Chapter 84: Dragon Girl Arc (Part 1)

Mei Qujun sat in the middle of the tea chair, an expression of understanding on his face. He was not surprised at all that the two had returned.

Yun Xueqing stared fixedly at him. “What exactly do you want to do?”

He had returned the Tianquan Sword to him, yet sent people to kill him. He had lured him here, yet refused to state his purpose clearly.

“What I want to do, I said a long time ago,” Mei Qujun replied as he lifted his teacup and took a slow sip, utterly composed. “You and I have never been enemies.”

Yun Xueqing did not understand, but then he saw Mei Qujun set the teacup down on the table. A layer of eerie light flickered in his deep eyes.

Yun Xueqing’s heart jolted. It felt as if someone had gripped his heart and squeezed it painfully. The next second, his vision went white, and the scene changed.

He arrived in a strange place. Mei Qujun’s calm voice echoed in his ears: “No need for explanations. The dream holds the answers you seek.”

Yun Xueqing surveyed his unfamiliar surroundings. Unlike the desolate town, this place glittered with brilliant lights amid towering buildings. Even in the dead of night, the radiant glow pierced the darkness. Crowded streets bustled with people, lively and prosperous—a sight Yun Xueqing had never seen before.

Yun Xueqing turned his head and spotted Fu Wuxuan beside him. As expected, he had been pulled into this place as well.

Yun Xueqing called out to him twice, but Fu Wuxuan seemed immersed in this bizarre illusory dream, struggling to snap out of it. He stared blankly at the scene.

Yun Xueqing tilted his head. “Is there something special about this place?”

The location was novel, but nothing extraordinary. What could make Fu Wuxuan lose himself like this?

Fu Wuxuan restrained the bewilderment on his face, his tone complex. “This might be a domain he constructed, and the scene before us is the world before the apocalypse.”

An ordinary city, ordinary streets—a place that had once been utterly commonplace, now a luxury beyond reach.

Only two years had passed, yet it felt like an eternity.

His expression grew complicated. Suddenly, he asked Yun Xueqing, “You’ve heard all about me. Can you tell me about your past?”

Before Yun Xueqing had displayed his extraordinary strength, Fu Wuxuan had thought he was just an Oracle with some chuunibyou delusions.

But after witnessing that one sword strike, he suddenly believed everything Yun Xueqing had said about his past was true.

That sword was not a power any current Oracle possessed. Even an S-Rank Oracle standing before him would have been effortlessly slain.

Such a heaven-defying feat—how else could it be achieved except through cultivation immortality!

At that thought, even the familiar streets before him could not stir any nostalgia. Fu Wuxuan felt dazed: What kind of formidable existence was the person he sought to pursue?

Yun Xueqing saw the turmoil in his eyes and said calmly, “My past is nothing interesting. Nothing more than cultivating on a mountain and slaying demons.”

“On a mountain?” Fu Wuxuan asked. “Which one?”

Yun Xueqing fell silent for a moment before answering, “The mountain is gone. No need to dwell on it.”

No sooner had he spoken than a earth-shattering rumble echoed from the distance!

The pitch-black night sky suddenly tore open, a massive blue-black Black Hole!

Billowing black smoke poured from the Black Hole, followed by black water that cascaded down like a polluted waterfall. Nearby passersby caught sight of it and screamed in panic.

Fu Wuxuan’s face paled. “I know what he’s trying to do…”

Yun Xueqing saw his pallor and quickly asked, “What?”

Fu Wuxuan gave a bitter smile. “That fake Shen Lezhen is quite capable. He didn’t pull us into a domain he created. Instead, he dragged us into my memories.”

And what they were experiencing now was the S-Rank Weird—the Dragon Girl’s—descent upon the world, a memory he never wanted to relive.

Fu Wuxuan covered half his eye with his hand, ruffled his disheveled hair, and said in a bored tone, finding bitter humor in it. “Can you knock me out? I don’t want to watch this again.”

Yun Xueqing shook his head firmly in refusal. “Passing out in a place like this is not a good idea.”

Fu Wuxuan nodded obediently at his words, forcing a smile. “Then we’ll go through it again. This fake Shen Le… maybe he’s trying to reenact the past to cure my PTSD or something.”

As he spoke, a familiar, nonchalant yet slightly flippant smile returned to his face. “If it really works, he might actually be a good guy.”

But though his face smiled, his eyes held no mirth.

Yun Xueqing remained expressionless, his tone calm. “Let’s go take a look.”

The two headed toward the Black Hole, but they could not get close.

