That night, the four-person "drifter" group took shelter in a deserted wooden hut outside the city, preparing to enter the next day.
Leng Jing, Leng Qingqing, and the white mink all watched Mei Xin.
From the moment she entered the room, she had been busy. She laid out the bedding on the crude wooden bed, took incense from her bundle to light it, and then knelt on one knee before Leng Jing, saluting with both hands. "Dragon God, please retire for the night."
"Mhm, mhm." Leng Jing stroked his chin. This was the first time since his birth that he had received such treatment, and he began to put on airs.
"Xiao Jing isn't a Dragon God, he's my son!" Leng Qingqing protested from the side.
Only then did Mei Xin notice him. She pulled a piece of peach wood from her bundle and said fiercely, "How dare you two monsters approach the White Dragon! Do you want to kill him? Go use some medicinal powder to wash the demonic aura off yourselves before coming back in!"
"It's fine. I've been with them for a long time anyway," Leng Jing said. Mei Xin huffed before allowing Leng Qingqing and the white mink to get near him.
Thus, amidst Mei Xin’s high-level hospitality, the Ugly Little Snake spent a night feeling quite smug and self-satisfied.
***
The next morning, the sky was a murky gray, and the city gates remained tightly shut. From early dawn, Mei Xin had collected the freshest dew and presented it to the Ugly Little Snake, kneeling as she offered it.
The Ugly Little Snake gave a few cold chuckles, hopped off the bed, and paced with his hands behind his back. "Mei Xin, why do you believe I am a Divine Dragon? What exactly is the origin of your people?"
Mei Xin stood up and said, "I am of the God-Enlightened Clan. For generations, our clan has mastered the skill of summoning deities and divine beasts. Among us, the one who can summon a Divine Dragon is the head of the clan. To achieve this goal, I left the Great Canyon where our clan resides at the age of thirteen to travel the world in search of the highest-tier summoned beast. When I arrived in this region to investigate the 'Wind Blade' phenomenon, I happened to run into you. Though you have a human form, you possess a dragon’s aura. The bell I use to detect spiritual beings also made an unusual sound. So, you are a Divine Dragon, aren't you?"
Leng Jing paced the small hut and asked, "The 'Wind Blade' phenomenon you mentioned—is that the invisible blades emanating from the city that can cut people to death? Have you found the cause?"
"I haven't had time to clarify that yet. I only know that the city gate is blocked by dense wind blades, making it impossible to enter," Mei Xin shook her head.
"And the bell you use to detect spiritual beings? Let me see it," Leng Jing requested.
Mei Xin took a glittering golden bell from her robes. As it neared Leng Jing, it began to jingle. Leng Jing glanced at it and said, "Try bringing that bell near those two over there."
"Eh?" Confused, Mei Xin moved the bell toward the still-sleeping Leng Qingqing and the white mink. To her surprise, the bell rang just as loudly.
"Ah! How can this be!" Mei Xin hadn't expected the bell to fail, mistaking a low-tier monster like the white mink for a divine beast.
"Because of the Wind Blade phenomenon, the spiritual field here has mutated. Your bell lost its efficacy long ago," Leng Jing told her. "So, I might as well tell you: I am not a Divine Dragon. I am a Grass Dragon born in a shallow marsh. My father is that snake demon sleeping on the straw bed."
"What?!" Mei Xin was stunned. Once she processed this, she was so furious she threw the bell to the ground. "So you're just a hybrid dragon, a cross between a dragon and a snake! You actually dared to pose as a Divine Dragon! You tricked me for so long! Damnable! Damnable!"
"Getting angry now is useless," Leng Jing said, not allowing her to spiral further. "Tell you what: to repay you for your hospitality last night, we will take you into the city with us. Later, I will provide you with a job at my manor and give you material support to find a real Divine Dragon. The condition is that you tell me more about that 'Immortal Mountain.'"
Before Mei Xin could get any angrier, Leng Jing had already arranged the next steps. She was left speechless, able only to glare at him.
Leng Jing woke Leng Qingqing, and the three of them ate their dry rations in the hut before preparing to investigate the Wind Blade-shrouded Qingzhou City.
After setting a barrier around the hut to protect Leng Qingqing, Leng Jing and Mei Xin walked toward the city. The sky above Qingzhou was covered in black clouds, and the terrifying sound of howling hurricanes echoed from within, a truly harrowing sight.
Relying on his dragon scales for protection, Leng Jing stepped forward to the city gate and pushed it open. Unexpectedly, the moment the gate cracked open, a powerful hurricane rushed out, sending his hair flying wildly.
In a flash, the transparent barrier Leng Jing had set around them emitted a sharp grinding sound. As expected, the winds here were invisible sharp blades. Had Leng Jing not placed the barrier beforehand, the two of them would have been sliced to ribbons.
