Next, Leon ignored Kanna, leaving her suspended behind him as he continued to fly along the castle corridors.
Due to the earlier aftershocks of the fire lotus, the castle now presented a scene of dilapidation. Collapsed walls and gaping holes were everywhere, rubble littered every corner, and items that should have hung on the walls lay smashed on the ground, mixed with broken statues and suits of armor like an ancient ruin.
Leon fully expanded his magic perception, meticulously scanning every corner of the castle. Consequently, he discovered many expensive items.
Gold, gemstones, precious minerals, rare books, ancient weapons—all sorts of treasures that would incite endless covetousness and greed in the outside world appeared in corners from time to time. Some were even tossed on the ground like trash, making Leon click his tongue in secret.
If his purpose for this trip weren't to find a way to escape the Dimensional Gap, or if his current identity were that of an adventurer, archaeologist, or mage, he would have definitely explored this castle thoroughly and never ignored such ubiquitous treasures.
Unfortunately, these treasures in the eyes of ordinary people were worthless to Leon right now. He merely spared them a glance before putting them behind him and continuing deeper into the castle.
After flying through the corridors, Leon entered a great hall.
From here, several different paths appeared.
There were several passages to the left and right, along with many rooms to enter. At the far end of the hall sat an open staircase that extended upwards from both sides to the second floor, much like a European noble manor. On the second floor, there were further passages leading forward.
"The layout is clearly modeled after human architecture, yet it's large enough for dragons to use. Truly baffling."
Leon thought this but did not dwell on it for long.
Regardless of who it was built for, Leon only wanted to know if there was a way to leave the Dimensional Gap here.
To avoid missing any potential method, Leon began to explore the castle in earnest.
He did not pass over any passage; no matter where it led, he would explore it seriously. He didn't skip a single room and began to pay attention to the books, collecting all those he had previously ignored.
When he rested during his exploration, Leon would flip through these books to check their contents, hoping to find some useful intelligence.
Originally, Leon was somewhat worried that the script used in the books would be something he didn't recognize. However, as he read, he found that although the characters used in these books were not from the human world, they were not unfamiliar either.
"Dragon script?"
The characters recorded in these books were exactly those used by the Dragon Race.
Fortunately, Leon had studied the language of dragons.
"A qualified noble must be able to understand at least three languages: the language of humans, the language of devils, and the language of dragons."
Those were the words spoken to him by the devil who found him when he first confirmed his status as a bloodline descendant of the Eligos family.
At that time, Leon was training his magic power almost maniacally to break through to High-class Devil as quickly as possible. Unable to watch any longer, that person gave him a stern warning and thrust the relevant learning materials into his hands.
Initially, Leon didn't want to learn. Since devils possessed special innate abilities that allowed those who heard their voices to automatically translate their words into their most familiar language—and allowed devils to hear foreign languages as their mother tongue—Leon felt that specifically studying written scripts was a waste of time.
But there was no helping it; such things were part of "noble refinement." Sometimes one had to fill oneself with knowledge that seemed useless to others. So, despite his reluctance, Leon had learned it.
Thus, he could understand the dragon script and know what was recorded in the books, which allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief.
Thanks to this, Leon finally extracted useful information from various books and learned the origin of this castle.
This castle once belonged to a nation named the Vermillion Kingdom and served as its royal capital.
The Vermillion Kingdom was a human nation with deep-rooted ties to dragons.
It was said that the Vermillion Kingdom was originally a very inconspicuous small nation. Its population was sparse and poor, yet they suffered greatly from the persecution of magical beasts.
All sorts of monsters had rampaged through the Vermillion Kingdom, causing the people untold suffering and bringing them to the brink of extinction.
To protect the kingdom and the people, the first King of the Vermillion Kingdom began to seek help from the outside. He traveled through various nations and finally gained inspiration from somewhere, deciding to pray to the Dragon God in hopes of obtaining divine protection.
He must have used some specific method, for the King eventually succeeded, causing the Dragon God to descend upon his kingdom.
"For real?"
