Chapter 374: What is the Chief of the Scaled Creatures?

"Damn it, what exactly is approaching?"

Haiming didn't know what was coming, but his intuition told him that things had somehow developed beyond his expectations and were taking an unpleasant turn…

This was the time when the heavens and earth had just opened and the myriad spirits had yet to be born! Nothing should exist except for innate beings like them, right?

How could there suddenly be signs of life approaching?

Haiming was a little panicked. He didn't want his first transmigration—the best opening described in the information—to end just like that! He began trying to control the mysterious power of observing the world that had just been born from the nourishment of his soul—Lingzhi—so as to pierce through the star membrane nourishing him and see clearly who was coming.

Finally, after much hardship, his faint Lingzhi finally broke through the star membrane protecting him, and this mysterious newborn world finally appeared before his eyes.

The next instant, his consciousness trembled violently. He saw—or rather, his consciousness, which had become close to heaven and earth because it occupied the body of an innate being, felt a sudden wave of joy transmitted from the world. It was a kind of joy and affection like that of an infant sensing its mother approaching.

Before he could understand what was happening, the wild and primordial world suddenly gave rise to endless clouds and mist that rapidly spread to cover the entire sky. As if the sound of clear springs rang out through heaven and earth, illusory petals began to fall from the sky, seemingly condensed from some extremely pure energy.

The entire heaven and earth were celebrating, were rejoicing. The invisible Quanyan of heaven and earth was gathering, converging!

He looked carefully and faintly discovered that the falling illusory petals were drifting down from the boundless clouds and mist. Within those layers of clear clouds, an extremely distinct figure kept swimming through the clouds, occasionally revealing flashes of hard scales.

"What on earth is this?" Haiming uttered with unprecedented terror. Why would this world at the dawn of creation undergo changes he hadn't anticipated? Why hadn't the information transmitted by that treasure mentioned this situation either…

Had something gone wrong with his transmigration?

Haiming, using the power of the Mysterious Finger Bone for the first time, knew none of this. He only wanted to hide now, hide completely, not daring to make the slightest sound or movement. He was praying that the mysterious creature in the clouds, god-like or demon-like, was merely passing by. Once the terrifying mysterious creature left, he would seize the time to grow, and then stay far away from it.

By then, with his innate body, he would still be a fine man, still able to become a god or ancestor!

However, something unexpected happened.

That mysterious creature stopped its swimming figure, and from within the clouds thrust out a majestic and sacred head. As its mane and dragon whiskers fluttered, a pair of seemingly substantial gazes from the dignified dragon eyes on that flowing dragon head shot toward him.

It was as if the other party had been searching for him from the very beginning!

At this moment, the instant he saw that strange mysterious creature he shouldn't have known, a sudden enlightenment arose within him. Mysterious information flowed past his instinctive wall of the heart into the field of his mind, as if he should have known all along—that was a "dragon"!

A true dragon had descended!

The next instant, he lost consciousness.

He was dead.

Even though he had occupied the body of an innate being in that world, possessing power that, even at its initial stage, was enough to make him a lofty superior among men in his own world.

……

"Ah—"

Lan Hai Xing, Tianhai City, in a cramped, filthy little room.

Haiming woke up in terror from his bed, his whole body drenched as if just pulled from water, his eyes full of fear and weakness.

An unprecedented weakness swept over his heart. His soul consciousness had been injured. The power of the Mysterious Finger Bone was never omnipotent. In weak worlds, perhaps his death on the other side wouldn't have too great an impact. But once he encountered a powerful and terrifying world and faced an irresistible enemy, his soul would be injured just the same, or even die.

"Dragon? What exactly is it?"

In the darkness, Haiming, still shaken with fear, first fished out that segment of Mysterious Finger Bone to guard against the unexpected. Only after confirming nothing was wrong did he weakly prop himself up and mutter to himself.

The figure of that mysterious creature before his death seemed forever etched into his soul. Even now that he had woken up here, he still couldn't forget it. The impression was so vivid it was as if the dragon shadow in his mind was about to come alive, breaking free from his soul and descending into the world.

In the darkness, unknown to Haiming, as he recalled that dragon shadow, deep within the pupils of his eyes, which should have been azure, a wisp of gilded color slowly ignited, within which a dragon shape faintly appeared! It looked exceedingly eerie!

【Dragon Blood · Wheel Rotation Seal】 — Demon Seal — Assimilation Erosion.

