Chương 15: 12.2. The Flood Dragon

The sutra of thorned branches was a spell Faust had found in the technique library. It was originally less advanced, but after some fiddling Faust had made some minor modifications for it to fully utilise his three-twelve foundation. The flood dragon below writhed and squirmed on the ground, overturning trees and plowing through soil. It looked up defiantly at the heavens, rattling Faust's bones as it roared in protest.

Sharp green tendrils shot out from the ground, wrapping around the flood dragon before their tips pushed through the scales and curled up inside the body, crushing bones and piercing organs.

"Huuuh…" Faust completed the spell technique, a combination of spellcraft and Qi techniques that found a middle ground between the two.

"Bloody hell…" Satheon was gasping for air, his outer robes torn to shreds and his inner robes barely maintaining his dignity. Faust couldn't help but agree with Satheon, nodding along as he cast the same spell technique yet again. The flood dragon had eaten 4 more Solaris Lance spells and must have lost almost half its mass from flesh turned to charcoal, yet it still stubbornly clung to life, fighting to the bitter end.

It was only towards the end that the flood dragon had made the mistake of trying to draw Qi in from the environment to replenish its reserves. Water Qi had rushed towards the dragon like a swarm of bees answering their queen's call. It was no damn wonder it had taken so much Fire Qi and remained standing. Faust thought. Faust had been under the impression that the beast was of Metal and Earth attributes, perhaps the Dark attribute as well.

The spells and methods he chose were all based around that and the flood dragon had been intelligent enough to hide its attributes well. Finally… With the flood dragon completely restrained. Faust took his time casting. Satheon also stood his full height, preparing to engage the flood dragon again at a moment's notice. One hand seal. Two hand seals. After 188 hand seals, Faust exhaled deeply. This was the other spell technique he had made. Well… That he modified.

It was originally a spell with 244 hand seals and was lacking in power proportionally. With that spell as a research sample, Faust found the problem was in its design being for stupid teenagers with two-three foundations. Some'modifications' later and he had stripped it of all its safety elements, converted part of the spell into a technique used in conjunction with the spell and maximised its power. 188 seals however meant it still took so long to use.

Countless sigils of Spirit Qi spread out in a circle above the flood dragon, forming a massive array. Faust felt his Spirit Qi reserves run practically dry.

"Heaven's smite." Faust said. Thunder cracked. The sky darkened for an instant. Satheon's eyes widened. Even Faust felt all his hair stand on end. BOOOOOM!!!! A bolt of lighting struck down from the sky. Turning the world black and blue for an instant as it fell. There was no massive crater or shockwave. The flood dragon went still instantly. Blue bolts of electricity sparked across its body. Faust exhaled, finally relaxing, "Huuu…"

"Haha… What kind of attack was that…" Satheon asked, laughing dryly as he watched, letting his tired arms fall limply at his sides.

"My trump card. It's based on a Golden Core level technique." Faust responded, his flying sword drooping low to the ground beside Satheon.

"That's ridiculous."

"I'm aware."

"And you made it while still at the Meridian opening realm?"

"Parts of it. I wasn't able to use the spell technique then. This was my first time using it. Fortunately it worked. Though it was quite flawed."

"Flawed? What part?"

"It's overkill for use against Open Palace cultivators and even if caught by surprise it probably won't be able to one shot an early Golden Core cultivator."

"So?"

"I either need to sacrifice power to make it viable mid combat, or I need to sacrifice speed to make it more powerful, enough to be used against Golden Core cultivators. In its current state, it's not very useful."

"..." Satheon looked skeptical, but also too tired to argue.

"Haiizzz. I'll show you later at the sect. Let's find Sirius and Phalecia." Faust sighed. A near fully transformed flood dragon was going to be an immensely valuable haul. Almost every part was going to be valuable. Especially with the Water Qi and Metal Qi alignment rather than the Earth and Metal Qi one. The two dragged their bodies to the edge of the formation.

"Wow!" Sirius praised, throwing her uninjured arm in the air.

"The older brothers are amazing! You didn't even need us!" She praised, while stirring a pot of meat, herbs and spices. The group sat atop the charred corpse of the defeated flood dragon, which was ironically the driest place in the area. Its wide body had no shortage of room anyways. Faust didn't respond, drinking Pure Qi infused water he had brought in a bamboo canister, several low grade spirit stones, clinking around like ice, inside.

"HAHAHA! Of course!" Satheon bellowed loudly under the night sky, trying to sit up covered in Wood Qi infused bandages in similar fashion to Sirius.

"Argh!" He suddenly groaned, wincing in pain as he fell back on his back, clutching his side. Faust didn't have any bandages, he hadn't thought physically with the dragon apart from his failed attempt near the start of the fight. The most damage Faust had taken was his last spell technique, where the incompleteness of the technique had caused some backlash. If not for the toughness of his Inner Palace foundation, he might have even been seriously injured by the spell technique.

He would have to revise it a lot back at the sect.

