The Dragon

Blessings

Gu Fuyou walked to Zhenmao with the cub in her arms and gently placed it on the grass.

Zhenmao extended its vivid red tongue to lick the cub from head to tail, then emitted two mournful cries. A tear fell from the corner of its eye as its pupils dilated, and it dropped its head to the ground, falling silent forever.

The cub, still with its eyes closed, was clumsy, scrambling its limbs and crawling like a baby turtle, it seemed to sense something and began to cry out.

The sound was similar to before – high-pitched like a kitten’s mew, but this time it carried an additional undertone of desolation and helplessness.

Gu Fuyou’s heart tightened, her breath catching in her throat. She glanced at the lifeless Zhenmao, her eyes downcast. Picking up the cub, she cradled it in her arms, her thumb stroking the back of its neck. Her voice was low and husky, filled with sadness. “Poor thing, born into this world only to lose its mother…”

Zhong Michu noticed that something was off and asked, “Gu Fuyou?”

Gu Fuyou paused for a moment before turning around, her face still adorned with a bright smile. Holding the cub by its belly, she asked, “Senior Sister Zhong, can I keep it?”

Zhong Michu observed her for a while but didn’t notice anything unusual. Eventually, she replied, “You can.”

Now that the adult Zhenmao was dead, leaving this cub alone in Xian Luo would inevitably result in it becoming prey to other spirit beasts.

Moreover, once in Xianluo, any spirit beast caught on one’s own strength could be kept, and since Gu Fuyou had helped deliver this Zhenmao cub, it could be considered fate. How she wanted to deal with it didn’t actually need Zhong Michu’s permission.

Holding the cub, Gu Fuyou brought it in front of the Zhenmao, allowing it to feed and fill its belly with milk, and she washed her hands in a puddle of rainwater next to the Zhenmao.

Once the cub was satiated, Gu Fuyou stood up, holding it by its front paws and said, “I’ll give you a name.”

“May you be blessed with good fortune, so from now on, I’ll call you Ah Fu…”

Before she could finish, she suddenly heard Zhong Michu shouting, “Gu Fuyou!”

Zhong Michu’s speech was always steady, and this was the first time Gu Fuyou heard her call out in such a sharp, urgent tone.

Before Gu Fuyou could react, she suddenly felt lighter.

Startled, Gu Fuyou looked back, meeting the eyes of a beast. It turned out the Wind Beast wasn’t fully dead. Hanging on to its last breath, it had a moment of resurgence, flapping its wings and rising into the air, grabbing Gu Fuyou with its claws.

Facing a Hallow Void Stage spirit beast was truly terrifying, and Gu Fuyou stiffened, forgetting even to struggle.

Watching the Wind Beast rise into the air, Gu Fuyou came back to her senses and shouted urgently, “Senior Sister Zhong!”

Zhong Michu looked up just in time to see a grey shadow being tossed from Gu Fuyou’s hands. She caught it—it was Ah Fu, whom Gu Fuyou had thrown down.

With Ah Fu cradled in one arm, Zhong Michu summoned Gengchen, riding her sword to give chase.

Though the Wind Beast was injured, it was still a creature of the Hallow Void Stage and could ascend four thousand kilometers in a straight flight, moving extremely fast.

Zhong Michu pursued on her sword but could only see a shadow from a distance.

Gu Fuyou, caught in the beast’s claws, was momentarily stunned with fear. Despite her attempts to stay calm, the cold wind eventually forced her to regain her composure.

She had no talismans on hand, and using her spiritual energy to fight back would be like an ant trying to shake a tree. She struggled a few times, but the claws gripping her waist didn’t budge.

Desperately craning her neck to look behind, she saw no sign of Zhong Michu. She raised her hand to call for help but then let it fall.

Zhong Michu was only at the Golden Core stage. Encountering this Wind Beast would be like Gu Fuyou facing Zhong Michu—utterly powerless to fight back. Even if Zhong Michu understood the way of beast taming, in the face of such an absolute gap in cultivation, those skills would be of little use.

If fate meant for her to die here, summoning Zhong Michu would be pointless. Zhong Michu wouldn’t stand a chance against the Wind Beast and might even lose her life in the process. Why risk it?

