Dragon Tamer

Li Yunzi’s sculpture and portrait, it’s unknown which master crafted them, amazed countless people in the Ancestral Dragon City and kindled the springtime fantasies of many young men, even leading to the emergence of obsessives like Luo Xiao with their twisted psyches.

Lei Feiming was just one of them.

Unlike those who merely satisfied their curiosity and fantasies, each of his collected portraits was dignified and holy, like a frosty and immaculate Celestial Maiden, devoid of those unspeakable versions circulating in the market.

It was apparent that, in his heart, Lei Feiming had enshrined someone as a supreme faith.

With that, murderous intent began to coalesce within him.

After sparing his life—now reduced to a broken man—Zhu Minglang stepped out of the room and couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.

How many more people like this were there in this city-state?

This made Zhu Minglang recall a line from ‘Jianjia’: “The so-called beloved is on the other side of the water, I follow her up the stream, the path obstructed and long.”

Having witnessed Li Yunzi’s quelling of the Wutu uprising, Zhu Minglang realized that she was even more extraordinary than he had imagined, and her ability to endure humiliation and rebuild herself had elevated her status within the Ancestral Dragon City.

Whether it was Li Yunzi’s real enemies or those who harbored hatred from unrequited love, Zhu Minglang knew they would all come after him.

Among these, there were definitely powerful individuals who were more than just Lei Feiming with his Peak Candle Dragon.

“Until Little White Qi comes of age, I must guard against these venomous fangs.”

Regardless of the madness, one must never let down their guard, especially since from today on, there would be even more people eyeing him.

The night was deep and still when frost began to form in the overgrown yard, and the pond full of water ferns slowly developed a layer of ice.

Suddenly an unusual breeze swept through, and the ice on the pond cracked open, revealing one pattern after another.

The room was dimly lit, and only the towers on the nearby State Wall illuminated the outlines of the furniture, the screen, and the bed inside…

The room was tightly closed, but the successive paintings on the wall began to flutter without wind, making a sound like flipping book pages.

Lei Feiming, half-asleep, saw the large mural on the wall in the darkness, where the woman’s proud figure seemed to emit a moonlit glow even in the gloom.

Lei Feiming rubbed his eyes, thinking he was hallucinating, for it seemed that the person in the painting floated down from the canvas and was taking steps toward him.

“Swoosh!”

The beauty in the painting had a sword in hand, and without warning, she thrust it forward, the inky sword piercing through Lei Feiming’s throat!

Lei Feiming couldn’t believe his eyes as the ink-formed beauty came to life from the painting, nor could he accept that his adored deity had stabbed him with a sword.

As blood began to spill from his throat and shock filled his eyes, even in his dying moments, he couldn’t understand why he was being killed by the pure and holy woman in the portraits he had collected.

The shadowy figure pulled out the ink sword, her graceful silhouette gradually drifting backward, but as she re-entered the huge canvas, she suddenly melted away like disarrayed smudges of ink, trickling slowly down the white canvas…

The night was silent, the courtyard desolate, and all the portraits inside the house ceased fluttering, returning to their original tranquility.

Lei Feiming lay in his blood, which spread across the floor along with the ink.

Zhu Minglang returned to the Dragon Taming Academy and headed towards the Reserve Dragon Storage Hall, where he found the young dragon had recovered well; it was playfully chasing other Juvenile Spirits in the hall…

Seeing Zhu Minglang appear, the dragon whelp—yet unfledged—ran towards him, displaying a dependent demeanor.

“I haven’t named you yet,” said Zhu Minglang.

“Woof woof—” The young dragon seemed to understand, looking expectantly at Zhu Minglang. “Greenie?” “Woof woof!”

“Mung Bean??”

“Woof woof woof!!” The young dragon felt like crying; even without understanding human languages, it thought these names sounded dreadful!

“Qing Zhuo? Naming is a tedious task, and after all, a name is just a label. Choose one from these three: Greenie, Mung Bean, Qing Zhuo,” Zhu Minglang said to the little creature.

The little dragon opened its vertical pupils, identical to its mother’s, their green irises filled with bewilderment.

Was there really a need to choose with such bullying of children?

“Fine, Qing Zhuo it is. If you undergo metamorphosis and change to blue or purple later on, we’ll change your name to Blue Zhuo or Purple Zhuo…” Zhu Minglang, seeing the young dragon pleased with the name he picked, couldn’t help but smile.

“For now, head into the Spirit Realm. Nanmu Juice is hard to find, so you’ll drink some fruit juice to grow quickly and become healthy, ” Zhu Minglang continued.

The youngster entered the Spirit Realm and saw Big Black Tooth and Little White Qi.

Zhu Minglang introduced himself, and soon three dragons in his Spirit Realm started to voice their discontent at the same time.

Could there be a more perfunctory master? Couldn’t he put a little heart into naming them? Would he go on to complete the set of all different colors if he adds more family members in the future?

Actually, Zhu Minglang did have such plans in mind.

He had prioritized adding dragons of red, blue, yellow, and other colors, aspiring to have an orderly and complete set of names for his dragons!

