Chapter 8
Chapter 8: A Dragon Enters the Sea—Boundless Sky, Boundless Ocean. I Had Clearly Promised to Always Stay By His Side…
Hangzhou. Jade Pool Cave Dwelling.
Having just finished nursing her wounds, Lady White was not only overcome with self-reproach but felt, inexplicably, a dull ache in her heart. Originally, she had only regarded Jiang Linxian as a little snake.
Yet once he was truly gone, she discovered that perhaps it had not been so simple…
Calculating the time, she glanced at the green-robed girl sleeping beside her and, for reasons she could not explain, found her heart gripped by a faint panic—she did not know how to face what was coming.
Because she knew Little Green would certainly ask. She would certainly go…
By the time Little Green stirred from her daze and realized something was wrong, it was already too late. Big Sister had surely gone off alone…
"Big Sister?"
When Little Green saw Lady White, she froze.
Lady White, her face drained of color, called out softly.
"Little Green."
Little Green stepped forward with concern. "Big Sister, what happened to you? Who hurt you?!"
"Little Green, I'm fine."
Lady White reassured Little Green and said no more—she was somewhat… afraid to speak the truth.
Only after confirming that Lady White was truly unharmed did Little Green let out a breath of relief. She swept her gaze around the Cave Dwelling and, noticing Jiang Linxian's absence, asked:
"Big Sister, where is Little Immortal? Why isn't he in the Cave Dwelling?"
Lady White let out a long sigh. After a moment's hesitation, she slowly told the truth—there was no hiding it, that much was certain.
She did not shift the blame; she placed all fault squarely upon herself.
When Little Green heard that 3 days had already passed—that Jiang Linxian had drawn Pudu Cihang away alone in order to save Big Sister—she nearly fell apart.
Pudu Cihang was a thousand-year Centipede Sprite even more powerful than Big Sister, and one well-versed in Buddhist arts that restrained demon-kind.
By any measure, Jiang Linxian was already…
In that moment, Little Green almost hated Lady White for insisting on bringing Little Immortal along on the venture when she could have gone alone.
Her mouth opened—but those words never came out.
"Where."
"Little Green, don't be rash. Wait until my wounds have healed and we'll go look for Little Immortal together."
Lady White urged her, afraid of her impulsiveness.
Little Green's voice was resolute, yet pleading.
"No! I want to go now—Big Sister, please, tell me where. My heart… it hurts so much."
Little Green did not understand it, only felt the ache inside her. She had grown so used to Jiang Linxian's presence—used to pestering him every day, teasing him, even growing closer to him than Big Sister had.
"Big Sister, I had clearly promised him—that I would stay by his side for 500 years of cultivation, all the way until his Manifestation. But now…"
Lady White silently rose to her feet.
"Little Green, let's go together. Little Immortal ran into trouble because of me."
..…
Outside Jing'an Prefecture, by the river.
The traces of the battle between Lady White and Pudu Cihang still lingered here.
Lady White remembered clearly—the place where Jiang Linxian had vanished was somewhere in this stretch of water. But many days had already passed.
Any hope of finding Jiang Linxian was now vanishingly thin.
He might even have already been dealt with by Pudu Cihang…
Both of them understood this in their hearts, yet neither said it aloud. They simply searched in silence along the river's edge.
Without seeing a body with their own eyes, there remained in their hearts a small, fragile thread of hope to hold onto.
Lady White kept her reason intact—she could not place all hope here.
The possibility that Pudu Cihang held the answer was equally great, yet even she and Little Green combined were no match for that enemy. They could only probe from the shadows for now.
..…
The Marsh Domain.
The thin mist of early morning had not yet dispersed, and the water's surface was far from clear.
There, in the center of that expanse of water, a white figure drifted at the surface—sinking and rising with the current.
It was a white serpent, its entire body the pale white of frost and snow. It should have been a creature of breathtaking beauty; instead, it was covered from end to end in wounds.
