Chapter 132: Will and Soul

Could it be that this remnant of the true dragon has some connection with my master?

I said I wasn’t a person with a rich imagination, and I could only search for clues in the past events of my mind… and the thing that most reminded me of it was the dragon tomb in the old forest.

But… the dragon from Kunlun, which had tried to return to its homeland, had already been scattered to the four winds, leaving behind only a sad, dry skeleton. And there was also my beloved woman…

My thoughts were in a mess… The difference was that this time, when I thought of Ruoxue, I didn’t feel the pain in my soul… but a strange feeling of palpitations and heartbeats… I couldn’t tell how these two responsible and contradictory feelings were intertwined.

But no matter how inexplicable my feelings were, they were no match for the sad and lonely tone of my master’s voice. The words “How did you become like this after so many years?” contained a kind of concern that had been passed down for many years, a kind of helplessness, a kind of heartache, and a kind of nostalgia.

And there is the vicissitudes and sorrow of seeing old friends again…

His words seemed to have a magical effect, not only did I feel a heartache that had passed through many years, even the mood of the Taoist monk fluctuated… I don’t know why, I could feel what he was thinking, I seemed to see a picture, one by one, unfamiliar faces dressed in green or white clothes floated past my eyes… When I thought of them again, what did they look like?

Are these the people in Daotongzi’s memories?

However, Daotongzi and I were originally in an “unequal” position. He could look through my memories, but I could not look through his memories. So, I saw and roughly knew his mood, but I was at a loss as to who those people were.

It was the remnant spirit of the True Dragon, who had lost his mind, that suddenly seemed to understand after hearing the words of the Grand Master, and began to cry out to the sky in grief… full of infinite pain and sadness… as if he wanted to tell his old friends, but in the end he was speechless and could only end up crying out in this infinite grief…

The dragon’s wailing seemed to be driving my blood, affecting my soul, and my tears followed the dragon’s wailing… I could feel its sadness, its long years, its loss of sanity, its being trapped in the underground caves of the snowy mountain range… and its loss of consciousness and memory… This is a dragon that should soar in the sky…

As for the master, he never turned back, nor did he make any other movements. He just waited for the true dragon to finish its mournful whinny, then floated away. He reached out and gently patted the true dragon’s huge head, and said with a voice full of vicissitudes, “You and I have been together for many years. Even if I knew that this would happen, I, Old Li, would have been fine, but how could I see you fall to this state?”

As he spoke, the dragon’s eyes became more and more confused, but he also patted its head… The high-level master of the Snow Mountain lineage was absolutely suppressed by this method, but the master was only comforting… As for the dragon, it seemed that it didn’t quite understand my master’s words, but it also revealed a trace of instinctive affection for my master in its confusion.

After saying this, the master made a gesture… the bead in the Taoist boy’s hand flew towards him… his spiritual power had become so powerful that it could affect physical objects and even pick things up from a distance… just like some supernormal abilities in humans.

It is not known how many years of hardship it took for the cultivator to reach this level.

And he was able to hold the bead in midair without me and the Taoist monk being surprised… After all, ghosts can do this too, but it’s a lot more difficult, not as effortless as my master’s spirit body, as if his physical body was still there.

During this process, my master never said a word to me, but only looked at me… But that glance contained countless emotions, inexplicably making me feel at ease.

As for what I can do now, I can only wait… After all, the appearance of my master proves that the remnant spirit of the true dragon in the ninth gate is a friend, not an enemy, and that my previous choice was correct.

Only Daotongzi kept thinking to himself, and then he couldn’t help but let out a sound: “It’s amazing, so exquisite, such a well-connected game!”

I didn’t understand why Daotongzi said that, and I was very surprised. Daotongzi was probably also very excited and couldn’t help but say, “If this game was all done deliberately and under the circumstances of being told, it would have been destroyed by the rules of heaven long ago… After all, whether it’s the remnant soul of the true dragon, the master of the sword, or the remnant soul of your master… none of them can exist under the rules of heaven… at least not in this world. Every move they make and every rule they follow is bound. Just like an emperor, they are also subject to some constraints and cannot do whatever they want, otherwise the dynasty will be destroyed. But if…”

At this point, the Daotongzi was shocked again.

