Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 134: The King’s Blood Sacrifice (1)

Dragon Raja 3

The progress bar flashed with blinding red light, rapidly advancing from the left side of the screen to the right. The embryo’s hatching rate had instantly surpassed 60%. The preliminary results of Norma’s emergency repairs showed that the sonar monitoring the seabed had reestablished contact with headquarters, but as soon as the data came in, the hatching rate began to soar.

“It’s impossible! It’s hatching faster than in Greenland! Ten times faster! Dragons are appearing! Retrieve the safety cables! Retrieve the safety cables!” Schneider subconsciously shouted towards Chisei, who was far on the other side of the Earth, fully aware of the communication interruption.

The terrifying memories from ten years ago once again enveloped him. It was as if fate dictated that no matter how much preparation he made, the shadow of the dragon would still cling to him. No one responded, and the hatching rate broke through 90%. His heartbeat accelerated to 400 beats per minute, filling the central control room with the sound of frantic heartbeats. The ancient dragon embryo could break free at any moment, yet the connection to the Kaguya system was unavailable at this crucial time. Schneider could only watch helplessly as the hatching rate jumped higher: 98%… 99%… 100%.

“It’s too late… it’s too late… it has completed hatching! No one can stop it now!” Schneider said softly.

For years, the Greenland ice sea incident had been his nightmare, and now that nightmare had become reality once again. The door opened, the embryo hatched, and humanity faced an unknown creature in the deep sea, unable to struggle, only waiting to be preyed upon.

“No, it’s still continuing!” Manstein exclaimed.

The large screen displayed that the hatching rate was still rising: 120%… 150%… 190%… 240%…

“What’s going on? How can the hatching rate exceed 100%?”

Cold sweat poured from Schneider: “If there’s more than one living thing down there, the heartbeat signals will overlap, raising the upper limit of the hatching rate. This is a flaw in the calculation method; if 100 dragons awaken simultaneously, the upper limit would be 10,000%!”

At this moment, the hatching rate had already soared past 8400%.

Waves rolled high on the river of lava, and the viscous molten rock flowed extremely slowly. Waves reaching over ten meters high could maintain their shape for over ten seconds in the water before collapsing, and hundreds of tons of lava crashed back onto the river. The brightness of the lava surged, illuminating every corner of the ruins. As the ruins shook, millions of lung snails fell off, accompanied by viscous strands of blood. What was exposed was not the massive ship that Caesar’s group had imagined, but an indescribable alien object. It measured over a hundred meters in length, half embedded in the seabed and half covered by layers of lung snails. The visible part on the surface was a color resembling luncheon meat, densely covered with structures similar to tendons and fascia, and it twitched slightly. The lung snails were using their mouthparts to bite into the body of this giant, continuously feeding and mating. Its surface had horrifying wounds that were gaping open, and remnants of lung snails clung tightly in the depths of the wounds.

“Mommy, mommy, mommy…” Lu Mingfei said, “Damn it!”

“Could it be the embryo?” Caesar was also stunned. If the length of the embryo exceeded a hundred meters, wouldn’t this ancient dragon be several kilometers long once it matured? The lung snails fell like a torrential rain, obscuring their view.

“No,” Chu Zihang whispered, “it’s the Lenin. Look closely at the seabed; you can see the marks of its fall from a height.”

Around that object, the buildings collapsed inwards, indicating that it had indeed fallen to the seabed with incredible speed and its own weight, creating shockwaves. The exposed part was 80 meters long, about 25 meters wide, vaguely resembling the shape of an icebreaker. But its appearance had been completely transformed; anyone seeing it for the first time would mistake it for a giant creature rather than a sunken ship.

“This thing is still moving! What’s the difference from an embryo? Has the icebreaker become pregnant?” Lu Mingfei was stunned by everything before him.

“The sunken ship has been occupied by the embryo; the embryo has transformed the steel into part of itself!” Chu Zihang said. “Look closely! The parts not covered by flesh show traces of blood vessels in the steel!”

“Can the ancient dragon have such a function? Is it going to eat the icebreaker to evolve into a beast?” Lu Mingfei exclaimed.

“No, I think that embryo is actually already dead,” Caesar said quietly.

“It’s clearly still moving! Its blood vessels are pulsating! The young dragon must be in the cabin, boss!”

“It still has vitality, but it can no longer hatch. Someone has killed it and used it as a sacrifice,” Caesar said. “Look below.”

Lu Mingfei and Chu Zihang looked out from the observation port below. In the place where the lung snails had piled up, the Lenin had produced thick blood vessels penetrating the seabed, with blood flowing from the Lenin towards the entire city, seemingly nourishing this dead city. As the tremors intensified, the seabed was cracking, with thick, black blood plasma filling the black crevices. The three of them were only at a beginner level in alchemy, but anyone could see this was a bloody alchemical ritual resembling black magic. The dragon blood flowing from the Lenin irrigated this ancient city, which seemed to be awakening! Their enemy was not the embryo, but this ancient Takamagahara that had been dead for many years. Myths said that gods once resided here, and the gods of the past were about to awaken.

What kind of being requires the blood of an ancient dragon for a sacrifice? What kind of devil is nurtured by dragon blood?

“How tragic, the high and mighty king, ultimately just a bloody sacrifice before a more powerful king,” Mai stood atop the Trieste, sighing silently.

She released the dark light and left the Trieste, swimming toward the wreck of the Lenin. At this moment, the giant ship wrapped in flesh was wilting, an unknown force draining its blood. The city was awakening, greedily sucking in the premium juices. The blood vessels shrank, and the fleshy surface cracked open, viscous blood, thick as syrup, sank in the seawater, with crimson strands adhering to the outer shell of the Trieste. The Trieste was less than 200 meters away from the wreck of the Lenin, and Mai swam with the speed of a marlin. She reached the side of the Lenin, surfaced against the hull, and all the portholes extended fleshy red tentacles, grotesque like the granulation tissue that grows from a severed arm. Caesar was not mistaken; this dragon had been deprived of its brain in the embryonic stage. Now, it was merely a sacrificial offering bleeding dragon blood. Because of its lineage, it would not die completely, but would continuously grow, constantly supplying blood to this city. The lung snails tasted its blood and became a subspecies of dragons, and marine creatures evolved because of their consumption of lung snails. Once high and mighty, the dragon king’s status had been reduced to that of a nourishing placenta.