Echoes of the Dragon God
The story was vague in its authenticity and omitted a great many details. Yet if it was all true, the information it contained was profoundly significant—and above all else, incredibly fascinating.
Should this be called an invasion, or simply the inevitable friction that arises when two entirely different civilizations make contact?
Among the forces from other universes, the one that had gained the most notoriety in this cosmos seemed to be none other than the so-called Golden Rule. The fact that even Han Yujin himself had heard the name multiple times was proof enough of its fame.
And now, at last, he had learned a little about the master of that Golden Rule.
The being was known as Raon, the Spacetime Observer. Naturally, he was a transcendent at the Incarnation Stage, and according to the account, he appeared to be more terrifying than any other transcendent.
To track down an opponent’s past, find the moment when they were at their weakest, and kill them there…
It was difficult even to imagine what kind of attack that would feel like.
Even more shocking was the detail that the killer didn’t necessarily need to confront the target in person. Merely knowing an acquaintance of the target or locating a place where the target had once stayed was apparently enough to peer into the past and encounter them. Once you became their enemy, there was simply no way to hide or escape.
If this is true, then he’s an utterly insane son of a bitch.
As he marveled at the idea, Han Yujin suddenly shook his head and composed his thoughts with reverence.
My admiration was far too crude. He truly is an extraordinary individual.
The incident that had made the Spacetime Observer’s terrifying ability known to the world was, of course, no trivial matter. It was the cataclysmic collapse of Mirage Canyon, once one of the largest and most powerful factions in the Magic Sanctuary.
The master of that canyon had also been a mage at the Incarnation Stage, yet he had vanished without a trace afterward.
It really was an extraordinarily interesting tale.
But in truth, the most important point in the story lay elsewhere. It was the claim that this contact from another universe had triggered massive changes across this cosmos as well.
The exact nature of those changes was not clearly mentioned—the author of the journal seemed unaware of the specifics—but it had apparently affected not only the Magic Sanctuary but also the Primordial Sanctuary, the Divine Demon Sanctuary, and even the Immortal Path Sanctuary.
I wonder if it reached the Luminous Sanctuary too.
It felt strangely disappointing that it hadn’t been mentioned.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, he sensed one of the students shattering their emergency signal jade token.
Immediately, Han Yujin closed his eyes and focused. When he opened them again, they gleamed with the power of the Yin-Yang True Dragon Eye. He took a single step forward.
Right before his foot touched the ground, a strand of divine sense pierced the space nearby, leaving behind coordinates for his return. Then, wrapped in the light of the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art, his body shot forward as if piercing through spacetime itself.
In that single step, he appeared directly beside a female hunter who was in mortal danger.
The moment he arrived, the Soul-Absorbing Five Lotus Wine Bottle—somehow already in his hand—pointed at the three monsters. A tremendous roar erupted.
The monsters never even had time to scream. They let out only a single stifled groan before drying up like mummies and crumbling into dust.
The lotus-shaped bloom of light that had risen from their bodies scattered and vanished.
Han Yujin handed the Taiwanese female hunter another emergency signal jade token and a protective earth talisman.
“…Y-yes, sir!”
He was about to return to his original position when he noticed one of the students. The girl looked stunned by how quickly help had arrived, deeply moved, yet also regretful and frustrated that she had failed the test. He spoke to her gently.
“…Y-yes! You’re right!”
Only then did she realize she had been comforted. Her face bloomed into a bright smile.
She was already quite cute, and seeing such a lovely young woman smile like that was rather pleasant, he thought.
“Um…! If it’s not too rude, could I perhaps get your num—?!”
Before she could finish, Han Yujin’s figure was once again enveloped in the light of the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art and shot through spacetime. He was heading for the strand of divine sense he had planted just before departing.
Back inside the Great Rift, he clicked his tongue.
Tsk, these kids these days…!
A mere fledgling daring to ask for the phone number of Won Young-jin—how utterly audacious.
Things definitely hadn’t been like this in his day, so no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t help but click his tongue again. Then he felt a gaze upon him and looked down. Mu-yong, nestled in his robe, was staring at him intently.
“What?”
…Jjik! Jjik?
“What are you looking at me like that for…! I would have done the same even if it had been a guy!”
It had simply been a few words of encouragement. Was there any better way to win someone’s heart and motivate them with such excellent cost-efficiency?
After bickering with Mu-yong a little longer, he recalled the rest of the journal’s contents while gathering a large quantity of the surrounding silver lunarite ore. He planned to refine it into ingots later when he had time and examine it properly.
Once he emerged from underground, he resumed his exploration.
There was one place he absolutely had to visit while assessing the danger level of this Great Rift.
* * *
This Great Rift was certainly no easy place.
Even S-rank hunters would struggle in one-on-one combat against the Dharma Soul Stage monsters that appeared regularly. In one area, he even discovered a plant-colony type monster that had reached the Core Formation Stage.
Since it was a monster that had taken root in one spot and grown there, he chose not to deal with it. Perhaps that very trait was what had allowed it to become so powerful. Once humanity on Earth grew stronger, they could hunt it themselves and gain valuable experience.
During his exploration, the emergency rescue signals came only twice more.
And even those two instances seemed less like student error and more like simple bad luck.
No matter how precisely he used divine sense as coordinates, leaping across spacetime from inside the Great Rift to the outside was quite difficult. If the calls had come more frequently, he might have had to abandon the exploration midway.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Since the test was scheduled to last several days, he didn’t rush and was still able to locate the place he sought.
