The silence at the foot of the mountain was so heavy it could have crushed the peaks themselves.
Several thousand elite Dragon Clan warriors had even stopped breathing. Only their violently heaving backs, stirred by excitement, revealed the turbulent waves within their hearts.
The Four Seas Dragon Kings pressed their heads firmly into the dust, awaiting the judgment of that being.
Their fates, and the future of the Dragon Clan, rested entirely on a single thought from the young man atop the mountain.
Finally.
A voice rang out, calm and gentle, carrying none of the domineering majesty that had ruled the world moments before.
"Rise."
The voice was not loud, yet it reached every member of the Dragon Clan with perfect clarity, as though an invisible hand were gently lifting their heavy bodies.
The Four Seas Dragon Kings and the Dragon Clan elites trembled violently at his words, an indescribable torrent of ecstasy washing over their Divine Souls.
This... was acknowledgment!
The Old Ancestor had acknowledged us!
Ao Guang rose shakily to his feet. Tears already streamed down the deep creases of his aged dragon face.
He had lived through countless epochs, yet he had never imagined that he would one day hear the decree of his progenitor with his own ears.
"Thank you, Old Ancestor!"
Ao Guang's voice was hoarse and choked with tears as he led every Dragon Clan member behind him in another deep bow.
"Since you acknowledge me as your Old Ancestor."
Yang Chen stood atop the mountain with his hands behind his back. His gaze swept across the dragon faces below, twisted with excitement, while a faint smile touched his lips.
"Then from now on, we are family."
Family!
Those three words crashed into the hearts of the Four Seas Dragon Kings like the voice of the Heavenly Dao.
Ever since the Great Calamity of Dragon and Han, the Dragon Clan had no longer had anyone they could call family.
The Heavenly Court regarded them as mounts and rain-bringers.
The Chan Sect treated them as watchdogs and guards.
Even the myriad races of the Primordial World remembered only that they were sinners, forgetting that they had once been the protagonists of heaven and earth.
Now that those words had come from their progenitor's mouth, the sense of belonging and recognition nearly caused Ao Guang and the other four Grand Unity Golden Immortals to lose control of their Dao Hearts and weep aloud.
Yet Yang Chen's tone shifted without warning.
"However..."
He frowned slightly, raised a hand to point at his temple, and revealed just the right amount of frustration.
"I encountered a small problem when I awakened this time."
The moment those words fell, the Dragon Clan below, who had just been immersed in wild joy, fell silent. The atmosphere instantly turned tense.
Ao Guang's heart clenched.
The Old Ancestor had encountered trouble?
Which suicidal saint was responsible, or had the Heavenly Court imposed some new hardship upon him?
"Some old fools who do not know their place think they can act however they please because I fell asleep."
Yang Chen's tone remained calm, as if he were discussing something utterly trivial.
"They make noise in my head every day. It is truly irritating."
In a casual manner, he described the wailing and harassment of the Phoenix Clan and Qilin Clan spirits within his Sea of Karmic Force, merely phrasing it differently.
Naturally, he said nothing of the crucial secret that he carried immeasurable karma.
In his version, the remnants of the Phoenix Clan and Qilin Clan were jealous that the Dragon Clan was about to rise again. Unwilling to see the Dragon Clan restored, they had come to maliciously disrupt his cultivation.
As his words fell.
A terrifyingly cold killing intent, enough to freeze the Eastern Sea, erupted from Ao Guang's body!
The excitement and reverence vanished from his aged dragon face in an instant, replaced by pure, bloodthirsty brutality.
"How outrageous!"
Ao Guang's teeth ground together, every word seeming to squeeze through the gaps between them.
"Phoenix Clan! Qilin Clan!"
"Two failures who should have long been swept into the dust of history, two lingering ghosts, and they dare show disrespect to you, Old Ancestor!"
Two blazing flames of fury ignited in his dragon eyes.
It was not merely because he wished to defend his Old Ancestor. It was also the ancient resentment and hatred toward the other two clans that had accumulated over countless epochs since the Great Calamity of Dragon and Han!
"They are courting death!"
Ao Guang stepped forward. His massive dragon body trembled faintly with extreme fury as he bowed heavily to Yang Chen, his voice booming like a great bell.
