Chapter 222 - A Mere Feather
The palace was filled with seals along with the power of the divine weapon itself, it was hard even for a magnate cultivator to breach through the palace – this would be one of the places of utmost importance to the dragon race!
Ao Longan held the token given to him by the clan master high in the air and instantly, the totem patterns around the palace avoided them while the seals ignored them. He proceeded to lead Zhong Yue to the front of the palace.
The doors opened quietly soundlessly and immediately, dazzling golden rays of light and the scent of jewelry bombarded their faces. Ao Longan led Zhong Yue into the Million Treasure Palace and said leisurely, “The treasures in the Million Treasure Palace were gathered by the dragon ancestors over countless years. This is the first time they were ever presented to an outsider. Our little friend, please take a look.”
Zhong Yue looked forward, and his body quivered in shock as his eyes were met with a huge river. It was hovering in mid-air, shaped like dragon. Tiny droplets of water and vapor sprayed about as it soared through the air.
“By the looks of it, this river is only a few miles long, but it is actually a thousand miles in length. It was forged by gathering the Water Qi of a thousand mile river as its material. It was heavier than a few dozen mountains!”
Ao Longan smirked and said, “If you can wield this river, a single slash and you can crush a mountain ridge! Do you want to choose this treasure?”
Zhong Yue shook his head, his eyes looked past the river into the deeper part of the palace, where thousands of soul weapons hovered in the air. Each and every one of them was as strong as the river before him, and some were even stronger!
There was a stamp, shaped like a mountain and hovered in the air while emanating a thick and heavy air of the Earth Qi. There was a metal pillar covered in gold and engraved with dragon carvings, emanating an unyielding and domineering air. There was a flying golden ship, a heaven-trembling huge drum, a sky-shrouding cloud, palaces, altars, swords, sabers and a myriad of other kinds of weapons!
Even more so, he saw inconceivably powerful divine weapons, and a divine sword that looked like as if it was encoiled by a dragon.
The saint weapon of the Ao Clan dragon race — the Coiling Dragon Sword!
If only the Ao Clan allowed me to choose a divine weapon, I’d definitely take this sword.
Zhong Yue sighed, he strode forward and saw a second divine weapon. In the Million Treasure Pavilion, the divine weapons were particularly conspicuous as they would be surrounded by the ordinary soul weapons like a sun would be surrounded by its planets.
These soul weapons are refining themselves with the godly aura! Zhong Yue thought to himself.
All of the soul weapons in the Million Treasure Pavilion were incredibly strong. After all, the dragon race wouldn’t keep them here if they were not up to standard. Most of them were forged by the magnate cultivators. Although they were not as strong as the Swords Gate’s Ten Malefic Weapons, their appearance in the outside world would still undoubtedly incite a commotion!
The constant refinement of the soul weapons under the Qi Practitioner’s atman would beget a primitive and elementary intelligence within them. This was why they would orbit around the divine weapons as a way to refine themselves.
Thankfully, the godly auras of the divine weapons were suppressed in the palace, or otherwise, even the elder cultivators would not be able to resist. And if the soul weapons were to get too close to the divine weapons, they would be directly crushed by the immense divine aura rather than being able to refine themselves.
Zhong Yue glanced around, he could still see the godly bones; the skeletal frames of the gods were also kept away as treasures by the dragon race. There were many skeletons like these in the palace.
Zhong Yue even saw the flawless corpse of a god. The scales on his crimson red skins, the horns on his ferocious head, the sharp claws of his hands and legs, the burning fire around his body, and the pair of dark black wings on his back!
This was the mortal body of a demon god that was still suffusing the air with demonic Qi even after his death. It was clear that he was much stronger than the godly bones and divine weapons that Zhong Yue had seen before this!
There wasn’t a single soul weapon that dared to orbit around its mortal body. Clearly, his demonic Qi was too thick and overpowering to the point that the soul weapons would be tainted and corrupted by it.
Zhong Yue’s eyes brightened up as he said smilingly, “Elder Longan, may I have this demon god’s mortal body?”
