Chapter 276: Heading to the Depths of Mingtu, Yinling Town

"Is, is it over?"

"What tremendous power, dragon, wouldn't you say?"

The golden sunlight was refracted by the water splashing back into scattered specks of golden light, and the rumbling sound of flowing water kept ringing out.

Jin Ming, his limbs a little weak, stepped forward and reached out to catch a wisp of golden sunlight that shone down through the hole currently above the Liao He. The sunlight within reach brought him a warm feeling, and at this moment he felt as if he had been reborn.

Even though some time had already passed, merely recalling that terrifying scene from before—the attack unleashed by the Thunder God General that gathered the power of the entire Divine Weapon Troop and erupted, Lord Mo's power of an entire province gathered upon the official seal transforming into a small flourishing world, and the terrifying great sun that rose at the very last moment—he still found it somewhat unbelievable.

Is this truly a power that human effort can achieve?

Having witnessed this scene, even if he were a fool he could understand that Senior Bai was not merely at the Zhenjun Realm. Pardon him for using such a trifling word to describe the mighty Zhenjun—clearly before a Zhenjun he was less than an ant, but a Zhenjun before Senior Bai was truly like the light of a grain of rice compared to the light of the great sun in the heavens. Perhaps even the legendary Solar Dragon was no more than this.

Lost in thought, his body and mind both shaken, he could not help but gaze toward that magnificent true dragon.

At the same time, Baichuan naturally also heard the "dragon-cursing" sound coming from behind. The corner of his eye twitched—how did he feel that everyone liked to question whether he was actually a dragon?

Is this something that can be questioned? It's like someone questioning whether you're a man—as a man, are you actually capable or not?!

However, thinking of the admiration in the other's tone, Baichuan decided to pretend he hadn't heard it.

Turning his head back, he recalled the other's earlier plea and asked aloud, "By the way, Mr. Jin, you mentioned earlier that your Dragon Lord was entangled in external affairs. What sort of external affairs could entangle a true dragon, such that he couldn't rush back even at a critical moment like his own Long Gong being invaded?"

"Ah~?" Snapped out of his daze by the mysterious Senior Bai's question, Jin Ming gave a start and came back to his senses. He scratched his head with a bashful face and said, "Senior Bai, you should just call me Little Jin or Xiao Ming. Being called 'Mister' is something I really can't bear."

Saying this, he paused to organize his words, and with an exceedingly solemn expression continued, "My Dragon Lord has now fallen deep into Mingtu. Mingtu is extremely dangerous—even a great Zhenjun who steps in there may perish if he's the least bit careless. There are even rumors that when the Solar Heavenly Lord of old entered it, he left in a sorry state. So even I don't know when the Dragon Lord will be able to return."

He had already made one plea before, and they had only just been rescued by Senior Bai. Even a thick-skinned fellow like Jin Ming didn't have the nerve to keep asking Senior Bai to go save their Dragon Lord.

Even though he knew the depths of Mingtu were extremely dangerous, his Dragon Lord was no weakling either.

But he was, after all, a man who was rough yet shrewd, a quick-witted sort. Though worried at heart, since he couldn't make an outright request, he could, while keeping all the complete information intact and undistorted, appropriately emphasize the danger of Mingtu's depths.

Hearing this, Baichuan merely glanced at the other after listening; he didn't expose the other's little scheme.

Summing up the information just obtained, it was clear that Old Dragon Ao Qing's current situation was indeed somewhat poor—perhaps he was seriously wounded and trapped in the depths of Mingtu, which was not impossible.

So what should he do next?

Ignore this matter, ask Jin Ming for the specific location of the Dalong capital, then go there on his own?

Or choose to head into the depths of Mingtu and rescue Old Dragon?

After only a brief moment of thought, Baichuan made his decision—

To head into the depths of Mingtu.

After all, he, Baichuan, was ultimately not an unfeeling person. Being able to understand a small part of the mystery of Spirit Qi now was thanks in large part to the countless treasured manuals Old Dragon had collected over the years.

Without Old Dragon's generous and wholehearted help, even he would not have been able to unravel the mystery of Spirit Qi in just five short years. One must know that those numerous manuals, whether basic or profound, could not be gathered in a day or two.

Under the heavens, a Zhenjun was already among the very top tier of openly known power. How could the gaze of such an existence be something an ordinary person could compare to? How could the manuals he deigned to collect be ordinary goods?

They involved all manner of things—various orthodox methods, unorthodox paths, heterodox arts, and even some rare secret techniques, as well as texts that had become sole surviving copies and vanished over the long Time Changhe.