As she felt trapped and desperate, her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of something. On closer inspection, she noticed four deep wounds in the Wind Beast’s belly, piercing through its flesh. Through the flesh and blood, she could faintly make out a luminous, pearly white bead nestled deep inside.

It was the Wind Beast’s core!

She had braved the danger to get close to these two dying spirit beasts for this very thing.

Gu Fuyou rallied her spirit, instantly snapping back into action.

The Wind Beast was gravely wounded. Its belly, ripped open by Zhenmao’s claw, exposed the core, completely unguarded.

Gu Fuyou reached out, trying to grab the core, but it was too far away. Even stretching as far as she could, she could only brush the edge of the beast’s belly. She struggled in the grasp of the Wind Beast, wishing her arms were much longer.

Suddenly, an idea struck her. She opened her storage bag and took out the sword embryo from the corner.

Grasping one end of the sword embryo, she took a deep breath. She had to strike swiftly and decisively while the beast was unaware. If it discovered her, she would be crushed to death.

Focusing her energy, a glint of determination flashed in her eyes. With a lightning-fast strike, the sword embryo plunged into the Wind Beast’s body, staying beside the core.

As Gu Fuyou tried to extract the Wind Beast’s core…

The Wind Beast let out a painful cry, clearly sensing her actions. The beast tightened its grip, its already razor-sharp claws digging deeper into Gu Fuyou’s shoulder, causing blood to flow freely.

For some unknown reason, the beast suddenly went berserk, unleashing a deafening roar that seemed to shake the heavens.

Gu Fuyou felt the pressure intensify, nearly suffocating her. The roar reverberated through her chest, sending a tingling numbness through her body.

Fear struck her heart, but she retorted, “You, you, you, think you’re the only one who can scream?”

“AAAAHHHH!” She unleashed a primal scream of her own, matching the Wind Beast’s ferocity. It was partly to bolster her courage, partly to help her exert force. Channeling all her spiritual energy into the sword embryo, she pulled back with all her might.

Finally, the sword embryo managed to pry out the core. The luminous, milky-white core flew into the air, trailing a streak of blood.

Gu Fuyou swiftly reached out with her left hand, just barely managing to grasp it. At that moment, she felt herself plummeting downwards.

The Wind Beast, already at its limit, had lost its final breath with the core gone. Now truly dead, its body began to fall.

As its claws loosened their grip, Gu Fuyou fell free.

“Nanzhu Jun! AAAHHHH!” She had no spiritual energy left to summon help and could only scream.

Zhong Michu was already rushing towards her. Midway there, Gengchen suddenly stopped, refusing to move forward no matter how much she urged it.

Gengchen had sensed a powerful, unfathomable force ahead, one that sent chills down its spine. It wasn’t emanating from the Wind Beast, but from somewhere below. Gengchen refused to let her go any closer.

Zhong Michu had sensed it too, but seeing Gu Fuyou plummeting, she had no time for hesitation.

Zhong Michu dismissed Gengchen and flew on her own. As she looked down, she saw a mountain peak below her.

This peak was strange. The mountain rocks were pitch black, and not a trace of green could be seen on its surface, as if no living thing existed there. At the top of the mountain, a faint glimpse of a blue crystalline object could be seen, looking much like ice.

The closer Zhong Michu got to the mountain, the more she felt her spiritual energy being suppressed. She could barely maintain her position in the wind.

By the time she caught Gu Fuyou, they were already close to the mountain peak.

Zhong Michu’s spiritual power was suppressed to its limit, and the wind was too weak to support both of them. They fell through the large hole at the peak.

Fortunately, Zhong Michu was skilled in both internal and external cultivation. Even with her spiritual energy restricted, her physical strength remained. Holding Gu Fuyou’s waist with one hand and Ah Fu with the other, she used the cliff walls to break their fall, landing safely on the ground.

This sudden descent from the clouds startled Gu Fuyou so much that when her feet touched the ground, her legs gave out, and she knelt on the ground, leaning on the sword embryo.

“You’re injured.”

