The next moment, the area was coated in a miasma of a greyish-color that looked unassuming really. Within this cloud of gas, a body was thrown out as it crashed and bounced on the ground on the outside.
Draco, the person thrown out, weakly pushed his upper body up. His face was full of sweat, and one could see that he was no longer in his human form.
Draco had quickly transformed into his Demon Form to make use of his immense strength to break out of Clarent and Qiong Qi's grip. Since it was too late to escape, he had quickly activated his Destruction Barrier skill from the Dragorugio set.
This was what had saved him, as the Destruction Energy held back the noxious gas. However, Draco's relief was soon replaced with endless fear and horror as he watched Qiong Qi's specially cooked gas cloud begin corroding his barrier.
F.u.c.k!
How can this be happening?! Destruction Energy was the essence of disintegration and corrosion. Despite being weaker, it could even corrode and disintegrate Origin Energy slowly, and could possibly eat into Aurora Energy since it and the former energy type should be of the same tier.
Yet, Qiong Qi's 1-year-fart actually managed to corrode pure Destruction Energy! Holy shit!
Draco roared and punched the earth before him, using the force to blast himself out of the gas cloud, which led to the current him that was staring at the gas cloud before him with terror.
Qiong Qi… he must not be messed with. Draco had spent so much time on Tradeskills and miscellaneous stuff that he actually forgot his pledge to never approach that blasted lion.
However, he had learned a valuable lesson today. The terror he felt and this unbelievable development before him would forever be ingrained in his mind. (Editor's Note: Or at least until the next time his two brain cells decide to go on a vacation.)
He rose to his feet and waited for the gas clouds to disperse. It took a whopping 30 minutes for it to do so, and Draco could even see small spatial cracks here and there, which must be where the gas exited after corroding holes into space.
In the now ravaged spot in front of the Evergreen Manor, Draco saw Qiong Qi hovering over Clarent while idly kicking the latter lightly. When Draco saw the state of his Draconic buddy, he almost screamed.
Clarent looked like a shriveled husk that had been drained by a vampire. He lay sprawled on the ground, his tongue rolling out as he was busy vomiting out his intestines. His eyes were rolled back into his head as tears poured out in volumes.
His face was a mask of terror and screaming, like he had seen - or in this case - smelled something so horrible that death would have been the greater alternative than living through this experience.
Qiong Qi tched boredly. "I only got one of them, f.u.c.k. But hehe, this lizard fellow cooked really well, look at that expression of a loser, keke."
Draco's eyes twitched when he heard Qiong Qi mock his poor and unfortunate victim so cruelly. He realized that he had to do something drastic.
As such he slowly walked towards Qiong Qi while smiling. "Brother Qiong! Your gift was excellent and I can see Brother Clarent enjoyed it well!"
Qiong Qi folded his arms and laughed uproariously. "Of course, this is something I cooked for nearly a year, I even couldn't walk properly and got serious constipation. My shit was like releasing tree logs! Do you know how I suffered?!"
"Haha, so that means that your tank is empty until you can cook another batch, right?" Draco once again confirmed as he changed his transformation into his Devil Form.
Qiong Qi nodded. "That's right! Until next… wait up… Brother Draco what are you doing?"
Draco displayed an unparallel cruel expression and raised his hand towards Qiong Qi as his body glowed with a blue outline. "Just some friendly brawling~"
"Brother Draco… FATHER DRACO, WAIT! THIS SON- FUCCKKKKKK!! THIS GRANDSON WILL- MEEEOUCCH!"
The screams of Qiong Qi reverberated through the entire inner section as Draco taught the vile lion a lesson.
.......
In a certain dungeon, a group of researchers were excitedly studying a huge portal that led to an unknown location.
Over the past few months, the opinion regarding this portal had turned from wary to interest, as most of the upper echelon had been informed that there was Divine Energy leaking from whatever was on the other side.
The only reason they had yet to move was the fact that the pioneer that had been hired to scout the realm had yet to return.
As the Divine Empire was still worried that there might be a giant trap or enemies they would not be able to defeat could be on the other side, they decided to wait until a year since the commission before forcefully invading.
On this day, roughly 10 months since the day the pioneer got commissioned, the portal flashed before he tossed him out. The various researchers and guards were stunned, unable to think about what to do next.
Draco coughed painfully, spitting out wads of blood as he struggled to rise to his feet. His condition was truly wretched, as if he had fought a war all on his own and barely made it out alive.
He staggered forward slowly, trying to reach where the men stood and it was then that some realized what they should do. One of the supervisors sent here roared with anger.
"What are you all doing standing around gawking at him like fools? Go and help Pioneer Draco!"
With that, many guards rushed over to support him while the researchers took out some potions they had on their bodies, and those who had healing skills used them on Draco.
Soon enough, Draco started to look better and he was brought before the supervisor. The man-in-charge had a solemn expression as his eyes pierced through Draco to see if there was anything afoot, but he was wasting his time.
Since he naturally couldn't find anything, he sighed and spoke to Draco. "Pioneer, what happened on the other side? What exists there? Why are you in this state?"
