Chapter 249: Haven’t Heard of the Human Sovereign Jiang
The story of the Lady Ruan stirred a lot of emotions, but there was a fatal flaw in it.
It wasn’t that Jiang Li used a longsword to fight off a ghost—it was the ghost of Ruan herself.
There are no ghosts in the Nine Provinces.
There are many folk legends about spirits, like the seventh day after death, Ghost Festival, burning joss paper, ghostly romances and such. Even some high-level cultivators believe these tales. Though they’ve never seen ghosts themselves, that very absence makes the unseen all the more frightening.
But Jiang Li knew very well—no ghosts would ever appear in the Nine Provinces.
He had once asked Immortal Elder Changcun, the Old Buddha of Mount Sumeru, and the Brahma Tower about it. All three gave the same answer.
All ghosts reside in the Underworld. There are no ghosts in the Nine Provinces.
According to the Old Buddha of Mount Sumeru, the Underworld’s methods are unimaginably advanced, practically on par with the Laws of Heaven and Earth. When a person dies and their soul leaves their body, it is instantly transported to the Underworld.
This process is completely undetectable. Even the Old Buddha and the Brahma Tower, both experts in the Dao of Space, couldn’t sense it—let alone Jiang Li.
The process of reincarnation in the Underworld is equally imperceptible.
This soul transfer process was passed down by Celestial-level beings from the Celestial Realm, and relayed through Immortal Elder Changcun. Several Immortal’s Notes also confirmed it.
Immortal Elder Changcun said that the Underworld doesn’t use the Dao of Space—it uses the Dao of Life and Death and Reincarnation. Only those from the Underworld can wield it. Even Celestial experts know little about it, and only a handful of immortals can use it.
No one in the Nine Provinces can.
If there’s any place in this world that might be connected to the Celestial Realm, it would be the legendary Underworld.
Unfortunately, the Underworld is even more mysterious than the Celestial Realm. Only fragments of information have been passed down.
Jiang Li figured there was only one way to reach the Underworld: to die himself.
No matter how much he wanted to go to the Celestial Realm, Jiang Li wasn’t about to give up his life for it.
【Mission Issued: Congratulations to the Host on becoming a Nascent Soul cultivator. You now have a voice in the Nine Provinces. After your breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Stage, your Divine Sense expanded drastically. Your body couldn’t bear it and fell into a coma. You were found by villagers on the northern border of the Longgu Kingdom. While passing by a cold pool, a man-eating flood dragon burst forth. It demands human sacrifices and has long been worshipped by the villagers. Frightened, the villagers fled in all directions, leaving the unconscious you behind. You open your eyes and lock eyes with the dragon.】
【Your mission is to defeat this mid-Nascent Soul Stage flood dragon】
【This mission can be forfeited】
【Mission Rewards: A copy of the Scripture of a Hundred Poisons, a segment of Dragonblood Wood, and one Concealment Talisman】
“A man-eating flood dragon that demands human sacrifices?”
Jiang Li took note of how the system described this cold pool dragon.
To be described like that, it had probably eaten a lot of people—an endless menace.
When a beast eats people, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s walking the path of demonic cultivation. It might just think humans taste good.
Beasts live longer than the human race. A Nascent Soul Stage flood dragon can live for about seven or eight hundred years.
“Judging from the timeline, this flood dragon might still be alive.”
Jiang Li couldn’t let it go. He wanted to go to the Longgu Kingdom to check it out.
Following the system’s description, Jiang Li arrived at the northern border of the Longgu Kingdom and found a village near a cold pool—he ran into someone he knew, which surprised him a bit.
“Nian’er? What are you doing here?”
“Uncle Jiang.” Li Nian’er was equally surprised to see Jiang Li.
“It’s because of my unreliable dad. On his wedding anniversary, he actually went to the Cloudwater Secret Realm to find the Painting Immortal’s divine thought. Mom was furious when she found out.”
