Chapter 79: Elder

Fu Li had heard the pained howls of dragons many times, but had never seen a dragon not make a single sound even when their tail was bitten till it was indistinguishable and fresh blood splattered in all directions.

He stretched out a trembling hand and gently wiped the blood on his face. The dragon blood was fragrant, sweet, and filled with spiritual qi. Fu Li looked down at the blood on his palm. The bloody lines in his pupils increased, eventually staining both eyes completely red.

“Fu Li…” Zhuang Qing opened his dragon mouth, but the voice that came out was weak and powerless. To dragons, their tail was of utmost importance. A dragon who had lost their tail would no longer be able to soar above the highest of Heavens when they transformed into their dragon form.

Fu Li thrust out his hand, flinging the vermilion fan. Like a razor-sharp blade, the fan slashed the Taowu’s face. Pained, the Taowu’s mouth opened, and the golden dragon in its mouth plunged into the sea. In an instant, scarlet blood dyed a wide expanse of sea red. The scent of blood permeated the air. Fu Li extended a hand, catching the vermilion fan that had flown back. A long red vertical line appeared in the center of his forehead.

“What thick baleful qi,” The Taowu stretched out its tongue, licking clean the blood at the corners of its mouth. “Truly delicious.”

A sudden clap of thunder sounded in the sky, and a bolt of lightning landed on the Taowu. With a shake of the Taowu’s body, the horn shattered by lightning slowly regenerated.

“As long as there is life, resentment, and hatred in this world, what can heavenly lightning do to me?” The Taowu raised his head, looking up at the sky in crazed laughter. His white skin gradually turned a bloody red. He roared madly, “Today will be the day I eat this dragon with overflowing virtue!”

What was heavenly law? He, a Taowu, would not be controlled by any existence.

Sensing heavenly law’s bias towards the golden dragon, the Taowu released Fu Li. Instead, he made to jump into the sea and swallow the golden dragon whose tail he had injured. Yet, when he was on the verge of nearing the water, a beastly roar came from behind, and he was knocked more than ten meters away.

Roar!

The churning seawater intensified. Sea breeze whistled. Amidst thunder and lightning, a white rabbit looked up at the sky and let out a long hiss. The red fur in the center of its forehead suddenly emitted a piercing red light. Nine water pillars shot towards the sky. The rabbit expanded in size bit by bit. As if immersed in fresh blood, its white fur became as bright and beautiful as fire.

“What is this?” The Taowu hadn’t expected himself to be sent flying by a rabbit. But when he saw this tiny rabbit turn into a strange blood-red beast, the Taowu’s eyes revealed vigilance.

However, the Kunpeng and Gong Fu’s complexions weren’t much better than the Taowu. Seeing the baleful qi rolling off Fu Li unceasingly in all directions, they swiftly erected a barrier in an attempt to limit the spread of baleful qi.

This sort of baleful qi could arouse the most evil of thoughts in the depths of any living creature’s heart, turning them brutal, bloodthirsty, and hysterical. This was an inherent skill of the fiends, similar to how auspicious beasts brought bountiful harvests, good fortune, and luck from birth.

The completely irrational Fu Li stood on the surface of his sea. His blood-red eyes fixed unwaveringly on the Taowu as he opened his mouth, snarling.

“He wants to eat the Taowu,” Gong Fu looked at Fu Li’s red fangs, fishing out the magic weapon he carried with him. “If he were to really eat the Taowu, he would become a true monster – one that is without thought and emotions, only knowing destruction and resentment.”

Gong Fu knew that Fu Li was more dangerous than even the Taowu at this point in time. If he was rational, he should have taken the chance to behead Fu Li when his cultivation hadn’t yet stabilized.

But when he saw the blood-red fiend’s untiring protection of the golden dragon floating on the sea, refusing to let the Taowu approach even the tiniest bit, Gong Fu transformed into his original form and stood in front of Fu Li.

Sensing the approach of another creature, Fu Li sent Gong Fu a roar, but didn’t make any move to attack.

“Interesting, interesting,” The Taowu laughed heartily. “Gong Fu is actually protecting a monster. Would those ancient auspicious beasts ridicule you if they knew of this behavior?”

“A clear conscience is exactly what our cultivation of the body and heart emphasizes,” Gong Fu was not infuriated by the Taowu’s remark. On the contrary, he shook his tail elegantly. “Taowu, I advise you to give up on creating havoc. Return to your deep sea.”

“Ridiculous,” The Taowu glanced at them with disdain. “On the basis of all you trash?”

Gong Fu and the Taowu soon became embroiled in battle. When an auspicious beast and fiend battled, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the earth became discolored. Lightning would occasionally plummet from the skies, each and every bolt landing on the Taowu. However, new flesh would very quickly grow at every area that was cut off or scorched by the lightning.

In the face of an undying creature, even the strongest power appeared somewhat weak.

Peng Hang stood in front of the guesthouse’s windows. He watched thunder and lightning flash continuously in the sky, feeling like he was witnessing the prelude to a disaster. What was even scarier was that nobody apart from him knew that the disaster had already begun.

