Chapter Sixty-Eight: Heart
To be honest, as more and more electric energy poured into its body, the black dragon found itself increasingly unable to comprehend its own form. Although it had no knowledge of the internal structure of other dragons, it was struck by a powerful intuition: its own dragon body was certainly not the same as theirs.
Logically speaking, as an ancient extraordinary creature, the genes and bodily structure of dragons should be exceptionally stable. The idea that one could alter organs at will through subjective will and plasma—this was, at best, a breakthrough of bloodline constraints, a higher permission for bodily development granted by the Dragon God; at worst, it was heresy, a hack of life’s source code using electrical energy, freely customizing the body and evolving toward a greater life form.
On the surface, the black dragon had been acting in a film, but secretly it was constantly studying its own body. It discovered that as long as its will was strong enough and the plasma in its body sufficiently abundant, it could fine-tune or modify most of its internal organs. Only two parts remained beyond its reach: its brain and its heart.
The brain was the nerve center, the seat of its soul, unfathomably complex and, evidently, not something the current black dragon could manipulate. The heart was the engine of its body, the most powerful and mysterious organ within—the locus where nearly all the incoming electric energy converged.
Although the black dragon didn't know what the hearts of other dragons looked like, it could assert with confidence: they were definitely not like its own. Relative to its enormous body, its heart was now very small—a marvel in itself. The more electric energy it absorbed, the more its heart shrank; compared to its original size, it had diminished by at least two-thirds.
Another remarkable aspect was the heart’s extraordinary heat and its ability to emit light. As the black dragon’s bodily functions recovered and grew stronger, the Institute of Summer Science could no longer use instruments to examine its internal structure, but the dragon estimated its heart’s surface temperature to be several thousand degrees Celsius, with the core likely reaching tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands.
The black dragon had reported these changes to the Institute’s research team in hopes of unraveling the cause and whether they were beneficial or harmful. Sadly, the Institute was just as baffled. The microcosmic field was inaccessible, severely restricting technology. They knew only that the changes were tied to electric energy—an autonomous evolution of life—likely a good thing.
The Institute had long pursued biomimetic studies of magical creatures in this world, but progress was scant. Without a bridge to the microcosmic domain, the chasm between science and magic was almost impossible to cross.
…
The black dragon swallowed the Eye of Truth, closed its eyes, and felt with its heart.
This was a new function it had recently discovered: its heart, besides emitting light, heat, blood, magic, and electricity, could radiate mysterious rays to analyze matter—far more potent in function than its eyes.
But to the black dragon’s astonishment, the Eye of Truth had barely entered its esophagus, nowhere near the heart chamber, when its heart leapt forth, unable to restrain itself, and instantly devoured the Eye.
“Did I see that right?”
The black dragon was bewildered. “My heart… can move freely?”
“Should I go to the hospital? This must be some kind of problem!”
Muttering to itself, the dragon could not observe the heart’s interior with its consciousness; it only knew that after swallowing the Eye, its heart began to beat furiously, heating up madly, like a nuclear reactor suddenly replenished with fuel after a long shutdown…
“Wait… why did I think of that analogy?”
The black dragon paused. There was little time to ponder—its heart released an immense amount of heat, raising its body temperature by at least a dozen degrees in seconds, prompting it to shout to Ding Xuewen and the others,
“Quick—run! I think I’m about to explode!”
No sooner had the words left its mouth than the dragon’s abdominal stores of breath fuel ignited; seeing that the others hadn’t evacuated fully, it forced itself to suppress the explosion…
As it held back, black-purple flames erupted from its mouth, nostrils, eyes, ears, wings, and across its body, making it look utterly demonic.
Everyone was stunned. Who would have thought swallowing a crystal sphere would provoke such a reaction! With the dragon ablaze, even a hundred firetrucks would be useless—this black-violet magical flame was clearly not something conventional means could extinguish.
The Russians had once considered using a nuclear bomb to put out fires… It sounded surreal, a touch of the mystical—should they try it on Mr. Huang?
In this moment of crisis, Ding Xuewen’s mind inexplicably conjured this thought.
Fortunately, the dragon's mutation didn’t last long; in less than half a minute, its heart calmed, and soon after, all the flames died away…
No, the flames still flickered in its right eye, growing fiercer by the second!
What was this?
Was it granting me a fiery, piercing gaze?
The black dragon was baffled, and blinked hard—even with its dulled pain nerves, it felt a sharp pain in its right eye, as if something was about to claw its way out.
Was it trying to use the Eye of Truth to replace my original dragon eye?
This idea flashed through the dragon’s mind, and instantly it was displeased—
I may want it, but you can't force it on me!
Anything uncontrollable or incomprehensible, no matter how wonderful, I refuse!
Thinking this, the black dragon’s mind raced, blocking pain signals, focusing its will to forcibly halt the mutation in its eye!
Immediately, its right eye not only burned, but sparked with electricity!
The struggle ended, of course, with Huang Ze victorious—he was, after all, the true master of this body!
Yet the black dragon felt no triumph, only a heavy heart and a grim expression.
Listening to its powerful heartbeat, it wondered—why did its heart feel like it wasn’t the original dragon’s?
“Brother, this kind of uncontrollable, sudden betrayal… makes things difficult for me!”
Huang Ze tried to communicate. “If you have an opinion, if you want something, you should tell me ahead of time!”
“As a heart, you should have the awareness to obey the brain’s commands. This sudden independence, sudden usurpation—have you considered my feelings? How am I supposed to trust you?”
“…”
Negotiations between brain and heart ended in failure. No matter how many times the black dragon threatened to hold the heart accountable, promising to replace it at the first opportunity, the heart remained unmoved, as if its previous rebellion had never happened.
……
Northern Dragon River No. 2 Military Base.
The black dragon had circled abroad, then quietly returned to this place.
Originally, the plan was different. After its release, it was to wander abroad, conduct social research, witness the people's hardships, develop progressive ideals, and return to Summer Country to join the revolution.
The books prepared by Yu Xiaomin weren’t for the dragon itself, but for the phoenix to study.
Though the black dragon often spoke of wanting the phoenix to work for it, that didn’t conflict with encouraging it to learn.
After all, with knowledge and culture, work efficiency rises, and greater value is created.
It didn’t want its subordinate to be an utter illiterate—too hard to manage, too difficult to communicate. At least a primary school diploma was needed.
The plan was sound, but the Sun God’s abrupt interference disrupted everything.
…
“What?”
Ding Xuewen was stunned by the dragon’s suspicion. “You think your heart isn’t the original?”
“Exactly.” The black dragon, weary, laid its head on the ground. “My spontaneous combustion earlier was because the heart suddenly went out of control.”
“How is that possible?” Ding Xuewen scratched his head, seriously concerned. “If it’s not the original… who replaced it? And when?”
“That I don’t know.” The dragon sighed. “But personally, I suspect it was replaced before I took possession. Otherwise, I’d have noticed.”
“…”
At this, everyone felt a chill down their spines. Could it be that Huang Ze’s fate had been arranged from the start, part of a grand conspiracy, a chess game of immense scale?