My name is Huo, and I am the loyal servant of Lord Julong.

I have been his servant ever since I was a pup that was barely In the Body refining stage, just like the rest of my family who has been his servants from even before the previous war with the humans a thousand years ago where the Lord fought the patriarch of the Immovable Immortal Sect and rescued the ancestor of my family from the clutches of the human sect.

It is because of this loyalty I had towards the Lord that I refused to run away even when the strange human I was observing started to play with the fundamental forces of nature, causing my instincts to flare up in distress.

It all started when this strange man had somehow infiltrated the Flood Dragon burrows just as the Lord had arrived there from the Capital to visit his Kin. The Lord was extremely angry at that moment, thinking that some expert from the Human sects must have figured out the secret hidden in the Burrows and must have come here to weaken the Demonic Kingdom. Fortunately, it turned out that it was just an idiot that was doing things that were way over his level not realizing the danger he was in.

At first, the Lord wanted to dispose of the intruder the moment he came out of the Burrows, but that decision changed when he saw that despite clearing out the trap room completely, seriously, he even took the furniture made of common wood, he still left the pearl in its place when he watched how the decoy formation worked. He must have figured out that the formation was sucking the energy from the fake pearl and was transferring it to the newborns. The illusion that we wanted him to see in the first place.

This decision of his to spare the Kin of the Lord had intrigued him, so much so that he decided to spare the Idiot. Seriously, the Idiot must have thought that he was clever to dig a tunnel straight out of the Decoy room but he doesn't know that the Lord is one of the few Flood Dragons with very strong Dragon Blood in him, giving him two elemental affinities, Water being his natural element as a Flood Dragon and Earth being the element he inherited from his Dragon blood. He instead ordered me to follow the Idiot and see what he was up to.

The following four months were some of the weirdest four months of my life.

I watched the Idiot bumble about in the Yin forest, running the moment he sensed even the slightest hint of trouble, showing that he had a very keen sense of danger and that he was a massive coward. Although, the second judgment might be my bias towards his race speaking.

In the first few weeks, I realized that the strange behavior that he showed in the Burrows was not a fluke. I was there, watching him from the shadows when he stumbled upon a Den of Direwolves. This particular pack was starving due to the lack of food in the area and were weak enough that even a mortal without any cultivation could easily kill them all, this was especially true for the pups that were in the den and were also starving. If he wanted to, he could have easily slaughtered the entirety of the pack and taken their Demonic Cores for himself. A veritable treasure trove for a Human.

Instead, he had only protected himself from the Starving Wolves that tried to kill him while running away and 'accidentally' dropping a bag full of meat while making his retreat.

At this moment, I started to see what the Lord must have also seen in that man.

Genuine kindness towards his fellow Sapient creatures. Something that I thought was impossible to find in a Human. Then again, my biased mind will not allow me to take his actions for what they were and I started to think that he must have done that for some kind of selfish reason.

I continued to watch him, but as I continued to watch him over the months, I came to the realization that this man was completely different from his fellow humans, and was possibly insane as well.

There was that time when he nearly blew himself up while creating some kind of a weapon with a long tube but failed due to the lack of formations to keep the Spirit Stones stable.

Then there was the time he nearly killed himself via Cave in when he dug out an entire area underneath the surface without accounting for the structural stability of the Cave, and judging by his mumbling I caught words that suspiciously sounded like 'Not again' I assume that this was not the first time he faced this kind of a disaster.

Then, in the following days, he proved himself to be suicidal as well.

After all, which cultivator in this world is stupid enough to craft Black Volcanic Glass with their bare hands?

The Black Volcanic Glass is formed when the Lava from a Volcano is rapidly cooled down with water, resulting in a form of Glass that is harder than even some metals. But the special thing about this is that it is naturally resistant to Qi and is extremely hostile towards Yin Qi in particular. That was the reason that the dungeon below the Dragon Palace in the Demonic Capital was made of Black Volcanic Glass.

It is due to these properties that Black Volcanic Glass is extremely dangerous to a Cultivator, whether they be Human, Demonic Beasts, or Demonic cultivators. And this is also the reason I considered him insane to work with this material barehanded. Although, the lack of any sign of cultivation from him might also be the reason for his boldness. I have not given up the theory that he is simply using a powerful artifact to hide his cultivation but the longer I observed him the weaker that theory became.

Then, one day out of the blue, he shocked me into silence when he managed to make a strange structure out of the Glass and somehow made the Qi inside the material transform from its inert state to Space Qi in a fraction of a second, opening a purple swirling portal.

When the Idiot got into the portal after contemplating for a while, I tried to follow him.

Only to fall out of the portal on the other side of the structure. I continued to try and enter the Portal on multiple occasions, but it was as if the Portal did not even exist for me.

The Strange human was gone for nearly a week. Just when I was about to give up and report that the human was a lost cause, he suddenly jumped out of the portal and immediately started heading in a straight line towards the Flood Dragon Burrows.

I immediately used one of the innate techniques that a Freybug is born with and opened a telepathic link towards the Lord, allowing him to see the Human from my eyes as I followed him.

Once the Lord was sure that the Human was headed towards the Burrows, he laid out an ambush and instructed all of the oldest Flood Dragons to prepare for a fight while he directed the younglings to hide in the deeper parts of the Burrows.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The Trap was executed perfectly when the human reached the burrows, although I thought it was going to fail when the Human proved himself to be very competent in detecting danger and tried to flare his Qi to protect himself. Thankfully, the one who ambushed him was the Lord himself, someone who fought five Elemental Sage level Human Cultivators to a standstill a thousand years ago, ever since then, his cultivation has only grown by leaps and bounds and is now considered two of the strongest beings in the Demonic Beast Kingdom.

