In the withered, dying Melon Field, Ge Xian held a fresh Golden Spotted Dragon Liver and gazed across the distance at Yu Li, who had been angered to death.
He smiled, then summed up his experience.
"Some of the Bottom Layer cultivators in this world who are still in the Dao Entry Realm seem to have lost their wits because of their cultivation. A few tricks are all it takes to fool them."
"Of course, most are perfectly normal. Powerful figures like Lu Hualong, Yelü Yuyan, and the River God of the Qiantang River are especially cunning and malicious. I'll have to deal with them carefully."
"Hmm?"
As Ge Xian muttered to himself, he suddenly looked at his palm.
The Dragon Liver, which should have been a "dead thing," was wriggling. Under Ge Xian's gaze, tender pink tendrils sprouted from it. When they touched his palm, the tips began secreting a corrosive, deadly poison, trying to pierce his Skin Sac. Then they attempted to drag the entire Dragon Liver inside.
The sight was enough to scare an ordinary person to death.
Ge Xian was startled, too, but he quickly understood. He had witnessed yet another secret of cultivation firsthand.
"Could it be that the flesh and blood of Demon Cultivators above the Mortal Transformation Realm all undergo these mutations? Even when the main body is dead, they remain intensely aggressive, seizing every chance to parasitize and proliferate?"
"Or perhaps this is unique to Demonic Dragons. Other races and demons might have different traits."
As he pondered, Ge Xian struck first.
His Charm Talent activated, and the Dragon Liver went berserk. Countless tendrils erupted from it, trying to swallow him whole.
Unfortunately for it, he was the one who plundered his prey by force.
The Dragon Liver visibly withered, charred, and finally became a cloud of ash that scattered in the wind.
Meanwhile, another mass of exceptionally pure Dao Qi appeared inside Ge Xian, shaped like a blood pearl and crimson as fresh blood. The Dragon Transformation Chapter began circulating on its own, ravenous, and swept up the demonic Qi to refine it at full speed.
Then Ge Huolang's human body revealed several new, strange dragon features.
He sensed the other benefits one after another.
"My strength and magical power have both surged by a full twenty percent."
"My dragon features are more complete, and my Dharma Body is more than twice as powerful."
"More importantly, the demonic art I plundered this time is called Thunder Fiend. It complements the Centipede Venom bestowed by the Centipede Dragon. When used together, they can produce powerful demonic arts like Five Poisons Yin Thunder and Profound Nether Poison Fiend. Whether in a head-on magical duel or an ambush, they'll make cultivators of the same level suffer."
"Even someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm could get caught off guard and take a hit."
"Tsk, tsk. I'm looking less and less like a good person with every new dragon feature."
"But I like it. Skills like these are best used for ambushes. They're wasted in a head-on fight."
Having sensed all that, Ge Xian had thought the benefits were more than enough.
But soon, delight appeared on his face, and he couldn't help exclaiming, "Ten extra years of life?"
To be honest, the many strange things and demons he had previously plundered through Cai Bu had all given him some extra years, but even combined, they hadn't given him as much as a single Dragon Liver.
After all, lifespan was linked to one's soul, vital essence, and blood, much like one's cultivation and magical power. The stronger Ge Xian became, the harder it would be to increase them.
If he could eat another Dragon Liver now, for instance, it certainly wouldn't have such an impressive effect.
"Dragon Liver really is worthy of its reputation—the delicacy Immortal Gods are said to love."
"I wonder what Phoenix Marrow tastes like?"
As Ge Xian savored his gains, he confirmed once more that his hoarding Vicious Habit hadn't grown much. It had only increased by an imperceptible trace.
As for a second Vicious Habit, there was none.
By the time he finished speaking, he had reached the corpse of Yu Li, the melon grower.
He didn't mind the filthy, ugly man. He crouched down and cheerfully searched the corpse.
