Dragon Vein Qi

Chapter 43: Dragon Vein Qi

As the three were walking, a blinding white light suddenly surged before them, forcing their eyes tightly shut. None could say how long passed...

A vast expanse of pure white densely shrouded the unconscious Long Jiuyyao on the ground. The black radiance on his chest stood out sharply within the white mist.

His open black robe exposed the vivid black tattoo on his cold white skin. The black dragon seemed to come alive, trembling incessantly. With each tremor, the surrounding black radiance grew brighter.

None could say how long passed before the unconscious Long Jiuyyao awoke. Just as he prepared to search for Lan Xinhuang and Yuan Xin, the Natal Dragon Soul at his heart suddenly met his gaze.

The next instant, the Natal Dragon Soul shot deeper like flowing light. Long Jiuyyao gave no second thought and gave chase!

Though the Natal Dragon Soul had been successfully condensed and was no different from an ordinary living being, it possessed only form—no true soul of its own. Every mindless action was merely instinct.

Long Jiuyyao wasn't worried about the two girls' safety, so he followed the Natal Dragon Soul directly.

Pure white—this was a world of light, without a trace of any other color. The entire realm was like Primal Chaos first opening!

In this vast white world, only the pitch-black dragon soul ahead guided Long Jiuyyao forward, keeping him from losing direction or purpose.

In a world where nothing could be perceived, how reassuring it was to have a goal!

Just as Long Jiuyyao gave chase, the pitch-black Natal Dragon Soul once again erupted with extreme speed, making the pursuing Long Jiuyyao bitterly complain. But he immediately pushed himself to follow again.

Time passed—who knew how long—until finally, the Natal Dragon Soul ahead stopped. The panting Long Jiuyyao behind finally caught his breath, but before he could react...

The white world faded. Dark red radiance began to dye everything. A scorching aura swept in. The world before his eyes suddenly transformed.

Dark red lava appeared before him. Countless deep brown rocks were scattered everywhere. Not a trace of life—only deathly stillness. Yet the Natal Dragon Soul blazed with black light, joyfully silent.

"Is there something you need here?" Long Jiuyyao asked.

The Natal Dragon Soul nodded woodenly.

Confirmation made Long Jiuyyao frown. When the Natal Dragon Soul had first condensed, he himself had sensed something off. Though it had life, it lacked its own thoughts. At the time, he assumed it was because it had just been born and didn't dwell on it.

Surely it needed some crucial item to awaken its intelligence. Since what it required was here, he had to go. Otherwise, this opportunity would never come again.

Long Jiuyyao's right hand grasped empty air. Black radiance flickered. A domineering dragon halberd appeared in his hand. The halberd blade touched the ground and dragged as he walked, its sharp edge carving a deep trench in the earth—highly conspicuous.

Long Jiuyyao didn't know where he was now, only that he was still within the Rock Mist Mountain Range.

The scorching heat from the dark red lava turned his skin bright red. Beads of sweat the size of beans dripped from his chin, evaporating midair from the burning aura.

Dark gold radiance restrained itself, easing the heat on his skin. Crossing the lava zone, a thousand-zhang cavern appeared ahead. Close now.

The scorching heat suddenly dropped. A bone-piercing cold instantly seeped into his body. His face, once flushed red, turned pale in an instant. Even his movements grew slightly stiff.

Still, he pressed deeper. The Natal Dragon Soul continued leading ahead. By the time he entered the cavern, his black robe was covered in frost.

There was no danger along the way, so he moved quickly. At the cavern's end, a glimmer of light appeared. Long Jiuyyao rushed toward it.

He found the light was merely a head-sized orb. But as he drew near, Long Jiuyyao sensed an intensely concentrated dragon qi.

The Natal Dragon Soul beside him trembled with excitement, black light flickering. Not to mention the dragon soul—even he himself craved devouring this head-sized orb.

Long Jiuyyao suppressed his desire to devour it, but the Natal Dragon Soul couldn't hold back. The black dragon swelled and swallowed the head-sized orb in one gulp.

"Damn, you don't even know what it is, and you dare just swallow it!" Long Jiuyyao cursed under his breath.

But thinking it over—wasn't this orb, radiating such dense dragon qi, exactly what it sought?

Just as Long Jiuyyao pondered, a sudden change occurred. The originally pitch-black dragon soul instantly turned brilliant gold, as if assimilated by that dragon qi.

The dragon soul writhed wildly. Its ferocious dragon head seemed to reveal its predicament. Of course, Long Jiuyyao wouldn't let it endure alone.

The Natal Celestial Talisman between Long Jiuyyao's brows emerged. The Natal Dragon Soul and Long Jiuyyao were connected in spirit. Using the Natal Celestial Talisman as support, he helped the dragon soul devour this orb of dragon qi.

When that orb of dragon qi within the cavern was devoured by Long Jiuyyao's Natal Dragon Soul, the entire Rock Mist Mountain Range underwent a massive change—though Long Jiuyyao knew nothing of it.

All the mist vanished from within out. The heaven and earth yuan power in the Rock Mist Mountain Range plummeted. Countless spiritual medicines lost their luster. The mountain ground collapsed and cracked. Thousands of ravines continuously appeared.

The agonized cries of demon beasts rang without end. The mountain ground trembled as if an earth dragon were turning over. Even the several mountain ranges adjacent to Rock Mist were affected to varying degrees.

The Enforcers monitoring from above were equally puzzled. Looking down, they saw large ancient trees collapsed and mountain hollows sunken.

