Heartbeat

It didn't know exactly when it happened… But when Adam Dillon gained its self-consciousness, it already knew its first name was Adam and last name was Dillon.

It was restrained in a dark and narrow space that had a tough ward against rough movement on its edges.

Besides swallowing its pee and amniotic fluid, tossing around, flexing its claws and bumping against the ward repeatedly, it basically had nothing fun to do.

It started to like listening to the sounds coming from outside.

Most of the time, regular and solid beating sounds accompanied it when the ward was heated up.

When the beating sounds disappeared, other sounds would take their place. It was the dragon language, according to its memories.

But, why couldn't it understand what the dragon language was talking about?

Sometimes, it would extend its little hands and feet to knock on the area of the ward where the sounds came from.

This would make the dragon language from beyond become more excited. It would also knock on the ward to reciprocate its knocking.

Not sure when, something happened. There was a loud bang outside; it had never heard this scary sound before. It made it very uncomfortable.

It huddled up.

Along with other loud noises, there was that dragon language that always talked to it. However, that familiar dragon language became unusually sharp and angry.

The ward moved and shook crazily, making Adam Dillon dizzy.

It became quiet outside after some time, but the ward became cold… colder and colder.

Adam Dillon didn't know what had happened. It kept knocking on the ward, but no dragon language ever replied to it ever since.

The familiar beating sounds also disappeared.

All alone, its thoughts began to gradually congeal due to the low temperature and its consciousness slipped into darkness.

After an unknown period of time, it woke up and the ward was no longer cold. But it was extremely weak.

Its consciousness also became extremely blurry.

It later became noisy beyond the ward.

But it couldn't hear that familiar knocking and the dragon language, so it huddled up in fear.

From then on, all kinds of magic fluctuations began to frequently appear beyond the ward.

Yes. They were magic fluctuations according to its memory.

Most of the magic fluctuations were blocked by the ward, using up a lot of its energy. Only a little of it went through, like a floating mist.

That kind of life went on for a very, very long time.

The vitality that required sleeping deeply to accumulate was slowly depleted.

Its consciousness became more and more blurry.

It sunk into a deep sleep and rarely woke up again.

During the few times that it woke up, it felt that it might never wake up again every time it fell asleep.

Until one moment when it suddenly sensed a very unique scent outside.

That was the scent of a deity, according to its memories.

It began to get agitated, trying to knock on the ward desperately.

Because it knew that only this scent could save it from sinking into a deep sleep forever.

However, it was too weak. A very, very, very long time ago, it was able to bang on the ward whenever it wanted. But it couldn't even stretch out its arm at the moment.

Its consciousness would become dizzy even when it only moved a little. It would descend into the darkness and forget what it was going to do. It could only regain its wits after a very long time.

It realized that it was going to die.

The fragmented memories began to appear in its mind; it sadly realized how that rythmic knocking and the dragon language were the only things that could make it feel comfortable, among the very few memories it had.

Suddenly, countless fireflies appeared at the end of the lonely darkness.

The fireflies rushed over and swirled around it.

The memories that came from its blood and the deepest part of its soul began to throb again. It opened its eyes with difficulty and recognized those fireflies.

They were words—dragon words.

The dragon words surrounded it, trying to seep into its weak soul.

It tried its very best with its last thoughts to release its soul's defense, and accepted those words.

Immediately after, as those words transformed into three beams of light, a surging vitality crazily rushed in from an unknown dimension.

Its dried-up life was lit up and its shattered consciousness began to consolidate.

Endless joy, along with sleepiness, was born in Adam Dillon's heart!

Its instinct forced it to go to sleep as soon as possible, so it could borrow this vitality to make up for its dried up life's source and awaken the blood heritage that belonged to the dragon clan!

However, even while being driven by this powerful instinct, Adam Dillon tried its best to send a sentence to the other end of the life's source—'Thank you!'

…

"Yes!"

Yu Sheng'an who felt the contract was signed successfully, began to feel his face was shriveling up and his black hair was rapidly turning white, even before joy had even appeared in his face.

"Fu*k me—"

Yu Sheng'an cursed as his pupils dilated and fear appeared on his face.

He had actually sensed the shadow of death in that instant!

He could feel his vitality being consumed crazily by the dragon egg, nope, he should be saying "shared"!

Yu Sheng'an wanted to terminate the contract instinctively. In that split of a second, he cursed and decided to continue with the contract, then started to transfer vitality from other contracted creatures.

Because you know, the more the merrier. Even he himself had no idea how many demons he had entered into a contract with as he had abundant elementium.

And just taking 1% of those demons' vitality would be enough to supply for the dragon egg's vitality.

However, even so, it took Yu Sheng'an dozens of breaths before his shrivelled up face slowly returned to its plump and normal state.

The dragon egg's vitality absorption finally came to a stop.

The complex magical engraving on the dragon egg started to emit a faint light, inhaling and exhaling natural energy. It began to store energy to hatch the baby dragon.

"It's so terrifying. A baby that hasn't even hatched has such a strong vitality. How scary would it be when it becomes a fully-grown dragon?"

Although Yu Sheng'an said it was scary, there was an intense excitement in his eyes!

The more vitality the dragon egg consumed, the more it proved that it had a terrifying potential. How could he not be ecstatic after they had signed the sharing contract?

This was his ally!

"Thank you!"

A hint of soul fluctuation interrupted Yu Sheng'an's excitement.

His smile was frozen for a moment before it became brighter.

"Take your time to hatch. No need to rush!"

Yu Sheng'an patted the dragon egg and started to dig around his spatial ring. Finally, he found an advanced magical tool that could be used to store life in Don's inventory—Fire Cloud Flower.

That was a magical plant that looked like a lotus flower; it had magical engravings that naturally nourished life in its interior. It could hold an object with a 90cm diameter after being modified with spatial magic.

Yu Sheng'an injected magic to activate it; an enormous fire cloud flower instantly began to bloom in front of him.

Then, he rolled the half-a-man tall dragon egg into the fire cloud flower.

The petals closed up immediately after, covering the dragon egg in layers. Finally, the fire cloud flower shrunk to the size of a thumb and became so hard that it seemed as if it had been carved out of a crystal.

Yu Sheng'an picked up the shrunken fire cloud flower and sighed. To play it safe, he sent it back to his main body in the shrine.

At the castle shrine.

Yu Sheng'an's main body waved his hand and conjured up a chain by borrowing the castle's magical power, then he hung the fire cloud flower around his neck.

The crystallized fire cloud flower landed naturally and hung next to his heart. A faint magic fluctuation was dissipated amidst his heartbeats.

Yu Sheng'an did this in case of extreme circumstances.

—That was, if the castle shrine was suddenly attacked and there was no way to defend and escape, he would definitely blow up the castle to fight for a chance of survival.

Hence, wearing important things on his person was to prepare for the worst.

…

In the pitch darkness, Adam Dillon's consciousness shook a little before it turned its body and fell into a deep sleep again.

The endless vitality made it feel safe.

The most important thing was, it was able to hear the familiar beating sounds beyond the ward again.