Chapter 43 Chapter 43

The little dragon cub is still growing.

Rong Heng had only been away for three short days, but he had grown twice as tall. His height had reached Nota's waist, and Ruan Shiqing had to use both hands to hold him.

Even the teacher at school noticed the little dragon cub's rapid growth and asked Ruan Shiqing about the situation. However, Ruan Shiqing couldn't figure out why the little dragon cub suddenly started to grow so fast, so he could only send the teacher away with a heavy heart.

The little dragon cub, on the other hand, is very satisfied with his own growth rate, and even hopes to grow faster and faster.

At least he should be taller than Nota, so he can be a real brother!

He can now run and play on the playground with the little fox on his back. The only thing that makes the little fox unhappy is that although he has grown a lot, he still can't fly. The bat wings behind him are small. When they move, they can stir up a small gust of wind, but they can't make him fly.

The little dragon thought that he must not be tall enough.

Because of his absolute size advantage and the ability to breathe fire in a cool way, the other cubs in the school all recognized the little dragon cub as the leader. The little lion cub, who was forced to step down from the position of leader, was so angry that he wanted to challenge the little dragon cub to a duel to prove his strength. As a result, he was pinned to the ground and beaten.

The little lion cub finally went home crying, but this time he didn't complain to the teacher.

It's embarrassing enough to challenge someone and lose, but it would be too embarrassing to complain to the teacher!

The little dragon is very satisfied with this kind of school life.

During outdoor classes, there was no need to fight for the largest and most beautiful swing. The cubs who admired the eldest one gave it up on their own initiative, and the three cubs sat side by side on the swing to bask in the sun.

After basking in the sun for a while, the little dragon couldn't help but open his gem box.

Recently, he put the gem box in his father's bedroom before going to bed at night. The number of gems finally did not decrease, but the little dragon also felt that he had lost a lot of happiness.

His favorite thing now is to take out the gems from the gem box and count them one by one when he has nothing to do.

Count once, then count again.

This repetitive behavior is boring to other cubs, but the little dragon cub is very happy. The feeling of the shiny gems sliding through the claws is so satisfying to the dragon, and even the sound of the gems colliding is pleasant to the ear.

The little dragon sat on one end of the swing, held the gem box in his arms, and began to count the gems one by one.

One, two, three...

He counted very attentively with a satisfied smile on his face, but the little fox rolled his eyes in unbearable pain.

She grumbled to the little mermaid, "He's started again! It's so boring. What's so fun about it?"

Ever since the little fox had his teeth hurt by a gem, he has been very dislikeful of the gems given by the little dragon.

Moreover, the little dragon is now obsessed with counting gems every day and doesn’t even play with them!

The little mermaid smoothed the hair on her head, shook her head with a smile, sat on the stroller, and pulled the little fox to the other side to play.

Nota turned around and made a face at the little dragon cub, saying, "We're going to play over there. You can continue counting here by yourself!"

After saying that, she pushed the mermaid cart and ran away.

The little dragon cub raised his head belatedly, only to see the backs of the two cubs running away. He pursed his lips and muttered, "I'll go find them after I finish counting this time."

The colorful gems sparkle in the sun, and the irregular facets reflect beautiful light.

As the little dragon cub counted, he couldn't help swallowing.

He tilted his head, stared at the gem in his claws, hesitated, and tentatively put it to his mouth.

Dad told me not to eat gems anymore, but he just ate one to taste it, so it should be okay...

He didn't even know what the gems he ate while sleeping tasted like.

The little dragon secretly stuffed one into his mouth, squinted his eyes, and chewed it tentatively.

It's a little hard, but when you swallow it, your body will feel warm and comfortable.

The comfortable feeling was fleeting. The little dragon smacked his lips and felt that it was gone as soon as he tasted it.

He hesitated and grabbed another one and put it in his mouth...

When the two cubs came back, they saw the little dragon hiding the gem box behind him in a panic.

The little fox asked curiously, "Have you finished counting?"

"I've finished counting." The little dragon boy said in a weak tone. The gem box hidden behind him became light and fluttering.

Dad had told him not to eat gems anymore, but he had only wanted to eat one to try it out... but he accidentally ate them all.

The little dragon was very panicked but didn't dare to say anything. The whole dragon was at a loss.

This situation continued until Ruan Shiqing came to take the cubs home.

Usually the little dragon cub is the fastest one, but today he walked at the end, and didn't act coquettishly to ask for a hug - although he is getting bigger, he is still a little cub who likes to act coquettishly. Although he can no longer nestle in his father's arms, the little dragon cub still likes his father's hug.

Something is wrong with the kid today.

