Chapter 384: Heart Blossoming with Joy
The river water crashed down, the surrounding mountains shook and trembled unceasingly. In some places, landslides occurred as the peaks were battered until soil and rock split apart and slid down the slopes, causing terrifying destruction. Quite a few villagers who lived near the mountains suffered disaster.
But this was a helpless move.
If they did not eliminate the Dragon Tamer and interrupt his attempt to alter the dragon veins, the ones who would suffer would not be the residents living along the river, but the entire Yan Kang nation!
"Blind Grandpa, the Dragon Tamer can shed his skin to heal his wounds!" Qin Mu stood atop the Dragon Qilin's head as he rushed over, shouting loudly. "Do not be careless! He is not dead yet!"
The Blind Man was somewhat puzzled. "What are you talking about, this eel fellow? I shattered his four limbs and hundred bones, broke every scale on his body, severed his life force, and then the Yong River crushed down on him—how can he still be alive?"
"He is not dead!"
Qin Mu shouted loudly: "As long as his head has not been chopped off, no matter how severe his injuries, after shedding his skin, his wounds will all heal!"
At that moment, the river water suddenly rose high, surging down from upstream, kicking up waves as tall as mountain peaks. That was a colossal creature traveling beneath the water.
"That eel fellow's Flood Dragon King God has arrived! It seems the eel fellow truly is not dead."
The Blind Man's heart tightened. He raised his bamboo staff and pointed it toward the middle of the river. The Dragon Tamer was pressed against the riverbed at the bottom of the Yong River. When the Yong River fell from above, it covered this god beneath the earth, and that tremendous pressure, combined with the Blind Man's attack, should have crushed him to powder.
But just as the Blind Man's staff touched the Yong River, that sapphire-blue Flood Dragon King God coiled its body, its enormous dragon head rising high, river water surging and spreading, colliding with his staff!
Boom!
The Yong River was severed, revealing the deep riverbed. The Dragon Qilin avoided the shockwave from that clash and flew upward.
Qin Mu lay on the Dragon Qilin's back, looking down. He saw that the Dragon Tamer's location was now a massive pit. The mud at the bottom of the pit had been drained away by the attacks of the Blind Man and the Flood Dragon King God. The Dragon Tamer lay sprawled on his back in the pit, utterly miserable.
But as he had expected, the Dragon Tamer was not dead. At this moment, he was still in the process of shedding his skin.
Qin Mu caught a hurried glimpse and saw that the Dragon Tamer's forehead had split open. A huge head was squirming inside the Dragon Tamer's skull, struggling to push its way out.
"If the Dragon Tamer successfully sheds his skin and gains the Flood Dragon King God as his helper, Blind Grandpa might not be his match!"
He did not have time to think further. Suddenly he leaped, jumping off the Dragon Qilin's back, and sprinted with all his might, chasing after the Dragon Tamer at the bottom of the river!
Si Yunxiang and Ling Yuxiu cried out in alarm, hastily reaching out to grab him, but they grasped nothing—they had failed to catch Qin Mu.
Bang!
Qin Mu's speed grew faster and faster, soon exceeding the speed of sound, leaving a trail of white vapor behind him.
The Blind Man had sealed his three Divine Treasures, preventing him from using his primordial energy. But the Heaven-Stealing Divine Leg Technique was originally a physical divine ability—a technique unleashed purely through the explosive power of the physical body.
This, the Blind Man could not seal.
Qin Mu howled as he descended from the sky, charging straight toward the Dragon Tamer.
At this moment, the waters of the Yong River upstream and downstream began to converge. Meanwhile, behind the Blind Man, the Black Tortoise Prime Spirit materialized, engaging the Flood Dragon King God in fierce combat. The Blind Man "saw" Qin Mu descending from above, charging straight at the Dragon Tamer, and cursed inwardly at his audacity. He hastily flicked his finger.
Qin Mu was mid-air when a blast of finger wind struck his brow. Three rumbling sounds echoed from within his body as the Embryo Divine Treasure, the Five Radiances, and the Six Harmonies Divine Treasure opened in succession. His magical power returned to him, and he was overjoyed.
On the riverbank, the Blind Man was attacking with wild abandon, fighting desperately against the Flood Dragon King God to prevent Qin Mu from being swatted to death by its tail.