Even if he went looking personally, he could not have achieved such results in a short time. Thinking about it, the reason Old Dragon had gone to such pains to collect so many manuals was probably still out of a desire to revitalize the dragon race.

After all, among the dragon race today, apart from him, there were no other true dragons on the surface.

But the texts Old Dragon had gathered with such effort were given entirely to him, Baichuan, merely on the basis of a single excuse.

Was Old Dragon a fool?

No, he wasn't. The other had simply done it out of regard for being of the same race—of course there might also have been a touch of intent to befriend and curry favor.

But all of this was based on the most fundamental thing—being of the same dragon race.

Same race. Just the phrase "of the same dragon race" was enough to make the other treat him so.

For the first time, Baichuan experienced the heavy weight contained in the words "bloodline" and "kindred."

It was a feeling he, who had always been alone, had never experienced.

Unfortunately, he had his own dreams and pursuits, and it was ultimately impossible for him to do as Old Dragon wished—to take on the great task of revitalizing the dragon race.

But when a lord bestows a peach upon me, I must repay it with a plum.

It's merely saving a person—why not?

This was Baichuan's principle of conduct.

Not to mention that he had been curious about Mingtu, that special place, ever since encountering the Two-Faced Corpse Ghost.

Having made up his mind, he looked back at Jin Ming. "Where is Mingtu, and how does one get there?"

"S-Senior Bai?"

The moment these words came out, Jin Ming's heart leaped with wild joy, and the solemn expression on his face nearly slipped. Fortunately, knowing this was no time for hesitation, he hurriedly replied, "Mingtu is a special realm, normally clearly separated from the human world, each not interfering with the other. But in certain places where heavy Yin Qi gathers, an entrance leading straight to Mingtu will appear. The depths of Mingtu aren't a fixed location, but once you enter Mingtu, you'll naturally know where the depths are."

"Oh right, the Mingtu entrance closest to our Liaohe Long Gong is at Yinling Town, six thousand li downstream along the Liao He. Of course, that's just how ordinary cultivators like us who haven't reached Zhenjun enter Mingtu. As for great cultivators above Zhenjun Realm, I've heard they can directly sense the boundary between Mingtu and the human world, then tear through that boundary and enter directly."

"I see, I understand." Nodding thoughtfully, Baichuan pretended he hadn't heard the other's last sentence.

Don't be ridiculous—he wasn't actually a cultivator at Zhenjun Realm or above. How could he say he hadn't sensed that boundary between Mingtu and the human world?

But he had to say, this Jin Ming, despite his rough appearance, was indeed a sharp fellow. In just a few sentences he had laid out all the information Baichuan needed, without touching on anything he shouldn't ask about, and even offered decent advice.

If placed in his previous life, he would certainly have been a secretary who handled all sorts of matters extremely well.

Having learned what he needed to know, Baichuan, who had just been about to leave, suddenly paused, turned his dragon head back, and asked, "The capital of Dalong—is that monarch there?"

"Uh…" Watching Senior Bai, who had already turned his dragon body and seemed about to leave, Jin Ming had just been about to heave a sigh of relief and wipe the cold sweat on his back. Although Senior Bai hadn't emitted any aura, he always felt an enormous pressure; just standing near the other made him restless. It was an invisible pressure that arose when a lower creature faced a higher one.

But he hadn't expected the other to suddenly turn back. For a moment the two stared at each other, and Jin Ming felt that wiping his cold sweat or not wiping it were both wrong. Fortunately, the other's voice came again, and without the slightest hesitation Jin Ming replied at the fastest speed of his life, "The capital of Dalong is in Jingzhou. That one of Dalong is indeed there."

"Good…"

As the words fell, the next instant Jin Ming's pupils abruptly contracted, and he saw Senior Bai's figure vanish from before his eyes, with only a somewhat indifferent voice drifting over faintly.

This Senior Bai is really rather strange.

Watching Senior Bai, who had truly disappeared, Jin Ming finally dared to sigh wordlessly within his heart.

Clearly a great cultivator above Zhenjun could directly tear open the boundary between Mingtu and the human world and step straight in, yet he still came to ask him about Mingtu—knowledge that even a Qi Refining novice would know a little of. And as a person from Dalong, even a carefree wandering cultivator shouldn't be unaware of where that one of Dalong was.

