Long Bao and Gui Bao might look like children, but their true ages were terrifyingly ancient. Gui Bao had already lived more than eight thousand years. Long Bao was even older; from the moment the God of All Gods hatched him from his egg until now, a full fifteen thousand years had passed.
As for the elf baby, the elven race possessed eternal life. Though this particular incarnation was young, if one added her previous two lives, her existence stretched almost back to the primordial dawn of creation…
Outwardly they were toddlers, and they usually behaved like the brats they appeared to be, but none of them was actually childish. When Yoru had lured them into that ruined mansion earlier, neither Long Bao nor Gui Bao had suspected a thing. It wasn’t naïveté; it was simply a matter of perspective. An elephant does not consider the traps an ant might set.
The instant the building collapsed on them, both instantly understood: someone wanted them dead. Unacceptable. Fare’s clumsy imitation of draconic power, his 【Furious Dragon’s Wrath】, was utterly harmless to them. Gui Bao blocked it without effort.
After Fare left, the two emerged from the rubble with the elf baby, spotted the unconscious Evans on the ground, and immediately guessed the scheme at once. The two abnormal beings exchanged a cold smirk. This could not be allowed to slide. Ye Chui had told them not to cause trouble, but others had provoked them first. They were owed satisfaction.
And they already had the perfect justification.
“Give us back our pastry!” Long Bao’s milky yet resonant voice echoed through Dragon War Castle.
Every member of Dragon War paled. Only now did they realise that the children from Ye Chui’s guild were… not ordinary.
Gui Bao stepped forward too, her tone icy. “Hurry up and return our pastry!”
Standing between them, the elf baby planted her hands on her hips. “Eee-ya! Eee-ya! Eee-ya!!!”
Long Bao and Gui Bao were deliberately picking a fight. The elf baby genuinely just wanted her pastry back…
Fare’s face twitched for a long moment. He glanced at the iron gate Long Bao had kicked off its hinges, and boundless rage surged within him. “Do you really think Dragon War is some pushover guild you can bully?”
For a guild that lived by reputation, nothing was more important than face. Three toddlers had come to smash their venue. If word got out, where could he put his old face?
Fare summoned his purple-sealed grimoire, his expression dark. “It seems President Ye Chui has no idea how to discipline children. Allow me to teach his brats a lesson on his behalf.”
As he spoke, fierce winds began swirling around him, each gust sharp as a blade.
The rest of Dragon War summoned their grimoires as well.
Against three children who looked barely two or three years old, any normal person or organisation with a shred of decency would hesitate to attack. Dragon War, however, felt no such restraint. Fare quietly instructed a subordinate, “No need to hold back. Since they’re here, none of them leaves alive. After we kill them, we’ll find another way to frame Evans.”
At this moment Fare understood that his trap had failed. To prevent the children from revealing his plot to Ye Chui, he had to silence them first, then pin it on Evans later.
With that plan in mind, Fare struck first, unleashing a storm of wind blades that swept toward the trio.
The others followed suit.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The spot where the three stood was instantly engulfed in thick smoke and violent explosions. Fare’s face was cold as ice. He advanced step by step, his grimoire flipping pages. His body slowly rose into the air as cyan wind gathered above him, condensing into a gigantic blade ready to slash down at any moment.
When the dust cleared, Fare’s expression faltered.
The Dragon-Turtle Trio stood completely unharmed, enveloped in a faint cyan barrier that resembled an enormous turtle shell. When it came to defence, nothing surpassed the Chaos Giant Turtle.
Fare’s shock lasted only an instant. He immediately swung his arm downward. The massive wind blade plummeted. This was an advanced spell called 【Undefendable Wind Assault】. Though shaped like a blade, it was fundamentally omnipresent wind that no defence could resist.
Yet at the sight of this spell, open mockery appeared on Gui Bao’s adorable little face. No matter how omnipresent wind might be, it still required space to exist. With a delicate wave of her tiny hand, the turtle-shell above them dissolved into a thin veil of chaos. Manipulating chaos and space was the innate gift of the Chaos Giant Turtle.
Fare’s spell touched that chaotic barrier and vanished without a trace.
This time Fare was utterly stunned. Before he could react, an even more shocking sight appeared below.
Long Bao took a deep breath, then opened his mouth and roared silently toward the sky.
It was a roar without sound, yet it was terrifying all the same.
A furious gale howled. The wind elements that had accompanied Fare for half his life suddenly grew restless and rebellious. 【Dragon Roar】!
