Chapter 1318: In the Abyss

Reaching the deepest part of the abyss where he had first found the Dragon Lady, Phei looked around with a faintly suspicious expression.

Unlike the outer reaches of the abyss, where darkness filled the enormous chasm so completely that even the frozen storms seemed afraid to descend too far, the deepest region was surprisingly well lit. Great veins of pale blue crystal ran through the walls and spread across the distant ceiling like frozen rivers, illuminating enormous pillars of ancient ice, black stone shelves and strange formations buried beneath layers of frost.

Some of the crystals carried a soft silver brilliance, while others pulsed with a deeper blue-white glow that made the entire underground world feel almost beautiful.

Phei tilted his head and looked back toward the black chasm high above them.

"So the darkness up there really was just for show."

The Dragon Lady glanced back at him.

"I’m serious. We spend all that time descending through something that looks like the throat of an ancient monster, expecting eternal darkness, rivers of corpses and maybe some ugly bastard whispering from the walls, then we finally reach the bottom and suddenly there are lights everywhere." Phei shook his head with mild disappointment. "Very dramatic. And very dishonest."

A warm puff of air left the Dragon Lady’s nostrils.

Phei grinned. "See? You agree."

Whether she agreed or simply considered him too annoying to correct was impossible to know, though after nearly a year together Phei had become remarkably talented at translating Dragon expressions. A sideways glance meant "you are being stupid". A longer sideways glance meant "you are being extremely stupid." A snort usually meant disagreement, unless it came after one of his jokes, in which case Phei had decided it counted as laughter regardless of what she thought about the matter.

Their surroundings were beautiful, but neither of them relaxed.

From this far inside the abyss, the three powerful presences ahead had become impossible to ignore. Two belonged to the World Transcendents who had remained beside the Zone Lord through everything Phei and the Dragon Lady had done during the past year. The third was deeper, heavier and much more dangerous, resting somewhere beyond the glowing cavern with a stillness that made the other two feel almost insignificant beside it:

The Zone Lord.

Phei could feel them clearly now, and there was no doubt in his mind that all three could feel him and the Dragon Lady as well. They had stopped hiding long before entering the abyss. There was little point anymore. The Zone Lord had known its armies were being slaughtered for months, its imprisoned Dragon had escaped, and nearly every creature it could throw at them had either died or become cultivation resources an dit know they were here now.

’At this point, sneaking around would’ve felt almost rude.’

The Dragon Lady lowered herself onto a broad platform of blue-black ice, her colossal claws touching down with surprising gentleness. Thin cracks spread beneath her weight before immediately freezing solid again, while Phei remained seated comfortably between two crystalline ridges along her back.

He looked toward the deeper cavern for several breaths before sighing.

"Before we go any farther and start making questionable life decisions again, I should give you something."

The Dragon Lady turned her head slightly.

Phei reached one hand toward empty space beside him.

His fingers disappeared into a small void pocket.

A moment later, he pulled out the first core.

The dark sphere was nearly half the size of his head and so dense with power that the surrounding frost began trembling the instant it appeared. Another followed, then another, until four enormous cores floated around Phei in a slow circle. Their surfaces were almost black, though faint colors moved beneath them whenever the crystalline light struck from the correct angle.

Crimson pulsed inside one, a darker silver moved within another while the third carried traces of violet and the fourth possessed a strange grey-white shimmer that appeared and disappeared beneath the surface.

The Dragon Lady went still.

Her eyes settled upon the four cores.

Phei felt her hunger and the instinctive recognition of precious cultivation treasures capable of nourishing a body, bloodline and core that had suffered far too much.

Phei smiled and guided three toward her: "Take them. They’ll come in handy."

The Dragon Lady did not immediately move.

Her eyes shifted toward him.

Phei raised an eyebrow. "What?"

She continued staring.

"They’re yours."

Still staring.

Phei sighed. "Hey little brat, I am not secretly testing your morals. Eat the damn things."

Her gaze narrowed faintly.

"Well, don’t actually eat them if that ruins them. Store them, swallow them, hide them under your tongue, whatever Dragon sorcery you got on going deep in there."

The Dragon Lady finally opened her enormous jaws.

Phei paused.

Three World Transcendent cores floated before a mouth large enough to swallow him together with several poor decisions.

His expression slowly changed: "Actually, seeing this from here makes me understand why people in stories are always terrified when Dragons open their mouths."

The Dragon Lady opened wider.

"Right, right. No commentary."

Phei flicked his fingers.

All cores flew into her mouth and disappeared.

He waited for the sound of teeth crushing them.

Nothing happened... Phei blinked.

Then nodded with sudden understanding. "Ah. I understand the trick."

The Dragon Lady closed her mouth.

"You’re storing them inside."

A soft rumble moved through her chest.

Phei pointed at her. "That is actually unfair. You have an enormous body, ridiculously hard scales, wings, claws, freezing breath, a tail that can turn mountains into family memories, and now you’ve got storage too?"

She began walking.

Phei quickly returned the fourth core to his Void Hollow and closed it. "I’m keeping one, by the way. Don’t look at me like that. Three for you, one for me is already an extremely generous distribution."

The Dragon Lady snorted.

"Greedy little thing."

She stopped; Phei immediately realized his mistake.

Her huge head slowly turned until one icy eye settled upon him.

Phei coughed. "I meant adorable."

Her eye narrowed.

"Wonderful?"

Still narrowing.

"Majestic?"

The Dragon Lady continued staring.

Phei lifted both hands. "Okay. I am going to stop describing you before I somehow end our alliance five minutes before fighting a God."

She finally looked away.

Phei smiled to himself.

For a while, they continued deeper through the enormous cavern. The Dragon Lady moved carefully around the largest frozen pillars, her claws barely making sound despite her size, while Phei remained on her back and watched the distant blue-white light slide across her scales.

Then his expression gradually became more thoughtful: "Are you really sure about this?"

The Dragon Lady kept walking.

Phei leaned forward slightly. "I mean it. We can still turn around."

One of her ears shifted.

"We go back up, find somewhere warm, wait for my transportation home and then leave this frozen hell forever. You come with me, we find somewhere with sunlight, food that isn’t trying to kill us, beds, baths, normal weather and people who don’t have names like Zone Lord."

The Dragon Lady snorted.

Phei frowned. "That was an excellent proposal."

She walked faster.

"Dragon Lady."

Nothing.

"They’re many levels beyond us."

She still did nothing.

"You do remember that, right? Those two are World Transcendents and the bastard behind them is a God. There is courage, and then there is voluntarily walking toward three beings who can turn us into interesting stains on ancient ice."

The Dragon Lady’s tail moved lazily behind her.

Phei narrowed his eyes. "You’re ignoring me."

She continued walking.

"You know, for something this big, you’re surprisingly nimble."

The Dragon Lady stopped.

Phei closed his eyes for half a second: "Wrong sentence."

Her head turned.

"I didn’t mean big like fat."

The Dragon Lady stared.

"Not that being fat is bad."

Her stare became colder.