The fragments of the tattoo continued to merge into the mountain, and the information Zhou Xuan received from the mountain became even stranger.
He saw the tip of a massive dragon tail, gently swaying within the body of Guan Mountain.
The dragon tail tip, serrated like thorny leaves, was covered in dragon scales. But upon closer observation, Zhou Xuan noticed that two of the dragon scales near the tip had already fallen off, revealing purplish-red bloodstains.
These bloodstains reminded Zhou Xuan of the color of "Hunger’s" five viscera.
The bloodstains continued to spread rapidly. Zhou Xuan witnessed a third dragon scale being stained with blood, and faint signs of it loosening became visible.
"So, Hunger isn’t truly death. It has fused its will into the dragon’s tail, frenziedly corrupting Mingjiang Prefecture’s dragon tail... The great dragon of Mingjiang Prefecture has been in decay all along... Could it be..."
At this thought, Zhou Xuan instinctively reached out to grab the dragon tail. But the tail was inherently shapeless—invisible even though it had materialized under the power of the Forbidden Land Tattoo. In the end, his right hand grasped nothing but air.
As he grasped at the emptiness, Zhou Xuan woke from his weightless trance.
Surrounding him was still the pit in the real world. On the ground lay the stone-like five viscera of "Hunger" and the empty and desolate Divine Platform.
Zhou Xuan activated the Wash Away Injustice Talisman. Though he had a general understanding of what "Hunger" had done, he wanted to see everything more clearly.
The Wash Away Injustice Talisman emitted a flash of white light, rewinding time in the pit back by seven hours. He saw two people entering the pit.
One of the men was someone Zhou Xuan recognized. It was the old man who had, after drinking two jars of wine at Kangfeng Inn, invoked Hunger and devoured everyone there.
He was Hunger’s "foot."
The other man wore a long black robe, his body half-transparent, his face and hands vague and indistinct.
The old man knelt before the figure in the black robe, addressing him with both reverence and devotion, calling him "Time God."
The "Time God" showed no expression. He placed his two translucent hands, glowing with white light, on the old man’s shoulders. As the white glow spread, the old man began to age rapidly.
Initially looking just over sixty, the old man’s streaks of gray hair turned completely white under the glow, then rapidly fell out in clumps.
His wrinkled skin deepened into creases at a terrifying pace. As the wrinkles collapsed further, his skin began to show signs of decay, and his flesh shriveled alongside it, until he was reduced to a skeleton of white bone.
"It’s the Time Law. ’Time’ accelerated the time within the old man’s body by several folds, causing him to age to death and decay within moments."
Zhou Xuan pondered to himself.
The old man’s body rotted until only the skeletal frame remained. Yet within the white skeleton, his five viscera still glowed with a sickening purplish-red hue.
"Time" took the five viscera in his hands and placed them on the pre-prepared Divine Platform, saying, "Cannibal, like your brothers and sisters, go corrupt the Mingjiang Ancestor Dragon. On the day of your great success, your mother will personally guide you home."
Placed upon the Divine Platform, the five viscera emitted streams of life energy. These streams transformed into blood-red mist, which seeped into the walls of the pit.
Zhou Xuan heard the anguished roar of a dragon, filled with pain.
When the life force from the viscera completely entered the walls, and the organs turned into lifeless stone, "Time" leisurely stepped into the flow of time and disappeared.
The second realm of Time Law—the "walker" within time-space.
Zhou Xuan abruptly shattered the spatial rift and activated the Armored Horse, leaving the pit in haste. He hurried down the mountain.
He needed to bring this shocking revelation to the Painter and the Music Master—the mystery behind the decline of the Mingjiang Ancestor Dragon had finally been unraveled...
ps: My dear brothers, here’s a major update for you all. Love you, mwa mwa da.