Chapter 70 - Dragon Transformation
The scene switches to a battlefield twenty miles outside of Beiwang City; Ouyang Zhong is heavily wounded but still fights bravely to kill the enemy; under his leadership, the generals of Zhongming and the enemies of the Dingling Ministry have started a final battle to determine the winner. Not only did he personally kill Tuoba Cheng, but he also cut off his head as a birthday gift to Xiao Zhan, the ruler of Zhongming. He was also rewarded with an additional title and became the Marquis of the Northern Kingdom, with the rank of First Grade. He was given the surname Xiao and became a faithful royal clan member. Not only did the Ouyang family honor the ancestors and make Ouyang the most prominent family name clan in Zhongming, but they also let his career soar to the sky, becoming a person under ten thousand people. Everyone admired the court officials.
Under the change of light, Ouyang Zhong is wearing a dragon robe head and a dragon crown, sitting on countless people's coveted desire for a long time on top of the dragon seat. The court knelt and shouted, "Long live the Emperor!" Even the surrounding countries and tribes, which had been fighting for years, had all submitted to the Zhong Ming Dynasty, and their ambassadors brought many treasures to pay homage in front of him.
Beside Ouyang Zhong sat the motherly Empress Xiao Feifei, pulling their eldest son by her hand and carrying one in her belly. Still beautiful and dignified, still smilingly looking at him, she said: "Your Majesty, you see my Zhongming Kingdom as a peaceful and prosperous phenomenon, all thanks to your inspirational governance, benevolence, courtesy, hard work and love for the people, political leniency, love for the people's lives, and good neighbor security border. Now that the great cause of a thousand years has been accomplished, you can rest well!"
Ouyang Zhong, at first, did not understand what Xiao Fei Fei meant, a moment he was lying on a wide dragon couch, the ground kneeling a piece crying, a young teenager beside him solemnly kneeling, hand holding the imperial decree thank you again and again. Ouyang Zhong can not speak, only to hear a eunuch chamberlain shout solemnly, "Emperor Daxing died!"
Ouyang Zhong was very anxious. He sat on top of the dragon carriage, looking around at his great mountains and rivers. How was it that he went to the West, but he had only gone to the West a few moments before?
He struggled to get up on the dragon couch, but a vital force made him unable to move, even tearing every inch of his body; he felt pain all over his body, especially the back of several wounds that seemed to be cracked, gurgling blood, soaking the entire body. This pain was so intense that he couldn't help but cry out!
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a vast expanse of wasteland, while on the other side was an even more enormous and boundless ocean. He was the only one standing in this universe between heaven and earth. There are no parents, families, or friends; no palaces, mansions, concubines, or courtiers; and no battlefields, swords, or horses. Ouyang Zhong is only a lone person, looking around the empty world with a confused face.
"The original thousands of prosperity is just a dream of yellow sorghum, ah!" Ouyang Zhong's mood was a bit complicated, but after re-stabilizing his mind, he thought back: Who is he? What, in the end, is it to do? Then he finally remembered the duties on his body and that he must hurry to find a way to leave this Sumeru Illusion Realm.
He first let himself calm down and continued to use the eight trigrams deduction way, looking for this place's life door. But no matter how the conclusions were drawn from the deduction and measurement, after trying, they were all wrong and could not allow him to escape from this place. No matter which direction he walked in, it didn't take long for him to return to the starting point again. It was as if he had entered the interior of a round sphere, unable to find the beginning or walk to the end. Even at that time, he couldn't perceive anything anymore. This was so weird that it caused Ouyang Zhong to develop a great sense of fear. He didn't know precisely how long he had been trapped, how many times he had seen the sunrise and sunset.
He had called out Fox Xiaoxian's name countless times, but no matter what, he had never seen her again after that, except for that one time he saw her. He seemed to be trapped in a nightmare, struggling hard to control his inner fear because, along with the various fearful thoughts that sprouted in his heart, his surroundings suddenly turned into a blanket of white snow, and suddenly, the bitterly cold wind on top of a ten-thousand-year-old glacier wrapped in the debris of ice, coming towards Ouyang Zhong. Then again is the scorching sun on Gobi Beach; his throat smoked, his mind dizzy, and he would faint at any time in this high-temperature baking.
