As they crossed the wasteland piled with bones, she clearly saw the towering ruins of the palaces.
At the very front was a magnificent cliff face hundreds of meters high, carved into the shape of an arch. After the erosion of time and war, it was covered with dark moss and bizarre crystals.
Among the mottled and broken stones, shining golden veins could faintly be seen in the rock crevices, a spectacle formed after molten gold was poured into the mountain rock.
Su Cheng looked up at the eerie texture of intertwined black and gold.
Under the dark, hazy sky, the exposed cliff was uneven, and the dark golden threads flowed faintly like living creatures, resembling tears seeping from the rock.
"...What is this? Gold?"
"Yes."
Kai was also gazing at the golden veins on the mountain.
The once brilliant and dazzling veins were now covered in a dirty dark gray, as if polluted by some power, all becoming dim.
It was no different from the tone of this entire canyon.
Right in the middle of the arched cliff face, there was also a huge stone carving of a roaring dragon's head. Most of the head had collapsed, leaving only a hollow eye socket on one side.
Clusters of twisted crystal piles grew out of that hole. From a distance, it looked like a sickly flower branch trying to stretch towards the sky.
"...I often read in stories that high-level dragons like gold."
Su Cheng sighed, "I thought they would pile it up in a palace and then lie on it to sleep or something."
Kai glanced at her. "Some indeed do that. But this place was also once the 'courtyard' of a certain dragon. He was just using gold to decorate his territory, so it's actually the same thing."
Su Cheng looked at the surrounding valley, "...Then, do you like it too?"
"What?"
"I mean, gold, or other jewelry."
"Hmm?" Kai looked down at her, "What if I do?"
"Then," Su Cheng met those piercing golden eyes, her tongue suddenly a little tied, "I still have a lot of gold, I can lend it to you to decorate your house? You usually spend money so lavishly, you definitely don't have much savings..."
After saying that, she paused.
"Wait..."
Behind that arch-like cliff, there was a broken sky ladder corridor.
In the damaged vault, densely packed gems were inlaid, and the crystal layer was several feet thick. The colorful rare ores were like twinkling stars, hanging upside down in that shattered galaxy.
Most of that corridor had collapsed, and the gems were scattered on the ground like falling snow, all covered with thick dust and inexplicable dark gray dirt.
Su Cheng couldn't help but look at the wreckage. "There should be a lot of valuable things in there. Can we pry them out?"
After she spoke, she felt that this proposal seemed a bit wicked.
"...If you need them," Kai pondered for a moment, "it should be fine, but they are all polluted, and it will take some time to clean them up."
He paused, "And ordinary people would probably die just by touching them."
Su Cheng's face darkened with exasperation. "I was saying if you wanted them. I'm not short of money right now..."
"I don't really feel much about these," Kai smiled, his eyes seeming to soften a bit more. "If you see something you like, just say it, and I can clean them up for you."
Su Cheng had absolutely no appreciation for jewelry and ores, and could hardly distinguish between those rare materials and ordinary gems, so she could only look at the scenery.
Until she caught a glimpse of a bright light in the ruins of gravel and walls.
"What is that?"
"...It's Skycloud Crystal."
Kai pulled out a heavy stone slab from the crevices of the wreckage. The material was a rich teal green, and it still looked gorgeous even covered in dust.
The stone slab was exquisitely crafted, with smoothly polished edges and finely and neatly engraved runes. It was obviously the work of a skilled craftsman.
It looked only a little larger than an ordinary book.
Su Cheng: "Would dragon craftsmen make such small things?"
Kai shook his head slightly, "Dragons don't have craftsmen, or rather, they don't have professions. Many dragons are well-versed in techniques like forging, smelting, and polishing, but they usually only serve themselves."
The race at the top of the food chain did not need to choose a profession to make money for a living. Even newly hatched dragons could suppress most beasts.
Therefore, even without the care of their parents, they could grow up on their own.
"...We are discussing true dragons, right?" Su Cheng raised her hand. "Wyverns and sub-dragons seem to be relatively weak right after birth?"
"Yes," Kai looked at her helplessly, "We are talking about dragons with craftsmanship skills who can forge works with their own hands. As far as I know, wyverns and sub-dragons cannot do that."
Su Cheng silently looked at the stone slab in his hand.
Right in the middle was a picture engraved with a majestic dragon with half-spread wings. He was coiled on the roof of a temple, and below were countless tiny human silhouettes. They were not fleeing or fighting, but had their arms raised high in a pose of reverence, like believers praying to a deity.
She narrowed her eyes at the inscription around the stone slab, "What does it say on this? And it doesn't seem to be Ancient Human?"
Although she hadn't mastered the Ancient Human language, she had seen it several times, usually in places related to deities.
But the writing style of this text looked even more complicated.
"...This is the dragon language."
Kai lowered his eyes to look at the stone slab. "To the Spine of the Heavens, the Lord of the Ley Lines, the Heart of Ten Thousand Mountains, the supreme Carniovon, we offer the first ripened grains and the purest mithril, praying that your scaly wings will protect our clan, grant us wisdom, and keep us away from famine and disasters..."