Draco drank an entire bowl of water before answering. "I was ambushed and captured by the natives who live on the other side. On the other side lies an abandoned small world from the old era that still has remnants of Divine legacies from now Fallen Gods."
Draco raised his head up and anyone could see self-reproach and guilt in his eyes. "As for why I am in this state, it is because I am incompetent. Not long after I entered, the natives surprised me in my sleep and captured me. Fortunately, seeing as I was alone, they did not outright kill me."
"As you can imagine, being cut off from today's world for so long has made them simultaneously xenophobic yet naively curious. I capitalized on that to get into their good books, with the goal of investigating what the secret of the small world was."
Suddenly, Draco's expression changed. "However, I was too arrogant and rash. I thought that there was nothing to fear since their leader has taken a liking to me and even invited me to one of their sacred events in their core area. Alas, I never suspected that the Divine Consciousness of a True God would be summoned in front of them. Sensing that I was an outsider, I was brutally struck by him."
"This led to my current state. If it wasn't for the fact that the leader and some other important natives pleaded on my behalf, it would have erased me from existence. It compromised with its descendants but banished me out."
The supervisor and the various researchers listened in with stunned expressions. Draco's recount was 70% of what they had hypothesized given their findings and the Divine Energy leaking from the portal.
The supervisor nodded and praised him: "You have done well, Pioneer Draco. Your task was to investigate the realm and provide us information, and you have perfectly done so. As for the matter with the natives, don't worry about it. As long as we know what power stands behind them, nothing can stop the Godmar Divine Empire!"
The soldiers roared in agreement and the researchers banged their desks. All of them had flushed faces as their patriotism to their empire was supreme, similar to citizens of the Central Country before World War 3.
Draco smiled bitterly and bowed to the supervisor. "I'm afraid my current appearance is a bit too unsightly to appear in front of his Majesty and His Royal Court. Would it be possible for me to take a bath and rest first?"
The supervisor quickly replied. "You can leave everything else to me, Pioneer Draco. Consider your mission complete. Here is your commission."
The supervisor handed Draco 500,000 gold which made the fellow's expression brighten up greatly as he shook with excitement. He then kowtowed to the group happily before leaving through the stairs and heading up.
The supervisor watched Draco leave before wearing an expression of mocking. "What a clown, he actually tried to go so far yet he failed majestically. Oh well, at least we got all the information we wanted. And best of all, the fool allowed me to claim all the credit for his findings, hehe."
The supervisor paid out 500,000 gold for the chance to receive rewards that would be 3 times that at the very least, so how could he not be happy? Just as the supervisor was laughing with glee, the portal that was before suddenly closed in on itself, revealing a smooth wall.
Everyone in the room was flabbergasted, even more so than when Draco crawled out. There was a long spell of silence that lasted more than a few minutes before the supervisor hastily asked his researchers: "What the hell just happened?!"
The others seemed totally lost as one opted to reply for the group. "W-We don't know sir. After that pioneer came out, the portal was stable and seemed normal until just now."
Suddenly, it was like thunder struck the supervisor as his brain overcharged. He parsed everything that just happened in the last 5 minutes, from Draco's appearance to his exit, and he realized his folly.
"HEED MY COMMANDS! SEAL THE BORDERS OF THE EMPIRE AND LOCKDOWN THE CAPITAL CITY. HAVE EVERY SINGLE GUARD AVAILABLE CHASE AFTER THAT TREACHEROUS PIONEER!"
His roar was so loud that it even traveled up to the castle above. The Emperor frowned when he heard his appointed minister's shout, and realized that something must've gone wrong.
As such, he sent men down to find out what was happening. When the story was relayed to him, he also roared in rage and repeated the supervisor order, this time adding a hefty bounty on Draco's head.
Anyone who could find Draco would receive 10 million platinum as a reward as well as a noble title not below Minor Duke. With such a bounty, the emperor was confident that Draco would be found in minutes, not even hours.
However, at the border of the empire, the form of Draco suddenly appeared. He turned to gaze at the walls that covered the entire Divine Empire and its cities off, smiling playfully as he did so.
From here, he spawned two black angelic wings and took to the sky like a bullet, the empire that was bloodily searching for him a dot in the horizon.
When Draco was more than a few hundred meters away, he received a system notification about the completion of the Refinement God's Treasury Unique Quest as well as the various rewards that came with it.
At the same time, the incensed emperor and the raging supervisor displayed blank expressions. The same thing happened to literally every soul within the empire, and they remained that way for about a split second before returning to normal.
The passageways that existed below the castle were removed and everyone still down there was magically moved to the surface at places where they would normally have been otherwise.
The Emperor rubbed his temples and thought: 'What was I so hot and bothered about again? Probably the bagging of the Royal Court. Ugh, we're still in session too.'
The Emperor coughed to capture the attention of everyone in the room and said: "Sorry about that, I was distracted for a second. Royal Chamberlain, please refresh the court and myself as to the agenda for this session?"
The Chamberlain hastily came forth and opened his minutes and repeated what they had been talking about before the Emperor asked for the reminder.
With a nod, the Emperor waved his hand for the proceedings to continue, putting whatever the hell was bothering him a few minutes ago to the back of his mind.
After all, he had a Divine Empire to rule.