They've already fought their way through the Holy Grail War, and you still call them dragons?

The giant dragon that emerged from the water brought an ancient box to the shore. Its golden eyes trembled and shone as it faced Norton, as if it was excited or ecstatic. The next second, it was about to roar to the sky to welcome the king's return!

"Wait a minute, lower your head."

The dragon immediately obeyed and lowered its head excitedly. Then it saw that the king, who was always majestic, was actually stroking its head kindly and gently.

This incredible scene caused the longing and gratitude accumulated over thousands of years to overflow like a surging river.

Suddenly, it heard the great king muttering to himself:

"'Split your thoughts', where do you start?"

"Ow?"

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Chapter 27 The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven World-Destroying Weapons

"Close your eyes and let your consciousness go to sleep."

The majestic king continued to give orders.

Although the dragon servant didn't understand why, as a "subject", he had to obey the order. He looked directly at Jiang and hypnotized himself. The next second, his whole body stopped moving and he fell asleep on the shore.

Norton observed the dragon servant's huge head and the brain inside with slow brain wave response.

After the Dragon Servant falls asleep, the neurons in his brain are no longer active.

Well, it’s much easier.

Norton wanted the dragon servant who had been guarding his hometown to cooperate with his experiment right from the start. It wasn't because he was simply cruel and ruthless, but because he really had a strong desire to explore the alchemy system he had never heard of - "Atlas Academy Alchemy".

The reason why Norton is known as the King of Bronze and Fire is that he has mastered unparalleled flames and extracted bronze from the depths of the earth - a recycled metal bronze that is reborn after being killed by perfect flames, and he has created countless bronze alchemical works with superb alchemy.

Including his hometown, Qingtongcheng, underwater in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.

How could such a top alchemy master remain indifferent to new alchemy?

"Emiya Shirou... I've truly met a remarkable human this time." Norton sighed inwardly as he pondered the wonders of alchemy.

As the immortal Dragon King, Norton has seen countless humans over the long years, some noble, some despicable, many mediocre and incompetent, and not a few ambitious or talented.

Even so, the only person who could make him so curious and even expectant was "Old Tang's good brother" Emiya Shirou.

——You should know that he is not the stupid idiot like Fenrir. He has never trusted any human before. Even though he used the pseudonym Li Xiong and assisted Gongsun Shu to proclaim himself emperor during the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties, he was just using him.

It was during that war-torn era that Norton took the opportunity to rebuild his home, his own Nibelungen - "White Emperor City" with bronze in the Yangtze River Basin, and lived a peaceful life with his brother Constantine.

However, Gongsun Shu was defeated and killed in battle, and Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu entered Sichuan. The mixed-blood families of Shenzhou arrived with their armies, forcing Norton to unleash his ultimate Word Spirit, Zhulong, to kill the enemy and protect himself. A devastating torrent of fire engulfed everything, and Baidi City sank underwater. He and his brother transformed into cocoons and fell into a deep sleep.

This time waking up alone in modern times was a bit of a surprise.

He had not awakened himself before, but was in a state of amnesia for a long time and mistakenly thought that he was a human being. After a long period of wandering, he gradually formed the personality of "Old Tang".

However, even though Lao Tang considers himself a human being, his essence as the Dragon King remains unchanged. He cannot integrate into human society and has been wandering alone for decades until he met Shirou Emiya.

"Magic Circuit... Split Thought..."

Norton had originally thought that developing a new system was a naive joke. Hadn't countless brilliant minds throughout history attempted to break free from their shackles? Yes, but for various reasons, their efforts were never widespread and became mere empty talk.

The Nibelungen Project at the current Kassel Academy is also an example of a near-abortion.

But Emiya's system was completely different. Norton's sharp and insightful observations revealed that magic circuits were more than simple alchemical formations.

Those people in the Zhou family think that magic circuits are living things similar to life.

But Norton saw it more clearly. This circuit is essentially a pathway connecting the soul and the body.

The magic circuit, an alchemical matrix, is very similar to the nervous system. It extends to every corner of the body along with the blood circulation throughout the body. It uses soul interference as an engine to absorb elements from life or the outside world and convert them into an elemental flow called "magic power".

...From Norton's Dragon King-level perspective, everything in the world is made up of elements. Compared with the common and stable material elements in the world, magic is a more active and easy-to-use energy element.

"And with a strong enough soul, the magical power of transformation is like a mighty river!"

Norton's pure golden pupils suddenly lit up, and a terrifying aura soared into the sky. The dense magic power in his body overflowed and formed a thrust to interfere with the external elements, stirring up a gust of wind visible to the naked eye. The sleeping dragon servant also seemed to sense the abyss-like magic power of his master, and subconsciously contracted his dragon body and trembled.

Norton snapped his fingers again, and the overflowing magic power instantly turned into the blazing flames of the jubilant fire element. He turned into a dazzling, burning fireball, a small sun rising from the earth out of thin air. The high temperature stirred up violent heat convection, burning the grass and trees into ashes quickly, and causing the river water near the shore to rapidly heat up, boil and evaporate.