"With his Divine Treasures sealed by me, he still dares to act so recklessly! This brat—why isn't he this vigorous and fierce when it comes to the wedding chamber?"
The Blind Man's brows and hair flew wildly as true anger ignited. The Flood Dragon King God swept its dragon claws down, but the Blind Man tapped its claws repeatedly with his bamboo staff. The claws immediately became twisted and disordered in their tendons and bones, unable to exert their strength.
The Blind Man pointed his staff forward, and the river water spun and surged, condensing into a great spear that thrust straight at the Flood Dragon King God's heart, forcing it to leap into the air to avoid the strike.
Splat!
Before the river waters converged, Qin Mu plunged headfirst into the mud at the bottom of the river. Then came a deafening roar as the waters merged, colossal waves colliding with each other in a breathtaking display, surging eastward in towering billows.
At the bottom of the river, Qin Mu held his breath, but the crushing pressure of the converging waters nearly killed him. His chest was almost compressed to bursting, his head ringing.
After a moment, Qin Mu recovered his senses, crawled out of the mud and sand, and swam through the water like a fish, making his way to the great pit where the Dragon Tamer lay.
The Yong River was transporting mud and sand, piling it up continuously, burying a small portion of the Dragon Tamer.
Qin Mu swam to the Dragon Tamer's side. All around were rotting flesh, and even the divine blood had been crushed and washed away by the river currents. In this short time, more than half of the blood within the Dragon Tamer's body had been carried off.
The bodies of gods were extremely heavy—even a strong practitioner at the Divine Bridge realm would find it difficult to carry a god while walking. That was why the Dragon Tamer lay here and the river could not wash him away.
Although the divine blood within the Dragon Tamer's body was nearly drained, his head was still squirming, and two dragon horns had emerged.
Qin Mu immediately reached out and groped around, his hands moving rapidly across the Dragon Tamer's body, searching and rummaging.
"Where is the True Dragon Nest? Where is it hidden..."
Crack.
The Dragon Tamer's forehead split open even wider. Waves of divine might emanated from the crack.
Qin Mu's heart jolted. He saw the dragon head at the forehead had emerged about a third of the way out. He swam swiftly to the Dragon Tamer's bald forehead, drew the Carefree Sword, mobilized his three Divine Treasures, surged his primordial energy, and stabbed down at the Dragon Tamer's forehead with all his might. There was a clink—the Carefree Sword struck a dragon scale and was bounced high into the air, though a sword mark appeared on the scale.
Qin Mu raised his hand and stabbed down again, striking more than a dozen times before finally piercing through the dragon scale.
Qin Mu pulled out the sword and shoved it downward, working it vigorously. A small portion of the Carefree Sword's blade sank into the Dragon Tamer's forehead. Then he took out a large iron hammer and smashed it against the sword's hilt. Clang, clang, clang—he hammered for a good while until the Carefree Sword was driven completely into the Dragon Tamer's forehead.
This Carefree Sword pinned the Dragon Tamer's old skin together with the body that was about to shed out of it. The dragon head dared not squirm violently, seemingly afraid of disturbing the divine might hidden within the sword. It could only slowly shed its skin, but it was held fast by the Carefree Sword—unable to shed, unable to emerge.
"Stubborn brat, it's you again..."
The Dragon Tamer opened his mouth, emitting a faint voice: "I will kill you, I will definitely kill you..."
Qin Mu circulated his primordial energy, rolling up mud and sand and stuffing it into the Dragon Tamer's mouth and nose, silencing him. Then he took out the last bit of his Three-Break Powder and wrapped it in primordial energy, stuffing that in as well. After that, he continued groping around everywhere.
"Even if the poison doesn't kill you, it'll make you shed another layer of skin!" Qin Mu rummaged back and forth, searching for the True Dragon Nest.
The Dragon Tamer's nearly stiff body trembled continuously at the bottom of the river. As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot—the toxicity of the Three-Break Powder erupted with terrible ferocity, causing cracking sounds to echo from his broken and battered body as it broke his body, broke his spirit, and broke his soul.
He had not yet fully shed his skin, had not completely separated from his old body, and his new body was also poisoned, suffering unspeakably.
Qin Mu pulled out all sorts of strange items from the Dragon Tamer's body—a dragon-skin drum, dragon horns, a claw staff, a dragon-bone short flute—but he could not find the Dragon Nest of the True Dragon Master no matter how he searched.
