REINCARNATION OF THE STRONGEST WAR HERO-Chapter 286: DRAGON CORE

Rowan and Lilith stared at Daliah with astonished eyes, while Logan chuckled softly. "Congratulations on becoming a Martial Artist, Daliah. You may have begun your cultivation journey long ago, but this is where you truly become a cultivator."

"Thank you." Daliah bowed deeply, gratitude shining in her eyes.

She then turned to Rowan, her face glowing with excitement. "Brother, I've broken through!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands together.

Rowan smiled warmly, running a hand through his hair. "Congratulations," he said gently. Though a faint feeling of being left behind lingered within him, his happiness for his sister outweighed it completely. In fact, he might have been even happier than she was.

"If our mother were still alive, she would've been so proud," he added softly.

The current king had two wives, but Rowan and Daliah's mother — the second queen had passed away long ago.

Suddenly, Lilith wrinkled her nose and said, "Princess, before celebrating your breakthrough… maybe you should take a shower first?" She spoke while pressing a hand over her nose.

"Shower? Why?" Daliah blinked in confusion.

Lilith raised her finger and pointed at her body.

Following her gaze, Daliah looked down — only to realize she was covered in a sticky black substance. "Wha… what is this?!" she gasped in shock. Then the smell hit her. "Ugh! It's disgusting!"

She hadn't noticed it earlier because her focus had been entirely on cultivation and enduring the pain of evolution. Now, with her senses relaxed, the stench and stickiness became unbearable.

Logan chuckled again. "Don't worry, it's perfectly normal. Every cultivator goes through this. Those are impurities being expelled from your body — it means your physique has evolved. Go wash up like Lilith said. You'll feel refreshed afterward."

"Okay! I'll talk to you all later then!" Daliah said quickly and dashed toward her room but before entering the house, she stopped, hesitated, and ran back toward them. Looking at Rowan, she said pleadingly,

"Brother, can you go first and make sure no one's around? I don't want anyone to see me like this."

"Sure," Rowan replied with a chuckle. He walked ahead, and Daliah hurried after him, keeping her head low.

Now only Logan and Lilith remained in the courtyard.

"Would you like to continue training?" Logan asked, his tone calm but curious.

"I don't know," Lilith said thoughtfully. "Maybe I should rest a bit before starting again."

With that, she also turned and walked toward the villa.

Logan was about to follow when he suddenly froze.

A suffocating pressure enveloped the area — an overwhelming presence that made his heart pound violently. It felt as though someone could crush him without even lifting a finger.

He trembled slightly and turned around.

No one was there.

"What is this?" he muttered. "I can feel it… someone's here. This power… this pressure — it feels otherworldly. But why can't I see the person?"

Then something clicked in his mind. His instincts screamed at him to look up.

And there it was.

A figure hovered high in the sky, backlit by the sun, making his face impossible to see. He wore golden robes, and his long white hair fluttered freely in the wind.

Even from this distance, Logan could feel the man's gaze fixed directly on him.

The stranger slowly turned his body, but his head remained tilted toward Logan, eyes still locked on him. Then, with an elegant motion, he raised his hand and gestured — beckoning Logan to follow. After that, the figure began gliding forward through the air, slow yet steady.

Logan's mind spun. "What should I do? Is he an enemy? Someone from another planet?"

A dozen possibilities flashed through his head. "What if he's here to kill me… or steal the cultivation technique?" he wondered grimly.

But then he dismissed the thought. "No. Others are already learning cultivation and breathing techniques. And if he really wanted to kill me, he could've done it right here. I wouldn't stand a chance. Just that pressure alone could crush me. Then why… why approach me instead?"

He clenched his fists, eyes narrowing with resolve. "There's only one way to find out."

With that decision, he followed.

The spiritual orb hovering beside him dimmed and quietly slipped back into his storage ring.

As he stepped through the main gate, the guards stationed there bowed respectfully.

Logan returned the gesture quickly before sprinting out of the villa grounds.

