Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The blazing sun hung high in the sky, enveloping the old city district in air as thick and sticky as honey.

With a series of groans and creaks, the air conditioner officially announced its retirement.

Qin Ying set down the feather duster in her hand, surveying the cluttered room with a look of utter exhaustion.

Having faced setbacks in both her love life and her career, she had decided to return to her hometown to lie flat, arriving only yesterday.

Her family home had been vacant for over a year since her grandmother passed away, and there was simply too much work to do.

This year, the city was suffering through a persistent heatwave, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in sixty years.

The air conditioning repairmen had their schedules packed tight; she would have to wait her turn.

Fortunately, there was still an ancient iron-bladed electric fan stored in the first-floor storage room.

The moment she opened the storage room door, a musty, stale odor rushed at Qin Ying’s face.

And mixed within it… was a very faint, strange scent.

Qin Ying turned on the light and stepped inside.

*Crack!*

She stepped on something.

Even through the soles of her shoes, she could feel a crisp, brittle sensation.

Qin Ying slowly moved her slipper aside and saw what she had crushed.

It was a long, jade-colored skeleton, snake-like in shape, with several claw-like appendages.

Qin Ying had crushed nearly half of it with her foot. Scattered beside the broken bones were a few black scales that shimmered with a dull, flowing light.

Qin Ying’s intuition told her something was wrong, but she didn’t panic.

What was there to fear from a pile of bones?

Adjusting the thick glasses on the bridge of her nose, she crouched down to see if a lizard had died in the storage room.

But once she saw it clearly, her heart skipped a beat.

The thing she had stepped on had a pair of tiny horns growing from its intact skull.

They looked just like dragon horns.

Qin Ying gave a dry laugh, thinking her sudden thought was a bit absurd.

How could there be a dragon that small? And to die here, dried up and having its bones crushed by her-how pathetic would that be?

It was likely just some kind of lizard or skink, only a bit larger than usual.

She rubbed the sole of her shoe against the floor, intending to scoop the remains out into the light for a better look.

Just then, her grandmother’s antique dowry wardrobe slowly swung open without anyone touching it.

*Creeeeeak-*

The old cabinet door let out a long, drawn-out sound.

With the Ghost Festival only a few days away, the atmosphere was enough to make anyone’s skin crawl!

Qin Ying felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She reflexively grabbed a nearby broom and, by the dim yellow light, saw a wooden chest sitting behind the open wardrobe door.

It was about the size of a suitcase, made of an unknown wood.

Intricate and exquisite carvings were layered upon it, presenting a singular beauty under the storage room’s dim light.

With just one look, it left a profound first impression: expensive.

The kind of expensive that could be traded for half a courtyard house in the capital!

Beautiful and valuable things have a way of putting the heart at ease; Qin Ying’s brief moment of panic vanished instantly.

The chest was heavy. Even though Qin Ying was a “Speed and Power Grade A” type of person who could carry two buckets of water at once, lifting it took some effort.

Placing the chest on the dining table, she puffed out her cheeks and blew, sending the thin layer of dust on the lid fluttering away.

The lid wasn’t tightly closed, leaving a gap as if something had crawled out from inside.

As the lid slowly opened, a glowing orange-red light bulb came into view.

It was about the size of a ping-pong ball, the kind sold for a single yuan at the corner convenience store.

The look of anticipation on Qin Ying’s face froze.

Seriously? Who would use such an exquisite chest to store a cheap light bulb?

The enchantment broke, and its perceived value plummeted in an instant.

Complaining inwardly, she leaned over to look inside the chest and saw a miniature sandbox landscape. The theme appeared to be a drought.

Although the details were polished to perfection, the elements of the scene were incredibly monotonous.

There was cracked, yellowish earth and a dried-up riverbed; the entire box lacked even a hint of green or vitality.

Qin Ying’s interest waned.

Since the box’s origins were unknown, she didn’t touch anything inside. Instead, she grabbed a piece of cardboard to scoop up the pile of broken bones from the storage room.
They say the weirder something looks, the bigger the trouble it brings.

