Suiren's Fire-Drill

Xiao Chen felt a profound emptiness. The two little beasts had been swept away before his eyes, and he stood silently in the void, scanning the surroundings on all sides.

He had grown so accustomed to their company over such a long time that the sudden separation left him truly despondent.

A black beastly shadow, frost-cold scales — that was the only information he had. Xiao Chen etched it deep into his memory, silently vowing to cultivate with all his might. If one day he could achieve something, he would surely return to this place to find them.

For now, he held no hope. It was plain that the madman within the raging black wind was not someone he could contend with.

Xiao Chen descended onto the floating divine island and stood there quietly, gazing into the distant mountains. Though he did not really expect anything, he still wanted to wait here for a few days. If only those old undying ones who had entered the desolate mountain range would run into that madman — the odds of victory were vanishingly small, but there was always the faintest chance.

Suddenly, Xiao Chen felt a strange sensation. The bundle on his back was trembling. When he opened it, he found a long strip of black cloth. It was not dirty; the black color came from bloodstains, so ancient that they had turned a dark, age-worn black.

It was actually Suiren's Burial Shroud!

The blood-stained divine cloth from Dragon Island — of course, he could not be certain it was truly Suiren's Burial Shroud. That had only been the devil's guess and Xiao Chen's own conjecture.

If the guess was true, then Suiren had undoubtedly died long ago.

But on the Eternal Continent, many legends pointed to one place — the Southern Wastes, where Suiren was said to have lived in seclusion.

Xiao Chen stared at the black, blood-stained divine cloth in astonishment. Ever since he had obtained it, he had never seen it exhibit any unusual behavior, not even when sailing through the Forbidden Sea.

And now this seemingly ordinary blood-cloth had, for the first time, stirred with an anomalous tremor.

When he grasped the black blood-cloth, it began to flutter against the still air, rustling loudly, unfurling like a black battle banner.

The mountain forest was calm — not even the faintest breeze stirred, and there was no abnormal energy fluctuation on the floating divine island. Yet the black blood-cloth shook violently, as if an invisible hand were waving it.

Xiao Chen gripped one corner firmly, letting it rustle as he cautiously and carefully surveyed his surroundings. He extended his divine consciousness outward, sweeping across all directions.

There was no sign of anything unusual. No one approached — only the occasional roar of beasts sounded from the surrounding area. Nothing was amiss.

What was happening?

Could someone be watching from the shadows?

Was it related to the burial shroud?

After silently scanning for half a quarter-hour, Xiao Chen dismissed that idea. He considered another possibility: perhaps it was the location itself. Could this floating divine island be connected to Suiren?

The dark, brownish island resembled a meteorite. There was no trace of life upon it — only the broken shards of tiles seemed to speak of a bygone splendor.

Rustle, rustle.

The burial shroud suddenly shook violently, as if trying to tear itself from his grasp. Xiao Chen quickly tightened his hold, but his body was pulled forward in the direction the shroud was straining.

The destination: the center of the ruins!

The black, blood-stained divine cloth seemed to possess a will. It guided him, leading Xiao Chen step by step closer to the heart of the wreckage.

In that moment, Xiao Chen's heart pounded violently. The Ancestral God's burial shroud was leading him forward — an extraordinary encounter seemed imminent! He had never imagined this ordinary-looking cloth could be sentient. He had always thought of it as nothing more than an ancient, imperishable fabric stained with sacred blood.

When Xiao Chen reached the center of the divine island and stood atop the ruins, the blood-cloth suddenly gave a powerful jolt, tearing itself from his grasp, and flew out of his hand. Then, stirring up a fierce gale above the island's heart, the black divine cloth shook violently in the air, sending the rubble swirling upward in a wild dance.

The debris was cleared from an open space.

The blood-stained black divine cloth straightened like a javelin, pointing directly at the foundation stones of the ruins.

The foundation was built entirely of hard mountain stone, all of which had been smoothed — the edges were not rough but neatly stacked, giving the base a solid, heavy appearance.

Xiao Chen was now certain: there was something beneath this spot!

He just did not know if it would be dangerous. Having been through so much, he had grown increasingly cautious. Ancient relics like this were the most prone to sinister occurrences. Ever since his ordeal in the City of the Dead, the sight of ancient buildings always left him with a lingering sense of dread.

A fierce wind stirred. Xiao Chen split open the foundation from a distance with a blast of air. His Undying Wings had already unfurled, and he hovered in the void, ready to withdraw at the first sign of trouble.

Massive stones flew apart as he shattered the foundation. On both sides, the black earth was blasted away by waves of energy, exposing the bare stonework. There was nothing unusual beneath — nothing out of the ordinary.

But at that moment, the black divine cloth trembled even more violently. After whipping up a fierce gale, it suddenly went still, then fell as if weighed down by a thousand catties.

It dropped among the rubble, covering a section of the foundation.

Xiao Chen observed for a while. Sensing nothing amiss, he descended beside the cloth and picked it up.

