Chapter 1714 - Baiting a Dragon
Eastern Divine Region, Eternal Heaven God Realm.
Zhou Xuzi and Honorable Tai Yu were sitting across from one another.
Zhou Xuzi’s eyes were closed and his expression was calm. But Honorable Tai Yu’s face was dark, and simmering anger could be seen in his eyes.
“What exactly is the Northern Divine Region trying to do!?” Honorable Tai Yu said in a somber voice. “The Great Void Cauldron had fallen in Yun Che’s hands back in the God Realm of Absolute Beginning! It is very likely that they destroyed those three star realms themselves before framing our Eternal Heaven!”
“So they mean to…” Zhou Xuzi spoke in a low voice. He was calculating the various possibilities.
They wanted to use the Great Void Cauldron to frame the Eternal Heaven God Realm, and they were even willing to destroy three of their own star realms to accomplish it. Was it to destroy the Eternal Heaven’s reputation?
If this had happened in the Western or Southern Divine Region, it would certainly be the case. If they were “discovered” to have destroyed a vast star realm because of their own personal grudges, it would definitely arouse the anger of the God Realm against them and harm the Eternal Heaven’s prestige and reputation.
But it had happened in the Northern Divine Region! Even if the Eternal Heaven God Realm had acted a thousand times more viciously, it still would not be seen as a crime. On the contrary, it would be seen as a shining achievement that would be admired through the ages.
“Ai.” Zhou Xuzi let out a soft sigh. His old eyes stretched open as he said slowly, “I was as cautious and prudent as I could be while preparing for that trip into the Northern Region. However, I never imagined that I not only fell into the foul trap of Yun Che and the Devil Queen, but our entire exchange was also being recorded in secret. It looks like I’ve become more useless with age.”
No matter how high the grade of a Profound Imagery Stone, it would still send out profound energy vibrations while it was recording images.
The stronger a person was, the easier it was to conceal these profound energy vibrations. But Zhou Xuzi was not just any old person.
This was the first time his image had ever been recorded without him noticing it.
At this point in time, a person from the Northern Divine Region flashed into his mind… It was a Witch from the Soul Stealing Realm, the one whose ability to hide and disguise herself was said to be transcendent.
Seventh Witch Hua Jin!
It was rumored that no one would be able to detect her existence once she hid herself in the darkness. In fact, her ability to conceal herself was so strong that it could be compared to any of the Heavenly Slaughter Star Gods who had reached the peak of their powers.
Honorable Tai Yu replied, “We were in the Northern Divine Region after all. The darkness energy that pervades that region will interfere with our spiritual senses, and they definitely came fully prepared. It isn’t strange that my lord did not detect it.”
“I’m worried… that they may have recorded far more than this.” The Eternal Heaven God Emperor’s expression grew solemn. “Qingchen has already passed on, but the thing I’m most afraid of is that his transformation into a devil will be revealed to the world.”
“My lord, rumors are flying wildly in the Eastern Divine Region right now. How should we deal with them?” Tai Yu asked.
Zhou Xuzi shook his head. “There’s no need to pay any attention to them.”
Because there was no use trying to explain themselves. In fact, there was no way they could even prove their innocence. It was a fact that he had brought Zhou Qingchen into the Northern Divine Region, that he had made a furious vow when he left. It was also undeniable that the Great Void Cauldron had been involved in this incident. It was extremely hard to deny their involvement… because no one would believe that the Eternal Heaven God Realm’s Great Void Cauldron would actually fall into Yun Che’s hands.
He slowly got to his feet, his broad white robes suddenly flaring up. His god emperor might suddenly erupted from his body as he stood in the center of this sacred hall. “On the contrary, I am actually extremely anxious to find out what they are trying to do right now!”
“If… Yun Che is going to force a meeting by threatening us with compromising images of Qingchen, it could not go any better!”
No one in the Eastern Divine Region had even considered the possibility of the Northern Divine Region crossing the border to attack them so the god emperors, who had the best understanding of the state and overall strength of the Northern Divine Region, would never think of it either.
While they were helpless to deal with the devils when they were holed up in the Northern Region, they would simply be digging their own graves if they tried to force their way out of those dark lands.
Because of this, even when they were faced with these meticulously constructed false charges, false charges they could not poke a hole in, the Eternal Heaven God Realm’s reaction was exceptionally calm and composed. In fact, they even found these trumped up charges rather ridiculous.
However, no one in the Eternal Heaven God Realm, including Zhou Xuzi himself would imagine that this pile of shit that had been dumped on their heads would plunge their realm into a terrible nightmare in the near future.
