Ignoring the strange looks from passersby, Lu Yang and his companions carried the coffin and hurried into the room at the far west end of the teahouse.
The black-robed dragon was already waiting inside.
Lu Yang held up the wooden box containing the Ancestral Dragon Grass in one hand while shouldering the coffin with the other.
The black-robed dragon jolted. It turned out Lu Yang hadn't been lying three days ago when he said he had a severely injured friend who needed dragon blood.
Three days had passed, and while they had managed to find the Ancestral Dragon Grass for him, their friend had already died.
Mortals always fantasized that bathing in dragon blood could bring the dead back to life or grant immortality, but how could dragon blood possibly possess such heaven-defying power?
"Senior, we've completed the task."
The black-robed dragon hadn't expected the four of them to be so efficient. "You weren't spotted, were you?"
"Not at all."
Lu Yang handed over the wooden box.
The black-robed dragon opened the box. Seeing the Ancestral Dragon Grass lying inside, its leaves shaped like dragon claws, he breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, it had been found.
Lu Yang rubbed his hands together with an ingratiating smile. "Senior, since we've completed the task, what about the dragon blood...?"
Dragon blood from the Body Integration stage would surely aid Fellow Daoist Xinghai's recovery immensely, perhaps even taking his Dragon Transformation Art to the next level.
"Of course I'll give it to you. I am always a man of my word."
Right at that moment, a massive dragon claw ripped off the roof of the teahouse, sending everyone inside fleeing in terror.
"Ao Ran, to think it was you who stole the dragon pearl! You even called in four human accomplices!"
Three giant dragons circled in the sky above the Sea Market, glaring down at the black-robed dragon. Their whiskers swayed with the water and their eyes shone with majesty, exuding all the might of the East Sea's overlords.
"Ao Ye, stop spitting venom!" Ao Ran, the black-robed dragon, roared in fury. "What dragon pearl? I haven't even laid eyes on it, let alone known these four people!"
He had indeed heard that the dragon pearl was missing, but the three of them were clearly the ones guarding it. What did their losing it have to do with him?
Lu Yang and his three companions felt the name Ao Ran sounded awfully familiar.
Man Gu had less clutter in his head, so he was the first to remember: before they set off for the East Sea, Old Ba had mentioned he had a friend in the East Sea named Ao Ran who loved pulling stunts like sealing his cultivation and making dramatic mid-battle breakthroughs.
"Senior Ao Ran! All four of us are from the Dao Seeking Sect! I'm Man Gu, and the three of them are Lu Yang, Meng Jingzhou, and Li Haoran!"
"You're from the Dao Seeking Sect?" Ao Ran recalled the letter Old Ba had sent him not long ago, which mentioned that five outstanding juniors from the Dao Seeking Sect were heading to the East Sea. The letter had noted that these five always loved stirring up trouble, and asked him to look after them if he ran into them.
"And you still claim you don't know each other!"
Upon hearing Lu Yang's name, Ao Ye and the other two seemed to recall something. "Lu Yang, disciple of Old Scoundrel Buyu!"
To think master and disciple had taken turns trying to steal the dragon pearl—they truly had no respect for the Dragon Palace!
"Stop making unreasonable trouble, the three of you!" Ao Ran shielded Lu Yang and the others, suspecting that Ao Ye and his companions were using this opportunity to cause him grief.
"Unreasonable trouble? Then what is inside that wooden box!"
With a clear conscience, Ao Ran had nothing to fear. He opened the wooden box to reveal the grass shaped like dragon claws. "Ancestral Dragon Grass, a birthday gift for the Palace Lord! Is there a problem?!"
Ao Ye and the other two muttered among themselves. This wasn't right—hadn't they heard the dragon pearl was kept in a wooden box?
Suddenly, their gazes fell upon the most conspicuous object in the room: the coffin.
"What's inside that coffin?"
Ao Ran furiously threw open the coffin. "Of course a coffin holds a person!"
Then everyone saw, secured inside the coffin, a palm-sized, perfectly round, translucent bead.
It was none other than the dragon pearl.
Silence fell over the room; not a peep could be heard.
Ao Ran: "..."
"Caught red-handed with the loot! What else do you have to say for yourself?"
"You were even about to slit your wrist and drip blood just now—were you planning to bind it with your blood?!"
Chapter 856