Chapter Three: The Saint-Tier Dragon

Leng Tian sat by the edge of the deep pit on the ground, holding his wine flask and taking a few hearty sips. Gazing down at the unconscious Dark Night below, he could not help but shake his head and mutter to himself, "With just that level of skill, you actually dared to try and seize the divine spring from my hands, and even boasted about killing me to avenge some elder. I won't kill you today; once you've gone back to the furnace and refined your cultivation properly, I'll come back and beat you up again!"

Lying at the bottom of the pit, Dark Night was now completely unrecognizable. His entire face had been battered by Leng Tian's bare fists to the point where his facial features were a blur, leaving only a vague resemblance to a human face. It was likely that even if Dark Night used his primordial energy to heal, some scars would remain. The four vertical walls at the bottom of the pit were splattered with crimson blood.

After draining the mermaid's tears from the flask, Leng Tian stood up to hunt for beasts to roast. However, when he arrived at the small lake where he had originally seized the Purple Flame Companion Lotus, he unexpectedly ran into two acquaintances: Xue Han and Ming Feng. The two of them were currently roasting fish by the water.

"You two brothers sure are living the leisurely life!" Leng Tian said with a smile as he leaped down the dozen-or-so-zhang-high earthen cliff. Upon landing, Ming Feng and Xue Han both stood up and greeted him warmly.

"I never expected that my brother and I would encounter our life-saver here. We left in too much of a hurry previously and didn't get a chance to properly thank Brother Leng. Please do not take offense, Brother Leng!"

Ming Feng bowed with cupped hands, once again expressing his gratitude for saving their lives. Xue Han, standing beside him, also bowed and offered her sincere thanks.

"There is no need for you two to be like this. As I said before, Leng only found the Southern Ridge's shameless behavior toward his own brothers distasteful. Helping the two of you was merely a matter of lifting a finger. If Leng should ever find himself in a tight spot in the future, and the two of you are able to lend a hand, that will more than repay the favor of my rescue!"

Leng Tian said as he helped them up, then glanced around. Noticing the absence of Southern Ridge, he asked, "What's this, my two friends? Have you not tracked down that scoundrel Southern Ridge?"

Hearing Leng Tian bring this up, the expressions of the two turned rather unsightly. Seeing their demeanor, Leng Tian knew instantly that Southern Ridge must have escaped, or perhaps someone had rescued him!

"Don't even mention it, Brother Leng. It's just my brother and my incompetence. That scoundrel Southern Ridge, whose cultivation you had clearly crippled, still managed to get away. This is entirely our fault. Even if we go back now and explain everything, the Supreme Sovereign probably won't easily believe that a disciple he personally taught could turn out to be such a traitor trying to subvert state power."

Ming Feng spoke with a bitter expression. When he finished, he let out a heavy sigh of frustration, then turned to ask Leng Tian, "Are you passing through here today on business, Brother Leng, or are you also waiting for the imperial decree to open so you can leave this ancient realm?"

"Heh... that's a long story. In short, you could say I'm revisiting an old place!" Leng Tian touched his nose and briefly recounted how he had seized the Purple Flame Companion Lotus there in the past.

After hearing the account, Ming Feng and Xue Han repeatedly praised Leng Tian as a man destined for great fortune.

Shortly after, the three of them shifted the conversation back to Southern Ridge. All three found it extremely strange: where would a heavily injured person whose cultivation had been completely crippled manage to escape to?

"The probability of him running away on his own is quite low. It's very likely he was rescued by someone! And anyone capable of saving him would first have to be screened from among the people you know, and they must also have entered the ancient realm."

Leng Tian thought for a moment before saying to the two, then added, "Furthermore, it's entirely possible that Southern Ridge was saved by that ghost-cultivator king."

Ming Feng and Xue Han both frowned, recalling their memories, and then shook their heads to rule out the possibility that Southern Ridge had been saved by anyone they knew. Their focus immediately shifted to the ghost-cultivator king.

Upon associating this with the ghost-cultivator king hiding within the giant beast, the faces of both Ming Feng and Xue Han turned somewhat pale. "If he really was rescued by that ghost-cultivator king, then there is nothing we can do. With the Ghost King's strength, the two of us are no match for him. Perhaps it's just that scoundrel Southern Ridge's time to die hasn't come yet!"

