Dragon Canon

The Realm of Coldbelow was perpetually gloomy. No one knew when light would come, nor where it would come from.

Dream Eater was sitting at her table and holding a teacup in her hand. The cup was half-filled with water that glowed faintly.

It was raining outside. The raindrops pitter-pattered against the tarpaulin, creating a sound that weighed heavily on the heart. Today’s rain glowed, brightening the world around her, yet Dream Eater could only sit beneath the tarpaulin of her palace, watching the rain outside.

In the Coldbelow, light was not a good thing. If something that normally did not glow suddenly began to emit light, it became exceptionally dangerous. That was why Dream Eater could not take a step outside her palace on this rainy day. Moreover, her cup held not tea, but glowing rainwater. It was something to admire, but not drink.

Many great demons, shortly after coming into being, instinctively sought out the light—glowing trees, glowing meadows, glowing ponds and more. They had all vanished. Only those who were naturally cautious, timid, and skilled at hiding and disguising themselves could survive.

Dream Eater had lived for a very long time, yet she had rarely witnessed a rain as luminous as today’s. Every time such a luminous rain fell, more than half of the friends in her memories would disappear.

This rain was lasting longer than usual, so much so that Dream Eater felt a vague sense of unease. She stood up and carefully inspected the tarpaulin covering the roof. She felt slightly assured only after confirming that there were no leaks or tears.

Suddenly, she felt the ground beneath her feet tremble slightly, then tremble again a moment later. Dream Eater knew that those terrifying behemoths from the Outside were moving again. They might be hundreds of thousands of li away, but she could still feel the earth quaking beneath her.

Dream Eater looked toward the source of the tremors, wanting to see what kind of colossal creature it was this time. Suddenly, she shuddered. She saw a figure in the rain, holding an umbrella. It was walking toward her step by step.

The moment she saw that figure, Dream Eater’s entire body froze, including her mind!

The figure’s gait was slow and relaxed, yet its speed was unbelievably fast. It had been far off on the horizon when Dream Eater saw it, but after just a few steps, it was in front of her palace.

The figure struggled to bend down, but it still couldn’t see Dream Eater beneath the tarpaulin. Dream Eater’s height resembled that of an ordinary human, whereas the massive figure was easily over ten zhang tall. She looked like a mere insect compared to it.

It planted the umbrella on the ground to block the light rain. Then, it threw off the palace’s canopy and looked at Dream Eater with its six orange-yellow eyes. They began to glow, illuminating her.

Dream Eater finally awoke from her nightmarish stupor, but at the moment, all she could see were six rings of light, each like a miniature sun. A thunderous voice resounded within her consciousness:

“Shu Li once captured a human. He fell into your trap. Where is he?”

Dream Eater replied woodenly, “He broke through my Paper Wedding Gown trap and fled back to the Homeworld. I haven’t seen him since.”

The massive figure fell silent, seemingly pondering about something. It asked a moment later, “How was he able to break free from your trap?”

“My Paper Wedding Gown trap only works on sentient beings with emotions, but that human has no emotions at all. All I managed to draw out were a jumble of random things. In the end, he managed to seize an opening and escaped.”

The massive figure fell silent once more. Then, its six orange-yellow rings of light went out.

Suddenly, the figure extended two figures and plucked up the bride standing beside Dream Eater—the one dressed in a bright red wedding gown—and blew gently, lifting her veil.

Beneath the veil was a blank face.

Seemingly unimpressed, the massive figure gave the dream puppet a light squeeze, popping it with a loud crack. It then tossed her aside, picked up the umbrella, and rose back to full height with a continuous rumble. Its lower body was massive; it took six giant feet just to support its hill-like body. Even the act of standing up was a cumbersome and complex process.

Hanging beside it were over a dozen corpses of varying forms. They were all massive—far more massive than Dream Eater herself.

Suddenly, Dream Eater spotted two familiar bodies among the group. She instinctively covered her mouth as tears began streaming down her face.

The massive figure glanced at Dream Eater and explained, “I asked them questions, but some lied, while others refused to answer properly. Thus, this is the result. All of you are merely the insects this world was born with. Disobey us, and we will simply replace you with another batch.”

The massive figure left after saying this, gradually fading into the distance. However, Dream Eater’s tears would not stop no matter what. Her two best friends were hanging from that massive body, and they would soon be served on a dining table and devoured by countless Shaman younglings.

The figure was the nightmare of all great demons of the Coldbelow. It could appear before any great demon at any moment and kill them for all sorts of bizarre reasons. For instance, it could kill because it was in a good mood, or the opposite.

