Mirage Dragon Pearl

"Lu Li, the Mirage Dragon Pearl is too heaven-defying. Hand it over and let us destroy it. As long as you surrender the Mirage Dragon Pearl, we can spare your life!" In the void, an elder with five willow-like strands of beard and a jade crown atop his head spoke in a ringing voice.

"Lu Li, hand over the Mirage Dragon Pearl at once. If this treasure remains in the world, all our ten thousand years of bitter cultivation will come to nothing."

"Lu Li, the Mirage Dragon Pearl is intolerable to heaven and earth. Hand it over, and we will spare your life!" In the void, three terrifying beings surrounded the bloodied Lu Li, bellowing furiously.

Surrounded at the center, his jade crown shattered, his Daoist robe in tatters, and his face smeared with blood, Lu Li instead burst into a grief-stricken laugh. "What do you mean, intolerable to heaven and earth? You are afraid, aren't you?

Afraid that with this treasure, I might shake the positions of you three old thieves?

Hand it over? Spare my life?

If I hand over this treasure, what difference is there between living and dying?

I, Lu Li, have roamed unhindered all my life. How could I let you manipulate me? Hahahaha..."

Amid his wild laughter, Lu Li's entire body suddenly blazed with incomparably dazzling light.

"Not good! He is burning his true body—he wants to escape! Fellow Daoists, lend me your strength and help me seal this scoundrel!" The Jade Crown Elder suddenly pointed a finger, and the void instantly shone with boundless golden light.

At the same time, the other two terrifying beings surrounding Lu Li each pointed a finger as well. The three beams of golden light converged, transforming into mysterious divine patterns that pressed down upon Lu Li.

"Escape? When have I, Lu Li, ever fled like a dog?

Aren't you afraid that this Mirage Dragon Pearl will threaten your standing? Then I will plant a thorn in your hearts—a thorn you will never be able to pull out!"

As he laughed wildly, a pearl flew out from behind Lu Li's head. The golden light erupting from his body instantly gathered together and wrapped around the pearl.

"Ten Thousand Laws Disrupt the Void, Mirage Dragon Pearl, break!"

The void suddenly shook violently. Wrapped in all of Lu Li's power, the Mirage Dragon Pearl abruptly broke through the suppression of the golden light, tore through layer after layer of void, and fled away.

"Stay for me! Seal!"

The Jade Crown Elder flew into a rage. His index finger split open without a blade, and at the instant golden blood spurted forth, he pointed out. Endless golden radiance suddenly transformed into a Divine Pattern Dragon that shot toward the light formed by the Mirage Dragon Pearl.

The Divine Pattern Dragon was incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, it enveloped the Mirage Dragon Pearl.

Yet less than a tenth of an instant after the Divine Pattern Dragon descended, the spaces of the Myriad Worlds abruptly fell into chaos, and the Mirage Dragon Pearl vanished into a stretch of void.

When the Jade Crown Elder searched again, the chaotic space instantly returned to normal. Not the slightest trace of the Mirage Dragon Pearl could be found.

"Hahahaha! There are countless large and Small Worlds throughout the Myriad Worlds. Xuan Huang, I would like to see how you destroy the Mirage Dragon Pearl..."

Amid his wild laughter, Lu Li's body gradually turned into countless motes of light and scattered away, leaving only Xuan Huang and the other two standing in the void with ugly expressions, speechless for a long while...

As this scene vanished, the image before Ye Zhen changed. In some world, he saw a powerful being accidentally discover the dust-covered Mirage Dragon Pearl. Thinking it an exotic treasure, the being studied it day and night without finding the method, until finally dying.

As the scenes shifted, the Mirage Dragon Pearl changed hands several times, stirring up several bloody storms and claiming countless lives.

There were even peerless geniuses who, after obtaining the Mirage Dragon Pearl, gradually faded into obscurity among the masses.

As the Mirage Dragon Pearl passed from hand to hand, the few divine patterns sealing it gradually collapsed. The pearl silently absorbed the Blood Qi, True Essence, and even higher-level powers within its owners.

In the final few scenes, Ye Zhen even saw that an ancestor of his branch of the Ye Family had obtained the Mirage Dragon Pearl, then passed it down generation after generation as a family heirloom.

Because the Mirage Dragon Pearl absorbed their power, the cultivation of the disciples from Ye Zhen's branch of the Ye Family gradually slowed, and they declined.

The final scene showed Ye Zhen accidentally bleeding after being injured that time, while the Peace Pearl on his chest eerily absorbed his blood.

As the bizarre scenes drew away, a pearl appeared before Ye Zhen's eyes. It was divided into Nine Layers Space, but only the first layer emitted a hazy radiance, while the other eight layers were a chaotic gray.

Ye Zhen sank into thought.

The amount of information contained in those bizarre scenes was simply overwhelming. In particular, the battle between Lu Li, Xuan Huang, and the others left Ye Zhen incomparably shocked.

