Chapter 87: Kun-Peng
Two figures approached from the south, too small to make out clearly at first. However, as they drew closer, their features became clear.
The first one was none other than Geng Long!
He wore his Bone General armor, and had something slung over his back in a sack.
Roughly a hundred meters to the west of him, and a bit further back, was another tall, burly man, also clad in bone armor, with a similar sack hanging over his shoulder.
As soon as Bao saw Geng Long, her heart began to thump, and she felt her rage beginning to burn. However, instead of the hot, uncontrollable rage from years ago that burned like a wildfire, this rage was like a sea of lava, slow-moving but all-destructive.
Before anything else could happen, Bao immediately pulled out her Phoenix Crown and put it onto her head.
“Geng Long,” she growled, then she took two steps forward.
Next to her, Sunan also stepped forward, his Wind Sabre at the ready. Although nobody noticed it, not even Sunan himself, he was sweating more than usual, and had begun to cough occasionally.
The other leaders of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, as well as Sun Mai and Blackleaf, all stirred, some of them drawing weapons, and others simply taking ready stances.
When Geng Long was about fifty meters away, Bao raised her voice, imbuing it with some Qi to make it boom like thunder.
“Stop right there, Geng Long.”
Responding with his own Qi-imbued voice, Geng Long said, “That’s Bone General Geng to you, bitch.”
His profanity and disrespect instantly caused cries of anger to rise up from the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, and the air soon filled with the sounds of weapons being drawn.
“How dare you!”
“This bastard needs to die!”
“The Phoenix Sovereign killed two of the Demon Emperor’s generals already, it seems today is the day to kill a third!”
Geng Long subsequently flung the sack off of his shoulder, sending it thumping into the sand in front of him. Whatever was inside the sack was relatively large, reaching all the way up to Geng Long’s waist level. Reaching out, he untied the sack, allowing it to slip down to reveal a four-sided cauldron, greenish-colored and covered with carvings of demonic creatures.
The Bone Slicer a bit further west followed suit.
“I was hoping to kill you myself, Bao,” Geng Long said. “But I supposed watching you get killed will have to do.”
“Come fight me one-on-one,” Bao replied. “We’ll see who kills who. The last two times we met you ran away like the coward rat you are.”
Geng Long’s jaw twitched for a moment, but he didn’t respond directly. Instead, he reached into a pouch at his waist and pulled out a jade pendant, which he held out directly over the cauldron.
“It’s time to end this nonsense,” Geng Long said. “And ironically, the Dragon-Phoenix Sect will be brought to death… by dragons.” Chuckling, he crushed the jade pendant and then dropped the pieces into the cauldron.
Immediately, rumbling sounds filled the air that seemed to come from another time and place. Simultaneously, the ground began to vibrate beneath their feet. A moment later, black flames erupted from the cauldron, shooting dozens of meters up into the air as they radiated, not heat, but intense cold.
Then, a howl echoed out, hoarse and grating, seemingly filled with rage and sorrow and hatred.
A moment later, another howl echoed out from further to the west, where the Bone Slicer had crushed a similar jade pendant and tossed it into the cauldron he had been carrying.
Before anyone could do anything, two more pillars of freezing black flame shot up far to the north, on the other side of the amassed Dragon-Phoenix Sect.
The howls erupting from within the cauldrons joined together in a vicious, angry harmony that caused the skin to crawl and the heart to tremble.
The ground continued to tremble harder and harder, until it was quaking with such intensity that it was difficult for some of the lower-level Dragon-Phoenix Sect fighters, as well as the ordinary family members, to keep on their feet.
Meanwhile, the four cauldrons were expanding, growing twice, three times, ten times larger than before.
Finally, a burst of cold air far more frigid than the previous coldness spread out in all directions as an enormous figure burst out of Geng Long’s cauldron.
It was like a huge snake, with long horns and cold eyes, as well as two viciously-clawed talons. It was huge, fully 100 meters long, with scales so black they glinted with violet light. Shockingly, much of the creature was in a state of decay, as if it had been dragged up from the grave. There were even bones visible on many parts of its body, and in some areas, it was possible to look right through it to the other side.
As the creature shot out of the cauldron, it howled with rage, then flew through the air in a spiral before coming to stop just above Geng Long.
Even as gasps of shock and cries of alarm could be heard from the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, another of the creatures shot up from the cauldron to the west, and then two more off in the distance, behind the sect.
