Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 332: Crimson Soil (5)

Dragon Raja 3

No one dared approach to light the fire. The few remaining workers lit lighters from a distance and tossed them toward the depression, but the flames were instantly extinguished by the wind and rain. There wasn’t time to fetch windproof torches. Sakurai Masahiko hoisted a barrel of gasoline and charged straight toward the depression. To his colleagues, this young researcher had always been polite, gentle, and seemingly weak. But tonight, he had transformed—first pulling out a gun and becoming a violent assailant, and now turning into an unstoppable athlete. Sakurai Masahiko strode through the leaping dragon vipers, silver-blue blood spraying everywhere. The dragon vipers’ most terrifying weapons were their hard teeth and powerful bite, but their bodies weren’t particularly tough. Sakurai Masahiko’s weight was enough to crush their internal organs.

In that moment, Sakurai Masahiko’s figure seemed so grand. His colleagues forgot the cruelty he displayed when he shot their fellow workers. All they saw now was Sakurai Masahiko saving them from disaster.

And indeed, he could. He was a Hybrid! Dragon blood flowed through his veins! He stomped down on these little demons as if crushing wriggling silkworms, the sound of their bodies breaking resounding with each step.

He raised the barrel over his head and, with all his strength, threw it toward the center of the depression. The barrel arced through the air and landed in the middle, where hundreds of tons of crimson water had pooled, with a thick layer of fuel floating on top. Thousands of tiny fish were leaping across the water’s surface.

Sakurai Masahiko raised his gun and fired several shots. Sparks flew as the bullets struck the barrel, and suddenly, the barrel burst into flames in midair. The fire collided with the surface of the water, blue flames spreading in all directions, and a raging inferno shot up into the sky.

“Sakurai-kun! Come back!” someone among his colleagues called out.

By now, their fear of Sakurai Masahiko had completely vanished. He had proven himself not to be a coward forcing others to risk their lives while he stood back. He was a warrior who charged forward in the face of danger.

Sakurai Masahiko did not respond. He glanced back at his colleagues, and a silver-blue tail flicked in and out of his mouth… He could no longer speak—the ghost tooth viper had already devoured his tongue, along with the cartilage in it.

He had no intention of returning. He was a Hybrid, but not a combat type. Doing something so heroic was not his specialty. But he was still a member of the Yamata no Orochi, a family that had protected Japan for thousands of years. Thousands of years of sacrifices, and they had never retreated. That’s why they proudly called themselves the protectors of Japan—this was their homeland. Step by step, he walked toward the depression, his blood dripping onto the rocks, attracting more and more dragon vipers. The little fish jumped onto him and quickly disappeared into his body. Hundreds of them gnawed at his insides, tearing him apart. Before the pain could destroy his will, he leaped into the burning depression. Using his own body as a cage, he took the dragon vipers back to hell.

The roar of wind came from the sky as a black helicopter hovered overhead. Black-clad figures wielding flamethrowers descended on ropes. As they landed, they unleashed streams of fire, seven or eight meters long, driving the dragon vipers back into the depression. Other armed figures moved in to control the workers.

When the crimson water gushed out from the drill hole, Sakurai Masahiko immediately reported it to the family via text message. Tachibana ordered the helicopter to be dispatched from the small mountain town, and Yasha was urgently assigned to lead the team toward the Tama River. They arrived at the scene, but it was too late to save Sakurai Masahiko. He had fulfilled his duty as a member of the Sakurai family, guarding the gates of hell as a civilian for fifteen minutes.

Sakurai Masahiko’s body had already turned to bones, burning in the inferno, glowing like copper. Yasha made the sign of the cross over his chest: “Rest in peace, my brother! You have found what we were looking for!”

Miyamoto Shio pushed open the heavy black wooden door and stepped into the Wake Temple.

Despite its name, Wake Temple was actually a terrace hidden high up in the Genji Heavy Industries building. Overhead, the sky was thick with dark clouds, and beneath his feet were rough blue stone floors, surrounded by the sound of flowing water. A black stone table sat under a bright red torii gate. Aside from the runaway Uesugi Erii, the heads of all the Yamata no Orochi family branches were present. It was 6:30 in the morning, only fifteen minutes after Shio had received the notice for the meeting. He had been working all night in the underground dock, studying the corpses of the Death Servitors when his secretary called, informing him that the highest-level family meeting would be held in Wake Temple, a meeting that only the top echelons could attend.

The sun had already risen, but the thick clouds blocked the light, casting a pale glow over the sky. A powerful wind blew from Tokyo Bay, and the air was thick with the smell of the sea.

Everyone except Shio, who was still wearing his lab coat, was dressed in suits. The beautiful matriarch Sakurai Nanami was dressed in an exquisite kimono. The new family head, Chisei, sat at the head of the table, with his trusted aides, Yasha, Crow, and Sakura, standing behind him in black Execution Bureau trench coats, their hands clasped behind their backs, forming an impenetrable wall. After apologizing for his lateness, Shio quickly sat in the empty seat.

He had a premonition that this meeting was of extraordinary significance. The expressions on the faces of the family heads were a mix of fear and excitement, and they exchanged silent glances.

Chisei lit a Mild Seven cigarette, exhaled a puff of smoke, and looked around at everyone. “I believe we have found a god.”

Shio was shocked. As the head of technical operations, he knew that the family had been conducting explorations across Japan, trying to uncover ancient relics buried deep underground, but for decades there had been no progress. Had they suddenly received good news?

Yasha placed a black lacquered box in front of each family head. Inside each box were three items: two quartz bottles and an envelope. One of the quartz bottles contained dark red water. Shio shook the bottle and noticed that the liquid inside was quite viscous. The other quartz bottle held a silver-blue fish, dehydrated but still alive, occasionally thrashing violently and revealing its crystalline fangs.

It was a Dragon’s Executioner, a ghost tooth viper. If it weren’t for the high-strength quartz glass, the little fish would have already burrowed into Shio’s body and started tearing him apart.

“Last night, the drilling team working near the Tama River reported that they discovered a massive number of ghost tooth vipers in the Akioni River. The water of that underground river is crimson like blood,” Chisei said quietly. “The envelope contains the water sample analysis report. It confirms that the Akioni River contains traces of blood. Miyamoto family head, you can examine it in detail. Based on the results, a river of blood is flowing beneath the Tama River, and its chemical composition is similar to embryonic blood—dragon embryonic blood.”

“My… God!” Shio quickly scanned the report, his voice trembling.

The blood of any organism in its embryonic state is different from its blood after birth. Embryos consume vast amounts of nutrients to grow rapidly, and their blood must carry more nutrients and hormones. The blood is also most active during the embryonic stage. The appearance of embryonic blood meant that an embryo was located beneath the Tama River, and the fact that the amount of blood was large enough to be detected in a river suggested the embryo’s enormous size—a giant embryo, gestating in the blood river!

“Could it be that the form of the god… is really one of those colossal creatures, like the Yamata no Orochi from mythology?” Sakurai Nanami asked, her voice trembling slightly despite her efforts to control it.

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