Flood Dragon

“Roar! Roar!” Tiger roars shook the heavens. The tiger-winged eagles had noticed the disturbance. Dozens of tiger-winged eagles took to the air, shrieking madly as they rolled forward like a massive black cloud, their demon qi surging to the skies with savage momentum. Sensing this, Qin Sang’s expression shifted slightly. He waved his hand to retrieve the Yellow Sand Banner and hurriedly swept up the corpses of Kong Xin and the black-robed man. He had intended to capture Kong Xin alive to refine him into a baleful corpse, but with Yunyouzi right beside him, refining corpses openly was inappropriate. Thus, he had deployed the Yellow Sand Banner as cover to see if an opportunity presented itself to pull it off secretly. Unfortunately, the tiger-winged eagles’ senses were too sharp, and Kong Xin had used some unknown secret technique that made even Qin Sang faintly sense danger, leaving him no choice but to directly drive the ebony sword to execute him. Yunyouzi was no slower to grasp the situation. He had summoned the spirit bamboo flying boat early on. The two boarded the vessel and fled far away, taking turns piloting it until they finally threw off the tiger-winged eagles. Finding a secluded spot, they brought the flying boat down. Qin Sang tossed out the corpses of Kong Xin and the black-robed man. The black-robed man’s spine had been shattered by the Black Dragon Stone, his upper torso crumpled into a mangled mass, severely mutilated. As for Kong Xin, whatever secret technique he had used had left his flesh and blood a mangled mess and inflicted catastrophic damage on his sea of qi; he would never withstand the influx of baleful qi, making refining him into a baleful corpse impossible. Qin Sang could not help feeling disappointed. He searched the corpses, opened their two mustard seed bags, and shook out everything inside. Yunyouzi took the Blue Light Sword, while Qin Sang pocketed the crimson pellet, the Cold Metal Ore Matrix, and other such items. The remaining belongings were unremarkable. However, two jade slips caught Qin Sang’s attention. Both jade slips contained maps, drawn by Kong Xin and the black-robed man respectively. The greatest value of the map drawn by the black-robed man lay in the fact that it marked many hidden routes and safe havens in the second layer of Wuya Valley, far more detailed than the one from Tianfeng Tower. Evidently, the black-robed man must have spent years roaming Wuya Valley to have explored so many places. This map was extremely valuable, especially useful to them. Yunyouzi was also overjoyed to hear this. He took it and cross-referenced it with the map from Tianfeng Tower, ultimately selecting a safer route that would save them at least a day’s time. The other map had been retrieved from Kong Xin’s mustard seed bag. Unlike the other, this map did not have detailed routes. Instead, it was filled with annotations concerning various demon beasts entrenched in Wuya Valley, including herd sizes, territories, habits, and strength, recorded in extraordinary detail. Without patient and meticulous investigation, it would have been impossible to gather such comprehensive information. Curious as to why Kong Xin had recorded so much information on demon beasts, Qin Sang searched a bit more and found a demonic art called the Blood Transformation Formula, whereupon everything became clear. It was unknown which demonic sect the Blood Transformation Formula came from, but it required the aid of cultivators’ essence blood and demon beast blood to cultivate. Qin Sang skimmed through the Blood Transformation Formula and found that because this demonic art plundered others’ essence blood to nurture oneself, cultivation progressed at an astonishing speed. Yet precisely because of this, the practitioner’s foundation would be unstable and their aura mixed and impure. Reaching the late Foundation Establishment stage would be their absolute peak, with virtually zero chance of Core Formation. Qin Sang would never cultivate any demonic art that hindered Core Formation, no matter how good it was. Without cultivating the Blood Transformation Formula, he could not use the divine abilities that accompanied the technique either. After a brief look, Qin Sang put it away. Compared to the Blood Transformation Formula, the map interested Qin Sang far more—it was an outright delightful surprise, in fact. Marked on the map was the lair of a flood dragon, and it was a black flood dragon at the peak of the Demon Spirit stage! This black flood dragon was confirmed to possess flood dragon bloodline! To upgrade the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman, one had to obtain the spirit soul of a flood dragon at the peak of the Demon Spirit stage. If he refined another flood dragon spirit soul, the speed of the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman would surpass even cultivators at the False Core stage, even if it could not match a Core Formation stage expert. After acquiring the spirit talisman, Qin Sang had inquired in many places, but demon beasts with flood dragon bloodlines were already rare, and those happening to be at the peak of the Demon Spirit stage were rarer still. Even Shaohua Mountain possessed no news of any demon beast that met the requirements. To think there was one hiding right here in Wuya Valley. The black flood dragon’s lair lay within a dark abyss in the second layer of Wuya Valley. The dark abyss was densely packed with ancient restrictions, making it an utterly perilous place. The black flood dragon had remained cultivating within the dark abyss, rarely venturing outside; how Kong Xin had discovered it was unknown. According to Kong Xin’s description, the black flood dragon had lived in the dark abyss for years and knew its ancient restrictions like the back of its claw. Fighting the black flood dragon within the dark abyss, even a formidable False Core cultivator would struggle to gain the upper hand. Moreover, with the restrictions densely blanketing the dark abyss and the passages being narrow, any reinforcements brought along would find it difficult to form a pincer attack. If things took a bad turn, the black flood dragon could easily flee. Qin Sang estimated that with his Ten Directions Yama Needles, he might have a chance of capturing this black flood dragon once he reached the False Core stage. Prior to the False Core stage, unless he found another way, the odds were practically zero. Carefully putting away the jade slip, Qin Sang kept this black flood dragon firmly in mind. Once his strength permitted, he would return here to slay the flood dragon and claim its soul. The matter with Kong Xin was merely a minor episode. Yunyouzi mocked himself incessantly. His original intention had been to avoid unnecessary complications; obtaining the healing spirit medicine was of paramount importance, and reaching their destination smoothly was all he wanted. Who could have thought that the guide hired for safety’s sake was instead a dangerous individual harboring malicious intent? Fortunately, having gained treasures like the Cold Metal Ore Matrix, it had not been a wasted effort. After incinerating the corpses of Kong Xin and the black-robed man, Qin Sang and Yunyouzi adjusted their condition to its peak before setting off. From the tiger-winged eagle nest to the restrictions of the second layer was still several tens of li. The two traveled with great caution and arrived before the restrictions without mishap. Barring their path ahead was a strange, radiant light that filled the space between heaven and earth. The radiant light stretched across their front, boundless in every direction, like a wall of light blocking their path. The colors of the radiant light shifted unpredictably, shimmering in multicolored splendor like a rainbow fallen from the horizon. The scenery was breathtakingly gorgeous and mesmerizing. Little did most know that this strange light was precisely the outward manifestation of the ancient restriction. Its interior was perilous in the extreme, having swallowed the lives of countless cultivators. The cultivation world had long verified that such an immense, boundless expanse of strange light actually stemmed from a single ancient restriction; one could well imagine how terrifying its power would be once triggered. Fortunately, this ancient restriction was very stable, having changed little over countless ages. The paths into the valley charted in earlier years were still safe today. Deep within the strange light, black fissures faintly appeared and vanished, crisscrossing like the cracks in shattered glazed glass. The paths leading to the second layer were hidden within these fissures. The two surveyed their surroundings and, confirming there was no danger, revealed themselves. There were only a sparse few paths that allowed safe passage through the ancient restriction. At any other time, there might have been fellow travelers, but with the turmoil in Wuya Valley only newly settled, few cultivators possessed the ability to reach this place. Having no others around spared them trouble. Yunyouzi held the map to compare, pointing at the thickest fissure among them. “This is the one!”