Chapter 32

Ah Yin prepared to rest, curling herself up. Her entire tender shoot seemed to breathe, expanding and contracting. Yet she remained alert to the feedback from the forest's plants.

Only when Dugu Bo could no longer sense the supply of power did he leave with peace of mind.

But no one had expected that, after Ah Yin fell asleep, two consciousnesses would quietly awaken in the depths of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, beyond the range of her perception.

Because Ah Yin's roots had reached deep underground, the life divine power they carried was sensed by the Ice Dragon King and Fire Dragon King buried far below. Like two fish on the verge of drying out, they craved the nourishment of water.

They desperately absorbed the life divine power drifting down. The two divine dragon skeletons, gleaming with a jade-like luster, flashed rhythmically with red and blue light.

Within the skull of the red skeleton, a consciousness glowing red and carrying extreme heat began to stir.

As though disturbed, the nearby skeleton, glowing blue and radiating extreme cold, also showed fluctuations of consciousness.

Until the two skeletons trembled slightly...

First, within the icy-blue skeleton's skull, the blue-glowing consciousness slowly spread outward in ripples, like a massive creature turning beneath water covered in floating ice.

Then, from the crimson skeleton, a consciousness carrying searing heat surged out of the dragon's mouth, giving off hot vapor.

The instant the two consciousnesses touched deep within the valley, cold and heat exploded into a silent ring of ripples in the darkness. But both immediately contracted, like two enormous beasts startled awake, finally confirming each other's identity.

"...You're still alive." The Ice Dragon King's consciousness spread like a polar cold current, calm but probing.

"No shit. If you're not dead, how could I possibly die?" the Fire Dragon King's consciousness replied, sparks flying.

The retort made the Ice Dragon King pause. "...What woke us?"

The Fire Dragon King's consciousness swayed up, down, left, and right a few times before discovering the roots Ah Yin had extended toward them. "That's the scent of life divine power!"

Both consciousnesses fell silent. Then the Fire Dragon King's consciousness began climbing along Ah Yin's roots, inch by inch.

That searing heat slithered up Ah Yin's roots like a snake, slowing as it approached the base of her plant and cautiously stopping outside her root system. A moment later, the Ice Dragon King's consciousness followed, stopping in the same place, his icy aura surrounding the searing consciousness.

Ah Yin was still asleep.

Most of her consciousness had withdrawn into her core, leaving only her instincts for receiving external stimuli at work. She had already exhausted too much of her origin in a short time, and her recovery was far slower than her consumption. She did not even notice that two consciousnesses hundreds of millions of years old were quietly "watching" her.

"So little. How could she have comprehended life divine power to this degree?" the Fire Dragon King said.

"She seems to be preparing to resurrect. That would make sense," the Ice Dragon King said. "But she's still very weak right now."

The two consciousnesses lingered silently underground for a moment, like two people who had wandered into someone else's courtyard, peered through a crack in the door, then backed out again.

In the end, the Fire Dragon King lost patience first. His searing consciousness lightly touched one of the outermost branches of Ah Yin's roots.

The instant he touched her, Ah Yin's entire plant trembled slightly, her fine roots rapidly contracting inward, like someone whose ankle had been touched in their sleep instinctively pulling their foot under the covers.

She woke, her consciousness rising from her core, muddled with a mixture of vigilance and drowsiness. "...Who?"

"It's just as well you're awake." The Fire Dragon King's consciousness did not retreat. "I am the Fire Dragon King, ruler of all fire beasts, the strongest dragon!"

All of Ah Yin's alarm exploded at once. Her leaves spread and her golden markings lit up, but just as she was about to mobilize her origin, she abruptly froze. She had exhausted too much. Her current body had almost no fighting strength to spare, leaving only an empty shell and a layer of life divine power.

"Don't listen to his bragging. What strongest dragon? I beat him flat." The Ice Dragon King's consciousness also pressed down gently, carrying a dragon's innate oppressive presence. "We don't intend to hurt you, either. In your current state, you can't mobilize any power."

Ah Yin steadied her breathing. "...Seniors, what do you want?"

Worried that the reckless Fire Dragon King would frighten Ah Yin, the Ice Dragon King spoke first. "We sensed the aura of life divine power on you. That was also what woke us. We've been lying here for who knows how many tens of thousands of years, and hardly any of our energy remains. We thought our consciousnesses would dissipate completely in another few thousand years, but that life divine power just gave us a little strength, briefly bringing us back to awareness."

"Briefly?"

The Ice Dragon King fell silent, and the hot-tempered Fire Dragon King did not respond either. In the end, it was still the Ice Dragon King's consciousness that answered Ah Yin's question. "That's right, briefly. Without a continued supply of life divine power, we'll soon sink back into the void of unconsciousness."

"So you want the life divine power I carry?" Ah Yin's leaves drew tightly inward, her voice wary.

The Fire Dragon King's consciousness interjected. "We do need life divine power. Yours is too weak. One mouthful wouldn't be nearly enough. But that power on you seems to have been borrowed from elsewhere. What we truly want is the person behind you who possesses it."

He paused, then continued, "We want some of his power. Not much, just enough to restore a trace of our origin so we can leave this place. If you agree to let us contact him..."

"Impossible." Ah Yin refused without hesitation. The divine power needed to restore the origins of two dragons who had been dead for who knew how many years would certainly be immense. She had no wish for Lan Changsheng to delay his path to godhood for these two old relics.

"We can help you. You're the Blue Silver Emperor, aren't you? Our blood and energy have nourished many immortal herbs here. You can devour all of them to restore yourself," the Ice Dragon King said.

"I won't recover that way, and I don't need to!"

"You know about Blue Silver Imperial Emperor Grass, don't you? How a present-day Blue Silver Emperor can advance into Blue Silver Imperial Emperor Grass? We can teach you," the Fire Dragon King's voice came again.

This made Ah Yin even angrier. "Get lost. I don't want to talk to you anymore!"

"Little girl, don't be so fierce. We know a great deal. Other things would work too." The Ice Dragon King's and Fire Dragon King's consciousnesses quietly touched. "It seems Blue Silver Imperial Emperor Grass is very important to her. Perhaps the life divine power belongs to Blue Silver Imperial Emperor Grass."

"Right, but what do we do next? I'm afraid we've offended her," the Fire Dragon King said.

"What does it matter whether we've offended her? All that matters is whether the benefits are great enough. How about this..."

"Little girl, how does this sound?" the Ice Dragon King's consciousness spoke. "Help us contact the person behind you. Once we've recovered, before we leave, we'll each leave a strand of ice-fire origin in your body..."