Under the Red Dragon

Chapter 248: Laplace's Demon - Dragon

An endless expanse of barren, yellow desert hills, devoid of human presence and life itself.

Karon, facing the blinding light reflected from the sun, stood atop a sand ridge, gazing at the distant, undulating dunes.

Red dragons favored hot climates. In the desert at high noon, the temperature felt as high as sixty degrees Celsius. Ordinary creatures couldn't survive in this scorching environment, and the yellow sand underfoot was hot enough to cook food directly.

Even many ferocious species in the world of Akaniia, and some transcendent magical beasts whose attributes didn't align, would die of dehydration if they lived in this environment for long.

They would be dried into mummies by the scorching sun, and then their withered corpses would be set ablaze, turning into dust that would forever accompany the yellow sand.

In this entirely desert world, even an Ancestral Red Dragon's senses couldn't detect any large-scale concentrations of water molecules within a hundred or a thousand miles.

This also meant that there were no exposed water sources within this vast area.

The sand under the Red Dragon's claws was dry and brittle. Only hundreds of kilometers deep beneath the Red Dragon's feet were there underground rock aquifers.

But even if the blue dragons, who liked to dig caves in the desert, were to use their claws, it would take them at least half a day to reach hundreds of kilometers underground.

However, judging from the structure and traces of the rock layers deep underground, this planet, which only had sand dunes, was once a normal, green planet in the distant past.

According to the information obtained, Arrakis had gradually transformed from a green planet into its current state, where only barren sand existed.

In Karon's perception, there were many exposed salt flats hundreds of miles away in the desolate desert, proving that this planet once had vast oceans and was a water-rich planet.

But even in such a harsh environment, the planet Arrakis had a native human race—the Fremen.

The harsh environment and the presence of spice had made the Fremen physically strong. Although they didn't have the talent to unlock prescience, they were the fiercest fighters in the world.

But in this harsh environment, the Ancestral Red Dragon only felt warm and comfortable. The hot, dry climate felt as comfortable to the Red Dragon as a normal person taking a warm bath.

Karon folded his broad wings, the wings bearing the Marks of Steel and Ashes pressed against the Red Dragon's side, looking like runic armor attached to his flanks.

His claws pressed down on the soft, scorched sand, and he began to stomp heavily on the ground, his power resonating with the earth and sand, striking out rhythmic frequencies and echoes that vibrated beneath the desolate sand.

Thump, thump, thump...

The sound vibration frequency rhythm transmitted through the yellow sand attracted creatures dwelling in the depths of the desert. A violent reverberation, different from the Red Dragon's stomping, came from the calm sand surface.

Karon stopped his movements and looked in the direction of three miles away.

The desert surface there suddenly arched, as if a huge creature was burrowing out of the depths of the desert, traveling under the sand.

The huge creature's long body vibrated with a special frequency, causing the desert to liquefy, allowing it to break through the desert, part the sand waves, and rush towards the Ancestral Red Dragon at an astonishing speed, stirring up sand and dust.

The friction sound of the huge creature traveling under the sand was accompanied by a huge whistling sound, which was the sound of the desert itself and the sound of the sandstorm caused by the huge creature's rapid advance.

The sand under Karon's claws began to sink, and the wildly swirling sand drifted over the Ancestral Red Dragon's body.

Karon stretched out his wings, leaped slightly, and hovered in the low air.

The next moment, with a thump,

a terrifying and hideous, abyss-like huge mouth suddenly burst out from under the sand, devouring the Ancestral Red Dragon.

"凝砂成石，化尘为土! (Condense sand into stone, turn dust into earth!)"

The Marks of Steel and Ashes on Karon's wings flowed with magic, and in mid-air, his steel claws lightly pressed down on the giant sandworm that had burst out of the ground.

The flowing magic turned into a spell at Karon's will, and the bloodline talent couldn't wait to turn the sand into solidified stone without the need for mental commands.

The dust in the wind turned into stacked earth walls, embedding the sandworm, whose mouth was facing the sky, in the stone and earth walls, unable to advance or retreat.

The terrifying sandworm's long tail was still sweeping under the sand surface. A gurgling sound mixed with the sound of dry plants sweeping across the sand, a vibration similar to that of small insects flapping their wings, and the sound of whales spreading in the deep sea came from the huge sandworm's mouth.

But this was not a cry for help or a warning, because these sandworms had a strong desire for exclusive possession of their territory, just like dragons. Once they met each other in a narrow area, these sandworms would launch a battle against each other, so usually only one sandworm would appear in each area.

"This is the unique resource of this planet Arrakis, the indirect producer and source of spice?"

