"Human—does it taste good?"
It was a simple question, but to Mu Jiao, it sounded like a clap of thunder. His face changed dramatically.
"How did you find out?"
Mu Jiao asked Jiang Yuan almost instinctively.
He wasn't nervous so much as incredulous. He had been extremely secretive about eating humans. Even the Xuanshan Clan, who interacted with him regularly, hadn't noticed.
So how had Jiang Yuan, who had only just emerged from seclusion, seen through it after walking with him for a short while?
"You admit you've been eating people?"
Jiang Yuan didn't actually know whether Mu Jiao had eaten anyone. He had only suspected that Mu Jiao might do such a thing, so he had tested him. He hadn't expected Mu Jiao to admit it outright, without even trying to make excuses.
Good. So he dared to eat people. Now Jiang Yuan had one more reason to kill Mu Jiao.
There were many creatures in this world that ate people. Jiang Yuan couldn't kill them all, but he could kill every one he came across. That was enough.
"Yeah, I've been eating people, and quite a lot of them. I have to say, your Human Race is delicious, and eating you even increases my cultivation."
"I don't know if you've noticed, but my cultivation has already risen from the Sixth Heaven of Heavenly Immortal to the Seventh Heaven. That's the benefit eating people has brought me—it saved me thousands of years of arduous cultivation."
Faced with Jiang Yuan's questioning, Mu Jiao felt no shame. On the contrary, he was proud of himself, even tauntingly boasting about the benefits eating people had brought him.
"You're not even bothering to keep up the act anymore. Have you decided I'm an easy meal?"
Jiang Yuan wasn't as angry as Mu Jiao had expected. Instead, he spoke to him calmly.
Angry? Of course he was. But there was no point arguing with a dead man. In Jiang Yuan's eyes, Mu Jiao was already as good as dead.
"You're confident?"
"Do you think that becoming a Heavenly Immortal means you can match me?"
Mu Jiao could hardly keep from laughing. He thought Jiang Yuan had gotten carried away, imagining that becoming a Heavenly Immortal meant he could speak to Mu Jiao as an equal. How could that be possible?
The Heavenly Immortal realm had twelve layers, each one a heaven of its own. Even if Jiang Yuan had extraordinary talent and had entered the Heavenly Immortal realm at the Third Heaven, he was still four heavens below Mu Jiao, who had reached the Seventh Heaven.
With a difference of four whole heavens, there was no way Jiang Yuan could defeat an Innate True Spirit like him unless he was an Innate God or Devil.
Was Jiang Yuan an Innate God or Devil?
At the thought, Mu Jiao couldn't help laughing. He must have been so happy that he'd gone crazy to come up with such an absurd idea.
"I have to say, I admire your nerve. You knew I meant you harm, yet you still dared to leave the Human Race with me. That really is..."
Mu Jiao had meant to praise Jiang Yuan, but when the words reached his lips, he couldn't come up with anything flattering beyond "overestimating yourself."
He knew Mu Jiao meant him harm and still followed him away. What was that if not arrogance? It couldn't be that a man at the Third Heaven of Heavenly Immortal really had the strength to contend with someone at the Seventh Heaven, could it?
"I was going to let you live a little longer and deal with you once we reached the Dragon Palace. But since you're impatient to die and came looking for it yourself, I'll grant your wish."
To avoid any further complications, Mu Jiao stopped mocking Jiang Yuan and attacked at once, hoping to capture and kill him.
"Go!"
With a thought from Mu Jiao, a radiant Dragon Pearl rose into the air, sending down ten thousand beams of rosy light that swept toward Jiang Yuan.
"Ah, you don't even have a decent treasure. It seems I overestimated your standing in the Dragon Race."
Jiang Yuan looked up at the Dragon Pearl and sighed in disappointment. The Dragon Pearl was valuable, formed from Mu Jiao's entire cultivation, but it wasn't a particularly powerful magical treasure.