So martial artists could become terrifyingly powerful to such a degree. Ye Zhen needed to digest this properly.

The Mirage Dragon Pearl had to be an extraordinary treasure. The determination with which Xuan Huang and the other two wanted to destroy it made that clear.

However, after Lu Li risked his life to use a secret art and throw time and space into disorder, the Mirage Dragon Pearl escaped the poisonous hands of Xuan Huang and the other two. Yet as it fled, a small portion of Xuan Huang's sealing divine patterns still landed upon it.

What followed was a long process of unsealing.

As the years flowed by, the First Layer Sealing Divine Script on the Mirage Dragon Pearl began to loosen. The Mirage Dragon Pearl recovered a tiny effect, so little it could practically be ignored.

It began secretly absorbing the power of its owners. After accumulating this over generation upon generation, it was only in Ye Zhen's generation that it finally broke through the First Layer Sealing Divine Script and unsealed the Mirage Dragon Pearl First Layer Space.

Ye Zhen calculated that before him, the Mirage Dragon Pearl had had ninety-two owners. The process of breaking the first layer of sealing had lasted who knew how many thousand years.

It was truly the work of dripping water piercing stone.

"Since the Mirage Dragon Pearl could make three supreme beings like Xuan Huang join hands to destroy it, just what heaven-defying power did it possess?" This question had circled in Ye Zhen's mind from beginning to end.

Unfortunately, the bizarre scenes made no mention whatsoever of how the Mirage Dragon Pearl was heaven-defying.

Ye Zhen discovered that the Mirage Dragon Pearl had likely completely fused into the Danzhong Acupoint on his chest.

Whenever his gaze fell upon the Mirage Dragon Pearl mark on his chest, or whenever he concentrated on it, the Mirage Dragon Pearl, shimmering with hazy radiance, would appear within Ye Zhen's consciousness.

Yet no matter how Ye Zhen tried or urged it, the Mirage Dragon Pearl in his chest did not react in the slightest, much less display any heaven-defying ability.

After failing in his attempts, Ye Zhen could only put it aside for the moment.

"Perhaps I have not yet discovered the mystery of the Mirage Dragon Pearl. Or perhaps my little ability to understand beast speech was bestowed upon me by the Mirage Dragon Pearl. I can only uncover it bit by bit." Ye Zhen consoled himself this way.

After gathering his thoughts, Ye Zhen did not even bother to clean the grime from his body. He sat cross-legged again, circulated the Blood Qi Art, and focused his mind on careful examination.

The heaven-defying function of the Mirage Dragon Pearl was too far beyond Ye Zhen, but the benefits of the two drops of Marrow Spirit Liquid he had just consumed were something he could see and touch.

Unfortunately, at the critical moment of his breakthrough, Ye Zhen had fainted.

Now, Ye Zhen was eager to know just how far the Marrow Spirit Liquid had raised his cultivation, so he could estimate its value.

The instant he circulated the Blood Qi Art and used Inner Vision, Ye Zhen was stunned.

Stunned by the Blood Qi cultivation circulating through his meridians.

Indeed, Ye Zhen was stunned by the changes in his internal Blood Qi cultivation.

But this change was not a huge increase in cultivation.

Rather, Ye Zhen's cultivation had not risen—it had fallen, and by no small amount.

Before consuming the two drops of Marrow Spirit Liquid, the Blood Qi in Ye Zhen's meridians had already reached the level of Blood Qi Filling the Meridians.

By Ye Zhen's estimate, with the help of two drops of Marrow Spirit Liquid, the Blood Qi in his meridians should at least have reached Blood Qi Like Waves, approaching or even reaching the Blood Refining First Level Peak.

But the truth was that, for some reason, the Blood Qi cultivation in Ye Zhen's meridians had fallen to the thickness of chopsticks—Blood Qi Like Chopsticks.

Faced with such an unexpected result, Ye Zhen was so depressed he nearly spat blood.

The annual assessment was about to arrive. His cultivation had already lagged far behind, yet now the gap had only grown wider.

Unable to vent the stifling frustration in his chest, Ye Zhen suddenly leaped up and threw a fierce punch at the cave wall, wanting to release some of it.

Sssht!

His fist shot out like lightning, and the sound of it tearing through the air suddenly rang out.

Bang!

As his fist blasted the stone wall and sent chips of rock flying everywhere, Ye Zhen froze again.

A punch breaking the wind was something only possible after one's strength surpassed two thousand jin and one reached the Blood Refining First Level Peak.

After staring blankly for a moment, wild joy suddenly appeared on Ye Zhen's face. Like a whirlwind, he rushed toward the cave entrance.

Just as he reached the entrance, Ye Zhen abruptly stopped again. He covered the pair of giant rat corpses and the other rotting beast carcasses, lest wild beasts smell the blood and expose this place.

Only then did Ye Zhen race out, his face filled with delight as he sprinted toward the Martial Arts Arena of Hundred Pine Peak.