Chapter 264
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 264
Chapter Title: Let's Test It
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She was walking.
Through the dense jungle.
Staggering as if she might collapse at any moment.
Yet stubbornly refusing to fall.
Hiss.
Having shed her outer garment that blocked the poison, everything within dozens of meters rotted and melted away with each step she took.
On the flip side, rampaging psionic energy caused mutations in her wake, sprouting fresh new vegetation.
Normally, she would have balanced it to minimize the impact.
But she no longer had the capacity or will to control her own psionic power.
Ambrosia's poison.
The aftereffects of the Reverse Blood Great Law.
The internal injuries inflicted by Gula.
All of it worsened her seizures, clouding her consciousness.
If she weren't the Green Dragon Princess, possessor of the sturdiest flesh among the Dragon heirs, she would have collapsed long ago.
But even that had reached its limit.
Having fled without rest in her already dire state, the backlash was gnawing away at her relentlessly.
Her green eyes had lost all focus.
Her vision was blurry.
Her head burned like fire.
Her body, by contrast, was ice-cold.
Her limbs were stiff as wooden stumps.
The tearing pain throughout her body had long since faded.
What moved her now was an unconscious instinct.
'I can't die yet.'
This wasn't some commonplace survival instinct every creature possessed.
As a princess inheriting essence blood from the Seven Dragons, her instinct forcibly propelled her body beyond its limits.
'I must... pass on the essence blood.'
The bloodline continued for nearly a millennium.
The essence blood could not be severed.
Death itself was forbidden until heirs were secured.
Such was the fate of the Seven Dragon Society's seven princesses, bearers of the world's most noble lineage.
Thump.
"Cough...!"
It happened in that instant.
Her body finally hit its absolute limit.
Her heart pounded wildly, and a boiling sensation surged through her cooling blood.
Agonizing pain returned alongside her long-lost sense of feeling.
Her bones and organs twisted, muscles and flesh tore apart as if something would burst forth—she finally crumbled.
Thud.
The ground was already saturated with poison.
Poisonous plant debris splashed onto her limp body, staining her milky skin.
But Maia paid it no mind.
She simply wrapped her arms around herself, suppressing the madly rampaging psionic energy and throbbing pain.
'No...'
Even in her hazy consciousness, she thought.
She had to endure somehow.
Otherwise, it would be dangerous.
She had no rationality left.
Not even instinct.
The habit of suppressing herself her entire life barely held back the psionic rampage.
It was a recklessly defiant struggle.
If she were at full strength, perhaps—but in her utterly depleted state, she lacked the stamina or mental fortitude to sustain herself.
And so, that resistance finally crumbled.
Just as her psionic power swelled beyond even a princess's body could contain and threatened to explode—
Plop.
Something dropped with a soft plop.
A fragrance brushed her nose.
Amid the brutal battle that had shredded even her clothes,
a flower that had modestly clung to her hair throughout her trek through the jungle.
As she writhed, it fell—and in that moment, an impossibly faint fragrance emanated from it, seeping into her body.
The surging psionic flow halted abruptly.
As if intoxicated by the scent.
Or reassured by something.
The psionic energy calmed, as if its earlier ferocity had been a lie.
The seizure subsided, the pain ebbed.
In the face of such sudden tranquility that rendered her desperate struggle pointless, Maia finally lost consciousness.
In a space where animals had long fled, insects watched from afar, and even the earth and air lay dead.
Clutching a stone flower preciously.
The Seven Dragon Society's most solitary princess thus fell into a sleep as deep and heavy as death.
...Unaware that the pursuer who had doggedly tracked her was now right before her.
The massive man absentmindedly raised a hand.
Gula barely stopped himself just before touching his left cheek.
He glared ferociously at his hand, then crammed the hamburger from his other hand into his mouth, chewing viciously before speaking.
"Hey, old man Diego."
"Yes, my lord..."
"What did I order you to do?"
"You commanded me to find the Green Dragon Princess at any cost..."
"Good. Looks like my memory's intact."
Gula nodded with profound satisfaction.
But only briefly.
"...So why isn't that damn bitch in front of me right now? What, did you lock her in some invisible prison I can't see?"
His tone was casually curious.
Diego fell silent under Gula's rage-distorted glare before answering.
"The Green Dragon Clan's escape caused chaos, delaying the pursuit team's formation..."
"And?"
"Plus, as you know, the Amazon makes tracking difficult..."
"And?"
