Chapter 1086 - The 8.5 Faced Dragon God

The Nine-Faced Dragon God’s palace radiated an aura of obscene wealth. Every surface in sight was forged from Essence Gold. It was luxury taken to its absolute extreme.

All this Essence Gold could’ve been used to forge so many Divine Weapons! Han Wu grumbled internally and cursed the Great Dragons for having no idea how to manage their resources. Using Essence Gold as building material was practically begging the heavens to strike them down.

He stepped forward and laid eyes on the one he’d come to meet: the Great Dragon’s deity, the Nine-Faced Dragon God.

The Nine-Faced Dragon God was enormous beyond comprehension. Han Wu couldn’t see its full form at a glance, nor could his senses perceive its entirety. A single scale was larger than his entire body.

While Han Wu was still shocked, the Nine-Faced Dragon God lowered its head and fixed its gaze on him and the four Dragon Emperors. Beyond its staggering size, the Nine-Faced Dragon God’s most distinctive feature was its head, which bore multiple faces, each with its own will and expression.

Han Wu counted carefully and confirmed that there were nine. However, one had suffered severe damage, with a large portion of it destroyed. Strictly speaking, it only counted as half a face.

He couldn’t help but wonder, How did this happen? Something as powerful as the Nine-Faced Dragon God could still get injured?Also, with half a face gone, shouldn’t the Nine-Faced Dragon God technically be called the 8.5-Faced Dragon God? [1]

Han Wu decided this was a serious question.

The Nine-Faced Dragon God wasn’t thinking that hard about it. It simply studied Han Wu with intense focus. Its massive dragon eyes gleamed with wisdom. In the space of a single moment, it had already learned everything there was to know about him.

After confirming Han Wu’s information, all eight and a half of its faces settled into subtle expressions that mixed unease, surprise, dread, and wariness.

Han Wu matched the intelligence that the Jade Dragon Emperor had reported. He carried the Defier title and had already developed it to a significant degree. That much was expected.

What the Nine-Faced Dragon God hadn’t expected was another familiar aura hidden within him. The bloodline of Destruction!

If Han Wu had possessed the Destruction Jurisdiction, the Nine-Faced Dragon God would’ve suspected that he was an assassin sent by the Divine Civilization’s Will.

“Do you belong to the Destruction Clan?” the Nine-Faced Dragon God asked.

The question immediately put the Jade Dragon Emperor on alert. The former God King of Destruction had once beaten the Nine-Faced Dragon God into retreat. To this day, the Great Dragons still had a visceral reaction to anything related to Destruction. One mention of it, and the whole race tensed up.

Han Wu considered his response carefully. Long Qi’s instructions were burned into his mind. The entire Divine Civilization’s safety now rested on what came out of his mouth. One wrong word, one slip that allowed the Nine-Faced Dragon God to see through the ruse, and disaster would befall the entire Divine Civilization.

He thought for several seconds before answering, “I’m not a member of the Destruction Clan, but I have a very close connection to them!”

His answer was perfectly truthful. After all, he had slaughtered the entire Destruction Clan. That kind of connection was hard to call anything but close.

The Nine-Faced Dragon God could read the fluctuations in Han Wu’s aura as he spoke and determine whether he was telling the truth. Everything checked out. Han Wu was being completely honest.

“Then is the God King of Destruction doing well?” the Nine-Faced Dragon God pressed.

Han Wu’s mind raced as he formulated his reply. “I’m not entirely sure about his current situation. All I know is that he’s training in some kind of hidden realm.”

In a sense, the Chaotic Starfield qualified as a hidden realm. It just happened to be one famous for being a one-way trip.

The Nine-Faced Dragon God got the answer it wanted and nodded. All eight and a half faces were deep in thought. It had long harbored ambitions of seizing the Divine Civilization and turning it into a colony for the Great Dragon race. That plan would have to stay on hold for now.

With the questions about the God King of Destruction settled, the four Dragon Emperors began reporting the intelligence they had gathered.

“The giants have launched another invasion.”

“The Great Dragon race’s birth rate continues to decline, and the three-child policy isn’t gaining traction.”

“Food supplies for the Great Dragons are running short. Many Great Dragons deployed to oversee other civilizations had gone silent.”

“Members of the Great Dragon race had proposed making Han Wu, the Defier, the fifth Dragon Emperor.”

Han Wu had no interest in Great Dragon domestic policy, but the proposal to make him the fifth Dragon Emperor immediately caught his attention. Becoming a Dragon Emperor wasn’t just about gaining a title. It represented real power, with Macrocosm rank as the bare minimum!

The Great Dragons actually intended to invest enough resources to raise him to the Macrocosm rank. Meanwhile, he had been secretly stealing their dead to make undead.

I’m such an asshole, he thought.

After three seconds of self-reflection, his eyes lit up. He fixed them on the Nine-Faced Dragon God and waited for a definitive answer. As long as the conditions were right, he would accept it with apprehension.

The Nine-Faced Dragon God addressed the issues the four Dragon Emperors had raised and issued its directives. “The giant invasion had to be repelled. Otherwise, the giants will think the Great Dragons were easy pickings.”

The Nine-Faced Dragon God was even considering a personal trip into giant territory for a bout with the giant deity, the Heavenreach Titan.

The Battle Dragon Emperor trembled when she heard that, not from fear but from excitement. She lived for combat. If a prolonged war with the giants broke out, she would be the first to raise both claws in approval.

The other issues gave the Nine-Faced Dragon God a headache. Its Great Dragons simply refused to reproduce. What could it do?

The Great Dragon race already had naturally low birth rates due to their immense power. Their reluctance to breed only made matters worse, with fewer than 10 million Great Dragons born per year.

For a civilization built around a core race of over a billion Great Dragons, those numbers were embarrassing. If war truly broke out with the giants, the Great Dragon race could face a population decline.

This problem had plagued the race for ages. Past efforts had focused on incentives. Those who produced offspring received gold and gemstones. Great Dragons were naturally attracted to shiny objects, so the policy made sense on paper. After years of implementation, however, the race had handed out gold and gemstones by the truckload with barely a bump in its population.

That was exactly why the Nine-Faced Dragon God clung to its fantasy for the Divine Civilization’s system. It wanted to conquer the Divine Civilization and use its unit-cultivation framework to support the Great Dragon reproduction. So far, that dream had gone nowhere.

The food shortage was another headache. The Great Dragon race regularly sent dragons out to explore. Whenever they found a resource-rich civilization, a Great Dragon would descend upon it, subjugate the local population, and funnel the resources back to their territory. Lately, however, many of the dispatched Great Dragons had lost contact. The resource pipeline had dried up, and food was becoming scarce.

The Nine-Faced Dragon God addressed every concern and assigned tasks to each Dragon Emperor. That left only Han Wu’s matter. Regarding the proposal to make him the fifth Dragon Emperor, the Nine-Faced Dragon God rejected it outright. The Great Dragon race looked strong on the surface, but its population growth was stalling, resources were scarce, and powerful enemies lurked along its borders. There simply weren’t enough resources to spare for Han Wu’s advancement. Moreover, his contributions to the race had yet to meet the required threshold.

The proposal was dead. Han Wu had expected the answer, but he still wanted to try.

“Lord Dragon God, if I could help the Great Dragon race resolve these problems, would you be willing to help me become the fifth Dragon Emperor?” he asked.

Every pair of eyes in the room landed on him. The Nine-Faced Dragon God and all four Dragon Emperors shared a single thought. This kid’s got some nerve!

1. I don’t know. Can you call someone that had lost their left arm and left leg as being all right? ☜