Chapter 423: Dragon Transformation
Dragon roars shake mountains, yellow sand turns into a vast sea, and dark clouds obscure the sky.
*Clang—*
The ringing in Xiao Yunluo’s ears plunged the world into silence.
Yun Yiyi, hiding with her behind a large rock, clung tightly to Xiao Yunluo’s shoulder, preventing her from being blown away by the furious, surging winds and waves unleashed by the emerging Ying Long.
“Young Master Xiao! Young Master Xiao!!”
Yun Yiyi cried out, almost screaming Xiao Yunluo’s name, but Xiao Yunluo showed no response.
Beneath her wind-tousled bangs, her light purple eyes were vacant, reflecting the immense yellow dragon that was as large as a mountain.
In the Xuan Xing Sect’s library, Xiao Yunluo had read numerous texts about “dragons.”
In summary, they were associated with auspiciousness and good fortune:
—In the eyes of mortals, dragons soared through clouds, capable of anything. Thus, mortal emperors proclaimed themselves Son of Heaven.
—In the eyes of cultivators, dragons also symbolized auspiciousness and spiritual energy, protecting the land, and were considered auspicious beasts.
She agreed with the writings.
After all, she had seen “Second Bro’s” Saint Emperor Dragon Body many times.
Most descriptions were similar to Second Bro’s Golden Dragon—horns like a deer’s, scales like feathers, eyes like swirling nebulae, surrounded by celestial rain, and containing the vitality of all things.
But what was this she was seeing now?
A Ying Long?
According to the texts, this celestial dragon brought forth rain during droughts and calmed floods, so why did it look like this?
Half of its scales were gone, revealing flesh that looked like rotten meat. Its dragon eyes lacked majesty, instead filled with infinite desolation and rage.
If Second Bro’s Golden Dragon’s eyes reflected the vibrant landscapes of the Western Regions in spring and autumn, then this earth-yellow Ying Long’s eyes mirrored the desolate, lifeless desert of the Central Domain.
She watched as the Ying Long swallowed dozens of Core Formation stage demonic cultivators in one gulp…
She saw the leading Nascent Soul stage demonic cultivator and the remaining ones form a dragon-slaying formation…
She saw Ye Anping charge into their midst, dismantling the key formation points…
She saw Ye Anping act as a dragon pearl, drawing the Ying Long to soar and tumble through the heavens and earth, ultimately having its dragon fangs crush the Nascent Soul stage demonic cultivator…
And then, she saw the enraged Ying Long turn its gaze towards Ye Anping…
… …
Ye Anping had not told her how he planned to intercept their pursuers in Seven Dragon Valley. He had only instructed her and Yun Yiyi to lead the Xing Tian Division disciples to set up spirit-breaking formations at twelve locations on a map, and to activate them all when he raised his sword.
Xiao Yunluo could tell that Ye Anping intended to awaken something in this place, but she never expected it to be a Ying Long that had slumbered in this valley for perhaps thousands of years…
Yes, guided by Ye Anping, the pursuing demonic cultivators had turned into dust in the Ying Long’s maw.
But what about next?
What should they do now?
A Ying Long with the power of the Deity Transformation stage, but with a foundation far exceeding it—this was not something she, Ye Anping, and the remaining Foundation Establishment stage Xing Tian Division disciples could handle.
Such a gap in cultivation could not be bridged by any magical artifact or divine technique.
*Swish—*
The gale carried a slightly larger grain of sand past her cheek. Although blocked by the pre-set protective formation, it still left a faint bloody gash on Xiao Yunluo’s face.
Xiao Yunluo stared blankly, her mind a void, until—
“Yunluo!!!”
The boy, whose voice echoed with spiritual energy as he plummeted freely from a thousand feet in the sky, seemingly injured, reached her ears.
Only then did Xiao Yunluo seem to remember to breathe. She manually took a deep breath and, with a panicked expression, retrieved a magical artifact from her storage bag.
But the next moment, she froze again.
Bewilderment and helplessness spread within her…
—What should I do?
—Charge up and help slay the dragon?!
—Don’t be ridiculous, how could I possibly do that?!
—I’m just a cultivator at the early Core Formation stage.
—I can’t even beat Second Bro! How can I possibly deal with this dragon?!
—I can’t even compete for a man with Lian Xue and the others. If Anping hadn’t pitied me, I even…
—How can someone like me possibly do this!!
“I… I…”
… …
*ROAR—!!!*
The earth-shattering dragon roar stirred up thousands of feet of sand, which swirled around the Ying Long as if freed from gravity.
The Ying Long’s boundless rage instantly focused on the boy falling headfirst towards the ground, now inverted in its eyes.
Ye Anping felt his heartbeat falter, his chest felt like it was about to burst, and the injuries he sustained from Gui Qinghe caused him to cough up another mouthful of black blood.
