Another World: The Failed Magician

As Lu Xuan was still pondering, the wooden bridge behind him had completely vanished. The abyss was now close behind him.

But Lu Xuan seemed oblivious, and remained in place for a while longer.

He then slowly sat cross-legged on the spot, and the bottle of precious dragon blood was placed in front of him, within easy reach.

But he didn't extend his hands, remaining seated blankly. No one knew what he was thinking at that moment.

Then the last piece of the wooden bridge beneath Lu Xuan's feet vanished. He instantly plummeted down and was swallowed by the abyss.

Just after Lu Xuan fell, the wooden bridge, which had disappeared, miraculously returned to its original state. And the bottle of dragon blood remained standing in the same spot.

Because the entire environment was shrouded in darkness, it was impossible to tell how much time had passed. Another figure ran frantically and reappeared where Lu Xuan had just been.

The wooden bridge behind him began to disappear gradually and slowly approached him.

Clearly, the man's physical strength had reached its limit, but when he saw the dragon blood placed in front of him, his previously tired and dull eyes instantly burst forth with an amazing light.

He frantically grabbed the bottle of dragon blood and poured it into his mouth without a second thought.

In the blink of an eye, the man had finished the entire bottle of dragon blood.

Then, the man's tired appearance vanished, and his previously lifeless eyes suddenly burst forth with golden light, his gaze filled with arrogance.

An aura unique to dragons spread around the man, and the vanishing wooden bridge stopped disappearing after touching this aura.

The approaching abyss slowly receded.

A massive, silver-white gate appeared before the man. Two graceful, silver-white dragons were carved on the gate.

The man's eyes lit up with excitement upon seeing the massive gate.

He knew he had completed the trial.

His family spared no expense to send him to this trial ground left behind by the former Ancestral Dragon Empire.

Legend has it that once you reach the end of the trial, you will find a bottle of dragon blood of the Dragon King level. If you drink the dragon blood and a giant gate appears before you, it means you have succeeded in the trial.

The man clenched his fists tightly, clearly feeling the dragon blood flowing through his veins. His face was full of smiles.

He then made a small cut on his hand and smeared his blood on the giant gate.

The moment the blood touched the giant gate, the two silver dragons imprinted on it burst forth with a silvery-white light. They also slowly unfurled their wings, which had initially drooped. The two dragons began to rotate on the giant gate.

After a dazzling white light, a blurry giant dragon appeared before the man's eyes.

Upon seeing the dragon's blurry silhouette, the man felt an instant surge of desire to submit.

He slowly knelt on one knee and lowered his head to show his submission.

As if sensing the man's submission, the dragon's blurry form slowly lowered its head, its gaze fixed on the man beneath its feet, who appeared as insignificant as an ant.

Then, a golden light flashed in its eyes and shone on the man.

In that instant, the man felt a memory flood his mind.

His memory contained a cultivation technique unique to humans like him who had received dragon blood, a technique that they could also practice.

It is an extremely powerful cultivation technique. According to my memory, the final stage of cultivation can even allow one to completely discard their human body and transform into a true giant dragon.

After receiving this memory, the man's face was full of excitement.

He had heard before that a trace of the Dragon God's will was buried here.

If the person who passes the trial has a high compatibility with the dragon's blood, they will attract the attention of the Dragon God's will and be given corresponding rewards.

However, since this trial itself requires an enormous amount of wealth to begin, even small families in the Silver Dragon Empire could not afford it, no matter how much they gave.

Therefore, very few people are able to start this trial each year. In addition, very few people can reach the end of the trial, so many people believe that the so-called reward from the Dragon God is a lie.

The thought of this made it hard for the man to suppress his excitement, even under the pressure of the Dragon God.

Fortunately, the Dragon God's oppressive aura did not last long; after a short while, the blurry dragon figure vanished without a trace.

The once silent giant gate was now quiet again.

The man pinched himself hard, and the pain shot through him instantly.

After confirming that everything was real, the man couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Hahaha!"

But just as the man burst into laughter, the giant door slowly opened.

The man knew that this meant the trial was over, and now he only needed to cross the giant gate to return to the Silver Dragon Empire.

The man stopped smiling in just over ten seconds, and his expression gradually became indifferent.

The man's previous manic behavior had completely changed. Now he seemed no different from a normal person.

However, his originally normal pupils have turned into vertical pupils.

He slowly walked towards the giant gate.

……

Lu Xuan slowly opened his eyes and immediately looked around.

He looked puzzled when he found himself in an ordinary study.

In his memory, he should have been swallowed by the abyss just a moment ago. So how did he end up here?

Lu Xuan was unsure of his current situation. After examining his body, he found that apart from not being able to use magic, there was nothing wrong with his body.

He began to look around, examining the ordinary furniture around him, trying to find some clues.

However, after searching for a while, Lu Xuan concluded that it was just an ordinary study.

He stood in front of the bookshelf, browsing through the arranged books. He found they were all basic books related to magic. After browsing through them all, he indeed didn't find any unusual books.

Lu Xuan picked up two books at random and sat down at the desk, carefully flipping through their contents.

As time passed, Lu Xuan closed the book in his hands.

He indeed found nothing unusual; the contents of the book were indeed some basic magical knowledge.

After confirming everything, Lu Xuan got up and walked towards the door.

He placed his hand on the doorknob, deciding to leave the study. But no matter how hard Lu Xuan tried, he couldn't open the seemingly ordinary wooden door.

