Circling around the Tomb

The tomb only has a single path after crossing the threshold, just a single staircase the goes down. As we head further and further down, torches light up on their own with a bright blue flame. The walls that surround us have a similar blue hue with designs that resemble a scale. Eventually, the long staircase comes to an end as it leads us to a large open room that's lit with the same blue flame torches as the path down. As we look around there are some caskets, most are empty but a few still have a handful of valuables, almost all of these are porcelain models of the Azure Dragon.

But none of these held a candle to what's probably the most important piece here. From the ceiling hangs a massive carving made from a shining azure blue crystal, it's coiling not just around this room but extending through the various hallways that connect to this room. Although we can only see the tail end, it's clear that this is a massive carving of the Azure Dragon, shining above the blue flames that light our path.

"Amazing, this is a true work of art. Compared to the people who made this, I can't possibly call myself an artist," Aurelia says, staring at the crystal carving.

"I don't think there is anyone who can make something like this in all of Shengdi. I'm no expert, but I'm fairly certain this tomb was built when Shengdi was a single united empire. Many of the techniques used back then have been lost and whatever was used to construct this carving is likely one of those lost techniques," Wanjing says.

"I'm not one for the arts, but I can certainly appreciate anything that's shiny. But we aren't here to appreciate the carving and admire the craftsmanship, we have some things that need to be taken care of," I say.

"You'd be a lot more convincing if you weren't trying to pocket the porcelain pieces," Aurelia says.

Quickly swallowing the small Azure Dragon porcelain, I say, "I don't know what you're talking about, anyways there are three paths to take, we can keep moving straight or go to the left or right. Which path should we take?"

Leading the way, Lia says, "follow the carving, if we follow the body to reach the head then we should go left."

As we follow Lia's lead, taking the left path, we soon come to a dead end as the body of the Dragon stretches through the wall. Around the wall are signs of an explosion, most likely the team that was searching this place, but it's obvious they didn't succeed in breaking down the wall. But without saying anything, Lia walks up to the wall and places her hand on it. On contact, the image of the Azure Dragon flashes and the wall slides apart revealing the rest crystal carving making its way across the tomb.

This scene happened three more times before we eventually reached the fourth wall. Repeating the action was again, we find that we've wrapped around back to the first room we arrived at when we came down the stairs. But when Wanjing and I question the point of this whole circular journey, Lia just says that it was necessary then leading us up to the straight path from the staircase.

Much like when we went down the left path, we arrive at what seems to be a dead-end, but the wall is distinctively different than the others. There are five glowing orbs on the wall, forming a spiral shape starting from the left.

"I see now, this is the same path we took to arrive here. If I'm not mistaken, then each orb should correlate to the five walls that Lia took down," Aurelia explains.

"Yeah, and beyond this should be the final room," Lia says, placing her hand on the wall like before.

Just like the previous walls, the image of the Azure Dragon appears briefly before the wall parts. Proceeding down the hall, following the crystal carving, we soon come to a large room and find the crystal carving extending from the ceiling to the back of the room, the Dragon's neck extending down before turning to face us from the other side of the room.

Telling us to stay back, Lia approaches the head of the crystal carving of the Azure Dragon. Standing before it, the eyes of the carving begin to glow in that familiar blue light as Lia's body is engulfed in an azure flame, but before I can do anything, a large cocoon fills the room, a very familiar appearance as it resembles the evolution cocoon that forms around me when evolving.

Despite knowing that it probably won't do any harm to Lia, I still ask, "Aurelia, can you see what's going on, is Lia going to be alright?"

"Don't worry, she's fine. While I'm not entirely clear on what's going on inside, from the looks of it, her entire body is being rebuilt on a cellular level, but she shouldn't be able to feel anything. The process is the same as an Elite Monster's evolution when crossing the bridge between species, which you should be very familiar with. But the difference here is that the process is going by far faster than when an Elite Monsters evolves, this speed is actually even faster than when a regular monster is advancing from one stage to the next. This should be thanks to the flame that engulfed her body. She should be done after around an hour or so, we just have to wait."

During this time, Wanjing and Aurelia are playing card games, but I can't help but watch the cocoon for the entire duration. After a little over an hour, just as Aurelia said, the cocoon begins to break apart as a large Dragon emerges, covered in azure scales, with antler-like horns similar to mine, the Dragon is around a third of my size which still pretty large. Using my Draconic Insight, I see her status, Lia Straellum, Tier 10: Scion of the Azure Dragon.