The dragon yawned while he stretched. It was always an adjustnt when he hadn’t transford to look human in a while. He’d been sticking with his natural body ever since he ca to investigate the town claid by that interesting human boy he’d briefly t. It had been simpler to travel that way with all the children fighting. Not even that deluded creature calling himself the Beast King was mad enough to interfere with a dragon. His saner and less powerful subordinates would simply flee. As for the humans? They usually just froze up. It even happened with the cultivators. Well, he supposed that Feng Ming might have picked a fight if there was an exceedingly good reason, but that one barely counted as a human anymore. No, he was more like an adolescent dragon these days.
Still, the decision to visit the town had been that boy’s fault. The dragon spent most of his ti in happy seclusion. There were few that he could converse with on equal footing. Fewer still that he felt any desire to spend that much ti with. Dragons simply weren’t afflicted by things like loneliness. They were, by nature, complete in themselves. He believed that they’d been shaped that way intentionally by the heavens to keep their population limited. If they felt the need to procreate the way the spirit beasts and humans did, there would only be dragons living on this world by now.
Instead, there was a comparatively small population of them. From ti to ti, a mating would happen, and a hatchling or two would join their ranks. That seed to happen at about the right pace to replace those rare few who died or ascended. Not that dragons had anything like a natural predator. He supposed the divine turtle might pose a genuine threat if, for so inexplicable reason, they found themselves at odds. There were a few things in the vast oceans that possessed the power, but, again, the chances of coming into conflict with one of those were low. A few cultivators, such as Feng Ming and maybe that lightning cultivator friend of his, could summon sufficient strength to accomplish the task. Yet, it ca back to motivation. Terrible risk for questionable rewards.
Like most dragons, he didn’t give it much thought. Even if so catastrophe occurred and every dragon in this world sohow died, it wouldn’t be the end of all the dragons. There were dragons on other worlds, to say nothing of those who had taken the first step into the heavens. In truth, he could likely ascend if he desired it. It just hadn’t ever felt like the right ti. Then again, he might just be lazy. Ascending would an taking on the grueling task of building strength again, and that prospect held limited appeal. He wasn’t truly immortal now. That wasn’t possible for anyone or anything on this plane. But he was the next best thing. He could probably wait around for another fifteen or twenty thousand years before the pressure to leave beca intolerable.
A strangled noise brought the dragon out of his thoughts. He blinked at the spirit beasts who were locked in place by the terrible pressure he’d put them under. It wasn’t even a true soul technique. If he’d used the auric imposition technique that he’d taught that boy, these creatures before him would have exploded. The gap between the strength of his soul and theirs was simply that large. Not that leaving them alive had been any sort of kindness. Dragons could be benevolent, but they were not kind. Particularly not to those who sought to do sothing as foolish as what these spirit beasts had planned.
“You ca here for those girls, didn’t you?” he asked, lifting the pressure enough that they could speak.
“Yes,” gasped a spirit beast that looked to have evolved from a tiger.
“Unwise,” said the dragon.
“Who are you?” gasped another who appeared to have heritage from a wolf.
“?” asked the dragon, and rembered sothing he’d been told the boy sotis said. “I’m no one important, but you can call The Really Big Bird.”
The looks of utter confusion on the spirit beasts’ faces told him that he’d made the right choice. It wasn’t like his actual na would have ant anything to them anyway. He didn’t think the na Lanlong had even survived in legends. Besides, being called The Really Big Bird had struck him as simply hilarious. It was hilarious the first ti Ai had called him that, and it was hilarious now. Well, it was hilarious for him. He supposed that the humor was probably lost on the dood spirit beasts, and dood they were. He might have co to see this town because of that boy, but he had stayed because of the girl that Lu Sen had adopted. Then, the lightning cultivator had co back with another of the boy’s adopted children.
Honestly, he thought, how much can the heavens possibly love one man? To send him two such treasures? There ought to be limits. Even if none of the mortals or cultivators understood why those girls were such treasures, it seed patently unfair that Lu Sen should get two of them. And these misled spirit beasts had co to hurt them in a bid to hurt their adoptive father. That was true madness. To attack the family of a man who had, if all the reports were true, tad oblivion techniques couldn’t be viewed as anything else. Not that any of that mattered today. For Lanlong, in his infinite benevolence, had decided that those girls were under his protection.
