Sanctuary

After more than a dozen days of arduous trekking, Haoyuan arrived at the upper reaches of a river with over nine hundred dinosaurs in tow.

Ahead, the path narrowed into a pass between two towering mountains, through which a slender river flowed. The riverbanks on either side were wide enough for an adult Triceratops to pass through.

Haoyuan sniffed gently. The air flowing out from the mountain pass carried the fresh scent of ferns and trees. He instantly knew he had come to the right place and led the migrating dinosaur army into the pass.

After slithering forward for several minutes, the view suddenly opened up before him.

Towering mountains formed an expansive, enclosed basin valley, in the center of which lay an embedded lake some two hundred meters wide. Ferns grew in dense clusters along the lakeshore, sprawling outward to seamlessly merge with the surrounding forests and plains.

Nearby, forty-meter-class sauropods revealed their colossal silhouettes amidst towering ferns and arbor trees. In the distance, herds of Triceratops and hadrosaurs strolled and foraged across the fern-covered plains.

This near-perfect ecosystem left Haoyuan stunned.

Filled with immense excitement, he let out a long, resonant call toward the rear, announcing that they had reached the end of their migration.

The dinosaurs responded in excitement, their jubilant cries rising and falling in waves.

The clamorous noise caught the attention of the dinosaurs in the valley, and they collectively looked over. Upon spotting Haoyuan's migrating army, they let out responsive roars toward several directions before casually ambling over, feigning indifference.

This abnormal behavior set off alarm bells in Haoyuan's mind. He looked at the dinosaurs gradually converging from ahead, then glanced at the nearly pristine ecosystem around them.

Suddenly realizing what was going on, he unleashed a sharp roar of warning toward his migrating army.

The few dromaeosaurs, who had been hopping along and preparing to dart into the arbor forest, quickly retreated upon hearing his warning. They observed what lay ahead with suspicion and unease.

The once-boisterous migrating army came to an abrupt halt.

Strong, adult males stepped to the forefront, forming an orderly ring that stood like an impregnable wall, shielding the young and females behind them.

A chilly breeze swept by in swirling gusts.

A group of dinosaurs emerged from the forest ahead, letting out ambiguous sounds and inching closer as if trying to show goodwill.

Haoyuan watched them coldly, dragging his massive body forward to meet them.

Seeing his enormous twenty-five-meter frame, the dinosaurs showed no fear; instead, they proactively drew closer as well.

Just as the two sides were about to make contact, Haoyuan raised his Kirin Arm, springing his sickle claws out from between his fingers. Under the astounded gazes of the dinosaurs, he flicked his claw casually. As if slicing through melons and vegetables, the heads of the three dinosaurs in front of him tumbled to the ground in an instant.

The smooth, clean cuts remained still for a split second before violently spouting torrents of dark crimson blood.

Both the migrating army and the opposing dinosaurs froze in shock.

Upon closer inspection, the three swaying, headless carcasses suddenly regained their footing. From the severed, bloody necks, several gory tentacles violently sprouted out, thrashing wildly toward the great white dragon.

“As expected, mimic monsters,” Haoyuan observed coldly.

During the asteroid impact, the fireballs raining from the sky were a lethal threat to ordinary mimic monsters. To survive, they needed the protection of a special variant.

For the ecology here to remain so pristine, a special variant must have extinguished the flames, preventing forest fires from igniting and spreading, thereby granting the mimic monsters a chance to catch their breath.

In other words, the true threat here was not the pseudo-dragons before him, but the special variant lurking among them.

The roars the pseudo-dragons had exchanged earlier were likely conveying information to that special variant.

Seeing the great white dragon strike with such decisiveness, the other pseudo-dragons abandoned all pretense of disguise. Letting out feral roars, they surged toward him en masse.

Even after witnessing the severed heads and bloody tentacles, the dinosaur army in the rear still had no idea what was really going on. However, those strange dinosaurs ahead dared to attack their migration leader.

That meant negotiations had failed, or a territorial dispute had begun. Whatever the case, now that conflict had erupted, blood would flow.

“Roar!”

“Roar!”

“Roar, roar, roar!”

