Chapter 401: Hunting the Flood Dragon – Part One
The ocean beneath the Black Crystal Profound Turtle suddenly collapsed inward, forming a violent, spinning vortex. The sheer suction force abruptly halted the beast’s massive momentum, anchoring it in place.
An instant later, the center of the maelstrom bulged upward.
It wasn’t a rogue wave—it was a seemingly endless, sinuous spine.
Ash-blue scales breached the surface, revealing a leviathan that dwarfed even the Black Crystal Profound Turtle. Its body stretched endlessly like an undulating mountain range, with every jagged ridge towering over a hundred feet into the air.
Its torso was as thick as a centuries-old redwood. Each scale was the size of a grinding stone, the edges crusted with seabed gravel and barnacles.
Embedded dead center on its forehead was a dark-gold reverse scale, marred by a web of fine cracks.
Its ash-blue eyes featured vertical black slits that radiated a sinister, feral malice. Deeply sunken eye sockets sat beneath heavy, protruding brow bones.
Its snout was flat, the nostrils flaring like twin volcanic craters that exhaled plumes of sulfurous white mist.
Long dragon whiskers trailed from the sides of its maw, though several were snapped off or charred black.
When it bared its jaws, rows of densely packed, razor-sharp fangs gleamed, the two longest tusks jutting out like spears. Its lips had rotted away long ago; only rough scales clung to the gums, exposing the dark, writhing muscle tissue underneath.Could this be the flood dragon that escaped from the Flood Dragon Suppression Pagoda? Jiang Chen calculated internally.
The primary evidence was its extreme age and physical degeneration. Only centuries of imprisonment could ravage a creature so thoroughly. A wild demon beast would never look this decrepit.
It’s likely operating at less than half its peak strength.
Panic seized the Black Crystal Profound Turtle. It lunged, attempting to ram its heavy carapace into the predator.
But the flood dragon was faster.
Rather than leaping, its colossal bulk shifted horizontally with the unstoppable momentum of a landslide. Its tail whipped through the air with a hair-raising shriek, slamming viciously into the turtle’s flank.
The impact echoed like two mountains colliding.
Shockwaves blasted outward, churning up waves dozens of feet high and sending out ripples violent enough to capsize galleons.
The Black Crystal Profound Turtle’s vaunted, impenetrable shell fractured. Shrapnel exploded in all directions, slicing through the water and impaling several lesser water demons lurking nearby.
Howling in agony, the massive turtle thrashed across the surface, churning the sea into a frothing frenzy.
The flood dragon offered no reprieve. It slithered forward, coiling its thickest, most muscular segments around its prey.
This was no simple bind—it was a death grip. Ash-blue dragon scales ground against the ink-black shell, igniting a blinding shower of sparks.
The turtle’s carapace groaned under the apocalyptic pressure, buckling against the sheer, terrifying force. In the blink of an eye, fractures spiderwebbed across the impact zone before the shell detonated with a deafening boom, exposing the tender pink flesh and pulsing organs beneath.
Unhinging its massive jaws, the flood dragon sank its twin rows of razor-sharp teeth into the exposed meat.
The sickening crunch of bone and the wet, guttural slurps of tearing flesh echoed across the water. The two-hundred-foot-wide Black Crystal Profound Turtle was nothing more than a chew toy to the leviathan. In mere moments, nothing remained but a hollowed-out half-shell and bloody fragments bobbing on the waves.
Finishing its grisly meal, the flood dragon licked the gore from its jaws, its hunger clearly unsated.
The feral greed in its slit-pupils intensified as it swept its gaze across the surroundings, sensing for more prey. Suddenly, as if locking onto a new scent, it turned and slithered toward another stretch of the ocean.
Xuan Zang swallowed hard. “Do we engage?” he asked. “That’s a thousand-year-old great demon!”
However, Jiang Chen and the rest of the group remained dead still. Not a single one of them entertained the suicidal thought of charging in.
“To play it safe,” Chen Tian muttered, his eyes narrowed in thought, “someone needs to head back and report this. The rest of us will stay and track the beast.”