Karon spread his wings horizontally and could see the whole picture of this ugly and terrifying creature in the low air.

The sandworm's body structure was extremely simple in his eyes, very similar to a segmented earthworm, but much larger. The sandworm in front of him was about twenty-five meters long and had twenty-five segments.

But unlike the soft surface of earthworms, the sandworm's exterior was covered with rough, hard, rock-like scales, which were orange-red.

In Karon's perception, the skin under these sandworm's scales was much softer and could be harmed by ordinary people's swords.

But what impressed Karon the most was the sandworm's head. The head of this creature was completely a huge mouth, and when the three or four petals opened, Karon could completely see the abyss-like long esophagus and the slender, sharp teeth that grew around the entire mouth like a grinder, making the dragon's scales crawl with ugliness!

But interestingly, the smell of this ugly sandworm was not as useless as its appearance, but had a fragrance mixed with flint and cinnamon, making Karon's appetite stir and wanting to taste the taste of this strange creature.

This was not only the hunting instinct of the dragon, but also the bloodline talent in Karon's body that was eager to move.

Because this magical creature, the sandworm, had a similar characteristic to the magic dragon in the world of Ice and Fire, that is, it could grow.

The twenty-five-meter-long sandworm in front of him was only considered the juvenile stage of the sandworm in their race, which was similar to a whelp.

The adult sandworm form has an average body length of four hundred meters and a width of one hundred meters. Even the smaller female worms can grow to one hundred meters long and twenty meters wide.

According to the information obtained by the warrior Rabban, the local natives, the Fremen, had seen the largest sandworm, which was four hundred and fifty meters long.

But this was not the largest limit size. According to Fremen legends, sandworms up to a kilometer long live in the poles of this planet and have a lifespan of thousands of years.

It was precisely because of the magical characteristics and powerful body of the sandworm that it was regarded by the Fremen as the god of the earth and the creator maker. In the Fremen language, the sandworm was also called—Shai-Hulud, meaning the eternal old father!

The Ancestral Red Dragon also appeared small in front of this sandworm. Even an ordinary whale in the sea, which was more than thirty meters long, was only a slightly larger worm in front of this level of sandworm and would be swallowed by the sandworm in one bite.

But in Karon's perception, there was no supernatural power in this sandworm's body, which meant that the magical characteristics of the sandworm did not give them any extra magical power, at least for the dragon.

"It is difficult to know the vastness of the universe and the smallness of oneself without experiencing the world,"

Karon sighed, carefully observing the trapped sandworm.

However, the Red Dragon always found it difficult to perceive what characteristics this creature, which could desertify the entire world and produce the magical material of spice, had besides its huge body.

After studying it for a long time and exploring the sandworm's head and tail from top to bottom, Karon gave up the idea of relying on his own research. He decided to hand over this temporarily incomprehensible topic to the mages for research.

The civilization and empire built by the dragon over more than ten years were now almost completely feeding back to these dragons.

As the emperor of the empire, Karon could now get anything he wanted. The empire's legions would try to get it for the Red Dragon, and if he wanted to achieve any goal, the scholars and mages would risk losing their hair to come up with a practical method.

These research tasks that took a lot of time no longer required the Red Dragon to waste time. He now only needed to focus on what he liked to do and what he had to do.

So Karon raised his claws. The metal powder and minerals in the sand were separated and reorganized under his will and the magic's stirring, and then, as if being hammered by an invisible heavy hammer, a sharp dagger that could pierce the body was formed in a short period of time.

The dagger trembled in the air, drilled through the gaps between the huge rock-like scales, penetrated the skin of the sandworm that was making strange noises, and directly pierced the sandworm's brain, causing the body of this struggling creature to completely collapse.

Bang,

The walls that trapped the sandworm were shattered under Karon's will, and the power of magic and spells was withdrawn by the Red Dragon, and they were re-integrated with the desert.

The Ancestral Red Dragon walked up and began to taste the flesh and blood of creatures from another world.

The scales of the dead sandworm could no longer stick closely to its soft skin and were easily torn open by the Red Dragon. Avoiding the sandworm's ugly head and mouth, Karon began to feast.

To Karon's surprise, the flesh and blood under the sandworm's hard scales was exceptionally smooth and delicious, at least for a dragon that could chew gold and iron.

There was also a cinnamon-flavored flint fragrance. As the flesh and blood was crushed and digested by the dragon's stomach, warm currents and nutrients were absorbed by the Red Dragon, making the Red Dragon unable to stop for a while. He didn't stop eating until he had emptied the flesh and blood of half of the sandworm.

