North of the Great Marsh.
The mountains were steep and perilous, beyond the reach of ordinary mortals.
Peaks rose like a forest of halberds, their ten-thousand-foot heights spread like a screen.
Spirit Mountain was not a single mountain, but a range formed by countless towering peaks.
Among them stood ten main peaks, like ten fingers holding up the sky, thrusting straight into the heavens, with clouds and mist clinging only to their middle slopes.
These ten peaks were where the Cave Abodes of the Demon Emperors of Spirit Mountain's top ten caves were located.
And deep within the third-tallest peak—
Clouds and mist shrouded the mountain, and a sinister chill hung in the air.
The enormous cavern was completely dark. Only the stalactites hanging from its ceiling dripped steadily, one drop at a time.
In the deepest part of the Cave Abode, a colossal creature coiled.
It was a hundred zhang long, its entire body dark grey, its scales as large as millstones and gleaming with an icy, metallic sheen in the gloom.
It was an Old Flood Dragon.
A Dark Grey Old Flood Dragon that had lived for an unknown number of years.
Its eyes were closed, as if asleep.
With every breath it exhaled, two streams of white vapor curled like dragons, stirring up gusts of foul wind throughout the cavern.
Each time it breathed, the entire mountain peak seemed to tremble faintly with it.
Suddenly—
The air at the cave entrance rippled slightly.
A few drops of water gathered out of thin air, suspended in midair.
But they dared not fall, much less take shape.
They hung there, trembling with fear.
It was as if, without the master of the cave's permission, they could only remain suspended forever, until they dried up.
After a long while—
The