Chapter 302: Chapter 19: Hundred Flower Valley, Unexpected Disaster Flying In
Eastern Emperor Demon Realm, Cangnan Plain, Hundred Flower Valley, Tri-Village Riverbank.
“Why…”
“Why did it have to be a snake!!!!!”
The young dragon who had assumed the name “Long Long” was twisting its body endlessly underwater, swimming forward in graceful coils, internally screaming in agony.
“This isn’t a water snake,” said the Kunlun Mirror helplessly. “It’s a ‘Water Viper’, the precursor to a Jiaolong.”
“That’s what I’m asking you, what happened to the supposed humanoid form?” Long Long lamented tearlessly.
“Ahem,” the Kunlun Mirror said sheepishly, “This is the first time I’ve encountered such a situation. By all means, with the concentration of the Ying Long Essence Blood, such a result shouldn’t have occurred…”
At this point, it paused for a moment, then added:
“Could it be an atavistic effect?”
“What atavistic effect?” Long Long asked, utterly confused.
“It’s like this,” the Kunlun Mirror explained, “Different individuals have different levels of tolerance to different bloodlines.”
“It’s possible that your body is particularly well-suited to the Dragon Clan bloodline, which allowed the Ying Long Bloodline to be perfectly expressed, making your initial form closer to that of a dragon rather than a human.”
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“But it doesn’t matter!” Seeing Long Long growing increasingly impatient, it hastily added, “This is actually a good thing!”
“The rank and compatibility of your bloodline determine the heights you can achieve in the future!”
“To draw an analogy, it’s like taking an imperial examination—where a perfect score for others is one hundred, your paper is graded out of a thousand. This means that no one can possibly outdo you.”
“Of course, the downside is that when it comes to filling out your answer sheet, your progress will be much slower than everyone else’s…”
“Shut it, broken mirror!” Long Long gritted his teeth, “I’ll remember this debt!”
The Green Duckweed Sword let out a soft chuckle but quickly fell silent again.
Out of boredom, Long Long swam along the Tri-Village River, exploring the entire Hundred Flower Valley.
Incidentally, both Hundred Flower Valley and Tri-Village River were names assigned by Long Long himself.
The former, situated near a river with fertile, moist soil, was adorned with a variety of lush wildflowers and grasses growing densely together, creating a singularly picturesque scene.
The latter flowed down from the mountains to the west, splitting into three branches on the west side of Hundred Flower Valley, covering the entire area before merging again at two river junctions on the eastern side, then flowing into a great river that ran from north to south into the sea on the eastern edge of the valley.
More importantly, there were no transformed demons residing within Hundred Flower Valley.
Back in the Misty Forest of the Southern Border, in the deep lakes of the Aquatic Clan, while Ling Yunpo was learning Dragon Language from the Jiaoren Shaman, he also learned much about the cultural customs of demon society.
Demons are a general term used by humans for all sorts of spiritually awakened creatures and do not signify that they are one race—contrarily, it’s common for various clans to engage in mutual slaughter.
Even more ruthless than the inter-clan killing is the contempt that transformed sand-table demons have for the untransformed Demonic Beasts.
You should know that most demons only gain intelligence after transforming.
Even for a high-bloodline clan like the Dragon Clan, at the untransformed Water Viper stage, they would at best have slightly smarter thinking, roughly on par with human children.
Therefore, if Long Long had the misfortune to encounter any transformed demons, they would not see him as one of their kind but as a wild beast.
A casual killing would carry no moral burden for them at all.
In short, the absence of transformed demons in Hundred Flower Valley was absolutely a stroke of luck for Long Long.
As for what needed to be done next, it was to practice the Dragon Clan’s Cultivation Technique as soon as possible, to refine and master the “perfectly fitting” Ying Long Bloodline as soon as possible, and thereby transform into human form ahead of time.
Only by transforming into human form could he leave the Hundred Flower Valley, and at least be qualified to converse and negotiate with transformed demons.
“Strange,” said the Kunlun Mirror suddenly.
Long Long had just found a crevice in the riverbed stones, squeezed into it, and coiled up. Hearing the Kunlun Mirror speak, he asked curiously:
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t find the aura of the Heaven-Mending Stone fragments,” said the Kunlun Mirror.
“Isn’t that normal?” asked Long Long. “Most of the time in the Mortal Realm, you didn’t detect the Heaven-Mending Stone’s aura either.”
“No, that’s not it,” the Kunlun Mirror said. “I recorded this coordinate in the Eastern Emperor Demon Realm precisely because I detected the aura of the Heaven-Mending Stone nearby.”
“How long ago was that?” Long Long asked silently.
