Chapter 1782 - 320:

Those threads were all wrapped around his body.

The old man was very advanced in years; he had long since lost the ability to move freely, and could only rely on these threads to pull and shift his own body.

When he "sat up," he happened to meet the gaze of the youth standing at the foot of the bed; their eyes locked.

"Sha-sha… sha-sha…"

The old man's fingertips trembled lightly. Through the threads, they linked into the music room, plucking at the zither strings and scraping them. If one listened closely, one could hear "speech" within the sound.

"I did not know Your Excellency would grace my humble abode; I have failed to go far enough to welcome you. I beg your pardon."

The old man's posture was set very low. This was not only because the youth had earlier been able, here, to contest him for control over the room, but even more because the youth had just now, in the courtyard, actually been able to stir the Black Flood Dragon residual spirit into agitation.

That residual spirit would not be roused for no reason; it can only be said that it sensed a Life Chart of interest, and wished to vie for supremacy, to size it up and challenge it.

More frightening still was that in the end, this Black Flood Dragon residual spirit actually conceded defeat and went back down on its own.

That is more effective than presenting any visiting card; it is practically the truest touchstone.

Li Zhiyuan: "It was presumptuous of me to come unannounced; the fault in courtesy is mine from the outset. But I have questions to ask, and I beg you to inform me."

Old man: "I shall know nothing and yet leave it unspoken, and say nothing that is not said in full."

Li Zhiyuan: "Why is the Black Flood Dragon's residual spirit here?"

Old man: "This, it is a long story. If the young friend… no, if Your Excellency is willing to listen to my old self's ramblings, please be seated. It is a pity Ping has gone out to buy vegetables; there is no one in the house to serve Your Excellency tea. I must beg pardon for the poor hospitality."

Li Zhiyuan pulled a chair over beside him and sat down. "Please, speak."

Zhao Yi gently pushed his own wheelchair, listening as he toured the room.

What interested him most were those ancient books on the shelves.

He had thought to see whether he could gain some unexpected harvest, but ended up disappointed, for those ancient texts had great literary value, yet no value to the Xuanmen.

Beside them were several painting tubes, stuffed full of paintings. Zhao Yi reached out and riffled through them as well.

The old man began his narration:

"Does Your Excellency know of the Jiujiang Zhao Family?"

Li Zhiyuan glanced at Zhao Yi and answered, "I do."

Zhao Yi lowered his head and rubbed his nose. He had a premonition that yet again, some sin wrought by the Zhao Family was about to be dragged into the light.

"The forebears of the Jiujiang Zhao Family, the Dragon King Zhao, Zhao Wuyang, once suppressed an entire generation of the Jianghu.

When the Dragon King's lifespan was nearing its end, he went to the Nine Rivers, and suppressed a Black Flood Dragon as his own curtain call.

My old self's ancestors worshipped none other than Dragon King Zhao."

Zhao Yi: "May I ask, sir, what is your honorable surname?"

Old man: "My surname is Jin—Jin Xingshan."

Zhao Yi: "But there was no one surnamed Jin at Dragon King Zhao's side."

Zhao Yi had read the Ancestor's Notes. He knew that in those days his forebear did not walk the Rivers alone; there were two who revered his forebear, accompanying him all the way until he achieved the Dragon King's Position.

Later, one of them retired from the Jianghu, living out his life free and unrestrained; the other founded his own sect, but that sect did not "manage" itself as the Zhao family did, and was early washed away into the long river of the Jianghu.

One bore the surname An, one the surname Sun; there had been none surnamed Jin.

Old man: "That is where you have misunderstood. My family's forebear was not able to follow Dragon King Zhao in walking the Rivers. It was only after Dragon King Zhao came to the Nine Rivers that he received the Dragon King's Order, paid respects to the Dragon King, and accompanied the Dragon King in suppressing that Black Flood Dragon.

It was my old self's imprecise phrasing that misled Your Excellency."

Zhao Yi: "It was my misspeaking that offended."

The old man continued, "To be able to serve under the Dragon King's Order is in itself an honor. Furthermore, my old self's clan struck root in the Nine Rivers even earlier. Compared with that Dragon King who came to the Nine Rivers only in his later years, my Jin family is more like the natives of this Jiujiang.

Thus, to aid the Dragon King in suppressing the Black Flood Dragon was also to do a good deed for our home region, and naturally a duty we could not shirk."

At this point, in Li Zhiyuan's mind surfaced memories of the Four Families of the Old Heavenly Gate.

Back then, in Zhangjiajie, when the General's baleful might was at its height, he sought to break free of his tomb and lead Yin Soldiers to campaign across the world once more.

In the end, the Dragon King of Qin Family, Qin Kan, came to Zhangjiajie and issued the Dragon King's Order. The Four Families of the Old Heavenly Gate turned out in full and assisted the Dragon King in suppressing the General together.

Old man: "According to my old self's family chronicles, that Black Flood Dragon was in the midst of a fresh transformation at the time—brutal and ferocious, its blood and qi inexhaustible. Fortunately, Dragon King Zhao's valor was peerless. He fought it until the surface of the river rolled up into red tides.

Unfortunately, the Dragon King was already old and no longer in his prime. Though he defeated it, he could not utterly annihilate this vicious thing, and could only leave arrangements in the Nine Rivers, using the passage of years to wear away the vicious intent that lingered after the dragon's death, so that it would not reappear.

My old self's forebear was one of the Guardians assigned to one such arrangement."

Li Zhiyuan: "What sort of arrangement?"

Old man: "After the Dragon King defeated that Black Flood Dragon, he beheaded the dragon, drew out its tendons, severed its bones, and flayed its skin.

The hardest to suppress, and likewise the most dangerous, was the dragon's head. The Old Dragon King entrusted it to a descendant of the Zhao Family to suppress personally.

It is said that the Old Dragon King once spoke of how his allotted span was at an end; to leave this body for temple and tomb would bring shame upon the Dragon Kings before him, and cause the Dragon Kings after him to mock him.

Thus…"

The old man was filled with reverence for Zhao Wuyang—or rather, his entire family had, generation after generation, worshipped Dragon King Zhao with the utmost devotion.

Though not of Zhao blood, they regarded their own forebear's chance to suppress the Black Flood Dragon alongside the Dragon King as a source of boundless pride.

Li Zhiyuan stated directly, "The Old Dragon King used his own head to suppress the Black Flood Dragon's head."

Old man: "Exactly so. In those days it was enshrined deep within that Jiang Locking Tower."

Li Zhiyuan: "So that means, besides your Jin family and the Zhao family, there were two other families?"

Old man: "Yes. However, the dragon's head, tendons, and bones have long since been suppressed to death and dispersed. Only this Black Flood Dragon Skin… upon it clung the greatest resentment that Black Flood Dragon bore before its death. It is the hardest to grind away clean, and thus requires a much longer time.

My old self's family, through successive generations, has silently persisted in suppressing it.

By rights, even if my old self's family's forebears were of poor aptitude, far inferior to that ancestor who was so excellent as to win the Dragon King's recognition, it should not be so absurd as this.