Chapter 426 - 425: What Did I Miss?
Chapter 425: What Did I Miss?
Luo Wusheng was starting to regret his decisions.
He realized that his state of mind had been getting more and more questionable lately.
’Is this what happens when you have resurrection as a safety net? Even if I wasn’t exactly cautious before, I definitely wasn’t this reckless.’
Surveying the space around him, he almost wanted to slap himself across the face.
It was a blank, endless expanse—featureless, with no visible edges and no exit in sight.
After who knew how long wandering through it, the Demon Sect’s Holy Saint had finally given the place a name.
The Little White Room.
—Special edition of the Little Black Room, now "washed clean."
"Confidence really does make your hands itch... If I wanted to find Miss Kirin, given the kind of... ’films’ the Empress and I have watched together, I could’ve just gone to find the Imperial Alter Ego directly. Why did I suddenly get the bright idea to probe that anomaly in the northern city?"
"At the very least, I could have gone to the Dao Artifact Pavilion’s territory to look for Ji Yanyao. That would have been safer..."
Cross-legged atop a massive jade boulder he’d taken out himself, Luo Wusheng propped his head in his hand, frustration written all over his face, and finally let out a long sigh.
Late at night was hardly the ideal time to go seeking either the Empress or the Daoist Sect Chief Disciple—especially when he still had an arrangement with Miss Kirin.
If he caused a scene just because he couldn’t find her Mortal Alter Ego, it might give her entirely unnecessary ideas.
Besides...
His eyes flickered as he carefully chewed over every detail of this strange little "adventure."
It all began when he failed to find Miss Kirin and, while wandering in the northern city, suddenly recalled a key moment from the Netherkin Extermination Operation. After some hesitation, he chose to use the tribulation lightning residing within him to probe for abnormalities.
Heaven’s tribulation lightning—capable of disturbing the natural forces of the world—was, after all, an excellent tool for exposing spatial irregularities.
The instant the violet bolts flashed, Luo Wusheng clearly sensed a disturbance in the space around him.
Up to that point, everything was still within expectations. With the limited strength of the lightning he carried, at most he could lightly disturb the surroundings—making a hidden anomaly tremble for an instant was already the limit.
But what he hadn’t expected was that the anomaly, upon sensing his presence, suddenly rippled violently.
The next time he opened his eyes, he was already here.
’To be precise, it wasn’t responding to me...’
Sitting on the smooth jade, Luo Wusheng flicked his fingers.
A faint, elusive aura shimmered into existence before him.
As he slowly opened his palm, that wisp of energy drew back into his hand, swelling and quivering like something boiling.
Colors began to take shape within it.
Enveloped in that formless mist, a round, pitch-black object floated into view.
When Luo Wusheng saw what it was, the corner of his mouth twitched violently.
It was a black flood dragon.
Only... this black flood dragon was barely a foot long, and the crimson eyes that should have gleamed on its head were now nothing but whites.
Luo Wusheng suspected it had rolled its eyes so hard it had gone permanently blank.
Its belly was grotesquely swollen, bulging so much that its long, serpentine body had been forced into the shape of a ball.
—This was the very same black flood dragon that had once been wrapped in Immortal Aura and vanished atop the Ascension Platform.
And that faint aura? It was precisely the wisp of Immortal Aura he’d been unable to track down ever since.
The moment his tribulation lightning disturbed the space, he’d suddenly sensed this presence again.
From that, he’d quickly guessed that his accidental entry into this strange realm must have something to do with the Immortal Aura.
’But that first guess turned out to be wrong... The true key to this place lies inside whatever that black flood dragon is holding in its belly.’
After repeated experiments—and with his utterly unreasonable talent—Luo Wusheng eventually made progress.
It seemed the distorted black flood dragon had used its own body to create a kind of seal, locking something away within its stomach.
As for why, he’d discovered the answer during his very first attempt to briefly break that seal.
He remembered it clearly: when he erased a small section of the swollen dragon’s body, a faint ghostly glow shone through the gap.
And then Luo Wusheng saw a vision.
Within the image was a blood-red void, where a familiar black flood dragon coiled in the air—yet its body was several times larger than the greatest size Luo Wusheng had ever seen it display on the Ascension Platform.
For some reason, however, the moment Luo Wusheng laid eyes on the scene, he instinctively felt that this black dragon was trembling.
Then a voice—calm one moment, frantic the next—seemed to pierce directly into his mind.
"—When did such a figure appear within the Royal City? Or...is that person truly a remnant of the Ancient Heavenly Gate?"
"Damn it, damn it, damn it! If not for that cursed thing interfering, the Immortal Nation could never have stopped me from reclaiming the Demon Moon!"
"No matter. At least I used the last shred of my nether soul to seal the Demon Moon. With it sealed, there’s no need to fear exposure... As for retrieving it, once the Netherking’s plan is complete, it can be taken back at any time..."
"Hehehehe~ Even if that cursed thing is stronger than I, could it possibly surpass the Netherking after his divine technique reaches perfection? When that day comes, I will devour his soul whole... But before that, there are still the Nascent Souls of the Immortal Nation to—"
The erratic voice cut off abruptly.
When Luo Wusheng came back to himself, the black flood dragon before him—whose belly had previously split open—was once again whole.
He fell into deep thought.
He could sense that the scene he’d witnessed was real, and though the black dragon’s space was crimson while his own surroundings were a pale white, the two clearly shared the same origin.
