Chapter 250: Returning After Mastery
“Was it time reversal?” Li Nian’er muttered to herself, but quickly dismissed the idea. If time had reversed by five hundred years, she wouldn’t be here, and Uncle Jiang wouldn’t be standing around so casually.
“Haunted?” Li Nian’er had a ridiculous thought and shivered. As Li Er’s daughter, she naturally knew that there were no ghosts in the Nine Provinces.
But knowing is one thing. When facing something incomprehensible, it’s hard not to instinctively feel that ghosts might exist.
“No no no, I can’t think like that. I’m a cultivator. I need to stick to facts and logic. There are no ghosts in the Nine Provinces.” Li Nian’er tried to pump herself up, though her confidence was clearly shaky.
“Did Uncle Jiang and I travel to another world? Or is the old village chief playing me?” Li Nian’er’s imagination ran wild. She thought of novels she’d read like Lover Across Time and Back to the Past to Say I Love You, all works by Passionate Desire Teacher, but in the end, she couldn’t come to any useful conclusion.
“You two probably won’t be able to leave here anymore. Ever since my grandson snuck out, the evil flood dragon has increased surveillance on the village. No one who passes through can escape,” the old village chief said sympathetically, looking at the uncle and niece.
“This place is nearly ten li from the cold pool, and the flood dragon’s Divine Sense can reach here? Has it reached the Soul Formation Stage?” Li Nian’er was shocked. It was hard to imagine such a remote, desolate place harboring a beast with such incredible cultivation talent.
To go from Nascent Soul Stage to Soul Formation in sixty years was already an astonishing feat.
As far as Li Nian’er knew, even Uncle Jiang took a full six years to go from Nascent Soul to Soul Formation.
This evil flood dragon had a tenth of Uncle Jiang’s talent!
Jiang Li figured this girl inherited her mother’s looks and her father’s brains.
“I don’t know about Soul Formation or not. I just know that the flood dragon recruited a few young people from the village to act as its lackeys. It gave them a few benefits and helped them reach the ninth level of Qi Refining. Now they run wild in the village—no one can stop them.”
“There are people so heartless?” Li Nian’er frowned.
Suddenly, a commotion broke out outside. Amid the sound of drums and gongs came the noise of arguing voices.
“Give us our children back!”
“That damn flood dragon already ate two people three months ago! Why is it eating again?!”
“Lord Flood Dragon does what he wants! Who are you to question him? Let go! Get lost!”
“You bastards helping a monster—have you no conscience?!”
“Conscience? Let’s see if that’ll save your kids from Lord Flood Dragon’s belly.”
The old village chief knew this scene too well. He stormed out of the house in a rage.
“You scumbags! What do you think you’re doing?!”
Outside, a few young men were dragging two children, beating drums and gongs as they headed toward the outskirts. The children’s parents and other villagers tried to block them, but against ninth-level Qi Refining cultivators, they were powerless and could only watch their children be taken.
The two children cried loudly, their wailing breaking their parents’ hearts.
“Lord Flood Dragon just sent us a voice transmission. He’s finished his closed-door cultivation and wants to eat something nice—tender kids to whet his appetite.”
“You!”
“Village Chief, I advise you to stay out of this. Or Lord Flood Dragon might decide to eat you next. Maybe he’s in the mood for some chewy meat, eh?”
The young men laughed arrogantly, showing no respect for the village chief.
Though they were all ninth-level Qi Refining cultivators, the chief was old, frail, and nearing the end of his lifespan. He posed no threat to them.
“You beasts!” Li Nian’er’s brows knit tightly.
“B*tch! We’ve had our eyes on you two outsiders for a while. We were gonna wait till Lord Flood Dragon finished with these two kids before feeding him you next. But since you’re in such a hurry to die, don’t blame us!”
The young men were furious and tried to tie up Li Nian’er and Jiang Li as well.
But how could they possibly be a match for Li Nian’er? She subdued them with a single move.
“Here, take your kids home.” Li Nian’er untied the children and handed them back to their parents.
“You’ll bring down Lord Flood Dragon’s wrath on us! You’ll doom the whole village!” the lead young man shouted, terrified by what she’d done.
If they angered the flood dragon, the whole village—along with them—might be wiped out.
Suddenly, dark clouds rolled in. Thunder crashed, and the sky grew stifling. It felt like a giant rock was pressing down on everyone’s chest, making it hard to breathe.
A dark shadow leapt from the cold pool in the distance—an overwhelming terror.
The shadow moved like a snake, covered in emerald-green scales that rippled more deeply than a serpent’s. At its front were two eagle-like claws, sharp and powerful.
True Dragons can command clouds and summon rain. This flood dragon was lucky enough to inherit a sliver of that power.
The evil flood dragon opened its bloody maw, aiming to devour the entire village.
The villagers panicked and fell to their knees, begging for mercy.
“No dragon horns… a wild venomous flood dragon at the Nascent Soul Stage.” Li Nian’er sneered, removing her pendant to reveal her dragon horns.
She had half True Dragon blood. She naturally suppressed flood dragons—and she was a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, an envoy of the Dharmakaya Sect. In terms of combat, she doubted any Nascent Soul Stage opponent could rival her.
The only tricky thing about the flood dragon was its poison core. But as long as she was cautious, there’d be no problem.
Li Nian’er was about to slay the flood dragon—when someone else beat her to it.
“Evil beast! Don’t be arrogant!” A bold young man descended from the sky and engaged the flood dragon in battle.
The young man who appeared was also a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator!
“T-That’s my grandson, A Tong!” The old village chief was overjoyed. He hadn’t expected his grandson to succeed in cultivation and return at the critical moment.
A Tong, wielding the skills he had mastered, fought the flood dragon and gradually gained the upper hand. In the end, he ripped the dragon apart, extracted its poison core, and returned triumphant.
With A Tong’s strike, the heads of the flood dragon’s human lackeys flew into the air.
“A Tong, is that you?” The old village chief’s hands trembled, tears streaming down his face. He thought he was dreaming.
“Grandpa, I’m back.” A Tong scratched his head sheepishly with a silly grin.
“Good child… not late at all. Not late in the slightest.” The old man couldn’t stop crying.
A Tong then turned to thank Li Nian’er and Jiang Li.
The villagers, seeing the flood dragon slain and A Tong’s return, threw a huge banquet to celebrate. A Tong, as the guest of honor, was surrounded on all sides.
Li Nian’er and Jiang Li were also invited and sat at the same table as the village chief.
Li Nian’er frowned. She felt like something wasn’t right, but couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“A Tong, tell us—after you left the village, where did you go?” The old chief smiled as he patted A Tong’s head. A Tong looked like he was enjoying it, nothing like the decisive, battle-hardened Nascent Soul Stage cultivator who had just fought a bloody fight.
“After I left the village, I wandered far and wide, looking for a way to save the village, but couldn’t find any good solution.”
“One day, I accidentally stumbled into a secret realm and found a cultivation technique there called One Thought Alters Heaven and Earth. It’s a technique capable of leading to immortality, tied to the Dao of Illusions—truly powerful.”
“Unfortunately, the secret realm had a special rule: only those who reached the Nascent Soul Stage could leave.”
“I kept training in the secret realm, learning the Dao of Illusions and cultivating One Thought Alters Heaven and Earth. Eventually, I reached the Nascent Soul Stage and could finally leave.”
“I was afraid the evil flood dragon would hurt more people, so I ran nonstop and finally made it back to the village. Luckily, I wasn’t too late, and no catastrophe occurred.”
As he finished speaking, A Tong let out a long breath.