By sheer luck, he had earned fifty thousand Small Coin. With such good fortune, even the heavens were smiling on him!
The young man was so delighted his heart seemed ready to burst into bloom. He nodded vigorously. After sitting down to eat lunch together, they left Nanshan Village and led Ning Xiaochuan to the place where he picked Blood Toad Wood Tree leaves.
Just as they reached the village entrance, someone shouted from behind them, "Gou Sheng, you still owe me eighty Small Coin. When exactly are you paying me back?"
It was a middle-aged man in a yellow robe, around fifty years old, with a long beard. He sat at the edge of the village behind a battered wooden table, beside which stood a pole. The white banner hanging from it read: "One finger reads fate, two fingers read fortune, three fingers read life and death."
The middle-aged man's eyes were clouded white, showing only the whites with no pupils. He was clearly blind.
The young man walking with Ning Xiaochuan spat fiercely onto the ground. "Three-Fingered Lin, are you really blind or faking it? I was dozens of yards away, yet you already knew it was me. Your eyes definitely aren't truly blind. And I'm warning you—don't call me Gou Sheng again."
Three-Fingered Lin sat in his chair with his legs crossed and grinned. "Heh heh! Anyone who owes me money, even if he is a thousand miles away, I can smell the scent on him."
"So you smelled it out? Here I thought you'd calculated it," said the youth named Gou Sheng.
"Only when someone who owes me money is ten thousand miles away do I use divination to determine his location," Three-Fingered Lin said confidently.
Ning Xiaochuan carefully examined the blind fortune-teller and found it incredible. If he was truly blind, how could he tell who someone dozens of yards away was? Yet from Ning Xiaochuan's many years of medical experience, he could tell that the fortune-teller's eyes were genuinely blind, not a disguise.
That truly was strange!
As the saying went, masters had always lurked among the common folk.
Bang!
Gou Sheng pulled a large Silver Coin from his robe and smashed it down on Three-Fingered Lin's table. "This young master struck it rich today. I'm paying back both principal and interest. You don't need to give me the extra back."
Three-Fingered Lin slowly extended his hand from his sleeve. Yet that hand had only three fingers: the thumb, index finger, and little finger. The other two had been gone for many years.
Three-Fingered Lin pinched the large Silver Coin into his sleeve and smiled. "Many thanks! I won't return the extra twenty Small Coin, then."
Yu Yan said softly, "He really isn't polite at all."
Gou Sheng also felt that Three-Fingered Lin's skin was far too thick. Gou Sheng had told him not to make change, and he truly did not. I made a huge profit today, so I won't ask for those few Small Coin. But next time, I absolutely can't be so generous. Generous people are all bastards!
Rumble!
The ground began to shake.
Roar!
Roar!
Two dragon roars rang out, shaking the nine heavens.
The sound of dragons echoed through all of Nanshan Village, causing a massive commotion.
Thump! Thump! The ground shook even more violently.
Ning Xiaochuan, Yu Yan, Gou Sheng, and Three-Fingered Lin all retreated to the side of the street, watching a group of soldiers in Crimson Armor march past.
At the very front were twelve dragon elephants.
The dragon elephants stood as tall as houses, with thighs as thick as pillars. Their entire bodies were covered in scales. They had the bodies of elephants and the heads of divine dragons, unleashing long howls like dragon cries that made the martial artists of Nanshan Village tremble in fear.
Upon each of the twelve dragon elephants rode a warrior clad in Crimson Armor. Vast Martial Dao Profound Qi flowed through their bodies, and they held long spears as thick as bowls. They radiated an overwhelming pressure that made some timid people fall directly to their knees, kowtowing repeatedly to the dragon elephants.
"Heavens! What happened? Twelve dragon elephant warriors and six thousand Scarlet Armor Battalion soldiers have been deployed. Could war have broken out?"
"Don't you know? The Dragon Elephant Divine Martial Battalion is going to wipe out a Dark Emperor City stronghold. The Scarlet Armor Battalion was merely sent to assist."
"They say the Dark Emperor City strongholds shift constantly and cannot be pinned down, like shadows in the night. No one knows where they are hidden."
"The Dragon Elephant Divine Martial Battalion is one of the Yulan Empire's three greatest elite military forces. They must have obtained the exact location of the Dark Emperor City stronghold. Otherwise, they would never launch such a grand campaign."
