Chapter 384: Heart Blossoming with Joy
The river water fell, and the surrounding mountains shook and trembled incessantly. In some places, landslides occurred as the impact caused earth and rock to crack and slide down the slopes, creating devastating destruction. Quite a few villagers living near the mountains suffered as a result.
This was a helpless move.
If they didn't eliminate the Dragon Tamer Lord and stop his actions to alter the dragon veins, the ones who would suffer wouldn't just be the residents living along the river, but the entire Yanguo nation!
"Blind grandpa, the Dragon Tamer Lord can shed his skin to heal his wounds!" Qin Mu stood on the head of the Dragon Qilin, rushing over, and shouted loudly, "Don't be careless! He's not dead yet!"
Blind was somewhat puzzled. "What did you say about this eel lord? I shattered his limbs and all his bones, broke every one of his scales, cut off his life force, and then the Yong River crushed down on him. He can still live?"
"He's not dead!" Qin Mu yelled loudly. "As long as his head isn't cut off, no matter how severe his injuries, he will fully recover after shedding his skin!"
At that moment, the river water suddenly bulged high, rolling down from upstream, raising waves as tall as mountain peaks. A massive creature was traveling beneath the water.
"That eel lord's Flood Dragon King God has arrived! It seems the eel lord truly isn't dead."
Blind's heart tightened. He raised his bamboo staff and pointed it toward the center of the river. The Dragon Tamer Lord was pressed onto the riverbed at the bottom of the Yong River. When the Yong River fell from above, it covered this god beneath the earth. The immense pressure, combined with Blind's attack, should have crushed him to powder.
Just as Blind's staff was about to touch the Yong River, the sapphire-blue Flood Dragon King God coiled its body, its massive dragon head rising high. The river water surged and spread, colliding with his staff strike!
Boom!
The Yong River was cut off, revealing the deep riverbed. The Dragon Qilin dodged the aftershock of this strike and flew upward.
Qin Mu lay on the Dragon Qilin's back, looking down. He saw that the Dragon Tamer Lord's location was now a huge pit. The mud at the bottom of the pit had been drained by the attacks of Blind and the Flood Dragon King God. The Dragon Tamer Lord lay sprawled in the pit, utterly miserable.
However, as he had expected, the Dragon Tamer Lord was not dead. He was in the process of shedding his skin.
Qin Mu caught a quick glimpse and saw that the Dragon Tamer Lord's forehead had split open. A massive head was writhing inside the Dragon Tamer Lord's head, struggling to push its way out.
"If the Dragon Tamer Lord successfully sheds his skin and has the Flood Dragon King God as his ally, Blind Grandpa might not be his match!"
Without further thought, he suddenly leaped off the Dragon Qilin's back, sprinted with all his might, and chased after the Dragon Tamer Lord at the bottom of the river!
Si Yunxiang and Ling Yuxiu cried out in surprise and quickly reached out to grab him, but they caught nothing and failed to seize Qin Mu.
Bang—
Qin Mu's speed grew faster and faster. In an instant, he surpassed the speed of sound, leaving a trail of white smoke behind him.
Blind had sealed his three divine repositories, preventing him from using his primordial energy. However, the Heaven-Stealing Divine Leg Technique was originally a physical divine ability, a technique unleashed solely by the explosive power of the physical body.
This was something Blind couldn't seal.
Qin Mu whistled down from the sky, charging straight toward the Dragon Tamer Lord.
At this moment, the waters of the Yong River upstream and downstream began to converge. Meanwhile, the Xuanwu primordial spirit appeared behind Blind, engaging in a fierce battle with the Flood Dragon King God. Blind "saw" Qin Mu rushing down from above, heading straight for the Dragon Tamer Lord, and silently cursed him for being reckless. He quickly flicked his finger.
Qin Mu was mid-air when a gust of wind from Blind's finger struck his forehead. Three booming sounds echoed from within his body. The Lingtai, Wuyue, and Liuhe divine repositories were successively unsealed, and his magical power returned to him. He was overjoyed.
On the riverbank, Blind was attacking wildly, fighting desperately against the Flood Dragon King God to prevent Qin Mu from being swatted to death by its tail.
"Even with his divine repositories sealed by me, he still dares to be so reckless! This brat—why isn't he this vigorous and energetic when he's in the bridal chamber?"
