Up close, the Dragon Lord looked only seven or eight years old. Her two little horns were exquisitely small. In his original world, he would surely have wanted to pinch her cheeks, but Su Ziji naturally had no such thought now.
Those eyes definitely did not belong to a cute young dragon.
Su Ziji's question made the Dragon Lord laugh soundlessly. She did not answer at once, merely pointing outside. "Look outside again."
Su Ziji looked up and saw another gust of wind sweep past. As it passed, the magnificent palaces outside rapidly collapsed, breaking apart into scattered fragments.
That was not the worst of it. The crucial part was that the faint human figures caught by the wind also met with disaster. Even those hiding behind pillars could not escape; they swiftly turned to ash, leaving only a few desperate screams.
Though he did not know the outcome, it was surely horrific.
A gust blew into the hall. Though it was blocked by the ring upon reaching them, Su Ziji could not help feeling his hair stand on end. He shuddered as if unable to withstand the cold, rubbed his shoulder, and his face turned pale.
The Dragon Lord, however, remained unconcerned. Smiling, she said, "It seems you have some guesses. What do you think this is?"
"Dragon Lord, could this... be time?" Su Ziji hesitated before daring to voice his guess.
Coiling Dragon Lake was a famous site in this prefecture, but the name itself had only existed for several hundred years. Legend said that there had once been a Dragon Lord here. The county annals recorded it, and there had been official sacrifices, but for some reason the imperial court had suddenly abolished them.
Through the Rosewood Pendant, the Coiling Dragon Secret Art had, if his guess was correct, drawn upon the author's state of mind at the time of writing, allowing one to quickly gain entry.
Though it was only a fragment, he could still vaguely understand its complex emotions at the time—anxiety over danger, resolve.
And he clearly understood that the splendid scene just now had belonged to several hundred years ago.
Could time have reversed, and was this now the backlash?
"Time? Do you think this is the past? You think too highly of me." The Dragon Lord was taken aback, then laughed again, but her tone was grave and icy. "Time is the standard of a hundred generations. If time could be reversed, the world and Heaven's Way would both vanish into nothing."
"I fear that even a Heavenly Emperor could not reverse it."
Boom! Even as they spoke, another wave of wind arrived. It looked like a heavy red-yellow mist, but as it swept through, the palace whose framework still stood collapsed. At a glance, stone blocks flew everywhere, ten thousand thunderclaps roared in fury, and it became ruins, with only a few broken pillars still standing tall.
Some clever people who had fled deep into hiding let out desperate screams.
"A grave mistake has already been cast. Even with a hundred stratagems, one cannot escape it." Su Ziji glanced over, misery filling his heart, yet there was nothing he could do.
The Dragon Lord's expression remained calm. Her lovely head lowered, her beautiful eyes fixed upon the unfolding scene. Only after a long while did she break the silence with a sigh. "I merely foresaw a great calamity and used the calamity's aura to create a Sealing Recess, sealing this prosperity, the shadows of my ministers, and a thread of my Primordial Spirit within it. Only then could it retain its appearance from that year."
"I had not expected any of you to come. To speak frankly, this was meant for my Dragon Maiden. Once she unraveled the chess manual, she would naturally receive my true inheritance."
"Yet I never expected that, after calculating a thousand times and ten thousand times, I would overlook a treacherous minister. The formation meant to protect the Dragon Maiden was altered into a prison. I waited several hundred years without seeing her, able only to watch helplessly as the Dragon Maiden slowly withered away."
"Then the Dragon-Serpent Blood Sacrifice unexpectedly tore open the Sealing Recess for a brief moment. As fate would have it, I held the chess match only to send out the chess manual, hoping to pry open a crack in the Sealing Recess. What surprised me even more was that you, a mere mortal, actually unraveled it."
"Now that the Sealing Recess has opened, everything is rapidly decaying and synchronizing with the world. Rather than time, this wind is better called an Against-the-Wind that smooths out anomalies."
