Chapter 369 — On the Brink of Catastrophe
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Upon the surface of this dark gold appeared strange and uncanny characters, symbols, and designs, flickering in and out of being, ceaselessly shifting.
They felt waves of most terrifying aura, mighty and obscure, and in their ears they faintly heard dragon after dragon cry out, savage and powerful. "Strange—these characters and symbols and designs look somewhat familiar, as if I had seen them somewhere.
. .
" Doubts in his heart, Shen Mu came to a pillar of dark-gold essence and examined it closely. It was indeed very familiar.
"The True Dragon Sovereign is indeed not here, not here.
. .
" Lord Dragon-Keeper had already come here a step ahead of them and was inspecting the golden dragon, when he suddenly let out an ear-splitting cry: "Only a dragon nest remains—what man has dug out the True Dragon Sovereign?
" "The True Dragon Sovereign was dug out?
" Shen Mu was stunned.
He looked at that vast subterranean dragon nest. The nest was very broad, and everywhere lay dark-gold essence; yet judged by the layout of these dark-gold pillars, a great dragon ought to have coiled here.
For the center of the dragon nest was empty, forming a ring—a ring, to be sure, of enormous size, more than ten li in circumference.
That colossal dragon vein, before it could absorb dragon qi and transform into a divine dragon, had been dug out and carried away from this place. "The True Dragon Sovereign has been refined by someone into a dragon-jue!
" Lord Dragon-Keeper swiftly circled the place, his face ashen, and said coldly: "But he still miscalculated—he never expected that I, Lord Dragon-Keeper, would come here.
And he miscalculated still more in that he ought never to have left behind the dragon nest of the True Dragon Sovereign!
" "The one who took away the dragon vein of the True Dragon Sovereign refined the Sovereign into a dragon-jue?
" Shen Mu cried in amazement: "What sort of person has such colossal power? " A dragon-jue is a kind of jade pendant, a coiled dragon; its shape is that of a circle drawn with a gap left in it.
Judging by the form left behind where that piece was dug out of the dragon nest, the dragon's head and tail were not joined—indeed the form of a dragon-jue.
Yet the dragon nest was made of dark-gold essence, while the dragon-jue was of jade.
Moreover the largest dragon-jue was but the size of a palm—how could the True Dragon Sovereign, more than ten li in length, be refined into a palm-sized dragon-jue? Then at once he saw why Lord Dragon-Keeper had called it a dragon-jue.
Lord Dragon-Keeper peeled a layer of dark-gold essence from one of the dark-gold pillars, revealing the jade beneath.
Shen Mu looked up and examined it closely. The magma here contained molten dark-gold essence, and this essence, washing over the dragon nest, had wrapped the nest's original jade, and thus it appeared golden.
The dragon nest Lord Dragon-Keeper spoke of was composed wholly of fine jade, and the dragon vein of the True Dragon Sovereign must have been nurtured within this nest, drawing dragon qi that came from the Desolate Ruins and the Jingping dragon vein.
But someone, before the True Dragon Sovereign had matured into a true dragon, had taken it away, refined it into a dragon-jue, and carried it off from this place.
No wonder a vast abyss had been left here: the one who took away the dragon nest must have sought out the dragon vein of the True Dragon Sovereign, pierced through the earth, and found the nest! Lord Dragon-Keeper shook his body, and at once fire-dragons came writhing out from the robes upon his person; with a shake they transformed into great monstrous flood-dragons, spewing fire from their mouths, burning all about, melting the dark-gold essence.