King of Creation
Chapter 378 - 374: The Tragedy in the Storage Ring

Chapter 378: Chapter 374: The Tragedy in the Storage Ring

"Please, Dragon Spirit, reveal your holiness!"

As Grand Deacon Qingyi’s voice echoed through the Black Dragon Ancient Land, the Rosy Clouds Dragon in the sky gently twisted, as if an animal were turning over. Its shape shuddered, and even the dragon’s claws and whiskers moved, making it seem as though it had come to life.

This sight left the group of martial artists, who had earned their places on the Black Dragon Ranking, dumbfounded.

The legend of the Black Dragon Ancient Land’s Dragon Spirit had been recounted to them countless times, but the shock of actually seeing it and feeling that the Rosy Clouds Dragon before them could indeed be a living entity was unimaginable.

As the Rosy Clouds Dragon gently rolled over, the Black Dragon Tokens floating above the heads of the twelve Temporary Stewards of Black Dragon Ancient Land all trembled at once. Qingyi, Zhii Sheng, and Hai Luoshuang each felt a powerful suction force emanating from above their heads in that instant.

In a split moment, the eyes of all twelve Temporary Stewards of Black Dragon Ancient Land revealed a mingled look of pain, loss, and unwillingness to let go.

With longing eyes, everyone watched as the Black Dragon Tokens above them ascended step by step into the high skies, rushing towards the Rosy Clouds Dragon.

Zhii Sheng of the Sword Origin Sect and Xie Lvu of the Qingluo Sect wished they could snatch back their Black Dragon Tokens into their bodies.

So close!

They felt that they were just a hair’s breadth away from reaching the threshold of the Vein Forging Realm. If only they could touch this threshold, then with diligent cultivation, in ten or maybe twenty years, or even longer, they definitely had a slim chance of stepping into the Vein Forging Realm.

But it was just short of enough.

As for Qingyi and Hai Luoshuang, the sight of the Black Dragon Tokens flying away filled them more with joy than regret!

The benefits of having a Black Dragon Token integrated into one’s body, if it must be described in one sentence, would be—only those who have experienced it truly know!

If one had to describe it, then the Black Dragon Token was like an internal Cultivation Secret Realm that significantly increased the odds of breaking through past bottlenecks by tenfold, or even several dozen or a hundredfold.

How much of an enhancement one achieved depended on the martial artist’s own enlightenment.

The reason for Qingyi and Hai Luoshuang’s happiness was because they were certain of one thing—by borrowing the power of the Black Dragon Token, they had touched the threshold of the Vein Forging Realm, and it was possible for them to achieve a breakthrough into it.

Whether they would break through depended on their personal fortune.

One thing was for sure, touching the threshold of the Vein Forging Realm didn’t guarantee a breakthrough into it. One might succeed, or might remain unsuccessful for a lifetime.

But without touching this threshold, there was absolutely no chance of breaking through into the Vein Forging Realm.

That was the remarkable benefit of the Black Dragon Token; it was almost as though it was creating Vein Forging Realm powerhouses. This was also another reason why the Black Dragon Ranking tournament was so coveted.

Contrasting the complex emotions of these twelve Temporary Stewards, the Second Elder Jis Che and Seventh Elder Zhongli Jing from Qiyun Sect were full of expectation and joy that was hard to conceal.

With the first and second places of the Black Dragon Ranking belonging to Qiyun Sect, it meant that, come the next opening of the Black Dragon Ancient Land, four of the twelve Temporary Steward positions would belong to Qiyun Sect.

Four spots!

If luck was on their side, perhaps in a few years, Qiyun Sect might see the emergence of a second Vein Forging Realm powerhouse.

Whoosh!

Almost simultaneously, the twelve ascending Black Dragon Tokens vanished into the body of the Rosy Clouds Dragon and disappeared from sight.

At the same time, the Rosy Clouds Dragon in the sky suddenly raised its head and swished its tail, issuing a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering Dragon Roar!

Within the Dragon Roar, the aura of the dragon was like a mountain, like a prison!

This single Dragon Roar left everyone momentarily stunned.

Even Caiyi, with her immense Divine Soul Power, was no exception as her sparkling eyes briefly glazed over.

However, Ye Zhen was different. When the Dragon Roar sounded, he looked at the storage ring on his little finger in utter shock!

Ye Zhen even smelled a hint of burning flesh.

With a thought, the Spiritual Power inside Ye Zhen surged towards his little finger, starting to heal the finger’s scorched skin, which was now peeling away to reveal the reddening flesh and bone beneath.

That’s right, Ye Zhen was injured.

In that heaven-shaking Dragon Roar, the storage ring on Ye Zhen’s little finger had suddenly become unbearably hot, hotter than a red-hot iron, instantly charring the skin on his finger to a crisp.

You must understand, Ye Zhen’s Acquired Spiritual Body had long since surpassed the stage of flesh refinement; not even a red-hot iron could cause his flesh to char instantly.

But this bizarre incident occurred right under Ye Zhen’s eyes.

"What exactly is going on?"

Ye Zhen’s mind raced.

Could it be related to the storage ring?

Ye Zhen’s storage ring was a High Grade Treasure Ring, obtained from Floating Cloud Master in the Floating Cloud Cave, with a remarkably large internal space. Yet Ye Zhen couldn’t figure out what was special about it, nor could he see anything extraordinary.

"Could it be something inside the storage ring?"

With a thought of Divine Sense, Ye Zhen’s Divine Sense instantly probed into his storage ring.

Then, Ye Zhen was dumbfounded.

"Is this really my storage ring?"