Ruan Shiqing asked casually, "Did anything happen in school today?"

The little fox shook her head: "No!" She also muttered to herself: "School is getting more and more boring."

Since He Li became the school boss, no one bothered them anymore. Instead, there was always a group of annoying people chattering around them. The little fox felt a little annoyed, but these were all He Li's little brothers, and he couldn't just beat them up, so he was even more annoyed.

Nothing happened... Ruan Shiqing looked at the listless little dragon cub with his head drooping, and tapped the little corner of his forehead with his finger: "Why is Heli unhappy?"

The little dragon shook his ears guiltily, and couldn't help curling his tail: "I'm not unhappy!"

To prove that he was not unhappy, the little dragon jumped twice on the spot, making the ground thump.

The little fox whispered to the little mermaid in disgust: "Herri seems to have gained weight again."

The little mermaid tilted her head and looked at it for a while, then nodded seriously.

Seeing that the boy was in good spirits, Ruan Shiqing thought that he had probably not been bullied at school, so he did not ask any further questions.

The cub is starting to grow up and may have his own thoughts.

After returning home, the little dragon rushed upstairs with the gem box in his arms. He ran around the house for a while and finally hid the gem box in the toy cabinet.

After hiding, he pinched his paws and finally felt less panicked. He then slowly went downstairs.

In the yard, Joel had just arrived and was inspecting the modified shuttle.

——The shuttle that was delivered half a month ago has been modified. There is almost no visible change from the outside, but Ruan Shiqing has made great changes to the internal stealth device and deflector shield.

He changed the single sensor detector on the shuttle into a sensor array, greatly improving the sensor's information capture capability and accuracy. Accurate environmental information collection provides faster and more accurate data support for the stealth device, allowing the stealth device to crack the other party's electronic identification signature faster and more accurately. No matter what environment it is in, this shuttle can blend into it at the fastest speed, like a chameleon.

The shield generator was changed from single protection to multiple protection. The existing deflector shield can absorb most energy beam attacks, such as laser cannons, etc. However, most of the absorbed energy is converted into heat energy, which is quickly dissipated through the heat sink device, which consumes a lot of the shuttle itself.

Ruan Shiqing chose to improve the shield generator and added two energy storage units to store the external energy absorbed by the shield, that is, to convert the enemy's attack firepower into energy and store it in the energy storage unit. Once the first layer of the shield fails, the energy storage unit will immediately take effect and release the stored energy to form a second layer of shield. In this way, not only the load of the heat sink device is reduced, but also an extra layer of protection is added to the shuttle.

After listening to his introduction, Qiao Er nodded continuously: "The customers will definitely be very satisfied with your design." He readily paid the balance to Ruan Shiqing and asked someone to drive the shuttle away: "I hope I can have the opportunity to cooperate with you again next time."

This cooperation was very pleasant. After Ruan Shiqing exchanged a few polite words with him, he politely sent the person out.

When I turned back, I saw the kids following 09 in pruning the Fallen Star vines.

The falling star vine is very strong and grows very fast, so it needs to be pruned regularly to keep it beautiful. 09 was in charge of this job before, but today the kids got interested and picked up the flower shears to follow 09's example and prune the falling star vine.

The kids didn't know how to prune, so they cut the vines into pieces with the scissors here and there. 09 was standing by and gasped in pain: "We can't prune here anymore, it's all bald!"

——09 is a little robot with great artistic pursuits. After being trimmed by him, the falling star vines are always very beautiful and full of artistic sense. The soft vines hang down like a string of stars hanging in the Milky Way.

But after today, these fallen star vines may become a black history in the little robot's gardening career.

Ruan Shiqing smiled and called the kids back, saying helplessly, "Don't cause trouble for 09."

Before the cubs could even speak, 09 started to explain: "Sir, you misunderstood. I asked the little masters to come together."

The little robot was a little annoyed. He had seen that the little dragons were not in high spirits today, so he invited them to help him trim the vines in order to make them happy.

He sighed and said to Ruan Shiqing, "But sometimes, it always costs something to make the kids happy."

Such as these tragically poisonous Falling Star Vines.

Ruan Shiqing shook his head and couldn't help laughing: "Maybe you should try a different approach next time."

The little robot nodded seriously: "I think so too."

The little dragon felt guilty for three or four days, but when he found out that his father didn't notice him stealing the gem, he became braver again.

The gem box was empty, and he no longer carried it around every day. When the little fox asked him about it, he held his head high and said confidently that he had hidden it.

So no one knew that the hidden gem box was actually empty.

Only Ruan Shiqing felt something was a little strange. Ever since the little dragon cub started to grow rapidly, he developed the habit of recording its height and weight every day. Before, the little dragon cub would grow a little every day, but in the past three or four days, the little dragon cub suddenly stopped growing.

