Chapter 282 : Manifestation of the Three Aspects
Chapter 282: Manifestation of the Three Aspects
Yunlong Marsh was shrouded in overcast clouds year-round, rarely visited by humans, and teemed with all kinds of beast creatures. Even third-realm Beast Generals, which were seldom seen outside, would occasionally appear here.
To Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Southern Wastes, these third-realm Beast Generals were unchallengeable overlords—if one had the misfortune of encountering them, death was almost certain.
But Chen Beiwu was no ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator. The Golden Egg beneath his feet was itself a third-realm Beast General, and had awakened the Three Aspects Indestructible mystic power, possessing three lives.
So long as he controlled the scope of the flood during this Flood Dragon-Walking process and avoided submerging or collapsing the core danger zones of Yunlong Marsh—provoking the slumbering fourth-realm Beast Kings—Chen Beiwu was confident he could retreat unscathed, even if faced with Beast Generals with over nine hundred years of cultivation.
"Roar!"
Sensing the mystic power awakening within its bloodline, Golden Egg grew increasingly excited.
Its three heads—Metal, Water, and Wood—howled skyward in unison. The dragon's roar shattered clouds across a hundred miles, and its hundred-zhang body stirred ever higher waves in the surging floodwaters.
"Boom!"
A thunderclap erupted, and a bolt of purple lightning struck squarely upon Golden Egg’s molten-gold head. Sparks flew, but not a single mark was left behind.
Chen Beiwu wasn’t surprised by this.
In the Southern Wastes, some intelligent Flood Dragons would restrain their water-wielding strength to avoid divine punishment during their Flood Dragon-Walking, ensuring they didn’t commit karmic sins or perish by heavenly lightning.
But Golden Egg was different. The heavenly thunderbolts not only failed to harm it—they stimulated its bloodline, awakening more innate mystic powers.
Thus, far from restraining the flood, Golden Egg's rampage grew even more domineering. The surging waves it raised could easily drown a hundred-zhang-tall mountain peak.
Amid this process, Golden Egg’s mind gradually resonated with the heavens and earth, as if it had become the very Dragon Vein at the heart of Jianlong Lake, roaming the world at will and acquiring a new mystic power:
【Mystic Power】: Three-Aspected Furnace
【Attributes】: Metal, Water, Wood
【Grade】: Upper Fourth-Tier Mystic Art
【Description】: Using the Three Aspects as a furnace—Water Furnace on the left, Metal Furnace in the center, Wood Furnace on the right. Swallowing metals makes the Metal Furnace ring, absorbing spells makes the Water Furnace boil, devouring flesh ignites the Wood Furnace. Can refine all things into its own being to nurture the Heavenly-Gang Dharma Aspect. Can regenerate severed limbs and cultivate vitality.
Note: The stronger the Three Aspects Indestructible, the greater the refining and feedback effect of the Three-Aspected Furnace.
As the mystic power’s knowledge surged into his mind, Chen Beiwu froze slightly.
If Three Aspects Indestructible was the advanced mystic power of the Gilded Body, then Three-Aspected Furnace was the advancement of All Rivers Embraced.
The two complemented each other, echoing the Dao principle that “Three beget all things,” allowing Golden Egg’s innate mystic powers to be fully unleashed.
However, what shocked Chen Beiwu most was the revelation that Three-Aspected Furnace could nurture the Heavenly-Gang Dharma Aspect. This completely overturned his understanding.
What was a Heavenly-Gang Dharma Aspect?
To ascend as a True Monarch, one must roam the Void with the spirit. But the Yin Spirit feared astral wind and true fire. Thus, ancient True Monarchs meditated upon the heavenly stars and condensed the innate Heavenly-Gang Qi to form the Heavenly-Gang Dharma Aspect.
Hence, this Dharma Aspect was also called the Yang Spirit Dharma Aspect, a grand mystic power only Nascent Soul True Monarchs could possess—and a symbol of such cultivation.
As far as Chen Beiwu knew, only three types of things could enhance a Yang Spirit Dharma Aspect:
First, the Heavenly-Gang True Qi cultivated by True Monarchs; second, extremely rare natural treasures—like the Myriad-Phase Mysterious Grass he encountered in the Tianyan True Realm; third, Companion Beasts cultivated through shared contracts with Immortal Alliance cultivators.