“What are those things?” Sunan said faintly.
“If I’m not mistaken, they’re flood dragons,” Sun Mai replied. “Although, they have other names depending on which texts you read. These ones appear to be reanimated corpses.”
“How do we fight them?” Bao said.
Sun Mai shook his head. “I don’t know.”
With that, Geng Long raised his arm above his head. “And now, let the slaughter beg--”
Before Geng Long could finish speaking, a piercing sound entered the ears of all present, boring into their ears and down into the their minds. It was a long, resonant, vibrating call that resembled that of some winged creature of the heavens.
It was so loud, that many people clamped their hands over their ears and closed their eyes. Even Sunan and Bao winced, and Geng Long’s eyes flickered.
A moment later, the pitch of the sound rose, and then fell, then began to twist and spiral into what was clearly a song of some sort.
It was an ancient, melancholy song that was somehow tinged with righteousness and vigor.
Next, an enormous crashing sound rose up from the water out in the bay, causing everyone to turn their heads and see a huge plume of water surging up into the air, as if an enormous object had just dropped down into the water.
Even as eyes widened and jaws dropped, a shape bulged out of the water some distance from where the water was still spraying out in all directions.
Something emerged silently from the depths of the bay, a creature the size of a whale, or even larger. However, it was no whale, but a fish with bright blue scales and long fins.
The fish sailed through the air for a moment before splashing back down into the water, unleashing another eruption of water, and sending huge waves rolling out across the bay.
Even as everyone stared in shock, the fish again leaped up into the air. This time, its fins rippled and distorted as they spread out, growing larger and longer. At the same time, iridescent blue and yellow feathers began to sprout out from its scales! Its tail flapped back and forth, also growing larger and longer, and transforming into what looked more like long feathers.
The fish’s mouth changed shape, becoming a hooked beak, above which were black, shining eyes.
As these transformations took place, the four flood dragons seemed to recoil, edging away from the direction of the water.
This time, the fish didn’t land back into the water. Its fins transformed into wings, its tail into tailfeathers, its dorsal fin into a feathered crest that ran from the top of its head all the way down its back.
Legs sprouted out, long, with viciously taloned claws that glinted in the evening light.
Just when the bird reached the apex of its leap from within the waters of the bay, it flapped its enormous wings, propelling it toward the beach at incredible speed.
“Kun-Peng, it’s you….” Sun Mai breathed.
As Kun-Peng flew across the bay, each flap of its wings caused waves to spread out on the surface of the water below. At one point, it let out a piercing cry that seemed to resonate with the deafening song that filled the air.
At the same time, the flood dragons howled in fear and terror.
Although it wasn’t clear to anyone what exactly was happening, the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, and especially its leaders, could somehow sense that this huge bird bore them no ill intentions. Perhaps it was the way the flood dragons were edging backward, or just the aura of the enormous bird itself, but somehow they felt like bullied children, backed into the corner of an alley, only to have an adult suddenly appear to save them.
As Kun-Peng neared, its size became more clear; it was enormous. Its wingspan was fully twice the length of any of the flood dragons!
With each beat of its wings, it moved forward at incredible speed, and by this point, was only moments away from the shore.
“Dammit,” Geng Long growled, “what the fuck is that thing!” Reaching into another belt pouch, he pulled out what appeared to be a hardened clump of clay, which he crushed in his fist. Instantly, green smoke began to rise up from his the shattered remnants of the clay, which he then tossed into the cauldron in front of him.
In response, the cauldron shook visibly, and began to emit intense humming sounds.
“Kill that bird!” Geng Long shouted.
The flood dragon nearest him shivered for a moment, then coiled up into a tight ball before shooting toward the incoming Kun-Peng.
Moments later, the other three flood dragons similarly began to charge toward the Kun-Peng, apparently having been given compelled orders just like the first one.
Under the stunned gazes of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, four 100-meter-long flood dragons charged toward the gargantuan Kun-Peng with its 200-meter wingspan.
Wind from Kun-Peng’s wings swept across the beach like gale-force gusts as it bore down on the reanimated flood dragon corpses.
The first to reach the giant bird was the flood dragon that Geng Long had summoned. Right before they were about to slam into each other, the flood dragon opened its mouth and screamed, letting out a blast of black liquid colder than ice. It shot out like water from a fountain, causing cracking sounds to fill the air.
