Chapter 184: Chapter 184: Special Life Form: Red Blood Dragon
"Break!" Tang Qing growled, and the bottleneck in his Taiyin Refining Technique shattered under the force of his assault.
He had successfully broken through to the sixth level, a stage unrecorded in the technique’s manuals.
At the same time, both his attributes began to increase dramatically, only stopping after they had soared to 8 points.
’Even if the Twelve Venerables joined forces against me now, they would be no match for me.’
’Unfortunately, this "Death of Cold Energy" limited-time event has affected my combat power.’
Tang Qing’s joy quickly faded. It had taken him ten days to refine the pure Cold Energy and advance to the next level.
But the limited-time event wouldn’t wait ten days for him. If he hadn’t broken through when he did, in another five days, the Cold Energy in the environment would have diminished so much that he likely would have never had another chance to reach the sixth level.
After breaking through to the sixth level, he formed a faint, indistinct connection with some mysterious existence in the distant sky.
"Is that you? Taiyin Celestial Monarch?" Tang Qing murmured softly.
He had a strange intuition that if he could kill this entity, his Taiyin Refining Technique would break through to the seventh level.
And that wasn’t even the limit. The strange feeling told him the Taiyin Refining Technique should have nine levels in total.
Aside from killing the Taiyin Celestial Monarch to end "The Death of Cold Energy," which would allow a direct breakthrough to the seventh level, the secrets to the final two levels were likely hidden within the Cold Energy Source.
"To think you actually used my corpse to successfully break through to the sixth level. As expected of the fated one. Such talent... it truly puts me to shame."
Suddenly, a sound like rushing wind whispered in Tang Qing’s ear, the gusts coalescing into a complete sentence.
In an instant, all of Tang Qing’s muscles tensed as he warily scanned his surroundings.
The connection he had established was not one-way; it was mutual.
And the other party could communicate directly with him through it.
"I can’t believe you’re not actually dead. The sudden disappearance of the Cold Energy... that was your doing, wasn’t it?" Tang Qing confirmed the entity wasn’t physically nearby, but was merely communicating through their connection.
Even so, Tang Qing didn’t let his guard down.
This was not a good thing, as far as he was concerned. He had no desire to be linked to an enigmatic enemy.
As for his earlier murmur? It had been nothing more than a guess; he hadn’t actually expected a response.
"What do you think?" the windy voice responded again. "It’s a pity I can’t reach your location right now. It’s the only thing stopping me from giving in to the urge to crush you."
"But no matter. In twenty days, I will come for you. I’ll make your death... relatively painless."
"And I will gladly take your body for myself."
"I will use your name, Tang Qing, and your body to rebuild the glorious reputation of the Taiyin Celestial Monarch."
The voice spoke as if possessed, spilling everything to Tang Qing without reservation.
Tang Qing was stunned for a moment, but he quickly realized this must be the effect of his SSS-rank talent, Celestial Mandate: Taiyin.
Otherwise, there was no way the entity would be so forthcoming.
This was his first time experiencing such an effect, and it was admittedly a bit unsettling.
Fortunately, he had firm control over himself and wasn’t worried about revealing any weaknesses of his own.
"So, you’re not the real Taiyin Celestial Monarch either. In that case, you’re... the Red Dragon!" A sharp glint flashed in Tang Qing’s eyes.
When considering beings inextricably linked to the Taiyin Celestial Monarch, the most obvious was the Red Dragon Corpse from the bottom of Longling Lake on Celestial Pillar Mountain.
Coupled with its non-human nature, its connection to the Taiyin Refining Technique, and its talk of taking his identity, Tang Qing made a bold hypothesis and decided to test it directly.
"Hahaha, you’re not the first person to guess my identity."
"Quite a few ’fated ones’ like you have pieced together the clues and deduced my identity right before their deaths."
"But what does it matter? They all became my sustenance in the end."
This time, a clear arrogance could be heard in the windy voice. The entity didn’t care at all that Tang Qing had discovered its identity.
After all, Tang Qing wasn’t the first, and he might not even be the last.
Tang Qing’s expression remained unchanged as he quickly reviewed his own situation. ’If it weren’t for the Doomsday Game,’ he thought, ’I really would have followed in the footsteps of those so-called ’fated ones’ before me.’
He suspected that this "fate" was a reference to his SSS-rank talent, Celestial Mandate: Taiyin.
It was just that his ’predecessors’ didn’t have the Doomsday Game to help activate it, leaving the talent in a dormant state, unable to unleash its full effect.
He was different. With the help of the Doomsday Game, he had been able to activate it successfully.
"It’s not yet certain who will win or lose. Right now, you’re nothing but a dog without a home," Tang Qing began to taunt the entity, hoping he could trick it into coming to him.
"What a clumsy attempt to provoke me." This time, the voice was laced with mockery. "Do you think I don’t know what you’re planning?"
Tang Qing immediately understood. The entity couldn’t extricate itself at the moment. Even if its consciousness was willing, interrupting whatever it was doing would result in a massive loss.
"Sounds to me like you’re just scared," Tang Qing continued.
’This is a rare opportunity,’ he thought. ’Ruining its plan would be best, but even if I can’t, I can at least dig up some intel.’
