Spirit Flood Dragon Secret Markings

The northwestern part of the Taiyue Mountain Range bordered Yuanwu Kingdom on one side and Xizhou of Yue Kingdom, a land of endless deserts, on the other. It was extremely remote, and virtually no disciples of Yellow Maple Valley came here.

Yet today was somewhat unusual.

A streak of azure sword light cut across the Heavenly Screen. As it neared an unnamed small mountain, it wavered unsteadily twice.

Luo Hong hastily recalled the Green Light Sword. His face was flushed red at this moment, and he looked even worse than he had at Fanghua Garden.

Luo Hong formed a hand seal and recited an incantation. A stone wall before him rippled like water, whereupon an artificial cave covered in chisel marks appeared.

He strode inside, and before long, Luo Hong arrived at a natural cavern.

The Spiritual Qi within this cavern was far denser than usual. Luo Hong immediately felt much of the burning heat in his body fade away.

But even more startling was the precious gourd floating above a small pool at the center of the cavern, radiating rings of Five-Colored Spirit Light.

It was Luo Hong's Jade Dragon Gourd. However, it was no longer pure white all over. Its surface was covered in Spirit Patterns, and at a glance, it looked as though a blue spirit flood dragon were coiled around it.

Luo Hong opened his palm and drew the Jade Dragon Gourd into it. Opening its mouth, he took a deep breath.

A stream of wine brimming with Water Spirit Qi flew out. After Luo Hong swallowed it, not only did the abnormal condition in his body rapidly subside, but he also stopped frantically drawing in the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. The eye-catching five-colored glow vanished as well.

"Very good. The results have far exceeded my expectations. It was worth nurturing it with the Spirit Eye Spring for over a year.

But I can't continue any longer, or this Spirit Spring will run dry."

Luo Hong glanced at the Spirit Spring, which had shrunk by ninety percent. Then, he circulated his Magic Power and forced a drop of blood essence from his fingertip, tapping it onto the Jade Dragon Gourd.

The round blood mark left by that tap was like closing the eyes of the blue spirit flood dragon on the Jade Dragon Gourd. In an instant, the Jade Dragon Gourd returned to its ordinary state, becoming that Useless Item which could only hold water.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to do without you from now on."

Luo Hong gave a wry smile and openly hung the Jade Dragon Gourd at his waist. He then tossed out a talisman to seal off the cave entrance and sat down cross-legged on the spot.

The strange turn of events he had encountered today was entirely due to the Spirit Flood Dragon Secret Markings he had created based on the Blood Burning Totem.

Two years ago, when Luo Hong had fully comprehended every silver rune in the circulation meridians of the Minor Water Origin Technique, he was surprised to find incomplete silver runes on the Jade Dragon Gourd. He simply spent another year completing those silver runes and merging them all into a set of Secret Patterns.

Thus, the earliest version of the Spirit Flood Dragon Secret Markings was born.

After several further improvements, Luo Hong was highly confident in it, but using himself as a test subject was still far too reckless.

So, following the method ancient Evil Cultivators had used to harm Dan Zhu, he first tested it on the Jade Dragon Gourd. Who could have expected the Spirit Flood Dragon Secret Markings and the Jade Dragon Gourd to be so perfectly compatible? The moment they came together, they displayed terrifying power, draining all the Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Gathering Space in a Short Period of Time!

As a result, the Spirit Wine stored in the Jade Dragon Gourd gained greatly enhanced spirituality. The Spirit Stones' Spiritual Qi, which would originally damage one's meridians if absorbed directly, became even gentler than Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and easy for Cultivators to absorb.

Upon discovering this, Luo Hong treated it as a priceless treasure. He immediately went to Yuelu Hall to rent a Two-pupil Rat, dug out the Spirit Eye Spring that Old Demon Han would not discover until several years later, and used it to nurture the Jade Dragon Gourd until today.

With one successful experience behind him, Luo Hong spent over half a year preparing spiritual materials and continuing to refine the Secret Patterns. Finally, a month ago, he used it on himself.

