Chapter 78: Flee Quickly After Doing Something Wrong

“Of course there are dragons. Dragons are divine beings who transcend the six realms—it's just that you mortals do not recognize my true self.” The voice responded at once.

“So we mortals are clueless, but you’re saying you’re one of the dragon race?” Ou Xinlai raised her brows, sensing she’d finally uncovered a clue about the origins of this violet lightning formation.

“That’s right.” To her surprise, the voice readily admitted it. “I am indeed the legendary dragon.”

“Then how did you end up as a formation?” Ou Xinlai never thought she would truly encounter a legendary dragon—except this one seemed like a rare specimen with a rather unfortunate fate.

“My dragon tendons were extracted, my bones removed, and in desperation, I transformed myself into this violet lightning formation to survive.” The voice spoke with a tone of resignation, laying bare its history before her. “If I hadn’t become this formation, I’d have perished centuries ago.”

“So you’re just like me, hunted and on the run.” Ou Xinlai truly couldn’t fathom what kind of fearsome enemy could have reduced a dragon to such a state.

“That’s why you must help me recover several items.” Besides the Four Fruits, it still needed to retrieve its tendons and bones—without them, regaining its true form would be impossible.

“Helping you isn’t hard, but we have to help each other.” Ou Xinlai nodded. Since fate had brought them together, perhaps it was a kind of fortune. Once this dragon returned to its true form, it could probably sweep aside someone like Li Chengpeng with the flick of its tail.

That Demon Lord had been sitting in the cave ever since entering, cultivating atop the stone chair said to be a dragon egg. Ou Xinlai also wanted to cultivate, but with the dragon’s protection, the Demon Lord could still sense and attack her by intuition. If she attempted to cultivate alongside him, she feared she’d end up a charred corpse used as firewood for the Demon Lord’s amusement.

Left with no choice, Ou Xinlai focused on quietly harmonizing her yin and yang energies, refraining from absorbing any spiritual energy.

The Demon Lord remained in that cave for three days and three nights, drawing in enough spiritual energy to finally be satisfied and depart.

With the Demon Lord gone, Ou Xinlai wasn’t foolish enough to follow suit—she stayed behind.

This time, spiritual energy abounded, and the dragon advised her to cultivate for at least a day here, to reach the ninth level and finally enter the minor accomplishment stage of Yin-Yang Transformation.

Sitting atop the “dragon egg,” cultivation came miraculously easy, yielding twice the results with half the effort. With the ancient disc she carried and water brought from the Yin-Yang Lake, her progress was smooth.

Unlike Ou Xinlai’s peace, Li Chengpeng—outside the forbidden grounds—was nearly frantic. The Demon Lord had entered the forbidden grounds for three days and nights, but there was still no sign of Ou Xinlai.

When the Demon Lord finally emerged, Li Chengpeng could glean no information from him at all. Suddenly, it was as if Ou Xinlai had vanished from the entire demonic sect, impossible to find.

He grew increasingly anxious. If she had escaped, he’d eventually find her. But for her to vanish from under his very nose, within his own territory, filled him with a deep sense of dread.

“No, overturn every stone in the sect if you must—find Ou Xinlai!” At first, he wondered if she’d hidden in the forbidden grounds, but with the Demon Lord having entered and then exited, how could a mere Ou Xinlai possibly have fooled him?

All the more reason for concern.

Without alerting others, Li Chengpeng’s followers searched for her until they were nearly driven mad.

Meanwhile, within the forbidden grounds, Ou Xinlai, nourished by spiritual energy, had reached the ninth level just before minor accomplishment in Yin-Yang Transformation.

She was just one step away—one final push and she would complete her advancement.

Seeing her breakthrough to the ninth level, the dragon no longer pressed for more, knowing that with the available spiritual energy, she could go no further for now.

With that, the strange dragon swept up all the spiritual energy in the forbidden grounds, swallowing it whole.

Perhaps it was the presence of the dragon egg—no matter how much spiritual energy the dragon absorbed, a trace always lingered in the forbidden grounds.

Noticing this, Ou Xinlai frowned. “Since this dragon egg has turned to stone, why not just swallow it altogether?”

Her words gave the dragon the same idea: no matter how much energy it absorbed, it all emanated from the egg. The egg had probably lain here for thousands of years, and only in the last few centuries had the demonic sect discovered this place, explaining the abundance of spiritual energy.

The dragon’s violet formation glowed and immediately swallowed the stone-like dragon egg.

As it did, the formation began to pulse—violet and silver lights intertwined.

Ou Xinlai suddenly felt something moving in her palm.

Looking down, she saw the previously invisible formation—now all the Sanskrit runes had merged into a single line, which slithered across her palm like a snake from an old video game.

When the line absorbed all the runes, a white, wriggling line appeared in her palm.

At first, it crawled in her palm, then crept up her wrist. A chill ran through her as she saw that a small, round-headed white snake—about as thick as her pinky, covered in faintly violet-tinged scales—had appeared.

“You… you call this a dragon?” She looked the creature over from every angle and simply couldn’t see the awe-inspiring majesty of the legendary beast.

“I haven’t recovered my true form yet. To take shape at all is already a feat.” The adorable snake lifted its tiny head to look at her.