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In truth, the spirit beasts should be glad that he was the one who stopped them. He might be unkind, but he was not Alchemy’s Handmaiden. Lanlong would simply retaliate to the level he felt appropriate, but Ma Caihong was vengeful. The end result might be the sa, but the road to that result would be profoundly different. His instinct was to kill them imdiately. They were no threat to him, but it wouldn’t do to let a threat to the girls linger. Then again, he supposed he should ask them a few questions. Things the humans might care about.
“I know why you ca. Insane as that reason might be. But I suppose that’s to be expected from your pitiful Beast King. The question is, did you co alone? Or, are there more of you out there waiting to see if you fail?”
None of the spirit beasts said anything. Lanlong shook his head.
“Silence gains you nothing but testing my limited patience. If we reach the end of that patience, I won’t kill you. I’ll give you Alchemy’s Handmaiden.”
“Oh, please remain silent,” said Ma Caihong, appearing out of the darkness. “I have so very many poisons I wish to test. And, I assure you, I will not run out of patience while I do so.”
As if to prove her words, the cultivator summoned stone vials from a storage ring.
“Perhaps I should begin testing one now,” she mused aloud. “I might prove educational and motivating. Do you mind?”
Lanlong let himself appear to be pondering the question before he shrugged and said, “I have no use for mute spirit beasts.”
“Oh, good,” said Ma Caihong, as she started walking slowly toward the trapped spirit beasts. “Now, which one to choose?”
That exchange broke whatever will the spirit beasts still possessed.
“We’re alone!” shouted the tiger spirit beast.
They were all eager to answer questions after that, but it turned out that they didn’t know much of use. The only thing they did know was that other spirit beasts had been sent to try to kill Jing in the capital. Ma Caihong put on a show of looking disappointed before she retreated. She gave Lanlong a nod. He made a negligent gesture, and the spirit beasts all collapsed.
“What did you do?” she asked in what seed to be an almost academic curiosity.
“I destroyed their hearts,” he answered. “Will you alert the mortals in the capital?”
“I expect they already know, but I suppose I should.”
“And will you tell the boy about this?”
“Of course, I won’t. The sa way we haven’t told him about the rest of the attempts.”
“Don’t you think he deserves to know?”
Ma Caihong sighed and said, “Of course, he deserves to know. He’ll resent us all for not telling him when the truth eventually cos out.”
“Then, why not tell him?”
“Because I’ll survive his resentnt. I’ve done it before. But if he knows that the spirit beasts are attempting to take or kill those girls, there are only two likely outcos.”
“Which are?”
“He’ll abandon the war entirely and co back here to protect them, as any sane parent would. Without him there for everyone to rally behind, the army will fall apart. Any chance of winning the war dies, and humanity begins its long but inevitable march to extinction.”
“Or?”
“Or he’ll lose any sense of restraint he has left. He’ll seize any and every path to additional power he can find, risks be damned.”
Lanlong frowned as he considered those words. That boy’s growth was already unnatural. If everything that Ma Caihong said was true, that was with Lu Sen purposely trying to avoid any additional advancent. If he went the other direction and actively sought power, though, what would that look like? There was a single answer to that question. Nothing good. Any mortal cultivator could achieve so level of rapid advancent if they sought out demonic cultivation. Of course, that was a road that either led to an irrevocable bottleneck or self-destruction. At least, it did for most cultivators. For soone with that much natural talent, so much advancent already accomplished, and the heavens’ favor, the situation might prove more complicated.
Demonic cultivation inevitable altered a person’s personality. It almost had to for them to accept the damage to their foundations. That was to say nothing of the sacrifice of others that such paths required. Cultivators might be ruthless, but even they drew the line at so things. Soone like Lu Sen might take that path and still reach the peak of the mountain. What he did on his way there, however, was enough to give even a dragon pause. And all of that assud that the heavens didn’t simply assist him every step of the way. That level of rapid growth would leave his cultivation dangerously unstable. Sothing else that would also have negative effects on his personality.
Lanlong had never given it full consideration before, but he had to grudgingly admit that Ma Caihong was right. They simply could not tell Lu Sen that there had been attempts on the girls. If there was even a chance that such news would push him down a path to seeking faster advancent, it had to be avoided. After all, if Lu Sen destroyed the entire world, Lanlong would have no choice but to ascend and accept all of the tedious work that went with it.
“Very well,” said the dragon. “I’ll keep this secret.”
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