Moreover, the "Demon Moon" mentioned by the dragon was most likely the very thing hidden inside the black-dragon nether soul he now held.
’So this really is the Netherkin race’s hidden refuge within the Royal City!’
Having pieced the logic together, Luo Wusheng quickly formed a judgment.
Everything suddenly became clearer.
If the Netherkin intended to create chaos in the Royal City, they would need more than the three prominent northern families as their support.
Three peak Nascent Soul experts might count as high-level combat power, but in a struggle of this scale, they were far from enough.
Then where would the Netherkin remaining preparations be hidden?
To avoid detection by the Immortal Nation, the safest place would naturally be a domain belonging solely to the Netherkin race.
’Perhaps the three families disguised as humans act openly precisely to establish these hidden spaces within the city...’
Three years of infiltration—if they were merely waiting to strike from within without considering the risk of discovery—that would be far too naïve.
Even if the world believed the Netherkin race’s brains were underdeveloped, with their vast numbers there had to be at least a few sharp minds among them.
And besides, those involved might not be Netherkin alone...
"But putting that aside," Luo Wusheng muttered, "does this black flood dragon have some kind of trauma about me? What’s this about a remnant of the Ancient Heavenly Gate?"
"And those Nascent Souls of the Immortal Nation... what was it trying to say? Stopping halfway is seriously lacking in manners!"
Though he grumbled, Luo Wusheng knew he had gained unexpected intelligence—enemy plans delivered straight to his door.
These were details he’d never had before.
In the original timeline, the Sword Fairy’s cultivation was far too low during this incident. She had only stumbled onto the key moment by sheer accident, leaving most of the Netherkin Uprising’s secrets to be revealed much later—after Lu Yuliu had bedded the Empress herself, and even then only in rare fragments.
’In the original story, the outcome of the Netherkin Uprising was already set in stone. But my current goal is to prevent the Mortal Alter Ego of the Empress from perishing...’
That black flood dragon might well serve as the breakthrough point.
Luo Wusheng mulled it over. Having tasted success once, he eagerly began attempting to break the seal on the black-dragon nether soul again.
After some time, he succeeded for a second time.
Yet this time, the image he saw was startlingly familiar.
’This is... huh? Isn’t this my room?!’
The Holy Saint of the Demon Sect froze.
The picture was dim, but Luo Wusheng recognized the place at a glance.
Even though the familiar furnishings had collapsed into disarray—tables and beds cracked and coated in dust, half a window missing, the walls covered in fissures—its ruinous state rivaled the devastation he’d once seen in the Demon Artifact Pavilion.
Inside that ruined room were two breathtakingly beautiful girls he knew better than anyone else.
Yet, in this image, they felt strangely unfamiliar.
Both of them had their dark hair in disarray, clothes half-undone, large swaths of pale skin exposed as they struggled in a most disheveled state.
His normally gentle and adorable junior sister had her little teeth clenched tight.
One hand pinched Little Yuli’s soft, chubby cheek, while the other yanked at the hem of the other girl’s dress—which had already slipped halfway off her shoulder—as if determined to expose the two huge scandalous "criminals" hidden beneath.
Opposite her, the harmless-looking Sword Fairy had her bright watery eyes wide open.
While fending off Bai Xiaoyao’s attacks, she struck out with one hand, throwing a fierce flurry of turtle-style punches.
At a glance, it seemed as if Little Yuli was losing ground.
"—W-wah! Your Senior Brother’s back!"
"Heh, this is already the third time you’ve tried that line to distract me."
"Hmph, aren’t you afraid that if he comes back and sees—"
"If my Senior Brother sees, I’ll just go learn a memory-erasing technique afterward."
The scene abruptly ended.
Luo Wusheng was silent.
Just what on earth had happened that night?
His brain felt a little overloaded.
Only his hands moved on instinct, driving him to attempt a third unsealing of the black flood-dragon’s power.
Before he could collect his thoughts, a third vision flashed into his mind—and he suddenly snapped awake, pupils contracting.
In this vision, he saw Miss Kirin.
On the streets of the Royal City, the masked girl with scales on her face shifted position again and again through short-range teleportation, yet each time inexplicably circled back to the same spot.
But what made Luo Wusheng’s mind roar was the figure atop a nearby loft.
A rough hemp robe.
A shaved head.
The humble carriage driver.
This time, the image ended quickly.
Time returned to the present.
After that final vision, Luo Wusheng rested for a while—both to recover from the heavy drain on his spiritual awareness and to digest the flood of new information.
He tried to lighten his mood with a bit of self-mockery before finally taking a deep breath and once again extending his spiritual awareness toward the object wrapped in immortal energy within his hand.
...
Royal City, within the space of the Trial of Ascension Platform.
Two young girls sat idly, watching the dazzling spell duel taking place below.
"It seems the next match is yours, isn’t it?"
Hearing Lu Yuliu’s words, Bai Xiaoyao gave her a glance but said nothing.
"Your opponent’s a Daoist Sect disciple... Have you recovered the spiritual energy you used up last night?"
Bai Xiaoyao chuckled softly.
"What’s this? Concerned for your Sister Xiaoyao? Have you forgotten who it was that drained my spiritual energy down to this level?"
Lu Yuliu wrinkled her nose and snapped back, "Who’s concerned about you? I hope you can’t even pass the first round!"
At that, Bai Xiaoyao only narrowed her eyes in a smiling squint.
"Then I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed."
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Note: Link to the character Illustration:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lkIcPnCxeyuyZA4Kkb621dPC05UvWjhD
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