Worm Kills Worm

While most of the elders were bowing and asking for forgiveness from the Dragon. Arthur said, "Please wait, senior Dragon."

The flood Dragon halted and looked at Arthur in surprise. He was amazed by Arthur conversing with him mentally. A child of around 3 years to talk to him using mental power was truly surprising.

He then said, "Ah! A genius among humans, how exhilarating! It will be more so interesting to taste a human prodigy." He licked his lips and laughed looking at Arthur.

Arthur didn't react to his remark and rather said, "Senior Dragon, I know you are more powerful than my grandpa but I'm curious whether you are also knowledgeable about something which none of us understands."

The Dragon felt so amused that he laughed and replied, "Puny humans, you are so weak and dumb to know anything. Just because you can form a soul space and converse mentally you think you are eligible to know the knowledge of the heavens and earth?''

He felt it so funny that he roared laughing at Arthur. He chuckled and added, "A worm with a brain trying to understand the meaning of life. Forget about everything you know or want to know and accept death." At first, he was curious but soon got bored by a thought, "what difference does it make about what a worm thinks when its life itself is even so insignificant to be taken into account."

Arthur too laughed and then he said to his clansmen, "Why are you guys so afraid of death? Hasn't death been following us constantly all this time? We left the village when death knocked on our door, we left the swamp when death visited us there. We came here to escape death only to be delivered at its jaws again. For the senior dragon, we are simply worms so our life, our thoughts, our actions and our death doesn't matter at all. So, stop bowing to him asking forgiveness, it doesn't any difference to him. If he kills us he'll simply destroy our bodies but our souls would still continue to live on. What can he possibly do to us worms, more than that? No matter how powerful he thinks he is, can he even destroy the worms completely?"

At first, it sounded as if Arthur has completely submitted to his fate and thus he was delivering his final speech but it came out to be mocking the senior Dragon. The clansmen knew very well that the Dragon can destroy their souls too but they felt so good when Arthur taunted the Dragon. They were even ready to believe in Arthur's every word to console themselves with an uplifting thought that their existence cannot be destroyed entirely by the dragon no matter what he does.

The Flood Dragon felt so annoyed by seeing the fearless and smug face on the faces of these ignorant morons who were not even aware that he, a might dragon was already too powerful and could even crumble their souls with ease. The Dragon wanted to stop communicating with the ignorant humans and kill them directly but he didn't like the idea of letting these people die with the satisfaction of thinking that he isn't able to pulverise both their bodies and soul.

Hence, he explained, "You morons, I'm so powerful that I can not only destroy your body but your souls too. Have you heard of Earthly Immortal cultivation Rank? I am equivalent to that,...You ignorant idiots might not have heard of that, but have you heard of Connate Realm? I'm a Rank above it." As rightly said by the dragon they didn't know about the Rank of Earthly Immortal but they have heard of Connate Realm and so they were amazed by it, which satisfied the Dragon greatly. As he thought of finally killing them he heard Arthur laughing and speaking again.

Arthur said, "Isn't that even better? If he can destroy our souls also we would cease to exist which means we will be free from this constant suffering that we go through in every life form that we become. We are insignificant to him but he is also a worm to even more powerful beings who can destroy his very existence, this is the ultimate truth of life. If he is truly the most powerful of all existence then would he even bother to take our lives? If he is the ultimate one that all cultivators strive to become then won't he listen to a weakling and solve the question that puzzles the mind of the powerless and ignorant junior?"

Arthur then looked at his clansmen and asked, "Seniors, when a weak human, a non-cultivator mortal asks you a question that bothers his insignificant mind do you ignore him because he is weak and powerless? Is it not that you, being the most powerful and wiser than him, would first try to clarify all his doubts without taking into consideration whether or not you kill him afterwards. Yet you still shower your wisdom and knowledge on him, not because of his significance but you do so for your greatness and glory?"

The people present there didn't understand what Arthur was trying to do but they were completely astonished by the words that Arthur spoke and soon agreed with him. The Dragon who was looking down at him was similarly hooked on Arthur's words and his interest piqued.

