Chapter 98: Once, a Great Demon Devoured Dragon Qi

As for why the Human Emperor Sword had brought Elder Brother’s letter, Ji Huo had not expected it, but neither was he especially surprised.

The moment he saw that the sword had suddenly flown off and then returned, allowing him to draw it himself, he had already felt a faint premonition.

Only, with Elder Brother suddenly sending a letter by flying sword, what had he discovered? Or had something changed in the capital?

The most recent affair had been the struggle between the two dragons for the throne. Had the emperor already been chosen?

No matter who won, though, his father’s journey to the frontier should not be wrong. Elder Brother had only sent those few words, and the most likely meaning was that he wanted Ji Huo to head to the border and meet up with their father.

In truth, Ji Huo did not quite understand it. His father was a grandmaster, and after these past days of contact with the Sword Saint and with a half-step grandmaster, Ji Huo had already come to understand just how terrifying a creature a grandmaster was.

With a father like that, what danger could there possibly be?

With such doubts in mind, after one day of rest, the two of them rode hard toward the border between Great Zhou and the Liang Kingdom.

In truth, since the two nations shared a frontier, there were many border regions. Heavenly Severance Mountain counted as a border as well, for instance. But when the two countries normally came to blows, it was usually near the Lijiang Plain, a key thoroughfare between the two realms and a fine place for fighting and looting.

At first both countries had tried to seize that place, but later they discovered that even if they took it, it was of little use. So long as they could not press further inland, the Lijiang Plain would be easy to take back, and it was also easy to be robbed by others.

By and by, no one knew exactly when, the two countries simply grew accustomed to treating it as the place to fight. Usually one side would invade, plunder the area, and then when the other side arrived with troops, they would battle it out. If they won, they would keep looting; if they lost, they would simply turn around and go home.

The people living there had grown used to it as well. No matter which country’s soldiers occupied the place, they would only seize the stockpiled imperial grain and were unexpectedly kind to the common folk. Added to that, the climate and the land here were actually rather good, so many people settled nearby. As a result, the soldiers of both nations grew even less inclined to bully the local populace.

There were even many marriages between people of the two countries here.

In a sense, it could be called a buffer zone.

When Ji Huo first learned of such a place, he had felt rather speechless. In theory, if a buffer zone existed, then the two countries ought not to have much of a grudge after all.

Still, thinking of how the old emperors of both sides had clung to each other even in death, he figured it was an old feud from the previous generation and refrained from judgment.

“Wait. Something’s not right.”

Xia Ningshang suddenly spoke up and pulled on the reins. The fiery horse at once came to a halt.

Seeing this, Ji Huo also stopped and asked, “What is it?”

Xia Ningshang dismounted, bent down to touch the wild grass by the roadside, then looked at the river in the distance and pointed to the scene as she asked:

“I’m not very familiar with the climate of your Central Plains, but is this normal?”

Ji Huo dismounted as well. At first glance he did not notice anything strange, but after a moment he began to make out the issue.

“The weeds are turning yellow, the hills and rivers are beginning to dry up. Is your summer always like this?” Xia Ningshang said in surprise. “If you start winter in the middle of summer, I’d even suspect that your ancestors in the Dragon Kingdom invented the splendor of the Central Plains out of nothing just so our people wouldn’t lose the spirit to resist. This is a fraud.”

Lady hero, your imagination really runs wild... Ji Huo did not answer. Instead, he looked at the hills, streams, and trees. He could indeed feel it: the vegetation seemed to be withering little by little, and even the rivers were running dry.

The two of them walked to the riverbank and saw the fish in the water drifting lazily along, utterly listless.

“I feel like I’ve seen this sort of thing in a book before,” Xia Ningshang said with a strange look on her face. “It was something like... a blow to the country’s foundation. Could it be that the dragon vein is in trouble?”

Ji Huo’s expression remained calm. He reached out and gently stroked the Human Emperor Sword. The sword body trembled lightly, issuing a clear cry, as if speaking to Ji Huo.

Unfortunately, Ji Huo did not understand foreign languages. No matter how insistently the Human Emperor Sword kept chirping and squeaking, he still could not make sense of it.

“It probably isn’t the dragon vein,” Ji Huo said, shaking his head.

