The sky Chentang Pass seemed to have been splashed with thick ink. Large raindrops pounded on the bluestone slabs, splashing up water spray that reeked of fish. Dark clouds pressed down on the city walls like a surging tide, and the reflection of scales could be vaguely seen through the gaps in the clouds. Rumbling thunder was accompanied by the chilling roar of a dragon.
Inside General Li's residence, Li Jing's hand gripping his sword trembled slightly. Suddenly, he heard a tearing roar from the sky, " Li Jing! Get out here!" Looking up, four enormous figures pierced through the clouds. The Sea Dragon Entanglement by surging water curtains, and behind them, shrimp soldiers and crab generals pressed in like dark clouds. The dense array of weapons reflected a chilling light in the rain.
"Dragon Kings, please calm your anger!" Li Jing stumbled out of the mansion gate, his official robes soaked through by the rain. "That wretched Nezha, I have severed all ties with him! If the four Dragon Kings wish to arrest him, I will cooperate fully!" Before he finished speaking, a figure in white robes burst through the rain curtain—it was Nezha, who had come running on foot.
"Old Dragon King, what do you want with me?" Nezha's voice, filled with anger, could be clearly heard in the wind and rain.
"You damned beast!" Li Jing suddenly sprang to his feet, his aged face contorted with fear. "You've ruined the lives of the people of Chentang Pass!"
He was met with a crisp slap. Nezha's eyes flashed with golden light, Red Armillary Sash moved without wind. "Get out! Since you've already admitted to severing our father-son bond, what right do you have to judge me?" The force of the slap was so great that it knocked Li Jing to the ground.
Ao Guang's dragon whiskers stood on end, and his scales rustled with rage. " Nezha, you killed my son! I demand you pay with your life!"
"Perfect timing!" Nezha retorted. " The Sea Dragon are all here? Saves me the trouble of dealing with them one by one! You man-eating monster, do you even deserve to be called a Dragon King?" His voice pierced through the rain, startling the people on the city wall who covered their mouths and noses—the raindrops in the air had turned dark red at some point.
Nezha threw his head back and laughed loudly. Rainwater slid down his raised chin and splashed onto the corners of his mouth, condensing into glistening droplets. "I think you are clearly an old demon dragon." His voice boomed like thunder, shaking even the clouds slightly.
Ao Guang's dragon scales stood on end, and the surging blood energy beneath his dragon robe stained the surrounding seawater crimson. "What did you say?!"
"I said—" Nezha suddenly took a step forward, the Universe Ring bursting forth with dazzling golden light from his wrist, "Dragon King? What kind of Dragon King are you? A man-eating Dragon King! I'm going to beat you up! Let me tell you, when I have time from today onwards, I'll tear down your dilapidated temple, so you won't have to demand boys and girls anymore."
Ao Guang roared, and wherever his dragon tail swept, the seawater instantly transformed into shrill ice blades. At this moment, the Sea Dragon Ao Run spoke in a sinister voice, his icy blue scales gleaming coldly. "Brother, wait! Force him to hand over the Dragon Pearl first! After we've torn this little bastard apart, we'll make the people of Chentang Pass pay for Bing'er's death!"
"Well said!" Ao Guang's eyes flashed with a bloodthirsty light. " Nezha, hand over the Dragon Pearl, and I'll give you a quick death! Otherwise..." He opened his blood-red maw, and a water dragon as thick as a bucket burst from the ground, "I want all the living beings in this city to be buried with my son!"
"What Dragon Pearl? I've never seen one before!" Nezha sneered, his Red Armillary Sash a magical ribbon) binding the approaching water dragon like a crimson ribbon. In an instant, the seawater spewed from Ao Guang's mouth transformed into a raging torrent, and torrential rain poured down, quickly overflowing the walls of Chentang Pass.
Li Jing staggered out of the mud and looked in Nezha's direction with a fierce look in his eyes. "Beast, your parents raised you, but you have brought shame upon them. I should have killed you when you were born!" He roared and swung his sword at Nezha, but the young man nimbly dodged it.
Nezha kicked the longsword away with a backhand kick, and then threw Li Jing to the ground with a heavy punch. He slowly walked towards the fallen sword, the rain washing over the blade and reflecting his cold image.
The moment he gripped the hilt of his sword, his white robes fluttered in the wind. "Enough nonsense, you old demon dragon, get down here and fight your grandpa Nezha for three hundred rounds!" He pointed his sword at the sky and roared angrily.
However, what responded to him was an even more raging flood. In the streets, people clung to the beams and pillars, crying out, while the cries of babies mingled with the roar of collapsing houses.
The turbid waves had already overflowed the eaves, and cries for help could be heard from afar. Chentang Pass was teetering on the brink of collapse in the flood.
The torrential rain at Chentang Pass pounded on the city walls like steel needles, and the salty seawater washed over the broken streets and alleys. Nezha knelt on one knee, supporting himself on a broken beam, his head feeling as if it had been hit hard, his temples throbbing.
The roars of Ao Guang and the cries of the people echoed alternately in his ears, each sound like a sharp claw tearing at his nerves. In the distance, a woman holding a child was swept away by the waves, and an old man desperately reached out in the flood. These images overlapped with Li Jing's cold gaze as he wielded his sword, stinging his eyes.
