The setting sun cast crimson fiery clouds across nearly half the sky, tinting the entire earth red.
"Cleaning the ancestral hall was really simple enough."
Linley stepped out of the ancestral hall, reluctantly admitting he had overprepared. A task he'd expected to take an hour was finished in just fifteen minutes.
On the Yulan Continent, a year consisted of 12 months, each with 30 days. A day lasted 24 hours, and each hour 60 minutes. Nobility typically owned grand clocks to track precise time, while the exceedingly wealthy or high-status individuals even carried exquisite pocket watches.
"The ancestral hall is cleaned monthly, so after just one month, there's barely any dirt. A quick wipe suffices. With nearly an hour left before evening training, what should I do?" Bored, Linley glanced around.
The ancient Baruch estate had stood for over five thousand years.
While the front courtyards were cleaned daily, the sprawling rear gardens—save for the ancestral hall—lay neglected under layers of dust. Cracks split walls, messy weeds and emerald green moss choked corners and stone paths.
"Hmm." Staring at these decaying ancient structures, Linley's eyes gradually brightened. "No one's touched these rear gardens for over a century. Could there be some ancient, valuable items hidden here?"
At this thought, Linley's heart began thumping wildly."If I can find valuable items and give them to Father, he will surely be delighted." Linley took a deep breath and immediately began walking toward the dilapidated house next to the ancestral hall. He moved forward step by step, cautiously, clutching a sturdy wooden pole he'd picked up to sweep away cobwebs while carefully inspecting for any objects.
Upon entering the ancient house, Linley was met with the smell of decay. Dense cobwebs clung to the corners, spiders crawling across them. Layers of webs shrouded decorative items on the walls, their surfaces long rotted. Only vague outlines of their original intricate designs remained.
"If these decorations hadn't decayed and were still intact, they'd probably be worth a fortune," Linley muttered regretfully, shaking his head before continuing his search. He used the pole to clear away webs, meticulously examining every object—those on the floor, shelves, and even checking walls for hidden mechanisms.
"According to books, walls often conceal secret compartments," Linley reminded himself, tapping the walls lightly to listen for hollow echoes.
He thoroughly enjoyed this "treasure hunt" in the ancient house. Yet Linley had forgotten one crucial fact: if he, an eight-year-old, could conceive of searching these ruins, so too had his father, grandfather, and generations of Baruch family ancestors before him. Every relic of value had long been stripped from these crumbling rooms by his predecessors.
Though family education had matured him beyond his years, Linley remained a child. His thinking lacked the depth and thoroughness of an adult, leaving gaps in his reasoning."This ancient house has nothing, the next one—" Linley stepped out of the first ancient house and walked toward the second.
There were numerous buildings in the rear garden. After all, the front courtyard mansion where Linley and his family currently resided only occupied one-third of the entire estate. The rear area was much more expansive. If they were to thoroughly search everything, Linley estimated it would take a full day.
"All the decorations are rotting away. Not a single valuable item left." Linley exited yet another ancient house.
He glanced at the sky.
"Hmm, about fifteen minutes left before evening training." Turning his head, he looked at a particularly large ancient structure in the distance. "That one then—the biggest ancient house. Spend ten minutes searching it. If I find nothing, I'll head straight to training."
Having decided, Linley ran toward the largest ancient building.
This structure covered an area even larger than the front courtyard's main hall. Entering it, Linley observed carefully: "Probably centuries ago, this was where our Baruch clan held banquets." From the layout and decorations, he could tell this had been a grand hall.
An exceptionally vast and imposing grand hall.
"Start with the floor."
Following routine, Linley lowered his head and widened his eyes, meticulously scanning every inch. Whenever he spotted something, he poked it twice with a wooden stick to verify. If it turned out to be a pebble, he immediately moved on. With training time approaching, his searching pace quickened.
"Now check the walls and decorations. Sigh... last hope." Linley puffed his cheeks as he surveyed the surroundings. "Ancestors, please leave at least one or two items for me. Even a small trinket would do."
He examined every surface intently, even peering behind the rotting wall ornaments.By the wall of this ancient house stood a wooden shelf with drawers. Linley immediately began opening each drawer one by one, examining them carefully. But the drawers were completely clean, utterly empty. If there was anything inside, it was only—dust.
"Sigh!"
After inspecting the last drawer of the shelf, Linley couldn't help feeling a wave of disappointment.
"I've searched for so long, yet haven't found a single valuable thing. All I've earned is exhaustion and a layer of grime." Linley glanced at his dirt-covered clothes. The sight deepened his frustration.
His eyes swept across the ancient room.
