Chapter Ninety-Two: The Dragon Maiden Takes Form, One Man Holds the Gate Alone (Two Chapters, 7,000 Words; Please Support at the Beginning of the Month)

“Sister Xiao, do you think the iron tower itself is the Dragon-Sealing Well?”

Standing at the edge of the bottomless Nine Dragons Pool, Wang Cheng looked up at the towering eighteen-story cast iron octagonal pavilion that pierced the clouds.

His memories held many legends about the Dragon-Sealing Well, all tied to the water management achievements of ancient peoples throughout successive dynasties.

There was the “Yu King’s Dragon-Sealing Well” of Yuzhou, the “Shun Well” by the Great Ming Lake, the “Zhiqi Well” on Turtle Mountain in Huaiyin, the “Dragon-Sealing Pillar” in Dragon-Sealing Village of Wushan, and countless others.

The most famous among them were those at the Beixin Bridge and Tanzhe Temple in Yujing City.

The current emperor, who claimed to be the rightful successor, once donned a white hat with the help of a monk. When the capital moved from the ancient city of Jinling to Yujing, the Dragon King beneath the North Sea’s ocean spring was never released.

Yet none of the legendary Dragon-Sealing Wells were shaped like a pillar.

Up close, this iron tower had no doors or windows, bearing only the shape of a pagoda. With ancient bells and thousands of dangling corpses swaying gently, it looked like an iron coffin.

“This iron tower is hollow; the entrance is at the very top.

Xiao Cheng, don’t just stand there—start climbing. I’ll carry you up.”

Yun Xiao brusquely ordered Wang Cheng to work, easily hopping onto his back and giving his rear a nudge with her heel.

Wang Cheng thought silently, “Good thing you’re a dragon, your lifespan far outlasts mine. If you were an ordinary family’s daughter, you’d surely be one of those spoiled, lazy leftover women who just lounge at home, relying on their family status.”

Helpless, he cupped her thighs with both hands. The patterns on his dragon robe glowed softly, and invisible winds and thunder energies swirled around him.

With a gentle leap, he sprang upward like an onion bursting from dry earth, rising a full yard to step on the protruding cast iron eave of the first floor.

Seeing a shriveled corpse dangling nearby barely twitch its eyelid and make no other movement, he finally relaxed.

Yun Xiao whispered by his ear with a breath fragrant as orchids:

“When the Stone Drum hooks the dragon upside down, our fate as flood dragons won’t trigger the Dragon-Sealing Well’s curse; others might not be so lucky.

If luck favors us, you as my guard might not need to do anything, and we’ll walk out safely again.”

Wang Cheng felt a tickle on his neck and dodged slightly.

“Here’s hoping.”

He silently quickened his pace, stepping lightly on the eaves, harnessing wind and thunder energies to surge upward like a graceful azure dragon straight to the top.

In just over ten breaths, Wang Cheng’s final leap landed him safely atop the tower.

Here there was no spire, only a pavilion with flying eaves covering the well’s mouth—a narrow opening leading down into a hollow vertical shaft, small at the top but vast within.

Wang Cheng immediately spotted a beautiful figure coiled at the bottom on a smooth blue stone.

It was a silver-white flood dragon nearly thirty feet long.

His eyes filled with awe:

“Stunning! Absolutely stunning!”

It wasn’t a matter of special preference, but the instinct of every cultivator, every minister of the Great Way.

Legend held that the talismanic systems across Divine Land had three main origins: Dragon and Phoenix Patterns, Cloud and Thunder Script, and Jade Characters in Red Ink.

These were tangible manifestations of the Great Way’s response to different phenomena.

Of these, the highest rank, Dragon and Phoenix Patterns, were inspired by dragons, phoenixes, and various mythical beasts of mountains and seas.

For example, the Classic of Mountains and Seas records:

“There is a bird resembling a chicken, adorned with five-colored patterns. It is called the phoenix, with ‘Virtue’ written on its head, ‘Righteousness’ on its wings, ‘Propriety’ on its back, ‘Benevolence’ on its breast, and ‘Faith’ on its abdomen.”

According to tradition, abstract concepts like Virtue, Righteousness, Propriety, Benevolence, and Faith never arise naturally in the world—they originate from the phoenix.

Thus, dragons and phoenixes inherently represent aspects of the Great Way, capable of absorbing the highest-grade Dao energy. Being near them accelerates one’s cultivation greatly.

Seeing the true form of Yan Yunxiao’s flood dragon was like beholding the embodiment of the Dao itself—just like admiring a beauty, what looks naturally harmonious is very likely beautiful.

His gaze shifted downward, noticing a silver-white flood dragon’s discarded skin spread over the blue stone, shimmering brilliantly in the light through the square hole of the Four Seas Currency.

In an instant, his previous admiration for a century-old silver ring snake skin plummeted from sweet to sour in just a day.

His eyes fixed solely on this flood dragon’s shed skin, and he clenched his mouth tightly to prevent tears of excitement from escaping.

“If I swallowed this whole, wouldn’t I ascend on the spot and transform directly into the Azure Dragon of the Four Symbols?”

Yun Xiao seemed to hear him swallowing and tilted her head, looking at his profile.

“Feels like you’re thinking something improper. Let’s hurry and get down.”

Then, like a knight urging a horse with spurs, she kicked his rear again with her heel.

Wang Cheng hid his thoughts, realizing that to achieve his goals in the future, he would have to be cunning.

Whether to use the art of deprivation to become a little clothing fanatic or sacrifice his looks with the charm of a handsome man was a matter for another time.

