Silence, absolute silence, interminable silence. There was no whooshing of wind, no dripping of water, no sound of breathing. The Black Dragon and Chen Changsheng were both holding their breaths in silence. It seemed that it was because they were nervous, and they were nervous because they had finally seen hope.
He didn't know what the Black Dragon's hope was, but his hope was naturally to escape death. When he saw the Black Dragon's whisker slowly drift over and silently press between his eyebrows, he found it impossible to know just what would happen next.
The whisker was extremely thick where it connected with the jaw, but it gradually thinned until at this foremost end, it was about the size of a human's pinkie finger. It looked rather sharp, its surface black as the night. However, it was also transparent as jade, black specks of light tumbling within like dark clouds.
The tip of the dragon's whisker seemed to touch yet not touch his forehead, so close that it was impossible to tell whether it had actually struck or not. Chen Changsheng grew more and more nervous. Having just returned from the precipice of death, it was even easier for him to feel fear. Sweat poured out of the hand holding the dagger and then was swiftly frozen by the low temperature of the environment.
Noiselessly, the black whisker lightly poked between his eyebrows.
It was a very strange sensation, not at all sticky or frightening. On the contrary, it was a little cool and refreshing and actually caused him to sober up and faintly understand the Black Dragon's meaning.
It wanted him to continue.
Without hesitation, Chen Changsheng spoke the second word—still a word from the last book of the three thousand scriptures of the Great Dao.
This word's pronunciation was also extremely strange and extremely difficult to sound out. Even though his face was covered in snow, it was still easy to see that his face was somewhat red, his lips somewhat pale. It seemed like speaking this single word had consumed an enormous amount of energy.
The black whisker lightly drifted about, its pitch-black tip pulling away from his brow and giving a light flick before lightly prodding it once more.
Chen Changsheng understood, so he said the third word, and then the fourth word, the fifth word…
As these strange syllables emerged from his lips, his energy rapidly depleted and he grew weaker and weaker. At the same time, however, he sensed that the coldness around him was gradually weakening. After he had spoken ten-odd words, warmth finally returned to his body.
The Black Dragon's eyes were still indifferent, but its whisker was flicking faster and faster, reflecting countless black lines under the Night Pearls. Ultimately, it was like they bore countless flowers. Each flower was a flower of joy, all of them in full bloom.
Chen Changsheng could feel its joy, but he still found it hard to erase some of his lingering fear—he had spoken ten-odd syllables of Dragon language, but not according to the order in the final book of the three thousand scriptures of the Daoist Canon. He had just randomly picked from those those sixteen hundred and one words, so it shouldn't have been possible to form them into a sentence, but he didn't expect that this dragon would actually be able to understand.
He had acted this way because of the caution embedded into his bones. He didn't know whether it was wrong or right, but it now seemed that there wasn't too much of a problem.
The black whisker gradually calmed. Calmly departing his brow, it lightly touched his hand gripping the dagger, no hostility about it.
Chen Changsheng accurately received its signal and finally completely relaxed.
This period of being enveloped by the shadow of death had finally passed. The terrifying pressure that he had suffered for so long instantly vanished. His mood changed along with the environment, the snow covering his body rustling down, the dust that he had accumulated from somewhere traveling through the gaps in his clothes and into the air.
After opening the door, he had been in a constant state of high tension. He only knew that he had seen a black-colored dragon, but only now did he clearly see the Black Dragon's appearance. To be more precise, it was only now that he dared to carefully take measure of this Black Dragon.
This was a Black Frost Dragon.
Even amongst the Dragon race, this was a high-class existence, a legendary divine being of the same level as the Golden Dragon and the Nine Heavens Dragon.
However, despite how the Black Frost Dragon was described in the myths and legends—cruel and murderous yet also fond of cleanliness, beautiful and enchanting as the dark night—Chen Changsheng actually saw a lot of dust on the Black Dragon's body, and even many shattered scales!
Those scales were on the verge of falling and looked extremely ugly, like the belly of a dead fish.
Chen Changsheng was stunned. If the descriptions of the Black Frost Dragon in the Daoist Canon and the legends were not wrong, then how it did it come out like this? As a youth who had a slight obsession with cleanliness, he was keenly aware that a being who valued cleanliness above all else would never be able to accept such circumstances.
Even more shocking was that as the cold retreated and the light spread farther, he saw two extremely thick chains behind the Black Dragon. Those two chains were tightly locked onto the Black Dragon's two hind claws, digging deep into the scales, a terrifying sight!
This Black Dragon…was not a solitary guardian of the Great Zhou Imperial Palace, but a prisoner!
Those two chains were covered in countless layers of frost, yet, perhaps due to their material, there seemed no sign that those chains would break. On reflection, this had to be the case. To be able to imprison a Black Frost Dragon in this underground space, these chains must certainly not be ordinary items.
The other end of these chains was attached to a wall.
This was a wall several hundred zhang high, with a massive drawing carved upon it. The colors of this drawing had already been corroded by time into nothingness, but one could clearly see what was drawn upon it. There were no sceneries or descriptions on this drawing, only two people.
Two fiendish people.
