Great Dragon Physiognomy

If they ever met again, Yang Ning would tell Tuo Buchuan that this dragon pearl was not a Blood Dragon Pearl.

It was a Purple Dragon Pearl.

The Purple Dragon was the most honored and noble lineage among the dragon race—the imperial clan of dragons.

The imperial clan had no surname, only a given name. The dragon to whom this pearl belonged was named Zhao, the Last Dragon Emperor's uncle. By imperial decree, he had studied the origins of the Nightmare Tribulation and sought a way to resist it.

Judging by this dragon pearl, he had failed.

Yang Ning only saw a single inheritance of origin and a few fragments of memory.

"I have tried billions of Dao arts, yet not a single one could affect the Nightmare Qi. Every experiment led to the same result—Nightmare transformation, Nightmare transformation, Nightmare transformation!"

This was a Purple Dragon nearly a thousand miles long, its body wrapped in clouds, mist, lightning, and thunder, writhing furiously through the sky.

"Perhaps Grandmother was right. The Nightmare is the retribution for the dragon race's tens of thousands of years of conquest. That is why the Myriad-Phase Nightmare Tribulation wounds the dragon race most deeply."

This was the Purple Dragon nestled beside a massive white dragon, listening to its teachings.

"The Ancestor Dragon created a new world and ordered us to withdraw. But I do not wish to leave. Give me a little more time, just a little more time."

Yang Ning saw a golden dragon that seemed to prop up the heavens and blot out the sun, as if coiled around the universe itself. On its five claws, it actually grasped a stretch of the starry river!

The Ancestor Dragon could create a universe? But even a being of such power could not withstand the Nightmare Tribulation?

"Forty thousand more Dao arts remain. I will finish them soon. But heaven and earth are already covered in Nightmare Qi—I have no time left!"

The gray, hazy world had already swallowed everything else!

"Some dragons have already begun to Nightmare-transform. Even walls made of Dragon Soul Stone cannot withstand the Nightmare Qi!"

In the dim palace, the orange-yellow stones began to gray, and the eyes of the surrounding dragons also started to turn black.

"I don't need to experiment to know the remaining twenty thousand arts are useless. But I just can't accept it!"

Still that same dragon, watching the Nightmare Qi spreading toward it, despair filling its heart.

"Perhaps... there is one last method."

Yang Ning felt as if he had become that Purple Dragon. Leaping toward the thickest mist, he unleashed a Supreme Dao Art that dragons had no use for, yet one that truly belonged to the dragon race!

"Dragon Transformation!"

"He failed?"

"No, he succeeded!"

Yang Ning gazed at the dragon pearl spinning in the spirit realm, admiration on his face.

Dragon Transformation was the final step for other races to evolve into dragons. This step required stirring the dragon bloodline within, drawing upon the power of heaven and earth, and finally sacrificing one's own fortune. With everything on the line, there was a chance to leap the dragon gate and become a true dragon.

The probability was extremely low, and the cost of failure was death—utter annihilation, with no possibility of reincarnation.

That was why many dragon-kin stopped at the Flood Dragon stage. Flood Dragons were already strong and could achieve immortality; there was no need to gamble on that final step.

As a born dragon, and of the Dragon Emperor's bloodline, Zhao naturally had no use for this secret art.

But he thought of it. The Dragon Transformation secret art used the body to merge with the power of heaven and earth, then borrowed the fortune of heaven and earth to complete a miraculous leap.

There was no longer any power of heaven and earth around him—only Nightmare Qi remained!

So when he used the Dragon Transformation secret art, his intention was to merge with the Nightmare Qi.

Not to be eroded, but to truly merge!

A fish leaping over the dragon gate was a miracle. How was merging one's body with Nightmare Qi any less of a miracle?

Clearly, he failed. Even the Dragon Emperor's bloodline could not withstand the erosion of Nightmare Qi, let alone the avalanche-like influx triggered by the Dragon Transformation secret art.

