The Inverted Dragon's Scale

They had thought of the worst. But when the truth was right in front of them, both Li Muyang and Qiandu had the feeling of complete devastation.

Qiandu’s eyes were brimming with tears, standing in the same place refusing to come forward.

Maybe everything she saw was fake, the body was not Lin Canghai’s and someone else——but what if that person was Lin Canghai?

She refused to accept a fact like that.

Li Muyang was also grief-stricken over his death. He and Lin Canghai had not known each other for a long time, and only met at Starry Sky Academy, but they were very close. Whenever he encountered danger, Lin Canghai always came to his rescue.

Thinking of his handsome and cute face, and that they would never see each other again in this life, there was a very painful feeling.

But, being in a dangerous place, right now he must be strong.

Li Muyang gently patted Qiandu’s shoulder and talked in a low, consoling voice. “Don’t worry, let’s see if it’s Canghai first——”

At this time tears were covering Qiandu’s cheeks, large beads of tears rolling down her beautiful cheeks.

“This is the illusion of water, no one usually come here, and the Chong Diao also took away Canghai in front of us——Who else could it be except him?” Qiandu choked back her sobs, tears pooling in her swollen, red-rimmed eyes.

She was a only child, and although she has many cousins, every one of them are full of ambition, their smile is kind and fake.

Lin Canghai is her aunt’s son and had been living at her house since a young age. They lived under the same roof and eat at the same table. Later, Lin Canghai went back to his own house, but they still kept in touch, and agreed to enrol to Starry Sky Academy together.

When there’s good food, he would let her eat first.

When there’s something fun, he would drag her over to see.

When there’s danger, he was always the first to stand in front of her.

He was not her little brother, but in Qiandu’s heart, a brother could not be any better than he.

But now the Chong Diao had taken him away, leaving only this pile of bones. How could she explain to his family? How could she explain to her aunt?

Thinking of all the good points of Lin Canghai, tears raced down Qiandu’s cheeks.

Li Muyang patted her consolingly on the shoulder and carefully walked towards the body.

The Chong Diao, one of the ten most vicious beasts of the divine continent, is not only fierce, powerful and extremely difficult to deal with, also very cunning. Who knew whether there were any traps around the corpse?

Li Muyang slowly approached the corpse, examining the half-eaten dead body.

The clothes on the corpse were torn to pieces, and the remains were visibly parts of a Starry Sky Academy starry cloud robe. During this training experience, most of the students were dressed in the beautiful starry cloud robe.

The abdomen of the corpse was cut open, and most of the flesh had been eaten clean.

The face was not visible, because the flesh on the face had also been eaten clean.

The whole body was bloody and mangled, but the figure of the body was similar to Lin Canghai’s medium build, thin body.

Li Muyang’s heart began to sink.

“Is it Canghai?” Qiandu was standing in the same place, still refusing to come closer.

“Not sure.” Li Muyang answered aloud. Looking more carefully at the carcass, he then said, “I don’t see Cangha’s sword.”

“His sword may have fallen off when the beast captured him, look at his arm——Canghai has a plum blossom mark on his arm.”

“Left arm or right arm?”

“Right arm.”

Li Muyang went over, lifted the right arm, and carefully searched for the plum blossom mark that Qiandu mentioned.

“No plum blossom mark.” Li Muyang exclaimed, fill of delight. “And he doesn’t have Canghai’s white skin——Canghai’s skin is very pale, the palest of us Starry Sky male students.”

Elated, Qiandu couldn’t care less about wiping the tears, trotted over and asking loudly “Really?”

She crouched down, examined the body carefully, and smiled. “It’s not Canghai. Canghai is whiter than him, and Canghai has calluses on the palm of his hands from frequent sword practice.”

“I don’t know who he is.” Li Muyang said aloud. The corpse was not Canghai, but a fellow student of the Starry Sky Academy. Li Muyang could not bear to see him die like this in this barren land, resisting the urge to vomit he fumbled around the pile of torn clothes, fished out a bottle of pills, a folded sheepskin scroll, and a name plate made of unknown materials, engraved with two simple and thick calligraphic words: Nine Heaven.

Li Muyang instantly realised the identity of this person. Before he entered the Weak Water, Tie Muxin repeatedly persuaded him against it and told him that a person of the Nine Heaven Sword Sect had jumped into the water and instantly sank, and after that there was not the slightest movement.

Li Muyang also remembered that the classmate was called Wu Chou. Wu Chou did not die inside the Weak water, but was captured by the Chong Diao and buried in a cave.

He was the first one of the group of students to have the courage to enter the Weak water. Li Muyang admired his courage.

