Chapter 386: Fortune-Snatching Technique
Qin Mu surfaced from the river. A massive flood dragon swam past him and plunged into the water—it was the Dragon King God. Qin Mu paused to look, noticing a bamboo pole embedded in the forehead of that sapphire-blue flood dragon, bubbling with blood.
"Blind Grandpa's bamboo staff!"
Qin Mu floated to the surface and walked toward the shore. Long Qilin, leading over a dozen flood dragons and carrying Ling Yuxiu, Hu Ling'er, and Si Yunxiang, cautiously approached. It seemed Blind's battle with the Dragon King God had just ended; they had avoided the shockwaves, which slowed them down.
Hu Ling'er had finally woken from her hangover and was curiously looking around, astonished at how she had ended up here from the wedding feast in the small town.
Qin Mu scanned the area and spotted Blind.
Blind was in a wretched state, covered in mud, his clothes tattered, and his body riddled with wounds. Clearly, the fight with the Dragon King God had been extremely taxing.
The Dragon King God was incredibly powerful—after all, it was a flood dragon that had become a deity, with vast divine powers, and it was a water-attributed dragon. Blind had given it his all, making the Dragon King God suffer as well, but he himself was injured.
Long Qilin flew over and landed. Hu Ling'er jumped off his back, still in her little fox form, and hopped onto Qin Mu's shoulder. Only then did she notice the ink-black flood dragon on his other shoulder. Terrified, her fur stood on end, and her several tails shot straight up.
—After drinking, she would revert to her original form, and she had forgotten to transform back into a human.
"Ling'er, don't be afraid. This is the ink dragon I just took in. He did a great deed."
Qin Mu comforted the little fox, glanced at Blind, winked, and said with a grin, "Sister Yuxiu, Saintess Xiang, let me show you something big."
The two women were curious. "What big thing?"
Qin Mu stood by the riverbank and called out loudly, "Zhenjiang Dragon Lord, won't you come out?"
Suddenly, the river surface churned violently, waves surged sky-high. The Dragon Tamer Lord, transformed into a giant dragon, raised his head from the water, towering like a mountain. His long whiskers hung down, crystal clear, swaying in the wind.
Those whiskers were over a hundred zhang long, quite beautiful.
The Dragon Tamer Lord lowered his head. "What are your orders, Master?"
The two women were stunned. Blind was also shocked beyond words.
Qin Mu puffed out his chest, looking around at everyone's expressions with great satisfaction. Hands on his hips, he laughed, "Nothing, just wanted you to meet everyone."
The Dragon Tamer Lord's face was stern, barely restraining the urge to slap this little brat to death. Just as he was about to sink back into the water, Qin Mu quickly said, "Don't go down just yet. You promised to teach me how to absorb dragon veins and mobilize the power of the True Dragon Lord."
The Dragon Tamer Lord halted, not sinking into the water.
Qin Mu puffed up again. "Blind Grandpa, what do you think?"
"Absolutely amazing." Blind was all smiles.
Qin Mu's eyes flickered. He quietly took out the golden flute and immediately activated the Dragon Subduing Art. Many flood dragons flew toward Blind, coiling around him!
These flood dragons were extremely powerful. Once they bound Blind, he would be completely unable to break free!
Just then, Blind suddenly flicked his finger. Qin Mu groaned, and all three divine repositories within him closed simultaneously, sealed by Blind again. The flute music stopped abruptly. The flood dragons looked around in confusion and did not attack Blind.
"Mu'er is really something."
Blind flicked his finger again, and a golden rope flew out, binding Qin Mu's hands and feet tightly. He sighed, "Each generation produces its own talents, and the waves behind drive the waves ahead. But ginger is still spicier when it's old. You were still a bit slow. Trying to control the flood dragons to tie me up? Not so easy."
Qin Mu fell to the ground with a thud, his face dark as charcoal. Just as he was about to order the Dragon Tamer Lord to capture Blind, Blind stuffed a cloth strip into his mouth, silencing him.