Though the mysterious figure was flying slowly, his pace was still far faster than Logan's run. Even at full speed, Logan could barely keep up. The man seemed to glide effortlessly across the sky, the distance between them stretching like an unreachable horizon.

Still, Logan didn't stop. He kept running.

Minutes turned into an hour.

Finally, the golden-robed figure halted above a small forest and began descending.

Seeing that, Logan pushed his legs harder, his speed surging as he dashed straight into the forest after him.

And soon, Logan reached the heart of the forest. There, the mysterious man was standing before him.

The man looked to be in his mid-twenties, yet for some reason, Logan felt an ancient aura radiating from him — something far beyond mortal age. It was as if he were a deity who had lived for thousands of years.

"Who are you?" Logan asked cautiously.

The man did not respond immediately. He simply stared at Logan in silence, his gaze calm yet piercing. Finally, after a few long moments, he spoke.

"You're weak. Far too weak, to be exact. I can't comprehend how you were able to awaken it."

"Awaken it? Awaken what?" Logan's eyes widened in confusion.

"Perhaps fate is cruel," the man said quietly. "But it is what it is. Soon, the Evil One will be unsealed. I must ensure that you at least obtain what you need to become stronger."

"The Evil One will be unsealed?" Logan repeated, his mind racing. "You mean… someone from another planet? If that's what you mean, I already know. I've been training hard for that very reason — so when they arrive, I can fight them. Some of them are already here, hiding in the dungeons." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The man fell silent again, his expression unreadable. After a brief pause, he said, "The ones you believe to be your enemies aren't even the true puppets of the being you should fear."

"Puppet?" Logan echoed, his voice trembling slightly. "Then there's someone else I should be worried about?"

His mind went blank. He wanted to ask more, but he knew better than to act rashly. Just one gesture from this man, one flick of his finger, could erase Logan's existence entirely.

"I know you're trying to help," Logan said in a pleading tone, "but I don't understand what you mean. Please… could you explain it in simpler words?"

The man didn't answer. Instead, he raised his hand. A small azure crystal materialized above his palm, glowing faintly with a divine radiance.

"This will help you grow stronger and solve your current problems," he said. "Once you're done with that, I'll return to explain everything in detail and take you to the Immortal Heaven. But remember — the Dragon Core I just gave you is the only one I have. If you let it go to waste, I won't be able to help you again."

With those words, the man began to rise into the air, his robes fluttering as a gust of spiritual wind swirled around him.

"Wait!" Logan shouted. "I still don't understand what you just said!"

But the man didn't stop. This time, he didn't fly in any direction — he simply ascended higher and higher into the sky until his figure faded into the horizon and disappeared completely.

Logan stood frozen, staring upward in a daze, unable to process what had just happened. After a long silence, he looked down at the object in his hand. The Dragon Core pulsed with a brilliant azure glow, and as he focused on it, he could feel an overwhelming energy surging within — the amount felt so great that even the orb Nolan had given him would pale in comparison.

After gazing at the crystal for a while, Logan finally turned and left the forest.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, Charles and Robert were locked in a fierce battle against the young man and the girl.

Robert hurled a blazing fireball toward his opponent, but the young man merely waved his hand, summoning a gust of wind that effortlessly extinguished the flames.

Charles followed up instantly, releasing a flurry of razor-sharp air blades. Yet the girl moved gracefully through them as if she were taking a leisurely walk in a garden. When she closed the distance, she delivered a light punch to Charles's abdomen — so light it almost seemed harmless.

But the next moment, Charles's body shot backward like a cannonball, crashing through several trees before finally hitting the ground.

On the other hand, after last attack, Robert barely had time to react before the young man appeared right in front of him. His movement was so fast it left a blur in the air. The man's palm brushed lightly against Robert's chest — yet that single touch sent Robert flying backward with the force of an explosion.

Both men lay sprawled across the ground, groaning in pain and struggling to move.

The young man and the girl exchanged a brief glance, then calmly approached, stopping before their fallen opponents.

"Are you ready to talk now?" the man asked coldly.