"What… happened?" Darian glanced about. "Where am I?"

[You're at the Nine Kings Defense Line, Central Command Camp.] Har'es-dras yawned beside him.

Darian had been laid down on his flank under a large tree at a camp that was still being set up. There were cookfires and tents spread around for hundreds of meters, and several towers being built on the hill nearby. There was Arnold, trying to tinker around with a newly made tank, and George was farther away, with a group of engineers trying to set up what looked like a huge catapult.

"Is there really any point to all this?" Darian gestured around him. "I mean, one Tier 8 Spectre alone could probably wipe out all the fortifications without much effort."

"But the Tier 8's are not alone. They brought an army, and their army is rapidly growing." Mindy came up from the side. "Good to see you awake, Darian. How are you?"

"Me? I'm fine." Darian frowned. "Why?"

"Because you've been asleep for three days." Mindy pointed out.

Darian gaped. "How long has it been since the Rift was opened?"

"Almost a week?" Mindy guessed.

"Just one week." Darian frowned. "But everything's changed so much."

"Changed? What's changed?" Mindy asked blankly.

"Everything." Darian gestured vaguely. "The air. s.p.a.ce. Time. Gravity. Everything is different."

Mindy looked at him sideways. "Darian… are you okay?"

"Me? I feel fine. I feel great! I feel fierce! I AM STRONGER THAN ANYTHING!" that last came out as a roar. After which, Darian found himself gaping. He scratched his head in embarra.s.sment. Where did THAT come from?! "Uh… sort of."

Mindy giggled. "Did you eat something funny before you went to sleep?"

"No! I was… I was…" Darian paused, thinking back. "I was flying here, with the dragons… and… and… Kor'ag-dras. He said something… did something…"

Darian suddenly realized he could feel the Wood Emperor. He could point straight to that Tier 8 Great Dragon with his eyes closed. He could… he could…

"I can borrow Kor'ag's strength." Darian blinked. "I could… I could…"

Experimentally, he blew a puff. Out came a ball of dragon fire.

"Whoa!" Mindy blocked it with her bare palm. Then, she blinked at her own hand. "Wow. Even I felt that. I haven't felt that fire was hot since I bonded with Chirpy."

Since she bonded with the Flame Emperor… bonded with…

"No way." Darian gulped. [Kor'ag! What have you done? What have you DONE?!]

[ME? It was YOU!] Kor'ag's thoughts suddenly flooded all of Darian's senses like an ocean. [I gave you an inch and you took a mile! What have YOU done?!]

[An inch? A mile? What happened?] Darian had to ask.

[I offered you a bit of dragon essence, and you… you…!] Kor'ag's growl suddenly filled the air. [I can sense you in my head! I can see you with my eyes closed! I know exactly how you are, what you feel, and what you're thinking! What is this?!]

[I thought this was something you did!] Darian protested. [I had no intention of Bonding you!]

[Nor I, you! Yet here we are!]

Darian scratched his head awkwardly. [Is there a way to break it? Dissolve the bond?]

[This has never happened to me, or my kind, ever!] Kor'ag-dras fumed. [Only your kind Bond with other species like this! Ask your own people!]

[This? THIS is the Bond we share with Wilds? I thought it was like me and Har'es-dras! We run together, and eat together, and fight side by side as friends, and Comrades! But this… this is…] Darian sat down with a groan, hands on his head. [I don't even know any more.]

The whole world now felt different. Looked different. Smelled different. Heck, Darian himself felt different.

On impulse, he blew on his own hand. He didn't cover his hand with a Silhouette or a protective aura or anything. Dragon fire licked at his fingers.

He felt the warmth, but there was no pain.

"Huh. I've become immune to fire." Darian mused.

"Let me try!" Mindy raised one hand and a stream of fire blasted out from nowhere.

Really, what was he thinking, playing with fire in front of the girl Bonded with the Flame Emperor!

Darian caught fire. His clothes were on fire. His hair was on fire. Everything was on fire.

"Well, this is hot." Darian said, starting to sweat. His sweat evaporated into nothing. "But it doesn't really hurt. It's just… heat. And dry."

But Mindy was staring at him with her face turning red.

"Are you okay?" Darian blinked. "Did you use too much fire? Did you eat something weird?"

