Chapter 52: The Chosen Protagonist Favored by Destiny

The black flood dragon reared and raged, its body wrapped in black flame as it surged forward through a torrent of dark waves, cleaving toward Ning Taohua.

In an instant, divine powers blazed. Countless blossoms rained down like petals in a storm, burning fiercely until they became an eerie sea of fire. Ning Taohua stood amid that blaze, her slender hands striking with force enough to shatter metal and split iron as they landed upon the dragon’s scales.

A sharp crack rang out. The scales split, and blood spilled forth.

Strangely enough, the blood had first looked hideously ominous, venting a crimson mist like a spring of scarlet essence bursting from the ground.

But very soon, the blood slowly steamed away and vanished.

The cracked scales on the black flood dragon healed as before, leaving it looking as though it had suffered no injury at all.

Ning Taohua’s face darkened. In that instant, she understood: the black flood dragon was not alone. This entire subterranean world was its powerful backing.

In that case, defeating it might still be possible, but killing it would be another matter entirely, unless she severed the black flood dragon’s connection to this underground realm.

Otherwise, it would be immortal and undying, its body regenerating with ease. By contrast, Ning Taohua, however strong she might be, was still spending herself with every blow. She was no perpetual motion machine; she could not hold out forever.

Unless she borrowed the power of her true body.

That thought made her stomach clench. How could she?

Ning Taohua could sense that the true body’s situation was hardly any better.

Under the ceaseless deluge of lightning, that enormous peach tree had long since been ravaged. To still be standing, to still be holding on and not yet utterly withered away, was already proof of formidable strength. But to ask for more than that was truly hopeless.

She could not borrow too much power, or rather, not entirely none at all.

But why should she? She was already seething at having to pluck chestnuts from the fire for Ye Chen; to fight so desperately besides was simply a joke.

Besides, when she thought of how the true body had ended up in such a miserable state, her mouth nearly twisted with anger.

Wasn’t it all because Ye Chen had opened a new path and drawn down that thunder? And even that would have been tolerable, except he had struck the true body as well.

The thunder rolled across the heavens, and Ning Taohua was almost driven to cough up blood in fury.

It was simply a matter of seeing who would cave first. Ning Taohua glanced at Ye Chen.

Hah. Ye Chen himself was outside the void realm, and that much was safe enough.

At the moment, the black flood dragon was concentrating all its strength on Ning Taohua, so Ye Chen was of course safe. But the void realm itself might not be.

If Ye Chen did nothing and waited until the void realm cracked apart and was utterly ruined, then who gained and who lost would be hard to say.

Ning Taohua was fuming there, but Ye Chen naturally did not know the details. Still, he could guess at her thoughts, and yet he was not the least bit flustered.

"To think there would be such a windfall."

A slight movement stirred in Ye Chen’s heart. To be honest, imprisoning the black flood dragon within the void realm had been nothing more than a flash of inspiration.

The black flood dragon was so violent and entirely unkind. If it were allowed into the void realm and smashed Ye Chen’s jars and bottles to pieces, would he not bleed from the heart in loss?

That had truly been a thing he had done without thinking, and Ye Chen had nearly begun to suspect he had lost his senses.

But very soon, he gave a soft exclamation and came to his senses.

The void realm had originally been formed from a stretch of dreams. And what was a dream? By nature, it was illusory.

If the void realm condensed into substance and became something tangible, then it could indeed be destroyed quite easily by the black flood dragon’s brute force.

But then again, if one swung a fist into a bank of mist, would the mist be smashed apart?

Of course not. Unless it were scorched by the blazing sun and the right method were found, that mist would remain.

The void realm was the same. It was not indestructible, but the black flood dragon’s crude violence merely gave Ye Chen a false alarm.

Of course, the void realm also could not trap the black flood dragon.

If the dragon truly wished to flee, who could stop it?

But Ning Taohua, as a tool in the situation, was doing her job exceptionally well, locking the black flood dragon’s hatred onto herself in one stroke.

If the black flood dragon had any brains, any intelligence, then it would be difficult to deal with. But did it have any?

It did not. It had only instinct, and was unleashing mad, unbroken attacks upon Ning Taohua. On the surface, Ye Chen looked grave, but inwardly he was practically overjoyed.

Excellent. This was excellent. By borrowing the black flood dragon’s power to root out Ning Taohua, that hidden danger, in one fell swoop, it could not have been better.

Ye Chen had never imagined he would encounter such a good way to deal with Ning Taohua so soon, after all he knew far too little about her.

He had always been wary. He wanted to eliminate Ning Taohua, yet also feared that once things were torn open, the situation might collapse beyond recovery.

It could hardly be blamed on Ye Chen for finding the decision difficult. When one knew nothing of another person, yet still displayed one’s malice, that was the height of stupidity. To then act on it would make one no better than a complete fool.

Ye Chen meant to wait for the right moment before striking at Ning Taohua.

Was this opportunity before him the one he had dreamed of?

He could not be one hundred percent certain.

So for the time being, he let Ning Taohua clash with the black flood dragon and made no immediate decision.

Suddenly, his heart stirred.

"There is a benefit."

A faint, mistlike white glow, clear as crystal, drifted toward Ye Chen.

With it came a subtle transformation.

“That is pure white fortune.”

Ye Chen was startled. Thinking of the scene earlier, when the black flood dragon had its scales shattered by Ning Taohua and blood had flowed out, he understood something.

“So that’s how it is. If the black flood dragon is torn apart, then the wealth stays within the family.”

The void realm was already Ye Chen’s territory, and the black flood dragon was, in essence, a manifestation of fortune. Even if it were blown apart, the flesh and blood torn from it would transform into corresponding strands of luck, allowing Ye Chen to undergo a certain degree of metamorphosis.

Of course, the effect was still slight for now, and no great change could yet be seen.

Ye Chen lowered his gaze and condensed a mirror of ice before him.

The ice mirror was smooth as polished glass, reflecting his figure upon its surface.

Then clusters of crimson light began to spread outward.

That was crimson fortune, like the sun hanging high overhead.

At the same time, a purple bamboo swayed its leaves amid the surging crimson mist.

Only half of the purple bamboo remained, but in exchange, a spirit butterfly had taken root upon its branch.

The butterfly’s entire body was bathed in firelight, and it looked extraordinary.

That represented Ye Chen’s own fate.

For the first time, Ye Chen saw so clearly the changes in his destiny. The unceasing crimson fortune pouring toward him, like a great tidal wave, was constantly washing and refining his fate, trying to push him toward the position of a protagonist.

At present, Ye Chen was naturally not the one favored by destiny. He probably did not even qualify as a supporting character.

In every glorious age, when the tides of heaven and earth rise and fall, someone is destined to emerge in response to the times. But in such an age, there should never have been a place for Ye Chen.

“I have transformed into the Great Dream Immortal Butterfly. As a rare species of heaven and earth, it possesses extraordinary and unimaginable potential. Regrettably, the Great Dream Immortal Butterfly is itself shunned by heaven, its fortune shallow, and its early death is foreordained.”

Ye Chen’s mood grew somewhat heavy.

“Even if all living beings in heaven and earth ought to belong to the old era, even if in this new era they should all be shattered to pieces, the Great Dream Immortal Butterfly... no matter when or where, would still be loathed by heaven and earth, wouldn’t it?”

The Great Dream Immortal Butterfly had once been the Dream Butterfly, formed from fragments of time, turning even the brilliant myths that once rang throughout heaven and earth into fleeting ripples scattered across creation. It was wondrous beyond measure, and yet it was exactly the sort of thing heaven and earth would exhaust all effort to destroy.