Life is tough, so Honglong resorts to performing?

Chapter 134 The truth?

Faced with the olive branch extended by the true dragon, this weak kobold actually had to consult with the so-called higher-ups, which shows that this guy really is a shaman, and not a mistake due to a lack of knowledge.

Then this is very interesting.

Even before the establishment of the federation, shamanism was already a declining profession.

More and more natural spirits are inclined to druids who love nature, while true gods tend to establish their own priesthood and church system.

This puts the shaman profession in the middle, seemingly enjoying advantages from both sides, but in reality suffering from both.

Over time, this profession has become a mixed bag, with its upper echelons including shady, unsavory figures who recruit under different names, ancient gods who have risen from the dead, and ambitious individuals attempting to ascend to godhood...

The same was true for the lower classes. In short, of the ten people who called themselves shamans at that time, seven had become sorcerers who had no respect for the people. In short, shamanism became a garbage dump from the past, and after the incident of the gods going missing, it became a profession that no one could be found.

In a time when no one would believe a shaman even if they were a fraud, he actually encountered a kobold shaman in the wilderness.

This world is truly fascinating; perhaps this is what the wilderness is all about.

"I want to meet the being you admire."

Although Loren was asking a question, the kobold leader detected an unquestionable tone in his voice.

He opened his mouth, trying to say a few words of persuasion, but after hesitating, he chose to give up and instead murmured "Yes, sir."

As an individual in the tribe whose wisdom far surpasses that of its own kind, it is well aware of the consequences of disobeying the raging red dragon.

They will die; their entire tribe will die here.

Grak returned, while the kobolds around him continued to gaze with adoration at the majestic young red dragon before them. His astonishing aura and dark red scales captivated them.

But they dared not act rashly until they received permission from the shaman.

"That's interesting, but a bit too formal."

Loren felt the kobolds' gaze and inwardly muttered to himself, becoming more vigilant. The attraction that dragons have for kobolds is physiological, almost instinctive. Logically, there should be quite a few of them who would actively fawn over him.

But these guys actually held back.

Soon, Grak, accompanied by a group of kobolds, dragged out a geometric object with sharp edges, a crystal that looked somewhat like a stone egg, and displayed it in front of Loren.

Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it!
A terrible hunger suddenly surged into Loren's mind, and in an instant, only one thought remained in his mind: to swallow the stone egg and eat it!

"Oh my fellow clansman, you didn't expect this, did you? It's me again. Congratulations on triggering the final guaranteed reward mechanism and winning an amazing prize in the wilderness exploration."

"I wonder what kind of dragon you are now? Are you an adult dragon, a young dragon, or some other kind of dragon? I wonder what kind of dragon you are? Are you a gold dragon, a silver dragon, or some other kind of dragon..."

The brass dragon's chattering voice rang out again, pulling Loren out of his horrible appetite. He stared intently at the monstrous thing before him, his eyes filled with vigilance.

This thing is what caused the formation of this magic crystal vein in the vicinity!

It is most likely a high-level magic crystal ore that has not yet undergone extensive processing!

"High-ranking beings of the Food Realm, I mean you no harm, please do not eat me."

From within the mine came a sound that broke Loren's heart and filled him with worry. Upon hearing this, the red dragon's heart softened for only a moment before its self-set mental warning was triggered.

The red dragon, realizing what was happening, immediately flew into a rage, unleashing its terrifying aura as a true dragon.

Fierce momentum, dragon's might!
The dragon's imposing aura swept across the area, making all the kobolds in the crowd gasp for breath. The being inside the stone egg quickly grew anxious.

"Please spare them. They have already transformed into beings and beings of your world. They are no different from the creatures of your world. Please spare them!"

The voice coming from the other party was very pleasant and melodious, with a strange magnetism and boundless persuasiveness.

If it weren't for the constant psionic warnings, the little red dragon would almost have believed it.

"I think someone important will die first, then you might calm down a bit."

Loren raised his hand and pointed lightly, and several ordinary arcane missiles flew towards the terrified kobold shaman.

