Ch. 101 – The Serpent God, Naga

“What’s wrong?” Hao Chen suddenly asked Feng Ye.

He deliberately lowered his voice, and since the others were still a distance away, only Feng Ye could hear him.

Feng Ye was somewhat taken aback. He was lost in thought, but hadn’t been showing it too obviously. No one else had noticed, but Hao Chen did.

Not only had he noticed, but he even inquired with concern.

Unfortunately, Feng Ye’s eyes flickered and he only responded with two words: “It’s nothing.”

Fearing that Hao Chen would press for more information, Feng Ye took a few steps forward to stand with Fang Yang and the others.

He didn’t want to tell Hao Chen, just as he had never told anyone else about that period he never wanted to revisit…..that nightmarish past.

Hao Chen narrowed his eyes at Feng Ye’s evasiveness. This dragon was hiding a little secret.

Feng Ye, as it happened, had quite a few secrets. For example, no one in this world knew how he had managed to transform from a jiao into Yinglong.

There were innumerable jiao in the Southern Sea. Although they were also referred to as dragons, their name just barely contained the character for “dragon,” and they were worlds apart from the real thing.

The true dragon in the Eastern Sea was a righteous god in the heavenly realm, and a very powerful one at that, equal to Hao Chen. He had existed since ancient times, ruling over the Eastern Sea.

In the end, a jiao was nothing more than a type of beast. In the mortal realm, their strength could be considered enormous, but in the heavenly realm, they were so weak that they became food for various divine birds.

Jiao did look similar to dragons, except that they lacked majestic dragon horns and had one less claw.

Perhaps due to the similarities, there was a rumor that jiao were capable of transforming into dragons.

Yet that, too, was merely a rumor. No jiao had ever succeeded in this endeavor. Indeed, throughout the heavenly realm, the true dragon of the Eastern Sea remained the only being who could, in the truest sense of the word, be called a dragon.

Until Yinglong appeared out of nowhere.

After Yinglong was deified, out of boredom and a desire for gossip after waking up, Hao Chen had also made inquiries into how Yinglong had become a god.

But no matter how thoroughly he inquired, all he found out was that Yinglong was originally just a common jiao from the Southern Sea. This jiao had accidentally entered the Emberless Horizon and remained there for three hundred years, and when it emerged, it had become the all-powerful Yinglong.

That three hundred years was the key to his transformation from a jiao into a dragon. But to those outside, this history was a blank slate, because there were no living beings in the Emberless Horizon. That world, composed entirely of the lingering resentment in heaven and earth, only devoured the souls that strayed into it.

Naturally, there were no witnesses who could reveal the whole truth.

Hao Chen suddenly realized that, to this day, all he knew about Feng Ye was his identity as the God of War. Even this was a supposition of his, not something Feng Ye had told him personally.

He really knew nothing else.

He didn’t know what this person had been through, nor how he had become what he was now.

Not long ago, he was still gloating over having climbed onto the dragon’s head, but now he realized that, even compared to others, the distance between him and Feng Ye was perhaps…..not that close.

Feng Ye wouldn’t disclose his secrets to anyone, including Hao Chen.

A sense of frustrated defeat settled over Hao Chen. He had thought he was already very close to Feng Ye, never expecting that it was only wishful thinking on his part.

He tapped his palm lightly with his folding fan, and despite his frustration, a renewed fighting spirit arose within him. Judging from Feng Ye’s expression, he must have a connection to Western Qiang. And this city had existed over a thousand years ago, which was roughly before Feng Ye had cultivated into Yinglong.

This timing was no coincidence.

Perhaps this was his chance to truly enter Feng Ye’s heart.

Upon realizing this, Hao Chen immediately curbed his carefree attitude. He claimed to be accompanying Feng Ye to find the Living Soil, but that was never a concern of his. He was only here to use this opportunity to seduce the dragon.

He followed Feng Ye forward. Feng Ye had stepped up next to Fang Yang, and Hao Chen nudged the boy aside to claim the spot next to Feng Ye for himself.

Fang Yang said nothing when Hao Chen cut in next to him, just quietly sidling closer to Cao Zirui to make room.

Then he turned to Wang Wu across from him and asked: “What’s that engraved on the stone platform?”

He and Cao Zirui had been inspecting it for some time, and had also noticed the patterns peeking through the gaps in the vines. But because it was only a broken section, neither of them could make out what the carving depicted.

“This, ah.” Wang Wu glanced at it and explained, “This is Naga, the great serpent god the people of Western Qiang worshipped.”

“The serpent god, Naga?” Fang Yang asked uncertainly. “Is the serpent god also a great god of the heavenly realm?”

He currently only knew of two great gods, Yinglong and the Kunpeng. This snake was the third one to possess the title of “great god.”

Faced with this question, Wang Wu exchanged a glance with Zhao Yi, then shrugged and said with a hint of impatience: “I don’t know. The people of Western Qiang were the only ones who worshiped this serpent god, and after their kingdom fell, there hasn’t been any word of others worshipping it. Who knows what kind of god it is?”

He wasn’t actually here to be a tour guide, so why were these people dawdling around the stone platform? 

Oblivious to Wang Wu’s impatience, Fang Yang turned to Cao Zirui, who knew a little more about these things than he did.

Cao Zirui shook his head: “I’ve never heard of such a god.”

Of course he hadn’t heard of it. Neither had Hao Chen.

He had been in the heavenly realm for so long that he had basically heard of most of the gods, big and small, even if he didn’t know them all by heart.

He had never heard of any serpent deities in the heavens. There were certainly serpent-like gods, but Naga…..this god seemed to be something that was made up by mortals.

There were actually quite a few gods invented by mortals. Since they had never set foot in the heavenly realm, they naturally had no idea how many gods resided there, and simply fabricated some from their own imaginations. 

But this serpent god…..Hao Chen wouldn’t have thought much of it before, simply assuming that it was another fictional god. However, recalling the battle where Yinglong appeared in Lingxiao Sword Sect, the black mist that possessed Xue Ren had transformed into a giant python, which somewhat resembled the serpent god Naga.

Moreover, the humanoid form conjured by the black mist resembled Yinglong, and Feng Ye’s attitude seemed to hint at a connection to the kingdom of Western Qiang. Hao Chen didn’t believe that this was all a coincidence.

He felt that all of the clues in his head were a jumbled mess. They were likely all connected, but he was unable to find the thread linking them all together.

His gaze inadvertently shifted toward Feng Ye again, and he hoped to find some inspiration by observing his attitude.

Feng Ye kept his eyes lowered, seemingly lost in his own little world. No one else seemed to notice.

Even though he had pushed Fang Yang aside to stand close to Feng Ye, he was still so far from him. Hao Chen stared at Feng Ye’s profile, lost in thought.

Although he had just mustered his fighting spirit, it was somewhat dampened in the face of Feng Ye’s cold and aloof exterior.

He was a peng bird with a wingspan of tens of thousands of li, and could traverse that distance with a flap of his wings. There was no canyon he couldn’t cross, no road he was unable to reach.

But the distance between him and Feng Ye seemed like an insurmountable chasm.

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