Chapter 269 – Past and Present Fate (Part One) (2/2)

Although time passed by ever so slowly, the critical point approached. Then, as sudden as it often was with this sort of thing, without any sort of mental preparation, the sun had silently sunken below the horizon. The night had finally come.

No sun did not mean that there was no light, only that both the sky and the earth were much darker than usual. The vast plain, which even the Black Dragon could not see the end of, became a dark and gloomy ocean. Seeing this oceanic plain, the Black Dragon gave off a light sigh. The sigh was one of contentment and reminiscence, because this scene reminded her of her home. The gloom did not necessarily mean cold. Although it was a Black Frost Dragon, it also loved the warmth. In the deep blue—almost black—waters of its home, the waters were warm, heated by the blazing sun to be almost like bathing water. The beaches of those islands were like bits of silver……

The Divine Empress had peeled her spiritual soul away from the body and poured it into the jade ruyi so that she could follow Chen Changsheng on this journey to the Garden of Zhou, and report on his situation at any time. In some manners of speaking, she was still a prisoner. Her jail was no longer that underground space beneath the Imperial Palace, but a small ruyi. The restrictions on her strength were no longer those iron chains, but the shadow of death. She still had to confront the depression on her mind, the pressure brought about by being a traitor. No matter how she looked at this, the trip was not a very good mission. Yet when she accompanied Chen Changsheng and left the capital, she realized that it was actually a very good thing. It was the first time in several hundred years that she had left that cold and lonely underground world. She saw countless sights that had already become strange to her. She saw so many humans and demi-humans that were once food to her. All this made her feel incomparably happy, such that she even forgot about many things. Only now did she finally think about her home.

Are all unreachable places called distant lands? For the Dragon race, there was no place on this world that they could not go. Is the place you could not go back to called home? Yes, could she still go home?

She looked at the plain which was as dark as the ocean, thinking about the deep sea that waslike a plain, far to the south. She thought of home, thought of her father, thought of many things, and then she began to grieve.

It was different from the legends. Dragons did not live up in high mountains and lofty mountain ranges, in strange caves concealed by the clouds. As the most powerful and most intelligent of all living beings, how could they enjoy living in such a gloomy and cold environment? Dragons loved palm trees, silver beaches, jade oceans, the sun and the wind, and palaces.

On this point, when all life had evolved to its highest point, there was not much difference. It was unknown whether the Demon race's constant encroachments on the south to exterminate the Human race were also related to this.

The dragons lived far off in the southern seas. Over there, the water was very warm.

That was also the Black Dragon's home.

The Golden Dragons’ blood was most noble, their existence was most powerful, and they led the entire Dragon Race. However, the Black Frost Dragons were even prouder and colder. They loved to leave the crowd and find their own places to live. They never took pleasure in conversing with their fellows. To put it simply, they were lofty and cold to the extreme.

Countless years ago, the leaders of the Dragon race, the Golden Dragons, had disappeared from the continent for some reason. The Black Frost Dragons had naturally arisen as the most suited candidates for next leaders of the Dragon race.

In those days, as long as her father nodded his head, he could have become chief of all dragons. However, her father was unwilling, not wanting all the trouble. He set off on his own from the southern sea, going to the continent.

The zither continued to play, like a summoning, like a recollection, like the wind that blew over the snowy plains all those years ago.

The Black Dragon looked at the dark plain, at the Sunset Valley, then was suddenly overcome by grief. Her dragon eyes were filled with tears, causing a small rain to fall from the sky of the Garden of Zhou.

Right now, she was only a strand of her spiritual soul. In terms of spirit, she was far weaker than her original body. She had actually been stirred up by the sound of that zither, moreover… she did not resist it.

Because the zither had caused her think of the past, caused her see her father after he had left home.

Her father had been the strongest Black Frost Dragon of the past one thousand years. He was of a hue even darker than the night. His breath was a sword of ice and snow that reached far away. His strength was unimaginable.

Her father had met a human.

The human carried a great blade that seemed able to pierce the heavens.

No matter how strong her father was, he still would not have been able to resist that blade.

It seemed that all things placed in front of the edge of that blade could only be severed into two.

Not to mention that the great battle had taken place in the Garden of Zhou.

The human was the master of the Garden of Zhou.

The blade really had chopped at the sky, and on the azure sky appeared a distinct slash.

With time, the slash slowly faded away, but the plain under it had taken on a very different appearance.

The sky had been severed, and the black that was even darker than the night had also been severed into two.

Her father had fallen from the sky, and his enormous body had become a mountain range.

In the setting sun, that mountain range seemed almost ablaze. At the very front of the mountain rage was the loftiest peak. That was the dragon's head. The plain also burned, and those clouds of red were the dragon's blood.

The Black Dragon finally understood those events of the past; why her father had never returned from his journey.

Her eyes were full of tears, then they suddenly went cold, turning into chunks of ice.

Humans are humans, as expected.

Shameless humans, cold-blooded humans.

She looked at that white-clothed young lady making her way up that solitary mountain path and indifferently thought, go die then.

Both sides of the mountain path were precipitous cliffs, the bare rock seemingly very smooth. Even more frightening was that person who, all those years ago, created these stone steps upon which only one person could walk.

The wind up here was much fiercer than the wind below, and also much colder. Down below, because the mountains were too high, were the clouds. However, because of the wind, they could not form any shapes, and were blown into thin strands.

Hearing the masterful and subtle sound of the zither, the white-clothed young lady began to think about rather worldly things, like the small village's cotton candy, or the little balls of white hanging from the willow tree under the bridge not far from home. Or that time when she first entered the Thirteen Divisions of Radiant Green, when she was not used to the thick bedding and randomly kicked out with her legs, which ended up beating the bedding to bits, and leaving the dorm full of cotton filling.

When she thought of these things, she smiled. The corners of her lips perked up, causing her normal and elegant face to suddenly brighten, causing even the clear and solitary mountain path to seemingly warm up a few degrees.

Accompanied by the zither, she continued forward.

Before the peak of the cliff, there was actually a tree.

She walked over to the tree, planning to take a rest.

Because of its environment, this tree did not have a single leaf left, only smooth branches. It matched very well with the cliffs on both sides, almost melting into the mountain, so it was no wonder she had not seen it before.

She took a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped her forehead very seriously.

On the cold mountain, even if she was walking nonstop, she logically still should not have sweat very much, not to mention her talent in cultivation as well. Yet when she removed the handkerchief, it was actually somewhat wet.

Seeing how wet the handkerchief was, she shook her head and then smiled.

So even she could become nervous.

She put away the handkerchief, then calmly pressed up against the tree, no longer walking forwards.