Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 458: The Sword of Damocles (18)

Dragon Raja 3

After turning off the location feature, Lu Mingfei absentmindedly checked Erii’s location to see if she had reached the airport. When the map loaded, he was stunned.

Deep in the Red Well, the engineering team used a laser cutter to open a hole in the ice and lowered a crane, slowly lifting a great creature encased in ice.

The god was still alive, but it was like a shark with its fins cut off. Its heart was destroyed, four of its eight heads were severed, and the remaining four were badly damaged. No one knew how Ruri had managed it, but there was a force within that humanoid monster even more terrifying than the dragons. He stood high above, like a corpse, overseeing the operation below, his white hair hanging down to cover his eyes.

The god, or Yamata no Orochi, was laid flat on the ice. The work team continuously poured liquid nitrogen over it to prevent it from suddenly lashing out and injuring anyone. Osho circled around it, admiring this incredible creature. It was different from the Bronze and Fire King, and the Earth and Mountain King. Both Norton and Fenrir had also shown terrifyingly massive bodies, but their forms had a divine, demonic beauty, dreadful yet majestic. The god was different—its eight cervical vertebrae grew out from various parts of its body in a twisted, grotesque manner, resembling a genetic experiment gone wrong.

The only awe-inspiring feature on its body was the Ama-no-Murakumo, a bone jutting out from its scales, a beautiful pale moon-white color, incredibly sharp. It was the only thing that could surpass the ancient alchemical weapon, the Ame-no-Habakiri.

“What a pity, just one step away, and it still isn’t a king among dragons. It’s merely a monster that inherited the White Empress’ legacy,” Osho sighed deeply.

“A monster that inherited the White Empress’ legacy is already this powerful. How terrifying must the real White Empress be!” The head of the engineering team followed closely behind.

“It only inherited the White Empress’ body, but not her will. If it were the complete White Empress, we wouldn’t have been able to capture it.” Osho raised his arm high. “Now, let us extract the White Empress’ legacy—the Holy Corpse! Begin the dissection!”

The drilling machines punctured the god’s joints, severing the tendons. The drilling spots were carefully chosen to ensure that its enormous body was completely paralyzed. The god’s cells were regenerating rapidly, trying to heal the wounds, but repairing bone was far more difficult than muscle. Iron hooks pierced the god’s cervical bones, and a crane lifted its body into the air. The four remaining heads exhaled cold breaths, but they could no longer rise to attack. The engineering team injected large quantities of chemicals into its nervous system and vital muscles, causing its once twitching body to gradually relax. The only thing that showed it was still alive were its four pairs of dragon eyes, flickering faintly like dying candles, staring down at the descendants who were about to dissect it with an inscrutable expression that humans could not comprehend.

“You were able to develop a drug that works on dragons!” the head of the engineering team exclaimed in awe.

“Because I once had a living specimen to experiment on,” Osho said quietly. “When I opened that mysterious cave in the Arctic Circle years ago, the great creature inside had already been torn apart by crazed animals, with only half of its body left, but it hadn’t died. I tested almost every chemical reagent I could find on it, and eventually, it couldn’t withstand them anymore and died. But by then, I had already learned the biological properties and structure of dragons, becoming the person who knows the most about them in this world.”

The head of the engineering team shuddered slowly. In the darkest chapters of human history, people had conducted scientific experiments on their own kind, and Osho had used chemical reagents to cruelly kill a dragon!

Osho turned to the waiting engineering team, raising his hands and speaking in his grandest voice: “The great Darwin outlined the survival of the fittest in On the Origin of Species. You were once the weak, struggling at the bottom of the food chain, inevitably becoming prey. But today, we will completely reverse the hierarchy. We will achieve a great evolution! In front of us, both humans and ancient dragons are weak. We are the new Dragon Clan, and we will share this world!”

Cheers echoed throughout the deep well. Some people embraced each other, weeping with joy, while others stood motionless, their faces flickering between ecstasy and hatred, as if their very features were out of control.

The Oni Clan had been waiting for this day for so long. These “ghosts” had been cast out of their families when they were young, marked as unfit for society. The enforcers of their families monitored them like maggots clinging to their bones. They were like monkeys in a glass cage at the zoo, able to see the world outside, but never truly a part of it. Only the bravest among them broke through the glass and escaped their family’s control, becoming outcasts in the world. Their only refuge was joining the Oni Clan, the only place in the world that welcomed them.

