Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 436: Three Old Geezers

“You, you—the forefather of the demonic dragons!” the demonic spirit and silver dragon elder cried out. “You’re still...”

“Huhut! I’m still alive, yes,” the elder announced amidst the shocked gazes directed at him. “The demonic dragon clan lives!”

“To think we weren’t able to eradicate your soul even with the heaven-scrying mirror,” the silver dragon elder murmured, ceasing all hostilities with the demonic spirit immediately. Both of them looked toward the blade spirit with caution.

The demonic spirit tossed Pi Batian, still half-alive, to the edge of the cave. Li Mo walked to Yun Ruoyan’s side. Both of them could sense the weight of the encounter, and they both silently retreated to the side, trying to reduce their presence as they took in the scene and the historic meeting.

The blade spirit snorted and turned to the demonic spirit. “To think I trusted you all those years ago, but you teamed up with the silver dragon to trick me into entering an illusion array! Luckily, I escaped with the Feilai Blade. Are the two of you going to team up against me once more? You can try—but without any of your petty tricks, it won’t be that easy to beat me again!” He began making a series of complex gestures with his fingers, generating a howling wind around him.

“Not good. It’s the demonic dragon arts!” the demonic spirit shouted. “Hey, hey, calm down! Let’s talk matters through first, alright?!”

The silver dragon elder’s face was no better than the demonic spirit’s. He was already holding the heaven-transcending mirror in his hands, ready to defend himself on a moment’s notice.

“The demonic dragon arts...” Yun Ruoyan murmured. The same arts I’m studying? Based on the demonic spirit and the silver dragon elder’s expressions, it was clear that the Feilai blade spirit was about to employ a powerful technique, one that she had only learnt the barest fragments of.

“Convince me not to fight you.” The blade spirit’s hands paused, and the array that was forming in front of him vanished.

The demonic spirit hurriedly pleaded his case. “I only betrayed you back then because this silver dragon tempted me with holy water! But what I didn’t expect was, even after he vanquished you, he reneged on his promise. Not only did he not share his holy water with me, he even tried to kill me. Just like you, it was only by chance that I survived this long! I’m a victim too!”

“Victim?!” The silver dragon elder scoffed. “That year, it was clearly you who proposed working with me after somehow learning about holy water! Don’t make it sound like I tempted you to do it. You demonkin are truly thick-skinned!”

“Stop talking nonsense! When did I ever propose working with you?” the demonic spirit retorted. He turned toward the Feilai blade spirit sincerely. “Old man, don’t believe his words! We’re both the victims here, and I was just about to seek justice against him!”

The Feilai blade spirit frowned. “What’s this holy water that you’re talking about?”

The demonic spirit stilled for a moment, then hurriedly jumped in, “Old man, you still don’t know what holy water is? It’s a liquid refined from the blood of the demonic dragon clan, and it has powerful curative properties. Apparently, the highest-quality holy water can even resurrect the dead! The silver and demonic dragons have never gotten along, but it’s because the silver dragons found out about this property of your blood that they planned to exterminate the entire demonic dragon clan!”

“Is that so?” The Feilai blade spirit trembled in rage as he turned toward the silver dragon elder, who ignored him and instead looked at the demonic spirit. “Demonic spirit, there’s something even you don’t know, I presume?”

“What? Do you have some other ploy up your sleeve?”

“After a millennium of dedicated study, I’ve finally refined holy water of such transcendent purity that it can provide eternal youth! The holy water of the past could only cure wounds and resurrect the dead, but the holy water of the present can even leave one forever young.”

The demonic spirit clearly didn’t believe his words. “The silver dragons are far more cunning than demonkin. All life in this universe is limited by time, and I’ve never heard of anything like what you’re proposing!”

It was certainly the case that those who cultivated would live a longer life than those who didn’t, but no matter how long they elongated their lives, death would surely come for them eventually.

“I’m not lying. I’m the best evidence for my claim,” the silver dragon elder emphasized. Both of you only managed to survive so long because you bound yourself to a weapon, but my body has lasted an entire millennium!” The silver dragon turned to the demonic spirit and continued trying to entice him to his side. “As long as you cooperate with me to vanquish the demonic dragon forefather for good, I’ll share my supply of holy water with you. Not only will it make you live forever, it can even restore your original human body. Well?”

