Chu Jingfeng and Xia Fei immediately made their way back to God’s Eden. Chu Jingfeng handed over the seedlings they had found to Xu Luanbu, instructing him to open up a new garden and plant a batch of these seedlings. As for the precious Jade Dragon Frost, it was decided that they would not handle them just yet.
Xu Luanbu had followed Chu Jingfeng for many years, and he was capable of doing this much. As such, Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng departed immediately for the Eighth Universe, where Yggdragon King Yanguang resided.
The Yggdragon Clan lived very fulfilled lives. After hearing what Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng had encountered, Yangguang immediately became restless, shouting, “Quick, hand over the head of that creature to me!”
Chu Jingfeng was startled. It was not hard to tell from Yangguang’s demeanor that the old dragon felt very disturbed by this account, almost as though what they had described caused him to recall something unsavory.
Chu Jingfeng took out the head of the creature and placed it on the table. Yggdragon King Yangguang first froze, but the expression on his face soon turned severe as he muttered under his breath, “So they appeared in the end… these evil creatures.”
“What appeared?”
“Are they sapient lifeforms or just monstrous creatures?”
Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng asked at the same time, their curiosity clearly piqued.
They saw Yangguang wave his hand dismissively, gesturing that they should save their questions for later. The old dragon king then reached out his right hand and flicked a sharp finger. Usually, Yggdragon King Yangguang would maintain his human appearance, and this finger of his would be hidden.
*Swish*
Yangguang cut open the creature’s head and picked out a small piece of bloodred flesh with his finger before cutting it open.
There was a drop of blood inside! The moment it came into contact with the air, this drop of blood immediately burned intensely, as if it were a flame that had shot out well over ten meters! Fortunately, Yangguang’s hall was vast, or else this could have started a fire.
After it finished burning, a heavy acrid smell, mixed with the stench of spilled blood, filled the hall. It was as though they were in the middle of a bloody battlefield, with the corpses of dead warriors already in the state of decomposition.
Sighing, Yangguang’s deep voice rumbled. “It’s been too long, and only a handful of those who survived that battle remain, which explains why neither of you two knows how frightening this thing is.”
“That battle?!” Xia Fei exclaimed in shock. “Do you mean that battle between the Dragons and every other sapient lifeform?!”
“Indeed!” Yangguang waved his hand and released a sliver of his Draconid Qi, instantly burning that evil head into ash before spitting in distaste.
“That’s the Hell Brigade under the command of the Draconids, codenamed Immortal Blackflame! They’re the evil henchmen of the Draconids, and the head you brought back belongs to a commander. That drop of blood is genuine Draconid blood! Their type has intelligence higher than that of the average soldier of the brigade,” Yggdragon Yangguang said as he recalled this information from memory.
Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng became flabbergasted and did not recover for quite some time. The Immortal Blackflame had appeared in the Annihilation Universe. Did that mean that the Draconids had already found a breach and were closing in on them?
If that was true, then a great calamity would be heading to the Annihilators, as well as every sapient lifeform across all the known universes!
The last generation of the Hero Alliance had gotten wiped out, and the Annihilations were no longer capable of clashing with the Megadragons head on!
There was a pause before Yangguang continued speaking. “The Immortal Black Flames are formed mainly by mixing humans with the Bluebloods. As powerful as the Draconids may be, they are few in number. That’s why they often snatch the universe’s populace and then reproduce them to be their puppets!
“The method of reproduction is very evil, too: They’ll leave a warrior with only their heart, and with that as the base, they can proceed to grow the rest of the organs and body.
“I once saw with my own two eyes the graveyard where the Megadragons had produced warriors, with each of their still-beating hearts buried in the ground, connected to a strange tube that fed them nutrition, which would then recreate the bodies with the hearts as the cores. Creatures, who undergo something like that, will have long since lost any sort of sapiency, becoming complete horrors!
“That’s just the method they use on humans. The Bluebloods’ reproduction method is even worse. Megadragons will pull out a Blueblood’s soulgem and proceed to shatter it completely. They’ll then use the fragments of the soulgem to recreate a new body. If a human gets captured by the Megadragons, they’ll face physical torture, but a Blueblood will face both physical and spiritual torture!”
“Huuu…”
Yangguang let out a long sigh after saying all. He then muttered heavily, “This day has finally come…”
Xia Fei pondered for a moment before asking, “What’s going on with that drop of blood you extracted moments ago?”
Yangguang replied, “Every Hell Brigade comprises of 10,000 people, and among them, one will have a drop of dragon’s blood implanted in their head, so as to make it easy for the creatures and their master to practice. The head that you brought over happens to belong to the brigade commander of that army.”
Yangguang turned toward Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng and asked, “Did I just hear you two say that you had slaughtered the entire Hell Brigade?”
Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng nodded at the same time, causing a slight smile to form on Yangguang’s face. “Not bad! That’s some powerful strength you two have got there, nearly at the level of the Hero Alliance back in the day. However, both of you probably don’t know this, but the Draconids have a million counts of that same army you encountered, and either of you two has yet to meet the most powerful Blueblood Puppet Brigade.”
Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng had once more received shock. A million army with each having the same number meant that the Draconids commanded a puppet army that numbered in the ten billion!
Among those armies, the strongest was the Blueblood Puppet Brigade, while Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng had merely slain the weakest type.
Of course, such armies could still not hold a candle to the actual Megadragons.
Pressure!
