"Dragon Subduing Immortal …"
That Dragon King seemed to tremble and turned to the side, his heart still bleeding profusely.
"Who are you?" Qiu Yongsi said.
"The young Dragon Subduing Immortal …" The Dragon King said, "I've heard of you, you are … Yaoji's child."
Qiu Yongsi: "What? My mother is called Li Shunying, not Yaoji. "
"Ah Xu died, Yaoji gave birth to you." The Dragon King said, "In … the ninth level, Ye Ming bestowed upon you a dragon breath."
"You don't know him?" Hongjun said.
Qiu Yongsi shook his head blankly, saying, "I've never been below the seventh level, Dragon King, how should I address you?"
"It's been too long." The Dragon King said in a low voice, "I can't remember clearly …"
Hongjun hurriedly pointed into the distance, reminding Qiu Yongsi to hurry up. Qiu Yongsi then told the Dragon King what happened. Halfway through, the Dragon King said, "Have you found Ye Ming's bones?"
Qiu Yongsi took out a bottle, and the Dragon King said, "I'll send you up now …"
"Can you fly?" Hongjun observed the dragon's wound, and saw that its heart seemed to have been dug out by something, and was dripping with blood.
"When Xie Yu escaped from the abyss, she infected me with demonic energy." The Dragon King replied, "It's fine, I'm already very, very old … I feel much better now, come up."
Hongjun said, "I'll bandage you first."
Although it was bandaging, Hongjun didn't have much medicine on hand, and even if he did, he didn't know how to treat a dragon, but he felt that this old dragon's injury was very serious.
"Use my cloak." Qiu Yongsi said.
Hongjun took out the cloak, and used his fingers to pry open the Dragon King's wound, and checked the situation inside. A dragon's heart was completely different from a human's or an animal's heart. There were twelve petals, and many of them were rotten, emitting an unpleasant stench. Hongjun didn't dare to use force, for fear that he would cause its heart to rupture, and all the blood in its body would spurt out.
Dragon blood was highly toxic, but Hongjun was not afraid with the Five-colored Divine Light. He first took out a needle and thread and used to sew the broken heart..
"The time in the tower is different from the outside world." The Dragon King lay straight and allowed Hong Jun to sew. He said, "Don't waste time on me."
"It doesn't matter." Hongjun said, "I have to cure you."
Qiu Yongsi watched quietly from the side. Hongjun was previously afraid that if he stayed in the tower for too long, he would be separated from Li Jinglong forever. But as long as Li Jinglong came in, the two of them would naturally meet in time, so he wasn't too worried now.
The Dragon King quietly let Hongjun do what he wanted, and his huge, wheel-like eyes turned from time to time. Qiu Yongsi said, "How did Xie Yu escape that year?"
The Dragon King replied, "It wasn't originally at the bottom of the tower, but it was the first time it tried to leave the tower, so it was sent to the last floor. Venerable Subduing Dragon, you shouldn't be unaware of what the dragon imprisoned in the abyss did. "
"It resisted the Dragon King, and tried to escape from prison." Qiu Yongsi said.
"That's right." The Dragon King replied, "All the dragons in the tower have a day when their sentences are up and they leave the tower. Only criminals who attack the barrier and fail to escape will fall into the abyss. "
Hongjun's hands were covered in dragon blood, and he asked, "How many years was Xie Yu supposed to be imprisoned?"
"You'll have to ask Ye Ming." The Dragon King slowly said, "Xie Yu is the only dragon born in the tower."
Hongjun finished sewing up the Dragon King's heart, and listened to the conversation between Qiu Yongsi and the Dragon King. Only then did he know that the Dragon Subduing Pagoda and the mortal world were two different worlds, and there were two different worlds inside the pagoda. The second to the ninth floor was one, and it was the prison for the dragons. And the bottom of the pagoda, which was the first floor, was another world. In that world, time was almost static, and the dragons thrown into the abyss were like prisoners on death row, facing eternal darkness and loneliness.
"Logically speaking, there are so many dragons locked up in the pagoda, so why is it that only Xie Yu was born?" Hongjun found the medicinal powder that could improve blood circulation and muscles, and carefully sprinkled it on the sutured heart. He hesitated for a moment, then took out the pill that Chong Ming gave him, crushed it, and evenly applied it.
"Dragons can't give birth." Qiu Yongsi said, "Because it hasn't passed the lightning tribulation, and no one has bestowed it with a title."
"Bestowed it with a title?" Hongjun vaguely remembered that Chong Ming seemed to have mentioned this word before, but he couldn't remember when.
"If you want to answer Xie Yu's life, you have to first understand what a dragon is." Qiu Yongsi explained, and together with Hongjun, they wrapped the Dragon King's neck with a cloak. Hongjun jumped on its back, tied the cloak, and barely finished.
