Chapter 124: Gathering from All Directions: The Flood Serpent Stacks Its Ultimate Move

Throughout the entire process of collecting the body, the ministers pretended as if they hadn't seen it; those who had greeted him earlier now acted as if they were blind, completely not remembering such a person existed.

At this moment, they only cared about one thing: capturing the true dragon alive!

Then they would fight for the benefits belonging to their own faction, preparing to strip its scales, take its flesh, drink its blood, and achieve eternal immortality.

An eternal, indestructible dynasty was about to be realized in their generation!

They would achieve eternity alongside Da Zhou, Da Zhou would transform into a celestial kingdom on earth, and they would be the lofty deities above!

Herding all living beings for eternity!

At this moment, everyone began to fantasize about a beautiful future.

Not a single person doubted they couldn't take down that true dragon.

Such a massive dynasty, mobilizing the entire nation's resources—how could it fail to capture a single dragon?

Ridiculous—no one knew the terror of Da Zhou better than they did.

……

That day at the hour of Yin, which was also the time of the fifth watch.

An imperial edict, carried by fast horses that ran several thousand-li horses to death, was finally delivered to Youzhou.

At the same time, the great sects on various mountains also began receiving the news, one after another sending out their top experts, heading straight for the Duanlong Mountain Range, all for the sake of gaining a bigger share at the upcoming Dragon Division Assembly.

In an instant, the entire Da Zhou truly began operating at full capacity under the command of a single imperial edict.

A massive army, vast like a sea of people, began withdrawing from Youzhou slowly yet swiftly, then heading toward the foot of the Duanlong Mountain Range, to a once obscure little mountain village.

Previously, this little mountain village might have had no reputation at all, but from this moment on, it would no longer be ordinary and unremarkable; it would be deeply recorded in the history of Da Zhou.

If it wasn't destroyed after this, and if Da Zhou still existed after this.

The facts were indeed so.

The rolling tide of great momentum was about to surge forth, and at this moment, what was the protagonist caught in this vortex—Baichuan—doing?

He was continuously eating and drinking heartily, once again activating the panel ability "Frantic Digestion" that he hadn't used in a long time; this time he had only one purpose—to accumulate heat through the energy that couldn't be absorbed in time and rapidly dissipated.

He wanted to mindlessly bulldoze his way through, but that didn't mean he was stupid.

His opponent this time was the strongest dynasty in this world, an existence that had stood for a thousand years.

If he currently had a way to control others, he would have raised an army to farm for a while before advancing.

But since he couldn't be sure of people's hearts, or whether wild beasts would obey, he wasn't without other options—that was to stack his late-game ultimate move, the power of flames, to the absolute limit.

Since humans had already discovered his traces, why should he take the initiative to search for them laboriously?

Wouldn't it be better to conserve his energy, charge up his ultimate move, and directly take down that group of humans, then ask them where the capital of the Da Zhou Dynasty was?

When the time came, he could just fly over there and settle it with one decisive blow—wouldn't that be wonderful?

Moreover, if he couldn't even take down the army they sent, he could take advantage of being deep in the mountains to quickly run away and farm some more.

He, Baichuan, was no fool.

Thinking of this, he retracted the wings he had just spread in preparation for flight, casually found a spot to land, and slowly began to frantically eat and drink in that direction.

Even if it meant causing the ecosystem to collapse in a short time, he didn't care—if he couldn't survive to the end, everything else was meaningless.

……

Ergou was feeling very uncomfortable at this moment. Originally, because his father had been injured, he had been forced to start learning to be a herb gatherer, collecting medicinal herbs to sell to those lords in order to buy medicine to treat his father's injured leg.

But he hadn't expected to suddenly encounter such a thing—the dragon that only existed in legends had truly appeared.

This was undoubtedly a happy thing, but after hearing what his second uncle had to say, he truly understood that the news of the dragon's appearance was a nightmare for them.

This meant that the mountain they depended on for survival, and the home they had always lived in, would be gone in an instant; they might die in this storm.

Though the boy was young, he learned to be sensible in a single night.

His usually bright eyes dimmed somewhat at this moment.

"What are you standing around for? Why aren't you leading the way?"

At this moment, a rough voice sounded from behind him, coming from one of the officer lords following behind him.

As officers who had always lived in comfort, they were clearly not at all familiar with this lush, dense mountain range, so they needed mountain folk who lived off the mountain—such as herb gatherers, snake catchers, and hunters—to lead the way.

And now he and his second uncle were leading the way for the officers behind them.

Normally, one mountain dweller would lead three to five officers, but Ergou's situation was a bit special, which was why he was paired with his second uncle to lead the way together.

Ergou pulled himself together again, began recalling the approximate direction from which that dragon's roar had come, and started moving forward.

Not long after, he suddenly paused his step, as if he had stepped on something strange, but based on the hard feel under his foot, it definitely wasn't some creature.

He looked back, and at this moment that group of officer lords seemed unable to endure the harsh environment of the mountains, and were standing some distance away, somewhat impatiently.

Only then did he slowly lower his head to look, and what met his eyes was a strange scale.

A scale larger than his palm, its color appearing bluish-purple, yet seemingly not bluish-purple.

This feeling was very strange, because Ergou discovered that it only appeared bluish-purple at the first glance; once he changed the angle, the bluish-purple seemed to become pure blue, and changing the angle again, it became white.

