Chapter 383: The Evil Dragon Returned from Hell! An Immortal-Grade Creature, Bizarre

"Wake up…"

"Dragon Lord, Dragon Lord, wake up…"

"Everyone is still waiting for you…"

Countless voices seemed to call out by his ear. Baichuan, who had just blacked out from falling into the Time Changhe, slowly awoke. He groggily opened his eyes; before him was a grey-white expanse, as though he had died once… no, he really had "died" once!

Or rather, the original owner whose karma and fate he had inherited — the former Spirit of Shishan, Shi Long — was already dead, and Baichuan was the one who, under the effect of a mysterious power, had "returned from death" upon that remnant body!

Sorting through the information that had inexplicably appeared in his mind, Baichuan's consciousness grew clearer and clearer.

He saw, in the grey-white mysterious world, countless illusory Spirits continuously sinking into his body, and with them came wave after wave of a full, powerful force blossoming within him.

Those illusory Spirits all bore faces he was familiar with.

In an instant, he understood: those were the remnant Spirits left after the deaths of "his" disciples and descendants, as well as the vengeful spirits of the enemies "he" had slain during that great upheaval. Under a peculiar power, all of these Spirits had clung to him, becoming part of his strength, allowing the "him" who should have died to be reborn!

He, bearing the expectations of ten thousand Spirits, awoke once more in the realm of the dead, returning from the land of the perished.

Without knowing why, Baichuan understood all of this. He recalled the first scene he had seen within the Time Changhe: above a fragment of land, a somewhat illusory dragon-headed humanoid stood upright, its crimson eyes fixed in a protective stance upon that fragment of earth, roaring toward the heavens. Countless twisted limbs and claws of all manner of creatures clung to its body, as though trying to drag it into the Abyss.

Perhaps, even without his intervention, the other would surely have, under that peculiar power, borne the hatred of all the dead, risen again from death, and charged into the Xingkong.

But even with such an extraordinary encounter, the other had ultimately still died — otherwise, that segment of the Mysterious Finger Bone would never have appeared in later ages.

Subconsciously, Baichuan opened his Ability Panel and began examining it. He was very curious about his current state:

【Name: Baichuan】

【Race: True Dragon / Spirit of Shishan (Shi Long)】

【Source Points: 3】

【Abilities: True Dragon (expandable), Spirit of Shishan (expandable)】

【Ability Structure Library: (expand)】

【Kedianji…】

【Cannot be activated…】

"Has the Abilities column changed?"

Muttering to himself, Baichuan opened the expandable section for Spirit of Shishan, and the Ability Panel changed once more:

【Name: Baichuan】

【Race: Spirit of Shishan】

【Abilities: Power of Shishan LV6 (Dragon Transformation · Characteristic), Spirit Absorption…】

【Power of Shishan: The innate ability of the Spirit of Shishan. In ages past, an ancient stone mountain, by chance and fate, was born at the junction of Spirit veins. It drew upon the power of the Spirit veins and was touched by a single drop of peculiar blood, giving rise to this extraordinary ability.】

【Spirit Absorption: Touched by a mysterious power, this grants the ability's host a constitution capable of absorbing the remnant Spirits of ten thousands. When facing a fatal crisis, there is a chance of activation, drawing upon the Spirits' power to revive, continuously amplifying oneself, until…】

Just as Baichuan was reading, a faint pain suddenly roused his spirit. He slowly opened his eyes, and a pair of crimson eyes — appearing to outsiders as red as a demon's — looked toward one side of himself. There, a group of sharp-toothed, sharp-mouthed creatures resembling little demons were greedily tearing at his body, trying to devour his flesh and drink his blood.

"XiaoXieGui!"

In an instant, gazing at that group of sharp-toothed, sharp-mouthed creatures, a piece of information flashed through Baichuan's mind — needless to say, it was naturally something the former Spirit of Shishan had known.

XiaoXieGui, of unknown origin, are said to come from beyond the heavens. Although their own strength is not great — one might even call it frail — their claws and fangs are extraordinarily sharp. Even the dragon scales of a True Immortal-level being can be torn open by them; they are truly sinister.

Think about it: even the scales of Baichuan, who is at the True Immortal level, were torn open. Although part of the reason was that Baichuan offered no protection or resistance, his body is planet-level! Those scales, even without protection, could withstand a counter-shock force sufficient to shatter a continent without harm!

Yet even such defensive scales were torn open — from this, one can imagine how troublesome these sinister creatures must be for ordinary beings in this world.

Now, these cannon-fodder creatures, perhaps having sensed he had lost his breath, had gathered out of greed for his flesh and blood, ceaselessly biting and tearing.

