The twisted and incomplete patterns that symbolised spiritual essence…
After seeing the state of the little dragon man’s body, the three beyond-mortal experts at bow and stern were all stunned, unable to hide their astonishment.
If the river dragon’s mutation had been an accident, some “fortuitous encounter” during its roaming of the boundless ocean, then the appearance of similar changes on the little dragon man shattered Xu Qi’an, the Nine-tailed Fox, and Zhenzhu’s wishful thinking. They realised the situation was far from good, and that something major might be about to happen.
The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox swept the little dragon man over in her tails and narrowed her lively, beautiful eyes as she examined those dazzling patterns.
“Xu Ningyan!”
Her soft, alluring voice carried gravity.
Xu Qi’an naturally understood what she meant. He lifted his hanging hand, and a thumb-thick “black snake” shot out from his sleeve.
The black snake twisted and flew towards the silver-haired demoness. In the process, its body swelled into a black-scaled river dragon as thick as a water vat and sixty feet long. Two thirds of its body lay across the ship, while one third trailed in the seawater.
The Nine-tailed Fox drew a deep breath, endured the dizziness by force, and focused on observing the patterns on both their bodies.
After comparing them, she found that both sets of patterns were equally chaotic and twisted, and of the same nature, but the spiritual essence symbolised by the patterns was different.
“The pattern on his chest is earth-attributed, the one on his legs represents the spiritual essence of strength, and the one on his tail seems to be… space?”
Relying on her profound knowledge of gods and demons, the silver-haired demoness interpreted the powers symbolised by the patterns one by one.
“They’re different from the ones on the river dragon, but the essence of the twisting disorder is the same. They may have encountered mutation in the same place.”
Xu Qi’an pieced together the clues and inferred the conclusion.
Then he looked around at the mermaid queen and the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox, and said with a smile:
“It seems something extraordinary really has appeared overseas.”
Earlier, Xu Qi’an had asked what sort of place could allow descendants of gods and demons to gain spiritual essence not belonging to their own bloodline. The answers from the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox and the mermaid queen had been: unheard of, impossible.
“And it appeared recently.”
The silver-haired demoness still couldn’t accept that spiritual essence could be condensed after birth, but the facts were right before her.
“This isn’t a good thing.”
Zhenzhu shook her head, her delicate brows knitting together, and sent her thoughts into Xu Qi’an’s mind:
“Whether it’s Moyu or this patrol guard, they’ve both gone mad. That means a price has to be paid.”
Moyu was the river dragon Xu Qi’an had refined into a puppet.
When she frowned, she looked especially fragile and tender, enough to stir pity in any man.
Sure enough, once looks reached a certain level, what truly decides the winner is figure and temperament. The Flower God cheat is the only exception… Xu Qi’an sighed inwardly, then turned his thoughts back to business.
“How long’s it been since you came to the Arsu Archipelago?” he looked at Zhenzhu.
The mermaid queen tilted her head slightly and said uncertainly:
“About three or four winters.”
Descendants of gods and demons had a far weaker sense of time than humans, and Zhenzhu never deliberately kept track of it.
“Moyu’s territory is in the West Sea, a long way from the Arsu Archipelago. If this situation only appeared recently, then in theory, Moyu shouldn’t have mutated at the same time as the Arsu Archipelago’s patrol guards.”
Xu Qi’an analysed.
Zhenzhu said softly:
“The leader of the Arsu Archipelago is a descendant of ‘Dragon’. Moyu is also a descendant of Dragon. There should be contact between them.”
That connected things. Moyu and the ruler of the Arsu Archipelago had gone exploring somewhere together, suffered an accident, and become tainted with chaotic and twisted god-and-demon spiritual essence. The patterns were the outward manifestation of spiritual essence.
It was also reasonable and natural for that “island lord” to bring a guard force while exploring, which explained why the little dragon man had undergone the same mutation as a third rank river dragon.
The silver-haired demoness thought of the little dragon man corpse they had first encountered and murmured:
“So that fellow was just like Moyu, his mind thrown into chaos. After returning to the Arsu Archipelago, he slaughtered the island’s living creatures at random?”