Immense pressure!
The universes were currently facing the threat of Megadragons, making everyone present suddenly find it hard to breathe easily. Though Xia Fei did not like the Annihilation Universe, no one would be spared if the Megadragons made a comeback.
Yangguang asked, “Was it this one who said that they had encountered a Fiend army two years back?”
Xia Fei nodded.
Yangguang frowned. “That’s really strange. Let’s ignore his claim in the meantime. A Hell Brigade’s commander will have some measure of intelligence, so they’re quite crafty.
“There’s no need for you two to be too worried. Going by the last great war’s events, the Megadragons will likely send puppet armies all over to fan the flames first, snatching away the things that can be a threat to them. Only after all that’s been done will the real war break out, so we should still have some time.”
…
Though the Annihilators rarely mentioned it, everyone knew very well that the universe had never been stable, and that they ultimately lived under the looming threat of the Megadragons.
Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng had no idea if the Annihilation Universe’s Five Ancient Apex knew that the Megadragons’ puppet armies had since appeared and if they had made preparations for another grand war.
They did not consider revealing news of this, either, since that would implicate the secrecy of God’s Eden.
Returning to the garden, Chu Jingfeng and Xia Fei began to work like crazy alongside Xu Luanbu. They expanded the miracle fruit that they were nurturing on a large scale. Even the usually jovial Xu Luanbu became a tad more serious, following in his master’s steps to become completely buried in hectic work.
He asked Chu Jingfeng what Yggdragon King Yangguang’s reaction was, and the latter told him that on the day he visited with Xia Fei, the king had rushed his son Yangji into the Dragon Cave, not allowing him to leave until he finished cultivating.
Xu Luanbu, of course, realized how serious the situation was just from hearing that. It looked like even the Yggdragon king was preparing for the worst-case scenario; Yangguang even said that he would not rule out the possibility of cooperating with the Annihilators despite how much he hated them.
Xia Fei did not interfere with the work in God’s Eden and merely dived deep into cultivation. Still, he kept injecting spirit energy into the grounds of God’s Eden so as to hasten the garden’s revitalization.
In the blink of an eye, it was time to pay Old Ye a visit again. Xia Fei left with his mind full of many thoughts and arrived at that little wooden hut of the mysterious elder.
As always, Xia Fei combed Old Ye’s body. However, just as he was leaving after accomplishing the task, Old Ye called him and said while chuckling, “I prepared something for you. You can see it when you return.”
Xia Fei was too preoccupied with his thoughts, so he did not take the old man’s words to heart. He left the wooden hut, boarded Roderick’s ship, and took off his blindfold, only to find Roderick holding a botanical preservation canister.
“What is this?” Xia Fei asked, curious.
“What you wanted,” Roderick answered.
“What I wanted?” Xia Fei was stunned. He could not recall himself telling Old Ye what he wanted.
“It’s that list of strange ingredients that you jotted down. It hasn’t been easy. Old Ye mobilized all his assets before he could find one, but you don’t have to worry too much. With what Old Ye is capable of, as long as you say that something exists, he’ll surely be able to find it.”
With that, Roderick handed that botanical preservation canister to Xia Fei. Xia Fei was immediately dumbstruck. That list was something he had randomly come up with, and they were all the things that could not be found in the world. Just how could any of them be found?! How ridiculous was that?!
Peeking through the canister opening, Xia Fei was dumbfounded. Inside was a cactus, neither too big nor too small, completely immersed in seawater.
“That’s what you wanted, right? A cactus found in the bottom of the deepest trench, borne from volcanic rock. It’s shaped like an infant, and its flowers resemble purple butterflies. The moment someone gets near it, it’ll begin to shrink underground…” Roderick rattled off the strange description that Xia Fei had given.
The universe was filled with wonders. Who would have thought that the cactus that Xia Fei had fabricated on the spot would actually exist?! Furthermore, its growth habits were exactly as what Xia Fei concocted.
Xia Fei even began to suspect if he possessed some precognition ability, given just how frighteningly strange this situation had turned.
….
Xia Fei brought this botanical preservation canister to God’s Eden. Chu Jingfeng asked about it, and he truthfully told him what had happened, only to end up causing Chu Jingfeng and his disciple to roll on the ground in laughter.
Xu Luanbu clapped Xia Fei on the shoulder, and while still clutching his stomach, he wheezed, “You’re truly quite something! You came up with some random stuff for Old Ye to find, and he actually managed to find it? Tell me: A salamander born beside magma and a monkey born from a rock, just how did you come up with all those things?”
Xia Fei pursed his lips and stayed silent. If Old Ye really found the monkey in a rock, then this would really be a ‘Journey to the West.’1 Who was to say that would not be possible?
Chu Jingfeng faced Xia Fei seriously after he was done laughing. “Come, look. I made a new discovery regarding the Jade Dragon Frost.”
Xia Fei started and followed Chu Jingfeng into the laboratory. This laboratory was something he had temporarily set up in just two days, and it was tailored specifically for researching the Jade Dragon Frost, the miracle plant that had tempted even the Four Great Sky Devils.
Inside this laboratory was a super microscope, which Chu Jingfeng pointed to as he said, “The shocking discovery is right there. You’ll understand when you see it for yourself.”
Xia Fei casually placed that canister with the cactus inside on the table and stared into the microscope for a good while, becoming more and more surprised as seconds passed.
“Spores?” Xia Fei lifted his head, puzzled.
