Seized by the System

Just like the blasting wind from before, the endless sand grinding caused Fang Ning to experience again the kind of agony that pierced through his physical body and into his soul.

“Very well, Rice Bucket. If you want to be heartless, then don’t blame me for my disloyalty. I never wanted to resort to this move, but since you refuse to change no matter how many times I’ve told you to, I’ll have to put aside our many years of friendship…” Fang Ning forced the words out despite the pain.

“Humph, you’re tough on the outside but cowardly on the inside. Do you think that by saying such ruthless things, you can get me to go easy on you?” Sir System said with an air of complacency. “That’ll never happen. After all, I’m doing all of this for your own good!”

“Since you’ve already put it that way, I have nothing to feel bad about. Now, I shall let you see me in a new light,” Fang Ning said through gritted teeth.

System Notification: [The Host has activated Mythical-level skill “Biomechanical Fusion”. The host’s soul will temporarily fuse with the System and possess the System’s characteristics. Attacks on the soul will be disregarded.]

“Damn it, this can’t be!” Upon hearing the System Notification, Sir System became appalled. “How is it possible for you to use my skill? This doesn’t make sense!”

“Hahahaha!” Fang Ning was immediately released from the endless bone-grinding agony as the torturous pain was reduced considerably.

Then, he calmly stood up in spite of the chaos outside, and smugly strutted about in the System Space. “How’s that? Now, you should know that I have my own countermeasures as well.”

“Humph, how is this even painful? I’m not human, so this kind of pain means nothing to me,” Sir System said with disdain. “Ah, how comfortable. Let’s have more of this. I’ll go in deeper, and let the sandstorm come at us more violently!”

“No problem, you can be as stubborn as you like. Let’s keep hurting each other then!” Fang Ning suddenly felt the pain in his physical body increase again and could only endure the pain with gritted teeth.

At the moment, the Azure Dragon was going deeper into the whirling sand.

From a bird’s eye view, the sand whirl in the desert might seem as if it was rotating slowly, but for every meter closer to the center, the rotational speed increased by ten percent.

Thus, as the Azure Dragon went in deeper, the layers of the sand whirl rotated at faster speeds.

Additionally, those were not just any ordinary grains of sand. They existed in between a tangible state and an intangible state and were able to slide into the smallest cracks.

The man and the system went on contending with each other, neither of them wanting to admit defeat.

Therefore, Fang Ning’s body underwent a thorough sand bath.

If his time at the glaciers were to be considered as a rigorous quenching process for Fang Ning’s soul, then this time, it was his dragon body that would be going through a steeling process.

From the inside to the outside, the Azure Dragon’s body was completely cleansed.

A great number of impurities, including the haze, dust, and poisonous gases that had been accidentally inhaled during cultivation, were all expelled out of the body…

Even minor areas of imperfection were remedied.

With the help of the Biomechanical Fusion skill, Fang Ning was able to stay conscious and experience the changes in his dragon body this time.

This gradual process of perfection brought him a tremendous sense of reassurance, strengthening his conviction and perseverance.

Of course, more importantly, he did not believe that Sir System could be entirely immune to pain.

Since it was so good at pretending, he wanted to find out exactly where its limits were!

…

Given that both the man and the system both refused to stop, the Azure Dragon’s body continued to go in deeper, and none of them seemed to know how much time had passed.

Eventually, it was Sir System that suddenly spoke again. “Uh, the quenching should be coming to a stop.”

“Hahaha, you can’t stand the pain anymore, can you?” Fang Ning was gritting his teeth as his body felt sore and painful all over, reminding him of the feeling from years ago when he had just started his training to run five kilometers.

“What are you talking about? It’s because I’ve discovered some hidden treasure,” Sir System feigned ignorance. “What pain? That doesn’t exist. I’m a system. Have you ever come across any system that’s afraid of pain?”

“Indeed, I haven’t, but I’ve also never met such a stupid system,” Fang Ning remarked.

“Stop talking nonsense. I’m very busy. I’ve got no time for such bickering.” Sir System soon fell silent.

Fang Ning rushed over and looked out through the System View.

“Oh no, while we were fighting, the great green insect couldn’t have been ground into dust, right?” When Fang Ning noticed Daqing’s absence on the dragon’s head, he instantly became alarmed.

“You’re really full of unnecessary worries. After growing up drinking seawater, you’re now fretting over a wide range of things.” Sir System took the chance to poke fun at him. “It’s smarter than you. It went straight back into the Draconic Arcane Realm.”

“Well, I’m a soft-hearted and good person — unlike you, cold and unreasonable,” Fang Ning grumbled as he relaxed and proceeded to observe their surroundings.

Then, he noticed the enormous sand cave in front of them.

Numerous blue- and purple-colored gemstones could be found on the cave walls, sparkling rays of light that illuminated the sand cave.

Inside the sand cave lay a gigantic light-yellow insect.