Golden Egg’s innate mystic power Three-Aspected Furnace could now be classified as a fourth type—belonging to the realm of forbidden secret arts.
“Phew.”
Thinking of this, Chen Beiwu exhaled a breath of turbid air, unable to hide the joy in his heart.
It was beyond standard—far beyond.
No wonder there were rumors on the Immortal Alliance official site that those who contracted a fourth-tier Mystic Beast as their Companion Beast had already pushed open half the door to becoming a True Monarch.
The issue was, fourth-tier Mystic Beasts were extremely proud by nature and regarded as precious cultivation treasures by cultivation clans.
Even prodigies born of True Venerable clans usually had Spirit Beasts or Treasure Beasts as their first Companion Beast—they had no right to covet fourth-tier Mystic Beasts.
Someone like Yu Zhaohua, born of noble lineage and blessed with a Dao Body, whose first Companion Beast was a Heavenly-Gang Mystic Beast, was one in a billion—a supreme exception within the Immortal Alliance!
But now, putting aside innate Dao Body and Immortal Family resources, Chen Beiwu was already standing on equal footing with such heavenly prodigies.
...
As the area affected by Golden Egg’s Flood Dragon-Walking expanded, some dormant existences in the northern part of Yunlong Marsh were stirred.
In the north, a thousand-year silent ancient swamp suddenly rippled.
"Gululu..."
Mire and muck surged, revealing a pair of scarlet, blood-like eyes gazing in the direction of Golden Egg’s flooding.
"What an unfamiliar Flood Dragon aura."
As the voice faded, the surface of the swamp rose gradually, revealing a massive beast twenty-zhang long.
Its head resembled a crocodile, with six compound eyes arranged in a triangular pattern. Its entire body was covered in dark-blue bone armor, from which corrosive slime continuously oozed. Its tail split into a scorpion-stinger-like fork.
Crocodile-shaped but master of decay—it exhaled foul gas with each breath. If Chen Beiwu had been present, he would have immediately recognized it as a mid-grade third-tier Treasure Beast: the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile.
“Get out here if you’re done hiding. Don’t force me to act.”
The Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile growled, and its voice dispersed the miasma as the swamp cracked open. Three figures, previously hiding in the shadows, ceased concealing their auras.
“Giggle... Old Poison Gator, a thousand years and you’re still so fiery.”
The moment the voice rang out, a strange and chilling fragrance suddenly pervaded the entire swamp.
“Say what you have to say. I’m not close with you,” the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile replied blandly, glancing toward the petite figure walking from the forest.
About three-zhang tall, its head was a constantly opening and closing Blood-Kiss Lotus, with no facial features. Though its limbs resembled those of a human cultivator, a closer look revealed they were made of blood-thorned vines—a disguise. A sweet, soul-corroding scent emanated from its entire body.
That sweetness was refreshing at first scent, stirring nostalgic memories. Upon the second inhalation, it triggered restlessness in the bloodline, making the creature’s owner seem like the ideal mate—until nothing but bones remained.
"Hehe, what does familiarity matter? Aren’t you at all interested in that foreign Flood Dragon?" Blood Lotus Shade giggled lightly.
She was a plant turned beast, fond of refining her body by devouring small beasts with vigorous blood and occasionally consuming rare treasures within Yunlong Marsh to advance her cultivation.
Yet, even after two hundred years, her cultivation remained stuck at 699 years—unable to break the barrier. That was something Blood Lotus Shade could not accept.
“Interested in what?” the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile replied calmly, its scorpion tail lazily splashing the foul swamp water, feigning ignorance.
But it knew Blood Lotus Shade’s intent all too well.
While beast creatures lived long, it came at a price.
Those with powerful bloodlines could ignore that price and advance rapidly. But the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile was not one of them.
It gained strength through its bloodline—and now, it would also be limited by it.
With the power of its bloodline, the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile could have easily advanced to a Third-Realm Beast General and become the overlord of the Ancient Swamp in Yunlong Marsh. However, it had exhausted the potential of its bloodline in the process, forging a shackle that now bound it.
It was no exaggeration to say that the shackles of a beast creature’s bloodline were like heavenly locks, making the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile’s cultivation growth over the years approach zero. As a result, it had remained at the late-stage Golden Core Realm for a full millennium—its progress even more miserable than that of the Blood Lotus Shade.
