Chapter 66: The Evil Opportunist

Facing Leon's question, Old Tang remained silent for a moment before replying in a voice devoid of emotion, "It's just a name anyway, do as you please."

"Then I'll just call you Old Tang."

Judging by the current performance of this King of Bronze and Fire, he still seemed to identify with his former identity as Old Tang. This meant he would not act as hysterically as depicted in the original work.

Which made sense, after all, and Constantine had not met with any trouble yet.

Things were moving in a favorable direction, and Leon felt a slight sense of relief in his heart.

He picked up the white bowl on the table, swished the blood inside that had already lost its vitality, and answered Old Tang's initial question: "As you can see, merely to acquire power."

Hearing this, a trace of fluctuation appeared on Old Tang's cold face, and then two words spilled from his lips: "...Madman."

In his long career as a Dragon King, he had seen quite a few half-bloods who coveted the power of the dragons. Yet even so, Leon could be considered quite radical among them.

After all, a half-blood with a sound mind would certainly never directly come into contact with the blood of a Dragon King like that.

The most crucial part was that he had actually succeeded.

However, Old Tang did not dwell too much on this matter, because a much greater doubt currently weighed on his mind: "Where did you find out my true identity?"

Reviewing his memories over the years, he could be certain that he did not know this person, and his identity as a Dragon King should not have been exposed in all likelihood; otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to live peacefully for so long.

This made Old Tang rather perplexed as to how Leon had discovered his identity, and why he had deliberately used a designated bounty mission to lure him to Monterrey.

"Does that matter?" Leon did not answer directly. "It doesn't matter."

"Shouldn't you be far more curious about how you managed to get out of the Bronze City?"

Both Norton and Constantine had originally cocooned themselves and hidden within the Bronze City, but now one had drifted to America while the other remained trapped in those deep, dark waters.

If there were no mastermind behind this, Leon certainly wouldn't believe it.

At this, Old Tang couldn't help but let out a sneer: "It's nothing more than those 'brothers and sisters' of mine, who else could it be?"

Not having been consumed by rage, his assessment of his own situation was still quite accurate.

Unfortunately, he guessed wrong.

Combining this with the plot of the original story, Leon deduced that the one who got Old Tang out of the Bronze City was most likely Lu Mingze; otherwise, there was no explaining how the other party came to know Old Tang's true identity.

Yet this led to a new question: what on earth was Lu Mingze's purpose?

If his goal was to eliminate the Four Monarchs, he could have easily taken advantage of the time before Norton awakened to slaughter Old Tang with a single strike.

'Or could it be that it must be done by Lu Mingfei in person?'

As for Lu Mingze's true motive, Leon had no way of knowing, but he wasn't prepared to delve too deeply into it either.

For him, the most important thing right now was how to extract the information regarding the Seven Alchemical Kingdoms from Norton.

With this thought in mind, he spoke up: "You're planning to return to the Bronze City to find Constantine afterward, aren't you?"

"I advise you not to do that. There are far too many eyes staring at that place right now."

"I know you might hold the forces of the half-bloods in utter contempt, but what if among those watching is your own brother, the King of Great Wind and Water?"

Odin was undoubtedly keeping a close eye on the Kormen Plan. To Him, whether it was Norton or Constantine, the Dragon Bone Cross remaining after the death of either was an invaluable tonic.

Upon hearing Leon's words, Old Tang instantly furrowed his brow tightly: "What do you know?!"

Naturally, Leon had no intention of handing over intelligence for free. He merely shrugged and said, "As long as you give me the data on the Seven Alchemical Kingdoms, I will tell you everything I know."

Who would have thought that facing Leon's condition, Old Tang's face would instead display a hint of bewilderment: "What are the Seven Alchemical Kingdoms?"

Seeing that he didn't seem to be feigning ignorance, Leon couldn't help but feel a bit surprised: "Elemental transposition, spiritual recasting, conceptual armament, time reversal, spatial genesis, life creation, causality separation... You don't know?"

Leon never expected that Old Tang, the King of Bronze and Fire himself, would be completely unaware of the existence of the Seven Alchemical Kingdoms.

A deep sense of disappointment welled up in his heart.

After listening to Leon's explanation, Old Tang frowned and fell into deep thought.

After a long while, he finally spoke: "These things you mentioned... I know how to do some of them, but I've truly never heard of others."

The King of Bronze and Fire, who considered himself the sovereign of alchemy, disdained to lie about such matters.

Hearing this, Leon's eyes lit up.

For him, as long as he knew how, it didn't matter that according to Old Tang he didn't know all of them; having some was still far better than having none at all.

However, Old Tang's next words poured a bucket of cold water right over him.

"It's just... why should I make a deal with an ambitious careerist like you?"

"Besides, who knows if your information is true or false?"

"Hmph..."

In Old Tang's eyes, the person before him was undoubtedly a mad careerist who would stop at nothing to gain power. He had seen countless people of this sort.

Without waiting for Leon to react, Old Tang turned and walked out of the room.

Seeing this, a trace of helplessness welled up in Leon's heart. He had known things wouldn't be that simple.

Without time for second thoughts, he immediately followed after Old Tang.

"Are you planning to return to Shenzhou? I'm going with you."

Leon certainly wasn't going to let Old Tang just run off like this. This was his best current opportunity to come into contact with the Seven Alchemical Kingdoms.

Beyond that, the subsequent transition to the [Dragon Vein Alchemist] class might also require the assistance of this King of Bronze and Fire.

Noticing that Leon had followed him, Old Tang merely cast a cold glance at him without any intention of stopping him.

It wasn't that he didn't want to, but rather that the price required to do so would be somewhat too high.

As a Dragon King, he could keenly perceive the dangerous aura emanating from Leon.

Old Tang could clearly realize just how vast the gap was between Leon and ordinary half-bloods.

Having just awakened, if he wanted to defeat this opponent, he would undoubtedly have to pay a considerable price.

After all, before devouring Constantine, he only commanded [Authority].

Still, the Bronze City wasn't so easy to enter anyway; when the time came, he could just shake off this half-blood by his side.

This was one of the reasons why he couldn't be bothered to deal with Leon.

However, just as the two of them were preparing to depart for Shenzhou, Leon suddenly asked: "Speaking of which, your visa information hasn't been updated yet, has it?"

"..."

Before setting out, Old Tang naturally hadn't expected such a turn of events, so he certainly hadn't applied for a visa to Shenzhou.

Given his current state, trying to swim across the entire Pacific Ocean was undoubtedly unrealistic.

Fortunately, having been a bounty hunter for so many years, he had his own channels to quickly expedite a visa.

As for Leon...

He had already entrusted someone on the Hunter's Web a few days ago to forge a new set of identity information.

After all, continuing to use the previous identity provided by Cassel Institute would be no different from living under a blinding spotlight.

Soon, the 'man' and the dragon boarded a flight bound for Shenzhou.

Watching the scenery of Monterrey gradually shrink outside the window until it vanished entirely, Leon let out a soft breath, and then began pondering his next countermeasures.