Chapter 4568 — Pouring Out His Troubles
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Of course it's true. When I first came up from the mortal world, I was transported straight into this Five-Bane Swamp. At first I too thought there were no spirit beasts here—never expected that a powerful kinsman, the Five-Bane Flood Dragon, made its lair in this place," said the Five-Bane Dragon.
"You were transported here right from the start? Are all spirit beasts sent to this place, then? Wouldn't that be terribly dangerous?" Wei Zhao asked in wonder. Apart from special cases like himself and the Five-Bane Dragon, this place ought to be certain death for any other spirit beast. Any single wisp of five-element killing qi could easily take their lives, to say nothing of the fact that the five-element killing qi gathered here was beyond counting. No existence, however powerful, could withstand that.
"Not so. It must have been its attributes that brought it to this place—unless one possessed all five elements at once, one would not be transported here," the Ghost Thing explained.
"That seems to be so. In any case, after I was transported over, I was the only one. Caught completely off guard, I fell all the way down from the Five-Bane Swamp to this place below. But even though my strength was pitifully low then, I suffered no harm." The Five-Bane Dragon glanced at the Ghost Thing, somewhat astonished that this creature should know so much, but asked no further questions and went on: "After I came down, I met the Five-Bane Flood Dragon here. Seeing that I was of its own clan, it not only did me no harm but took me as a disciple and brought me along in its cultivation."
"So you really were lucky!" Wei Zhao could not help sighing at this.
According to what the Ghost Thing had said before, even among dragons there was no guarantee of such friendliness. If their strength was roughly equal, perhaps they could keep to their own waters; but where the disparity was vast, the weak would very likely become food for the strong. The law of the jungle was an eternal and unchanging truth. That this Five-Bane Flood Dragon should regard the Five-Bane Dragon with special favor was, one had to admit, an immense stroke of fortune for the latter.
"It wasn't only good luck. I think I can roughly guess what the Five-Bane Flood Dragon had in mind," the Ghost Thing said with a laugh, conjecturing, "Our dragon clan is few in number to begin with. Even if we are not exactly friendly with one another, by and large we are not as utterly unbridled in slaughtering each other as other spirit-beast races are. What's more, throughout the world, dragons capable of safely entering this Five-Bane Swamp can be counted on one hand—apart from the Five-Bane Flood Dragon itself, there might well be only the Five-Bane Dragon. So it must have been delighted at the find. If it did not take the Five-Bane Dragon as a disciple, it might well never have a disciple in its whole life."
"Exactly. My master said the same thing back then. Besides, it had cultivated alone here for who knows how many years, and having me at last to talk with and keep it company, it would never kill me, haha!" As it spoke, the Five-Bane Dragon glanced at the Ghost Thing again in astonishment. Why did this creature seem to know everything? Just what kind of being was it?
"And what happened after that? Oh, yes—why haven't we seen your master here? Has it gone out on some business?" Wei Zhao asked on. He had in fact been in this place for no short while, yet had seen neither the Five-Bane Flood Dragon nor the Five-Bane Dragon before. He could only conclude that the space below was truly vast; had he not ridden his spirit bird about in exploration, he would still think it utterly empty.
"My master, it..." The Five-Bane Dragon fell silent for a moment, then said slowly, "is already dead..." (To be continued..)