And this was not the spirit of words, nor was it the burning field he created with the authority of the Dragon King. It was just a little bit of magic power that overflowed.

Sure enough, without the "power" possessed by his brother Constantine, the other twin of the King of Bronze and Fire, he could still go further with only "power".

Magical energy release (fire).

Norton named the skill with considerable satisfaction, then looked at the dragon servant's head, illuminated by the firelight. He stretched out his hands, which had transformed into scorching flaming claws.

He had actually carefully considered the split thinking technique described by Emiya and the existing magic circuit system.

In his opinion, the two have similarities. Split thinking should require the use of multiple "thinking circuits" composed of some kind of alchemical array to accommodate the new personalities that are separated.

It's nothing more than a mental transformation of the brain, which is a huge problem for humans. The most humans can do is to refine the spirit into the philosopher's stone, but for the Dragon King who is famous for his alchemy and can process living things at will, it is a piece of cake.

With the help of the incomparable flame, the exquisite alchemical field covered the dragon servant's brain. After just a moment, the circuits connected by the alchemical array were successfully connected, making the brain nerves rapidly active.

The dragon servant woke up in a daze. He felt that his thinking had become extremely sharp, and there were strange multiple voices in his mind. Hmm... it seemed that they were all himself?

Norton's face showed joy, he verified the correctness of his guess!

The next moment, he pointed at himself.

The dragon servant looked at the king's actions in confusion. It had never seen such alchemy technology before, but the king's level had already reached a realm that it could not fathom, so it did not find it strange that he came up with new technology.

Boom!

The light on Norton's body suddenly went out, and the world fell into darkness, but his spiritual power rose sharply. The dragon servant was so frightened that he almost fell into the surging Yangtze River.

Good! Norton looked at the invisible and huge domain released by his human body and almost roared with excitement.

His brain was now whirring with multiple thought processes, the trajectory of everything in its path inevitably coming into view. Every fluttering green leaf, every subtle movement of dust, was foreseeable. He gazed further into the "distance," witnessing ever-increasing future vistas, branching out like a tree along the long river of time.

The powerful computational thinking brought about by this split thinking exponentially improved his thinking ability. Just by simply "looking", he could clearly see the future. He even knew how to reach a higher level in alchemy!

Isn’t this much more powerful than Yan Ling Tian Yan?

Norton looked back at his past works, the conceptual weapon "Seven Deadly Sins" created with seven concepts with the goal of killing other dragon kings.

The golden eyes flickered slightly, revealing dissatisfaction.

This level of purity is totally unacceptable.

With his current ability to calculate the future, his efficiency in creating and improving alchemical products is incomparable. His creations should be worthy of a greater goal - to kill the strongest supreme being of the dragon clan, the Black King!

To this end, he wants to create seven weapons that are powerful enough to destroy the world!

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Chapter 28 Old Tang: I Know What I Am

The Black King is the creator of the entire dragon race, the great king and father. He is also the biological father of the first generation - the four kings.

Of course, father is just a way of saying it. The Black King gave birth to the four kings through self-reproduction or direct creation, and there is no distinction between father and mother.

In the ancient mythological era, the Black King ruled over all dragons with terrifying strength and a strict hierarchical system.

In that era, dragons erected magnificent bronze pillars reaching heaven, magnificent and prosperous cities across every continent, and even mysterious temples connected to the cloud-tops via towering towers. Broad, solid imperial roads spanned endless oceans and vast lands, connecting city to city, creating a grandeur that betokened the grandeur of a civilization far beyond the ancient times.

However, this also made the Black King's majesty radiate from the throne in the north of the earth, making all dragons, from the nobles to the lower classes, under the high pressure of supreme power.

This eventually led to a collective rebellion among the dragons.

After several rebellions, the Black King was killed. On the day of his death, humans, who were then dragon slaves and servants, ascended a towering throne built of icebergs, bathed in the red rain of dragon blood, and cheered, declaring that a "new era" would begin from then on.

But first-generation monarchs like Norton knew that the Black King, their father, was a monster born from the planet itself. Even if he was killed, the Black Emperor would return again and take revenge on the rebels.

To do this, Norton must be prepared.

In the past, the purpose of creating the Seven Deadly Sins was to kill the other Dragon Kings - his brothers and sisters. After refining the Dragon Bone Cross, he devoured power and strength and gradually became stronger in order to face the returning Black King.

But if you think about it carefully, whether it is the monarch who controls the four elements of fire, water, earth and wind, or the White King who controls the spiritual element, they are all just the works of the Black King. Can this method - simply combining the Black King's creations into one - really defeat the Supreme?

No, I'm afraid not.

Norton, whose thinking ability is now almost able to predict the future, decisively denied it. Bloodline and words have their limits. It is extremely difficult to approach the level of the Black King, let alone kill the Black King?

