Chapter 40
Chapter 40: You Despicable Traitor!
“Even if the hatchling is still on Dan Yang Mountain, I couldn’t even crack the illusion hiding its eggshell before. Finding it now—then taming it—is a fool’s dream.”
Shao Heng forced herself to exhale. Anything she could reason out, any seasoned cultivator could too. And a heavenly demon was far wiser than ordinary members of the Human Clan. That White Dragon might do the opposite of what everyone expected, simply because it knew what they expected.
No. This wasn’t the time to chase fantasies.
She pressed the chaos down until it sat like a stone at the bottom of her chest, then dragged her focus back to the one thing she could actually complete.
Hundred-Poison Flame Grass. Red Phosphorus Seven-Segment Flower.
Both were fire-aspected treasure herbs, and Dan Yang Mountain—thick with fire qi—was the perfect cradle for them. If she searched carefully enough, she would find what she needed.
Shao Heng still hadn’t returned the sheepskin scroll she had pried out of Li Chao Ge’s hands. Now she unrolled it across her knee. The map of Dan Yang Mountain was rough, but the contours were clear. She divided it into nine regions in her mind, marked a route, and set off to comb them one by one.
—
By the time night bled into dawn, the first sunlight had begun to pierce the branches—thin blades of gold that shattered into flecks on the forest floor.
A woman in an orange-red outer robe moved like flame through the trees.
Jiang Yun Jiang’s gold-thread shoes glimmered with runes. Each step carried her several feet, as if the ground itself were folding beneath her—an uncommon artifact, and an expensive one.
“Senior Dan Hua,” she asked softly, eyes fixed ahead, “can you tell where the hatchling is hiding?”
Within her sea of consciousness, Dan Hua stirred.
Over the past few days, the remnant soul had recovered enough divine sense to probe again. Dan Yang Mountain spread beneath that invisible sweep like a living map.
Even as only a remnant, Dan Hua had once stood in the Sixth Realm. It took her mere moments to catch the flaw.
“Go straight north,” Dan Hua said. “I’ve already broken most of the illusion’s power with my divine sense.”
Jiang Yun Jiang’s violet pupils flickered—Heart-Bewitching Eye awakening. Excitement rose, sharp and bright.
Dan Hua added, “Swallow a Mind-Clearing Pill first. With your Heart-Bewitching Eye, that will be enough to punch through the last barrier the White Dragon left.”
“Good!”
Jiang Yun Jiang drove her Yellow Sprout power to its limit and surged forward.
A green carp suddenly popped up on her shoulder, spinning in tight circles as it chased its own tail, nearly vibrating with glee.
“Qing Chi,” Jiang Yun Jiang said, voice low, “don’t rush.”
She stroked the carp demon once, then tucked it back into the Demon-Contract Bracelet.
“Once we take the hatchling’s essence blood, you can shed and be reborn. You’ll step onto the path of becoming a flood dragon.”
She said it like a promise already cashed.
Still, caution gnawed at her. She couldn’t help checking again, even with Dan Hua’s certainty behind her.
“Senior,” Jiang Yun Jiang said, “just like we discussed—after we draw its essence blood, we can disguise it as naturally weak and fool the White Dragon, right?”
Dan Hua understood the fear beneath the question. True Dragon kind was no weaker than any Human Clan immortal sect. One wrong step and the backlash could drown them both.
“Don’t worry,” Dan Hua replied patiently. “After the White Dragon hatched the cub, that male cultivator in blue robes went straight to its door.”
“Without a dragon father nourishing it with dragon breath, the hatchling was already lacking. We’ll draw only a small amount of essence blood. With the Illusion-Spirit Pill I refined as support, once you clean every trace, the White Dragon won’t notice anything.”
Then her tone sharpened.
“But you must hurry. I just swept Dan Yang Mountain. Many cultivators with decent cultivation are already searching for the hatchling.”
“And I’ve spent too much divine sense. For a while, I won’t be able to probe the four directions for you again.”
“Understood.”
Jiang Yun Jiang’s gaze lifted to the horizon. With Heart-Bewitching Eye sharpening her sight, she could faintly make out the far-off clash—dragon and man still locked in battle, the aftershocks trembling through the sky.
She didn’t look away. She only ran harder.