"This marriage must still happen, and this child must still be born!"
Blind picked him up and said to the Dragon Tamer Lord, "Carry us along the river to the Great Ruins and back to the village to continue the wedding! There are still two ceremonies left. Do it well, and I'll treat you to wedding wine."
The Dragon Tamer Lord hesitated, looking at Qin Mu. Qin Mu made muffled sounds, still struggling. After a moment, he slumped and nodded.
The Dragon Tamer Lord felt a surge of satisfaction: "This seemingly honest kid is so cunning and treacherous. Turns out he can lose too. Serves him right—"
He lay down, revealing his long dragon back, like a narrow island in the water. "Get on my back!"
Blind carried Qin Mu onto the dragon's back. Long Qilin quickly followed, and many flood dragons crowded after them, jostling together.
"These are all flood dragons I raised, every one of them ungrateful..."
The Dragon Tamer Lord felt another pang of heartache, but what was done was done. If he could do it all over again, he would have killed Qin Mu the moment they first met, slapping this seemingly honest boy to death.
On the dragon's back, Qin Mu seemed to have accepted his fate. He neither struggled nor tried to make the Dragon Tamer Lord act. Blind pulled the cloth strip from his mouth. "Let this eel lord teach you."
Qin Mu extended his hands, and Blind untied the golden rope from his wrists, but the rope on his legs remained.
Qin Mu's eyes flickered. "Blind Grandpa, why be so cautious? To learn how to absorb dragon veins and mobilize the power of the True Dragon Lord from the Dragon Tamer Lord, I need to use my spiritual energy. And these flood dragons are hungry; I need to refine elixirs to feed them. If you unseal me, could I really escape? Even if I tried, could I slip out of your grasp? Sealing me again is just a flick of your finger, isn't it?"
Blind raised an eyebrow and tapped his forehead. Qin Mu felt a surge of joy as his Spiritual Embryo Divine Repository opened with a bang, but the Five Luminaries and Six Harmonies repositories remained sealed.
"The spiritual energy from the Spiritual Embryo repository is enough for you to learn." Blind said calmly.
Qin Mu praised him, giving a thumbs-up. "Truly the old hand who raised me! So cautious!"
Blind was delighted. "Stop flattering me! Go on, go on!"
Ling Yuxiu and Si Yunxiang exchanged glances. The cowherd boy's upbringing seemed quite different from others—it looked more like he was being led down a crooked path.
Qin Mu refined elixirs and fed the dragons. Long Qilin also took a few bites but found the taste off. He secretly peeled open a Crimson Fire Elixir and his face darkened. Inside the elixir was a Fire Element Divine Essence Pill, no wonder it was so spicy!
"Chief, this elixir is wrong!" Long Qilin shouted, then peeled open a few more elixirs, tossing the Fire Element Divine Essence Pills into the river and eating only the outer shell.
Qin Mu blew the golden flute, controlling a cyan flood dragon to beat Long Qilin. Long Qilin howled in pain and no longer dared to be picky.
As the Dragon Tamer Lord swam toward the Great Ruins, he taught Qin Mu deeper levels of the Dragon Subduing Art. The Dragon Taming Scripture he had given Qin Mu was still holding back; many key points were not recorded in it. Qin Mu studied intently, playing no tricks.
After half a day, he had fully learned the Dragon Subduing Art. He then asked how to mobilize the power of the True Dragon Lord. The Dragon Tamer Lord said, "The True Dragon Lord was refined into a treasure by someone, becoming a vessel of fortune. It can no longer become a true dragon. However, placing this treasure in the True Dragon Nest allows it to absorb the dragon energy from the nest. With a unique technique, one can draw fortune from the True Dragon Lord. The wearer of the True Dragon Lord will then advance by leaps and bounds, a thousand miles in a day! But I never learned that technique. I imagine the being who took the True Dragon Lord would have imprinted that technique into the True Dragon Lord itself. After snatching the fortune, you become the True Dragon Lord!"
