Little White Dragon held on.
His ice armor melted away, layer by layer.
His magical power drained bit by bit.
The Dragon Pearl spun slower and slower.
Its cold grew weaker and weaker.
He knew he could not last much longer.
Even if he switched to another Dragon Pearl, the result would probably be the same. No Dragon Pearl would do much against the ravenous Taotie.
Last time, he had lost the rainmaking contest.
This time, he wanted to win.
Little White Dragon gritted his teeth.
His gaze roamed over the cauldron wall.
He was looking.
Looking at the patterns.
The Taotie patterns.
Dense and overlapping, they covered the entire wall.
Those patterns were not lifeless. Through Goat Strength Immortal's sleight of hand, they had become his to command.
They moved.
They breathed.
They writhed.
Like living things.
Like blood vessels.
Like... Dao Runes.
Little White Dragon's pupils contracted.
Dao Runes.
Yes.
These patterns were Dao Runes.
Taotie's Dao Runes.
Taotie was dead, but its Dao remained on the cauldron.
Its Dao Runes were carved into the cauldron wall. Even after ten thousand years, they remained alive.
Still working.
Still devouring.
That was what made Taotie so terrifying.
It died, but its Dao remained.
Its body was destroyed, but its laws remained.
Its soul scattered, but its obsession remained.
Greed.
Devouring.
Refining.
Dissolving.
Those obsessions had become Dao Runes, carved into the cauldron forever.
Never to fade.
Little White Dragon studied the Dao Runes.
The longer he looked, the more absorbed he became.
The longer he looked, the more he understood.
He realized something.
Taotie's Dao Runes resembled the Dragon Clan's.
Both were rooted in bloodlines.
Both were rooted in origins.
The Dragon Clan passed down power through its bloodline.
Taotie passed down its greed through its bloodline.
A flash