For a moment, Ergou's curiosity was piqued, and he directly and secretly picked it up.

In an instant, the peculiar warm and smooth texture of this scale transmitted into his palm—this was a strange scale that seemed like metal yet was extremely lightweight and hard.

He tried bending it and found it wouldn't bend; bringing it close to his eyes to examine, he discovered that there seemed to be flame-like patterns on it, with what appeared to be red liquid slowly flowing within.

Ergou didn't understand what this represented, but if this scale fell into the hands of those master sword forgers, they would surely discover its true function, their faces lighting up with fanatic zeal and excitement.

How could this be a scale—it was simply the most perfect sword-forging material!

It possessed both the rigidity required for a sword, as well as flexibility and lightness; if there were a few more of them, forging them into a sword would surely create a special, peerless fine blade!

Even with only one, it could be used as a Heart Protector Mirror.

Unfortunately, Ergou was just an ordinary mountain dweller, and one who had only been one for a single day at that—how could he recognize something so valuable?

"Hey, you over there, what are you standing around for?"

"Oh oh, okay."

Just then, another impatient voice came from behind, giving Ergou, who had been completely focused, a sudden fright.

He also forgot what he had been about to do, and in his flustered response, subconsciously tucked that strange scale into his chest to keep it close.

And perhaps because he was too nervous at this moment, Ergou only felt that ever since he had tucked the scale into his chest, the area there felt warm and cozy, as if something was constantly radiating heat.

……

Late at night, the crowd that had been busy all day was just about to fall asleep, and Ergou was also stroking the strange scale on his chest, feeling the warmth within it.

But just then, a sudden uproar broke out.

Ergou, who had just lain down, instantly pulled out his hand and sat up together with his second uncle. His father had also just returned at this moment, and seeing the two somewhat puzzled, he said: "It's nothing, just a few martial arts masters with exceptional skills have arrived."

"Sigh, tomorrow's going to be rough."

The few were speechless. Since the martial arts masters had already rushed here first, could the army really be far behind?

Early the next morning, Ergou watched those few arrogant martial arts masters who disdained to associate with them, each disappearing alone into this mountain range.

At the same time, at noon that day, countless more martial arts masters arrived one after another. At this moment, those martial arts heroes and heroines who were usually as elusive as dragons, appearing and disappearing in the heights, came in droves like a wholesale shipment, letting Ergou see them all.

However, these martial arts masters were equally proud and arrogant. Either a few who knew each other traveled together, or they went alone, each plunging into this dense forest, causing Ergou's desire to witness these martial arts masters to fall through.

As Time passed, more and more of those martial arts masters also arrived.

But what puzzled Ergou somewhat was why, since these martial arts masters seemed to have entered this great mountain from the first day, not a single one of them had ever been seen to return, leaving him utterly perplexed.

Regarding this point, one actually has to ask the first martial arts master to arrive—Huang Zhongtian.

As one of the rare unaffiliated wanderers in the martial world, a mountain dweller who had accidentally swallowed a Strange Beast Egg and thereby gained power, he had also trained exceptionally hard.

It can be said that he was a renowned unaffiliated expert throughout the entire martial world, at the peak of Seven Limits!

This was a force that even a major sect had to take seriously, a powerhouse who could serve as an elder within a sect.

Especially since the source of his power was not a martial stone, but an extremely rare Strange Beast Egg, which made him even more powerful.

Although he later joined the Tian Du Huang Family in order to become stronger, becoming their family guest retainer and no longer a wandering cultivator, such an inspiring story nevertheless encouraged those wandering cultivators.

That day, in his quest for a breakthrough, he happened to be in Youzhou, and so he received a letter from the Huang Family, informing him that a dragon had appeared.

In an instant, without anyone needing to say more, just the single phrase "a dragon has appeared."

As someone who had used the power of a Strange Beast to attain his current status, he immediately understood the significance contained within.

Coupled with the fact that he was so close, it must be said, the Huang Family had given him a great gift!

Unlike Baichuan, that flood snake who did not understand the true power of Strange Beast strength, after a series of tumbling and scrambling through the martial world, he finally understood why all people in the world pursued the power of Strange Beasts.

Because Strange Beasts brought not only a more powerful physique and special abilities, but also the ability to break through that heavenly chasm between Seven Limits and Six Limits.

Without the more powerful origin of strength from a Strange Beast, one cannot break through the shackles of Six Limits to reach Seven Limits.

At the same time, after using the power of a Strange Beast to enhance the purity of one's own strength, one could also suppress those martial artists who had never used Strange Beast power, causing them to inherently be unable to exert a portion of their strength when facing a Strange Beast power user.

If the power of Strange Beasts was already so terrifying, then how much more so a legendary dragon.

Thus, he immediately rushed here without stopping, and finally became the first person to arrive.

He did not hesitate either, and directly revealed his identity to the local soldiers to obtain clues about the dragon, then plunged into this mountain range.

However, his nightmare also officially began from here.

After Baichuan experienced his first interrogation of a person but accidentally crushed them to death, he also learned that a large number of humans had come looking for him.

Baichuan finally understood how fragile humans were when facing him. If he wanted to capture a human for interrogation, he had to carefully control his own strength.

Under such circumstances, Huang Zhongtian became the first to brave the unknown……

(End of this chapter)