"A unique technique?"
Qin Mu was startled. He quickly described the Nine Dragons Emperor Art he had learned from Emperor Yanfeng. "Is this a fortune-snatching technique?"
The Dragon Tamer Lord thought for a moment and shook his head. "This technique only snatches energy, using dragon energy to cultivate. It is not a fortune-snatching technique. Our dragon race is born from heaven and earth, inheriting the energy and information of the universe, which we turn into language called Dragon Tongue. Every dragon, upon birth, naturally masters Dragon Tongue without needing to learn. The characters and symbols on the True Dragon Lord and the Dragon Nest are our dragon script. I have only seen the characters on the True Dragon Nest, not those on the True Dragon Lord. But from the characters on the nest, they indeed contain a fortune-snatching technique, though incomplete."
Qin Mu's heart stirred. The complete fortune-snatching technique would require combining the Emperor Disc and the True Dragon Nest.
Legend had it that a deity had given the Ling family's ancestor the Emperor Disc, symbolizing imperial authority. The Ling family's Nine Dragons Emperor Art was derived from the Emperor Disc, a technique gleaned from it.
And Emperor Yanfeng, a genius, had perfected the Nine Dragons Emperor Art, elevating it to a level comparable to the Great Cultivation Demon Scripture and the Tathagata Great Vehicle Sutra!
It was clear how astonishing the combined technique of the Emperor Disc and the True Dragon Nest would be!
"Dragon Lord, teach me Dragon Tongue!" Qin Mu suddenly said.
The Dragon Tamer Lord taught him all the Dragon Tongue he knew. "Our dragon race's language is stored in our bloodline. The purer the bloodline, the more Dragon Tongue one knows. I am not a true dragon, so there are some Dragon Tongue words whose meanings I do not know."
Qin Mu memorized the sounds and written forms of Dragon Tongue, his head feeling swollen. The strokes of Dragon Tongue were strange, as if composed of dragons, with almost no discernible pattern.
Without patterns, there was no way to deduce the meanings of unknown characters.
Moreover, the pronunciation of Dragon Tongue differed from human speech, carrying a unique rhythm. Some sounds could not be produced by the human throat, making it nearly impossible to converse with dragons using Dragon Tongue.
Qin Mu recorded all the Dragon Tongue the Dragon Tamer Lord had taught him, then took out the Emperor Disc from his chest. This time, he could understand some of the characters, symbols, and patterns. However, since the Dragon Tamer Lord's knowledge of Dragon Tongue was incomplete, Qin Mu could not fully recognize all the characters on the disc.
The Dragon Tongue on the Emperor Disc kept changing, making him dizzy.
Qin Mu closed his eyes and shook his head. "Only a true dragon can recognize all dragon script. Where can I find a true dragon to teach me the complete Dragon Tongue?"
"In the Great Ruins, there are true dragons," the Dragon Tamer Lord said softly.
Qin Mu's spirits lifted. Suddenly, he looked up and saw Mishui Pass ahead.
The Dragon Tamer Lord's speed was astonishing. In just half a day, he had brought them to the Great Ruins.
Mishui Pass had been blockaded by the Yan Kingdom's army with a fortress. If the Dragon Tamer Lord wanted to pass, he would have to destroy this large city. Qin Mu immediately ordered him to stop. Everyone jumped off the dragon's back and entered Mishui Pass.
Feng Xiuyun led a group to greet them, bowing. "Greetings, Chief!"
Qin Mu smiled. "No need for formalities. It's getting late. Let's rest here for the night and enter the Great Ruins tomorrow. Branch Master Feng, arrange some rooms."
Blind grinned. "Not a bad-looking girl... Prepare a feast. Tonight, your chief will have a second wedding and bow to become a groom."