"Please rest assured, Old Ancestor!"
"Why should you personally deal with such insignificant rabble and dirty your hands?"
He suddenly turned around, his murderous gaze sweeping over the Dragon Kings of the Western Sea, Southern Sea, and Northern Sea, as well as the several thousand Dragon Clan elites behind him, who were equally outraged.
"I shall immediately gather the Dragon Clan armies of the Four Seas and deploy our clan's sacred treasure, the Myriad Dragons Paying Homage Array!"
"We are willing to combine the power of the Four Seas and use the bloodline of our Dragon Clan as the catalyst to suppress the resentment of those two clans for you!"
Ao Guang's voice was filled with boundless killing intent and resolve.
"We will surely destroy their remnant souls completely and ensure they can never reincarnate!"
Yang Chen watched Ao Guang's fiercely loyal appearance, as though he wished he could immediately grab a blade and start hacking people apart. A profound smile flickered in his eyes.
This was exactly the effect he wanted.
He nodded in satisfaction.
"Very good."
His voice seemed to be the greatest reward for Ao Guang's loyalty.
"Leave this matter to all of you."
Meanwhile.
In the depths of Yang Chen's Sea of Karmic Force.
That dark abyss, which imprisoned the endless resentment of the three ancient clans, was now roiled by a silent storm.
A blazing flame like a star and a will as heavy as a mountain range were undergoing an unprecedented violent upheaval.
Phoenix Ancestor.
First Qilin.
They had heard it.
Through the omnipresent karmic force, they had heard everything that had happened outside Kunlun Mountain.
They had heard Ao Guang's fanatical roar from the depths of his soul, carrying the Dragon Clan's humiliation and hopes from countless years.
They had heard how those several thousand Dragon Clan elites had spoken with one voice, declaring that they would grind them to dust and deny them rebirth forever.
Absurd.
Ridiculous.
And bone-deep cold.
That chill did not come from the outside world. It arose without warning from the deepest core of their remnant souls, spreading outward and instantly freezing all their thoughts.
Then, at that very moment.
A calm, indifferent voice tinged with amusement sounded directly in the depths of their consciousness.
That voice belonged to Yang Chen.
"Did you hear that?"
Yang Chen's unhurried consciousness echoed through the dark abyss like the whisper of death.
"My 'filial descendants' are a little too excited."
His tone carried a hint of mockery.
"They are going to deal with you."
Phoenix Ancestor's blazing flame suddenly contracted, and its radiance instantly dimmed.
First Qilin's heavy will trembled violently, as though it might collapse at any moment.
Yang Chen's consciousness did not pause and continued speaking at an unhurried pace.
"Of course, I am not an unreasonable person."
"I will give you a chance to choose."
"Either wait for my 'filial descendants' to use the destiny of the entire Dragon Clan to form a grand array and crush your remnant souls into ash, leaving you without even a chance at reincarnation."
"Or..."
Yang Chen paused, and the amusement in his voice deepened.
"Be sensible and hand over your 'compensation' yourselves."
"I may, perhaps, see your sincerity and tell them to be a little gentler when they strike."
"Choose for yourselves."
Those words were like two poisoned daggers, viciously stabbing into the remnant souls of Phoenix Ancestor and First Qilin.
This was no longer a threat.
It was blatant extortion!
Worse still, it trampled their last shred of dignity beneath his feet and ground it into the dirt again and again!
What did "be a little gentler" mean?
It meant that no matter what they chose, they could not escape the fate of being besieged by the Dragon Clan!
The only difference was whether they would hand over their source treasures with dignity and then be "gently" beaten to death, or resist to the end and be blasted into complete soul destruction!
For a time, these two overlords who had once looked down upon all living things and held the authority of heaven and earth fell completely into the abyss called despair.
They not only had to face Yang Chen, this unpredictable great devil who seemed ready to overturn the table at any moment.
They also had to face their former mortal enemy—the entire Dragon Clan—whom he had completely brought under his command, and who now sharpened their blades with hatred burning in their hearts!
Trouble within and without.
A Heavenly Net and Earthly Net.
This was an utterly hopeless path!
Before you continue