But in the land of illusions, it is full of danger and life is uncertain.

Besides strength, luck is also needed——without Qiandu’s glass mirror, would they have been able to survive the lava attack? Without transforming to a dragon, there was no way he could fight against the Chong Diao in such a physically exhausted state.

“Life and death rests are the hands of fate. Wealth and fortune are arranged by the heaven.”

Li Muyang was reminded of these words.

“He’s called Wu Chou.” Li Muyang said to Qiandu.

He hid away the bottle of pills and the scroll in his bosom, wiped the nameplate and put away in his bosom.

Since they had met, he’s going to take these things back. To his close relatives, and to the master of his sect.

It was the only and last thing he could do for his fellow unfamiliar schoolmate.

Qiandu had conducted a search of the huge cave, and besides several strains of golden petal ginseng that has medicinal value and fire rockfruits that are beneficial to the body, there were only a large pile of bones. The bones were stacked together and some were crushed. You are among us and we are among you, there was no way of identifying who it belonged to.

“Canghia is not here.” Qiandu said loudly.

Li Muyang stood deep in thought for a moment, then replied, “Canghai was taken away by the Chong Diao and we have come here in the shortest time possible. The Chong Diao has been driven away by us, Canghai is supposed to be here——Is there another cave?”

The expression on Qiandu’s face changed. “It’s possible. These fierce beasts can live over thousands of years, there intelligence is very high. A crafty rabbit has three burrows, it makes sense that the Chong Diao has other caves——”

Li Muyang grumbled. “If I had known earlier, I would have followed the Chong Diao or not let it run away.”

At that time, Li Muyang only wanted to kill or drive it away, so they could hurry quickly Canghai. But turned out that Cangai was not here. They should have held the Chong Diao hostage——

“It’s not your fault. You just wholeheartedly wanted to save him.” Qiandu said consolingly. She scanned the surroundings and said, “Now that we know the Chong Diao likes to live in caves that are high up the cliffs, we will continue to look for these caves.”

She glanced at the corpse on the ground, “As long as Canghai is alive, I will never give up as long as I’ve not seen his corpse.”

“Good.” Li Muyang solemnly nodded. “I will accompany you.”

He dashed over to pull out all the golden petal ginsengs in the corner and stored them in his pockets and then picked all the fire rock fruits. Since there was not a source of water in the cave, he gave the fruits a wipe with his sleeve and handed one to Qiandu. “Eat one it replenishes your physical strength.”

Qiandu took a bite, not at all minding that it was dirty.

Fire rock fruit indeed has a miraculous effect. Li Muyang immediately felt refreshed, his qi flowing freely and the energy within his body rapidly increased. And the taste was sweet, sharp and juicy. It was the best fruit that Li Muyang had ever eaten.

Qiandu ate two, while Li Muyang ate five or six consecutively. They put away the remaining and headed down the mountain.

They did not hurried down the mountain, rather slowly walked, searching every cave on the Mountain of flames, looking out for the figure of the Chong Diao.

Unfortunately, there were many caves; they still had not found the presence of the Chong Diao, or the whereabouts of Lin Canghai.

They were almost at the foot of the mountain of flames, when suddenly there were several white figures leaping toward them from all directions.

They were dressed in white starry cloud robes and appear to be students of the Starry Sky.

But, meeting their classmates in this barren land, Li Muyang and Qiandu did not feel lucky at all.

Not to mention that they had come into conflict with these several people before.

Changbai seven sons, Zhong Feng, Zhong Yu, Zhong Lei, Zhong Ming, Zhong Chang, Zhong Bai, Zhong Shan. They had once fought with Lin Canghai over [The three-sword technique of autumn wind] in the school’s starry sky library.

Zhong Feng swept his eyes over Li Muyang and Qiandu, asking with an evil grin, “Classmates, any harvest up the mountain?”

“Whether there are any harvest or not, you can go up the mountain to find out.” Li Muyang said, his face devoid of any expression. He could sense that these guys had bad intentions. They were staring at him and Qiandu with greed in their eyes and naked lust.

Zhong Lei words were the most vicious. He looked up and down at Qiandu and Li Muyang and said grinning: “I heard that you two and Lin Canghai are a group. You entered the illusion together and now there are only two of you here, could it be that Lin Canghai is dead? If this is the case, it really is a pity, our brothers wanted to try his [The three-sword technique of autumn wind]?”

Li Muyang furtively exchanged a glance with Qiandu, reminding each other to be on guard.

These people seek revenge for the smallest grievance; they still remembered the trivial matters back then and took it to heart.