“Right now, could you swat Li Chengpeng—no, the Demon Lord—dead with your power?”

The little snake shook its head. “I could try with Li Chengpeng, but not the Demon Lord.” It had only just regained a form—swallowing the egg had been a huge boon.

“Wait, do you smell something fishy?” Suddenly a strange scent wafted to Ou Xinlai’s nose.

“I do!” The little snake coiled on her wrist shook its tail excitedly. “Over there!”

Following its tail’s direction, Ou Xinlai saw a pit beneath where the dragon egg had been. The earthy aroma was emanating from that hole.

“Let’s take a look.” She approached with the snake, peering into the pit where she saw several strange golden fruits flickering in the dimness. They emerged from the walls, then, like weathered stones, crumbled into dust and were reabsorbed by the rock.

“Hahaha! Searched high and low, only to find it so easily!” The small white snake cackled, its eyes gleaming as it flicked its tongue, staring at the fruit below.

“Is this the earth-element fruit you needed—the second of the Five-Element Fruits?” Ou Xinlai quickly understood the snake’s excitement.

The white snake flicked its tail and slid down into the pit. Timing it just right, it whipped its tail to knock a yellow fruit into Ou Xinlai’s hand before it could crumble.

Knowing it was valuable, she didn’t hesitate to pop it in her mouth. Honestly, if not for the previous golden spirit fruit, her cultivation wouldn’t have allowed her to go three days and nights without food, like the Demon Lord. At least this fruit could fill her belly.

After eating about five fruits, the snake ignored her and snapped up fruit after fruit as they ripened, swallowing them whole. In no time, the golden fruit pit was bare.

Ou Xinlai thought she saw the violet sheen of the snake’s scales deepen as it ate.

“Who would have thought, the treasure I searched for endlessly was hidden here all along.” The snake laughed. It had believed Ou Xinlai was just lucky to encounter it, but now it seemed the roles had reversed.

Without Ou Xinlai, it would never have encountered spiritual energy twice, nor found the two elemental fruits. And even though it knew of one, only with her violet lightning constitution could it track down the fire fruit.

“Now that we’ve plundered the forbidden grounds, shouldn’t we think about getting out?” Between her and the snake, they’d stripped the place clean. Aside from the Black Cloud Altar, Ou Xinlai wondered if anything of value remained in the sect.

“We can’t get out.” The little snake was in high spirits, its tail wagging merrily. “Unless we have the Demon Lord’s blood, there’s no way. Whether entering or leaving, his blood is required.”

With the Demon Lord gone, how could they possibly obtain his blood?

“Then we’ll just have to wait. I’m worried I’ll starve to death in here.” Ou Xinlai spoke bitterly. The Demon Lord wouldn’t visit the forbidden grounds often—he’d just spent three days there, and would need a long time to digest the spiritual energy he’d absorbed. Who knew when he’d return?

The snake snickered, “Perhaps we won’t have to wait so long. The more of a character that Demon Lord is, the sooner we’ll get out of here.”

“I hope you’re right.” Ou Xinlai rolled her eyes and resumed meditation.

The demonic sect’s search for Ou Xinlai, which had started as a simple cat-and-mouse game, had grown frantic. This little mouse was too good at hiding—so much so that the cat itself grew anxious, fearing she’d not only steal its food, but trip it up as well.

And there were bigger dangers than cats here—lions that ate men alive.

Li Chengpeng dreaded that his negligence had allowed an outsider into the sect, which the Demon Lord might discover and punish severely.

With Li Chengfeng’s matter not yet resolved, now Ou Xinlai’s disappearance added to the chaos. Li Chengpeng was in a foul mood—anyone who dared speak to him risked his wrath.

Of course, the Demon Lord was aware of the situation. Upon learning an outsider had infiltrated the sect, he frowned but trusted in Li Chengpeng’s abilities.

Yet after a day, a vague sense of unease crept into his heart. Remembering the strange feeling he’d had in the forbidden grounds, he suddenly opened his eyes and hurried there.

The stone wall slid open with a swish, and the Demon Lord strode inside—unaware that as he entered, a small figure slipped out, running for freedom.

The Demon Lord’s appearance meant their mischief would soon be discovered. If he flew into a rage, neither Ou Xinlai nor the snake would survive.

So, as soon as they escaped the forbidden grounds, they followed a disciple through the special formation.

Ou Xinlai reasoned that people from the sect must leave to do business daily, so if she followed one, she’d surely get out.

She soon spotted a disciple carrying a bundle, evidently headed out. She shadowed him, slipped past the formation, and at last found herself free under the open sky.

“We’ve finally escaped!” Back in the outside world, Ou Xinlai breathed the sweet air, feeling a lightness in her heart. “Let’s go, quickly.”

She didn’t dare relax—surely the Demon Lord would soon discover what had happened. Even though he had never seen her, outsiders in the forbidden grounds were rare, and suspicion would certainly fall on her—rightly so.

There was no way she could fight the entire sect, let alone the Demon Lord. So, her first thought upon escaping was to get as far away as possible—anything to avoid capture.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast she ran, the sect’s people weren’t fools. Li Chengpeng quickly deduced her route and blocked her path.