Chapter 234: Poyang Dragon Nest

Xu Jia is an Earth Immortal True Person, but that old dragon possesses the cultivation fruit of a God Immortal; a God Immortal is one who has already cultivated a Pure Yang Primordial Spirit and can ascend directly to the Form Realm.

It is just that this old dragon is a thousand-year-old Great Demon here, acting as king and hegemon, whereas if he ascended above, he would be nothing but a wild dragon or wild flood dragon, not worth mentioning.

Therefore, this old dragon has always guarded Poyang, refusing to ascend. Of course, what he speaks of is how True Person Xu severed his tail back then, telling him he must not transform from a flood dragon into a dragon.

The moment Xu Jia had the thought of going to Poyang, this old dragon, being within Poyang, felt a resonance from the Dharma Realm.

One could see beneath the waters of Poyang, where currents swirled, countless shipwrecks and bones; beneath the water, there were also ancient tombs from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, built by the "Dragon-Rearing Clan" of that era.

Thus, rumors of the Dragon-Rearing Clan still circulate around Poyang Lake today.

The Dragon-Rearing Clan raised dragons by building Dragon Nests to breed flood dragons.

Although many years have passed and the Dragon-Rearing Clan is no longer seen, the flood dragons in the Dragon Nest have been preserved.

Back then, in the Poyang Dragon Nest, there was only one true dragon, and it was a female dragon called "Long Mu"; Long Mu crossbred with the aquatic tribes of Poyang, spawning over a dozen children, and as those children expanded the family, there came to be over three hundred flood dragons of various sizes.

Poyang is only so large, and since the flood dragons have huge appetites, they spread into the surrounding water systems, such as the Dongting water system, the Nansheng water system, the Min water system, and even the Yangtze River water system.

Past myths all claimed that the various dragons of Jiangnan were all relatives or children of the East Sea Dragon King, sent to be enfeoffed, but this is actually erroneous.

Dragons that roam the great seas rarely turn back; furthermore, the Four Seas Dragon Kings system is a mixed Buddhist dragon king system, and when it comes down to it, sea dragons do not manage agriculture, whereas inland dragons do.

Moreover, the three Dragon Veins either run toward the South Sea or the East Sea, so in terms of ancestry, they should be leaning toward the inland.

The Poyang dragon lineage is the "great-grandmother" of the various dragons of Jiangnan.

It is just that they were too ferocious in their troublemaking back then. To return to the time before the Great Yu tamed the floods, when the world was a land of marshes and floods, the main issue was that they had too many children; these flood dragon spawn would stir up winds and waves or bring floods and rain at the slightest provocation.

And the flood dragons also practiced terror-based proselytizing: if you want favorable weather, you must give me offerings. If you want to enter the water to fish, you must also give me offerings.

Only then did Heavenly Master Xu emerge in response to the times to slay the flood dragons and tame the waters.

He traveled throughout Jiangnan, slaying over three hundred flood dragons, from Long Mu to the dragon sons, and then to the dragon grandsons—big and small, the whole family, he spared none, leaving only this one that had just been born, which was also suppressed into the Suolong Jing.

It can truly be said that he "said he would kill your whole family and he killed your whole family," but he was also afraid of "damaging the harmony of Heaven," so he left one seed behind. Perhaps there was a saintly mother at the time who persuaded him that the child was innocent.

Therefore, Heavenly Master Xu also made a prophecy: this evil dragon will definitely cause chaos again in the future!

The meaning was: you will regret it.

But he also proposed a solution: this fellow will be slain again, and at the same time, a person of great virtue will appear who will enlighten five hundred Earth Immortals in one breath.

When the prophecy was first spoken, this old dragon was still young and ignorant; now, when he recalls it, he trembles three times over, the kind of fear that makes one wet the bed in the middle of the night.

How could there be such a peerless, fierce person?

Even when Xu Jia summoned the Lushan Zhan Jiao Sword last time, he actually felt it and thought Heavenly Master Xu had descended to the world again.

Later, when the three flood dragons of Dexing were suppressed and killed, he did not dare to come and look; the bit of Qi he left behind was meant to assist the three flood dragons of Dexing from the start, and he did not dare to withdraw it either.

This old dragon is actually also afraid that the prophecy will come true. However, he is both afraid and stirred by a sense of rebellion.

