Chapter 14: Profiting from the Conflict
Livia did not foolishly rush back to the low hill.
The wisdom of a Dragon dictates that the first step is always—to perch in a high place and watch the show.
She took a wide detour, quietly sneaking up the opposite direction to the hilltop, and perched atop the dead tree that had long since burned to charcoal.
The trunk was thick enough to be stable, and the view was incomparably open. Glancing down, every move of the few people in front of the cave was completely under her watch.
A perfect audience seat.
At the cave entrance, the five-person squad whose captain had just died had descended into chaos, like a pot of boiling water.
The burly vice-captain, whose face was full of thick flesh, had a voice loud enough to shake off volcanic ash: "The captain is gone! What are you still standing around for! What do we do next!"
The Old Mage covered his beard, which was singed and bristly, his voice muffled and carrying a trace of lingering fear: "The mission definitely has to continue; the fire lotus hasn't been obtained yet."
The burly man immediately erupted: "Continue my foot! The captain is dead, so how do we divide the reward? Who gets the lion's share?"
The young archer in the corner, who had always been timid, suddenly spoke up in a voice as faint as a mosquito: "The captain's backpack... seems to still be in the cave..."
As soon as these words fell, everyone's eyes instantly lit up with a'swish'.
The leather-armored woman immediately interjected: "What do you mean? Is there something inside?"
The archer shrank his neck and pointed into the cave: "Before he died, he threw the bag inside."
The five people exchanged glances.
Without any communication, their tacit understanding was at its peak.
Two seconds later, like a pack of wild dogs fighting over scraps, they all rushed into the cave in a 'hula la' sound.
Livia perched on the dead tree, her tail tip flicking back and forth, watching with great interest.
This scene was too familiar.
In her past life, when she rented a room in the urban village, she watched for three days and three nights as two biological brothers next door fought until their heads bled over the compensation housing, while she squatted on the balcony cracking melon seeds.
This current scene was ten times more exciting than neighborhood disputes over housing.
Soon, the sound of rummaging through things came from inside the cave.
The few people dumped the captain's backpack onto the ground, and supplies rolled out everywhere: dry rations, a water bladder, hemp rope, several small cloth bags, a wooden box, and a bulging leather pouch.
The burly man grabbed the leather pouch, untied the rope, and peered inside.
The next second, his face immediately turned the color of pig liver.
He spilled it out with a 'hualala', and gold coins and broken gems rolled across the ground with a clinking sound.
"Hoarding!" The burly man roared in anger, "This bastard actually embezzled the mission reward!"
The Old Mage squatted to the side, raking through the small cloth bags. He opened one, sniffed it, and his face instantly turned blacker than the bottom of a pot: "My magic materials! He secretly took them all!"
The leather-armored woman's eyes were fixed on the most inconspicuous wooden box. She reached out and opened it—
A palm-sized plant, entirely fiery red, with fire patterns faintly pulsing on its leaves, lay quietly inside, its roots intact, carefully wrapped with silk thread.
The air instantly fell silent.
Her voice was trembling: "It's the fire lotus... He found it long ago."
The five people froze in place, silent for a full three seconds.
The atmosphere was so awkward it could instantly solidify into igneous rock.
The burly man slammed his fist into the ground, cracking the stone: "Bastard! Making us risk our lives outside while he hides the fire lotus to swallow it whole!"
The archer once again weakly delivered a finishing blow: "And... and there's a bottle of medicine."
The mage frowned: "What medicine?"
"I saw him hide it in the backpack's inner layer."
The mage reached out, felt around, and truly pulled out a small medicine bottle. He pulled out the stopper, smelled it, and his entire face twisted: "A slow-acting poison. Made from Fire Poison Grass. It takes three days to act if mixed in food, and it's impossible to trace."
Everyone looked at him in unison.
The mage's expression was blank: "He wanted to poison me."
Livia, up in the tree, almost burst out laughing.
Good heavens, she thought this was an ordinary adventuring party, but it turned out to be an all-villains + internal strife script.
Exciting, so exciting!
Down below, they had completely gone mad.
The burly man slapped his thigh: "Forget all that! Let's divide the spoils first!"
The leather-armored woman immediately eyed him suspiciously: "How do we divide it?"
The burly man pointed at the fire lotus: "We sell this and split it equally, the gold coins are split equally, the magic materials go back to the mage, and the rest—"
The mage interrupted him on the spot, coldly sneering: "Split equally? The captain hoarded so much; do you think you can swallow his share too?"
The burly man choked up.
The leather-armored woman's eyes darted around, her abacus clicking loudly: "There are five of us, so we divide it into six shares. Whoever contributed more to the captain's share gets it."
The archer immediately raised his hand in surrender: "I'm the youngest, I contributed the least."
The mage squinted at the burly man: "Contributed more? When we fought the Stone-Winged Demon last time, who was hiding in the back shooting cold arrows, running away faster than anyone?"
The burly man's face darkened: "Say that again?"
"I'm talking about you."
The two of them simultaneously stood up with a'swish', swords drawn and bows bent.
The leather-armored woman silently retreated two steps, her hand quietly resting on her dagger.
The archer directly shrank into the corner, hugging his knees, and immediately switched to watching-the-show mode.
Livia squatted on the tree, her tail wagging even more happily.
Fight, fight, fight! Hurry up and fight!
