Chapter 115
Chapter 115
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: Southern Continent Expedition (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The ritual site was set at the Thunder Citadel Mountains.
The Thunder Citadel Mountains were a long mountain range that crossed the central part of the Southern Continent like a belt.
It was also a massive barrier blocking all rain clouds coming down from the northern coast.
Because rain clouds blanketed the sky year-round and lightning streaked across it, it was called the Thunder Citadel Mountains.
Seoran asked the research director beside her.
“Is there anything south of the Thunder Citadel Mountains?”
“There’s a massive desert.”
“A desert?”
The research director nodded.
“Yes. It’s a harsh region where it rains only a few days a year. Sandstorms blow up whenever they feel like it, so it’s no place for people to live.”
“I heard from someone that beyond the mountains, there are these mysterious sects?”
“Of course, it’s not completely devoid of people. There are scattered villages near freshwater sources or the coast. And a few small capital sects, though modest in scale.”
Seoran’s eyes lit up at the scent of adventure.
“Oh, so the rumors about mysterious sects aren’t total lies?”
“Mysterious sects do exist. But they’re not quite what Investigator Ryu might imagine or what the world pictures. Best case, they’re secretive elite groups. In reality, they’re minor sects lacking both fame and manpower.”
“Ah, I see...”
Seoran’s disappointment was plain as day.
Even the research director, whom she’d met just days ago, could see it clearly.
She had always loved romantic elements like mysterious sects, sole-succession lineages, or the mythical Number Zero machine that didn’t exist.
Unable to bear Seoran’s suddenly crestfallen face, the research director brought up something intriguing.
“If you like something mysterious, why not look into documents on the desert giants?”
“Desert giants? There are giants in the Southern Continent too?”
“Yes, they live in the heart of the desert region. Inside the perpetual sandstorms—that’s their territory. They’re exclusive toward other races, so known information is scarce, but dig through the Water Immortal Alliance archives, and you’ll find a few books’ worth.”
“Hmm, that does sound fascinating...”
While they chatted, the Grand Shik Peng carrying the group arrived at the Thunder Citadel Mountains.
Looking down at the ground through shared vision, she spotted a ritual altar built on a mountaintop.
Flags and pillars were planted here and there, suggesting formations had been set up in advance.
Seoran carefully landed the Grand Shik Peng midway up the mountain.
*****
Damcheong, surveying the ritual site, spoke.
“Dismantle the formations.”
Seoran asked.
“Isn’t this a formation to gather lightning?”
“The Dragon Pearl isn’t something completed that way. The key is not artificially twisting the flow of heaven and earth spiritual energy or the weather.”
“I see. Got it.”
Seoran turned and shouted to the formation masters.
“Please dismantle the formations!”
Southern Continent secret formation: dismantling confirmed.
The formation masters tearfully began retrieving the flags and pillars they had painstakingly placed.
It had taken days to install, but dismantling was quick.
A brief lull ensued.
The thunderous mountaintop crackled with lightning.
Thick rain poured down, sliding off the barrier’s surface.
Suddenly curious, Seoran asked.
“Damcheong, what exactly does it mean to complete the Dragon Pearl and become a true dragon? I know ascension becomes possible then, but are there no other differences?”
Damcheong, staring at a puddle at her feet, replied.
“I don’t know.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’ve never seen another dragon. I only know the realms I’ve reached myself. Basic cultivation methods and ritual prep—I learned those by reading the heavenly secrets.”
“That makes sense when you put it that way. Ah, look. The formations are finally dismantled.”
“Mm, so it seems.”
The Water Immortal Alliance personnel announced ritual preparations complete and all left the mountaintop.
Only Seoran and Damcheong remained below the ritual altar.
Damcheong slowly ascended the steps.
At the final step, Damcheong hesitated briefly.
But she soon steeled herself and began the ritual.
The Dragon Pearl emerged from Damcheong’s lower abdomen.
Placing the Dragon Pearl at the altar’s peak, Damcheong stepped back and said to Seoran.
“Seoran, I leave it to you.”
“Don’t worry, Damcheong.”
Damcheong nodded and left the ritual site.
A dragon’s unconscious authority over weather must not distort atmospheric phenomena.
Seoran remained alone to guard against any mishap with the Dragon Pearl.
Fierce rain and wind battered the mountaintop as black clouds blanketing the sky hurled lightning.
Under the gaze of the sole witness, brilliant multicolored primordial spiritual power burst from the Dragon Pearl.
The ritual had begun.
Seoran observed the process intently.
The expelled primordial spiritual power enveloped the Dragon Pearl.