"Those people just now went out on their own without my permission. No matter how much fate they possessed, once blown by that Against-the-Wind, they were doomed to become ashes."
"Ten miles of prosperity vanish in a few breaths. The vast grandeur of heaven and earth truly makes one sigh—people are scarcely more than duckweed adrift."
The Dragon Lord was still lamenting. She had only a thread of her Primordial Spirit left and perhaps did not fear it, but Su Ziji did not wish to perish together with her. Not to mention Ye Buhui was still in his arms. He could only force himself to respond, "Compared to the world, who is not drifting duckweed? Precisely because of that, we must seize every moment."
The Dragon Lord could not help smiling. "Do not be anxious. There is still time."
As she spoke, her smile faded and her expression became solemn. "I am bound by the Against-the-Wind. Escape is useless. You siblings originally had little to do with this and could have left, but somehow, you learned in an instant the Coiling Dragon Secret Art that I was meant to pass to the Dragon Maiden. You have formed a grave karmic bond."
"Your younger sister may leave now, but you must remain. You brought this upon yourself; it is not that I am deliberately making things difficult for you."
So he had ended up taking the blame for himself?
Su Ziji's face immediately turned pale. After a long while, he asked, "Is there a solution?"
The Coiling Dragon Secret Art was so important—why had the Dragon Lord agreed so readily to his request just now?
Right. She had never imagined he would directly obtain the true essence of the Coiling Dragon Secret Art. She had only intended to send out the chess manual, then have one destined for it pry open the Sealing Recess again.
More than one person had heard the chess manual just now.
Su Ziji swiftly sorted out his thoughts. His eyes gleamed as he stared at the Dragon Lord. "Dragon Lord, time is short. If there is anything you need done, please command me freely. If I can do it, I will never refuse."
"Straightforward. A promise from a man of the realm is worth a thousand gold—I am willing to trust that." Another Against-the-Wind was already sweeping in. The entire palace had turned to ash, the core hall was on the verge of collapse, and several Great Demons on the outskirts flickered between light and shadow, nearly crumbling apart.
The Dragon Lord no longer delayed. "The inheritance of the Coiling Dragon Secret Art can only be passed on once. You have received it, so my Dragon Maiden no longer has it."
"Without this inheritance, she cannot truly be called a Dragon Maiden. She can only remain trapped within the Dragon Palace in slumber, drawing closer to extinction day by day."
"I will never accept that fate."
Su Ziji knew the crucial moment had arrived. He bowed deeply. "Dragon Lord, please give the order. I will not disobey."
"Good. If you are willing to pass the Coiling Dragon Secret Art in its entirety to the Dragon Maiden, I will help you return. Not only that—I can also help you take revenge."
"When the Dragon Palace was restarted just now, there was a Dragon-Serpent Blood Sacrifice. I secretly examined your fate. That Dragon-Serpent Blood Sacrifice was the work of your enemy, and it will surely become the source of your future misfortune, bringing you many tribulations."
"If you agree, I will risk this thread of my Primordial Spirit and lend you power, allowing you to return through Spirit Transformation. A thousand miles in an instant—you can kill your enemy and remove this source of calamity. What do you say?"
Su Ziji hesitated no longer and answered at once, "A true man's promise is worth a thousand gold. I will surely not fail what has been entrusted to me."
"Good!" Seeing Su Ziji acknowledge it with his own lips, the Dragon Lord nodded and laughed heartily. She was about to say more when thunder rumbled in the distance. As soon as it sounded, the Dragon Lord's smile swiftly vanished. "Alas, Heaven begrudges even this and will not allow me to say more—take your sister and leave at once!"
As her words fell, the weightless sensation from his arrival struck again. In the instant before leaving, he unexpectedly saw a small, panicked face.
"Hm? That is the young miss of the Hu Family. She is still in the same place?"
Someone said that during the ranking campaign, it was best to update in the morning and afternoon. I think that is a good suggestion.
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