"Could it be that I will never be able to walk out?" Thinking about this, terror turned into despair and emptiness. "How could this happen? How can this be?" He kept muttering, asking himself over and over again. Muttering to himself was the only way Ouyang Zhong could remain rational without insanity. Not being able to find the entrance when he came in, or the exit from this world, the despair of not being able to leave this Sumeru Illusion Realm made him feel anxious and abnormal. There was also the world of facing everything alone, with no partner, no friends, no family, and not even a living thing; he felt unprecedented loneliness and emptiness; this feeling of loneliness and helplessness brought him to the brink of collapse.
"Since no matter which direction I go from the shore, I'll end up going back to square one, and I'll die no matter what, then I'll simply enter the sea! I'm really about to go crazy!" With that, he threw himself into the embrace of this vast sea water and closed his eyes as if relieved.
Jumping into the water, Ouyang Zhong calmly closed his eyes. He didn't feel any discomfort, nor did he have the suffocating feeling that he should have in the water. He thought this Sumeru Illusion Realm was a strange place, true and false, false and accurate. There are times when it is like a cloud of smoke, gently fluctuating to disperse; there are times when it is like countless mirrors, trapped in it as if walking through a maze; there are also times when everything is so real, pain and thirst, unbearable heat, cold and piercing the bones. But now, obviously, in the middle of the deep sea, how do you still breathe and float? So freely? In the end, what is real?
Because he had been alone, Ouyang Zhong was often silent, but he would also force himself to talk to himself. He became his own most faithful companion. He finally realized that since he was a child, he had always been accompanied by many people, such as his parents. Linghu Xian had taken care of him until he was seventeen years old. Later on, he had General Wei and other peers to support him in the army. He also received the great help of Fox Xiaxia, Shan Xiaohu, Xuanmo, and others. He has never been on his own all this way; only in this Sumeru Mirage Realm, he can't rely on anyone to rely; only himself is his most extensive backing and backbone.
He found himself in the water shuttle and on the shore more comfortably because there was no reference point for the sake; he just minded without distraction to the direction of the swim, how long swim, and how far Ouyang Zhong had been in this world all have no concept. He couldn't even perceive the passage of time or feel tired. His ability to perceive had become less and less, even those strong feelings of anxiety, impatience, sadness, excitement, anger, fear, despair, and emptiness that he had felt before. These feelings were all gradually disappearing.
"What am I looking for? What did I come to this world because of? And because of what am I in this lake? Who am I coming from?" Ouyang Zhong needed clarification. His goals, duties, identity, and honor all seemed like the clothes on his body, stripped away layer by layer. Memories blurred as well, and his entire being fell into chaos.
He entered a calm of pure divine concentration and continued swimming at the lake's bottom. He saw a golden stone beach at the bottom of the lake, and he didn't want to continue swimming, so he plopped down on the stone beach to rest. Ouyang Zhong softly chanted:
"Reed reed is pale. White dew is frost. The so-called Iren is on the waterside.
Retrograde from the road is blocked and long. Trace the swim from the, just like in the center of the water.
The reed grows luxuriantly, and the white dew is not yet dry. The so-called Iren, in the water.
The road is long and narrow but the road is long and narrow. The first time I saw him, he was in the middle of the water.
The reed is growing, and the white dew is not yet dry. The so-called Iren, in the water of the bank.
I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that, but I'm sure I'll be able to do it. Trace the swim from the, just like in the water islet."
He turned over, lying on the rocky beach from the deep seabed upwards. A round moon rose and fell, the snow-white Milky Way across the sky, the sky gradually brightened between the stars, and the red sun climbed up the top of the sky without slowing down.
"I love you like adoring the stars and the sea.
I love you as if I adore the rising of the sun and the setting of the moon.
I love you as if I were in awe of the creation of all things between heaven and earth.
I love you; no matter where you are, you will always live in my heart.
I love you; no matter how much time passes, you will always be in my life."
I don't know if it's because the rays of the midday sun are too dazzling, stabbing Ouyang Zhong's eyes with a burst of soreness, painfully unable to open them. In a trance, he felt that something was gushing outward from his eyes in a steady stream. He touched it with his hand, but it was actually wet and slippery tears.