Such a change made him not know whether to be happy or worried, and he could only pay more attention to the little dragon's health.

The little dragon, however, continued to eat and drink as usual, and had long forgotten about the empty gem box.

That night, he was sleeping soundly when he was awakened by a severe pain.

It felt like there was a fire burning in his stomach, and his limbs had no strength to move. They were bloated and painful, as if a force was pulling his limbs.

He felt like he was being torn apart.

"Daddy, Daddy. It hurts so much..." The little dragon rolled over on the soft cushion in pain and cried out in a daze.

It hurts so much, as if I'm being torn apart.

His brain was overwhelmed by the intense pain and the scene in front of him became blurred. He could only instinctively ask his father for help.

But after calling for a long time, my father didn't show up.

The little dragon shed tears and roared helplessly in extreme pain.

The majestic dragon roar resounded throughout the heaven and earth——

The little fox and the little mermaid who were closest to the little dragon were the first to wake up. They looked at the black dragon, whose body was constantly expanding and whose original appearance was completely unrecognizable. They didn't even dare to call the other's name for a moment.

Ruan Shiqing, who also heard the noise, came out of the bedroom and just in time saw a huge black dragon roaring with its neck raised.

He was so big that the horns on his head had already reached the ceiling. What was even more terrifying was that he was like a balloon that was constantly being inflated with air, and his size was still expanding.

"He Li?!" Ruan Shiqing was surprised and confused.

The little fox also reacted at this time. She stood on tiptoe, grabbed the black dragon's bat wings and shook them, trying to wake him up: "Herri! Herri!"

The black dragon did not respond to their calls. He was too big, so big that the living room was no longer big enough to accommodate him. He raised his neck and roared again, but his hard dragon horns directly smashed the ceiling, and half of his body went out of the roof.

The house shook and rubble fell.

The little fox dodged the stones falling from the ceiling and was still shouting Herri's name loudly; but the little mermaid in the barrel was not so lucky. He could not move easily, and the stones from the ceiling fell and smashed the barrel, causing water to flow all over the floor and he fell to the ground.

In the middle of the house, the huge black dragon was trapped by the ceiling, and its bat wings behind it kept trembling, causing the whole house to shake even more violently.

The dragon's roar spread across the earth.

"Sir! Young Master!" Passive Jing was awakened. 09, who hurried upstairs, saw this scene and subconsciously activated the counterattack program of the protection system.

"09! That's He Li!" Ruan Shiqing turned around and saw it, and hurriedly spoke out to stop him.

The little robot was stunned, and the scanner on the display screen scanned the terrifying black dragon again and again.

A huge body, cold golden eyes, sharp bone spurs...

Such a ferocious and terrifying dragon doesn't look like his little master at all.

Ruan Shiqing picked up the little mermaid and stuffed her into his arms, then handed the little fox to the Xiong brothers who came up later, and urged them, "Take them away first."

"What about you, sir?" 09 held the little mermaid steady and turned around to ask.

"I'll be down soon." Ruan Shiqing gently pushed them, urging them to hurry up, and walked towards the black dragon that was still struggling.

The ceiling was almost completely shattered and the house was about to collapse.

The falling gravel and dust covered Ruan Shiqing's body and blinded his eyes.

Ruan Shiqing's eyes were red, but he did not leave immediately. He gritted his teeth, climbed to a high place along the piled rubble, and shouted "Heli" over and over again.

Heli, Heli, Heli.

A faint sound reached the little dragon's ears. He tried to open his eyes, but could see nothing.

I can’t see my home or my dad.

He pursed his lips in fear and cried out, "Dad, Dad, Herri is here..."

The black dragon roared again and again, causing the ground to shake.

The huge movement attracted onlookers from nearby residents, who looked at the giant dragon on the roof in amazement, feeling both curious and fearful.

Ruan Shiqing tried to approach the black dragon cautiously. Just when he was about to grab the black dragon's front claws, the black dragon suddenly let out a huge sad cry and flapped its wings.

The huge bat wings stretched out behind it, nearly twenty meters long.

The bat's wings covered the sky and the sun, and there were bone spurs on them.

The black dragon roared, flapped its bat wings, and flew away with a huge gust of wind.

"Herri!"

Ruan Shiqing shouted his name at the top of his lungs from behind, but failed to make him turn around.

The black dragon disappeared into the dark night.

Ruan Shiqing didn't care about the sadness. He wiped his face, jumped off the rubble and rushed to the workshop on the first floor.