"Sorry I didn't help." Phalecia said. She had been silent almost since the start of the fight.

"Don't worry about it." Faust responded, "This is your first mission outside of the sect. And our opponent was far more powerful than expected. A nearly fully transformed flood dragon." He took another large sip of the Pure Qi infused water.

"Would we have died if it were fully transformed?" Sirius asked.

"It's easier to tell it's fully transformed compared to only mostly transformed. We would have abandoned the mission and run away otherwise." Faust dismissed her concerns. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"What if it was a thousand meters long!"

"We'd have died. It would see us long before we saw it in that case." Faust shrugged.

"Nine hundred and ninety?"

"Flood, Sea, Gold and Sky dragons are easy enough to classify." Faust cleared his throat to explain, "One meter, three meters, six meters and nine meters are the early, middle, late and peak stages of Qi Refining. Ten, thirty, sixty, ninety are the early to peak stages of Meridian Opening and a hundred, three hundred, six hundred then nine hundred are the thresholds for Open Palace."

"Ohhhh… So Nine hundred to Nine hundred and ninety nine aren't much different?"

"More or less."

"The Golden Core realm equivalent would have been one thousand, three thousand, six thousand and nine thousand meters? Am I right, Senior brother?"

"More or less." Faust nodded along. After Sirius's hearty meal that would make most restaurants seethe with envy at her skill, the group either slept or meditated. Satheon snored loudly while Sirius was leaning against Faust, drooling all over his robes. As an alchemist whose internal clock needed to be in perfect alignment, Phalecia also slept tonight, leaving Faust briefly as the only one awake.

Focusing on dealing with the backlash of the imperfect Heaven's Smite spell technique, Faust wasn't worried about other predators approaching. The Qi in the area had become wild and tumultuous, the Qi cycles and feng shui had all been ruined as well. Not to mention, the Spirit Qi that floated around naturally in the environment was filled with the flood dragon's resentment.

Alongside the remnant Qi of the powerful spells, techniques and abilities used, any creature below the Golden Core realm would feel its hairs stand on end as soon as they approached. The night passed uneventfully as the group rested and recovered. Come morning though…

"Argh! Finally!" Satheon rolled his shoulders. The use of sleep to quickly absorb the bandages Wood Qi had done wonders for his bruised muscles and cracked bones.

"I'm so jealous of, senior brother!" Sirius pouted. She had taken the only direct hit in the group and several bones were shattered completely. After replacing the now ordinary bandages with fresh ones soaked with Wood Qi, she sat to the side leaving the other three to deal with the flood dragon's corpse."""...""" Looking at the towering corpse almost 20 meters high and over 600 meters long, the group was left speechless.

"So… How do we bring this back to the sect?" Satheon asked, scratching his head.

"... I've decided to put a flying ship on my list of things to acquire." Faust said, scanning the whole body a seventh time as if it would shrink if he did so enough.

"That doesn't solve the problem right now." Phalecia quipped. If it were a normal beast, they would have only taken the valuable parts and left the rest to nature. The problem was that it wasn't an ordinary beast. Almost every part was valuable.

"I guess… We can start by scraping off all the burnt parts and gathering the blood…"

"I don't have enough containers." Phalecia responded.

"I brought some…" Faust had expected a six hundred meter flood dragon and brought just a bit more than that. With almost half the body burnt, pierced or poisoned, Faust guessed they would need to set up and charge those old metal spatial crates he had brought along just in case, as well as make a wooden platform. It would be a tight fit and they may have to cut an undashing figure by carrying a large amount on a platform suspended by their flying swords, but it shouldn't be too much trouble.

After sighing, Faust pulled out a large cleaver and handed a spare one to Phalecia. Satheon already had his own. The group started by cutting off all the charcoal off the flood dragon. It was unglamorous work dismantling a spirit beast. Satheon used his most powerful technique to barely cut cleanly through the massive body, splitting it into sections so Faust could raise each piece into the sky and let Phalecia siphon and collect the blood.

Since she ran out of spatial vials however, they had to waste another day setting up a blood purification formation and purifying it on site to not waste anything. At least it was going to shoot up in value— or so Faust consoled himself. After the blood was drained, the group went about collecting the scales and then skinning the thick hide underneath. The group collected all the unbroken teeth, delicately cutting and pulling each one out. They took the eyes, kidney, heart and other organs.

Sirius shouted, waving an arm around from a small boulder, directing them strictly on which pieces of flood dragon to cut out and preserve as dragon meat. Though a vast majority still went to waste. A sad loss Faust helped Sirius to swallow. After several days of grueling and bloody work. The dragon corpse had been reduced to just its skeleton.

Their spatial pouches were all filled up long ago and Faust had to break out the pieces of his old spatial crates, knowing how to assemble them off by heart by now, only for him to spend another day troubleshooting why the damn things didn't work. The only thing he hated more than math… Arrays… Math… And arrays… He also had to spend a day cutting trees and carving wooden joins to create a large wooden platform.

