Chapter 487: Dancing with Dragons
Jiang Chen had absolutely taken a huge chance with this battle. He’d revealed multiple trump cards over the course of this battle, including the Bewitching Lotus of Fire and Ice, the Divine Tree of Dreams, the Evil Golden Eye, and the Galaxy Supernova. The fight had lasted for just a few moments, but he was as exhausted as if he’d battled for three days and three nights.
Drained beyond belief. He was almost completely wrung out.
On the other side, the dragon was in complete shock. It’d nearly succ.u.mbed to despair when it saw Jiang Chen’s initial three arrows. But the match had quickly taken turns that even it’d never expected. That human youth it didn’t think much of had actually killed Wei Wudao!
Although Wei Wudao himself wasn’t much in the dragon’s eyes, he was still a second level sage realm cultivator. Even injured, that was still an existence that couldn’t be underestimated.
This young man was just a minor origin realm cultivator, but possessed a battle ability far beyond his cultivation, and a number of techniques that made the dragon’s scalp go numb. Suddenly, it didn’t know whether to be happy or depressed.
Wei Wudao was deader than dead, so the antidote to his Spirit Restraint Powder was certainly in this young man’s hands. To the dragon, this meant that he’d kept the wolf at bay, only for the tiger to slip in through the back door.
The atmosphere became a bit heavy, and the dragon could no longer take it. It fixed his gaze on Jiang Chen, who was sitting on the stone steps, and rasped, “Young man, what do you intend to do to me?”
Jiang Chen started, then started laughing. “I said I’m a friend of the dragons, why would I do anything to you?”
The dragon tilted his head and widened its eyes, staring at Jiang Chen, obviously unable to tell if those words were a lie or not.
Jiang Chen opened his palm. “This is the antidote, I obtained it just now.”
The dragon was greatly surprised. He’d swept the carca.s.s with his consciousness just then and hadn’t found the antidote. So the youth took it alright!
“How did you obtain it?”
Jiang Chen smiled without responding. He had so many lotuses that acted like extensions of his limbs. Anything they could reach was as if already in his pocket!
“Alright…” The dragon sighed. “No matter what, you’re still a bit better than that old ruffian. What do you want?”
Jiang Chen smiled. “I only have two requests.”
“What requests?” The dragon revealed a trace of wariness. “Don’t tell me you want to enslave me. That’s impossible! One of the n.o.ble dragon race will never be a slave!” The dragon spoke firmly, cutting off this idea before it could bloom.
Jiang Chen knew much about the dragon race, even more than this dragon in front of him. Dragons were indeed the n.o.bility among all beasts. However, there were many that had been enslaved by humans in the ancient times. Even his own father rode a dragon carriage hauled by nine five-clawed golden dragons when he traveled. There was no such thing as not enslaving a dragon.
The strong were revered, and no race was able to escape this odd logic. However, Jiang Chen knew that it was unrealistic to expect this dragon to docilely bow down to him in servitude. He smiled faintly, “Your strength is far greater than mine. I don’t dream of enslaving you. However, I do plan on signing a treaty with you, to form an alliance. This is my first request.”
“A treaty?” The dragon blinked, mulling over the request. After a moment, he nodded. “I can consider a mere treaty. However, you can’t force me to this and that. I will go back on my agreement then.”
Jiang Chen laughed, “We’re allies, I won’t be attempting to enslave you. However, don’t think that there are no benefits for you in this treaty. To be honest, even though you’re a true dragon, you’ve awakened less than a hundredth of the ancient dragons’ bloodline in your body. What if I could awaken your heritage, and gift you the arts of the dragons? What if I could help you fly through the air and ground, be hailed a Great Emperor, transform into human shape, summon the wind and rain, break through the void, and ascend to the heavenly dao?”
Jiang Chen’s every word in the dragon language slammed against the dragon’s heart as if a spell.
“What are you saying?”
“I’ll say this only once.” Jiang Chen smiled. “You are a true dragon, but you’re currently holing up in this remote corner of the Divine Abyss Continent. You have no confidence in showing yourself before you’ve reached your full strength. If you do, you’re afraid that those who call themselves emperors will capture and enslave you. You don’t need to deny anything, because the only way that no one knows of you in the Myriad Domain, with your peak sage realm cultivation is if all this is true.”
The dragon was silent. It was indeed a true dragon that had awakened from a dragon egg after countless years of nurturing in this spring of wood spirit energy. It knew nothing of the outside world, just fragments from his inherited memories that awoke through the years.
It’d grown strong in the couple hundred of years that it’d stayed in the spring, but had never left. It was lonely, but had no companions to speak to. There was no one it could depend on, or succor.
