On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

"Mom, Mom"

The last time the witch's mark appeared, it made the blood-red sky shine brightly.

The entire world seemed to become a backdrop for the Dragon Girl the moment Jiu You drew her sword; the raging flames burned everything in their path with that single strike.

In Tang's view, the youth's listless aura vanished, and in less than a breath, he stood up again, looking back at her with a bright and energetic expression.

"Gladiators, are you here to seek revenge on me too?"

However, compared to Liao Ji, Tang on the other side was clearly more emotional.

"of course."

"So, Aunt Tang, are you conscious now, or..."

With Jiuyou's burning dragon blood, Anuo's elven protection, and now the Holy Healing spell from Sciutia, Liao Ji had already displayed three completely different and powerful abilities in front of Tang in just a few minutes of battle.

This time, Tang was kneeling on the ground, his face pale and his aura at its lowest point. Even the powerful Jiu You's mother was permeated by the supernatural power under the annihilation, and was on the verge of death. She was only kept alive by the burning of dragon blood.

Fortunately

She failed to find her mother, but she found Lord Ash.

Liao Ji opened his mouth, about to say something to Jiu You, but Tang's blurry phantom shook his head at Liao Ji, stopping him.

Tang shook her head indifferently. She wasn't attached to life or death; on the contrary, she cared more about...

After handing the "Dragon Brand" to Liao Ji, Tang's phantom suddenly dimmed. In fact, according to the setting of the Dragon Phantom, Liao Ji should have killed Tang before he could remove the brand. Now, because Tang has awakened, he can slightly modify the rules. As long as Liao Ji defeats him, he can force the brand out and hand it over to Liao Ji.

At the very center, Tang Neng clearly sensed that this power had indeed surpassed the level of the Disaster and truly reached the level of the Calamity, which only existed in legends.

Jiuyou couldn't remember the last time she cried, and she had even forgotten what it felt like to cry. So when two lines of tears slid down her cheeks, Jiuyou stared blankly at Tang's phantom, calling out to him somewhat helplessly.

Only then did Jiu You seem to finally realize something.

Immediately afterwards, in the zero-dreamscape in front of Liao Ji, the figure of a female dragon-human was rapidly forming.

The silent black hole swallowed the entire arena. After the "annihilation" ended, there was no trace of the arena, only a deep crater, as if a scoop of soil had been dug out of the ground by a meteorite.

"I don't know either. I should have been gone more than 500 years ago. The current me is just a phantom simulated by some powerful being. However, perhaps it's because I saw a bit of Jiu You's shadow in you. From that moment on, I felt that something was different."

That's why Tang's gaze towards Liao Ji now carries a deeper, more meaningful meaning, in addition to the initial familial affection.

The entire world of Zero Dream was thrown into turmoil by the appearance of the real Jiu You.

After all, she had already gotten lost once. No, twice.

"Lord Ashes?"

Tang finally looked at Liao Ji, her lips slightly moving, revealing the gentle smile that a mother-in-law should have.

In response, Tang, who was about to dissipate along with the illusion, simply wiped away the tears on his daughter's cheeks. After all, she was not the real Tang, but just a simulated phantom that might have a slight resemblance to Tang.

"I lost."

Among the feelings were relief at seeing Liao Ji safe and sound, joy at being able to return to Liao Ji's side, and also a great deal of worry and anxiety about the dark history in the dream.

Regarding this point, just like with her past controversies, Jiu You was somewhat prepared because she had discussed it with Styutia.

After Jiu You appeared in real life, the first person she noticed was Liao Ji. Several emotions suddenly welled up in Long Niang's indifferent eyes.

A few breaths later, in the center of the nebula, where Liao Ji was located, all the energy was gathered at his fingertips, and in the next moment, Liao Ji pointed at the Dragon Girl from afar.

She quickly turned around and looked around anxiously. When she spotted the familiar figure who had been silently watching her from the shadows, Jiu You was instantly shaken and completely stunned. A strong sense of unease appeared in her purple dragon eyes.

"It's alright, Jiu You, this time we won't be separated again." Liao Ji, who was being held tightly by Jiu You, whispered in Long Niang's ear.

Jiuyou stared at the spot where Tang's figure had disappeared, unable to move for a long time.

Jiu You's eyes were misty, and glistening tears reflected from the corners of her eyes.

That's all she can do.

This time, without Tang asking again, Liao Ji preemptively confessed:

The reason Tang did this was because she wanted to see her future daughter with her own eyes, even if only for a moment.

"According to the rules of this world, I should give this to you."

A black hole was born around Tang, distorting all matter within the space. The immense suction force began to devour everything, just as the skill's name suggests, all targets within its range would be annihilated and die.

Her appearance was no longer childlike, but mature, becoming cold and aloof.

So she just watched from behind.

In an instant, a siphoning vortex formed around Liao Ji, and a large amount of turbidity began to rush into Liao Ji's body. From the sky, it looked like a dark nebula.

Jiu You, standing beside Liao Ji, naturally shifted her attention to herself, the Arena Empress in the center of the arena, amidst blood and the throne of skulls, surrounded by the corpses of numerous gladiators, her appearance now darkened.

The dragon on the throne uttered the same lines, but this time Liao Ji no longer needed to run away. The real Jiu You beside him had already stepped forward, summoning a flaming longsword from his chest.

"For the rest of my life, I, Liao Ji, will take care of that mischievous and clingy little dragon girl who used to be in the arena."

In the end, Liao Ji embraced Jiu You.

