The Divine Nine-Dragon Cauldron

The atmosphere was suddenly charged with a sense of mortal peril.

With a turn of his head, Su Yu called out hurriedly, “Hold on! We have no idea how Yongye Qiumo offended you, but if there’s any way we could make up for it, could you please let us try?”

“Make up for it? Hahaha…” The imprisoned wild beast looked up to the sky and burst out laughing with an expression of utter disdain on its face.

“How are you going to make up for what he had done? Yongye Qiumo deceived me and stole my dragon pearl. Let me ask you, how are you going to compensate for it?”

Dragon pearl? Su Yu gasped in shock. He scrutinized the strange beast once again to make sure he heard it right. He said his dragon pearl was stolen!

“My appearance must be hideous, isn’t that so?” The strange beast’s killing intent grew even more intense as it ridiculed itself contemptuously.

“Having lost my dragon pearl, I couldn’t withstand the poisonous influence of the sorcery energy in this place and failed to preserve my dragon form from weakening day by day.”

“My appearance has become warped and twisted, as you can see now! But I deserve it, I suppose, because I chose to believe you people from the Ancient God Realm. Yes, he deceived me!”

The strange beast heaved a long sigh. “The ancestor of these three, the ruler of the Ancient God Realm Empire, persecuted me until I turned the way I am now. Give me one good reason not to kill you!”

Seeing the strange beast fuming with rage, Su Yu said, “Elder, I think you have misunderstood something.”

“Your arguments will not be able to save you.” The strange beast stared at them, scorching dragon’s breath spilling over from its mouth.

Su Yu said solemnly, “To be honest, Yongye Qiumo deceived us as well.”

As he spoke, he took out the map.

The strange beast squinted at the map and spoke, its voice tinged with boundless resentment and hatred. “That is his scent! What is this?”

“It’s the map that Yongye Qiumo drew for us himself. He told us that by following this route, we would arrive at the Holy Land of the Moonwatch Sect without any hindrance,” Su Yu explained.

Upon hearing that, the strange beast laughed. “Without any hindrance? What a joke! If it weren’t for me, if I had not cleared the path for him with my dragon pearl, would he ever get to walk up to me without any obstacles? Would he ever reach the Holy Land in one piece?”

Squinting, Su Yu said in a low voice, “Elder, Yongye Qiumo deliberately deceived us and brought us to you. He must have had his own motive. Please run a check on yourself and see if he has left anything that would pose harm to you.”

What? The strange beast’s eyes glittered. Staring at Su Yu, he reached out with a dragon claw and caught Yongye Chuxue first.

A moment later, the strange beast extracted a light, blood-red, thin thread from her body, which was wriggling like a worm.

Yongye Chuxue cried out in shock when she saw it. “Why is there such a thing inside me?”

Even with her Level Three cultivation, she had no idea that such a thing was hidden within her.

“This is the dragon curse that Yongye Qiumo learned from me. Of course, you wouldn’t notice.” The strange beast set Yongye Chuxue down and pinched the blood-red thread until it was destroyed.

It sneered. “The purpose of the dragon curse is to spy on everything that goes on from someone else’s point of view!”

“He deceived you and placed a dragon curse on you because he wanted to see if I was dead or alive. He used you!” The strange beast laughed coldly.

“He had predicted that if his descendants came here, I would surely catch them, and that was his way of checking if I’m still alive! Seems like he’s going to be disappointed. Although millions of years have passed, I have survived!”

The resentment in him escalated.

A realization struck Su Yu. All the while, he had thought the route map was problematic. How could it possibly be that easy to reach the center of the Holy Land?

It turned out that it was all just a scheme of Yongye Qiumo to deceive them and lead them there, and to see if the strange beast was alive or dead through Yongye Chuxue’s eyes.

Yongye Chuxue was taken aback. “Impossible! Our ancestor had died many years ago, but I have only been alive for a little over 20 years. How could he put the dragon curse upon me?”

Upon hearing that, the strange beast had a look of sympathy in its eyes. “Hahaha, in his eyes, his descendants are worth no more than insignificant little ants. He kept everything a secret!”

“What do you mean, elder?” Yongye Wuheng was displeased. “He’s our ancestor after all, please do not talk disparagingly of him.”

“Hahahaha…” The strange beast burst out in laughter, its eyes filled with even more pity.

“Ignorant, stupid creatures! Having acquired my dragon pearl, he gained the ability to live as long as heavens and earth and remain undying for trillions of years. Death and destruction can never befall him. How could he possibly be dead?”

What? The Yongye siblings and Yongye Wuming were terrified. Could Yongye Qiumo still be alive?

“Right now, he must be busy refining my dragon pearl!” The strange beast sneered.

An idea occurred to Su Yu, and he queried thoughtfully, “Dare I ask, elder, what kind of strength it takes to refine the dragon pearl?”

“There is no one left in this part of the world who would be able to refine my dragon pearl, because the one who could is dead! Although Yongye Qiumo has my dragon pearl, his efforts are futile,” the strange beast replied.

Su Yu’s eyes shone. “Elder, are you talking about the World Annihilation Emperor?”

The strange beast’s eyes gleamed, and it laughed softly. “Seems like you know quite a lot.”

Su Yu drew in a steadying breath. “If that is the case, I think you might be mistaken, elder. Your dragon pearl would likely be refined by Yongye Qiumo.”

“Impossible!” The strange beast said vehemently.

Soundlessly, Su Yu retrieved a bottle of pristine white divine blood.

The strange beast’s expression changed dramatically and it snatched the divine blood with a quick move, its eyes filled with deep shock. “This is… the blood of the World Annihilation Emperor!!”

Su Yu said in a low voice, “Although the World Annihilation Emperor has died, his descendants still exist in this world. If the divine blood that flows their veins gets extracted, it might be possible to refine the dragon pearl.”