"Ugh, time to leave." Resentful over the wasted hour, Linley angrily hurled the wooden pole in his hand at the shelf beside him, as if venting all his pent-up frustration in that one throw.
*Thud!* The pole struck the shelf solidly.
The shelf, already aged and weathered by over a century of decay, groaned under the blow. The wood creaked and shuddered.
Hearing the noise, Linley turned in alarm. His eyes widened. "Oh no, it's collapsing!" During his earlier searches in other rooms, he'd accidentally shattered a few decorations and learned the hard way.
He scrambled backward, dodging just as the towering shelf—twice his height—crashed to the floor with a *boom!* Splintering into eight or nine pieces, it sent a cloud of dust billowing through the room. Amid the swirling haze, Linley failed to notice a small black ring, hidden for who-knows-how-long within the shelf's secret compartment, tumble out and roll silently onto the ground.
"Pah! Pah!" Linley spat twice, swatting at the dust. "Just my luck. Covered in filth again. Training starts soon—better rinse off and change." He waved a hand dismissively and strode out of the ancient house.The black ring had rolled to a spot near the threshold.
When Lin Lei took three or four steps, reaching the area close to the threshold, he suddenly froze. He felt something distinctly beneath his foot—a large, pebble-like object.
"Earlier, when I inspected this spot, there were no stones near the threshold. It must be a wood fragment from the shattered shelf," Lin Lei thought, resentment rising as he stomped hard on the supposed "wooden fragment."
If it were truly rotten wood, he expected it to crumble into dust under his foot. Yet—
"Ouch! Why is this so hard? What *is* this?" Lin Lei realized the object beneath him was uncommonly solid. He lifted the sole of his foot to inspect.
A pitch-black, finger-ring-like object lay quietly on the ground, coated in a layer of dust, utterly inconspicuous.
"Ah, a ring?" Lin Lei's sharp eyes lit up with delight. He picked up the black ring and vigorously rubbed it against his already grimy sleeve several times. Only then did he clearly see the true appearance of the black ring-like object.
It was entirely dark, its material neither wholly wooden nor stony. The black ring seemed crafted from a substance that blurred the line between wood and stone. Along its band, a faintly carved, twisted shape coiled—
"An earthworm?" Lin Lei frowned, puzzled by the design etched into the ring's surface.At first glance, Lin Lei instinctively thought that "twisted strip" was an earthworm.
Lin Lei chuckled to himself, "The carving skills here are truly awful. Any random person could probably carve better than this. What a pity—this black ring doesn't even have a single precious diamond, let alone something as valuable as magic crystals."
Most rings would feature diamonds or magic crystals.
But this black ring was made entirely of a dark, wood-like stone material, with no trace of diamonds or magic crystals. Clearly, it was worthless.
For some reason, the moment Lin Lei saw the black ring, he felt drawn to it. Perhaps it was because this was the sole trophy from his strenuous treasure hunt in the ancient house.
"Hmm, this ring's too thick for my fingers. Can't wear it... I'll string it on a silk thread and wear it as a pendant," Lin Lei's eyes brightened.
At just eight years old, his hands were much smaller than those of an adult, making the ring impossible to wear.
"As for the name... 'Earthworm Ring'? No, too ugly." After pondering, his eyes lit up. "Hehe, that twisted thing could sort of count as a 'dragon'. A dragon coiling around the ring—let's call it... the Coiling Dragon Ring!" Even though deep down, Lin Lei still thought the twisted shape resembled an earthworm more, he stubbornly named it the "Coiling Dragon Ring."
"Coiling Dragon Ring!" Lin Lei raised the simple, dark ring high and laughed with particular brightness.
Due to his family's financial struggles, this was Lin Lei's first pendant since childhood. Especially since he'd earned it through his own efforts, his affection for it grew even stronger."Ah, it's bad. Evening training is about to start."
Linley suddenly jolted awake, his heart racing. Glancing down at his body, covered in dust and grime, looking like a beggar, he panicked. "Disaster!" Without another thought, he dashed out of the ancient house and sprinted straight toward the bathing room.
"Whoosh! Whoosh!"
Linley drenched himself under the water. His skin glowed a healthy wheat color, his body already sculpted with aesthetically pleasing muscle lines—the fruits of his relentless training. Under the torrential pour, the grime swiftly washed away.
At lightning speed, he scrubbed himself clean, then hurriedly changed into a set of training clothes.
"String, string—" Linley frantically searched for a thread to attach the 'Coiling Dragon Ring.' Suddenly spotting a torn hempen shirt, his eyes lit up. He yanked out a thin strand from the fabric.
