Chapter 150
Chapter 150
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 150
Chapter Title: For What (4)
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Winter rain fell lightly from the sky.
The headless corpse of the dragon collapsed into the vast ocean.
The crumbling rock giant lay down beside it.
It looked just like a massive grave mound.
Seoran crawled out from the pile of rubble on her hands and knees.
Damcheong, who had fallen into the sea, paddled over with splashes.
The two reunited on the island of debris, both battered and broken.
Seoran looked at Damcheong with sad eyes.
The horn that had lost its glow, the empty lower dantian, the vanished Thunder Spirit Root.
As expected, the source of the Mixed Origin Spiritual Power had been Damcheong's Dragon Pearl.
The words didn't come easily.
Damcheong, squeezing out the seawater from her drenched hair, suddenly let out a small chuckle.
It seemed she had guessed Seoran's feelings.
Damcheong spoke in a graceful voice.
“Well, that's how it turned out.”
“Damcheong, because of me, your Dragon Pearl...”
“Why would it be your fault? It was my decision. And I'm fine, so don't worry.”
Even as the heavens shed tears, Seoran said,
“You can make another one, right?”
“Hmm, I'm not sure.”
“No way...”
A dragon could possess only one Dragon Pearl.
If it was an incomplete one that was taken or lost, it could simply be remade over a long time.
But if a completed Dragon Pearl was shattered by one's own hand, it was questionable whether a new one could be made.
Damcheong spoke amid the cold rain.
“Don't make that face. This isn't a lie to reassure you—I'm truly fine.”
“But you wanted so badly to go to the Immortal Realm.”
“No, what I longed for wasn't the scenery of the Immortal Realm that I'd never seen before.”
Seoran asked again.
“It wasn't?”
“Yes, you once asked me back then, remember? Why I had begun cultivating.”
“Yes, I did...”
It was back when she had existed as a nameless dragon.
A carp that survived a flood left the pond and became a dragon.
A dragon that lost her Dragon Pearl left the cave.
And she went through many changes.
She met a girl who wanted to become a noble person.
The young dragon who had been just a hatchling received a name.
She even went to the sea and became the god of the merfolk.
After meeting countless connections, she completed her Dragon Pearl, and to protect precious bonds, she gave up ascension.
But she didn't regret that decision.
For the first time, it felt like her eyes were truly open.
Damcheong gazed at her friend—not the heavens—and said,
“I spent my whole life in a silent cave. I lived staring only at the narrow sky beyond the vertical shaft. My sole thought was to complete the Dragon Pearl quickly and ascend to the Immortal Realm. I never even considered why.
But now I know. What I yearned for wasn't to go to the Immortal Realm. It was to escape that utterly lonely cave, that suffocating fishbowl. I was lonely. The sky is too vast to fly alone.
I acted aloof as the spirit among spirits, the agent of the heavens, the master of winds, storms, and thunderclouds. But I was just a loner. I pretended dragons are complete on their own, but really, I wanted to fly the skies with someone. That's why I longed for ascension. Because in the Immortal Realm, there would be others like me—dragons.”
The rain grew heavier.
Seoran's expression twisted.
Raindrops falling on her head slid down her forehead, her eyes, her cheeks, her chin, and back into the sea.
After a moment of silence, Damcheong continued.
“So I'm fine. If I can save you, the Dragon Pearl is no loss. What I truly wanted wasn't ascension—it was bonds. You taught me that. And besides...”
Damcheong couldn't finish her words.
Suddenly, Seoran had embraced her.
The slender body trembled intermittently in her arms.
Damcheong patted Seoran's back and said,
“And besides, it's not confirmed that ascension is impossible. In a few hundred years, we might reunite in the Immortal Realm out of nowhere. Even if I stay in the mortal world, with the merfolk, I won't be lonely anymore, so no need to grieve.”
The two stood embracing each other, braving the rain for a while.
Damcheong thought, feeling Seoran's body heat.
As expected, human warmth was far too hot for a cold-blooded creature like a dragon.
She might have indulged too much and suffered an irreparable burn.
The rain gradually stopped.
*****
When the winter rain had completely ceased, the long embrace ended.
Seoran sniffled here and there but smiled back at Damcheong.
Then, an uninvited guest intruded.
A clear, bell-like voice spoke for the first time.
“If you're done, may this one speak now?”
Seoran and Damcheong hurriedly turned their heads.
It was a beautiful woman of mysterious age with deer-like antlers unique to dragons, turquoise eyes, and dazzling beauty.
Everything except her expressionless face felt strangely familiar.
The master detectives duo instantly arrived at the answer.
It was obvious since she looked exactly like the portrait.
Seoran and Damcheong cried out simultaneously.
“Previous Dragon God!”
“Previous Dragon God!”
The translucent soul of the Previous Dragon God said,
“Young dragon—no, Damcheong, was it? Anyway, it seems you're the new god of the merfolk.”
Damcheong cried out in surprise.
“How did you know that!?”
“Hahaha, a simple matter. I guessed from hearing you mention the merfolk, and since you're a dragon too. But the decisive proof is the traces of the White Smoke Incense Burner imprinted on your souls.”
“What!?”
Instead of the shocked Damcheong, Seoran asked,
“The White Smoke Incense Burner—you mean the incense burner-shaped dharma treasure stored in the deepest part of the Dragon Palace?”