But as a member of the Dragon Emperor's lineage, his fortune ultimately created a miracle.

The burning fortune finally brought about the fusion of Nightmare Qi and the dragon pearl, birthing a miracle unparalleled in this world.

A dragon pearl perfectly fused with Nightmare Qi—a true Nightmare Dragon Pearl!

"Incredible!" After reading Zhao's memory fragments, Yang Ning was stunned. He could actually play it like that—directly merging with the calamity, becoming the calamity itself?

But the next moment, he felt a deep regret.

Because when Zhao merged with the Nightmare Qi, the dragon race of the Taiheng Realm had already been nearly wiped out. The few remaining dragons had also left this world. That meant Zhao's fortune had already dwindled to almost nothing.

With so little fortune, he still managed to fuse the dragon pearl with Nightmare Qi. If Zhao had used the Dragon Transformation secret art at the peak of the dragon race's power, could he have become a true Nightmare Dragon?

Unfortunately, time never returns. What was missed was missed forever.

And Yang Ning had to keep this secret—he could not let the remaining dragons know.

After all, the Nightmare Tribulation was something powerful enough to annihilate the entire dragon race. Now that he held the Nightmare Dragon Pearl, he had the potential to harness such a fearsome force.

If they learned that the "Dragon Transformation" secret art could merge with Nightmare Qi and they created more Nightmare Dragons, what advantage would he have left?

Besides, the relationship between humans and dragons was far from friendly. Whether for the public good or his own, he had to keep the secret.

After reviewing the memory fragments, Yang Ning immediately began to receive the dragon race's inheritance. A dragon pearl was the Dao Fruit formed by the condensation of a dragon's entire lifetime of Dao arts. Naturally, it contained the dragon race's inheritance, and the Nightmare Dragon Pearl was no exception.

And the inheritance contained within this dragon pearl turned out to be a Supreme Dao Art formed by the fusion of seven peerless Dao arts!

The Emperor Dragon Qi Gazing Technique.

White Dragon Swallowing Absorption Technique

Purple Gold Coiling Dragon Body

Azure Dragon World Shaking Fist

Crimson Dragon Crimson Cloud Strength

Nether Dragon Carefree Roam

Heavenly Dragon World Ending Sound

Collectively known as: Great Dragon Physiognomy!

"What the hell?" Yang Ning was shocked. What did a Supreme Dao Art even mean!

Taiheng Sect, a sect that had once produced an immortal, had its foundational inheritance as a single Supreme Dao Art!

Dao Arts, also called divine abilities, were divided from top to bottom into five major grades: Supreme, Peerless, Heaven, Earth, and Human.

With a single Human-grade Dao Art, one could claim a mountain as king and dominate a region.

With a single Earth-grade Dao Art, one could establish an independent sect and found a school!

With a single Heaven-grade Dao Art, one could dominate an entire province and run rampant across a territory!

With a single Peerless Dao Art, one could rank among the Ten Great Sects. In other words, in the current Taiheng Realm, only the top ten sects possessed Peerless Dao Arts!

With a single Supreme Dao Art?

Let's put it this way: Taiheng Sect was once the number one sect in the world, while Tianyi Sect was just a small provincial sect. But after obtaining a Supreme Dao Art, Tianyi Sect produced two True Immortals in succession and directly ascended to become the number one great sect of Taiheng!

Now, outsiders no longer even called it the Taiheng Realm; young cultivators had renamed it the Tianyi Realm!

And now, Yang Ning also had a Supreme Dao Art in his hands!

Of course, he couldn't cultivate this art immediately. After all, it was a dragon race technique, and adapting it for humans would take some effort—commonly known as translation.

Different grades of techniques had different translation difficulties. Human-grade Dao Art translation had already become an industry chain; if one wasn't afraid of leaks, they could find a translation shop on the street to handle it.