"Help...help me!"

Under the intimidating power of the dragon, not a single kobold was able to stand up, including Grak himself.

Arcane missiles pierced through the kobold shaman's forehead and vital organs with ease, and he was on the verge of death.

"Why, why are you so cruel? They are already beings of your world. Their worship of you comes from the bottom of their hearts and stems from the rules of your world. Why must you kill them!"

The stone egg continued to accuse the red dragon of cruelty and ruthlessness, its delicate voice, coupled with the constant psionic alarms ringing in his head, annoyed Loren.

"Shut up. Your tricks won't work on me. Do you want me to kill them all before you calm down, you idiot?"

The red dragon roared, its voice filled with vigilance and anger.

"If you weren't... a fool like you, how could you possibly resist my power?"

The newly arrived voice sounded somewhat resentful, but finally stopped triggering the psionic alarm.

"So, you're saying you're a god?"

Loren calmed his anger and began to communicate with the other party. Obviously, this guy was much stronger than Yin, whom he had encountered before. Perhaps he could get more information about high-level magic crystal blocks from him.

"Of course, if I were not a god, how could I have been able to reconstruct myself after being devoured and crushed by your world?"

The voice inside the stone egg was quite arrogant, with a hint of dissatisfaction.

"To be swallowed and crushed by our world?"

"Of course, if your world hadn't been constantly devouring and transforming, how could low-level beings like you possess so much intelligence? Even these laughably weak kobolds, who don't even have the ability to survive, can enjoy the intelligence that only gods can possess!"

Clearly, unlike the Zhenyin race who yearn for order and stability, the other party, as a god who enjoys the privilege of wisdom, is very dissatisfied with the fact that even the kobolds in the Elron world possess basic intelligence.

Your perspective is determined by your position.

Wait, it comes from a place where the gods are wise and the races below are all mentally deficient...

As for Ellen, the gods have lost contact with her, which can also be seen as a loss of mind, right?
The world has been divided into wilderness and cities, establishing a new order, and the total population has increased many times over compared to the past. There must be no connection between these two things!
Loren suddenly froze. He thought of the yin and yang transformation and complementary changes in his previous life, but upon closer examination, he felt that something was not quite right.

The world of Elron has had a large number of intelligent beings for many years, but the loss of the gods and the subsequent reunification is a phenomenon that has only occurred in the last thousand years.

According to the Dragon Legacy, intelligent beings exist in many of the planes involved in the Elron world.

According to some interstellar maps drawn by interstellar beings, the area around Ellen should be quite normal.
According to news on the Magic Crystal Network, dwarves went to space to mine not long ago!

Before the disappearance a thousand years ago, there were still many local deities visiting each other's homes, each using a different alias!
As a five-colored true dragon, the existence of the Dragon's Legacy, coupled with the presence of those dragon elders who memorized everything, allowed Loren to quickly spot the flaw in the other party's words. Logically speaking, the Elren world exists within a very peaceful crystal wall system, surrounded by legitimate worlds, and shouldn't have any indescribable beings like Kelvin or Nyarlathotep.

The operating logic of the surrounding world is roughly the same as that of Ellen. It can't be that the position of the crystal wall system suddenly changed, right?
This must be a divine power!

These sudden pieces of information made Loren's head explode and he was in a state of panic. After thinking quickly, he decided to try to get some more information out of this self-proclaimed god in front of him, to see if he could get any more knowledge to supplement his understanding.

Therefore, Loren decided to provoke the other party.

"You are no longer the same person you were before. You are a new product after being crushed and digested here, a product of pseudo-active aggregation. Your memories are pieced together, and your identity belongs to someone else. You are just a fake, not the god of the past."

When Loren spoke, he used the knowledge he had heard when he first received a high-level magic crystal.

The red dragon's words, like a red-hot blade, pierced the core of the stone egg.

The crystal, which had been emitting a soft glow and a magnetic sound, suddenly trembled, and its light began to flash violently, like a heart that had lost control.

"A fake?!"

"nonsense!"

"You're talking nonsense!"

"I am God!"

