Chapter 172: Dividing Up the Dragon
Back in the illusory realm, Xiao Nanfeng and the sea turtle's fight continued to rage on as howling storms battered them both.
"You're at the initial stage of Lunar Deluge? No, that's impossible. How could you be able to resist me for so long? It's been an hour. Why hasn't your spiritual power shown any sign of waning?" the sea turtle cried out.
Xiao Nanfeng only smiled coldly. His black lotus had the power to absorb dissipated spiritual power and recycle it, and he hadn't expended much as a result. Furthermore, he was dragging the fight out and hadn't used his full strength.
Just then, a cloud of black smoke appeared in the air around the fog. Within it stood a bleached skeleton.
"A cursed effigy?" The sea turtle raised an eyebrow at Madam Rouge, who had suddenly appeared.
Xiao Nanfeng blanched. "Don't come over!"
The sea turtle hesitated. Was this cursed effigy so frightening that Xiao Nanfeng would panic to such an extent?
The next moment, Madam Rouge flashed over. It swiped with its claws, one headed for Xiao Nanfeng, and the other for the turtle.
"This cursed effigy moves so quickly!" the sea turtle cried out.
Xiao Nanfeng knocked the sea turtle flying, saving it from harm, even as Madam Rouge's claws grazed him. The sea turtle felt as though it had been spared from sudden death, but it didn't know why Xiao Nanfeng rescued it.
Xiao Nanfeng cried out anxiously, "Don't kill him! I'm trying to frame the sea turtle. If you kill him, I won't be able to do so!"
The sea turtle was taken aback. What was going on?
Madam Rouge slapped Xiao Nanfeng with a palm and sent him flying. Xiao Nanfeng shouted, "Run, turtle! Don't let it catch up to you!"
The sea turtle glanced at Xiao Nanfeng uncomprehendingly. Weren't we fighting against each other? Why are you helping me?
"Can't you just remove the talismans to end this illusion?" the sea turtle asked.
"It's useless. Cursed effigies can stabilize illusory realms, and removing the talismans now won't do any good. Just run!" Xiao Nanfeng cried out.
The turtle: ...
Xiao Nanfeng ran off in the opposite direction of the sea turtle. "Madam Rouge, ignore it! Come after me!"
The sea turtle remained confused as to just what Xiao Nanfeng was talking about. What does he mean by framing me?
Madam Rouge, whose grudge against Xiao Nanfeng was far deeper, chased right after him. They vanished from sight.
Meanwhile, Xiao Nanfeng, who had run into the fog, summoned a black lotus on his palm. Although the black lotus had taken over Xiao Nanfeng's stellar lake, it at least respected his authority and showed up when he requested its help.
Madam Rouge stopped short, staring at the black lotus. She knew that it wasn't an easy foe to be trifled with. She gave up on Xiao Nanfeng and turned away, flashing through the fog.
"Oh no—the turtle!" Xiao Nanfeng cried out.
Xiao Nanfeng chased after Madam Rouge, shouting, "Madam Rouge, have mercy! Eat it later if you must, but let me frame it first!"
Suddenly, from afar, the turtle cried out in shock.
"Damn it!" Xiao Nanfeng rushed toward the turtle even more quickly. He stepped through the fog to find that Madam Rouge had torn away the lower half of its body. The turtle was panicking as it watched Madam Rouge suck up that half of its body and consume it whole.
"Why is this cursed effigy so strong?!" the turtle cried out.
"Let me help you!" Xiao Nanfeng rushed over.
The sea turtle roared. "Xiao Nanfeng, stop acting! You're together, aren't you? Didn't it chase after you? Why are you still fine? Are you trying to trick me? You won't succeed!"
The sea turtle suddenly self-destructed.
Xiao Nanfeng blinked in surprise. "Why did it suddenly self-destruct like that?"
Madam Rouge formed words with the black smoke surrounding her. "By self-destructing, it was able to take advantage of the power of the resulting explosion to crack the illusory realm and have a wisp of spiritual power escape back to reality. You're rather stupid, aren't you?"
Upon reading this, Xiao Nanfeng immediately activated the Talisman of Phantasmagoria and returned to reality. This time, surprisingly, Madam Rouge didn't stop him.
The moment Xiao Nanfeng woke up, he heard the turtle's pained cries.
Zhao Yuanjiao had just beheaded the turtle, causing its head to fly through the air as it cried out one final time.
Xiao Nanfeng's eyes brightened. Thankfully, he had delayed long enough for his audience to show up. He had successfully framed the sea turtle!
"Senior Brother Xiao, are you alright?!" the Taiqing disciples shouted.
"Thank you, Senior Brother," Xiao Nanfeng said to Zhao Yuanjiao.
Zhao Yuanjiao gave him a complicated look. Xiao Nanfeng had informed him of all this in advance, and he was feeling rather embarrassed about his acting.
"Xiao Nanfeng, just you wait! I'll get my revenge on you sooner or later!" a fierce shout rang out.
The turtle's head didn't land on the ground—rather, it suddenly shot into the air and escaped through the storm.
"Hold it!" Zhao Yuanjiao's eyes widened in alarm as he gave chase.