Mind-Clearing Pill on her tongue, she swallowed and forced her technique to the limit. Dan Hua guided her with clipped directions, and at last Jiang Yun Jiang caught it—pale-white mist that shouldn’t have been there, a thin seam in the world.
She plunged straight into it.
The chance was rare. Fleeting.
She had searched this area again and again and found nothing. But the moment she slipped through that white veil, the world shifted—and a small pond revealed itself, tucked away like a secret folded into space.
Dan Hua’s voice murmured at her ear. “This is what I told you. An illusion as the core, fused with a folding technique from space laws.”
“You carry Heart-Bewitching Eye. Given time, you’ll become an illusion grandmaster. This can be one path for you.”
Jiang Yun Jiang didn’t answer. She had no time.
She crushed two deep-purple pellets in her palm, ground them to powder, and flicked it into the pond—Illusion-Spirit Pill.
Then she brushed the earring on her left ear.
The artifact hummed. Her clothes, her hair ornaments, her face—her very aura—flowed and reshaped into someone else.
The pond water clouded, turning purple. Bubbles rose in a steady gurgle, as if something below were boiling.
Then the surface broke.
A dragon hatchling floated up.
It was small—barely a foot long—still soft with new life. Pure white scales carried a faint blush, and its little dragon horns were a deep green. The Illusion-Spirit powder had already dragged it under; it hung limply, unconscious.
Even asleep, it had that naturally refined aura that made people soften at first glance.
Jiang Yun Jiang did not soften.
A short bronze dagger slid into her hand.
No hesitation. No conflict.
She stabbed.
True Dragons were proud and impossibly hard to tame—endless trouble even if you succeeded. No matter how adorable this hatchling looked, it would never belong to her.
Qing Chi was different. The carp demon had been tamed long ago, a slave mark planted deep. Even if it later shed and became a dragon, it would still serve her for life.
Seize dragon blood to nourish Qing Chi—that was what she should do.
The dagger flashed—
An arrow screamed through the air.
It struck the blade with a crack of metal on metal, sparks bursting. The dagger jolted, knocked off its line, and stabbed only water.
“Who?!” Jiang Yun Jiang’s head snapped up, murderous fury in her eyes.
A middle-aged man stood at the edge of the pond, bow in hand, posture upright, expression righteous enough to carve onto a temple wall.
He raised his voice as if addressing the heavens themselves. “True Dragons, the Demon Clan, and the Human Clan respect each other! We’ve lived in harmony for thousands of years!”
Jiang Yun Jiang’s lips peeled back. “Who are you?”
“What do you mean, attacking the hatchling?” the man thundered. “Are you trying to hurt it, stir up a crisis of trust between humans and dragons, and break the friendly ties between our two races?”
He pointed an accusing finger.
“What a vicious heart—you despicable traitor!”
“We Human Clan cultivators must defend human-dragon friendship. It’s our duty!”
Inside Jiang Yun Jiang’s mind, Dan Hua’s voice cut in, cold and fast.
“Only 24 furnaces of power, yet that arrow had force. That longbow artifact’s Dao-mark restrictions have been fully refined.”
Her divine sense pressed, sharp as a blade.
“That man is the girl Shao Heng, using a disguise technique. Just like you said—her divine sense is strong enough to draw out the artifact’s full power.”
The hatchling’s eyelids twitched. The purple in the pond began to thin, the medicine’s strength fading.
Dan Hua’s tone tightened. “The moment is gone. To avoid leaving traces the White Dragon can sense, I reduced the Illusion-Spirit Pill’s potency by 80 percent from the start. It’s wearing off.”
“The hatchling is about to wake. It and the White Dragon must have a way to communicate.”
A beat.
“I’ll pour my remaining strength into you. Run—now. Avoid trouble later.”
Jiang Yun Jiang’s dagger vanished back into her sleeve. She didn’t argue. She sprang backward, fleeing in a streak of light.
Only once she burst out of the pale mist did she spit the name out in her mind, hatred finally spilling loose.
“Shao Heng… Shao Heng!”
“She recognized me. She ruined everything!”
And of course she had.
Dan Hua had burned too much divine sense breaking the White Dragon’s illusion; she couldn’t watch the surroundings anymore. Shao Heng had found the gap and forced her way in at the worst possible moment.