The Heaven-Shielding Pearl

Deep in Profound Province, a silent upheaval was unfolding in an unnamed valley.

Throughout the mountain range, across dozens of miles, every living creature felt an irresistible summons at the same instant.

The beasts, birds, snakes, insects, and even the ants underground all stopped in bewilderment, staring vacantly into the depths of the valley as they were compelled to move toward it.

Then their vital auras began to unravel.

Wisps of blood qi drifted out of their bodies.

Like countless fine red threads, they converged on the center of the valley.

The beasts drained of their blood qi instantly withered and shriveled into dried corpses, nothing but skin and bones. They collapsed among the mountain woods, their vacant eyes staring at the sky.

The vegetation, too, yellowed and withered at a visible pace. Leaves curled, roots and stems shrank, and the entire mountain seemed to have an invisible hand clamped around its throat, draining away its vitality little by little.

At the center of the valley lay a coiled dragon, hundreds of yards long.

His immense body was suffocating to behold. Black and gold interlaced across his scales, gleaming coldly in the sunlight. His horns rose fiercely, his whiskers hung low, and every breath sent the air in the valley surging.

The blood qi gathering from every direction flowed into his dragon body like a hundred rivers returning to the sea. It seeped through the gaps between his scales, repairing the hidden injuries left by his tribulation, the burns inflicted by Mu Xian's spirit artifact, and the fissures that had yet to fully heal after his transformation into a dragon.

The withered mountain range and the recovering dragon body formed a strange, magnificent tableau.

After an unknown span of time, the dragon's body, hundreds of yards long, began to shrink