Candle Dragon's Amazement, Ten Thousand Dragons Roar Across the East Sea

At the center of the cavern and atop the stone platforms around it, enormous dragon-shaped shadows were coiled, their auras astonishingly weak!

The dragons took all sorts of forms and came in different colors, but every one of them radiated an ancient, weathered majesty that seemed on the verge of fading away!

Karmic Debt black mists, a hundred times denser than the ones surrounding Azure Dragon, coiled around every one of their bodies.

Some of the dragons even bore distinct patches of deathly energy across their bodies. Their enormous heads hung low, their breaths were faint, and their vitality flickered like a candle in the wind. It seemed they could slip into Nirvana at any moment!

This was where the Dragon Race's last reserves lay: the Dragon Clan Elders who had struggled to survive since the ancient Primordial Wilderness!

Ao Chen's gaze slowly swept across them.

At the center lay the most powerful yet weakest of them all: an ancient dragon of unimaginable size, its entire body the dusky yellow of a candle. Her eyes were shut tight, as though she had fallen into an eternal slumber.

Yet the faint temporal Dao resonance radiating from her, along with the pressure of a Hunyuan Golden Immortal Peak, revealed her former identity: Candle Dragon.

She was Ancestral Dragon's twin sister, and was therefore also honored as the Dragon Mother!

Not far from Candle Dragon was a huge dragon with a dark blue-green body, timeworn scales, and an aura as weighty as a mountain. Its condition was somewhat better.

But only by comparison. Karmic Debt still clung to him, and his aura fluctuated around the middle stage of Hunyuan Golden Immortal. He was none other than another Dragon Clan Elder, Azure Dragon!

Aside from these two strongest dragons, there was also Xiang Dragon, whose aura was similar to Azure Dragon's and who seemed to command the power of earth and mountains.

Farther away were Tai Xu Dragon and Kong Dragon. Their auras had fallen to the peak of Great Luo, but the Dao resonance of their origins was incredibly profound and seemed connected to the void.

Along with the other five ancient dragons coiled on the surrounding stone platforms, each with an aura at the peak of Great Luo, there were dozens more whose cultivation ranged from the early to middle stages of Great Luo, and several hundred ancient dragons at the Taiyi Golden Immortal level...

These were all the Dragon Race's remaining reserves!

Even though Ao Chen's state of mind had long since become extraordinary, he couldn't help but feel secretly startled at the sight.

Well, damn! They really were once rulers of the Primordial Wilderness! he marveled inwardly.

Even in decline, a camel is bigger than a horse! These surviving elders alone include four Quasi-Sages, seven peak Great Luos, and dozens of ordinary Great Luos...

In today's Primordial Wilderness, this is still a force powerful enough to make any faction wary!

One could only imagine how strong and glorious the Dragon Race had been at the height of its power, before the Dragon-Han Calamity!

They had ruled the Four Seas and commanded the scaled creatures. Even the Witch and Demon Clans of today could hardly hope to compare!

Sadly, burdened by boundless Karmic Debt and shackled by causal ties, even such a powerful force could do no more than struggle to hold on in the lightless depths of Dragon Abyss, awaiting the Nirvana that would one day claim them.

Perhaps sensing the arrival of Azure Dragon and the others, several of the coiled dragon shadows slowly opened their murky eyes and looked weakly toward Azure Dragon.

"Azure Dragon, what brings you here?" Azure Dragon's aged, feeble voice rang out, sounding utterly drained.

"Cough, cough... Everyone..."

Azure Dragon suppressed his excitement, bowed to the elders, and then spoke eagerly.

"I have come today to bring our people a glimmer of hope. Heaven has not forsaken the Dragon Race!"

He then described Ao Chen's arrival and the Myriad Calamities Furnace Body he had created, explaining in full how this method could refine Karmic Debt and baleful energy, using tribulation to nourish the body!

To make his account more convincing, he once again practiced the Myriad Calamities Furnace Body technique right there. Carefully, he drew in a wisp of the surrounding Karmic Debt black mist and deathly energy, took it into his body, and painstakingly "smelted" it using the Dragon Essence and blood energy he had left.

The process was still slow, and the results meager. Yet the mysterious transformation of negative energy into nourishment for his body was plain to see, laid out before every Dragon Clan Elder!

For a moment, the entire cavern fell into deathly silence!

Every Dragon Clan Elder who had opened their eyes froze in place, whether Quasi-Sage or Great Luo!

Their murky eyes were first filled with confusion, then disbelief!

Then—

"Vmmm—!"

An indescribable surge of emotion—excitement, joy, and shock all mixed together—burst from those ancient dragon bodies like a tangible storm!

Their powerful auras even stirred the thick surrounding mists of Karmic Debt into a violent roil!

Some of the weaker, less resolute ancient dragons trembled so violently with emotion that the stone platforms beneath them creaked. Their agitation stirred the Karmic Debt in their bodies, and they couldn't help letting out muffled, pained groans!

"Roar..."