Lightning flashed through the air and the stormy winds grew stronger and stronger. Zhao Yuanjiao and the disembodied turtle vanished in the dark of night.
"What happened here, Senior Brother Xiao?" one Taiqing disciple asked.
Xiao Nanfeng glanced all around at the disciples. In addition to the three thousand fighters from the Isle of Xiao, there were almost a hundred Taiqing disciples who had forged close bonds with Xiao Nanfeng. He didn't mind sharing the spoils of this encounter with them.
"We were trapped by that sea turtle spirit. If not for all of you arriving in the nick of time, we might very well have suffered a terrible fate. Carry me over to the Immortal's Destruction, if you will," Xiao Nanfeng instructed.
"Alright!"
The group of disciples lifted up Xiao Nanfeng's chained body and brought him toward the coiling dragon.
Xiao Nanfeng closed his eyes and felt at the coiling dragon with his spiritual senses. He had left trace amounts of spiritual power there. Although the turtle's actions were furtive, the groundwork he had laid out in advance allowed him to identify the crux of what the turtle had done.
A few more chains emerged from the Immortal's Destruction, but they quickly retracted again. Xiao Nanfeng had been testing out how to control them, but without proper technique, it was easy to make mistakes. Eventually, he was able to control his newfound skill.
Xiao Nanfeng quickly caused the chains around his body to retract.
"This is how you do it! If the turtle hadn't demonstrated how to do it, I would never have found out about such a concealed, complicated secret..."
Emperor Wei's inheritance had described the Immortal's Destruction in some detail, including the use of the Immortal-binding chains, but how exactly to get the Immortal's Destruction to produce such a result was glossed over. He had only learned of it from the ancient turtle.
Xiao Nanfeng took a few more tries to free Croak and Warble as well.
Some of the Taiqing disciples watched Croak and Warble in surprise, but the majority found themselves attracted to the draconic vein.
"Senior Brother Xiao, what's this translucent dragon that's brimming with golden light? Why does it feel like such a powerful source of spiritual power?" one Taiqing disciple asked in surprise.
"This is a draconic vein. It's all the sea turtle's fault. I was unable to stop it," Xiao Nanfeng sighed.
"The sea turtle spirit stole your Immortal's Destruction to unearth this draconic vein?" one disciple gasped.
"That's right. It's committed a grave crime," Xiao Nanfeng replied.
"Senior Brother Xiao, can we return this dragon back underground?" another disciple asked.
"We can't. Once I release the chains, it'll dissipate into draconic aether. Even the Immortal's Destruction won't be able to seal it away for long," Xiao Nanfeng replied.
Xiao Nanfeng was telling the truth. A draconic vein was an incredible treasure, but it couldn't be preserved long-term. Once he forcefully began to absorb draconic aether from the dragon, its form would dissipate. He didn't have the ability to preserve the draconic aether unlike Blue Lantern and You Shi, so rather than waste it, he might as well split it with everyone in his faction.
"What? It'll dissipate? Wouldn't that be a waste?" one disciple asked.
"Senior Brother, if we can't return it to its original state, rather than let it dissipate, why don't we split it?" Ye Dafu made a suggestion that had been planned and memorized in advance.
Everyone looked at Xiao Nanfeng expectantly.
"We shouldn't be wasteful, after all. Why don't we divide the dragon among us, then?" Xiao Nanfeng suggested.
"Alright!"
Just then, Zhao Yuanjiao descended from the skies.
"Elder, did you manage to catch the sea turtle's head?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.
Zhao Yuanjiao shook his head, fuming. "It got away—and very quickly, at that."
"That's fine, Elder. Come join us—we're about to split this dragon!" Xiao Nanfeng called out.
Zhao Yuaniao hesitated, not having expected things to progress quite so quickly. However, having known of Xiao Nanfeng's objective in advance, he nodded.
"Everyone, absorb only as much as you can comfortably take in. Don't engorge yourself too much," Xiao Nanfeng warned.
"Got it!" everyone replied.
Xiao Nanfeng leapt up to the dragon's head, opened his mouth, and began to suck. With a huge rumble, draconic aether emerged from the dragon's head and flowed into his mouth. As though sensing that its body was collapsing, the golden dragon cried out—but that didn't deter everyone from digging in. The disciples, fighters, and spirits shot forward and absorbed the feast. You Jiu did the same, skulking among the disciples.
They furiously absorbed draconic aether from the golden dragon's body.
This draconic vein possessed perhaps millions of portions of draconic aether, but large though that number was, it was rapidly dwindling as the cultivators divided the dragon up. Xiao Nanfeng used a special technique to seal the draconic aether within his body until he was at maximum capacity, then stopped short.
The six-hundred-meter long dragon was quickly divided and consumed. Everyone's bodies radiated golden light as they sat cross-legged in meditation, using that draconic aether to break through bottlenecks in their cultivation.
Even the freezing rain couldn't extinguish their ardent desire to grow stronger.
Four hours later, Xiao Nanfeng's body creaked as a tremendous wave of energy emanated from it. He opened his eyes wide. "The fifth stage of Ascension!"
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