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Western Divine Region, Dragon God Realm.
The Dragon God Realm was incredibly vast. It was not only the strongest king realm in existence, but also the largest star realm in the entire God Realm.
Every year, countless profound practitioners would make a pilgrimage to this place.
The aura in the Dragon God Realm was exceptionally primal and dense, it was somewhat similar to the aura of the God Realm of Absolute Beginning. In the heart of the Dragon God Realm, the holy land known as the “Dragon God Region”, the aura was at its thickest.
Countless profound practitioners would come from very distant lands to visit the Dragon God Realm and peer at the vast Dragon God Region from a distance. It was not that they did not want to approach this holy land, but that the might coming from the Dragon God Region was simply far too dreadful.
They did not even dare come within five hundred kilometers of these sacred grounds.
The dreadful might that belonged solely to the Dragon God Region was known as draconic aura.
The Nine Dragon Gods, forty-three Dragon Sovereigns, three hundred and eight Master Dragons dwelled there along with the supreme and unmatched Dragon Monarch.
This was the Dragon God Realm… The most exalted existence in the four divine regions, in the entire Primal Chaos Dimension.
A realm that was unrivaled, an existence that could not be shaken.
The most important reason for the strength of the king realms was the indestructible legacy of divine power that they passed down through the generations.
But the Dragon God Realm was not the same.
They relied solely on the strength passed down from one’s bloodline!
They possessed their draconic bodies which stood at the peak of creation. They had extremely long lifespans, and a trace amount of divine blood that they had inherited from the primordial dragon gods still flowed in their veins. Thus, even though they did not possess an indestructible inheritance of divine power, the dragons were still a supreme race that could crush all the other races, all the other king realms.
The dragon stood supreme among all living creatures, this was a fact undisputed since time immemorial.
The draconic aura in the center of the Dragon God Region was so dense and thick that it could easily shatter the mind of any other living creature. If a person did not possess a sufficiently strong cultivation or spirit, they would not even be able to crawl through this place, much less walk.
At this moment, a large, tall man descended from the sky and slowly began to make his way to the great hall in front of him.
He was over two meters tall and he had a head of long bluish-gray hair. Dull gray scales covered his arms and a vast world seemed to be hidden within the depths of his twilight blue eyes.
When his feet touched the ground, the draconic aura in the surrounding area lost all of its potency. The Dragon Guards that were standing nearby immediately fell to their knees and said, “We greet the Dragon God.”
The blue-haired man did not utter a single word. He merely continued to stroll forward at a leisurely pace. Long after he left, the Dragon Guards remained on their knees, hearts trembling with respect and fear.
The Azure Dragon God, one of the Dragon God Realm’s Nine Dragon Gods. They were transcendent existences second only to the Dragon Monarch himself, individuals who were strong enough to treat the god emperors as equals.
When he stepped into the great hall, the space in front of him blurred and a man whose back was toward him appeared.
In this Dragon God Region that was overflowing with matchless draconic aura, the man in front of him radiated no aura at all. He had black hair and wore white robes. Regardless of being eight feet tall, he looked like a human.
The Azure Dragon God fell to his knees. He did not speak, but his twilight blue dragon eyes were filled with reverence.
“Azure, you’ve arrived.”
The man slowly turned around. His face was extraordinarily handsome but it also instilled fear in the hearts of anyone who gazed upon it. This was especially true when it came to this man’s eyes. They resembled two blazing suns set in a clear blue sky as they glowed with a divine light that seemed to have seen all the vicissitudes of life.
The Dragon Monarch!
The Azure Dragon God rose to his feet and said, “I heard something interesting while I was on my way back.”
“Is it concerning the Eastern Region’s Eternal Heaven God Realm?” Long Bai calmly asked.
“That’s right. As expected, my lord Dragon Monarch already knows about it,” the Azure Dragon God said. “I am a little surprised though. Given the way the Eternal Heaven God Realm conducts itself, I find it rather ridiculous that they actually did such a dark thing in secret. And they were even caught red-handed too.”
“But I’m actually more curious about one thing. Why would the Eternal Heaven God Emperor, someone who abhors the darkness, secretly venture into the Northern Divine Region with his son. Could it be that the rumors were true and that his son was truly transformed into a devil a few years ago?”
The Dragon Monarch glanced at him before speaking. “You didn’t cut your expedition in the God Realm of Absolute Beginning short and rush back home just because of trivial things that don’t concern our realm, correct?”
The divine light in the Azure Dragon God’s eyes dimmed. His voice grew much softer as he said, “I discovered the Dragon Queen’s aura in the God Realm of Absolute Beginning.”