"Strange. This fellow should have hidden it on his own body. He couldn't have thrown it away..."
Qin Mu took out the Imperial Tablet and tried to sense the Dragon Nest with it, but strangely, the Imperial Tablet gave no response at all. Qin Mu activated the Imperial Tablet repeatedly, the characters on it changing, but still he could not locate the Dragon Nest's position.
Just then, he suddenly felt an abnormal disturbance in the water currents around him, and his heart jolted.
The river water was turbid at this moment, mud and sand churned up by the currents, making it hard to see very far. Qin Mu swam swiftly to the Dragon Tamer's forehead, one hand gripping the sword hilt, carefully watching his surroundings.
Another powerful current rushed past him. He remained motionless, watching as an enormously thick dragon body passed by—its scales a dark green, each scale larger than his entire body.
This was a flood dragon, likely one of the flood dragons raised by the Dragon Tamer, attracted by his aura. This flood dragon was incredibly powerful, stronger than an ordinary Cult Master-level existence. He was definitely no match for it.
Qin Mu's eyes flickered. With his other hand, he took out the dragon-bone short flute he had just pulled from the Dragon Tamer's body and quietly used his primordial energy to blow the flute through the water currents.
He wanted to use the Dragon Subduing Art to establish a connection with this flood dragon and control it.
At that moment, his head suddenly roared, his skull splitting with pain, ringing loudly. It was the Dragon Tamer, mustering his last remaining spirit to attack his brain, nearly knocking him unconscious.
Qin Mu winced in pain, but he saw the Dragon Tamer beneath his feet squirming with all his might, causing even the Carefree Sword to wobble as he inched forward, the sword cutting through the Dragon Tamer's own scalp.
"After eating a whole handful of Three-Break Powder, he can still shed his skin? My poison is indeed not as good as Medicine Master Grandpa's. If it were poison refined by Medicine Master Grandpa, the Dragon Tamer would be dead even after shedding his skin a dozen times!"
Qin Mu hastily tried to pull out the sword, but he had hammered it in too deep and could not pull it out in time. He saw that the Dragon Tamer had already emerged with one dragon head, the Carefree Sword still stuck in its forehead.
Qin Mu stood on the Dragon Tamer's head, both hands gripping the sword hilt. Beneath his feet were the Dragon Tamer's two enormous eyes. At this moment, the Dragon Tamer's two eyes were open, staring at him, his face ashen—the mark left by the poison. He was using all his strength to suppress the Three-Break Powder.
And behind Qin Mu, an enormous dragon head appeared, its body coiling in the water. The dark green flood dragon opened its mouth, revealing vicious, razor-sharp teeth.
Qin Mu's eyeballs darted left and right. He quietly reached out, grabbed the Imperial Tablet, and suddenly flashed it backward. The dark green flood dragon's massive jaws had already reached the top of his head—the sharp teeth on its upper jaw nearly piercing his forehead!
Qin Mu held the Imperial Tablet high, his legs trembling. The Dragon Tamer beneath his feet was still struggling to squirm outward.
"Th-th-th..."
Qin Mu opened his mouth to speak, hearing the chattering of his own teeth, bubbles streaming out with each word: "Don't m-m-move, be good, g-g-good..."
The dark green flood dragon's mouth stopped, slowly retreating, its gaze falling on the Imperial Tablet in his palm.
"Mahah..."
The flood dragon slowly lowered its head.
Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. He stomped one foot on the Dragon Tamer's eye and said viciously: "You nearly got me killed! Tell me quickly—where have you hidden the True Dragon Nest? I have hundreds of kinds of poison here. Do you believe I'll grind your bones to ash and scatter them to the winds?"
The Dragon Tamer stared at him coldly, continuing to squirm outward. Suddenly, his forehead cracked open again with a crunch, and another dragon head emerged. Having been poisoned by Qin Mu, shedding his skin once was not enough to purge the poison—he needed to shed again.
"Mahah mahah!"
The dark green flood dragon behind Qin Mu shrank in size, swimming up to his shoulder. Its two claws rested on his shoulder as it opened its mouth. Qin Mu was momentarily stunned—the True Dragon Nest was inside this flood dragon's mouth.
"Cunning, you are truly cunning!" Qin Mu's heart blossomed with joy as he gave the Dragon Tamer a thumbs up.