Chapter 142: The Swamp Snake Dragon

The changes deep within the Two-Legged Dragon Swamp had already disrupted the normal life of the surrounding ecosystem. They also caused great trouble to the two groups that later entered the swamp.

As for these two groups that entered the swamp later, they had all had some contact with Donald. The first group consisted of over a dozen people, led by a female swordsman who appeared quite valiant, with a red bandana tied around her head. Anyone from the Six Southern Towns would surely recognize her—she was the actual ruler of Dragon Shadow Town and the leader of the Blood Sword Mercenary Group, Lady Caroline.

And the figure in the black mage robe beside this female bandit leader—could it be anyone other than the sorcerer Goman?

After Goman’s fifteenth failed attempt to send demons to explore the ruins in the swamp, he returned to town and accidentally overheard adventurers saying they had seen a ship flying in the sky not long ago, with people moving on board. This adventurer was a well-known drunkard in the area, so most adventurers thought he was just talking nonsense while drunk. But while the speaker had no ulterior motives, the listener took it seriously. When Goman heard the adventurer say the ship was heading toward the depths of the Great Swamp, he immediately sensed something was wrong.

Mages and alchemists were best at inventing strange devices, so creating a ship powered by magic wasn’t entirely impossible. After all, the teacher of that young mage he had failed to assassinate was a renowned alchemy master from Celt. And the treasure map he had lost had been obtained by that young mage. Thus, Goman strongly suspected that the ship was likely heading to the arcane ruins deep in the swamp.

After much thought, he finally made up his mind. He went to see his mistress and strongwoman, Caroline, and revealed to her the news of the ancient ruins hidden deep in the swamp.

Caroline was overjoyed upon hearing this. She knew well what an arcane ruin meant. If she could master its secrets and wealth, she might even be able to unify the Six Southern Towns and become one of the few female noble lords. With such ambition, Caroline knew there was no time to lose. She immediately gathered over a dozen elite members from the Blood Sword Mercenary Group. After making preparations, they quietly entered the swamp under Goman’s guidance.

Not long after Goman and his group entered the swamp, a team of five adventurers left the inn in Dragon Shadow Town. They hired a local guide and set off into the Two-Legged Dragon Swamp to seek adventure.

These five adventurers, hidden under their cloaks, were none other than the Justice Hand team of five, who had been tracking the sorcerer Goman all along.

At that time, they left North County. After detecting the traces of the sorcerer in the Celtic capital, they followed his trail and arrived at the location of the Six Southern Towns. However, this area was chaotic, Gorman deliberately avoided them, and they also didn’t realize that an accident had turned their target into a slave who was secretly held captive for many days. It wasn’t until Gorman joined that red-haired woman and appeared openly in Dragonshadow Town that the five of them learned of Gorman’s whereabouts. But with the Bloodsword Mercenary Group, one of the most powerful forces in the Six Southern Towns, backing him, and him being the lover of the silver-ranked powerhouse Caroline, it was difficult for them to take action. Additionally, the higher-ups of the Hand of Justice attached great importance to this sorcerer and had traveled great distances to track him down, clearly aware of the significance of the arcane ruins—comparable to conquering a land of unbelievers and turning it into a land of the Glorious Faith. Thus, Wayne, the priest and strategist of the Hand of Justice team, decided to wait patiently. After all, their target would surely go to the swamp to search for treasures, and then they could lead them to the ruins, achieving two goals at once: finding the ruins and eliminating the heretic. Of course, they didn’t know that Gorman had lost the map stolen by Theron; otherwise, they wouldn’t have waited idly here and would have taken action long ago. It wasn’t until both groups approached the depths of the swamp that they noticed the magical beasts around them losing their usual composure, becoming increasingly agitated as they rushed deeper into the swamp, ignoring the fact that it was once the territory of a powerful magical beast. Anyone could tell that something had gone wrong ahead—most likely, the ruins had already appeared and someone else had arrived first. So both groups rushed even more urgently toward the ruins. Initially, neither group knew the exact location of the ruins, but now they could simply follow the herd of magical beasts. At least those at the lowest strength level in both groups were at the beginning stage of bronze rank. At first, they encountered not many magical beasts, so although there were some troubles, they didn’t face any life-threatening dangers. But soon, as they got closer to the ruins, they encountered several tough opponents that significantly slowed down their progress. On two occasions, they even faced level-seven magical beasts of silver rank. In their territory, they had to pay a heavy price to overcome the crises.

While the two groups below were fighting hard against the magical beasts, Donald had already led the elves on their horned eagle mounts flying overhead, nearing the ruins. Suddenly, Donald and his companions sensed a mighty force rising from the southeast.

Then came a thunderous roar.

Feeling that formidable presence, the horned eagles, along with the magical beasts on the ground, became panicked. If not for the elves calming them down, they might have fallen from the sky.