While Ao Longan gave a frigid sneer and replied, “Don’t think too much! This demon god came from a demon race across the sea. It took the dragon race nine magnate cultivators and nine divine weapons, and half a year’s time to kill him while also preserving his mortal body. This demon god’s corpse is no inferior to the divine weapons, even the dragon race is keeping it for ourselves to forge another divine weapon, how can we possibly give it to you?”
“Stingy.”
Zhong Yue blinked his eyes, he asked, “Are there still demons far on the other side of the sea?”
Ao Longan answered bitterly, “Since you criticized me as stingy, I won’t tell you!”
Zhong Yue shrugged before continuing to walk forward. He suddenly came to a halt as he saw a jade pendant. It was refined to the extent of being devoid of any impurities, even transcending the boundaries of a material object as even the smallest particles had transmuted into totem patterns.
There were thousands of dragon totem patterns of different forms and figures soaring on the surface of the jade pendant!
The jade pendant was constantly changing sizes; at one time it was as huge as ten thousand feet tall and a thousand feet wide, dragons flowing around it; while the next second it would be reduced to the size of a palm, small enough to be able to hang on one’s waist!
“This is the Thousand Dragon Pendant!”
Ao Longan’s face was contorted in bitterness as if a huge clump of meat was taken away from his body as he spoke, “This jade pendant was forged by the first clan master of the Ao Clan, engraved with a thousand dragon totem patterns and was refined for a lifetime. The Thousand Dragon Pendant is a weapon imbued with both offensive and defensive capabilities. When you cast it, it will transform from its pendant shape and morph into a thousand dragons, each of them at the level of Heavenly Dharma! If you choose this jade pendant, you would be able to use it once you are at the Heavenly Dharma stage.”
“I can only use it at the Heavenly Dharma stage?”
Zhong Yue shook his head and strode forward, he said, “I might as well use my Fang Blade, I can already wield it in battle now. And even the Ten Malefic Weapons in Swords Gate are better than it. At least, the Ten Malefic Weapons didn’t have such a high prerequisite on the users’ cultivation base. It seems like having a high requirement on the user’s cultivation base doesn’t necessarily mean it is a good soul weapon.”
Ao Longan was piqued by his words while Zhong Yue walked to the front of another soul weapon. It was a jade bottle with four fishes swimming in it, it looked exquisite and graceful.
“This is the Four Sea Bottle, the treasure of the Yu Clan, it is said to be able to contain four seas in it. This treasure was won over by the Ao Clan from the Yu Clan.”
Ao Longan was proud as he said, “Although the Four Sea Bottle can’t really contain four seas in it, it can surely hold any one of the huge lakes in this world! You can easily use this jade bottle to keep your opponents or any items, even the elder cultivators would not be to resist its power either!”
Zhong Yue was overjoyed, “Then can I use it now?”
Ao Longan’s smile stiffened up as he replied, “No.”
“Then it’s not any better than the Ten Malefic Weapons.” Zhong Yue shook his head and continued forward.
Ao Longan nearly snapped but he managed to hold himself together and followed behind Zhong Yue. They soon reached a cauldron, it had nine handles that were in the shape of fire dragons, and there were also nine cauldron noses that were in the shape of fire dragon heads.
The nine fire dragons could be seen blasting fire out into the cauldron.
Ao Longan’s eyes brightened up as he smiled and said, “You of the Zhong Shan Clan, although you are weak, you have good eyes.This is the Nine Dragon Godly Fire Cauldron, it is….”.
Before he was able to finish his introduction, Zhong Yue interjected and asked, “Can I use it now?”
Ao Longan was stunned, he pressed down his temper and answered, “No!”
“Then it’s not any better than the Ten Malefic Weapons either.”
Zhong Yue continued forward while Ao Longan was grinding his teeth. He had a strong urge to pummel him into the ground.
Finally, Zhong Yue walked to the side of a token, Ao Longan was shocked and he said reluctantly, “This is the Godly Fire Token, you can use it now. This Godly Fire Token is forged from a sunstone that was ejected out of the sun during the eruption of the sunspots. The stone fell into the Eastern Sea and was refined by the dragon race. This Godly Fire Token’s power is not any inferior to the Swords Gate ten malefic weapons!”
