ning Chu had mixed emotions and happiness that his cub still remembered him. He walked down the hill with a branch in his hand, Fourth Cub following close behind. Now that Ning Chu had money, he could buy some supplies and food to stock up on.

He fixed two coops and bought twenty pairs of young rabbits and chicken to put in the coops, and cleared the weeds and bushes around them. Fourth Cub watched quietly from the sidelines, familiar with this operation as Ning Chu used to do it all the time.

After preparing the food reserve, Ning Chu started to buy toys.

There were many small dragon cubs on the island, so he bought three more dragon climbing frames, as well as small swings, rattan balls with bells, simple mechanical toy birds, and other such things.

Ning Chu spent 100 currencies in one go and took them out of the package and placed them at the entrance of the cave. He also bought a small collar with gold trim for Fourth Cub to attach to the end of his tail as decoration.

Fourth Cub, like Third Cub, was presumably able to change his form between juvenile and adult, and the collar was quite expensive as it could expand and contract according to the size of the user.

Ning Chu remembered that although Fourth Cub was a little male dragon, he was very pretty and a little narcissistic. When he was little, he used to walk alone to the back of the mountain to pick wild flowers and let Ning Chu tie them to his tail, making him resemble a fancy little peacock.

Fourth Cub was so happy that he couldn’t stop fidgeting with his tail wagging, and couldn’t wait to call all the dragons on the island to come and admire his new treasure. Ning Chu looked at him and smiled for a while, then finally waved the branch to indicate that he was leaving.

Fourth Cub guessed a few things and circled around the branch reluctantly. The branch lay quietly on the side of the road until Ning Chu was completely offline.

Fourth Cub rubbed his head against the leaves, then picked up the branch and left.

Early the next morning, Ning Chu woke up in a daze. He felt something pressing against him and thought it was Third Cub, but when he opened his eyes, he saw Third Cub sleeping on his pillow.

Ning Chu rubbed his eyes and looked down, facing a dark green egg on the blanket.