The Dragon King's neck was still bleeding, but it said, "I feel much better, I'll take you there."
Qiu Yongsi and Hongjun climbed on the Dragon King's head, and the Dragon King slowly rose into the air.
"What is a dragon?" Hongjun asked again.
"A dragon is formed from the spirit of a dragon." The Dragon King replied, "It's a turtle, a reptile, a snake, a fish, and all kinds of creatures that are born from the power of a dragon and only hope to become a dragon."
"A dragon is born from the power of a dragon." Qiu Yongsi explained to Hongjun, "But a dragon can't give birth to another dragon, it can only cultivate to become a dragon, and then it can have offspring."
After Qiu Yongsi's explanation, Hongjun understood that it was impossible for a dragon to mate with another dragon. It was rumored that the dragon gave birth to nine sons, and each son was different. But that was because the dragon's nature was lustful. When a dragon mated with a turtle, it gave birth to a turtle, and when a dragon mated with a giant fish, it gave birth to an owl … … The dragon's son was different from the dragon's son, and they still belonged to the "dragon race".
Dragons and phoenixes were respected in the world, and the dragon race was the supreme existence, and its population was extremely small. The birth of a dragon had nothing to do with the mating of a dragon, but after the dragon died, it either sank into the Jianghu, or died in the mountains and seas. With the death of a dragon, the powerful spirit it possessed before its death was not extinguished, and it slowly scattered into the mountains and lakes.
The world's aquatic creatures could absorb this part of the spirit, and they would be reborn, like a dragon shedding its outer shell, and turn into a long snake-like young dragon. Once they crossed this threshold, they would have great power, and they would work hard towards the end of cultivation — becoming a dragon.
But this power came with a price. After turning into a dragon, they would no longer be able to mate with their own race or other races to give birth to offspring, because the dragon race itself was a defective race.
In ancient times, the dragon race was once the overlord of the world, but after a series of battles between dragons and demons, and between dragons and ancient immortals, a large number of dragons died, and the flood dragons emerged, causing havoc in the divine continent. In the end, an ancient immortal reached an agreement with the dragon race, and built the Dragon-subduing Pagoda, and locked all the flood dragons in. The seven great Dragon Kings also agreed to this agreement, and voluntarily entered the pagoda to take on the responsibility of guarding it.
"When?" Hongjun asked.
"It's been a long time … …" The Dragon King flew towards the light pillar in the distance, and muttered, "In your human world, it should be when Yu the Great was controlling the flood."
Hongjun did not expect it to be so long, and it was already the Middle Ages.
"I heard that their sentence was a thousand years." Qiu Yongsi said.
"A day in the pagoda is a year in the outside world." The Dragon King answered, "The ancient immortals did this in hopes that the mortals would become stronger with the passage of time, and at that time, they would no longer be afraid of the flood dragons in the pagoda."
Hongjun was already dumbfounded. A thousand years in the pagoda, then in the human world, it should be hundreds of thousands of years. Thinking about it this way, it was indeed a very long time. Presumably, by that time, who knew what the human race would be like?
"Then how was Xie Yu born?" Hongjun asked.
"Xie Yu's birth was an accident." The Dragon King said absentmindedly.
After the flood dragons were locked in the pagoda, in reality, not much time had passed in the pagoda — after all, even if it was only a few thousand years from the time of Yu the Great, it was only a little more than ten years in the Dragon-subduing Pagoda. After the Dragon-subduing Pagoda was completed, Ye Ming became the highest person in charge of the pagoda, guarding the ninth floor. This ancient dragon god that had been born since the beginning of the world had the power to control time.
However, the only thing that troubled it was time.
Under its control, all living things had a different perception of the passage of time. However, on its body, time was the only thing that didn't change. In other words, time inside the pagoda was the same as outside. Since the construction of the pagoda, Ye Ming had lived alone on the ninth floor. The passage of time had not changed, which was equivalent to several thousand years.
"Then he must be very lonely." Hongjun said. For some reason, he thought of Chong Ming who lived alone in the Dazzling Gold Palace.
"Yes." The Dragon King said, "Most of the troubles in the world come from being too idle. It's easy to cause trouble when you're idle. "
Qiu Yongsi: "…"
Thus, Ye Ming would sometimes leave the ninth floor and go all the way to the second floor, then slowly walk up. He measured every inch of the ground and counted all the mountains, tombs, monoliths, palaces with steps in the entire Dragon-subduing Pagoda … How many steps there were, how many trees, how many stones there were. Just as he was about to start counting the sand, he recognized a flood dragon in the fifth floor's forest.
"That's Xie Yu's mother?" Qiu Yongsi asked.
