Chapter 148
Chapter 148
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: For What Purpose (2)
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Approximately two thousand years ago, the One-Eyed Dragon, having failed its ascension, took its place at the center of the world.
And it began to survey the entire mortal realm.
Its goal was the third Dragon Pearl.
Several hundred years earlier, an upheaval had occurred on the Northern Continent.
A gale swept across the entire continent: the Apotheosis Ritual.
The One-Eyed Dragon witnessed a mere cultivator, after tempering itself to perfection, transform into a spiritual being.
A sudden thought occurred to it.
The One-Eyed Dragon had once been a sea yokai.
Thus, there was no reason a human cultivator could not become a dragon.
Especially one who had already become a spiritual being at the Incarnation stage.
The One-Eyed Dragon observed the Incarnation Cultivator closely.
After the Apotheosis Ritual, a storm of blood and steel ravaged the Northern Continent.
The Incarnation stage was a realm no one could dare oppose.
Countless cultivation sects were helplessly swept away.
Even the mortal kingdoms in the secular world, which had maintained symbiotic relations with the cultivation world, could not escape the chaos.
A few ambitious warlords ignited wars, and refugees from fallen nations turned into bands of starving bandits.
In an instant, the Northern Continent became a hell on earth.
Corpses piled into mountains, and blood formed seas.
Famine and plague spread across the continent.
And the layers of accumulated death gave birth to yokai.
It was a chaotic era forged by the actions of a single absolute being.
The One-Eyed Dragon continued to monitor the Incarnation Cultivator.
Then, curiosity suddenly struck.
How would the heavens treat this being?
Would they send down Heavenly Tribulation as punishment for defying the natural order?
Or would they instead push it along, encouraging its wicked deeds?
Regrettably, that curiosity went unsatisfied.
The Incarnation Cultivator departed the Northern Continent with its sect, heading toward the center of the world.
And there, it met the One-Eyed Dragon that awaited it.
No words were exchanged.
The One-Eyed Dragon unleashed its spell, and that was the end of it.
A bolt of lightning pierced the Incarnation Cultivator's barrier, reducing the entire flying fleet to ashes in a single strike.
The Incarnation Cultivator itself did not escape unscathed.
Its body was torn to shreds, already on the brink of death.
The Incarnation Cultivator's primordial spirit, having abandoned even its golden core, fled desperately.
But it could not escape the One-Eyed Dragon's grasp.
Body and soul were a pair; for the golden core to fully exhibit its power, the primordial spirit was essential.
And the One-Eyed Dragon had never once allowed an intruder into its domain to leave alive.
The fleeing primordial spirit was soon captured.
During the pursuit, sea creatures that sensed the One-Eyed Dragon's presence fled in terror.
The deep-sea giant families did the same.
Since it had all happened outside its territory anyway, the One-Eyed Dragon paid it little mind.
Returning to the center of the world, the One-Eyed Dragon sealed the Incarnation Cultivator's soul within the golden core.
Then, it forcibly twisted the weather.
Soon after, an artificial Dragon Pearl ritual was forcibly conducted.
The Dragon Pearl ritual proceeded smoothly.
The One-Eyed Dragon's plan to use the Incarnation Cultivator's golden core as a substitute for a Dragon Pearl seemed on the verge of success.
But a problem arose at the ritual's final stage.
At the moment the lightning struck, the golden core could not withstand the strain and exploded.
The One-Eyed Dragon glimpsed the Incarnation Cultivator's primordial spirit shattering into fragments.
It meticulously analyzed the entire ritual process.
The concept itself had no flaws.
Indeed, it had proceeded smoothly right up to the end.
The One-Eyed Dragon's conclusion was that the golden core's quality was insufficient to become a Dragon Pearl.
For a human, the Incarnation Cultivator's golden core was quite impressive in size.
That made sense—if it had possessed mediocre talent, it never would have reached the Incarnation stage.
Even so, it was far from comparable to a true Dragon Pearl.
The One-Eyed Dragon abandoned the artificial Dragon Pearl plan.
Theoretically, it was fully feasible.
But if it required an Incarnation Cultivator with a golden core rivaling a Dragon Pearl in size, it was pointless.
The discarded plan was soon completely erased from the One-Eyed Dragon's mind.
A new Dragon Pearl ritual had been detected.
The One-Eyed Dragon's gaze turned westward.
Atop the grand altar, a five-colored star was born.
A group surrounded the ritual site, making a commotion.
Yokai with gills—the merfolk.
The merfolk offered the completed Dragon Pearl to their god.
The Dragon Pearl containing the star resonated with its master.
The Dragon God's eyes, aimed at the heavens, beheld the scenery of the heavenly realm.
The One-Eyed Dragon reflected based on its own experience.
That dragon, too, would soon be drawn by the longing for ascension and fly to the center of the world.
But the Dragon God who became the merfolk's deity was different.
Instead of plummeting from the heavens, the Dragon God returned to the sea, to the side of lowly creatures.
The One-Eyed Dragon could not comprehend it.
What on earth could make it forsake ascension?