That touch from his fingertips quickly came to every corner of his body; it turned out that he could still feel it; he was still full of feelings. Suddenly, a powerful energy gathered inside him, as if it was going to break through his chest and run straight through the top of his head. He leaped up from the rocky beach, rushed out of the deep ocean floor, and soared into mid-air, his body lighter than ever before, able to take various forms, and then he rode on the wind and flew freely through the clouds.
He looked down in the air and saw a huge poplar tree growing on a small hill, glowing golden-red with red flowers like fox ears. Under the tree, there was a young girl in a white jacket dress with her hands open as if she were summoning him. Ouyang Zhong quickly spun from the clouds and flew to the maiden, who stroked the top of his head and said tenderly, "Ni Zhong, you have finally returned."
When Ouyang Zhong heard this name, his head was like being hit hard by a hammer; countless fragments of memories flashed back in his mind, and he also finally realized that he was no longer that human teenage general Ouyang Zhong but a huge dragon with a black body glowing with seven-colored rays of light and emerald-colored horns on top of its head.
The dragon's neck still hangs with that small peach kernel whistle. Fox Xiao Xian will whistle down, put on the side of the mouth gently blowing, that familiar melody echoed again, belonging to the two of them the song of life haunting in the surrounding, Ni Zhong from the dragon's form back to the human form, a black dress of the young man, a pair of emerald-green horns on top of the head, the eyes are the general azure color of the deep sea, the heroic sword eyebrow and a high bridge of the nose, the tanned skin, and a warm and sincere smile as before.
The two lovers, who have been separated for many years, are embracing each other tightly at this moment. He is no longer Pi Dan, Ouyang Zhong, and she is no longer Hu Cangcang, Linghu Xian. At this moment, they are Ni Zhong and Fox Xiaoxian. They are the two people who met in the Kunlun Mountain Feng Xi Jian that year, but they have gone through so much separately and have all grown up.
Ni Zhong complained aggressively, "I've been trapped in this broken Sumeru Illusion Realm for a long time, looking for you everywhere, shouting at you so many times. Why are you so heartless and don't come to accompany me?"
"Who said I didn't accompany you? Haven't I always been here with you?" Fox Xiaoxian smiled wryly, "I became the clouds in the sky, the wind that blew over you, the water inside the sea, and the sun and moon that rose and landed. Do you think that all of this was fantasized in your mind? It's too much to think of yourself."
"Rogue! Then why are you in the Sumeru Illusion Realm? Could it be that this Populus Euphratica Forest is your third life?" Ni Zhong asked, slightly surprised.
Fox Xiaoxian sighed softly and said, "In the beginning, because of Fox Fresh's backstabbing, it was not easy to cultivate two lifetimes of human bodies, and once I blundered, I was beaten back to my original form of a fox, and if not for my master's assistance in transforming me into a Populus Euphratica Forest to contain my Yuan Shen and spiritual consciousness, otherwise my first two lifetimes of robberies would have almost been a lost cause. The Sumeru Mirage Realm we are in now is a boundary immortal mask that my master added to my Yuan Shen and then put into this poplar tree. You used your blood to help me finally re-tree my true body and divined and measured to find the correct method. Otherwise, we wouldn't have met again so easily."
"How much I've suffered here! Where was it easy? You don't even feel sorry for me." Ni Zhong began to pout, his face innocent plus aggrieved.
Fox Xiaoxian laughed and shuddered, scoffing, "How are you still so childish as you can be without a bit of sharpening? How are you going to turn into a dragon again? I think Ouyang Zhong's appearance is still more to my liking. However, there are also juvenile habits, occasionally a little young master pampered, occasionally a little dull, but always more stable than you now."
"Cut! Ni Zhong tightly wrapped his arms around Fox Xiao Xian's shoulders, playfully rubbed his head on her shoulders, and then rubbed it again.
"Ouch, it's so itchy. Hahahahahahahahaha ...," Fox Xiaoxian laughed like a silver bell at Ni Zhong's scratching, "You still think you're the skinny egg from back then? You mangy dog."
At this moment, the two of them recalled all the things from their past lives, both beautiful and sweet and heartbreaking. Ni Zhong compassionately held Fox Xiao Xian's face and gently stroked it as he asked, "Why were you so stupid at that time, using the Samadhi True Fire to ignite yourself into a wall of fire and also burning for a month? Ah! There were also so many arrow wounds and knife wounds before. Do you hurt?"
