The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

In the midst of mighty snores, Liszt descended from the sky to the side of the golden Mountain Copper Dragon. The sky was growing dark, but that didn't hinder him from taking out his Crystal Lamp—a Hand Magic Tube—to meticulously observe the enormous creature.

The classification of Metal Dragons was quite interesting.

Gold, silver, copper, iron, tin—all these metals had corresponding dragons, and so did lead, mercury, titanium, platinum, etc. Moreover, often a single metal didn't correspond to just one dragon.

Iron Dragons could be classified into at least five known types: Black Heart Iron Dragons, White Heart Iron Dragons, Malleable Cast Iron Dragons, White Maw Iron Dragons, and Grey Iron Dragons; Copper Dragons had at least four, including Bronze Dragons, Purple Copper Dragons, Brass Dragons, and White Copper Dragons. However, the Mountain Copper Dragon didn't fall under the category of Copper Dragons but belonged to the Magic Metal Dragons.

Mountain copper, an indestructible metal, seemed a bit like gold but with a brighter color, and couldn't be forged by ordinary casting methods.

Only an Iron Knight could forge it relying on Dou Qi.

The Long Taro Family from Red Crab Island had a Knight Order that wore armor made from a Mountain Copper alloy, looking shiny and quite dashing.

"Ding-ding."

With the pommel of his sword, Liszt tapped on the scales of the Mountain Copper Dragon, eliciting a crisp metallic sound. "Ach, do you think if I were to infuse Dragon Dou Qi and thrust down hard, I could pierce through this scale?"

"Hehe, big bro, why would you want to stab it?" Ach giggled.

"I'm irritated with this guy; it scorned me before."

It was just a joke, having confirmed that the Mountain Copper Dragon had been thoroughly stupefied by the Bewildering Dragon Mind Fruit, he quickly found the Dragon Tooth Platform where the dragon's neck met its body. "Guard me, I'm going to start the Mind Battle."

"Understood!"

With Ach guarding him, Liszt felt secure.

He positioned himself on the Dragon Tooth Platform, and with a plop, sat down. Boom—a peculiar, marvelous feeling rushed to his forehead, and in the next moment, he had entered a world sparkling with gold. In this world, everything was golden: the soil, the giant trees, and in the golden sky hung a golden sun.

In the center of the world stood a massive transparent, golden-yellow rock, from which deep snores emanated.

The Mountain Copper Dragon was deep in slumber inside the rock, its body flickering with the seven colors of the Bewildering Dragon Mind Fruit's power that enveloped it.

"Although it's not the first time I've used the Bewildering Dragon Mind Fruit, every time I see a dragon stupefied in the world of the mind, I am reminded of the strong power of the Jade Dragon. I fear that any dragon that consumes the Bewildering Dragon Mind Fruit would be bound by this power, leaving it at the mercy of others."

Leo was tamed after consuming it, Ornn was tamed after consuming it, and now it's the Mountain Copper Dragon's turn.

Only the Formless Dragon hadn't been stupefied by the Bewildering Dragon Mind Fruit, but that was not because the fruit lacked power; it was because Bard had seen through the fruit and refused to eat it. Had it not noticed and simply eaten it, the outcome likely would have been the same—total stupefaction.

Even if the Formless Dragon had been stupefied, overcoming it in a Mind Battle would still be quite a challenge—the complexity of its maze was no easy task for any knight.

Without it consciously lowering the difficulty of the maze, Liszt couldn't hope to win.

"Now, do I need to just smash this rock?" Standing before the hundred-meter-tall rock, Liszt already knew how to proceed with the Mind Battle.

To emerge victorious, one must shatter this rock that symbolizes the Mountain Copper Dragon's indomitable nature.

It's hard to imagine how Andre might break the rock if he were to mount the Mountain Copper Dragon—even licking the dragon to ecstasy in reality wouldn't make the Mind Battle any easier when facing this nearly unbreakable rock. Perhaps with years of endless pounding, it might finally shatter.

But time in the Mind Battle is limited.

All the so-called preparations made by Andre and the Eagle Kingdom, in their hubris, were utterly in vain.

"The brown-noser licks but ends up with nothing in the end, heh," Liszt shook his head. "That's why I still prefer to use force and get it done!"

He glanced at the Blue Ice Soul Dragon-Slaying Sword in his hand, and as the thought flickered through his mind, smoke rapidly converged upon the sword, transforming it into a large hammer.

He took a deep breath.

Liszt suddenly swung the hammer and struck down hard on the golden yellow transparent rock, "Eighty!"

"Eighty!"

"Eighty!"

Three blows landed, but the golden-yellow rock merely trembled twice and was left without a single mark. Clearly, he couldn't smash the rock with a hammer and had to think of another way. If it had been a native Knight, he would have probably been at his wits' end, but Liszt still had many ideas.

The smoke twined again, and the Ice Soul Dragon-Slaying Sword this time transformed directly from a hammer into the shape of a drill bit.

He took another deep breath; inside his body, the Dragon Dou Qi traversed, employing the Dou Qi Secret Technique - Spiral Rotation, then drove the drill in his hand to spin wildly.

Ang ang ang!

Between the drill bit and the rock, a screeching, grating noise rang out, and the next moment, powder sprinkled everywhere, with the drill bit having already penetrated the rock's outer layer.

"It worked!"

Liszt reassured himself, focusing his thoughts, the smoke grew denser. The drill in his hand sped up further, drilling through the rock's outer skin bit by bit with an incessant ang ang ang ang ang. The moment the outer skin was perforated, the entire rock surface cracked from the drill bit's position.

Crack crack, like a spider web, the cracks extended everywhere, quickly covering the entire rock surface.

Seemingly reacting to this, the Mountain Copper Dragon inside the rock trembled its eyelids slightly but was soon suppressed by the flickering rainbow light, unable to affect the rock.

He pulled out the drill bit.

Liszt once again relied on the power of the smoke to transform the Ice Soul Dragon-Slaying Sword into a large hammer, and struck hard at the drill hole, "Eighty!"

"Eighty!"

"Eighty!"

Each blow expanded the cracks a bit more and produced even finer fractures.

"Eighty!"

"Eighty!"

"Eighty!"

On the tenth swing, finally, the dense cracks covered every inch of the rock and upon Liszt's eleventh forceful swing, the rock collapsed with a mighty crash. Once the dust settled, the Mountain Copper Dragon, unbeknownst to him, had already awakened, watching Liszt with a complex gaze.

It was a tangle of emotions mixed with confusion, reluctance, surprise, relief, and loss.

But in the end, it let out a call towards Liszt, "Rooooar!"

With a mighty leap, Liszt was already mounted on its Dragon Tooth Platform, and at that moment, the minds of man and dragon united, inseparable. The Mountain Copper Dragon flapped its wings, its massive body lifting into the sky toward the golden yellow sun, the sunlight dazzling, its radiance bathing the world.

When the blinding light in front of him dissipated, Liszt suddenly realized that he had left the spirit world and returned to reality.

Beneath him, the Mountain Copper Dragon was still emitting deafening snores, but there was now a strong mind connection between it and Liszt.

"It's done."

Liszt stood up, gave a slight smile to Ach, "Once the Mountain Copper Dragon awakens, we'll set off and leave the Rupture Mountains."