Chapter 34: Life or death, it all depends on this gamble!

Huff…

The heavy panting sounded especially clear in the deathly silence of the stone tower ruins.

Rose collapsed onto the cold, rough ground. The magic power exhaustion from the teleportation made her massive dragon body unable to hold its form any longer. It shrank sharply like a deflated balloon, returning her to that slender human-shaped figure covered in fine silver scales.

She looked around blankly. She had no idea where this teleportation array had sent her.

The air was thick with dust and a stale, musty smell. The familiar teleportation array on the ground triggered her greatest worry.

She could sense that this makeshift array inevitably carried Rest’s magic imprint, which meant that bastard would sooner or later track her here.

Rose could not stay here any longer. She had to leave immediately.

She struggled to stand, but a sharp, tearing pain shot up from deep inside her body. She couldn’t help letting out a muffled groan and fell back down, curling up in agony.

Rose slowly pressed her small hands against her lower back. The area still seemed to retain the sensation of being forcibly marked.

“Hiss…”

That bastard Rest really didn’t hold back.

She bit her pale lower lip, cursing softly. Tears of pain and humiliation welled up in her eyes.

Even after they had separated, that demon’s aura and the remnants of his domineering magic still clung to her, seeping into every inch of her skin and every pore, making her feel utterly filthy.

She desperately wanted a bath—to wash herself inside and out, scrubbing away every last dirty thing he had forced upon her.

Enduring the intense pain and the turmoil in her heart, Rose finally used a nearby cold boulder for support and shakily stood up.

The dust-filled air made her cough several times. She warily sensed her surroundings. The place was deathly silent; only her own breathing and heartbeat echoed through the empty ruins.

She examined the area. The ground was covered in thick dust, scattered with broken stones of various sizes and shattered stone pillar debris.

The place where Rose stood had clearly been forgotten for countless years. She stared down at the teleportation array beneath her feet and suddenly thought of a solution.

She bent down, picked up a sharp stone shard, and used all her strength to slash viciously across the teleportation runes. The scraping sound was especially jarring in the silence. The ancient dragon-language rune lines were brutally destroyed, and the magic power lingering on the array’s surface instantly dimmed and extinguished.

There… it was finally over.

Rose looked at the completely disabled teleportation array. Her tightly wound nerves relaxed slightly. But the throbbing pain deep in her body and an indescribable emptiness immediately reminded her that this was far from finished.

That bastard had forcibly marked her and changed her future fate.

Even though she was now filled with hatred and resistance, cold reason told her she needed time.

Even if she didn’t want this child in the future, given her current dragon identity, she would have to wait until after giving birth to decide.

The thought of herself having to lay eggs suddenly made Rose’s stomach churn with discomfort.

Dragon and human gestation periods and conditions were completely different. Rose had no experience at all and didn’t know when her belly would start to swell. Just thinking about it felt terrifying.

“Tsk…”

Uncontrollable images that made her soul tremble flashed through her mind. Rose shook her head violently, as if trying to fling them away.

Her arms covered in fine scales tightly hugged her cold body. She forced herself to calm down.

It’s over… it’s all over… Right now, the most urgent thing was to find something to wear. She lifted her head from the tattered remains of her clothes and scanned the ruins.

Struggling, Rose walked toward another relatively intact compartment. It looked like it had once been a room in the tower, but now only a half-collapsed stone door and broken giant pillars supported the precarious ceiling.

The entire space was shrouded in heavy darkness and hopeless silence, like a massive stone coffin buried deep underground.

There was no water, no food. The air was terrifyingly thin, and even the free-floating magic power in the air was so sparse it was almost imperceptible.

If she used another teleportation array to leave from here, it would be no different from exposing her location to Rest. Rose absolutely could not do that. She had to find a way out as quickly as possible.

She raised her head and looked up at the pitch-black rock ceiling that seemed to stretch endlessly upward. She wondered just how deeply this stone tower was buried.

She had just escaped one crisis, only to face a new one.

“Gu…” A sudden growl sounded from her stomach, especially loud in the dead silence.

She thought of the exquisite dishes Angela had carefully prepared. At the time, fear and rejection had left her with no appetite. Now, in this desperate situation, even a piece of moldy bread felt like an unattainable luxury.

Like an tireless ghost, Rose rummaged through the collapsed passages and broken rooms. Finally, in a small room that was mostly collapsed but relatively intact, she found a huge, thick piece of coarse hemp cloth covered in dust. Though rough and worn, it was enough to tear into clothing.

She yanked it out with force and patted off the thick dust. After thinking for a moment, she used a sharp stone to laboriously poke several holes in the fabric, carefully letting her tail and wings extend through them.

The clothes were ragged and barely covered the important parts, draped over her like a tattered heretic’s robe. But at least she felt somewhat like a normal person again.

While dragging her exhausted body and continuing to search for an exit, she noticed a faint light coming from behind a half-closed, unusually heavy stone door.

She pushed the door open with effort and stepped inside. Suddenly, countless tiny, jumping sparkles burst before her eyes.

She stared at the gold coins, gold bars, and golden artifacts spread flat across the floor, all glittering with tempting yet cold light under the weak illumination. Scattered among the stones were magic crystals emitting soft, colorful halos—red, blue, purple. This place was like a secret treasury sealed away for who knows how many years.

Rose was momentarily unable to tear her eyes away from the sudden wealth. Then, from the corner of her eye, she noticed several collapsed bookshelves in a golden corner.

Most of the books had already rotted into ash, but one thick, heavy tome bound with strange leather and metal still stubbornly kept its shape.

She walked over, brushed away the dust and cobwebs, and saw ancient, twisted dragon-language runes on the cover. She carefully opened it. The yellowed pages depicted various ferocious yet majestic dragon figures, accompanied by dense annotations.

Rose’s gaze froze. Her heart began to pound wildly. The book detailed how to conceal a dragon’s obvious features, how to change body size, and even how to temporarily create illusions to hide one’s true identity.

If she could learn this ability, wouldn’t she be able to completely摆脱 her dragon appearance? The thought was like sunlight instantly clearing the clouds in her heart, making her feel a little brighter.

But the ecstasy lasted only a moment before a huge question surfaced: Why would such a precious dragon clan secret manual appear in this stone tower buried deep underground?

At that moment, a painful twist of hunger interrupted her thoughts. She looked around the treasury piled high with wealth yet containing not a single grain of food, and despair flooded her once again.

These things couldn’t be eaten. She certainly couldn’t starve to death here while hugging a mountain of gold and silver.

Her gaze suddenly turned to the magic crystals emitting soft magical power, especially a few large ones with deep, shimmering light.

Magic crystals were graded by purity: N, R, SR, SSR, and UR. During battles with demons, SR and R grades were usually used.

A bold idea instantly appeared in her mind. She could use these magic crystals containing vast magic power to forcibly blast a hole through the rock ceiling above and escape.

She didn’t know what was outside, but anything was better than starving to death here.

The hope of survival made Rose act immediately. She quickly spread out a complete piece of cloth on the ground, then selected several high-purity SR-grade magic crystals as backup. Without hesitation, she grabbed handfuls of gold coins and magic crystals, stuffed them all into the cloth, and tied it up. These things might be useful once she reached the outside world.

Finally, she carefully wrapped the dragon clan secret manual—something that concerned her future—deepest inside.

She took a deep breath, glanced one last time at the stone tower that might have become her tomb, then bent down and picked up several handy SR-grade magic crystals with sharp, angular edges. These would be her main tools for carving out a path to life.

Live or die—it all came down to this gamble!