Chapter 8: The Power of the Dragon Emperor's Dominating Technique, Enhanced Dragon Blood Pills Like Snacks

“Yes...”
The students nodded earnestly. After all, they had just witnessed one of their classmates drained of blood, a truly terrifying sight.
Luffy, on the other hand, gazed at the swarm of mosquitoes as if he were looking at a pile of crystal cores. There were more than a dozen of them—fast, yes, but against Luffy and his group, they stood no chance.
No matter how fast the mosquitoes were, they couldn’t outpace a gecko, and geckos were natural predators of mosquitoes. Besides, these were only first-tier creatures.
To Luffy, they posed no threat whatsoever.
He gripped the Crimson Flame Sword and charged forward. With a single slash, he cleaved a mosquito in two.
His movements were swift and dashing, leaving afterimages in his wake. With each swing, a mosquito fell, and in the blink of an eye, ten of them lay dead.
The five remaining mosquito beasts, terrified, immediately turned to flee.
But there was no way Luffy would let them escape.
“Splurt, splurt...” In a flash, he cut down the last five.
He turned to Zeng Hongsen and the others. “It’s done. Come out and dig out the crystal cores. The three of you, bury our fallen classmate.”
“Yes...” Zeng Hongsen nodded and led a group out onto the lawn, where they began digging a hole to bury the fallen student.
Suddenly, the body of one student who was carrying the corpse was inexplicably severed in half.
“Splurt...” He collapsed to the ground.
Blood gushed out, and they saw a two-meter-tall mantis standing upright, its forearms raised high, its triangular head reminiscent of a praying nun—an utterly terrifying sight.
“Damn it! How dare you kill my classmate!”
Zeng Hongsen roared, brandishing his machete and swinging it at the mantis.
“Clang...”
The blade was snapped by the mantis’s forearm. Those enormous limbs were razor-sharp, slicing down at Zeng Hongsen’s head.
“Ah...”
In that instant, the threat of death loomed over him.
Zeng Hongsen’s eyes widened, sure he was about to die.
But then a crimson sword blocked the two forearms of the mantis beast.
“Get out of here, now!”
Luffy kicked Zeng Hongsen and another survivor out of harm’s way, then drove the towering mantis beast back several steps with a single blow of his sword.
Mantis Beast
Tier: Second
Strength: Sixty times that of an ordinary human
Abilities: Forearms are incredibly sharp, able to slice through metal as if it were clay; extremely fast.
Luffy fixed a solemn gaze on the mantis, surprised by how quickly the beast had evolved—already a second-tier creature with sixty times human strength, just five less than his own.
Tall and formidable, with impressive speed and power, he had to take this opponent seriously.
The mantis beast hissed in anger, infuriated by Luffy’s interference, and its two deadly forearms swung toward him.
“Bang...”
Luffy dodged to the side.
The ground where the limbs struck caved in, leaving two deep craters—a testament to the mantis’s power and the hardness of its forearms.
“Whoosh...”
Evading another attack, Luffy darted behind the beast and slashed down.
With a whoosh, his blade sliced through thin air—the mantis dodged as though it had eyes on its back, whirling around and swinging both forearms at him.
Startled, Luffy marveled at its cunning. He quickly raised his sword to block.
But the mantis’s blow was both swift and fierce, knocking the Crimson Flame Sword from his hands and sending it clattering against a nearby wall.
Then, the mantis’s forearms came crashing down toward Luffy.
“Ah...”
Su Yuxue’s eyes widened in horror, certain Luffy was about to be cleaved in two.
“No...”
Zeng Hongsen gasped as well—how could it end like this?
“Dragon Emperor’s Dominance!”
Luffy suddenly unleashed the Dragon Emperor’s Dominance technique. A faint golden dragon aura radiated from his body, as if a golden dragon were guarding him. He met the mantis’s forearms with his fist.
“Boom...”
Luffy’s punch shattered one of the mantis’s arms, blood spraying everywhere.
The mantis let out a pained shriek and tried to flee.
“Too late to run!” Luffy charged after it like a dragon emperor, smashing the mantis beast to pieces with a single punch.
Utterly domineering.
No one expected Luffy to turn the tables and win by sheer physical strength, pulverizing the second-tier mantis beast without a weapon. Was he even human? His power was overwhelming, tyrannical.
“Wow...”
Zeng Hongsen’s eyes were wide with shock—his boss was incredible.

Two punches were all it took to destroy the mantis beast.

Su Yuxue’s eyes sparkled with admiration. Who was Luffy, really? How could he be so powerful, so enigmatic?
The Dragon Emperor’s Dominance technique was truly formidable. To think that with a single display, he could tear apart a second-tier mantis beast with nothing but his bare hands.
Luffy turned, retrieved his Crimson Flame Sword, and dug out the mantis beast’s crystal core.
Then,
he buried the fallen classmate.
Afterward,
they all headed upstairs to the third floor. It wasn’t safe to stay on the first floor too long—who knew when a horde of ants or flies might show up, and those would be much harder to handle.
“All right, today’s mission is complete. Everyone can rest now. The top ten, come here—there’s body-tempering serum waiting for you, all enhanced versions. Each vial will increase your strength tenfold.”
Luffy had discovered an enhanced body-tempering serum in the pill inventory—each dose could be exchanged for ten crystal cores.
There was also a new enhanced Dragon Blood Pill, costing twenty crystal cores, but only the host could use it.
It seemed the system intended for Luffy to become some kind of Dragon Emperor.
A single enhanced Dragon Blood Pill could boost strength by twenty times.
Of course, with Luffy’s current power, each pill could at most increase his strength by tenfold, since he had already consumed quite a few.
Luffy took out two vials of enhanced body-tempering serum. “Zeng Hongsen, you collected the most crystal cores among everyone—you get two enhanced serums. Su Yuxue, you’re in second place...”
After distributing all eleven vials, Luffy addressed the others. “Don’t be discouraged. Those ranked eleven to twenty will receive regular serum.”
He immediately produced ten more vials and asked Zeng Hongsen to distribute them.
“You can prepare to eat now, and you’re free to move about the school building, but don’t make too much noise. If you attract zombies or other beasts, I won’t be saving you.”
With that, Luffy returned to his room.
Today, he had collected a total of eleven hundred crystal cores. The Crimson Flame Sword had cost one hundred twenty, ten vials of enhanced serum had used up another one hundred ten, and ten regular serums had cost fifty. Twenty steel crossbows and thirty guns consumed another thirty. Altogether, three hundred ten cores were spent, leaving seven hundred ninety remaining.
Luffy immediately exchanged for thirty-nine enhanced Dragon Blood Pills.
Today had been a massive gain. There was strength in numbers. Had he acted alone, who knew how long it would have taken? By offering them a small share of the spoils, he had secured their loyalty.
Luffy swallowed the enhanced Dragon Blood Pills one by one as if they were snacks, reveling in the rush as his strength climbed from sixty-five to eighty-five times that of a normal human. Afterward, the effects diminished—each pill increased his strength by two, then just one.
------
Author’s Note:
If you enjoyed the story, please vote, reward, review, and share it with your friends, family, and classmates.