Su Yu had had a taste of the absolute power of the blood of the World Annihilation Emperor. A single drop of it could tame the Remains of Ice and Fire.

The World Annihilation Emperor’s reputation of being the greatest divine warrior between the heavens and the earth was definitely well-merited.

“Where did you get this?” The strange beast panted anxiously, its eyes even more bloodshot now.

Su Yu replied, “From a small, insignificant tribe. But now that I come to think of it, the manipulator behind the tribe must be Yongye Qiumo.”

He finally understood who spied on him, secretly put him under surveillance, and extracted the blood of the World Annihilation Emperor’s descendants.

Yongye Qiumo! A supposedly dead man who was hiding in some unknown corner of the world!

The strange beast was so furious that its colossal body was trembling all over, but the silver chains around it tightened all of a sudden, making it scream in misery. “Yongye Qiumo!”

The growl from a few feet away was so deafening that the tremor almost killed them on the spot.

At the height of its wrath, the strange beast glanced at the people on the scene, its desire for revenge overpowering it. “Go to Hell! All of you, go to Hell!”

Su Yu was calm and composed. “Elder, if you kill us just like that, would anyone else come here before your demise? We are your last remaining hope of getting revenge.”

As it heard that, the strange beast’s enormous claw stopped in midair, but fury still lingered in its eyes. “Revenge, you say?”

Su Yu said serenely, “Elder, we are the only ones you could pin your hopes on.”

“Humph! There’s a junior out there who is more powerful than you are. He’s almost breaking through into Level Two, and I believe in his capabilities rather more than in yours,” The strange beast said.

Su Yu said without any emotion, “His defiance is so overpowering that no burdens or obligations could bind him, including promises. There is no way he would keep to his word. I believe you have sensed it too.”

The strange beast’s claw dangled in the air for a long while before it retracted its paw slowly, staring coldly at Su Yu.

A moment later, the wrath in its eyes slowly faded. “I can hardly see any hope. I can’t accurately estimate his current capabilities either, but he surely cannot match the former Empire ruler. That one, he could very likely have become a Level One deity!”

Upon hearing that, Su Yu’s heart fluttered violently.

Level One deity, the same as the Giant of the Bitter Sea in the Demonic Dimension?

Su Yu battled his fear, struggling to maintain control. Frankly, he said, “So what if he is a Level One deity? He probably doesn’t have time to deal with us now, or we wouldn’t have lived that long.”

Gazing at Su Yu’s calm face, the strange beast told him, “Your courage is laudable! Indeed, if Yongye Qiumo really is in the midst of refining the dragon pearl, he wouldn’t have time to attack in person.”

“The refining process of the dragon pearl cannot be paused midway, or all previous efforts would go to waste. Indeed, you do have some time to fortify yourselves.”

“However, can I really trust you?” The strange beast had been deceived once, so it was especially cautious.

Su Yu laughed bitterly. “Elder, you might not be aware of this, but he has been spying upon me and trailing me for a while now. If he manages to refine the dragon pearl one day, there will be no escape for me.”

“As for these three, if their ancestor regards them as petty insects, why would they keep helping him?”

The strange beast thought about it for a long while and finally made up its mind. “Alright, I’ll trust you once more!”

Upon hearing that, they heaved a long sigh of relief. Their bodies were drenched in cold sweat and their knees were weak.

“Nonetheless, I cannot trust you unconditionally the way I trusted Yongye Qiumo back then. I will have to set restrictions on you.”

Despite their reluctance, it was a condition that they had to accept.

Compared to losing their lives, what were a few restrictions?

Having gained their permission, the strange beast retrieved five fiery red scales, each one the size of a hand, from around its neck.

“These are my reverse scales. Put them on your chests and they’ll fuse with your bodies. Besides strengthening your physique and enhancing your cultivation, they could be used to practice my powers.”

“Of course, if you betray me, the reverse scales will also be the weapon that causes your destruction!”

They were delighted. Despite their potentially lethal effects, the reverse scales actually had enormous benefits.

Su Yu grasped a scale and pressed it to his chest with a queer look on his face.

A bizarre scene unfolded. The reverse scale of the World Annihilation Dragon in his chest emerged from his body and brutally collided with the fiery red reverse scale, sending it flying.

With great reluctance, the fiery red reverse scale chased after it, pushing the World Annihilation Dragon’s reverse scale out of the way.

“The World Annihilation Dragon’s reverse scale?” The strange beast was fascinated. “You actually got that fellow’s reverse scale? When did he become so generous?”

Su Yu watched as the two reverse scales fought against each other, and recounted the circumstances of the first scale’s acquisition.

Finding out that the World Annihilation Dragon hunted him and that this reverse scale was proof of it, the strange beast looked profoundly thoughtful.

“Even though that fellow is bad-tempered and wicked, he wouldn’t normally be bothered with hunting down a trivial character like you. It seems like you have done something that made him very angry!”

Su Yu’s heart skipped a beat. Just when he became concerned that he might be forced to speak the truth, the strange beast raised a claw and took back its own reverse scale. Half-smiling, it said, “You don’t need this.”

Ah? The other three were envious.

Su Yu was stunned too. “Why is that?”

The strange beast said, “Since you are hunted by the World Annihilation Dragon, I am the only creature in the world who can protect you!”

Everyone gasped in shock.

Who on earth was this dragon? How come did it consider itself equal in powers to the World Annihilation Dragon?

Su Yu was startled. He assumed a serious look and said, “Elder, I haven’t gotten to ask your name.”

The strange beast exuded a stream of dragon’s breath from its nostrils and replied casually, “I am the Epoch-making Dragon! In terms of status, I am above the World Annihilation Dragon.”