I really didn't want to burn it.

then--

Boom!

As if struck by a meteorite, the ground was covered with a ring of radiating cracks, but Katniss seemed unaffected. She remained kneeling on one knee, staring intently at Li Ang.

Li Ang didn't speak, but simply looked at the other person with confidence.

Similarly, Katniss stared at Li Ang expressionlessly. Her face, which should have been full of fighting spirit, was now as cold as a robot.

The two seemed to be playing a game of "whoever speaks loses," neither saying a word, and for a moment the street fell into an eerie silence.

Finally, Katniss moved.

She slowly squatted down, hugged her foot with her hands, and pulled it off an ice spike.

"Damn it, you...you despicable bastard!"

Katniss clutched her blood-soaked foot, glaring at Li Ang with resentment.

Although she is immortal, that does not mean she cannot be injured.

“You bumped into it yourself.” Li Ang’s lips twitched, and he said innocently, “I was originally going to poke your butt, but I didn’t expect you to put your foot on your butt.”

"Isn't that even worse?!"

Katniss bared her teeth and roared.

"Why do you think the enemy would fight you properly?" Li Ang couldn't help but complain. "To be honest, if you hadn't tried to look cool and had just landed normally, you wouldn't have been injured at all."

"..."

This was the first time Katniss had ever discovered that there was someone in this world whom she could hate as much as Poseidon.

"I'm going to make three holes in you! You give me—!"

Katniss quickly used magic to heal the wound on her foot and took a step toward Leon's direction.

Click.

A gleaming longsword appeared at Katniss's neck.

"enemy!"

Startled, Katniss quickly turned around and prepared to reverse the tip of the trident.

Snapped.

Katniss collapsed weakly to the ground.

Ryougi Shiki sheathed her long sword and looked at Li Ang, who had launched a sneak attack, with a subtle expression.

"Ahem, well..." Li Ang touched his nose a little embarrassedly, "Because it was an emergency, I had to get rid of her as soon as possible, so I ambushed her."

"That doesn't matter," Ryougi Shiki said coldly. "Just don't do anything strange to his unconscious body."

"Who would do that?! I'm not a pervert!"

Despite denying it, Leon still did something extremely cruel to the unconscious Katniss—he used ice to completely imprison Katniss.

Although Leon knew that it was only a matter of time before a Servant of Katniss's caliber was able to break free from this level of restraint, he didn't have a good solution.

“It’s really too troublesome to kill an immortal enemy,” Li Ang said to Ryougi Shiki.

Ryougi Shiki completely ignored Li Ang's reasons, carefully observing his actions towards Katniss. Only after confirming that Li Ang hadn't done anything strange to Katniss did Ryougi Shiki slowly stand up.

"Yes, I didn't touch any places I shouldn't have. You weren't lying."

"Hey, what am I to you?" Li Ang complained.

Ryougi hesitated for a moment before answering, "Aside from being a womanizer, he's practically a perfect man?"

"..."

[Host, be happy! They're praising you.]

"I can't be happy at all."

Li Ang commented.

"It's already quite good. She didn't say that Your Majesty the Great Ancestor was a dog in heat. I think this young lady has already given you a lot of face."

Before anyone knew it, Her Majesty the Empress had arrived and was standing at both ends of the street with Chaldea's Servants and army.

Li Ang turned around unhappily and said, "Hey Potato Circle, is your hobby just eavesdropping on people's conversations?"

That's why Li Ang is known for never taking a loss; whenever someone teases him, Li Ang immediately calls them by their nickname.

"Tudouquan..."

Her Majesty the Queen's expression darkened; she once again regretted her decision to use a historical figure as her pseudonym.

"Forget it, even if he's an unknown nobody, with this guy's talent for coming up with nicknames, he'll probably only think something even more unpleasant."

The Empress took a deep breath, telling herself not to argue with an idiot, before speaking: "You should understand Kirshtalia's purpose now, shouldn't you?"

"Of course, no wonder he wanted to cause trouble on the Mid-Autumn Festival, the fifteenth of August. That day is when the dragon in Lin'an is at its most powerful."

Looking at the towering ice pillars in the distance, Li Ang felt a bit troubled.

"But that guy was really too confident. He thought that with a Sigurd who specializes in dragon attacks and Katniss who can control water, he could take care of that dragon. This is a monster that existed since the time of Emperor Yao, the number one killing god among Chinese dragons."

Her Majesty the Queen smiled understandingly: "There's nothing we can do. He's just an Englishman after all, and he has no idea how terrifying things in Chinese mythology can be."

"Um, what are you guys talking about? I don't understand at all."

Ritsuka, who was standing next to the Empress, had a head full of question marks.

“Miss Potato Circle, should we join forces?” Li Ang said seriously. “If that dragon goes out of control, it could slaughter everyone in Lin’an City.”

"Very well, Your Majesty."

The empress smiled gently at the man, which sent a chill down Ritsuka's spine from behind her.

"I have a feeling there's some kind of conspiracy."

Ritsuka rubbed the goosebumps on the back of her hands, her heart filled with apprehension.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Ruins somewhere in Lin'an...

boom!

Sigurd pulled his body out of the wall that had been embedded in it.

"Was that woman... really human?"

Sigurd rubbed his neck and complained.

"Sab, are you alright?"