This was not because he had reached the limit of the Red Dragon's appetite. The current Red Dragon's stomach could hold several times its own volume of food. A mere sandworm was not enough to fill his stomach.

Sha sha sha,

Accompanied by the sound of footsteps stepping on the desert, the Red Dragon erased all traces of his meal before turning around.

Two warriors wearing magic-powered armor were retracting their demon-like wings and walking towards the Red Dragon, stopping at the bottom of the barren hill where the Red Dragon was standing.

Each of these reserve 'Burning Hooves' legion warriors was strengthened with dragon blood or the blood of devils and demons. With these ancient bloodline abilities, they could survive even in the abyss and hell, let alone this ordinary harsh environment.

Even if the dry high temperature baked the armor on their bodies, it could not affect these warriors.

In order to save power, these warriors were even too lazy to use their mind power to open the magic shield device on the armor when walking in the desert, relying only on their bodies to move with the armor. This was also a way for them to hone themselves.

"Your Majesty!"

The two warriors bowed slightly to their emperor.

"Lord Sacro sent mages and warriors to sneak into the Harkonnen family's spice mining area with the Harkonnen family's warrior Rabban to steal, oh, bring back a large amount of spice. After the mages' research, they have obtained experimental results!"

"Oh,"

The Ancestral Red Dragon nodded and smiled softly: "That's good news. Let's go back and see the mages' results."

Whoosh,

The Ancestral Red Dragon spread his wings, flapped his wings and flew towards the sky thousands of meters away, stirring up a strong wind.

There was a huge magical shadow there, which blocked the sight of mortals and shielded prescience and detection. That was the empire's current base camp—the floating island.

The two warriors also stretched out their huge demon-like wings, bent their legs slightly, and rushed straight into the sky, following behind the Ancestral Dragon.

When Karon passed through the magic barrier and landed on the floating island, there were many fewer people. Even among the dragons, only two white dragons guarding the night were lying in the center of the island, their vertical pupils half-closed, resting peacefully.

The temporary laboratories built by the mages on the island were already crowded with noisy and excited mages. Only when they saw the Ancestral Red Dragon's figure did these mages quiet down.

"Your Majesty, our experiments have yielded results,"

Sacro, the leader of the high-level mages, had already come up to greet him. Grand Arcanist Lapers, who had obtained the results, could not wait to steal, oh, bring back some more spice. At this time, he was wandering around the Harkonnen family's spice base with a clever mage, so the affairs on the floating island were presided over by this young high-level mage.

Karon walked into the experimental camp and transformed into the appearance and appearance of a human emperor, because the temporarily built laboratory was not enough to allow the Ancestral Red Dragon's body to pass through.

Some precious magical instruments in the laboratory camp contained powder that was the same color as sunlight shining on sand, looking like gilded gold powder.

In the volatilization experiment in the instrument, the state of these spices was a pale orange cloud, and it was labeled—full of bitter cinnamon flavor.

The spice stored in silverware, under the influence of silver light, would show a blue state and other experimental situations.

In a very short period of time, these mages had conducted most of the state experiments on the spice to ensure its efficacy and properties.

In the camp, there were also two low-level mages and dragon-blooded warriors who volunteered to be test subjects. Under the subsequent observation of the spellcasters, they maintained a safe distance, staying within a small magical barrier. The moment they saw the Emperor walk in, a faint blue light flickered in the pupils of the two test subjects.

"Your Majesty, after using the spice, we measured that the breadth and intensity of the low-level spellcaster's mental power have increased to varying degrees,"

"Due to this being the first experiment, using a conservative amount, the improvement is equivalent to at least two years of meditation for a mage,"

Sacro pointed to the experimental personnel and said, "Even the warriors strengthened by the glory of dragon blood have also received some subtle improvements. After some testing, it has been proven that this substance is not only harmless to dragon blood creatures, but also effective."

"However, given the physical fitness and bloodline strength of dragons, the amount of spice needed to exert its maximum effect is about twenty times the standard for low-level spellcasters!"

"Very good, you have done an excellent job, worthy of being the Empire's elite,"

Karon nodded, walked to the spice sealed in the magical instrument. It had already been separated and labeled by the mages. This was the exclusive spice for the dragons, stored by the spellcasters in crystal jars carved from crystal.

The previously beaming mage Sacro was startled by the Emperor's actions, and stammered, "Your Majesty, although this spice has been tested by us and found to be harmless to dragons, it is, after all, only tested on dragon blood warriors as the target,"

"Would you, perhaps, like to let the other dragon monarchs try it first!"