Kun-Peng was huge, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t agile. It pulled its wings in and spun to the side, completely dodging the blast of freezing black liquid, then lashing out with its talons to grab the flood dragon.
As for the black liquid, it sailed past the spot the Kun-Peng had just occupied, slamming into the water of the bay, much of which was instantly frozen upon impact.
Meanwhile, Kun-Peng dropped down toward the ground, crushing the flood dragon into the earth below, on a spot only about a hundred meters away from the Dragon-Phoenix Sect itself. The ground quaked as the flood dragon was shoved into the soil, and Kun-Peng lashed its sharp beak down toward the creature’s throat. However, before its beak could make contact, the second flood dragon arrived, sending a blast of freezing liquid toward Kun-Peng’s torso. Kun-Peng lurched to the side just in time, managing to escape the blast, but losing its grip on the first flood dragon, whose head snaked around as it snapped at Kun-Peng’s leg with viciously sharp teeth. At the same time, the second flood dragon closed in, similarly lashing its jaws at Kun-Peng’s right wing.
The developments which were taking place were almost too shocking for the Dragon-Phoenix Sect to process.
Kun-Peng and the two flood dragons were beginning to fight back and forth, causing the ground to shake violently. However, there were still two more flood dragons closing in.
Although Kun-Peng was vastly larger than the flood dragons, it was already having trouble tangling with two of them. If two more joined the fight, it was easy to imagine how quickly the battle could turn in the favor of the flood dragons.
The first person to recover his senses was Sun Mai. Of everyone present, he had the most experience with mystical phenomena like this. After all, he had traveled the streams of time, and had glimpsed things that no other mortal had ever glimpsed, other than Du Qian. In fact, although no one present would have any way to know it, and perhaps no one ever would, Sun Mai had witnessed Kun-Peng’s birth, countless years in the past.
Sun Mai’s hands clenched into fists as he raised his voice. “Profound Masters, this mighty bird is Kun-Peng, a righteous servant of the Enlightened Goddess. Who will join me in taking the fight to one of these wicked flood dragons, to buy Kun-Peng a bit of breathing room?”
Chapter 87: Kun-Peng
Two figures approached from the south, too small to make out clearly at first. However, as they drew closer, their features became clear.
The first one was none other than Geng Long!
He wore his Bone General armor, and had something slung over his back in a sack.
Roughly a hundred meters to the west of him, and a bit further back, was another tall, burly man, also clad in bone armor, with a similar sack hanging over his shoulder.
As soon as Bao saw Geng Long, her heart began to thump, and she felt her rage beginning to burn. However, instead of the hot, uncontrollable rage from years ago that burned like a wildfire, this rage was like a sea of lava, slow-moving but all-destructive.
Before anything else could happen, Bao immediately pulled out her Phoenix Crown and put it onto her head.
“Geng Long,” she growled, then she took two steps forward.
Next to her, Sunan also stepped forward, his Wind Sabre at the ready. Although nobody noticed it, not even Sunan himself, he was sweating more than usual, and had begun to cough occasionally.
The other leaders of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, as well as Sun Mai and Blackleaf, all stirred, some of them drawing weapons, and others simply taking ready stances.
When Geng Long was about fifty meters away, Bao raised her voice, imbuing it with some Qi to make it boom like thunder.
“Stop right there, Geng Long.”
Responding with his own Qi-imbued voice, Geng Long said, “That’s Bone General Geng to you, bitch.”
His profanity and disrespect instantly caused cries of anger to rise up from the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, and the air soon filled with the sounds of weapons being drawn.
“How dare you!”
“This bastard needs to die!”
“The Phoenix Sovereign killed two of the Demon Emperor’s generals already, it seems today is the day to kill a third!”
Geng Long subsequently flung the sack off of his shoulder, sending it thumping into the sand in front of him. Whatever was inside the sack was relatively large, reaching all the way up to Geng Long’s waist level. Reaching out, he untied the sack, allowing it to slip down to reveal a four-sided cauldron, greenish-colored and covered with carvings of demonic creatures.
The Bone Slicer a bit further west followed suit.
“I was hoping to kill you myself, Bao,” Geng Long said. “But I supposed watching you get killed will have to do.”
“Come fight me one-on-one,” Bao replied. “We’ll see who kills who. The last two times we met you ran away like the coward rat you are.”
