I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

Almost simultaneously, a low, urgent command came from outside the tent: "Emergency assembly! Target spotted!"

The rustling of dry grass, the clanging of armor, footsteps, and deep, dark commands in the demon language blended together.

Lilith lifted the tent flap and saw that Scarface had already arranged the troops, with eleven demon soldiers lined up in two rows behind him.

Scarface turned around and said to his second-in-command, who wore a monocle, "You stay here to protect Miss. The rest of you come with me."

The deputy hesitated for a moment: "Sir, you're leaving me all alone..."

Scarface interrupted him, his gaze sweeping over Lilith's direction. "Dragons can't be dealt with by sheer numbers. Miss's safety is also crucial. If anything goes wrong, neither of us will have enough heads to pay for it."

The deputy opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing. He simply nodded, walked to Lilith's side, and bowed with his right fist pressed against his chest: "Miss, please stay near the tent and do not wander far."

Lilith hummed in response, her face still bearing that "I'm annoyed to be woken up" expression, but inwardly she was screaming: "Master! They've gone to find the dragon! You'd better catch up!"

Scarface and his ten men disappeared into the dense forest, their footsteps quickly swallowed by the night.

The night breeze carried the smell of sulfur, stronger than before.

Lilith stood in front of the tent, wrapped in a cloak, pretending to be bored as she kicked at the pebbles on the ground.

Her deputy stood three steps behind her, his eyes scanning the surrounding darkness warily.

Lilith casually remarked, "What are they taking to negotiate with the dragon? Aren't they afraid of being swallowed whole if they go empty-handed?"

The deputy hesitated for a moment, probably thinking it was normal for "Miss" to ask such a question, and then answered in a low voice, "My lady carries the reverse scale of the sacred dragon bestowed by the High Priest. It is a scale shed by our demon race's dark sacred dragon, containing dragon might. Using it as a token, the red dragon should not attack directly."

"should?"

"There is an ancient pact between the demon race and the dragon race. The holy dragon is the king of the dragon race, and its scales represent supreme authority. If a red dragon encounters a dragon that has defied its will, it must at least hear the purpose of the visit."

Lilith nodded, but inwardly she wondered, "What if it still doesn't want to cooperate after hearing our purpose?"

She didn't ask, because she figured the answer would probably be a blast of dragonfire.

Just then, a dark red light suddenly appeared on the other side of the distant mountain ridge.

The light was more like magma seeping from the ground than flames, casting an eerie red glow over half the sky.

Immediately afterwards, a deep roar came from that direction, making the leaves rustle.

The deputy's expression changed.

Lilith's heart skipped a beat, but she held it in, only frowning slightly: "What was that sound?"

The deputy's right hand was already on the hilt of his sword. "The negotiations... might not go very smoothly."

Before the words were finished, a series of violent explosions came from afar, as if something was being smashed, crushed, and thrown away.

Then, a dark shadow flew backward from that direction.

The dark figure streaked across the night sky, accompanied by a piercing scream, and crashed heavily onto the open ground thirty paces in front of Lilith, creating a shallow crater and raising a cloud of dust.

It's a scarred face.

Half of his armor was broken, his left arm was bent at an abnormal angle, and black blood was hanging from the corner of his mouth, but he was still alive and was struggling to breathe in the pit.

The second-in-command exclaimed and was about to rush over when Scarface struggled to raise his right hand, making a "don't come any closer" gesture.

"The dragon... disagrees." Scarface's voice was broken. "It says... the Holy Dragon's reverse scale has nothing to do with it. It only guards its own mountain... and won't help either side..."

He coughed up a mouthful of black blood.

"Our people... were all sent flying. It didn't kill them... just gave them a warning..."

Lilith stood by the tent, looking at the half-dead, scarred man in the pit, about to say something.

A white figure swept past her head.

Silent and stealthy, like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, so fast that even the adjutant didn't have time to react.

The figure stepped on branches, rocks, and air... as if there were invisible steps beneath its feet, and in a few steps it reached the mountain ridge illuminated by the red light.

His white robes fluttered in the night wind, and his back was as straight as a sword.

It was his master. He had changed into a white robe at some point and looked very... dashing.

Lilith's mouth opened and then closed.

She saw her master standing at the highest point of the mountain ridge, his back to her, facing the dark red light.

The dragon is there.

She couldn't see the dragon, but she could feel the dark red light contract slightly the moment Ji Tian appeared.

Then, a huge shadow rose from the other side of the ridge.

That was a dragon.

Its entire body is covered in dark red scales, each about the size of a palm, which gleam like magma in the night.

Its body was twenty zhang long, its wings spread out like clouds hanging from the sky, its neck was long, its head was held high, and its vertical pupils burned with golden-red flames in the darkness.

