“You will receive the True Dragon Qi that still remains in my bones. But you’re right, it’s not a gift given without strings attached. I have spent seven thousand years in this grave. When I died, I had barely turned thirty. By a dragon’s standards, I was still a child. After that short life, I shut myself away in this underground tomb for thousands of years, not allowing my soul to depart for reincarnation. All this time, I awaited the chance to fulfill my duty. And now your appearance has become a sign for me. This small Tang Inner Region won’t be able to hold you; one day, you will head out into the Jiang Outer Region. There, you must find my father in the Dragon Blood Tomb. You’ll deliver to him my legacy, which I’ve guarded for all these millennia.”
As the dragon said this, a glowing crimson thread shot from its right eye, stabbing into my left eye and curling up into a ball there. My own will had no say in the matter; I couldn’t even break free of the illusion. Along with this dubious “gift” I received a vision of a map showing some “Jiang Region” with a tiny dot labeled “Tang Region” inside it. Within that tiny dot was an even more microscopic point for the “Geyser Valley” measuring a mere 120 by 80 kilometers.
At least now I had some sense of the scale of this world, and I’d acquired a proper map. It wasn’t a satellite photo, but it might as well have been; the view was from a dragon’s-eye perspective, showing the lay of the land. Best of all, now I knew exactly where the Dragon Blood Tomb was and how far I’d have to travel to get there.
“Remember, the Dragon Blood Legacy is your only chance to survive” - continued the skull. - “The world won’t allow you to live while possessing a dragon’s bloodline. Stronger and stronger enemies will come for you, one after another, to punish you for defying the Will of the Gods. But I believe you’ll overcome. The True Dragon Qi in your body will sooner or later awaken your dormant potential and grant you great power. Now, accept my gift.”
With those words, I was hurled out of the illusion and found myself once more sitting on the stone in the cave. The moment I opened my eyes, the dragon’s skeleton began to crack. From these cracks, dense streams of glowing Qi burst forth. They stretched toward me like ropes, penetrating my body. At that point, I wasn’t just absorbing Qi, it was being forcibly poured in, rearranging my body and meridians. Still, it all felt harmonious, so I didn’t resist; I simply observed the changes closely.
After about five minutes, all the dragon’s Qi had migrated into my body. The glow surrounding the bones vanished, and the skeleton began to crumble into gray sand, settling on the floor in shapeless heaps.
I glanced at my companions, who stared back at me with eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
“Wow, should I congratulate you on a breakthrough to the next level?” - I noted the changes in their energies.
Number One had reached the first level of Core Formation (21). Second and Fourth had both arrived at the peak of Foundation Establishment (20). Fifth had advanced to the ninth level (19), and Seventh had caught up, leaping two levels at once.
“What did you do to that poor dragon?” - Seventh asked in outrage, watching the skull disintegrate.
“I ate it” - I replied with smug satisfaction, patting my stomach. “All right, looks like we’re done here. What’s next on the agenda?” - I asked.
“I need to leave the ancient Qi dimension” - said First, catching me off guard. - “The second eruption is about to begin, and I can feel it pushing me toward the exit. If I don’t make it to a safe spot in time, I’ll be ripped to pieces.”
“Second eruption?” - I asked in surprise. - “How long have we been in here?”
“About twenty hours” - Second answered.
“Wow, that was some nap” - I said, scratching the back of my head.
“I was about to disrupt your meditation because that shield of yours won’t let anyone out” - First reported.
I looked at my creation and noticed that the dragon’s Qi had been sustaining it the whole time. Apparently, the dragon had deliberately appeared to me via the compass, then removed the original seal on the entrance and maintained my shield so its Qi wouldn’t disperse. I made a showy gesture, and the barrier dissolved, opening out onto the dark hall beyond.
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At that moment, I couldn’t help thinking how tragic it was to die so young and then spend seven thousand years with nothing to see but a stone wall. Hard to say which is worse, fifty years in the “Squeezer” before reincarnation, or thousands of years sitting in darkness and solitude.
The disciples stepped out, and my gaze fell on a ruby that glowed crimson amid the gray sand. I reached out with my right hand and snatched it up. But a moment later, the ruby flared with blinding light, turned into a mist, and got absorbed into my arm, appearing as yet another tattoo. At this rate, I’d be covered head-to-toe in random tattoos in no time.