“Cough—”
Ye Anping glanced at Xiao Yunluo, still seemingly unresponsive, hidden behind the rock. Feeling a trace of disappointment, he inwardly questioned:
—Yunluo, don’t you even have the courage to look directly at this foolish dragon?
The Ying Long opened its maw wide…
*ROAR—!!*
Accompanied by a dragon’s roar, the Ying Long, with its body, swept up a wave of sand and lunged towards him to swallow him whole.
The disappointment in Ye Anping’s eyes quickly vanished. He shifted his gaze from Xiao Yunluo back to the dragon’s eyes. His right hand, clasped behind his back, tightened around the Nine Dragon Heavenly Seal, which was the size of his palm.
Indeed, the gap in cultivation between him and the Ying Long was something no artifact or divine technique could bridge.
However, just like the demon race created by dragons, all dragons and all demons obeyed their bloodline…
The ultimate goal of demon cultivation was “dragon transformation.”
Currently, the closest to achieving dragon transformation was the Fox King of Tian’an City, Demon Emperor Hu Mu.
It was for this reason that all the demon tribes submitted to him and did not attempt to usurp him as the human race did.
—Among the demon tribes, Hu Mu, the half-fox, half-dragon, was supreme.
—Between demons and dragons, dragons were supreme.
—Among dragons, the Black Dragon was supreme, followed by the Yellow Dragon.
This was also why Si Xuanji handed over the Central Domain to the demon race.
After all, Xiao Yunluo, the last surviving Black Dragon, was Si Xuanji’s key to controlling the demon race.
If Xiao Yunluo could achieve dragon transformation, she would undoubtedly be able to awe this Ying Long…
But now, Ye Anping could not wait any longer.
A moment’s delay, and he would be swallowed by the Ying Long, vanishing into nothingness.
The Nine Dragon Heavenly Seal was a token of trust from the Yellow Dragon to the Lord of the Central Domain. While he, at the early Core Formation stage, could not wield it fully, it should be enough to scare off this Ying Long.
Ye Anping slowly closed his eyes, his left hand forming a sword finger at his lips, and he softly chanted:
“Nine Dragon Heavenly Decree…”
And just as he opened his eyes again, preparing to command the Ying Long with the Nine Dragon Heavenly Seal…
Xiao Yunluo’s figure blocked the sight of the Ying Long’s ferocious dragon head in his eyes.
The hair ties on her four ponytails were gone. Her long, light purple hair fluttered wildly in the gale behind her thin shoulders.
Xiao Yunluo stood in front of Ye Anping, pressing her hands together, pouring all her spiritual energy into forming a spirit wall with starlight, enveloping them both.
There were no deer-like antlers, nor were there feathered scales…
Xiao Yunluo’s mind was a blank. She didn’t know how she could save Ye Anping from this Ying Long, or save the Xing Tian Division disciples in Seven Dragon Valley.
She also didn’t know what Ye Anping meant when he called her a “Black Dragon” before.
But she knew she couldn’t just stand by and watch Ye Anping be swallowed by the dragon.
Even if she was terrified, she had to come.
She was more afraid of watching the person she liked die before her than of dying in the dragon’s maw.
If the person she liked was in danger, and she just stood there傻愣愣地看着, what kind of love would that be?
She was the Young Master of Xuan Xing Sect.
The only daughter of Dan Yue Shang Xian.
And Ye Anping’s Cultivation Partner!
Xiao Yunluo gritted her teeth, her loose bangs obscuring one eye. Her gaze was unwavering as she looked at the approaching dragon maw, her eyes filled with determination.
Lian Xue could protect Ye Anping, and Second Bro could fight alongside Ye Anping to break formations…
“I can too!”
*Snap—*
Two small hands, clasped together.
The wind and sand that had churned for miles instantly turned to deathly silence.
The sound of her palms meeting echoed into the ears of all the Xing Tian Division disciples hiding in the various mountain caves of Seven Dragon Valley.
Seven-colored spiritual energy, like a river of stars, radiated from Xiao Yunluo’s chest, sweeping across a hundred li, dispersing the ink-like dark clouds in the sky and the entire sea of sand.
A pair of antlers, like lustrous glass, appeared above her temples.
Faint scales, like a feather belt, enveloped her entire body, forming a silken immortal robe resembling seven-colored glazed glass.
The world seemed reborn. In the yellow sand that filled Seven Dragon Valley, green vines stretched out one after another, weaving a colossal net that ensnared the Ying Long.
*ROAR—!!*
The rage in the Ying Long’s eyes instantly turned into fear.
Its hundred-foot-long body thrashed, like a fish in a net, trying to break free and return to the water. But this seemingly fragile vine net was unbreakable.
It couldn’t even manage to destroy the net and itself with it…
The Ying Long, which had slept for nearly a thousand years, seemed to have finally woken from its initial confusion.
It stopped moving. Through the gaps in the vines, it looked up at Xiao Yunluo, who was clearly below it, with eyes filled with immense reverence.