Zhong Yue nodded, he looked at it carefully and he was clearly moved. But he opted to forego it and continued on to look at the other soul weapons.
Without any choice, Ao Longan could only follow behind and as Zhong Yue stopped in front of another soul weapon, he thought inwardly in shock, This brat is getting more and more perceptive, he chose another treasure that is not any inferior to the Ten Malefic Weapons.
He stepped forward and introduced the treasure again, but Zhong Yue did not choose it and continued looking around in the Million Treasure Pavilion. Soon, he found another treasure that was on par with the Ten Malefic Weapons; it was then that Ao Longan was no longer able to restrain the shock in his heart as it showed on his face. Once or twice, it could be chalked up to luck, but choosing right for the third time, it could only be attributed to his extraordinary perception!
After a long time, Zhong Yue had found eleven soul weapons that were on par with the ten malefic weapons, he was astounded and thought to himself, Even the Ao Clan dragon race alone has eleven weapons that are as strong as the Ten Malefic Weapons, even more than the Swords Gate. How incredibly strong would the whole dragon be?
He continued on exploring in the Million Treasure Pavilion, finding out the strongest soul weapons so that he could choose the best of them later on.
Suddenly, a feather came into the corner of his eyes; it was a dozen feet long, pure gold in color and without a spot of impurity. It looked much like a golden sword except that the golden feather was tattered.
There weren’t any soul weapons around the feather as it hovered in the air like a lone wolf detached from its pack. A faint divine aura enveloped it.
“This feather….”
Zhong Yue was stunned, he mumbled softly, “It looks so familiar….”
“A feather from the Divine Wing Saber.”
Ao Longan cast his gaze at it and said, “Ages ago, during the battle between the Ao Clan ancestor and the Kun Peng Race ancestor, the Kun Peng race ancestor was defeated and a feather was broken away from the Divine Wing Saber while the saber itself fell into the hands of the Ao Clan, sealed and kept away. This broken feather was severed by the Coiling Dragon Sword, and the divine attribute it once held was destroyed. The Kun Peng totem patterns were mostly destroyed and it has lost its divinity. However, it was, after all, forged by divine feathers and was after all a part of the Divine Wing Saber. It is still not bad to be used as a medium, hence, it was left in here.”
A thought crossed Zhong Yue’s mind, he smiled and said, “I want this feather, can you….”
Ao Longan was shocked, he exclaimed out involuntarily, “You sure you want this feather?”
Zhong Yue nodded.
“Didn’t you hear me? This feather has lost its divinity, the Kun Peng totem patterns have been destroyed, nearly all of its power has disappeared. You sure you want it?”
Zhong Yue nodded in confirmation.
Ao Longan heaved a breath of relief, he put his thumb in insincere approval, “Nice! What a strong perception you have! This feather, although not a divine weapon, is still a godly feather. It’ll make a good weapon if you refine it well, your eyes are indeed sharp! Good then, since you’ve made your choice, you may keep it now!”
Ao Longan was afraid that Zhong Yue would go back on his words, hence, he quickly grabbed the tattered feather that seemed like it would shatter at any time and tucked it into Zhong Yue’s hand. He hurriedly said, “Move move, quickly leave the Million Treasure Palace, since you’ve taken your treasure, the others are now unrelated to you!”
Zhong Yue stared at the golden sword-like Peng feather, the totem patterns on it were nearly destroyed and the godly aura in it was faint and thin. Furthermore, there were cracks all over it, if it were to take another blow, it was probable that it would instantly shatter. Simply put, it was no longer able to be refined as a soul weapon.
Even if it were to be refined as a soul weapon, he would have to reconnect the broken Kun Peng totem patterns and nourish it constantly. That was the only way to repair the Peng feather, but a process like that is not a small endeavor, it would need a long amount of time an a very high level of skill!
“Brat Yue, why did you choose this feather?” in his psyche ocean, Xin Huo asked.
Zhong Yue did not answer the question and instead, asked a question, “Xin Huo, are you sure that Kun Peng race expert is definitely dead?”