Ascent of Hero on the Dragon Throne

Rocky Bai woke up in a sweat, confusion filling his wide eyes. It felt like he had just woken up from a nightmare. Gasping for air, he soon noticed something was amiss. His arms held him up at once. The scene coming into his eyes knocked him down like a feather.

He was greeted with the sight of a luxurious and splendid room decked with classic decoration. There were no lamps or lights in here, but it was as bright as day. He was lying in a comfortable bed with a golden silk quilt, white tulle encircling it on all sides. Rocky Bai felt like he was lying on an imperial bed. Through the white tulle, Rocky Bai could see plenty of gold and jade objects on a cabinet. He could tell that each of them was worth at least a million.

Everything Rocky Bai saw caught him by surprise, and then a sudden thought popped into his head: 'Where am I?" What he last remembered was being on the way to a meeting. He had been invited by the International Animal Genome Center to deliver a keynote speech. Rocky Bai, a young and talented scholar in the field of gene study, ranked number one among his peers. No one in the whole world could surpass him in the field of gene study until now. While he was on the flight heading for the venue, an aircraft accident occurred right before he passed out. Now, he was in a strange room.

It was impossible that this was hell. But if this was heaven, how could everything around him feel so real? Wasn't it said that only the soul could go to heaven when someone died? Souls couldn't feel anything physically, right? But his senses were so real and substantial. He could feel not only the softness and comfort of the bed, but also the warmth coming from someone under the quilt next to him.

Rocky was shocked to find someone lying next to him. Cautiously, he slowly opened the quilt, hoping not to awaken his companion. He was greeted with the sight of an elegant female body. She was lying in his arms. From where Rocky was, he could only see half of her face. Despite that, he could tell the girl in his arms was only about sixteen.

He observed her for a while. She was dressed in a white night robe and wore golden ornaments on her head, wrists and feet. She looked imperial, like she had been born into the lap of luxury.

Rocky could not help but swallow nervously. He thought he was really in heaven. Otherwise, how could he have such a beauty be sleeping in his arms? A smile crept over his lips as he was wondering what other benefits he would get in heaven.

Dirty thoughts came into his head. All of a sudden, the girl groaned faintly in her sleep and shifted her position. Her face left Rocky's shoulder as she turned to the other side. Rocky froze as he saw her features. Her face was like a masterpiece of God.

Without any makeup, her features were as delicate as a porcelain doll. Her eyelashes, long and curly, fluttered as she breathed. She had an incredibly cute upturned nose, and her rosebud lips looked as sweet as candies, alluring Rocky to have a taste. Although she was young, she carried an enchanting air with mature femininity. He could tell thousands of men would pursue her when she grew up.

'Stop Rocky! Stop staring at her! She is only a young girl! What the hell are you thinking about her?' Rocky shook his head and quit looking at her right away. His face flushed as his heart pounded. He was a man in his thirties after all. He still could control himself even with such a beauty next to him. He tried to calm down by reminding himself that she was only a little girl for his age, and guilt flooded his chest.

"But where am I now?" Rocky murmured to himself, looking around. Logically, he should have died in the aircraft accident, but he was safe and sound right now.

While he was immersed in his thoughts, the girl next to him suddenly woke up. Her round eyes slowly opened. Rocky was stunned by her again. Nobody in the world could refuse the charm sparkling in her attractive eyes.

"Hello! You're awake! Could you tell me where I am, please? And why are we lying here together? Do we...? You know, do we...?" Rocky stammered awkwardly. He unconsciously smiled as soon as he saw the girl awaken.

The girl froze when she heard Rocky. Soon, her eyes were filled with concern as her brows knitted together. She reached out her ivory hand and put it on his forehead to feel his temperature as she asked, "Basil, are you all right? Was your head damaged by the high fever? What are you talking about? I have told you I don't need you to pick up my hanky from the pond, but you just ignored me and insisted on doing it anyway! And look at you now! Priest Dean even said that the gods can't save you from the fever this time. And he said death would take you sooner or later. God bless you. You've woken up now!"

What the girl said puzzled Rocky further. Who was the Basil she mentioned? Was it him? The girl seemed to know him well, but Rocky knew for certain that he had never met her in his life.

