Three days had passed in the blink of an eye. Xiao Chen’s wounds healed swiftly; in another six or seven days, he would be fully recovered.
At dusk, flames leaped among the trees. The wild rabbit skewered on a bamboo sword had been roasted to a golden, glistening perfection. Drops of fat hissed as they fell onto the fire. Sea salt had long since seeped evenly into the meat, and a tantalizing aroma drifted through the grove.
Using a bamboo knife, Xiao Chen carved the golden rabbit on a clam-shell plate, then washed and sliced various wild fruits, arranging several platters. He poured a cup of coconut juice and began his evening meal. The tender, succulent rabbit meat filled his mouth with fragrance; paired with the sweet and crisp wild fruits, it greatly sharpened his appetite.
The sunset glow faded, and night descended. But the seaside did not grow quiet. In fact, the noise grew louder.
Since dusk, the Eight-Armed Malignant Dragon had been lowing inexplicably along the shore. Now it erupted into ear-splitting roars that shook the azure sea and made the mountain forest tremble—a scene of terrifying grandeur.
By the time the sky blazed with countless stars, the primeval savage beast still howled ceaselessly at the beach, utterly unlike its usual behavior. Greatly intrigued, Xiao Chen was drawn by the dull dragon roars. In the moonlight, he made his way to the coconut grove by the sea.
The fifty-meter-long Eight-Armed Malignant Dragon gleamed silver all over, like a mountain range cast of silver. With its razor-sharp single horn, the bone spikes bristling along its spine, and eight icy claws that flashed cold light, it was the very image of ferocity and malignancy.
Now the thunderous roars gradually subsided. The ancient beast seemed to have thrashed violently across this stretch of sand, leaving the beach pitted and scarred with deep, terrifying gullies.
Xiao Chen’s gaze was riveted.
Beside the dragon, on the sand, a holy, iridescent glow flickered. Peering closely, he realized they were two dragon eggs! Each the size of a millstone, their shells were crystal-clear like jade, radiating a brilliant, colored light.
The ancient evil dragon had laid eggs!
Xiao Chen was astonished. He finally understood why the beast had been so agitated.
The Eight-Armed Malignant Dragon dug a large pit in the sand, carefully buried the two eggs inside, and then, late into the night, the seaside finally fell silent.
Stars filled the sky, magnificent and gorgeous.
Returning to his dwelling by the small lake, Xiao Chen meditated for two hours, then entered the bamboo hut that exuded the fresh scent of grass and wood, and slowly drifted into sleep on the bamboo bed.
Most of each day he spent cultivating, for he knew—whether in the mortal world or in this unknown World of Immortality—only by growing strong enough could he survive.
Morning came. The tide rose and fell in rhythmic waves.
The ancient beast, the Eight-Armed Malignant Dragon, had been gone for some time. Xiao Chen dug open the large pit on the beach, and a brilliant radiance burst forth. The two millstone-sized dragon eggs emerged.
The shells were crystalline and translucent, as if carved from the finest mutton-fat jade, shimmering with a divine silver light.
Dragon eggs—things that had only ever appeared in legends!
And now they lay truly before Xiao Chen’s eyes.
He struck one egg with his palm. Silver light flickered; the egg was undamaged. Surprised, Xiao Chen intensified his strike. With a crisp crack, a large fissure appeared on the shell, like jade.
Xiao Chen felt no guilt. Legends said that the evil dragon, able to contend with the Sea God, was the most ferocious dominator of the ocean, tearing apart countless living creatures every day.
The crystalline dragon egg finally broke open, and silver light blazed dazzlingly within. The egg white spilled across the sand, quickly seeping in, revealing the core—a silvery “yolk” that shimmered with flowing light, the source of the brilliant radiance.
A faint, distant dragon roar reached Xiao Chen’s ears. To his astonishment, a streak of silver light rose from the egg—a miniature dragon, claws bared and tail thrashing, exuding an extremely intense wave of life essence.
This was the very quintessence of dragon yuan!
Without hesitation, he swallowed the ball of silver light. In an instant, Xiao Chen felt as if his soul were about to catch fire. A surging, overwhelming tide of life energy rampaged through his body!
The dragon egg born of an ancient beast contained unimaginably powerful life force—after all, it would one day hatch into a ferocious dragon. Its innate life essence was beyond abundant.
Xiao Chen’s entire body became wreathed in silver light, like blazing flames—the essence of the dragon egg, limitless life essence. His body grew nearly translucent; faintly, one could see a silver dragon sinking into his sea of qi.
As if summoned, the remaining dragon yuan from the broken egg coalesced toward Xiao Chen, seeking to merge with the dragon shadow inside him.
Xiao Chen felt as if his body were about to shatter, his soul and flesh on the verge of collapse!
At that moment, the ancient stele inscribed with “Ever-Pacify the Yellow River” manifested in his heart, and the Heaven-Bestowed Qi-Refining Diagram activated on its own. Enduring immense agony, Xiao Chen watched a strange phenomenon unfold within him: the dragon shadow was slowly being refined!
After most of the day had passed, the dancing flames around his body finally began to subside. The silver dragon within him vanished, reduced to a tiny silver light point the size of a grain of rice, settling into the Shangqiu acupoint of his left foot.
The Shangqiu acupoint lies in the depression below the front of the ankle. The silver light point anchored itself there, making that acupoint seem divinely transformed—a bright lamp in the darkness compared to the others.
Two more hours passed. Xiao Chen opened his eyes. Although he had consumed a legendary dragon egg, his cultivation had not advanced by even a hair. He fell into thought. The vast dragon yuan essence had condensed into just a single silver light point, fixed in the Shangqiu acupoint. This was one of the three hundred and sixty-five principal acupoints of the human body. If every main acupoint were to hold such a light pearl, what transformation would that bring?
The red sun was already sinking in the west. From deep in the ocean came a series of dragon roars. The calm sea split into a channel, white waves rolling to either side—clearly the ancient beast was coming, surging through the waves.
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