At this moment, with Baichuan's awakening, under the gaze of those crimson dragon eyes, the group of XiaoXieGui fearfully loosened their fangs, chittering without cease — seeming angry, seeming afraid, seeming puzzled as to why the big fellow who had lost his breath had come back to life…

The next instant, unable to figure it out, their ferocious nature was triggered, and they screeched as they lunged to bite. But faster than them was Baichuan: the crimson dragon eyes flashed with bloody light, and the ground suddenly heaved upward, forming several sharp stone blades that skewered every leaping, lunging XiaoXieGui straight through.

And only then did Baichuan rise to his feet amid a series of booms. Instantly, a towering shadow swept over all the XiaoXieGui. Beneath that shadow, those crimson dragon eyes, and the wailing ghostly figures drifting about his body, directly terrified the surrounding XiaoXieGui beyond measure — for what stood there was a humanoid Tyrannosaurus covered in twisted muscles and clad in hard stone scales!

Tall, straight dragon horns sharp as spears; crimson, savage eyes; a fearsome dragon mouth filled with teeth capable of crushing anything; and that powerfully built, scale-covered musculature that made the living shudder at the mere sight — along with the dragon-ghost shadows about his body, beloved of the dead, bearing the hopes of ten thousand Spirits, crawling up from the realm of the perished to exact revenge.

This was a vicious dragon, alive and unmistakably crawling out of hell!

Gone was the sacred and majestic air of a True Dragon itself; what remained was only the savagery and destructiveness of a dragon!

Determined to drag everything it saw into the fathomless Abyss, letting them taste the consequences of angering a dragon!

Baichuan vaguely felt that his current appearance seemed somewhat like a dragon from his previous life called the Lord of Evil.

"Is this the terror of karmic substitution?"

At this moment, two forms existed in Baichuan's eyes: one was the humanoid evil dragon stance currently displayed before all living beings; the other was his original True Dragon inner form.

And what he now needed to do was, while fulfilling the original owner's obsession, break all living beings' impression of the original owner, thereby step by step revealing his original dragon body from within, completing the final substitution, truly dyeing the other's karma into his own existence.

Otherwise, what ultimately appeared before all things would not truly be him, and his legend could not take shape.

Moreover, the more profound the impression left upon all beings at the moment of finally revealing his true form, the more powerful the legend that would inscribe itself upon him.

In short, he needed a grand stage: under the watchful eyes of all, he would reveal his true form, then with absolute strength brutally beat down every living being, telling them, "You have all been deceived by me. What came before was merely me playing with you. This is my true form!"

Then, with a splendid finale, leave behind a mysterious and powerful silhouette for all living beings.

Mystery is always the best seasoning for a legend.

However, this must be done step by step, slowly.

Musing over the objectives of this journey in his mind, Baichuan also decided on his first goal. As the saying goes, to repel the outside, one must first pacify the inside. Now that the terrifying beings lurking in the Xingkong had not truly set foot within the world, he must seize the opportunity to first find and eliminate those traitors who had invaded LongFu, fulfilling one of the obsessions of the Stone Spirit.

He, Baichuan, hated traitors most in his life — not a single one of these native-born betrayers would escape!

"Ya~"

At that moment, a startled cry suddenly rang out.

"D-Dragon Lord?! You've awakened?"

"Th-this is wonderful!"

A voice inexplicably tinged with a sobbing tone drew Baichuan's attention. He focused his gaze and clearly saw a short carrot-like creature carrying a turtle shell on its back, excitedly dropping the object in its hands, staring at him in a daze.

【What is this?】 Baichuan pondered for a while, but found that even after searching through all the information in his mind, he could not locate a corresponding target.

"Who are you?"

A hoarse voice, brimming with endless hatred and killing intent, rang out — it startled even Baichuan, because the timbre was nothing like his original voice; it sounded exactly like the furious roar that surfaced after he first swallowed that segment of finger bone.

The karmic substitution seemed far more mysterious and terrifying than he had imagined.

Leaving aside Baichuan, who was pondering the difference in his condition, the little fellow — no taller than a radish sprout — who had excitedly flung aside whatever was in its hands now came back to its senses, patted its little dark-green-and-brown head in sudden realization, hopped a few steps to Baichuan's clawed feet, looked up and said: "Dragon Lord, don't you remember me?"

"I'm the little turtle you saved when you passed by Lv Shui Tan!"

