Bai Yingyue's lovely eyes flashed as she huffed:
"One look at that old dog and you know he meant nothing good. What he gave you is no treasure at all — swallow it and it will cost you your life."
Luo Fanchen's pupils shrank. He looked down at the little vial in his hand, scarlet liquid swirling inside.
"This isn't dragon blood?"
"Oh, it's dragon blood all right — dragon blood laced with virulent poison." Bai Yingyue explained, "When a dragon-line soul beast is slaughtered cruelly, its dying grudge seeps into every drop of its blood. Refine that grudge-saturated blood down, and you get a little vial exactly like yours: Grudge Dragon Poison."
"Swallow it, and it doesn't just wreck your cultivation foundation — the grudge gnaws your mind apart as well."
Beside them, Long Tao went cold from head to foot. "What a vicious method. But why would the Fourth Enshrined Elder want to harm him?"
Luo Fanchen turned a questioning look toward Di Weiyang.
She inclined her head slightly. "It is indeed Grudge Dragon Poison."
With the Pontiff's confirmation, what doubt remained? Luo Fanchen's five fingers tightened dead around the vial as fury boiled up from the bottom of his heart.
No grievance, no feud — and you move to destroy me, wearing that hideous mask of benevolence while you do it.
Old dog. How DARE you.
He carved the debt into his heart. Until it was settled, there would be no peace in him. Some insults go too far.
"CRACK!"
His fingers clenched too hard — the vial burst in his grip, glass shards slicing his palm, scarlet liquid spraying.
Bai Yingyue shrieked, "Skin contact with the blood is a disaster too!!"
"Fuck — contact doesn't work either?!"
"No!"
Long Tao and the others lost their heads at once, and even Luo Fanchen's stomach dropped.
He hadn't realized how much raw strength the awakening had added — one lapse of attention and he'd crushed a glass vial barehanded.
Now the Grudge Dragon Poison had already met the blood of his open cuts. Too late to shake it off.
Damn it! What kind of joke was this?
Luo Fanchen wanted to laugh and cry at once, composure cracking straight down the middle. Was he really about to attempt the single stupidest death in the history of transmigrators?
The Pontiff — and Su Jiu'er hidden in the crowd — both moved to act. Then soul-light surged in Luo Fanchen's palm, and the little loach martial soul appeared on its own.
The palm-sized loach opened its mouth. A suction spun out of nowhere and drank up every trace of the Grudge Dragon Poison staining Luo Fanchen's wounds.
Luo Fanchen was floored.
I can't dodge this stuff fast enough, and you're actively SLURPING it?
Afraid I won't croak quick enough, is that it?
But through the bond came the little loach's emotions — greed, and glee. Luo Fanchen hesitated only a breath, then set his jaw and decided.
Drink. Drink DEEP!!
This was the Chaos Ancestral Dragon martial soul, first ancestor of the ten thousand dragons. However far it had fallen, there was no way it couldn't handle one little vial of Grudge Dragon Poison.
"Hisss—"
An absolute madlad — three strokes past ruthless.
Gasps of cold air rose and fell around the square. Long Tao, the Holy Maiden, the villagers — all struck dumb.
Didn't we just establish that stuff is POISON?
Why are you feasting on it like it's nectar?
In the blink of an eye, the little loach had devoured not only the poison on Luo Fanchen's palm but every drop spilled on the ground — it spared nothing.
"Are you all right?"
Long Tao asked anxiously. They hadn't known each other long, but the strange personal magnetism coming off Luo Fanchen had already won him over completely.
"I'm fine." Luo Fanchen took careful stock of himself, then licked his lips. "Weirder than fine, actually — if anything I feel a little... invigorated."
"There is NO WAY you're 'perfectly fine' — you should be perfectly DECEASED!!!"
Bai Yingyue's mouth fell open, her face tight with remembered horror:
"I once watched that Holy Son test this very poison on Temple prisoners — cruelly, like it was nothing. A soul master past level forty, howling mad with pain, tearing the skin off his own face with his bare hands."
"ROAR!"
At that moment a miniature blood-red grudge dragon burst into being, snarling with vicious fury.
Provoked, the little loach erupted with a singular pressure of its own. The malice-soaked blood dragon wilted on the spot — and was devoured whole, down to the last wisp.
In an instant, single-colored light flared. Within it the little loach's body stretched and swelled at visible speed, scales budding across its hide.
"What is this? What's happening?!" Long Tao felt his own Rank Five lizard-dragon martial soul cowering — cowering — before the aura rolling off that little loach.