“That fellow” referred to the island lord.
As Xu Qi’an recalled the river dragon, he said:
“Let’s head to the Arsu Archipelago immediately to see what’s happened.”
The mermaid queen and the silver-haired demoness both looked eager to try.
This concerned the inheritance of gods and demons’ spiritual essence, and was closely tied to them.
Xu Qi’an, meanwhile, caught the scent of “something major”. The power of gods and demons was also called spiritual essence, something innately present within the bloodline.
Yet first there had been Moyu the river dragon, and then the little dragon man, both tainted with spiritual essence that did not belong to them.
This matter was anything but ordinary.
…
In the boundless black ocean, several figures gripped steel forks and swished their long tails as they swam agilely through the deep sea.
Their limbs were like oars, and tail and spine formed a curved line as they split the seawater, dense streams of bubbles following in their wake.
Aside from body structures suited to underwater movement, they were also born with the ability to control water. At the lesser end, they could use currents to increase their speed. At the greater end, they could raise raging waves and tsunamis to drown their enemies.
“Jiao” was the captain of the dragon man guard, commanding twelve dragon-tribe warriors under him. As he swam, he said:
“Stay alert. According to intelligence provided by the Luan tribe, that fallen one is nearby. One of our brothers died horribly at the fallen one’s hands. The fallen one has a short-range teleporting ability, so watch out for sneak attacks.”
His voice, carried through seawater as the medium, reached the ears of the twelve dragon-tribe warriors behind him with perfect clarity.
Making sound travel cleanly through seawater without distortion was also one of the dragonmen’s water-control abilities.
Hearing this, the twelve dragon men couldn’t help tightening their grips on their steel forks.
They had set out this time to hunt a fallen member of their own race. That fallen one had been killing throughout the Arsu Archipelago, leaving all living beings on the islands in fear and panic.
And there were quite a few fallen ones like him.
To eliminate them, the six great tribes had suffered heavy casualties.
Jiao’s body was robust and powerful, a full size larger than the men behind him. But even he wasn’t confident he could evade the fallen one’s attack.
“Brothers, we are descendants of the Dragon. We are brave warriors of the tribe. To protect the Arsu Archipelago and protect our homeland is our mission, the mission handed down to us by our ancestors generation after generation.
“Our ancestors protected the archipelago, and only then did we have a home in which to dwell and multiply. And today, we too ought to protect this homeland for our descendants.”
A look of readiness to die appeared on Jiao’s dragon-like face.
The descendants of gods and demons in the Arsu Archipelago were different from those in other places. They not only worshipped the strong, they worshipped noble strong people even more.
So every captain had to be not only the strongest in the team, but also the one of the purest character.
When civilisation developed to a certain degree, individuals ceased obeying strength and began obeying virtue.
That was why ruling by force only lasted for a time, while ruling by virtue endured.
The descendants of gods and demons in the Arsu Archipelago had already developed a concept of moral character.
After patrolling in complete concentration for a long while, the squad still hadn’t encountered the fallen one.
Has it already left these waters? Jiao guessed, while inwardly breathing a sigh of relief.
Naturally, it was best if they didn’t encounter the fallen one.
At that moment, a dragon man behind him cried:
“Captain, look above.”
Jiao’s heart jolted and he was startled. Too late to scold his subordinate, he looked up in the direction being pointed. Sunlight pierced into the seawater, wavering on the rippling surface, and a shadow was sailing swiftly across the sea above.
A ship?
The dragonmen were no strangers to ships, because some weak descendants of gods and demons, those unsuited to water, also built ships to cross the sea.
For example, among the six great tribes of the Arsu Archipelago were the descendants of Pimu, the King of Earth. Ordinary members of that tribe almost never went to sea. Unless they had a sufficiently large vessel, they would drown in the ocean.
“Let’s go up and have a look!”
As captain, Jiao rose first, and the twelve dragon guards behind him followed closely.
