The next day, the death march continued.
As they delved deeper along the Dragon Road, all that met their eyes were the ruins of cities.
Pale grey marble and dark black basalt lay in chaotic heaps, with charred timbers piercing through the thick fog.
The sailors and slaves in the procession were silent as cicadas in winter, with only the crunching sound of boots crushing dry bones.
At this moment, Liu Qian's mind was filled with fragments of memories from his previous life about the Valyrian Ruins.
Legend had it that deep within the Sea of Smoke, there were two Valyrian cities, Oros and Teria, where some inhabitants were rumored to still be alive.
He didn't know his exact location. However, at least he hadn't found any signs of life nearby.
Liu Qian would bet that Gillian, that madman, wouldn't bother looking for Teria or Oros, but would head straight for Valyria City.
The main city of Valyria was the core area of the Fourteen Fires, where the truth and clues to the collapse of Valyrian civilization were buried. There, extremely dangerous things surely awaited everyone.
Liu Qian hesitated, pondering whether he should seize the opportunity to escape, or at least not swagger into Valyria with the main force.
However, what made him dither was his uncertainty about whether the magical power he currently possessed would allow him to survive alone in such a perilous place.
At present, the ultimate skill of transforming into a dragon was unusable, as it required at least a thousand points of magical power. The only skills he could use were Dragon Flame Breath and Prairie Fire.
Could these two skills enable him to survive on his own?
He was somewhat lost; he had acquired the system too recently, and Gillian's craving for treasure far exceeded his imagination. He dared not gamble with his life.
After much deliberation, Liu Qian secretly made up his mind.
If he couldn't acquire enough Dragon Spirit and magical power to activate his ultimate skill before reaching Valyria, he would find an opportunity to escape.
As Liu Qian was thinking, he heard a commotion ahead. The team stopped to rest in a plaza filled with the massive foundations of buildings.
Before their tired gasps had subsided, a horrifying shriek rang in their ears.
"Yii—yah!!!"
A piercing shriek, not of this world, like nails scraping glass, suddenly erupted from deep within the dense forest to their right!
Everyone's hair stood on end!
This was followed by the grating noise of dry branches being broken and rubbed by immense force, and the thick fog churned as if something was moving among the twisted tree trunks.
"You! Go look!"
Gillian frowned, casually pointing at a guard closest to the forest.
The guard's face turned ashen, his lips trembling. Under Gillian's cold gaze, he could only grip his spear tightly and shuffle, step by step, towards that wall of withered trees emanating an eerie aura.
Just as he was a few steps from the edge—
Boom!
A dark cyan shadow, carrying a strong fishy wind, burst out from between the dry branches, instantly slamming the guard to the ground.
Amidst gasps of alarm, everyone saw the monster clearly.
It had a hunched, humanoid torso, but was covered in thick, dark cyan scales like a crocodile.
Its limbs were strangely long and twisted, ending in black claws that glinted coldly.
Its bald head had no hair, only layers of horny protrusions.
On the monster's face were two blood-red vertical pupils, radiating hatred and hunger.
From its enormous mouth, split to the ears and filled with dense, sharp fangs, viscous yellow saliva dripped like a waterfall.
"Chhh—!"
The saliva landed on the fallen guard's face, instantly producing acrid white smoke. His flesh melted like hot wax, revealing the pale white cheekbones beneath.
The guard let out a desperate wail.
"Shoot!"
Gillian roared.
Arrows rained down on the monster.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sparks flew from the monster's body.
Arrowheads struck its scales, producing the sound of metal clashing, then bounced off or broke, rendered useless.
A chill ran through everyone's hearts; this monster's scales were as hard as steel.
"Go, kill it!" Gillian roared at the guard squad.
However, those soldiers, usually quite elite, now had lead in their legs, and not one dared to step forward.
In that moment of deadlocked silence, another desperate wail rose from the rear of the slave group.
Everyone turned back in horror.
They saw another, slightly smaller monster, which had silently slid down from the top of a huge dead tree like a gecko at some unknown moment.
Its claw-like hand had easily ripped open a slave's skull, and it was now greedily bringing its mouth close to the red and white cranial cavity, making sickening sucking sounds.
Hiss... hiss... hiss... bone-chilling scraping sounds came from all directions.
In the fog-shrouded, withered forest, pair after pair of blood-red vertical pupils lit up, densely packed.
Dark cyan, deep grey, iron black... scales of various colors flickered in and out of sight among the dry branches.
They stepped out, their hunched figures forming a continuous, moving wall of scales in the mist, completely encircling this small group on the ashes of the Dragon Road.
Blood-red eyes locked onto every piece of fresh meat.
Liu Qian's heart sank.
He had originally thought that only a pack of jackals or wild beasts were hiding in the withered forest, and perhaps they would be intimidated by the number of people and not dare to approach.
But now Liu Qian had to admit he had been overconfident; in Valyria, one could not reason with common sense, or reality would teach a harsh lesson.
Could he escape?
Liu Qian was not some hot-blooded youth; the moment the monsters first appeared, he had already positioned himself in front of everyone, ready to make a quick getaway.