Derived from the 【Assimilation】 ability of the former Star-Devouring Worm and the super infectiousness of his own blood, it also possessed the erosive nature of the former Chenlong's 【Dragon Blood】.

One of its effects: any living being that has seen Baichuan, as long as he wishes, can inscribe his true form invisibly and formlessly into the opponent's soul, thereby eroding and marking them from flesh to soul consciousness. No matter where they are, he can sense them faintly and thus track them down.

This strange and mysterious power was just like how, once upon a time, the moment he saw Zishu, the other had invisibly and formlessly cast some technique on him, and before he could even react, he had fallen victim to it, producing the notion of an irresistible foe.

The dragon, the chief of the scaled creatures.

Was never an empty saying.

This ability had already begun to show its signs!

At this moment, Haiming still didn't know exactly what mutation had occurred within him, but he knew his trouble had greatly increased.

An inauspicious start. The weakness of his soul consciousness would keep him in this weakened state for some time to come, making the success rate of his subsequent transmigrations even lower. At the same time, he had to be on guard against that mysterious black-clad organization. Once they came knocking, he was likely to meet with misfortune.

"Damnable! Damn it…" The angrier he got, feeling his grand opening had been ruined by a mysterious creature 【Dragon】, Haiming cursed outright. But before he could finish cursing, an invisible fear and chill shot straight from his tailbone to the crown of his head, making him involuntarily stop talking and look around in horror…

……

"An aura of the same level. Looks like I've stumbled upon a big fish…"

Elsewhere, Baichuan, hovering in the air, clutched a wisp of faint aura and muttered in puzzlement.

Having detected a worm appearing within his world and hurrying over, he had wanted to check what was going on, but unexpectedly, from the other's violently active faint consciousness, he sensed an aura almost as powerful as his own current self—the aura of a True Immortal!

For an instant, Baichuan thought some old True Immortal had somehow slipped past his detection and invaded his world, intent on destroying it.

Fortunately, at the last moment, just as he was about to strike and kill the other, he detected an extremely faint aura of power belonging to himself—the power of Sharpness LV6 (Characteristic), golden radiance!

In a brief instant, looking at the other's feeble consciousness, Baichuan roughly understood what had happened.

It was nothing more than some lucky weakling having picked up some powerful True Immortal-level treasure and accidentally arrived inside his newborn world, only to be caught by him.

And this treasure seemed to have had some intersection with the LV6 Characteristic power he had only recently obtained.

And since he had barely used the Characteristic power a few times since acquiring it, narrowing the scope, in just an instant Baichuan, relying on his tremendous computing power, figured out the other's origin—the civilization behind that octopus in the former Zhenyu!

Thus, out of certain considerations, Baichuan directly abandoned the plan to strike and kill the other. Compared to killing the other outright and severing all connections with no gain, he preferred to use the other's aura to follow the trail and find out where the other's civilization was located.

Since his breakthrough, he had yet to experience the effects of True Immortal-level power and above.

And a True Immortal-level treasure…

His intuition told Baichuan that the treasure seemed greatly beneficial to him, perhaps bringing him unexpected changes.

Because his body, which had stopped feeling painfully hungry after breaking through by swallowing a planet, was once again transmitting to him the desire to eat!

It seemed that as long as he swallowed that "treasure," it would bring him unimaginable benefits!

This made Baichuan have to suspect—had his food thereafter changed from ordinary flesh and blood and energy to various treasures of the same level?

Now, his Demon Seal had already marked the other. All he needed to do next was quietly wait for the fruit to ripen.

At this moment, Baichuan turned his head to gaze at a certain spot in the void of the beyond, as if he had already pierced through layer upon layer of obstacles and seen a certain youth carrying the Assimilation infection power of his 【Demon Seal】, who, like the source of a viral infection, endlessly spread the power of the 【Demon Seal】 to countless people.

Once this spreading power reaches a certain peak, in an instant, he will be able to feel that invisible pull, thereby achieving direct arrival!

【Demon Seal】 Function Two: Any living being carrying the power of the Demon Seal, upon successfully locking eyes with another living being, can transmit this invisible seal power over. When it reaches a peak, Baichuan will sense it across endless distances, and even, under that pulling force, descend upon it by borrowing the power of another seal.

……

Lan Hai Xing, Tianhai City, the Main Pavilion.

The night was gloomy, starlight dim, as if symbolizing some ill omen.