"I am the true God!"

For the first time, the stone egg abandoned its gentle voice and began to roar and howl. It kept repeating to Loren that it was a god, but gradually, the creature's voice became weaker.

"I am great! Great! What... and what... god again?"

It transmitted its message in a lost and confused state, while Loren received another alert from the psychic.

Honestly, do you really think a dragon like me would sympathize with something like you...?

Loren thought to himself, his gaze toward the other person growing increasingly disdainful and wary.

Shameless! Such a powerful figure is always ready to ambush a dragon child like me. The world is going to the dogs.

"That's right, I was indeed devoured and chewed up, and have become a part of your world. That's why I was able to take shape and appear."

After several failed sneak attacks, Shi Luan openly admitted his current identity.

"My followers, or rather, my former mindless race, have been transformed by your world into this group of weak kobolds. They are no different from ordinary kobolds. Perhaps after many years of reproduction, some special beings who have inherited my authority will appear. Are you satisfied with this explanation and answer?"

Shi Luan spoke through gritted teeth, while Loren, upon hearing this, fell into deep thought.

He thought of a powerful being, the skull of the Frostfire King, in the dragon's lair where he now resided.

Was that guy also born in this way?

After all, his ability is so bizarre—extracting the concept of cold and transforming it into heat. If he were born in a chaotic world where power is easily established, it wouldn't be impossible for him to be born there.

But why are the others frost giants, while this one only transforms into some kobolds?
"Among the gods, you're not very weak, are you?"

Loren immediately raised questions.

"Weak?"

"Weak mortals!"

"Damn crawler!"

"Do you know what you're saying? You're insulting a god! You..."

"If you bark like that again, I'll use a spell to smash you to pieces and sell the fragments."

Loren abruptly cut off the other person's words, and magic power gathered in his palm.

He had used high-level magic crystal blocks before and had some understanding of their hardness. The message the brass dragon had given him earlier also included the option of breaking them and selling the fragments.

"I was wrong, Lord Dragon. Please forgive me, as a true dragon. I am just a weak and powerless little god."

……

Even as a treacherous and cunning evil five-colored dragon, Loren was still shocked by the other party's depravity and shamelessness.

That knee slide was incredibly fast!
The stone egg's shameless surrender caused Loren's magic power stored in his palm to falter. He had seen many people who could bend and stretch, but for a being who claimed to be a god to kneel so smoothly was beyond his understanding of the limits of depravity.

"...You're quite sensible."

Loren hesitated for a long time before finally offering his comment.

“In the face of survival, dignity is a luxury, especially in the presence of a true dragon with such piercing eyes as you.”

Shi Luan's voice regained its magnetic gentleness, but now it sounded inexplicably obsequious.

"I don't ask for much, I just hope to have a place to settle down and continue my existence. These kobolds are the foundation of my existence."

“If you, Lord Long, are so kind as to show mercy, I… I am willing to serve you as my master. These kobolds, and this mine, will all be your wealth.”

Loren narrowed his golden dragon eyes, scrutinizing the seemingly inconspicuous stone egg.

A false god whose memories are in disarray, having been digested and reassembled by the world; a group of kobolds transformed from a mindless race from another world; and a magic crystal mine formed because of it...

All of this, when put together, is incredibly informative, seemingly revealing something, as if we are getting closer to the truth about the wilderness.

But is that really all?

If there is such a person in the formation of every magic crystal vein, then things become even more interesting. What exactly are these miners sent here for?

The Federation will definitely know about this, after all, the brass dragon specifically reminded them.

Therefore, mining should be a high-risk industry and something to be wary of.

Everyone should wear protective clothing, carry specialized testing equipment, and be screened regularly.

If someone were to be infiltrated and controlled, wouldn't that be unthinkable?
Wait, is there really no control or infiltration?

Loren thought of the cultists. Apart from the Transcendent Ones, which were mostly large groups with ideological differences and could not be eradicated by wildfire, there were also those strange and varied small cults that would emerge every year when there was no hope of becoming a god.

(End of this chapter)