Slaying the Flood Dragon

Cold, bone-piercing cold! The instant Xiao Yan plunged headfirst into the icy pool, it was as though he had been thrown into an ice cellar. The pitch-black water was like countless ice needles, stabbing viciously through every pore, into his flesh, his meridians, and his marrow. His limbs stiffened almost instantly.

The water in this icy pool could even freeze Spiritual Energy. Xiao Yan gritted his teeth, and the Flame Mantra within him began circulating madly.

Hiss! Hiss!

Wisps of pale golden flame rose from his skin, turning the water around him into clusters of white bubbles. The flames forcibly drove the bone-deep chill back several feet, and only then did some feeling return to Xiao Yan's stiff limbs.

Without pausing for an instant, he kicked off and became a fish of fire, shooting down toward the pitch-black bottom of the pool. His Soul Power had long since spread out: fifty zhang, a hundred zhang... The water grew colder and darker, and in that boundless darkness and chill, the pale golden flames were as tiny as a guttering candle in the wind, pressed down to a thin layer against his skin.

Then his Soul Power finally touched that familiar presence. Some thirty zhang below him, the Abyss Scale Flood Dragon's enormous body was coiled into a mass, slowly sinking deeper toward the bottom of the pool. At the center of its coils, a figure in fine robes lay motionless, bound fast by its enormous black tail.

Luo Lan's breath had grown exceedingly faint. A thin layer of frost covered his skin, and it was still growing thicker. In another moment, it would freeze him into a block of ice.

A cold light flashed in Xiao Yan's eyes. His right hand closed around empty air, and an enormous ruler, black from end to end, slowly emerged in the water: the Heavy Xuan Ruler. In the next instant, Xiao Yan shot forward like a streak of fire and slammed into the flood dragon's coils. He swung the Heavy Xuan Ruler high, wrapped in a layer of pale golden flame condensed to its utmost, and smashed it down on the giant tail binding Luo Lan.

"Bang!"

A muffled boom exploded at the bottom of the pool. A shockwave visible to the naked eye sent the water surging violently for dozens of zhang around them. The blow sent scales flying from the Abyss Scale Flood Dragon's tail, and its grip abruptly loosened.

Xiao Yan reached out with his left hand, seized Luo Lan by the collar, and pulled him into his arms. The pale golden flames immediately enveloped Luo Lan as well, and the frost on his skin hissed as it melted into white mist.

"Roar!"

A furious roar came from deep below. The Abyss Scale Flood Dragon's enormous body twisted violently, and its house-sized head lunged out of the darkness. A blinding cold light was gathering madly on the ice-blue horn atop its head. Xiao Yan held Luo Lan in his arms and raised the Heavy Xuan Ruler across his body, but the cold light was already upon him.

"Boom!"

It was an ice-blue beam as thick as a bucket. Everywhere it passed, the pool water froze into a straight pillar of ice. The pillar slammed into the Heavy Xuan Ruler, numbing Xiao Yan's arms as a terrifying chill surged up the weapon. The blow sent him and Luo Lan flying backward into the ice wall at the bottom of the pool. A mouthful of blood spurted from Xiao Yan's mouth, turning into a cloud of scarlet mist in the water.

Xiao Yan looked at the cloud of blood without the slightest panic. Instead, his eyes narrowed slightly. He had seen that last attack clearly: the Abyss Scale Flood Dragon's ice pillars formed from the horn atop its head. Whenever cold light gathered there, the ring of scales at the base of the horn opened slightly, exposing a small patch of pale blue flesh beneath. That was where its Spiritual Energy gathered, and also its fatal weakness.

"Hold on tight," Xiao Yan said, looking down at the unconscious Luo Lan in his arms. Regardless of whether Luo Lan could hear him, he swung him onto his back and bound him securely with a thread of fire. Then a pair of jade-colored bone wings slowly spread behind him in the water. With one beat of those wings, the water was forcibly pushed aside, and Xiao Yan's figure left a jade-colored afterimage in the depths of the pool.

The Abyss Scale Flood Dragon's vertical pupils contracted, and another pillar of ice blasted out, but Xiao Yan was no longer where he had been. Using the speed of his bone wings, he darted around the dragon's enormous body. One, two, three pillars of ice skimmed past him, freezing the bottom of the pool into a crisscrossing array of ice columns. The entire pool bottom had become a cage of ice.

The longer the Abyss Scale Flood Dragon fought, the angrier it became. The cold light on its horn grew brighter and brighter, and the ring of scales at its base opened wider and wider.

Now! Xiao Yan abruptly changed direction. Instead of retreating, he charged straight toward the gathering cold light. An instant before it burst forth, he reached the base of the horn. He put away the Heavy Xuan Ruler, freeing his hands to form seals swiftly before his chest.

The icy pool could freeze Spiritual Energy, but it could not freeze flowing water. The "Flow" of the third layer of Reverse Scale let him see every undercurrent at the bottom of the pool. Now those currents were being drawn by the Abyss Scale Flood Dragon's horn, gathering in circles toward the cold light. He would borrow its water.

Xiao Yan brought his ten fingers together, forcing all of the sixty percent of his Spiritual Energy remaining within him, along with his Emperor Realm Soul Power, into his palm. A speck of pink showed through the pale golden firelight. Driven back by the heat, the water around him bubbled and churned, and the undercurrents turned with it, surging back in the direction of his palms.

A golden seal the size of a millstone flashed into existence before his palms. He forcibly compressed it until it was only the size of a hand, its surface covered in overlapping layers of water and fire patterns.

Emperor Seal Art, Sea Overturning Seal!

