Chapter 46: Before the descent of the moon

The light from the moon shone onto his deep brown skin. Fine white hair grew from behind his pointy ears. His handsome facial features weren’t much different from those of humans, except for the strange, white patterns that grew on his face, which began from the forehead and sprouted outwards like a lily.

The hair was like a white flame, and he had white soul-burning eyes. When in the presence of a crowd, this appearance would definitely make people take a sidelong glance.

The strange-looking man kneeled down on one knee, with one hand pressed against the center of the array on the ground. When the five fingers dug into the soil, a circle of shallow radiance flared out from the surroundings. Following that, the faint moonlight seemed to be attracted by something, and even converged in great magnitudes towards the patterned arrays that were carved with simplicity into the soil by a sword.

The moonlight was absorbed into those patterns, and also seemed to be absorbed into the pale white eyes of the man. He chanted quickly in a low voice, in a language that no one present was able to understand. Accompanying his voice, the moonlight that converged on the arrays began to fluctuate like the waves.

A vortex gradually formed at the center of the moonlight, as if it was attracting something.

Yi Longlong stood on top of the desk as she struggled to grasp the pen that was almost like a pole in her paws. She brandished it and slowly wrote words onto the white sheet of paper.

Today, she had memorized another fifty words. Based on this rate of progress, perhaps in a few months, she will be able to roughly read the texts of this world.

She borrowed a book from the temple’s library to use as a copybook. Yi Longlong wrote down the words she had just remembered in a serious manner. Although learning a different language wasn’t an easy matter, through the success of hard work, it still brought pleasure and joy to the young dragon who was once a person.

In the past when she was inside the hospital, Yi Longlong had also taught herself English, but very soon after, she lacked the patience and gave up.

To Yi Longlong back then, English studies were not a necessity as she lived in a Chinese environment. She who lingered on a sickbed also didn’t have to contend with the College English Test¹. Naturally, she had studied without being under any pressure and also without aims, but now it was different.

If she didn’t have a grasp on the texts of this world, it would bring a lot of inconveniences to her from then on, therefore Yi Longlong studied very hard and also very seriously. She not only memorized the meaning of every single word, she even repeatedly practiced writing them on paper.

Due to her paws being too small, and the pen provided by the holy temple also being too thick, in addition to the round characters used in the books of the temple, it resulted in her ugly but not to the point of being unrecognizable writing. However, every character was fat and round. The whole lines of text were crooked, making it look as if the whole section was about to revolt and roll off the page.

After writing down another letter that was as round as a balloon, Yi Longlong put down her pen in frustration and in passing rubbed the ink that dirtied her paws onto the paper. She stuck out her paws and took a stretch, planning to end it there for the day.

And at this point of time, a light gust of wind seemed to blow inside the sealed room. Yi Longlong was startled. She heard someone softly chanting by her ears.

Those chants seemed to have an intense pulling power, summoning her to go somewhere else.

*********

While she watched the white-haired man perform, Leina explained to the companion who was beside her. “Is this your first time seeing Beastmaster do a summoning? Since birth, Beastmaster possessed the blood of ancient mythical beasts and can communicate with beast-kinds. In recent years, he has developed another new technique that can summon the wild beasts that are within a set vicinity using the wild beast totem. What he is currently summoning is a beast with a rather high level intellect. Hopefully we can get some news from it.”

Usually speaking, in the sea of trees, regardless of beasts or monsters, those that are rather powerful all possess their own territories. That beast is then the king of that piece of territory. They may perhaps be able to find out whether Eric had passed by those places.

In order to receive the whereabouts of Eric, they didn’t just have to resort to searching every corner in the forest. Finding and asking the wild beasts in different territories was also another method.

This was the underlying advantage in regards to the search and survival in the sea of trees that Leina and the others had.

The reason the remaining five people stood apart was to take precautionary measures in the event an extremely powerful beast was summoned. They could then use force to deal with it at any time.

While staring at the swirling moonlight, Leina lightly spoke, “The greatest area of effect that Beastmaster’s summon can reach is a hundred fifty kilometers…” She acutely discovered there was something not quite right with the expression on the white-haired man. She then stopped her explanations and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Beastmaster wrinkled his brows. “It’s as if… there’s something a bit strange… some obstruction has appeared…”

A strenuous ferocity suddenly appeared on his brows. The five fingers that were pressed against the dirt became claws, and as the chants poured forth from his mouth, the fine hair behind his ears began to gradually grow longer.

**************

Yi Longlong watched in a panic. A radiance like the moonlight actually appeared around her own body. Those lights swam around in circles, as if it wanted to wrap around her.

“Wh-What is this?”

These things, where did they come from?

She tried moving her paws and found out she could still move. Yi Longlong became relieved, but just as she was about to run back to the desk, she discovered her body heading backwards against its will.

“What’s with this?”

The unexpected situation scared Yi Longlong to the extent of not knowing what to do. She could only reach her paws out towards Lin Qi and call for help. “Lin Qi, quick, come help out.”

Lin Qi heard Yi Longlong calling and swiftly ran out from the bedroom. Without caring about what had happened, he opened his arms and hugged Yi Longlong’s body.

Without delay, without hesitation.

Also at this time, the chants that echoed by her ears seemed to transform into the roars of countless beasts. The moonlight instantly turned abnormally strong. It became a great vortex, enveloping the two people together.

The following day, when the apprentice priest came over to deliver a meal, he only saw an empty room and the childish writing and paw prints on the paper that was left on the floor.

Fwump.

“Ah!”

Along with the sound of falling and a sound similar to a child’s scream, Leina and the others discovered to their surprise that there, in place of what was supposed to be the summoned beast, sat an unusually elegant youth. And in the arms of the youth, there was a white, clothes-wearing… young dragon.

Exposed in full view of a crowd.