Unexpectedly, the ugly farmer was quite poor. Aside from a copy of the Melon Cultivation Art, Ge Xian didn't find any other valuables or treasures.
The Iron Fork nearby was a fine weapon, but nothing special. Ge Xian even wondered whether it could pierce his defenses if he showed his dragon form. Probably not.
But when Ge Xian opened the booklet on demonic arts and skimmed a few pages, his expression immediately turned serious.
The sudden gleam of eager curiosity in his eyes made it clear that, if the place and timing had been right, he would have sat down on the spot to study it carefully.
"When I first heard of the Melon Cultivation Art, I assumed it was just a little booklet invented by some obscure Evil Cultivator."
"Now it seems to have a remarkable history."
"During the Jin dynasty, in the Jinhua region, there was a melon grower surnamed Zhong. One day, he happened upon an Immortal who called himself Chi Songzi, whose common name was Huang Chuping. The Immortal ate one of the farmer's melons to quench his thirst, then chatted with him and taught him some of the Immortal Gods' knowledge about cultivating Spirit Medicine."
"Because he was a mortal, the farmer fell into a deep sleep for three days after hearing it all. When he woke, he hastily picked up his brush and wrote the Melon Cultivation Art from memory and his own understanding. As soon as he finished, he died. The Zhong Clan prospered because of it, but declined after several generations. The booklet eventually passed into the mortal world and ended up in Yu Li's hands."
"He couldn't grow the other 'Immortal Melons.' I don't know where he got a Dragon Liver, but he did manage to grow Dragon Blood Melons, even though he hadn't followed the art's instructions to the letter."
"Find one Dragon Liver and one Phoenix Marrow. Add the blood of a hundred birds, then use Human Blood as a catalyst. Plant the melons in a place scorched by the blazing sun, and water them every nine days. Once the melons grow, keep only one and crush the rest for fertilizer. After forty-nine days, an Immortal Melon will grow. Eating it will make the body undying and incorruptible, and extend one's lifespan."
"Gasp!"
"How is this a melon-growing technique? It's clearly a collection of Immortal pill recipes!"
Ge Xian was already excited, thinking he had stumbled upon another lucky opportunity. But then he noticed the comments from generations of melon growers written beneath the tempting recipe.
Starting with the Zhong Clan of the Jin dynasty, perhaps written by the original author's own descendants, the first review was still fairly polite and simply stated the facts: "The melon recipe's miraculous effects are greatly exaggerated. Eat the melon and a severed limb might not kill you, but you will still die if all four limbs are cut off. Bury yourself for a year and your body will not decay, but it will decay the next year. It extends life by a little over ten years, but throughout those ten years, Vicious Habits plague you without end, and the suffering is unbearable."
The comments grew harsher with each successive owner.
"The claims of immortality, incorruptibility, and extended life are half true at best. It causes many Vicious Habits. Don't believe it."
"You can't grow these melons. You offend the Dragon and Phoenix clans, and the harvest is meager. Whoever wrote this recipe either harbors evil intentions or is a deluded fool."
"Utter nonsense! If I had Dragon Liver and Phoenix Marrow, wouldn't I eat them myself? Why would I use them to grow melons?"
"Perhaps the Zhong Clan's ancestor had a split soul, which is why he babbled such nonsense. He came up with an alchemy recipe on his own, falsely called it a melon-growing technique, and even borrowed Senior Chi Songzi's name. What a joke. Everyone knows Senior Chi Songzi achieved Dao and ascended. Why would he have time to eat that family's watermelons? The ancestor must have died from eating the wrong melon."
"The Zhong Clan's ancestors were fools. They deserved to be melon growers for generations."
"The previous seniors were too harsh. The recipe may be fake, but the melons are good. Follow the instructions and they taste sweet."
"The melons are excellent, easy to grow and sell. Yu Li has grown them successfully. Everyone within a hundred li praises my Dragon Blood Melons!"
