“How can such a secret be told to just anyone?” quipped Yi Xiao. Ao Xue did not utter a word. How could she not feel disgruntled after being imprisoned all these years? Furthermore, she was more concerned with her daughter’s thoughts. This was the first time they were meeting and she didn’t want to dampen her daughter’s feelings towards her.
“Secret?”
The male dragon shouted, “Qin Yun, our West Sea Dragon race has done nothing but treat you well. You wanted to free Ao Xue and our West Sea Dragon race gave Ao Xue her freedom without so much as a word. Yet here you are making all sorts of excuses when we request your help. You even claim that no one has ever dared to force a sale on you during your travels throughout the world?”
“I’m asking you again. What’s your name?” asked Qin Yun with a smile. “You have to let me know your name after baring your fangs at me. Or could it be that you do not dare to tell me your name?”
“Listen up. My name is Ao Chong!” said the male dragon loudly.
Almost at the same time, the West Sea Dragon King said, “The lot of you…”
“Your Majesty, there’s no need for you to say a word,” said Ao Chong. “I want to make sense of this matter between us. Qin Yun, we are not profiting at your expense when it comes to the Skydragon Blood Crystal. We are also willing to buy it with treasures. As for the array formation entrance…isn’t it only an entrance? You’ve probably already taken away all the treasures in it, anyway. So what’s wrong with letting us in?”
“Do you mean that I have to sell you the Skydragon Blood Crystal because you are willing to pay with treasures? If I ask for a Numinous treasure, would you give it to me?” asked Qin Yun.
“You really dare to name your price! A Numinous treasure?” Ao Chong glared at him.
“That’s right. If it’s expensive, you aren’t agreeable to it. The item is mine so it’s naturally my decision to sell it or not,” said Qin Yun. “As for the array formation’s entrance? I discovered the entrance as a fortuitous encounter. Why should I tell you?”
Qin Yun scanned the group of dragons.
He could sense that they knew that after the stick didn’t work for the West Sea dragons, they immediately used the carrot approach.
Just as Patriarch Yi said, the Four Seas Dragon race yearned for a Skydragon Blood Crystal! If not for the Myriad Temple being the intermediary, the West Sea Dragon race might have suddenly raised the conditions. But with the Myriad Temple involved, they had no choice but to abide by the agreement.
“As for releasing my mother-in-law,” said Qin Yun with a shake of his head. “That has nothing to do with you, the West Sea Dragon race. You were the ones who imprisoned her! In order to save her, I made an agreement with the Myriad Temple. I paid a Skydragon Blood Crystal in exchange for her freedom. That is an ordinary transaction for the Myriad Temple. What right do you have to say that you treated me well?”
Ao Chong turned agitated.
“Alright, alright.” Dragon King frowned and felt a little vexed. “Ao Chong, you and your bad temper.”
“I even treated him as a relative but he said such nasty words,” said Ao Chong angrily.
“Shut up!” Dragon King bellowed.
“Hmph.” Ao Chong grunted coldly.
Qin Yun watched the scene play out before him.
Some cultivators might be advanced in age but, due to their long periods of cultivation, they did not understand the darkness that resided in the hearts of others. Qin Yun had traveled the world when he was fifteen. In those three years, he saw more darkness in people’s hearts than he did in the decades that followed!
Qin Yun could tell at a glance that West Sea Dragon King had berated Ao Chong after realizing that Qin Yun did not fall for the carrot-and-stick approach.
“Ao Chong has a bad temper. Sword Immortal Qin, please do not fault him.” Dragon race said with a smile as he shook his head. “Our Dragon race is few in numbers to begin with. Most of them do not even listen to what I have to say.”
“If he has a bad temper, he needs to keep it in check,” said Qin Yun with a smile. “On account of my mother-in-law, all I did was give back remarks. If he were someone unrelated to me, I would have released my flying sword to teach him a lesson or two.”
Ao Chong’s expression changed when he heard that.
Qin Yun swept his glance.
“Haha.” Dragon King laughed out loudly before looking at Ao Xue. “Ao Xue, do you plan on staying in the Dragon Palace or do you have other plans?”
“This is my first meeting with Xiao’er. I want to stay in the human world for a while,” replied Ao Xue.
“Alright then. We should get together in the future.” Dragon King nodded.
“Sword Immortal Qin.” Dragon King looked at Qin Yun. “If you really have any intention of selling the treasures you obtained from the Ancient Skydragon Palace, especially the Skydragon Blood Crystal, please inform my West Sea. When the time comes, our West Sea Dragon race will pay the price. Let the highest bidder win!”
Qin Yun nodded. “If I do want to sell, I’ll definitely inform you, Your Majesty.”
As for who he sold it to, it was his right.
He could sell it to the East Sea Dragon race, Numinous Treasure Mountain, or even the imperial government.
“Haha, I’ll take your words to heart,” said West Sea Dragon King with a smile.
“We won’t impose on you any longer. Goodbye,” said Qin Yun.
With that, Qin Yun, Yi Xiao, and Ao Xue rode a cloud and headed east.
The West Sea Dragon race watched from afar before heading for the underwater Dragon Palace.
“Darn you, Qin Yun. You are only a Paramount realm sword immortal, yet you are so arrogant!” Ao Chong said angrily. “Anyone from my Dragon race can match a Connate Golden Core and we have impressive combat strength. How dare a mere human sword immortal not give our West Sea Dragon race face?”
