Chapter 381: Lost
Zen was after two things. He had come all the way first for the crystal key. Second, the flood dragon spirit was also his target. The cyan dragon inside him was stirring—he could feel his hunger, hot and red and impatient.
“The flood dragon spirit is either bold or foolish,” he chuckled, the sound filling his ears. “Since he's so eager to claim his abode in your body, let him enter. I'll be sure to take care of him well.” Zen felt a rumble as the cyan dragon's arrogant voice coursed through his ears.
And so Zen kept still, letting the flood dragon spirit enter. His presence flashed inside him like white hot lightning.
“Ha-ha! This is all too easy! Foolish mortal. He dares face me without any protection,” the flood dragon taunted in self-satisfaction. “Your body will be mine, mortal. I will leave not even a trace of your soul! You have a fine body, solid and strong. I'll start with your flesh and savor your muscles, until not even a fiber is in place. You will be my new shell, and then I will acquire all the refining heritage and arts of the sixth grade sect passed from the ancient time. No one can stop me now. I'll be the emperor! The only master of the whole world!”
After having been sealed for ages, the flood dragon had lost his control, his spirit turning crazed at the first taste of freedom. Without any obstacles upon entering Zen's mind, he grew more and more self-possessed. He roared in wild laughter, the sound piercing and devastating in the crevices of Zen's mind.
Zen was in an imminent danger. The flood dragon spirit was a much stronger soul than any human. He had to be careful. One mistake, and the dragon would take over his body as his new home. The dragon knew the disparity of their strength. There was no way for a weaker soul to guard itself against the attack of such a strong spirit. It could easily be forced out from the body it belonged to. The flood dragon spirit howled in his victory as he occupied Zen's mind.
However, his arrogance didn't last long.
The dragon's roar came to a sudden halt. The first thing he saw was a huge furnace, its embers smelting. Coiled around it were nine dragons, each one so vivid and lifelike that no one would have taken them as mere decorations carved on the surface of the burning furnace. The flood dragon's laughter died down in sudden shock at the sight.
The cyan dragon twined leisurely on the furnace, fixing his eyes upon the flood dragon. Before the cyan dragon, he seemed no more than a puny snake.
“What… Is that a dragon? A genuine dragon?”
All of the flood dragon's kind would cower in the presence of a real dragon. They were down below the hierarchy as pseudo dragons. To hide their true nature as inferior creatures, they dressed themselves in the dragon's name and lived under the noble species' shadow. They feared dragons not because they were less capable in terms of magic, but because of the abject blood running in their veins.
In the wider scheme of nature, the weak bow down to the strong. The flood dragons were born in the lower rank of creatures. Here, in the presence of a genuine dragon, the flood dragon spirit felt sheer dread creep on his skin. “Why is there a dragon?” he thought with his trembling body.
The real dragon on the mysterious smelting furnace, however, took no interest in answering the question. He squinted his burning eyes at the flood dragon, as if measuring him. In truth, had the nine dragons not been sealed on the furnace, none of them would waste their time and energy in killing a flood dragon for nourishment. It was unfitting of their dignity.
However, as things stood, they had no other choice, being sealed on that smelting furnace. They had to find something to curb their hunger, and the flood dragon happened to be present. Tonight, he would do for a meal.
The cyan dragon was famished. Even the lowly flood dragon would do. Just as how a vagrant might eat anything in the face of starvation, nature would take its course and the instinct for survival would win over.
The cyan dragon opened his mouth, and at once the flood dragon spirit felt a strong pull, as if he was being swept into a black hole. It happened so quickly that the flood dragon spirit could not even let out a scream before there was nothing but darkness.
There was a quiet crunching until the cyan dragon gave off a powerful belch. It was by no means a satisfactory meal, but even the barest of meals would be a feast to a starving soul. The spirit of the flood dragon was refined, and having some remote relations with the dragon, he was good enough to reinforce the energy of the cyan dragon's soul.
Zen paid no heed to all the tangled warfare in his mind, keeping his attention on the crystal key. It was already gone the moment the flood dragon spirit appeared. He scanned around with his eyes in search of its traces. Suddenly, a flashing light above caught his attention. He looked up and found the key glistening in the darkness. The flood dragon spirit had hung it high above in the air.
The pungent odor that had hung heavily in the air had begun to disperse along with the sallow smog after the flood dragon's disappearance. When the air had cleared, Zen saw Tia walking from behind the last traces of the yellow film of air. She suddenly jumped into the sky like a nimble bird, fetching the crystal key when it was within her arm's reach. A smile broke across her face when she looked at the key in her hand.
She had been dreaming of the crystal key for so long a time, and finally, she had it in her hands.
