Chapter 67 – The Ashen Celestial Vault

The milky-white runes on the illusory arch grew increasingly vivid, almost materializing into reality. The colossal black dragon first extended its angular head, its light brown eyes scanning the tiny figures on the mountain peak. With a powerful thrust, it spread its mighty wings, soaring out from the arch and stirring up billowing white mist in the air, bringing with it a gust of wind that swept over those below.

She circled high above the peak, where gray clouds gathered, casting a vast shadow.

Duan Yu stood not far away, observing the scene—the summoner in the black robe slightly raised his head, extending a hand toward the distant dragon.

The dragon, as large as the entire mountain peak, let out another long roar as it descended, carefully lowering itself until it was level with the humans, its rough, scaly head gently pressing against Lin Wei’s palm.

This dragon, hailing from the endless ocean in the distance, lowered its proud head, allowing the summoner to slide his fingers over its coarse black scales. It cautiously restrained its dragon breath, ensuring that no stray embers would harm him.

The human’s size was incomparably small next to the giant dragon, yet Lin Wei showed no fear as he stood face to face with the massive beast. His movements were gentle and deliberate, bringing him so close to the dragon’s head that, from a distance, one might mistake the scene for a tender kiss between man and beast.

The dragon recognized Lin Wei as the one who had summoned her, and thus had no intention of attacking.

Lin Wei closed his eyes, his soul’s tendrils slowly merging with the radiant light before him.

In his previous life, when he had formed a contract with Sandra, it had taken considerable effort. Looking back now, he realized it was due to the backlash on his soul.

The day before, in the library, Lin Wei had asked Adele about the backlash related to soul contracts. Her response had been: “I’ve never encountered an extremely high-level creature, but in all the records, the higher the intelligence and soul strength of a magical creature, the greater the cost of forming a contract with it.”

“But you formed a contract with me this morning…”

“Summoners’ souls are equal; they can communicate with each other, so we can form many types of contracts,” Adele smiled at him. “Besides, that was just a small trick, not a true contract. As long as you expend enough soul power, you can briefly communicate unidirectionally with your companions.”

“If summoners can form contracts with other summoners, what about with others?”

“Humans have the highest soul strength. Summoners cannot, and do not wish to, form contracts with their own kind,” Adele said, imparting her wisdom like an elder. “We can ensure the loyalty of all other magical creatures, except for our own kind.”

The dragon’s intelligence was lower than that of an elemental spirit, so the process of forming the contract wasn’t particularly painful. Lin Wei deliberately slowed the pace of imprinting the contract seal, wanting to understand why the so-called “cost” was necessary—his understanding of contract seals had deepened recently, especially after reading part of the Book of Contracts.

The contract seal was the manifestation of a contract in the soul world. Its intricate patterns served a similar purpose to magical incantations, invoking powers related to “rules” to establish a fixed connection between two souls.

These runes, flowing with milky-white and dark-gray light, merged with a specific part of the dragon’s soul, just as they had in his previous life. Often, there was a sense of stagnation that was hard to overcome. Lin Wei amplified his perception, observing the subtle details as the seal was imprinted: within the glowing soul, not all areas were the same—some parts were noticeably dimmer, and the stagnation occurred when the seal fell on these dim areas.

At such times, Lin Wei needed to expend a great deal of mental and soul power to alter the direction of the seal’s pattern, avoiding these areas. But when the dim areas were almost completely dark and altering the pattern would affect the entire seal’s function, he had no choice but to press on—and at that moment, he felt a subtle twinge deep within his soul.

After the entire seal was imprinted, his soul power remained abundant, but his mental strength was nearly depleted. A thin layer of sweat broke out on his forehead, turning cold in the rainy wind.

“She is the young princess Sandra,” Lin Wei said, though slightly weakened, his voice still carried a hint of prideful boasting. “A pure-blooded dragon, far more intelligent than those two greedy creatures on the island.”

