Shendu nodded and took a step back.
Drago approached with a nervous look on his face.
He could feel that the passage didn't seem to repel his approach; it even exerted a slight pull.
Drago took a deep breath and turned his head slightly. Shendu was staring at him intently and gave a slight nod of encouragement when their eyes met.
He had many layers of protection on him now; he had even seen his father place a small fragment of his soul into his body with his own eyes.
His father had made thorough preparations, so everything would surely be fine...
Drago kept thinking to himself as he reached out to touch the passage right in front of him.
As soon as he touched the gray domain within the flames, a massive suction force instantly swept through his entire body.
Drago only felt a nearly distorted, vast power suddenly descend upon him, and then he lost all consciousness.
After an unknown amount of time, Drago began to dream.
It was a very long dream.
In this dream, he lived through his entire life, from the unease of first gaining self-awareness to his dependence on Shendu, then the anxiety when Shendu ignored him, and finally his jealousy and nearly distorted obsession with Lope.
These images were tinged with strong tragic colors; the moment the empire collapsed, that distorted obsession was replaced by Fear.
Then came a long period of darkness, followed by completely different colors. This time the images were brief, but for him, they seemed to be in full color.
The misunderstanding with his father was finally resolved. His father's love for him had never changed; he had just been misunderstanding his father on his own.
"Shen Zhao? Shen Zhao?"
A familiar voice appeared in his mind. Drago was stunned for a moment and looked around, but his father wasn't there.
"Shen Zhao! Shen Zhao!"
The voice became slightly more hurried, as if searching for something.
Drago was also affected by the voice and immediately responded, "I'm here, Father!"
But the voice seemed not to hear his response and continued to call out, clearly tinged with anxiety and urgency.
Drago had never heard his father use such an anxious tone. In his memory, his father was always calm and composed, always possessing the majesty of an Emperor.
After a bit of secret joy, he kept responding to his father's calls.
After four or five times, he also began to get worried.
Finally, the darkness receded. He snapped his eyes open and shouted anxiously, "I'm here, Father!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Drago was stunned for a moment and looked around. This was the gap between two short buildings, and the air carried a slight scent of decay.
Because of his voice, a young man outside the alley—wearing a floral shirt, bell-bottom pants, and a slicked-back hairstyle with a cigarette in his mouth—looked over.
Clatter.
The cigarette fell from the young man's hand, his pupils constricted violently, and his whole body trembled slightly.
"Mon... Monster!!!"
A hysterical scream rang out as the man scrambled away from the alley as fast as he could.
This sound also snapped Drago out of his daze.
He raised his hand; the panel was still green, the texture of his scales was still hard, and the power within his body was still surging.
"Father?"
Drago felt a bit uneasy and continued to call out.
[I... am... here...]
A fragmented sensation, like a poor radio signal, came through, instantly calming Drago's heart.
He flapped his wings and soared into the sky in an instant, hovering above the clouds. He looked down at the old buildings below with some excitement in his eyes.
This was Hong Kong, but there was no Dragon City, no mana net in the air, and he couldn't feel his father's presence.
"Father! We succeeded!"
Drago spoke excitedly. Based on everything he saw, he must have traveled back to the past.
This meant that his father was still just a coiled dragon statue, and the demons hadn't come out yet. He knew all the answers to the future!
[The... plan...]
The fragmented voice continued to appear in his head, and Drago reined in his excitement.
Although he had indeed traveled to the past, he still had many tasks to complete.
The first task was to remove time's self-checking nature—that is, to let time know that the chronicles of ages of the two worlds were not the same book, thereby completely breaking the time paradox.
This would prevent situations where a Dragon Tooth in the past was destroyed and the Dragon Tooth in the future was also erased by the power of time.
In the original work, the past and future intersected several times, but they all shared a common feature: a paradox only appeared during the first world-crossing. For example, when Future Little Jade and Drago traveled to the past and destroyed a Dragon Tooth, the Dragon Tooth in the future world was also destroyed.
But after the second time, when Jimmy's incident involved traveling, no paradox occurred, and the plot clearly separated the past and future into two worlds.
So he had to trigger this mechanism in advance. Otherwise, if he destroyed Shendu's things like in the show, there was a high probability that the same things on Shendu would be directly erased by the power of time, which was quite dangerous.
Drago identified the direction and flew off instantly.
Soon, he appeared in Hawaii.
He quickly arrived at a cave. Embedded in the wall of this cave was a purple sphere, and next to the sphere was a massive octopus statue.
This item was called Ma Jius magic orb. It was said that a complete magic orb could amplify a wizard's mana tenfold.
But it had a guardian beast—this giant octopus statue. As long as someone dared to touch Ma Jius magic orb, the octopus would awaken from its slumber and kill any intruder.
Drago stood with his arms crossed, looking at the giant octopus and waiting quietly. After about ten minutes, a fragmented and vague syllable appeared in his consciousness.
Drago raised his hand and directly removed half of the magic orb.
Suddenly...
The sea cave fell silent for a moment and then suddenly began to shake. The solid shell of the octopus statue quickly shattered, and a massive blue octopus with six crimson eyes and cone-like teeth revived.
It opened its mouth and roared fiercely at Drago.
Roar!
Just as the sharp sound erupted, its six eyes saw this tall demon with bat wings holding half of Ma Jius magic orb in one hand, while the other hand was raised and aimed at it.
Blazing fire was frantically condensing in his hand.
Its pupils contracted sharply, and intense Fear instantly caused its voice to change pitch as its body frantically shrank back.
But it was too late.
Dragon Blast!
Boom!
The blazing firelight illuminated the entire cave.
Immediately following was a Crash!
A bolt of lightning struck into the flames, making them churn even more, signaling the passing of a powerful magical creature.
Drago was now a Demon Wizard-level demon; killing a guardian beast was very simple.
He waited quietly for a while, a hint of a smile appearing on his lips.
He flapped his wings vigorously and flew in another direction. Having arrived in the past, Drago had many things to do.
For instance, to be safe, he had to break the paradox several more times. Only after confirming that the paradox had completely vanished could he touch those critical items.
---
Meanwhile...
At the summit of Mount Tai in China.
A little old man lying on a rocking chair under a peach tree was suddenly taken aback.
He looked at the sunlight filtering through the blooming peach blossoms, a thoughtful look in his eyes.
"This is..."
He sat up unhurriedly, picked up his staff to support himself, and slowly stood up.
He took a few steps forward to the edge of the platform, watching the rolling and unrolling of the clouds before him.
Grand Master Fang sighed, "Unwilling to accept the Dharma Ending Age..."