Once inside, you realize that it's not just dragon tendons and blood; the stone walls inside the mountain are covered with pieces of dragon scales of various colors, and there are many dried bloodstains below.
Youyou was stunned. This didn't look like a sacred place for the dragons at all; it was more like a dragon cemetery.
"It seems that Crimson Bone Mountain has buried many dragon bodies," Tianqi said. Otherwise, the demonic plants covering the mountain could not have grown so abundantly. They had obviously grown by absorbing the blood and flesh of these dragons.
"Why would they do this?" Youyou couldn't understand. The dragons were so cunning, and Long Ting was full of scheming. He even killed those gods who followed the dragons into the Demon Realm, all for the sake of the dragons' status. So why would they turn against their own kind? "Are they really just bored out of their minds?"
“No, they must be refining demonic bones!” Feng Rong suddenly said with certainty. “They deliberately sacrificed this flesh and blood in order to refine it into a demonic bone dragon. Only in this way can they become bone dragons.”
"Huh?" Youyou was stunned for a moment, and when she thought of what those dragons looked like, she subconsciously said, "Didn't they become bone dragons because they became demons?" She thought that becoming a bone dragon was a necessary step in becoming a demon.
"What does becoming a bone dragon have to do with becoming a demon?" Feng Rong asked subconsciously. "Everything in the world has demonic nature, so naturally, everyone has the potential to fall into demonic ways. There are so many demons in the Demon Realm, but not all of them look like dragons, just ugly skeletons!"
Oh right, thinking about it, that makes sense. Besides, Gong Xi is also a god who has become a demon. Although they are different races, her true form doesn't seem to be a withered fox. Come to think of it, only dragons have turned into bone dragons.
"Can turning into bone dragons increase their cultivation level?" That was the only thing Youyou could think of.
"No!" Feng Rong shook her head and said, "It's just changing from a body of flesh and blood to a body of bones. For the dragon race, flesh and blood are inherently strong, and there is no difference between them and a body of bones."
"Then why did they change their bodies to bones?" Is that just plain crazy?
The two were also puzzled. Feng Rong continued, "Removing flesh and blood is not only difficult, but also extremely risky." They might even die while removing it. "Therefore, there should be a demon-gathering and bone-refining formation here."
"It's right below." Yuan Qi reached down to the very bottom and saw the array fluctuations he had sensed from the outside. That was it.
The three of them then sped down and found a high platform at the bottom of the mountain. The platform was covered in blood red and scattered with many dragon scales of various colors. A huge magic array was carved on the ground of the platform, but it seemed to have been abandoned for a long time and had lost its effectiveness.
This must be where the dragons transformed into bone dragons. It's unknown how many dragons willingly chose to be here, their flesh stripped away, leaving only their bones. Youyou circled the high platform but found nothing of use.
“There’s nothing else here.” Yuan Qi shook his head and said, “Why the Dragon Clan did this is unknown, unless we know what happened here back then?”
At first?
You You's eyes lit up, and she said directly, "Perhaps I have a way to find out."
Yuan Qi and Feng Rong both turned to look at her.
Youyou raised her hand, and a golden light shone around her. The next moment, a white mist suddenly appeared around her and slowly gathered in front of her. Before long, some images slowly emerged from the mist.
"This is..." Yuan Qi and Feng Rong were both surprised, looking at what seemed to be an image projected by a recording stone, but there was no recording stone here.
“This is a time-space remnant,” Youyou explained. “With so much blood here, there must be a dragon that died after failing to refine its bones. That means a dragon soul must have entered the underworld from here, which means the source of the River of Oblivion would have flowed through here. I collected some source energy from the vicinity, which allows me to recreate the scene before the dragon soul died.”
As long as the timing is controlled properly, it's more effective than any surveillance system. However, she had only seen Sister Jing use this method before; she never expected it to work so well on her own.
The white mist grew increasingly dense, and the image on it became clearer. Upon closer inspection, it was indeed the high platform they were currently standing on, only the image was cleaner than before. Although there were bloodstains, they were clearly freshly splattered.
A white dragon was chained to a high platform, writhing in terror and pleading loudly to its right, "Chieftain! Please... I beg you, I don't want to be dismembered! I'll die... Chieftain..."
Standing on the right side of the screen is a man in black robes, who upon closer inspection is none other than Long Ting, who has been dead for a long time. The white dragon shouts louder and louder, and Long Ting frowns as if he is somewhat annoyed, but he shows no intention of letting go of the other party. He says sternly, "I am doing this to save my race. As long as the flesh and blood are not removed and the body of demonic bones is not refined, the curse of the Heavenly Dao will continue to follow the dragon race."
"But Chieftain..." The white dragon was even more frightened, and even burst into tears, "My cultivation is too low, I won't be able to withstand the pain of having my flesh and bones scraped off, please... I don't want to become some kind of bone dragon, Chieftain..."
"Shut up!" Long Ting seemed even more annoyed and continued to shout, "Do you want to be like the half of the demonic dragons in your clan who died, to be exterminated by the Heavenly Dao, leaving no trace of your body and your soul scattered? I'm saving you!"
After he finished speaking, he seemed to activate the formation directly. The screen lit up with a bright red light, and the white dragon let out a heart-wrenching scream. Its originally snow-white body began to separate into flesh and blood as if it had been cut open by a sharp blade. The scene was so bloody that it could be rated as an adult.
Unable to bear it any longer, Youyou dispersed the white mist, and the heart-wrenching screams ceased. Then, together with Fengrong beside her, they both turned to look at Father Yuan…
Yuan Qi was taken aback, looking equally bewildered, and shook his head, saying, "I have never cast any curse to kill the dragon race." Although he controlled the Heavenly Dao, he only punished those who challenged the rules and caused chaos in the world. Although the dragon race committed a grave mistake back then, they had already fallen into demonic possession and were now legitimate demons, beyond his control.
Even when he transformed into Xuanling, he couldn't chase after the demons to settle scores. Not to mention that afterward, he sealed ninety percent of his power in crystals, so he had no intention of caring about those dragons who had fallen into demonic ways.
"So what exactly is the curse that Long Ting mentioned?" Judging from his tone, it seems that many dragons have died because of it, and those dragons did not die in the realm of gods, but after they became demons.
Youyou thought about it carefully, and it seemed that Gong Xi had also said that when they fled to the Demon Realm, the dragon race was the most numerous. Later, in order to obtain the Demon King's Seal, they also killed other gods who had fallen into demonic possession. However, she only saw eight bone dragons on Tian Sheng Mountain back then.
There seems to be something wrong with this number, and turning into bone dragons seems to be their only way to save themselves. What happened to the dragons after they became demons that left only eight bone dragons?
"Xiao You, why don't we go check with Hades?" Yuan Qi, who had been unfairly blamed, suggested. "The Underworld has a Mirror of Reversal; perhaps we can find out what happened to those dragon souls who were... 'cursed' to death?"
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