Just as Tia held the crystal key, a fierce roar rumbled, shattering the temporary peace. The head of a huge fiery dragon poked out from entrance of the cave that Tia had just damaged.
“The fiery dragon spirit! It's still here! But it's so big now! What happened?”
Both Zen and Tia were momentarily shocked at the sudden sight of the huge dragon.
The fiery dragon spirit was a fierce species with tremendous power. Tia had already been struggling with its attacks in its smaller form. How could they deal with it now when it had grown so large?
The fiery dragon spirit caught sight of the crystal key in Tia's hand. It let out a fierce roar and dashed towards her at a fast speed, its eyes fixed on the key.
“Back off, Zen.”
Tia warned, her voice hard with seriousness. The lines of her face tightened as she prepared for the fiery dragon spirit's attack. Stretching out her arms, she formed an ice column between her wrists. It was about the height of a human. At its core, a tiny feather of ice phoenix gleamed in the confines of ice.
It was a real feather of the ice phoenix.
Tia had summoned a small ice phoenix when she had been fighting with the fiery dragon. It was a spiritual projection, a creature imagined through techniques of meditation.
Many warriors could create and give a physical form to various things and species from their minds. These creations dissolved once they were used. Some warriors, however, were capable of bringing creatures into actual being. It was a rare skill, made possible only with the strongest of minds. Tia had been meditating for a long time before finally summoning the ice phoenix, and she had given life to the spiritual creature. Like a familiar, the ice phoenix went wherever Tia would, and owned a power much stronger than other spiritual creatures.
But creatures born from projections
were no match to real legendary beasts, and the ice phoenix was actually one of them. It was one that owned terrible power. Even a small feather from it would produce catastrophic energy.
Tia put one hand on the top of the ice column. At her movement, a freezing draft suddenly flew from the ice column to form layers and curtains of frost and ice. In the blink of an eye, all the ice rushed towards the fiery dragon spirit like roaring sea waves.
The fiery dragon spirit was the guardian of the crystal key. It would fulfill its duty, no matter the cost. Despite the stinging cold from the frost and ice, the dragon stood its ground. Opening its huge mouth, it breathed out a column of flame. The ice began to melt at the touch of the red, hot fire. The ice thinned with every second until the fiery dragon spirit rushed forward and broke it into pieces.
It was an unyielding battle. As the fiery dragon spirit kept breathing out flames that melted the ice, Tia didn't stop for a single second in creating more curtains of frost and ice from the ice column. No side was willing to surrender.
“It's freezing!” Zen felt his skin pebble from the frost. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, rubbing with his hands in an attempt to call for heat. There was a dramatic drop in the temperature. His eyes roamed his surroundings, and he saw nothing but whiteness. Even the breaths he huffed were foggy and streaked with ice.
As his eyes fell on Tia, a strange feeling had befallen him. It was as if his every sense had blurred everything, and all he could see and hear was the woman in front of him. The fiery dragon spirit attacked relentlessly with its flame. The flickers lit up Tia's face. Shadows danced across her features, bathing her in an ethereal light. She was a vision that possessed Zen's senses.
He traced the few wisps of hair that had dropped to her cheeks. She was now wearing an armor made of ice, wrapping around her body closely. The hard armor fit her so perfectly and followed the graceful lines of her figure. Zen looked at Tia's beautiful collarbones, down to the curve of her chest. She heaved from exertion, and Zen caught his own breath at the sight of her.
For an unknown reason, his heartbeat started to chase one after the other. He heard the deep lungfuls of breath that he took, and he felt as if his own body was on fire despite the coldness of the ice surrounding him. Zen soon caught up to his own thoughts. He burned in confusion and embarrassment at the foreign feelings that had taken hold of him. The middle of a battle was the last place for his impulses. However, despite his struggle to hold on to his consciousness, he sank down into a trance once again.
Tia felt Zen's eyes. His gaze was even hotter than the flames that threatened to reach her from the fiery dragon. She turned and cast him a look. Their eyes met, and a strange feeling slowly made its way to her. She stiffened at his gaze, as if a soft feather was caressing her skin. Her left hand remained on the top of the ice column to call out more frost from the ice phoenix feather, but her other hand, in a subconscious movement, found its way to her hair, tucking the strands behind her ears.
Her skin was in contact with ice, but why was there a burning feeling inside her?
Confusion flooded through her. Her instincts spoke to her in barely audible whispers. An unknown sensation was making its way through her skin. In the midst of a battle, the only heat she had felt was from her own body. Why? There was no explanation for the warmth in her flesh. She gulped in air, trying to cool the impulse, but it was in vain. Even the ice in the air could not smother the flames in her body. It was as if a primitive instinct was making itself known to her.