"Pfft~~!"

Suddenly, from within this Main Pavilion that symbolized the highest power of Tianhai City, came a muffled grunt accompanied by the sound of liquid dripping.

An old woman sitting amid strange array patterns, dressed in ancient garments adorned with starlight, suddenly opened her eyes wide. Her withered hand stretched out as if to grasp something, trembling unsteadily, as if she had seen extremely shocking information. The next moment, she fainted outright.

"Ah, Xinglao has fainted!"

A few breaths later, a woman's shriek came from the direction of the door, followed by various panicked sounds mixed with hurried footsteps.

Past the middle of the night, a luxurious vehicle slowly came to a stop outside the Main Pavilion.

Inside the Main Pavilion, the sound of urgent, powerful, aged footsteps rang out, rushing straight over.

"Has Tao Xinglao woken? Has she said anything?"

The moment the old man came in, he urgently blurted out a string of words at the several women waiting nearby.

What on earth had happened?

The old man's brow was furrowed, yet in his heart there was always a sense of ill foreboding, as if some heavy dark cloud pressed upon his mind!

A few hours ago, he had been about to rest, but unexpectedly received bad news from the Main Pavilion—Xinglao had fainted!

At this, how could he still sleep? He immediately changed into a looser formal outfit and hurried out the door.

Xinglao—the supreme honorific for a mysterious profession that specializes in observing celestial phenomena and, by borrowing the power of gods, divines and prophesies.

This kind of profession that touches upon heavenly secrets often carries with it some form of heavenly retribution, bringing unimaginable calamities upon the diviner.

Only a highly skilled Xinglao can avoid most heavenly retributions during divination, while achieving extreme precision in their divinations and prophecies.

And among them, those who can hold this position in a central city like theirs possess abilities to seek fortune and avoid disaster, observe celestial phenomena, and divine by borrowing divine power that are far from ordinary. The information they divine can almost be said to be eighty or ninety percent certain to come true!

Tao Xinglao had once prophesied three great disasters of beast-god remnant havoc, thereby allowing Tianhai City to avoid them. The most recent great prophecy, "The Mysterious Beast Shadow from Another World," was information divined by Tao Xinglao.

But now, Tao Xinglao, who had prophesied countless heaven-defying great events without harm, has tonight suffered heavenly retribution because of divination!

An ill omen indeed!

The old man recalled the Lan Yu 【Mysterious Finger Bone】 that had recently been snatched away by that group of beast-god remnants. It was the mysterious finger bone left behind after Lan Yu, the sole eyewitness of that previous terrifying disaster, had been burned. It was the thing most directly connected to that mysterious beast shadow. Unexpectedly, despite that incident having been assigned the highest secrecy level, it was still leaked.

Causing that 【Mysterious Finger Bone】 to be snatched away directly.

It seems the worms within this alliance are rather numerous.

But this was not the time to consider these matters; they had to wake Tao Xinglao and understand what great disaster was about to occur!

Only then could they properly respond to it!

While he was thinking, outside the Main Pavilion, one after another incomparably luxurious vehicles slowly came to a stop, and great figures who could make Tianhai City tremble with a single stomp of their foot stepped out one by one.

Among them, the solemn-faced National Pillar Hulan was prominently present!

As one great figure after another continuously poured in, perhaps sensing it, or perhaps it was a final flicker of life—a peculiarity unique to diviners—Tao Xinglao, who had been in a deep coma, actually slowly awoke, and slowly spoke a prophecy to the crowd:

"The stars grow dim, the gods fall... poison runs rampant... the mysterious beast shadow... descends from beyond the heavens..."

However, it seemed as if this old woman's words carried some strange power, or perhaps touched upon some secret, or even some higher-tier existence. The instant she opened her mouth, the already gloomy night outside abruptly let out a clap of thunder, as if the heavens and earth were angry—or perhaps afraid?

Even the heavens and earth themselves were afraid? It seemed that once spoken, it would be sensed, and in an instant it would descend and destroy...

To the point that she spoke slower and slower; those few short sentences seemed to drain all her strength. When it came to a word involving a certain existence, the old woman opened her mouth and went mute for a long while, unable to utter a sound. In the end, she left no complete prophecy, and as if all the strength in her body had been spent, she departed this world, her breath gone.

Leaving behind only a group of people whose hearts were shaken by the prophecy!

The heavens, it seemed, were about to change...

……

(End of Chapter)