Three days had passed, and Xiao Chen’s wounds were healing swiftly. In another six or seven days, he would be fully recovered.
At dusk, firelight flickered among the trees. The rabbit skewered on a bamboo spit had turned golden and crisp, fat sizzling and popping as it dripped into the flames. Sea salt had long since been rubbed evenly into the meat, and the tantalizing aroma curled through the forest.
Using a bamboo knife, he carved the golden rabbit on a shell plate, washed and sliced various wild fruits he had gathered, arranged several fruit platters, and poured himself a bamboo cup of coconut milk. He began his evening meal. The tender, succulent rabbit meat filled his mouth with fragrance, and with the sweet, crisp wild fruits, his appetite was sharp.
The sunset colors faded; nightfall came. But the seaside did not grow quiet; instead, the noise swelled.
Since dusk, the Eight-Armed Malignant Dragon had been growling low by the shore, and now its roars were deafening, shaking the emerald sea and rattling the mountain forest. Its fury was terrifying.
Even when the sky was thick with stars, the ancient beast still bellowed without pause—utterly unlike its usual self. Xiao Chen was deeply astonished. Drawn by the heavy, grinding dragon roar, he walked through the moonlight to the coconut grove by the sea.
The Eight-Armed Malignant Dragon was fifty meters long, its entire body gleaming silver like a mountain range of metal. With its razor-sharp horn, the rows of bone spines standing erect on its back, and eight giant claws glinting coldly, it was a spectacle of sheer ferocity and malevolence.
By now, the thunderous roars had gradually died down. The ancient beast had clearly thrashed violently across the beach, leaving the sand pitted with craters and gashed with enormous, terrifying trenches.
Xiao Chen’s gaze was riveted.
On the sand beside the dragon, a holy, iridescent glow shimmered. Peering closely, he saw that they were two dragon eggs—each the size of a millstone, their shells lustrous as jade, radiating brilliant light.
The ancient beast had laid eggs!
Xiao Chen was astonished. He now understood why the dragon had behaved so strangely.
The Eight-Armed Malignant Dragon dug a large pit in the sand, carefully buried the two eggs inside, and after midnight, the seaside finally grew quiet.
The sky was filled with stars, dazzling and magnificent.
Returning to his dwelling by the small lake, Xiao Chen cultivated for two hours, then entered his bamboo hut, which still smelled of grass and wood, and slowly drifted to sleep on the bamboo bed.
Most of each day he spent training, for he knew—whether in the mortal world or here in the unknown World of Immortality—only by making himself truly strong could he hope to survive.
Dawn came. Tides rose and fell, waves crashed.
The ancient beast had been gone for some time. Xiao Chen dug open the pit on the beach, and a dazzling radiance burst forth. The two millstone-sized dragon eggs lay revealed.
Their shells were crystalline and translucent, as if carved from the finest mutton-fat jade, glowing with a supernatural silver light.
Dragon eggs—he had only ever heard of them in legends!
Now, they lay before his very eyes.
He struck one egg with his palm. Silver light flickered; the egg remained unharmed. Surprised, Xiao Chen struck again with greater force. With a sharp crack, a large fissure appeared in the jade-like shell.
He felt no guilt. According to legend, the dragons that could contend with sea gods were the most savage rulers of the deep, tearing apart countless living things every day.
The crystalline shell finally split open, and a brilliant silver radiance flooded out. The egg white spilled onto the sand and quickly seeped away, revealing the core—a silver ‘yolk’ that shimmered with flowing light, the source of that brilliant glow.
A faint, ethereal dragon roar entered Xiao Chen’s ears. To his astonishment, a wisp of silver light rose from the egg—a miniature dragon, claws bared, filled with an intensely strong life force.
This was the essence of the dragon’s primal life.
Without hesitation, he swallowed the silver light. Instantly, he felt as if his soul were about to ignite—a surging, torrential wave of life force rampaged inside him.
The eggs laid by an ancient beast contained unimaginably potent life energy, for they were meant to hatch a ferocious dragon. The innate life essence was boundless.
Xiao Chen’s entire body was enveloped in a mist of silver light, like blazing flames. That was the egg’s quintessence—endless life force. His body became almost transparent; faintly visible within, a silver dragon sank into his qi sea.
As if summoned, the remaining dragon essence from the cracked egg gathered toward his body, seeking to merge with the dragon silhouette 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 that had forever suppressed the Yellow River manifested in his heart, and the Heaven-Bestowed Qi Refining Diagram began to circulate on its own. Enduring immense pain, Xiao Chen observed the strange phenomenon within him: the dragon silhouette was slowly being refined!
Half a day later, the dancing light flames outside his body finally receded. The silver dragon inside him had vanished, transforming into a pinpoint of silver light no larger than a grain of rice, settling in the Shangqiu acupoint of his left foot.
The Shangqiu acupoint lies in the depression below the front of the ankle. The silver light halted there, making that acupoint seem divinely transformed, shining like a single lantern in the dark night compared to the others.
Another two hours passed. Xiao Chen opened his eyes. Though he had consumed a legendary dragon egg, his cultivation had not advanced by a single iota. He pondered. The vast dragon essence had condensed into just a silver speck, fixed in the Shangqiu acupoint. This was one of the body’s 365 standard acupoints. If every acupoint were to be anchored by such a luminous pearl, what transformation would occur?
The red sun had already sunk in the west. From the depths of the sea came dragon roars. The calm ocean was parted into a waterway, white waves rolling to either side. Clearly, the ancient beast was cleaving through the waves, returning.
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