The Ascending Dragon Hall.
Graceful silhouettes intertwined within this sacred sanctuary of the Dragon Race. Long sleeves fluttered alongside sharp, delicate shouts—a breathtaking display of fragrant sleeves, jade-white arms, silken skirts, and slender waists dancing in unison.
Yet despite the alluring spectacle, the murderous aura was chillingly grim. In a mere matter of moments, the immortals within the Ascending Dragon Hall collapsed one after another, slain by the women!
"Senior Brother Ji, you are the only one who can retrieve the treasure here."
The women stowed their respective magic treasures and dispersed their divine arts. Liu Ruyi said to the Son of Heaven of Zhou, "Please take down this treasure, Senior Brother."
The treasure she spoke of was a bright mirror floating above the Ascending Dragon Hall's offering altar. The mirror radiated brilliant beams of light; even after ten million years had passed, it could still reflect a person's image.
The mirror's face rotated quietly. Upon its reverse was a dragon motif, centered around a dragon-shaped knob formed by five interlocking dragons designed for gripping.
However, the mirror was simply colossal, standing thirty feet high and thirty feet wide—nothing like a dressing mirror for ordinary folk.
The layout of the Ascending Dragon Hall differed from that of the Hidden Dragon Hall. The Hidden Dragon Hall housed tens of thousands of divine shrines where undecayed corpses of dragon immortals sat in perpetual stillness. The Ascending Dragon Hall, by contrast, featured a massive offering altar spanning roughly half an acre.
The reliefs surrounding the altar were entirely of dragon designs and exceedingly intricate patterns.
Behind the altar sat a figure dressed like a Daoist, his upper half bathed in the light while his lower half remained shrouded in darkness. He sat motionless, having breathed his last long ago.
Skeletons of divine dragons jutted out from behind him or crawled up from both sides of the altar, scrambling onto it and craning their heads to gaze at the bright mirror. Others clung to the flanking walls, the high vaulted ceiling, or the pillars, likewise extending their skulls to peer down at the mirror.
These draconic creatures were reduced to bare bone, utterly stripped of flesh and blood.
Looking at the mirror, the Son of Heaven of Zhou hesitated and asked, "What would happen if someone else took down this mirror?"
Liu Ruyi glanced at the skeletal dragons and said, "Most likely, these dragon bones would revive and tear the intruder to shreds! Before we came, the Daojun said that although the Dragon Court was buried, its karmic fortune has been continuously flowing into Yuanshou over the years. Therefore, he deduced that only someone from Yuanshou can claim the treasures here."
The Son of Heaven of Zhou asked, "Did the Daojun see this while Above the Nine Heavens?"
Liu Ruyi nodded.
The Son of Heaven of Zhou still appeared hesitant. Suddenly, he smiled. "Since anyone from Yuanshou possesses this karmic fortune, wouldn't another person from Yuanshou suffice? Come forth, Ji Man."
As soon as his voice fell, a figure stepped out from his shadow. His appearance and attire were identical to the Son of Heaven of Zhou's—clad in yellow imperial robes, radiating the refined elegance of a sovereign, with no discernible difference between them.
Liu Ruyi was stunned with suspicion. She had no idea the Son of Heaven of Zhou had kept someone hidden by his side all along!
The Son of Heaven of Zhou smiled and said, "This is my double. I had the Heavenly Officials of Yuanshou alter his fate and conceal his destiny so that he might die in my stead."
"Insolence!"
That Son of Heaven of Zhou barked, "We are the true body, while you are the double! You dared imitate Us, usurp Our throne, and steal the imperial treasure! We shall have your head!"
The Son of Heaven of Zhou's expression darkened, and he said, "Drop the act. Go and fetch that bright mirror for me."
The other Son of Heaven of Zhou burst into hearty laughter, striding forward with his sleeves trailing as he declared proudly, "Our majesty commands all within the seas! We swept aside the barbarians and unified the realm, achieving an imperial hegemony unmatched even by King Wen and King Wu! A mere mirror and a few rotting bones have frightened you, a cowardly wretch, from taking a single step! Watch Us claim this treasure!"
Such imposing majesty prompted Liu Ruyi and the other women to silently praise him in secret: *This counterfeit looks even more authentic than the real one!*
Exuding extraordinary presence, the double climbed the altar in a few strides and arrived beneath the bright mirror. He chuckled. "Is this the treasure that terrified you all so?"
Possessing some magical power of his own, he reached up to seize the treasure. Suddenly, the image of a Daoist materialized within the bright mirror, looking identical to the Daoist seated behind the altar. He cast a glance at the double, and in the next instant, Primordial Spirits of divine dragons surged out from behind the Daoist in the mirror. With a sharp whistle, they drilled straight into the double's forehead between his brows!
