Yefutidaolu

Chapter 381 Beating
Upon hearing Lord Jingjiang's weighty opening remarks—"This might keep you up at night even more than when you came to the Dragon King's side this time"—Gao Jian did not show fear as usual. Instead, he merely raised his eyebrows with interest.

He didn't immediately look at Jingjiang Jun, but instead turned his gaze to Ba Hong, who was diligently giving a massage.

Such a shocking secret, if this nine-brained octopus heard it, wouldn't it be silenced? A ridiculous thought flashed through Gao Jian's mind.

However, the scene that came into his view was quite peculiar.

On the massive mainframe, the pair of obsidian-like giant eyes were tightly closed, as if they were deep in meditation.

What's even more amazing is that the eight faces on the eight arms, whether they were serious, curious, or sad before, all closed their eyes at this moment, their expressions returning to a focused calm. The movements of the arms and legs were not slow or disordered at all, still precisely pressing the acupoints and releasing warm energy, as if the earth-shattering opening remarks just now were just an ordinary stream of water brushing against the rocks, automatically filtered out by them.

They've completely entered "working mode," so don't listen to anything improper.

Lord Jingjiang seemed accustomed to Ba Hong's "feigned death" reaction. Without any surprise, he shifted his massive dragon body on the stone bed, finding a more comfortable position, and continued in a low voice, "Boy, I won't say anything about your trip to the Dragon Palace; after all, I owe you a favor. But..."

He paused, then emphasized, "I advise you to stay away from cinnabar."

"Hmm?" Gao Jian laughed and said, "Lord Jingjiang, are you saying this in your uncle's name? Then I'll just ignore it."

His feelings for Dansha were actually quite complicated, but no matter what, he had a good impression of this kind-hearted dragon, especially since the other party had spent money to buy him a house, and it was a house in the capital city!

The goodwill brought by that weighty "Shen Du Property Certificate" cannot be erased by a mere warning.

"This was said in the capacity of the current head of the Shun family." Lord Jingjiang's voice sounded very serious.

Gao Jian opened his eyes, his brows furrowed, and his sharp gaze fell on the true dragon on the stone bed beside him: "Hmm?"

The change in status signifies a completely different nature. This is no longer just the concern of elders, but a formal statement from the True Dragon Family.

"Why?" he pressed. "It's not because of your family background, is it? That's not like you, Lord Jingjiang."

“It’s not because of family background,” Jingjiang Jun’s voice carried an indescribable heaviness, as if he were uncovering a long-forgotten taboo, “but because the true dragon itself is different from you… You may not understand… We true dragons were not born in this sea, our origin is…” He seemed to be struggling to organize his words, preparing to reveal a super secret that could overturn all understanding.

"From outer space, right?" Takami casually picked up the conversation, his tone as indifferent as if he were discussing the weather. "I know."

The massive body of Lord Jingjiang suddenly rose straight up from the stone bed!

The dragon's eyes suddenly contracted, bursting out with a terrifying light. A terrifying pressure instantly filled the entire depths of the cave, and even the tentacles of the Eight-Headed Dragon, which was concentrating on "playing dead," subconsciously shrank back.

He stared intently at Gao Jian, his voice icy: "Dan Sha told you!?"

“No,” Gao Jian closed his eyes again, as if the terrifying pressure was just a gentle breeze. “The Dragon King told me. What’s wrong?”

"..." Jingjiang Jun's taut dragon body seemed to have its tendons and bones pulled out in an instant, and its huge body slammed back onto the stone bed with a "thud", causing the stone chips to tremble slightly.

He took a long, deep breath: "It's nothing... then it's not surprising, then it's not surprising..."

He murmured, his massive dragon head resting limply on the stone bed, "Then I have nothing more to say. But... why did the Dragon King tell you all this?"

"Because I also came from outer space." Gao Jian still kept his eyes closed.

"puff--!"

Jingjiang Jun's body, which had just relaxed, sprang up again as if it were springy! This time it was even faster than before, and his huge head almost crashed into the stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling.

The powerful gust of wind generated by his massive body even made several of the nearby eight tentacles sway, causing the faces on the tentacles to furrow their brows slightly.

"Lie down! Lie down, are you doing sit-ups? It's hard for the master to press you down!" Gao Jian finally opened his eyes impatiently, waving his hands repeatedly at the giant dragon that was going up and down next to him, his tone full of disgust.

