Chapter 4590 — A Pity, What a Waste

If it could hold its own against the Five-Element Killing Qi for so long without giving an inch, then so long as he could make it his own, Wei Zhao was certain this was a heaven-defying martial art no less formidable than the Five-Element Killing Qi—a powerful trump card that would serve him greatly in days to come.

This time, however, no matter how he rehearsed and groped after it, he could never seize the crux of it. The deep-purple lightning arcs were plainly a technique of the thunder attribute, and Wei Zhao himself possessed no thunder attribute at all. He could not summon it as it was; he could only strive to fathom its essence and then simulate it with a fire-attribute martial art.

The notion was not wrong—all martial arts under heaven connect at the root, and Wei Zhao had attempted such things before. But this was different. Once mastered, these deep-purple lightning arcs would without question be a top-tier martial art, and to fathom its secrets across the gulf of a different attribute—how could that be anything but bitter hard?

All the more so since his recent success with the Five-Element Killing Qi had rested not only on his gift of possessing all five elements complete, but also on the better part of a year spent wrestling with the Five-Element Killing Qi day in and day out—his understanding of it was profound, which was why he had ascended into its halls so swiftly. The giant electric eel's deep-purple lightning arcs, by contrast, he had never even laid eyes on before. What understanding could he possibly claim?

Wei Zhao understood the logic well enough, yet the chance was too rare to surrender so lightly. Top-tier heaven-defying martial arts—the more the better, surely. This village would not keep its shop once he passed through; a top-tier sea beast of the giant electric eel's caliber was something Wei Zhao might never encounter again in his whole life.

Even with no thread to grasp, Wei Zhao persevered in his groping and rehearsing. If a hundred attempts failed, then two hundred; if two hundred failed, then five hundred. So long as he held on without relenting, surely results would come in time.

Wei Zhao's perseverance was beyond reproach—however utterly lost he was, he could keep going. Yet when he had tried some six hundred times, or perhaps seven hundred, the memory fragment projected in his mind suddenly shattered with a bang. His whole consciousness seemed torn asunder on the spot; the agony was unbearable, and he spat out a great mouthful of blood.

His face stark white, Wei Zhao took a long while to barely recover his breath. Matters had reached a point where they could go no further—the memory fragment was broken, and no amount of perseverance would avail him now. He could only accept reality. After striving so long, he had in the end failed to comprehend a complete martial art from the giant electric eel, and the outcome left Wei Zhao somewhat disheartened.

Yet he did not truly sink into despondency. After all, he had already successfully mastered the Five-Element Killing Qi, and with that one heaven-defying martial art as his foundation, this venture could well be counted a bountiful harvest. Failing to fathom the giant electric eel's lightning art was no small regret, but when one pushes everything to the uttermost limit, fate's allotment is bound to run dry early. Wei Zhao was not a man of insatiable greed.

Besides, with the Five-Element Killing Qi alone, his combat power had already risen several times over. He was a cultivator of the Perfect Breakthrough, the strongest of the Nascent Soul stage. At the peak of the early Nascent Soul realm he had already been confident of contending with cultivators at Nascent Soul Great Perfection; and now that he commanded a heaven-defying martial art like the Five-Element Killing Qi, even should he encounter a Xuan Sheng stage expert, he was not without the means to give battle!

A mere peak early Nascent Soul cultivator, and already able to stand against a Xuan Sheng stage expert—if even that left him unsatisfied, then Wei Zhao would truly deserve the scorn of every hero under heaven, and how would anyone else go on living?

"Ah, what a pity," Wei Zhao murmured with a slight shake of his head—not over the failure to fathom the lightning art, but over the memory fragment that had projected into his mind and in that instant suddenly shattered into scattered, incomplete shards. To draw anything of value from it now was impossible.

Still, through those fragmented shards Wei Zhao could just make out some of what followed. The epochal battle between the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits and the giant electric eel had not been decided by superiority; after fighting bitterly for who knew how long, the two had ended in mutual ruin.

The commotion of that battle had been so vast that many top-tier beings had been drawn to prowl and watch. Though overawed by the might of the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits and the giant electric eel, they dared not approach for the moment, yet should an opening present itself, then whichever side won this battle was doomed to die regardless.

The Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits was no fool, and neither was the giant electric eel. When each sensed the peril, the two top-tier savage beasts chose to cease hostilities at the very same moment. Thus, gravely wounded as they were, because neither side had perished, those prowling in the distance could not plumb their true condition, and not one dared make a rash move.

A thousand years hence—we fight again!

Such was the message the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits left before departing. The giant electric eel's reply was a pillar of lightning that pierced the heavens, accepting the appointed battle in the most domineering, most flaunting manner—and at the same time thoroughly cowing those covetous presences.

Once it was certain the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits had utterly vanished from these waters, the giant electric eel slowly dragged its battered, broken body back to its former lair to nurse its wounds. Yet its injuries were truly too grave; after holding on with all its might for who knew how long—perhaps several years, perhaps decades or a century—it ultimately failed to recover its vitality. Its vast life force ebbed away bit by bit until at last it became the carcass now lying before his eyes.

As for that Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits, it was never seen again after that. Perhaps it too had died—its wounds, after all, were scarcely lighter than the electric eel's. Or perhaps it still lived, merely hiding somewhere licking its wounds in silence, waiting to rise again.

The memory fragments ended there, and Wei Zhao never did see the fate of that Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits. By his reckoning, though, it too must have met ill fortune like the giant electric eel—not only because its injuries were so grievous, but because it had not returned to that mysterious space beneath the Five Baleful Swamp.

According to the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits, that place had always been the domain of the Five Baleful Dragon lineage. The Five-Element Killing Qi was fatal to other spirit beasts, but to a Five Baleful Dragon it was a great tonic. Had that dragon sought healing, it would surely have hurried back to that mysterious space. The fact that it had not done so meant something must have gone wrong along the way—the likelihood of it dying en route was very great.

Beyond that, one more point was not hard to infer: this Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits must be the previous generation of Five Baleful Dragon that the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits had spoken of—not its master! (To be continued) R466