These were the Nine Sons of the Ancestral Dragon, all Innate Gods and Devils. Surely there was no problem using them as incarnations, right?
That was what Jiang Yuan thought, but reality proved otherwise: there really was a problem. It wasn't one of allegiance, though. The difficulty of condensing them was far greater than that of condensing Fierce Beast incarnations.
Jiang Yuan mainly condensed incarnations by devouring the essence blood of the corresponding divine beasts. He could kill Fierce Beasts as he pleased, but could he do the same to descendants of the Nine Sons of the Ancestral Dragon?
Obviously not!
First of all, the Dragon Race wasn't to be trifled with. Although the Nine Sons of the Ancestral Dragon didn't have dragon forms, their descendants were still considered True Dragons. Anyone who killed one had to be prepared for retaliation from the Dragon Race.
Second, the Dragon Race lived too close to the Human Race. If they were far away, he could kill them and make a run for it. The Primordial World was vast, and the Dragon Race was no longer what it had once been. How could they catch him?
But the Dragon Race was right next to the Human Race. After killing one, he wouldn't even have anywhere to run. Not to mention, the descendants of the Nine Sons and Jiang Yuan were relatives.
They were real relatives, too. By maternal bloodline, Jiang Yuan was also a descendant of the Ancestral Dragon, sharing the same ancestor as the descendants of the Nine Sons. That made them relatives, didn't it?
Of course, it wasn't that he couldn't kill any of them. In a forest, there were all kinds of birds, and the Dragon Race was no exception. Over countless years, quite a few traitors had emerged among them. They were known as Evil Dragons.
If he killed one, not only would the Dragon Race not retaliate, they would thank him. After deciding to condense the Nine Sons Incarnation, Jiang Yuan set his sights on the Evil Dragons.
Of course, he couldn't go out and hunt them himself. Instead, he put out a bounty, offering all kinds of precious resources as rewards for powerful cultivators who needed them to hunt Evil Dragons throughout the Primordial World.
It was a pretty good plan. The only problem was that Evil Dragons were scarce, and most of them had joined the Demon Clan.
As a result, forty years had passed since Jiang Yuan put out the bounty, yet he had obtained only a handful of essence blood from the descendants of the Nine Sons.
So Jiang Yuan came up with a new idea: pay the descendants of the Nine Sons for their blood.
The Dragon Race was indeed wealthy, but that meant the Dragon Race as a whole, not every individual dragon. Some descendants of the Nine Sons inevitably had fallen on hard times, struggling even to gather enough resources for cultivation.
They were Jiang Yuan's targets. He dangled all kinds of precious resources before them, hoping they wouldn't be able to resist the temptation and would sell him some of their essence blood.
That way, they would get the resources they needed to continue cultivating, and Jiang Yuan would get enough essence blood to condense the Nine Sons Incarnation. It was a win-win.
It was a good idea, but to make it work, he needed someone with enough prestige to take the lead and vouch for him. Otherwise, which descendant of the Nine Sons would trust Jiang Yuan?
They were poor, not stupid. They wouldn't believe just anything some stranger told them.
So where could he find someone like that?
As luck would have it, Jiang Yuan already had a suitable candidate: his ancestor Xuanshan Clan, whom he had brought back from Dragon Tamer Earl.
Xuanshan Clan had once cultivated at the Dragon Palace in his early years, and he had plenty of connections there.
With his help, Jiang Yuan could not only reach descendants of the Nine Sons who were struggling to make ends meet, but also earn their trust, sparing himself the trouble of proving his credibility.
With this in mind, after completing his History Book, Jiang Yuan hurried to Xuanshan Clan's residence.
It was a palace built of white jade, full of the Dragon Palace's style. It was clear that he really had studied at the Dragon Palace, and that the experience had left a deep impression on him.
"Why aren't you focusing on your cultivation? What brings you to see me?"
Sensing Jiang Yuan's arrival, Xuanshan Clan ushered him inside and asked curiously.
So this was what it meant for times to change. In hardly any time at all, the descendant he had once sheltered had already risen above him in standing among the Human Race.
To protect Jiang Yuan, the Third Ancestor had never revealed his identity. But Xuanshan Clan wasn't a fool. Seeing such a tremendous change in the Human Race, how could he not suspect Jiang Yuan was behind it?
That was why he often sighed over how badly he had misjudged things. A True Dragon had been right before his eyes, yet he hadn't recognized him.
"Of course I've come to bring you some good news, Ancestor. I have a business deal I'd like to make with you."
Jiang Yuan said with a cheerful smile. The word "business" had appeared only in recent years, and it meant there was profit to be made.
"Stop beating around the bush. Just tell me what you want."
Xuanshan Clan wasn't buying it. He was certain Jiang Yuan needed something from him. Otherwise, given his standing among the Human Race, what could he want that the Third Ancestor wouldn't give him?
"Seventy years ago, I had already reached the peak of the Void Refining Realm. Now I'm on the verge of breaking through to the Heavenly Immortal realm. But to become a Heavenly Immortal, I need a great deal of the Nine Sons' Essence Blood."
"Normal methods obviously won't meet my needs, so I came to ask for your help, Ancestor."
Jiang Yuan got straight to the point.
"You want to hunt dragons? Or slaughter them on a large scale? I can't help you with that. If you only wanted to hunt a few True Dragons, I might be able to find a way to cover it up."
"But if you want to slaughter True Dragons on a massive scale, you'll have to ask the Dragon Mother for help."
Xuanshan Clan shook his head as soon as he heard this.
His abilities were limited; he couldn't help Jiang Yuan with something this big. Jiang Yuan would have to ask the Dragon Mother—that was, the Wife of Ancestor Sui.
She was the Dragon Emperor's biological younger sister. Even though she had married into the Human Race, she still wielded tremendous influence within the Dragon Race. As long as Jiang Yuan hadn't killed several Primordial Unity Golden Immortals from the Dragon Race, she could handle any mess he made.
"Ancestor, you've misunderstood. I'm a kind person. How could I lay a hand on my own relatives? What I mean is, I'd like you to help me get in touch with some descendants of the Nine Sons who urgently need cultivation resources."
"Then I'll trade them the resources they need in exchange for their essence blood, which I can use for my cultivation."
Jiang Yuan explained his idea.
"Would that even work?"
"The Dragon Race has always been proud. They probably wouldn't do something like that."
Xuanshan Clan was dumbfounded. He had never imagined someone could do things this way.
"You haven't even tried. How do you know it won't work? Besides, I'm only asking for their essence blood, not their lives. What's wrong with that?"
"Besides, dignity isn't something you talk your way into. You fight your way to it with strength. If you don't grow stronger, how can you defend your dignity?"
Jiang Yuan retorted. Selling blood wasn't shameful. What was shameful was refusing to pay and then breaking your promises.
Besides, essence blood could regenerate. As long as they didn't lose too much at once, it wouldn't damage their foundations. At most, they'd be weak for a while, and could recover after a century or so of careful rest.
Trading a century of weakness for the cultivation resources they urgently needed was absolutely worth it. If low-level cultivators couldn't understand even that, they simply didn't know how to make trade-offs. They had no future.
"All right. I'll ask around for you."
Xuanshan Clan had no choice but to agree to help Jiang Yuan. Of course, he wasn't doing it for free. Jiang Yuan would pay him a commission.
"Is Fellow Daoist Xuanshan there?"
Just as the two finished talking and Xuanshan Clan was about to get started, a voice came from outside—one that sounded vaguely familiar to Jiang Yuan.