Kill it!

Qing Han barely hesitated before he raised the Cosmic Skycarver and slashed at the half-asleep baby dragon.

An almost physical consciousness descended upon them with great might, interrupting the attack and paralyzing them like insects trapped in amber. They couldn’t even move a muscle. A pair of eyes that sparkled like the stars opened up in the void and leveled a cold glare at Lu Yun and Qing Han.

“Aooo...” The dragon laying on Lu Yun’s shoulder crooned in babyish tones and opened sluggish eyes, throwing the silver eyes a tired glance before laying back down on the human’s shoulder.

“So it is you.” Violet radiance rose from Qing Han and formed a beautiful figure that stood protectively before the two youngsters. Empress Myrtlestar slowly rose into the air to approach the faintly silver eyes.

“Myrtlestar...” The powerful consciousness in the air rippled with the name. “Wasn’t your soul scattered? How did you regather your soul again?”

The wave of consciousness gradually took shape and clarified into a full set of thoughts; the pair of eyes gazed upon Empress Myrtlestar with startlement.

“Dragon Empress,” identified Myrtlestar.

“She is dead,” the consciousness rippled again. “I am nothing but a strand of her lingering obsession, here to protect the last of the dragons.”

“You can’t protect it like this,” said Lu Yun. His body burst into black flames as he rose into the air before the eyes.

“Impossible!” The eyes goggled in disbelief.

They were no regular eyes, but a powerful treasure. Even origin dao immortals would be suppressed in the face of their might, let alone a mere cultivator. And yet… this cultivator had managed to take flight under the pressure of the eyes!

“This is the dragon nest, the ancestral land of the dragons. Someone turned it into a tomb, which lays an even more vicious curse on your race than that of the Skandha Extinction Tomb. It’s a miracle that the dragons haven’t completely died out yet.”

The sinister evils of the Skandha Extinction Tomb were common knowledge, but few could see through how malicious this skydragon tomb was.

Enneawyrm Coffinbearers!

That must be the reason why the dragons had survived to this day.

Lu Yun wasn’t certain what exactly the Enneawyrm Coffinbearers was, and he couldn’t explain why the thought would come to him.

Both Empress Myrtlestar and the Dragon Empress fell silent.

“If my guess is right, there should also be a curse at the heart of the skydragon tomb. The remnants of the draconic imperial family have almost died out, and only by dispelling the curse may the budding shoots of your race grow.”

“I will go with you and suppress the curse,” Empress Myrtlestar spoke up suddenly. “The Dragon Emperor was a good friend of mine. He came to our rescue when my tribe was struck by misfortune. I must pay him back, or I will never fully return to life.”

She was yet a fragment of a soul. Though she’d found shelter in the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals, she had yet to be resurrected.

“Alright.”

The silver eyes looked at her gratefully. Empress Myrtlestar wasn’t what she had once been, but even her incomplete soul would be capable of doing things no regular human could imagine.

The Cosmic Skycarver and the Cosmic Sea were the Dragon Empress’ personal treasures, and Empress Myrtlestar hadn’t expected her to die in the dragon nest as well. After her death, her lingering obsession had attached itself to the silver eyes and released the two cosmic treasures.

“But… you cannot kill the baby dragon!” the empress transmitted violently. “It may draw upon the power of your soul, but it won’t do you any actual harm...”

“I’m not going to kill it.” Lu Yun raised his hands in a placating gesture. “What I said just now was just to lure you out.”

The silver eyes looked meaningfully at Lu Yun before fading from the air. With its departure came a relaxation of the pressure in the air. Situ Zong collapsed to the ground, unable to lift even a finger.

“Hand me the Big Dipper Starstone, Qing Han,” said Empress Myrtlestar.

Due to the protection of the Imperial Star, Qing Han had been exempted from the Dragon Empress’ might. He nodded and opened his hand, sending a shining starstone to Empress Myrtlestar.

The Big Dipper ruled over death and was the most vicious constellation in the sky. The starstone born from it contained great killing power as well. Qing Han couldn’t tap into its full power, but that didn’t mean Empress Myrtlestar couldn’t.

“Be careful. I can tell there’s an even worse power nurtured in the dragon tomb. If you have any more tricks up your sleeve, you should use them.” As she spoke, her figure faded into the starlight of the starstone and disappeared.

Lu Yun allowed himself a sigh of relief only after her departure. He then set up a grand formation with a thousand and eighty formation stones to isolate the area from the outside world.

“Young lord...” Situ Zong struggled to get up, but he had absolutely no strength left in him.

“Sleep for a while.” Lu Yun placed a pill in his mouth, one refined by Su Xiaoxiao herself. It wasn’t as potent as the Far-Reaching Captivating Fragrance, but it was something Situ Zong couldn’t resist at the moment. In no time at all, he started snoring.

“Seal off the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals, Qing Han… completely!” Lu Yun’s expression was stern.

Qing Han took out the scroll and shut it off in the middle of an Azure Dragon King sigh, then cut himself off from the Imperial Star to prevent Empress Myrtlestar from using it as a secondary pair of eyes.

“Kill... this dragon,” Lu Yun said as he reached behind him to grab the sleepy dragon.

The Dragon Empress could sense something unusual about Lu Yun’s soul, which was why she wanted the young dragon to draw upon the power of his soul to make its own whole again.

However, Lu Yun didn’t want a parasite attached to him. The empress had said it wouldn’t do him any harm, but souls were the core of all humans. Having a leech feeding off of his was bound to have some lasting effects.

“Really?” Qing Han asked after a pause.

“Do it!”

Thud!

With a shake of his hand, a flash of sword energy shot out of Qing Han’s Cosmic Skycarver like a beam starlight and cut the dragon’s head off.

……

“AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I will kill you all!!” At the heart of the tomb, the Dragon Empress’s consciousness burst into a desolate howl, reverberating through the entire tomb.

Countless immortals were alerted.