This yellow insect looked like an enlarged version of the great green insect, but it did not contain the slightest trace of life, and was all withered and shriveled up, seeming as if it had died a long time ago.

“Hey, isn’t this the Earth Dragon’s dwelling place? Why would there be a dead insect here?” Fang Ning asked in confusion.

“If your house has been uninhabited for a few hundred million years, wouldn’t it be normal for there to be some dead insects around?” Sir System said scornfully.

“That’s true.”

The Azure Dragon reached out its claws to touch the yellow insect, and the insect vanished into smoke all of a sudden, turning into a pile of dust.

Perhaps it used to be an invincible dragon insect when it had been alive, or it might have even been a True-God-level dragon insect, yet it still ended up becoming a pile of dust after its death.

This caused Fang Ning to sigh deeply as he pondered the impermanence of life.

“Being alive is a blessing in itself,” he said faintly.

“Seems like it’s been dead for too long. There’s not even a rock left. I was thinking of getting some active substances from it,” Sir System said gloomily.

After that, the Azure Dragon reduced its size and began to search the enormous sand cave.

The structure of the sand cave was very simple. It was an immensely spacious oval-shaped hall without any corridors or tunnels aside from the opening at the top of the cave that led to the sand whirl above.

After searching for quite some time, the only items the Azure Dragon found that might be worth some money were those gemstones on the cave wall.

“It’s all gone…” Sir System muttered and controlled the Azure Dragon to start digging for the gemstones.

“This is the house of an Ancient Dragon. Aren’t you getting too carried away with your RPG game?” Fang Ning mocked.

“It’s already married anyway, so for this empty house it has left behind, of course, we can enter and leave as we wish.”

Then, after a long time of hard work, the Azure Dragon finally managed to gather all the gemstones and exited the cave through the sand whirl.

Now that they were back under the blue skies, Fang Ning felt relaxed and free. He preferred being up here in the open air, as he felt a constant claustrophobic feeling when being down there in the cave.

The Azure Dragon was just about to fly away, but then suddenly stepped in its place and slowly raised its head to find a colossal shadow cast down from the sky.

“Mr. Rich Boss, you’ve really jinxed it now!” Sir System exclaimed indignantly.

Upon closer look, Fang Ning saw a great fiery-red dragon above them slowly descending from the sky.

“Fourth Sis said just now that her house has been broken into and has asked me to come over and take a look. What do you have to say for yourself?” The Fire Dragon breathed raging flames with an intimidating demeanor.

“Mr. Rich Boss, the rest is up to you now!” Sir System said anxiously.

System Notification: [The System has ended forceful seizing status.]

“Are you serious? You started this trouble, and now you’re leaving it to me to clean up your mess?” Fang Ning said with annoyance, although he was not actually all that afraid.

With the power of the Fire Dragon before them, if it really wanted to find fault with them, it would not have spoken to them in the first place. With just a stamp of its foot, he and Sir System would have both turned into ashes…

Would anyone listen to the explanation from an ant that entered their house? No, the person would have just stepped on the ant and be done with it.

‘Ah, I’m not adjusted to this situation yet.’

It was just a short while ago that he had been acting all tough and mighty in front of those fairies, and now, he had to pretend to be meek and humble again.

Thus, he forced himself to say, “I saw that the house of the Supreme Venerable One hasn’t been cleaned in a while, so I went in to help tidy it up.”

“Oh, is that so? Well then, thank you for your hard work,” the Fire Dragon said indifferently.

“You can’t even fool me with those words!” Sir System said helplessly.

“So what? If you can think of anything else, you try dealing with it then!” Fang Ning said stubbornly.

“Let me give you this fire orb as a reward. It’s been a few billion years since Fourth Sis last cleaned her house. It must’ve been exhausting to clean the place,” the Fire Dragon said while nodding.

“Very true. My claws are all tired from digging for those gemstones.” Sir System agreed wholeheartedly.

Then, a huge blazing orb appeared before the Azure Dragon.

“Wait, it really believed that?” Sir System said in a daze. “Is it more stupid than I am?”

“You know yourself very well,” Fang Ning said without missing a beat. “You’re wrong though. It’s just giving us a way out. How could such a powerhouse be so easily fooled? Unless it has become muddle-headed after sleeping for too long.”

The Azure Dragon received the blazing orb and was just about to speak when the Fire Dragon continued to talk.

“Alright, I should go back and sleep now. The Heavens will soon be gone. I’m not sure how much longer I can sleep, so if there’s nothing else, don’t come and bother me.” As soon as the Fire Dragon finished speaking, its enormous body vanished.

“…” Fang Ning was left speechless.

“Maybe it really is muddle-headed from too much sleep,” Sir System said silently.

“I believe so too. Should we go home now?” Fang Ning did not have the firmness to go and meet the Fire Dragon again. What if it regained its clarity? Would they not be doomed then?

“Yes, yes, let’s go home right away,” Sir System quickly agreed.