It was a good thing that as its cultivation level had risen, its memories had continued to awaken and it had learned more and more. Its memories were the reason it hadn’t dared leave the spring, the fragments that informed it that there were many races in the world that eclipsed it in strength. The experts of these races all shared a common interest, and that was to enslave dragons.
Having a descendent of a dragon as their steed, a contracted beast, was a very fas.h.i.+onable thing amongst them.
It was a true dragon, so it would more than likely become very popular as soon as it appeared. Therefore, it both yearned for the outside world and worried that it would be hunted down as soon as it appeared. This contradiction left it bereft of the conviction to step away from the spring, and in that moment, its thoughts had been laid bare by Jiang Chen. It couldn’t find the words to refute him.
“Youth, you speak of impressive sounding things, but how do I know you’re not lying to me?” The dragon was still very much on its guard.
“I hold your life and death in my hands right now, what need do I have to lie to you? Besides, I’ve always valued keeping my word. As a show of faith, take this secret method of the dragon race and study it first.” Jiang Chen sent over a secret method of the dragons with his consciousness after speaking.
“Mm?” The dragon immediately detected upon receiving the method that this really was a cultivation art of the dragons!
Jiang Chen smiled. “I also have the method that dragons use to transform. With your cultivation, you should have long been able to transform. Your inherited memories must not contain this technique, does it?”
As one of the royal races of ancient times, the dragons had n.o.ble lineages and extraordinary status. Jiang Chen had naturally studied them thoroughly. He could easily take out a handful of those techniques, and it was made even easier since this dragon was still just a baby compared to the dragon races in his past life. It couldn’t even count as having undergone an initial awakening, only a half step awakening at most. He could naturally bluff a baby dragon.
“A transformation technique?” The dragon’s eye gleamed. “Do you mean that?” It couldn’t help but become excited at the thought of being able to transform. If it could s.h.i.+ft into a human form, he’d be able to travel the four seas without worrying about being hunted down.
Jiang Chen laughed leisurely, “Forget it if you don’t believe me. There should be nothing amiss with the method I just sent you, right?”
“Youth, just who are you? According to my inherited memories, you shouldn’t know so much at your cultivation level.”
Jiang Chen didn’t directly respond to this question. He smiled instead, “You may be the only true dragon in the entire Myriad Domain, and I’m the only person in the entire region who understands dragon tongue. I may even be the most special existence in the Divine Abyss Continent!”
For some reason, the dragon grew thoughtful when it heard Jiang Chen’s words. Its draconic intuition told it that this human youth didn’t seem to be bl.u.s.tering. “I can agree to the matter of the alliance, name your second condition.” The dragon’s tone softened.
“The second condition would be the spring. This is your territory, but I want to make use of its power to baptize my body.”
“That’s not a problem!” The dragon agreed without a moment’s pause. “The spring has an endless supply of spirit power and can purify itself. It will still recover over time even if ten, hundreds, or thousands of people are immersed here. If you like it, I don’t even mind if you take the entire spring away.”
“Take it away?” Jiang Chen grew curious. “How would we do that?” He really didn’t have the kind of treasure that could swallow rivers or move creeks to just abscond with this spring.
The dragon chuckled, “A trade! You give me the transformation method and I’ll help you move the spring.”
Jiang Chen’s interest was piqued, “What about the treaty?”
“You don’t have a bad heart, I can agree to the treaty. I can even gift you some dragon crystals and dragon blood if necessary. But, I’ve heard you humans are very treacherous and often betray your allies. Therefore, we can be allies, but you must swear to the heavens that we won’t betray each other.”
The dragons were a proud race, and would never ignore, regret, or betray a treaty. But humans were different. There were numerous stories of humans betraying even their kin for profit. Dragon crystals or a drop of dragon blood were an exceedingly valuable item for anyone. However, to this enormous dragon, dragon crystals were just its solidified fecal matter, and although dragon blood was precious, it wasn’t much to give up just a bit of it.
It certainly wasn’t an empty boast to claim that dragons were full of treasure from head to toe.
Jiang Chen smiled, gratified at the offer. “Alright! It would be remiss for me to keep hemming and hawing since you’re being so forthright. Let’s happily settle on this then!”
One man and one dragon sat on the banks of the spring after they chatted, swearing to the heavens and signing a treaty of allies. The dragon seemed to have quite a good impression of Jiang Chen as well as it didn’t overly haggle over the details. The two concluded their treaty in a lighthearted atmosphere.
Jiang Chen flung over the antidote when they were finished, “You only need to eat the antidote for it to work. Remember, don’t be in a rush. Expel all the toxins, lest you give rise to countless trouble in the future.”