“So I came out to avoid the storm. I just happened to pass by here and heard there was a flood dragon eating people. If that’s true, I wanted to slay it on behalf of the True Dragons of the Western Sea.”
Li Nian’er had half True Dragon blood from the Western Sea.
“That flood dragon’s still alive?” Jiang Li was surprised. He came here just in case, but didn’t expect the dragon to really be alive.
“You’ve heard of that evil dragon too, Uncle Jiang?”
“Nothing much. Go on.”
“The villagers said that dragon is extremely cunning. It hides in the deepest part of the cold pool and never comes out. It’s been like that for over a hundred years.”
“A hundred years? That’s… interesting.”
If the dragon had been wreaking havoc for five hundred years, Jiang Li would get it. But a hundred years…
A trembling old man walked out of the village. “You two are guests—why not come sit in the village for a while?”
Jiang Li saw that this elder was the strongest in the village, ninth level of Qi Refining. Unfortunately, he was near the end of his life and wouldn’t live much longer.
In their conversation, they learned he was the village chief.
“I heard there’s a flood dragon in the nearby cold pool. Could you tell us more about it, sir?”
“This goes back a long way. Our village is near the cold pool, so we’re called Cold Pool Village. People like to bathe in the pool’s water—it’s good for the body. About 110 years ago, a giant python came out of nowhere and took up residence in the cold pool. One day, someone went to fetch water and got swallowed whole. You could even see the person’s face through the snake’s belly.”
Li Nian’er imagined the scene and felt a bit scared.
“The python spoke human words, saying no one was allowed to speak of what happened that day. It also demanded one male and one female sacrifice each year. If we refused, it would wipe out the whole village!”
“We invited cultivators to help, but they were all swallowed by the python. It got angry, came into the village, and ate over a dozen people before it calmed down. Since then, we haven’t dared to defy it.”
“Fifty years later, the python transformed into a flood dragon and has stayed coiled in the cold pool to this day.”
Snakes have two paths in cultivation: one as a snake, the other as a snake transforming into a flood dragon and then into a dragon.
Becoming a flood dragon meant it had reached the Nascent Soul Stage.
“I wonder how my grandson is doing these days, how his cultivation’s going.” The old chief sighed.
“Where is your grandson now?” Li Nian’er asked, curious.
“No idea. He snuck out when the evil dragon wasn’t paying attention. Said only by becoming a powerful cultivator could he kill that beast.”
“Why didn’t he ask others for help?” Li Nian’er couldn’t understand the boy’s thinking. Wouldn’t it be faster to find a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator to help than cultivate all the way himself?
“You’re joking, girl. That’s a Nascent Soul Stage beast. Who would help us out of the blue? We couldn’t possibly afford to hire someone that strong.”
“He could’ve asked the Human Sovereign Hall for help. They’d never ignore something like this—especially Uncle Jiang—oh wait, I mean, the Human Sovereign Jiang.”
“Human Sovereign Jiang? Who?” The chief looked stunned.
“You’ve never heard of the Human Sovereign Jiang?” Li Nian’er looked even more shocked than he did.
“Never heard of him.”
“Then which Human Sovereign have you heard of?”
“Human Sovereign Lu.”
Jiang Li’s predecessor was Human Sovereign Lu, a respectable senior.
“Do you know what year this is?”
“The year 4305 of the Yan Calendar.”
“That’s five hundred years ago!” Li Nian’er couldn’t wrap her head around what was going on and looked to Jiang Li for help.
“You’re an envoy of the Dharmakaya Sect. You need to learn to solve your own problems. If you keep relying on others, you’ll end up with a brain as slow as your dad’s.”
Jiang Li shook his head. Why did young people today always expect help? When he was at the Nascent Soul Stage, he solved his problems himself—never asked anyone for aid.
Li Nian’er panicked and quickly began thinking hard about where things had gone wrong.