DKIE CH25: Dragon Island

This look, has he noticed something?

Alec didn’t dare to think too deeply. Besides the demon ancestors, the current Demon King’s strength had already surpassed that of all previous Demon Kings. Especially since there were rumors in the demon world that the old Demon King was also killed by the current Demon King.

Although the demon race did not advocate for the ridiculous human concept of paternal love and filial piety, direct patricide was indeed rare.

Alec lowered his head guiltily.

A tiny movement, and the Demon King already knew.

The explosion had nothing to do with the demon servants.

He didn’t point it out on the spot, just stood there, quietly watching the law enforcement team inquire about the situation and then search the scene.

This made everyone present unsure of his intentions, especially the onlookers.

Since the accident, no high-ranking officials from the Holy City had appeared. The Demon King also didn’t seem to be demanding an explanation. Everything was shrouded in a strange atmosphere of gunpowder smoke.

“Father…” Alec called out tentatively.

The Demon King ignored him, glancing faintly in the direction of the Holy Tower. They still hadn’t caught the person, which could only mean that the Saint had chosen to turn a blind eye.

Alec’s concealment, the Saint’s cover-up, the onlookers’ whispers about the musical instrument… After connecting all the information, the Demon King waved his hand, and a recording stone in the hand of a merchant present floated directly into mid-air.

The recording stone automatically played back.

The majestic timbre shook the air as if it were rippling.

Some of the onlookers who hadn’t seen the performance on the street before couldn’t help but look over, surprised that there was an instrument they had never seen before.

For a rare novelty he had never heard of, the Demon King took a moment to appreciate it.

A bright timbre like a bugle call, yet also seemed to be ferrying the souls of the dead on the battlefield of Du’e. It was truly extraordinary.

Seeing this, Alec’s heart sank even further. Just as he was about to speak again, the Demon King, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, narrowed his eyes and raised his hand to silence him.

At the end of the recording stone—Luka was bowing towards the Holy Tower.

Just as the mushroom cloud above the collapsed guild hall was slowly broken by the morning sun, a touch of scarlet fell on the Demon King’s three-dimensional, deep-set features, making him look even more severe. The astrologer’s words suddenly appeared in his mind:

“In the sonata of the music, the Holy Demon Continent is about to enter a new era of civilization.”

The lingering sound was still in his ears. The Demon King looked at the distant sky and frowned:

“I should have acted to keep him and that dragon.”

Let alone keeping them, Rio was a hurricane dragon. At this moment, his speed was as fast as the wind.

Ever since he could cultivate magic, at an altitude of ten thousand meters, Luka could miraculously perceive all kinds of colors between heaven and earth.

“When the suona sounds, it’s either great joy or great sorrow.”

After adapting to the flight altitude, Luka began to write a letter to Lilian, trying to help her grab another headline.

Rio heard Luka’s muttering and said, “That’s an interesting description.”

“In my hometown…” Luka coughed lightly, “Once when I left my hometown, I happened to encounter people from a village playing. That’s what the player said.”

The place was remote, and the villagers had to work hard for their three meals a day. How could they have the leisure to go out and perform?

A perfect explanation for why the suona had not spread before.

“Actually, even if you said you invented it, it wouldn’t arouse suspicion.” The giant dragon’s voice shuttled through the clouds with it. “To be able to record it truthfully, your soul shines brighter than words.”

Compliments on the Holy Demon Continent were very direct.

Luka didn’t answer for a long time. After a while, he stopped writing and said awkwardly, “Actually, I’m busy being mischievous.”

Quill sneered.

That’s right, it could testify.

It was physical evidence.

Luka’s “mischievous” had no trace of modesty.

It was said that the suona first spread in Persia and Arabia. Of course, these places did not exist in this time and space, but Luka recorded it directly without any hesitation, just placing its location in the Lana Valley.

The territorial division of the Lana Valley on the Holy Demon Continent had always been controversial. Both the human race and the demon race claimed it as their own territory. Later, a natural disaster broke out, and the creatures living in the Lana Valley either died or fled, so it was no longer worth fighting over.

Luka had already anticipated the situation that would arise after the news was released.

The two races would definitely have a war of words, each claiming that their own race had invented it.

This way, the public’s attention would be drawn to the dispute over the origin of the suona, blurring the reason why he was playing the suona at that time. Secondly, where there is controversy, there is value. The wider the controversy, the greater the value.

