Chapter 37: Guilt

Boom, boom, boom...

Amidst the intense, blinding light of explosions, tens of thousands of miles high above the Jiang family’s territory, four cold flood dragons appeared out of thin air. They were nearly identical in size, differing only in the patterns of their scales.

With physical bodies spanning over a thousand kilometers, these creatures could shatter stars merely through their movements, warping space to travel across the cosmos at superluminal speeds.

Even their subconscious, gentle thrashing upon birth—a mere consequence of slamming into the atmosphere and obliterating it—had generated a destructive, sub-light-speed shockwave capable of slaying any powerhouse at the third level of the Sendai realm.

"Hmm?" Jiang Wen, who had just retracted his arm, feeling pleased with his recent harvest, suddenly froze.

"What on earth?"

He immediately reached out again, casually erasing the shockwave in the sky and grabbing the four cold flood dragons, each possessing the strength of a Great Saint yet showing no trace of cultivation.

Looking at the four dragons in his palm—all of the same length, with equally pure bloodlines and no signs of training, distinguished only by the patterns on their scales—Jiang Wen muttered in confusion, "Am I still dreaming? Where did these things pop out from?"

He glanced at the incomplete Emperor-level array in the sky, which had been fully activated to seal the void and prevent any spatial teleportation, and frowned. "Could there be a traitor within the Jiang family?"

With his divine sense flowing, Jiang Wen prepared to inspect the current state of the Jiang family in detail, attempting to trace the void tunnel that allowed these dragons to bypass the external defenses.

But just as he prepared to scan, his expression shifted. He stopped his movements, staring at a phantom of the Hengyu Furnace that had manifested before him.

Listening to the telepathic message, he bowed respectfully toward the phantom and said, "Yes, I understand."

"This matter concerns a great secret. I will search the Jiang family with all my might to prevent any leaks."

As the phantom of the Hengyu Furnace dissipated, Jiang Wen frowned and looked at the five flood dragons clutched in his hand. Although he knew the Hengyu Furnace could not deceive him—a tenth-generation descendant of the Great Emperor Hengyu—he still found it hard to believe what he had just heard.

Divine light shot from his eyes as he vigilantly scanned the entire Jiang family, save for one location. He could only mutter in his heart, "The Holy Emperor Taiyin has been resurrected and has brought a friend to the Jiang family? And at this moment, the successor chosen by the Holy Emperor is entertaining this guest?"

"The legendary Holy Emperor Taiyin is actually at the Jiang family, and it involves the suppression of the Dark Turmoil?"

He looked at the five dragons in his hand again, hesitant. "Are these the pets of the Holy Emperor's friend?"

"Should I let them go?"

***

"Hey!" He turned and barked at the elderly man standing nearby with his head bowed, cursing, "Boy, explain to me exactly what is happening in the Jiang family right now."

"Also, summon the current head of the Jiang family. I want to see him."

The old man bowed respectfully: "Yes, Ancestor..."

***

Fang Zheng stared blankly at the sky, his gaze shifting back and forth between the massive figures being snatched back by the giant hand and the monster spawner in front of him. A sudden realization dawned on him.

"These giant monsters... did I just spawn them from the monster spawner?!"

Fang Zheng exclaimed in shock, shouting aloud, "Why are they so big?!"

Estimating quickly in his mind, Fang Zheng realized that although these dragons weren't as massive as the White Tiger and Vermilion Bird he had seen on the Road to Immortality a few days ago, they were still terrifying.

"They're over 1,500 kilometers long..."

A chill ran down his spine. He hurriedly waved his blocky hands, smashing the monster spawner to prevent it from spawning more creatures after the 10-to-40-second cooldown.

He had originally thought that since the dragon egg could hold an elephant, the dragon that laid it would be at most a few hundred meters long—not particularly formidable—and that he might be able to kill it for loot.

Perhaps some dragon meat, dragon leather, or dragon bones.

If possible, he could even use them to craft leather armor, pickaxes, or swords.

But this situation was simply absurd. Anyone with a basic grasp of physics knew that an object a thousand kilometers long, even with the slightest movement, would cause devastating destruction.

A planet like Earth would be no more sturdy than air in the hands of such a creature.

"Was the area I'm in just about to be destroyed?" Fang Zheng didn't have time to pay attention to the silent Jiang Tingting; he hurried into the sky to look around.

Through his telescope, he saw that the very peak of the Qingming Mountains, which he had just walked through, was gone. The ice peaks formed over ten thousand years had vanished, leaving only a smooth, flat surface as if sliced by a blade.

Even the clouds that usually shrouded the mountainside were nowhere to be found.

"This... this..." A wave of fear surged in Fang Zheng's heart. "Was there anyone on the mountain? Did someone die just now?"

"If the dragon I spawned caused casualties, doesn't that mean I killed people?"

"If people really died, such a massive creature—a simple flick of its tail could destroy the Earth's surface! If people died, how many lives would that be?"

An intense sense of guilt gushed from the depths of Fang Zheng's heart, making him feel miserable.

"What... what have I done..." Guilt flooded over him like a tidal wave, causing his thoughts to grind to a halt.

After flying about in a panic, Fang Zheng suddenly snapped to his senses: "Right, I have to check if there are any survivors. I have to go see if I can save them!"

He flew down hurriedly, found Jiang Tingting waiting in place, and stammered in a flustered tone, "Um, I... I'm so sorry. I didn't know it would cause such a commotion."

"You're a cultivator, right? Can you use your divine sense to check how many people were killed, how many survived, how many were injured, and where they are? I need to go see if I can save them..."

Hearing Fang Zheng's panicked voice, Jiang Tingting felt a sense of oddity.

Although she had heard that Fang Zheng possessed the temperament of a youth, his current behavior truly didn't resemble a cultivator at all...

Suppressing her inner unease, Jiang Tingting comforted him: "Senior Fang Zheng, please don't worry. No one died just now; only some of the higher mountain peaks were burned away."

"Really?"

Fang Zheng remained uneasy, anxiously pressing, "But the dragons I spawned were so huge. Surely the shockwaves from their movements caused some casualties?"

Jiang Tingting nodded, pointing at the array patterns constantly running in the sky, and stroked the Taiyin Moon Blade at her waist, saying firmly, "Rest assured, really, no one died."

"My Jiang family's defensive formation is an incomplete Emperor-level array; it intercepted them as soon as it happened."

"Also, Senior Fang Zheng, the spirit of the Taiyin Moon Blade has already informed me that it has been awake, watching your actions, and was prepared to intervene at any moment."

"As long as you call out, it will immediately come to assist."

"But..." Fang Zheng looked at the Taiyin Moon Blade at Jiang Tingting's waist, still filled with hesitation.

"Those dragons were so massive. It felt like they could shatter the planet just by flicking their tails. Can the Taiyin Moon Blade really hold them off?"