Chapter 13: The Awakening of Zhulong
On Yaoyue Peak, after bidding farewell to Fang Baiyu and Hua Ziwei, Jiang Runyue returned to the side hall where she lived and continued to temper the Jingshen Spear with the power of thunder.
The more she trained with this divine weapon of the former East Sea Dragon King, the more formidable she found it.
She had no idea how many living beings that damned old mud-dragon had slaughtered; every time she practiced, she vaguely sensed countless wronged souls weeping and wailing in agony.
Not only that, the malevolent, murderous aura contained within the spear surged like a mighty river, losing nothing in comparison to the Zhuxian Ancient Sword forged from Chiyou's Blood Jade.
"Good grief, thank goodness that mysterious big shot who saved me fused the *Taiji Xuanqing Dao* and the *Zuowang Gong* into one, allowing my Dao Heart to remain tranquil at all times, otherwise my original mind would have been eroded by the spear's malevolent aura long ago!" Jiang Runyue muttered quietly to herself while continuously driving her thunder True Essence to slowly refine the long spear in her hand.
The nine-foot-long Jingshen Spear looked as though it had been crafted from the corpse of a five-clawed divine dragon mixed with millennium-old cold iron.
The slender body of the divine dragon formed the shaft of the spear; its two front claws spread outward at forty-five-degree angles, its two rear claws rested against the sides, and its dragon jaws held a rhombus-shaped spear blade radiating intense cold.
For a nine-foot spear, the blade alone was a full foot long.
Whenever she practiced with the spear, she always felt—
"It's too slow! This damn thing won't yield to soft or hard approaches; even the power of thunder is starting to become immune to it!" Jiang Runyue smiled bitterly as she muttered, "Without the Dragon bloodline, trying to master this spear is simply too hard!"
Just as she was about to cough up blood, the Zhulong beast that had been branded onto her back like a totem tattoo suddenly began to tremble slightly.
"This is... is Big Dragon waking up?" Jiang Runyue instantly sensed a vast, boundless force surging into her body, making her mind shake violently, followed by a connection forming between her and the Zhulong beast.
"Sister Runyue~" A childish, girlish voice suddenly rang out in Jiang Runyue's mind.
"Big Dragon, you're awake?" Jiang Runyue asked, pleasantly surprised, a glittering light of excitement flashing in her eyes.
"Yeah! Thanks to you, Sister, I was able to wake up this early!" the Zhulong beast replied cheerfully, its tone filled with joy and happiness.
Hearing those words, a brilliant smile instantly bloomed on Jiang Runyue's pretty face.
Having finished speaking, Zhulong voluntarily detached itself from the totem-branded state. Its slender body wound and slithered forward, coming to wrap gently around Jiang Runyue's left arm, while its small, cute dragon head poked out from her sleeve, exposing the upper half of its dragon body to the outside.
"Wow, Big Dragon, aren't you just too cute?" Jiang Runyue looked with pleasant surprise at the miniature Zhulong beast before her eyes.
Its body was only as thick as a child's arm, and its crimson scales were as crystal-clear and moist as red jade, constantly shimmering with a faint, rippling radiance. Its lively, clear eyes occupied nearly half its head, giving it an endearing, chibi-like appearance.
Where was there any trace of the towering arrogance and majestic, ferocious demeanor it had possessed before?
Jiang Runyue tossed the Jingshen Spear aside, carefully extended her right hand, and gently stroked Zhulong's head.
The little fellow seemed to thoroughly enjoy the petting, narrowing its lively, spirited eyes in comfort.
"Sister Runyue, the world we are currently in shouldn't be the previous one, right?"
"Mhm. The laws of heaven and earth in that world couldn't accommodate Primordial Spirit Realm cultivators, so after I attained the Primordial Spirit, I was forced to ascend!" Jiang Runyue replied.
Zhulong blinked its eyes and asked again, "Sister, your complexion doesn't look too good. Could it be you've run into some trouble?"
"Yeah, it's just this wretched spear that won't listen to reason, giving me a headache right now!" Jiang Runyue picked up the discarded Jingshen Spear with some vexation, and said with a deeply depressed expression, "If I weren't lacking a long weapon that suits me, I'd give this damn thing to whoever wants it!"