If these strange bones belonged to some highly protected or illegal animal, things were going to get tricky. Public security in this old urban district had always been subpar, and the situation here was complicated. With a mysterious chest suddenly appearing in her home, Qin Ying couldn’t help but let her mind wander to dark places.

She gripped her chopsticks, intending to poke at the odd object to see what it really was. But as her gaze brushed past the chest, she froze completely.

Without her noticing, dozens of tiny figures the size of black beans had appeared inside the chest.

They wore the armor of ancient soldiers and were escorting a large wooden cage covered with a black cloth, trudging laboriously across parched, cracked earth.

Qin Ying adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose, feeling as though the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped several degrees.

“Naked-eye 3D projection technology?”

Given how well-crafted the chest was, the presence of high-tech features seemed like a reasonable explanation.

Before Qin Ying could fully convince herself, the scene inside the chest changed again.

A tiny figure the size of a black bean came galloping up on a miniature chestnut horse. Upon reaching the front, he shouted, “Squad Leader Han, there’s a situation up ahead!”

Within the group escorting the wooden cage, a soldier emerged from the ranks at the call.

The people in the chest were simply too small, and with Qin Ying’s eyesight being nearly blind, she couldn’t make out the details. She set her chopsticks aside, pulled out her phone, and opened the camera app, aiming it at the Squad Leader Han who had stepped forward.

After using the ultra-zoom to magnify the image, Qin Ying let out a soft hiss as she looked at the face displayed on her screen.

What a handsome little man!

His face was tanned dark by the sun and his lips were parched and peeling, yet one could still see his striking, piercing eyes. He was exceptionally handsome. His physique was top-tier as well-broad-shouldered, long-armed, and with a narrow waist, he practically radiated masculinity. It just seemed like he hadn’t had water in a long time, and with his short beard, he looked weathered and rugged.

The soldier on the miniature chestnut horse reported at a rapid-fire pace: “The villagers have listened to the wicked words of a Fangshi and captured twelve pairs of young boys and girls. They intend to slaughter them in the valley ahead to sacrifice to the heavens for rain!”

The handsome tiny man furrowed his brows and cursed, “Stupid!”

Qin Ying had expected him to deliver some motivational, positive speech. Instead, the little man was incredibly decisive. Without a single word of nonsense, he let out a shout and prepared to lead his soldiers to rescue the children.

A man who appeared to be a Deputy Military Supervisor came forward to stop him. “Squad Leader Han, we are on an imperial mission to escort the Monstrous Beast, the Strange Beast Danghu, back to Luoyang. Why should we meddle in this trivial matter?”

“Furthermore, the place ahead is called Ascending Dragon Valley. Rumor has it that ten years ago, a Black Jiao underwent a lightning tribulation there and transformed into a dragon to ascend to the Upper Realm. It is a divine and miraculous place. Now that three provinces are suffering from a great drought, perhaps the sacrifice will actually work.”

From outside the chest, Qin Ying, who was filming with her phone, could clearly see the malice and impatience on the speaker’s face. It was obvious he felt there was no need to meddle and that he actually approved of the sacrifice.

*What a piece of work!* Qin Ying mentally slapped a huge label on the man.

“Please step aside, Supervisor!”

Though his words were polite, the man addressed as Squad Leader Han struck out with his Ring-Pommel Saber, shoving the villainous man out of the way.

The group split into two. One part continued to escort the wooden cage, while the other accelerated toward Ascending Dragon Valley to stop the sacrifice and save the children.

The sound of galloping hooves was urgent and yellow dust billowed; the projected plot in the chest was tense and anxiety-inducing. Yet, as if possessed, Qin Ying turned her head to look at the pile of shattered bones from that unknown creature.

The fragments were coiled together, lying quietly on the cardboard. The skull, slightly larger than a walnut, resembled a snake’s, and the tiny antlers growing from it were part of the skull itself, which bore scorch marks shaped like lightning bolts.

*A Black Jiao transforming into a dragon… lightning tribulation… ascending… to the Upper Realm?*

Qin Ying’s hand holding the phone trembled involuntarily.