Blind's hair and beard flew wildly as he grew truly enraged. The Flood Dragon King God swung its dragon claws, but Blind repeatedly struck them with his bamboo staff. The claws' bones and tendons became misaligned, rendering them unable to exert their full strength.
Blind pointed his staff forward. The river water swirled and surged, forming a massive spear that stabbed straight at the Flood Dragon King God's heart, forcing it to leap into the air to avoid the strike.
Splat—
Before the river water could close in, Qin Mu plunged headfirst into the mud at the bottom of the river. Then came a deafening roar as the river waters merged. The colossal collision of the floodwaters was astonishing, sending huge waves rolling eastward.
At the bottom of the river, Qin Mu held his breath, but the crushing pressure of the merging waters nearly killed him. His chest felt like it was about to explode, and his head buzzed with ringing.
After a moment, Qin Mu regained his senses. He crawled out of the mud and sand, swimming like a fish to the large pit where the Dragon Tamer Lord lay.
The Yong River was transporting mud and sand, constantly piling up, burying the Dragon Tamer Lord about a third of the way.
Qin Mu swam to the Dragon Tamer Lord's side. All around were rotting flesh. The divine blood had also been corrupted, washed away by the river current. In this short time, most of the blood inside the Dragon Tamer Lord's body had been carried off.
A god's body was extremely heavy. Even a cultivator at the Divine Bridge realm would struggle to carry a god on their back. So, lying here, the Dragon Tamer Lord couldn't be swept away by the river.
Although the divine blood inside the Dragon Tamer Lord was nearly drained, his head was still writhing. Two dragon horns emerged.
Qin Mu immediately reached out and groped around, his hands swiftly moving over the Dragon Tamer Lord's body, searching everywhere.
"Where is the True Dragon Nest? Where is it hidden..."
Crack.
The crack on the Dragon Tamer Lord's forehead widened further. Waves of divine might emanated from the opening.
Qin Mu was startled. He saw a dragon head emerging halfway from the forehead. He quickly swam to the Dragon Tamer Lord's bald head, drew the Carefree Sword, mobilized his three divine repositories, and channeled his primordial energy. He stabbed down at the Dragon Tamer Lord's forehead with all his strength. With a *ding*, the Carefree Sword struck a dragon scale and was bounced high into the air, leaving a sword mark on the scale.
Qin Mu raised his hand and stabbed down again. After more than a dozen strikes, he finally pierced through the dragon scale.
Qin Mu pulled out the sword and thrust it downward, working it vigorously until about a third of the blade was embedded in the Dragon Tamer Lord's forehead. Then he took out a large iron hammer and slammed it onto the sword's hilt. After pounding for a while, he drove the Carefree Sword completely into the Dragon Tamer Lord's forehead.
This Carefree Sword pinned the Dragon Tamer Lord's old skin to the flesh that was about to shed. The dragon head dared not writhe violently, as if afraid of disturbing the divine might hidden within the sword. It could only slowly try to shed its skin, but the Carefree Sword held it in place, preventing it from shedding or breaking free.
"Naive brat, it's you again..."
The Dragon Tamer Lord opened his mouth and let out a faint voice. "I'm going to kill you. I will definitely kill you..."
Qin Mu channeled his primordial energy, rolled up mud and sand, and stuffed it into the Dragon Tamer Lord's mouth and nose, silencing him. Then he took out the last of his Three-Break Powder, wrapped it in his primordial energy, and shoved it in as well. After that, he continued groping around everywhere.
"If it doesn't poison you to death, it'll at least make you shed another layer of skin!" Qin Mu searched back and forth, looking for the True Dragon Nest.
The Dragon Tamer Lord's nearly stiff body trembled continuously at the bottom of the river. As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot. The toxicity of the Three-Break Powder erupted, truly formidable. Cracking sounds came from his broken body—*beng beng beng*—as it shattered body, spirit, and soul.
He hadn't fully shed his skin yet, hadn't completely severed ties with his old body. His new body also became poisoned, suffering miserably.
Qin Mu pulled out various strange items from the Dragon Tamer Lord's body: a dragon-skin drum, dragon horns, a claw staff, a dragon-bone short flute, and other oddities. But he still couldn't find the True Dragon Lord's Nest.