On this night, the people in the guesthouse seemed to be in a particularly deep sleep. The entire floor was completely silent.

“If I say you’re trash, then you’re trash,” The Taowu looked at Gong Fu, who he had beaten into spitting out blood. Two horns materialized on his head. “If this was five thousand years ago, you would still be able to fight with me. Unfortunately, the divine beast Azure Dragon is already dead. Without the blessing of the ancestral dragon to strengthen all you sons, along with the loss of human faith, what can you depend on to suppress me?”

“Heavenly law won’t be able to kill me unless you eliminate all living creatures beneath the Heavens,” The Taowu didn’t even look at the heavily injured Gong Fu. He looked down at Fu Li arrogantly. “A mere child who only lived a few thousand years still wants to fight against me?”

Though he uttered such words, he discovered that the spiritual qi on this monstrous yao beast was exceedingly strange. The parts that came into contact with him were actually corroded.

Fu Li could care less about what the Taowu was saying. His brain was a huge mess. All he wanted to do was kill this thing in front of him and protect something.

But protect what?

In his eyes, the sky was red, the sea was red, and even the monster he wanted to devour was red. Seeing the monster reveal a flaw, he rushed over without hesitation.

Clawing. The erosion of baleful qi. And the ability to corrode from birth. Fu Li’s mind allowed his body’s instincts to take over. This was the yao beasts’ most primitive style of battle – tossing away the sophistication and hypocrisy of their human forms, and leaving only their wild nature.

Despite increasing in size, Fu Li still seemed extremely petite in comparison to the Taowu. A sudden look at the two beasts tangled together might even cause one to think that the Taowu was bouncing about on its own for fun.

While protecting the severely injured Zhuang Qing and Gong Fu, the Kunpeng also had to keep an eye on the fight between Fu Li and the Taowu. With a golden dragon and Gong Fu on its huge fish back, the Kunpeng gazed at the thunder and lightning in the sky. He thought somewhat despondently that if this incident had occurred five thousand years ago, no one would believe that the mighty, impressive Kunpeng daren would be carrying two auspicious beasts. If this was the past, even he would not have believed it.

“Cough cough.” Zhuang Qing gradually woke up from the extreme pain, his dragon tail trembling slightly from the pain. He looked at Fu Li up in the sky, as well as the blood that drenched him head to toe. Changing into his human form, he propped a hand against the Kunpeng’s back and slowly climbed up.

“What are you trying to do?” The Kunpeng noticed Zhuang Qing’s movements. “Mixed-blood dragon, you’re throwing away your life.”

“Fu Li can’t continue like this,” Zhuang Qing supported the wound on his lower back as he fished out a flying magic weapon, a green hue to his pale lips. Yao beasts who lost their rationality for too long would turn into a beast through and through, no longer able to find who they once were.

“Fu Li is only your subordinate, do you need to go this far?” The Kunpeng couldn’t understand. Although he was also very fond of Fu Li, he couldn’t quite understand Zhuang Qing’s willingness to fight with everything he had even under such circumstances. He had also taken in a disciple in the past; he didn’t mind helping them to vent by beating up uncouth adversaries, but asking him to lose his life was a no-no.

They were yao after all, there were naturally things they could and couldn’t do.

Zhuang Qing stared blankly for a moment before looking up and seeing the Taowu send Fu Li flying with his horns. No longer did he have the leisure to think too much. Activating his magic weapon, he moved forward and caught Fu Li. He made a cut on his forefinger in an attempt to seal the baleful qi on Fu Li, but the irrational Fu Li simply didn’t allow his hand near him. Knocking Zhuang Qing to the side, he once again engaged the Taowu in battle.

When they first got to know each other, he had thought of Fu Li as a little yao with not-very-high cultivation, which was why he had planted three dragon scales on him. He had done so at that time because he wanted to thank Fu Li for lending them the yao-beating whip. It was completely beyond his expectations that his inadvertent action at that time would actually help Fu Li to mask the baleful qi.

Zhuang Qing felt that he had probably gone insane. In this situation, he wasn’t thinking about how to deal with Fu Li, but finding ways to help him return to normal and even escape the eyes of heavenly law.

After fighting with Fu Li for such a long time, the Taowu was exhausted and riddled with scars. Until Fu Li bit his tail, severing it. It was only then that he flew into a rage and stopped concealing his baleful qi. He would rather be struck by heavenly lightning continuously than not kill Fu Li.

“Scram!” The Taowu used his horns to deflect a bolt of heavenly lightning. He firmly pressed Fu Li down with his foot. The baleful qi Fu Li exuded corroded his foot continuously, but new flesh also grew continuously. Fu Li’s entire body was soaked in fresh blood.

Roar! Although the weak spots all over his body had already been laid bare to the Taowu, there was no fear in Fu Li’s blood-red pupils.

The Taowu hated tiny creatures who showed no fear to him. He opened his mouth, intending to swallow Fu Li. The Kunpeng couldn’t continue resting at his laurels at this point. With a shake of his fish tail, he slapped the Taowu’s mouth, causing the Taowu to bite Fu Li’s front claws and not his neck.