Leon felt a bit skeptical about this.
What was a Dragon God?
He knew that all too well.
Dragons were recognized as the most powerful creatures.
Gods were recognized as the most noble existences.
The two were originally supposed to have no connection, but when an existence capable of being called a god appeared within the Dragon Race—giving birth to a so-called Dragon God—it was an earth-shattering event.
That was the true pinnacle of the Dragon Race, an existence before whom even Heavenly Dragons and Dragon Kings had to bow their heads.
Low-class Devil (Two-winged Angel/Fallen Angel) — Middle-class Devil (Four-winged Angel/Fallen Angel) — High-class Devil (Six-winged Angel/Fallen Angel, High-level Magician, Church S-rank Exorcist) — Ultimate-class Devil (Eight-winged Angel/Fallen Angel) — Special-rank Devil (Ten-winged Angel/Fallen Angel Cadre) — Maou-class (Twelve-winged Angel/Fallen Angel) — Super Maou-class — Transcendental (God-class, Chief God-class, High-level Deity).
The above was the most explicit ranking system of this world.
The Dragon King class sat between Special-rank Devil, Maou-class, and Super Maou-class. Among the Five Great Dragon Kings, the weaker ones were only equivalent to Special-rank Devils, the strong were equivalent to Maou-class, and the strongest were equivalent to Super Maou-class, but it ended there.
The Heavenly Dragon class was equivalent to Transcendentals, rivaling the Chief Gods, God Kings, and High-level Deities of various mythologies. This was already enough to be counted among the world's top powerhouses, sufficient to rank in the world's top ten.
However, the world had a clear understanding that there were three existences far transcending even this, much stronger than the so-called top powerhouses—one might even say they were not within the same world scale.
For example, the previously mentioned Beast of Revelation, 666. That was the legendary demonic beast recorded in the Book of Revelation. Its power far transcended the so-called God-class; it was a disaster capable of destroying the world. Consequently, at the forgotten end of the world, the God of the Bible applied several thousand layers of extremely vicious sealing spells—spells so harsh that it wouldn't be surprising if they killed a deity. Thus it was sealed, which was also the primary reason the God of the Bible exhausted his power and eventually fell to a death from which he could not be resurrected.
In the original story, after this Beast of Revelation was unsealed and began destroying the world, the various factions joined forces to create an artificial dimension to trap it. The leaders like Chief Gods and God Kings led the majority inside to constantly attack it, intending to destroy it completely. It turned out that to achieve this goal, the battle might need to last for ten thousand years, leading this fight to be called the "Eternal Battle."
It was evident how difficult it was to defeat such an existence.
Yet, even an existence like that ultimately could not rival the so-called Dragon Gods; it could only be considered sub-Dragon God class, merely approaching that level.
There were only two true Dragon Gods, and the strength of both transcended the Beast of Revelation 666.
One of these two Dragon Gods appeared in the Book of Revelation. Born from dreams and ruling over dreams, capable of seeing the dreams within people's hearts, he was the Red Dragon known as the "True Red Dragon God Emperor (Apocalypse Dragon)"—Great Red.
The other was the dragon symbolizing the infinite cycle of the Ouroboros, possessing infinite power and born from the "Void" that is regarded as infinity. Crowned with titles such as Chaos, Infinity, and Nothingness, she was the dragon known as the "Infinite Dragon God (Ouroboros Dragon)"—Ophis.
These two were the true Dragon Gods, the true summit of the world, the strongest in existence. Even the Chief Gods and God Kings of various mythologies were far beneath them. Once they appeared, even the combined strength of all mythological factions could not resist them, to the point where they weren't even ranked among the "strong."
Particularly the one known as the "True Red Dragon God Emperor," Great Red. His strength was even above that of the "Infinite Dragon God" Ophis. He had once driven Ophis—who was born in the Dimensional Gap—out of the Gap, while he himself soared freely within it, becoming the guardian of the Dimensional Gap. This caused countless mythological factions to heave a massive sigh of relief.
