"Huff... huff..." The bear huffed heavily, struggling to pull itself up, its entire body trembling.
What came into Amy's view next was... "Ah—" She screamed and collapsed onto the ground.
The belly of the male bear, which had once been covered in white fur, was now drenched in blood. A gaping wound, half a meter long, had burst open, and its blue intestines spilled out. No wonder Amy was so terrified.
"Wake up... wake up... it's time to eat... wake up!" A dark-skinned boy kept patting Amy on the head while she lay on the road.
"Green, watch him. I'll go find some snow in the ditch..."
"Ah, I'm freezing to death—" After enduring endless torment from Chi Hanfeng during her childhood, Amy had developed a syndrome for waking up in the cold. Hearing the word "snow" snapped her to attention.
"Where's the bear?" Amy suddenly recalled the scene from just moments ago.
"Strange, I haven't found any snow yet; why are you so cold? You killed the bear, didn't you? You were pretty impressive just now." The dark-skinned boy spoke curiously. "The female bear was shot through the ears by me with an arrow; that was the only quick way to kill a bear. The male one was so clumsy it ended up stepping on its own intestines and died."
"Oh my, you scared me to death." Though Amy had regained her senses, she felt exhausted, tense, and terrified; she couldn't even move her body or fingers.
"My name is Da Qingshan, Harke Da Qingshan. What about you?" The boy squinted his eyes, grinning, and extended his hand toward Amy.
"Amy, Amy Haber." As she shook the boy's hand, Amy sat up.
In the battle of the gods, the three boys known as the "Dragon-Human Gods" had turned the human realm, the celestial realm, the demon realm, and the dragon realm upside down. Two of them met in this very scene. From then on, whenever Da Qingshan mentioned this moment, Amy would undoubtedly respond with the most powerful magic to remind him of how embarrassing that day was—this was too shameful, and he should never bring it up again.
"You were incredible just now! How did your sword emit magic?" Da Qingshan handed over his Ice Blade, looking at Amy with envy.
"This was left to me by my father... Didn't you faint? How did you see my sword use magic?"
"Who said I fainted? Bears don't eat the dead; I figured you could still hold your own, so I fainted first. Once the bear focused all its attention on you, I got up and shot the female bear with my arrow." The boy looked entirely innocent.
"Oh, please don't do that next time; you scared me to death. By the way, why did you try to capture the cub? Do you know how dangerous that is?" Amy still felt shaken and was now quite annoyed with this dimwitted boy.
Cough... This story is quite long.
Harke Da Qingshan, 15 years old, hails from the small village of Xiao Jiao at the western foothills of Dragon Tooth Mountain. He is not a Hamir, but his ancestors migrated there due to the low taxes in the Hamir Kingdom.
When he was just 9 years old, his parents and villagers went hunting and accidentally stumbled into the Green Dragon Plateau, angering the dragon clan. As a result, most of the villagers died in a massive avalanche caused by an enormous dragon.
Very few people returned to the village, and Da Qingshan was told he had become an orphan.
If not for the villagers who brought him a handful of rice and a leg of deer to sustain him, Da Qingshan would have long become part of the towering mountains. A poor child matures quickly; to ensure he had enough to eat, Da Qingshan started foraging for snow mice and hunting snow hares with little arrows at the age of 10. As he grew older, he began hunting with the village adults.
Two years ago, two snow bears migrated to the edge of the village. Most snow bears prefer to hunt marine creatures by the coast, but for some reason, these two bears came far inland and often attacked villagers and livestock. Several large-scale hunting parties had been unable to harm them, and instead, several villagers had been bitten. This time, Da Qingshan noticed they were out hunting with their cub, so he took the chance to grab the cub while the mother bear was distracted and ran away...
"Hey, look." Da Qingshan showed Amy the result of sliding down the mountain on his butt during his escape—his pants were completely torn. "I originally planned to take them to the post station; there are soldiers there who could kill them."
It turned out that the two boys had the same destination: Amy wanted to wait for her teacher at the Dragon Tooth Mountain Post, while Da Qingshan wanted to sell the cub there. Da Qingshan deftly pulled out a dagger, skinned the bear, cut off its front paws, and extracted its gallbladder.
"The bear is dead, yet you're still so cruel, cutting open its belly and removing its heart?" Amy was particularly puzzled.
"The bear skin can be sold; especially snow bear pelts are rare. The front paws of bears are delicious; the post station pays high prices for them. As for the gallbladder... wow... look at this gallbladder! It was killed in a rage, and it's extraordinary; it's twice the size of a regular gallbladder from one caught in a trap. We can sell this for more money." This guy was surprisingly similar to Uncle Chi when it came to money; Amy found it quite strange.
While talking, Da Qingshan skillfully gathered some dead branches, lit them, and evenly spread the remaining ash inside the bear skin for basic curing.
