Shi Feiyang discovered that the island was breathtakingly scenic, with a pleasant climate, ancient trees stretching skyward, and lush flowers and grasses. He had been soaking in the water for several days and started to miss the sensation of basking in the sunlight, so he decided to go ashore for a stroll.
First, he rolled around on the grass a few times, then sucked in hundreds of wild fruits from the air to eat. After transforming into a dragon, his tastes had changed; these fruits were clearly sour and astringent, yet he found them delicious.
On the eastern side of the island, a snake and a bird were fighting.
The snake belonged to the sea snake variety, slender and long, stretching over thirty zhang from head to tail, only as thick as a washbasin, adorned with colorful scales that reflected magnificent red light in the sunshine, and it had two shiny black heads.
It was locked in a death struggle with a Big Vulture Bird, approximately a zhang in height, with a head like a sculpture and a beak like an eagle's. There were bunches of fine, arrow-like feathers on the top of its head, resembling dozens of thin steel needles, while its tail was adorned with many fine and long feathers, colored in five hues, resembling a peacock.
The Vulture appeared exceedingly ferocious, a natural predator of snakes, its sharp beak clamped tightly on the snake's "seven inches" below one of its heads. However, with the snake's lengthy body, it was tightly bound, its neck and wings constricted; the snake's other head was firmly biting into the root of the bird's wing.
The two creatures entangled each other in a death grip, rolling around on the ground and each emitting colorful, dazzling Dan Qi from their mouths, forming extensive patches of colorful mist covering a mu of the ground.
Shi Feiyang, observing that both creatures had some strength, interjected, "Stop fighting, you two!"
Instantly, both the snake and the bird ceased moving, keeping their grips on each other, turning their eyes to look at him.
Shi Feiyang continued, "What are you fighting for? Isn't it better to live well? Why struggle so desperately to mutually assured destruction?"
The snake and bird ignored him, continuing to bite onto each other, motionless and silent, but they became even more vigilant, like facing a formidable enemy, wary of this suddenly-appeared Black Dragon, their scales and feathers bristling.
Shi Feiyang sauntered over to them and then noticed not far away there was a wondrous Immortal Herb, "Oh, this is what you're fighting over? What kind of herb is this?"
The Immortal Herb looked quite bizarre, with emerald green leaves and a stem that shot up over three feet, topped with a flower the size of a thermos, resembling a tulip but deep purple in color. The petals were slightly open, exuding an extremely profound fragrance.
Shi Feiyang moved closer, peering down from his towering vantage point, and inside the petals, he saw a fruit resembling an underdeveloped fetus, with fully formed tiny hands and feet curled up inside the layers of petals, as if it would not take long for it to "give birth" and come to life.
"What kind of Immortal Herb is this? It's so miraculous!" he exclaimed. As he was about to turn back to ask, the snake and bird suddenly let go of each other and lunged at him together.
Both creatures recognized this newcomer Black Dragon as a more formidable opponent and, tacitly understanding each other, they joined forces intending to eliminate him first!
The Vulture was first to spray out a colorful Dan Qi, with a crystal-clear Primordial Pill the size of a dragon's eye within, hurling it towards the dragon's head. Meanwhile, the two-headed Demon Snake spat out a poisonous, colorful mist.
Shi Feiyang had anticipated their attack. Seeing this, he also emitted his two inner cores, not to collide with theirs but to draw water and fire that encircled and spun around each other at high speed. In an instant, they formed a Tai Chi Pattern, which flew out and encompassed the Vulture's inner core, Yin Yang Interdependency, Water and Fire are in balance, forcefully "binding" it before pulling it forcefully back into him.
The Vulture was shocked and desperately tried to suck back its inner core, but to no avail; Shi Feiyang absorbed all three inner cores into his own stomach.
The Demon Snake's poison mist couldn't harm Shi Feiyang. He opened his poison fangs and bit fiercely into Shi Feiyang's tail while his thirty-zhang-long body coiled around, intent on entangling and strangling the Black Dragon.