Geng Long’s jaw twitched for a moment, but he didn’t respond directly. Instead, he reached into a pouch at his waist and pulled out a jade pendant, which he held out directly over the cauldron.
“It’s time to end this nonsense,” Geng Long said. “And ironically, the Dragon-Phoenix Sect will be brought to death… by dragons.” Chuckling, he crushed the jade pendant and then dropped the pieces into the cauldron.
Immediately, rumbling sounds filled the air that seemed to come from another time and place. Simultaneously, the ground began to vibrate beneath their feet. A moment later, black flames erupted from the cauldron, shooting dozens of meters up into the air as they radiated, not heat, but intense cold.
Then, a howl echoed out, hoarse and grating, seemingly filled with rage and sorrow and hatred.
A moment later, another howl echoed out from further to the west, where the Bone Slicer had crushed a similar jade pendant and tossed it into the cauldron he had been carrying.
Before anyone could do anything, two more pillars of freezing black flame shot up far to the north, on the other side of the amassed Dragon-Phoenix Sect.
The howls erupting from within the cauldrons joined together in a vicious, angry harmony that caused the skin to crawl and the heart to tremble.
The ground continued to tremble harder and harder, until it was quaking with such intensity that it was difficult for some of the lower-level Dragon-Phoenix Sect fighters, as well as the ordinary family members, to keep on their feet.
Meanwhile, the four cauldrons were expanding, growing twice, three times, ten times larger than before.
Finally, a burst of cold air far more frigid than the previous coldness spread out in all directions as an enormous figure burst out of Geng Long’s cauldron.
It was like a huge snake, with long horns and cold eyes, as well as two viciously-clawed talons. It was huge, fully 100 meters long, with scales so black they glinted with violet light. Shockingly, much of the creature was in a state of decay, as if it had been dragged up from the grave. There were even bones visible on many parts of its body, and in some areas, it was possible to look right through it to the other side.
As the creature shot out of the cauldron, it howled with rage, then flew through the air in a spiral before coming to stop just above Geng Long.
Even as gasps of shock and cries of alarm could be heard from the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, another of the creatures shot up from the cauldron to the west, and then two more off in the distance, behind the sect.
“What are those things?” Sunan said faintly.
“If I’m not mistaken, they’re flood dragons,” Sun Mai replied. “Although, they have other names depending on which texts you read. These ones appear to be reanimated corpses.”
“How do we fight them?” Bao said.
Sun Mai shook his head. “I don’t know.”
With that, Geng Long raised his arm above his head. “And now, let the slaughter beg--”
Before Geng Long could finish speaking, a piercing sound entered the ears of all present, boring into their ears and down into the their minds. It was a long, resonant, vibrating call that resembled that of some winged creature of the heavens.
It was so loud, that many people clamped their hands over their ears and closed their eyes. Even Sunan and Bao winced, and Geng Long’s eyes flickered.
A moment later, the pitch of the sound rose, and then fell, then began to twist and spiral into what was clearly a song of some sort.
It was an ancient, melancholy song that was somehow tinged with righteousness and vigor.
Next, an enormous crashing sound rose up from the water out in the bay, causing everyone to turn their heads and see a huge plume of water surging up into the air, as if an enormous object had just dropped down into the water.
Even as eyes widened and jaws dropped, a shape bulged out of the water some distance from where the water was still spraying out in all directions.
Something emerged silently from the depths of the bay, a creature the size of a whale, or even larger. However, it was no whale, but a fish with bright blue scales and long fins.
The fish sailed through the air for a moment before splashing back down into the water, unleashing another eruption of water, and sending huge waves rolling out across the bay.
Even as everyone stared in shock, the fish again leaped up into the air. This time, its fins rippled and distorted as they spread out, growing larger and longer. At the same time, iridescent blue and yellow feathers began to sprout out from its scales! Its tail flapped back and forth, also growing larger and longer, and transforming into what looked more like long feathers.
The fish’s mouth changed shape, becoming a hooked beak, above which were black, shining eyes.
As these transformations took place, the four flood dragons seemed to recoil, edging away from the direction of the water.
This time, the fish didn’t land back into the water. Its fins transformed into wings, its tail into tailfeathers, its dorsal fin into a feathered crest that ran from the top of its head all the way down its back.
