Thus, driven by mutual curiosity and distrust, the two sides formed a brief alliance. Their next alliance wouldn't come for a very long time.
"Your Excellency, why did you allow these people to join?" After Li Jun and the others were taken away to be settled, one of his subordinates asked Ling Qi.
"This group of people is quite interesting; perhaps they can be useful to me." Ling Qi revealed a contemptuous sneer, as if he had everything under his control.
On Ling Qi's ship, the helmsman was also a barbarian. But these barbarians were all silent and taciturn. No matter how Jiang Tang tried to get close to them, he couldn't get any answers. It seemed that they were afraid of something.
If it weren't for their truly superb ship-maneuvering skills, Jiang Tang would have even doubted whether these people were genuine barbarians. Under their control, the large ship skillfully navigated the crests of the waves, their expertise so remarkable that even the barbarians on Li Jun's ship had to admire them.
Two days have passed since Li Jun and the others were rescued from the sea. During these two days, Li Jun hasn't seen Ling Qi again; the handsome young man seems to be intentionally avoiding them. Although they are full of curiosity about this mysterious young man, thinking of his cold and aloof expression, Li Jun and Jiang Tang decide it's best not to try.
"You're just like you four years ago. Did you two do some business together? Did you give him that arrogant look?" Jiang Tang said to Li Jun half-jokingly.
Li Jun could only glare at him, but a sense of感慨 (gan3kai3, a feeling of mixed emotions, often including regret or nostalgia) rose within him. When he first encountered Lei Hun and Jiang Tang, he had indeed maintained a cold and indifferent demeanor; his primary concern then was survival. But now, things seemed to have changed drastically. Whether this change was for better or worse, he himself couldn't tell. The only certainty was that this change stemmed from his first encounter with Lu Xiang and Meng Yuan, seeing their natural, gentle smiles.
"My master invites you." Ling Qi's subordinate snapped Li Jun out of his chaotic thoughts. Somewhat surprised by Ling Qi's sudden invitation, Li Jun straightened his clothes and stepped out of the cabin.
"Are you all ready?" Ling Qi asked.
"What, you've discovered a dragon spirit?"
"Didn't you feel it?" Ling Qi smiled coldly, with a hint of contempt and arrogance.
Li Jun calmed down and ignored his expression. Sure enough, strange fluctuations were spreading in this direction, as if someone was probing something, or perhaps it was a show of force against them.
The ship's speed gradually decreased, and in the distance, a small black dot appeared between the sea and the sky. As time passed, the small black dot grew larger and larger, and slowly became clearer. It turned out to be a huge reef. This reef was several acres in size, and a person was standing on it.
All eyes were focused on the person standing on the reef. In the sea breeze, the person's white clothes were as white as snow, flying wildly in the wind. Along with that, there was his black hair scattered in the wind. From a distance, the person had an extraordinary demeanor, with a kind of ethereal and graceful ease.
"Is that a dragon?" Almost everyone was wondering. Before the Million Ears War, before the Thousand-Year War, monsters were almost extinct. In the past thousand years, there have been only a handful of recorded battles between humans and monsters. At least among the people present, the vast majority had never actually seen a monster, let alone subdued one.
“He seems to be waiting for us to do business with him!” Jiang Tang said, sticking out his tongue. This feeling had already risen in everyone’s hearts.
"You've finally arrived!" Although there was still some distance between them, the voices of the people on the reef carried to everyone's ears through the sea breeze.
Ling Qi stood at the very front of the deck, his cloak billowing in the sea breeze. His eyes were unusually bright, and while everyone was surprised by the man's words, he seemed to have been prepared to respond.
"It seems you knew we were coming."
His words carried clearly to the man on the reef in the sea breeze. By then, everyone could see his face. Beneath his thin, pale eyebrows, a deep light shone from his narrow eyes. At first glance, he seemed like a handsome young man, but upon closer inspection, he appeared to be over thirty. And upon even closer inspection, the sense of vicissitude emanating from the corners of his eyes and brows made him seem to be in his fifties or sixties.
