“Wow, that sounds like something a hero would say.” Kamijou Touma smiled, but his eyes were serious. “But, Misaka-san, you chose to help others because you wanted to, not because someone forced you, right?”

Mikoto Misaka’s face flushed slightly: “O-Of course! But this and…”

“So the key issue isn’t whether they should bear responsibility.” Kamijou Touma interrupted her. “It’s about being able to make choices freely.”

“If both Bai Lu and Dan Heng were forced to lose the right to choose freely because of the Dragon Lord, leading to the Vidyadhara unrest, then the responsibility isn’t on them… but on the 'Dragon Lord Heritage' tradition itself.”

——

“The Dragon Lord is the existence closest to Immortality among the Vidyadhara.” Dan Heng recalled. “According to records, achieving the Dragon Lord Heritage requires performing the secret ritual of the Dragon-Transformation Arcanum and the crucial item regarded as the Dragon Heart. Once the Heritage is complete, the previous Dragon Lord lays an egg and is reborn, and the new Dragon Lord will reveal their dragon form.”

Dan Heng looked at the Construction Wood in the distance: “However, Dan Feng’s ritual failed. His power remained with me… but for some reason, it also created you.”

Bai Lu also sighed: “It seems like this guy is like a quack doctor who arbitrarily changed the prescription. Now look, he harmed himself and others.”

Seeing that Bai Lu also didn’t remember anything, Dan Heng decided to complete the sealing of the Construction Wood first.

“To prevent the revival of Ruomu, the lingering disaster of the Life Plague, the water of the Scalegorge, by the command of the Dragon Lord, here, suppress the Profound Root!”

Dan Heng manipulated the Chongyuan Bead, but felt completely different from when he unsealed it. The Construction Wood showed no reaction at all.

Meanwhile, Bai Lu, seeing his troubled expression, also imitated his actions and performed the sealing ritual on the Construction Wood.

Accompanied by Bai Lu’s chanting, the tender child’s voice intertwined with Dan Heng’s seriousness, completing the sealing of the Construction Wood in an instant. At the same time, a strange feeling surged through Bai Lu’s body… She looked at her hands in disbelief.

“You… did it! Without the recognition of outsiders, this alone is enough to prove that you are the real Dragon Lord.” Dan Heng looked at Bai Lu with relief.

“When you rebuilt the seal, did you remember anything?”

“Hmm…” Bai Lu rubbed her head. “It felt like a tide surged through my mind. I seemed to become incredibly, incredibly huge. The entire Scalegorge Waterscape was responding to my voice, resonating with me.”

Just as Bai Lu was about to ask Dan Heng to teach her other methods, the air around them suddenly began to tremble. A group of assassins slowly materialized from the air, having silently surrounded everyone.

Under One Person——

“Ho, these assassins couldn’t be from the Tang Sect, could they? These techniques look like our sect’s… Phantom Barrier?” Tang Wenlong stared curiously at the group of assassins. If Dan Heng hadn’t spoken up to warn him, he wouldn’t have noticed the anomaly in the air.

“Although I don’t know how these people did it, in terms of stealth effect… it seems to be richer than the Phantom Barrier,” Zhang Wang said calmly from the side. “If it weren’t for Dan Heng, this Dragon Lord, I doubt anyone would have been able to detect them.”

“Does Master Wang mean that in terms of concealing their whereabouts, these guys who don’t look human at all are superior to us?” Ma Long, sitting next to Master Wang, found it a bit hard to accept for a moment.

“Hmph, there’s nothing to accept.” Zhang Wang closed his eyes and snorted coldly. “In terms of techniques for concealing traces and escaping, there are definitely masters outside the Tang Sect who are better than us. If others do well, you just have to humbly learn… if you can learn it.”

“Moreover, no matter how exaggerated the techniques that appear on this Immortal Boat are, I’m no longer surprised… Compared to Phantylia casually detonating stars or Jing Yuan summoning the Divine Lord to kill people, I actually feel these weird-looking assassins are much more familiar.”

These assassins, like the previous wave, looked menacing but completely underestimated the Dragon Lord’s strength.

With just a slight lift of Dan Heng’s finger, countless surging water dragons simultaneously tore them to pieces. The group of assassins died on the spot without even a groan.

After dealing with all this, Dan Heng still didn’t lower his guard but scanned his surroundings vigilantly: “Manipulating water mist through cloud chanting, playing this visual trick. Just like when we arrived, there were probably assassins lying in ambush here long ago… It seems someone has had enough of our appearance.”

To be safe, Dan Heng suggested retreating first.

However, on the way back, Dan Heng and his group encountered a mirage that hadn’t dissipated yet. Sensing the surging power within Dan Heng, the mirage’s aged voice trembled slightly: “Dan Feng… is that you? You’re back?”

“You must have mistaken me for someone else,” Dan Heng said coldly.

“There will be no mistake… I recognize your voice. Hmph hmph, have you come to the holy land to repent?”

“The pride of the Vidyadhara, the great hero of the Five Kasas of the Cloud, hehe… You fought against us your whole life, yet you ended up in such a pathetic state?”

“You misused the Dragon-Transformation Arcanum to create that monstrous dragon, almost destroying the Scalegorge Waterscape!” The mirage’s voice seemed to carry a hint of triumph. “If it weren’t for your friends working together to kill it, the seal on the Construction Wood would probably have been destroyed as well. Watching it fall, did your heart ache?”

“As the Dragon Lord, you should have led us out of the cycle of reincarnation and onto a new path. But you were trapped by false fame… Willfully degenerating, associating with those Xianzhou People, and even short-lived species…”

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End——

“The Five Kasas of the Cloud… Just hearing that name sounds incredibly strong. It should be Jing Yuan, Jingliu, Dan Feng, and Blade, right? Who is the other one?”

“If I remember correctly, I think I heard someone mention… it was a pilot who flies a Star-skiff, probably a Foxian like Yukong?” Frieren recalled. “…It feels like Foxians are particularly talented at flying Star-skiffs.”

“So, why did Dan Feng use the Dragon-Transformation Arcanum to create a dragon?” Feilun felt confused.

“Feilun, have you forgotten the plight of the Vidyadhara? For a race like the Vidyadhara, if someone truly dies, the clan will permanently lose one person. Due to their self-sustaining reincarnation, no new life is born among the Vidyadhara.”

“…Perhaps it’s also related to the Bountiful Star People war?” Frieren guessed. “When the Vidyadhara population suffered significant losses, Dan Feng, as the Dragon Lord, had to find a way to perpetuate the Vidyadhara race.”