When the Oni gathered, their resentment fermented, eventually transforming into a tidal wave of fury. Many of them had gazed longingly at the black towers of Genji Heavy Industries, hoping for its fall, just like devils gathering in the wilderness, looking at a distant temple, wishing to burn it, smash it with stones, even bite it with their teeth until it crumbled into ruins. Today, they had washed away their shame with blood and would evolve to become the new rulers.

The massive cutting machine rolled into place, and the three-meter-wide saw blade began tearing through the body. Sparks flew as it made contact with the scales and bones, emitting a terrifying screech. Water was continuously sprayed to cool it. The god did not struggle. The great creature silently watched as its body was dissected, its blood spraying everywhere, covering everyone’s protective suits. The saw blade first severed the Yamata no Orochi’s long tail. The natural bone sword, Ama-no-Murakumo, fell from the cutting platform, piercing the concrete floor as easily as if it were tofu.

The saw blade then cut off the remaining four heads one by one. Each time a cervical bone was severed, accompanied by a burst of sparks and blood, a pair of golden eyes dimmed. When all four heads were severed, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. This great creature, which had hidden in the abyss for countless years, was finally dead, felled by the most advanced human technology. The cutting platform rotated 90 degrees, and the saw blade sliced the Yamata no Orochi’s torso into three sections. Cranes hoisted the pieces into the air, and only then did people see the incredibly complex skeletal structure of the dragon. Its bones far outnumbered those of humans, with intricate designs that had an unusual beauty. They were a noble dark gold color, resembling both precision machinery and the interlocking fossils found deep within the earth’s layers.

The engineering team immediately spread out to the three dissection tables, using various tools to break down the black-blooded bones.

Osho glanced at his watch and then looked up at the night sky. It was clear he was worried about time.

On the central dissection table, after sharp gears had cut through layer after layer of muscle, they revealed the enormous heart. The god’s body had evolved to the level of a pureblood dragon. The dark green heart was wrapped in a web-like structure of blood vessels, protected by a cage of dark gold bones, like a mysterious and magnificent gemstone. The heart was lifted into the air by mechanical arms. The head of the engineering team stepped closer, gazing up at this incredible organ. At that moment, he felt as though he were being watched—watched by the heart itself. To him, it looked like a massive eye, with the blood vessels forming the red veins in the eye!

He tried to dismiss it as a hallucination, the product of his exhaustion, but he couldn’t stop himself from kneeling, his body seemingly melting under the scorching gaze.

At that moment, Ruri, standing above, suddenly moved. He hurled his long blade, the light of the blade piercing through the chest of the head of the engineering team and then stabbing into the massive heart. Only after that did his sharp cry follow—his blade speed was faster than sound!

Such a powerful strike only left a cut on the heart, and thick, foul-smelling green liquid splattered everywhere. From the tear, a golden eye turned in all directions, surveying everyone! The head of the engineering team had not been mistaken; deep within that heart was indeed an eye, peering out at the world. Everywhere its gaze touched, everyone felt a crushing pressure like a mountain! Suddenly, the heart began to writhe, and the eye struggled to emerge, screeching loudly as it did so!

“The Holy Corpse! That’s the Holy Corpse!” Osho shrieked, unable to remain calm even in such a moment.

Ruri descended from above, holding another long blade. Only he and Osho were fit to be opponents of this god. He had stayed on high, waiting for the true form of the enemy to appear.

But before he could land, the eye twisted and disappeared into the mouth of the head of the engineering team. A pink, fleshy tail flickered in his mouth for a moment before vanishing.

“Everyone, retreat! Open fire!” Osho roared.

Gunfire erupted, deafening, as tens of thousands of bullets were fired at the head of the engineering team. After witnessing that terrifying scene, fear had overwhelmed everyone. They all knew that the head of the engineering team had no chance of survival; the eye was trying to take over his body. Bullets were unloaded at full speed, and within half a minute, dozens of kilograms of lead had been pumped into his body. This man, who should have died countless times over, did not fall. Bullets came from all directions, and the kinetic force seemed to prop him up. He convulsed violently, as if he were a zombie dancing.

Finally, he was obscured by smoke, and everyone’s magazines ran empty. People instinctively looked away. Even though violence was commonplace for them, they couldn’t bear to look at the “target.” When dozens of kilograms of bullets are fired into a living being, all that should remain is bloodied debris. As the smoke cleared, the first person to see the truth swallowed their scream, completely losing the strength to cry out.

The head of the engineering team’s form was still clearly human. His body was entirely covered in bullet holes, leaving no intact skin, yet he had not fallen. He was frozen in a backward-leaning position, like a dancer caught mid-fall as time stood still.