The silver dragon’s words did tempt the demonic spirit. Of course he wanted his body back, and who didn’t want to live forever? But it sounded so ludicrous that even he had never dreamt of such a thing, and he wasn’t wholly blinded by his greed. The proposition still seemed too far-fetched to be true. “Do you think I’ll let you betray me again? Never!”

As Yun Ruoyan listened to the conversation between the three figures of a bygone past, her gaze drifted to Pi Batian, who lay in a corner of the cave. He was now one-legged, but he was still alive. She honed in on the ancient ring on his left hand, which belonged to Lin Qingchen.

She wanted to reclaim that ring immediately, but she had no choice but to quash this impulsive desire. The three figures in front of her were clearly existences that neither she nor Li Mo could contend with; if she accidentally drew their attention, they could kill her with the wave of their hands.

On the other hand, Pi Batian had no choice but to act. He was still clear-headed and awake, and had only pretended to be dead to save his life. However, he was still bleeding out, and if he didn’t stanch the blood in time, he would soon die of blood loss.

Despite the dire circumstances, Pi Batian was still relieved, because his storage ring still contained the bottle of holy water that the silver dragon elder had granted him. As he was struck by a bout of dizziness, Pi Batian had no choice but to retrieve the bottle and drink it all.

The silver dragon elder clearly sensed the holy water the moment he pulled it out of his storage ring. He reached out toward Pi Batian, drawing the bottle of holy water to his hands, but it had already been consumed in its entirety.

“This is a bottle of holy water which I granted that man, and which he drank. Now, observe the power of the holy water for yourselves.”

Everyone turned to Pi Batian. His leg wound soon became covered in layer after layer of black dragon scales, one which gradually took the form of a leg.

“This—this is the regeneration ability unique to us demonic dragons!” the Feilai blade spirit shouted. “Silver dragon, you—my heirs and descendants!” His eyes burning with rage, the spirit waved a hand at Pi Batian, causing the scales that had just formed the outlines of a leg to burst into flames.

“My leg, my leg!” Pi Batian began screeching in pain. The flames quickly spread across his entire body, causing him to roll around the floor of the cave in agony. However, the fire blazed more and more fiercely, eventually turning Pi Batian into a flaming man. The cave filled with the scent of roast meat, then charred meat. When the fire finally burned out, what was left was a pile of black soot that formed the barest outline of a man.

“Such powerful draconic fire,” the silver dragon elder murmured, turning to the demonic spirit once more. “You’ve seen the effects of the holy water for yourself. As long as we join hands and eradicate the demonic dragon forefather for good, I’ll give you some holy water and help you regain your human body!”

This time, the demonic spirit really was quite tempted. His gaze wavered between the silver dragon and the Feilai blade spirit.

“Do you really think you’ll be able to kill me just because you’re working together?” the Feilai spirit scoffed. “A thousand years ago, if the two of you hadn’t trapped me in an illusion array and concentrated the effect of the three mirror artifacts on me, do you really think you could have killed me? Demonic spirit, it looks like you won’t get to taste that holy water after all.”

“Don’t be tricked!” the silver dragon shouted. “No matter how powerful he is, he’s missing his physical body. How much damage can a spirit wreak? Working with me is clearly the better strategy!”

“Try me!” the demonic dragon forefather called out, resuming his series of complicated hand gestures.

“Demonic spirit, fight with me!” the silver dragon exhorted once more.

“No.” The demonic spirit hesitated, then shook his head. “It’s taken me this long to see the light of day again, and I can’t risk losing even this.” Rather than step forward, the demonic spirit retreated. “Silver dragon, your grievance with the demonic dragon forefather is unrelated to me, and I don’t think I should participate,” it continued. “But I won’t forget the fact that you caused me to lose my physical body a millennium ago, and I will have you address this grievance. If you don’t die, wait for me on the Jiyuan continent.”

The demonic spirit then flew out of the cave. The demonic dragon forefather was invoking a grand technique, and the silver dragon didn’t dare leave his back against his opponents, so they could only watch on as the demonic spirit fled...