parentshiftbook Chapter 85: The Green Hills Remain
Chapter 85: The Green Hills Remain
"A siege?" Zhang Ping raised an eyebrow slightly, but wasn't too worried.
While being surrounded by a group of beasts might cause trouble, it wouldn't be fatal.
This was, after all, the lair of the Poison Dragon, and he had anticipated the possibility of being besieged by a large number of strange beasts before he arrived.
Zhang Ping moved his left hand away and clenched his fist upwards.
A surge of black energy erupted from this central point and rapidly spread outwards.
It was overwhelming. All the charging beasts caught in the blast were forced to stagger backward.
Beasts weaker than those at the Bone Forging Realm had their brains instantly destroyed by their blood, dying on the spot; even those at the Bone Forging Realm writhed in agony on the ground.
Only a few dragon descendants at the essence blood realm could barely put up a fight.
Seeing this, Zhang Ping made a grasping motion with his left hand, and black energy condensed into a long blade. With a flash of light, he cleaved the dragon descendants away.
On the mountaintop, the Poison Dragon witnessed this scene, his constricted pupils widening suddenly. "How is this possible? This power..."
It has lived for five hundred years and has never seen such power!
The only connection it could make was with the previous demon king, Shanze. But as far as it knew, Shanze controlled water, and could never control the blood within other living beings!
"The Prophecy Tablet!"
After the initial shock, taking advantage of Zhang Ping's distraction while dealing with the dragon descendant, the poisonous dragon immediately spat out a stone slab from its mouth.
"What is this person's background? Where does that strange power come from?"
It asked the stone slab urgently. Soon, lines of distorted characters appeared on the seemingly ordinary surface of the stone slab.
The script did not belong to any known category, yet its meaning could be directly understood by those who saw it.
This stone tablet is the Poison Dragon's greatest asset, capable of foretelling the truths of all things in the world. Those powerful beasts that try to hide in the shadows have all been tracked down by the tablet. All sorts of rare and precious treasures are also recorded on it.
Zhang Ping, a human at the Refining Realm, possessing the skill to project sword energy externally. His strength and origin are unknown.
"It's unknown?!" The Poison Dragon's pupils constricted sharply.
It looked at Zhang Ping on the mountaintop and a thought of retreating began to cross its mind.
The prophecy tablet is not omnipotent, and rarely does it handle unforeseen situations. The first instance was when inquiring about how to evolve into a pure-blooded five-clawed dragon; the tablet only vaguely pointed to the Great Realm of All Spirits, without specifying how to get there or its location.
The last time was not long ago when it attempted to predict the chaos of the Eastern Demon, but it also failed to produce any definite results, resulting in it being severely injured and forced to retreat.
"Could this person not be from the former territory of Wei and Zhao?" This thought suddenly popped into Poison Dragon's mind.
Then his resolve hardened. Yes, only in this way could he explain the mysterious power and why the prophetic stone tablet had failed.
Boom—
A thunderous roar erupted!
The mountaintop above the dragon's lair suddenly exploded, and a figure rushed over like lightning!
It was Zhang Ping who dealt with the last dragonborn and charged straight at the poison dragon!
"Huh?" Poison Dragon snapped back to his senses and instinctively sprayed a mouthful of poisonous mist at Zhang Ping.
Zhang Ping casually waved his hand, forcing the poisonous mist to swirl to both sides, and then a blade of light tore through the air and slashed down!
The Poison Dragon's face darkened as he tried to dodge, but the blood within his body surged wildly once more.
"Damn it!" Having no other choice, it could only tough it out.
*Sizzle!* Another deep, bone-revealing wound appeared on the massive dragon's body, and Zhang Ping controlled the spilled dragon blood, causing it to gather to one side.
"The Prophecy Stone Tablet, how can we resist this power?" The Poison Dragon, relying on its powerful vitality, fought Zhang Ping, though it was beaten badly.
Zhang Ping found it difficult to kill it in a short time.
Being very close, Zhang Ping noticed the stone slab next to the Poison Dragon's head. As soon as the Poison Dragon finished speaking, new characters immediately appeared on the surface of the stone slab.
He saw it all clearly.
Stabilize Qi and Blood
What is that? Some kind of mysterious weapon? A weapon spirit?
Zhang Ping frowned slightly, his mind racing.
The next moment, he felt the difficulty of controlling the blood within the poison dragon suddenly increase to a whole new level! He immediately stopped his slashing motion, clasped his hands together again, and aimed them at the massive dragon head.
"Die!"
"Roar—" The poisonous dragon let out a deafening roar, ignoring the blood seeping from its mouth, nose and huge eyes. Two violent golden beams of light shot straight at Zhang Ping from its golden vertical pupils!
Zhang Ping dodged quickly, his long sword slashing out in the process, a condensed sword aura chasing after the golden light!
Poison Dragon seemed to have anticipated the trajectory of the blade's energy and made a preemptive judgment, narrowly avoiding it.
Zhang Ping's heart stirred. While continuing to use his authority to interfere with the blood in the poison dragon's body, he swung his sword repeatedly.
