Chapter 72: The Black Flood Dragon

The only one who could have stepped forward to take the treasure blade was likely this kid. Having treated him as a playboy all along the way, he had truly misjudged him.

Sun Fuping's gaze wandered through the ruins. In such a large area, how could he find someone? He Lingchuan should have just left.

……

He Lingchuan was running through the ruins, just happening to pass by the abandoned government office. There was a very tall corner tower here that hadn't been completely destroyed by the war.

He was holding the blade with the dragon-mouth-swallowing-ring in his arms.

Yes, not long ago, he had secretly slipped down from the side of the city wall, bypassed the battlefield, and returned to the official quarters. His goal was to loot this blade from Zhong Shengguang's bedside.

When people cast weapons, the blade rings and sword hilts often used Yazi, the image of a jackal body with a dragon head. Only two or three out of ten would be carved into various monsters.

The blade ring of this blade at Zhong Shengguang's bedside was a right-angled dragon head. He Lingchuan had been here twice and hadn't taken it seriously, his attention all on the other furnishings, especially the blue-flowered comb on the dressing table.

But the Black Flood Dragon arose from the destruction of the official quarters; clearly, it had a special connection with the Zhong residence. Looking again at the Black Flood Dragon's big head, those straight, unbranched sharp horns—one couldn't say they were not identical to the dragon head carved on the blade ring; they were simply exactly the same! He Lingchuan couldn't help but admire his own powerful memory.

When he walked into the post-war official quarters and saw this blade hanging safely on the broken wall, not even stained with a bit of filth, it further confirmed his thoughts.

This blade was abnormal.

It should have existed in the official quarters during the peaceful era, because Zhong Shengguang lived here.

It shouldn't have existed in the official quarters after the war, because Zhong Shengguang had long since moved into a big mansion. The appearance of this blade here was particularly discordant.

And it was as smooth as new, not affected by the war. It could be seen that in true history, it wasn't hanging on this wall when the fire started.

Although He Lingchuan hadn't heard Nian Songyu mention the "Black Flood Dragon's foundation of life" to Sun Fuping, he had keenly sensed that this blade had special value for the Black Flood Dragon.

With the blade in hand, he would have one more guarantee when facing the Black Flood Dragon.

He drew the new trophy and took a look; it was as bright as autumn water, and as soon as it left the scabbard, a chill invaded, and the surrounding temperature dropped by at least two degrees. The curvature of the blade was perfect, the weight was uniform, and most importantly, the feel was excellent, held in his hand like an extension of his forearm, without the slightest sense of awkwardness of a new weapon, as if meeting an old friend.

With a casual wave, the pillar next to him, thicker than his head, snapped silently.

What a pity, there was a crack on the blade, extending from the back of the blade to the edge, hidden at two-thirds of the way.

He Lingchuan also smelled a very heavy, fierce aura of blood, even though the blade and scabbard were very clean, not stained with a single drop of fresh blood.

He didn't know how much hot blood from people's necks it had drunk.

The youth flicked the blade edge; could this thing be brought out of the illusion?

He thought for a moment and shamelessly hung it at his waist.

Now, he had to go back quickly. He looked at the demonic birds gathering more and more above his head; these things seemed to have discovered his tracks, and he didn't know if they would come down to snatch it.

However, He Lingchuan immediately knew they were only a secondary problem, because the primary trouble had already crawled out of a dark alley and blocked his way:

Sun Fuping.

He Lingchuan stopped in shock and chuckled: "Great State Preceptor Sun, what a coincidence?"

What to do? Where to escape? His mind spun non-stop.

Sun Fuping looked at He Lingchuan with a very strange expression, both ecstatic and resentful. He reached out toward He Lingchuan: "Where is the blade?"

Discovering the treasure blade had been stolen, he had started a crazy search mode. The He kid had the blade in hand and couldn't hide in the ruins to play hide-and-seek like last time, otherwise, searching for the blade would have lost its meaning.

He must be bringing this important bargaining chip back to the south city gate; Sun Fuping only needed to intercept him.

The official quarters and the government office were both by the lake, so there weren't actually many roads He Lingchuan could take, and he was finally intercepted.

He Lingchuan pressed his hand on the waist blade, just happening to block the blade ring, his face astonished: "What blade? What are you talking about, State Preceptor?"

Sun Fuping chuckled and didn't waste words with him, casually throwing out a set of silk-entangling ropes.

This treasure usually wrapped around his hand disguised as a red string. After being thrown out, it grew in the wind, automatically chasing the enemy, and finally covered the enemy like a fishing net—provided the owner could hold on.

And the mesh could also have hooks attached, adding damage and preventing escape.

He Lingchuan had only run a few steps when he saw the big net descending from the sky, scooping him up. Sun Fuping pulled hard again, and the hooks on the mesh spread out. If He Lingchuan hadn't raised his hand to protect his face in time, his eyes would likely have been blinded.

Even so, the skin exposed outside was scratched with bloody marks, and some barbs pulled flesh directly out, making him wince in pain.

Sun Fuping flipped his palm, and three streaks of true fire spread along the main line of the silk-entangling rope, "whooshing" like adding oil to fire, and the whole big net was covered in raging flames.

That flame even brought out a bit of paleness in the golden-red, and the temperature was extraordinarily high; in the blink of an eye, burning white bones to ash was a small matter.

Sun Fuping's trip to the Panlong Desert this time had already revealed his true colors, and he didn't need to keep He Lingchuan as an offering anymore, so infinite killing intent surged at this moment.

Who knew He Lingchuan would let out a loud "ow," only because he was hurt by the hooks, but was perfectly fine in the raging flames.

At the same time, a blue halo erupted from his body.

Sun Fuping knew at a glance that this kid had a magic treasure to resist raging fire, which automatically triggered upon encountering high temperatures. But his true fire was powerful and could melt ordinary fire-resisting magic treasures directly; He Lingchuan's hair wasn't even singed, showing the treasure was extraordinary.

He Lingchuan lowered his head in the midst of his busy work and discovered that the treasure glowing was actually that divine bone necklace! It finally came in handy, otherwise, he would have been burned into a charred corpse within dozens of breaths.

Sun Fuping personally drew his sword, intending to step forward and behead him.

Unexpectedly, it went dark before his eyes, and a massive demonic bird descended from the sky, its two claws attacking his face directly.

This thing was not easy to deal with; its sharp claws would gut someone if one wasn't careful, and the wrinkled, loose skin that looked like it was actually exceptionally hard; even if one scratched it with a small knife for a long time, one couldn't open a hole.

Sun Fuping had to defend, but didn't forget to throw two hidden darts at He Lingchuan.

He Lingchuan screamed, not noticing a few black worms sliding down from the darts. They had suckers on their heads and were shaped like maggots, crawling into He Lingchuan's wounds.

This kind of thing was a trophy Sun Fuping had collected after killing a gu-master while pacifying southern rebels with the army. The "Flying Head Gu" killing move used by this gu-master was claimed to be invisible and intangible, capable of taking a person's life from a hundred paces away; in fact, it was just using these gu-worms to drill into a person's body, bite through the heart and brain, and absorb the essence.

Sun Fuping disdained the gu-master's methods, but was very interested in the efficacy of the gu-worms.

After these gu-worms drank their fill of human or demonic plasma, they would curl into balls and digest for two months. This was also a process of removing the dross and selecting the essence. After repeating this three or four times, the gu-worms couldn't absorb any more plasma, and they themselves became a great tonic that could be swallowed, especially fast in recovering qi and blood, almost completely defeating any medicine.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 73 =====