Jiang Yun stayed at Northern Sea Dragon Palace. Every day, aside from his routine cultivation, he wandered around the palace, admiring the wonders of the underwater world while waiting for news from Ao Shun.
After temporarily keeping Jiang Yun at the palace, Ao Shun used a secret technique to send word to his brothers in the Four Seas Dragon Palace and the dragon ancestors in the outer seas. Before long, elite dragon clansmen began arriving from the outer seas.
After receiving his message, the ancestors in the outer seas immediately arranged a meeting to discuss the matter. They also sent someone to the Celestial Abyss of the Eastern Sea to seek advice from the ancestor Candle Dragon.
Although several ancient relics who had lived through the dragon clan's heyday still put on the airs of the clan's old overlords and felt that their disciples should not take those juniors as their masters but should be trained by the clan itself, most of the dragon clan members who had reached the middle and late stages of cultivation had suffered through the pain of making no progress. After cultivating for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years without advancing a single step, the despair was enough to drive a vigorous young dragon mad.
In the Celestial Abyss, after hearing what had happened, Candle Dragon had originally intended to use his innate talent to glimpse fragments of Jiang Yun's future. Who would have thought that all he saw was a mass of fog, making it impossible to discern anything? When he tried to pry into a trace of Jieyin and Zhunti's destinies, he was immediately struck by backlash and spat out blood. Fortunately, he realized that something was wrong and quickly cut off his divine ability. Otherwise, he might have died on the spot.
The dragon clan member who had come to deliver the news was badly frightened when he saw the ancestor vomit blood. He was extremely anxious, unsure of what had happened.
As an ancestor of the dragon clan, Candle Dragon was at least a great expert in the Late Primordial Chaos stage. Coupled with the dragon clan's naturally robust bodies, he managed to recover somewhat after resting for a while, despite the severity of the backlash.
He used a divine ability to investigate Jiang Yun, but because of the Dao Derivation Disk on Jiang Yun, he could not uncover a single thing. His investigation of Jieyin and Zhunti, however, had not been completely fruitless.
At the moment the backlash struck, he clearly sensed a trace of sage might, similar to the pressure he had felt when Hongjun became a sage. That pressure absolutely could not have come from someone in the Hunyuan Realm.
This gave him a bold conjecture about the future achievements of the two Western figures. He immediately made up his mind: the dragon clan had to hitch itself to the Western carriage in the future.
He instructed the messenger, "Tell them that I, their ancestor, have glimpsed the secrets of Heaven. The Western Teachings will achieve extraordinary things in the future, and the hope of our clan's revival may lie there. We must befriend them at any cost. Since Ao Shun gets along so well with the Western Teachings' eldest disciple, he must maintain this relationship. This is also a great opportunity for him personally, so tell him to seize it."
After saying this, he drove the messenger away and focused on recovering from the backlash damage to his body.
With the words of ancestor Candle Dragon, the stubborn old dragons of the clan no longer insisted on their own views. The proposal received unanimous approval, and they sent an elite clansman to North Sea with the result of their discussion and Candle Dragon's words.
After learning the result and the reminder Candle Dragon had given him from the messenger who had come from the outer seas, Ao Shun was overjoyed. He immediately went to find Jiang Yun and tell him the news.
Jiang Yun was not surprised by the result. This was precisely an idea the dragon clan would come up with on its own later.
If they waited until the future, when sages emerged one after another, they would have to pay a great price to establish ties with them. At this point in time, however, the cost was far lower.
Besides, this matter was highly beneficial to the dragon clan itself. It was only natural that they would agree.
After settling the matter, Jiang Yun proposed continuing into the outer seas to seek opportunities. This time, Ao Shun did not try to retain him. Instead, he found a junior clansman familiar with the outer seas, Ao Yun, and had him travel with Jiang Yun.
The two agreed that after finding his opportunity, Jiang Yun would return and visit Northern Sea Dragon Palace again. At that time, Ao Shun would lead the disciples and guards selected by the dragon clan to Mount Sumeru.
Of course, the dragon clan did not intend to put all its eggs in one basket. The group heading to Mount Sumeru would consist of ten people selected from Western Sea Dragon Palace and ten from Northern Sea Dragon Palace.
As for Eastern Sea and Southern Sea, they would wait until the Three Pure Ones or Zhenyuanzi, those supreme great powers, opened their mountains and accepted disciples. Then they would act according to the circumstances and seek tutelage.
That way, they could first see how effective this idea truly was.
They borrowed a route through the Dragon Palace and continued toward the outer seas. Along the way, Ao Yun talked nonstop as he introduced the conditions there.
Ao Yun was the son of Ao Shun's thirteenth younger brother and ranked fourth among his siblings. His bloodline was not as pure as Ao Shun's, so he was merely a four-clawed golden dragon, though he still possessed some talent. Dragons were naturally lustful, and although the dragon clan had many offspring, many of them were hybrids. Pure-blooded dragons were still extremely rare. Thus, Ao Yun received a certain degree of preferential allocation of resources. With abundant resources piled into him, he had now reached the mid-stage of the Mystic Immortal realm, which was considered quite good among the younger generation of the various Dragon Palaces.
With decent cultivation, Ao Yun was highly valued in Northern Sea Dragon Palace. He had also visited the outer seas many times and understood them very well. Which areas were dangerous, where storms frequently appeared, and where powerful Sea Beasts lurked—he knew all of it like the back of his hand. To him, this knowledge was basic survival sense whenever he ventured into the outer seas.
That day, Jiang Yun and Ao Yun flew above the sea. From high in the sky, they spotted a massive island in the distance. The island was an oval shaped like a tortoiseshell, spanning several million li.
As they approached the island, the three spirit pearls inside Jiang Yun suddenly transmitted a joyful emotion to him. His heart stirred, and he knew that his target was on this island. He called to Ao Yun, and the two flew inside.
The island appeared lush and full of life, but its appearance was rather strange. This place was already deep in the outer seas, and the surrounding waters were unfathomably deep. For an island to suddenly rise here was like Mount Everest suddenly appearing in the plains of central China—absurdly abrupt!
Jiang Yun carefully investigated the area and found nothing amiss, so he stopped paying attention to it. Finding the Wood Spirit Pearl was more important.
After they reached the island, the sensation from the spirit pearls grew stronger and stronger. Knowing that he was close to the place where the Wood Spirit Pearl was hidden, he quickened his pace.
When they reached the central region of the island, he and Ao Yun saw a towering tree directly ahead. Its trunk stood straight, while its branches and leaves spread out like clouds hanging from the heavens, covering a vast area!
At that moment, the three spirit pearls inside him began to tremble violently. Seeing this, Jiang Yun hurriedly released them from his body. The moment they emerged, they flew into the air, circling the great tree while radiating brilliant light, as if summoning something.
In the next moment, a jade-green spirit pearl flew out from within the tree and joined the three pearls in the air. Together, they radiated spiritual light. After a while, they slowly flew toward Jiang Yun alongside the other spirit pearls.
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