With a rustle, the blood-stained black divine cloth brought out a stone wedge from the foundation.

It was an ordinary-looking stone: grayish-brown, rustic, about two finger-widths thick and a palm-span long, with one end slightly pointed. All in all, it resembled a stone drill — or more precisely, a stone wedge originally used to fill the gaps between the foundation stones. The blood-stained black divine cloth had pulled it out.

Xiao Chen paid it no special attention at first. He thought there might be something hidden beneath the foundation, but after lifting the stones, he found nothing at all.

Yet the burial shroud kept quivering, covering that plain, ordinary stone wedge.

A stone wedge!

Xiao Chen was astonished. Could it be that this sentient divine cloth was trembling for this unremarkable, long, narrow piece of stone?

It was just an ordinary rock — the kind found everywhere in the mountains. The men who had built the foundation of this palace had plainly used it as a common filler, never treating it as anything important. It was simply meant to close the cracks between the foundation stones.

How could this be?

Xiao Chen was utterly bewildered. He examined it for a long time and found nothing at all special about it. His keen spiritual sense detected no trace of energy, not the slightest abnormal fluctuation.

Plainly, Xiao Chen was the last to arrive here. Many cultivators had come long before him. The ruins of the Heavenly God Palace had already been turned upside down and thoroughly searched. If there had been any genuine treasure, it would have been hard to hide from those old undying ones. After so many people had combed through the place, what good thing could possibly remain?

Still, since the burial shroud had pointed directly at this stone-drill-shaped object, even if it seemed utterly ordinary, Xiao Chen could not just dismiss it as common rock.

He held it in his hand, turning it over and over. On closer inspection, he noticed it seemed slightly lighter than an ordinary stone — more like a piece of heavy wood.

"Strange — is it wood?"

At this thought, Xiao Chen realized that if he considered it a chipped wooden block, it fit just as well. The more he looked, the more it resembled a piece of grayish-brown ancient wood.

How bizarre! It was hard to tell whether it was stone or wood — it seemed both, and he could not distinguish.

He struck it hard against a huge rock. The rock did not shatter as expected; the drill-shaped stone strip simply bounced off a short distance away, displaying no remarkable quality.

Xiao Chen carefully tucked it away. Though for the moment he could not see what use it might have, he figured it could not be an ordinary item.

No more cultivators appeared near the divine island. Everyone had chased after the two young sacred beasts. Xiao Chen laughed at himself a little: "They're racing ahead to fight over sacred beasts of what might be the strongest race, and I'm here picking up rocks."

He waited quietly near the divine island for two days, but Keke and the Little Defiant Dragon still did not return. His hopes were dashed. He decided to wait no longer and set out deeper into the desolate mountain range.

Over the next day, he caught sight of a few cultivators — the ones who had pursued the young sacred beasts. These were naturally the weaker ones, having fallen behind; the true experts had long since disappeared into the depths of the wasteland.

At the same time, Xiao Chen unexpectedly discovered some natives living in the mountain forests, leading a very primitive existence, like savages. And in one such small tribe, when he saw a certain scene, he was struck as if by lightning.

He saw someone in that primitive little tribe using a hard branch to drill wood for fire on a thick log.

In that instant, it was as if a bolt of lightning illuminated Xiao Chen's mind, setting his blood ablaze!

The seemingly ordinary stone-wood he had taken from the ruins was no longer ordinary. He knew what it was. Where had Suiren attained the Dao? It all came from this!

This appeared to be the very sacred object of his enlightenment — Suiren's Fire-Drill!

Now, thinking back on its shape and its stone-like-yet-wood-like texture, Xiao Chen immediately connected it to the Ancestral God's Fire-Drill of enlightenment.

All of humanity knew the story of how the Ancestral God had drilled wood to make fire in ancient times.

But there seemed to be no description of this sacred object anywhere. It was as if no one had ever classified it as a holy relic. No power was ever attributed to it — the Ancestral God never used it against an enemy.

Even so, it was a most extraordinary artifact!

Just as Xiao Chen's mind was churning with tumultuous emotions, a string of dragon roars echoed from deep within the primeval mountain range.

It was the Little Defiant Dragon!

Xiao Chen was overjoyed beyond measure. He spread his Undying Wings and shot forward like lightning.

Within the sun-shrouding primeval forest, dragon cries reverberated. They were just ahead. Xiao Chen raced across stretches of woodland and arrived at the spot.

There were the Little Defiant Dragon and Keke, both safe and sound. But besides them, three more little beasts were following — with the head of an Ancestral Dragon, the tail of an Ancestral Dragon, and scales that gleamed with divine radiance.

They were three little Dragon Kings!

But these three little Dragon Kings were definitely not ones Xiao Chen had ever seen on Dragon Island. He was certain — he had never laid eyes on them before.

Xiao Chen could hardly believe his eyes. It was utterly astounding. Somehow, the Little Defiant Dragon and Keke had coaxed three little Dragon Kings out of nowhere!

He was left completely speechless.