A second later, I understood exactly what I’d picked up. It was called the Dragon’s Last Breath. With this technique, dragons, upon the brink of death, would destroy their physical bodies and any surrounding enemies at the same time. If I ever encountered an overwhelmingly powerful foe, I’d be able to activate this seal, after which it would vanish for good. But most likely, so would I, because the fire consumes everything around it, including the person who triggers it.
And what good does that do me? It’s like walking around with a bomb strapped to my back. Sure, people might be afraid to mess with me, but I should be more afraid… constantly. One misstep and it’s game over. Right now, though, I wasn’t prepared to poke around in that seal to disarm it. Not with my current level and knowledge.
“Let’s go” - I said, turning to my companions, who, for the umpteenth time, were gaping at me in wide-eyed shock.
“That’s the Dragon’s Last Breath!” - Fifth almost shouted. - “Everyone knows that if you touch such a crystal, it immediately incinerates everything in the vicinity!”
“Well, now you know that if you mess with me, I’ll incinerate everything, too” - I said. I took a step forward, and my companions recoiled in panic. - “What’s the matter?”
“We can’t touch you” - Fifth explained.
“I was speaking figuratively. It’s okay to touch me some of you, in fact, really should.” - I glanced at Seventh, who blushed bright red. - “But if I have no other choice, I’ll destroy any enemy before I die, no matter who they are.”
Since my “secret” was out, I might as well make sure the strongest potential adversaries found out too. These five would definitely be interrogated, so let them know that I know that they know that I know. Something like that.
“Boss, before we leave, I’d like to show you one more place, one that’s perfect for meditation” - First said, addressing me. Huh? What’s gotten into him? Ate something disagreeable? - “Thanks to that pill you gave me, I broke through to the Core Formation stage” - he went on. Ah, right, he did eat something, indeed. - “And the dragon’s Qi let me stabilize my core and reach the peak of the first level. Because of that, I want to show you the route to the most secret First Chamber.”
The most secret First Chamber? Makes you wonder how someone could know there are at least eighteen chambers and not bother asking if there’s a First Chamber somewhere.
“The route from here to the First Chamber was in the jade slip my father gave me before we set out. Follow me.”
First turned and ran off into the darkness, and the rest of us followed. We ran through broad corridors and emerged into a small alcove with a gaping hole in the floor.
“Down” - First explained, plunging into the darkness of the pit.
I followed after him, braking now and then using my shields. We fell about three hundred meters. Then the walls opened up, and I found a huge chamber below. Its walls were covered with enormous, glowing crystals, and half the hall was filled with crystal-clear water, forming a lake. Best of all, the place was filled with pure, congenial Qi that hardly needed any refining to absorb — a veritable paradise!
“There’s water” - First said, sounding disappointed as he drifted down almost to the surface. - “Sometimes it happens. Sadly, we can’t meditate here.”
“Why not?” - I asked, dropping into the water.
“Because cultivators at our level need to breathe, and trying to meditate while hovering in midair is too hard. The second you lose concentration, you’ll fall in.”
“Haven’t you tried swimming?” - I said with a smirk, doing a neat crawl stroke. The water held even more Qi, making me reluctant to come up for air.
“Swimming?” - My companions exchanged puzzled looks. Bunch of landlubbers if ever I saw any.
“Yes, swimming. A human body is lighter than water. If you take off your clothes, you can float with almost no effort.”
Even though the water wasn’t salty, it was denser than usual, so I easily demonstrated that you could lie on the surface without moving at all.
“But…you could drown” - Fifth protested, eyes wide as if I were performing a death-defying stunt. - “If I go into meditation, I might not surface in time.”
“Ugh, you land rats” - I said with a dismissive wave, rising back into the air. - “Fine, let’s escort First to the exit and then come back. I’ll teach you how to swim properly.”
“Escort me?” - First asked, surprised.
“Yeah. If you get yourself killed on the way out, it’ll mean the pill I gave you was wasted. By the way, do you have the box it came in?”
“Here, take it.”
The truth was, I don’t care about a cultivator I’d only met a day earlier. I just wanted to make sure I knew where the exit was. The compass was toast, and trying to use its technique on my own felt like trying to shape a perfect lens out of a water-filled plastic bag: in theory, it’s not complicated, but it’s definitely not something you can use to scan the horizon. This way, I’d definitely know where I was going.