"Still, we mobilized everyone to comb the jungle and found traces, so with a bit more time—"
"What does that have to do with anything!"
Bang!
Gula slammed the table.
It shattered instantly under his lordly superhuman strength.
Dishes shattered amid the deluge of gourmet delicacies as Gula bellowed in fury.
"I don't need excuses! Just tell me if you caught that bitch as ordered or not!"
"...My apologies."
"Apologies my ass! When I give an order, you stake your life on it!"
It was less a shout than a beast's roar.
His blazing eyes held madness beyond mere anger.
"You think a single 'sorry' cuts it? You think I'm that much of a pushover, you damn old fart?!"
"My lord, please calm—"
"Shut your trap!"
Wham!
Gula kicked food from the floor onto Diego.
Gnashing his teeth, he snarled.
"I ended up like this beating that wench half to death, and you can't even catch a dying one? And you tell me to calm down!?"
His left hand, missing fingers.
Bandages wrapping half his face.
Wounds still oozing blood.
In a state unfit for anything but a hospital, Gula ground his teeth.
Despite digging thorough traps and deploying giants for overwhelming superiority—unlike before.
Not only had he suffered massive injuries against Maia, but he'd let her escape. That fact drove him mad.
"Consider yourself lucky, old man Diego."
Thus, Gula fixed the elder with a murderous glare.
"If you weren't the only one who can make Ambrosia, you'd be paying for letting her slip away."
"...I am grateful for your merciful leniency."
Gula meant it—he'd have killed him otherwise.
He growled a command at the bowed elder.
"If you're grateful, find that bitch by any means and drag her before me. Dead or alive!"
He preferred her alive for humiliation, but if capture proved impossible, he'd desecrate her corpse.
Diego bowed to Gula's sinister order.
"Understood. As you command..."
"My lord! Urgent report!"
Then, a guild member burst through the door.
Gula, already berserk with rage, bulged veins at the intrusion—like a special agent storming a gang hideout.
"You bastard, who said you could barge in? This your bedroom?!"
"It's really urgent—"
"Urgent my ass! Unless you've found that bitch, you're dead by my hand."
Gula clenched his fist.
Ready to follow through like a true lord.
But the guild member's next shout forced him to unclench.
"We found her!"
"What?"
"We found the Green Dragon Princess...?"
Diego looked stunned.
Unlike the elder, Gula eyed the guild member with glee and anticipation.
"Where? Where's that bitch?!"
"Well..."
The guild member hesitated.
He'd rushed here fearing lightning later if delayed.
Now, facing Gula's killing intent, he worried for his neck.
But he couldn't withhold the report now.
Praying Gula's wrath bypassed him, he spoke.
"S-São Paulo."
"...Where?"
"We confirmed the Green Dragon Princess entered Quetzalcoatl HQ. The Green Dragon Clan must've secretly rescued her from the jungle."
"No way...!"
Diego couldn't hide his disbelief.
Having led the pursuit, he couldn't accept Maia's jungle escape.
But Gula neither raged nor thrilled at the news.
He just wore a wicked grin.
"Heh, perfect. Two birds with one stone—exactly what I needed."
Gula extended a hand.
He snatched a roast duck from the floor, dust and all, devouring it whole.
Crunch, crunch.
As if fed into a grinder.
The moment the roast duck entered his mouth—
A miracle occurred.
His bleeding wounds healed rapidly; fingers regenerated on his missing left hand.
Fish steaks the size of forearms, meat pies, skewers, fruit.
Wasting no time on new dishes,
he devoured every edible scrap from the floor. By then, his left hand was fully restored.
Just darker, more crimson-black than before.
"Diego, prepare the 'troops.'"
Gula flexed his regenerated hand and spoke lowly.
A chilling smile spread as he continued.
"I'll test what face she'll make when I crush Quetzalcoatl before her eyes and rape and tear her clan apart."
"Has the gang started moving?"
"Yes. All connected to or suspected of ties with Forest Guild."
At Quetzalcoatl HQ's rooftop.
In the aerial garden Rimon had refined to perfection, Li Chingwei smiled faintly.
"Right on plan."
"Thanks to your foresight, Princess."
"Not quite foresight. Anyone knows greedy fish bite bait on a hook."
"...Wise words."
She gave a wry smile.
The plan was simple enough.
Let the monster lord know Maia was here, and he'd charge in blind with rage.
Treating that monster as mere fish—nay, reeling him in like an angler—was a notion only Li Chingwei could conceive.