Under the thin face veil, Feng Qingyun sat calmly, too shocked and disappointed to even have a reaction, waiting to arrive at the bottom of the abyss. After a long time, the sedan chair finally stopped. It was quiet outside, and those who carried him all the way left in a hurry, as quietly as if they never existed.
Feng Qingyun took a deep breath, lifted the curtain, and looked through the veil. In front of him, there was a bottomless cave, looking as dark as a demon’s mouth, eager to swallow people alive. Before going up the mountain, the village chief once told him: “Miss Yu, you’re now married to the Dragon God. Don’t lift your veil before you come before him. You must remember it.”
The village chief also said that if he managed to kill the dragon and get its heart, the village could continue to be prosperous, and he could come back and reunite with his lover.
The wedding dress was thick and cumbersome, and the intricate headpiece blocked the view, and yet, Feng Qingyun had no other choice but to endure the inconvenience and walk inside the cave. When the cave came to an end, the originally narrow road suddenly became wider, with the space at the end unable to be seen at a glance. Feng Qingyun frowned slightly, wanting to find the legendary Dragon God in the dark, but his eyesight was limited. In the end, he patrolled for a long time without finding any trace, so he turned around defenselessly, only to feel his body suddenly freeze in place.
There he was. A black dragon coiled on a stone pillar and looking at him condescendingly.
An indescribable sense of oppression came straight to his head and, at that moment, Feng Qingyun almost ceased breathing. In front of a real God, people looked so small, and all measures of protecting oneself seemed extremely ridiculous. His brain also seemed to be frozen, and it was only after a moment that Feng Qingyun realized what he was looking at. His “husband” from that moment on, the “groom” he had to kill or accompany in death.
But his new groom didn’t seem to be very interested in him. After a few glances, he closed his eyes in sheer boredom.
Feng Qingyun’s throat moved slightly, carefully probing through the veil: “Dragon God… Your Excellency.”
The dragon didn’t say a word at first, but when he heard him speaking, he closed his eyes and answered: “This Lord didn’t ask for any more newcomers.”
Feng Qingyun’s heart suddenly jumped, and his hand holding the hairpin trembled: “Didn’t Your Excellency say… To nominate me to come?”
The god finally opened his eyes again. After looking down at his bride for a long time, he suddenly tugged at his belt with the tip of his tail without warning. Even if someone else did that, it was still a very frivolous action, especially in that situation when his nominal newlywed husband had not even lifted his veil yet.
Feng Qingyun opened his eyes slightly, but the dragon’s next sentence pulled him back to reality: “Are you the son of Widow Li?”
“…?!”
Was that the power of a god?! He could obviously see his true identity as a man at a glance!
Feng Qingyun suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
“Are you getting married today?” The dragon looked at him up and down, suddenly interested. “That group of people wants to kill me, but they don’t want to bury their own people, so they can only send an outsider like you.”
Feng Qingyun’s heart trembled as he stood there, clutching the useless hairpin in his hand and saying nothing.
“How many years have you been here with Widow Li? Two years? Three?” The dragon’s simple words exposed the sheer malice that festered inside the villagers’ hearts. “At present, it looks to me that you no longer serve any purpose to them.”
Feng Qingyun’s voice was choked, and he only managed to say after a long time: “… Lord Dragon, I volunteered.”
“Volunteered?” The Dragon God sneered. “Weren’t you sent up here by your lover?”
Feng Qingyun suddenly shut his mouth.
It seemed that even if he was weak, a god was still a god, able to control all the movements in the village.
Well… Feng Qingyun held the hairpin in his hand, feeling despondent. However, the Dragon God was completely different from what he had imagined. In fact, he was completely uninterested in what the villagers planned to do to him, to the point that he seemed to have no idea of what Feng Qingyun was holding in his hand. Seeing that his bride was silent, he even had the spirit to deliberately mock him: “Little bride, how does it feel to be sent to your death by the one you held so dearly in your heart?”
The malice in these words was not hidden, but there was no murderous intent as Feng Qingyun imagined. When he heard that tone, he finally raised his eyes boldly. By the time his eyes gradually adapted to the darkness, he finally saw the whole picture of that cave and the dragon, falling into deep shock – the dragon was not so much climbing on the stone pillar as being nailed to it[mfn]Oh, a cave and a dying dragon that still has a nasty mouth despite the situation he’s in. I sense a pattern :))[/mfn].
Starting from his reverse scales down, seven stone nails of different shapes were arranged along the dragon’s spine, following a certain rule. Those terrible nails seem to be so old, almost already integrated with the dragon’s scales, and unable to be seen in the dark without looking carefully.