Not to mention him, even the late emperor likely did not know where Great Zhou’s dragon vein was.

“The foundation of a nation could also be a problem with dragon qi.”

He had once heard the Imperial Astrologer mention that during that period, the capital seemed to have been troubled by monsters, and every sorcerer had been sniffing out demonic aura in the streets.

When Xia Ningshang heard this, she immediately burst out laughing. “How could that be? The dragon qi of a great nation gathers in the royal house, and even more so, ninety percent of it rests solely upon the sovereign. It can break malign influences, drive out evil, and resist all corruption. How could it possibly go wrong?”

She said, amused, “I once saw in an ancient book that there were monsters who had also tried to lay their hands on dragon qi. But dragon qi is naturally the bane of all things; monsters can’t even approach it. Unless...”

“Unless what?” Ji Huo asked curiously. He had never heard of these hidden tales.

After thinking for two seconds, Xia Ningshang said casually, “There was once a monster that thought of a method. It first used secret arts to bewitch a prince and turn him into a puppet, thereby slightly contaminating the dragon qi and causing its cultivation to surge by a good margin.”

“Later, that monster tried to use all sorts of means to help the prince ascend the throne. If the prince really succeeded in becoming emperor, then the monster could take his place and seize the nest for itself. With the dragon qi of an entire nation nourishing its monstrous body, it could become an unrivaled great demon.”

Ji Huo’s heart stirred. “And then? Did the monster succeed?”

“How could it? Do you think all the emperors of the Dragon Kingdom were vegetarians?”

Xia Ningshang said irritably:

“The moment that monster had just turned the prince into a vessel of corruption, the great shaman of that era observed the skies at night and noticed the dragon qi had shifted.”

“That great shaman first spent a whole month searching by himself and found nothing. Then he ordered a thousand priests to search house by house for another two months, and they still found nothing. In the end there was no choice but to pay a huge price and use secret rites to beseech the gods and consult the oracle. Only then did they finally locate the prince’s eighteenth concubine.”

“At that time, the monster had already devoured three months’ worth of meager dragon qi. Its cultivation had surged sharply, and it had begun to take shape. It naturally had the power to break techniques and shatter magic, and ordinary people simply were no match for it. The great shaman was beaten until he cried.”

“In the end, the Dragon Emperor heard of the matter and, in a fury, hurled a spear out from the royal court, only then piercing that monster to the point where its soul scattered to the winds.”

“Afterward, the historians thought the monster’s idea was actually rather good and very clear in its logic, so they recorded it as an amusing anecdote.”

Ji Huo listened with delight, finding it most interesting, and asked, “That sounds pretty easy.”

“Easy my foot!”

Xia Ningshang explained seriously, “A nation’s dragon qi gathers in the sovereign. Unless you directly absorb the emperor’s dragon qi, no matter how much you take from the royal family, it will still be suppressed by the emperor. The moment the emperor makes a move, you are dead for sure.”

“And the emperor himself is immune to all evil. Demons and monsters can’t get close at all. As for making a prince inherit the throne? Generations of emperors are all martial experts and can live for many, many years. An ordinary monster would never live long enough to see the emperor die before being discovered by someone. It is only a matter of sooner or later. Even if it is later, sorcerers and the like should have found it within one or two years.”

“Then why not choose a small country?” Ji Huo asked again.

“You fool,” Xia Ningshang said with a displeased roll of her eyes. “The ones who dare covet dragon qi are all great monsters. Do you think they would care about the tiny scrap of dragon qi from a small country?”

Ji Huo was silent for two seconds, then suddenly asked, “So, only if one contaminates the royal dragon qi and then gets that heir onto the throne within a few months would it be possible to directly contaminate the emperor’s dragon qi? Otherwise it would be easy to discover.”

“Of course. But who dares calculate the emperor’s lifespan? Anyone who does is courting death. You can’t exactly set up a scheme in advance to kill a nation’s ruler—that would be as hard as ascending to heaven.”

“And if...” Ji Huo asked again, “the monster actually succeeded in becoming emperor? What would happen then?”

Xia Ningshang’s expression turned grave as she said solemnly:

“My advice is this: run as far as you can. Throughout history, no monster has ever succeeded in doing such a thing. No one knows just how strong a great demon would become after gaining the dragon qi of an entire nation.”