The suona’s overly bright timbre was at a disadvantage in the city. In the current mainstream culture, it could easily be submerged.

Facing the morning sun, Luka was full of vigor and vitality: “We must reach a certain height.”

In the process of proving that something is one’s own, a natural sense of identity is formed.

If someone attacked the suona for being cheap because of its timbre, hehe, sorry, are you a spy sent by the demon race?

Rio’s dragon whiskers trembled at the words.

Quill really wanted to poke him with its shaft, but considering the dragon was present, it didn’t dare to be too forceful. In the end, the pen shaft lightly poked his soft cheek, reminding him to shut up.

Luka quickly pointed to his face and feigned injury: “Look, you poked a hole in me.”

Quill was silent.

Am I blind?

Isn’t that a natural dimple!

After soaring through the clouds for a long time, the sun and moon had even reversed above their heads once. Luka had the feeling of being on a long-haul flight. Just as he was getting drowsy, he suddenly heard Rio say that in a few dozen kilometers, they would be in the dragon race’s domain.

At the dragon’s flight speed, this distance would be covered quickly.

Luka immediately woke up.

His knowledge of the dragon race came only from the memories in his mind: “It is said that the Dragon Islands are the quietest domain, there…”

“Nine nine eight, only nine nine eight!”

“I graduated from Saint Laurent Academy of Arts. I can provide professional custom paintings, restoring your most perfect character!”

“Blind box purchasing agent, guaranteed to have hidden models!”

The recording stone held high by the merchant was playing the scene of Rio and other unlucky ones drawing boxes, proving that the dragon race was terrifyingly strong on the unlucky track.

“There…” Luka pursed his lips. Why is it like a vegetable market there?

Rio also frowned, the scales on his dragon head moving with it.

His body instantly descended. Seeing a dragon, these merchants, instead of avoiding it, actually came up to them, enthusiastically promoting their products.

At first, Luka was not conspicuous on the dragon’s back. Now that he was down, someone immediately recognized him.

Black hair plus a mask, it must be Iliad!

If Rio hadn’t been present, he would probably have been surrounded by merchants negotiating business on the spot.

Luka asked curiously, “How dare you set up stalls here directly?”

The merchant wanted to build a relationship and responded effusively.

It turned out that after seeing the giant dragon’s support campaign in the Holy City, some merchants immediately brought the books to the Dragon Islands to sell. At first, they were still cautious, only daring to use gimmicks like “the same reading material as the three dragons” and releasing the recording of the Holy City’s support campaign to prove their words were not false.

The effect was very good, successfully attracting several dragons.

The news spread like wildfire, and in two days, the book was a huge hit. More people wanted to come and trade to get a piece of the pie.

Although their personalized advertisements were noisy, they were still a distance away from the dragon race’s domain. Everyone deliberately used the most primitive method of shouting to sell, and if any dragon didn’t want to listen, a magic wall could also block it, so it wouldn’t disturb anyone.

“I see.”

Luka turned his head and found that Rio was gone. Looking again, he saw that he had transformed into his human form and was standing in front of the painter: “A custom-made blanket of a million meters with a cub painting, for one dragon’s appreciation only, how much?”

The painter tried hard to pull the corners of his mouth.

This wasn’t a matter of money, but of lifespan. First, he had to live long enough to finish painting it.

Rio had already considered this problem: “Let your descendants participate together.”

Painter: “…”

Luka felt a little sympathy for the painter. He walked around and found that besides fan art, there were no privately made blind boxes for sale. It seemed that these merchants did not dare to offend the Rhine Merchant Guild.

When he returned, Rio and the painter seemed to have reached an agreement.

Before taking off again, Rio glanced at the surrounding business circle. His gaze seemed to linger on a few individual merchants for a moment.

A cold glint flashed in his golden eyes. Rio did not do anything immediately.

Luka noticed this scene. Before he could ask, he was taken into the sky again by the giant dragon.

While flying towards the inner domain of the Dragon Islands, they passed by several giant dragons from a distance. Some dragons were very surprised to see Rio bringing back a human.

Because they were in a hurry to go shopping at their doorstep, they temporarily ignored it.

So many dragons!

Tens of thousands of sea islands. Some of the islands Luka had thought were islands, when passing over them, he realized were coiled long dragons.