Lord Jingjiang's expression was a complete failure in managing his facial expressions.

Shock, bewilderment, doubt, absurdity... a variety of emotions intertwined and shifted on his majestic dragon face, eventually solidifying into an indescribable subtlety.

He originally intended to use the ultimate secret of the "Celestial Dragon" as a weapon to shatter Gao Jian's unrealistic fantasies and make him back down. But... before he could even swing that weapon, the other party casually said, "Me too," leaving him completely stumped!

His massive body, filled with immense confusion and disarray, slowly collapsed back down. His dragon eyes were fixed intently on Gao Jian, his voice hoarse: "You... are a Celestial?"

Images of celestial beings from all the heavens and myriad realms flashed through his mind.

"Do I look like it?" Gao Jian rolled his eyes and pointed to his normally skin-colored arm. "Is my skin blue?"

"The skin of the Celestials isn't necessarily all blue, but..." Lord Jingjiang irritably scratched at the stone bed with his dragon claws, leaving several deep marks. "Never mind! You're also from beyond the heavens, so what world are you from? What lineage do you belong to? Or... do you have your own cultivation system?" He eagerly threw out the question.

"What do you mean?" Gao Jian didn't quite understand.

For the third time, Lord Jingjiang leaped off the stone bed! This time, his massive dragon tail, due to the excessive force, slammed violently against the adjacent rock wall with a "crack," sending a shower of rubble crashing down. The eight tentacles of Bahong finally couldn't resist; the faces on several tentacles simultaneously displayed expressions of "I hope I won't get involved," and one of the tentacles even extended a suction cup, giving the main brain a light tap.

The mainframe shook its head, and the tendons returned to their original positions.

"Are you doing sit-ups to work your abs?" Gao Jian's voice was tinged with helplessness and amusement. "Can't you just stop for a second?"

"No!" This time, Lord Jingjiang didn't completely prostrate himself, but rather propped himself up, his enormous dragon head almost touching Gao Jian's face, exhaling scorching breath, his voice urgent, "You came from beyond the heavens, didn't you?"

“Yes.” Gao Jian shrank back, avoiding the dragon’s breath.

"So you don't know these things?!" Lord Jingjiang's tone changed. "I don't know," Gao Jian shrugged, looking completely matter-of-fact. "Why should someone from outer space know these things?"

“Then you…” Lord Jingjiang felt his proud dragon logic crumbling, “Then are you from an indigenous world? No! Indigenous worlds shouldn’t have the ability to navigate across world groups, right?”

"What is the native world? And what is the world group?" Gao Jian frowned.

"Hiss—!" Lord Jingjiang felt that he couldn't quite understand it.

His massive dragon body swayed a few times due to extreme confusion and suffocation, and his huge claws unconsciously scratched at the stone bed beneath him, making a teeth-grinding "crunching" sound.

He took a few deep breaths of the icy seawater, barely managing to suppress his churning blood, and asked in a somewhat subdued voice, "So, who exactly are you, kid!"

Looking at the dragon that he had driven almost mad, Gao Jian finally put away his teasing tone, thought seriously for a moment, and replied, "Hmm... As for what I know about the outer realms, demonic energy, and... the Desire Realm?"

"boom--!!!"

This time, the scales on Lord Jingjiang's body stood up instantly, making a clanging sound like metal scraping against metal!

His pupils suddenly dilated to their limit, filled with extreme horror and disbelief!
He suddenly raised his head, almost piercing through the entire cave! The violent dragon's might swept out like a tangible tsunami, and even the huge main brain of the Eight Directions subconsciously curled several of its tentacles back to its main body. At the same time, all eight faces showed an expression of extreme terror. Why was Lord Jingjiang reacting so strongly!
Are you really going to work on your abs?

----------

An hour later.

For Gao Jian, this hour-long massage was quite comfortable. Although the farcical scene of "dragon sit-ups" occasionally unfolded next to him, the wrist and foot technicians of Hachikō were indeed skilled, making his muscles and bones feel much more relaxed.

However, for Lord Jingjiang, these few hours passed exceptionally long, arguably one of the most agonizing times in his life.

His massive body lay on the stone bed, seemingly calm, but his heart was as if he had just gone through a fierce battle.