"White Dragon, you're quite good with barriers!" Mei Xin praised. They dodged the first wave of wind blades and entered through the gates.
The scene inside the city shocked them.
Within the gates, no scenery was visible. There were only overwhelming, pitch-black cyclones and vortices of all sizes. One could faintly see the outlines of ruins and, in the distance, a massive black hurricane that seemed to suppress the entire city.
Leng Jing had never seen such an eerie sight; his eyes widened slightly.
"What terrifying wind blades!" Mei Xin exclaimed, seeing such massive cyclones for the first time.
"How exactly did this form?" Leng Jing asked.
Mei Xin pulled him along, walking through the gaps where the cyclones were smaller as she explained, "Wind blades are sometimes caused by monsters exhaling demonic power, and sometimes they form naturally. In the East, there is the legend of the Kamaitachi, which refers to wind blades. But whether caused by monsters or nature, the power of such phenomena is usually negligible, not enough to cause this much harm. A scale like this can only mean one of two things: either it is a catastrophic omen of the world changing, or a very, very, very, very powerful monster is at the center of that black hurricane. And that monster's strength might far exceed even the Great Gods of the Heavenly Realm! If that's the case, it will be a calamity for the mortal world! I must find a way to stop it!"
Leng Jing looked at her, unsure whether to call her righteous or naive.
The two of them pushed against the wind, finally drawing closer to the black hurricane with great difficulty. Leng Jing looked up; the hurricane was so massive it weighed on the nerves, like a giant beast with a roar like thunder.
Even within Leng Jing's barrier, they were blown about until they could barely stand, nearly crawling on the ground. Mei Xin struggled to draw her ancestral sword, slapped a talisman onto the blade, chanted an incantation, and shouted, "Go!" The sword flew out, plunging straight into the hurricane.
To her dismay, it was like a stone sinking into the ocean; the sword vanished without a trace.
Mei Xin froze, then pulled out a stack of talismans to try another spell. At that moment, Leng Jing sensed a change in the wind. A thought flashed through his mind: *The hurricane has noticed us!* He reached out and pulled Mei Xin behind him.
Before Mei Xin could react, she was yanked back. Simultaneously, the barrier Leng Jing had set shattered instantly. Leng Jing’s body took the brunt of the impact, and he was knocked to the ground, with Mei Xin pinned beneath him.
It all happened so suddenly. By the time she regained her senses, Leng Jing had already struggled to open the barrier again. Fortunately, Mei Xin hadn't suffered a scratch, though she was badly shaken.
Leng Jing’s situation was different. The moment the barrier was shattered by the hurricane, his entire body had been exposed to the wind blades. When Mei Xin looked at him, she saw he was covered in gashes, his white robes soaked in blood.
"White Dragon!" Mei Xin opened her mouth, realizing she had made a grave mistake. Leng Jing signaled for her not to speak, covered her mouth, and dragged her back. Fortunately, Leng Jing’s speed was still incredible, and they managed to retreat from the terrifying city before the hurricane’s next attack.
***
Night fell. Half a day had passed since their exploration of Qingzhou.
Leng Jing lay on the crude wooden bed, his eyes tightly shut. Leng Qingqing sat beside him, sobbing quietly. He didn't dare cry out loud for fear of disturbing Leng Jing, so he just wiped his eyes continuously. Mei Xin was decocting medicine while the white mink helped fan the fire.
"The medicine is ready." Mei Xin poured the steaming liquid into a bowl. Leng Qingqing sniffed and said softly, "Xiao Jing, time for medicine. Daddy will feed you..."
Only then did Leng Jing open his eyes. He let Leng Qingqing help him lean against the headboard. Leng Qingqing blew on each spoonful of medicine—which had been sweetened with sugar—before feeding it to him.
Mei Xin looked guiltily at the pitiful father and son, murmuring, "Maybe I should take the White Dragon back to my home valley to recover... the medicinal herbs there are more complete... and I could..."
"Don't you touch my son!!" Leng Qingqing suddenly snapped, his protective instincts flaring.
"I didn't mean for this to happen..." Mei Xin pouted defensively.
"It's all your fault! You're the one who got my son hurt! Shut up, you wretched woman!" Leng Qingqing was furious.
"I already said I didn't mean it!" Mei Xin argued, raising her voice.
"You did it on purpose! You clearly knew Xiao Jing is just a tiny, fragile young dragon! Mortals his age are still nursing in their parents' arms! Why did you make my son your meat shield! You're so wicked! So insidious! Give him back! Give me back my son!!" Leng Qingqing shouted in a rage.
"I... I... who knew that monster was so powerful! I really didn't..." Mei Xin’s face crumpled as if she were about to cry.
"It's your fault! Wretched woman!" Leng Qingqing barked back.