Only the one close to his tail was halfway out, showing signs of loosening.
It was only because of that loose nail that Feng Qingyun could clearly see the terrible wound on the dragon’s tail, and the ferocious flesh and blood under it. In a second, Feng Qingyun felt there was a bang in his mind, and all kinds of strange and unreasonable clues were smashed together like broken beads on a string, the lingering sound lasting for a long time.
Seeing that his new bride was as silent as a mute, the dragon said first: “Those people asked you to use that to kill me?”
The disdain in his words was almost out of this world, but Feng Qingyun was too immersed in his thoughts, unable to hear what he was saying at all. When he came to his senses, he seemed to have made a decision in an instant, taking the hairpin given to him by his so-called sweetheart and walking to the dragon’s tail.
However, the Dragon God still looked at him condescendingly. Even if his divine power was close to being emptied, the strength of his tail was still enough to take the life of a mortal…
… And yet, Feng Qingyun seemed to be oblivious to that. He not only stood in front of the dragon’s tail but also stroked the ferocious wound twice. The Dragon God, who should have long punished that arrogant human, simply said lightly: “Stabbing an old wound won’t kill me.”
However, Feng Qingyun asked something completely unexpected: “If I pull out all the nails, will Your Excellency be free?”
As soon as that was said, the cave suddenly fell into silence.
After a while, the dragon asked with sarcasm: “You’re a mortal, and you still want to save me?”
But Feng Qingyun simply looked up at him and said: “Isn’t that okay?”
The dragon seemed to be choked by his words, and it took a long time for him to speak again: “I’ll be free if you pull out all the nails… But you should think about the consequences of doing that. I’m no longer the stupid creature with a soft heart who was fooled by some mortal’s tears. It’s been five hundred years, I won’t do anything that benefits sentient beings now. If you release this seal, God will have his sacrifices.” Despite knowing very well that Feng Qingyun was actually a man, he still deliberately continued: “I’m afraid a delicate “lady” like you would not survive it.”
And yet, after Feng Qingyun heard that the dragon would be free after pulling out the nails, he was completely deaf to the rest of his words. The wedding dress got in the way, so he took off the bright red robe, climbing on top of the dragon’s tail wearing only his white undergarments.
The warmth of the human being came into close contact with the cold scales. When those delicate fingertips touched his tail, the chattering dragon suddenly shut his mouth. He didn’t seem to expect that the little mortal actually wanted to help him. After a few seconds, the Dragon God said sternly: “Each of those nails represents a human sacrifice. You’re a mortal as well. If you can’t do it, don’t struggle in vain.”
Seven human sacrifices every five years, reinforcing seven stone nails that dug deeply into the dragon’s spine. Feng Qingyun felt that he should have thought of that possibility a long time ago. At present, he was not at all surprised to hear the dragon’s words, only able to bite his lower lip and shake his head.
The nails were indeed as difficult to pull out as the dragon said. The loose nail on his tail alone wasted a lot of Feng Qingyun’s energy.
When the nail tip was finally out of the flesh, fresh blood gushed out almost instantly, with nothing to block it. Feng Qingyun was suddenly a little at a loss, and for a moment, he thought that instead of saving, he had accelerated the death of the dragon.
However, while he was confused, the Dragon God said just in time: “A single nail and you’re already so tired… Still trying to save this Lord, a mortal like you should just give up.”
However, Feng Qingyun seemed to be born as stubborn as a mule. Even if he lost the memory of his life outside that illusory world, his nature was still engraved in his bones. And just like that, he climbed the dragon’s tail up to the second nail without saying a word, lowered his head, and continued to pry up the nail with the bloody hairpin.
However, that second nail almost grew from the same place as the dragon’s scales. Stabbing at it with a hairpin was like cutting meat directly with a knife, and Feng Qingyun trembled a little while he did it. And yet, the dragon seemed to have gotten used to that pain a long time ago. He didn’t even blink his eyes, and, seeing Feng Qingyun acting so persistent, he even joked: “So stubborn. Why? Do you really want to hurry back to your groom? But you didn’t finish the ceremony, so it can’t be considered a marriage. If you think about it, it’s still this Lord who counts as your first husband.”
… What first husband, second husband?! Even the way he said it sounded like a hooligan, making Feng Qingyun frown. However, he didn’t say anything, and the dragon kept talking nonsense, completely different from what Feng Qingyun thought a majestic Dragon God should act like. After a few more words, Feng Qingyun was really annoyed by him. For a moment, he couldn’t stand it anymore, patting the dragon with a cold face and asking him: “I’ll bother the Lord to shut up.”