After a long while, the door remained closed, and Lu Xuan found himself covered in sweat.

After trying twice and still not being able to open the door, Lu Xuan returned to the chair in front of his desk and slumped into it.

The room was completely quiet; the only sound was Lu Xuan's own breathing.

At first, Lu Xuan enjoyed the environment, but as time went by, unease slowly crept into his heart.

A pure white figure kept appearing in Lu Xuan's mind.

Lu Xuan began to worry about Li Mengyu.

After noticing this feeling, Lu Xuan was somewhat confused.

First of all, Li Mengyu is quite strong, and given that she is in the Loca Federation and has Dean White's care, I shouldn't have any reason to worry about her.

Even after explaining this to himself, Lu Xuan still couldn't shake off his worries.

Lu Xuan stood up again, piled all the books on the bookshelf together, and placed them on the table.

After a while, the hundreds of books that were originally on the bookshelf were all piled up on the table by Lu Xuan, looking like a small mountain.

Lu Xuan took one of the books and started reading.

Fortunately, each book wasn't very thick, and the content consisted mainly of basic, common magic. Lu Xuan was able to finish one book quickly.

After putting the book he had finished reading back on the bookshelf, he sat back down at his desk and took out the next one to read.

And so on and on.

As time went by, the once empty bookshelves gradually returned to their original state. And the mountain of books on the desk was reduced to just a few.

After Lu Xuan closed the last book and put it back on the bookshelf.

He slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

He instinctively looked out the window, but found he couldn't see anything.

Being in such a strange space, I could no longer feel the passage of time.

Lu Xuan himself didn't know how long it took him to finish reading all these books.

Just as Lu Xuan was wondering what to do next, a seat appeared at the other end of the desk without him noticing.

When Lu Xuan looked up, he saw a kind-looking old man with white hair sitting in a chair, looking at him with a comforting smile.

Upon seeing the old man, Lu Xuan immediately asked him directly.

"where is this place?"

Faced with Lu Xuan's rather impolite question.

The old man showed no anger whatsoever. Instead, he replied in a very gentle tone, "This is a special space that I created during my lifetime."

"In life?"

"My original body has been dead for many years. What remains here is just a consciousness that may disappear at any time."

"Do you know how to get out of here? I've tried many times before but I can't get out of this room."

The old man didn't answer the question directly. Instead, he asked in return, "Why are you in such a hurry to leave? Since you've come here, you must have your purpose. Is it really okay for you to leave like this?"

The old man's words were somewhat enlightening for Lu Xuan.

Yes, he came here to break the curse, but Lu Xuan was completely confused after the trial began. He still doesn't understand what happened.

"I came here to find a way to break the dragon's curse on me."

"Why do you think that?"

After hearing the old man's words, Lu Xuan thought for a while before saying, "Because my strength is stuck at the advanced mage level and I can't advance any further. A person I respect very much told me that it's possible I'm under a dragon's curse. So I came to this trial to find a solution."

"What good would it do to break the curse?"

Faced with the old man's question, Lu Xuan didn't know how to answer for a moment.

Seeing Lu Xuan remain silent, the old man's kind expression vanished, and he said seriously, "Even if the curse of the dragon within you is lifted, so what? Six years ago, you were full of vigor and couldn't even defeat that person. Now, even if the curse is lifted, so what?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Xuan's expression turned somewhat ugly.

How do you know my memories?

"This is a space I created. You are in this space, and I can read your memories. Isn't that perfectly reasonable?"

"So the reason you didn't appear before was because you were reading my memories, right?"

"correct."

As he spoke, the old man regained his kind demeanor.

"So can I understand it this way: the reason I'm trapped here is also because you did it on purpose?"

The old man nodded.

"If your answer satisfies me, I will not only lift your curse, but also let you leave this place."

"So now tell me, if I break the curse for you, what can you do? Can you promise me that if I break the curse for you, you can defeat the person who crushed what you were so proud of six years ago?"

Lu Xuan remained silent after hearing this.

Tell me! What's your answer?

"I'm sorry! I can't make that promise to you."

"Why!"

At this moment, that familiar scene flashed through Lu Xuan's mind again.

Inside a magnificent, golden hall, he was utterly defeated and knocked to the ground after exhausting all his strength.

Those golden pupils are still a nightmare he can't shake off.

So what if I broke the curse myself? Can I really defeat that kind of monster?

Lu Xuan asked himself this question in his mind.

Lu Xuan couldn't imagine how he would defeat that terrifying monster.

After taking a deep breath.

Lu Xuancai calmed down.

"Because I don't think I can keep this promise, I can't defeat that guy. Even if the curse is lifted, I still don't think I can defeat him."

After saying all this, Lu Xuan felt a little better.

After hearing this, the old man was not angry at all; instead, a faint smile appeared on his lips.

"Yes. The more you see those monsters, the more you realize how insignificant humanity is. The more you understand them, the more you realize how incapable you are of defeating them."

"Since you know your own weakness, why are you unwilling to accept the dragon's blood? You have had two opportunities in your life to change yourself. Why did you give them up? Why didn't you seize them?"

Lu Xuan looked at the old man seriously and said, "I have witnessed the terror of dragons, but I have also witnessed their greed and filth. I will not give up my human identity to accept that dirty blood."

"Humans may indeed seem weak to those monsters, but that is not a reason for me to abandon my human identity. I am human, I was born human, so I can only die as a human. The race engraved on my tombstone can only be human."