Chapter 268: Chapter 157: The Finishing Touch—A Million Good Deeds Nourish the Mountains and Rivers (Double Chapter)

With the initial national destiny of the Yang Kingdom, nurturing this true dragon would have been more than sufficient.

However, due to the sudden emergence of Chen Kuang, the national destiny was nearly halved, which in turn affected the dragon veins across the lands, and now even the embryonic true dragon is showing signs of dispersal.

Incidentally, it’s precisely because the Spirit of Mountains and Rivers can nurture a true dragon, places formed by high concentrations of spiritual Qi are called dragon veins.

Yet, even if ordinary people use various methods to locate them, they can only pinpoint a vague position of the dragon veins.

Only through the Mountain and River Painting can Chen Kuang witness the clear condensation process of the true dragon, which is the most delightful discovery for him when employing the Mountain and River Painting.

Furthermore, the most important part is seeing the "eye" of the true dragon.

The place where the dragon veins ultimately converge is the core area where the true dragon is nurtured.

Only there will the true dragon eventually materialize.

The other dragon veins, however imposing, are merely distractions.

The place Chen Kuang wants Zhang Zhizhou to help him reach is precisely this "eye" location.

— At present, his cultivation is inadequate, and without an opponent to sustain the spiritual Qi in his body, standing in the void and relying on spiritual Qi to fly is still somewhat difficult for him.

Not impossible, but there’s no need to waste time.

Besides, with Senior Brother Zhang around, it’d be a simple matter to ask him for a little help.

Zhang Zhizhou led Chen Kuang down to the location of the "eye" of the dragon-shaped spiritual Qi.

This place turned out to be the midstream of a river.

However, this river isn’t large, only ten zhang wide, far less than the Yong’an River that caused floods in several states, but still deeper and wider than the Rouge River.

At least it’s of a size that allows for navigation.

On both sides of the river, numerous fishing villages can indeed be seen stretching out, vaguely visible are the lanterns on docked fishing boats, sparkling points of light.

Seeing this scene, Chen Kuang was momentarily dazed, recalling his days at the Chen Mansion in Jishao County of the Liang Kingdom.

Though only for a few short days, his time at the Chen Mansion as the unexpectedly returned eldest son of the Chen family counted as his most peaceful and calm period.

He had his own clean and tidy courtyard, a talented sister, a somewhat arrogant yet not wicked brother, imperfect parents whom he could cook for and show off his skills.

"I hope that one day, I can return to that time."

Chen Kuang sighed, voicing his thoughts silently.

He shifted his gaze from those fishing lights, focusing on the center of the river.

The very center of the "eye" falls in this river.

In other words, if all goes well, the true dragon will be born in this river.

Chen Kuang turned his head and said to Zhang Zhizhou: "Thank you, Senior Brother Zhang."

Zhang Zhizhou glanced around, squinted his eyes, felt a stir within, but said nothing further, just nodded:

"So, I suppose I’m done here? Remember, you don’t have much time, don’t delay too long."

With that, he transformed into a ray of light and returned to find Su Huaiying.

As Chen Kuang watched him leave, he took a deep breath, then jumped forward, plunging into the river.

"Splash! Glug glug..."

As Chen Kuang sank into the water, he instantly revealed his complete demonic form.

He squinted his eyes, in the glazed-colored pupils, a gleam flashed, following the direction of the spiritual Qi to find the true "eye".

The current in front of him, different from the calm surface water, was extremely turbulent, rushing past submerged rocks, aquatic plants, and even a shattered sunken ship.

In the hold of the sunken ship, slanted stacks of broken porcelain and scattered gold items piled up, many corpses long turned into white bones—judging by the scene, the ship must have encountered water pirates, fought back fiercely but ultimately lost.

On the mast of this sunken ship was a surprising sight—a reed rope of forty to fifty zhang wrapped around it.

On the reed rope, countless shells, aquatic plants layered up, making the reed rope appear thick enough to embrace!

This reed rope was originally used by the tug sailors to pull the ship; whether by accident it fell into the water or was already on the sunken ship remains unknown.

In any case, this reed rope, left unseen underwater, has drifted with the current for an unknown amount of time.

Estimating the damage on the sunken ship by eye, Chen Kuang guessed it must be several hundred years old.

As for the reed rope, after floating around for centuries, forming waves as body, shells as scales, and aquatic plants as mane, it vaguely took on a crude dragon shape.

Situated precisely at the "dragon eye" position, absorbing the sun’s essence and moon’s brilliance, nurtured by spiritual Qi, its swaying resembled the twisting of tendons and bones, appearing almost alive.

Within the aquatic plants on the reed rope, countless small fish and shrimp reside, occasionally attracting other aggressive fish, which are "coincidentally" driven away by the rope’s movement.

But this is no coincidence at all.

Chen Kuang could already see that the reed rope, originally a complete dead matter, had somehow developed a rudimentary consciousness!

"This reed rope might well be the embryo of the true dragon... Given time, it shall emerge as a dragon."

Chen Kuang couldn’t help but sigh.

The wonder of nature, beyond human reach.

Heaven and earth are indifferent, treating all things as straw dogs; heaven and earth are emotionless, all things can become dragons!

This is the true equality where noble and lesser are indistinguishable.

"It’s a pity though, as the Yang Kingdom falls apart, the national destiny and dragon veins jointly tremble, if it continues like this, the true dragon will disperse completely before even forming."

Chen Kuang swam to the side of the reed rope, reaching out to touch the lush clusters of aquatic plants.