Normally, it would have charged in immediately and snapped its neck, but a sudden spark of curiosity changed its mind.
The One-Eyed Dragon decided to observe the Dragon God for a while.
It had nowhere to run anyway.
The One-Eyed Dragon called the lord of the Dragon Palace "Ink-Blotted."
Because it always wandered around with ink staining its sleeves.
It never let go of its brush even during meals, constantly scribbling records.
The One-Eyed Dragon's wait lasted several hundred years.
Ink-Blotted never came to the center of the world.
Finally, unable to endure it any longer, the One-Eyed Dragon went to find it itself.
In the dead of night, as the Dragon God emerged from the water to observe the stars, it sensed a presence rapidly closing in.
At the same time, it realized that an inescapable death was approaching.
To protect the merfolk of the deep sea, the Dragon God lured the foe as far away as possible.
The One-Eyed Dragon easily slew Ink-Blotted.
It was not particularly difficult.
With the newly acquired Dragon Pearl and dragon soul in hand, it returned to the center of the world.
Not long after, the One-Eyed Dragon challenged the Ascension Gate with its third Dragon Pearl.
Once again, Heavenly Tribulation thwarted its ascension.
But it had come perilously close.
Only the final piece remained before ascension.
*****
Nearly a century had passed since slaying Ink-Blotted.
The One-Eyed Dragon still resided at the center of the world.
And it was still waiting for the fourth star.
In the meantime, much had happened in the world.
A girl had reincarnated in the eastern part of the Western Continent.
She was selected as a tribute and dragged to a foreign land.
Then, she returned as a cultivator.
The Dragon Pearl ritual for the young dragon, who had secluded itself in a cave cultivating for a thousand years, began.
But the poorly constructed altar collapsed in wind and rain, causing the ritual to fail.
Thanks to that, it escaped the One-Eyed Dragon's demonic grasp.
The girl picked up the Dragon Pearl from the mud and returned to her sect.
The young dragon also left the cave and followed her.
In the end, the girl reached the critical juncture, and the young dragon gained a name.
Afterward, the girl became the god of the merfolk alongside the now-named dragon.
She occasionally faced heart demons.
And she stepped onto a teleportation array, flying as far as the Eastern Continent.
It was around that time that the One-Eyed Dragon first became aware of the girl.
The girl sent word of her well-being across the sea via intercontinental projectiles.
The bamboo-shoot projectiles crossed the vast ocean between the Eastern and Western Continents.
Some were caught in the pull of the opening Ascension Gate.
Some were sucked into the netherworld as it alternately closed.
And some were snared in the One-Eyed Dragon's grasp.
The One-Eyed Dragon's gaze reverse-traced the projectiles' trajectories.
Its dragon eyes, piercing through all things in creation, fixed on the girl.
Her golden core, larger than a Dragon Pearl, was no exception.
It would be a lie to say it was not surprised.
But that was all.
After all, it was meaningless without reaching the Incarnation stage.
The One-Eyed Dragon withdrew its interest in the girl.
Another brief wait.
The One-Eyed Dragon's gaze turned to the Southern Continent.
It was the second Dragon Pearl ritual for the now-named dragon.
Unlike before, the ritual succeeded.
A dazzling five-colored star was born from the incomplete Dragon Pearl.
But at that moment, what drew the One-Eyed Dragon's attention was not the completed Dragon Pearl.
It was the girl guarding the altar during the ritual.
A massive primordial spirit dwelled within her small skull.
It was an unbelievable speed of realm advancement.
A long-forgotten thought revived from the depths of oblivion.
The idea it had deemed theoretically possible only.
The artificial Dragon Pearl plan.
The One-Eyed Dragon observed the girl intently.
She was far beyond mere potential as a Dragon Pearl substitute.
Her golden core and primordial spirit harbored even greater possibilities.
The Dragon Pearl resonated with its master.
The named dragon glanced at the heavens before descending to the earth where humans awaited.
Just like Ink-Blotted.
Instead of slaying the young dragon immediately, the One-Eyed Dragon decided to wait a little longer.
The girl would soon become a spiritual being—an Incarnation Cultivator.
That slightly delayed the confrontation among the three spiritual beings.
From that moment, the One-Eyed Dragon's eyes were fixed on the girl.
The desert giants' territory, Fire Spirit Root, the Dragon Palace adorned with coral, cosmic structure construction, the being within the ancient relic, and even Quintuple Spirit Root.
Its unblinking gaze never left the girl.
Finally, the long-awaited moment arrived.
A gale sweeping the entire Western Continent.
The Apotheosis Ritual for her sect's hidden inheritance.
The girl transforming from human to spiritual being.
The One-Eyed Dragon calmly awaited the girl.
After a few months, she left the land.
She was flying toward the center of the world—straight to where the One-Eyed Dragon waited.
After such a long wait, the beast's fangs finally sank into the prey's nape.
*****
The sun and moon rose and set countless times.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the region was utterly depleted.
And Seran, struck by the One-Eyed Dragon's blow, was shot down.
The long battle came to an end.