“Good heavens! What is that?” Ferdinand asked, pointing in that direction in terror.

Donald and the others looked up and saw, about dozens of miles away, a massive figure rolling through mud and water toward the ruins. It was a giant beast resembling a long snake, with a long, sleek body very similar to that of a snake. But from head to tail, its back was covered with sword-like spines, and it had a ferocious head like that of a dragon, along with two forelimbs on its upper body. Even from over a dozen miles away, it was clear just how huge this creature was. Donald estimated that its length was at least three miles, with a diameter of over a hundred feet.

The beast moved like a snake, keeping its upper body raised, its bluish-gray scaled body clearly visible. It moved at incredible speed—what had been dozens of miles away was now only a dozen miles away in the time it took them to speak.

None of those present recognized the origin of this giant beast. Only the elf elder Elyia, who, due to his heritage from the ancient druidic sect, knew the most about various creatures, was shocked upon seeing it. He said, “That’s an ancient exotic serpent dragon—a very old creature with an extremely long lifespan. It’s said to be a branch of the dragons, but in terms of strength, they are far more powerful than modern dragons.”

After hearing Kelthas’s account, Donald asked, “What’s the approximate strength of this monster?”

Elyia replied seriously, “Serpent dragons have a very long lifespan and grow extremely slowly. It takes at least a thousand years for them to go from juveniles to adults. But once adult, they possess gold-tier strength. Coupled with their powerful bodies and innate abilities, even multiple gold-tier dragons are needed to rival a serpent dragon! As for us elves and human gold-tier warriors, we need many more to defeat an adult serpent dragon!”

“The terrifying thing is that this is a highly evil creature. To date, not a single serpent dragon has ever been kind or lawful. These creatures usually harbor hatred and hostility toward other beings, are extremely brutal, utterly dishonest, never keep their promises, and are incredibly greedy!” He added, “Serpent dragons can fly by nature!” Hearing these descriptions, Donald realized that his group’s speed was definitely no match for theirs, and on top of that, they could fly. At this rate, this terrifying serpent dragon would reach the ruins ahead of them. So he immediately decided to leave right away. An ordinary serpent dragon was already an invincible force beyond even gold-tier creatures. If it were a legendary two-headed serpent dragon, wouldn’t it be able to destroy a large city like Selth’s capital, Kosovo, with just a flip of its body? This posed a threat a thousand or ten thousand times greater than those of well-known swamp monsters like the swamp giant lizards, multi-headed serpent lizards, and iron-armored beasts. “Everyone, come over! I’m going to use a teleportation scroll to send everyone to the ruins—hurry!” Donald waved his hand, causing all the horned eagle beasts to disappear. Theoretically, as long as all creatures within the teleportation range, no matter how many, could be sent to a designated destination. But for safety reasons, Donald thought it was better to be cautious. After dozens of elves and the four of them gathered together, Donald immediately tore open the scroll in his hand. The light of the teleportation matrix flared up, enclosing them all. By then, the giant serpent dragon was already less than ten miles away, its grotesque face clearly visible. The serpent dragon had excellent eyesight; from such a distance, it had already noticed activity on Donald’s side and immediately opened its maw to unleash a stream of acid liquid over a hundred Wu long. But before the acid could reach them, Donald and the others vanished in a flash. Losing its target, the serpent dragon roared in anger, swung its massive tail, and a bronze-tier iron-armored beast that failed to dodge was torn to shreds. It was just unlucky—known for its defense skills, it had ruled the swamps, but its slow speed prevented it from escaping in time, resulting in it becoming the serpent dragon’s target for venting its anger and being killed in one strike. In front of the temple square at the center of the ruins, where the statue transformed from a gargoyle once stood, a burst of white light appeared suddenly. Then, with a flash of light, dozens of figures appeared on the spot. “Ferdinand, you’re back!”

Edwina, who had been keeping an eye on the outside situation, was the first to rush out in surprise.
“Are these… all elves?”
Following closely behind, Hordon, who came out of the temple, saw the people behind Donald pointing at them in astonishment and speaking.
The others also exclaimed in shock, waiting for Donald’s explanation. But Donald said anxiously, “There’s no time to explain further. There’s a golden giant coming right behind us. We need to pack up the teleportation array quickly and leave this place at once!”
As he spoke, he summoned three horned eagle beasts, sending them soaring into the sky toward the north of the swamp. He planned to use this same trick again—using these horned eagle beasts as teleportation coordinates to fly away early while there was still some time, then leaving via teleportation scrolls. That golem earlier was an example of this; he wasn’t familiar with the swamp at all, so having his own summoned creatures as coordinates was necessary for safety.
Horned eagle beasts were the fastest among all flying units in the Book of Truth. When flying alone, their speed was even one-eighth faster than that of dragon eagles and griffins, which were also skilled fliers.
If unimpeded, they could likely reach the outskirts of the swamp in just a few minutes, buying them some time to escape.