Chapter 369 — On the Brink of Catastrophe

Shen Mu and Long Jiaonan stepped forward, and where the sixth dragon vein joined the principal dragon vein they found a massive gateway, its two sides carved with countless dragon-shaped reliefs. Shen Mu looked all around.

These dragon reliefs were astonishingly lifelike, steeped in antique charm, as though they were true dragons; their forms each differed from the next, and they were of many different breeds, in no way inferior to the Hundred Dragons Painting of the Great Thunder-Cry Temple. That painting showed only some hundred kinds of heavenly dragons, whereas here the dragon designs numbered as many as a thousand.

Great and small, the dragon reliefs clustered around a giant dragon that coiled with its head upraised, gazing straight at whoever stood beyond the wall—some soaring and dancing, some crawling prone, others sprawled upon the ground in feigned sleep. Yet other dragon reliefs stared at the ground, as if watching something intriguing; some great dragons watched the little ones at play, and some little dragons had climbed onto the giant dragon's whiskers, hanging upside down in sport—every manner of form was there. The giant dragon itself was carved with awesome, fearsome might, bearing at once the majesty of a divine dragon and a savage, barbarous ferocity; its gaze fixed straight upon any who came to this place, so that one could scarce meet its eyes.

"Can this giant dragon be the True Dragon Sovereign? Were I able to comprehend the Dao here, I might well bring my understanding of the Eight Thunder-Cry Formulas to its utmost, and perhaps even create yet more divine powers! " Shen Mu's heart was greatly stirred.

Old Huo was skilled in carving, the Deaf Elder in painting, the Silent Craftsman in forging—all of them had taught Shen Mu a great deal. He could appreciate the beauty of the thousand-dragon reliefs, and could even discern more besides: the reliefs of this dragon-vein gateway had been carved with an axe.

He seemed to see a deity holding a great axe, wielding it with the wind, the axe becoming at once the finest brush and the wildest, freely splashing ink, unleashing a world-shaking axe technique in full, exhilarating flow. "Strange, strange!

" Lord Dragon-Keeper's voice came from the other side of the gateway.

The deity's voice was thick with agitation, as though he had encountered something that baffled him. Shen Mu passed through the towering gateway and paused, startled. At his feet yawned an empty abyss, while thick, seething magma poured down the four walls all around, sending up a world-shaking roar! It was a perfectly straight circular cavern, so round it seemed to have been cut out, and it held no principal dragon vein such as Lord Dragon-Keeper had expected.

Bearing the golden vat, Lord Dragon-Keeper flew to the center of the cavern, glancing all about even as he studied the True Dragon Sovereign in the vat, the bewilderment on his face growing denser by the moment.

"Wrong—the dragon vein of the True Dragon Sovereign is right here, so how can it be gone? Could someone have carried it off?

Or has it already transformed into a true dragon and flown away? " Restless and agitated, Lord Dragon-Keeper suddenly plunged downward, dropping toward the bottom of that vast cavern.

Shen Mu at once rose into the air as well, leaping onto the back of the Dragon-Kylin; the Dragon-Kylin trod upon auspicious clouds and flew downward, and Long Jiaonan too took flight and descended, and after a long while they finally reached the bottom of that vast cavern.

The two were shaken to the core, staring dazedly about them. The magma that rushed down the cavern walls fell from above and washed over a subterranean space glittering with golden light!

This subterranean space was enormous. The magma poured down from above and struck the golden floor, and everywhere stood the essence of dark gold—some in pillars, some in great boulders, densely interwoven, utterly lavish.

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.