Looking at the chaos inside the ring, as if it had been through a layer of lava, Ye Zhen was utterly stunned.

The inside of the storage ring indeed appeared as if it had been blasted by lava.

Ye Zhen’s several sets of clothes for changing were directly turned to ash, and along with the clothes, millions of silver notes, and nearly a million gold notes, had all turned to a pile of ashes. As soon as Divine Sense touched them, they became a heap of black dust.

Not just the silver and gold notes, even those sixty to seventy thousand Low Grade Spirit Crystals had melted into a big lump. However, one could still sense the energy fluctuations, so they were still usable.

But, to cut it down, getting half would be considered good.

The three thousand Mid-grade Spirit Crystals that Ye Zhen had carefully kept from using, which he got from the Floating Cloud Cave, were the same, including the leftover High Grade Spirit Crystals from the bouts, which the Second Elder Jis Che specially gave to restore Spiritual Power, had melted into one big lump.

As for the Secret Manuals, Jade Scrolls, and Jade Talismans inside, they were either turned to ash or had become a big lump, completely ruined.

When Ye Zhen saw the bare Green Wing Divine Bow with only the bow body remaining, his heart gave a fierce twitch, and he felt like crying but no tears would come.

The four or five Low Grade Artifacts that Ye Zhen kept as spares being ruined wasn’t worth mentioning, but the Green Wing Divine Bow was a Mid-grade Treasure, and even its strings had turned to ashes.

Ye Zhen felt an overwhelming urge to weep without tears.

This was like sitting idle at home and disaster falling from the sky.

Spirit Crystals lost could be earned again, but a Mid-grade Treasure, especially a bow-type Mid-grade Treasure, was not something one could necessarily buy even with silver.

Almost everything in the storage ring had been ruined by that incomprehensible fluctuation.

In that terrifying wave of lava-like fluctuation within the storage ring, only three items were preserved.

The first was the Stone Marrow Pearl that Ye Zhen obtained after the Stone Marrow Spirit Liquid Root was completely destroyed when he was still a servant disciple in a cliff secret cave. The second item was the watermelon-sized, bizarre black pearl that Ye Zhen got from the Black Water Legacy Pearl, which was now completely intact.

The third item was the Blood Spirit Bead that Ye Zhen obtained after slaying the Blood God Messenger of the Blood God Sect.

Originally, the Blood Spirit Bead was stored by Ye Zhen inside a large porcelain bottle, but now the bottle had turned into liquid, yet the Blood Spirit Bead still shone with a blood-colored halo, mysterious and unfathomable.

Within the storage ring, Ye Zhen’s Divine Sense surveyed these three items, contemplating a question: there is no smoke without fire, the storage ring could isolate nearly all Spiritual Power fluctuations, so where did the lava inside the storage ring come from?

Clearly, these three items were the most suspicious.

Which item would be the culprit causing these tearfully tragic consequences?

Ye Zhen’s eyebrows knitted tightly together.

Having said so much, actually, all this happened in an instant. The sound of the Dragon Roar from the Rosy Clouds Dragon in the sky had just ended.

Almost as soon as the Dragon Roar fell silent, the body of the Rosy Clouds Dragon trembled suddenly. It shot out sixty-seven streaks of rosy light of varying thickness towards the martial artists on the Black Dragon Platform below.

The rosy light was incredibly fast, with gold flickers shimmering within it. The light that flew towards the martial artists ranked in the top ten on the Black Dragon Ranking had a dragon-form golden light faintly emerging within.

Seeing these streaks of rosy light, a deep jealousy uncontrollably emerged in everyone’s eyes, especially the eyes of the Soul Sea Realm powerhouses—a thick, deep green with envy.

Compared to the benefits the Black Dragon Tokens brought to them, the gold-flecked rosy light merging into the bodies of the various martial artists made them particularly envious.

The opening of the Black Dragon Ancient Land was like a grand feast, and they, the temporary stewards hosting the Black Dragon Ancient Land, were just a group of guards with meager compensation.

The real feast was for those martial artists who made it into the top seventy-two of the Black Dragon Ranking to enjoy, or more precisely, for those talented martial artists who entered the top ten of the Black Dragon Ranking.

The amount of benefit each martial artist enjoyed was so visually distinct that it could be seen with the naked eye.

For instance, the large cluster of rosy light with a golden dragon-form merging into Ye Zhen, the first on the Black Dragon Ranking, was like a cloud and was slightly more than the sum of the dragon-form rosy light enjoyed by the second to the seventy-second ranked martial artists.

Similarly, the cluster of dragon-form rosy light merging into the body of Caiyi, the second on the Black Dragon Ranking, was more than the total of the dragon-form rosy light from the third to the seventy-second places.

It was the same up until the tenth rank.

Starting from the eleventh place on the Black Dragon Ranking, the amount of dragon-form rosy light they enjoyed sharply decreased.

If the martial artist ranked tenth enjoyed a hundred points of dragon-form rosy light, then the eleventh place would receive rosy light as thick as a bucket, perhaps only twenty points, or even less than that, sharply decreased by several times.

The gold value of being in the top ten of the Black Dragon Ranking comes from this!

But even the sharply decreased dragon-form rosy light could make the eyes of those Soul Sea Realm experts turn bloodshot red.

Decreased by several times, it was still a feast.

Just as that large cluster of gold-flecked dragon-form rosy light merged into Ye Zhen’s body, Ye Zhen’s body first trembled, then with a thunderous bang, the four Innate Bloodlines within his body suddenly shook violently! (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for it at Qidian.com. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to continue reading.)