"Strange. This guy should have it hidden on himself. He wouldn't just throw it away..."
Qin Mu took out the Imperial Disc and tried to sense the Dragon Nest, but oddly, the Imperial Disc had no reaction. Qin Mu repeatedly activated the Imperial Disc, and the characters on it changed, but still couldn't locate the Dragon Nest.
Just then, he suddenly felt an unusual disturbance in the water currents around him. His heart tightened.
The river water was now murky, with mud and sand churned up by the current. His vision couldn't reach very far. Qin Mu quickly swam to the Dragon Tamer Lord's forehead, holding the sword hilt with one hand, and cautiously looked around.
Another strong current rushed past him. He remained still, seeing a massive dragon body, its scales a dark green, each scale larger than his own body.
This was a flood dragon, likely one raised by the Dragon Tamer Lord, attracted by his aura. This flood dragon was incredibly powerful, stronger than an ordinary sect master-level existence. He was no match for it.
Qin Mu's eyes flickered. With his other hand, he took out the dragon-bone short flute he had just retrieved from the Dragon Tamer Lord's body. He quietly used his primordial energy to channel the water currents and blow the flute.
He wanted to use the Dragon Subduing Art to establish a connection with this flood dragon and control it.
At that moment, his mind suddenly roared with pain, splitting with a throbbing ache. It was the Dragon Tamer Lord, mustering his last remaining mental energy to assault his brain, nearly knocking him unconscious.
Qin Mu winced in pain, but he saw the Dragon Tamer Lord beneath his feet writhing with all his might, causing the Carefree Sword to wobble and shift forward, cutting through the Dragon Tamer Lord's scalp.
"After eating a handful of Three-Break Powder, he can still shed his skin? My poison is indeed not as good as Grandpa Medicine Master's. If it were poison refined by Grandpa Medicine Master, the Dragon Tamer Lord would have died even after shedding his skin a dozen times!"
Qin Mu hurriedly tried to pull out the sword, but he had hammered it in too deep and couldn't extract it quickly. He saw that the Dragon Tamer Lord had already drilled out a dragon head, with the Carefree Sword still stuck in its forehead.
Qin Mu stood on the Dragon Tamer Lord's head, gripping the sword hilt with both hands. Beneath his feet were the Dragon Tamer Lord's two large eyes, now open, staring at him. His face was livid, a sign of the poison, as he struggled to suppress the Three-Break Powder.
Behind Qin Mu, a massive dragon head appeared, its body coiled in the water. The dark green flood dragon opened its mouth, revealing sharp, ferocious teeth.
Qin Mu's eyes darted left and right. He quietly reached out, grabbed the Imperial Disc, and suddenly shone it behind him. The dark green flood dragon's huge mouth was already above his head, the sharp teeth on its upper jaw nearly piercing his forehead!
Qin Mu held the Imperial Disc high, his legs trembling. The Dragon Tamer Lord beneath his feet was still writhing outward with effort.
"C-c-c-calm down..." Qin Mu stammered, hearing the chattering of his own teeth. Bubbles streamed from his mouth. "D-d-don't move... g-g-good and s-s-stay still..."
The dark green flood dragon paused its mouth and slowly retreated, its gaze falling on the Imperial Disc in his palm.
"Mahah..." The flood dragon slowly lowered its head.
Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. He stomped on the Dragon Tamer Lord's eye and said viciously, "You almost got me killed! Tell me quickly, where did you hide the True Dragon Nest? I have hundreds of kinds of poison here. Do you believe I'll grind your bones to dust?"
The Dragon Tamer Lord stared at him coldly, continuing to writhe outward. Suddenly, his forehead cracked again with a *crack*, and another dragon head emerged. Having been poisoned by Qin Mu, shedding his skin once wasn't enough to detoxify; he needed to shed again.
"Mahah mahah!"
The dark green flood dragon behind Qin Mu shrank in size, swimming to his shoulder. Its two claws rested on his shoulder as it opened its mouth. Qin Mu was momentarily stunned. The True Dragon Nest was inside this flood dragon's mouth.
"Cunning, you're truly cunning!" Qin Mu's heart blossomed with joy as he gave the Dragon Tamer Lord a thumbs-up.