First Encounter with the Dragon Clan

I awoke from unconsciousness, slowly opening my eyes. The sight before me made me instantly forget all the pain in my body.

A vast forest of colossal trees spread out before me, and I found myself lying on a massive branch of one such tree. I shook my head, and slowly, my mind transitioned from a daze to clarity.

Looking above, I saw a canopy of lush, green branches. Through the gaps, I could make out a sky of the purest blue I had ever seen, so clean and pristine.

It was clear that I had fallen from above.

But how did I end up in this strange forest? The trees here were enormous, far larger than anything I had seen in my travels around the Earth.

Strange! Shouldn't I have perished alongside Yamamoto and the others in the battle against the ninjas and superhumans, where I went into Qi deviation after pushing my "Xiaoyao Jue" to the seventh level?

I tried to move. Luckily, although my whole body ached and was mostly broken, my internal organs were largely intact, thanks to the protective power of my Qi. I wasn't in immediate danger of dying.

I attempted to circulate my Qi, but to my dismay, my Dantian was empty, and my meridians were blocked everywhere!

It seemed my final self-detonation had dispersed all my Qi into my body's acupuncture points. This also explained how I survived the fall from such a height.

Given the severity of my internal injuries, even under ideal conditions, it would take weeks to recover, let alone here in this dense forest.

Fortunately, I have always been optimistic. Despite the grim situation, being alive lifted my spirits. The most pressing matter now was to treat my severe external injuries.

Due to the pain, I could only remain prone on the canopy, struggling to set my bones back into place. The agony of resetting the bones was unbearable, even with my steely resolve, and I couldn't help but cry out in pain.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to set all the broken bones and passed out from the excruciating pain.

When I regained consciousness again, the pain had lessened considerably, and my spirits were much improved. However, with the bones just set, I had to lie still. Thankfully, the branch was so large that lying on it was almost like lying on a double bed.

Lying there, I couldn't help but smile wryly at the thought of being stuck here for at least a couple of weeks.

I picked up a leaf that had fallen on me and began to play it with my lips.

Playing music on a leaf was something I learned over the sixteen years I spent living on a mountain with my master. Since he found me, we had lived together on that mountain.

I never called him "Master"; I always called him "Old Man," and he retaliated by calling me "Brat."

The old man was very knowledgeable. In his words, he was skilled in all arts: music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. However, I always teased him, saying he knew a bit of everything but was a master of none.

Aside from martial arts, I learned various crafts from him. So, I became proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting as well.

Initially, I learned to play the flute, but I found it too cumbersome to carry around a bamboo flute, so I switched to using leaves. Over the years, I mastered this unique skill.

Whenever I felt troubled, I would play the leaf to ease my mind. Little did I expect that even in this primeval forest, there would be creatures to appreciate my music.

A strange "lizard" approached. It was strange because of its enormous size. The largest monitor lizard I had ever seen would look like an infant in front of it. Just one of its claws was taller than I was, and its total length must have been at least fifty meters. Even more bizarrely, it was flying and landed directly above me, blocking out the sky with its bulk so I couldn't see its wings.

Its landing created a gale that swept me off the branch and onto the ground. Despite falling from only about ten meters high, the impact was severe, shattering my already fragile meridians and dislocating my recently set bones. A wave of intense pain washed over me, and I lost consciousness, blood gushing out.

When I woke up again, I felt much better, as if even the dislocated bones had been reset.

Could there be someone in this primeval forest?

Curious, I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. I was still under the tree where I had fallen, but the giant lizard was now staring at me with eyes bigger than my head. To my amazement, I saw that it was entirely golden, even its eyes. Its golden scales shimmered in the sunlight, reflecting dazzling rays of light.

Its massive head bore two horns that spread wide, with long whiskers hanging naturally. Although it resembled a lizard from afar, up close, it was impossible to associate it with a lizard.

Ordinarily, such a large creature would be terrifying, but I only felt a sense of holiness and an overwhelming aura of majesty filling the air.