“What did you say!?” Those four words thundered out of the Dragon Monarch’s mouth. In that instant, the draconic aura in the area went berserk and the Azure Dragon God’s hair flew in the air. Energy waves rippled out, causing the vision of the Dragon Guards, who were stationed far away from the great hall, to go blurry. Their bodies violently swayed as they very nearly fell unconscious.
“...” the Azure Dragon God’s long hair slowly fell to his shoulders and a deep frown had appeared on his face. He was shocked and puzzled at the intensity of the Dragon Monarch’s reaction.
The Dragon Monarch lost his composure for only that moment. In the next instant, his aura went back to normal and he calmly spoke, “That’s impossible. My Dragon Queen has been secluding herself within the Forbidden Land of Samsara for the past few years, and she needs to remain in seclusion for at least a thousand years… Perhaps even ten thousand years. How could her aura appear in the God Realm of Absolute Beginning?”
Even though the violent change in his mood and the berserk draconic aura had only lasted for a single instant, it was enough to shake the Azure Dragon God for a long while.
He was the Dragon Monarch!
The Azure Dragon God had known the Dragon Monarch for more than two hundred thousand years but this was the first time he had ever seen him behave in such a manner… and all because he had told him that he had discovered the Dragon Queen’s aura in the God Realm of Absolute Beginning.
The Azure Dragon God did not waste time speaking. Instead, he slowly stretched out his arm. A tiny isolation barrier could be seen floating above his palm.
The barrier broke and a clump of grayish-white dirt appeared on top of his palm. Anyone who had been the God Realm of Absolute Beginning would be able to easily tell that this was ancient dirt from that place. Every grain of sand vibrated with its unique primordial aura.
However, there were a few traces of light profound energy… that was clearly mixed in with this primordial aura!
Long Bai’s dragon eyes began to slowly focus… He had recognized it with a single glance, in the very first instant it had appeared. This was the light profound aura that belonged to Shen Xi!
He would never ever forget this. He would not be able to forget it even in death.
This was the first time… he had sensed Shen Xi’s aura in a few years, what felt to him like the longest years of his life.
As the Azure Dragon God stared at him in increasing astonishment and shock, Long Bai slowly raised a hand. Every single one of his fingers trembled as his hand slowly crept toward the ancient dirt which radiated Shen Xi’s aura.
However, he suddenly came back to his senses and retracted his palm with lightning speed. He folded his hands behind his back once more and his usual calm and composed expression returned to his face.
He turned around and spoke in an incredibly composed manner, “Azure, where did you find this?”
The Azure Dragon God suppressed the shock that was reverberating in his soul. He replied calmly, “I discovered this in the southern part of the God Realm of Absolute Beginning. Within a part of the Ancient Forest Ruins, the Endless Petrified Forest.”
“...Did anyone else find this?”
“No.” There was no uncertainty or hesitation in the Azure Dragon God. “The Ancient Forest Ruins is a place that only extraordinary people can reach in the first place. Furthermore, this trace of light profound aura that belongs to the Dragon Queen wouldn’t be recognized by anyone else but my lord Dragon Monarch and the other Dragon Gods.”
After a long period of heavy silence, the Dragon Monarch finally spoke in a deep and solemn voice. “You are not to reveal this matter to anyone else… Even you must wipe your memory of it.”
“Yes,” the Azure Dragon God replied, “this Azure has already completely forgotten about it.”
The shock in his heart was now dozens of times greater than it had been before.
“Convey this order for me,” the Dragon Monarch continued. “I need to go into seclusion for a few months… or maybe even a few years. Before I choose to come out of seclusion, no one is to disturb me, no matter how momentous the matter.”
Only the reappearance of a heresy that existed beyond this era, beyond this universe, like the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor, could be counted as a ‘momentous event’ to the Dragon God Realm. Nothing else even came close, because the Dragon God Realm itself was the sky in this universe, and the Dragon Monarch was the heaven that existed above it.
“Yes, this Azure will relay your command.”
The Azure Dragon God gave a deep bow before resealing the ancient dirt within a barrier. He placed it before the Dragon Monarch before turning around to leave… He did not utter a single question throughout the entire process.
Once he left the great hall, the Azure Dragon God’s eyebrows deeply knit together.
He knew that the Dragon Monarch had lied about going into seclusion. In fact, it was extremely likely that he was about to delve deep into the God Realm of Absolute Beginning.
The isolation barrier that the Dragon Monarch had personally erected outside the Forbidden Land of Samsara suddenly flashed through his mind… but he did not dare to continue speculating any further.