For him, survival was his primary need; nothing was more important than his own life.
But the thought of escape was immediately extinguished by cold despair, because from behind the group also came the turbid, hurried breathing of what were clearly more of these monsters' companions.
They were surrounded!
Their only retreat was the all-consuming black forest, while ahead, thick fog churned like a dark, grey sea.
Liu Qian gripped the wooden stick he had picked up, his knuckles white from the effort.
His consciousness sank into the realm only he could "see"—the peculiar existence called the "panel."
Magic Power: 500.
In human form, Dragon Flame Breath consumes one point per second, while Prairie Fire consumes two points per second.
This amount of magic power might barely suffice to use active skills against a few monsters, but as far as his eyes could see, the monsters slowly emerging from the shadows were densely packed, far too many for him to handle.
Fortunately, the passive skill True Dragon Physique from his dragon bloodline gave him unprecedented strength. He could feel the power surging through his muscles; even in human form, he was still incredibly strong.
Liu Qian observed Gillian and the others' movements, secretly deciding to first get a handy weapon, use brute force to fend off the monsters' attacks, and then, when the situation became chaotic, escape into the withered forest.
If the monsters pursued, Liu Qian would use the forest as cover to employ Dragon Flame Breath, holding them off.
This was the best plan.
The luxury of thought was fleeting in the face of death.
A piercing shriek tore through the oppressive silence.
The monsters moved, not tentatively, but in a furious wave driven by hunger, instantly engulfing the outermost group of people.
Screams immediately erupted.
The sailors and slaves, either bare-handed or armed with crude sticks, were as fragile as paper in front of these monsters covered in hard scales.
A young sailor was tackled, his linen shirt and the flesh beneath easily torn by the hooked claws. He kicked his legs in vain, and the next moment his neck was bitten through by the maw full of sharp teeth, blood splattering on the ground, a shocking sight.
Another slave tried to resist with a wooden stick. The stick struck the monster's back armor with a dull thud, leaving not even a white mark, but instead enraged it. With a swing of its hooked claw, half of the slave's face, along with his eyeball, was gouged out.
In the chaotic slaughter, only Gillian Lannister and his guard squad stood like a rock.
The clang of steel rang out densely; it was the sound of swords being drawn.
The well-trained guards quickly contracted, backs against each other, forming a tight circular formation.
Gillian himself stood at the front of the formation, wearing a gleaming half-plate armor over chainmail, his gaze steady.
"Hold steady! Aim for the joints!"
Gillian shouted.
His sword viciously struck the joint of an attacking monster's forelimb. With a crisp 'crack,' the dark green carapace shattered, revealing greyish muscles and black, putrid tree-sap-like blood oozing out.
The monster shrieked in pain, its movements faltering, but it quickly resumed its attack despite the injury, and the two sides clashed again.
Meanwhile, Liu Qian was looking for an opportunity.
His gaze was sharp, and in the chaos, he spotted a guard locked in combat with a particularly strong monster, unable to pay attention to anything else.
Liu Qian crouched and charged, his fingers precisely hooking the hilt of a spare longsword at the guard's waist.
He recognized the wear on the scabbard; it was the relic of Lainede, the unlucky fellow devoured by red maggots last night.
The cold hilt felt heavy in his hand, carrying a strong scent of blood, yet it brought him a measure of calm.
Almost simultaneously, a fishy wind assaulted him!
A monster abandoned the injured slave in front of it and lunged at this threat wielding a sharp weapon.
Liu Qian had no time to adopt any stance; relying purely on instinct and the surging power within him, he gripped the sword with both hands and, with all his might, swung it upwards from below!
"Clang—!"
The ear-splitting clash of metal exploded.
The tremendous recoil made Liu Qian's tiger's mouth numb and his arm violently shake.
He swung the blade, striking the monster's blocking hooked claw, sending out a few sparks.
The monster stumbled, knocked back by this unexpected force, and a hint of surprise seemed to flash in its eerie green eyes.
Liu Qian also reeled back half a step, his chest churning with qi and blood.
Such powerful strength!
He clearly felt the changes in his body.
This was definitely not the strength his weak body of the past could possess, but rather due to his True Dragon Physique.
But he also instantly realized his huge flaw.
Though he possessed brute strength, he lacked skill.
His movements were clumsy, wide and open, each sword swing pouring out all his strength, consuming a huge amount of energy, completely unlike the seasoned soldiers under Gillian, who used the most energy-efficient ways to parry, deflect force, and find openings.
However, it was this incongruous fighting style that stood out remarkably on the chaotic battlefield.
Gillian Lannister's emerald eyes, in the intervals of swinging his sword and killing, sharply swept across the battlefield.
He saw that black-haired, black-eyed Yi Ti slave, holding a sword, forcefully hacking a monster back repeatedly, causing a ripple in his calm heart.
Where did this Yi Ti man get such great strength?
This was illogical!
While Yi Ti slaves were not numerous in the Free Cities, they were not uncommon, but he had never heard of anyone with such martial prowess and courage to fight.