The flood Dragon knew what Arthur was trying to do and finally said, "Boy, I underestimated you. You are brave and clever beyond your age. I shall answer your questions. Tell me what's bothering your mind. What does your idiot mind fail to understand?"

Arthur finally bowed and said, "Thank you Senior Dragon for giving your time to this insignificant human." Then he said, " Ever since I was born my spiritual power has been accumulating at an unprecedented rate, much faster than anyone in the village which has brought great benefit to my soul space. However, last year I noticed that my soul space is not expanding anymore but my spiritual power is still accumulating at the same pace. Now I'm feeling completely suffocated by its richness. My grandfather said that normally my soul space should expand since my spiritual space is already filled. However, with this restriction on my soul space, I fear that it would explode anytime if my soul space doesn't expand. Senior Dragon, do you know why my soul space is not expanding anymore?"

The flooded Dragon was also truly puzzled and he asked, "Is your spiritual power changing its purity?"

Arthur replied, "I think its purity has already reached its limit, it is not becoming purer anymore. It is only accumulating non-stop."

On hearing it the flood Dragon became more interested. He had hit a jackpot, if he devours Arthur's pure soul energy he could dream of becoming a true dragon one day. He has to enter Arthur's soul space and devour it. He shouldn't let Arthur explode his soul space and scatter the spiritual soul energy to become waste. He then said, "Maybe there is an external restriction placed on your soul space, you should let me enter your soul space to examine it."

At last, he said what Arthur wanted to hear the most. Arthur then opened his guarded soul space and the soul of the flood dragon entered his soul space. Arthur felt that the soul of the flood dragon was not too overpowering as the vicious and turbulent spiritual energy left behind by the monster called Li Jun. Thus, he felt relieved. He didn't know beforehand which one of them was more powerful. Nevertheless, he took a huge risk in inviting the Dragon into his soul space. He kept his distance from the Dragon's soul because he was too weak and from a distance, he pointed the spiritual energy source bounded by the water emperor silken cloth to the flood dragon. By this time the flood Dragon was completely focused on the spiritual energy source inside Arthur's soul space. At first, he was surprised by Arthur's soul who has already grown up to be a boy of around 10 years of age but his attention was soon attracted by the pure energy source that was leaking out of the clothed material. He noticed that the spiritual source was bounded by the silken cloth. And when he went nearer to the silken cloth he noticed that the cloth itself was a treasure, a great treasure of an emperor level. As predicted by him, it was an external force that was putting restrictions but he found out that the restrictions were not imposed on Arthur's soul space instead it was solely on the spiritual energy source. He soon realised the discrepancies in Arthur's story and doubt began to fill his mind. And just as he was about to turn and attack Arthur's soul the silken cloth bound him immediately, inside and together with the turbulent energy source. The spiritual energy was too pure, wild and powerful that his soul started burning up inside it. He cried out loudly cursing Arthur and asking Arthur to release him, however, Arthur was too busy executing another plan.

Arthur cried mentally, "Grandpa Hai, Grandpa Ye, Grandpa Kong. Go and destroy that Dragon's body." With that order, the old men along with many other senior elders started attacking the body of the flood Dragon which has already been sitting motionlessly on the ground near the lake.

After ordering the elders Arthur heard the voice of the flood Dragon berating him continuously. "You puny little boy, I'll destroy your soul. I'll kill all your clansmen...I'll annihilate your entire race. You worthless piece of scum doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth. I am a true dragon who governs the universe..."

Arthur interrupted him with his laugh and said, "You idiot worm, stop fooling yourself by considering yourself as a mighty true dragon. You are merely a flood dragon whose bloodline is so impure that, even to consider you a bloodline of the dragon is an insult to the shit of a true dragon. You are just a water snake that became a flood dragon by eating the stool containing a few blood droplets of an actual dragon." Arthur was so pissed at the flood dragon who called him a worthless worm repeatedly and even threatened to kill his family.

