Tuo Buchuan

Yang Ning was jolted awake by the roaring sound of flowing water.

Struggling to open his eyes, Yang Ning felt as though his neck had been hit by a truck. Half his body had gone numb, and he could not turn his head, able to see only a small patch in front of him.

This seemed to be a cave. It was damp, with dripping water everywhere. Listening to the waterfall beside him and feeling the moisture rushing at his face, it was obvious that he was inside a waterfall.

He had not expected there really to be a Water Curtain Cave behind the waterfall!

Before him, the water gathered into a small stream. Silver fish frolicked within it, but as they swam, seven-colored streams of light began to appear over their bodies!

"..." Yang Ning was dumbfounded. The birth principle of the Seven-Colored Rainbow Silver Fish, which countless people had failed to understand, was laid bare before him just like that. So this fish was actually transformed from ordinary silver fish?

But why?

Yang Ning shifted his eyes and spotted, at the source of the stream, a bead lying in the water like a breathing light.

"Is it because of this thing?" Yang Ning refused to believe ordinary water could turn silver fish into Seven-Colored Rainbow Silver Fish. Otherwise, the silver fish fishermen caught and kept in fish tanks would have transformed long ago!

"You're one of Taiheng Sect's Immortal Seedlings, aren't you? Lin Tianheng sent you to find me?" Tuo Buchuan's voice was hoarse, carrying a strange accent.

Yang Ning remained silent. He knew the price of being a traitor, and Lin Tianheng did not seem like someone easy to talk to.

"You don't have to say it. I already know!" Tuo Buchuan slowly moved from Yang Ning's side to stand before him.

Only then did Yang Ning realize that the man limped when he walked.

At the Body Refinement Tenth Layer, even severed limbs could regenerate without any need for magic power, let alone such minor injuries. Yet his leg still limped.

Clearly, Lin Tianheng had sealed more than just his magic power.

"You people from Taiheng Sect are always like this!" Sitting down before Yang Ning, Tuo Buchuan chuckled. "You never stop talking about benevolence, righteousness, and morality, yet no one is more shameless in their conduct than your Taiheng Sect."

Yang Ning stayed silent. He was merely an Immortal Seedling. How would he know what Taiheng Sect's conduct was like?

Still, most Taiheng disciples came from the ranks of princes and heirs apparent, so it was only natural that they liked using power to crush others.

But why was he telling him all this?

After Yang Ning exchanged a few thoughts with Deep Blue and analyzed Tuo Buchuan's state of mind, he immediately decided to begin competing with him in acting.

Well, he did not need to overdo it. He only had to play an innocent, ignorant twelve-year-old boy.

"Did he tell you that capturing me would be a contribution to Taiheng Sect, an honor for Immortal Seedlings like you?" Tuo Buchuan asked again.

Yang Ning nodded blankly, a trace of clear-eyed foolishness showing in his gaze. "Yes."

Tuo Buchuan grinned. "Did he also tell you that my magic power has been sealed and that less than one-tenth of my strength remains?"

Yang Ning continued nodding. "Is there a problem?"

"Ha ha!" Tuo Buchuan slapped his thigh. "Is there a problem? There's a huge problem! Though my magic power has been sealed, it only means I can't use it. My Body Refinement Tenth Layer cultivation, along with this body strengthened by magic power, is still here. How does that mean I have no strength? You can treat me as a Body Refinement Fourteenth Layer cultivator. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Ah?" Yang Ning looked utterly lost, then his face turned pale. "Then, then doesn't that mean...?"

"That's right. He's using your lives to amuse himself!" Tuo Buchuan sneered. "He could have found me with ease, yet he insisted on making you search the mountain. He could have given you a Vajra Talisman with stronger defensive power, yet he gave you only a Communication Talisman!"

"You found me and made a contribution to Taiheng Sect. Then what? You die. Is it worth it?"

Yang Ning said nothing, but his lips began to tremble, as if he could not accept this fact.

"Judging by how you're dressed, you aren't a formal disciple. You should only be a bookboy, right?" Tuo Buchuan continued.

Yang Ning nodded.

"Do you know that Taiheng Sect treats its disciples differently as well?" Tuo Buchuan asked.

Yang Ning shook his head blankly.