Zhulong's eyes widened into perfect circles, shooting out two blazing red beams as it carefully inspected the Jingshen Spear from top to bottom. After a long while, it finally spoke: "Sister, there is a dragon soul hidden inside this divine weapon, which is why you haven't been able to refine it!"
Jiang Runyue asked with puzzlement, "A dragon soul? Big Dragon, are you sure you didn't see wrong?"
Zhulong answered with absolute confidence, "Don't you worry, Sister, I could never be wrong. That dragon soul is almost taking physical form. When it was alive, its strength must have been immense, but its soul body is covered in scars. I imagine someone must have forcibly imprisoned it inside."
Jiang Runyue nodded in sudden understanding.
"Hearing you put it like that, I actually remembered something. This spear is said to have been the weapon the East Sea Dragon King used to roam across the four seas. Ten thousand years ago, he was slain by the leader of the Taiyin Sect at the shores of the East Sea, and his remains were suppressed within the Taiyin Secret Realm!"
At this, she stared fixedly at the Jingshen Spear: "Could the dragon soul inside this spear belong to that old dragon king?"
Zhulong gently shook its small head and said thoughtfully, "Perhaps. Sister, if you trust me, hand this spear over to me for now; I should be able to awaken the dragon soul!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Runyue waved her hand and said offhandedly, "Take it, hurry up and take it! If I can't trust you, who else can I trust?"
She had forged a symbiotic blood pact with Zhulong and the Yellow Bird; the three of them shared a destiny of mutual glory or ruin, so they would never deceive her.
Hearing this, Zhulong grinned, released Jiang Runyue's arm, and quickly descended to the ground.
As its slender dragon body continuously grew larger and longer, it soon occupied the greater part of the side hall.
The next instant, Zhulong opened its cavernous maw, bared a mouthful of sharp fangs, clamped down on the shaft of the Jingshen Spear, and threw its head back to swallow it whole.
"Uh..." Jiang Runyue couldn't help pressing a hand to her forehead, looking at Zhulong with utter helplessness as she asked, "Big Dragon, can you still change back to your original size?"
"Of course I can! There's a storage space inside my stomach, you know. Forget about a mere long spear—even if you brought another hundred or a thousand of them, I could easily fit them all into my belly!"
As soon as those words fell, Zhulong's unimaginably massive body began to shrink rapidly, transforming back into the thickness of a thumb in the blink of an eye.
Afterward, it was seen rising into the air, burrowing into Jiang Runyue's sleeve, and gently wrapping around her left arm.
"Oh right, Big Dragon, are beast soul pills still of any use to you?"
Zhulong pressed its head against her wrist and said in a tiny, delicate voice, "They have a little use, but not very much!"
Hearing this, Jiang Runyue smiled brightly and successively produced over a hundred bottles of beast soul pills, stacking them in order on the ground before her.
"Thank you, Sister!"
After expressing its thanks, Zhulong opened its mouth and took a gentle breath, sucking the entire pile of jade bottles directly into its belly.
"Big Dragon, do you want me to take you out for a spin to see the scenery of this world and how it differs from the previous one?"
"Yeah, let's go!"
Emerging from the side hall, Jiang Runyue soared into the air like a bird, flying toward the distant mountain ranges.
The expanse of the Taiyin Divine Mountain was startlingly vast, looking at a glance like an endless sea of mountains.
Even though over six hundred thousand disciples of the Taiyin Sect lived here, the peaks they inhabited occupied only a tiny fraction of the whole.
Within this boundless, primeval forest, countless cultivators shuttled back and forth every day, either searching for rare treasures needed for cultivation or heading into the mountains to hunt spiritual beasts that had gained sentience.
Jiang Runyue traveled on the wind, passing nothing along the way but towering ridges, rolling mountain ranges, and a thousand competing peaks.
Every single peak possessed a unique shape and character; some soared into the clouds, wreathed in mist and fog; some were steep and precipitous, jagged with bizarre rocks; others were verdant and lush, canopied in green shade.
These distinct peaks intersected and intertwined, forming one magnificent painting scroll after another.