Dragon Tamer

Chapter 526 -528: The Consequence of Failure

The few in the Bamboo Forest clearly hadn’t realized they had stepped into someone else’s painting realm. They seemed hesitant, unsure whether to make a move given that there was an extra person next to Nan Lingsha.

Zhu Minglang’s approach was quite different.

How could he wait for them to make a move? They really had the audacity to provoke his people. He wanted to see who were these blind folks!

“In this painted forest, even if it’s utterly destroyed, it won’t affect the academy, right?” Zhu Minglang specifically asked.

Nan Lingsha nodded.

Zhu Minglang rubbed his hands together eagerly and leaped down from the high platform.

He approached those sneaky figures. Zhu Minglang’s eyes slowly started to emit a crimson glow.

“Who are you?” a man wrapped in a headscarf asked from within the forest.

The man’s headscarf bore a rat pattern, giving off a somewhat sinister aura, and his whole being was enveloped in a dark atmosphere.

It had to be admitted, their ability to hide was quite impressive. Zhu Minglang and Nan Lingsha hadn’t noticed them at all at the beginning of their conversation.

“Mouse Despise Taoist Temple?” Zhu Minglang recognized the force upon seeing the opposition’s rat-patterned headscarf very quickly.

“Since you know it’s us, then hand over the Cultivation Fruit. You know the way our temple does things, you shouldn’t have angered us. Believe it or not, I can have my men slaughter all the students of this academy right now and sell all the female students into a brothel!” the man with the rat-patterned headscarf said in a dark tone.

“You’ve done this sort of thing often enough, so how do the presiding figures of Li Chuan allow you to roam around this land with such infamy?” Zhu Minglang asked.

“Cut the crap. While I still have some patience, let that veiled bitch hand over the Cultivation Fruit…” the man with the rat-patterned headscarf angrily pointed at Nan Lingsha on the high platform.

Zhu Minglang’s brow furrowed slightly, and with a thought, a fierce cold edge swept through the bamboo forest. It felt like a brush of unremarkable, icy wind, but soon the tall bamboos were neatly severed at the break.

“Humph, who are you trying to scare with such meager skills—”

“Boss, your hand!”

The man with the rat-patterned headscarf looked down and found that his hand was gone without him knowing when!

A complete hand lay on the ground while his arm ended at the wrist in a neat cut, just like the sliced bamboo. It took a few seconds before blood gushed out violently from the wrist.

“My hand! My hand!!”

Only then did the man with the rat-patterned headscarf scream in horror, and his face, engulfed in darkness, twisted in pain.

“Be a better person in your next life,” Zhu Minglang said coldly.

No sooner had his words fallen than a Crimson Sword flashed stunningly through the bamboo forest. With no visible sword or edge, a vast expanse of the lush bamboo forest was pushed backward, its tenacious bodies utterly crushed to breaks!!

The force came like mountains collapsing and seas pouring. Before the people from Mouse Despise Taoist Temple could react, they were swept into the air like chaff, their bodies continually ripped apart and blood splattered as they hung midair!

Zhu Minglang showed no mercy. The Mouse Despise Daoist Temple, a group even inferior to demon cults, and to think they dared to use the academy as leverage — they had truly crossed Zhu Minglang’s bottom line!

The Bamboo Forest was left in shambles. The four from Mouse Despise Daoist Temple were now nothing more than remnants scattered on the ground. The man with the rat-patterned headscarf, now half a body, lay sprawled on the ground like a puddle of mud, his pain-twisted gaze filled with sinister rage fixed on Zhu Minglang, his entire being as dark as a treacherous demon rat!

“If you mess with us… you’ll all be buried with us. Our temple, our temple…” The man with the rat-patterned headscarf couldn’t finish his last malicious words before he breathed his last.

These people had Monarch Level strength, but facing Zhu Minglang now, they were indeed like a bunch of mere rats, easily crushed to death.

As for their Daoist Temple, it was indeed a force many upstanding sects dared not provoke lightly.

It wasn’t that their strength was terrifying, but their means of revenge were sinister and malicious. They would go to great lengths to disgust someone, and there was once a Master Level individual who was tormented to death by the people of Mouse Despise Daoist Temple.

Zhu Minglang naturally knew of their “heroic deeds,” but was he, Zhu Minglang, so easy to provoke?

…

Having dealt with that garbage, Zhu Minglang returned to the platform.

At this time, the haphazardly fallen bamboo slowly dissolved, turning into drop after drop of thick ink.

The steps beneath his feet and the high building in front of him eerily became fine lines at that moment, and the background rendered by the black, dense ink, with its gradations of color like clouds of smoke, quietly dispersed into a hazy mist of ink…

As the ink mist dissipated, Zhu Minglang heard birds chirping, saw the crisp bamboo leaves, and the swaying shadows of bamboo. Not far away, several male and female students were walking past, laughing, a Giant Dragon spread its wings and flew, and even further, the sound of water falling from Phoenix Embankment Waterfall could also be heard.

Zhu Minglang felt as if he had woken from a dream. No matter how real the forest in the painting was, it ultimately lacked true vitality. However, being in it, one could easily overlook these details, to the point of completely losing oneself in the painting.

The Bamboo Forest remained lush and green, and a gentle breeze carried the fragrance of flowers; the bloodstains of Mouse Despise Daoist Temple had not tainted the tranquil bamboo forest in the slightest.

Nan Lingsha crumpled the paper in front of her into a ball and threw it carelessly into the basket. One could see the blood red seeping through the thin paper, vivid as paint.

“Mouse Despise Daoist Temple has been lurking near the academy for some time, instigated by someone,” Nan Lingsha said.

“What about the Cultivation Fruit, is it important?” Zhu Minglang asked.

“It solidifies King Level cultivation,” she replied.

“You’ve broken through to King Level?” Zhu Minglang asked in surprise, looking at Nan Lingsha.

“We don’t have a breakthrough per se. When the cultivation accumulates, it naturally reaches the next realm,” Nan Lingsha said indifferently.

…

Zhu Minglang recalled the words Zhu Xuehen had told him.

It seems the ladies indeed possess extraordinary talents!

“Regarding the World Dragon Gate, what has Li Yunzi told you?” Nan Lingsha asked.

“She’s also in the investigative stage,” Zhu Minglang summarized a bit.

“Oh, so she hasn’t told you…” Nan Lingsha said coldly with a hint of mockery.

“Told me what?” Zhu Minglang asked, puzzled.

“If the World Dragon Gate is a trial for the world, have you thought about what the consequences of failure might be?” Nan Lingsha asked.

If a creature fails to ascend, it might be completely annihilated.

What about when the world fails to ascend?

“Could it be that the world we live in will also be obliterated?” Zhu Minglang exclaimed in horror.

Nan Lingsha shook her head.

She took out a brush and began to sketch stars, a bright moon, and the sun haphazardly on a new sheet of paper…

After a while, she said indifferently, “Worse than obliteration is the torment and ravages of long years.”