After the Lord interrogated him for answers, all the while using the telepathic link I established with himself to go through my memories of the observations I made of the man, he finally decided to let the Human go and relieved me of my mission.

That is why I am now following the lord back to the Demonic Capital since he no longer has any reason to stay in Burrows for the time being. Although we would still return the following year during the birth season of the Flood Dragons to see if there were any talented Flood Dragons that the Lord can take under his wings to teach.

But the moment we arrived in the Demonic Capital, we immediately realized that something was wrong.

The entire army of Hellhounds was on alert as they kept a keen eye on the surroundings of the city while entire flocks of Rocs and Griffons along with Cranes and many other avian Demonic Beasts were scouring the sky for any kind of a threat.

Then, we saw an impossible sight. Four rows of soldiers, each row consisting of one of the four legendary clans were guarding the Dragon Palace, something that should be impossible due to their nature as the Royal guards of the Dragon Clan.

The Tianlan Clan, the direct descendants of the Azure Dragon of the East.

The Hei Clan, the direct descendants of the Black Tortoise of the North.

The Zhuhong Clan, the direct descendants of the Vermilion Bird of the South.

The Baise Clan, the direct descendants of the White Tiger of the West.

"What is this? Why have the Cardinal Clans abandoned their post at the home of the Dragon clan and are instead guarding the Castle?" The Lord asked as one of the Tianlan clan members came forward and bowed.

"Lord Julong, we are here because the entirety of the Dragon clan had suddenly relocated to the Dragon palace a few days ago followed by a disturbance in the realm of the Nature Spirits and an attack on the Great Yang Formation."

The Lord's face paled as he stormed through the ranks of the guards who parted to give him access to the door.

There is nothing strange about the Lord's reaction.

The Great Yang formation is made of a series of massive towers that have intricate formations carved on them by the Dwarves to repel the Death Qi in the south. In fact, this formation is the only reason that a part of the Southern continent is accessible to the Demonic Beast Kingdom, allowing us to use the fertile land in the South West of the continent to supply ourselves with enough food. The formation is a true marvel of Dwarven engineering and is the only protection that allowed the Dwarves cave and the Earth Demon City to survive during the disaster a thousand years ago.

If there was indeed an attack on the Great Yang formation, it is the utmost priority of the Demonic Capital to send their strongest experts who specialize in the Elements of Fire, Lighting and any other Yang element to the area to help the Dwarves repair the formation. If the Formation falls, the Capital will lose 40% of its annual food supply as the Death Qi swallows the entire area, killing off the Dwarves and the rest of the Demonic Beasts in the Earth Demon City.

The moment we walked into the Dragon Palace and arrived at the throne room, we were assaulted by the shouts of hundreds of Demonic Beast, ranging in all species that are present in the Kingdom.

These were the Nobles that represent the interest of their Species.

The Lord tried to ignore the shouting to move forward, but when he saw the tired face of the Empress, his temper flared and he stopped suppressing his Qi.

Instantly, the Throne room grew silent as they realized just who has walked into the Chambers. The effect was immediate as the various Nobles started to nervously shift in their seats as their instincts flared to life as warned them to escape from this place.

The Lord turned towards his beloved pupil and the Empress of the Demonic Beast Kingdom as he slowly asked.

"Fen'er, what is this I am hearing about an attack on the Great Yang formation?"

The beautiful woman on the throne who would pass for a very beautiful human woman if not for the small horns jutting out of her head and her reptilian eyes looked tiredly towards the Lord, although there was a little joy in her eyes as well, concealed under that seriousness.

"It is as you have heard Lord Julong. A few days ago, we received a message from the Nature Spirits that something foul has entered their Forest and had caused a lot of their trees to die off. They also detected the presence of abnormal amounts of Death Qi in the area, shortly after, an urgent message arrived from the Dwarves that the Great Yang formation was attacked by, what they describe as, a black cloud of Death Qi that took on the form of some kind of a Canine creature, but weirdly enough, it stopped attacking after just a single hit to the barrier, I have already sent the head of the Freybug clan, the head of the Raiju, and the Clan head of the Hellhounds together with my brother who is a Fire Dragon to assist the Dwarves in their repairs"

The Empress paused and asked the Lord.

"……Uncle Julong, do you think this is an attack from the Humans?"

The Lord shook his head in denial and replied to her queries.

"No, the usage of Death Qi is heavily frowned upon by the Human Empire, so much so that anyone using any kind of Death Qi is immediately labeled as a Demonic Cultivator and is hunted down along with their families. This is in response to the disaster that happened all those years ago that cost the Humans as much as it did us, although, your Grandfather was also partially to blame for this stigma along with the stigma on the usage of Space Qi in the Human realms. So I don't think this is a Human attack, and if it was, by chance, a human, then he or she must be a Demonic Cultivator that is hiding in areas that are inaccessible for the Humans"

While the Lord and the Empress continued to talk about the possibility of the attack, I was feeling distinctly uncomfortable as my instincts kept pointing me towards the memory of that Strange Human I was monitoring until now.

Is it possible that the Idiot is somehow responsible for this mess? One of his stupid experiments gone wrong?

…..I think I need to take a break and clear my head of these stupid thoughts.