Chapter 2.1 - Shihuai Town

An ordinary human would’ve gone crazy after being suppressed for a thousand years, let alone a dragon.

Fortunately, a millennium wasn’t considered long for the dragon race. In fact, it became even more unfathomable. Du Shenglan could even treat a mad demon as cannon fodder, but when faced with a vicious dragon who had many sinister designs, he had to be constantly vigilant.

Some black waves still remained in the sky. The people in Zhanyue Mountain were all panicking, and many elders came out from their closed-door cultivation one after another.

The vicious dragon looked at the cultivators below him, who looked like shrinking black dots, and suddenly spewed a breath of fire, causing everyone to flee in all directions.

Du Shenglan frowned at the sight but didn’t make any comments. The vicious dragon wasn’t taking things seriously, and the elders were more than enough to deal with the flames. He wasn’t having an easy time either, as the temperature of the flame at the dragon’s tail was extremely high, and he needed to constantly keep up a small barrier to withstand it.

Caught between soaring clouds and burning flames, Du Shenglan was thrown off, landing outside a hidden cave.

The vicious dragon turned a few feet long and settled in the area opposite Du Shenglan. Its legendary, indestructible body was riddled with grave wounds. Some parts were burned, and its flesh was exposed. Earlier, it also had to exert a large amount of strength to break away from the seal, and its wounds had begun to bleed.

Du Shenglan calmly looked away. The school’s founder had left a special formation below Dragon Spring Falls. Flames corroded the vicious dragon daily, and it would take tens of thousands of years for its fleshy body to repair itself.

Even if it recovered, its foundation had already been damaged, and its cultivation had already reached a bottleneck.

As Du Shenglan observed the dragon, its sinister eyes also swept over him, likewise observing him. After a moment, the dragon coldly chuckled in its heart, marveling at Du Shenglan’s excellent talent. If it could possess his talent, rapid progress would be made, even if it had to cultivate it from scratch.

The vicious dragon knew that its body no longer had the potential to develop, so it had to find another path.

Regarding the Heavenly Vow, the vicious dragon had pried into it a long time ago. Unfortunately, it was no longer in its prime, and it would have to recuperate its strength to a sufficiently high level to withstand the backlash from breaking it. Only then would it attempt to steal Du Shenglan’s body.

Du Shenglan sensed the malicious thoughts the dragon was having. He calmly asked, “Should we continue fleeing, or should we lay low here?”

Before he could finish his sentence, the dragon transformed into a man dressed in traditional clothing. He had slender eyebrows and peach blossom eyes, gleaming with a sharp light within. He looked just like a distinguished young master from the mortal world. Anyone who saw him would not have associated him with the dragon that caused so much chaos and bloodshed a thousand years ago.

“This is a cave where I used to hide.”

Du Shenglan understood the dragon’s intention to hide, so he stepped inside the cave.

The entrance to the dragon’s old hiding spot was much narrower than expected.

The moment he entered, a chill went up his spine. Even at his current cultivation level, he could still feel the chill, which indicated that there was something extraordinary about it.

The dragon led the way in his human form, and after about half an incense stick’s worth of time, he stopped.

Up ahead was a cold pool. Contrary to the chilling atmosphere of Dragon Spring Falls in Zhanyue Mountain, the cold pool gave off a comfortable aura. Du Shenglan even felt his vitality recovering.

The man transformed back into a small silver dragon and entered the cold pool to recuperate.

Du Shenglan found an empty spot and prepared to meditate and recover. As beneficial as the cold pool was, he could only dream of using it for now.

“What are you doing standing there?” The vicious dragon suddenly invited him. “Come down and join me in soaking.”

The dragon wished to take over his body in the future. If there were any illnesses that developed in the body, it would be a huge loss.

Du Shenglan raised an eyebrow. He wouldn’t kick up a fuss over such a small thing, so he entered the cold pool without removing his clothes. For cultivators, it didn’t matter if their clothes got wet, it would only take a moment for them to dry them.

The vicious dragon said, “Soaking like that isn’t effective, it won’t yield good results.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Du Shenglan closed his eyes.

Since he would be staying here for a few days, it wouldn’t hurt to soak for a few more hours.

“It’s been a thousand years, but the cultivators of Zhanyue Mountain still have a hypocritical nature.” The vicious dragon said as he released a fierce gale of wind with its breath. Howling cold gusts of wind raged around Du Shenglan, and cracks appeared on his sleeves as it showed signs of breaking down at any moment.

Over the past three years, Du Shenglan had secretly sneaked to the bottom of Dragon Spring Falls several times and had long known about the dragon’s temperamental behavior. He simply moved to the side, away from the cold winds.

The vicious dragon wouldn’t leave him alone, dashing around like a silver snake.

“Tell me, how did you see through Zhu Mo’s schemes?”

Three years ago, a young man sneaked under Dragon Spring Falls, first claiming to be Zhu Mo’s direct disciple before declaring his intention to free the dragon. Du Shenglan made the correct choice. If he had not revealed his identity in time, a single breath from the dragon would have taken care of him.

Thinking about the situation where the master and disciple turned against each other on Zhanyue Mountain brought a sense of satisfaction to the vicious dragon.

“Du Qingguang once said something to me… ‘Do you really think that master of yours has your best interests at heart?.” Du Shenglan replied, his eyes still closed.

The dragon’s interest was piqued, and he continued, “You doubted your master, who imparted knowledge to you, just because of that sentence?”

Du Shenglan shot him a look and said, “Of course not.”

But he didn’t want to go through his thought process with a dragon.

“Zhu Mo was indeed quite competent. In order to inherit the position of Mountain Lord, he had to pass my evaluation, and he was the most talented one out of all the participants.

Du Shenglan was surprised. “You assessed him?”

“Anyone who was able to leave a sword mark on my flesh was considered to have passed the assessment. He was the only participant who could injure my bones.” The evil dragon spoke lightly as if he wasn’t talking about himself. “With the aid of the Enlightenment Pill, he might actually be able to comprehend something new.”

Du Shenglan suddenly took out a small box from his storage ring. When he opened it, there was only half of the Enlightenment Pill inside.

It was rumored that the cultivator who consumed the Enlightenment Pill could sense the traces of Dao, greatly increasing his chances of successfully overcoming his future tribulations. Du Shenglan could only wonder why Du Qingguang had never taken it.

The dragon slightly raised its tone, “Dividing it into two? You’re quite…”

No words could describe how wasteful it was.

The surface of the Enlightenment Pill was covered with countless Dao patterns. However, it was forcefully cut open, destroying the patterns. As a result, its current effect would probably be less than one percent of its original power.

Du Shenglan replied, “If I don’t do this, how else would I deceive my dear master?”

The only possible way to deceive Zhu Mo’s perception was to destroy the Enlightenment Pill and reveal a vast surge of Dao.

It was better not to be greedy. Du Shenglan casually threw the remaining half of the pill into the cold pool, accepting the baptism of the residual Dao traces.

Inside the cave, Du Shenglan opened his eyes again. Unknowingly, several hours had already passed. He smirked, thinking about the chaos that the world had descended into outside. He wondered what expression Zhu Mo would have once he discovered it was only half of the Enlightenment Pill.

As he was about to leave the water, he heard a gurgling sound.