Chapter 3: Hidden Dragon in the Dark River
The moment the bronze box touched the qingmu spirit pearl, the dark river boiled like a pot. The azure light bursting from Lu Qingyang’s fingers enveloped both of them. The Taiyi Pavilion brand on Su Li’s collarbone suddenly cracked, seeping golden-red blood beads. She clasped Lu Qingyang’s wrist in return, but the Thunderstorm Talisman turned to dust upon touching the Spirit Pearl, scattering into the acrid, sulfur-smelling mist.
“You can actually break the Soul-Chasing Mark…” Su Li’s gasp was shattered by stalactites falling from the dome. A mountain-like black silhouette emerged from the depths of the dark river, and six pairs of lantern-sized vertical pupils opened sinisterly, illuminated by the magma. Lu Qingyang dragged the young girl and leaped into the turbulent flow. The bronze box struck a submerged reef, cracking open a fine seam, and a Dragon’s roar shook the rock wall, causing dust to rain down.
As the Three-Headed Flood Dragon’s sharp claws tore through the water, Lu Qingyang caught the unique sweet and pungent scent of dragon blood grass. He abruptly pushed Su Li towards a rock crevice, using the momentum to kick off towards the Yao Beast’s lower jaw, aiming for its inverted scale. The qingmu spirit pearl felt hot in his palm. The instant the hourglass phantom reversed, the poisonous flames spewed by the Three-Headed Flood Dragon strangely retracted into its throat, transforming into pure fire spirit liquid that dripped into the pearl’s medicinal field.
“Catch!” Su Li suddenly threw over half a bronze chain. This was the Dragon-Binding Rope she had snatched from a secret compartment in the carriage. Lu Qingyang flipped in mid-air to avoid the Flood Dragon’s tail. As the chain wrapped around the Yao Beast’s neck, he glimpsed that what Su Li’s fingertips were pinching was not a Dao spell at all—but the Zhongzhou Su Family’s unique Sky-Stealing Hand Seal.
The Three-Headed Flood Dragon’s furious struggles overturned the entire section of the dark river. Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to press the Spirit Pearl onto the runes of the Dragon-Binding Rope. Azure light spread along the chain, extending and even etching Taiyi Pavilion’s Restriction runes onto the Flood Dragon’s scales. The Yao Beast wailed as it sank into the magma. The bronze box finally split completely open, and out rolled a Jade Slip engraved with a map of the Burial Dragon Abyss’s ley lines.
“So the Ye Family has been looking for this all along,” Su Li wiped away the bloodstains from the corner of her mouth, a short blade sliding from her sleeve to press against Lu Qingyang’s lower back. “Give me the qingmu spirit pearl and the Jade Slip, and the Su Family can guarantee you’ll leave the Eastern Wasteland alive.” Her skirt had somehow entwined with a Heart-Peering Gu, a secret technique from Southern Xinjiang that was now drilling towards his heart through the skin where they touched.
Lu Qingyang suddenly grinned. He deliberately let the Spirit Pearl roll to the ground, causing the dragon blood grass in the pearl’s medicinal field to sway wildly. When Su Li’s attention was diverted to the Spirit Pearl, he stomped his boot heel onto a protruding Yan Yang Stone on the ground—a simple Blazing Array he had set up half an hour ago. The instant the flames exploded, the Heart-Peering Gu was burned to charcoal, and both of them were thrown into a tributary of the dark river by the blast wave.
Fluorescent jellyfish floated in the cold underground water. As Lu Qingyang held his breath and swam, he felt Su Li’s storage pouch at her waist. By the faint blue light, he saw that besides a stack of disguise talismans, the pouch also contained a life tablet engraved with the three characters “Ye Wuchen.” The qingmu spirit pearl suddenly vibrated, signaling danger. He dragged the unconscious girl out of the pool. The Taiyi Pavilion Cultivators pursuing them were using the Water-Splitting Art to cleave open the dark river.
The fluorescent moss in the Cave illuminated Su Li’s pale face. Lu Qingyang tore open her collar to search for antidotes, but instead found a budding Seven Emotions Flower mark on her chest—this was a Love Gu possessed only by direct Disciples of the Hehuan Sect. He recalled the Old Drunkard once saying that Taiyi Pavilion had long-standing ties with the Demonic Path. He immediately used the Spirit Pearl to hasten the growth of several Clear Heart Grasses and stuffed them between her teeth.
“Fellow Daoist Lu is quite the softy,” Su Li’s fingertips had already grasped three bone-piercing nails when she opened her eyes, but she found her natal Gu worm happily circling above the Spirit Pearl. “You can actually raise a Seven Emotions Gu?” She suddenly laughed, shaking with mirth, the Eastern Pearl dangling from her earlobe flickering. “Why don’t we become true husband and wife and study the Dragon-Rearing Scripture from this bronze box together?”