Hemp cloth, though plain, was sturdy and durable. The hempen thread held firm.
Quickly threading the Coiling Dragon Ring, he tied it securely and hung it around his neck.
"Going to be late. My first time being late!" Linley bolted out the door, tucking the 'Coiling Dragon Pendant' inside his shirt as he ran. The cool touch of the pendant against his chest lifted his spirits.Being late once, yet gaining the Coiling Dragon Ring.
Lin Lei actually felt quite happy.
Lin Lei immediately darted out of the Baruch family mansion's main gate, then sprinted directly toward the open ground east of Wushan Town. On the town's streets, many civilians returning from a day's work saw Lin Lei rushing past and guessed the reason.
"Young Master Lin Lei, no need to hurry—watch out for tripping!"
"Sir Hillman is strict. Young Master Lin Lei will probably get punished."
...
The Baruch family's kindness toward civilians had earned Lin Lei genuine affection from the townsfolk.
"How will Uncle Hillman punish me?" Even while sprinting, Lin Lei kept worrying. He couldn't spare breath to reply to the uncles and aunties calling out along the way. In moments, he reached the eastern open ground.
The three training squads had already assembled. Hillman was addressing them when Lin Lei's footsteps made him turn, his stern gaze piercing through the boy.
Lin Lei ran to the edge of the formation, stood at attention, and waited anxiously for Hillman's verdict.
"Double the training tasks today as punishment. Return to formation," Hillman stated coldly.
"Yes, sir!" Lin Lei straightened his back and responded loudly.The boys nearby couldn't help exchanging astonished glances. A doubled penalty for mere tardiness—it seemed Lin Lei wouldn't make it home in time for dinner today.
Just as Lin Lei began running toward his position in the group—
**BOOM!**
The entire earth trembled with faint yet rhythmic vibrations, as if some colossal creature were taking deliberate, earth-shaking steps.
"It's coming from the east," Lin Lei immediately pinpointed the direction.
Not just him—Hillman, Rui, Jie, and others all turned grave expressions eastward. The tremors grew clearer with each passing moment. Every boy instinctively understood: whatever approached with such thunderous rhythm had to be monstrously huge.
Each ground-shaking footfall now pounded like a hammer against their chests.
What kind of behemoth could this be?
Lin Lei's eyes widened, locked unblinkingly on the eastern horizon.The colossal creature that caused the ground to tremble had revealed itself.
The moment they saw the behemoth, Lin Lei and the group of children were completely stunned. In contrast, Hillman, Rorie, and Roger reacted swiftly, positioning themselves in front of the children and vigilantly eyeing the monstrous entity.
"A seventh-ranked magical beast—the 'Velociraptor'!" Hillman's face paled, while Rorie and Roger beside him felt their legs go weak.
"So... so huge. Is... is this the legendary magical beast?" Lin Lei was utterly awestruck.
From childhood, the largest creature Lin Lei had ever seen was likely a warhorse passing through the town—a towering steed nearly two meters tall. Yet compared to this gargantuan entity before him, such a horse seemed like an infant standing before a giant. The difference was incomparable.
Its massive body stood two stories tall, stretching twenty to thirty meters in length.
A magical beast—the Velociraptor!
The Velociraptor's entire body was armored with enormous, fiery red, plate-like scales, each glowing with a cold metallic sheen. The mere sight of them chilled the soul. Its four scaled legs were astonishingly thick, each limb so sturdy that it would require two people to barely wrap their arms around them. While the Velociraptor's body burned crimson, its claws were an icy, fathomless black.
The dragon-like tail, nearly half the length of its entire body and covered in crimson scales, whipped across the ground. Each casual swipe plowed deep trenches into the earth.
"Hmm—"
The velociraptor snorted low, twin plumes of white smoke reeking of sulfur puffing from its nostrils. Its two lantern-sized, diamond-like crystalline eyes glowed with an eerie crimson light. The massive head swiveled toward the group of teenagers, including Lei Lin, freezing them all in terror with its cold, blood-red gaze.
*Crunch, crunch.* The velociraptor's jaws shifted slightly, revealing two rows of interlocking, saw-like teeth—each one bone-white and razor-sharp. A visceral chill gripped every onlooker; none doubted their lethality.
Lei Lin felt as though his heart had stopped. In that moment, even sound seemed to vanish.
*How could anyone stand against this monstrosity?* His mind blanked with primal fear.
The creature's tail alone—a living whip of scale and muscle—could reduce Wushan Town's sturdy stone houses to rubble in a single strike.