Black water gushed from the Black Hole in ever-increasing volume and speed. In just a few minutes, it had risen enough to submerge ankles.

Yet the Black Hole was not satisfied. The pitch-black sky tore open with several more rifts, black water pouring out like pus from ruptured, corrupted skin, cascading from the heavens.

Those drenched by the black water underwent inevitable mutations. Their skin rotted and swelled red, pained groans escaping their lips before the black water fully consumed them.

The two hid in a building, barely avoiding the black water. Fu Wuxuan’s face was grave as he stared coldly at the sky, uncharacteristically silent. He took two umbrellas from his Storage Finger Ring and handed one to Yun Xueqing.

Yun Xueqing examined the ordinary black umbrella, which stirred a faint memory—the first time they met, Fu Wuxuan had also held an umbrella.

Unaware that Yun Xueqing’s thoughts had wandered so far, Fu Wuxuan assumed he was just waiting for an explanation. “These umbrellas have special Oracle enhancements. They’ll block the black water from corroding us.”

Yun Xueqing’s expression grew complex. “You mentioned before that an entire major city was reduced to just seven survivors because of one S-Rank Weird.”

Fu Wuxuan replied, “That’s right. Half of them died because they were caught off guard and eroded by the black water.”

Back then, those without Spirit Energy were especially insignificant, utterly powerless against an S-Rank Weird. Even mere skin exposure to the air laced with black smoke caused discomfort; contact with the black water meant a high chance of death.

The black smoke drifting in the air and the black water falling from the sky were like a vicious plague, claiming most lives.

Fu Wuxuan closed his eyes, as if recalling. “No one knew where this disaster came from. It harmed everyone, and we had no idea of its origin.”

“The black smoke drifting from the Black Hole was actually manifested Weird Energy. Those who touched it didn’t die immediately like with the black water. At first, their skin just felt uncomfortable, but in reality, it was slowly altering their bodies.”

Yun Xueqing guessed, “The beginning of Weirdification?”

“Yes,” Fu Wuxuan said slowly and calmly, as if recounting a story unrelated to himself. “Some couldn’t withstand the Weirdification and turned into bizarre monsters. Others resisted the mutation and gained extraordinary abilities, becoming what we now call Oracles.”

Fu Wuxuan tugged at the corner of his mouth, his smile sardonic. “At that time, the Dragon Girl hadn’t even appeared yet, and we were already in chaos. Oracles banded together, slaying the Weirdified monsters while carving out territories in the chaos, seizing resources, establishing factions—utter pandemonium.”

He couldn’t hold back and actually laughed, though the smile carried clear mockery. “Those fighting over territory didn’t realize the world hadn’t truly fallen into chaos. What their eyes saw wasn’t real, the place they stood wasn’t real, and what they fought for was meaningless. They weren’t dragged into a city—it was everyone from our city who had been pulled into the Dragon Girl’s Weird Domain.”

Yun Xueqing frowned. “An entire city’s worth of people?”

An S-Rank Weird possessed such immense power.

Fu Wuxuan nodded. “A huge group of us were trapped in that hellish place for a month, though only a single day passed outside.”

Almost everyone died inside. The Weirds in the Weird Domain crawled out through exits created by the Dragon Girl.

That month they spent there wasn’t real. Only after it ended did the world’s true destruction begin, everything falling apart completely.

Yun Xueqing listened, feeling a chill in his teeth. He could only avert his gaze. “If you were there for a month, doesn’t that mean we…”

Fu Wuxuan gave a bitter smile. “Perhaps. The day the Dragon Girl arrived was December 25th, two years ago.”

No sooner had he said it than he froze.

Li Yulin had said the Lord of the Weird would descend on December 25th.

The same date—too much of a coincidence. Fu Wuxuan’s face darkened. “The Lord of the Weird might not be the leader of all Weirds, but an S-Rank Weird.”

Yun Xueqing’s expression grew equally grave. The image of the Calamity God flashed in his mind, and just recalling it caused a stab of pain. “An S-Rank Weird?”

Would this already ravaged world have to endure another S-Rank Weird’s descent?

Yun Xueqing lifted his head. Bathed in moonlight, his face seemed cloaked in frost and snow.

His pitch-black and white eyes fixed on Fu Wuxuan. “So, Mei Qujun pulled us into this ‘world’ for a reason. He must have some message for me.”

Everything felt too deliberate. It might be connected to Li Yulin’s prophecy.

Fu Wuxuan opened his mouth to say something when a beam of light shone on them. A boisterous male voice called out, “Hey, you two! Who are you, and what are you doing here?”