Chapter 92: Venom Dragon Pool

Does something about that young man raise suspicion? Was it enough to startle a man of Zhang Pu’s caliber? Liu Yingde was, for a moment, utterly at a loss.

Of course, Liu Yingde also understood that whatever was wrong with the young man ahead, even the possibility that he was near death, might not be the main thing Zhang Pu cared about.

So what was the problem?

Curiosity had been aroused in Liu Yingde as well. He was almost sneaking out his own divination disk to secretly probe the young man ahead.

But Zhang Pu did not explain himself. He only told him, “Let’s quietly follow and see.”

What else could Liu Yingde say? He could only answer, “All right.”

The pair ahead, who looked as though they were deeply in love, moved through the busy market street without once noticing that someone was following them. And since Zhang Pu had told Liu Yingde and the others to follow quietly, even if the people ahead occasionally looked back, they would never have imagined anyone behind them was following.

Later, the young man and woman gradually left the lively street behind and turned toward the outskirts of the town.

Zhang Pu and the others kept following, using all manner of faint and subtle cover, and the pair ahead still had no idea they were being tracked.

It was only after the young man and woman entered a house on the town’s edge that they remained unaware of the hidden watchers behind them.

Zhang Pu led them to a window outside the house, then signaled Liu Yingde and the others to remain silent. He wanted to listen first to what the man and woman inside would say next.

He activated a small spell from the world of cultivation, a kind of supernatural keen hearing, and extended his senses into the house.

“Caihua, what you did today will surely bring your father’s reproach when you go back!” That was the young man’s voice.

So the girl in purple was called Caihua, Zhang Pu thought.

Then he heard Caihua, clearly agitated, say, “I don’t care. As long as it belongs to you, I don’t want that old overseas Chinese to take it abroad! I’d rather keep it as a memento for myself...”

She got that far, and then suddenly began to cry.

At this, Zhang Pu was truly taken aback.

Inside, the young man was already trying to comfort her. “Don’t be like this, Caihua... don’t be like this...”

But Caihua seemed only to cry harder. “Guangcai, why are you still hiding things from me? I only wanted to keep a lasting remembrance, I... sob sob sob—”

So the artistic young man was named Guangcai. Zhang Pu mused silently.

But what was Caihua crying about?

At once Zhang Pu thought of Guangcai’s terminal illness. It seemed Caihua had learned that Guangcai was afflicted with a fatal disease. Perhaps Guangcai had been trying to keep it from her all along, but in the end she had still found out.

So...

“Stop crying—” Guangcai suddenly roared. “Who said I’m going to die?”

Caihua’s sobbing was cut off at once by his shout. In Zhang Pu’s mind, Caihua must now have been staring at him with wide, astonished eyes.

Yet even though Guangcai said this, Caihua clearly took it as nothing more than an attempt to comfort her. She began to speak. “But...”

Once again Guangcai cut her off. “I’m going to Poison Dragon Pool tomorrow. These past few days I’ve obtained an accurate map that leads there!”

“What?” Caihua cried, as though she could not believe her own ears.

“I said I’m going to Poison Dragon Pool. The immortal herb there can save my life!” Guangcai was practically shouting at her.

“Poison Dragon Pool”—the speaker might have been careless, but the listener was highly attentive.

At that very moment, Zhang Pu, standing outside the window, suddenly heard those three words and, with his remarkable imagination, a picture seemed to unfold in his mind:

Under a sullen sky, in a barren valley, there lay a mysterious pool all alone in its loneliness. The ground around it seemed to be lifeless, save for a single luminous herb growing there, glittering with an otherworldly brilliance. This must be the immortal herb Guangcai had just mentioned—the kind that could save his life.

Then, in an instant, the image in Zhang Pu’s mind changed abruptly: the calm, mirror-like surface of the pool suddenly churned into monstrous waves, and in the blink of an eye, a gigantic flood dragon rose from the depths...

This flood dragon must be the legendary Black Dragon. Yes, that was it—the Black Dragon. So the Black Dragon of Black Dragon Town truly existed after all; it was only that many people did not believe it, or did not know.

And the Black Dragon was hiding in some pool deep in the mountains, a place ordinary people might never reach.

Just listen to what Guangcai had said: a map was required.

Without a special map, one might lose one’s way in those deep mountains and forests forever, never finding Poison Dragon Pool, never finding that Black Dragon.

“All right, Guangcai,” Caihua’s voice came again to Zhang Pu’s ears, “for the time being I’ll believe you. But you say you want to go to that legendary Poison Dragon Pool... I’ve heard of it too, and they say the danger there is great...”

“Even if the risk is enormous, I still have to try if I want to live, don’t I? Besides, even the town’s Divine Doctor Li has already sentenced me to death. He said there was nothing he could do for my illness, and could only hope that the immortal herb in Poison Dragon Pool is real.”

Once again Guangcai interrupted Caihua. Or rather, perhaps it was Caihua herself who had lost the thread and could not continue. In any case, whether or not she could go on speaking no longer seemed important. Guangcai, for his part, no longer sounded agitated; instead, his words were orderly and composed.

“Even Divine Doctor Li knows the legend of Poison Dragon Pool?” Caihua asked again.

Guangcai seemed to sigh. “Anyone from Black Dragon Town has more or less heard of the legend of Poison Dragon Pool. But those who have truly been there are very few indeed.”

Yet Caihua was not ignorant of this either. She knew that the older generations since the founding of Black Dragon Town had spoken of it: people had gone, but could not find Poison Dragon Pool, because reaching it required a special route, just as Guangcai now seemed to have obtained some kind of guide map from who knew where.

“I’ll go with you,” Caihua said after seeming to think it over for a while, yet then she added with firm resolve.

This time, however, it was Guangcai who warned her of the danger, and he absolutely refused to let Caihua go.

“I’ll have my father send me some men,” Caihua explained to Guangcai. “It’s too dangerous for you to go alone. I’ll take people with you. With enough of us, we won’t have to fear spending the night in the wilderness.”

But when Guangcai heard that, he seemed to be at a loss for words.