I then asked, “But what if?”

The Taoist priest was silent for a long time before he said, “But the Tao will always leave a way out in the midst of great calamity. The so-called Heaven helps those who help themselves is just that… If this way out is connected to the calamity that will happen, then the Tao allows them to intervene… but the rules are not deliberately made. Simply put, it is the fate of the layers of fate that made you come here to awaken them. Do you understand? In other words, your master did not break the rules, but planted the seeds along the way… If you discover them, you succeed, and if you miss them, you miss them. Who can do anything about it? Do you know that it is the most difficult thing to peel off the layers of cause and effect? Even the master is not willing to easily say that he can see through the entanglement of cause and effect in an ordinary person, past life and future life… But your master has been correct step by step, allowing you to come here naturally, naturally… In short, he did not interfere with any of this, and he did indeed plant the seeds.

When the Taoist monk said this, I was shocked… Grandmaster’s actions were indeed worthy of the Taoist monk’s surprise.

Because of this kind of thing, it can be said that the master has created countless coincidences… We came to the Snow Mountain, broke the prayer drum, entered the underground cave, the Taoist boy woke up, and along the way, chose the ninth gate, was bitten by the spell, and vomited blood… It was really countless coincidences and accidents that led to all this.

The best evidence is that even my master didn’t know that I, Chen Chengyi, could break the prayer drum…

I can’t even imagine that Grandmaster has been planning for this from the very beginning… I have traveled from China to abroad, and back to China again, and he has been everywhere, laying the groundwork for today.

Thinking this way, the Taoist acolyte also wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, looking at the back of my master, his eyes were particularly complicated… Our exchange of ideas was only a momentary thing, and at this time, my master still said to the remnant soul of the true dragon: “So, in those years I left you a chance, although it cost a lot, but it was worth it for you… This bead contains a fragment of your will. Now that I have taken it out, your soul has weakened over the years and become this weak state… So, I don’t know if you can still withstand the slightest bit of will from that time… If you can, you will regain your sanity and everything will be fine. If you can’t… then you will be scattered to the four winds. Are you willing to withstand this fragment of will?”

The master was asking about the remnant soul of the true dragon that had lost its mind… Any cultivator would understand the danger involved.

The will is a very mysterious existence, which is the core of the soul. The true dragon is confused, which is a manifestation of a broken will. But the magic of the will is that it cannot be measured by the size of the world. There is no difference in essence between a trace of will and a force of will.

When Master once explained it to me, he used the most common and easy-to-understand method, which is to “unfold a painting.” It’s like the ancient people used rice paper to paint a picture, which could be torn into several layers by a master… In fact, each layer is a genuine work, and they are all the same painting… This is the principle.

A trace of will is the will of the entire remnant of the true dragon. It and the soul complement each other, and after being nourished by the soul, it will become the will of the entire remnant.

At the same time, the will is nourished by the soul, and it also requires the strength of the soul… If the soul is not strong enough, it cannot withstand the will… It’s like the difference in brain capacity between one person and another. You can’t ask an ordinary person to withstand the computing power of a genius.

Thinking about it like this, it’s really dangerous… And I doubt if this lost remnant of the true dragon can understand what the master said and make a choice?

But something shocking happened… In the face of the words of the master, the confused remnant of the true dragon was actually very laborious, and nodded slightly… indicating agreement!

The Grand Master seemed to have anticipated this, and suddenly he shouted, then used his spiritual power to crush the black bead. Then, the Taoist acolyte and I heard a clear and crisp dragon roar. As the dragon roar faded, the remnant soul of the true dragon suddenly began to roar in pain, rolling and writhing.

How powerful is the remnant soul of a true dragon? The entire cave was suddenly shaken as if it were an earthquake. Even Dao Tongzi, who was clearly sitting on the ground, could not stabilize his body and rolled twice before he could barely lie on the ground…

But the master stood in the air, unmoving, his eyes fixed on the remnant of the true dragon… After a while, the remnant of the true dragon suddenly let out a most painful roar, and then the entire soul fell into a coma… and suddenly fell to the ground.