Clearly, the ugly man Yu Li had joined in, too, crookedly scrawling a line of commentary in the margin.
Far from dampening Ge Xian's enthusiasm, the notes only made him more interested.
He was curious not only about the strange pill recipes disguised as melon-growing techniques, but also about the comments left by these "owners through the ages." He wanted to stay up all night reading them.
But he couldn't afford to linger in the valley too long, lest trouble arise.
So he put the booklet away, revealed his powerful, majestic, and dangerously mysterious half-human, half-dragon demonic form, grabbed his Peddler's Pole, and fled down the mountain using Earth Evasion.
Just before leaving the secluded valley, he turned and cast Thunder Fiend at the filthy, poison-filled Dragon Blood Valley.
The next instant, though the blazing sun still hung overhead,
thunder suddenly boomed across Tianzhu Mountain. A mass of pitch-black lightning, about the size of a winnowing basket and wrapped in writhing electric snakes, crashed down into the valley.
When it struck the already-dense Centipede Dragon miasma, a violent explosion unexpectedly erupted.
More than a dozen Nether Lightning Snakes, each several zhang long, appeared out of nowhere and raced wildly through the valley. Everything in their path turned to dust.
In the blink of an eye, the filthy place was completely destroyed.
About half an hour later, many Bottom Layer demons and Evil Cultivator sects who had received the news hurried over. All they found was a field of ruins.
Fortunately, demons and Evil Cultivators always had strange abilities. After investigating the traces, they soon identified the culprit: a Dragon Clan demon, or perhaps a cultivator who had practiced a Dragon Clan Secret Technique, at least in the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Once that conclusion was reached, none of the cultivators or demons felt like avenging Yu Li.
He was just a melon grower!
So what if he died?
He wasn't worth offending a powerful Dragon Demon over. Besides, he'd brought it on himself by growing Dragon Blood Melons. Perhaps he'd been punished by the Dragon Clan.
The Dragon Clan in the Qiantang River was especially suspicious. Their leader, the River God, was said to be greedy and mercurial. Perhaps he had eaten one of Yu Li's melons, found it unripe and tasteless, and sent a poisonous dragon to kill Yu Li and destroy the Melon Field.
During the first day or two, the Jade Pig Dragon, the Centipede Dragon, the Dragon Blood Melon farmer, and the others were killed. Aside from their neighbors and such, few paid them much attention.
But soon, after the Dragon Earthworm in the great marsh thirty li from Anle Town was mysteriously killed, the demons and Evil Cultivators scattered across the hundreds of li around Qiantang County finally caught on.
After investigating thoroughly, sharing information, and finding some rather obvious traces, they all arrived at a startling conclusion.
A vicious dragon—or a powerful cultivator who had practiced a Dragon Clan Secret Technique—had appeared within a radius of dozens or even a hundred li around Qiantang County. It was hunting down anyone with ties to the Dragon Clan.
It had happened in just a few days, and there were already many victims.
The killer's methods were also extremely brutal. He never left anyone alive.
The Dragon Earthworm was not only strong in demonic form and fierce in magical power, but was also born with Earth Evasion. Even ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators couldn't kill it.
Yet the demons who had watched the battle in the great marsh from afar said the Dragon Earthworm had faced the killer and lost after a single exchange. It had clearly burrowed underground to escape, but in the next instant, it inexplicably sprang back out, as if possessed, plainly rushing to its death. It was a most bizarre sight.
A powerful demon with strange abilities was on the rampage.
For a time,
the Bottom Layer demons and Evil Cultivators in the region began to fear for their lives.
Anyone with even the slightest connection to the Dragon Clan desperately searched for a way to save themselves.
Those without backing or powerful patrons simply chose to move away.
Just then,
there was a mountain outside Qiantang County, connected to Phoenix Mountain, called Jade Emperor Mountain.
Demons and Evil Cultivators lived there, and quite a few of them.
