“Qinglong, we mean no harm—” the voices within the ‘pearl’ said.

“You mean no harm?” the dragon asked with an undercurrent of outrage. “Yet you bring that foul bird’s vital essence into my domain, tainting it.”

The dragon turned its attention to Chris whose soul had somehow now gained a crimson lustre. “And all this for a mere mortal soul? First, you undermined my divinity by supporting that foul bird’s ascension, then your collective stupidity cost me a third of my life force, and now this?! Have I grown so complacent that you would continue to so causally slight me? If so, then let me remind you the reason why I, Qinglong, am named the ancestor of dragons.”

“There is no reason to get angry, Qinglong—” the voices said in a bid to calm the angry dragon, unfortunately, their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Widening his maw, Qinglong growled, gathering the ambient energy in the air into his unhinged jaw. A spiralling azure orb of pure energy whirred into existence, the fabric of reality rending around it.

A disoriented Chris widened his eyes, terror manifesting within. Hey… W-wait! Can’t we talk about this? I think we should talk about this!

The orb screamed forth, arching towards Chris, before a paper-thin film of light appeared in its path, dissipating the orb into nothing more than a violent gale. The diminished gale shook Chris soul, temporarily destabilizing it until the pearl released a grey mist that dissipated the force.

But before Chris could breathe a sigh of relief, he looked up to see the dragon dive-bombing on their position, approaching with the might of a falling star.

The descending dragon impacted with an explosive bang, a bright flash of white light flooding the plane before everything went eerily silent. Several seconds later, the explosive sound returned as the light dimmed until it disappeared completely.

Qinglong reappeared, suspended several miles up in the air. His serpentine body was coiled in a loose loop with his tail slowly swaying about, glowing in an eye-catching azure light— the remnant energies from the previous attack pulsing on its surface.

The dragon arched his neck to examine the result of his attack, his fearsome gaze squinted in a small frown.

Below the dragon, displaying a swirling, intermittent spectrum of perfectly reflective silver and all-consuming darkness was a dome of vibrating scales and coiled muscle.

Seconds later, the dome uncoiled to reveal two carps of monstrous proportions. The first covered in silvery mirror-like scales with a pitch-black spot adorning its forehead, and the other pitch-black in colour with a reflective silver spot on its forehead.

With body lengths, about five times their height, gigantic delicate-looking scales, whiskers about half their body lengths hanging from forward-protruding mouths and elongated, flowing finnage, both fishes nearly rivalled the dragon in size.

Tui and La swam serenely in circles around a glassy-eyed Chris, closely guarding him against the dragon’s wrath. The mortal had been shocked into a stupor by the sheer display of power before him.

“Qinglong,” Tui and La intoned ominously, “this is not wise.”

Qinglong huffed dismissively. Arrogance suffused aura, his gaze, condescending.

“You’ve both grown weak.”

“Qinglong, are you sure you want to continue on this self-destructive path?” the duo said again.

Qinglong responded by amassing another charge of energy, two orbs forming in his claws. The two lines of azure scales along his sides brightened in an icy-blue glow and as his mane, beard and whiskers flared out threateningly.

“Mere carps threatening a dragon, humph, the wonders of this universe never cease to amaze me.”

Tui and La responded in kind, multiple defensive arrays and formations springing into existence around Chris, protecting him. They swam up to meet Qinglong, amassing energy underneath their scales as they went on the offensive.

Qinglong aimed the orbs in his claws at the approaching duo, a pillar of azure-coloured energy shooting towards Tui and La in an attempt to smite them out of the sky. The duo charged head forth, their delicate scales vibrating audibly as they deflected, shrugging off the attack.

Seeing his strike so blatantly ignored, the dragon huffed a stream of energy from his nostrils in a condescending manner before widening his maw, another orb, greyish in colouration like the void that made up this plane, gathering within.

With a growl, Qinglong dived down towards the ascending Tui and La. In response, two gigantic runes appeared in the mouth of each carp, swelling and shuddering as the ambient energy in the air was sucked in.

The three giants collided in another flash of light, the protective formation around Chris shuddering under the sheer force of the shockwaves from the collision. Within, Chris’ soul stood glass-eyed as a single thought echoed in his mind.

So cool…

He stared at the display, watching flashes and flares of energy form and disappear multiple times, a light of enlightenment kindling, then blazing within his eyes. Unknown to him, multiple esoteric runes began forming around him, with even more materializing into existence as the seconds passed.

The runes twirled about him in a gentle zephyr for a few seconds before suddenly growing in intensity. The zephyr became a small cyclone, the smaller cyclone grew larger and became a large cyclone, and that cyclone grew in intensity until it became a hurricane. The violently swirling mass of runes soon outgrew the space within the protective barrier.

The storm struggled briefly against the spiritual construct, heaving for a moment before smashing through.

All this fell beneath Chris’ notice though, his gazed gaze stuck frozen on the supernatural phenomenon occurring above him. But while Chris failed to notice, the rapidly growing typhoon was quickly brought to the attention of the three battling behemoths.

Their battle continued, unceasing, but a large portion of their attention was now diverted to observing the phenomenon. The dragon warily pulled on the offensive, taking a more defensive stance as he finally took the time to closely examine Chris’ soul. His gaze shone with divine light as he peered at the befuddled mortal. He saw…

Nothing.

Or, more appropriately he could not see anything. The soul was heavily shrouded from his divine gaze. The dragon frowned for a moment before turning his full attention back to his opponents.

“I didn’t think you would go to such great lengths such as mastering temporal laws just to be able to shield a mere mortal soul from my [Timeless Gaze].” the dragon said as it whipped its ginormous tail at the black scaled carp. The appendage slammed into the side of the carp’s head, deflecting its charge just enough for Qinglong to slither out of the path.

