Hate Me, Witch!-Chapter 175: Make Xia Ya the Happiest Dragon Knight

Let the Golden Dragon pass on, with a beautiful dream to end it all.

“Using the last of your strength to activate the Blessing of the World Tree before death… guess I owe you one.”

“A dragon pulling this kind of scheme… not very dragon-like. Honestly, more like a human.”

He smiled faintly, the sheen of mercury in his eyes fading away.

“But even that kind of manipulation… fell flat in the end.”

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For someone like Xia Ya—if he made a promise, he would keep it.

Whether the Golden Dragon gifted him a favor or not didn’t change a thing.

His gaze shifted to the Egg of Night.

“The child of the Dragon King, huh?”

He walked forward step by step, then reached out, placing his hand gently upon the dragon egg wrapped in darkness.

The moment he touched it, starlight shimmered across the thin veil of night that cloaked it.

Xia Ya bit his finger.

He let the crimson blood drip from his fingertip, falling onto the Egg of Night.

Drip.

Drip.

The blood, within the concentric ripples of starlight, outlined a blood-colored scale of justice.

Different from his previous contracts—

This time, instead of a Master-Servant Contract, it was a Pact of Equals.

After all, this was the entrusted legacy of the Golden Dragon.

The agreement wasn’t about control, but protection.

Unlike a Master-Servant Contract, where the summoner held overwhelming authority—able to order a follower to die without resistance—

a Pact of Equals established a relationship closer to intimate allies.

Their souls would be bound tightly together, and both sides would benefit from the Soul Pact’s enhancements.

But—

it lacked the absolute binding force of a Master-Servant arrangement.

The blood-red scale burst into a blinding glow.

And then Xia Ya felt it—

the veil of darkness slowly began to wrap around him.

Threads of shadowy spiritual power reached out from the Egg of Night.

Within the Spirit Realm, they brushed against Xia Ya’s own spiritual symbol—a mist of dark gray—

curious and tentative.

Soon, Xia Ya’s gray mist began to intertwine with the starlit night threads,

weaving together in quiet communion.

At the same time, a path of soul connection began to slowly take shape—

through this spiritual meeting and mutual erosion.

This was the first time Xia Ya had experienced such a complex, painstaking contract process.

Even with his current soul strength, having cultivated a Spiritual Sea in Eden, the progress was agonizingly slow.

Only bit by bit did his gray mist advance through the starry night.

Sure, he had contracted the Mercury Serpent before—

but that guy was just a disgrace to Mythical Creatures,

utterly powerless and smaller than a housecat.

That contract wasn’t much harder than binding a common meow-meow cat.

But this Ancient Dragon Egg?

This was a genuine Mythical Species.

Not something that embarrassment of a snake could ever compare to.

If Xia Ya hadn’t crossed the Throne-Tier boundary thanks to ten years in Eden,

he wouldn’t have had the qualifications—

most Legendary Beastmasters are capped at contracting Legendary-Tier Beasts,

and couldn't even attempt a Mythical bond.

Xia Ya remained motionless, focusing on the delicate construction of the Soul Path.

And at some point, the metal fairy-like Jieyi emerged, flapping her wings.

Her eyes scanned the ruins, projecting beams of light.

After all, this was once the Ancient Dragon Court.

Even if its mystique and connection to the World Tree were long depleted—

it still held immense archaeological value.

All Xia Ya could say was—

the First Era lived up to its name.

Barely a day into this Historical Echo, and he’d already reaped a staggering harvest.

He’d learned the truth of the Calamity of Light,

uncovered the secrets of the Ancient Dragon Court,

and unraveled the real reason behind the Beastmaster system.

He’d always wondered—

why did this world develop a transcendent path centered on Beastmasters?

Now it made sense—

it had originated as a solution to the Calamity of Light brought by the Fallen Sun.

The once-dominant transcendent races of the Western Continent—

to resist madness and collapse—had no choice but to form contracts with humans.

And the feedback from these Soul Pacts gave the frail, short-lived humans the power to stand against them.

Even after the Fallen Sun’s influence weakened, the benefits of the Soul Pact system endured.

And as humanity’s position rose, the Beastmaster system became a permanent legacy.

Nggh—

The Ancient Dragon Egg trembled faintly.

Starlight spilled across it, giving off a soft chime.

Xia Ya felt it immediately—

in the Spirit Realm, the path between his gray mist and the night haze burst open.

The crimson scale of justice reflected in his eyes.

The Pact of Equals was complete.

And then, all sounds and glows faded away.

Silence returned.

Xia Ya looked again at the Egg of Night.

Unlike before, when its veil of darkness obscured its form—

now, through their Soul Pact, he could clearly feel it:

the beating heart of the Ancient Dragon.

At first, it was only a faint rhythm.

But with every second, it grew louder—

the pulsing starlight trembling with each beat.

Then, in the very next instant—

CRACK.

A clean fracture appeared on the surface of the Ancient Dragon Egg.

Cracks quickly spread across the surface.

The thin veil of night shattered.

A slender, graceful black dragon, bathed in starlight and shadows, blinked open its crimson-gold dragon eyes, curiously observing the human before it.

Though it was only a newly hatched whelp, the Ancient Dragon bloodline granted it intelligence on par with an average human.

And due to the Soul Pact, this black-haired human before it felt intimately familiar—an unexplainable sense of kinship.

It let out a soft whimper, nuzzling affectionately against Xia Ya’s palm.

