Chapter 608: Facing Untold Threats

It was a golden dragon. Maybe not the same one that had scorned him, but exactly the same breed, with the golden plates and vast wings he remembered.

In his flight over the ocean, Kai had spotted the golden dragon on the horizon several times, but never gotten close enough to risk a sprint with Thunderbird's Wings. The beast seemed to sense him by some deeper instinct, perhaps the same one that had made it scorn him, and it kept its distance. When he tried to close, he frequently found himself stopped by other threats.

His flight had taken him to crimson waters, getting closer to the true Blood Current. The dragon might have flown in that direction hoping to scare him off, but Kai wasn't going to be intimidated, not when he actually intended to go there anyway.

Now he was within sight, close enough to identify the dragon. He looked at it again, more carefully, his spiritual vision struggling to cohere.

Though parts of the dragon seemed monstrous to him, he decided that it was actually a sacred beast. It had some characteristics that still reminded him of monsters, so he wasn't surprised that he had been mistaken when he first saw a dragon. Maybe he was confused... or maybe it was possible for a creature to be part beast and part monster.

That should have been impossible, but he himself was an exception, and he had just learned that the world was far larger and stranger than he had known.

Kai let out a growl and shot forward, using the full speed of Thunderbird's Wings to close the distance. The golden dragon twisted its sinuous neck back and launched a burst of fire, but Kai spiraled around it easily, barely losing speed in the process, drawing ever closer...

He spotted the crimson sphere a split second before it struck from the side.

Once that attack might have killed him, but Kai's instincts had been honed by years of hunting and the combat against the invaders made him use a defensive phase instantly. The sphere of power hit like a mountain, but worse than that was how it exploded, trying to burn him from all sides, throwing him down.

Even though Kai endured without serious injuries, the impact drained his reserves and plunged him deep into the water. He irritably kicked his way back up to resume the chase... and felt tentacles wrap around his leg, pulling him into the depths.

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..

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After two weeks of top speed travel, Zae Zin Nim finally felt her destination. In that time, the only things she had needed to deal with were concerns about what they left behind, monsters that were no real threat, and a predatory Omilaena. She had cultivated during those weeks, but the true struggle began now.

As Lostwreck came into sight, Zae Zin Nim was mildly surprised. A dead continent, with so many terrible legends surrounding it, should have been a mass of black spikes and dangerous auras. Instead it looked... more wild than anything, rocky coasts covered in overgrown trees and bushes. More than any danger, what she saw was a land completely untouched by human hands.

"We're here." Omilaena stepped up beside her, lowering her goggles without a trace of her former teasing. "Looks like there's a barrier."

"Hmm." Zae Zin Nim had been focused on the land itself, but her wife was correct: there was a qi barrier surrounding the coasts, an indiscriminate field that would try to repel anyone.

It was the sort of barrier that took multiple Sky Souls in combination to create, so they must have been quite serious about preventing anyone from returning to Lostwreck. Given her current abilities, Zae Zin Nim didn't anticipate having any trouble. Rather than trying to bring down the entire barrier, which had deep reserves and was probably better left up, she flew ahead of the ship to pierce a hole.

When her palm hit the barrier, the impact swept back through her, but the Blackblood Physique easily absorbed it and allowed her to press inward. Zae Zin Nim placed both hands within the barrier of qi and pulled it open, just in time for the ship to fly through beneath her.

Inside the barrier, Lostwreck was as wild as before, though there was a curious lack of animal life. She wondered if the continent had any monsters, which would be very relevant if Kai was ever to join them. For the time being, even though she saw no danger, Zae Zin Nim remained high above the ground.

"Do you sense anything?" she asked Omilaena as she returned to the ship.

"No, and you wouldn't expect a human-borne illness to have lasted." Omilaena looked to her sharply through her goggles. "However, the Whispering Death annihilated an entire continent, so we'd best be cautious. I'll go first."

The other woman pulled out a blue cloth saturated in chakra and tied it over her nose and mouth before dropping off the side. On the way down, she surrounded herself in ice qi and generated a thin layer of mana over her body. She really wasn't taking chances, aside from the risk inherent in venturing into the forbidden continent.

Zae Zin Nim watched nervously, aware that it was possible that she would simply watch her wife die. But as Omilaena landed and explored, she seemed to grow more confident, carefully removing different barriers. It seemed that the land was as dead as they had expected, at least so far.

Once Omilaena gave the signal, Zae Zin Nim placed the ship back in her spatial bracelet and dropped down to the ground, surrounded by her Coldfire Corona just in case. When she touched the earth, it felt like any energy-rich wilderness, with no trace of the outside illness that had wiped out the continent. Omilaena moved up beside her and gestured for them to explore deeper.

As they pierced deeper into Lostwreck, Zae Zin Nim saw a variety of fruits dangling on nearby plants. They were rich in chakra, but that was a risk too far, even for their current circumstances. She paid more attention to the qi in the air, which was wild and free. The resources they had brought along from the Brightwind vault should be enough to take her to Sky Soul, but based on everything Zae Zin Nim had learned, she wasn't satisfied with just clawing her way there.

"Oh, there we go." Omilaena saw something ahead first and muttered sardonically, so Zae Zin Nim focused her cultivation.

At first it just looked like a strange lump in the forest, no different from the rest except for the odd shape. As she moved closer, Zae Zin Nim started to recognize the outlines and realized that this was an abandoned city. Once they came closer yet, she understood what had made her wife comment.

The city was covered in human bones.

They sprawled everywhere, some of them fallen in the street, some slumped over tables. There was even a set of rusted wheels in positions that suggested a cart had rotted out from between them, and several skeletons lay jumbled on the top. It was as if the city had been in the middle of normal life and then everyone had died in an instant, without a chance to even fear.

"This is probably the first treasure trove," Omilaena said, "but the risk increases too. Let me investigate to make sure that there's no trace of disease."

"Take your time." Zae Zin Nim sat down and cupped her hands in her lap. Even if they were rushing as quickly as possible to fight the invaders, they couldn't attain such power in a few days, so they needed to take the appropriate steps at the appropriate times.

And so, facing a city of bones, Zae Zin Nim began to cultivate with dead qi.

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..

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When Kai pushed his way back above the waves, his jaws were filled with the rubbery flesh of an octopus monster and his heart was filled with rage.

He could no longer see the golden dragon anywhere on the horizon, not even with his enhanced senses. The far-off creature that had struck him with the crimson sphere attack was nowhere to be seen as well. It seemed as though his progress had been knocked back.

But no, he wouldn't let a little setback like this stop him. Kai had nearly reached the Blood Current and he had the dragon's scent. The projectile-using creature was probably hunting him, so it couldn't be far off and it might even come to him. As for the octopus, he could avoid similar ambushes if he built up his aquatic abilities.

So the golden dragon hunt was on again, he just needed to refocus and change the hunt a little...