It would be best if they fought until blood flowed; then she could collect the trash in one go.
The burly man was the first to lose control, swinging his fist toward the mage's face.
The mage dodged sideways, flipped his wrist, and an ice arrow shot out with a'swoosh'. The burly man hurriedly blocked with his arm, and the ice arrow pierced his flesh, blood instantly seeping out.
The scene completely spun out of control.
The leather-armored woman took the opportunity to pounce toward the fire lotus box, trying to secretly snatch the treasure.
The archer suddenly exploded into action and kicked the back of her knee.
The leather-armored woman fell to her knees with a 'plop', and the box flew out of her grasp.
The wooden box tumbled, tumbled, tumbled in the air...
The five people went crazy, reaching out to grab it, their heads crowding together like street dogs fighting over a bone.
At that very moment—
Livia leaped lightly from the tree.
The moment she landed, white light exploded.
Her human form receded, and her Red Dragon true form was revealed with a roar.
Her twenty-meter-long fiery red body squatted steadily at the cave entrance.
Her scales shone hotly, her vertical pupils were cold and sharp, and tiny sparks of fire smoked from the tip of her tail.
The five human heads crammed together below were exactly on her line of sight, like a row of small potatoes awaiting inspection.
Livia slightly opened her mouth.
A fireball shot out—not aimed at a person, but precisely blasting the rock wall above the cave entrance.
"Rumble—"
Crushed stones rained down, stirring up dust.
The five people were so frightened they scurried away holding their heads, wailing mournfully.
When the dust settled, they slowly looked up.
Then, they collectively froze.
A real, adult Red Dragon with terrifying aura was quietly looking down at them.
Livia spoke. Her Dragon language carried an inherent deep vibration, and even when converted to human language, the sense of oppression was overwhelming: "Leave the fire lotus. Leave the equipment. You people can scram."
The burly man was stunned for two seconds, his brain hadn't caught up, and his hand subconsciously reached for his sword.
The Old Mage was terrified out of his wits. He grabbed the man's hand tightly, his voice shaking: "Are you crazy?! That's a Red Dragon! An adult Red Dragon! One slap can turn all of us into mud!"
The burly man argued stubbornly: "The five of us... we can..."
The mage hissed in a low voice: "Five people? Is that enough to fill her gap between her teeth?!"
The burly man instantly shut up, his hand obediently releasing the sword hilt.
No one dared to move again.
The leather-armored woman tremblingly placed the fire lotus box gently on the ground.
The archer quickly untied his leather armor and threw it down with a 'patta'.
The mage reluctantly placed his staff on top of the pile of equipment.
The burly man hesitated for three seconds, then reluctantly untied his longsword and scabbard, throwing them fiercely onto the ground.
The five people stood in a line, heads bowed, not daring to breathe, obedient as if they were being punished by standing.
Livia lowered her head and gently prodded the pile of loot with her claws.
The wooden box containing the fire lotus, three pieces of leather armor, two iron swords, a staff inlaid with a ruby, and a pile of miscellaneous small items.
She coiled the wooden box lightly with her tail and tucked it into a safe gap between her scales.
Then she picked up the staff, weighed it—hmm, the material was good, and the gems were real, it could fetch a price.
She tucked that away as well.
She looked up and spoke again, concisely: "Scram."
That single word was like a holy decree.
The five people turned and ran, faster than rabbits. They scrambled and crawled over the low hill, losing one shoe in the process, and disappeared at the end of the scorched plain in the blink of an eye, not even daring to look back once.
Livia squatted in place, watching the direction they fled, flicking her tail leisurely.
Her first formal interaction with humans.
Conclusion:
Very noisy, very weak, very prone to internal conflict, and very good at handing over equipment.
Not bad, I'll bully humans again next time.
She was preparing to turn back to her lair when her gaze suddenly dropped, and she noticed something still lying on the ground.
It was a small, palm-sized booklet with a leather cover, covered in dust.
She hooked it over gently with her claw and flipped it open.
It was a diary.
On the flyleaf, a line of crooked writing was inscribed, carrying a touch of naive longing:
"Thirty-seventh adventure. This time I must get rich enough to afford a wife."
Livia quietly flipped downward.
"Day thirty-five. Couldn't find the fire lotus, and the team has started complaining. Eric says he wants to go home. The mage secretly told me the captain was hiding something."
"Day forty-two. Found the fire lotus, it's in that cave. The captain said not to tell anyone, but I always feel like his eyes look wrong."
On the last page, the handwriting was messy and hurried, clearly written with a shaking hand:
"Day forty-three. The captain invited me for a drink tonight, said I worked hard. I didn't dare to drink it. The way he looks at me is like he's looking at a dead person. Tomorrow, I must leave."
Livia stared at that line of text and was quiet for a long time.
She had lived for twenty-two years, and in the Dragon's den, she only understood strength, bloodline, and survival.
Today was the first time she clearly grasped—
This thing called the human heart is both insidious and pitiful.
She gently nudged the diary with her claw, picked it up, and tucked it into the gap in her scales, placing it next to the precious fire lotus.
Then she turned around, lifted her dragon claws, and slowly walked toward her own volcano lair.
Sunlight fell upon her fiery red scales, shining dazzlingly.
This trip out:
She cleared her mind, met some people, beat up a team, picked up treasure, and even picked up a human story along the way.
A huge profit.