Dragons were the spirits of all creation. Legend said the Demon Emperor himself had first learned magic by observing dragons, thus beginning the age of magic. The dragon race possessed an innate ability to intimidate magical elements: the Dragon Roar. In that instant Fare felt his spells slip from his control. The wind supporting his flight shattered, and his body plunged from the sky.
“Attack them! Kill them!” Fare shouted frantically, finally recognising how terrifying these three children were.
Dragon War members obeyed and redoubled their assault while Fare seized the chance to flee toward the castle interior, not out of cowardice, but to activate the guild’s defensive array.
Every powerful guild maintained formidable defensive formations at their headquarters; it was standard practice. Even the chaotic Random Name guild had preparations: an undead army always on standby, ready to greet any troublemakers.
Explosions thundered continuously.
Gui Bao raised a defensive barrier around them. Ordinary attacks could not scratch it. Long Bao’s chubby arm transformed into a gigantic dragon claw that casually pierced the barrier to swat enemies outside. The elf baby started to join in, but both Long Bao and Gui Bao quickly stopped her; the existence of elves was too sensitive. Ye Chui’s greatest concern was keeping her race secret. As for Long Bao and Gui Bao, even if their true beast forms were recognised, it would not cause too much trouble.
The three children advanced steadily toward the castle without pausing.
“Wait!” Fare burst out of the castle looking dishevelled. “Dragon War admits defeat! It seems everyone under President Ye Chui, even the children, is extraordinary!” he shouted, flinging out a platinum gold-coin card worth ten thousand coins. “Take this as my apology. Let us call it even!”
The card bounced off Gui Bao’s turtle-shell barrier and clattered to the ground.
“A gold-coin card? Can you eat that?” Long Bao asked coolly. “We want our pastry. We don’t want your card. Hurry up and give us the pastry you promised!”
Fare ground his teeth. One card hadn’t worked, so he pulled out two more. “Thirty thousand gold coins!”
“Eee-ya! Eee-ya!” the elf baby cried crisply.
“I already told you we only want the pastry you owe us. Are you stupid? No pastry, we’re tearing this place down!” Long Bao shouted.
Fare’s rage boiled over. He didn’t believe for a second they actually cared about a pastry; he assumed it was just an excuse to cause trouble. But this was too humiliating. Thirty thousand gold coins still not enough?
His expression turned vicious once more. He put the cards away; offering money had only been to buy time. The guild’s grand array required a few moments to activate, and during their exchange it had already begun to glow. He produced a white crystal orb from his sleeve, a ruthless look on his face, and crushed it.
Dragon-Trapping Grand Array!
This was Dragon War’s ultimate trump card. Fare had originally been a merchant specialising in ancient scrolls and artefacts. By chance he obtained a scroll describing the Dragon-Trapping Array, said to be a relic of the Age of the Gods, created by human heroes to slay evil dragons. In that era, the campaigns to exterminate wicked dragons were called “Dragon Wars”; his guild took its name from that legend.
Awed by the array’s power, he settled down and founded Dragon War Magic Guild, burying magical constructs he had collected around the grounds to recreate the Dragon-Trapping Array.
“Dragon-Trapping Array activated! None of you leaves alive today!” Fare snarled through gritted teeth. He had seen the chubby boy use draconic power and guessed he was Ye Chui’s summoned dragon somehow turned human. A dragon? Perfect. His array was specifically designed to counter dragons!
BOOM!
A terrifying roar swept across the entire capital. The Dragon-Trapping Array was Fare’s final ace; he had never wanted to use it because its activation was far too conspicuous and would attract attention. Once the children were dead, hiding the deed would become impossible. But cornered by three brats, he had no choice left.
The roar made Gui Bao’s tiny body tremble. She looked at Long Bao.
Long Bao also glanced up in surprise. Several pillars of light shot into the sky, summoned by the array, merging overhead into an enormous chain that coiled like a serpent. The clanging of the links was the source of the thunderous noise. The sky itself seemed to darken.
“This guild actually has some tricks…” Even Long Bao showed a trace of seriousness, but it quickly turned to excitement. His small, chubby body slowly rose into the air. “Gui Bao, protect Baby. A Dragon-Trapping Array… nostalgic. In the past I just stepped on them and they broke. This one might take a little longer.”
As he spoke, the chubby child’s body expanded without limit, transforming into a massive black-and-gold dragon. The Dragon-Trapping chains in the sky sensed him and roared, diving toward the Black Gold Flame Dragon below!
“You actually deployed a Dragon-Trapping Array over a single pastry. Very well. Now this dragon has full justification to wipe you out!” A majestic voice thundered across the heavens.
As a member of the dragon race, he felt instinctive loathing for magical constructs designed specifically to restrain dragons.