It looked down at the tiny human standing in front of it, and spewed out two streams of air carrying sparks from its nostrils.

The dragon spoke, its voice like a mountain collapsing, the earth splitting, or a thousand volcanoes erupting simultaneously: "Human, you've also come to negotiate?"

Ji Tian raised his head and calmly met those golden-red vertical pupils.

"no."

"So you're here to die?"

"No, not exactly."

Ji Tian took the black banner from his waist with his right hand, and with a flick of his wrist, the banner unfurled, fluttering in the night wind.

"I've come here," he paused, then came up with a rather ethereal answer, "to see if you're qualified."

The dragon's golden-red vertical pupils contracted sharply.

It has lived for thousands of years and has seen countless humans: some kneeling and begging for mercy, some standing and trembling, some holding up holy swords and shouting slogans, and some hiding behind shields and trembling.

But no one ever looked at it that way.

It is not a provocation, nor fear, nor awe; it is a kind of... scrutiny.

It's like assessing whether a piece of ore is worth mining, or whether a medicinal herb is old enough.

"Arrogant!" The dragon opened its mouth, and a burst of blazing dragon flames gathered deep in its throat. Light shone from its mouth, illuminating half of the mountain ridge as if it were daytime.

Ji Tian did not back down.

He simply stuck the Emperor's Banner into a crevice in the rock beside him; the banner surface churned in the heat, and the black soul imprint on its edge glowed faintly.

Then he extended his right hand, fingers slightly spread, palm down, and pressed down gently.

An invisible force poured out from the palm, like an unseen mountain, and smashed into the dragon's head.

The dragon flames exploded directly in its throat.

The force pressed down on its head, forcibly pushing the dragon flame back into its belly, producing a muffled "pfft" sound, like a burp.

The dragon's golden-red vertical pupils widened suddenly.

It had lived for over a thousand years, and this was the first time someone had forced its head to swallow the fire back.

"you--!"

Ji Tian withdrew his hand and stood with his hands behind his back.

His tone was sincere yet tinged with disappointment as he commented, "Not bad, high purity of dragon breath, strong physical body, and not weak spiritual sense either. According to the calculation method of the cultivation world, he is about the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm."

The dragon's pupils trembled violently.

It didn't understand what "mid-stage Golden Core" meant, but it did understand the words "not bad strength." A mere human standing in front of a dragon, saying it had "not bad strength."

It feels like an ant telling an elephant, "You're in pretty good shape."

"You're asking for death!" The red dragon was completely enraged. It spread its wings and the resulting gale uprooted the surrounding trees, and the rocks tumbled in the air like fallen leaves.

It soared into the air, its enormous body obscuring half the sky, its dark red scales gleaming with a chilling killing intent under the moonlight.

Then it swooped down.

Its speed was so fast that it was almost impossible for the naked eye to catch it. Its twenty-foot-long body transformed into a dark red meteor, crashing towards Ji Tian with a world-destroying momentum.

Ji Tian did not move.

He stood on the ridge, his robes billowing in the wind, but his back remained straight, like an ancient sword stuck in the rock.

The moment the dragon swooped down to within ten feet of him, his body suddenly vanished.

It wasn't flying, it wasn't dodging, it was—

Distorting space!

He suddenly appeared on the dragon's head.

Then he kicked out and stepped on the dragon's nose.

The dragon's diving trajectory was abruptly deflected by this kick. Its head slumped down, and the entire dragon, like a ball that had been kicked askew, crashed diagonally into the mountainside on the other side of the ridge.

Rumbling--

Half of the mountain wall collapsed, and rubble rolled down like rain, raising dust that blotted out the sky.

Ji Tian emerged from the dust, his robes spotless.

He glanced down at his feet and frowned slightly.

"Its skin is really thick. In the cultivation world, this kick could crush a piece of granite. But when it was kicked in the face, it only bled a little from the nose."

The dust settled.

The dragon struggled to its feet from the pile of rubble, and there was indeed a bloodstain on its nose, with golden-red blood trickling down the gaps in its scales.

It didn't roar angrily; it simply stood there, scrutinizing the white-clad figure with a completely new look.

The red dragon was clearly stunned by the attack; its eyes had cleared considerably. "You're no ordinary mage; your power doesn't belong to any system I understand!"

"Yes." Ji Tian nodded, readily admitting it.

"Who exactly are you?!"

"I?"

Ji Tian, ​​dressed in white robes that fluttered in the wind, stood tall and elegant like a solitary peak reflecting the moon. His eyes held an air of otherworldly refinement as he calmly said:

"He's just a passing cultivator."