For a second, Ning stood there with slight fear boiling inside his heart. 

"Damn that Flood Dragon, It's got me scared. But I need to go get my spear," Ning thought. He controlled his fear and started walking. 

He took a familiar path to the lake. The grassland was wide so he called out Aegis to carry him once more. He had gathered all the ingredients along the way with Hijaka when he last walked through here, so he couldn't gather any this time around. 

Ning put Aegis back into the beast space once he was in the forest and started walking forward by himself. At his speed, it would take around 2 hours for him to cross the forest and reach the water.

He slowly trekked along the way for more than an hour when suddenly he heard movements. A group of people was coming towards him. 

Ning brought out his sword and got ready to fight. However, what showed up was a jumbled mess of people that just ran as fast as they could. 

They all seemed to be running for their life. "Ah, they must've awakened the Flood Dragon," Ning thought. Still, Ning was quite surprised how many of them managed to survive. 

He quickly ran through the forest, disregarding the status of his ribs. He had taken the medicine, so he didn't worry it suddenly flaring up for today. 

Once he reached the lake, he saw the blue scaled Flood Dragon rising high above the water sending out waves of water at a man down below. 

The man wore orange clothes similar to the ones from the Dazzling sect. "I killed 13 of them except for that one guy that escaped. So does that mean he is the 15th member?" Ning wondered. 

The man wasn't fighting the  Flood Dragon at all. From what Ning could see, he had a 3rd Foundation Establishment realm cultivation base, not even close to enough to fight the Flood Dragon who had a 5th Foundation Establishment realm cultivation base. 

The man was instead running around the lake, dodging the attacks. He had a small and nimble body, so he could easily dodge the Flood Dragon. 

Still, he couldn't find openings that he could use to go get the fruit. 

Ning hid behind a tree about 50 meters away from the lake and kept tabs on those two's fight. He wanted to use the opportunity to sneak in there and steal the fruit if possible. 

Suddenly, something weird happened. The man suddenly split in two. One ran towards the right and another towards the left. The one that ran left was a simple illusion that was there to distract the Floor Dragon. 

The one on the right was the real one. When the Flood Dragon attacked the illusion, the man saw his opportunity. He immediately flew towards the fruit. 

But before he could even make it a meter away from the shore, he was stuck midair. 

"No you don't," Ning thought as he stopped the man from flying forward. Due to the incredible strength of the man, Ning started feeling a little lightheaded due to using too much mental energy. 

However, that was all Ning really needed. 

The Flood Dragon turned around, and the man couldn't escape anywhere. He was doomed. 

WHOOSH

A single blast of water turned the man into yellow lights and he left the realm. Even as he left, he didn't know what had happened to him at the last moment. 

'Sigh, now I have to find my own opportunity,' Ning thought.

Suddenly, the Flood Dragon turned around and looked directly towards the tree where he was hiding. Ning felt something wash over his body. 

"Sh*t, it's divine sense goes so far out?" he said in surprise. The Flood Dragon had found out his position and it was time to run.

Suddenly, the Flood Dragon spewed out water that reached everywhere. Before Ning could run away, the water reached behind him and created a barrier that stopped him from escaping. 

Now he was in the Flood Dragon's domain. 

He turned to look at the Floor Dragon and saw a hint of surprise and happiness in its eyes as well as cruel impulses.

"You. Came. Back." The Flood Dragon spoke. 

'I should have known. Of course, it has enough intelligence to speak,' Ning thought. 

"You remember me?" Ning asked. 

"You. Can. Understand. Me?" the Flood Dragon asked.

"Yes, I can understand beast's languages," Ning said. "Since you understand me, can we talk things out instead of fighting?" 

"You. Want. To. Talk?" it asked. 

"Yes. You see I only came to find my spear. It was flung around here somewhere," Ning said. 

"To. Find. Weapon? To. Kill. Me?" the Flood Dragon asked. 

"No no no no no no, I just want to find my weapon because it's precious," Ning said. 

"You. Don't. Want. My. Fruit?" it asked. 

"Uhh… No?" Ning said.

"LIES!" it suddenly shouted and prepared an attack. It sends out slashes of water all around Ning. Ning couldn't bring out Aegis as he could take a lot of damage right now.

Ning used his divine sense to the fullest and dodged every attack that came towards him without worrying about his chest for now. 

He then started running around the lake, similar to what the other man was doing just before. At the same time, he used the third layer of Qi Analysis. 

Flood Dragon - 5th Foundation Establishment Realm 

Skills - Water Shoot, Water Scythes, Water Barrier, Water Armor, Become like water, Lesser Dragon Scales, Truth detection.

"What the F*ck? Why does a Flood Dragon have a Truth Detection skill?" Ning couldn't help but be surprised. "No wonder it knew I was lying."

Ning took out his sword and sent out a black slash towards the Flood Dragon, but it didn't do any damage. "Of course, even though it's Lesser Dragon Scales, it's still dragon scales. I can't defeat it like this."

"If this goes on for any longer, I will get sent out of the secret realm."