Zhongshan Shenzhu Chi

When going against the current, the commotion is enormous.

Now, flowing downstream, the massive water elemental energy gathered above Chunhua Marsh moves along with it, like a hammer striking a mountain, startling countless astonished gazes from Yongning Continent.

"With such a vast amount of water element, why would the Dragon Clan send a mythical seed to Yongning Continent to transform into a dragon?"

"Did the serpent god make a deal with the dragon?"

"Hurry, hurry, hurry to the river mouth!"

As Huai Nian traveled to the middle section of the Long River, he noticed that he was being watched by countless eyes, some strong and some weak.

They tried their best to use their spying spells, but no matter what they did, they couldn't penetrate the clouds that enveloped the giant serpent.

Some even went so far as to expend their life essence to activate their magical artifacts, only to end up bleeding from all seven orifices and having their artifacts shattered.

Feeling scrutinized by the stares from all sides, Huai Nian exclaimed, "There are more and more people; we need to hurry back to Zhongshan."

Fortunately, when we went upstream, many of the creatures on the shore had already retreated.

With Li Zhengyuan's full efforts to dredge the river, apart from cultivators who came to spy on the dragons at the bottom of the river, there were almost no living beings on both sides of the Dragon River.

The giant serpent showed them no mercy.

The mysterious power that had surrounded his body when he left Zhongshan once again reappeared.

Calming down, the giant serpent seemed to merge with the Dragon River, transforming itself into the surging, ever-flowing water.

The pent-up emotions in my chest finally found release.

Without regard for casualties, the mighty river surged and flowed for thousands of miles in a single day, leaving countless cultivators behind. The next day, it would rush across the confluence of the Dragon River and the Orchid Grass River.

It suddenly stopped.

"Why did it stop?"

"Can a dragon's movement in water stop?"

The cultivators who remained on the shore withstood the oncoming waves, their minds still filled with doubts.

But after the waves subsided, what gathered in the dark clouds terrified them so much that their souls nearly left their bodies.

"Hexagram Lightning—!"

"run!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a thunderbolt crashed down.

"Is the Heavenly Tribulation really that weak?" The giant snake took the blow at the bottom of the water, and apart from feeling a little numb, it didn't feel anything.

It witnessed firsthand the Mysterious Stone Tribulation that its mother suffered.

Those stones had absolutely no spiritual energy fluctuations; they were simply rocks that could be found anywhere in Zhongshan.

But even these rocks were something the mother could not resist.

Moreover, this calamity came very unusually.

My mother's ordeal was a forced reversal of the natural cycle of drought that befell Yongning Continent. My drifting downstream was merely an attempt to avoid becoming a dragon; does that mean I'm defying the natural order and the cycle of cause and effect?

The giant serpent emerged from the water, braving the continuous barrage of silvery-white lightning.

Unable to see, it could only try to peek at the calamity clouds using other means.

"boom--"

A silvery-white light flashed among the dark clouds, and then thunder roared down.

The moment they made contact, the giant snake flicked its tongue and licked the lightning.

The serpentine perspective it possessed to observe the world shattered as it swallowed lightning, its mind flashing wildly in black and white like the static on a television screen from its previous life.

"Let me see what you are." Despite the suffocating dizziness in his mind, Huai Nian focused all his energy on analyzing the lightning bolt.

The images in my mind gradually returned, the black and white colors slowly turning into a deep, dark blue, with countless winding, slender shadows swirling in the water.

The giant serpent wanted to go even further—

"That's enough, Anian," her mother's gentle voice suddenly rang out. "Going any further won't be good for your health."

"Mother?"

The view changed instantly, and the sky returned to its pitch-black, deep, and empty appearance, with occasional silvery-white glints gathering and striking down.

"Mother, I don't want to embark on this path of rise that they have already seized," the great serpent murmured to itself.

"Whether you leave or not is up to you. Besides, if they can take over, why can't you?" The snake god's words were full of disdain. "Go forward, and let's see who's blind enough to dare to stop you now."

The giant snake had never heard its mother speak in such a tone before.

It seems that Mother looks down on those dragons who occupy the Dragon Transformation Path.