At the same time, a pale blue system interface surfaced in Xia Ya’s mind:

【Nickname: Unnamed】

【Species: Dragon of the Night】

【Soul Pact Status: Fourth Soul Pact (Pact of Equals – Xia Ya Egut)】

【Combat Level: 63 (Sixth Tier)】

【Species Rank: Mythical Species】

【Beast Skills: Eternal Night, Shadow Sovereign, Crown of Secrets, Blessing of the World Tree, Slumber, Calamity Curse】

“A true Mythical Species, alright. Just hatched and already Sixth Tier—basically on par with an Imperial-Tier Summoned Beast.”

Looking at the downright luxurious status panel, Xia Ya couldn’t help but let out a heartfelt sigh.

Truly—compare beasts to beasts, and you’ll just die of jealousy.

Ah-choo!

Somewhere in the Soul Pact Space, a certain Level 5 snake sneezed, then flicked its tail in confusion.

...

“This is awesome.”

Xia Ya reached out his hands.

Then, under the confused gaze of the Dragon of the Night, he scooped it into his arms.

As it looked around curiously, the thin shadows and night haze surrounding it gently rippled in sync with its crimson-gold eyes,

but the little dragon made no effort to resist him at all.

And in that moment, a deep, dreamlike satisfaction bloomed in Xia Ya’s heart.

A wish fulfilled.

As a fully-certified Beastmaster, who hadn’t dreamed of forming a pact with a dragon?

He’d been drooling over the Black-Scaled Wyverns exclusive to the Imperial Breeding Institute.

He had even planned to ask his second wife, Isadella, for one as a wedding gift—something from Her Majesty the Empress to her new Royal Consort.

But now, there was no need to eye any Black-Scaled Wyvern.

No matter how powerful they were, they were still just Wyvern species, after all—no comparison to a pure-blood Ancient Dragon.

“To be honest, I’ve always had a dream.”

Xia Ya looked seriously at the slender, elegant little Dragon of the Night in his arms.

“That one day—

I’ll become a glorious Dragon Knight.”

Or rather, wasn’t that every man’s dream?

Of course, since their pact was a Pact of Equals, not a Master-Servant Contract,

technically Xia Ya couldn’t force the Dragon of the Night to do anything.

But naturally, Xia Ya had long since thought of a workaround.

What else? Raise Favorability.

It was just a newly-hatched little whelp.

Even if it had intelligence matching a human’s, it still had no experience.

From a certain point of view—he was its father and mother both.

Once he raised its Favorability to the max through gourmet food and pampering...

then casually asked for a ride—

wouldn’t that be a done deal?

“So, little dragon, you’d better grow up fast.”

“You’re still too small to carry my weight. If I tried to ride you now, I’d probably crush you flat.”

Xia Ya gently stroked the head of the little Dragon of the Night, his voice filled with doting concern.

Honestly, this was the real difficulty in his plan to become a Dragon Knight.

The lifespan and growth cycle of Ancient Dragons was on a completely different level from humans.

According to the Golden Dragon,

the Egg of the Night had been in hibernation for nearly a thousand years—

from the fall of the Sky Throne at the start of the Calamity Era,

to the collapse of the Ancient Dragon Court,

all the way until now.

Only now had the egg completed its incubation and hatched.

Who knew how long it would take for the Dragon of the Night to grow from a whelp,

to adolescent,

to fully matured?

Based on that incubation period,

two to three entire Eras might be the bare minimum.

Sure, Summoned Beasts could speed up growth by devouring Transcendent Materials,

but for a Mythical Species like this one, any effective materials would be just as rare and valuable as the dragon itself.

“Ah—”

Xia Ya sighed, ruffling the little dragon’s head.

“I just don’t know if I’ll even live long enough to ride you once.”

“If this ends up becoming a ‘your own lifespan backfires on you’ kinda joke, that’d really suck, wouldn’t it?”

“Right, I haven’t named you yet.”

Looking at the soft veil of night curling around the little dragon in his arms, Xia Ya’s tone softened.

“Judging by your skill list, it looks like your abilities are tied to darkness and night…”

“Did you inherit these from your mother?”

He recalled the vision shown to him by the Wheel of Fate—

the tranquil, gentle Dragon Queen seated upon the throne of the Ancient Dragon Court.

“Then I’ll name you…”

“‘Ye’.” (Night)

...

“This time the master actually picked a normal name? Am I still asleep?”

“Hmph hmph hmph, when did you get the illusion that I wasn’t using Tsukuyomi?”

“This is suspicious—I think our master got possessed by some ancient demon!”

“Whoever you are, please stay inside our master a little longer!”

Inside the Soul Pact Space, Silver, Shiny, Crimson, and Jieyi all wore expressions of utter shock.

Their master actually named something normally!

Was the Fallen Sun’s corruption affecting him too?

Had he gone half-mad?

But right now, the slender little black dragon didn’t seem to care about the noisy chaos echoing from the soul pact.

It simply curled up quietly in Xia Ya’s arms,

feeling the faint warmth radiating from him.

Ye, huh? (Night)

And—

“Dragon Knight.”

It didn’t know the exact meaning of that word,

but from Xia Ya’s tone, it clearly understood—

that he deeply yearned to become one.

In that case—

Then I’ll make sure Xia Ya becomes the happiest, most perfect Dragon Knight in the whole world!

And so, deep within its soul,

Ye quietly etched its very first vow as a dragon.