Earth-grade Dao Arts had a certain level of difficulty, generally requiring the efforts of three to four generations of inheritance.

Heaven-grade Dao Arts required a major family to research for several hundred years.

As for Peerless Dao Arts, they exceeded the scope of ordinary research, typically needing the work of dozens or even hundreds of peerless geniuses, or the combined research of Ten Great Immortal Sect-level organizations for a decade or so.

As for Supreme Dao Arts, the experience of Tianyi Sect back then could serve as a reference.

Thirty-two thousand years ago, Tianyi Sect obtained a Supreme Dao Art. Claiming they were opening a new path for the Taiheng Realm, they first vigorously promoted education, spending one hundred and seventy years cultivating over forty million cultivators. Then, they gathered the best two hundred thousand of them, sealed them off for research for forty-six years, and finally succeeded in translating the Supreme Dao Art.

The entire process was undeniably arduous. After all, cultivators in the Body Refinement Realm needed vast amounts of food, and those in the Qi Refining Realm needed vast amounts of spiritual energy.

The cost of creating forty million cultivators was that Tianyi Sect's territory suffered one hundred and thirty-two consecutive years of famine, one hundred and fifty-five consecutive years of cliff-like population decline, the Spirit Stones of the Tianyi Continent were nearly mined out, and the Tianyi Continent itself was invaded by neighboring sects, even by the Taiyin Sect from across the sea.

Not only were they invaded on their home soil, but at the most dangerous point, two-thirds of their territory fell!

Fortunately, in the end, the Supreme Dao Art was born, and a peerless genius cultivated it, breaking through barrier after barrier, transforming into a heaven-sent powerhouse who directly ascended to True Immortal.

With a True Immortal guarding the sect, all the previous sacrifices were repaid.

Did Yang Ning have two hundred thousand people?

No.

Did he have a sect backing him?

No.

But Yang Ning was still confident. After all, he had methodology, a Spirit Realm, and Deep Blue, an artificial intelligence.

Wouldn't an AI easily replace the work of two hundred thousand people?

And he wasn't starting from nothing either. There were plenty of dragon race techniques in this world that had already been translated.

Supreme Dao Arts, Peerless Dao Arts, Heaven-grade and even Earth-grade techniques would all be kept secret, but Human-grade techniques were available for order in shops on the market. Especially in a major sect like Taiheng Sect, Human-grade techniques had no value and were casually sold on the market.

Countless predecessors had translated countless techniques. With their experience as a reference, Yang Ning believed that translating this Great Dragon Physiognomy was only a matter of time!

Putting down Great Dragon Physiognomy, Yang Ning studied this dragon pearl.

Logically, after binding, the dragon pearl should appear in the sea of consciousness, but his dragon pearl had appeared in the Spirit Realm.

Perhaps the Spirit Realm wasn't incapable of storing items; it just required him to complete the binding process first?

Or maybe the Spirit Realm also partially functioned as a sea of consciousness.

The dragon race governed wind, clouds, thunder, and lightning, and the Purple Dragon had the duty of judgment, especially excelling in thunder punishment.

With the dragon pearl in hand, Yang Ning felt that with a single thought, he could summon wind, clouds, thunder, and lightning as if by instinct. He could even control his own bioelectricity, achieving the feat of the brain giving an order while the body refused to obey.

"So from now on, my cultivation should focus on water, thunder, and wind system Dao Arts." Yang Ning sought longevity, not omnipotence. The path to longevity should be as foundational as possible, but when it came to combat, if he had a cheat, he would use it. There was no need to stubbornly play with fire if he was naturally suited to water.

Moreover, water excelled in healing and defense, thunder in control and attack, and wind in speed. These three attributes were also quite versatile.

As for the Nightmare attribute formed after fusing with Nightmare Qi, Yang Ning couldn't sense any use for it.

Perhaps it was because the Nightmare Tribulation hadn't arrived, and there was no Nightmare Qi in the world?