Leaping again, his dragon robe billowed, mastering wind and thunder energies with growing skill, he landed lightly beside the flood dragon and set Yun Xiao down.

Curious, he reached out to touch the scales, feeling the coolness of gold and jade, and detecting faint, long-spaced pulses.

This proved she was merely dormant, not dead.

“Hehe, how is it? White, long, and slender—is it nice to the touch?”

Only after Yun Xiao checked her true form and teased him did Wang Cheng clear his throat and reluctantly retract his hand.

Turning around, he saw Yun Xiao standing by the dragon’s foot, pointing at the eagle-like left claw.

“This is the source of the historical sediment and also the object my Dragon-Sealing Well suppresses.”

Wang Cheng followed her slender, fair finger.

A dark iron chain was locked around the flood dragon’s ankle.

The other end wrapped around a thick Dragon-Sealing Pillar at the well’s bottom, then extended upward, splitting into nine, then subdividing into hundreds and thousands of chains.

Ultimately, they stretched through small holes in the tower walls, transforming into hooks suspending countless hanging corpses.

Most peculiar were the chains, seemingly made of crude cast iron but covered with fine scale-like patterns, as if nine demon dragons had been passively fused into a single chain.

“The story of the Nine Dragon River’s origin, the Stone Drum hooking dragons, happened so long ago it’s become historical sediment. The nine demon dragons vanished without a trace, not even their corpses remain.

Only the oral stories and undying resentment have condensed onto the cast iron fishing hooks that killed them.

This is the vessel of all historical sediment.

I had prepared the King of Coins’ Tide Shooting, the Iron Chain Blocking the River, and the Dragon-Sealing Well in advance, and personally brought this murderous hook into the well.”

After Yun Xiao’s explanation, Wang Cheng understood the sealing principle of this historical sediment.

The Dragon-Sealing Well restrains flood dragons—allowing entry but no exit.

The original seal succeeded and failed simultaneously; one might say Yun Xiao suppressed the historical sediment, or that the sediment trapped her.

Over more than twenty years of worship, she had merged with the earth’s pulse flowing through this ley line nexus, becoming a living dragon vein and a true local deity—Lady Yan.

What trapped her was not only the historical sediment and the Dragon-Sealing Well, but also the immense will of all beings praying for her to protect the Nine Dragon River basin.

Now, at last, a turning point.

Once she can take human form, she can stride proudly out of the Dragon-Sealing Well.

Bound by her status and duties as a local deity, she may not be free to roam the heavens, but at least she can move freely within her divine domain.

The Nine Dragon River basin and the coastal governance of Minzhou were all included.

“Sister Xiao, my Dharma Protector spirit tells me that the battle between the two fleets behind us has been decided.

Most have been annihilated, only Pu Shouying and Iron Abacus have pursued us.

Time is tight; it’s already the afternoon of the first day of the second month. You should begin now and try to complete your transformation by tomorrow.”

“It will take at least a day; around this time tomorrow is about right. Sister entrusts her life to you.

If it succeeds, I will grant you any wish within my power.”

Yun Xiao was about to shed her clothes and slip into the mouth of her true form, but suddenly remembered something and called Wang Cheng back.

“Wait! Xiao Cheng, take off Wang Fugui’s skin and reveal your true form for me to see.”

“Why?” Wang Cheng asked in confusion.

It wasn’t a big deal, so he complied immediately.

The graceful, cold-beautiful dragon woman examined him carefully, even touching his face and chest muscles, then nodded seriously.

“Alright.

When I was young, my brothers said monsters must look at many beautiful beings of the opposite sex before transforming.

The more beautiful they see, the more beautiful they’ll be when they transform!

Among the people I know, you’re the most handsome. A last-minute polish doesn’t go unrewarded.”

Having said that, she began undressing without treating him as a stranger.

Wang Cheng caught a glimpse of the shimmering snow-white skin beneath her clothes, blushing deeply. He hurriedly donned Wang Fugui’s disguise again and fled.

Though flattered by the compliment, and the reasoning sounded quite metaphysical, Wang Cheng suspected his naive sister was likely tricked by her lustful brothers.

By male instinct, he was sure this was just a pretext for flood dragons to ogle beautiful women.

Believing they did it to refine their methods was as unlikely as him being the First Emperor.

“Phew—!”

Yun Xiao had already slipped into her true form’s mouth.

Not feeding herself snacks, but accelerating resonance through the seven orifices and nine apertures on her body, the critical channels for internal-external communication.

She was only at seventh rank; if her soul left her body, this human form, nurtured over twenty-two years, would die instantly.

Soon, the flood dragon’s body emitted a drumming heartbeat and clear breathing.

Exhaling white mist that wove into a luminous cocoon, enveloping the entire dragon, pulsating rhythmically.

Fish, lizards, snakes, and other scaled creatures, as well as winged insects, were classified as “scale insects.”

As the leader of scale insects, with mane, scales, and eagle claws, the flood dragon breaking out of its cocoon like a butterfly from a chrysalis seemed quite fitting.

Wang Cheng leapt back to the “well mouth,” hiding inside the pavilion, firmly shielding the transforming Yun Xiao behind him.

Before them, at the source of the Nine Dragon River, the fierce Lady of West Lake, Tang Miaofu, led the first wave of pursuers ashore, advancing to the foot of the iron tower.

“The dragon-seeking compass from the ship’s bow shows Lady Yan is inside the tower.

Climb up; I’ll hold the front lines for you.”