The best-known were a family of some twenty or thirty Ape Ghosts, and five Evil Cultivators called the Mountain Monks.
The five had all once been human hunters living at the foot of the mountain. Later, they acquired a bizarre martial art called the Three Corpses Brain Buddha Scripture. After practicing it, they transformed into ferocious, green-faced, fanged black monks, dressed in black robes and with shaved heads. They often went down the mountain to pillage, and loved to eat the brains of the living.
Today, the five evil monks were sitting cross-legged in separate holes in the mountainside, chanting sutras, when the Ape Ghosts woke them with their racket. The ghosts were shouting that they were moving away.
"Monks, wake up! Trouble's here."
"A vicious dragon has come to this region, and it's brutal. Yu Li, the melon grower on Tianzhu Mountain; the Dragon Earthworm in the great marsh; that Jade Pig Dragon in the mass grave; and the father and son Centipede Dragons on Phoenix Mountain... They're all dead."
"Exactly. I heard the latest victim was Grandmother Flood Dragon of Yellow Rainbow Mountain Stronghold. Poor old flood dragon had lived for two hundred years. She'd kept her head down before, but now that the Chaotic World was upon us, she recognized dozens of bandits as her adopted grandsons, hoping they'd support her. Then, not long ago, that Demonic Dragon stormed into the bandits' stronghold and slaughtered them all with a single blast of Yin Thunder and Poison Fiend."
"Such savagery!"
"But what does that have to do with us? It sounds like only fellow cultivators connected to the Dragon Clan are getting into trouble. We five cultivate Buddhism and chant sutras..."
"You've chanted yourselves stupid. Have you forgotten Jade Emperor Mountain's other name?"
"D-Dragon Mountain?"
"Surely not. It's just a name. There are no dragons on this mountain."
"Better safe than sorry. What if that vicious dragon finishes its killing spree and comes here to settle down?"
"Our Ape Ghost clan has decided to move to Yin Gui Mountain, eighty li away. I heard the Yin Mountain Ghost Clan is there. Surely they'll take us in."
"Hey, wait! Monks, you'd better lie low for a while, too."
These terrifying incidents weren't just spreading through the wilderness and frightening demons and Evil Cultivators.
Gradually, they reached Qiantang County as well. Even on the streets and in the alleys, some ordinary townsfolk fascinated by demons and Immortal Gods, as well as wandering martial artists, began hearing the rumors.
Naturally, they also caught the attention of the Orthodox Cultivation World based in the county seat.
For instance, Yelü Yuyan.
Ge Xian's earlier guess had been right. This County Magistrate's Wife really did have a split soul. She was not right in the head.
The Ugly Dragon Girl had killed a Fox Whore and fled. It was a trivial matter.
Yet Yelü Yuyan never forgot it. Whenever she had a spare moment, she pondered how to capture the Dragon Girl and torment her in every way.
Even after the Dragon Bone Flute had failed, she still wasn't willing to give up.
Now that she had heard of this incident, her mad belief that it was better to kill a thousand innocents than let one guilty person escape made her immediately want to capture the vicious dragon rampaging through the region. She would find out whether it was the Dragon Girl, or whether it had anything to do with her.
Fortunately, she still had some sense. Before acting, she sent a Fox Ghost to the Qiantang River to ask whether the Dragon Demon rampaging outside the county was connected to the Qiantang River Dragon Clan.
The reply came quickly: no, but it was still a member of the Dragon Clan. If the County Magistrate's Wife captured it, she could send it to the Dragon Palace beneath the Qiantang River after she finished torturing it, and trade it for some treasures.
Yelü Yuyan tore the letter to pieces, then began plotting how to capture the dragon.
P.S. I almost forgot to mention something: Fatty Fish often makes things up in his stories. Don't apply real history to them—for example, when watermelons were introduced. This is another world, and the same goes for other details. Thanks for understanding.
Before you continue