Legs sprouted out, long, with viciously taloned claws that glinted in the evening light.
Just when the bird reached the apex of its leap from within the waters of the bay, it flapped its enormous wings, propelling it toward the beach at incredible speed.
“Kun-Peng, it’s you….” Sun Mai breathed.
As Kun-Peng flew across the bay, each flap of its wings caused waves to spread out on the surface of the water below. At one point, it let out a piercing cry that seemed to resonate with the deafening song that filled the air.
At the same time, the flood dragons howled in fear and terror.
Although it wasn’t clear to anyone what exactly was happening, the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, and especially its leaders, could somehow sense that this huge bird bore them no ill intentions. Perhaps it was the way the flood dragons were edging backward, or just the aura of the enormous bird itself, but somehow they felt like bullied children, backed into the corner of an alley, only to have an adult suddenly appear to save them.
As Kun-Peng neared, its size became more clear; it was enormous. Its wingspan was fully twice the length of any of the flood dragons!
With each beat of its wings, it moved forward at incredible speed, and by this point, was only moments away from the shore.
“Dammit,” Geng Long growled, “what the fuck is that thing!” Reaching into another belt pouch, he pulled out what appeared to be a hardened clump of clay, which he crushed in his fist. Instantly, green smoke began to rise up from his the shattered remnants of the clay, which he then tossed into the cauldron in front of him.
In response, the cauldron shook visibly, and began to emit intense humming sounds.
“Kill that bird!” Geng Long shouted.
The flood dragon nearest him shivered for a moment, then coiled up into a tight ball before shooting toward the incoming Kun-Peng.
Moments later, the other three flood dragons similarly began to charge toward the Kun-Peng, apparently having been given compelled orders just like the first one.
Under the stunned gazes of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, four 100-meter-long flood dragons charged toward the gargantuan Kun-Peng with its 200-meter wingspan.
Wind from Kun-Peng’s wings swept across the beach like gale-force gusts as it bore down on the reanimated flood dragon corpses.
The first to reach the giant bird was the flood dragon that Geng Long had summoned. Right before they were about to slam into each other, the flood dragon opened its mouth and screamed, letting out a blast of black liquid colder than ice. It shot out like water from a fountain, causing cracking sounds to fill the air.
Kun-Peng was huge, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t agile. It pulled its wings in and spun to the side, completely dodging the blast of freezing black liquid, then lashing out with its talons to grab the flood dragon.
As for the black liquid, it sailed past the spot the Kun-Peng had just occupied, slamming into the water of the bay, much of which was instantly frozen upon impact.
Meanwhile, Kun-Peng dropped down toward the ground, crushing the flood dragon into the earth below, on a spot only about a hundred meters away from the Dragon-Phoenix Sect itself. The ground quaked as the flood dragon was shoved into the soil, and Kun-Peng lashed its sharp beak down toward the creature’s throat. However, before its beak could make contact, the second flood dragon arrived, sending a blast of freezing liquid toward Kun-Peng’s torso. Kun-Peng lurched to the side just in time, managing to escape the blast, but losing its grip on the first flood dragon, whose head snaked around as it snapped at Kun-Peng’s leg with viciously sharp teeth. At the same time, the second flood dragon closed in, similarly lashing its jaws at Kun-Peng’s right wing.
The developments which were taking place were almost too shocking for the Dragon-Phoenix Sect to process.
Kun-Peng and the two flood dragons were beginning to fight back and forth, causing the ground to shake violently. However, there were still two more flood dragons closing in.
Although Kun-Peng was vastly larger than the flood dragons, it was already having trouble tangling with two of them. If two more joined the fight, it was easy to imagine how quickly the battle could turn in the favor of the flood dragons.
The first person to recover his senses was Sun Mai. Of everyone present, he had the most experience with mystical phenomena like this. After all, he had traveled the streams of time, and had glimpsed things that no other mortal had ever glimpsed, other than Du Qian. In fact, although no one present would have any way to know it, and perhaps no one ever would, Sun Mai had witnessed Kun-Peng’s birth, countless years in the past.
Sun Mai’s hands clenched into fists as he raised his voice. “Profound Masters, this mighty bird is Kun-Peng, a righteous servant of the Enlightened Goddess. Who will join me in taking the fight to one of these wicked flood dragons, to buy Kun-Peng a bit of breathing room?”