If only the journal had been a bit more detailed, I would have found it faster.
Though he grumbled inwardly, he refrained from cursing the journal’s author any further.
Hovering in the air thanks to the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art, the sight beneath his feet was a wide yet cozy terrain that resembled a basin nestled within a canyon. At the center of that basin, half-collapsed among lush vegetation, stood a building heavily marked by the passage of time.
It was clearly not a structure built by ordinary humans. It was enormous, and even the design of its entrance was subtly different.
A dragon’s lair.
This was said to be the nest of Rezaric, the dragon who had formed an alliance and exchanged knowledge with the mages of this place.
How could he not come looking? The moment he discovered it, his heart was already pounding with anticipation for the harvest.
I wonder just how strong that dragon was.
It probably hadn’t been at the Incarnation Stage, but judging from the scale, he guessed it had at least reached the equivalent of the Magister level—comparable to the Core Formation Stage.
Since it was a special location, he carefully extended his divine sense and scanned the area. Only after a thorough inspection did he move, entering the building.
By the time the light of the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art faded, he had already determined that the surface level of this structure was merely for receiving guests. All the truly important areas were hidden underground.
When the facility had been intact, it must have been protected by such an airtight magical barrier that even approaching with divine sense would have been impossible, let alone discovering it.
Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, its inhabitants had all died and vanished. Over the long years, the power of time had slowly eroded everything, until even the magical formation barrier had finally collapsed.
With curiosity and anticipation, he descended underground. As he examined the corridors and rooms one by one, a deep sense of disappointment settled over him.
Even the magical formation barrier personally installed by a dragon had weathered and crumbled. There was no way the items inside could have remained intact.
Still, it wasn’t a completely fruitless harvest. Some materials could endure no matter how many ages passed.
Those were the rock- and metal-type magical reagents.
“Oh…”
When he entered what had once been a storage room, he found beautifully crafted ingots piled into a hill tall enough to intimidate any person.
Most of them were silver lunarite, but roughly one-tenth shone with a brilliant golden hue that made his eyes widen.
Could that be orichalcum…?!
Known as the noble metal of mages, it was a supreme material with such wide-ranging uses that it was even employed in potion brewing.
It wasn’t an especially rare metal, but because it was so incredibly useful and widely consumed, its value would never drop.
Without hesitation, he stored every last one of the metal ingots inside the Mountain Sea Pearl.
A harvest that doesn’t require spending any karma! What a steal!
He was overjoyed for a moment, but soon realized these materials could not be used while adventuring in other worlds through his awakening ability. He calmed down slightly.
In that case, it would be better to reinvest all of this back into Earth to generate karma.
It would be perfect for crafting items for the students who would soon become his official disciples.
Deeper inside, he discovered yet another pleasant additional harvest: glass-steel and void crystals.
“Hah.”
These too could be reinvested into Earth later for his disciples, he thought. After confirming there were no more gains, he left the storage room.
Regrettably, there were few noteworthy finds after that.
Objects that had once been magnificent were now completely useless, their structures almost entirely collapsed. They had become nothing more than clumps of mixed materials fused together.
As he continued his exploration and reached the deepest part of the lair, he arrived at a location that clearly once had extremely tight security. It reminded him of a prayer chamber in a temple.
And on the wall of that prayer chamber was affixed a mysterious pattern crafted from pure orichalcum.
“Hmm.”
He stroked Mu-yong in his arms, wondering what it could be. Did dragons even have a faith that required daily prayers?
Then, suddenly, a strange feeling came over him.
Without realizing it, he began to focus on the pattern. Mu-yong, who was usually quiet at times like this, lifted her head with a puzzled expression, but he was so absorbed that he didn’t notice at all.
The anomaly erupted without any warning.
In the instant he recoiled in shock, the exploding light transformed into a whirlwind of dazzling colors. It bloomed magnificently, reminiscent of the universe’s Big Bang.
The colossal vortex of light fiercely sucked in his consciousness and dragged it somewhere unknown.
As he passed through a tunnel flashing in black and white, he witnessed countless cosmic scenes changing so rapidly he could barely distinguish any of them.
Blue-white and red-black spheres exploding like supernovae and splitting into pairs. Halos of light radiating endlessly from them, flooding everything with brilliance. Galactic nebulae spiraling like whirlpools, drawing in countless motes of light from every direction. An endless sea of starlight that stretched on forever no matter how far he traveled. And behind it all, an infinite void that embraced all things into boundless darkness.
Then, at a certain moment.
Something even more immense and distinct began to emerge, eclipsing all those cosmic visions.
At first, only hair appeared. Then horns and wings. Next, a tail that stirred waves across the nebulae. Finally, a pair of vertically slit eyes radiating the purest, most sacred golden light in existence fixed their gaze upon him.
"I shall gather you."
In that instant, Han Yujin instinctively knew who the being was.
The Primordial Dragon. The Dragon God of another universe. Friedrium Draconicus.
Immediately afterward.
All the visions that had been devouring his mind shattered apart with a roar as if the entire world were collapsing.
His consciousness safely returned to the prayer-chamber-like space. Before he could even process what had just happened, Han Yujin gasped deeply and staggered.
From the deepest part of his self and origin, an enormous power erupted and began to rage violently.
He had no idea where such colossal strength had been hiding, but it felt strangely familiar.
It was the pure draconic power he had sensed when he encountered Casarnox.
There was no doubt that the bloodline of the Dragon Heart remaining within him had triggered some kind of awakening through a mysterious principle.