Even Candle Dragon, the largest of them all, began to tremble. Her eyelids, shut for countless yuanhui, quivered violently, as though the strength accumulated over the ages was struggling to force them open a crack!

A faint yet incomparably imposing aura escaped her, shaking all of Dragon Abyss!

Azure Dragon abruptly raised his enormous head, which had hung low for who knew how many years. His death-marked eyes locked on Azure Dragon.

His labored breathing sounded like bellows, and his huge body trembled slightly with excitement, stirring the surrounding mists of Karmic Debt into a furious surge!

Without thinking, he dug his dark blue-green claws into the ground. The incredibly hard black crystal floor was gouged with several deep furrows!

Xiang Dragon, Tai Xu Dragon, Kong Dragon...

Every elder still capable of moving struggled to lift their heads and fix their gaze on Azure Dragon, on the seemingly insignificant technique he had demonstrated—a technique that represented boundless hope!

Refine Karmic Debt? Use tribulation to nourish the body?

How... how could that be possible?

How many yuanhui had they been tormented by this damned Karmic Debt?

How many methods had they tried? What price had they paid? In the end, all they could do was watch helplessly as it slowly corroded them and led them to their doom!

Yet now, someone was telling them that there was a cultivation method that would let them rely on their own strength to refine this Karmic Debt, a parasite clinging to their bones, and turn it into nourishment for their growth?

Was... was this real?

"Roar... Hoo..."

A low, stifled dragon's cry, brimming with boundless excitement and longing, came from one of the elders and shattered the silence!

The sound no longer held the weakness of before. Instead, it carried a hint of strength they hadn't felt in ages!

Then came one low roar after another, labored breaths, and even choked sobs that could no longer be held back!

These were genuine emotions breaking through after countless years of despair, at the sudden sight of dawn!

They were the cries of life itself after being suppressed for ages!

At last, every elder turned their eyes toward the young dragon who had been standing quietly beside Azure Dragon. His aura seemed to be no more than that of a Heavenly Immortal!

Their eyes brimmed with excitement, joy, and disbelief, as well as a blazing emotion that threatened to engulf Ao Chen: hope!

It was as though a drowning person had seen a god descend from the heavens!

Just then, Candle Dragon's tightly shut eyes began to tremble even more violently.

At last, she struggled to open them a sliver. A gaze filled with the majesty and weariness of boundless ages fell upon Ao Chen, and her weak yet clear voice slowly rang out:

"Who... created this method...?"

Chapter 47: Candle Dragon's Amazement, Ten Thousand Dragons Roar Across the East Sea

"Ao Chen pays his respects to all you fellow Daoists."

Ao Chen stepped forward and calmly saluted the Dragon Clan Elders in the cavern, whose auras varied in strength but were all ancient and weathered.

Since Azure Dragon had asked him to address them as fellow Daoists, there was no need for him to lower himself before the other Dragon Clan Elders.

His words, "fellow Daoists," made the already stirred elders pause once more.

Azure Dragon had already told them that Ao Chen had created the technique. But seeing this young man, whose aura was no stronger than a Heavenly Immortal's, stand before them as an equal was still a powerful shock.

It really was him?

Every Dragon Clan Elder stared at Ao Chen in surprise.

"To create such a method and grant our Dragon Race a new lease on life is a great kindness. It seems you do deserve to be called 'fellow Daoist' by Azure Dragon."

A voice, tinged with authority but unable to conceal its weakness, broke the silence. There was a hint of an old hand sizing him up in its tone.

It was Azure Dragon. He slightly raised his enormous head and examined Ao Chen with his murky eyes.

"Azure Dragon! What do you mean by that?"

Before Ao Chen could respond, Azure Dragon turned and rebuked him in anger.

"Ao Chen's strength reaches the heavens and pierces the earth. It's far beyond what either of us can fathom! For him to call you a fellow Daoist is an honor. How could it be reduced to mere credit for creating a technique?"

Azure Dragon had personally experienced Ao Chen's terrifying power, which had effortlessly suppressed a Quasi-Sage. Hearing Azure Dragon speak so dismissively and condescendingly, he immediately spoke up on Ao Chen's behalf.

"Oh? Is that so?"

Azure Dragon narrowed his eyes at that, plainly unconvinced, and replied with a trace of mockery.

"Azure Dragon, I think Karmic Debt has addled your mind! This boy's aura is no more than that of a Heavenly Immortal. Even if he has some talent for creating techniques, how powerful can he be?"

"Could he possibly compare to us Quasi-Sages? Don't forget your place!"

He was about to continue lecturing Azure Dragon from his position of seniority, but a voice even older and more imposing cut him off, as if it had come from the very end of the River of Time.

"Azure Dragon, enough."

It was Candle Dragon, the Dragon Mother!

From between her barely open eyelids, two dusky rays of light emerged, seeming to pierce through past and present, and settled firmly on Ao Chen.

This time, her gaze was not merely one of amazement. It was filled with deep solemnity, even a hint of apprehension she herself could not understand.

"Incredible. Truly incredible."