Evolving by devouring from a young dragon

Iron-boned fangs clenched his lips.

So it really happened?

"I want 30% of what's in the Salamander King's lair," Alduin said coldly.

"Thirty percent is too much." Tie Gu's voice was squeezed out from between his teeth. "One percent."

"Twenty percent."

"One and a half percent."

"Twenty percent." Alduin's voice left no room for negotiation.

Silence fell upon Tiegu.

"Twenty percent," he finally said, "but you have to help."

"Why should I?" Alduin flicked the tip of his tail. "You guys fight it out, I just want toll money."

"Moreover, I can guarantee that I won't cause any trouble."

Iron Bones' brows furrowed. He stared at the ground, as if calculating something. After a long while, he raised his head and stared into Alduin's dark golden vertical pupils.

There was no greed, no murderous intent, not even a threat in his vertical pupils, only something... something that Iron Bones couldn't quite put his finger on.

It's not indifference, it's... scrutiny.

It's like looking at a piece of ore, assessing its purity, hardness, and value; it's not like looking at an opponent, it's like looking at a tool.

A chill ran down his spine.

"I'm not helping." He repeated Alduin's words, his voice deep. "As long as we get the stuff, aren't you afraid we won't be able to get it?"

"If I can't have it, I don't want anything." Alduin's voice slowed down.

Iron Bones' face turned pale.

This guy came up with an outrageous demand right away, and he didn't have to do anything.

"...Okay." He took a deep breath.

Alduin tapped the ground lightly with the tip of its tail, a strange smile appearing on its lips.

"make a deal."

Alduin watched the orcs slowly emerge from the swamp until their figures disappeared from his sonic perception before turning his gaze away.

He flew back to the obsidian platform, lay down, rested his chin on his front paws, and slowly raised the corners of his mouth.

Two percent?

That's the price set for the living; the dead don't need a share.

Alduin tapped the stone platform intermittently with the tip of its tail.

Let the bullet fly for a while.

……

Three days later, the war began.

Because it was daytime, he couldn't hide himself and it was inconvenient for him to go out and watch the excitement, so he stood far away on the edge of the wind-eroded Gobi Desert, where he could barely see the situation on the Ash Highlands.

He emitted sound waves to perceive the situation; although the sound was faint, he could still make out the general outline.

In the direction of Ash Highlands, heat sources gathered in a dense cluster near the crater, and then... the heat sources disappeared.

Huh? Auduin was surprised.

In his perception, those densely packed dots seemed to melt into the largest heat source, or as if they had jumped into magma.

He subconsciously raised his head and looked at it.

A golden beam of light rose into the sky above the crater in the direction of Ash Highlands.

The beam of light was very thin, as thin as a needle, but it was exceptionally dazzling in the hazy sky. It shot out from the depths of the crater, piercing straight into the clouds and dyeing half the sky a dark gold.

Auduin's vertical pupils contracted sharply.

What is that?

His sonic perception swept across the area again. This time, he "saw" it—not that the heat sources had disappeared, but that all the heat sources had converged together.

Hundreds of points of light overlapped, merged, and compressed, eventually coalescing into a huge, dazzling humanoid shape that almost burst through his perception range.

No, it's not humanoid, it's beast-like.

A burning, fiery orc made up of hundreds of heat sources stacked on top of each other.

An old, red-skinned orc.

The Great Shaman.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

The burning figure, composed of hundreds of heat sources stacked together, had a hunched back and a thin frame, but its brightness made it almost impossible for Alduin to open his senses.

It was ten or even a hundred times brighter than the previous seventh-tier orcs, like a sun that had fallen from the sky.

The Great Shaman, the Tongue of Emberfangs, the old, dying orc leaning on his bone staff at the edge of the crater.

He gathered the fire power of the entire clan into himself.

Alduin stopped tapping with the tip of his tail, his sonic perception continuing to track the burning figure as it stepped out from the edge of the crater and onto the churning lava.

The lava did not scorch it, nor did it resist it; the golden flames parted at its feet, like subjects making way for a king.

The second step.

third step.

He walked into the lava river, his whole body enveloped in golden flames, like a statue that had stepped out of mythology.

Auduin suddenly understood that this was the totem power of the Great Shaman, which combined the power of the entire clan to empower one person.

Alduin's sonic perception continued to track the burning figure.

The great shaman walked into the depths of the lava river. With each step he took, lava exploded beneath his feet, and golden flames surged around him. The bone staff in his hand had transformed into a torch, its tip burning with dazzling golden light.

Deep underground, the dark red heat source began to tremble violently.

The Salamander King sensed a threat, a threat from the old orc, and it wanted to escape.

Auduin was somewhat surprised.

After gaining the ability to perceive sound waves, he hadn't properly observed the Ash Highlands and was surprised to find such a large lava river beneath the crater.

Moreover, the Salamander King just stood there openly and honestly.

He narrowed his eyes, a look of interest on his face.

Ironbone and the others are still waiting in the Bone Hills. If the Great Shaman can successfully kill the Salamander King here, then they won't need to take any action.

However, Auduin felt that things were not that simple.

Having been immersed in molten lava for years, the Salamander King's resistance to fire has reached an unbelievable level.

Even if the Great Shaman uses all the power of his clan to push himself to the peak of the seventh rank, what he ultimately uses is still the power of the Ember Fire.

Using fire to fight fire, how could it be so easy to defeat this ancient monster that has lived for hundreds of years?

Sure enough, when the Great Shaman's first attack landed, the Salamander King only flinched.

The golden light from the bone staff struck its head, shattering its scales and spurting out dark red blood. The Salamander King let out a scream and staggered back a few steps... but that was all.

It was neither dead, nor seriously injured, nor even rendered unable to fight.

It shook its head, pus and blood oozing from the hole in its burned right eye, while its left eye stared intently at the great shaman, its gaze devoid of fear, filled only with a frenzied hatred driven to the brink of despair.

Then it fought back.

The Great Shaman was struck by the Salamander King's tail, his golden figure flying backward and crashing into the rock wall of the lava river.

Lava exploded on his body, golden sparks flying everywhere. He got up, the golden light on the bone staff dimming slightly.

The Salamander King gave him no chance to catch his breath.

It opened its mouth, and a dark golden light shone from deep within its throat. Golden flames, wrapped in dark red magma, spewed from its mouth like a fire dragon, rushing towards the Great Shaman.

The high shaman raised his bone staff, and a golden shield of light unfolded before him. Embers struck the shield, exploding into a shower of sparks. The high shaman took a step back, then another, and another.

His shield of light was shrinking, his golden light was dimming, and his back was hunching over again.

Auduin's vertical pupils narrowed slightly. Something was wrong.

The great shaman wasn't fighting head-on; he was stalling for time.