NOVEL NEXT Chapter 160 Expensive Cost
Although Avin Krueger was wrong about most things, there was one matter he coincidentally got right.
The agreement between Luo Yan and the Dragon family was indeed not as simple as the nobles of Demon City assumed on the surface.
While the Baron Territory of Black Wind Valley could hardly be considered a prosperous fief with merely a few ranches and over a thousand goats, its location was too perfect—sitting right next to Demon City.
If such a fief were to go up for auction, it could fetch tens or even hundreds of billions of Kela, and still remain in high demand despite the price.
In the face of benefits of this magnitude, mere reputations were completely insignificant.
So what if the Great Graveyard hurled dirty water at the Dragon family?
Even if the Demon King of the Great Graveyard slandered Xino Dragon, who challenged him, as a "Chosen One of the Chaos God," for the current Family Head, Kamu, it merely meant the loss of one brother.
As long as the separation was executed swiftly enough, the flames wouldn't reach him.
What's more, a mere bucket of filth couldn't shake the deep-rooted foundations of the Dragon family, a centuries-old tree. On the contrary, if such trivial threats were enough to force the Dragon family to give up so much, then that 'fool' wouldn't have left Luo Yan to strike the gold coins.
The true reason Kamu Dragon painfully gave up those hundred thousand acres of land was that Luo Yan placed something in front of him.
It was his father—Reggie Dragon's personal journal.
And it was a heavyweight bargaining chip...
...
Late at night, in the Dragon family's council chamber, beneath solemn and austere murals, the flickering candlelight stretched out the shadows cast by obsidian sculptures.
Those obsidian sculptures depicted successive Family Heads of the Dragon family, as well as its most illustrious members.
As the spiritual totems of the Dragon family, they stood encircling the council table, casting their imposing gazes upon their descendants, warning them to choose each path carefully.
At this moment, the current Family Head, Kamu, sat beneath the sculpture symbolizing the founding Family Head, letting its pitch-black shadow engulf his shoulders.
Laid out on the long table before him was a roughly five-meter-long map, with a patch of nearly hundred thousand acres of land marked out clearly with a red line.
The scarlet outline was like the blood pouring from his heart, as if a chunk of flesh had been gouged out.
And the compensation to fill this void was merely a journal...
Though he understood what that journal represented, he couldn't suppress the urge to ask—
"Is it worth it?"
His deep voice echoed with hesitation in the council chamber.
It was a question he'd pondered over endlessly, yet he couldn't convince himself.
After a moment of silence, a hoarse voice replied.
"Of course it is... It is all worth it."
The voice came from the opposite end of the long table, where sat his beloved grandfather—Zakro Dragon!
Zakro had been the head of the Dragon family two generations ago.
Over a century ago, he had passed the title of Family Head to Kamu's father, Reggie, and quietly retired to the background as an Elder.
But, like in most families of Hell, this long-lived Horror Demon did not relinquish his power upon retirement and continued to exert influence over the current Family Head through his status as an Elder to this day.
When the deal was concluded, Kamu hadn't even had the chance to admire his father's life's work, that journal, before it wound up in Zakro's hands.
And that didn't really matter.
Kamu knew he might not even grasp the profound magical theories within it. Allowing his more experienced and knowledgeable grandfather to study it wasn't necessarily a bad idea.
After all, they were one family.
Yet, what stirred a faint unease in Kamu's heart was the greed and desire burning in Zakro's eyes, which had utterly overshadowed any glimmer of reason.
His bony forefinger stroked the leather cover of the journal, and the madness and fervor etched into his grandfather's face made it seem as though this was no mere journal, but a ladder to the divine realm, a key to unlock the gates of the Netherworld!
Kamu remained silent for a long time, finally sighing as he spoke.
"I understand how important this journal is to us, but I'm truly not sure... if it's worth exchanging such an exorbitant price for it."
Zakro chuckled softly, his voice deliberate and measured.
"Kamu, my boy, you're still too young... You barely understand what that power beyond Extraordinary Power truly signifies. If we've mastered the power of miracles, then this is the miracle itself. Whoever wields it needs only to speak, and the sun would fall—or perhaps, two suns would rise in the sky. In the face of that majesty, what is a mere hundred thousand acres of land? Even if you added all the land of Demon City, it would weigh as little as a feather."
All the lands, wealth, and even power in the Mortal World... Before that power, they're nothing but insignificant dust!
The Dragon family serves the Demon God Bayele, but their true fealty lies with the Great Netherworld God and the truths inherited from the Netherworld!
They yearned ceaselessly to rebuild the Netherworld.
That was the Dragon family's ultimate wish.
And it was also his—Zakro Dragon's—former ambition!
This was also the very reason he had urged his son, Reggie Dragon, to take on the perilous Maze of Thunder County, the blazing hot Flame Crystal!
"What I mean is, the price we've paid is too steep. Besides, can such miracles you speak of truly be achieved with just this journal?" Kamu couldn't help but ask, "If my father had really figured it out, he wouldn't have lost to a mere Chosen One."