Luka swallowed hard, “Too magnificent!”

The pressure that lingered between the heaven and earth of the Dragon Islands, if one had no magic to protect themselves, even breathing would probably be difficult.

Rio laughed loudly, “What’s this? I’ll take you on a tour of my underground castle.”

At the same time, the bombshell news that Rio had brought the three-and-a-half-year-old creator to the Dragon Islands had just spread from the mouths of the merchants.

A green crystal dragon that had been lured out by the blind boxes was slightly stunned. Wasn’t that the child I met on the road?

The green crystal dragon tried hard to recall.

A fleeting glance had left little impression. It seemed to be a shy young man with reddish ear tips.

Shy beauty Luka was still swimming freely between the sea and the sky.

An ‘island’ in the sea moved. Just a movement of getting up, and it stirred up monstrous waves.

“Rio.” The majestic long dragon did not directly approach. It turned over in its own sea area, its voice easily suppressing the waves. “Is it this child? He’s the one who wrote the book.”

Because of old age, his voice was slightly low, showing a kind of affection.

Luka quickly smiled and waved to greet his book fan: “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me.”

Who knew that one of the old dragon’s claws was resting on the book, right on the ending where he had done something inhuman. It let out a cold snort:

“Who taught you to end a chapter like that?”

Luka quietly retracted his waving hand in a second.

More and more dragons looked over because of the old dragon’s voice.

The proud, gorgeous dog silently lay on the dragon’s back, trying to reduce its presence as much as possible.

Amidst Quill’s impolite sneer, he said with a forced smile, “Let me just lay low for a while.”

…

As the first guest to be invited to the island in the last thousand years, and one who came sitting on a dragon, in a way, Luka was in the limelight for a while.

After arriving at the destination, he followed Rio to visit the underground castle.

Who said there was no sunlight underground? As long as it was splendid enough, the eyes would be filled with the light reflected from antique gold.

After touring one percent of it, Rio took out the floor plan and asked him which room he wanted to live in.

Luka’s legs were weak from walking. He asked politely, “Is there a single room under a thousand square meters?”

He wanted a simple ‘small room’.

Rio thought for two seconds and replied seriously, “You’ve given me a big problem.”

Only the dwarves had the ability to build infrastructure in a short time. Humans were a notch below, and dragons were even less capable.

“You stay here for now.” Rio prepared to go to the nearby islands to see if he could find a smaller gem mine by chance.

Luka was left alone in the underground castle. Even the chair he sat on was made of gold.

“Terrifying wealth.”

Only the dragon race had the strength to guard such wealth.

He once again felt a sense of urgency to improve his strength.

On the way, Luka found that although his body had just absorbed a round of energy, it could still absorb more in the face of these light spots, far from being saturated.

It was like a house originally filled with stones. Adding more stones would break it, but it was very easy to stuff in some light down feathers, and these down feathers also had the effect of keeping warm.

“The time when the golden light spots were generated was probably when Rio came to find me.” Luka guessed, “Because I didn’t use the scroll given by the Saint, his favorability towards me increased greatly, and the feedback faith energy was purer?”

Quill didn’t deny it.

Luka pondered, “It seems I have to find a way to interact with other dragons more and shorten the distance.”

It couldn’t be too abrupt. It had to be linked to his own career, and he also had to set aside some time for writing.

Luka jumped off the golden chair and paced on the gorgeous long carpet, thinking of a countermeasure.

By the time Rio returned, Luka’s step count was at least ten thousand.

The hurricane cyclone that had not yet dissipated was gathering in the surrounding air. Seeing the tall, familiar figure at the door, Luka was about to speak when Quill suddenly transmitted its voice.

“The smell of blood.”

There were no signs of injury on Rio. The existence that could injure a dragon on the Dragon Islands had probably not been born yet.

This could only be someone else’s blood.

Luka couldn’t help but think of the traveling merchants surrounding the Dragon Islands.

He remembered that Rio seemed to have paid extra attention to a few merchants at that time.

Rio also spoke at this time: “In the future, when you want to go to a place outside the Dragon Islands, it’s best to tell me.”

Fearing that Luka wouldn’t take it to heart, he emphasized faintly, “The people gathered outside are a mixed bag. It’s best not to deal with them alone.”