This stone was very tall, the drawing very large, so the two people in the drawing were naturally extremely tall as well. They were like gods, dressed in armor, one holding a metal truncheon, the other a long whip. Their faces had a godly dignity, seeming to look out with a bottomless heroism.
Chen Changsheng recognized these two people. Every human that lived on this continent recognized those two people, because these two people were still hanging over the main doors of every house. These two people were door gods.
The door gods were not gods, but real people, the two most powerful Divine Generals who served at the side of Great Zhou Emperor Taizong.
One Divine General was called Qin Zhong, the other Yu Gong.
These two Divine Generals followed Emperor Taizong in a lifetime of campaigning, from the founding of the Great Zhou until the final defeat of the demons. Although they could not match up to Wang Zhice's unrivalled achievements, they still had displayed many times that they were incredibly bold and powerful, and fiendish. Their strength was unfathomable, and at the prime of their lives, they had already entered the Saint Realm. They were truly supreme experts.
They were Divine Generals, but they were innumerable times more powerful than the current Divine Generals of the continent.
The chains binding the Black Dragon were tied to the stone wall, gripped right in the hands of those two Divine Generals.
Such an arrangement naturally had its reasons.
Seeing this scene, Chen Changsheng vaguely confirmed that this Black Dragon had been imprisoned in Taizong's era.
He thought of that turbulent era, thought of those stories on the verge of becoming myths and even those experts of the past within those myths, thought of the portraits in the Lingyan Pavilion, and he truly sympathized with the Black Dragon.
Perhaps because of the humiliation and pressure inflicted by the demons, in that era, humans exploded with an unimaginable brilliance. Countless experts appeared one after the other. Even an existence like the Black Frost Dragon faced insurmountable odds, ultimately becoming a miserable prisoner.
From Taizong's era to now, how many years had passed?
In this cold, lonely, and gloomy cavern, how had this Black Dragon managed to endure through these endless years?
"You want to talk with me, right?" Chen Changsheng asked.
The Black Dragon's whisker once more floated, flitting past the corner of his lip like a dragonfly skimming the surface of a pond.
"I only know how to speak them, I don't understand the meaning of those words."
Chen Changsheng looked at it and said, "But, you can teach me."
The Black Dragon's eyes suddenly grew abnormally bright, brighter than the light of all the Night Pearls in the ceiling added together.
Chen Changsheng thought, you truly can understand human language. Then if you want to communicate, I only need to learn Dragon language. Gazing at the Black Dragon, he continued, "I know that Dragon language is very difficult to learn, but I'm a person very skilled in studying. As long as you patiently teach me, I will definitely learn it."
Just then, the Black Dragon suddenly let out a low roar.
Chen Changsheng was a little startled.
The Black Dragon's whisker rose without the wind, lightly poking at his forehead four times, swift like lightning, light as dust.
Chen Changsheng's brow creased as he pondered the meaning.
The Black Dragon's whisker lightly poked four more times, the Black Dragon simultaneously letting loose a low roar.
Chen Changsheng understood.
In his statement just now, he had said the words 'I' and 'me' four times in total.
This was the meaning the Black Dragon wanted to tell him.
"Me?" Chen Changsheng pointed at himself and asked.
Dragon language was extremely complex. A single syllable contained countless fragments that could be combined in innumerable ways, different combinations having different meanings. Completely grasping it was inevitably a very long process. He knew that this dragon roar contained the meaning of 'me' and 'I'. That was assuredly not all, but…it at least contained the aforementioned.
Seeing Chen Changsheng's actions, the Black Dragon at first froze, and then suddenly began to roll around!
Its massive body rolled nonstop around the underground cavern, stirring up terrifying hurricanes!
Simultaneously, a bizarre noise came from the Black Dragon's mouth.
From the time it was born more than one thousand years ago to now, it had never been this happy, so it didn't know what sort of roar it should make.
Moreover, for certain reasons, it had to suppress its roars, suppress its laughter.
"Zhizhi…zhizhi…zhizhi…"
These sounds like the cries of a mouse were very comical and amusing.
But there was incomparable ecstasy contained within.
Chen Changsheng didn't know what the Black Dragon had done in the past, what sort of sin it had committed for the Great Zhou Dynasty to imprison it, but upon seeing it so elated over merely being able to carry out the simplest of communications with a human, he couldn't help but be somewhat moved, sympathizing even more with it.
After quite some time, the Black Dragon finally ceased its ecstatic rolls and grew quiet.
It quietly gazed at Chen Changsheng, sensing his sincere sympathy, its eyes gradually growing gentler.
The black whisker once more drifted up, hovering in front of his eyebrows.
It was waiting for Chen Changsheng to speak once more.
Chen Changsheng fell into thought, and when he spoke, it was not the words the Black Dragon wanted to hear.
"I know that you really want to speak with someone…but I can't right now. I have a very important matter that requires me to leave immediately."
The Black Dragon's eyes returned to cold indifference.
Chen Changsheng's expression turned solemn. "I promise you that as long as I can conclude this matter, I will come to find you, learn from you how to speak and speak with you."
The Black Dragon's eyes were still indifferent, but now there was also the sense that it found his words a little humorous.
As a noble Black Frost Dragon who had been imprisoned by humans for so many years, it would never forget the words its royal father had once said to it.
"If humans could be trusted, we would be the rulers of this world."