"I'd better to call Priest Dean to check you again," the girl said as she got off the bed. She ran to the door in a hurry without adjusting her clothes and hair.

"Hey! Hey!" When Rocky reacted and tried to stop her, the girl had left the room already.

He got out of the bed as well. Looking around the room, he felt like he was in a private chamber of an ancient palace.

All of a sudden, Rocky felt that something was wrong with his body. It was like he was walking on the air. As he raised his arm, he saw his muscular arm had turned into a slender one, like a slim branch. And he could tell that his height had changed as well. He felt like he had grown shorter!

In order to verify the way he felt, Rocky went to the right side of the bed as he noticed a mirror hung over there. As he got closer and closer, a fragile and bony figure gradually appeared in the oval mirror inset with shining diamonds. The young but pale face in the mirror looked as though death were upon him. His figure was as lean as a young tree, as if a gust of wind could blow him away.

"Holy moly! Who the hell is that!?" Rocky cried out as he saw himself in the mirror.

As Rocky was screaming, the boy in the mirror also opened his mouth. Rocky's eyes widened. Slowly, he brought up his hands towards his face. The boy in the mirror followed his movements exactly. He slowly touched his skinny face from the forehead to the chin. He could not recognize any part of this face.

Rocky was dumbfounded. This was not his face. He looked at the mirror carefully. His reflection really was this unfamiliar boy! Something must be wrong with his eyes.

"Priest Dean, please hurry up!" at this moment, a sweet and anxious voice rang out outside the room.

"Your Royal Highness, if it weren't for your sake, I wouldn't have wasted my dragon spiritual power to call his soul back to his body with the spiritual method of the Dragon Master Clan. Since he is already awake, he will be fine. No need to be so anxious. What's more, though he is a prince, he does not have the bloodline of the royal family. He is nothing, even His Majesty ignores him. Why would you care about him so much?" Rocky heard another voice, this one old and loud with very apparent disdain and annoyance.

"Don't say that. Basil could not bond with the dragon spiritual power just because he was born weak. It doesn't mean that he will never be able to do that someday. The consort asked me to take care of Basil for her before she died, so... hurry up," the owner of the sweet voice urged him, a hint of anger surfacing.

"Your Royal Highness, I am so busy today. Tomorrow is the sacred ritual of our Holy Dragon Empire. The ambassadors of the Dragon Master Clan will bring thirty Dragon Spirit Beads here, and then I have to make sure that the thirty candidates can all bond with it. They are the main fresh blood of the young generation in our country. If they fail, it will be my fault. You know how difficult it will be for me to defend myself to His Majesty. You should know that the land is in turmoil again..." the older voice replied.

"I don't care! You have to find out what is wrong with Basil first," the sweet voice yelled.

Rocky was extremely confused as he heard their strange conversation. He looked at the door, where the two figures were now entering the room. It was the girl he had woken up next to before, accompanied by an old man with a very long beard which grew to his waist. He was wearing a fancy purple and golden robe with a silver crown on his head. He looked like a prestigious elder with sharp eyes. Apparently, he was the Priest Dean whom the girl had mentioned before.

"Basil, why did you get out of bed? Go lie back down," the girl said, coming up to Rocky and gently taking his arm.

"It's OK. I'm fine." Basil replied to her as he looked to Priest Dean behind her.

"Your Royal Highness, how do you feel now?" Priest Dean bowed a little and asked. His words were customarily polite, but the look on his face was so arrogant that he seemed to look down on Basil.

"I feel well," Basil answered without thinking, because he really did not feel anything wrong. But all these things happened before him definitely were out of place.

"Alright. Your Royal Highness, see, I told you he will be fine. If there is nothing else you need me to do, I will leave and continue to do my tasks," Priest Dean said to the girl perfunctorily, not even caring to look at Basil.

"But Basil said something strange to me when he woke up just now, like he didn't know me at all," the girl said to Priest Dean as she looked at Basil with her large, bright eyes.

"Maybe it is because he has just recovered. He will be fine after taking a rest for one or two days. To be honest, Prince Basil is lucky enough that at least he is alive right now," Priest Dean replied as he glanced at Basil.

"Maybe you're right." The girl thought that his speculation made sense, then she turned to Rocky and ordered him, "Basil, get back into bed and have some more rest."