The next afternoon, the two boys appeared at the Dragon Tooth Mountain Post. Just as Da Qingshan said, everything sold for a very good price—a total of 20 gold coins, enough for an average family to live on for a year.
Da Qingshan was a generous boy and invited Amy to feast. After Amy insisted, Da Qingshan stayed behind to wait for Chi Hanfeng and Reger with her.
The nights in the Ice and Snow Continent during early summer were still quite cold. The howling northern wind whipped snow from Dragon Tooth Mountain, and behind the windward eaves, Amy and Da Qingshan huddled together tightly. The two boys, unable to sleep, sought a place to chat but feared the tavern would cost them money, so they stepped outside to talk.
"Wah... wah..." Green, the little dog, wiggled out between Da Qingshan and Amy's legs, poking its little head out with a look of bliss.
Amy told Da Qingshan about Uncle Chi, Teacher Reger, how she swam in Snow Moon Lake, and her training in the forest. Da Qingshan listened intently; was there really warm water? He had never swum before in his life.
...
"Ah, I'm freezing to death—" The next morning, while Da Qingshan was still lazily sleeping in bed, he was suddenly jolted awake by a scream, and then he saw two more people and a huge snow wolf in the room. One was an old man dressed in rags, and the other was a handsome man holding a large basin. With a smile, he spoke in a very pleasant voice to Amy, who had just jumped out of bed: "We finally found you, oh son." The old man in rags was clearly attracted by Da Qingshan and Green, who had just poked their heads out from under the covers.
"Let me see what I've found?" The old man smiled as he looked at Da Qingshan's bed. "What's your name, little fellow?"
"Da Qingshan, Harke Da Qingshan."
"I wasn't asking you; I was asking this little green cutie." The old man still wore a friendly smile.
"Oh, that's my dog; her name is Green." After hearing Amy's descriptions, Da Qingshan finally saw the two people closest to her. One resembled a madman, while the other looked like a devil incarnate. Da Qingshan, being the honest child he was, made up his mind—these two didn't seem trustworthy. He decided to get out of there after snagging a meal.
"Ha ha, yes, yes, it's a little dog," the old man continued with a sycophantic smile. "Have you signed a contract with this little dog?"
"What contract?" Da Qingshan was utterly confused.
"Little friend, how about this? Your little dog won't grow up for another 400 years, so keeping her is actually useless. Why not give her to me?" The old man looked kindly into Da Qingshan's big eyes. "Um, as a trade, how about this? If you want to learn magic, I can teach you, and I guarantee you'll become a great court magician. If you want to be a knight, well, this young man beside me can teach you. Do you see that big white wolf? It's a mythical beast that can fly. A year from now, I can help you borrow a small mythical beast and make you an imperial mythical beast knight."
The other three people, apart from Da Qingshan, reacted strongly.
"Sigh…" Amy let out a long sigh. Sure enough, it was true that one could learn bad habits in three days and good habits in three years. After a few days, Teacher Reger had already been led astray by Uncle Chi—another person wanting to borrow a mythical beast had emerged. It was unknown who the empire would send next year to collect the mythical beasts; even before they arrived, two had already been schemed against.
"Hey, hey, I'm not doing it! I'm also a respectable imperial knight. If you say I should take on an apprentice, wouldn't that be embarrassing for me?" Chi Hanfeng exclaimed angrily.
"...Peh..." Green, who had just poked her head out from under the covers, heard this and cleared her throat before spitting a heavy green loogie right at Reger's feet.
For ordinary humans, dragon lairs were extremely dangerous places. Typically, dragons would cast spells around their nests, and the closer one got to the center, the more powerful the magic became. In the center of a dragon's lair, the dragon would often enhance its own unique domain—the Dragon Domain. Despite this, countless adventurers have long dared to invade dragon lairs.
Adventurers who enter dragon lairs can generally be divided into three main categories:
The first and most numerous group are the greedy ones, sometimes referred to as adventurers, or rather, they call themselves heroes.
It is well-known that dragons have a penchant for collecting shiny objects, such as gold coins, gems, magical weapons, magical crystals, mirrors, and so on. A large dragon lair is essentially a vast treasure trove, wealthy enough to rival nations. What if one could possess it? The answer is obvious.
The second group—those seeking revenge. Undeniably, a small number of dragons tend to use humans or other races as their prey. To ensure a longer-lasting peace, some villages hire mercenaries or send their own people to hunt down the wicked dragons in their lairs.
The third group—dragon slayers. This is a peculiar social phenomenon. Among the most respected heroes, those associated with dragons include dragon knights and dragon slayers. In most professions, if one discovers they lack the mysterious bloodlines of gods or demons and cannot become the best friends with dragons, their choice often becomes to kill dragons—to have the world acknowledge their superiority over dragons.
For things one loves, if possession is impossible, then the only option left is to destroy it entirely. This is perhaps a unique obsession of the human race.
—Excerpt from Shan Hai Jing: Dragon Clan