Yu Xiaogang Challenges Yao Lao with His Theories, Only to Be Slapped in the Face (Part One)

After passing through a patch of low shrubs, he saw an open stretch of level ground.

Several enormous warming stones lay across the clearing, their surfaces giving off a soft red glow and faint heat.

A young dragon lay curled on the largest warming stone.

The young dragon was not particularly large, only a little over twenty feet long, its entire body covered in ink-blue scales.

But those scales were dull, having lost the sheen a normal dragon's scales should have possessed. They looked drab, as though coated in dust.

The young dragon's eyes were half-open, its ink-blue pupils devoid of much life.

Its head drooped over the edge of the warming stone, and traces of vomit still clung to the corners of its mouth. Judging by the color, they appeared to be undigested Spiritual Fruit and pill residue.

Several overturned jade bowls and medicine bottles lay scattered on the ground nearby, their remaining medicinal broth spilled everywhere.

Clearly, the young dragon had just vomited again.

And beside the young dragon crouched a person.

A man.

He looked to be in his forties, tall and powerfully built, standing at least a head and a half taller than Yu Xiaogang.

He wore a plain dark-purple robe, with medicinal stains on the cuffs and hem that appeared to have gotten there while he was administering medicine earlier.

His hair was deep purple, pinned behind his head with a simple jade hairpin, a few stray strands falling beside his temples.

He had a square face, slightly high cheekbones, and a sharply defined jaw, with a steady, weighty bearing about his brows.

But at that moment, his face showed neither authority nor dominance, only the anxiety and heartache an elder felt while looking at an ailing youngster.

One large hand rested gently on the