“Oh right, where did that woman’s voice just now come from?” Now that the pain from her wound had lessened, Mo Li started thinking about the source of that woman’s voice.
After saying a bunch of things she couldn’t understand, the woman had transmitted all the knowledge about the blood art 【White Feathered Dragons Arbitration】straight into her mind, instantly turning the tables for Jasmine, who up until then could only rely on basic attacks.
Could it be that there’s some all-knowing grandma living inside her body, who only steps in to help when her life’s in danger? No, that can’t be it… If she really had a cheat like that, why didn’t it show up when Emilia almost turned her into roast dragon the other day, and only decided to help this time? Then again…
Glancing at the pitch-black jade ring, Jasmine’s expression turned a bit odd.
Earlier, when she went into the ring’s world to exchange for medicine, she’d unexpectedly received another quest from the ring: break 200 points on the gold card to clear the stage.
Honestly, after being screwed over by this ring once before, Jasmine really didn’t want to bother with it anymore, but the problem was… it just offered too much.
Two thousand gold coins plus two enchanted sleeve blades—this ring seemed to know exactly what Jasmine wanted, always hitting her right in her weak spot, making it impossible for her to refuse.
She’d been wanting to swap out her sleeve blades for ages.
As an assassin, sleeve blades were her soul weapon, but since they were considered a thief’s tool, they never really caught on, and specially forged enchanted sleeve blades were rare as hell—money couldn’t even buy them.
This little cursed ring must have figured out her weakness to dare make such an outrageous demand.
Passing the 200-point review wasn’t just twice as hard—it was way more than that.
The test only gave her five days, and even if she got enough points, if she didn’t reach the finish line in time, it still wouldn’t count.
And Jasmine still had no clue where the finish line even was.
Even if she spent every waking moment fighting monsters, she could still lose out on this tiny detail in the end.
Plus, there was the issue of combat power.
As a White Feathered Dragons of hatchling size, her last fight had drained all the magic essence from her blood.
Sure, as a golden-blooded dragon, using her bloodline didn’t cost her anything, but it still burned through a terrifying amount of magic essence.
Just think about it—a baby dragon barely born, destroying a small forest and even changing the local landscape.
Even if she wasn’t seriously hurt, she’d definitely be burned out after that.
After firing off that 【White Feathered Dragons Arbitration】, she’d need at least three to five days to recover.
For now, her dragon form was only good for looking cute, so Jasmine had to seriously consider whether this quest was worth it.
Still, after this whole mess, learning how to use her dragon blood was definitely Jasmine’s biggest gain.
But this high-level blood art had way too harsh requirements, and the magic essence it needed was insane—her little body just couldn’t handle using it more than once.
After using it, Jasmine’s only thought was: hungry.
Her whole body felt weak, her stomach was empty, and once the alchemy potion kicked in and she could move again, Jasmine dragged herself to a safer spot and started munching on the compressed bread in her backpack.
But even though the bread was nutritious, it was just so bland.
After a couple bites, she couldn’t force herself to eat any more.
Chewing away, Jasmine tilted her head, thinking, then glanced at the tree root she was leaning against and took a bite out of it.
“Nom nom… Hmm, not so bland anymore.
Not bad, this is the flavor I wanted.”
After all that exercise, a bit of lunch bread with some tree bark and grass roots for seasoning—fully fermented flour with a hint of nature’s fragrance—maybe this was the simple, straightforward happiness of a true foodie.
“Drip drip.”
“Huh?” Feeling something cool on her forehead, Jasmine touched her head and looked up.
“Ah! It’s raining, I need to find shelter or I’ll catch a cold…” Jasmine looked around and decided the big, leafy tree in front of her was the best option.
She gnawed off a chunk of bark, and just like that, a natural tree hollow was formed.
Full and satisfied, Jasmine started getting sleepy as she counted raindrops in the tree hollow.
Her nerves had been on edge all day, and after that tough fight, her energy was totally spent.
Her eyelids drooped and she couldn’t keep them open any longer.
“Gurgle gurgle, so cold…” Jasmine mumbled in her sleep, her little hands searching for something like a blanket to cover herself.
Then, she grabbed her own hair—soft and silky as the finest satin.
In the howling winds of the secret realm, the little dragon girl fell asleep hugging her tail and hair, while the rain outside the tree hollow poured down even harder.
———
A bunch of colorful, nameless birds perched on the branches, chirping away.
Jasmine woke up to the pleasant sound of birdsong, blinking open her heavy eyelids and letting out a big yawn, tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.