Back on the Dou Qi Continent, this seal could overturn a sea. Here at the bottom of the icy pool, he could not muster even thirty percent of its power. But this seal did not need to overturn anything. It only needed to push the water of the pool back. "Break!" he shouted, driving his palm hard against the patch of pale blue flesh.

"Boom!"

The instant the hand-sized seal sank into the soft flesh, every undercurrent in the icy pool reversed direction at once. The surging water swept around the cold light gathering on the Abyss Scale Flood Dragon's horn, sending it abruptly backward, pouring every bit of it back into the horn itself. Its cold vertical pupils narrowed to slits.

Crack.

A crisp snapping sound rang out. Cracks spread inch by inch from the base of the ice-blue horn, and then it burst apart with a deafening explosion.

"Roar-!!"

The Abyss Scale Flood Dragon let out an agonized howl, its enormous body thrashing madly at the bottom of the pool and shaking the entire icy pool violently. After a short while, its thrashing gradually slowed. At last, its massive head crashed heavily into the silt at the bottom and moved no more.

Xiao Yan floated beside the dragon's head, gasping for breath. The blood at the corner of his mouth dissolved into thin red threads in the water. From fingertips to elbows, his meridians burned in waves of pain-the backlash from having his Spiritual Energy drained all at once. The seal had consumed more than half of the sixty percent of his Spiritual Energy he had left. If it had failed, he would not even have had the strength to swim back to the surface.

He did not linger at the bottom of the pool. With Luo Lan on his back, he beat his bone wings and shot upward.

Splash!

The surface of the pool broke open. One figure carrying another soared out and landed heavily on the ice at the pool's edge.

"They're out! Young Master Xiao is out!" A crowd had long since gathered by the pool. Luo Feng stood there with a longsword in hand, his face ashen. Behind him, more than twenty Luo God Clan disciples had formed a battle formation, Spiritual Energy circulating around them, all looking ready to fight for their lives at any moment. But now everyone was staring blankly at the slender figure, drenched from head to toe, with blood at the corner of his mouth.

They had all heard the agonized howl from the bottom of the pool. After it, the water had gradually calmed, and there had been no further movement.

"Y-Young Master Xiao!" Luo Zhi was the first to rush over, her delicate face streaked with tears. "Luo Lan... he..."

Xiao Yan laid Luo Lan flat on the ice and reached out to check his pulse. His brows furrowed slightly. Luo Lan's life had been saved, but the chill from the pool had invaded his meridians. If it was not driven out soon, even if he was saved, he would be left with a lingering ailment.

Xiao Yan's mind instinctively reached into the Storage Ring on his finger. It held the medicinal pills he had brought from the Dou Qi Continent, but most had already been eroded by this world, and the few that remained were far too potent. In Luo Lan's current condition, he could not possibly withstand them.

He withdrew his mind from the Storage Ring and felt inside his robes, finding a small, soggy cloth bundle. He took it out and opened it. The herbs inside were wrapped tightly in broad leaves and had not been soaked through by the pool water at all. A name had been scrawled crookedly in charcoal on each packet: "Bloodstoping Grass," "Calming Flowe"... Xiao Yan's gaze fell on one packet bearing the words "Heartwarming Star Grass."

He could not help but smile. Heartwarming Grass, an herb of pure yang that specifically drove out cold poison. That girl had probably heard how cold it was in the Luo River Abyss and picked it for that very reason.

"Fetch water and start a fire," Xiao Yan said. Half an incense stick later, a steaming bowl of medicinal broth was fed to Luo Lan a little at a time. Before long, a trace of color gradually returned to his frostbitten, purplish face, and the last layer of frost on his skin turned to vapor and drifted away. Luo Zhi knelt beside him, clutching his sleeve tightly, hardly daring to breathe. After another moment, Luo Lan's eyelids twitched.

He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze somewhat unfocused. He looked around at the anxious faces surrounding him, finally settling on Luo Zhi's tear-streaked face. He stared for quite a while before speaking his first words in a hoarse voice. "I... just now... looked pretty cool, didn't I?"

Luo Zhi stared for a moment, then burst into even louder tears. The tense Luo God Clan disciples around them were startled at first. Then, someone let out a snort of laughter, and a wave of relieved laughter spread through the entire ice cavern. Xiao Yan laughed too, flicking Luo Lan lightly on the forehead.

"Heh, yes, very cool," Xiao Yan said with a laugh. "Don't be so cool next time."

As the laughter gradually died down, Luo Feng turned and looked beyond the crowd. Luo Xiao stood there, still clutching the Ice Soul Spiritual Fruit, his face as white as paper. His two companions had long since collapsed to the ground in fright.

"You defied the leader's orders, took the spiritual fruit for yourself, disturbed its guardian spirit beast, and nearly got a fellow clansman killed." Luo Feng's voice was as cold as the water in the Cold Abyss. "Luo Xiao, once we leave the abyss, report to the Punishment Hall and accept your punishment. Hand over the spiritual fruit. Give it to Luo Lan."

Luo Xiao's lips trembled at those words, but he did not argue. He only lowered his head and clutched the spiritual fruit tightly. After a long silence, he finally set it down slowly on the ice, then turned and walked away. From beginning to end, he did not spare Xiao Yan a glance.

Xiao Yan did not look at him either. His gaze was fixed on the surface of the pool, where the Abyss Scale Flood Dragon's corpse was slowly rising. There was a fresh wound on the side of its enormous belly. It was not large, and the icy water had frozen a crust over it. The crust was a strange dark red, and within that dark red, the outline of a palm print was faintly visible.

Xiao Yan's pupils contracted slightly. He had seen that palm print before.

Blood Fiend Palm.