“Roar! Roar! Roar!”

Long Wu’s face twisted with agony, his roars reverberating as he thrashed in the air, trying to dull the intense pain.

But nothing helped.

Hu Qinglu, who moments ago had thought he was surely about to die, suddenly saw a dark figure fly past him, followed by Long Wu’s pained howls. Wide-eyed, he looked up at the fierce black dragon, his eyes holding a newfound respect.

Since when did Long Mo start looking this… admirable?

“Brother! Are you alright?”

Hu Qingshan finally arrived, rushing to Hu Qinglu’s side. Seeing his brother covered in wounds, he quickly asked, “What happened? How did you get hurt so badly?”

“I’m fine, not dead yet.” Nearly beaten to death by Long Wu, Hu Qinglu was too proud to admit his own weakness and quickly changed the subject.

“Big brother, why are you here?”

Only then did Hu Qingshan turn to Long Mo, a mix of surprise and realization in his deep eyes. Had Long Mo come here to save Qinglu?

And how had he known Qinglu was in danger?

“It was Long Mo. I asked him why you hadn’t returned, and he suddenly took off. I thought he’d done something to you. I’m glad you’re safe,” Hu Qingshan explained gravely.

Before long, Ying Yuan arrived with the other orcs.

Seeing Long Wu writhing in pain, Ying Yuan turned a displeased look on Long Mo. “What’s going on here? What did you do to him?”

Hu Qinglu snapped back to reality and loudly accused:

“It was Long Wu—he tried to kill me!”

Hu Qinglu, as a tribal beastmen, had the group’s immediate trust.

At his words, the other beastmen expressions shifted, their sympathy for Long Wu turning to caution and distrust. Subconsciously, they had never really accepted him as one of their own, as he hadn’t been with them long enough to build true bonds. Anything that endangered the tribe is an enemy in their eyes.

Even Long Mo had only gained their acceptance after many years of proving himself.

“These injuries were all Long Wu’s doing. If Long Mo and my brother hadn’t arrived in time, I’d be dead by now,” Hu Qinglu said, his voice filled with rage.

“Long Wu, who would’ve thought you’d stoop so low!”
“We took you in, and this is how you repay us? Is this how dragon beastmen act?”

“We absolutely cannot keep this kind of beastmen any longer. We should drive him out…”

The beastmen cursed Long Wu, their frustration with him boiling over after the previous battle. While some of the females were still enamored by his powerful dragon form, the others now wanted nothing more than to see him gone.

Ying Yuan’s face hardened, and without another word, he struck Long Wu, sending him crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust.

Long Wu, suffering from the poison, couldn’t react in time. He landed hard, spitting a mouthful of black blood.

“He’s poisoned!” one of the beastmen shouted.

“And look at all these venomous insects! Step back, everyone…”

The beastmen quickly backed away, and only then noticed that the swarm of insects was focused solely on Long Wu, crawling all over him with relentless intent.

Long Wu was in unbearable pain. His huge dragon body rolled on the ground, but poisonous insects kept crawling on his body, drilling into every gap and pore. Poisonous insects crawled over the stumps where his horns had been, gnawing into the open wounds, their venom spreading through his veins.

“Long Mo, I’ll… I’ll kill you…”

Long Wu’s rasping voice emerged from under the swarm, but it was weak and completely devoid of threat.

Long Mo watched him coldly, unmoved.

Ying Yuan and the other beastmen looked on with grim expressions, none of them offering help. They left Long Wu to his fate.

“Alright, let’s get back. We need to eat and then continue our journey,” Ying Yuan’s stern voice broke the silence, snapping the group back to their senses.

The beastmen began to prepare to leave, but suddenly, the ground trembled violently beneath their feet.

The lush green plain began to crack open in deep, abyss-like fissures, and before they could understand what was happening, a wave of heat hit them, so intense it felt like their fur was about to ignite.

In the group, only Ying Yuan and Long Mo could fly. While they remained safe, they too felt the intense heat, and both turned to look toward the source of the danger.

In the distance, the tallest bald mountain now glowed with a fiery red light at its summit, spewing molten lava. The mountain was already half-covered, the lava descending rapidly toward their location.

“Oh no! It’s heavenly fire—everyone, evacuate!” Ying Yuan’s face darkened as he shouted out.

The fire moved with terrifying speed, and in moments, they could be swallowed in a sea of molten lava, burned to ash with no trace remaining.

The orcs heard Ying Yuan’s warning and immediately began sprinting back.

Long Wu, trapped by the venomous swarm and weakened by poison, was already unable to fly. The approaching lava overtook him in seconds, and without even a chance to cry out, he vanished into the flames…

“We have to get out of here!”

“Ying Yuan, Long Mo, you’re the fastest—warn the others at the camp to move the supplies, or we’ll lose everything!”

As they ran, one of the beastmen yelled.

Ying Yuan’s brow creased in concern, but before he could respond, an beastmen glanced back and shouted in terror.

“It’s catching up to us! The fire’s moving too fast—there’s no way we can outrun it!”

“What do we do? We’re all going to die in this fire…”

Panicked, the beastmen ran while shouting in despair.

Flying above, Long Mo glanced down in annoyance. The beastmen at the back looked so close to being cooked that he could almost take a bite.

With a grunt, Long Mo breathed out a misty dragon breath, then turned sharply and flew straight toward the lava.

“Long Mo! What are you doing?” Hu Qinglu called from below, alarmed.

That’s heavenly fire back there—it would burn him to death!

Hearing the commotion, Ying Yuan turned in midair to see what was happening.

The black dragon swooped down, grabbing the two beastmen at the end in his claws and tossing them onto his back.

As a dragon beastmen, Long Mo’s body was enormous—several times the size of any regular beastmen. The two beastmen, dizzy from the flight, blinked as they realized they were on Long Mo’s back.

With a jolt, they understood he was saving them. Quickly, they transformed back to human form, lying flat against his scales to reduce the burden.

“Long Mo, thank… thank you!”

“Thank you so much…”

Watching this, Ying Yuan’s eyes showed a hint of surprise, and he turned back to help, scooping up another beastmen in his talons.

The faster beastmen continued running on the ground.

They soon reached the camp, but the lava was closing in fast, surging toward them.

“Run! The fire’s coming!”

Ying Yuan’s urgent shout reached the camp. The beastmen turned and saw Ying Yuan, Long Mo, and the others racing back, and the red-hot lava spilling over the landscape behind them.

The beastmen in camp froze, their instincts telling them to grab the supplies.

Long Mo, however, shot forward, seizing one of them with a dragon claw and snarling:

“Forget the supplies!”