Whether she was the strongest guard charging into battle five hundred years ago, or the Dragon Kingdom Empress who was second only to the emperor five hundred years later, neither of them is the Jiu You of today.

Right now, Jiu You is just a little girl who has buried her head in Liao Ji's arms, crying loudly, her tears soaking Liao Ji's clothes.

Chapter 257 The light of fire illuminates the night.

After defeating the dragon, just like the witch before it, the dragon's body was transformed into countless fragments of memories from the "past".

Only zero can achieve this.

As a mechanical species, the characteristic of mechanical species is that they observe and record everything around them every moment, using the collected data to imitate and learn, so as to improve themselves.

So in a sense, zero is the best historical encyclopedia, a collection of stories.

Dreams can unearth deep memories, and the same is true for the Machine Race.

These fragments now come from the deepest part of the zero database.

And within the fragmented memories, scenes of the past are unfolding, representing Jiu You's true past—a world existing in "ashes," a world where...

The story of the dragon girl's encounter with the gray-robed man.

puff!

The blade pierced his heart, and the gladiator before him collapsed helplessly, filled with fear and despair.

The clean and decisive battle did not elicit cheers from the arena; instead, it aroused dissatisfaction among many spectators. After all, such a swift and decisive match is fine to watch once or twice, but after watching dozens of such matches, it becomes tiresome. No one wants to watch a match where the outcome is already known and there is no suspense.

However, the dragon girl in the center of the arena didn't care about this. Or rather, there was nothing left in this world that she cared about. Perhaps the only reason she was still alive was to fight.

With a blank expression, she sheathed her sword and stepped over the gladiator's corpse lying in a pool of blood. The dragon girl's heart was numb; this was the 103rd gladiator to die by her blade.

The spectators in the arena hated the dragon girl, and when she returned to the gladiators' quarters, all the gladiators there cast hateful and resentful glances at the young dragon girl.

It wasn't because of Tang; Tang was a thing of the past. Under the deliberate control of the organizers behind the scenes, Tang was forgotten by everyone in less than half a year.

The new gladiators are only afraid of the Dragon Girl, because she is like a killing machine, a killing machine without its own will, and has become the knife that the organizers use to "kill someone else".

After the Tang incident, the organizers learned their lesson and strengthened their control over the gladiators.

Whenever a gladiator shows any signs of rising popularity, the organizers will immediately arrange for them to fight against the Dragon Girl.

The result was the same as in the previous match.

Therefore, the current Dragon Girl is like a dark cloud hanging over the heads of all gladiators, a sword of Damocles hanging over their necks.

But they were helpless because they couldn't win.

No, let alone being unable to defeat her, no one could even harm the Dragon Girl in the slightest. So perhaps the only thing they could do was, like now, in the lounge, convey their hatred with their eyes.

After all, the dragon girl, who didn't care about anything, naturally wouldn't care about their hatred at all.

However, in the lounge this time, the Dragon Girl sensed something different from usual. Amidst the hateful gazes of the many gladiators directed at her, there was another very calm gaze, one that seemed to be scrutinizing her.

The dragon girl subconsciously looked toward the source of this unusual gaze.

There, in the corner of the lounge, sat a man completely shrouded in a cloak.

Such an outfit would look very strange anywhere.

He seems like a strange person.

The dragon girl quickly withdrew her gaze, remained silent, and walked straight out of the lounge, no longer glancing at the gray-robed man.

This is

Her first encounter with "Ashes".

After this memory fragment ended, Jiu You, who had just cried in Liao Ji's arms with tear stains still on her face and a red nose, couldn't help but clutch Liao Ji's clothes tightly again, clearly feeling extremely guilty for ignoring him back then.

"I'm so sorry, Lord Ash, for what I did back then..."

"I bet you looked down on me back then, thinking I was too weak." Seeing Jiu You stammering, as if she wanted to explain but didn't know how, Liao Ji smiled and spoke first.

Later on, the Dragon Girl also became rather simple-minded.

If it were Styutia, she would definitely have argued a few more times, but Jiuyou's straightforward nature made her nod directly.

“My memories of that time are vague, but I remember having only one thought: I hope to find someone who is like I was back then.”

Jiu You spoke subtly, but Liao Ji could easily understand that Long Niang hoped for a powerful figure to appear, just as she had personally defeated and killed Tang in the arena, to kill her as well.

This was the liberation that the Dragon Girl was seeking at that time.

Soon, the next memory unfolds, from the Dragon Girl's perspective, witnessing the gray-robed man truly mirroring her own past self. As a newcomer, he broke through the encirclement in the arena, achieving a perfect record and becoming the biggest dark horse of this generation.

Naturally, such a person also caught the attention of the organizers. Soon after, the gray-robed man met the dragon girl again, but this time it was not in the lounge, but in the arena.

Jiu You, who was watching this scene, was completely absorbed, because that day was one she would never forget.

It was this gray-robed man, whom she had once ignored and regarded as weak, who actually defeated her in the ensuing arena duel.

It wasn't that the gray-robed man was hiding his strength; on the contrary, once they entered the battle, she sensed correctly that her power was indeed far superior to that of Lord Ash from back then.

The real reason for her defeat was actually because she lost in the martial arts technique she was most confident in.

That's right.

Jiuyou clearly remembered this battle. It was as if all her moves were seen through by Lord Ash, and even as if Lord Ash knew what she was going to do next and made corresponding defenses in advance.

That was the first time Jiu You felt that she had all the power in the world, but it was as if she had hit cotton.