He had thought that an Innate Mutant like Mu Jiao would be a key figure in the Dragon Race, protected by an Innate Spiritual Treasure.
But it seemed he'd been overthinking it. Mu Jiao's talent was certainly decent, but he clearly wasn't valued by the Dragon Race, and had been given no powerful treasure.
How could Jiang Yuan, who had been planning to make a killing, not be disappointed?
"Collect!"
As he sighed, Jiang Yuan made his move.
He knew the saying about a lion using its full strength even against a rabbit, so he went all out from the start and used a divine ability specifically designed to counter the Dragon Race.
All dragons under heaven originated from the Ancestral Dragon, so the Ancestral Dragon could suppress every member of the Dragon Race. Jiang Yuan's counter to the Dragon Race was the Ancestral Dragon Dharma Image.
Aooo—
Amid a majestic dragon's roar, the Ancestral Dragon's enormous Dharma Image appeared behind Jiang Yuan, radiating boundless authority.
In an instant, the smile vanished from Mu Jiao's face, replaced by terror and disbelief.
He couldn't understand or accept it. How could Jiang Yuan, a member of the Dragon Race, conjure the Ancestral Dragon Dharma Image when even among the Dragon Race, only a handful could do so?
"Are you still going to fight? Mu Jiao, surrender."
With the Ancestral Dragon Dharma Image revealed, the battle was all but over. Mu Jiao wasn't even a True Dragon. How could he withstand the Ancestral Dragon's might?
Under the Ancestral Dragon's authority, he couldn't even move, let alone fight back. He could only turn into his true form and tremble where he stood.
"Father, save me!"
Mu Jiao knew when to cut his losses. Seeing that he couldn't defeat Jiang Yuan, he immediately called for help from his father, Mu Longbo.
"Stubborn fool!"
Jiang Yuan reached out to grab Mu Jiao. As he moved, the Ancestral Dragon Dharma Image behind him pressed down on Mu Jiao as well.
Under the pressure of the Ancestral Dragon Dharma Image, Mu Jiao's body grew smaller and smaller. In the end, he was reduced to a creature as thick as chopsticks and about a foot long. Jiang Yuan picked him up with ease.
"You're too weak!"
Looking at the Mu Jiao in his hand, Jiang Yuan felt utterly unimpressed. He didn't know if he was too strong or Mu Jiao was too weak, but the hard-fought battle he'd imagined never happened. Mu Jiao hadn't lasted a single exchange before Jiang Yuan crushed him.
Jiang Yuan was helpless. He had wanted to use Mu Jiao to test his own strength, but this was all there was to it?
At that moment, Jiang Yuan began to understand why the Dragon Race hadn't valued Mu Jiao. If the Dragon Race's young prodigies were all this weak, then the Dragon Race was truly doomed. What future could it possibly have?
"Son!"
A voice rang out urgently. Mu Jiao's father, Mu Longbo, had arrived. He was a dignified, middle-aged man, wearing a golden crown and dressed in a black robe.
"You..."
Looking at Mu Jiao in Jiang Yuan's grasp, Mu Longbo was worried for his safety, but didn't dare step forward to rescue him. He could sense danger coming from Jiang Yuan.
That immediately made him realize that the man before him must possess a powerful treasure. He was no ordinary person.
"My name is Di Yuan, and I'm a disciple of Lady Nuwa. Your son tried to seize my bloodline to help himself transform into an Innate God or Devil."
Knowing what Mu Longbo wanted to ask, Jiang Yuan spoke first, making his identity clear.
Now that he had captured Mu Jiao, there was no need to keep hiding his identity. He could proclaim to the world that he was Lady Nuwa's disciple, Di Yuan of the Human Race.
In an instant, both Mu Jiao and Mu Longbo's expressions changed.
Mu Jiao was incredulous, even more so than when he'd seen Jiang Yuan conjure the Ancestral Dragon Dharma Image. Mu Longbo was shocked that his son could cause such trouble, bringing the sky crashing down on them.
This wasn't a rescue mission. It was a death sentence.