Today, Luo Hong gave the spirit flood dragon its eyes and finally succeeded in cultivating the Secret Markings.

However, once the completed Spirit Flood Dragon Secret Markings began operating, even a place with fairly abundant Spiritual Qi like Fanghua Garden could not meet its consumption. It constantly drew upon Luo Hong's own Spiritual Qi, especially his Water Spirit Qi, leaving him immediately parched and thirsty.

Of course, Luo Hong had designed a complete protective mechanism. As long as he drew a Sword Pattern between his brows with blood essence, he could stop the Spirit Flood Dragon Secret Markings from operating.

The reason Luo Hong had not done so was because he still had the Spirit Wine in the Jade Dragon Gourd as a safeguard. There was no need to hastily stop before he had figured out the effects of the secret art he had created.

At present, Luo Hong appeared calm on the surface, but the "spirit flood dragon" clinging to his body had already moved the battlefield of devouring Spiritual Qi into his body.

The mouthful of Spirit Wine Luo Hong had just consumed contained as much Spiritual Qi as a pill with 200 medicinal power, and it was released with extreme ferocity. Ordinarily, it was simply not something a Qi Refining Stage Cultivator could withstand.

Yet it seemed as if an invisible giant mouth had appeared within Luo Hong's body, devouring vast amounts of Spiritual Qi every moment and keeping the Internal Spirit Pressure in his meridians within safe limits.

There was no doubt that the devoured Spiritual Qi had been absorbed and transformed by the Spirit Flood Dragon Secret Markings, and the results of that transformation appeared in his Dantian.

Threads of azure-blue light emerged from every part of his Dantian, all converging toward a single point at its center. Even when Luo Hong pushed his divine sense to its limit, he could only vaguely sense that something far smaller than a grain of sand was slowly growing there.

Although it emitted no Spiritual Qi fluctuations, the devoured Spiritual Qi could not lie. This could only mean that it possessed absolute restraint over Spiritual Qi and was still far from taking shape.

"These azure-blue threads seem to be extremely pure Water Element Spiritual Qi. Whatever they condense into will surely be a Water Element treasure of tremendous spirituality.

I originally wanted to create a secret art that could let me erupt with power and save my life in a crisis. How did it turn into me using my own body as a furnace to refine some kind of treasure? This seems a little backward."

Luo Hong touched his heated skin, warmed by the Spirit Flood Dragon Secret Markings operating at full power, and spoke to himself with a laugh that was neither amused nor helpless.

In his original conception, the Secret Patterns absorbed Spiritual Qi to make replenishment more convenient. Yet now, because their performance was too good, ordinary Spiritual Qi environments could not meet their demand, forcing him to take a sip of Spirit Wine every so often to replenish Spiritual Qi manually.

Moreover, the thing refined from Spiritual Qi by the Secret Patterns was originally meant only to make it last longer when he erupted with power. But as for the thing in his Dantian now, Luo Hong found himself somewhat reluctant to use it.

"This thing is definitely related to the silver runes on the Fourth-Grade Flood Dragon Bone. If it can be refined successfully, it will surely be a rare treasure in this world. Even if I use up all the Jade Dragon Wine I brewed, it definitely won't be a loss.

In that case, I'll still have to rely on pills for my own cultivation."

Luo Hong had a powerful intuition that if the spiritual object in his Dantian could be refined successfully, it would benefit him endlessly on his future Immortal Path.

After flying out on his sword, Luo Hong retrieved the small illusion formation he had set up earlier. He then threw out a mid-grade beginner Earth Splitting Talisman, collapsing the mountain he had excavated and thoroughly erasing all traces of his visit.

Thanks to Wu Zhengjun, Mo De Shi Sai, U2 Ya, Immortal Master Wang, YTRYFT7, Zhen Yuanzi Equal to the World, A Bamboo Pole Piercing the Sky, and Brother Numbers for their rewards. I have nothing with which to repay you, so I can only offer up my sole saved chapter.