“Mm, is it already noon?” She gathered her messy hair behind her, pushed herself up, and stretched lazily.
Stepping out of the tree hollow, she caught her reflection in the dew on the ground.
“Huh?” Jasmine froze, looked herself over, and tilted her head.
She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt like she’d grown a bit.
Compared to the childish, almost baby-faced look she’d had a few days ago, she seemed a little more mature now, maybe even a bit taller.
Still a loli, but the most obvious change was her dragon horns—they’d grown longer.
Instead of the short, stubby horns she’d had before, they were now much more noticeable.
The next most obvious change was…
Jasmine squeezed the two soft mounds on her chest, a blush flashing across her cheeks.
“What’s going on…?” Was it because yesterday’s battle had activated her bloodline, making her look more grown up physically? Or was dragon growth just this dramatic?
She touched the horns on her head and decided it must be the dragon race’s crazy growth rate.
It was a good thing—if she could grow up fast and get a mature dragon’s body, her combat power would skyrocket.
“So, now I should…” Just as she was thinking about her next move, her mind suddenly went blank for a second, then a splitting headache hit.
“Ahhh!…” Jasmine cried out in pain, lost her balance, and smacked her head on the tree trunk, her dragon horns getting stuck.
“Come to me, White Feathered Dragons, come to me…”
It was that woman’s voice from yesterday.
“Who… who are you…?”
“Come to me, White Feathered Dragons, come to me.” The woman’s voice didn’t answer Jasmine’s question, just kept repeating the same words.
Gradually, Jasmine’s consciousness started to blur.
Her eyes glazed over as she stared at the highest peak in the secret realm and started walking toward it.
After a few steps, she snapped out of it, gasping for breath, her heart pounding.
“What the hell was that voice…?” Jasmine stared blankly at the distant, nameless mountain.
That voice seemed to echo in her ears again, like the whisper of an ancient god.
In that deep murmur, Jasmine felt like she’d lost herself, and even after regaining her senses, her subconscious was still pushing her toward that mountain.
It wasn’t just mental control—she could feel a resonance in her blood, making it impossible to resist the voice’s command.
Jasmine quickly shifted back to her human form, and only then did things ease up a bit.
Seriously, this place is cursed!… Mo Li hurriedly ran in the opposite direction of the mountain, only stopping when the voice finally faded from his mind.
He had no idea what was on that mountain, but he had a feeling that nothing good would come from going there.
This secret realm was just too weird—he’d better focus on racking up enough points and getting out.
Forget the quest!
Thinking that, Mo Li pulled out his gold card, but froze when he saw the number on it.
He saw the number on the gold card jump from barely reaching double digits yesterday to a three-digit number today.
“One hundred and two points?!” Mo Li was dumbfounded.
He really had no idea how his score had jumped to 102.
He didn’t even have time to take those nobles’ gold cards for himself, so how did his points shoot up like a rocket?
Wait, could it be…
Mo Li had a guess.
It was probably because the 【White Feathered Dragons Arbitration】 was so powerful that it not only destroyed the surrounding ecosystem, but also killed all the dangerous creatures living there, and all the points were credited to him.
“Ah, damn.”
What a pleasant surprise.
He’d cleared the stage without even realizing it, just by fighting.
That was pretty slick.
Now things were different.
Looking at the full three digits on his gold card, Mo Li suddenly felt confident again.
Maybe he could try that commission? Anyway, there were still four days left including today, so maybe he really could earn the remaining ninety-eight points?
After making up his mind, Mo Li started searching for traces of monsters.
But before he could even find a single one, he heard screams from not far away—human screams.
“There are other contestants here?” Mo Li didn’t really want to go over, since after what happened before, he really didn’t want to deal with those nobles again.
But whatever could make those noble young masters scream like that had to be a pretty strong monster, and killing it would definitely earn him a lot of points.
After weighing his options, Mo Li decided to go check it out and see if he could take advantage of the situation.
Not far away.
“Ahhh!” Another contestant was taken out, lying motionless on the ground.
This team, which had started out with a lot of people, now had less than a third of its original members.
The first reason was that everyone had more or less realized that with so many people, there wasn’t enough to go around.
No matter how much they helped, the points always went to a few, and it was way faster to hunt in small teams. So some of the more independent ones split off.
Then there were the ones who were forced to run away, and their numbers kept dropping, so they were nowhere near as strong as before.
This team, of course, was Emilia and her followers.