“That's the one you thought of. The merfolk found it somewhere on the seafloor and offered it to me.”
“You can tell just by looking that we used the incense burner?”
The corner of the Previous Dragon God's mouth lifted ever so slightly.
“Not difficult for this one. I've studied the White Smoke Incense Burner for ages.”
“Still, that's amazing.”
“Hmm, for a human, you have quite the sharp insight. Wait, no... I almost forgot my purpose... The reason this one approached you is to propose a deal.”
Seoran asked.
“A deal?”
“Yes, more precisely, with that dragon called Damcheong.”
“With Damcheong? What do you want?”
The Previous Dragon God answered expressionlessly.
“Ever since completing my Dragon Pearl, I've researched joint ascension with the merfolk. I'll teach you the spell for joint ascension, so take the merfolk to the Immortal Realm. The reward will be ample.”
“But...”
At that moment, Damcheong, who had been listening quietly, interjected.
“My Dragon Pearl is already shattered to pieces.”
“It's fine. This one's Dragon Pearl will be the reward.”
“What!?”
At the Previous Dragon God's gesture, a massive Dragon Pearl rose from beneath the sea surface.
Two had vanished to the other side of the underworld with the One-Eyed Dragon's severed head, but the third had not.
She had been so preoccupied that she'd momentarily forgotten.
Seoran asked.
“You'll hand over your Dragon Pearl?”
“Yes. Since it's bestowed, not stolen, no need to fear heavenly tribulation, right? It's a precious item, but if it means sending the merfolk to the Immortal Realm, it's no loss. Especially since I'm a ghost now.”
“A ghost...?”
The Previous Dragon God showed her right hand.
It was fading bit by bit from the fingertips.
It seemed she didn't have much time left.
Even mentioning her own death, the Previous Dragon God's face remained expressionless.
“My soul is severely damaged. It started crumbling gradually after the villain died. They handled this 'tool' quite roughly, it seems.”
Seoran asked.
“Can't you even resurrect? Because of the One-Eyed Dragon?”
“One-eyed, so One-Eyed Dragon? An amusing expression. Anyway, you're right. This one will die soon. But thanks to you, I can pass before losing my faculties. I should express gratitude.”
At the Previous Dragon God's gentle gesture, the Dragon Pearl returned to its original size.
The Dragon Pearl containing a five-colored star nestled into Damcheong's arms.
With a resonance, the vanished Thunder Spirit Root returned, and a gust of wind swirled around Damcheong's body.
Damcheong, who had been floating dazed in the air, cried out urgently.
“To so readily hand over your Dragon Pearl! What if I'm a wicked dragon as evil as the One-Eyed Dragon?! What if I exploit the merfolk you cherished!”
“Hahaha, this one watched everything! Even while captured by the villain! You, who even gave up ascension for others, hardly seem the type to mistreat the merfolk! Besides, this one is a genius among geniuses—no one in the world can match my discerning eye!”
“But the meaning a Dragon Pearl holds for a dragon is...!”
At that moment, the Previous Dragon God suddenly turned her head.
Toward the direction of the underworld's entrance.
The last grain of sand in the hourglass had just fallen.
The Previous Dragon God laughed loudly.
“Oh, I can feel the underworld beckoning! The merfolk's future is in your hands now! No need to worry about this one! I'll overcome even death with ease! Farewell then, ahahaha!”
The Previous Dragon God departed for the underworld with cheerful laughter.
But aside from the slightly upturned mouth corner, her face remained utterly expressionless.
Even after vanishing into the void, her laughter echoed for quite a while.
Belatedly, two streaks of lightning surged from within the void.
Presumed to be from the Previous Dragon God, the lightning struck Seoran and Damcheong in the blink of an eye.
The lightning contained the spell for joint ascension.
Seoran suddenly thought,
That rigid expression just now—was she smiling?
Was the benevolent smile in the portrait actually her smiling as wide as possible?
The diary clearly mentioned a gentle face or something.
The Previous Dragon God known only through writing was a calm, intellectual woman.
But meeting her in person felt different.
Her face was stoic, but her inner self was endlessly cheerful, and her self-love was immense.
Perhaps because she wrote it herself, the records were filled with subjective views and distortions.
Seoran thought she shouldn't, but she recalled Damcheong, the One-Eyed Dragon, and the Previous Dragon God in sequence.
Somehow, she felt prejudices about dragons forming.
With the Previous Dragon God gone, the atmosphere rapidly grew awkward. Seoran, gauging the mood, spoke up.
“Shall we head back now?”
“That would be best. But when will Great Peng wake up?”
“Soon, from hibernation.”
Silence again.
Damcheong spoke in an urgent voice.
“Ah, anyway, I'm glad everything worked out!”
“Yeah! Now all that's left is going to the Immortal Realm! Together, everyone!”
“Right, yes! We even got a Dragon Pearl from the Previous Dragon God, and no major backlash from forcing the spiritual power...!”
Before her words finished, Damcheong's left horn snapped off.
“Huh...?”
“Ah...!”
Seoran and Damcheong couldn't hide their bewilderment.
They just stared blankly at the horn on the ground.
But no matter how hard they stared, the horn broken from the base wouldn't reattach.
One wrong move, and Damcheong might become a One-Horned Dragon instead.