More than half its scales had been torn away, exposing raw, vivid red flesh beneath. The wounds had turned faintly white from being submerged, their edges swollen.
The worst of the damage was along its back—a deep gash, bone-deep, running the length of its trunk. With every rise and fall of its breath, the wound seeped a faint blush of blood into the water, only for the current to carry it away.
The scent of blood drew the river's residents.
A cluster of fish gathered around the white serpent.
A few of the bolder ones had even begun to nibble at the scales that had loosened and were on the verge of falling away. Each touch sent a faint tremor through the serpent's body.
And yet, within this cruel scene of nature, something strange was unfolding.
A faint spiritual radiance emanated from the white serpent's body—flickering in and out of visibility.
The light was weak, yet it held within it a vitality that defied reason, repairing those grotesque wounds at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Most striking was that gash running the length of its back.
The spiritual light gathered at the wound's edges, as though countless tiny points of luminescence were weaving something together.
New flesh emerged from the wound's depths like spring buds, pink tissue spreading slowly yet steadily, closing the gash little by little.
At the same time, new scales surfaced from beneath the skin like pearls rising from deep water.
At first they were only tiny white points, then they gradually expanded, their edges sharpening, until they formed complete plates of scale—warm and lustrous as white jade.
The process was not without pain.
The white serpent would occasionally convulse sharply, its long body twisting into unnatural arcs in the water, as though enduring some indescribable agony.
Yet strangely, its eyes remained tightly shut throughout, as if submerged in a dream of unfathomable depth, wholly unaware of the world's intrusions.
The school of fish seemed awed by this peculiar sight as well.
They ceased their nibbling and kept their distance, circling in silence around this white serpent in the midst of its rebirth.
On the water's surface, a blue-feathered water bird dove downward—then veered sharply away the instant it grazed the edge of the spiritual light, as though it had struck an invisible wall.
Time passed—how much, it was hard to say.
The sun climbed higher; the morning mist dissolved completely.
Sunlight pierced through the clouds and fell across the Marsh Domain.
The very instant the first ray of light touched the white serpent's body, the spiritual radiance surged suddenly, blazing bright as flame yet casting no heat.
The new scales caught the sunlight and scattered a rainbow of iridescent halos—a contrast with the surrounding water that seemed almost impossible.
The serpent's wounds were more than half healed; new scales now covered a full third of its trunk.
Jiang Linxian slowly opened his blue, slit-pupiled eyes, reflecting the sky and drifting clouds of this marsh.
He had come within a hair's breadth of death at Pudu Cihang's hands. Fortunately, the spiritual energy that had been stored to fullness within the Dragon Pearl surged forth at the critical moment—shielding him while also triggering his Skin Shedding.
But the transformation had not been completed cleanly; Pudu Cihang had forcibly interrupted it. He now needed to find a quiet place to finish his Skin Shedding.
Pudu Cihang would not let him go so easily, and the water was no longer safe.
Once he crossed through this tribulation—
A dragon would enter the sea. From then on: boundless sky, boundless ocean.
When the last trace of spiritual light sank into his body and the final wound on him was covered by new scales, Jiang Linxian slowly submerged into the water and swam toward the deepest part of the Marsh Domain, leaving only a white trail on the water's surface that gradually faded away.
The sun rose; the moon set.
…...
When Jiang Linxian came ashore, he found he was somewhat lost. He stepped into the mountain forest and, relying on his Concealment Art, knew that as long as he found a mortal, he could determine his current location.
It was just that he had no idea which region the current had swept him to—not a single sign of human habitation had appeared the entire way.
Not until he reached the 3rd mountain peak and looked out into the distance did he spot a great temple, busy with people coming and going.
He had no intention of getting involved—he was a demon, and if the temple housed a high monk there could very well be trouble.
But then he saw the temple's name, and he stopped.
Around and around life had taken him.
Jiang Linxian had somehow arrived at—
Lanruo Temple!