"Is this Wushan Town?" A cold voice rang out from above the velociraptor.All the stunned youths dumbly turned their gazes toward the Velociraptor's back, where a mysterious figure draped in a violet robe sat cross-legged. The Velociraptor's colossal size made its back broad and thick enough for a person to lie down or even roll over comfortably.
"Lord Magus, this is indeed Wushan Town. How may I serve you?" The voice of Hillman rang out.
At the sound of Hillman's voice, everyone seemed to find their anchor. They gradually recovered from the paralyzing fear induced by the earlier 'Aura of Terror,' yet none dared make a sound—including Rory and Roger. They huddled behind Hillman, staring fearfully at the gigantic Velociraptor and the enigmatic violet-robed magus.
"Wushan Town. Seems I haven't lost my way," the violet-robed figure murmured softly.
With that, the mysterious magus fell silent. The enormous Velociraptor swept its cold crimson eyes over the group—Linley and the others—before snorting twin plumes of mist from its nostrils. It resumed its heavy, earth-shaking strides toward the heart of the town. Watching the beast advance, Hillman's expression darkened.
"Everyone stay here," Hillman commanded before swiftly following the Velociraptor's trail.
"Uncle Rory, what was that? A magical beast?" Linley asked, the first to break the tense silence.
Rory swallowed hard, residual fear flickering in his eyes as he nodded. "Yes, a magical beast. But not just any—a seventh-grade magical beast, the 'Velociraptor.'"
"Velociraptor..."
The name etched itself deeply into Linley's consciousness.The Velociraptor's massive body, those hard scales, those sharp dragon claws, that powerful tail. All of these were extremely terrifying. Lin Lei believed... a single Velociraptor could probably annihilate his entire Wushan Town.
"The Velociraptor's full-body scale armor provides astonishing defense, coupled with terrifying offensive power. It's also proficient in aggressive fire-attribute magic!" Rui said fearfully, his voice trembling as he explained to Lin Lei. "Facing a terrifying magical beast like the Velociraptor, even a thousand-man battalion would typically be slaughtered clean. Only sixth or seventh-ranked warriors and mages working together could truly penetrate its scales to injure it."
Lin Lei's heart shook violently.
A thousand-man battalion slaughtered clean?
"However, the most terrifying thing isn't the Velociraptor, but... that purple-robed mysterious man." Rui took two deep breaths, desperately trying to calm his panicked heart.
Beside him, Roger nodded and said: "Right. To subdue a Velociraptor, one must make it willingly become a servant. This means... that purple-robed mysterious man possesses strength far surpassing the Velociraptor's. Judging by his attire, he should be a mage."
"At least a seventh-ranked mage, possibly even eighth-ranked!" Roger clenched his fists unconsciously. "I never imagined such a great figure would come to our place."
Lin Lei could sense the fear in both Rui and Roger's hearts.
A seventh-ranked magical beast - the Velociraptor - and a mysterious mage whose strength surpassed this beast. This was indeed terrifying.
"A mage... stronger than the Velociraptor?" Lin Lei still found this somewhat unbelievable.
The Velociraptor's terrifyingly huge body, those rock-hard scales, sharp dragon claws, sturdy tail... while the mysterious mage's figure was so small in comparison.
"ROAR!"
Suddenly, an angry roar erupted from the center of Wushan Town."Not good." Luo Rui and Luo Jie couldn't help but exclaim in shock. Linley and the group of youths also grew anxious. Was the Velociraptor's roar directed at Wushan Town? Was it because of Uncle Hillman? None of them knew.
"Stay here." Though Luo Rui and Luo Jie were terrified, they still sprinted toward the center of the town.
Linley gritted his teeth. "Uncle Hillman!" Equally worried about his uncle and the townspeople, he followed. With their hearts trembling with fear, Luo Rui and Luo Jie remained completely focused on the Velociraptor, failing to notice Linley trailing behind.
Within moments, Luo Rui and Luo Jie reached the town square. Hillman stood at a distance, observing the scene.
"Why did you come?" Hillman barked sharply.
Noticing Linley running up behind them, he frowned. "Linley, it's too dangerous here. Go back immediately." Only then did Luo Rui and Luo Jie realize Linley had followed.
"Linley, how could you—" The two men faltered, at a loss for words.
"Uncle Hillman, I won't go back." Linley stood firm.
Hillman sighed helplessly, well aware of the boy's stubbornness. "Fine. Stay close to me. Don't wander off. As long as you're by my side, I can protect you."
"Thank you, Uncle Hillman! I'll stay right here." Linley brightened.
The group now stood about a hundred meters from the Velociraptor, cautiously observing the confrontation. Before the colossal creature stood seven youths—four men and three women.