The entire second floor had been destroyed, and the first floor was also about to collapse, but Ruan Shiqing ignored the danger and quickly turned on the positioning system of the Blue Star Necklace, only to find that the small blue dot representing He Li was still standing there motionlessly.

He felt a little depressed and, despite the dissuasion of the Xiong brothers, he returned to the second floor again. Sure enough, he found the broken Blue Star Necklace under the rubble.

Yes, the little dragon suddenly grew so big that it exceeded the limit of the necklace.

Ruan Shiqing had a bitter look on his face and was about to go downstairs to think of a solution, but he inadvertently glanced at the gem box in the rubble.

The gem box that the little dragon baby always carried with him now rolled down in the dust, and there was nothing inside.

Ruan Shiqing felt heavy in his heart.

The little dragon's changes were indeed caused by those gems.

In the dark space, a blue battleship was floating silently.

Hector was lying in the cabin, bored, holding a glass of wine and swaying on tiptoe to the intense rock music.

Suddenly, a sad dragon roar was heard.

Hector paused, turned off the music and listened carefully, but the sound disappeared again.

He rubbed his ears and looked out the porthole into the dark space. There was nothing there but a white planet covered in ice and dust.

He had been to that planet before. It was covered with thousands of miles of ice and had no life.

"Have I stayed on the boat for too long? I'm even having auditory hallucinations." Hector muttered to himself after turning the music back on.

The huge black dragon just disappeared without a trace.

The star B3024 is not big, but it is not small either.

After the little dragon cub got into trouble, Ma Lin heard the news and rushed over. The positioning device was out of function, and Ruan Shiqing did not refuse his help.

But the people sent by Marin searched for three days in a row and found no trace of the black dragon.

Ruan Shiqing also followed him in searching, and did not close his eyes for three days and three nights. His eyes were bloodshot and full of red bloodshot.

The cubs were taken to Fita Manor by 09 and the Bear brothers for temporary placement. Later, the Bear brothers also joined the search team, but the cubs were forbidden to go out and were taken care of by 09.

Since the night when Heli got into trouble, the cubs haven't gotten much sleep. Only when they really can't bear it any longer will they snuggle up to 09 and take a nap for a while.

But when Ruan Shiqing occasionally came back, they would behave very well and would not ask about He Li's whereabouts. They would just quietly accompany their father to eat a tube of nutritional supplements and then watch him leave.

"Is there any place you haven't searched yet?" Ruan Shiqing asked.

After all, the ancient humans' physique was not as strong as that of the Bis and Evolved People. After enduring for three days, the others only looked a little tired, but he had to rely on stimulants to cheer himself up.

Mori wanted to persuade him to take a rest, but he couldn't speak. He pulled up a virtual map and circled the outer city and the inner city: "We have searched both of these places twice. The only place we haven't searched is the Lost Swamp further west. This swamp is very dangerous and almost no one will go deep into it."

The Lost Swamp is almost a forbidden area on planet B3024.

Its history is longer than that of the energy center, and it may have existed here in the early stages of the formation of this planet. The earliest detection data showed that the area of ​​this swamp occupies one-fiftieth of the B3024 star, and the depth of the swamp is hundreds of meters.

And this is not the most dangerous thing.

The most dangerous thing is that there is a kind of poisonous moss growing in this swamp. After this moss rots in the swamp, it makes the swamp toxic. The water in the swamp evaporates into the air, making this swamp covered with poisonous fog for many years.

This is a truly dead place. No matter whether it is plants with strong vitality or strong Bis evolved humans, they cannot survive in it.

Normally, no one would even mention this swamp.

Ruan Shiqing said, "We have searched both the outer and inner cities, but there is no trace of He Li. We cannot miss any place. I will go look for him."

"No one has ever been here. It's too dangerous." Mori advised, "And it's unlikely that Herri would go here. We can search the garbage dump in the outer city again. Maybe he is hiding in the garbage dump."

"Split into two groups." Ruan Shiqing said, "Please take your men to continue searching the garbage dump, and I'll go take a look at the Lost Swamp."

"You'll die if you go there!" Mo Li said anxiously, "If you must go, I'll bring people there."

Ruan Shiqing shook his head decisively: "Heli is my child, and has nothing to do with you. If there is any danger, it should be my responsibility." He raised his hand to stop Mori from persuading him: "I know what you are worried about. Don't worry, I will be ready to go deeper. Yuebai and Nota still need my care. I will not risk my life."

After saying that, he turned around and got on the shuttle motorcycle, then turned back to Mori and said, "I'm going to go back and get the materials and tools first. I haven't tidied up my house yet, so I need to borrow your place for a while."

He was so persistent that Mori could not stop him and could only watch him leave.