To be honest, unless it could obtain a Fourth-Tier heavenly treasure or consume the flesh and blood of a Beast General of equal or higher realm, the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile saw no hope of further advancement.
And now, a foreign Flood Dragon wreaking havoc in Yunlong Marsh, summoning rain and awakening the flood dragon—was nothing short of a once-in-a-millennium opportunity for those beasts who had been stuck at the Golden Core Realm for centuries.
Yet, compared to cultivation breakthroughs, the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile actually valued its own life more and was unwilling to take risks lightly.
"Old Poison Crocodile, stop pretending. Don’t tell me you don’t want to break through the shackles of your bloodline?" another Golden Core beast couldn’t help but speak up.
This beast was five zhang long, with vertical pupils on its forehead and twin wings on its back. It resembled a tiger in form and was none other than the overlord of Thunderclap Lake in Yunlong Marsh—a Third-Realm Beast General with over six hundred years of cultivation, the Wing-Thunder Tiger.
"Of course I do. But unlike you lot, I’ve cultivated for a thousand years and already found hope to break the shackles of my bloodline," the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile glanced at the Wing-Thunder Tiger with an arrogant tone.
"Old Poison Crocodile, cut the crap. If you could’ve broken through the Golden Core bottleneck, you would’ve done it long ago. Why bother cultivating for a thousand years?"
Another Third-Realm Beast General exposed it—this one covered in needle-like fur, shaped like a giant rat, with blood-red eyes and nine fangs: the Dusky-Tooth Rat.
The Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile, Blood Lotus Shade, Wing-Thunder Tiger, Dusky-Tooth Rat, and Silver-Scaled Dragon Ao—these five beast creatures were all famous Golden Core beasts entrenched in the northern waters of Jianlong Lake in Yunlong Marsh.
Though they usually did not see eye to eye, they were also helpless against each other.
"Enough talk, Old Poison Crocodile. We’re about to take action. Silver-Scaled Dragon Ao has agreed to join us. Just say the word—are you in or out?" Blood Lotus Shade’s tone turned cold.
A Third-Realm Flood Dragon was filled with treasures. Even a random stream of its urine could temper the body and cleanse the marrow of fish and beast, granting them intelligence and elevating them to Second-Realm lesser beasts—let alone its bones, flesh, and blood.
Now that they had come across a foreign Flood Dragon with no known backing, Blood Lotus Shade had no intention of letting the opportunity slip away.
At those words, the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile’s pupils contracted. It realized that Blood Lotus Shade, Wing-Thunder Tiger, and Dusky-Tooth Rat were subtly positioning themselves to surround it.
Thoughts spun rapidly in the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile’s mind, and it quickly understood what the three were planning.
A Golden Core Flood Dragon was no pushover—even one that had only just completed its transformation.
What’s more, Blood Lotus Shade, Wing-Thunder Tiger, Dusky-Tooth Rat, and Silver-Scaled Dragon Ao were not united in heart. Even if they joined forces, there was still the risk of casualties.
But if the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile refused, the others might eliminate it first to prevent it from interfering later.
‘I can’t be left out. Looks like I’ll have to join the alliance.’
With a sigh in its heart, the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile still maintained its imposing demeanor and made a bold demand: "I’ll join, but I want the Flood Dragon’s Core."
"Old Poison Crocodile, don’t be greedy!" Blood Lotus Shade snorted coldly. "The core contains the Flood Dragon’s entire cultivation. If we give that to you, what will the rest of us get?"
Wing-Thunder Tiger and Dusky-Tooth Rat also showed signs of displeasure.
Although the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile had the highest cultivation, it wouldn’t be able to resist them if they joined forces.
Sensing the shift in atmosphere, the Corrupt Scorpion-Crocodile stepped back. "At least half of the Flood Dragon’s Core. I won’t participate in the division of its essence blood, marrow, or flesh."
At these words, Wing-Thunder Tiger and Dusky-Tooth Rat turned to look at Blood Lotus Shade and voiced their own desired spoils. The latter nodded. "Fine. It’s settled."
After a brief discussion and division of benefits, the four Golden Core beasts disappeared one after another.
At the same time, the observing Silver-Scaled Dragon Ao also received news of the alliance and looked toward Golden Egg with a glint of greed in its eyes.
……
Rumble!
Chen Beiwu stood atop Golden Egg’s back, gazing into the distance at the faint outline of the vast sea.
