THE MARTIAL KING - Season 6 Episode 87

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.