Within the migrating dinosaur army, leaders of each herd unleashed charging bellows, leading the strongest members of their species in a headlong rush. An unstoppable, ironclad torrent surged forward, kicking up billowing clouds of dust.

Hearing these calls, the dromaeosaurs reacted instantly. With a few shrill squawks, they dispersed rapidly, picking out seemingly weaker targets among the opposing dinosaurs to harass and surround in skirmishes.

The few carnivorous dinosaurs were briefly stunned, but once they caught on, they immediately joined the charge. Having eaten nothing but fish and giant crocodiles these past days, their palates had long grown completely bland. Now presented with the chance to feast on fresh dinosaur meat, their spirits soared and their eyes gleamed with greed. They charged with more fervor and vigor than anyone else!

Haoyuan was in the middle of slaughtering when he suddenly felt the ground tremble violently. Looking back at the fearless, charging steel torrent, he jumped in fright.

“Holy crap, don't charge!”

He hurriedly tried to shout for them to stop, not wanting the dinosaurs to get hurt.

Just then, a sauropod titanosaur over forty meters long raised its front hooves—each as thick as a heavy dump truck—and stomped down violently toward him.

No one could bear the weight of such a stomp. Forced to dodge, Haoyuan missed his chance to give the command.

Rumble!

The two steel torrents—the true dinosaurs and the pseudo-dragons—collided head-on with a deafening roar, kicking up a vast cloud of dust.

“Ah, this is utter madness!”

Fuming, Haoyuan exhaled a thumb-thick Fire Line, setting the forty-meter sauropod titanosaur before him ablaze. Sweeping the Fire Line across the battlefield, he ignited swaths of incoming pseudo-dragons. At the same time, he activated Wind Grace, reaping blade by blade the pseudo-dragons currently brawling with his dinosaurs.

Seeing Haoyuan spew flames, the dinosaurs' morale surged, and they fought with ferocious frenzy.

In the midst of battle, the heads of their opposing dinosaurs were suddenly sheared off, startling them. But quickly realizing it was an opening, they rammed straight into the targets.

When the headless bodies collapsed to the ground and gory tentacles sprouted from the severed necks, writhing and thrashing, the dinosaurs were startled once again. Shaken by the creepy sight, they began trampling frantically, stomping the tentacles into mush.

Seeing that the dinosaurs possessed decent combat sense, Haoyuan gradually felt relieved.

The pseudo-dragons let out shrill shrieks as they burned. Rows of surging flames and the colossal blaze consuming the forty-meter sauropod titanosaur illuminated the entire battlefield.

Haoyuan used Wind Grace to contain the fire, preventing it from spreading to the forest.

Just as he was focused on managing the situation, a massive shadow suddenly charged over, lowering its enormous head and violently goring upward.

Caught off guard, Haoyuan hurriedly braced his Kirin Arms against the uplifted massive head, sparing himself from being directly impaled by the long, sharp horn.

Even so, under the momentum and overwhelming force of the beast's charge, his body was sent flying, hurled high into the air.

By the firelight and from his vantage point aloft, Haoyuan got a clear look at the monster's appearance.

It was a colossal beast remarkably similar to a rhinoceros, with a skeletal build resembling a rhino and a high, muscular hump like that of an ox. Its skull was as long as an alligator's, lined with the sharp, jagged teeth of a carnivorous dinosaur, and embedded upon the bridge of its snout was the exceptionally long solitary horn of a Centrosaurus. Overall, it resembled a rhinoceros, but its front half was towering and hunched, trailing a long crocodile tail behind it. Beneath its hooves were three toes tipped with sharp, lethal talons.

It was a twenty-eight-meter-long carnivorous behemoth built like an armored tank.

Haoyuan had no idea how it had cobbled together such a form, but looking at its appearance, there was no doubt it was a special variant.

The moment he was thrown into the sky, he did not hesitate to spew a thumb-thick Fire Line straight downward.

The Fire Line moved with blistering speed, streaking across the night sky in the blink of an eye to strike the rhino monster squarely on the head.

A raging blaze erupted instantly, engulfing the creature.

As if subjected to some nightmarish torment straight from hell, it lost all capacity to resist for the moment, shrieking in agony as its massive body teetered.