If they needed a ship to cross the sea, that meant they weren’t good in the water. Dragonmen had an inborn advantage here, so they were full of confidence.
Besides, it was just a good opportunity to ask the travellers about the situation.
With splashes, wave after wave broke the surface. Captain Jiao and the twelve dragon man patrol guards stood upon the sea as if walking on flat ground, scrutinising the figures aboard the ship.
The first things they noticed were the seductive fox spirit and the pure, gentle mermaid queen. But before they could appreciate the beauty of the two females, their attention was forcibly drawn to the male at the bow.
What race’s male is this… The dragon men sized Xu Qi’an up with curiosity and surprise.
The Arsu Archipelago lay tens of thousands of li from the continent of Jiuzhou. Humans almost never came here, and the descendants of gods and demons on the islands would never cross the vast ocean to go to Jiuzhou.
So they had never seen a human before.
This male creature at the bow was unlike the males in their impressions. Overall, he was more proportionate and better-looking, but also more “frail”, because he lacked defensive scales, exaggerated muscles, and sharp parts that could serve as weapons.
While the dragon men were observing the three of them, Xu Qi’an was also observing the dragon people.
No bloodthirsty frenzy, intact minds… The situation in the Arsu Archipelago is different from what I expected? Xu Qi’an stroked his chin thoughtfully.
In his conjecture, the Arsu Archipelago ought to have fallen into dire straits.
It might even already have been wiped out.
At this time, the dragon men finally noticed the dragon man corpse on the deck.
The fallen one…
Their snake-like vertical pupils contracted sharply, and their breathing grew hurried.
The dragonmen easily pieced together what had happened. The bloodthirsty, frenzied fallen one had encountered the ship and, driven by its instinct to kill, attacked the three aboard, only to be killed in turn.
No wonder they hadn’t encountered the fallen one. It had already been hunted by the three powerful figures on the ship.
Zhenzhu moved closer to the rail, swept her gaze over the dragonmen, and said in a gentle voice:
“I am the queen of the merpeople.”
The queen of the merpeople?!
The thirteen dragon men looked at one another. With their status and position, they weren’t qualified to meet the mermaid queen.
So they couldn’t judge whether her identity was real.
Zhenzhu then looked at Xu Qi’an and transmitted by thought:
“They don’t recognise me.”
Being too high-status wasn’t always a good thing… Xu Qi’an shook his sleeve, and a little black snake slipped out.
The little black snake writhed through the air, gave a roaring howl, and its body swelled into a river dragon hundreds of feet long.
The aura of the beyond-mortal instantly filled this sea region. The pressure of a higher lifeform made the thirteen dragon men tremble all over, and the patterns covering the dragon’s body were concealed by Xu Qi’an with qi, so the dragon men couldn’t see them.
Otherwise, they would have fainted on the spot. In severe cases, their minds would have fallen into chaos directly.
“Lo—Lord Moyu…”
Jiao lay prostrate on the sea surface without moving, but he seemed to have recognised the river dragon.
Why was Lord Moyu with them?
Hadn’t he died during the expedition?
Thoughts surged through Jiao’s mind, one speculation after another flashing by.
He no longer had the slightest doubt about the mermaid queen’s identity. Only the beyond-mortal could keep company with the beyond-mortal.
Seeing this tall, powerfully built dragon man adopt a posture of submission, Zhenzhu asked softly:
“Is the dragon man on the deck one of your kin?”
Jiao still maintained his prostrate posture. “Yes, Your Majesty!”
Zhenzhu frowned and asked the key question:
“Why has he become like this?”
Comments for this chapter. You will need a GitHub account. Please follow all terms and conditions of GitHub issues and maintain etiquette in the comments. Cookies are required for this functionality.
If you want to talk with other readers about Nightwatchers (or other cultivation type books) you can join our cultivation groupreading discord server!
I also have a Kofi, which for legal reasons is definitely for supporting my digital art only (promise!): ko-fi.com/yanxin ... plus I guess server space isn't free, and I don't want to put ads/trackers... ever, so thank you if you do!