Then, ever so slowly, it began to rotate.
The flow of the multicolored mist was so sluggish that Seoran could barely perceive it with her physical senses.
Quite some time passed.
The near-stagnant spiritual power flow gradually accelerated, its rotation radius sharply contracting.
The increasingly dense multicolored mist storm was naturally sucked into the Dragon Pearl.
Finally, a dazzling bolt of lightning struck the Dragon Pearl.
Seoran’s eyes widened further.
This must be the real start.
But the Dragon Pearl remained quiet for a long while.
Seoran felt uneasy.
Wait, is this seriously it?
Wasn’t even the primal infant ritual more spectacular?
Is something wrong?
Seoran dashed up the steps.
And witnessed it clearly.
The massive celestial body inside the Dragon Pearl.
A serene, rippling iridescence rivaling the sun itself.
Seoran’s senses pieced together fragmented clues, assembling them to uncover the truth.
What she had just seen was no mere ritual.
It was the birth of a star.
To house a star within one’s microcosm—that was the meaning of completing the Dragon Pearl and becoming a true dragon.
Seoran stared at Damcheong’s Dragon Pearl, entranced.
The Dragon Pearl continued generating primordial spiritual power.
Not the mundane way cultivators absorbed heaven and earth energy and converted it.
It was literally creating something from nothing.
*****
Damcheong was still troubled.
Why did everything feel so ominous?
She was simply frustrated by the inexplicable mood.
Then Seoran shouted from afar.
“Damcheong! Look at this! It’s a star!”
Damcheong lifted her gaze from her feet.
She saw the celestial body inside the completed Dragon Pearl.
In that instant, Damcheong forgot all doubts.
Unconsciously, Damcheong extended her hand.
Seoran handed over the Dragon Pearl nonchalantly.
Instantly, dragon and pearl resonated.
Vast primordial spiritual power flooded into Damcheong’s small body like a tidal wave.
Thunder spirit root sprouted amid a lightning-struck sensation, deer antlers and dragon eyes blazed brilliantly.
The Dragon Pearl had already melted into her lower abdomen.
The first act of Damcheong, reborn as a true dragon, was to lift her head to the sky.
Neck arched back as if to snap, eyes unfocused.
Damcheong’s dragon eyes pierced the dark clouds shrouding the Thunder Citadel Mountains, the barrier encasing the mortal realm, and beyond into the void.
Her gaze reached the immortal realm at last.
A vast world filled her vision.
Giants reaching the clouds, dragons swimming the firmament, countless ethereal beings beyond naming.
A soul’s homeland she had never seen yet yearned for her entire life.
The immortal realm called to the dragon.
The intensified dragon instinct, a blind craving for ascension, urged the young dragon onward.
Her millennium lifespan and decades at Black Bamboo Sect sank into oblivion’s sea.
New knowledge flowed into the dragon’s mind.
The world’s center, ascension gate, irresistible spiritual energy flow, dimensional pressure, the void-crossing journey.
Knowledge solely for ascension, provided by deer antlers reading heavenly secrets and dragon eyes peering into all creation.
All other memories and emotions were pushed into the unconscious.
The one-eyed dragon blocking the world’s center.
The Southern Continent’s natural disasters.
And the nameless girl.
All the same.
Her mind felt bleached white.
Every doubt and torment plaguing the dragon since losing the Dragon Pearl and leaving the cave washed away.
The dragon’s emptied mind and weightless body floated upward.
Preparations for ascension complete.
The dragon turned toward the world’s center.
Then, an abrupt trumpet blast echoed.
The dragon instinctively looked down.
Amid the crowd playing lively tunes on instruments, one human stood out.
A girl blowing a tiny trumpet nonstop.
From oblivion’s depths, a memory surfaced.
The day she reclaimed the Dragon Pearl and prepared to depart.
Human standing on earth, dragon in the sky.
The moment she first gained a name.
To a variable-temperature creature, human body heat was scorching.
The burn-like memory and emotion resurfaced.
Thanks to it, the dragon recalled her name.
Yes, my name is Damcheong.
Damcheong gazed at the girl with clear vision.
The human who returned the lost Dragon Pearl.
The cultivator who wished to become a noble being.
The friend who sometimes lied for her sake.
Yes, my friend Ryu Seoran.
Connected memories and emotions surfaced in chain.
The one-eyed dragon blocking the world’s center, Southern Continent disasters, Black Bamboo Sect and Goldsmith Sect folk.
The mortal realm still had much left undone.
Damcheong glanced at the sky, then descended to the ground.