Luka was completely sure that there were enemy spies mixed in the merchant group. Whether they wanted to assassinate or spy was still unknown.

He just didn’t know how Rio had identified them at a glance.

Quill, on the other hand, understood very well:

“At its level, it’s not difficult to identify malice. Who was observing you before, who released malice towards you, it was all clear at a glance.”

Then check for any residual messages from communication stones, and the enemy search would be 100% successful.

Seeing Luka’s continued silence, Rio thought he was afraid and offered some comfort: “The Return Hunt is about to begin. Including Alec, these little demon brats don’t have much energy to deal with you.”

The Demon King was even less likely to come directly to the Dragon Islands to capture people.

Luka nodded.

It seemed that the ones who had been eliminated earlier were serving the demon race.

Without mentioning the unpleasant things again, Rio led Luka towards the depths of the underground castle. “I didn’t find a suitable one. The smallest gem mine on the Dragon Islands is also over ten thousand square meters. For safety, you can make do with this place for now.”

As if trekking over mountains and rivers, Luka was taken to the smallest room in the castle.

Besides being too large, he liked it almost at first sight.

Rio was not very fond of reading, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked Berlanie to write a message for him back then. In front of him was the only study in the entire underground castle, with a desk, a bright lamp, and a place to rest.

Luka’s eyes lit up: “I love it here.”

Rio was also infected by his emotions and for the first time experienced the joy of having a cub at home.

Noticing the red bloodshot in the other’s eyes, Rio swallowed back his words of urging him to update and reminded him to rest early.

As soon as he left, Luka aimed for the soft, large bed in the distance. Bed, here I come.

Fatigue washed over him like a tide. He spread his arms and started running an eight-hundred-meter race, but he hadn’t even finished.

Aerobic exercise greatly improved his spirits.

Quill: “Almost there, another two thousand six hundred and fifty-two meters.”

“…”

“One thousand four hundred meters.”

“I can’t, I need a break.”

The side effects of overdrawing his magic in the Holy City had not completely dissipated. When passing by the desk, Luka chose to take a break and brew himself a pot of tea.

A cup of hot tea down, and he was even more awake.

“How desperate, to just watch sleepiness dissipate.”

Quill: “Why don’t you try closing your eyes?”

Luka insisted on keeping his eyes open. Since he couldn’t sleep, he might as well work a little.

He prepared to seize the time to write the outline for the second part of “Three and a Half,” but unfortunately, his thoughts couldn’t concentrate.

The Return Hunt that Rio had mentioned earlier kept reappearing in his mind.

The so-called Return Hunt was the redistribution and management of the land and resources plundered during the Demon King’s pilgrimage.

The demon world was vast, and the Demon King could not manage all affairs alone. Therefore, successive Demon Kings had tended to establish multiple crown princes.

During the Return Hunt, all the crown princes would engage in a rather cruel competition. The winner would often be able to establish a very strong prestige, possess the most resources, and become the hot favorite for the next Demon King.

If Alec won in the Return Hunt, he would be in trouble.

For the revenge of one explosion, the other party would definitely repay him double.

“Actually, no matter who wins, it’s no good for me.”

He couldn’t just hide from the demon race in the future and hoard space scrolls like toilet paper, running away whenever he encountered danger.

A light sigh escaped.

An unwelcome legitimate son, with two great mountains always pressing down on his head: the demon race, and the human race.

“Is there any way to not be constrained by these behemoths?”

The antique crystal lamp above shed large patches of bright light, and the space in the underground room was as bright as day.

Luka was dazzled by the light. When he came to his senses, he found that he was still holding the pen.

The suspended tip of the pen was red to the point of being black.

It was unknown whether it was his own unconscious action or a prank-like guidance from Quill, but three sharp words had appeared on the parchment at some point—

Become the king.

Author’s note:

Excerpt from Luka’s diary:
So sleepy.
It’s five thousand meters to the mid-field desk, three thousand meters to the thick velvet carpet I can sleep on directly, and ten thousand meters to the bed.
Give me strength, dragon fans!
…
Five minutes later.
Huh, no visitors in the diary today. A bit unaccustomed to it.

Alex: Lurking.
Dragon race: +1.
The Demon King, dragging Alec: Passing by. Alec left a footprint with his broken palm.
The Saint: Floating by remotely, gave a like.