“Do you think yourself that important?” Tui and la synced. “I never assumed you to be one whose arrogance knows no bounds.”

The dragon paused his attack, swimming several miles away before slithering around to circle back around Chris. Tui and La also seized their assault, refusing to capitalize on the dragon’s retreat. Rather, they returned to circle defensively around Chris… Or rather the typhoon swirling violently around him.

Qinglong gazed at Chris for another moment before performing what looked like divination. His body coiled around itself in two loops and he interlocked his two foreclaws, eyes glowing a blinding azure light with his mane, bread and whiskers flaring out.

Three seconds later, the glow in his eyes dimmed and he turned his gaze back to the two carps, surprise flashing within.

“Is he?..”

“Yes,” the carps intoned affirmatively, as they stared expectantly at the impatient dragon, “he is.”

The dragon fell silent. Aside from the roaring turbulence swirling around Chris, no other sound could be heard.

The silence dragged on for several seconds before the dragon chuckled to itself, its booming voice echoing over the roaring turbulence.

“You bastards finally found Zu’er,” Qinglong said, turning his gaze to Chris where he stood. “I guess you two are not so useless after all.”

“Why else did you think we would risk angering someone as unreasonable as you?” Tui and La sighed. “That’s what we were trying to tell you, you fool!”

The two fell silent for a moment before letting out a tired sigh.

“Although your stupidity and obstinacy nearly cost us the entirety of our vital essence, it seems Zu’s luck is good and the Great Dao is merciful, so this is not completely wasted.”

The dragon scoffed before slithering closer, stopping about a whiskers length away from the celestial carps circling the raging typhoon.

“He has begun to refine a portion of the Dao as his own. I can sense Yin, Yang and Samsara Dao fragments within this storm,” the dragon said, examining the runes swirling within the typhoon.“Which Augen do you think he would eventually refine?”

“Why not all?” the carps replied, causing the dragon to raise a curious brow in surprise. “That shouldn’t be impossible for him.”

“Even with his residue divinity, Zu’er would struggle to refine even two greater Augen’s,” Qinglong, scoffed after a moment of thought. “Three would be impossible...”

“...Unless,” the dragon probed cautiously after a thought, “we intervene.”

The typhoon flared threateningly at Qinglong words. It did not seem to like the suggestion.

“Ai… Whatever.” the dragon said with a dismissive scoff. He glanced at the carps silently swimming around the storm, a strange glint flashing in his eyes. The carps exchanged a glance with the dragon before turning back to the typhoon.

After a moment of contemplation, they sighed acceding to the temptation.

“I hope it is worth it…” they intoned out loud, their scales suddenly flashing in a blinding glare as they emitted numerous runes from their gaping maws that flowed and intermixed with the typhoon. Simultaneously, Qinglong opened his maw, a torrent of runes flowing from his belly into the typhoon.

Under the influence of the three celestial beasts, the typhoon swelled unnaturally. Angered by their unsolicited aid, the typhoon raged in an attempt to reject the flow but it was already too late.

At the apex of the refining process, the typhoon spilt into two smaller cyclones before violently shrinking, compressing all the runes together. Moments later the first cyclone completely dissipated, leaving behind only one rune.

“The Augen of Origin,” Tui and La said, their voices echoing with a hint of melancholy. “The Dao gave way to unity, Unity to duality, Duality to trinity, and Trinity to the myriad things. The Dao is merciful. It has been over a millennium since Origin last materialized.”

Qinglong shut his maw, cutting the flow of runes with a frown on his face.

“Zu’er won’t be able to take any more of this,” the dragon mused disappointedly as he stared at the second half-formed rune. “Sadly, there is only so much his mortal soul can handle.”

Both runes vibrated for a brief moment before flying back towards Chris’ soul fixing themselves into each of his eyes. The soul’s eyes flashed a divine light for a moment before fading back to a crimson hue.

Chris blinked, his glazed eyes clearing up.

...W-what, happened, he groaned stumbling forward as he clasped the sides of his head, stricken with pain.

The three giants glanced at each other but before they could reply the heavens stirred again, causing a grimace to spread across their collective features.

“Tao, we can talk about this—” the dragon began but was cut off as he suddenly caught on fire, crimson flames burning on his scales. The carps didn’t go scot-free either, a grey flame also setting them ablaze. But as quickly as the tribulation came it left.

A warning.

“Ai… so petty,” Qinglong grumbled under his breath. The heavens stirred again, forcing him to fall silent.

“It is time we took our leave,” the carps said, unperturbed. It was almost as if they weren’t just set ablaze by the Great Dao for their misdemeanour.

“Keep a close eye on him,” The dragon said flicking a whisker in Chris’ direction. The mortal was still wide-eyed from witnessing the blazing display. “Don’t lose him again like you did last time.”

“We know what we are doing,” Tui and La said evenly as they shrunk back into their ‘pearl’ before using a gust of energy to lift a confused Chris towards the suspended rings.

H-hey! What is going on? Is the dragon still trying to eat us? Someone say something! Please!

“Yes, you do,” Qinglong replied to the carps with a hint of sarcasm, ignoring Chris’ protest and eliciting a sigh from the duo in the pearl. He slithered back to the suspended rings, following behind the trio at a leisurely pace.

The group arrived at the rings and Chris’ eyes widen at the sight of a spatial rift appearing in the centre of the rings, splitting the phantasmal river apart along its longitudinal plane.

The group paused, the duo within the ‘pearl’ turning their attention to the dragon.

“Farewell,” they said.

“Farewell,” Qinglong replied, “Till we meet again.”

And with that, ignoring Chris’ screams of horror, the three ‘fell’ into the void behind the rift, disappearing from that plane of existence, leaving the dragon to return to its slumber.