Karon smiled and said gently, "It's okay, even with some poisons, very few can kill a dragon. I am confident!"

Sacro stopped talking, but his expression was worried. Even if they had confidence in the Emperor, the pillars of the Empire could not afford any accidents, as far as these warriors and mages were concerned.

Karon took out the sealed spice crystal jar from the magical instrument, then walked out of the experimental camp. He looked around, the layout of the huge floating island was almost entirely occupied by buildings.

So he transformed into his true dragon form, flew down from the floating island again, and landed in the desert below.

In this desert, even if he made some noise because of using the spice, it would not damage the floating island. And the aerial control of the floating island was enough to help the red dragon warn of any approaching dangers.

Moreover, the earth was also the red dragon's home field.

Karon lay prostrate, lying on the hot sand, slightly revealing his fangs.

The crystal jar in his claws was directly crushed by the enormous force, but the precious spice did not scatter in the wind, but was completely absorbed by the ancestral red dragon's claws, slowly disappearing into the fine scales and skin between the red dragon's claws.

Like a subtle warm current running through, buzzing all the nerves of the ancestral red dragon, causing tinnitus in the ancestral red dragon's ears, and the clear myriad things in the dark gold vertical pupils became blurred, as if in a dream.

The red dragon's brain and sub-brain were clearer than ever, but were blocked by the dream like a layer of gauze, making the ancestral red dragon involuntarily fall into the dream.

No, that was not a dream. That was the past rooted in the blood and mind of the ancestral red dragon. That was memory, and also the past.

All past memories could be clearly reflected in the ancestral red dragon's mind in the form of pictures. Even the dark years in the eggshell, every moment could be recalled by him.

He could see the moment he hatched, the moment he saw the blue dragon, Kalit. All the subtle expressions on the blue dragon's cheeks, including the tail wagging happily.

He could see every detail of his childhood, hunting with his companions in the forest, playing and fighting in the nest.

He could see, when he first met the beautiful big cat on the grassland—Anna, Anna's posture at that moment, her leopard tail swaying lightly, her limbs pacing, her beast eyes lazy.

He could even recall the details that were automatically ignored in the past biological instincts through the reflection of memory.

Like when Karon met the leopard Anna, the humidity of the air on the grassland, the specific temperature, the smell of the soil, and the fragrance of wild grass and flowers.

Karon could even see the memories of when he was born as a human, at some moment, the scenes he had seen, the knowledge he had learned, the people he had met, the pages and pictures he had inadvertently glanced at, became clearer than ever at this moment, as if he was flipping through them right in front of him.

But that memory could not be compared with the memory of being a dragon. He could not perceive the temperature, humidity, and other actual details of the scene through the reflection of the scene.

Memory retraced, until now.

Layer by layer of dreams were revealed, and in the flickering of Karon's memory, the figure of the Harkonnen family warrior, Rabban, suddenly appeared as if by telepathy.

Like a jumping movie, scenes flickered in Karon's dark golden pupils. That was Rabban being controlled by the Empire and becoming the Empire's pawn.

That was Rabban being killed by the Empire, and eventually the entire base was destroyed in the hands of the Empire, and then the revenge of the Harkonnen family was attracted, and the Empire and the Harkonnen family had a fierce battle.

That was, scene after scene, the consequences of Karon making corresponding choices, at this moment, were presented in Karon's mind, like a revolving lantern, with interlaced light and shadow.

But this was not a prophetic ability. Rather, the red dragon's brain and sub-brain were spontaneously observing and calculating the future course of events based on all past known information.

It was like a heuristic, explanatory thinking speculation that integrates various known information.

Every action and every word of the ancestral red dragon could become a lever that affects the subsequent results. And the changes in these subsequent results were like countless forked lines, radiating outward in a fan shape with the ancestral red dragon as the center point.

"I know, hahaha, I know,"

Karon closed his eyes, and his heart was already awake. The spice opened the potential of his powerful mind and will, allowing his brain and sub-brain to have the opportunity to evolve.

Disorganized but clear thoughts flickered and disappeared from Karon's mind.

"The cause of one thing is the result of the development of another thing,"

"The result of the development of one thing is also the cause of the occurrence of another thing. Cause and result are constantly circulating, never ending!"

"Everything in the future is determined by the events that happened in the past. As long as there is enough information and enough calculation ability, the future can be accurately predicted!"

"The current state of the universe is the fruit of the past and the cause of the future,"

Karon opened his eyes, and the dark golden pupils flowed with overflowing pupil light, like a prophet, with a light in his eyes that saw through everything.

"This may be the direction of my brain's evolution—mystical Laplace's demon!"

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