But the Poison Dragon seemed to be able to foresee the future, accurately avoiding the trajectory of the sword energy each time, and using more of its power to suppress the surging blood within its body.
As they exchanged blows, the fear on the Poison Dragon's face gradually faded, replaced by a fierce glint in his eyes as he locked onto Zhang Ping.
"Human, I acknowledge your uniqueness! But this is a dragon's lair, and I am the overlord of the Western Poison Forest! No one can defy me!"
After several attacks missed, Zhang Ping frowned. He ignored the Poison Dragon's harsh words and fixed his gaze on the seemingly ordinary stone slab.
He realized that ever since the stone slab appeared, the poisonous dragon could predict his movements.
"That's interesting."
Sensing that his strength was dwindling, Zhang Ping exhaled a breath of stale air and suddenly stopped.
The venomous dragon sensed the sudden loss of control from the strange power within it, and its eyes blazed with a bloodthirsty glint. It warily eyed Zhang Ping and growled:
"I will kill you, study your corpse, and obtain that power!"
"Yeah?"
Zhang Ping chuckled softly and stood atop a dilapidated mountain peak.
A fierce wind howled high above, whipping the last remaining tattered strips of cloth covering his body.
next moment,
He slightly opened his arms and slowly raised them.
The lips opened and closed silently.
In the blink of an eye, clouds and mist rapidly converged from all directions, and the air was thick with the promise of rain.
Upon seeing his actions, the Poison Dragon's heart pounded wildly. He immediately looked down at the prophecy tablet, where the word "unknown" reappeared once more!
"That strange power again?!"
The thought had barely formed when it suddenly noticed the thick clouds and rain sweeping in from all around.
Both were atop a high mountain, almost touching the clouds. Dark clouds loomed overhead, and the stone slab could not predict Zhang Ping's intentions. Suddenly, the enormous body of the venomous dragon soared into the air.
It shot straight up into the dark clouds!
The dragon soaring through the clouds is no exaggeration. With the help of clouds and rain to conceal itself, its combat power can be greatly enhanced.
Zhang Ping couldn't help but laugh when he saw the poisonous dragon deliberately disappear into the dark clouds.
"Stupid dragon, come back here!"
Amidst surging clouds and rain, the 300-meter-long dragon body plunged into the clouds, as if a fish in water.
But at that very moment, the billions of raindrops gathering in the clouds seemed to gain consciousness and began to converge frantically! In an instant, a giant hand made of rainwater, over a hundred meters long, took shape!
Black qi and blood emanated from Zhang Ping's body, merging with the clouds and rain. The hundred-meter-long giant hand instantly turned as black as ink!
Deep within the clouds, the venomous dragon roared in fury and terror. At that moment, all its flesh and blood, including the tightly guarded interior of its head, violently surged forth!
The giant hand gripped the 300-meter-long dragon's body as if it were catching an eel!
The sea of clouds churned, and thunder roared and thunderclaped.
Zhang Ping stood calmly among them, and even when thunder occasionally flashed by, it was easily guided away by the water vapor ring surrounding him.
He lifted his foot, and the clouds and rain beneath his feet automatically condensed into steps. He stepped onto the steps one by one, until he reached the front of the enormous dragon head.
"Poison Dragon, since you know I can manipulate blood, why can't you realize that the essence I control is 'water'?"
A tiny human figure stood in mid-air before the enormous dragon head, its form insignificant yet its aura sharp and imposing.
Golden vertical pupils stared intently at him, a strong sense of resentment surging deep within their pupils, which ultimately turned into a sense of desolation.
The dragon's eyes slowly closed: "Blood is thicker than water..."
A wave of regret washed over the dragon. It had relied too much on the prophecy tablets, forgetting even this most basic common sense.
Not just the blood... Just a moment ago, all the water-related substances in its body, bone marrow, brain matter, and even urine began to slip out of its control.
The common sense of his past life, which had been forgotten due to five hundred years of erosion by bestiality, instantly resurfaced in his mind.
It should have realized this sooner... If it hadn't been lost to its animalistic instincts, how could it have ended up like this?
As the clouds and rain descended, the ruins of the dragon's lair became clearly visible in the distance. All around, endless, vast, verdant forests stretched out.
Two hundred years of living in fear, three hundred years of reigning supreme.
Sighing at his life, the Poison Dragon raised his eyes, feeling the blood being continuously drained from his body, his life force rapidly slipping away. The tightly connected prophetic stone tablets also lost their connection completely.
Sorrow arose suddenly, and all hope vanished.
Realizing the situation was hopeless, it deliberately released its final suppression of the blood. Looking at the tiny human body before it—a body it had desperately longed to possess for countless nights—the venomous dragon was filled with a myriad of emotions:
"Right and wrong, success and failure, all turn to nothing; the green hills remain, and the setting sun shines red again and again."
"Let's get started..."
Zhang Ping's calm expression flickered. This was... a Linjiangxian?
A hint of doubt and complexity flashed in his eyes. Without further hesitation, he raised his hand and destroyed the poison dragon's last chance of life.
Within the Western Poison Forest, the dragon's might dissipated.