I Became an Evolving Lizard in a Martial Arts Novel-Chapter 293

Calling a wyvern a dragon is like calling a cat a tiger.

It would make more sense to call an imugi a dragon.

At least an imugi could be considered a leopard.

To be honest, I didn’t think the difference between lower dragons and middle dragons would be that significant.

After all, the only lower dragon I knew was the Basilisk of the Serpent Queen.

Despite being a lower dragon, it had been stronger than the Red Dragon before his awakening, and even now, it could maintain a fifty percent win rate.

If the Serpent Queen held a dragon pearl, that would make her a true dragon.

But seeing another lower dragon changed my perspective.

A lower dragon with brass-colored scales.

Lacking front legs, it used its developed wings as substitutes.

It wanted to resemble a dragon, but it couldn't escape the limitations of a wyvern.

So this was the average lower dragon?

Thankfully, I evolved twice in a row, or I might have ended up like that.

“Gek-gek.”

I bound the fallen wyvern tightly.

Pus and Nephila’s spiderwebs were always useful since I could find them just by lifting one of my scales.

“What should I ask first?”

Since I had kidnapped an underling of the Ice Dragon, I could extract information now.

“Ugh... Huh? Cough! W-what?! Why am I in a place like this...?!”

Of course, there was no way the creature I had just met would be trustworthy, but I wasn’t too worried.

Fwoosh.

After all, I had the best search engine—Scorch.

“I’ll talk!”

“No need.”

“W-what?”

Fwoooosh!

“I-I’ll tell you everything!”

A slight burn from the Red Dragon’s flames was enough to make the wyvern compliant.

I thought it would have some resistance to fire, being a dragon species, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Well, a wyvern wouldn’t be able to endure a dragon’s fire anyway.

“Now we can have a conversation.”

The wyvern let out a sigh of relief as it looked at its singed scales, narrowly avoiding being roasted alive.

“Divine Beast, do you have anything you want to ask first?”

“Gek-gek.”

Of course.

That was what I was most curious about.

What was up with the carriage, and why had it been talking to it?

“Hmm... Normally, I’d take the Divine Beast’s side, but... I don’t think you should ask about that.”

“Gek?”

“I believe in maintaining a minimum level of dignity.”

The wyvern’s pale complexion returned to normal.

Did it think we weren’t as heinous as it had feared?

It seemed to be under a strange misconception.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Whether we’d let it off or not depended entirely on what it said.

For now, I decided to start with basic personal information.

“I may not look like it... but I’m actually not from the Central Plains.”

The wyvern glanced around nervously as if it had just revealed something major.

But it was obvious just from looking at it that it wasn’t from the Central Plains.

After all, wyverns didn’t exist in the Central Plains.

“So... I used to live in a place known as the Western Region here. Endless plains, delicious flocks of sheep, and all sorts of carriages traveling the roads... That’s my homeland.”

It suddenly started talking about its hometown.

And its expression... It looked as if it had just revealed something incredibly significant.

“Gekek.”

What kind of face was that?

“H-hiek!”

Chomp.

Snap.

I made a biting motion, as usual.

Of course, since I wasn’t a tiny lizard anymore...

Craaaack.

Boom!

It made quite the sound.

“H-heok!”

The wyvern trembled, its wings shaking.

“I-isn’t this what you wanted? I-I heard this was high-level information...! E-even the Ice Dragon told us not to reveal this to outsiders....”

Ice Dragon?

Now that was an interesting name.

I nodded slightly, signaling it to continue.

“Are... Are you looking for the Ice Dragon—? No, forget I said that!”

The wyvern had tried to ask me a question but quickly swallowed its words as if it had glimpsed its own future.

It was finally starting to understand the situation.

“There are quite a few spirit beasts in a similar situation as me. We were captured from outside the Central Plains, and now we serve under the Ice Dragon. The Ice Dragon also forbade us from leaking any information about the gathered spirit beasts from the Western Region...!”

The Ice Dragon was a Western dragon.

That explained why its underling was a wyvern.

But why go to such lengths to hide it?

And they had been captured?

Crunch!

“Kyaak!”

The Red Dragon, apparently unable to listen any longer, lightly stomped on the wyvern’s tail.

“Stop circling around the subject and tell us everything you know about the Ice Dragon.”

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His expression was entirely different from before—his eyes were truly those of a dragon.

“I-I understand! H-hngh....”

Most beasts would freeze just from looking into those eyes.

“The Ice Dragon is a powerful spirit beast that once ruled over my homeland’s ecosystem. His strength was truly at the level of an upper dragon.”

An upper dragon, huh?

It seems like that thing is a step above both me and the Red Dragon.

But if we’re talking purely about combat power, the difference isn’t that significant.

Both the Red Dragon and I are spirit beasts that have long since surpassed the normal realm of Hwa-gyeong.

If the two of us worked together, taking down the Ice Dragon wouldn’t be difficult.

The problem is that it’s not alone—it has the Thunderbird with it.

“Despite possessing such immense power, it never wielded it recklessly. Back then, the Ice Dragon was someone that both humans and spirit beasts alike could respect.”