But alchemy is different.

Alchemy is the "science and technology" of dragon civilization and the means by which they observe the finite high-dimensional universe. The isolated secret realm of Nibelung and the incredible seven kingdoms are both technological products of alchemy reaching a certain level.

In the field of alchemy, the Black King is only the pinnacle, not the highest. As long as we continue to research and develop alchemy, it is not impossible to surpass the Black King.

Norton remembered the motto of Atlas Academy mentioned by Emiya:

[We don’t need to become the strongest ourselves, we just need to create the strongest. ]

So he suddenly figured it out, a kind of enlightenment, like a sudden enlightenment, broke through the complex thoughts flashing in his mind and turned into an unprecedented flash of inspiration -

"Using pure alchemy to create the strongest, this is the path you should choose!"

The dragon servant on the shore looked at his king's expression changing constantly, sometimes solemn and sometimes ecstatic, with boredom. He thought that his king was worthy of being the one who was most similar to the Black Emperor among the four monarchs. Not only was his alchemy at the pinnacle, but even his mood was so difficult to guess.

But what on earth did my king do to me? The dragon servant began to turn his brain, which had been unused for thousands of years and was almost rusty. He always felt that his mind was too active and chaotic thoughts were flashing frequently.

Suddenly, it saw Norton throw over a human-made paper world map.

"Oh?" The dragon servant's huge head moved a little and gently pressed down on the paper. A large bright red cross was marked on it, indicating a place in North Africa called the Atlas Mountains, facing the Sahara.

Norton instructed the dragon servant, "Leave Bronze City and go to this place."

The dragon servant's eyes widened in confusion. What did he mean? That place was nothing but a continuous expanse of bare rocky mountains and the Gobi Desert. Could it be that my king no longer needed his subjects? Was he planning to exile me?

But not.

"...In this uninhabited area, dig a cave underground. Once it's finished, I'll arrange for Samson to take Constantine with him, and there we'll rebuild our home... The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River here are no longer the fortified Kuimen of thousands of years ago. They've long been teeming with human footprints, and are no longer the tranquil haven we envisioned."

Norton opened his arms wide, his eyes gleaming with light. His tone revealed strong confidence and a hint of expectation. "I will build an underground city there and call it... Atlas Courtyard."

----

Old Tang really kept his word. He said he would go out for a few days to do some business, but he returned to Zhou's house after only two days. He was laughing and giving small gifts to acquaintances while carrying a large black hard shell box in his other hand and went straight to Emiya's room.

Seeing him so radiant and full of pride, someone who didn't know him would have thought he was a groom after getting married...

"Brother Emiya, you really can't accuse me of being unfair this time!"

Old Tang patted Emiya, who was usually tinkering with projection magic, hard, making the latter bang, "Look! What I brought you!"

The black box snapped open, and streams of dark gold light streamed out through the cracks, revealing a collection of alchemical swords, each a breathtaking sight, seemingly alive. They were razor-sharp blades, each in a variety of shapes: a saber, a Tang sword, a Han eight-sided straight sword, a katana, an Atkan longsword, a Scottish broadsword, and a wakizashi, seven in all.

Emiya's attention was immediately drawn. By this point, he had already seen almost every sword in the Zhou family's inventory, and he had an instinctive response to powerful weapons. His lips moved subconsciously, and he silently muttered, "Synchronize, begin..."

The moment he analyzed it, a flood of information flooded into Emiya's mind: Pride, envy, wrath, laziness, greed, gluttony, lust... the seven deadly sins! The concept of these seven Christian original sins was perfectly integrated into the Noble Phantasm.

This was the first time Emiya had seen the "Anti-Original Sin Special Attack" Noble Phantasm. Using all seven together could unleash a new effect, "Sin and Punishment"—

What about the combined power of the seven swords?

"But, Old Tang, this gift is a bit too expensive..."

"Hey, who are we to each other? If you hadn't helped me, Old Tang, I would still be living in the slums and starving."

"That being said, you managed to bring back such a heavyweight Noble Phantasm in just two days. Could it be that you're just... incredibly lucky again?"

"Oh... Actually, there are some tricks here." Old Tang suppressed his smile and said seriously, "Brother Emiya, I'm going to be frank with you - I want to tell you something. Don't be afraid after listening to it."

"It's okay, Old Tang. I'm well-informed and I'm not afraid no matter what you say."

"Well, here I am," Old Tang, sensing the tense atmosphere, did two sets of chest expansion exercises, cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and stood still. "Actually... I might know what I am..."

Realizing that the next words were not simple, Emiya widened his eyes slightly, raised his eyebrows, and held his breath.

Old Tang spoke in a deep voice. His playful face, with eyebrows always drooping, now looked solemn and serious:

"My true identity is an alchemist from the Atlas Academy."

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Chapter 29 I don’t want to be a master anymore

"what?"

Emiya stared at Old Tang's long, delicate face, his eyes almost dizzy, but he didn't notice anything unusual.