Rocky was shocked by their strange exchange. Because he could feel that everything that was happening right now couldn't be a dream; it was beyond the imagination of a normal person. They had called him 'Prince Basil' several times, so it meant that he was not himself now. And the only explanation he could think of was that after he died, his soul entered into this prince's body for unknown reasons. Though it was so ridiculous, there was no better explanation.

What was worse, he could tell that he was not in the same world where he used to live, whether it was this palace-liked room, the mention of a consort, or this old man in ancient clothes in front of him.

"Basil, are you alright?" the girl asked him worriedly as she saw him stand still and dumbfounded.

Rocky forced himself to calm down. He thought that he had even experienced an airplane crash, so it was nothing to meet with another strange thing. Was he reborn? It seemed as though it was not the right time for him to die. But he had to live as someone else from now on. He knew nothing about this boy, so he needed to find an excuse to bluff it out.

"Err... Actually, I'm not alright," Rocky suddenly said to the girl and Priest Dean.

"What's wrong? Do you feel ill again?" she asked anxiously, taking his arm.

"I lost my memory. I cannot remember who you are and who he is. I cannot remember anything. Who am I?" Rocky pretended to be incoherent and he showed a twisted face in a grimace of pain.

The beauty and Priest Dean were dumbfounded as they heard Rocky's words. They looked at each other in shock.

"Basil, you mean you forgot everything? No kidding, you don't know who I am? How is that possible? I'm Lena, Lena Long!" she grabbed Rocky's hands and said anxiously. Her eyes welled up with tears.

"I really don't know you. If I had met such a charming beauty like you, I will definitely remember that," Rocky said jokingly.

"Priest Dean, what is going on? Basil has really forgotten everything!" Lena asked Priest Dean immediately, growing very emotional.

Priest Dean did not answer her at once, and he didn't really seem to care whether Basil was well or not. He coldly hesitated for a while and finally replied. "Maybe it is because his soul had left his body for too long, and it has affected his mind. He may recover after a good rest. I will ask someone to send some elixirs to him. Let's wait and see how things go on after he takes the elixirs. Your Royal Highness, I'll take my leave now." At this, he glanced at Basil arrogantly before striding out the door.

After Priest Dean left, Lena led Rocky to the bed and helped him sit down. While she was talking to him, a girl dressed like a servant walked into the room.

This girl bowed respectfully to Lena and said, "Your Royal Highness, His Majesty wants to meet you in the main hall. He wishes to speak about the grand ceremony to be held tomorrow."

"All right! I will go later. You may leave now." Lena nodded as she waved the servant away. She turned to Rocky and said, "Basil, just stay here and have rest! Don't run away! Remember that? I'll come back soon."

"Okay!" Rocky answered.

After Lena left the room, Rocky sat on the bed for a while. He was lost in his thoughts. There was too much new information for him to process. Although he had confirmed that he now was a prince, he still found it hard to believe! He could not help but rub his temples to soothe a raging headache. He was also wondering about the so-called spiritual method which Priest Dean and Lena mentioned in their previous conversation. What did it entail? Rocky sighed, stood up and walked out of the room.

There was a long corridor outside, at the end of which a ray of dazzling light was sparkling.

Rocky walked to the source of light slowly. As he got closer, the light gradually grew brighter. When he reached the corridor's end, he was greeted with a warm breeze and the sight of sunshine filling acres of land. What he saw next totally stunned him.

Every building he saw around him was towering and sumptuous. He was in a majestic imperial palace, and he now stood in the dome of a grand mansion. Next to him was a helix stairway, stretching down to the darkness.

As his eyes followed it downwards, he was greeted with a scenic picture. A wide moat encircled the palace, glistening under the sun. Across the moat, numerous houses were scattered as far as he could see. From a distance, he could see the houses lined and stretched like a fan. There were thousands of figures as small as black dots walking on the passages between those houses and milling about.

All of a sudden, the sunlight over Rocky was gone. He looked up in confusion and exclaimed in shock, "Holy moly! What the hell is that monster?"

A colossal creature was flying over his head. A pair of large wings, dozens of meters wide, swooped in perfect arcs over the sky. Its giant body cast a vast shadow over the dome. The shape of its head looked like a crocodile, with two sharp and long teeth sticking out of its mouth. Smoke kept spurting out of its huge nostrils.