To dragons, there was no distinction between up and down in the world.
Where the Black Dragon stood, that was the sky!
Its dragon eyes, which had previously regarded Ye Anping and Gui Qinghe like ants, now gradually revealed a plea, like a naughty child begging for forgiveness after being severely punished by their mother.
*Roar…*
The dragon’s roar was no longer piercing, but like that of a lamb…
*Roar… Roar…*
Even though it knew that the Black Dragon before it was merely a young dragon.
If it unleashed its spiritual energy now, it could easily incinerate the surrounding vines, but…
“It’s like punching your own mother…”
Ye Anping exhaled deeply, looking at the Ying Long above him, which was gazing at him pitifully. He then shifted his gaze to Xiao Yunluo’s back.
He slowly put the Nine Dragon Heavenly Seal, held behind his back, into his storage bag.
“Yunluo…”
He reached out and gently grasped Xiao Yunluo’s shoulder, turning her towards him. What he saw was a bewildered face that looked like she was about to cry.
“…Ah?”
It seemed Xiao Yunluo herself didn’t know what had happened. She probably thought she was going to die…
Ye Anping felt an inexplicable urge to laugh. Just as he was about to speak, a dragon’s roar once again drew their attention upwards.
The green vines that had emerged from the sea of sand seemed to have dissolved into spiritual light and then coalesced onto the Ying Long’s body as Xiao Yunluo lost focus.
On the hundred-foot-long dragon body, the traces of thousands of years of time were erased by this spiritual light at a speed visible to the naked eye.
New skin grew on the flesh eaten by insects.
Feathered scales began to appear on the skin that had lost its old scales.
*Roar…*
A low dragon roar shook the mountains. A flash of lightning streaked across the sky.
Dark clouds gathered…
*Drip…*
A drop of rain fell onto Xiao Yunluo’s forehead, slid down her nose, and entered her lips.
Then, celestial rain began to fall.
*Pitter-patter…*
*Huala huala—*
The Ying Long raised its head, spread its wings, and soared towards the horizon. It circled the dark clouds like a puppy that had been given a bone, and then, carrying the small rain cloud, it ascended eastward.
Ye Anping hovered in mid-air, supported by his spiritual energy, watching the rain fall and the dark clouds recede. He felt a strange sense of amusement.
This was a scene that had never appeared in the game.
But after the players worked together to kill this Ying Long and obtain its dragon heart, they would see a description:
“It once brought tens of thousands of rains to the Central Domain, nourishing millions of li of land, but now, as a demonic beast, it lingers in this desolate valley, surviving the remainder of its life.”
Just like the Nine Dragon Heavenly Seal.
Nancheng City said that the Nine Dragon Heavenly Seal was a token of trust from the Yellow Dragon to the Lord of the Central Domain. Whoever possessed the Nine Dragon Heavenly Seal was the Lord of the Central Domain.
This statement was true.
But thousands of years ago, the Nine Dragon Heavenly Seal was only passed down among dragons.
As for why it ended up in the hands of a human cultivator…
According to what Ye Anping had seen in the Heavenly Scroll of the Dao before, it seemed that a former owner of the Heavenly Scroll of the Dao, who acted immorally, had stolen it…
But this had little to do with the decline of the dragon race in ancient times.
All living beings in the world competed for resources in their quest for survival. It was just that the human race had a slight advantage over the dragon race in the past…
“Hoo…”
Ye Anping slowly exhaled. He looked down at Seven Dragon Valley, where branches and leaves were now growing. His consciousness began to fade. He had poured all his spiritual energy into the Nine Dragon Heavenly Seal, and he had no strength left.
Then, his body tilted slightly backward, and the spiritual energy supporting him in the air dissipated.
Ye Anping began to freefall again, towards the ground below.
“Anping…”
Xiao Yunluo stared blankly at the receding dark clouds, still not fully comprehending what had happened. She slowly turned her head to look at Ye Anping, but only saw the dotted outline of his figure.
“Huh?”
She looked down and only then realized Ye Anping was falling. She immediately dived down.
“Anping!!”
Xiao Yunluo embraced Ye Anping, trying to use her flight spell to lift him up. But she found that she had no spiritual energy left. She quickly shifted her body, holding Ye Anping in her arms, intending to use herself as a shield.
Ye Anping, with a sliver of consciousness remaining, saw Xiao Yunluo trying to use her body to shield him from the impact and felt that perhaps the injuries he would sustain from hitting the ground would be less severe. He quickly wrapped his arms around Xiao Yunluo’s body, twisted them, and positioned himself below.
“Ah? Anping…”
However, it was at this moment that Yun Yiyi’s voice came from below.
“Husband!!”
She formed hand seals, controlling a ribbon-like magical artifact, and caught the two in mid-air. Just before they hit the ground, she waved her hand, slowing their descent, allowing the couple, who were holding each other, to land as gently as possible.
… …