Fox Xiaoxian smiled brightly, but tears flowed out of her eyes very honestly, unable to stop them. She covered her eyes with both hands in a vain attempt to hide them. Ni Zhong lowered his head and kissed lightly, heartbreakingly taking Fox Xiao Xian into his arms and stroking her hair. He sighed, "You don't have to show off in front of me. I can completely open myself up in front of you, and you're the same with me."
Fox Xiao Xian cried even harder as she whimpered, "It hurts! It hurts so much. I was thwarting the bones and pulling out the bones and souls out of the body in general. But it's better now; I'm just a Yuan Shen and can't feel too much pain. With you here, I don't feel what I did before either."
She took a breath and continued, "Ni Zhong, you and I have different séances; although there are some intersections, you are you, and I am me; we can't replace or interfere with each other. I have experienced Hu Cangcang, Linghu Xian, and this Populus Euphratica Forest in my three lifetimes. Perhaps before long, I can wash away the demonic aura from my body and shed my bones to stand upright between heaven and earth again."
After listening to this, Ni Zhong recalled the words that Nanji Immortal had explained to him on the roof of his house under the moonlit night in Feng Xi Jian back then:
"Little Immortal's journey down to the realm to experience the calamity this time is of great significance to herself and her clan. This you heard the other day. I asked you to accompany her because this is also your destiny. Since you don't remember all the previous things, it is also the work of a higher power, so I'm not in a position to intervene. But I need to remind you that you are you, and she is here, and only heaven knows how your destinies intersect. The two of you will shed your surrounding magic power after you come down from the mountain, and you will also forget many things. You may need to remember to recognize or remember each other's appearance. A billion mortal worlds, you may not be in the same time and space. You must not be obsessive about anything."
He remained silent for a long time and asked, "Then how can I save you from this Sumeru Illusion Realm? I really miss you."
Fox Xiao Xian lifted her head and caressed Ni Zhong's face, looking at his still thick eyebrows and starry eyes with the light of the orchid in his eyes, his eyes blue as the deep pool at the bottom of the lake and like the starry sky in the sky, the only thing that has changed is that look, from the innocent look of a teenager to the fortitude and wisdom of a man. She lightly opened her lips and said: "I do not need you to save me; when the time has come, I can come out myself. On the contrary, it's you. This life of yours as Ouyang Zhong is not yet over, and there are still a lot of responsibilities on your shoulders to fulfill. It's time for you to leave." Fox Xiaoxian raised her hand and changed into a raven feather, but it had already been refined without its demonic aura. She continued, "This feather was tied on top of your wound when you just entered the Sumeru Illusion Realm, and it carried a very heavy demonic and sneaky aura at that time. I was already surprised that it was able to enter the boundary of the Populus Euphratica Forest, and it was even able to borrow your body to enter the Sumeru Illusion Realm, so it seems that you are now facing a very tricky enemy, so don't take it lightly."
Fox Xiao Xian pulled Ni Zhong to the bottom of the Populus Euphratica Forest, picked a fox ear flower, and handed it to Ni Zhong, "This is an elixir that my Yuan Shen has cultivated; wearing it on your body will help you block some demonic and evil qi, and if there are any demons that want to seduce you to demonize your mind and soul, eat this flower in an emergency and it will help you to purify it one way or the other to avoid becoming a demon." She took his hand tightly, put it on her chest, and said, "Ni Zhong, I know your heart and understand mine. We love each other deeply, but loving each other doesn't necessarily mean we must be together forever. Go ahead and boldly and fully fulfill all of Ouyang Zhong's missions in this life! One day we will meet again. When that time comes, I will once again blow this peach kernel whistle, and you will surely hear it as well."
Ni Zhong tearfully and deeply embraced his beloved girl, then quietly replied, "Okay, I'll wait for you to call me back to your side. Definitely!"
Fox Xiao Xian led Ni Zhong around the poplar tree and walked a few circles around the tree according to the eight trigrams formation, then pushed Ni Zhong towards the center of the poplar tree. He reluctantly tugged on Fox Xiao Xian's hand and said, "I'll wait for you!" In an instant, Ni Zhong was sucked in.
When he woke up again, Ouyang Zhong was viciously pinched in the center of the human body by Shan Xiaohu, and Shan Xiaohu's urgent shouts gradually became apparent in his ears, "Ouyang Zhong! What's wrong with you? Quickly wake up!"