If such a terrifying existence lived unconstrained in the Human World, the pressure on the various mythologies would likely be maxed out.
And yet, such an existence had actually descended upon a small nation on the brink of extinction? How could Leon not be skeptical?
But as he continued reading, Leon discovered to his surprise that this event might very well be true.
The books recorded it as such—
"On that day, the sky suddenly cracked open, revealing an entrance to the 'World of Nothingness' where nothing exists."
"There, the red 'True Dragon' descended to the earth."
"The King called him the Dragon among Dragons, the God among Dragons, and offered him devout worship."
"The Dragon God was satisfied with the King's offerings and bestowed a blessing."
"Thus, the Kingdom obtained the most precious secret treasure."
Seeing this, Leon understood.
The Dragon God who descended upon the Vermillion Kingdom was indeed the "True Red Dragon God Emperor," Great Red.
Great Red had always soared within the Dimensional Gap and was the Red Dragon recorded in the Book of Revelation. The records in the books perfectly matched the characteristics of that Dragon God, leaving Leon no choice but to believe it.
"The most precious secret treasure... huh?"
Leon had a feeling that this so-called secret treasure was the treasure Kanna had mentioned existing within this castle.
As expected, the information obtained next confirmed this point.
The royal family of the Vermillion Kingdom, having received the Dragon God's blessing, not only later gave birth to naturally powerful descendants possessing dragon bloodlines, but those descendants also held the secret treasure bestowed by the Dragon God, subjugating all the magical beasts within the national borders.
From then on, the royal bloodline of the Vermillion Kingdom was known as the descendants of the Red Dragon. Only those with the purest bloodline and strongest power could control the secret treasure, sit upon the throne, and become the ruler of the kingdom.
In the countless years that followed, the Vermillion Kingdom continuously expanded its territory by virtue of the dragon bloodline and the dragon treasure, defeating many powerful enemies. Its prestige was unparalleled for a time.
Unfortunately, every peak is followed by a decline. The Vermillion Kingdom, immersed in violence, was eventually besieged by the alliance of various major factions, leading to the destruction of the nation and the family.
The royal family, having realized their errors too late, sealed both the final dragon bloodline and the dragon treasure within the royal city to preserve the kingdom's last legacy. Through a ritual, they severed the land surrounding the royal city and exiled it, along with the city, into the Dimensional Gap.
They firmly believed that the last bloodline holder carrying the dragon treasure would surely meet the Dragon God again in the Dimensional Gap, be unsealed by the Dragon God, and return after countless years...
"Regrettably, that didn't happen."
Leon closed the book and let out a breath.
He finally knew the origin of this castle, but he had to say, he had never seen the Vermillion Kingdom mentioned in history.
In other words, this nation likely existed in an era extremely long ago—so long ago that it wasn't even recorded in the history of devils who had lived through the ancient Great War.
This also explained why this castle had been drifting in the Dimensional Gap for an astonishing amount of time. Yet it had never encountered that Dragon God, or at least had not received his favor to unseal the dragon bloodline and treasure hidden here.
Of course, that was none of Leon's business.
There was only one thing Leon truly cared about: the method to escape the Dimensional Gap.
"If the Vermillion Kingdom could sever the territory around the royal city through a ritual and exile it into the Dimensional Gap, then it proves they at least had the ability to open the Dimensional Gap, right?"
That was exactly what Leon wanted.
"Will it be in this castle?"
At this thought, Leon explored the castle even more vigorously, collecting various books, reading their contents, and extracting useful information, hoping to obtain what he desired.
However, for several days in a row, Leon gained nothing.
By this time, he had nearly finished exploring the entire castle.
"Is only the top floor of the castle left?"
Leon took Kanna, who was fast asleep inside a soap bubble, and arrived at the topmost floor of the castle.
There was only one room here: the King's Hall, where the throne was placed.
Leon had actually discovered this place long ago but had no way to enter.
Because the doors here simply would not open.
-----------------------------------------------
I handpick only the finest and most captivating novels for you. Don't forget to check out my other novels!
p@treon HongMengZi