Myriad Images Sect, Beishuang Mountain Gate.
White Mist Valley.
In the valley, clouds and mist linger year-round, ancient trees towering, with vines hanging like curtains. The stream flows gently down from the mountain ravine, the sound clear and crisp, interweaving with the calls of birds and roars of beasts in the forest to form a cacophony of primal noise.
This place is filled with pure nature, a kind of desolate wildness. Just like its owner Cang Yazi, who disregards tidiness, does not emphasize appearance, only seeks freedom.
Cang Yazi sits on a mountain rock.
He looks like he’s over fifty, with long, gray-white hair casually draped and held up with a beast bone hairpin. His features are rugged, cheekbones high, eye sockets deep, his small eyes, however, radiate with a fierce light.
He wears a gray-brown Daoist robe, washed to a faded white, with sleeves and collar bearing several stitches, the stitches large as if sewn by his own hand. Tied around his waist is a beast skin belt, on which hang seven or eight small pouches containing the spiritual materials, elixir pills, and magic artifacts he commonly uses.
At this mont, a giant beast is crouched at his feet.
It is Cang Yazi’s most loyal spiritual beast companion, cultivated for over a hundred years, an Earth Dragon, nad "Huang Yue."
The Earth Dragon has so Dragon Clan blood, resembling a giant lizard.
It is three zhangs long, its entire body covered in earth-brown scales, with patterns like those of rocks, rough and thick. Its limbs are as sturdy as pillars, its claws sharp as hooks, its long thick tail powerful enough to shatter gold and stone.
Its head is triangular, with deep-set eyes, a pair of vertical pupils in amber color, now half-open, half-closed, unable to conceal the sharpness within.
Today is the big day for the Earth Dragon "Huang Yue."
Cang Yazi takes out an elixir pill, fist-sized, seemingly cast in tal.
Transformation Pill!
Cang Yazi throws it directly to the Earth Dragon: "Eat it."
The Earth Dragon "Huang Yue" opens its mouth wide, without hesitating, swallowing it in one gulp.
It quietly lay on the ground, its vertical pupils half-open, half-closed, its tongue occasionally licking its lips as if savoring the taste of the elixir pill.
Cang Yazi remains sitting where he is, eyes fixed on his beloved pet.
This is the calm before the storm.
Suddenly, the Earth Dragon’s body becos stiff.
Its vertical pupils suddenly enlarge, its pupils constrict violently, and a low, rumbling growl churns up from deep in its throat. The roar is filled with unbearable, heartrending pain!
The Earth Dragon’s body begins to tremble violently.
The trembling spreads from local to the entire body, more and more intense, more uncontrollable, as if an invisible hand is kneading its body, kneading, squeezing, pulling it like dough.
Cang Yazi’s face shows a heavy expression.
The Earth Dragon frantically twists its body, its tail thrashing wildly, splitting open rocks or carving deep grooves in the mountain wall.
Large areas of scales peel off, the skin cracks open, revealing fresh red flesh.
Patterns start to appear on the flesh.
This is the manifestation of the Transformation Pill’s power coursing through the Earth Dragon’s entire body, washing away the traces.
The Earth Dragon’s mana, essence blood, and spirit all converge along these traces.
Flesh collapses swiftly, deforming, bones crackle, constantly being destroyed, like withered branches being snapped one by one.
Cang Yazi’s breath becos slightly rapid.
The Earth Dragon Huang Yue’s growls beco sharper, more haunting, like the friction of a dull knife on iron, piercing enough to make one’s scalp tingle.
The most dangerous mont of transformation has arrived!
In an instant, it is like a silent, violent explosion, detonating deep within the Earth Dragon’s soul.
Huang Yue’s body arches sharply, like a fully drawn bow. Her head tilts back, mouth agape, revealing two rows of sharp teeth, her throat spewing a gush of fresh blood, like a fountain.
Her body shatters from the deepest point, followed by a remolding.
What shatters are beast bones, what is remolded are human bones. What shatters are beast veins, what is remolded are human veins. What shatters is a beast heart, what is remolded is a human heart.
A pale yellow halo first ripples from the depths of the soul, like a wave.
Wave upon wave erges, enveloping her entire body, bathing her entire being in yellow light.
The halo grows dense, condenses, forming a huge glob of light.
The yellow glob of light finally takes on an oval shape, lying motionless on the ground.
Cang Yazi can barely conceal his tension, his palms unconsciously clenched into fists.
The next mont, a small beam of light pierces through the yellow light glob. Then, successive beams of light, from inside out, pierce the surface of the light glob, shooting in all directions.
From the outside, Cang Yazi can vaguely see the torn body of the Earth Dragon, dissolving like water, its limbs starting to elongate, thicken, straighten.
Sturdy beast paws retract, five claws rging, fusing, transforming, gradually becoming human feet.
The tail shortens, tailbones fuse, segnt by segnt into the spine, eventually disappearing.
The torso also shortens, the chest narrows, the abdon tightens, the waist gradually showing human curves.
The slowest and most painful transformation is the head.
The Earth Dragon’s triangular head needs to beco a human’s round head. Skull reshapes, mandible realigns, teeth change from sharp beast teeth to flat human teeth. The most painful is the brain—transforming from beast brain to human brain, countless nerves, blood vessels, etc., the most complex structures need to be rebuilt.
The Earth Dragon’s skull emits a "creak" sound, as if being kneaded by invisible hands, slowly and steadily changing shape. The facial muscles twitch, eyelids flutter, nostrils frantically expand and contract, the mouth opening and closing erratically.
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