Leng Tian understood as well that if Southern Ridge had indeed been rescued by the ghost-cultivator king, it truly counted as a narrow escape from death. However, living on in such a manner would likely mean existing as something entirely different!

Seeing the dejected expressions on the two men, Leng Tian did not linger any longer. Amidst their repeated and enthusiastic invitations, he promised that he would definitely visit the Tianluo Kingdom in the future.

Afterward, Leng Tian stopped at a location a dozen miles away from the small lake. He captured a few demonic beasts that had just begun to awaken their spiritual awareness, gathered some dry firewood, and returned to the Purgatory to roast meat for everyone.

"Awooo..."

Just as Leng Tian returned to the Purgatory, he heard Max's heaven-shaking dragon roar echoing through the sky. A massive dark shadow blotted out the firmament, and fierce gales whipped across the ground, carving deep trenches into the earth.

"So strong?" Leng Tian was startled by the sight before him and instinctively raised his head to look at the dark shadow. At that glance, his heart gave a jolt, and he exclaimed in wonder, "Good grief, it grew this much in just a single advancement!"

A colossal dragon, easily a hundred and fifty zhang long and covered in purple-gold scales, hovered directly above Leng Tian's head. Its heaven-shaking dragon roar was filled with joy and heroic spirit.

Upon witnessing Max's astonishing transformation, a radiant smile bloomed on Leng Tian's face. Dropping the demonic beasts in his hand, a thought flickered through his mind, and in the next instant, he appeared on the dragon's back.

"Big Brother Tian, you're back!" Xue Han sat upon the dragon's back, her arms around the two fox-spirit sisters on either side of her. Seeing Leng Tian appear out of nowhere, she called out happily.

Leng Tian nodded and looked at Guo Guo and Tu Maomao. Before Leng Tian appeared, this young couple had been chatting back-to-back. The moment they saw Leng Tian materialize on the dragon's back, the two of them reacted as if their tails had been stepped on, instantly springing apart. Guo Guo, in particular, blushed crimson and dared not meet Leng Tian's gaze.

"Boss, you're back! Max didn't live up to your high expectations; I am now a mid-tier Saint Beast, a Purple-Gold Saint Dragon! Awooo..." Max held its massive dragon head high, letting out a heaven-shaking roar to vent the joy in its heart.

"You can speak now?" Leng Tian asked with a face full of pleasant surprise, because earlier, Max had not communicated with him through telepathy, but had genuinely spoken aloud in his ears.

"Yes, Boss! After advancing to a Saint Beast, I've evolved human vocal cords and can finally speak!" Max tossed its huge head, its dragon jaws parting to articulate clear human speech.

"Big Brother Tian, when can we leave the ancient realm? I want to see Sister Huowu and Sister Xiao Ke as soon as possible, and ride the big clumsy dragon with them to enjoy the scenery of the great world!"

"Soon. It won't be long before we can leave this realm!" Leng Tian also missed Huowu and the others deeply. Regarding the matter between himself and Luan Yudie, he always carried a sense of guilt toward Huowu. Although he and Huowu had never explicitly stated their feelings, the love Huowu displayed was crystal clear to him. Now that his cultivation had advanced tremendously, how could he bear to hurt such a fine young woman?

A wave of emotion filled Leng Tian's heart. Thinking back, across his three lifetimes, he had never enjoyed familial affection in any of them. It was only in this third incarnation, upon arriving at the Chifeng Continent and unexpectedly meeting Huowu and the others, that he had experienced the sensation of being cared for. It was Huowu who had made him feel warmth.

"What virtue or ability do I, Leng Tian, possess to win the favor of such an exceptional girl? If I fail her, these three lifetimes would have been lived in vain!" Leng Tian silently vowed to himself that in this lifetime, he would never let Huowu down—forever!

"What are you thinking about, Big Brother Tian? Are you thinking about Sister Huowu?" Xue Han looked at him playfully, wearing an expression that said she understood everything.

"Heh..." Leng Tian flicked Xue Han gently on the forehead. As for Xue Han, Leng Tian could only view her as a little sister now. Although they had shared intimate moments with her illusionary avatar previously, the fact remained that Xue Han was merely an artifact spirit, so he felt no burden.

What Leng Tian did not anticipate, however, was that in the near future, this Xue Han—whom he currently regarded merely as an artifact spirit—would by a twist of fate regain a flesh-and-blood body, and even bring him a joyous event that Leng Tian could never have dreamed of.