"This—end the Mountain Survival immediately. Second, go back and inform the Great Elder. The Rock Mist Mountain Range is undergoing a sudden change." The leading man ordered.

Having spoken, he instantly leaped off the warship to search for the Competitors within the mountains.

The Competitors inside the mountains were also bewildered, but they set aside grudges and cooperated to avoid this sudden disaster.

Fortunately, everyone's cultivation wasn't weak, and the Enforcers were monitoring the entire situation. Soon, all Competitors were brought back onto the warship. Lan Xinhuang and Yuan Xin were rescued from under a tree shade.

As soon as the two girls boarded the warship, they searched for Long Jiuyyao. They even asked the Enforcers, but the answers they received were disappointing.

Hearing this, Yuan Xin stared blankly at the collapsing mountains below, a sob forming in her throat.

Lan Xinhuang was different from Yuan Xin. She didn't cry, but the tears at the corners of her eyes betrayed her heart.

In truth, during those days at Long Jiuyyao's courtyard, she had long forgiven him for seeing her body. Those days had been the happiest of her eleven years of life.

Dozens of figures arrived in the distance. Leading them was the Dragon Clan Chief, Yuan Gan. Upon hearing of the sudden anomaly in the Rock Mist Mountain Range, he had come immediately. Here were not only his daughter but also the daughter of his close friend, the future hope of the Dragon Clan, and the clan's various geniuses.

Deep within the mountains, inside the thousand-zhang cavern, Long Jiuyyao had no idea the impact his absorption had caused outside. Time passed—a very long time.

With Long Jiuyyao's help, the Natal Dragon Soul finally completed its devouring. Its pitch-black dragon pupils flickered with fierce radiance. And the moment the Natal Dragon Soul successfully devoured...

A torrent of pure, extreme Dragon Qi surged back from the Natal Dragon Soul into Long Jiuyao's body, instantly breaking him through to the Great Perfection of Core Formation, and in that same instant, he understood what the Natal Dragon Soul had devoured.

Dragon Vein Qi—the soul of a mountain range—and this was merely a strand born only a hundred years ago, incomparable to the Dragon Vein Qi within the Main Vein deep in the Dragon Domain, yet still precious beyond measure.

One must know that aside from the Main Vein spanning a hundred thousand zhang across the entire Dragon Domain, which possessed Dragon Vein Qi, this Rock Mist Mountain Range had also birthed a hidden wisp of it.

For any mountain range to give birth to Dragon Vein Qi was exceedingly difficult, and losing this wisp would likely half-ruin the mountain range, causing the Heaven and Earth Yuan Power to dissipate.

Having devoured the Dragon Vein Qi, the Natal Dragon Soul now seemed as if it had gained a soul of its own, its strength reaching the Minor Perfection of Core Formation, capable of manifesting an external incarnation.

With the Dragon Vein Qi gone, the thousand-zhang cavern collapsed, and the magma outside boiled and erupted, sending chills down Long Jiuyao's spine.

"Boy, let me send you off one last time!" A Soundless Voice rang out in Long Jiuyao's Sea of Consciousness.

Suddenly, the Natal Dragon Soul seemed to be controlled, woodenly refining the impure remnants of Dragon Vein Qi around it to construct a Space Door. Long Jiuyao did not hesitate, using the Space Door built from the residual Spiritual Power of the Six-Fingered Sacred Dragon Emperor to flee.

The moment Long Jiuyao left, the cavern instantly caved in, plunging the place into darkness.

Outside, the arrival of the Dragon Clan Chief, Yuan Gan, was like a stabilizing pillar, bringing calm.

Yuan Xin, her face streaked with tears, threw herself into Yuan Gan's arms, sobbing, "Brother is still down there, Father, save Brother."

Yuan Gan said nothing, instead turning to the Enforcer beside him and asking in a deep voice, "Is only Jiuyao still down there?"

"Yes, Clan Chief!" the lead Enforcer replied.

"Xin'er, be good. Father is here; your brother will be fine!" Yuan Gan wiped the tears from Yuan Xin's eyes.

At that moment, Yuan Xin fainted. "Blue Girl, take Yuan Xin back first. All of you, go back," Yuan Gan said, glancing at Lan Xinhuang and the others.

Lan Xinhuang knew her presence here would be of little use, and the others dared not defy Yuan Gan's orders. As the warships drifted away, Yuan Gan's terrifying Spiritual Power spread out like threads, inch by inch searching every part of the mountain range.

Time passed, yet there was still no trace of Long Jiuyao, causing even the usually gentle Yuan Gan to reveal a harsh expression.

But he did not give up. He knew that Long Jiuyao possessed the Ancient Dragon Bone and would not die so easily; instead, he intensified his Spiritual Power output.

Finally, deep within the mountain range, in the thousand-zhang cavern, he discovered a torn Sleeve Robe. This relaxed his tense nerves. He tore the mountain range apart with his bare hands from a distance, revealing the cavern destroyed by the collapse.

His fingers grasped the torn sleeve, and he sensed a faint trace of Dragon Vein Qi and Spatial Power.

"So a wisp of Dragon Vein Qi was born here. It seems Jiuyao inadvertently devoured it, causing the Rock Mist Mountain Range to collapse," Yuan Gan murmured in surprise.

A mountain range—my Dragon Clan cares little for it, but restoring its former abundance will take several hundred years.

Since I know the boy isn't dead, so be it. Let this count as a trial.