"You little beast! Let's put the matter of the Dragon Pearl aside for now!" Ao Guang atop the hundred-foot-high water curtain, the surging blood energy beneath his dragon body staining the clouds crimson.
"Now, I want you dead. Only your death can end this. Otherwise, let the people of Chentang Pass be buried with you. You may fight us, but if you win, our navy will bring more than just what we have. I will also unleash all my magic power in my dying moments to utterly destroy Chentang Pass."
The seawater behind him solidified into a ferocious giant python, its gaping maw facing the densely packed residential buildings in the city.
"You old demon dragon, you are truly despicable and shameless!" Nezha staggered to his feet, his Red Armillary Sash dangling in the downpour, its former brilliance long gone.
Suddenly, a sharp cry of a child pierced the rain. He turned his head and saw three children clinging tightly to a piece of driftwood, the murky waves already reaching their necks.
The smiling faces of the rescued children in his memory overlapped with the tragic scene before him. He dug his fingers deep into his palms, his nails piercing the panel without him even noticing.
"Is... is there really no other way?" Nezha murmured to himself, his voice torn to shreds by the wind and rain. He looked up at Ao Guang, the golden light in his eyes gradually dimming. "Old Dragon King, if I die, will you really stop this raging storm and spare the people of Chentang Pass?"
Ao Guang let out a piercing laugh, and eerie blue lightning crackled from between his dragon horns. "I swear in the name of the Dragon God! If you commit suicide to atone for your sins, the waters will recede immediately!"
Nezha said: Okay, I'll take responsibility for my actions.
Nezha ( Huo Yuhao ) slowly bent down and picked up the sword that Li Jing had dropped. The sword reflected his pale face.
At this moment, he finally understood what the Third Prince felt back then. This feeling was not the fear of death, but a kind of indifference. Faced with the indifference of kinship and justice, there was nothing left to cherish in this world.
"That's how you felt back then, wasn't it? Pain, not just physical pain, but also mental torment, hahaha, it seems I still couldn't achieve a good ending."
A flash of sword light, and blood bloomed like red plum blossoms in the rain. Nezha's body slowly fell, and the Red Armillary Sash Universe Ring transformed into a wisp of green smoke, dissipating in the wind and drifting into the distance. In an instant, the world fell into deathly silence, with only the mournful cry of the divine deer swooping down from the clouds, futilely licking his gradually cooling face with its warm tongue.
With his mind set on life and death, he committed suicide, just as tragically as Nezha in the story. Heaven and earth seemed to weep, the divine deer cried, and everything fell into silence.
The rain in Chentang Pass suddenly stopped, and the stench of blood filled the damp air. The moment the Dragon Girl broke through the clouds, she saw Nezha's body slowly falling, and the Red Armillary Sash ribbon) fluttering down like shattered red silk.
She let out a heart-wrenching cry, and the Dragon Pearl she was protecting in her arms rolled away, hitting the bluestone slab with a crisp echo, but it could no longer call back the boy.
A few hours ago, when the Dragon Girl returned to the Dragon Palace and saw the scattered scales in her brother Ao Bing's bedroom, she finally made up her mind. She couldn't bear to leave Nezha to die, so she went to Ao Bing's bedroom to search for the Dragon Pearl.
She searched through the hidden compartments beneath the coral bed, and the moment her fingertips touched the cool Dragon Pearl, tears welled up in her eyes. " Nezha, I'll save your life one more time. From now on, let's never see each other again..."
But she didn't expect that this would be the last time she saw him. Sure enough, following Nezha's words, she found the Dragon Pearl.
She carefully hid the Dragon Pearl close to her body and hurriedly searched for Ao Guang, only to find that the Dragon King was not in his palace.
She must have gone to Chentang Pass to seek revenge, so she hurried Chentang Pass, but she was too late.
At this moment, she collapsed to her knees in the pool of blood, her trembling hand stroking Nezha's gradually translucent face. Ao Guang's figure loomed above, transforming into human form, his dragon robe still damp with seawater. "Enough! Daughter, he has paid with his life. We should return to the Dragon Palace."
"No! Father!" The Dragon Girl turned abruptly, holding up the Dragon Pearl that emitted a soft glow, tears mingling with the rain as they streamed down her face. "Look, it was my brother who took the Dragon Pearl and hid it. I found it in his palace."
Her voice choked with emotion, "Because he was defeated by Nezha, he felt humiliated and wanted to use you to get rid of him completely."
Ao Guang's dragon eyes suddenly contracted, and his dragon whiskers trembled violently. But soon, he turned his face away. "What's done is done, daughter. Everything is settled. Nezha is dead, which can be considered as repaying Ao Bing's life with one life. Let's leave it at that. Come back to the Dragon Palace with me." He waved his sleeve, stirring up a whirlwind, and tried to forcibly take the Dragon Girl away.
The Dragon Girl clung tightly to Nezha's dissipating body, letting the golden light slip through her fingers. " Nezha, don't go... please..." Her voice was broken, like a withered leaf in the wind.
Nezha's silhouette gradually turned into starlight. As the last trace of warmth disappeared from her palm, her desperate cry shook the entire sea. And the Dragon Pearl, amidst this mournful sound, quietly sank into the mud.
Before leaving, Ao Guang said, " Li Jing, let this matter rest. Send me the young boy and girl in a few days."