Just as the argument reached a fever pitch—
"Both of you, shut up." A cold, low command instantly silenced the room.
Even Mei Xin felt the atmosphere suddenly freeze. Her mouth was open, but she couldn't make a sound.
The white mink, frozen in the act of fanning the stove, felt a small stream of warmth trickle down its legs. It had lost control of its bladder.
"Just some minor cuts." Leng Jing sat up from the bed, dressed himself, and tore off the bandages Leng Qingqing had wrapped around him so thickly he looked like a zongzi.
The others felt a blur before their eyes, and the "Dragon Ferrari" was gone.
Perhaps they didn't even have time to notice the Dragon Ferrari. Because when the Dragon Ferrari reached its top speed, time stood still for him.
At this speed, even the wind was stationary. The true form of the hurricane finally revealed itself to the Ugly Little Snake.
He arrived inside the city. By now, after an entire afternoon, the hurricane had expanded outside the city, and the walls were gone. But in this miraculous moment of frozen time, what lay before him was a silent ruin. Flying sand and stones were frozen in mid-air. Those so-called wind blades were also still; they were actually currents of energy so intense they had solidified into physical form.
However, in this space that should have been absolutely silent, there came a rhythmic *hiss-hiss* sound, like the muffled roar of a beast.
Leng Jing went deeper, reaching the center of the hurricane. When he saw the source of the strange sound, his jaw dropped. Nothing had ever been able to move within the frozen time he created, yet the object before him was clearly rotating on its axis at a slow frequency. If time were to return to normal, the rotation speed of this object would be staggering—enough to trigger a terrifying hurricane. It seemed this object, which could still turn even in frozen time, was the source of the black hurricane!
How could one describe this bizarre thing? From a distance, it looked like a spiral—a spiral made of flesh and blood. It looked like a towel being wrung out, but the thing forming that wrung-towel shape was a living creature. Its flesh and internal organs had been pulled into a spiral by the centripetal force of its terrifying rotation. All its organs were twisted together. It was impossible to tell if the creature was still alive, or how it could generate such a horrific storm.
"Whi... whi... whi... white... dra... dra... dra... dragon..." The spiraling monster suddenly made a sound as it rotated, a shrill and bizarre wail like a lament. Leng Jing knew it had sensed him. Countless crescent-shaped wind blades shot out from the monster, but in this state, they were incredibly slow, and Leng Jing dodged them with ease.
"Ki... ki... ki... kill... me... me... me... me..." The monster’s howling grew louder.
Seeing that it remained undying even with its flesh and organs separated by the rotation, Leng Jing realized that to destroy this thing, he would have to turn it into ash, leaving not a single scrap behind.
As he considered this, the monster’s rotation grew faster. It looked as though frozen time was about to resume its flow. The Ugly Little Snake decided to stop the monster first. He pointed a finger, summoning Celestial Fire and Lightning, which struck the monster instantly. The monster howled even more violently as its entire body caught fire.
Pale white flames enveloped the creature. This fire produced by Leng Jing was hundreds of times hotter than actual heavenly fire. Though he didn't know the full extent of the destruction such flames could cause, they did indeed burn the monster. The agonizing creature wailed in the fire, and Leng Jing smelled the scent of burning flesh.
When he withdrew the flames, he found to his frustration that the monster had been burned into a twisted set of blackened, withered bones—yet it continued to rotate without end. What power was sustaining its rotation? Leng Jing thought of the strange stone statues in the Valley of the Azure Sea and Billowing Waves; they were just as eerie.
After a moment’s thought, the Ugly Little Snake raised his hand and scattered glittering fragments around the monster. These tiny shards immediately adhered to the monster’s bones, rotating along with it. Having done this, he turned and retreated from the ruined city. Behind him, time instantly returned to normal.
While Leng Qingqing and Mei Xin were still standing there with their mouths agape, the Ugly Little Snake was already back in bed. This time he was truly exhausted; he put his head down and fell fast asleep.
Those glittering fragments were made from his own ground-up dragon scales. They were incredibly sharp and carried his dragon aura. By having the scales rotate with the monster, they would soon merge with it and eventually slice the creature into nothingness.
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
--- | --- | ---
神启一族 | God-Enlightened Clan | Mei Xin's clan, known for summoning.
风刀 | Wind Blade | Sharp, invisible air currents caused by the monster.
草龙 | Grass Dragon | A lower-tier or hybrid dragon; what Leng Jing claims to be.
龙型法拉利 | Dragon Ferrari | A humorous metaphor for Leng Jing's extreme speed.
天火雷击 | Celestial Fire and Lightning | A powerful elemental attack used by Leng Jing.
青州 | Qingzhou | The city currently plagued by the hurricane.
梅歆 | Mei Xin | The young summoner girl.
