Chapter 46: Dragon

Qin Mu reached out and caught one. He cautiously bit into it, finding it incredibly spicy, even hotter than the butcher's strong liquor. Once it reached his stomach, he felt a burning sensation, which made his vital qi unusually active.

When he activated his vital qi, he surprisingly felt a medicinal effect similar to that of a Vitality-Stabilizing Pill, capable of enhancing his vital qi cultivation. However, the improvement was not as significant as with the pill.

"Is this creature a plant or an animal?"

Qin Mu caught another one. He observed that this peculiar creature had no eyes, hands, feet, or orifices. It absorbed nutrients from moss using root-like tentacles, making it impossible for him to distinguish whether it was a plant or an animal.

He only ate one, but Hu Ling'er hopped around and ate her fill.

As they descended further, the air grew cooler. After walking an unknown distance, the gurgling sound of water reached them. A clear stream flowed down the mountain wall, ending in a pool where several large, blind fish lived, surprisingly glowing. To proceed, they had to cross this pool to reach the passage on the opposite side.

"These big fish are quite fierce; they'll pounce if they hear a sound, and they're powerful!"

Hu Ling'er whispered, "I'll throw a stone to distract the fish, and we'll seize the chance to rush across!" With that, she picked up a stone with her paw and threw it forcefully.

The stone hit the wall, and with a splash, the blind fish in the pool burst through the water's surface. Their tails thrashed in mid-air, and their four fins spread like wide wings as they whizzed towards the source of the sound!

"Quick, let's go!"

Hu Ling'er led the way, and Qin Mu hastily ran along the pool towards the opposite side. In his rush, the young man heard several loud thuds as the strange fish slammed into the stone wall, opening their massive jaws to bite out several large holes!

The incredibly hard mountain rock seemed like tofu in their mouths. If they bit a person, the consequences would be unimaginable!

Just as the boy and the fox reached the opposite bank, the strange fish suddenly heard their footsteps. They vibrated their fins, turned around, and flew towards them!

"Young Master, follow me!"

Hu Ling'er darted into the passage on the opposite side, and Qin Mu quickly followed. The passage was narrow. The large fish behind them couldn't fly once they reached the entrance, but they used their four fins as legs and chased after Qin Mu and the little fox, rushing wildly through the passage!

"Are these even fish?"

Qin Mu's scalp tingled as he followed Hu Ling'er closely. The strange fish chased them for a while but couldn't keep up. One by one, they slowly retreated from the passage and submerged back into the pool.

Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. The path ahead gradually widened. After exiting a trumpet-shaped cave, shimmering sunlight suddenly streamed down. Qin Mu looked up and was stunned.

Above him, vast waters flowed, and schools of fish swam overhead. He also saw giant golden turtles, large fish the size of small boats, and enormous river beasts.

A large fish spotted Qin Mu and the little fox and became excited, opening its massive mouth and lunging towards them. However, it collided with an invisible water wall and bounced back.

The fish shook its head, seemingly puzzled, and swam away, wagging its tail.

"The Surging River! We're at the bottom of the Surging River!"

Qin Mu's expression was strange. "The Surging River is right above us, and the water hasn't fallen down to flood this place..."

He looked ahead, his heart trembling. Dragon pillars appeared before him, thick and dozens of feet tall, standing majestically on the riverbed. The tops of the pillars touched the river water. The ground beneath their feet was paved with white jade, and a path stretched forward, flanked by numerous dragon pillars. After walking a hundred feet or so, a sprawling complex of palaces emerged.

These dragon pillars surrounded the palace complex. They must have supported the river water, preventing it from flooding this area.

However, many of the palaces had already collapsed. There must have been a drastic change here that turned it into ruins.

Hu Ling'er hopped over to the ruins of a palace. Qin Mu saw a mottled mural on a half-collapsed wall, depicting a dragon-headed elder hosting a banquet. The guests of this dragon-headed elder were strange and varied creatures: an old man with a turtle shell, a snake-tailed woman, a monk, and even humans.

*Crash.*

A pillar toppled over, narrowly missing Qin Mu and the little fox.

Hu Ling'er went into the half-collapsed hall and said, "This is where I found those ancient texts."

Qin Mu approached. In the dilapidated hall, there was a hidden stone chamber built into the wall. The stone door had fallen, revealing the chamber to Hu Ling'er.