A piercing pain shot through Shi Feiyang's tail as he felt a large amount of venom being injected. Annoyed, he emitted the White Light Sword.
Brilliant white light flashed and vanished, decapitating one of the Snake Demon's heads at the point of its forked neck.
The head, which had just been bitten by the Vulture, was already half-dead, hanging limply. Shi Feiyang's move served as both a minor punishment and a major warning, urging it to cease its actions and not to seek its own death.
However, the Snake Demon, venomous and filled with spite, had its head severed and, in a fit of rage, it spat out one of its intensely poisonous inner cores that it had painstakingly cultivated for a thousand years. As the Sea Poison King, it had roamed the seas for a millennium and had never encountered a creature with a stronger poison than its own. It refused to believe that the Black Dragon would dare to swallow its inner core as it had the Black Crow's, thinking if it did, the Black Dragon would surely be poisoned to death!
To the Snake Demon's dismay, Shi Feiyang indeed used the same method again and swallowed its inner core.
The Snake Demon immediately began casting, attempting to unleash the poison of its inner core and kill Shi Feiyang. Still, it lost all sensation of its inner core as if it had disappeared into the sea, and no matter how hard it tried, there was no response.
Little did it know that although Shi Feiyang's Black Dragon form was originally non-venomous, over the past year at Dinghu Peak, he had extensively studied poisons. He even practiced by intentionally ingesting poison, treating the poison nail from a Black Crow Needle as nothing more than a bee sting. Although the Snake Demon's inner core was indeed formidable, it couldn't outmatch the Magical Treasure refined by Brooyinca using the Demon Cult's Secret Technique.
Shi Feiyang had taken their inner cores. The Vulture, knowing it was outmatched and having been previously bitten by the Snake, refrained from further attacks and turned to flee. The Snake, however, failed to recognize the folly of its ways, clung to the hope of reclaiming its inner core, and wished for a miracle—hoping the Black Dragon would suddenly succumb to the poison. So it lunged again, biting and refusing to let go of Shi Feiyang's tail, desperately injecting its venom.
Shi Feiyang grabbed the Snake Demon at its critical spot with one claw, forcibly pulling it off his body. When the Snake tried to bite at the Dragon Claw, Shi Feiyang grabbed its head with his other claw and, with a fierce pull, ripped the snake's head right off.
The decapitated head still showed signs of life, snapping and biting, while the headless body writhed and rolled on the ground, splattering snake blood everywhere.
Shi Feiyang threw both the Snake's head and body into the sea and then approached the Vulture.
The Vulture had been filled with a large amount of venom after being bitten by the Snake Demon. With its inner core still inside, it could hold on, but once the inner core had been swallowed by Shi Feiyang, the poison began to take effect, and it collapsed on the ground, its skin beneath the feathers turning black.
Seeing the giant Black Dragon approaching, the Vulture called out in fear, spreading its wings in a last-ditch effort to fight, but it couldn't even stand, its ferocious appearance belied by its frailty.
Shi Feiyang seized its head and pried open its beak. He then regurgitated the Five-Colored Inner Core he'd taken earlier.
With its inner core restored, the Vulture's eyes revealed an expression of sheer astonishment.
Seeing that the Vulture was deeply poisoned, Shi Feiyang retrieved one of his self-cultivated Detoxification Elixirs and fed it to the bird.
After swallowing the Elixir, the Vulture lay on the ground, gasping for breath, wings spread to support its body, half-crouching, half-sitting, eyes warily fixed on Shi Feiyang.
Shi Feiyang said, "You don't need to be afraid of me. I had no intention of killing you. I want to ask, what is the name of that Immortal Herb over there?"
The Vulture glared at him, remaining silent.
"Can you not speak yet? Can you call then? Give a few cries to express your current mood, I understand, and I'll teach you how to convey information through chirping."
The Vulture still did not speak, merely staring at him.
After asking several times and getting no response, Shi Feiyang grew bored, "Forget it, I'll study it myself."
He left the Vulture and returned to the Immortal Herb, bending down to closely examine it.