“This human sword immortal has what it takes to be arrogant. Which one of us can crack the flying sword art of his that produces the Heavenly Cycles?”
The dragon youth surrounding him discussed.
As for Dragon King and Elder Qi, they were already inside the Dragon Palace.
“He is impervious to either aspect of the carrot-and-stick approach,” said Elder Qi. “That Qin Yun also knows how important the Skydragon Blood Crystal is. Unless it’s critical, he will not sell it easily. If he sells it publicly, our West Sea is far inferior to the East Sea when it comes to our accumulated reserves.”
“Yea.” Dragon King nodded.
Among the Four Seas Dragon race, the East Sea reigned supreme.
The East Sea Dragon Palace was more powerful than the Dragon races from the other three seas combined. The main reason for this was that the Dragon race originated from the East Sea Dragon race.
“Investigate,” said West Sea Dragon King. “Investigate carefully and find out where this new entrance Qin Yun found is! If he can obtain treasures from it, it’s unlikely we dragons can’t. If we can’t find out anything, ask the Myriad Temple and see if it knows.”
The Myriad Temple infiltrated the Four Seas’ Water race, humans, and fiendish demons. It naturally knew a lot of secrets.
…
In a manor beneath the sea.
A dark-red scaled flood dragon sat coiled. His dragon whiskers flailed freely as a projection in front of him depicted a fiendcelestial in the form of a black mist which had two curved horns on its head.
The black-misted fiendcelestial said, “Response Wyrm, some information regarding Qin Yun’s Skydragon Blood Crystal has been obtained.”
“Speak,” said the flood dragon.
“Three years ago, two Yi family members were rescued by Qin Yun. They were sent back to Yi Water City’s Purple Cloud Palace,” said the fiendcelestial. “The last known location of the two Yi family members’ disappearance is very close to the Ancient Skydragon Palace! It is likely that Qin Yun’s discovery of a new array formation entrance has to do with the two Yi family members. I believe if you question those two you will find answers.”
“Alright.” The flood dragon nodded its head slightly.
With that, the transmission was cut.
The dark red-scaled flood dragon immediately arranged to investigate the two Yi family members. After all, a new array formation entrance represented astounding harvests! It was possible that Qin Yun did not take much from the new array formation entrance due to his limited strength.
Up to that moment, the Myriad Temple did not know that Qin Yun had attained the purplish-gold Golden Core.
Before he attained the purplish-gold Golden Core, Qin Yun was only considered ordinary among those at the Paramount realm. He could not even deal with the fiendmonsters produced by the Other Realm Fiendcelestial’s arm. But now? Qin Yun had obtained most of the treasures and he had stormed all the way to the inner palace complex where the Guardian General was!
Finding someone below the level of immortal or fiendcelestial in the world that was stronger than Qin Yun was too difficult.
******
The boundless sea.
Qin Yun, Yi Xiao, and Ao Xue were peering at the distant shoreline while they flew on a cloud. During the slow flight, Yi Xiao and Ao Xue gradually familiarized themselves with each other. They became a lot closer, and Yi Xiao started to call Ao Xue “Mom.” Ao Xue was especially fond of the daughter she had not met in years.
“Brother Yun, I plan to travel outside with my mom,” said Yi Xiao. “For now, I’ll not be returning to Grand Dominance.”
“Alright then.” Qin Yun nodded. “Do you need me to go with you?”
“There’s no need,” rejected Yi Xiao.
Qin Yun nodded.
Let the two of them spend some time together.
“Mother, do you need any protective items while you’re out?” queried Qin Yun. His wife already had many extremely powerful life-preservation items.
Ao Xue said with a smile, “During the years of my imprisonment, I have been cultivating arduously. Although I’m still very far from the True Dragon realm, I have already reached the intent domain realm! When we dragons reach the intent domain realm… our strength is not much different from those at the Paramount realm.”
Qin Yun was surprised.
His mother-in-law was quite an expert.
“Mom, you have already reached the intent domain realm?” Yi Xiao was astonished.
“We dragons can achieve the Connate Golden Core level very easily but it is because it’s so easy that few come to grasp the implications of the Heavenly Dao,” explained Ao Xue. “After I was captured, I continued cultivating arduously amid my grief and figured out the implications of the Heavenly Dao. As such, over the past two decades or so, I was able to reach the intent domain realm.”
“Mother, you are probably ranked first or second among the younger generation of the West Sea Dragon race,” praised Qin Yun.
“I might barely make it into the top three,” said Ao Xue.
Qin Yun nodded.
The Dragon race was not inferior to the mutated strains like crocdragons. Dragons at the intent domain level could indeed match a Paramount realm in battle! With them being more adept fighting underwater, it allowed the Four Seas Dragon race to rule over the Four Seas.
“Qin Yun, I have many places I would like to visit. Later on, I’ll go to Grand Dominance with Xiao’er,” said Ao Xue.
“It’s alright. Feel free to travel. I can find Xiaoxiao at any time,” said Qin Yun immediately.
Yi Xiao smiled. “Mom, let’s go. Brother Yun’s Beam Transformation Art can easily reach me within two hours if he wants to see me.”
Ao Xue nodded with a smile.
She was very happy to see the deep relationship between her daughter and son-in-law.
With that, Ao Xue and Yi Xiao rode a cloud and headed for the Kunlun Prefecture.
Qin Yun watched them leave before turning to fly towards the Jiang Prefecture.