"You actually don't know anything?" The corner of Hongjun's mouth twitched.
Qiu Yongsi said, "Ye Ming never told me these things."
"Flood dragons and dragons are all males." The Dragon King said, "There are no female dragons or flood dragons."
Hongjun said, "Why?"
"We are born from the power of Yang." The Dragon King said, "Unlike humans, we are creatures of harmony between Yin and Yang. Just like the Hou, which is formed from Yin energy, the Hou is only female."
Perhaps Ye Ming had been lonely for too long and needed companionship, so the flood dragon took advantage of this opportunity to enter. Perhaps its goal was to use Ye Ming to successfully escape from the pagoda, or perhaps it really did admire Ye Ming's appearance.
That flood dragon stole some of Ye Ming's dragon power and tried to break out of prison, but this matter was quickly discovered by the Dragon Kings — — the seven Dragon Kings below the ninth floor joined forces and executed the nameless flood dragon on the spot. And just as they killed it, the nameless flood dragon's body exploded, releasing a badly mutilated descendant.
"That's Xie Yu." Ye Ming said calmly.
Li Jinglong said in a low voice, "It's your son."
"I've never told outsiders." Ye Ming said, "Even in front of the Dragon Subduing Immortal Venerable, I only called Xie Yu my adopted son."
Li Jinglong said, "What happened after that? Why does it have such a strong hatred? "
Li Jinglong originally thought that Xie Yu's matter had been settled, but now he vaguely felt that it wasn't that simple.
"Its father is guilty." Ye Ming said, "Both of them are guilty, but it isn't. I stood my ground and left it on the ninth floor. I raised it. Regarding its past, the Dragon Kings didn't mention it at all, but it has spirituality. It's not like them … … not like all the flood dragons in this tower. They're violent and cruel by nature. "
"Xie Yu is more like a human. Like all the youths in the world, it wanted to leave this tower and see the unknown world … …" Ye Ming continued, "When it was young and ignorant, it tried to run away from home, but its home wasn't an ordinary home, and its father wasn't just a father … …"
Ashina Chong frowned deeply. She sat on the railing and sighed.
Li Jinglong remained silent and looked into the distance outside the tower.
"This action angered the Dragon Kings." Ye Ming finally said, "To Xie Yu, this was just a mischievous running away from home, but to the flood dragons and dragons in the tower, it was an extremely shocking matter. I had no choice but to throw it into the abyss of the first floor of the tower. There's no daylight in the abyss, no time, no life. There's only endless ruins, darkness, and silence. "
"Time on the first floor is different from the Dragon Subduing Pagoda. It's extremely slow, "Ye Ming said in a low voice," Once it's thrown into the abyss, it can never be released. It must grow old in there and eventually die. "
Hearing this, Li Jinglong said, "But in the end, you couldn't help but let it out."
"This is too cruel for a child that has never roamed the world, never seen mountains and rivers, never recognized flowers, trees, birds, beasts, insects, and fish. It was born in a prison and was destined to die in a prison." Ye Ming answered, "I think, to it, I'm a sinful father. The first crime I committed was that I didn't take care of myself and gave birth to it. "
"Some children thank their parents for giving them life." Li Jinglong said slowly, "Some children don't."
"That's right." Ye Ming said, "The second mistake I committed, which is also the biggest mistake, was to let it out."
Li Jinglong was silent. He suddenly thought of Hongjun, and also the way Yang Guozhong looked at Hongjun. Hongjun's father gave birth to him in order to separate the Tianma seed from his body. Xie Yu's father gave birth to him in order to relieve his loneliness.
From a certain point of view, there seemed to be some strange similarities between these two existences in the world.
"The second time I let it out, I asked it." Ye Ming said, "I asked, 'Do you hate me for giving birth to you?' Xie Yu replied, 'No.' It felt that as long as it was alive, it was always good."
Ashina Chong said, "You underestimate it too much."
"It's the most similar to a dragon." Ye Ming said, "It can see the Flood Dragons' pain and agitation, and it can also see our uneasiness. When it was young, it asked all the questions it didn't understand, and there were many whys. Even after I locked it in the abyss for nearly a thousand years, when it came out again, it was still the same as when it was young. There weren't many changes. "
When these words came out, Ashina Chong and Li Jinglong couldn't help but shiver.
"You've been deceived." Li Jinglong said.
"That's right." Ye Ming answered, "After being locked up for a thousand years, what appeared in front of me should be Xie Yu full of hatred and pain, and always thinking about revenge. But I didn't notice it at that time, and only thought it regretted it. Later, it killed me. It absorbed too much hatred and pain in the abyss … That was the resentment of all the exiled Flood Dragons that were once locked up in the abyss, and they died in torment for a long time. In the words of the human world, it was … a 'demon'. "