The stone chamber was empty; its contents had presumably been moved by Hu Ling'er.

"If we go any further, there will be great danger!"

Hu Ling'er pointed nervously at a towering gateway ahead. "It's terrifying!"

Qin Mu looked at the gateway. Beyond it, a palace appeared faintly, seemingly intact and not collapsed. However, strangely, it seemed veiled in a layer of mist, making it impossible to discern what was inside. The palace appeared to float in the mist, visible yet indistinct.

"There's something terrifying in there..."

Hu Ling'er's voice trembled slightly. "Once you get to the gateway, you'll feel its aura, and then you'll go weak and won't be able to stand up..."

Qin Mu walked forward, with Hu Ling'er boldly following behind him. As they reached the gateway, Qin Mu suddenly felt an overwhelmingly powerful aura of malevolence wash over him, causing alarm and shivers. It was as if, in broad daylight, half the sky had suddenly been covered by dark clouds pressing down, lying before him, and within those black clouds, an incredibly vast and terrifying beast was watching him!

A sacred, solemn, and inviolable yet simultaneously fierce and monstrous beast — this was the great terror Hu Ling'er had spoken of!

Qin Mu took a deep breath, steadied himself, and his mind returned to normal.

"Divine Heaven's Eye, open!"

In his pupils, vital qi patterns intertwined, forming another layer of eye patterns, allowing him to peer into the mist behind the gateway.

Beside him, the white fox had already gone limp, sprawling on the ground with her belly pressed down, slowly and laboriously trying to turn around and crawl back the way they came.

Qin Mu picked her up. The limp white fox mumbled, "Don't grab me, I'm going to die, my heart is pounding so hard..."

"You're not dying. The thing in this dragon palace is dead."

Qin Mu chuckled, "Guess what I saw?"

Hu Ling'er didn't answer. Her four limbs slowly moved in the air, and her tail swayed back and forth, as if she was trying to crawl away, unwilling to stay there for another moment.

Qin Mu chuckled, "I saw the Dragon King of the Surging River!"

"Ah—"

The little white fox sighed softly, then fainted, her four legs stiff and straight. Qin Mu waited a moment, then the little white fox secretly opened one eye and furtively looked around twice. Qin Mu probed, "The Dragon King of the Surging River."

Hu Ling'er's four legs stiffened even more, and her eyes closed again.

"The Dragon King of the Surging River is dead."

Qin Mu was caught between laughter and tears. "Only his bones are left. This Dragon King has been dead for who knows how many years; I saw his dragon bones in the mist."

Hu Ling'er quickly opened her eyes. "Dead?"

Qin Mu nodded. "You can relax now. Shall we go in together?"

Hu Ling'er shook her head frantically. Qin Mu, helpless, had to put her down, only to see the white fox still weakly crawling away with her belly to the ground. Qin Mu picked her up again, placed her on his shoulder, and stepped towards the gateway. The white fox was incredibly tense, her white fur bristling. Her claws gripped Qin Mu's shoulder tightly, and her eyes were wide with terror as she stared ahead, too afraid to even twitch.

As Qin Mu walked into the mist, Hu Ling'er clung even tighter, her fluffy tail standing perfectly straight.

The mist was thick and had lingered for years, yet strangely, upon entering it, he felt no dampness. As Qin Mu walked through it, he saw tiny water droplets suspended in the fog, floating silently and motionless.

Then, in the mist, he also saw many shattered jade pieces floating in the air. Besides these, there were fragments of spirit weapons and incomplete bones, all suspended motionless as if weightless. When he had looked from outside the gateway, he had only seen the dragon bones, not these other items.

"There must have been a fierce war here, so intense that even the remains of powerful experts and spirit weapons were shattered! What exactly happened here? Did it occur before or after the Great Ruins catastrophe?"

Qin Mu suddenly felt a sharp pain on his scalp. Hu Ling'er, terrified by a skull floating before them, had jumped onto his head, gripping his scalp tightly, her back arched high.

The white fox shivered, causing Qin Mu's scalp to tremble as well.

"A dragon—"

The white fox shrieked, rapidly moving from Qin Mu's head to cling to his back, her four paws gripping his waist tightly, making it look as if Qin Mu was carrying a white backpack.