The curses of the flood dragon became louder and louder but after some time, they started to wane and the voice also became weaker and weaker as time went on. And finally, a feeble voice of the flood dragon sounded, begging Arthur to release him but Arthur paid no heed to the dragon and soon Arthur's soul space became silent once again. By the time the soul of the flood dragon turned into spiritual energy, its body was also cut into several pieces.

None of them knew exactly how or what happened except for the initial conversation that the dragon spoke and the interjection by Arthur and his words of motivation because the last conversation that they talked about was through mental power and so none of them understood what conspired. Only Lu Donghai and Lu Yehan had some idea behind it. His parents also had some rough ideas but they were also not too sure of them. The rest were puzzled and amazed by the sudden actions that took place in front of them.

Yehan sternly ordered his people not to speak about it anymore. He simply said that Arthur is a blessing from heaven to the Lu clan who is destined to bring the Lu clan to great heights and anyone spreading any story about Arthur to other people and bringing trouble to Arthur would commit a great sin towards the clan itself. Soon, every responsible adult swore not to spread anything about it to anyone. It wasn't certain whether they would be truly loyal to their word in future but at present everyone was sincere about what they uttered. They had already been witnessing Arthur's peculiarity and it was not much of a secret that Arthur was different. They thought that the Dragon was killed by the three most powerful people supported by the elders. Even the elders thought that they were the ones who killed the Dragon. They explained that while Arthur made the flood dragon distracted by his words the village chief struck a deadly blow to the Dragon severing its head while the other elders followed in killing it to the last bit.

What the clan members understood was that Yehan was warning them about Arthur being a genius, the flood Dragon said it aloud and they also witnessed Arthur's wisdom. They didn't know that most of the orders that they had been following recently were directed by Arthur.

When everything was settled in Lu Donghai, Lu Yehan and his parents inquired Arthur about the things that occurred and how Arthur solved them.

"Sansan, tell us what happened," Asked his father.

Arthur replied, " We know that the flood Dragon wanted to kill us all but he was too proud and wanted to brag about himself. He wanted us to be terrified of him, beg him for mercy and after he gets his satisfaction he wanted to kill us. He was too powerful but was also a great bragger who wanted to be praised and be awed."

"Beg him for mercy, Bragger and wants praise?" Lu Yehan inquired.

"Yes, if not why would he splash us with water that didn't even harm children. He is so powerful that if he truly wanted to harm us he would have already done so without talking to us or listening to me," clarified Arthur.

Lu Donghai said, "I see, that sounds reasonable. If he really wants to kill us then he would do so without talking to us."

Arthur continued, "he wanted us to beg him for mercy that's why when we asked for forgiveness he grew complacent on achieving his goal and wanted to act. Thus, I pretended as if we don't care whether he is entirely powerful or not, whether we are truly a worm in his eyes or not, whether he kills us or not, it didn't make any difference, not only to him but to us also. Subsequently, when he heard it and saw the fearless and carefree attitude of our people he was not happy and started to explain how powerful he was, who can destroy our souls also.

Then, I showed him that it would still make no difference, instead, it would do us a favour by giving us liberation from human suffering. After diminishing the consequences of any of his actions that he wanted to make. I pulled him down further saying that he was also a worm in the eyes of others. After that, I asked you guys questions on how a truly powerful individual should act. Imposing all the glory and honour of such an individual. He was powerful so he didn't fear us playing any tricks on him and he wanted us to see respect and greatness in him, also fear and helplessness. Accordingly, at last, he could only bite the bait that I laid out for him. After all, he was only a flood dragon who is and always will be looked down on by a true dragon. He wants to be worshipped and feared by everyone like the real Dragon."

Arthur said, "I invited him to my soul space to crush his soul by the turbulent spiritual energy in my soul space." He then narrated how and what occurred between him and the Flood Dragon and how he finally died. Upon hearing everything they marvelled at Arthur's ingenuity and showered him with praises. They were genuinely proud of him.