Chapter 2: The Great Thief Dragon, King of Battles
The next day, the forest was shaded by trees. On a web slightly tattered from various reasons, a crow-like bird with a pitch-black body and a red crest on its head was wrapped tightly.
The loathed bird.
Jie Jie climbed up his web along the silk threads and saw the loathed bird opening its beak to emit an irritating call as a warning.
But he approached it unperturbed, circling around behind the bird before pouncing. With a sweep of his venomous fangs, he tore through the glossy feathers and pierced its body.
The bird struggled violently, but the tightening silk held firm as the spider’s legs embraced its prey with strength.
Gradually, the bird’s struggles weakened, and life quietly slipped away from its body.
Jie Jie began eating his breakfast, hoping this meal would not be disturbed.
However, contrary to his wishes, an unexpected sense of danger made all his hairs stand on end, resisting the hunger in his belly.
The web vibrated violently, a terrifying amplitude he had never encountered since arriving here, growing stronger with each passing moment. Even the dragonflies in the air, their tails turning red, flew about chaotically.
Something big was coming.
Jie Jie leaped onto a nearby tree, knowing if he returned to his ground nest, he’d surely be crushed. Yet, before leaving, he didn’t forget to snatch his unfinished breakfast.
Every day it’s like this; one can’t even eat in peace.
He remembered that the safest meal he ever ate was from the corpse of a thief dragon. Thief dragons have evolved far beyond the reach of most monsters’ appetites—no one would give them a second glance.
“Boom!”
A series of explosions echoed—the sound of trees being crushed.
Green hues quickly filled Jie Jie’s vision, replaced by yellow as he soared through the air alongside splinters of wood, finally landing in a “patch of grass.”
The ground continued to tremble. Jie Jie peeked out, only to find his breakfast gone. But that wasn’t important now; he started observing his surroundings.
This “yellow land” seemed composed of scales? And these “grasses” lacked any plant-like characteristics.
Such thoughts vanished instantly. Jie Jie abandoned self-deception; he was certain he was on a massive monster.
Yellow scales and mane—it had to be a Great Thief Dragon.
Thief dragons, as social carnivores, always have a leader in their pack who is much larger than the rest, known as the Great Thief Dragon.
But how big was this Great Thief Dragon?
Ten meters? Fifteen meters? It looked bigger than that.
Jie Jie glanced forward and backward while weaving his web and running across the madly sprinting Great Thief Dragon. Estimating its size at around twenty meters, there was no doubt it was a legendary Battle-Tested King Great Thief Dragon.
The Great Thief Dragon crashed through the dense forest, creating a path littered with shattered trees, followed by numerous smaller thief dragons.
Jie Jie caught glimpses of the thief dragon’s instincts. As the leader of the thief dragon pack, the Great Thief Dragon would hunt outside, swallow its prey, return to the group, and regurgitate food to share with the others.
If such a legendary Great Thief Dragon were his boss, transforming into a thief dragon would surely be much safer.
But for now, there was no rush.
Jie Jie worked hard to climb into the Great Thief Dragon’s mane atop its head—a prime spot for observation. From there, he perceived the Great Thief Dragon’s target.
That Poison Demon Bird.
But after seeing the Great Thief Dragon’s enormous size, the Poison Demon Bird’s cowardly nature took over, flapping its wings and fleeing in large strides.
The Great Thief Dragon did not chase after the Poison Demon Bird but instead ran toward the herbivore dragons also fleeing.
Where lush water and grass abound, many top-tier herbivores reside. The Poison Demon Bird, being herbivorous, posed no threat to them, so they weren’t driven away by it either.
Compared to the expelled Poison Demon Bird, this lush hunting ground was much more valuable.
Like a snake, the Great Thief Dragon unhinged its jaw to reveal a blood-filled mouth. A herbivore dragon smoothly slid down its expanded esophagus, directly falling into the Great Thief Dragon’s bloated belly.
With its belly full, the Great Thief Dragon slowed significantly, but the agile thief dragons leapt onto the herbivore dragons’ backs, hindering their escape.
The Great Thief Dragon slowly swallowed another herbivore dragon before leading the thief dragons back to their nest.
And Jie Jie, hiding in the Great Thief Dragon’s mane, followed them to the thief dragon nest.
Although since crossing over, he hadn’t stayed in one place to weave his web but rather intentionally roamed around, the distance the Great Thief Dragon covered on its way back to the nest exceeded what he had traveled in four days.
The thief dragons’ nest was a space surrounded and constructed with rocks, large fungi, and trees. The Great Thief Dragon, unusually larger than regular dragons, filled this space, often having to coil its body. The smaller thief dragons jumped onto large, hard fungi, eagerly watching their leader at the center of the nest.
Jie Jie also leaped from the Great Thief Dragon’s head to the dome formed by tree tops, finding a better vantage point as he wove his web and observed.
It was truly massive. An average Great Thief Dragon was ten meters long, but this one reached twenty meters, coiling its body within the nest.
If every Great Thief Dragon is a chosen one among thief dragons, then this Battle-Tested King Great Thief Dragon was the ultimate among the chosen.
Yet, the nest was quite dirty and disordered, old bones scattered everywhere, with fungi growing in the corners. Flies feeding on carrion buzzed around at the same height as him, and other spiders also weaved their webs in the corners.
Jie Jie focused on those bones. Bones could be considered traces, touching these unidentified species’ bones was akin to gambling. Unfortunately, he hadn’t found any concentrated bone tombs these past few days.
His gaze shifted from the bones because the Great Thief Dragon in the center of the nest moved.
Its spine arched high, chest tightened, and head lowered. Its massive mouth reopened—
“Gag, gag—”
With the throat pulsating and vomiting sounds, a herbivore dragon corpse, covered in some unknown sticky substance, was spat out.
The herbivore dragon’s corpse was unrecognizable due to corrosion, but Jie Jie knew this was the thief dragons’ favorite kind, though eating too much could cause stomach ulcers.
After all, the Great Thief Dragon’s stomach acid was much stronger than that of ordinary thief dragons.
Another herbivore dragon corpse was expelled from the Great Thief Dragon’s stomach, which it then smashed with its claws, leaving the remains behind before crawling out again.
Jie Jie pulled the silk strands left on the Great Thief Dragon, flying back to its mane to look behind.
The returning thief dragons and young ones fed on the food brought back by the Great Thief Dragon, staying to guard the nest while a new batch of adult thief dragons followed the Great Thief Dragon out to hunt again.
P.S.: New book, seek support—9