“What a peculiar ‘person’…” Jiang Tang thought and thought, and could only use this word to describe him. And that person seemed to have heard his thoughts, glancing at him sideways.
“How could someone as accomplished in cultivation as me not know the will of Heaven?” The man raised his head, an arrogance emanating from him. He laughed heartily, “Today is the day I face my fifth tribulation (Note 1). I want to see what abilities you have that can make me endure this tribulation.”
"I don't want to spout any nonsense about following the will of Heaven, conforming to the will of the people, or acting on behalf of Heaven." Ling Qi smiled coldly, and the man's imposing aura vanished with his smile. He slowly added, "If you don't want to die, hand over your treasure."
"If you don't want to die, hand over your treasure and get out of here."
The words that were almost more arrogant than those of Ling Qi came from Li Jun.
The reason for this was that Li Jun's primary objective in coming here was to establish maritime trade routes to the state, and the dragon spirit's treasure was merely an additional source of income. Therefore, he made it clear that even if the dragon spirit handed over its treasure, he would not easily give up.
Besides, he didn't believe the dragon spirit would obediently hand over its treasure. Sure enough, the dragon spirit waved its hand arrogantly and said, "Come and take it, you human trash!"
The barbarian sailors dropped their anchor and each grabbed a bow and arrow, but the dragon spirit seemed oblivious to all of this. Ling Qi waved his hand, and all the barbarian arrows flew through the air, heading straight for the dragon spirit. The dragon spirit stretched out his right hand and drew a circle in the air. A barrier seemed to appear in front of him, and all the arrows froze in mid-air. The dragon spirit then flicked his finger, and the arrows turned around in mid-air, shooting back towards the ship.
Everyone dodged the incoming arrows. Li Jun drew his chained short sword from his waist, and his halberd sank to the bottom of the sea along with the sunken ship.
However, there was still a hundred paces of sea between the ship and the dragon spirit. Humans are not birds and cannot fly across. While Li Jun was deep in thought, Ling Qi reached out, picked up a few planks, threw them out, and then leaped into the sea.
Li Jun was taken aback. He saw Ling Qi lightly tap a wooden board, and he was lifted into the air again. He tapped it four times in a row, and he arrived on the reef, where he confronted the dragon spirit.
Of all the people on the ship, only Ling Qi could do this. Li Jun had also learned this flying technique from Lu Xiang, but for soldiers, this skill was not very practical. Therefore, Li Jun's learning was only at an average level. Moreover, he was wearing a suit of armor and could not imitate it.
Chu Qingfeng chanted incantations and drew several strange symbols in the air. A beam of earthy yellow light rose from the sea, extending from the ship to the reef. Then, he gestured to Li Jun, who leaped onto the earthy yellow light. It felt as if he were walking on solid ground. He rushed forward, and then everyone on the ship followed suit, stepping onto the reef. Only then did Chu Qingfeng withdraw the earth spirit spell. He then used water escape to disappear from the ship and reappear on the reef.
Ling Qi waved his hand with his back to the ship, and the barbarians on board, who had obviously received instructions beforehand, steered the ship far away again. The dragon spirit watched all this with a smile, and then said, "So there is an immortal among you. It's a good idea to let the ship go further away. Don't worry, when the ship comes to collect your corpses later, I won't make things difficult for you."
Li Jun moved slowly towards him; in this kind of battle, he didn't have the habit of hiding behind others. Meng Yuan stared intently at the dragon spirit, and also began to move along with Li Jun, holding a nine-ringed saber in his hand, which he had borrowed from Ling Qi's subordinate.
Chu Qingfeng and the mages under Ling Qi began chanting all sorts of strange prayers. Multicolored light enveloped Ling Qi, Li Jun, and the others as they prayed, as if to give them ample time to prepare. The dragon spirit remained coldly smiling without attacking.
Among this group of busy or stressed people, only Ling Qi remained relaxed. She stood there.
The dragon spirit's attention was completely focused on him. Of all the people here, the one who posed the greatest threat to the dragon spirit was this peculiar young man. It was precisely because the dragon spirit felt that it couldn't predict what Ling Qi would do next that it could only let the others act as they pleased.