He paused and tapped the edge of the stone slab with his finger. There was a notch there, and a certain word was cut off as a result.
"This should be 'people'. I guess."
Su Cheng: "?"
Su Cheng carefully examined the densely packed human figures below the stone slab. "So they were praying to the dragons? Uh, that sounds like an ancient dragon, so that's the Rock Dragon King? Wait, are these little people below humans?"
Humans were once believers of dragons?
There was no such record in history; the earliest history books only traced back to the era before the God of Light.
It was said to be a chaotic and ignorant time, with years of war among the nations and city-states of the northern and southern continents, until the two supreme gods descended.
As for whether the appearance of the Gods of Light and Darkness made things better or worse, that was a matter of opinion.
"Wait a minute," memories of the ruins of Mitheros surfaced in Su Cheng's mind. "Current history books, well, only a very few books mention that the ancient dragons perished to fight against the evil gods in the void. In other places, they at most mention that ancient dragons are the ancestors of true dragons. In short, no one ever said that ancient dragons were once the faith of humans. Is this also a conspiracy of the God of Light and the Church?"
No.
I'm afraid it's not just the God of Light.
Many territories in the Southern Continent are under the control of the Secret Cult of Eternal Night. If the God of Darkness wanted to reveal this past, it couldn't have been kept hidden.
"...Neither the God of Light nor the God of Darkness wants people to know the truth of this history?"
Su Cheng looked at the stone slab again. "Or perhaps these 'believers' aren't human? Could they be elves or dwarves? After all, there are only blurry silhouettes here; you can't tell their race at all."
Kai did not answer her.
She figured he probably didn't know the answer either.
Su Cheng looked up. "Are any of your ancestors here?"
Kai paused for a moment, then let out a soft chuckle. "No."
Su Cheng was suddenly intrigued. "Are you absolutely sure about that?"
As far as she knew, many dragonborn couldn't trace their lineage. Many who didn't inherit the physical traits of a dragon might go their entire lives without knowing they had dragon blood.
Although their power was innate, most of the time it just lay dormant in their veins, only igniting when the time was right.
Dragonborn often didn't even know they were dragonborn, let alone try to trace the source of their bloodline.
At most, they could determine a certain elemental affinity.
Su Cheng blinked. "Is it because the ancient dragons and giant dragons that died here have a different affinity from yours? Wait, what is your affinity?"
This so-called affinity actually referred to their elemental nature. Ancient dragons were categorized by natural elements, and naturally, giant dragons were the same.
The color of their scales varied depending on their element.
Of course, in principle, these higher dragons could use all types of elemental magic, but they always had a core elemental magic that they were most proficient in.
Su Cheng asked, "I don't think I've ever seen you use elemental magic...?"
Kai fell silent for a moment. "If you want to know about my past, I can tell you. It's just that, right now, there are still some things I haven't figured out myself."
He lifted the girl in his arms slightly higher, looking directly into those clear amber eyes.
"I originally wanted to wait until the day... when I could give you a complete story, before telling you, rather than like this."
Su Cheng looked at him in surprise.
"I," she was almost tongue-tied. "I don't necessarily have to know right now. I was just a little curious. You can do whatever you think is best. If there's anything you feel you can share, I'm always willing to listen."
Kai slowly lowered his head.
Su Cheng suddenly felt inexplicably nervous.
Until their foreheads touched.
His body temperature was noticeably lower than hers. Even through her bangs, she could feel a distinct coolness, like some massive cold-blooded animal.
However—
She could see those golden eyes that seemed cold and fierce, yet held a gentle affection.
Every fractured line on his irises looked like an ancient sun burning silently, flowing and curling slowly with every faint breath, like a fire that was both scorching and freezing.
Those two vertical pupils, pitch-black like swords, contracted into narrow slits, while the golden patterns beside them were like gathered tongues of flame, licking and churning on both sides of the blades.
His eyelashes were thick and long, a rich, ink-like black, curling up in distinct arcs layer by layer, giving those beast-like eyes a touch of humanity.
They even looked incredibly affectionate.
Su Cheng heard her own frantic heartbeat.
"...My past is a mess."
He said softly, "I don't know where to begin."
Su Cheng blinked. "I was just asking. What kind of mess do you mean? The kind where you've been married many times, or went bankrupt from a failed business, or got involved in the struggles between the Church and the secret cults? Well, it doesn't really matter, I don't care anyway. Look at me, isn't my life a mess too? I carry this baffling curse and have done so many inexplicable things—"
"No, none of those," Kai seemed amused by her. "And you are wonderful. You are brave and persevering, and you are always so full of vitality. Seeing you often makes me feel happy and at peace."
Su Cheng was stunned for a moment. "Really?"
They gazed at each other in the dead, silent canyon, the air still thick with the scent of decay.
Yet, she could feel a certain joyful sweetness sprouting and bursting forth from within her chest.