“It was indeed a long time ago,” Kunlun Mirror said helplessly, “from the aura at that time, the Heaven-Mending Stone was not being carried, but was being used to seal something, so I thought…”
“So you thought what?” Long Long sighed, “So many years have passed… It’s been at least several tens of thousands of years, right? What couldn’t have happened in that time?”
“Perhaps what you detected at the beginning was indeed Yin Xiaojing or someone else using the Heaven-Mending Stone here to seal something, but then someone came back later to take it away?”
“That would just mean we’re unlucky,” Kunlun Mirror said dejectedly.
“Unlucky? This is a likely event, okay!” Long Long said helplessly, “We must do the same as others and cultivate first!”
“When we cultivate to a sufficient Cultivation Realm, then go out to look for clues and opportunities.”
Kunlun Mirror was speechless.
It suddenly realized something, that Chen Guanshui, that guy, wasn’t actually in a hurry to find the Heaven-Mending Stone.
The day all the Heaven-Mending Stones are found would be the day he’s hunted down by the entire Cultivation Realm, and with Chen Guanshui’s way of thinking, he would definitely want to accumulate enough strength to protect himself before that.
In other words, the disappearance of the Heaven-Mending Stone in the Eastern Emperor Realm, he might be overjoyed!
“All right,” it could only say helplessly, “then you’d better hurry up.”
“Definitely, definitely,” Long Long immediately agreed wholeheartedly.
He stayed at the bottom of the lake for a long time, and not until noon did he leisurely swim out of the river and, in the nearby woods, climb to the top of the trees, twining around the treetops, and began to practice the “Primordial Eight Majestic Dragon Scripture,” drawing in and absorbing the Great Sun Treasure Essence.
It wasn’t until the third quarter of the noon hour that he swiftly swam out of the woods and returned to the riverbed to lurk.
Having mastered Fasting, Long Long did not need to eat anything or breathe and could stay at the bottom of the river for a long time.
For other Demonic Beasts without Spiritual Wisdom, even if they had mastered Fasting, they would not be able to resist the urge to eat flesh, thus risking exposure.
Who could be as cautious as I am!
He stayed at the bottom of the river until midnight, and then once again swam to the surface, returning to the top of the trees to practice his Cultivation Technique, breathing in to draw upon the essence of the Great Moon.
Days passed like this, when suddenly one day, the Hundred Flower Valley was shaken, and countless Demonic Beasts ran towards the east of the valley.
Long Long, sensing the stampede of beasts from the bottom of the river, was shocked.
Could it be that some disaster was striking from the west side of the valley?
He quickly left the river surface, following the other Demonic Beasts eastward.
After crossing the Three Villages River, he arrived at the Eastern Sea River, where a large boat was moored on the river. On the boat, several attendants surrounded an old man, and a boy stood by the boat’s edge, tossing Elixirs into the water below like candy beans.
The multitude of Demonic Beasts below immediately scrambled for the elixirs, fighting to the death as if in a pit fight, with blood and flesh flying everywhere. The boy found it amusing and burst out laughing.
Long Long, staying on the edge of the beast crowd, saw such a scene and subconsciously thought about turning and fleeing.
However, he quickly thought better of it, realizing it would be too conspicuous to leave on his own while the other beasts were lunging for the Elixirs. He promptly pretended to join in the struggle.
Unfortunately, his movement was still too slow, and the boy caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of his eye, pointed with his hand, and Long Long found himself unable to move, suddenly flying out of the crowd and landing on the deck.
“Grandpa! Grandpa!” The boy, holding Long Long, ran to the old man to show his prize, “This looks like a dragon! Can I keep it as a dragon pet?”
“Of course not,” the old man said with some surprise, looking at Long Long, “It is a Water Viper.”
“But a Water Viper can evolve into a dragon,” the boy said innocently.
“That’s exactly why you can’t keep it,” the old man said with a laugh, “If this Water Viper could evolve into a Jiaolong, the Dragon Clan would never allow their kind to be stranded outside.”
“If it couldn’t evolve into a Jiaolong, what would be the point of keeping it?”
Feeling reluctant, the boy pouted and said:
“Then just don’t let the Dragon Clan find out, right?”
“No,” the old man continued to coax him, “Good grandson, next time grandpa will get you a Jiaoren to play with, how about that?”
“No no no!” The boy lost his temper, clumped to the bow of the boat, and flung Long Long forcefully into the river, shouting loudly, “If you don’t want to keep it, then don’t keep it! I really don’t care!”
Long Long, frozen by the Binding Spell, couldn’t move at all.
He immediately fell into the water, drifting downstream as if he were a floating corpse.