"..." Faust looked silently at his carpentry work, holding both hands in prayer against his lips. He had been immensely interested in scholarly work before he dreamed of becoming a cultivator and had read plenty of books on the subject. Of course, knowledge didn't always directly carry over to skill. Faust didn't need the old carpenter his father treated as a brother, coming over and telling him it was the most shoddy piece of carpentry he'd ever seen.

Still, giving his hopes and prayers to the wooden platform, they piled the dragon bones and filled up spatial crates —the six Faust actually managed to get working of the original eight— on top, scraping as much of the flesh and blood away as they could, leaving not quite pristine white bones. Faust looked at the massive pile of waste and sighed, feeling a pang in his heart at the loss.

Of the half of the flood dragon that had still been useful, they had only taken a few cuts of meat, the least valuable part of a dragon corpse but also the largest part— still worth a massive sum if sold. Under Faust's careful gaze, the group raised their flying swords at the same time, each one tied to a corner of the platform holding the flood dragon bones, then, they slowly made their way back to the sect.

Faust guessed it would still take another 4 days to return while carrying all the flood dragon parts they had piled onto the platform.

"Yes. Just like that." The old ghost guided Long Tao's cultivation. Tao focused intensely. Sweat dripped from his brow as he meditated in the hollow of a massive tree. Qi swirled around, some passing through objects, others not, some smashing into other types of qi. Tao could feel it. He could vaguely sense the currents and the impacts of the Qi around him, but as he reached out to manipulate those bits of Qi, he failed. Qi was like a slippery eel that always slipped out of his grasp at the last moment.

Tao's expression began twisting in frustration.

"Don't worry about missing it." The old ghost chided. The old ghost continued.

"Your body tempering is complete. Your mind is able to sense qi, your body can accept it and your dan-tian will be able to refine it. Just focus on sensing it and trust your dan-tian to eventually begin refining some that you can control."

"Huuu…" Tao took a deep breath, focusing on calming himself before trying again.

"Remember. Patience is key." The old ghost lectured. Tao continued taking deep breaths, until another strand of Qi got caught on his dan-tian. Resisting the urge to do anything, Tao let the strand of Qi roll around, twisting and turning in his dan-tian before it started moving to the edges.

"Patience…" The old ghost reminded him again. Tao took another deep breath, he told himself he felt nothing watching this strand of Qi fall out of his dan-tian. Again and again, strands of Qi got caught, but with all his mental effort, Tao forced himself to do nothing, simply sensing the Qi and letting it pass by. Then, eventually, one strand of Qi seemed to whisper something. Tao watched it intently, his eyes screwed shut tightly yet feeling more awake than ever.

"Now." The old ghost breathed. The strand of Qi circled Tao's dan-tian once. Instead of letting it escape though, as if tensing a muscle, Tao shifted his dan-tian slightly, preventing the Qi from escaping.

"That's it, just a bit more… gently…" The old ghost encouraged. A second strand of Qi fell into the dan tian. With delicate manipulation, Tao stirred his dan-tian so that the qi didn't fall out.

"Almost…" The old ghost's words became part of the background hum as Tao focused with all his might on controlling his dan-tian. A third piece of Qi, a fourth… A soft wind passed by, blowing into the tree hollow, drying some of the sweat across Tao's brow. A small wave of Qi crashed into Tao with the breeze. Forcing calmness, Tao let more and more strands of qi gather, twisting and turning his dan-tian ever faster to keep the qi trapped. Prick. In an instant, Tao felt a sharp prick.

The various strands of Qi suddenly seemed to click into place, rapidly orbiting inside his dan-tian. Tao slowly stopped flexing his dan-tian. The captured qi didn't fall out.

"Master… I felt a prick…" Tao spoke softly, not daring to relax yet. The old ghost smiled softly.

"Welcome to the ranks of cultivators." Tao opened his eyes. He could sense the bits of qi spinning around inside his dan-tian. Slowly, instead of trying to feel his dan-tian, Tao tried to feel the circling Qi. Despite his physical body not having moved an inch, Tao felt something as if a part of his body was touching something and being touched in turn. The old man must have seen the change in expression.

"Haha… That's your Spirit Sense touching your Qi." He explained, stroking his beard with a proud smile. Like imagining what he would feel if he could manipulate his body as he pleased, the Qi circling in Tao's dan-tian followed, expanding until it was outside of the dan-tian.

"Haha…" Tao began laughing, his eyes were closed yet he could clearly see the bit of Qi zipping around the hollow trunk at his will.

"HAHAHAHA!" Tao began laughing like an enlightened sage, free of all burdens. A weight on Tao's chest seemed to lift. The old ghost stayed silent letting Tao laugh and dance around. From the poorest peasants to the richest heirs. The first time manipulating Qi was an experience like none other. One which made the entire world feel it was at your finger tips. With this, Tao had officially stepped into the Qi Refining realm.