It hunted without any logic, pattern, or reason. Every adult great demon was a potential target. It was the Sky Warlock, Long Zhe. To the great demons of the Realm of Coldbelow, it was more terrifying than even the colossal creatures of the Outside.

Glowing raindrops fell upon her, inflicting pain that pierced straight to her heart. Only then did Dream Eater realize that the tarpaulin acting as the roof of her palace had been torn and casually flung far into the distance. She immediately burrowed into the earth and took refuge in an underground stone chamber.

The stone chamber was empty. Too empty. She clutched her chest, feeling as though a piece of her was missing. She vaguely recalled that she had hidden something in that dream puppet, but since it had been crushed, that object was lost forever.

Dream Eater tried hard to recall exactly what she had placed inside the dream puppet: was it emotion, cultivation, or memories?

She thought about it for a long time but came up empty-handed, so she had no choice but to give up. Fortunately, she had once again narrowly escaped death this time, but her friends were not so lucky. All of her friends and enemies had perished in Long Zhe’s hands.

Dream Eater knew that the only reason she always managed to escape unscathed... was because of that Shadow Warlock named Shu Li.

Deep within the Shaman realm, inside a vast and gloomy palace, Sacred Heart and Painted Heart were kneeling side by side in the center of a great hall. Perched atop an altar above them was a massive shadow.

A deep, thunderous voice boomed from within the shadow. “Have you still not located the spirit embryo?”

Sacred Heart replied, “I went to the east to investigate that human. He is clearly hiding something, but there is no trace of the spirit embryo. Redleaf’s probing attack against the realm had failed as well. Lord Shu Li seemed intent on controlling the scale of the war with the humans, so I am unable to confirm anything further.”

The voice from the shadow grew visibly impatient. “Pay no heed to Shu Li! He’s lost the spirit embryo, and he will very soon lose his own kingdom for his mistake! Controlling the conflict with the human race? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: his eccentricities will be his undoing. In fact, he’s already on the brink of death.

“Go tell Redleaf this: I want to know everything that man is hiding, even if it means slaughtering everyone in the Shattered Realm. If he can’t give me answers, then I’ll wipe out his entire clan!”

Sacred Heart responded, “I’ll handle it. But....”

“What now?” The voice from the shadows was growing shriller over time.

Sacred Heart said, “My intuition tells me that the secret that human is hiding likely has nothing to do with the spirit embryo.”

“I don’t care! Go investigate first!” The shadow screamed.

Sacred Heart led Painted Heart out of the great hall. Once they were a safe distance away, Sacred Heart sighed. “Our lord is finding it harder and harder to control his madness. We don’t have much time left. We must get Redleaf to speed up his efforts.”

“But Lord Shu Li won’t agree to that.”

Sacred Heart replied, “If we don’t get answers, our lord will likely go to war with Lord Shu Li. He really isn’t far from complete madness now.”

Painted Heart suddenly asked, “Is it possible we’ve all been mistaken? Maybe the spirit embryo really has nothing to do with that human?”

“But he is the only one from that region who has entered the Coldbelow and survived.”

“Perhaps there were others, but we didn’t know because they hadn’t entered through the kingdom,” Painted Heart suggested.

“If a human were to enter the Coldbelow, we would definitely sense it.”

Painted Heart said, “We wouldn’t if they entered the Coldbelow through a grotto-heaven. There have been precedents, and there are several grotto-heaven fragments in the Shattered Realm right now. There’s one more thing that’s always puzzled me: the humans had originally abandoned this region, but not long ago, they suddenly decided to reestablish their administrative divisions to reclaim it. Moreover, it turned out that King Cheng of Western Jin had been lying in wait there all along. It’s too bad he got lucky and managed to escape Lord Holy Warlock’s hunt.”

Sacred Heart looked pensive. “Personally, I also think that the human’s cultivation is far too low to be a match for the spirit embryo. Even I would find it difficult to kill her, let alone him. But if this was a trap set up by Western Jin, then it all makes sense.”

“What should we do now?”

“First, we must uncover the secret that human is hiding. Then, we have Redleaf sweep through Ning Province.”

“And if he refuses?” Painted Heart asked with some concern.

“Go to his tribe and steal out his unhatched offspring. If he refuses, I can cast a curse on that unborn bloodline and kill his descendants one by one. As long as he refuses, I’ll kill one each day until he submits.”

Painted Heart felt a pang of reluctance. “But... Redleaf has always been kind to me.”

“Don’t forget—our lord is on the verge of madness.”