His original purpose was clear and firm: to use the origin of the true dragon from beyond the heavens and the origin of cinnabar to warn Gao Jian, so that this "native" would recognize reality and consciously stay away from cinnabar.

This is for the sake of the family, and also for that pure-hearted descendant.

However, Gao Jian's use of terms like "Dragon King," "visitor from outer space," "demonic energy," and "the realm of desire" were like heavy hammers, prying open crack after crack in his original rhetoric.

This human before me… what exactly is he? A demonic cultivator? It doesn't seem so. His aura is pure, without any trace of demonic corruption. But what if he's just an ordinary native from another world?
Jingjiangjun instinctively felt something was amiss. Those terms, especially "the realm of desire," were taboo subjects that ordinary natives could not possibly encounter! Yet, Gao Jian seemed to know very little about them, even appearing completely ignorant!
More importantly… the Dragon King! Why would the Dragon King reveal such a crucial secret to a human? Why bestow upon him the token to roam the Dragon Palace? The more Jingjiang Jun thought about it, the more his head throbbed with pain, as if he had fallen into an unfathomable fog. All his reliance—the nobility of a true dragon, the secrets of the heavens—seemed somewhat inadequate in the face of Gao Jian's seemingly vague yet profoundly unfathomable response.

In the end, all the thoughts turned into a deep sigh.

He did want to put Gao Jian in a difficult position, but in the end, he found that Gao Jian's actions rendered all his prepared arguments powerless. He even lost most of his confidence to continue pressing the issue.

After the massage, the man and the dragon returned to the cold, empty underwater wilderness.

The dark seawater enveloped them, and the silhouettes of the underwater mountains in the distance resembled lurking beasts. A heavy silence hung between them.

Lord Jingjiang lowered his massive dragon head slightly, his eyes looking at the small but incredibly troublesome human youth beside him with a complex expression.

He opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say.

“So…” he managed to utter two words, but the rest of the sentence got stuck in his throat.

Gao Jian, however, straightened his back at this moment, the ease and playfulness on his face vanished, replaced by a solemn and serious expression. He met Jingjiang Jun's gaze, his voice clear and forceful: "Jingjiang Jun, I know your concerns about cinnabar. But to be honest, in this situation, matters of the heart are trivial."

He paused, his gaze seemingly piercing through the layers of seawater, looking towards a distant direction: "Coming here with you today to relax, chat and laugh is just a small matter of a moment of leisure."

"Soon, I will be returning to the Divine Dynasty." Gao Jian's tone was resolute, filled with unwavering determination. "I'm going back to change this world. You should understand... I can't stand many things here."

His gaze swept across the dark seabed, as if piercing through the water to see the decay and deep-seated problems of the divine dynasty on land. Finally, his gaze landed on Lord Jingjiang, seemingly casually, "Even the actions of the True Dragon of the East Sea are the same."

"These jokes of today are just words, nothing more." Gao Jian's voice carried a gentle strength, more like a reminder and admonition. "There's no need to mention them again. And there's no need to hold a grudge over such personal matters."

Lord Jingjiang frowned.

He understood. Gao Jian was clearly drawing a line, characterizing his attempt to persuade him to resign as a trivial "personal matter," and bluntly telling him: with important matters of the world at hand, don't bother him with such "trivial matters" anymore!
The matter of cinnabar is a minor one!
The young man, whom he had always considered someone who needed to be "disciplined," displayed a vision and spirit that actually made him feel pressured.

"After the world is at peace?" Lord Jingjiang subconsciously repeated the words of the wise man, a complex and unfathomable bitter smile appearing on his dragon face. The smile was a mixture of self-mockery, shock and an indescribable feeling of being touched. "Heh... alright, that makes me seem petty."

"It's not that I'm being petty, it's just... I have to do something eventually," Gao Jian said.

"Alright, since that's the case, then go ahead and do it. I won't interfere. Let's just treat today's events as a joke."

With a gentle flick of his massive dragon tail, he stirred up an undercurrent. "Let's go then."

His voice returned to calm, but beneath that calm lay turbulent waves: "I will send you back to the Dragon Palace."

Having said that, the true dragon shrank in size and swam ahead, heading towards the Dragon Palace, leaving the vast underwater wilderness behind. Gao Jian followed closely behind, his figure still appearing tiny next to the giant dragon.

Well, after we get back... we can take Yuan Lu with us.

Maybe.

(End of this chapter)