Lu Qingyang used rotten bone flower powder to draw a line between them, holding the Jade Slip with a cold smile: “Miss Su, why don’t you explain why the Ye Family’s direct line life tablet is with you?” He pressed the Spirit Pearl against the surface of the Jade Slip, and a phantom of the Burial Dragon Abyss appeared on the ceiling of the Cave. At the convergence of three ley lines, the Forbidden Land emblem of Taiyi Pavilion was clearly marked.
The footsteps of their pursuers drew near at this moment. Seven Black-Robed Cultivators formed a Heavenly Dipper Sword Array, sealing all exits. Su Li suddenly bit her tongue, spitting out a mist of blood, and stalactites from the Cave ceiling rained down. Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to activate the Jade Slip. A remnant soul of an Azure Dragon flew out from the phantom of the Burial Dragon Abyss, instantly piercing the Purple Mansion of two Cultivators.
“It’s a remnant of the Dragon-Rearing Scripture!” The leading Cultivator’s exclamation carried a trembling note of fear. “Quickly report to the Enforcement Elder…” Before he could finish speaking, the Azure Dragon remnant soul had already entwined with his Nascent Soul. Lu Qingyang watched as the Cultivator’s body rapidly shriveled, yet the dragon blood grass within the Spirit Pearl bore a golden fruit. He had a flash of insight and swallowed the fruit. The dormant spiritual Qi in his Dantian suddenly transformed into a vortex.
Su Li’s gasp became distant. Lu Qingyang felt himself falling into the pearl’s inner world. The hourglass above the medicinal field exploded into stardust, replaced by a coiling phantom of an Azure Dragon. When he reached out to touch the Dragon’s horn, a flood of unfamiliar memories surged into his Sea of Consciousness—the Dragon Slaying Ceremony of Taiyi Pavilion eight hundred years ago, the Dragon bones suppressed beneath the Burial Dragon Abyss, and that qingmu spirit pearl stolen by the Ye Family’s ancestor…
The struggle in reality continued. Lu Qingyang’s Physical Body instinctively formed Dragon-shaped hand seals. Su Li watched in stunned silence as he crushed the core of the sword array with his bare hands. When the last Cultivator was devoured by the Azure Dragon remnant soul, Lu Qingyang suddenly vomited a mouthful of scorching Dragon blood. The blood beads splattered on the Jade Slip, outlining a new route map.
“So the Dragon Transformation Pool is hidden in the Burial Dragon Abyss,” Su Li’s breathing quickened. The silver bells on her wrist jingled without wind. “The Ye Family has been searching for three hundred years… Who exactly are you?” She suddenly tore off her disguise; a flame pattern identical to that of the Taiyi Pavilion Cultivators appeared between her eyebrows, yet the lining of her Daoist robe was embroidered with the twin lotuses of the Hehuan Sect.
Lu Qingyang wiped the Dragon blood from the corner of his mouth, tossing the Spirit Pearl up and catching it. “Mr. Lu is just a pallbearer.” He kicked aside a Cultivator’s corpse and dug out a recording Jade Slip from the scorched earth—in the battle footage just now, Su Li’s Sky-Stealing Hand Seal was clearly visible. The young girl’s face instantly changed, but he crushed the Jade Slip right in front of her. “Now we can talk about how to split the spoils.”
The pre-dawn clouds hung very low. The two confronted each other in a derelict mine shaft. Su Li threw out a mustard seed pouch containing twenty High-Grade Spirit Stones and half a scroll of the Taiyi Pill Scripture. Lu Qingyang, however, smiled, staring at the gilded Phoenix hairpin in her hair: “Add that Spirit-Locking Hairpin too. I know it can seal a Nascent Soul Cultivator for three breaths.”
As the transaction was completed, tremors from the ley lines emanated from the depths of the mine shaft. The compass Su Li left behind spun wildly, pointing towards the Burial Dragon Abyss. Lu Qingyang caressed the newly acquired Spirit-Locking Hairpin. The hidden poison needle at the end of the hairpin glinted with a faint blue under the morning light—this was clearly the Hehuan Sect’s specially made Acacia Bone-Piercing Needle.
Three days later, a new rumor circulated in the largest black market of the Eastern Wasteland: a Loose Cultivator wearing a bronze mask was buying Dragon scale powder, offering thirty percent higher prices than the three major trade guilds. And when the Taiyi Pavilion Enforcement Elder arrived, he only found a chaotic, ruined stall and half a charred Dragon scale, its edge still stained with traces of the qingmu spirit pearl’s unique herbal sap.