"Back then, I had just escaped from She Yao Da Wang's mouth, my body riddled with several blood-gushing holes, barely clinging to life. The merciful you happened to pass by and appeared before me, saying, 'What a tenacious little turtle; very well, it seems this little turtle's fate isn't meant to end here…' and saved me. I, Xiao Gui, could never forget such a great kindness from those days. I never expected that after only a short time had passed, I would hear that LongFu had been encircled and attacked by the Demon Court…"

"Wait — you said the Demon Court encircled and attacked?"

"What is the Demon Court?"

Keeping half an eye on this radish-sprout-sized little turtle that didn't even reach his ankle, Baichuan recalled and sorted through the tangled information, and finally remembered the other's origins.

Unexpectedly, from listening, he directly uncovered an important piece of information — the group of traitors who had encircled and attacked LongFu.

Without realizing it, he had directly interrupted little Xiao Gui's account.

"Oh, I almost forgot — Dragon Lord, you were attacked, so you probably haven't heard the news that came after." Xiao Gui was stunned for a moment before reacting — the Dragon Lord before him was someone he had personally watched remain lifeless as a corpse the whole time. "The Demon Court is a mysterious force that was established only after LongFu's destruction. They appeared as if out of nowhere, rallied under the slogan of wiping out LongFu, and in one violent breath unified the entire demon race, then established the Demon Court…"

Listening to Xiao Gui's continuous account, Baichuan's heart was also stirred into towering waves. The original host's memories he had obtained contained no real information about the people who attacked LongFu, because the assault came far too fast — so fast that the former Shi Long hadn't had any time to react at all.

Here it must be mentioned that this continent's name is Duan Yu Jie, meaning a fractured, incomplete realm. Several powerful forces existed upon it, one of which was the LongFu where Shi Long resided, and its strongest member was the previous generation's Dragon Lord.

That was Shi Long's father — an immortal-grade being, one of the strongest existences on this continent.

At that time, Shi Long was still merely the Young Dragon Lord. Not long ago, his father, the previous Dragon Lord, had vanished under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind only a large patch of pitch-black blood.

This was undoubtedly an earth-shattering event — this was one of the strongest beings in this world, an immortal-grade creature!

Although Baichuan still didn't know exactly what an immortal-grade being was, in Shi Long's memories within his mind, his "True Immortal" realm self had been called a false immortal.

In other words, the "True Immortal" in Baichuan's impression was merely a false immortal in this past Time, and immortal-grade, extrapolating from that, should be beings above the "True Immortal" realm. As for the difference in realms, it was probably the disparity between the past and the present — Baichuan didn't pay it too much mind for now.

But such a powerful immortal-grade being — what kind of existence could have made him vanish under such mysterious circumstances?

Nobody knew. With the dragons leaderless, Shi Long, having no choice, as the Young Dragon Lord could only shoulder the heavy responsibility and serve as the backbone of a demoralized LongFu.

But who could have expected that in less than five short years, a group of mysterious beings would drive a massive horde of XiaoXieGui to attack, causing LongFu to run with blood, and thus bringing about Baichuan.

Now, based on the two scenes Baichuan had seen from within Time Changhe, integrating the current information, he guessed that perhaps the XiaoXieGui had been deployed by some lurking being from beyond Xingkong, and Shi Long's father's mysterious disappearance might have been because he had discovered something.

If this were truly the case, then those beings from beyond Xingkong should at the very least also be immortal-grade beings.

In his thoughts, Baichuan gradually realized he might have sorted out the situation.

Starting from the previous Dragon Lord's disappearance, within a short span of time, LongFu had been visited by an assault from a group of mysterious beings who could also control XiaoXieGui from beyond the realm, and now they had established the Demon Court. To say there was no connection between these events would be impossible.

They were very likely the claws and fangs of that group of beings from beyond the realm, or traitors within this world who had thrown in their lot with the lurking beings from beyond.

As for why they unified the demon race — it was probably because the human side was too united externally, and moreover possessed two immortal-grade beings, unlike the demon race here, which was leaderless and scattered like loose sand.

Anyone with half a brain could see that wiping out the lone LongFu's immortal-grade being and unifying the scattered demon race would maximize benefits — especially since they had captured his "daughter"… Hmm, Baichuan, who had replaced Shi Long — by relation, that Long Nv he had never met should be his daughter…

Previously, Baichuan hadn't understood why they had bothered to capture a young dragon. Now it seemed they might be playing a grand game of chess, because the Demon Court's rule was violent, established upon the extermination of the demon race's royal house — LongFu. This would inevitably provoke widespread discontent and dissatisfaction throughout the demon race. If that discontent accumulated to a certain point, and another force rose under the banner of LongFu's remnants to counterattack, rallying the passionate resisters among the demon race, and ultimately defeated the Demon Court in one stroke — what then?