Jiang Chen’s hand shot up instantly. “Me! I’ll go!”
Chen Tian hesitated. “I don’t feel comfortable letting you go back alone. Take Long Ao with you.” He fixed them with a stern look. “Remember, report directly to Senior Brother Qin first.”
If the Cloud Sea Sect could be the first to slay this rampaging flood dragon, they would instantly gain a massive edge over the other two great Immortal Sects and the lesser Cultivation factions. It would grant them absolute initiative and authority in all subsequent explorations and hunts.
Jiang Chen and Long Ao exchanged a brief nod. Summoning the Shattered Moon Flowing Frost, they mounted the flying sword and tore through the sky.
Meanwhile, Chen Tian, Han Xin, and Xuan Zang melted into the shadows, silently tailing the leviathan.
Along the way, Jiang Chen and Long Ao flew in tense silence. With a flood dragon on the loose, every second counted.
Yet, despite their shared urgency, their internal motives couldn’t have been more different.
Long Ao was laser-focused on finding Qin Hao and the other core disciples to hunt down the weakened, aging beast. Slaying it would skyrocket the Cloud Sea Sect’s prestige and dominance—and more importantly, guarantee them a massive cut of the reward.
Jiang Chen’s calculations were far more pragmatic and entirely self-serving. Once he delivered the message to Qin Hao, he planned to slip away from the group, don a disguise, and dive back into the water alone.
If he could just get close enough to the beast, he could extract its dragon vein. Doing so would unlock the second form of his Nine Transformations of the Wandering Dragon: the Flood Dragon Transformation.
The duo soon arrived at Mystic Heart City. The area was swarming with Cultivation Sect disciples, both core and formal. While it wasn’t quite the sprawling sea of humanity seen at the Thousand Sect Dharma Assembly, the sheer numbers easily eclipsed the Cloud Sea Sect’s recent formal disciple competition.
They quickly located Qin Hao, who was currently locked in conversation with Zhao Lie from the Dragon Tiger Immortal Sect. Both men were clearly eyeing the Spirit Gathering Abyss.
“Old Mo, we hold priority over the Spirit Gathering Abyss,” Qin Hao was saying. “My Junior Brother here possesses the hundred-year fishing rights to it!”
As Jiang Chen and Long Ao approached, Qin Hao’s eyes lit up in recognition.
Zhao Lie’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What?”
Qin Hao puffed out his chest with evident pride. “Junior Brother Jiang, isn’t that right?!”
Jiang Chen nodded smoothly. “That is indeed the case.”
Zhao Lie frowned, his curiosity piqued. “How exactly did you get your hands on those?”
Jiang Chen gave a brief rundown of his previous exploits. “I participated in the Thousand Sails Race…”
Hearing the explanation, Zhao Lie scoffed and waved a dismissive hand. “That was before the dragon vein was severed. Look at the state of the place now. Those fishing rights are absolutely void.”
Qin Hao’s brow twitched. “What exactly are you implying, Zhao?”
Zhao Lie sneered, his tone dripping with mockery. “Your Cloud Sea Sect’s petty little schemes have already echoed from Mystic Heart City all the way to the Dragon Tiger Immortal Sect. Do you really think the rest of us are idiots?”
Qin Hao’s expression darkened. “So, there’s no room for negotiation?”
The atmosphere instantly soured. Refusing to acknowledge each other any further, Zhao Lie stood up and stormed off, completely dismissing Jiang Chen’s hundred-year fishing rights as a joke.
Once Zhao Lie was out of earshot, Qin Hao scowled. “Everyone calls Zhao Lie a battle-crazed madman. Turns out he actually has half a brain.”
Jiang Chen and Long Ao’s mouths twitched in unison.
“Senior Brother,” Long Ao deadpanned, “he’s a battle-crazed madman, not an idiot.”
Qin Hao blinked, momentarily taken aback, before a half-smile touched his lips. “Right. Anyway, did you two need me for something?”
Jiang Chen didn’t waste a single breath. “It’s a flood dragon! We found a flood dragon!”