"You definitely guessed what I was thinking!" Being flicked on the forehead, Xue Han pouted her little mouth in dissatisfaction.

The two fox-spirit sisters giggled softly off to the side. Both little lasses were brimming with curiosity about the outside world. Ever since they tasted Leng Tian's roasted meat, and after Guo Guo tempted them with tales of how delicious and varied the food outside was, the two little girls had been left swallowing mouthfuls of saliva in pure craving.

"That fellow Youda!" Leng Tian sensed Youda's location and discovered that the rascal had run off to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Heaven-Slaying Leopard once again.

"Big Brother, make that little Shadow Demon beat up that dead leopard really hard!" The two fox-spirit sisters each tugged at a corner of Leng Tian's robe, their large eyes reddening slightly as they spoke with bitter resentment.

Leng Tian reached out to pat the little heads of the two young girls, soothing them, "Big Brother promises you that once your strength is sufficient, I will accompany you to avenge your parents. For now, let that dead leopard live a few more days; Big Brother still has some use for it. Once matters are settled, I'll let Youda devour its soul, alright?"

"Mm-hmm, we'll listen to Big Brother." The two little girls nodded trustingly.

"Mixue, Milan, be good. Come over to Sister's side." Xue Han gathered the two little girls into her arms and then complained to Leng Tian with a hint of grievance, "Big Brother Tian, you went off to get roasted meat, why did it take you so long?"

"Heh..." Leng Tian gave an awkward laugh, then instructed Max to descend to the ground and began preparing the barbecue.

Tu Maomao was also dispatched by Guo Guo to assist Leng Tian. Before long, through their busy efforts, roasting racks were set up and flames kindled.

Leng Tian set up three racks, placing three thoroughly cleaned demonic beasts upon them to roast meticulously. At Tu Maomao's request, Leng Tian patiently taught him the various precautions to take when roasting meat.

Before long, amid the eager anticipation of the young women, the fresh roasted meat was ready. Smelling the aroma, Li Dongqing also strolled over, holding the dog-eared ancient book he constantly flipped through, and sat down beside Leng Tian. Accepting a large thigh handed to him by Tu Maomao, he turned to Leng Tian and asked, "Would it be possible to share some of that mermaid's tears?"

Leng Tian looked at Li Dongqing with surprise and asked in utter puzzlement, "How did you know I have mermaid's tears?"

"Heh... Don't forget, I was born and raised in the Azure Sea and Vast Sky. I've been drinking mermaid's tears since I was a child. How could I not recognize the unique fine wine of the mermaid clan? I caught a whiff of its scent on you!"

Li Dongqing looked at Leng Tian with an expression that said he had smelled the alcohol and therefore wanted to share it.

Leng Tian wasn't a stingy person; he was merely curious as to how Li Dongqing knew he possessed mermaid's tears. Upon learning that the lingering scent of the wine on his body had betrayed him, he generously produced an entire barrel of mermaid's tears.

Seeing the mermaid's tears that Leng Tian produced, Tu Maomao walked over with a smile and asked, "Big Brothers, do you two like this mermaid's tears very much?"

Leng Tian and Li Dongqing both looked up at Tu Maomao, not understanding what he meant by that question.

"Heh heh... Because I have this wine too. If you two big brothers like it, Maomao will give it to you!" As Tu Maomao spoke, he waved his hand, and right before the astonished gazes of Leng Tian and Li Dongqing, a full ten barrels of mermaid's tears were neatly lined up in front of them.

Leng Tian and Li Dongqing exchanged a glance, then spoke in unison, "How should we divide them?" Afterward, both burst into hearty laughter.

Having vented the heroic spirit in his chest, Max was also drawn over by the aroma of the roasted meat and landed nearby. Leng Tian gazed at Max's massive body, which was easily a hundred and fifty zhang long, genuinely looking forward to what kind of colossal behemoth it would become once it evolved into a Divine Sacred Dragon!

Max's advancement to a Saint Dragon indeed added a formidable asset to Leng Tian's side. The current Max was already capable of rivaling an ordinary martial artist at the peak of the Profound Realm!

The Pinnacle of Martial Arts 3 - Chapter 3: Saint-Grade Dragon has been updated!