“Kunpeng, mind your own business!” The Taowu shot an icy glance at the Kunpeng, realizing that his lips and tongue had also been injured by the corrosion. Shifting his front claws, he grabbed Fu Li by the neck.

He had thought that he had found an interesting plaything, but it turned out to be inedible. A plaything that was both inedible and an eyesore could only be killed.

A sword stabbed into his front claws. This sword contained boundless virtue, so the Taowu’s claws could do nothing but turn to ashes in a split second. Taking advantage of the instant during which the Taowu was regenerating its lost limb, Zhuang Qing carried Fu Li and dodged to the side.

“Go die!”

The Taowu opened its mouth and spat out countless ice blades as he pursued Zhuang Qing and Fu Li. Zhuang Qing once again transformed into his dragon form in a flash and curled himself up, wrapping around Fu Li so that he was in the center.

The pain he expected didn’t arrive. Zhuang Qing saw a tiny red bird fly out of the clouds and directly ram into the Taowu’s eyes. The Taowu let out an anguished wail. The eyes he had lost unexpectedly didn’t regenerate at lightning-speed.

The tiny red bird turned into a beautiful woman in a red robe. She carried a red whip and flames of anger burned in her eyes. “You actually dare to bully my family’s child, laoniang will cut you down today!” The whip in her hand changed into a sharp sword, which she thrust at the Taowu.

The howling Taowu wasn’t in time to evade, and had his ears and nose sliced off. It was unknown what power the woman was using, but the areas where she injured the Taowu didn’t regenerate.

Even this was not enough to alleviate the red-clothed woman’s anger. She brandished her divine sword, flesh following every blade. She was actually slicing flesh piece by piece from the Taowu’s body. Even more terrifying was the fact that every piece was identical in size – as thin as a cicada’s wing.

The Kunpeng was shaking in fear at the side. Half of the blood in his body was of the bird species and he instinctively feared this bird of unknown origins. Carrying Gong Fu, he retreated to the side and said in a low voice, “Gong Fu, you’re experienced and knowledgeable. Tell me the origins of this individual.”

The heavily injured Gong Fu smiled bitterly. “This senior has profound cultivation and is intentionally hiding its true form. I can’t tell. However, to be capable of injuring the Taowu to this extent, this person should be…”

“Are you all right?” The red-clothed woman suddenly appeared in front of the two of them. Her smile was as gentle as water and fine black hair flowed smoothly down her back. Her beauty was like that of a heavenly immortal.

“We’re o-okay,” The Kunpeng shook his head quickly. Doing this action in his fish form was a little challenging, and he nearly shook Gong Fu off his back.

“Good,” The red-clothed woman fixed her gaze on Gong Fu, her smile becoming even gentler.

Gong Fu shut his mouth and shook his head silently.

The red-clothed woman kept her sword in satisfaction and threw him a bottle of medicinal pills. Turning, she walked across the surface of the water, arriving in front of Zhuang Qing.

Zhuang Qing’s curled dragon body didn’t move. He stared guardedly at the red-clothed woman, refusing to let her approach.

The red-clothed woman looked at his guarded expression as well as the fresh blood dripping from all parts of his body into the sea. She attempted to see past his body and catch a glimpse of his protectee Fu Li, but Zhuang Qing curled his body even tighter.

“I am…”

The red-clothed woman revealed an ashamed look. She opened her mouth and paused for a long time, but was actually unable to say the subsequent words. It became even harder for her to speak when she watched this underaged golden dragon protect Fu Li like his life depended on it.

She turned and walked to the bruised and haggard Taowu. Taking out a bag, she absorbed the Taowu into it before tying a tight knot. She fished out a medicinal pill from her chest and held it out to Zhuang Qing. “Many thanks for taking care of our family’s child. I am Fu Li’s elder, you can call me Zhu Yue.”

Zhuang Qing didn’t take the medicinal pill offered by the woman calling herself Zhu Yue. On the contrary, he stubbornly kept his vitality up and spoke coldly, “Fu Lu told me all his friends and relatives died at Weishui.”

The red-clothed woman stared blankly. The shame on her face deepened.

Taking advantage of her blank stare, the seemingly heavily injured Zhuang Qing unexpectedly curled his bloody mess of a dragon tail around Fu Li and plunged head-first into the depths of the sea.

Seeing the sea that had been stained red by fresh blood, the red-clothed woman stared blankly for a long time before touching her face.

“Are his dragon eyes blind? Do I seem like a bad person?”

She stared at the sea for a few seconds and then glanced at the heavenly lightning in the sky that had yet to disperse. Gritting her teeth, she jumped into the sea and chased after them.

The Kunpeng stared blankly at the sea on which floated blood suds. “That woman knows Fu Li?”

Gong Fu popped a medicinal pill into his mouth, his face the picture of indifference. “I don’t know.”

He wouldn’t dare to say anything even if he knew.

In any case, all heavenly lightning in the sky had dispersed after the woman jumped into the sea.