She swallowed and licked her lips, and sweat broke out from her skin. For the first time in her life, she felt her composure shaken. That burning feeling both drew and scared her.
Determined not to succumb to instinct, Tia tried her best to take control of her body and suppress the strange feelings in her. Ripping her eyes away from Zen, she put another hand on the top of the ice column and concentrated on holding the fiery dragon spirit back.
But it seemed that Zen had a weaker will than Tia. Surrendering to the unknown feelings, he twisted his body and stretched out his hands to catch Tia's. His body thrummed with heat.
He felt the moist film of sweat on Tia's hand, mirroring his own. The heat between them contrasted with the ice and frost that covered all around them. Tia struggled to retrieve her hand from Zen's grasp, but he responded by tightening his hold on her hand. She stopped struggling at the motion and conceded to the warmth of his fingers.
His touch was a distraction. Tia found herself unable to completely focus on the use of the ice column. She looked at Zen, her eyes gleaming as the flames hid and brightened them at intervals. His own eyes saw through hers, and she gazed back, forgetting embarrassment, and forgetting even the situation they were in at the moment.
“Ow...”
The brief lapse had cost them dearly. A piercing roar was heard from the direction of the cave entrance, and the fiery dragon spirit let out a violent column of fire from its mouth to break all the curtains of frost and ice. It charged forward and finally broke into the cave.
“Oho!”
Tia screamed at the sudden change. It happened so quickly that she didn't have time to think what to do next. In her haste, she just kept pouring more and more of her life vitality into the ice column to reinforce its power. The ice column glared and gave off a much more intense coldness. Frightened and surprised by the terrible cold, the fiery dragon spirit retreated and withdrew from the cave.
The ice thickened and the cave turned more and more cold, but the ice did nothing to sate the burning thirst in Zen's and Tia's bodies. They held each other's hand and clung to each other so closely, their fingers intertwining. Neither of them broke contact and stayed in their places, as if they had been frozen together by the ice in the cave.
Neither Zen nor Tia had ever experienced such feelings before. They had no clue what to do under such a circumstance. They kept holding each other's hand, consoling themselves with the small relief they found at the touch of each other's skin. For now, it was the only way that worked.
However, the small contact, far from satisfying, only intensified Zen's desire. Tia's skin exuded warmth, and filled him with a longing for what they were holding back. His eyes turned red for the burning impulse, and his mind was thrown in total havoc. He just wanted more. It was like a parched man's desire for more water after having a drop. He stepped closer to her and stretched another hand to her body. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to hold her into his arms and caress her with softness. Tia was fully aware of what Zen's intention was. She too, felt the perils of the fire, but her body could not refuse him.
At this moment, Zen heard a faint roar from the cyan dragon in his mind. His voice echoed repeatedly like a warning, and he felt a strong stabbing sensation. His head felt as if millions of needles were piercing at it. The harsh pain finally brought him to full consciousness.
“What's happening?” Zen let go of Tia's hand as soon as he came around. He looked at her and then at the surroundings, his face twisted in confusion. His mind was still sluggish from what happened earlier, as if he was just waking up from hypnosis.
With a grin, the cyan dragon replied, “I have warned you that the flood dragon is lascivious by nature. The space you are in at this moment is actually the flood dragon's sex organ. The yellow smog you saw earlier is a kind of natural aphrodisiac. It's very potent.”
The flood dragon's sex organ had a natural effect of arousing any species' desire. For some, it was a holy drug. In some martial arts practices, warriors would engage in a peculiar ritual where sexual intercourse with the opposite sex would play a key role in reinforcing their power. For those martial artists, the flood dragon's sex organ was the best ingredient to use for concocting aphrodisiacs.
Although the huge flood dragon had been changed into a puppet, the part where its sex organ was housed was not damaged. The flood dragon spirit escaped all the way into this part of its body, and it was cut open by Tia afterwards. As a result, the yellow powder scattered into a mist. For its great aphrodisiac effect, a tiny portion of such yellow powder would be sold at an outrageous price in Central Region.
“Aphrodisiac!” Zen exclaimed with wide eyes. “I thought I was immune from any poison?” he asked.
“It's an aphrodisiac, not poison. You cannot resist its effect, of course,” the cyan dragon replied disinterestedly.
Zen sighed in secret. He was fortunate that the cyan dragon had helped stop him from making a mistake. He could not have fought off the aphrodisiac on his own.
Zen raised his head, finding Tia walking towards him in a dazed state. She stretched out both of her hands for him and her eyes were glazed over with a strange gleam.
Zen brought a hand to his head when he realized what was happening. He was not the only one who was affected by the yellow powder. Tia had inhaled the mist as well, and from the looks of things, she must have taken more of it than him.