"Of course you don't. Perhaps you won't know even when you die!" Tuo Buchuan sneered. "Taiheng Sect has one Supreme Dao Arts and seven Peerless Dao Arts, but they are only provided to formal disciples—the princes and heirs apparent. Disciples like you, born as bookboys, servants, or maidservants, can only learn Heaven-grade Daoist Arts."

"Ah?" Yang Ning's eyes widened. There was such a thing?

This time, he did not need to act. He truly had not known!

"Furthermore, you will never have any chance of inheriting the position of sect master, nor can you become a Supreme Elder. Once you break through Qi Refining, you will be assigned to study alchemy, artifact forging, talismans, and formations, then toil for the sect for the rest of your lives. If you are lucky enough to break through to the Qi Refining Third Layer, those above may reward you with the position of External Affairs Elder, making you overflow with gratitude. And that will be your entire life!"

"I, I..." Yang Ning blinked, then asked, "What if I cultivate diligently and break through to the Golden Core Stage?"

"Heh, don't joke around!" Tuo Buchuan sneered. "Without Peerless Dao Arts, what will you use to break through to the Golden Core Stage? You'll be busy refining pills and forging artifacts every day. Where will you find time to cultivate?"

Yang Ning fell silent. He realized that what Tuo Buchuan said seemed to make a great deal of sense.

"Why, why are you telling me this?" After thinking for a moment, Yang Ning asked.

"Because I'm about to die!" Tuo Buchuan said flatly. "Even if I kill you, I still can't escape. Trading one life for one life with you, I'd think it wasn't worth it!"

Yang Ning was speechless. He thought he was the one getting the short end of the stick, but Tuo Buchuan thought so too?

Right. Trading the life of someone at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer for someone at the Body Refinement Second Layer—of course Tuo Buchuan would think it was a loss!

"So I want to dig a pit for Taiheng Sect!" Tuo Buchuan pointed at the bead beside them. "This is a Dragon Pearl. It should contain a Dragon Clan Inheritance. I snatched it from Lin Tianheng in a secret realm in the Northern Barbarians. If you were a formal disciple, I would have killed you directly and buried the Dragon Pearl. But since you're a bookboy, once you obtain this inheritance, sooner or later you'll become an enemy of Taiheng Sect!"

"This is a Dragon Pearl?" Yang Ning looked at the gray, breathing-light-like object and asked, "The color isn't right. I read in the Vast Universe Records that Dragon Pearls should mainly be golden-white, though there are red, blue, and cyan ones too. Why have I never seen a gray one?"

"You actually read the Vast Universe Records, and so carefully at that? As expected, you're an ambitious one!" Tuo Buchuan nodded in satisfaction. "As for why this Dragon Pearl is gray, it's because this is a Nightmare Dragon Pearl!"

"A Nightmare Dragon?" Yang Ning froze, then immediately shook his head. "If it were a Nightmare Dragon, its Dragon Pearl should have long been corroded by Nightmare Qi. How could it possibly remain intact?"

"Then what kind of inheritance do you think a Dragon Pearl that can remain intact under the corrosion of Nightmare Qi for three hundred thousand years would contain?" Tuo Buchuan asked in return.

"Ah, this..." Yang Ning froze. Right!

Nightmare Qi corroded all things, turning animals into Nightmare Beasts and dragons into Nightmare Dragons. But this was not a racial transformation; it was a temporary pathological change caused by corrosion.

Once the corrosion lasted long enough, the entire dragon or beast body would be worn away by Nightmare Qi and become part of the nightmare.

Thus, even now, ruins could still be seen, but the bodies of creatures from before the Nightmare Tribulation were rarely found, because they had all been corroded away.

That was the terror of the Nightmare Tribulation.

Dragon Pearls were the essence of a dragon clan's cultivation. The Golden Core Method cultivated by humanity today had evolved from the Dragon Pearl method. In other words, every dragon whose Dragon Pearl remained had possessed at least Golden Core Stage cultivation!

But even the Dragon Pearl of a Golden Core Stage dragon could not withstand the corrosion of Nightmare Qi.

In the early years after humanity rose to prominence, a few could still be found. Several tens of thousands of years later, not a single one remained.

The Dragon Clan Inheritances unearthed now no longer used Dragon Pearls as their vessels.

Yet now, there was one right before him!

What level of cultivation must the dragon that left behind this Dragon Pearl have possessed, for it to withstand three hundred thousand years of Nightmare Qi corrosion?

The Qi Refinement Peak would not be enough!

The Divine Intent Realm? The Immortal Realm?