Chapter 4569 — The Sea-Splitting Stage
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"My master told me all of this after he fled back. He had gone to compete for the post of Azure Dragon Elder full of confidence, but the outcome was utterly beyond expectation: that Vermilion Bird Elder who presided over the affair had already had a candidate of his own in mind. The so-called open selection was nothing but a formality. Yet although the candidate they had settled on in advance was also very strong, in the end my master—an interloper who came out of nowhere—proved the stronger. Seeing the situation slip out of control, that Vermilion Bird actually struck in secret and poisoned my master. Caught off guard, my master was gravely wounded, and he fought desperately to flee back to these Five-Venom Marshes!" The Five-Bane Dragon spoke through clenched teeth.
"Hm? Since he was able to flee back here, then even that Vermilion Bird creature should have been helpless against him. How could he have died?" the Ghost Thing suddenly asked.
Only spirit beasts or human cultivators possessing all five elemental attributes could come and go freely through the Five-Venom Marshes. So far the Ghost Thing knew of only three: the Five-Venom Flood Dragon, the Five-Bane Dragon, and Wei Zhao. Beyond these, no matter how great one's strength, one could not enter—not the Vermilion Bird, and not even the Ghost Thing himself at his peak, who had been utterly without recourse. It was a natural sanctuary; in theory, so long as one could flee back here, one was absolutely safe. No matter how strong the Vermilion Bird or how many allies it had, it would have no way in.
"My master did manage to flee back, but he was already gravely wounded, his lamp all but spent. His injuries worsened day by day, and he could not heal himself by his own power alone. But the Vermilion Bird had set guards above, so slipping out to seek help was out of the question. In the end he could only accept his fate. He used a secret initiation art of infusion to force the whole of his mighty strength into me—that is why my power rose so quickly. Alas, my master's injuries were too severe. Before I had received the full transmission, he was already gone..." Here the Five-Bane Dragon, a top-tier existence of the Earth-Opening stage, could not keep his eyes from reddening, and tears fell.
Fierce and savage a spirit beast though he was, he was far more loyal and affectionate than most humans. To him the Five-Venom Flood Dragon was not only a master who taught by word and example, but a loving father and elder of the family—the only warmth he had felt since coming to Cloud-Tier Island. Above all, in the end the Flood Dragon had fought to the death to pass on the whole of his strength; even a son of one's own blood could have done no more.
A man does not shed tears lightly, and the Five-Bane Dragon had not known what tears were from the day he was born. But the death of the Five-Venom Flood Dragon made him taste tears for the first time in his life.
Wei Zhao watched this scene and could not help falling silent. He had never thought the Five-Venom Flood Dragon would die for such a reason. Then he glanced unconsciously at the Ghost Thing, thinking to himself that strong as the Five-Venom Flood Dragon was, when all was said and done the Ghost Thing—the former Azure Dragon—was probably the stronger.
If the Five-Venom Flood Dragon had been the Ghost Thing, then after fleeing back to the Five-Venom Marshes, at the very worst he could have transformed into primordial-spirit form, and in days to come would still have had some chance to rise again—he would not have simply perished like this.