Unfortunately, intelligence had no correlation with greediness. When Sandra noticed the mage with dark golden hair and eyes standing beside Lin Wei, she immediately let out a joyful cry and, without hesitation, abandoned her newly contracted master, turning her gaze toward him.

She wasn’t one to judge human appearances—what mattered to her was anything resembling treasure, and the mage’s hair color undoubtedly fell into that category.

Don’t move—stop, don’t stretch your claws toward him! Lin Wei used what little mental strength he had left to communicate with Sandra through their souls, stopping her actions.

The not-yet-mature female dragon—well, ignoring her massive, powerful body, she could be considered a young girl—this burly “young girl” conveyed strong dissatisfaction to her master.

Lin Wei patted her black scales and winked at her, coaxing: He’s mine, no need to rush to claim him—what’s mine is yours, isn’t it?

This answer satisfied the dragon. She retracted her claws and brought her large head close to Duan Yu, her bright brown-yellow eyes fixed on him as if admiring a prized possession.

“What is she doing?” Duan Yu asked Lin Wei, his gaze meeting the dragon’s.

“Sandra says she likes you very much,” Lin Wei replied with a faint smile, leaning close to Duan Yu’s ear, his voice low and soft. “She wants to claim you as her own, to stay with you forever.”

The mage raised his right hand, gently placing it on the dragon’s rough, patterned scales, just as Lin Wei had done earlier. Sandra affectionately nuzzled his palm, a surprisingly delicate gesture for such a massive head—perhaps driven by her innate love for “treasures.”

The mage’s gaze remained on the dragon. Faced with Sandra’s obvious bid for affection, his usually calm eyes held a faint trace of softness, though his voice remained even: “Why?”

“Who knows…” Lin Wei shrugged, his answer vague. “Maybe you’re just particularly to her taste.”

Sandra let out another low cry, turning to face the two of them, her wings stirring up a strong gust of wind.

“She wants to fly,” Lin Wei said, looking at the massive black dragon, then quite naturally attaching himself to the mage. “Let’s go up.”

Duan Yu lifted them both, and they landed on the broad, flat back of the dragon, allowing it to carry them higher into the sky.

A dragon’s controlled breath could have easily carried the summoner up to its back without the mage’s assistance—otherwise, in his previous life, the generals and soldiers would have witnessed the rather undignified sight of the Duke clumsily climbing onto the dragon’s back. But…

But if I don’t say it, who would know? Lin Wei squinted contentedly in the face of the strong wind.

The dragon carried them through layers of drifting clouds, soaring toward the distant, churning gray celestial vault. The landscape below became a blur of faint silhouettes—unlike the experience of being within it, the vastness of the continent and the expanse of the ocean were strikingly evident from high above. The surface appeared calm, but beneath it, undercurrents surged, seemingly endless at first glance.

Lin Wei gazed down at the scene, the smile in his eyes gradually fading.

The sky was a dull gray, and after reaching a sufficient height, Sandra began to circle high above, surveying the unfamiliar, novel continent.

Duan Yu looked out at the distant sea and suddenly spoke: “Higher.”

Lin Wei didn’t ask why, simply relaying the message to Sandra through their soul link. She beat her wings, ascending further.

They were now above the coastline, and as their view expanded, the continent appeared smaller in comparison to the ocean. The once wispy clouds became denser as they flew above them.

At this point, even without Duan Yu’s explanation, Lin Wei could see it—above the ocean, a massive vortex slowly rotated. Its center was a deep gray, the edges of the vortex pulling at the surrounding milky-white clouds, which were tinged with faint, chaotic colors, like a painter’s misblended pigments.

The vortex’s edge faded only as it reached the coastline, nearly enveloping the entire visible sea. Shadows of lightning flickered within, and moments later, the dull rumble of thunder added to the heavy, eerie atmosphere.

At the same time, Lin Wei felt Sandra’s soul tremble faintly within their contract.