What he thinks in his heart is: if you don't leave your own little plot of land, I will pretend not to know, but if you dare to come out, I am not someone to be trifled with either.

He had long known that Xu Jia's surname was Xu, and that like Heavenly Master Xu back then, he studied the Lingbao Method.

He also thought about strangling Xu Jia in the cradle; after all, he is in the God Immortal Realm, while Xu Jia has only just attained the Earth Immortal level, but... he fears that the moment he kills him, the next instant Heavenly Master Xu will personally descend to the mortal world to become the one in the prophecy who slays the flood dragon and enlightens five hundred Earth Immortals.

To be able to enlighten five hundred Earth Immortals in one breath, only the cultivation fruit of a Heavenly Immortal can achieve that.

This old dragon of the God Immortal Realm, having worked hard to sow seeds all these years—breeding green flood dragons with ancient vines, azure flood dragons with old trees, black flood dragons with black fish, shelled flood dragons with old turtles, pig-snouted flood dragons with crocodiles, mirage flood dragons with pheasants, and with Five Metal Mineral Veins, Earth Deity mud and stone... —has worked hard for hundreds of years, yet he has not even reached the peak period of over three hundred flood dragons in Poyang.

Moreover, he is not a true dragon, so the quality of his flood dragon spawn is not as good as those bred by the Poyang Long Mu, who was a true dragon.

The flood dragons born from the Poyang Long Mu were Earth Immortals upon reaching adulthood, whereas the flood dragons he gives birth to must bitterly cultivate for five hundred years of Daoist Practice, then undergo the "walking the flood" process, before they can reach that level of the past.

That is why he sows seeds widely; with a large quantity, more can succeed, and those dragon seeds that cannot succeed can breed with each other to produce flood dragons continuously, one in ten thousand.

It is truly a "thousand-year plan."

Even Xu Jia's Xun Taizi was not actually born from the union of the Yin Qi with the Horn Wood Flood Dragon among the Four Wood Avian Stars. It was this old dragon's Yin Qi that resonated with the Xun Wood Wind Avian Qi of the Inverted Feather Chicken. It should have produced a mirage, but Xu Jia made a move, which is how Xun Taizi, this strange species, was hatched. This Poyang old dragon has a secret technique taken from "Refining Essence into Qi"; he refines his own Dragon Essence into Yin Qi, which comes out with his clouds and mist, scattering throughout the world. If any strange creature senses it, offspring are conceived.

He also refines his essence into the water; whenever he brings clouds and rain, the essence enters the water, and aquatic creatures will feel emotion and conceive.

One can only say that this old flood dragon has basically polluted the genes of all living things in the region south of the Yangtze River.

These fish, shrimp, turtles, and soft-shelled turtles eat each other, aggregating dragon nature; the longer they live, the more they accumulate, and often with two or three hundred years of Daoist Practice, they have three parts of a flood dragon's appearance, and by five hundred years of Daoist Practice, they become the direct sons and grandsons of the old dragon.

This old dragon even has a "temple" in Poyang called Laoye Temple, and beneath Laoye Temple is the Dragon Nest.

Furthermore, this old flood dragon also received imperial edicts from several dynasties, named "Shunji Longwang," and he also has a wife named "Anji Furen," though this wife is not of the dragon species but a thousand-year-old Great Demon in Poyang Lake, a black fish spirit, also called Wu Li Da Wang.

Wu Li Da Wang had not yet achieved cultivation during the time of Heavenly Master Xu; she was a hegemon who appeared in a later era after the flood dragons in the Poyang waters were slain.

The black fish, or snakehead fish, is a black fish; the ancients believed that the black fish was the most filial, as the small fry would actively swim into the mother fish's mouth to nourish her. Because it is such a filial fish, many Confucian scholars and Daoists would not eat it.

This black fish is a fierce, carnivorous fish that can grow to a huge size, and having become a spirit and cultivated, with five hundred years of Daoist Practice, she stirred up winds and waves in Poyang, often ramming and breaking boats and devouring people, belonging to the category of "fierce demons."

Back then, ten thousand local people petitioned to ask the Heavenly Master of Longhu Mountain to deal with her, and Longhu Mountain sent the Xiao Tianshi down the mountain, but later it was only a "recruitment," and she was not killed, hence the name "Anji Furen."

