Chapter 59: Cut Off at the Pass

At that moment, Xu Bing had ceased her screams, a radiant, sanctified light shining upon her face. Clad in silver armor, wielding a halberd, and with a crimson cape billowing behind her, she cut a striking figure.

"This..." Xu Mingzhe, Xu Bancheng's father, along with Feng Baobao who stood behind him, stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

"This... this..." Feng Baobao stuttered, unable to utter a complete sentence.

Just then, the scale hanging from Feng Baobao's neck began to emit beams of golden light.

"Ah!" Feng Baobao cried out in surprise, feeling a powerful force tugging at him, nearly snapping his neck. He staggered, almost falling, and when he regained his balance, he saw the cord of his pendant had broken. The pendant itself flew toward Xu Bing.

The once black scale, now transformed by golden light, appeared as if it were forged from pure gold. As the pendant reached Xu Bing, it merged seamlessly into the center of her brow and disappeared.

"My pendant?" Feng Baobao stared blankly, muttering unconsciously.

The Golden Scale Pendant—the ancestral heirloom of the Feng family. Legend held it to be a dragon scale, acquired by the Feng family's forebear at the foot of a mountain. Feng Baobao had always regarded the tale as a joke. A dragon scale? Surely a fanciful notion.

Yet, every wearer of the scale had enjoyed perfect health. It was a treasured family heirloom. As a child, Feng Baobao had been a sickly boy; a severe fever nearly claimed his life. His father placed the dragon scale around his neck, and, curiously, he recovered without medication.

After his recovery, however, his personality began to change, growing increasingly delicate and effeminate. Perhaps the fever had caused it. From that day forward, the pendant never left his body—not even during baths.

Now, watching the scale vanish into Xu Bing's brow, he was dumbfounded, utterly lost. This was the Feng family's most prized possession!

"Ping! System has detected a dragon scale. Proceed with absorption and fusion?"

Within the gloom of Lin Qiu's expression, the system's voice resounded.

Lin Qiu was startled. Dragon scale? Where had a dragon scale appeared?

He had been attempting to evolve, but his body felt as if it were leaking like a punctured balloon; no matter how powerful his vitality surged, he could not achieve successful evolution.

Finally, the system informed him: due to the contract he had entered with Xu Bing, whose constitution was far too weak, the host's power could not be significantly increased. Under the terms of the contract, his vitality was channeled to Xu Bing, assisting her transformation.

Lin Qiu was exasperated. After contracting with this woman, he had gained nothing but the humiliating ancestral bloodline memories. The system had warned him: her constitution was exceptionally poor, a rarity among millions, an even slimmer chance than winning the lottery—and he had encountered it.

Lin Qiu was beside himself with frustration.

At present, Lin Qiu remained a third-tier aquatic, having failed to evolve to the fourth tier. All his vast vitality had been siphoned away by Xu Bing. With the immense vitality, she was now equivalent to a second-level sea beast.

Upon hearing this, Lin Qiu nearly fainted with rage. The immense vitality he had exchanged for a thousand points had been squandered.

Even a pig, he thought, could have reached the fourth tier with that vitality.

The darkness of his future loomed ever larger, until the system notified him of the dragon scale.

"Dragon scale, sourced from the scales of the primordial divine dragon."

"In the era of primordial wilderness, the heavens and earth were ruled by dragons, phoenixes, qilins, and other powerful beasts and birds."

"That age, older even than ancient times, belonged to these true overlords of the world."

"In other words, the creatures of the Karma star system had not yet arrived."

"But in the primordial era, these overlords fought for dominion of the world, waging battles that lasted a million years."

"In the end, all these creatures perished."

"The primordial era ended completely."

"Their wars nearly exhausted the planet's energy reserves."

The system's explanation left Lin Qiu astonished.

"Compared to the first warrior race, how do the overlords of the primordial era measure up?"

"Of course, the overlords were stronger!"

"The universe you see now, host, is the world shaped by the primordial era—blasted apart and reformed by these overlords."

Lin Qiu's heart tightened. This universe had been forged by their battles. He could hardly believe it.

"Ping. Dragon scale detected. Fusion possible. Proceed?"

The system reminded him again.

Lin Qiu's heart stirred. "If I fuse with the dragon scale, can I transform into a dragon?"

"In theory, yes," the system replied. "In the primordial era, dragons were the supreme overlords. The qilin, phoenix, and other powerful races could not match dragons in combat."

"If not for their alliance, the dragons would never have fallen. Though they managed to kill the dragons, the dragons also obliterated their entire races."

"In that era, all living things strove to evolve, setting the dragon as their evolutionary goal."

Upon hearing this, Lin Qiu burst into laughter.

"Heaven favors me! I will no longer be an orca—I will become a dragon, a true dragon!"

His excitement was unrestrained.

The system was not wrong. In those distant times, all creatures could evolve into dragons. Yet the process was slow; it required gradual replacement of bloodlines. To transform one's bloodline into that of a dragon was not a matter of days.

Thus, in that far-off age, only a handful managed to evolve into dragons.

Now, the system informed Lin Qiu that if he fused with the scale, his bloodline would be replaced with that of a dragon. He would remain an orca, a small dolphin, but with the dragon bloodline, he could continue to evolve. Upon reaching a certain realm, he could leap the dragon gate and become a true celestial dragon.

"Fuse it for me!"

Lin Qiu commanded, teeth clenched in excitement.

"Ping. Capturing dragon scale!"

The system's voice sounded, and Lin Qiu felt a golden, radiant scale fly from the spiritual channel. It resembled a fish scale, yet carried an ancestral pressure within its bloodline. Humans could not sense it, but other creatures surely would.