However, the limit on Spirit Contracts had already been reached.

To open new Spirit Contracts, he’d need some rare Heavenly Essence and Earthly Splendor, and in a place like the Ancestral Dragon City, any treasure that could increase Spirit Contracts would be fiercely bid upon…

Now that Bai Qi had awakened his Azure Dragon Mystics on his own, Zhu Minglang no longer needed to worry about buying expensive Dragon Balls.

There was still a large sum of alimony from Qing Zhuo’s mother, which could be used to accelerate Bai Qi’s growth so he could reach adulthood faster, and to properly raise Little Qingzhuo.

Even Mr. Wu felt that Little Qingzhuo was extraordinary, and its strength was definitely worth looking forward to.

If he could add another dragon to his fold in a short time, he could actively seek out Luo Xiao and deal with this malignant tumor!

Killing Ke Bei and severely injuring Duan Lan—Zhu Minglang wouldn’t forget these grudges so easily.

On his way back to his residence, he walked through a bamboo forest that was evergreen all year round. The tall and slender bamboos gently swayed in the cold night, occasionally emitting soft rustling sounds that soothed the spirit.

The sound of the bamboo forest was most calming to the mind, and Zhu Minglang also liked the bamboo forest.

In the forest stood a solitary pavilion with a viewing platform. From Zhu Minglang’s perspective, he could just make out the warm light of a lantern on the platform.

Under the light of the lantern was a graceful woman holding a brush, elegantly painting.

Bamboos, lantern light, and the beauty made the bitterly cold winter night suddenly bright and warm, as if it had gained an indescribable amount of color.

Zhu Minglang stood on the pathway in the bamboo forest, his gaze lingering on the flexible bamboos for a while.

“Painting at night?”

A small puzzle stirred in his mind, but upon further thought, perhaps she was merely practicing and not intending to depict the pitch-black bamboo forest.

Zhu Minglang did not disturb the woman’s artistic indulgence and continued to walk forward.

He actually knew her a little; she had accompanied him in an act of mutual affection that very afternoon.

He had heard that Nan Lingsha was one of the painters at the Dragon Taming Academy. Now, seeing her painting here, Zhu Minglang didn’t find it strange at all, as long as she wasn’t drawing some bizarre ritualistic picture and cursing him by adding his name to it.

Pretending not to see, he hurried on his way, like a scholar walking at night who suddenly sees a lovely silhouette by the roadside. Thinking that such serendipitous encounters are rare in life and often not a good sign, he chose to act as if he were blind.

But Nan Lingsha saw Zhu Minglang. It seemed she had finished her painting, putting her brush down, and watched Zhu Minglang’s retreating figure from afar. Her clear beautiful eyes held no ripples, making it impossible to discern her inner emotions.

Just as Zhu Minglang was about to walk away, suddenly, a small creature resembling a green puppy darted out from Zhu Minglang’s direction, weaved through the bamboo forest, and agilely leaped onto the platform where Nan Lingsha was. The small dragon with green vertical pupils carefully sized up the beautiful woman before it, making sure she did not exhibit any hostility, before it confidently began to lick the blue-green pigment used for painting.

This pigment was clearly not real ink but a kind of leaf extract. It emitted a unique fragrance and had a particularly special color.

The pigments were neatly arranged in a row, with more than a dozen different colors, but the blue-green leaf extract was this little creature’s favorite. Once again, the dragon lifted its head to confirm the gentle and graceful human big sister would not attack it, and then it licked the pigment used for painting without any worries.

“Thump, thump, thump, thump…”

The sound of footsteps came from the staircase on the side; Zhu Minglang followed the sound and saw Little Qingzhuo drinking someone’s painting pigment, which turned his face black with dismay.

Bai Qi liked to drink nectar.

Big Black Tooth relished fatty meat.

And you, little one, fancy paint pigment? What kind of taste is that?!

This was indeed troubling for a Dragon Shepherd!

“Sorry, sorry, ” Zhu Minglang apologized awkwardly as he walked forward and picked up the mischievous little creature.

“That’s Nanmu Juice. Let it drink,” Nan Lingsha said indifferently.

“Juice?” Zhu Minglang was surprised and leaned in to sniff; indeed, it had a fragrant woodsy scent, but it was far from being pleasant and tasty.

“Where did this dragon come from?” Nan Lingsha inquired.

“From the forest, the one to the north, where the Ancient Pine Forest is, there’s a Dragon Cliff,” Zhu Minglang responded, “Do you recognize this dragon? Its life plan is a bit confusing to me, and the books don’t seem to have records of its bloodline or species.”

Since Nan Lingsha was the young lady of the Nan family, she was not unfamiliar with dragons.

Little Qingzhuo was neither a Green Forest Dragon nor a Forest Giant Dragon, but it clearly belonged to that family tree. Zhu Minglang had asked Mr. Wu, but he too had told him to ask someone from the Nan family.

Zhu Minglang had asked Nan Ye, who knew nothing, and now that he had met Nan Lingsha, whether by coincidence or not, he hoped she could help clear up his confusion..