"An" means to pacify.

This old dragon and Xu Jia resonated in the Dharma Realm, and knowing that Xu Jia would come to "visit" in a few days, he went to find this wife.

This Wu Li Da Wang was dressed in black, her figure tall and plump, and she sat amidst a pile of gold, silver, and jewels, surrounded by many water demons and monsters, all of them reeking of Evil Qi.

"Wife, our disaster has arrived."

He then recounted the events of the past.

Wu Li Da Wang sneered: "You have a thousand years of cultivation, and I have a thousand years of cultivation; what are you afraid of him for? I think you are scared out of your wits just hearing the surname Xu, to the point where you don't even have the heart for revenge, and you still want to flood the land of Nanchang to create a demon kingdom."

"What was Xu Xun's cultivation back then?"

"He was also a God Immortal."

"His Daoism was the orthodox lineage of Daluo, and he was personally sent by Yuanshi Tianzun, with Yuejun personally descending to transmit the Dharma; it was normal that we couldn't beat him."

"What about this Xu Jia? He has only just attained the Earth Immortal level; what kind of thing is he? At most, he counts as a disciple of Xu Xun's later generation, a descendant; if he were already in the God Immortal Realm, the two of us would retreat three steps, but he is only an Earth Immortal, what is there to fear? If we can't kill him, can't we cripple him?"

"Or perhaps borrow a knife to kill someone; didn't the Emperor of the Longevity Sect come last time, talking about some Heavenly Master and some great catastrophe? Why not drag it onto them?"

"If that doesn't work and he is truly very powerful, able to defeat us God Immortals at the Earth Immortal level, then just splash all the dirty water onto the Longevity Sect; it was all done by them, and we husband and wife are both True Gods of the imperial court."

"With a little bit of defection, if people say it's not good, we change; be flexible, but don't be too lacking in confidence. By feigning compliance while acting in opposition, aren't we still the bosses of this little plot of land in Poyang?"

"Once he ascends, I don't believe his disciples and descendants will have any ability left."

The old dragon of Poyang heard this and did not think it was a good idea: "My old mother thought the same way back then, believing that since our whole family controlled the Water Veins of Jiangnan, we could hold the common people hostage, summon wind and rain, and that this man surnamed Xu would not dare to kill us, for if he did, the Water Veins would collapse, the Earth Qi would be damaged for hundreds of years, and the land would no longer produce outstanding people or Earth Spirits. But in the end, he killed us anyway—our whole family, over three hundred of us, all slaughtered!"

……

Wu Li Da Wang also felt a bit guilty after hearing this.

But he still said: "Then go investigate what his background is, what his style of doing things is, what hobbies he has, what he lacks in terms of supplies, what he is short of in terms of clothing... If he is easy to get along with, there is no need to be on pins and needles; if he has a violent temper, then find someone to finish him off."

He then complained: "I advised you long ago to go to Dexing, seize the Yellow Heaven Relic, mend your severed tail, refine your Dragon Qi, and achieve the status of a True Dragon, but you were afraid of this and afraid of that."

"The Yellow Heaven Relic is a hot potato. If we could get our hands on it secretly, without anyone knowing, that would be one thing, but to get it openly is a disaster. This thing likes to backfire on its owner; didn't the Yellow Heaven Sect perish after they got their hands on it, and the Great Heng Dynasty vanished along with it?"

"You are just a coward. Xu Xun scared the guts out of you back then; you might as well have stayed in the Well. Why come out? You want to stir up trouble, yet you are afraid of being liquidated. You have no arrogance of 'I alone am supreme,' no wonder you cannot become a True Dragon."

"True Dragons are dead. The world is full of false dragons."

"Besides, where in our Desire Realm is there any real True Dragon? Even my old mother, who claimed to be a True Dragon, ascended to the Form Realm only to be a wild dragon. She was lucky to find an uninhabited river ditch, manage it step by step for two or three hundred years, and gather villages before she could become a proper Dragon Lord."

"We are even worse off; we are the likes of sinful Flood Dragons and lecherous Flood Dragons, used as mounts or gatekeepers. If we appear recklessly, we get wiped out, skinned, de-tendoned, and refined into pills or artifacts."

(End of chapter)