It doesn't even look down on it.

Even after the water level subsided, the continuous torrential rain showed no sign of abating.

"Since the waters of the East Sea are vast and boundless, why can't I make them my own?" the giant serpent murmured to itself.

When the three energies are harmonized, one attains the primordial state, encompassing all things.

Isn't it all about the word "transformation"?

The mind can contain the sun and moon, thus creating the yin and yang vortex. But when it returns to the three energies, why be bound by the distinction between yin and yang?

As long as it can be adapted and utilized.

I say it is Yang, and it is Yang.

Thinking of this, the giant snake flicked its tongue, and a long chain from the depths of the void suddenly appeared in the depths of its mind.

The chains, stained with azure water element, were formless and intangible yet incredibly heavy, tightly binding its body and suffocating its soul.

"The Shackles of Divine Thought".

This shackle was something it could never have seen before, even with Zhongshan's approval, even with the formation of the Yin-Yang vortex.

Seeing the azure water element staining the shackles, the giant serpent suddenly understood.

"What a brilliant scheme! By force, they seize control of the path to dragon transformation, and then use the opportunity of dragon transformation to conceal the secrets of heaven. They teach all dragons in the world that if they want to break free of their shackles and become great demons, they must all travel by water to the East Sea."

"Otherwise, they will suffer heavenly tribulation and lightning punishment."

"With such a gathering of living beings, the flow of fortune will naturally be endless..."

"Harvesting leeks."

"boom--"

The lightning struck again, hitting the red serpent's head as if warning it that heavenly secrets must not be revealed.

The giant snake was completely unharmed. With a glint in its eyes, it sank to the bottom of the water and drifted downstream again.

The Longhe River and the Lancao River converge, making the river channel at least twice as wide.

The waves that surged up were higher and more turbulent than those at the Dragon River.

Following the flow of the water and the timing of the weather, the giant snake moved through the water at an increasingly rapid pace.

After realizing the location of the divine shackles, it can release its spirit. Although it is not yet condensed enough, the amount that surges out is large enough to contend with the surging waves and confine them to the riverbed.

One day, I crossed the Majian River.

The three rivers converge here, forming the Luo River, which flows eastward through Zhongshan Mountain and into the sea.

The giant snake continued forward.

The dark clouds that shrouded the sky had grown into a terrifying behemoth stretching for over three hundred miles, with thunder as its roar and torrential rain as its raging blood.

The city of Xia'an trembled in its shadow, and all the residents hid in their homes, holding three sticks of incense, and prayed to the mountain god on the altar whose eyes held the sun and moon and whose body was as red as blood.

The old man in the red robe stood alone on the city wall, braving the fierce wind and rain, gazing at the Luo River.

"The serpent goddess conceived for three hundred years and actually gave birth to a true dragon whose status was no less than that of Qing, Ying, and Zu."

"If it has such power just by transforming into a dragon, I really don't know what it will look like after it breaks free of its shackles."

"It's a pity. If you transform into a dragon first, it will be difficult to break free of the shackles in the future."

"But for me..."

Is it a good thing? Or a bad thing?

Thoughts were like an out-of-control roller coaster, flipping, plummeting, and hanging upside down in my mind.

The old man's mouth was raised on one side, his smile radiant, while the other half drooped stiffly, tears streaming down his face.

A face simultaneously displayed joy and despair.

It was as if there were two, or even several, consciousnesses entangled within this body, vying for sole control.

After a while, the old man in the red robe regained his composure.

"If it successfully transforms into a dragon, then the East Sea Dragons can set foot on Yongning Continent, and our Crimson Immortal Sect's century-long plan will be in vain."

"We can't let it succeed. Even if the snake god is still alive, we must at least leave it with hidden wounds!"

The old man was determined to fly out of Xia'an City and head to the Luo River to intercept the Red Serpent.

Suddenly, he stopped.

"Why did it stop again?"

He gazed at the sky, where dark clouds loomed overhead, their weight like mountains pressing down on him, and his face was filled with astonishment.

"The momentum has built up to this point, shouldn't it surge out of Zhongshan and rush forward like a torrent? Can it really stop now?"