For a moment, recalling Senior Bai's various strange behaviors, this immensely powerful great cultivator suspected to be above Zhenjun became shrouded in layer upon layer of mist in Jin Ming's heart, appearing even more mysterious.

He wondered where Lord Dragon Lord had gone to meet such a mysterious Senior Bai.

After sighing, Jin Ming didn't look into it further. His one and only virtue was that he knew his place — he understood what he was meant to know, and what he shouldn't pry into.

Anyway, no matter how mysterious Senior Bai was, it had nothing to do with them. After all, who didn't have a few secrets?

On the contrary, the other's identity as a dragon was a cause for celebration for their dragon clan.

"What happened today, bury it in your hearts. Don't ever mention it again. Leave everything to me. Understood?"

Amid his sighs, he cast a brief glance at the many Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals behind him who were of absolutely no use, and gave the order.

"Yes!"

……

After leaving Liao He, Baichuan followed what Jin Ming had said earlier and began drifting downstream toward that place called Yinling Town.

In an instant, the colossal creature of one hundred and seventy meters began to swim freely through the great Dalong's mother river — Liao He.

Feeling the water brush gently past every crevice of his scales, and the deeper sense of control it brought, and beneath that feeling, the joy that welled up from the very depths of his body.

Overjoyed, Baichuan couldn't help but suddenly surge upward from the river's depths and then dive down with a sweep of his tail.

In an instant, a massive, elongated black shadow slowly emerged from the depths of the river.

At the same time, in a small village near Liao He.

A snot-nosed kid playing with mud by the river suddenly froze and stared toward the depths of the river. At that single glance, he saw a huge black shadow rising from the water.

Startled, he immediately shouted and pointed at the black shadow in the river: "Mom! Mom! Look, a shadow — there's a huge, huge shadow in the river!"

"What are you saying? What shadow? Stop talking nonsense."

The woman beside him, head lowered as she washed clothes, was startled by his words and looked up, thinking it might be some big snake. But what met her eyes was still a calm, shimmering river surface.

As for any black shadow — not a hair of one.

"There was! Mom. I really saw it, right there."

Listening to her child's excuses, the woman didn't pay it any more mind, because she knew in her heart the little one was just trying to get her attention again.

This little exchange between the child and the woman was naturally overheard by the true owner of the underwater shadow — Baichuan. He merely smiled knowingly and didn't give it much thought.

After enjoying himself a few more times, Baichuan's mood finally settled back to calm.

Even Baichuan couldn't help but sigh at this — truly, dragons were creatures that loved water. Even he, who had experienced it several times already, couldn't escape the sheer exhilaration of being in the water.

Such a colossal creature swimming in the river, combined with Baichuan indulging a little in the water under his draconic nature — the impact it brought was naturally not limited to just this.

What followed was that in the various counties and villages along Liao He, countless witnesses caught a fleeting glimpse near the river of a mysterious, enormous black shadow that appeared and vanished in an instant.

Because of this, under the spontaneous spreading by countless witnesses, this mysterious affair of a suspected Dragon King's procession in the river stirred up quite a commotion. Unfortunately, the black shadow appeared for far too brief a moment — only an instant — and those truly lucky enough to witness it were still few. Moreover, the many cultivators drawn in by the rumors afterward found none of them able to catch sight of the shadow again.

So it wasn't long before the commotion died down, and those who had spread the word were dismissed as attention-seeking busybodies.

As for the true instigator behind this commotion — Baichuan — naturally he had no idea that his little frolic had caused such a stir.

Now, after several days, he finally arrived at his destination one evening at dusk — Yinling Town.

It was a small town nestled at the foot of a mountain, surrounded on three sides by mountains, with Liao He on the fourth. Strangely, not far from the town's entrance stood an old grove of trees, their withered yellow leaves almost all fallen, leaving only bare branches.

The reason this old grove was eerie was that, viewed from afar, the nearly leafless trees looked just like a group of withered old folk waving the claws on their emaciated arms to beckon customers.

Under the gathering of dense Yin Qi, even before nightfall the small town was plunged into gloom.

Yet within that gloom, pinpricks of lamplight flickered to life. Wisps of hearth-smoke swayed in the wind from the south, and upon close inspection, they looked just like the struggling souls and consciousnesses of living beings being drawn out.

Such eerie sights naturally caused passing peddlers and wandering heroes in the area to recoil in terror, not daring to linger for a single moment.

Every one of these strange sights told the same story — this was a filthy place where dark creatures gathered.

Want to live? Stay away.

And now, Baichuan was about to enter this eerie little town.

……

(End of chapter)