Chapter 25: The Dragon's Pool, A Strange Game
Lu Qingyang squatted on a crooked-neck willow tree by the Dragon's Pool, his pant legs rolled up to his knees, his feet stirring the sulfur-smelling pool water.
The new qiankun bag at his waist was bulging—it contained three catties of Ghost Weeping Vines he had pilfered from the Yin Corpse Sect's treasure vault, which were now rubbing against the cracks in the qingmu spirit pearl, producing specks of phosphorescent light.
"Daoist Lu, what a refined taste."
A beautiful face suddenly surfaced on the pool, and a pair of white jade-like Dragon horns emerged from her wet black hair.
Lu Qingyang held an Exploding Flame Talisman in his palm, but his face was plastered with the fawning smile of a street vendor: "Miss Ao, are you still short a back-scrubber for your shedding? This humble one's emery...
Before he could finish, the Dragon girl flicked her tail, raising a ten-zhang high wave.
As Lu Qingyang hugged the tree and rolled, the immortal binding rope hidden in the tree hole had already wrapped around the Dragon's tail at seven inches.
The water from the Dragon's Pool poured down his collar, stimulating the unhealed Lightning Tribulation scar on his neck to emit a purple glow: "Fairy Ao, with such a temper, no wonder you're still unmarried at three hundred years old!"
Amidst the roar of the Dragon Palace Restriction at the bottom of the pool being triggered, Lu Qingyang slid into the underground river, stepping on half of the inverse scale shed by the Dragon girl.
The qingmu spirit pearl sensed the Dragon blood aura, and golden patterns, like flesh buds, grew from its cracks.
As he fled, he took out a marrow jade bottle he had pilfered from the Taiyi Pavilion's medicine hall three days ago, condensing the Dragon blood dripping along the way into pills.
"You little thief, prepare to die!"
Ye Wuchen's Sword Qi split open the rock wall, and Lu Qingyang took the opportunity to flick a Dragon Blood Pill into the other party's sword sheath.
The berserk Dragon girl sensed the same source of blood Qi and turned her Dragon head to pounce directly on the Taiyi Pavilion Cultivators.
While taking advantage of the chaos to pocket Ye Wuchen's storage jade pendant, Lu Qingyang did not forget to shout at the Dragon girl: "The third Cultivator on the right is carrying Hehuan Sect's Yang Dragon Powder, which is most to Fairy's taste!"
Before the bronze door at the end of the underground river, Su Li was already waiting, holding a blood-stained hoe.
The soul-locking jade hairpin in her hair suddenly burst forth with a faint light, illuminating the bulging qiankun bag in Lu Qingyang's arms: "Hand over the black Jiao inverse scale, otherwise..."
"Otherwise, Fairy Su wants to be a pair of fated lovers with me?" Lu Qingyang chuckled, tearing open his robes to reveal the hideous Lightning Tribulation scar on his chest.
The qingmu spirit pearl suddenly flew out of his body, and a hourglass-like phantom within the pearl enveloped both of them.
A mere flick of a finger in the outside world was three days within the spirit pearl's space—he had long since refined the inverse scale into a heart-protecting mirror, which was now embedded in the scar, absorbing Dragon Qi.
Just as Su Li's silver needle pressed against his Adam's apple, the taotie pattern on the bronze door suddenly came alive.
Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to sprinkle half a packet of itching powder into the door crack: "I heard that the first Sect Leader of Taiyi Pavilion hid thirty-six concubines here..."
Before he could finish, the miasma sprayed from inside the door catalyzed the itching powder into a potent poison, causing the pursuing Taiyi Pavilion Disciple to immediately scratch their faces raw.
The moment the Dragon girl crashed through the dome, Lu Qingyang was sprawled on the bronze coffin, imprinting a Formation.
The bridal gown of the female corpse in the coffin suddenly wrapped around his wrist, and amidst Su Li's cry of alarm, this fellow actually tore off half of the bridal gown with a backhand: "Thousand-year ice silkworm silk! Enough to exchange for thirty..."
The gale from the Dragon's tail sweep slammed him into the coffin, resulting in a mouth-to-mouth encounter with the awakened ancient corpse.
"You're not picky at all." Su Li swung her hoe to split open the coffin, only to see Lu Qingyang using the immortal binding rope to tie the ancient corpse's hands.
He spat out the anti-corrosion pill from his mouth, and then took the opportunity to pocket the Jade Slip from the corpse's embrace: "This big sister has a soul-stabilizing pearl in her teeth, Fairy Su, do you want it?"
As the Dragon's Pool water poured into the underground palace, the three-way battle had reached a fever pitch.
Lu Qingyang stepped on the broken horn on the Dragon girl's head and leaped out of the water, clutching the bronze door beast head he had just pried off.
The cracks in the qingmu spirit pearl had largely healed under the immersion of Dragon blood, and within the pearl, a star chart of the Taiyi Pavilion Forbidden Land actually appeared.
"Lu! Qing! Yang!"
Ye Wuchen's Nascent Soul Avatar shattered the underground palace, but the Dragon girl suddenly turned her attack to pounce on the Taiyi Pavilion Cultivators.
Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to scatter the itching powder antidote towards Su Li: "Catch! This bottle of Spring Night Powder can cure all poisons..."
Before he could finish, the antidote bottle had been burned into a glass crystal by Dragon breath, and the tracking Gu worm inside flapped its wings and flew into the night sky.
Before dawn, the Dragon's Pool was shrouded in blood mist, and Lu Qingyang lay on the wreckage of a pilfered flying boat, drifting towards the estuary.
He tallied his gains from this battle: half a bridal gown of ice silkworm silk, thirty-six soul-stabilizing pearls, and the Taiyi Pavilion Elder meeting records he had taken from Ye Wuchen's jade pendant.
The qingmu spirit pearl glowed with strange golden patterns under the morning sun, and the newly grown dragon blood grass within the pearl even had thorns.
"What a loss, what a loss..." He fumbled towards his empty qiankun bag, then suddenly pulled out a recording Jade Slip from his crotch.
The scene of the Dragon girl violently beating Ye Wuchen was meticulously clear in the image, and his exaggerated commentary was also recorded in the background sound: "Come and see! Taiyi Pavilion's chief Disciple has a night rendezvous with a three-hundred-year-old Dragon girl..."
The salty sea breeze carried away his mumbling, and faintly, the singing of merfolk could be heard from behind the distant reef cluster.
Lu Qingyang took out a moldy compass to measure his position, but the needle pointed firmly to a certain spot at the bottom of the sea—where the ruins of the Star Pavilion, which had fallen during the ancient war, lay dormant, and also where the third fragment sensed by the qingmu spirit pearl was located.