Gu Fuyou clutched her shoulder. The Wind Beast’s sharp claws had left a deep gash, and blood was already flowing down her arm, staining the sword embryo in her hand and dripping onto the ground, forming a tiny, winding river of red.

“It’s nothing, just some superficial wound. Senior Sister Zhong, are you alright?”

Gu Fuyou looked up to see Zhong Michu crouching beside her. “Give me your hand,” Zhong Michu said, “Let me stop the bleeding.”

Gu Fuyou extended her clean hand. Zhong Michu pressed their palms together, transferring some of her spiritual energy. Though it wasn’t enough to heal Gu Fuyou’s wound completely, it did stop the bleeding.

Ah Fu, who was nestled in Zhong Michu’s arm, suddenly slid off but was quickly caught by Gu Fuyou’s swift reflexes.

Landing on Gu Fuyou’s injured arm, Ah Fu, still with its eyes closed, sniffed around like a little mouse. It extended its pinkish tongue and licked the blood off Gu Fuyou’s hand clean.

Tickled by the sensation, Gu Fuyou laughed and scolded, “You little glutton, you just had ate!”

Zhong Michu glanced at the cub. The little Zhenmao, now full and content, snuggled into Gu Fuyóu’s embrace and settled down.

As the bleeding on Gu Fuyou’s shoulder subsided, Zhong Michu withdrew her hand and rose to her feet.

Gu Fuyou also stood, looking up at the cave ceiling which was about 30 meters high. “Senior Sister Zhong, can you… get us up there?”

Gu Fuyou too had noticed the strange nature of their surroundings. Earlier, when Zhong Michu had been unable to support both of them with the wind, it was clearly due to the suppression of spiritual energy.

Zhong Michu shook her head. Gu Fuyou suggested, “Then we must find another way out.”

The area was filled with an eerie, gloomy aura, making it unsuitable for a prolonged stay. Without wasting any more time, the two of them began searching for an exit.

The walls of the cave were not made of rock but a thick layer of solid ice, the source of the blue and white colors Zhong Michu had seen from the sky.

There were about a dozen passages of varying sizes where they stood, all dark and still, leading into the unknown. Though they needed to find an exit, they had no idea which way to go.

Zhong Michu stood in front of a cave entrance and said, “There’s a breeze here. Let’s try this way.”

Gu Fuyou walked over, circling around to feel for the air current, but was met with confusion. “What breeze…?”

Despite not sensing any wind, she simply assumed her cultivation level was inferior to Zhong Michu’s and thus she couldn’t detect it.

They eventually entered through that opening. The passage was deep and dimly lit. Zhong Michu conjured a ball of flame in her hand to illuminate their path.

The passage twisted and turned, making it impossible to keep track of their direction. However, they could sense they were descending deeper. After an indeterminate amount of time, the path ahead suddenly opened up.

Gu Fuyou glanced ahead and remarked, “It’s a dead end!”

The place was strange. The walls were smooth and even, the ground comprised of three tiered platforms, seemingly crafted by hand. Their path was blocked by a thick wall of ice.

They approached the wall. Gu Fuyóu ran her fingers over the ice, then knocked on it. It emitted a dull thud, indicating considerable thickness, likely impossible to break.

Just as they were resigning themselves to a blocked passage, a tremor ran through the corridor. Gu Fuyou instinctively took two steps back.

With a loud cracking sound, the ice wall before them split open, revealing a passage beyond. What blocked their path was a massive ice door.

Zhong Michu remarked, “The wind is coming from the other side. The exit must be there.”

Gu Fuyóu caught a glimpse of what lay beyond the ice door and frowned. “Senior Sister Zhong, this place feels… off. We should…”

Though instinct screamed danger, urging her to retreat, her body moved forward of its own accord.

Zhong Michu felt the same compulsion. Both of them stepped through the opening, their movements involuntary.

Only when the massive ice door slammed shut behind them with a resounding boom did they snap back to awareness.

Translation notes:

Ah Fu (阿福) – ‘Ah’ (阿) is used as a prefix to indicate familiarity, affection, or endearment. ‘Fu’ (福) means ‘fortune’ or ‘blessing.’ The name ‘Ah Fu’ can be loosely translated to ‘Little Blessing.’