Ophelia looked at the disheveled Sigurd with some concern.

"Don't worry, this is nothing."

Sigurd spoke softly, still maintaining his gentlemanly demeanor despite being covered in dust.

"Lanc has gone missing; she's probably been subdued by Li Ang. I told her not to go, but she wouldn't listen! What do we do now?"

Ophelia said with some concern. She didn't think Leon was capable of killing Katniss, who was immortal, but defeating Katniss would certainly not be difficult for him.

"No problem."

"I can't speak," Sigurd said calmly, taking off his glasses and putting them away.

The next moment, Sigurd unleashed a magical power far stronger than when he fought Ryougi Shiki, shattering the surrounding walls!

"Let's go, Mast. Let's go slay the dragon!"

Looking in the direction the ice pillar was rising, Sigurd's eyes, brimming with fighting spirit, resembled those of a giant dragon about to devour everything!

Chapter 324 The Ancient Ferocious Beast, Lord Qiantang

“But I still don’t understand,” Ritsuka asked curiously, “Leon, why are you so afraid of dragons? Isn’t Phil a dragon too?”

"Because the dragon in Lin'an is not a pet like Phil, but an ancient ferocious beast. If the dragon in Lin'an is compared to a Tibetan mastiff, then my Phil is at most a teacup dog."

"Meow!! Meow meow meow!!!"

Li Ang's answer provoked a strong protest from a certain black cat, whose sharp meow almost made it impossible for Li Ang to hear Ritsuka's voice on the other end of the communication.

"Alright, Phil, stop fooling around."

It took Ritsuka a lot of effort to calm the black cat in her arms.

"Meow~"

Phil crouched on Ritsuka's lap, his black, furry body bobbing up and down, seemingly still angry about what his master had said.

While patting Phil's back, Ritsuka continued to ask Leon through the communication device.

Are the dragons in Lin'an really that scary?

“Of course,” Li Ang replied without hesitation. “That’s a monster that dared to cause floods for nine years during the reign of Emperor Yao, dared to submerge five mountains during the battle between heavenly armies, and even dared to kill 600,000 people and flood 800 miles of farmland in the Jing River.”

The empress sighed softly and continued, "The Lord of Qiantang is the Dragon King of Qiantang in the legend of Liu Yi. He is said to be the embodiment of the Qiantang River's waves."

Upon hearing the name Qiantang Jun, Li Ang rubbed his temples, his face full of helplessness.

Having even killed Tiamat, he certainly wouldn't be afraid of Qiantang Jun; no matter how powerful the opponent was, he was definitely not at the level of a Beast.

The problem is that Lord Qiantang is far too bloodthirsty, often taking on hundreds of thousands of people at a time. Compared to this dragon, even Li Kui, the killer, seems so simple and lovable.

If the dragon really goes berserk, then Lin'an may very well witness the tragedy described in "The Tale of Liu Yi," in which 600,000 lives are killed.

"Actually, if Kirshtalia Wodim hadn't made his move on August 15th, I probably wouldn't have thought of this."

"Hey, what's the significance of the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th of August?"

Ritsuka didn't quite understand.

“August is when the Qiantang River tide is at its most spectacular,” Li Ang explained. “As the dragon god of the Qiantang River, the magic of the Qiantang Lord will reach its peak during these days.”

For Kirshtalia Wodim, what he wanted was to obtain the dragon's magic at its peak. However, Leon was more worried that this timing would make the dragon even more difficult to deal with.

As mentioned earlier, the dragon is, to some extent, the embodiment of disaster, and the Qiantang River tidal bore, which is known as the "world's first tidal bore," naturally represents the Qiantang River tidal bore.

In modern times, the title "World's Number One Trendsetter" would represent a tourist attraction, a selling point for tourists, and tourism revenue.

In ancient times, the phrase "the world's first tide" could express the magnificence of the tide, but it also represented disaster.

Although the legend of the Dragon King of Qiantang is most famous in "The Tale of Liu Yi," the title of the ferocious dragon king is almost a fixed characterization for him in all works. Just as Zhuge Liang is basically the embodiment of wisdom in most stories.

"Ouch————!"

With an angry roar, the frozen pillar of the dragon trembled violently once more. Standing beneath the pillar, Li Ang could even see where it had cracked.

"What the hell!"

Li Ang cursed viciously, saying that forcing oneself on a hot-tempered guy was like forcing oneself on one's mother—there was only one outcome: you would die peacefully.

Seeing that the dragon in the ice pillar was about to escape, Li Ang quickly used the freezing rune.

"?!"

Bright blue runes began to appear on the ice pillars, and new ice crystals kept appearing to repair the damaged parts of the ice pillars.

Helping the enemy made Li Ang very unhappy, but he had no choice but to do it.

Rather than letting the Dragon King of Qiantang break free and wreak havoc, it would be better to let its magic power be drained. That way, Li Ang could simply retrieve that magic power afterward.

However, Li Ang could clearly sense that even if he repaired it, it was only a matter of time before the ice pillar collapsed.

"Hopefully they can get this sorted out quickly... huh?"

Sensing something, Li Ang slowly turned his head, and a man in black had already appeared behind him.

"Sigurd?"

Although he was asking the other party, Li Ang had already confirmed the answer before he even spoke.

"Li Ang, hand over [the dragon]."

"Zigruud said coldly."