"Is that a dinosaur?" What popped into Rocky's mind first was the image of a creature living in prehistoric times. It shared many characteristics.

Rocky almost jumped out of his skin as he noticed that a human was sitting on the creature, who was riding it like an experienced pilot. Under the rider's direction, the flying monster brought a perfect and breathtaking performance of aerial-acrobatics.

Before Rocky could recover from the shock, the flying monster took a sudden turn and rushed towards him.

Rocky turned pale and widened his eyes as he saw the monster flying towards him. The four sharp claws of the monster seemed be able to tear apart anything easily, frightening Rocky to the core. He stepped back instinctively but tripped and fell to the floor. There was nothing he could do but watch the scary monster reaching out its sharp claws to him.

'Oh! Come on! Am I going to meet my death again? I just came back to life!' Rocky thought to himself.

When its sharp nails were only an inch close to his face, Rocky's head went blank. But the monster flew past him right away, a strong wind blowing by his face. Lying on the floor, Rocky was gasping for air to calm himself down.

"Fuck! Are you just fooling me around!? Fuck you! You damn..." Rocky cursed loudly after he collected himself. He then stood up and turned to look at the flying monster, which had landed on the platform behind him. The rider jumped off spritely.

Rocky was not a wuss, who would never stand such a humiliation. He walked to the platform angrily, but he froze for a while when he saw the rider's delicate features. What a pretty face! But from the way that person dressed, it seemed he was a boy! He was only around seventeen but stood quite tall and had an imperial air. Rocky felt that it was a shame that someone with such a comely and attractive face was a boy instead of a girl.

"Oh! It's Prince Basil! I heard that you nearly died because of high fever. What a shame for the imperial family! A piece of shit like you is still alive!" the rider's androgynous voice rang out as he looked at Rocky with disgust.

"Hey! You damn lady-boy! Watch your mouth!" Rocky yelled, glowering. But his lean and fragile figure couldn't make his words threatening at all.

"Lady-boy? What's that?" the comely person questioned, shooting Rocky a disdainful glare.

"You can find the answer when you look at your mirror," Rocky answered airily, with his arm folded in front of his chest.

"You! How dare you!" Rage sparked in his eyes upon understanding that Rocky was calling him names.

"Well? Do you have any problem with that? Show some respect, little asshole! Don't stir up a hornet's nest!" Rocky smirked.

"What are you talking about? Is your illness that serious? Listen to yourself! How ridiculous you are with what you're saying! You should die of illness already! You're no better than a dog in the imperial family. Why do the gods allow a useless man like you to survive in the world?" the rider said, looking at Rocky with scorn.

"Ha-ha! I'm a prince! That means you were just humiliating a royal member, and the whole imperial family! You really have some nerve!" Rocky sneered.

"You! You..." The rider's eyes narrowed in rage. He was even trembling in anger as he glowered at Rocky.

All of a sudden, a ray of bright light surged up from his right arm. The sleeve of his garment was somehow torn apart into pieces and burnt into ashes by a strange but powerful force. Then his arm appeared, white and slender like a girl's. Sparkling streaks appeared around his arm one by one, which formed a delicate and unique mark.

Rocky's jaw almost dropped on the floor as he witnessed the bizarre scene. He could not even believe what his eyes saw. 'Is this some magic?" But he soon knew that he was wrong. As that person waved his right arm, Rocky was raised up by a strange force. Then, after a brief moment of being stuck in mid-air, he was hurled away. Rocky let out a scream before he was smashed against a hard stone wall. He fell to the ground and groaned in pain.

Rocky held on to the wall to support him and finally stood up after a while. He then yelled at that person angrily, "You damn boy-lady! How could you do this to me? Are you out of your mind?"

"So what? You useless piece of shit! If you have a problem with that, you can just avenge yourself through the spiritual method like I used! Oh, I almost forget that you can't do that! Because you're inutile! Ha-ha!" he yelled back, a smirk creeping over the corner of his lips. But it seemed that he wasn't satisfied just yet. He raised his right arm and started spinning it. In a matter of seconds, a vortex appeared around his arm. Then the vortex sprang out, rushing towards Rocky. Looking at vortex spinning as quickly as a drill, Rocky gulped in fear. This person really wanted to kill him!