The Red Dragon’s expression darkened.

“Didn’t wield its power recklessly?”

Because of the Ice Dragon, the Red Dragon had been separated from her sister.

And the unerasable scar she bore—the one that had left her heart frozen—was also because of it.

“...Keep going.”

But now, that scar was gone.

She hadn’t forgotten her grudge, but she wasn’t consumed by it either.

That was the Lizamoun I knew.

“Ahem, that one... might have been a true dragon. But I’ll continue. The Ice Dragon lived in peace for a long time, but at some point, it lost the wisdom and clarity it once had.”

“Yeah, figures.”

“...After joining hands with that strange Thunderbird, it began attacking its own kind indiscriminately. Eventually, it started a war.”

That must have been when the Red Dragon’s parents were killed.

And it was the Ice Dragon that had chased the fleeing Red Dragon sisters to the ends of the earth.

“So, what happened after the war?”

“Even after it ended, the Ice Dragon never regained its former clarity. It was as if something had taken hold of it—its actions became more and more obsessive.”

“In what way?”

The Red Dragon asked her question in a detached, methodical manner.

In the past, she wouldn’t have been able to restrain herself—this wyvern would have already been burned to ashes.

“...For the Ice Dragon, lower dragons like me weren’t a significant force. It never paid us much attention. But after the war, it suddenly started rounding up wyverns like me without restraint.”

Was the wyvern saying that it had nothing to do with the tragedy that had occurred?

It could have been lying, having noticed the Red Dragon’s wounds, but... it didn’t seem smart enough for that.

“It captured them and made them into subordinates? For what purpose?”

“...Those of us who could fly served as messengers, carrying news between the Central Plains and the Western Region. The ones who couldn’t... simply became part of its army.”

“Its army? What for? The war was over, and it had already taken the dragon cores. There was no one left who could threaten the Ice Dragon, was there?”

At that, the wyvern glanced around nervously.

It was checking if anyone else was listening.

I could tell it was about to reveal something far more important than anything it had said so far, so I focused.

“...The Ice Dragon never took the dragon cores it won in the war.”

“It didn’t take them?”

“Yes. ...I told you I traveled between the Central Plains and the Western Region, didn’t I? During those trips, I was tasked with transporting heavily sealed objects.”

It nervously glanced around again before continuing in a hushed voice.

“...I didn’t know what was inside, but another wyvern once tried to steal one of those cases. During the struggle, the case was accidentally opened... and inside was a dragon core. Which means everything I transported must have been spirit beast cores.”

A dragon from the Western Region had been sending other dragons’ cores to the Central Plains.

What did that mean?

True Dragon.

The dragon cores had all been sent to a True Dragon.

The Red Dragon remained silent for a long moment.

Her shoulders trembled slightly, so I wrapped my tail around her waist.

“...Divine Beast, you really didn’t need to do that.”

She smiled faintly, as if comforted.

“But even if the Ice Dragon didn’t take the cores, it still doesn’t change the fact that nothing poses a threat to it anymore. So why is it gathering forces? What exactly are those troops doing?”

“That’s...”

The wyvern trailed off.

It really didn’t want to answer this one.

Fwooosh.

But of course, one quick burn from Scorch fixed that.

“...We were tasked with tracking down those who carried the blood of dragons.”

“The blood of dragons?”

“Yes. The once-wise Ice Dragon was consumed by fear. It was convinced that one day, a being would appear that would bring the world to ruin, and it had to kill that being before it could rise.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I don’t know the full details, but I do know that it didn’t stop at lower dragons. It hunted anything that could be even remotely related—crocodiles, snakes, lizards. If they weren’t taken in as subordinates, they were killed outright.”

Was this why the Ice Dragon had pursued the Red Dragon and her younger sister to the bitter end?

I didn’t know the exact reason, but it seemed to be obsessed with eliminating anything that carried a dragon’s bloodline.

“...Back then, the Ice Dragon—no, the Ice Dragon was more of a beast than a dragon. It kept muttering that death would come, that no matter how high or low their status, all dragons had to be eliminated to prevent its descent. And so, it froze the entire continent.”

The more I heard, the less it made sense.

Considering its connection to the True Dragon, I could at least tell that someone had been pulling the strings.

“All dragons had to die? Then how are you still alive?”

Something wasn’t adding up.

It had hunted down even snakes and lizards, yet somehow, it had spared a wyvern?

“...We were meant to die eventually too, but by some miracle, the Ice Dragon came to its senses.”

“It came to its senses?”

Hadn’t it lost its clarity?

“I’m not sure why. But... after confirming that a single, small lizard had died, the Ice Dragon suddenly withdrew the order to kill all dragons.”

A small lizard?

Something felt off.

Lizards were cold-blooded creatures. Their hearts didn’t race easily.

Even in extreme situations, they remained steady.

So why was my heart pounding right now?

“A lizard? Be specific. What kind of lizard was it?”

“Just a common gecko. It had green scales and an unusually long tail, but nothing else remarkable.”

......

Green scales.

An unusually long tail.

Was it just a coincidence that it matched the form I had when I first hatched?