They would inevitably obtain from the Demon Court's hands an unprecedentedly united demon race!

If this were truly the case, their ambitions were vast indeed.

What on earth could it be, worth a whole group of terrifyingly powerful beings from beyond the stars lurking and watching over this land?

"Dragon Lord, Dragon Lord, are you listening?"

Xiao Gui's small, puzzled voice sounded at his ear.

"Mm?" Baichuan suspiciously raised his gaze and nodded.

After a long while, he asked hoarsely: "Yao Yao… any news of my dau— daughter Yao Yao?"

"No," Xiao Gui regretfully shook his head, scratched his smooth pate, then hurriedly explained, "When I heard the news about LongFu, I rushed over here without stopping, and when I arrived I found you, my lord, with several huge gashes all over your body and no breath left, surrounded by a large pack of hateful XiaoXieGui eating, eating your flesh…"

"I, Xiao Gui, had to expend a great, great amount of effort, and went through several dangerous encounters, before I could drive away all the XiaoXieGui and stop them from desecrating your corp— body… hehe~~"

Saying so, Xiao Gui foolishly wiggled his flat, round turtle body.

"After that, Xiao Gui originally wanted to bury you, but who would have thought that Heaven would aid the Dragon Lord — the broken opening in the cave actually began to heal up…"

Listening to Xiao Gui's account, Baichuan understood that the original host, after being killed, had most of his organs taken and the rest discarded — however—

He lowered his massive dragon body and examined the turtle spirit before him — no bigger than a single claw of his, standing on two claws in a somewhat comical pose — and only spoke when the other had been stared into visible discomfort: "Since you know all this — that the Demon Court is powerful, that LongFu is destroyed — why would you still have the nerve to come looking for me?"

"Aren't you afraid of death?!"

At the last word, the endless serpent shadows, flood-dragon shadows, and ghost shadows coiling around Baichuan let out piercing, mournful wails; the bone-chilling aura enveloped the area, plunging it abruptly into darkness, as if hell had descended upon Ren Jian.

This was precisely what Baichuan found most strange — a timid little turtle, what on earth could have given it the courage to come searching for him, someone who had appeared to be already dead? Wasn't it afraid of being marked by the Demon Court and meeting a terrible end?

"Wuu…"

Startled by Baichuan like this — especially by Baichuan's current appearance, like a crimson evil dragon crawling out from the depths of hell bearing countless vengeful spirits — yet for some unknown reason it found courage. Even though its little eyes brimmed with tears, it still spread wide its two small claws and shouted in bewildered protest: "Dragon Lord once saved me! I, I absolutely cannot be ungrateful!"

"My teacher once told me: a drop of kindness received should be, should be repaid with a gushing spring! Even crows show filial piety by feeding their parents, and sheep have, have… anyway, even though I'm only a little demon, I still can't be ungrateful!"

Having said that, this somewhat comical-looking turtle spirit fixed its pair of pitch-black little eyes intently on those crimson dragon pupils, radiating an air of righteous resolve.

Baichuan stared fixedly into those pitch-black eyes, as if trying to see through something. After a long while, he said: "You, a wild little demon — where would you get a teacher?"

"Ah? Before I became a demon, I was raised by a private tutor near Lv Shui Tan…"

Baichuan withdrew his gaze and said nothing more — even his 【Moon Dream】 ability had failed to detect the slightest irregularity in the other.

The current situation was somewhat unusual, and he could not afford to be careless.

He stood up straight, and, with the little turtle spirit watching in bewilderment, gazed into the distance, then strode forward as if to leave.

Since he couldn't detect anything wrong, he would simply leave — if there really was no problem, he wouldn't drag the other into it either.

"Wait, Dragon Lord, wait for me…"

Suddenly, the little turtle spirit called out to Baichuan.

"What else is it?"

"Is the Dragon Lord heading to the Demon Court?"

"Mm…"

"Does the lord know how to get there? Right now, in the eyes of all the demons, you are already dead. For you to appear like this…"

Baichuan frowned at the words. This little turtle spirit seemed a little off — every word, every implication, was hinting that he take her along.

And on top of that, appearing here…

If that was the case, then in the next instant, a grey moon-shadow flashed through Baichuan's crimson eyes. An invisible wave swept toward the little turtle, intending to pull her into a dream to glimpse all her information.

Then Baichuan felt his vision go black, and amid a faint, ghostly sigh, he returned once more to that silent Time Changhe…

……

(End of Chapter)