"You're the one who ate something weird! Your whole family ate something weird!" Mindy suddenly burst out and ran away.

"What's up with her?" Darian was left staring at her back.

[No idea.] Har'es-dras snorted.

Arnold glanced over and yelled at him. "Hey, Darian! Put on some clothes!"

Darian glanced down and suddenly realized that Mindy's fire had burned away everything he'd been wearing. "Oh."

Including his pants.

So THAT's why Mindy's face was so red.

***

The first thing Remian thought when he saw the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p wreck was 'Is there a way I can use that to go back to my world?'

But then again, thinking about, it didn't seem likely. Remian came here through a spatial rift and tinkering around with s.p.a.ce magic that he totally hadn't understood. That s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p seemed to have arrived through much more 'conventional', i.e. scientific means, plunging through the atmosphere from outer s.p.a.ce and cras.h.i.+ng head first into the ground. Looking at the wreckage and pieces that were left, Remian didn't think there were any survivors.

Wushuang and Little Li didn't seem to worry about such things anyway. They merrily went around the wreckage trying to peel off bits and pieces of it, or pick up small pieces of broken metals.

Their intentions weren't hard to determine for someone who could read their thoughts. [They just want the metal. Apparently it's called 'celestial iron', and they've found a way to forge it with much difficulty. A little bit of that stuff added to the tools they made were what made Xue Clan blades the sharpest and most durable in the market, and their pots and pans the most st.u.r.dy kitchen tools…]

Wait, what?

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Right. The Xue Clan weren't actually able to forge strong weapons. They forged kitchen knives aplenty, but the closest thing they made to a real weapon would be the gardening machete. Other than that, they made kitchen utensils. Their most valuable product to date was the gem-inlaid silverware chopstick set that was ordered by the Royal Butler. That set also used a little bit of Celestial Iron dust.

To produce a master smith able to forge weapons and obtain a national license to forge and sell them was the dream of the current Xue Patriarch. There was a great deal of opposition from the families currently dominating the weapons markets, though, too much for that little dream of the Xue Clan to ever come through.

That is, unless something drastic happened and they garnered a great deal more support.

Something like, for instance, a daughter marrying into the Zhao family, and gaining the support of a father-in-law general and an uncle-in-law of a city lord.

Or, possibly, marrying into the Mu family. In some ways, that would mean even more potential for economic growth and impact in the markets.

Big Li, Zhao Feng and Mu Hou all understood this. They had each picked and chosen the steps that brought them to their current situation very deliberately. As for where they went from here on out, only about half of it was up to them. The other half was up to their higher-ups.

Actually, according to Big Li's thoughts, there were other families even more suitable for bringing the Xue Clan dreams to pa.s.s, but those were much stricter on their young ones. Big Li did NOT want to marry into those families. Unlike hers, where she was given choices and the freedom to make her own decisions (as long as they were in line with the family agenda and responsible to their needs), those stricter families made all the decisions and the young ones were left with no choice but to follow them to the letter. Unwilling to lose her freedom, Big Li steered well clear of those types, and focused on those families that offered similar freedoms and privileges like the Zhao and Mu families.

Until then, the Xue Clan merely opened shops, ran inns, and sold kitchen tools with material advantages. They kept pouring more and more resources into raising strong security forces, and into metal-crafting, hoping that one day, someday soon, they would make a breakthrough in the political arena and obtain the rights to build weapons, at which point, putting blades reinforced with Celestial Iron into the hands of their blooming forces would make them a power to be reckoned with in a matter of weeks…

Remian wondered about this Clan of theirs that didn't seem to feel that relying on sc.r.a.ping metal pieces off an alien s.h.i.+pwreck was anything weird. That they used it for kitchen tools, and have been doing so for generations, and have yet kept the secret of their pots, pans and knives was nothing short of astounding.

For crying out loud, that was an alien s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p! And all they were doing with it was taking broken pieces to be reforged into forks and spoons! Remian himself had to suppress an urge to run over there and take a look at its engines and weapon systems.

But then, what did these people know of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps and engines and weapon systems? To them, that wreck was little more than a wondrous rock that fell from the sky. The material was special, and that was good enough for them to call it a Treasure.

Even now, they simply never realized or understood its true value.