"You should be thinking about how you’re going to face me in twenty days, when you have no more Cold Energy."
"Perhaps if you kneel and beg for mercy, and offer to be my dog, I might consider letting you live."
The goading was indeed clumsy. The entity was clearly angry, but it didn’t for a second consider disrupting its own plans out of rage.
The SSS-rank Celestial Mandate: Taiyin had a limited intelligence-lowering effect; it couldn’t actually reduce the enemy to a complete idiot.
Realizing this, Tang Qing understood how difficult it would be to lure the entity over and decided to give up on that line of attack.
He then switched tactics, taking advantage of the connection to pry a good deal of information from his foe.
However, as time passed, the entity evidently realized Tang Qing’s objective and soon stopped divulging any more intelligence.
Left with no other choice, Tang Qing blocked the connection between them.
The link was, after all, two-way. He hadn’t known what to do with it at first, but with a bit of probing, he had naturally figured out a few ways to manipulate the connection.
Blocking it was one such method.
’The reason I’m connected to the Red Dragon is probably because I used the Cold Energy from its body to break through to the sixth level of the Taiyin Refining Technique.’
’And those ’predecessors’ were devoured by the Red Dragon, most likely because they, like me, had sought out the Red Dragon Pearl.’
’The Red Dragon Pearl is probably just poisoned bait. Whoever takes it dies.’
’But pure Cold Energy is indispensable for breaking through to the sixth level. It’s only because I accidentally killed the Taiyin Celestial Monarch that I didn’t need the Red Dragon Pearl.’
’But the problem now is that the Red Dragon Corpse and Red Dragon Pearl from the bottom of Longling Lake on Celestial Pillar Mountain are in the hands of the Violator. Could this allow the Red Dragon to possess him?’
This was Tang Qing’s main concern. If the Red Dragon took over the Violator’s body, it would be a massive problem.
He could assume the Violator was weaker than him, but if the Violator and the Red Dragon merged into one, he would be completely outmatched.
After his Taiyin Refining Technique reached the sixth level, the Violator was already doomed to be no match for him.
His only true enemy was the Red Dragon.
"Not a single one of them lets me rest easy!" Tang Qing rubbed his temples and glanced at the survivor count.
If things continued like this, every survivor besides him would be wiped out.
Tang Qing knew this wasn’t a good thing. What if the Doomsday Game replenished the survivor pool with humans from other worlds?
It wouldn’t be easy for the remnants of their group to integrate into a new social circle.
More likely, they would be ostracized and suppressed.
There was no guarantee the newcomers would accept them. Moreover, he could faintly sense that once they left this world, without the Cold Energy, everyone’s strength would plummet.
Only Tang Qing, with his sixth-level Taiyin Refining Technique, could ignore these aftereffects. The other survivors certainly lacked such an ability.
’First, I’ll investigate the Cold Energy Source. Only by obtaining it will I have the confidence to defeat the Red Dragon.’ Tang Qing had no intention of changing his plan.
His power was limited. The most he could do was find the Cold Energy Source, kill the Red Dragon and the Violator, and as for helping the other survivors... his current strength was simply insufficient to take on such a burden.
For anything more, he could only offer his apologies.
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"This signal frequency again... it’s like an enhanced version of the link between Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters."
"Fast transmission speed, clear information content, and it even has a certain resistance to interference."
"Smart-brain, can you track it effectively?" Qi Suian stared at the chat log. It was the communication between the Red Blood Dragon and the protagonist survivor.
Just as Qi Suian had thought, the two sides had fallen out. Now they were like fire and water, each wishing the other dead.
[Only one party can be tracked. Confirmed as Special Life Form: Red Blood Dragon.]
[The other party is too distant to track, but a general direction can be determined.]
"Never mind the Red Blood Dragon. That thing is self-aware. It’s a good thing we captured the signal before getting any closer. If we were actually tailing it from a distance, it would’ve probably turned around and smacked us with its tail."
"Let’s go find the protagonist survivor first. We’ll kill him, then deal with the Red Blood Dragon."
Qi Suian had originally planned to enhance the Red Blood Dragon, but now it seemed this was an old monster that had lived for untold ages.
Plotting against such a creature was not a good idea. It was better to just kill it and send it to the Melting Furnace to be properly ’nurtured’.
’I just didn’t expect the Red Blood Dragon could actually use meteorological phenomena to devour an entire planet’s Cold Energy.’
’That’s definitely a bit tricky. If we wait until it has devoured everything, it’ll probably become another Extraordinary existence on the level of the Blood Moon or the Golden Light Man.’
’I have to kill it sooner rather than later. Otherwise, once it’s fully grown, it’ll come to kill me.’ Qi Suian didn’t believe for a second the creature would let him go.
The most straightforward reason was that he himself was an excellent target for possession. This was true even though the creature had explicitly stated it had chosen the protagonist survivor as its vessel.
The problem was, he was now on his way to kill said protagonist. Once that vessel was dead, choosing Qi Suian as a backup would be a very logical next step.
For the sake of his own life, even if the creature showed no signs or intentions of targeting him yet, he had to make a preemptive strike.
It was better than waiting to be attacked and suffering the consequences.