The dragon was stunned all of a sudden. As the Dragon God, even if he was imprisoned by those he had blessed for so many years, they still feared him. In his entire life, no one had ever dared to be so rebellious…
… So much so that after being slapped, he didn’t know what to say, so he had to be silent, acting as if that split second completely tamed him.
The cave gradually became quieter, leaving only the metallic sound of the hairpin scraping across the dragon’s scales, along with the sound of flesh tearing and blood gushing.
The Dragon God silently felt the touch left behind by the mortal’s difficult movements. The hairpin that should have taken his life had now become the scalpel that removed his old, festering scabs. After a long time, the last nail fell with a deafening sound, and the silver hairpin lay broken all over the ground. As for Feng Qingyun’s hands, they had already been scratched bloody by the continuous contact with the nails.
He was covered with sweat, and his snow-white undergarments were almost soaked into a half-transparent appearance. However, he was too tired to even care about his disheveled look. The only thing he could muster was sitting on the back of the dragon and gasping.
After a long time, he suddenly remembered that tonight should have been his wedding night, a proper occasion to be exhausted indeed but… To be like that because he wanted to save a demon instead was… Truly ironic.
The dragon seemed to notice his distress, so he slowly came down from the stone pillar, bowed his head, and put him down on the floor of the cave with his tail. He even deliberately adjusted his posture, acting as if he was afraid that the blood from his wounds would stain his bride’s undergarments.
Feng Qingyun was stunned. Although he was not the wounded dragon, his common sense still told him that those kinds of careful little movements could only pull at the fresh wounds, making them so much more painful. However, he soon had no time to think about how painful those wounds might be because when he caught a glimpse of the dragon, his whole body instantly became cold.
The Dragon God was bleeding, his entire body covered in fresh blood, and his vitality began to dissipate rapidly as the blood flowed, showing no signs of improvement.
Feng Qingyun finally realized something at that moment.
He was begging for death.
From the beginning to the end, he never thought of being saved. He was simply begging for a quicker end.
Feng Qingyun was so angry that he even forgot the honorific title for a moment: “Why would you–”
He wanted to question why the Dragon God lied to him, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he suddenly realized that the dragon only ever said that pulling out the nails would grant him freedom. There was never any mention of surviving the ordeal.
Feng Qingyun’s face suddenly turned pale when he realized the true purpose of the dragon.
“You little fool.” The Dragon God was obviously going to die, but at that moment he rejoiced, looking as if he had never been so happy. “Originally, I thought that if someone else came, I would eat them. I never thought that a little fool would come… Well, that’s pleasant enough.”
No matter how full of mockery his words were, his movements were extremely gentle. Hurt beyond saving, the god who had spent all his efforts for a mortal village still used his remaining spiritual power to gently cover Feng Qingyun’s head, saying weakly as he glanced at his bride’s desperate and sad eyes: “Well, don’t look at me like that. For five hundred years, those nails have already become part of me. Freedom and survival are a luxury that cannot be obtained at the same time. As a reward for helping me…”
“Little bride, you can take my heart and go back to your sweetheart.”
T.N: I believe we all know who’s playing the role of the Dragon God in this strange illusion, so I guess now is the perfect time to explain the meaning of ML’s name :)) His name is 龙隐, Lóng Yǐn, where 龙 (Lóng) means “dragon” and 隐 (Yǐn) means “hidden”. So he’s literally an elusive dragon demon/god/Emperor of the demon race (?) whose name is Hidden Dragon, and yet it’s hilarious how MC never connected the dots and realized that he’s the dragon he met before and they do indeed have history together.
What’s also nice is the way all of their names play together, with Mu Hanyang representing the “sun that the MC had been yearning for, despite it being a cold sun that’s unable to give him warmth” (慕寒阳 – Mù Hán Yáng, where 慕 (Mù) means to admire/to adore/to yearn for; 寒 (Hán) means cold; and 阳 (Yáng) means positive/sun), and how MC has a phoenix in his name (凤清韵 – Fèng Qīng Yùn, where 凤 (Fèng) means phoenix; 清 (Qīng) means clear/clean; and 韵 (Yùn) means rhyme), while the ML has a dragon, and we all know how important the phoenix and the dragon are as a pair in Chinese mythology, so I just think it’s really romantic.
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As usual, up to five chapters in advance are available here. Happy reading!