"Hahahahaha!"
The Daoist burst into wild laughter laden with ridicule. "Men die for wealth just as birds die for food—has it not been so since antiquity? Today verifies this truth once more!"
As the nine divine dragons burrowed into the double's forehead, their tails remained connected to the Daoist's back, conjoined with him.
The Daoist was pulled along with them, flying out from the mirror and sinking entirely into the forehead of the Son of Heaven of Zhou's double.
The double instantly radiated a terrifying aura—immense, profound, and fathomless. In a matter of moments, it soared to the level of a Heavenly Monarch, far outstripping Liu Ruyi and all the women, and countless times stronger than the Son of Heaven of Zhou!
"Form the array!"
Liu Ruyi's expression changed dramatically, and she gave a sharp shout. The women swiftly set up their formation. Their array had been passed down by Jiugong Daojun, a supreme grandmaster of formations, making the array he imparted extraordinary!
Yet in the next instant, the aura emanating from the double's body scaled to heights unreachable even by Heavenly Monarchs, crossing into an entirely different realm.
That was the level of a Great Luo Golden Immortal, the realm of a Supreme!
*It's all over...* Liu Ruyi's mind went blank with despair.
Jiugong Daojun's intelligence had been flawed, dooming them all to be buried here.
The Son of Heaven of Zhou stood with his hands behind his back, watching the scene in silence. Even in the face of such a terrifying entity, his demeanor remained leisurely and composed, without the slightest panic. Exuding utter poise, he murmured softly, "Boundless though your might may be, you know nothing of the ruler's calculus."
Before his words even finished echoing, the double's expression warped violently. He raised a hand to clutch his own throat and rasped, "What is happening? Why is this physical body dying?!"
Even as he spoke, the body aged at an astonishing rate. In an instant, his skin withered like chicken skin, his hair turned snow-white, and he slumped decrepitly, resembling an old man on the brink of the grave.
In the next breath, every trace of vitality in the double's mortal frame was extinguished!
The formidable being who had seized the double possessed the constitution of the Nine Dragons, with a Primordial Spirit of boundless power. Upon seizing the body, his Primordial Spirit had immediately bound itself to that of the double.
However, his Primordial Spirit had already weathered the ravages of millions of years and had long grown rotten. Though he still retained immense power, it was only enough for a single possession.
Now that this body was decaying and dying, his Primordial Spirit decayed and died alongside it; as the flesh withered into decrepitude, his Primordial Spirit withered with it!
*Boom—*
The double's mortal frame exploded. Tearing out of the dead husk, the Daoist's Primordial Spirit soared into the air, howling as it swooped down from the altar straight toward the women.
"I do not want to die! Even that great catastrophe failed to kill me—I cannot die! I am the Dragon Court's proud Nine Dragons Heavenly Venerable, I should not die here!"
He had the Primordial Spirit form of the Nine Dragons, yet it now appeared fractured and crumbling, riddled with cracks from which horrifying energy continuously evaporated outward!
The moment he caught sight of the Son of Heaven of Zhou, he abandoned the women and lunged straight at him. The truth dawned on him, and he shrieked, "It was you! You tampered with that body and took my life! I will possess you instead!"
Just as he was about to plunge into the Son of Heaven of Zhou's forehead, his Primordial Spirit could no longer withstand its own uncontainable power and violently blew apart! A titanic wave of natural spiritual power slammed against the surrounding walls, ringing out like crashing thunder!
The natural spiritual power was extraordinarily thick, but the force holding it together quickly collapsed, transforming the concentrated energy into loose spiritual qi that roared in all directions.
"I refuse to accept this!"
As if catching the lingering wisp of unyielding resentment, the corpse of the Nine Dragons Daoist behind the altar suddenly stood up, letting out a shrill scream. Skeletons of divine dragons coiled behind him and leaped down from the vaulted ceiling, the pillars, and the walls, hurtling toward the Son of Heaven of Zhou.
The two dragon skeletons clinging to the altar's walls were closest to him; one opened a bloodthirsty maw to bite down, while the other slashed a razor-sharp claw to rip him apart.
Yet before they could touch him, that final lingering obsession of the Nine Dragons Daoist proved unable to resist the erosion of time, dissipating into nothingness.
The skeletal dragons, each radiating overwhelming might, froze stiffly in place, utterly motionless.