"This... could this be... the legendary martial soul EVOLUTION?" Bai Yingyue was rocked to her core all over again.
What kind of monster is he? Eating Grudge Dragon Poison raw and walking away unharmed was absurd enough — and now his martial soul EVOLVES?
Strange colors moved through Di Weiyang's phoenix eyes. Even she plainly had not foreseen calamity flipping into fortune like this.
In the distance, Su Jiu'er let out a soft breath of relief. Joy had barely touched her pretty face when it froze back over — killing intent boiling up in her eyes. She slipped silently out of the crowd and was gone.
"SWISH!"
By now the little loach had swelled to better than three times its size — from palm-length to something like a small snake, fine dense scales sheathing its body, the single-colored light around it visibly deeper and thicker than before.
Luo Fanchen smiled.
The martial soul hadn't let him down after all. It looked far more imposing already — marching briskly from short, stumpy, and sad toward long, tall, and fierce.
"Teacher, little Senior Brother's martial soul can EVOLVE?" Bai Yingyue marveled.
Di Weiyang's brow creased. "What Senior Brother? He is your Junior Brother."
Bai Yingyue swung on the Pontiff's arm, red lips pouting. "Teacher, I don't WANT a junior brother — I want a Senior Brother!"
Di Weiyang ignored the Holy Maiden's whole arsenal of wheedling and lifted her gaze. "Fanchen. That martial soul of yours carries profound dragon-might. Its potential — its station — cannot possibly be low."
"If it can keep evolving, it will not fall short of that Holy Son's Rank Nine Seraph and Great Sun Illumination."
"What we don't know yet is whether it evolves only by devouring dragon-race blood, or whether other energies will feed it too."
Luo Fanchen nodded, listening closely.
As Pontiff, her eye was beyond question. That grudge dragon had been malice incarnate — and it hadn't managed one twitch of resistance in front of the little loach.
A martial soul that evolved by devouring — she had never even heard of such a thing; this was the sole case she'd ever seen. However feeble it looked now, its potential was bottomless. The only question was where its ceiling lay — what rank, in the end? In spite of herself, her expectations climbed.
Di Weiyang said coolly, "Go home today and take your leave of your family. Tomorrow at dawn I will be waiting on this square to take you away for cultivation."
"Good." Luo Fanchen nodded — no wasted words.
Satisfaction crossed the Pontiff's jade face. Without giving Bai Yingyue the chance to say another word, she shattered the void and took her away.
Only then did the villagers dare breathe freely, and the square boiled over with talk. Eye after eye turned to Luo Fanchen brimming with envy — but no jealousy. Mostly, quiet blessings.
Chief Lu Ren was beside himself, watching the boy who'd grown up in Cloud Village, heart surging. Their little village might just be raising a true dragon!
Long Tao finally let his shoulders down. "Benefactor — the debt of your wake-up call, I will never forget. I serve at the Qingcheng branch hall of the Divine Temple of Light. If you ever need my help, come find me directly."
"One more thing! That Fourth Enshrined Elder and the Holy Son stand at the very summit of power on this continent. However deep the hatred goes — do not make enemies of them."
Helplessness flooded Long Tao. He clenched his fists and cursed through his teeth:
"Who the hell wouldn't hate men like that? But the situation is stronger than the man. If the chance comes, best pretend none of it ever happened. Turn the enemy into a friend, eh?"
"You're absolutely right. A trifling matter of poisoning me to death — hardly worth mentioning." Luo Fanchen's mouth curved up into a smile of radiant, weapons-grade kindness. "I'm actually famous for my good temper, you know."
"Since that dear departed-to-be Enshrined Elder has been SO friendly to me, someday I must properly express my gratitude to his entire household — down to the earthworms under his floor and the yolks inside his eggshells. I'll pay my respects to every last one."
Luo Fanchen was smiling as he said it, voice soft and warm — and Long Tao shivered uncontrollably, frost crawling over his skin. He made his farewells and left in a hurry.
"Eh? Where did Auntie Su run off to?"
Luo Fanchen looked all around and found nothing, puzzled. She was here a moment ago — how does a great beauty just vanish into thin air?
"Clop... clop—"
A resplendent gilded carriage rolled along a quiet mountain road.
Inside sat the Fourth Enshrined Elder and Holy Son Huang Yan, each with a hand pressed to the head of a fawning woman, eyes half-lidded in enjoyment, savoring the scenery as it passed.
And above the road, a graceful figure appeared without sound upon the empty air — willowy, scorching — gazing coldly down upon the moving carriage from on high.