Gradually, the dragon spirit grew impatient. Even if this young man had some peculiarities, he couldn't possibly pose a significant threat to it. Continuing to confront these human scum was simply a waste of time.
It took a deep breath, and the surrounding air seemed to be sucked in, creating a powerful airflow that propelled everyone towards it. Ling Qi's robes fluttered in the wind, but his body remained motionless. One of his subordinates, wielding a sword and shield, seemed to be carried by the airflow, staggering towards the dragon spirit.
The dragon spirit stretched out its hand, and the sword-wielding shield-bearer suddenly swung his sword, unleashing a sharp gust of wind towards the dragon spirit. But the dragon spirit's hand vanished within the sword's force; it turned out that what he had just seen was merely an illusion. The sword-wielding shield-bearer raised his shield to protect his chest, and the dragon spirit's hand struck the shield, producing a clanging sound of metal clashing. A strange smile appeared on the sword-wielding shield-bearer's face as he slowly collapsed to the ground.
Before anyone could react in surprise, the white figure of the dragon spirit soared into the air like lightning. Ling Qi's men quickly shielded him, pointing several weapons at the sky. Li Jun sensed something was wrong and slashed his short sword fiercely at Chu Qingfeng, who was standing nearby. Chu Qingfeng was startled and hurriedly retreated. A white light flashed where he had just stood, and Li Jun's sword made a piercing tearing sound when it touched the white light.
"Die!" Seeing that Li Jun had seen through the illusion technique, the dragon spirit rushed towards Li Jun at an unimaginable speed. Li Jun pointed his sword forward, and the spiritual energy on his body was activated from the sword. Under the collision of the two opposing forces, Li Jun's body was blasted away by the impact.
"Stop!" Taking advantage of the brief moment when Li Jun immobilized the dragon spirit, Chu Qingfeng cast an earth-based slowing spell. However, the dragon only slowed down slightly before returning to normal. During this brief moment of slowness, a fireball struck it.
The fireball exploded on the dragon spirit's body, but it didn't even burn its clothes. The dragon spirit turned its head and smiled at Ling Qi's subordinate who had released the fireball. The sorcerer chanted incantations loudly, his face showing extreme fear, as if he had seen something terrifying. Flames shot out from his body, and finally, he was engulfed in flames. But the sorcerer seemed completely unaware of this, and everyone could only watch helplessly as he was burned to a crisp.
"Break!" Meng Yuan's nine-ringed saber made a piercing sound as it slashed at the dragon spirit. The dragon spirit seemed to be somewhat wary of his divine power and dodged the slash. Just as it was about to counterattack, Li Jun, who had cooperated with Meng Yuan for several years, suddenly rushed over. The spiritual energy emanating from the short sword forced it to dodge again.
"You possess the power of a dragon!" Finally recognizing the spiritual energy emanating from Li Jun, the dragon spirit felt a chill run down its spine. This person, possessing the power of a dragon, must be a dragon-slaying warrior. While dragons and demons each have their strengths, they are roughly equal, with dragons sometimes being more powerful than demons. The dragon spirit concluded that Li Jun was the greatest threat among them, temporarily setting Ling Qi aside and focusing its attack on Li Jun.
Relying on his agile movements, Li Jun managed to fend off the dragon spirit's attacks. What bothered him most was that whenever his eyes met the dragon spirit's, his attention seemed to be drawn to it, and his movements would slow down. He felt a chill run down his spine, knowing that this dragon spirit was extremely skilled in soul-based magic.
Ling Qi stood to the side, showing no intention of helping, while his men protected him, watching Li Jun, Meng Yuan, and Chu Qingfeng engage in a fierce battle with the dragon demon. Li Jun, who had become the dragon demon's primary target, was soon covered in wounds, but he always managed to evade the dragon demon's elusive assassins at the most dangerous moments. Thanks to the magical power enhanced by the thunder spirit within the dragon-head helmet, his minor injuries had little impact on him.