The Nine Dragons Daoist stumbled, slumping back into a seated posture. Where he had looked lifelike moments before, his flesh now aged and rotted at terrifying speed, swiftly disintegrating into ashes that drifted away.
Moments later, one of the Dragon Race's paramount figures was reduced to a pile of pale bones.
"The ruler's calculus dictates mastering everything concerning those around him—including their life and death," the Son of Heaven of Zhou remarked impassively.
Under the stunned gazes of Liu Ruyi and the other women, he walked unhurriedly up the altar and took down the bright mirror.
"Ruyi, I am glad to say I did not fail the mission." He returned to Liu Ruyi's side with a faint smile.
Only then did Liu Ruyi snap back to her senses. She gave him a deep, searching look, thinking to herself, *A figure no weaker than a Daojun perished just like that... This Senior Brother Ji's schemes run terrifyingly deep.*
Unwittingly, she felt a mixture of awe and fear toward the Son of Heaven of Zhou, alongside a blooming wisp of admiration.
*He is certainly no ordinary man to be kept in a mere pond!*
***
The Daoyuan Hall.
Chen Chaosheng wore a dark scowl as he lurked outside the Daoyuan Hall alongside Yan Kongcheng. He gritted his teeth and hissed, "Sect Master Yan, you said to wait, wait, wait! We've waited until now, and three batches of people have already gone inside! Just how much longer do we have to wait?"
Yan Kongcheng said, "Martial Ancestor, calm your patience. The Dragon Court's treasures are right here—they won't fly away. Waiting a little longer harms nothing. Besides, those who went in haven't come out yet!"
Seeing his calm, unruffled demeanor, Chen Chaosheng could not help feeling a pang of shame: *I may be his martial ancestor, but my temperament doesn't measure up to his.*
Just then, continuous dragon roars echoed as ancient dragon immortals with dragon heads and human bodies rushed out of the Daoyuan Hall, all charging in the exact same direction.
Yan Kongcheng waited until these dragon immortals were far in the distance before rising. "Martial Ancestor, we can go in now."
Chen Chaosheng's eyes went wide as he watched the dragon immortals vanish. He mumbled, "Why do I feel like something is wrong with this Dragon Court... Don't go in yet! I suspect this is a trap!"
Yan Kongcheng rolled his eyes, thinking to himself, *If Martial Ancestor's cultivation weren't so high, he wouldn't have lasted three days in Yuanshou. Only now does he realize it's a trap.*
Chen Chaosheng hurriedly grabbed his wrist. "Sect Master Yan, don't go! It's a trap!"
Yan Kongcheng smiled. "It isn't a trap anymore."
Chen Chaosheng was stunned. Yan Kongcheng walked into the Daoyuan Hall and looked around, only to find no treasures within—merely towering, imposing dragon immortals seated inside divine shrines in solemn silence.
"The treasures here have already been taken," Chen Chaosheng muttered, utterly disappointed.
Yan Kongcheng said, "Martial Ancestor, this place is covered in treasures. These divine shrines, this grand hall—having withstood eternity without decaying, they are all rare, extraordinary treasures. Let us take them all!"
Hearing this, Chen Chaosheng was dumbfounded. After a flurry of effort, the two relocated the entire Daoyuan Hall into Yan Kongcheng's Realm of Xiyi. Where the hall once stood, nothing remained but a bare patch of ground.
Chen Chaosheng followed Yan Kongcheng as they set up another ambush outside yet another hall of dragon immortals.
Chen Chaosheng glanced at him and could not resist asking, "Sect Master Yan, just who did you learn your treasure-hunting skills from?"
Yan Kongcheng's expression shifted between light and shadow, unconsciously recalling the ancestral tombs of Emei that had been stripped entirely bare.
***
Inside the Flying Dragon Hall, a thunderous explosion echoed. Wei Xu smashed a dragon-headed freak to death with a single palm strike, then pressed his other hand against another freak's head, slamming it into the floor. The dragon-headed freak's head blew apart with a wet pop. Only then did Wei Xu cease his assault and slowly straighten his back.
"The powerhouses of the Dragon Race aren't weak, but they remain utterly fragile."
Corpses littered the ground before and behind him; his slaughter had turned the Flying Dragon Hall into a river of blood.
Zulong walked over. Wei Xu wiped the blood from his hands and said indifferently, "Martial Nephew, feel free to take whatever treasures you wish. Take whatever catches your eye. But be quick about it—we still have to sweep through the next grand hall!"
"Thank you, Martial Uncle."
Zulong nodded slightly, thinking to himself, *It seems one doesn't need Yuanshou's karmic fortune to claim the Dragon Court's treasures after all.*
Chapter 547