In that moment, I was deeply moved by the ability of this world to nurture such life. This was surely a miracle of the universe, a magnificent creation of the divine.

I completely forgot about myself and the severe injuries that could have killed me multiple times over. I just stared at the creature before me, oblivious to the change in its eyes from amusement to boredom to impatience.

"Human, why are you on the sacred Dragon Island? Don't you know that any human who dares to set foot on Dragon Island is hunted by the great Dragon Tribe?"

A strange voice suddenly sounded in my mind, not in my ears, but directly transmitted to my brain, snapping me out of my daze.

The voice was not in any language I knew, yet I could understand its meaning clearly.

"I don't know where this place is, nor how I ended up here. So, I cannot answer your question."

I replied politely. I wasn't surprised that it had high intelligence. Given its miraculous nature, it was only natural for it to be intelligent.

However, it clearly didn't understand English, so I switched to French, then German, and every other language I could speak.

Unfortunately, its blank expression made it clear it didn't understand any of them.

Then the strange voice spoke again: "Why can't I understand your language? As the leader of the Dragon Tribe, I have lived for tens of thousands of years and mastered the languages of all races on this continent. Why can't I comprehend yours, which you spoke in several variations? Are you not a being from this continent?"

At that moment, the sound of wind reached my ears, and several more creatures similar to the first appeared in the sky. Except for their different colored scales and slightly smaller sizes, they were identical.

It was clear that this was a species I had never encountered before.

I chuckled bitterly, realizing my situation. I wasn't on Earth anymore. Otherwise, I wouldn't see creatures like these.

If there were just one, I might have thought of it as a mysterious existence like the Loch Ness Monster. But with a whole species of such large creatures, it was impossible for them to be unknown on Earth.

Thinking that I might never see the old man who raised me again filled me with sorrow.

And contemplating surviving alone in this strange world left me feeling lost.

Later, five more "lizards," or rather six, appeared. The smallest one was only about two meters long. To me, she seemed normal-sized, but compared to her kin, she was tiny, so I immediately categorized her as a child.

Her scales and eyes were also golden, with the most pure gold hue, without a hint of impurity. Her eyes had a soul-stirring beauty that shocked me, and her roving gaze gave me a sense of wonder, filled with innocence and mischief.

Good heavens, I even saw a mischievous glint in her eyes. Instinctively, I knew she was up to something, and it wasn't anything good.

Yet, I didn't feel any danger. It was like a cute little girl secretly planning whether to draw a bird on my left cheek or a turtle on my right cheek.

She wasn't flying on her own but was riding on the back of another golden-scaled "lizard."

Unlike the first, which was robust, this one appeared slender, or rather, graceful. Her huge eyes emitted a gentle glow.

Suddenly, I realized that what I perceived as a gentle glow wasn't emanating from her eyes but directly from her heart.

In other words, I could directly sense their thoughts, even though their outward expressions were identical.

I closely examined the other three. They were slightly smaller than the first one.

And without exception, I could discern their attitudes towards me from their eyes.

They had earth-brown, fiery-red, and cyan scales, respectively. Their gazes were filled with curiosity, but I sensed no hostility.

When I looked back at the first one, its demeanor was peculiar, mixing curiosity with a hint of amusement.

Amusement! I was a bit dizzy.

This confirmed my earlier thoughts. Although I rarely interacted with people and was often quite insensitive to social cues, I could now clearly perceive their attitudes towards me.

It seemed that my mastery of the "Xiaoyao Jue" had reached a breakthrough. Each breakthrough heightened my sensitivity to the environment. Previously, it was always to the physical surroundings, but now, at the seventh level, it greatly enhanced my mental strength.

With this ability, wouldn't I be more acutely aware of everything around me?

This newfound power could be extremely useful in navigating an unfamiliar world like this.

But unfortunately, my current internal injuries were so severe that I had no idea when I would fully recover.