Chapter 33: The Flood Dragon's Lair: A Heart-Eating Scheme

Lu Qingyang squatted at the bottom of a rotting punt, his fingertips twirling a half-blackened Flood Dragon bone. The peach blossom jade pendant, brought out from the Peach Blossom Secret Realm last night, was seeping water through the cracks in the boat planks. Blood threads on the jade surface intertwined with the patterns of the qingmu spirit pearl, forming a net that evaporated into a fishy mist in the damp air. He spat into the mist and saw that the phantom of his Early Stage Nascent Soul actually grew Dragon horns. He then kicked the jade pendant towards the stern: "Su Xianzi, keep your Taiyi Pavilion's token of love!"

The jade pendant struck the bronze anchor chain, sparking and startling the carrion horseshoe crab swarm lurking at the bottom of the boat. Su Li's Puppet Silk descended from the mast, its silver needle tip precisely piercing the horseshoe crab king's compound eye: "Daoist Lu, if you're so idle, why not explain the 'Taiyi Pavilion Forbidden Techniques Collection' in the spirit pearl?"

"Su Xianzi, what are you saying..." He pulled out a secret scroll and shook it. The scroll suddenly burst into flames and turned to ash, but golden powder seal script emerged from the ashes. "Mr. Lu is just helping your sect clean house!" The golden powder drifted towards the southeastern waters, condensing into a Flood Dragon totem with its head and tail connected on the water's surface.

Yinghuo's silver bell rang sharply at exactly 3 PM, and the dilapidated boat they were on suddenly began to sink. Lu Qingyang grabbed a half-broken rope and swung towards a bronze pile that had emerged from the water. After the barnacles on the pile's body peeled off, the emblem of Taiyi Pavilion's first Sect Leader was revealed. He pried off the deep-sea Sunken Silver from the edge of the emblem. The magnetic force of the magnet hidden in his boot sole suddenly increased, and he stuck to the slanted bronze pillar like a gecko: "Good stuff! This Sunken Silver is pure enough to make three sets of..."

Before he could finish, the mechanism at the top of the pillar spewed out a putrid green poisonous mist. Lu Qingyang flipped to avoid it. The peach blossom Gu powder leaking from the leather pouch at his waist mixed with the poisonous mist, actually condensing into seven jade green pills. He snatched the pills in mid-air and put them into a jade bottle: "Su Xianzi, these anti-poison pills are at cost price for you!"

The sound of chains struggling came from under the water, and the trapped Dragon formation formed by the bronze piles began to operate. Lu Qingyang stepped on the changing gaps of the formation's eye, scattering the magnet-adhered Sunken Silver fragments towards the gaps in the formation diagram. The blood patterns of the qingmu spirit pearl moved like living things, actually completing the incomplete formation diagram into a reverse Eight Trigrams, and the entire body of water suddenly boiled as if being cooked.

"The Kan water position's 'Gate of Life' is in the Xun Palace!" Yinghuo's chensha stone fragments struck the center of the whirlpool. Lu Qingyang took the opportunity to pull the two of them to the bottom of the water. Outside the water-repelling barrier created by the qingmu spirit pearl, groups of sword-toothed fish were tearing at the flesh and blood of Taiyi Pavilion's pursuers. He reached for a qiankun bag on a floating corpse, but his fingertips were frozen by a jade box in the corpse's arms—inside the box, half a Udumbara flower was frozen, its petal patterns mutually reinforcing and restraining the spirit pearl's blood patterns.

The entrance to the Flood Dragon's Lair appeared at 4 PM. Embedded in the cave's stone walls were three hundred Ever-Burning Lamps made from Cultivator Golden Cores. Lu Qingyang picked up some lamp oil, sniffed it, and then suddenly pulled out a tinder and lit it: "Dragon marrow mixed with mermaid fat, this lamp oil burns better than the agarwood in Drunken Immortal Pavilion..." The sudden burst of flames instantly engulfed the entire passage, burning the awakened cave-guarding Puppets to charcoal.

Su Li's silver needle pried open the Puppet's chest, revealing a heart-controlling jade carved with the Ye clan's emblem. Lu Qingyang used a Dragon scale dagger to gouge out the jade piece and examined it against the firelight: "Ye Wuchen, that prodigal son, using top-grade Hetian jade as Puppet parts..." The jade piece suddenly vibrated and displayed an image: Ye Wuchen was burying something in the Flood Dragon bone mound.

When the three arrived at the bone mound, it was the full moon. The mountain of Flood Dragon bones glowed with a faint green light under the moonlight. Lu Qingyang kicked off a rib bone, breaking it into a staff. The vibration of the staff's tip hitting the ground awakened the carrion bone locusts at the bottom of the mound. He flung the staff, pinning the locust king, but Dragon language inscriptions suddenly appeared on the staff's body: "...Where the inverse scale lies, there the Heart Demon resides..."

Yinghuo's silver bell cord wrapped around a strangely shaped Flood Dragon bone in the southeast corner. As Lu Qingyang went over, he happened to see the qingmu spirit pearl spontaneously leave his body. The blood patterns within the pearl covered the Flood Dragon's skull like a spider web, actually sucking out a pulsating dark red chunk of flesh from its cranial cavity. He snatched half of the fleshy tumor before the spirit pearl could devour it. The foul-smelling liquid in his palm condensed into a bone key: "This thing can open Ye Wuchen's private vault, right?"

The bone mound suddenly collapsed, revealing a group of bronze coffins soaked in weak water below. Lu Qingyang stepped on the falling Flood Dragon bones and leaped towards the coffins. The cold jade pieces hidden in his boot soles froze footholds on the surface of the weak water. He pried open the seventh coffin lid. Inside was not a corpse, but three hundred jars of Nascent Soul pills with Taiyi Pavilion's seals.

"The Ye family is going to mass-produce Soul Transformation Cultivators!" He slapped open the mud seal and took a gulp of the pill liquid. The burning sensation in his throat was suddenly soothed by the spirit pearl's blood patterns. Yinghuo's chensha stone shattered the secret compartment at the bottom of the coffin, revealing half a scroll of "Dragon Rearing Secret Art." Tucked between its pages was a marriage certificate bearing the names of Ye Wuchen and a certain Flood Dragon Princess.

Su Li's Puppet Silk suddenly tensed. Nine mermaid skeletons, clad in wedding dresses, floated up from the depths of the weak water. Lu Qingyang pulled the golden threads from a wedding dress and wrapped them around his wrist. The qingmu spirit pearl actually transformed the resentment into pure spiritual power: "This is much more enjoyable than meditating and Cultivating..." Before he finished speaking, heart-eating Gu worms that had emerged from the skeletons' eye sockets crawled all over his arm.

At midnight, when Yin Qi was strongest, the entire Flood Dragon's Lair began to collapse. Lu Qingyang pulled the two of them and leaped into the weak water whirlpool. The jar of Nascent Soul pills in his arms suddenly exploded, and the pill liquid mixed with the weak water to form a highly toxic mist. He threw the heart-eating Gu worms at the pursuers. The Gu worms, upon encountering the poison, swelled into Flood Dragon forms, tearing apart the Taiyi Pavilion Elder's Dharma manifestation.

When they surfaced, it was dawn. Lu Qingyang lay sprawled in the reeds, assessing his injuries. The blood patterns of the qingmu spirit pearl had spread to his right chest but were blocked at his heart by the phantom of a Udumbara flower. He pulled out a half-withered petal, chewed it, and then suddenly spat out a mouthful of bloody mist into the morning glow: "This isn't a Dragon tomb Ye Wuchen buried, it's clearly an insatiable pit of greed..."