It was the border between the northern Yunlong Marsh and the Sea Eye of the Interminable Sea.
Golden Egg now only needed to guide the floodwaters completely into the Sea Eye. By leveraging the momentum of a "Flood Dragon Entering the Sea," he would complete the final transformation of his bloodline and awaken the true blood of the Flood Dragon. Then, this awakening would conclude in perfection.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Suddenly, the earth quaked and the clouds split apart.
From the depths of Yunlong Marsh behind Chen Beiwu, countless birds and beasts surged out in swarms, forming a dark, oppressive beast tide.
The overwhelming demon aura surged into the sky like black clouds, blotting out the sun and moon, veiling the heavens themselves.
"Ridiculous."
Chen Beiwu looked at the tide of beasts that filled the sky and shook his head speechlessly.
Ordinary beast creatures couldn’t possibly resist the pressure of a Flood Dragon. How could they actively attack? The origin of this beast tide was obvious.
Chen Beiwu had initially thought that the Golden Core beasts deep within Yunlong Marsh were all cunning and cautious, and wouldn’t act before understanding Golden Egg’s background. Clearly, he had overestimated them.
It wasn’t arrogance—Golden Egg was now not only a Third-Realm Flood Dragon but also a Fourth-Tier Mystic Beast. To call him the King of All Beasts was no exaggeration.
Launching a beast tide against Golden Egg was no different from wielding a blade in front of Guan Yu’s shrine.
"Woof."
Unlike Chen Beiwu’s calm demeanor, Iron Egg bristled with fur as it let out a low warning growl.
Using its innate spiritual technique, it discovered that the forests, swamps, lakes, and skies were filled with beasts ready to die—a number easily exceeding a hundred thousand.
Among them were numerous Second-Realm lesser beasts, their demonic aura forming clouds, their murderous intent piercing the heavens!
Of course, more than the numbers, Iron Egg was focused on the presence hidden within the beast tide—the Third-Realm Beast General whose aura brought it a bone-deep sense of crisis.
With a Third-Realm Beast General at the helm, even a Golden Core True Person might have to retreat from such a beast tide. Otherwise, a single misstep could lead to death.
"Don’t worry. Golden Egg can handle it."
Chen Beiwu patted Iron Egg’s head, then looked toward Golden Egg with interest. "Try that move."
Upon hearing this, Golden Egg unhesitatingly activated the bloodline arcana he had recently awakened.
【Mystic Arcana】: Three-Aspected Manifestation
【Attributes】: Metal, Water, Wood
【Grade】: Fourth-Tier High-Grade Mystic Art
【Description】: Dragons endure three tribulations, dominating the heavens; Flood Dragons embody three aspects, before whom all living beings bow.
The Metal Aspect governs slaughter and wields artifacts. The Water Aspect presides over the abyss and nurtures vitality. The Wood Aspect controls withering and flourishing, mastering life and death. When all three appear, all beasts kneel and submit, spared from annihilation in both body and spirit.
In an instant, three-colored divine light surged forth. Heaven and earth lit up, and the demon aura blanketing the sky dispersed in a flash.
Golden Egg coiled in the heavens. Behind him emerged three Flood Dragon phantoms—neither gold nor jade, neither flesh nor spirit.
First manifested was the golden aspect, stretching across a thousand li. It embodied Tai Bai, its edge so sharp that all magical artifacts within a hundred li trembled and lost their function.
Next came the water aspect, vast enough to block out the sun. It embodied Tai Ming, balanced in softness and strength, nurturing the world, and radiating majestic might.
Last to form was the wood aspect, ruler of life and decay. It embodied Tai He, eternal and unceasing, like a heaven-reaching divine tree connecting the three realms, illustrating the great Dao of life and death.
When the three phantoms suddenly fused into one, forming a heaven-piercing, earth-encompassing Three-Aspected Manifestation Dharma Body and fully merged into Golden Egg’s body, all heaven and earth fell silent.
Rumble!
Golden Egg made no move. He merely raised his head slowly—and that mere trace of dragon might from the Dharma Body caused a hundred thousand beasts to kneel instantly, not daring to resist, as if faced with a true dragon that ruled all.
Weaker beasts, whose minds had been completely dominated by Blood Lotus Shade, didn’t even qualify to kneel. Their bodies exploded en masse, dying on the spot.