The surrounding martial artists all discussed it animatedly. Those young talents also emerged from the wine shop, staring at the twelve Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors with excitement surging in their hearts.
A pretty young girl with a small braid stared at the enormous dragon elephants, her pitch-black eyes constantly darting about. Overwhelmed with envy, she said, "It's the Dragon Elephant Divine Martial Battalion, one of the legendary three great elite military forces. They actually dispatched twelve Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors."
A young man in an emerald sorcerer's robe stood atop a house by the street, his eyes filled with yearning. "The individual combat strength of a single Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warrior equals three thousand ordinary soldiers. With twelve of them working together, their fighting power definitely exceeds an army of fifty thousand."
"The destructive power of Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors is unparalleled. They are true war machines. When ordinary soldiers fight Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors, that is not war—it is slaughter!"
The Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors had always been exceedingly mysterious. Now that they had finally appeared before everyone's eyes, countless martial artists were filled with excitement and longing.
Ning Xiaochuan also felt the enormous aura radiating from the dragon elephant warriors. Every one of the dragon elephants' scales was the size of a palm, a sight that made one's heart quail while stirring longing at the same time. He wished he could possess such a mighty mount himself.
Dragon elephants possessed enormous strength. One could smash down the walls of a small city, and a single stomp could break a great bridge.
On the battlefield, one Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warrior could slaughter thousands of troops until not a single piece of armor remained. Alone, one could guard a great pass—when one man held the pass, ten thousand could not force their way through!
Of course, dragon elephants were extremely rare. Only extraordinarily gifted geniuses could possibly be selected for the Dragon Elephant Divine Martial Battalion and become Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors respected by countless people.
Ning Xiaochuan fixed his gaze on the twelve Divine Martial warriors riding the dragon elephants. The Martial Dao Profound Qi fluctuations from every one of them were incredibly intense, as if rivers of blood were surging within their bodies.
Among the twelve Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors were two beautiful female dragon elephant warriors. Both appeared to be only a little over twenty, yet their gazes were incomparably sharp.
One of them, a female Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warrior with blue hair and green eyes, glanced at Ning Xiaochuan. Their gazes only touched for an instant, yet Ning Xiaochuan felt as if the blood in his body had frozen solid. Cold sweat broke out all over him, and he staggered back two steps.
Too powerful!
A single glance forced me back!
"What terrifying killing intent. This is what a true Martial Dao master is!" Ning Xiaochuan discovered that cold sweat was seeping from his palms, only for it to freeze into icy grains. He suspected that this female Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warrior could blast down even a city wall with a single spear thrust.
The twelve Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors and six thousand Scarlet Armor soldiers quickly left Nanshan Village and gradually vanished into the distance.
Roar!
A dragon roar came from the sky.
An enormous black shadow appeared, flying over Nanshan Village. Its body was so colossal that it blocked out the sunlight, plunging heaven and earth into darkness.
It had enormous wings, and with a single flap, fierce winds rose from the ground.
Compared to the enormous black shadow overhead, the dragon elephants became much smaller, as though that massive shadow could swallow them in a single bite.
Outside Nanshan Village, the twelve Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors all halted and looked up at the giant shadow above. Lightning seemed to dart through the clouds, while an enormous claw occasionally emerged from them. That claw alone was far larger than a dragon elephant's body.
"Continue onward!" ordered the blue-haired, green-eyed female Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warrior.
Only half an hour later did Nanshan Village finally settle down completely.
Ning Xiaochuan let out a long breath. "What was that enormous black shadow in the clouds just now?"
"It should have been a legendary dragon," Yu Yan said.
"A dragon?" Ning Xiaochuan had never seen such a colossal creature. Though it had remained above the clouds, he could still feel the immense power radiating from its body, as if one breath from it could blow away all of Nanshan Village.
Heavens!
A dragon from legend!
Could such a creature truly exist in this world?
Gou Sheng said, "Legend has it that Yulan Imperial City truly possesses mysterious Divine Dragon Warriors, who stand above every other military force. Every Divine Dragon Warrior can turn the tide of an entire war. But Divine Dragon Warriors are rarely seen taking action unless they encounter an exceptionally important war. Is there really a need to make such a huge spectacle over encircling Dark Emperor City? They've even deployed Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors and Divine Dragon Warriors."